Dark Tide Crushed
Whilst ransacking destroyed imperial facilities on Dregnox Major, Overlord Nelanin and the 903rd Assault Phalanx detected incoming Dark Eldar raiders. The overlord has a force of 2000 at his command including a Sentry pylon, the first of several to be installed to upgrade the complex for Necron use.
In addition, in the centre of the main battlements he had the NNV Lethal Force, and NNV Dagger of Venom, both recently commissioned, a Tesseract Ark and Annihilation Barge respectively. Occupying two bunkers on the flanks, immortal squads, on the right, gauss blaster equipped with a cryptek in command, on the left, tesla carbine armed immortals led by a lord.
Nelanin himself occupied a third bunker on the left together with a royal court of two crypteks and four lords. The pylon had been fitted on the extreme left where it commanded the whole field including the trench network across no mans land that had previously been the imperial guard’s position as a first line of defence to the complex. On the right, behind the cryptek’s bunker; a C’Tan shard armed with pyreshards and possessing the Gaze of Death.
Just before dawn the enemy began landing and occupied the former guard trenches and sandbagged positions before beginning their advance under cover of darkness. On the left a Raider, the enemy HQ aboard plus a payne and plague engine. Troops advanced against the centre, Incubi, plus another skimmer, passing through the barbed wire with ease. Jet bikes roared in against our left at enormous speed, reaching the battlements incredibly fast and drawing our early fire.
Our left hand bunkers were evacuated though only partially in the case of the HQ, something which would prove to be a mistake. The jet bikes took heavy losses but remained disagreeably intact. The enemy raider was destroyed on the left for first blood to us, whilst the centre saw the steady advance of the four units deployed there despite the best efforts of our Ark and Barge.
Our early vehicle fire was not terribly effective and the Lethal Force had intermittent problems with its gauss blaster systems that didn’t help. Our left hand immortals failed to assault the jet bikes and lost a casualty in the process, the Lords botching their attack having failed to leave the bunker completely.
Behind our right meanwhile two enemy skimmers arrived by deep strike, a squad of wychs aboard a venom and a heavy support vehicle that opened up on the right hand bunker, taking down an immortal there. The jet bikes were destroyed, actually finished off by mindshackle scarabs and overwatch fire as they assaulted boldly.*
*Star Trek take note
The enemy centre meanwhile was converging on the central extended battlements, the Lethal Force proving less than lethal with its blast weapons. The final Dark Eldar reserve blew its attempt to deep strike behind our right, where they had aimed for the space thoughtfully cleared by crossfire from our immortal squads, which had destroyed the large skimmer with tesla fire from behind and the venom and its passengers in a hail of gauss rapid fire from the right.
In the centre the enemy transport was resisting manfully the fire from our vehicles and the two monstrous creatures were arriving together with troops and the HQ at the rear, our sentry pylon and long range cryptek fire having been disappointingly ineffective at mauling their advance. The transport broke past our vehicle line and swerved right, cheekily disembarking its passengers into the bunker recently vacated by our immortals. It also shot one of our lords but he reanimated successfully. We took our revenge wrecking the already damaged transport with a close range fusillade of fire.
The incubi in the centre took heavy losses as our C’Tan, which had been prevaricating whether to advance or fall back against the deep strike threat, opened fire, they were then wiped out by the following assault, however, the Dagger of Venom was now detonated by the first monstrous engine, being swiftly avenged by the gauss immortals.
Another deep strike attempt, this time behind our left flank failed, but the winged creatures landed distantly on the left instead, fired on by our interceptor weaponry as they did so but taking casualties only because of the difficult terrain. The Overlord’s unit assaulted the bunker but were completely ineffectual, and the wychs broke out and assaulted the immortals.
The Lethal Force was now destroyed in a fierce central exchange. In the centre we were left with the C’Tan engaged hand to hand by the enemy HQ. The Lords joined the assault on the left and eventually destroyed the enemy troops, aided by mindshackle scarabs several times, but not without losing several immortals. Both units consolidated to attack the centre where the winged jump infantry was arriving.
Another exchange of fire and our eldritch lance armed crypteks destroyed the second Eldar engine, our left hand immortals now in the centre were almost destroyed by the winged late arrivals but fortunately three reanimated including the unit’s lord after being reduced to just one. The C’Tan finally exploded having done little against the enemy HQ, but did manage to kill one of our right hand immortals who was too close to the blast.
The enemy warlord attempted a very nasty attack on our gauss immortals but it failed. The enemy had been reduced to just two surviving units plus their warlord; Both the HQ and jump infantry squad were at around 75% strength and the engagement broke off after a considerable time.
Two smoking wrecks lay in our deployment zone, the other two enemy vehicles and both of our own having been blown up, and in all the Dark force had lost ten of thirteen units deployed. The loss of the C’Tan at the very end left us three units short and nearly half of our immortals were gone, however, our sentry pylon was undamaged, our warlord unwounded and we had not lost any Crypteks or Lords.
Rallied strength was 1291, a loss rate in excess of 35%. Enemy losses were estimated at 80%. The Dark Eldar had achieved linebreaker so the final score was 11- 4.
14.7.13
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