Wolves Pack A Punch
On the Ajastan Peninsula a 1300 strong force of Space Wolves aiming to relieve the siege of Hevrement attacked Necron positions north of the River Len. They were also attempting to recover the body of a chaplain who had fallen in an assault on the same positions the previous day.
The Necron forces were centred on a pair of Annihilation barges, the NNV Dragonfire and NNV Portentous. To their left a squad of immortals armed with gauss blasters led by Overlord Pherax held the line, on the right a cryptek leading a squad of tesla carbine equipped immortals held the flank.
In the ruins on the right, four wraiths lurked and to the rear holding an objective were fifteen warriors. The marines had a speeder and two razorbacks in the centre, one packed with troops. A beefy leader type was to their right with a pair of wolves. To the rear, a heavy support group occupied ruins high to the North West and another unit held ruins to the north east.
The enemy attack opened with fire from the razorbacks destroying both annihilation barges which exploded causing casualties amongst the nearby immortals. Long range bombardment from the enemy heavies took out more immortals and warriors fell to attack from marines disembarking from a drop pod which fell close on their western flank.
Returning fire, the warriors, supported by the tesla armed immortals falling back from our right, wiped out the drop pod squad. The gauss armed immortals damaged the lead razorback and it was finished off by assault by our wraiths, exploding in its turn.
The enemy then brought in reinforcements, a large HQ squad appearing to the west and a smaller one to the south east. The enemy wolf squad moved to assault our immortals on the left, quickly losing their wolves but reducing the immortals to just one. The enemy champion challenged Pherax and spent several turns fighting him. Pherax’s scarabs worked only once in four or five attempts and the warlord paid with his life though the enemy champion was wounded.
Meanwhile the enemy pincer movement against our warriors depleted them heavily driving them off their objective towards central cover and the right hand immortals were trying to support the wraiths forward but were being sniped at from the rear. We called in air support, the Doom Scythe NNV Spitfire arriving to inflict losses against the enemy HQ on our left whilst the wraiths exploded the second Razorback in assault.
The wraiths engaged the passengers but eventually fell and the enemy took possession of the body of their fallen comrade, meanwhile our warriors finally fell in the crossfire having destroyed the enemy drop pod and the enemy speeder was also destroyed by our tesla immortals.
The Spitfire wiped out the entire enemy heavy support unit apart from the rune priest leader and moved on to attack the north eastern unit where it could only inflict light losses. That unit was then able to move to hold the objective in the northern zone of the field.
The enemy champion having slain Pherax attacked the immortals to the east and began a long struggle with them, gradually wearing them down; however, our reanimation protocols which had been highly unsuccessful at last began to improve, delaying the inevitable, though the cryptek fell early, his lightning field having failed to kill the heavily armoured warrior.
The Spitfire did some more damage to the enemy now holding the southern objective even as the immortals finally broke and that was the battle. Eight Nil to the Imperial scum who held all objectives and had taken all secondary objectives too. The Orphean campaign continues to go badly for the Necrontyr.
Only the damaged Spitfire and four immortals survived for us, a loss rate of over 80%. The enemy had lost five units including all their vehicles and suffered heavy losses to two more. Three others suffered light losses and one was unscathed. Their psyker had survived several attacks by an infestation of psychic worms but did end wounded after suffering perils of the warp at one point. Enemy losses were estimated at fifty percent.
The marines’ ability to deploy so many more units than us - eleven plus three HQ types to our seven plus two HQ types proved decisive. Pherax should have done better in his assault and the immediate loss of our two barges without firing a shot didn’t help. Our units’ average value of 185 did not pay off as the enemies’ units, average value 118, seemed stronger, tougher, and more deadly.
In related news, Dark Eldar put up a spirited performance in an attack on Blood Angel units in the area of the Nelleka Delta but eventually withdrew defeated.
Orphean Victory Points Awarded:
Necrons 0
Blood Angels 1
Space Wolves 3
Dark Eldar 0
Score after 2 engagements:
Dark Eldar 0
Imperials 5
Necrons 4
Campaign Score: Imperials 14
Necrons -1 (Lost warlord)
26.10.13
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