Eldar Eradicated
A fifteen hundred strong force led by Destroyer Lord Vehk the Despoiler sent to secure the ruins of an unknown xeno citadel in the Calamnus system found itself under attack from a revitalised Eldar attack force. Lord Vekh led fifteen warriors holding an objective in the centre. With him the Annihilation Barges NNV Seed Of Discord, NNV Rapid Pursuit and NNV Devastator, the first two on his left, the last on the far right.
Heavy destroyer squads held the flanks, the right hand one also holding an objective. Two more objectives were located high in ruins in the near centre on both flanks, a fifth lay on the left in open ground and the last was on distant high ground facing our left.
A destroyer squad and unit of immortals formed up on our right and four crypteks with eldritch staves took cover on the left. The enemy seized the initiative and began a surprisingly slow advance. On our right two units of troops, possibly wraith guards were accompanied by a sniper of some sort and a Vyper.
In the centre, their warlord was accompanied by a huge wraith lord, a unit of sniper scouts and another squad of troops. There was also a flight of jet bikes. On the enemy left another unit of wraithguards, guardian troops, some twenty of them with some kind of heavy gun and another of the fearsome wraithlords.
In early darkness, shooting was inaccurate although a couple of warriors fell’ Our destroyers moved into the right hand building on the first floor whilst the heavies took three floors of the left hand building, taking the key objective. The barges also moved up on the left and the immortals advanced, led by a cryptek. Difficult terrain hampered the advance of one unit of troops on the right but the other advanced swiftly. Sniper fire tried to target our lord and he took a wound early.
Our return fire was picking off the enemy all over the field and the enemy advance proceeding fastest on the right suffered heavily as gauss cannon from the destroyers plus the Devastator destroyed the lead enemy unit on that flank. The troops advancing in the centre were also destroyed by combined shooting from our troops and the troops on the left also began to suffer from fire from our heavy destroyers crypteks and the left hand annihilation barges. The jet bikes moving across the centre were destroyed by the destroyers from their high vantage point.
The enemy continued to advance slowly with their snipers moving to the centre, the two wraith lords and two depleted troop units. The Vyper now advanced too but exploded under our fire and the sniper on the right was picked off by the heavy destroyers. The destroyers now had the third objective and a fine field of fire from the top of the building on the right. They killed the enemy warlord with a fusillade of fire but they were taking losses too, as were our immortals who fell back as the wraith lord attempted an assault unsuccessfully.
The enemy troops on the left took the objective in the open ground but they were down to one and were destroyed by our warriors’ fire and the blaster of the damaged Rapid Pursuit which had lost its destructor and quantum shields. Our crypteks finished off the snipers at long range as the wraith lord was obscured, they then turned their fire on the distant guardians and together with the two remaining heavy destroyers holding the left hand objective they inflicted several casualties on the enemy troops who mysteriously refused to take any action. More than a quarter of them would eventually fall.
The wraith lords were both wounded and the left hand one was finished by long range fire from the heavy destroyers on the right even as its compatriot assaulted the warriors, forcing them to give up their objective. The immortals unwisely assaulted to assist but neither of our troop units were able to injure the creature. The only good thing was that most of the casualties it inflicted, including Lord Vekh himself reanimated.
The Devastator finished the last enemy troops on the right, avenging our destroyers who had been holding the forward objective on the right. The battle ended with our heavy destroyers holding the objectives on both flanks, the enemy held just one and it was six three in terms of value. The Seed of Discord contested one other objective and two were left unguarded by either side.
Our troops were locked in combat with the wraith lord which was wounded and the last enemy troop unit was at something like 70% strength. An estimated eleven of thirteen units including their warlord had been wiped out. With first blood to us and scoring points for fast attack units destroyed, the overall score was ten four in our favour.
Enemy losses were estimated at 85%, we lost one heavy destroyer, all four destroyers, our only unit loss, one or two immortals, around five warriors with the Rapid Pursuit damaged. Estimated losses totalled just over 20%. All in all a very satisfactory lesson given to our oldest enemy.
2.6.13
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