Dark Defeat
Taskforce Kilo 771 was assigned to recover Eldar technology located on Vargrin IX, unfortunately Dark Eldar were also seeking possession of the artefact. Overlord Melhendrakh led three squads of immortals, one of eight, tesla carbine armed and led by a cryptek in the centre, the other two, one of seven and one more of eight flanking armed with gauss blasters. He led the smaller right hand squad himself, supported by five wraiths.
Also on the right, the Annihilation barge NNV Brilliance, on the left, the barge NNV Effective Action, supported by a Triarch stalker on the far left. The enemy had flying scourge creatures on the right with a raider and venom in the centre together with two squads of troops and another raider on our left. On the far left they had a flight of jetbikes.
The enemy advanced towards the relic under cover of darkness and opened fire with their superior night vision destroying the Brilliance which exploded for first blood. The passengers from the left hand raider disembarked and headed for the relic. We advanced in turn, the wraiths having born the brunt of hostile fire cutting across towards the centre. The stalker fired on the left hand enemy raider which was wrecked by its heavy gauss cannon.
The enemy reserves failed to appear, hampered by our warlord’s trait but the centre and right units of immortals and the wraiths all took losses from the enemy. Their troops had seized the objective and were already falling back with it. The scourge were closing on our right and inflicting heavy losses there, the wraiths in particular being reduced to just one by their fire and that of the remaining raider and her passengers.
The enemy had wychs scattering left and taking cover and their bikes, already taking linebreaker now fired on our left flank destroying our stalker. The Effective Action had advanced forward and with the aid of our left hand immortals wiped out the left hand wychs despite them going to ground.
Our immortals in the right and centre inflicted serious losses on the unit holding the relic but then failed the assault attempt. The lone wraith assaulted and destroyed the Venom however, forcing its wych passengers to disembark. Our first reserves in the shape of a cryptek and ten warriors arrived on our left and fired almost point blank at the enemy bikes, but only claimed one of the six.
Now the Dark Eldar deep struck with their huge Tantalus, arriving behind Melhendrakh, and a Ravager appeared on the left close to the Effective Action which blew up under the Ravager’s attack. The jet bikes overflew heading for the Tantalus and took out half the warriors and the cryptek as they did so, the remainder breaking and running. But wait, the cryptek reanimated, life in the unit yet.
The enemy right brought its full power to bear against the few remaining immortals and our Overlord, massive firepower poured in from all directions including the heavy weaponry of the Tantalus almost point blank. The unit was destroyed by the huge barrage including Melhendrakh, our warlord. Our lone wraith meanwhile was finished by a solitary pistol shot from a lucky wych.
Our last reserves now arrived despite efforts by the enemy warlord to delay them: To the left the Night Scythe NNV Prime Asset which dropped its deathmarks who deathmarked the few survivors carrying the relic and destroyed them. On the right, the night scythe NNV Awe Inspiring arrived behind the enemy Tantalus and dropped its deathmarks which marked the scourge and destroyed them.
The Prime Asset fired on the left hand Ravager and destroyed it; for once it was a Dark Eldar vessel that exploded. The Awe Inspiring fired on the rear shields of the Tantalus, but only managed one glancing hit despite having great position firing point blank through its weakest shields.
The enemy jet bikes screamed over our left hand immortals which had stayed deep but failed to reduce their number. Passengers from the raider disembarked to attack our few remaining tesla armed immortals in the centre and the enemy rear troops picked up the relic and embarked on the now vacant raider.
Another ravager had arrived on the left and opened fire on our deathmarks inflicting heavy losses. The enemy wychs attempted but failed to assault our central immortals which were down to just two plus their cryptek. The enemy Archon and another unit of warriors disembarked the Tantalus and wiped out our deathmarks in assault with ease and no losses.
Our two flyers closed with the enemy rear and our lone cryptek on the left tried unsuccessfully to get into range of something having failed to get into range of the Ravager earlier. Our left hand immortals, now centrally located in our rear fired on the jetbikes but did little. The Prime Asset fired on the enemy raider with the embarked unit and relic. The raider exploded under the tesla attack, the blast killing the last surviving wychs from the venom.
The warriors aboard were not all killed but were whittled down to one by the fire from the deathmarks and then the destructor of the Awe Inspiring killed the last survivor leaving the relic not in the possession of either side as the action ended, so no points awarded for that. But with the Archon and his unit replacing the jetbikes in the linebreaker stakes the final score went to the filth from the warp, three nil.
The enemy had two units of troops undamaged, their Archon, the Tantalus and a Ravager remaining. Half their jetbikes had also survived but nine units were lost. We had lost all our warriors, fifteen out of twenty three immortals including the whole of one unit, fourteen of twenty deathmarks including one complete unit, one out of four crypteks, our overlord, the barges Brilliance and Effective Action, the Stalker and wraiths, in all seven units. Only our pair of Night Scythes were undamaged.
Our rallied strength was 540 of a starting strength of 1996, a loss rate of just under 73% with six units left though two of those were badly mauled. Enemy losses were estimated at 60% also with six units left. The enemy had of course taken a full house of secondary objectives, our deathmarks and immortals falling short of the enemy deployment zone.
11.1.14
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