Deadly Decurion
Overlord Harkkis assembled the 308th Decurion to engage Dark Eldar forces on the rampage in Sector 7-28-4b. On the left a squad of warriors lay to the left of a wrecked Imperial Vindicator. On and behind it, four wraiths armed with Transdimensional beamers, three Canoptek scarab swarms and a Tomb Spyder with twin linked particle beamer, together forming a Canoptek harvest formation.
He then had a trio of destroyers including one heavy, followed by a Triarch Stalker with heat ray. To its left, five praetorians with rods of covenant and in front of it nine equipped with void blades and particle casters. The three elite units together comprised a Judicator Battalion. On its right, roughly in the centre of the line, Destroyer Lord Temidril with a pair of destroyers and another heavy.
Next, Harkkis himself accompanied a full squad of immortals with gauss blasters in cover in thick undergrowth. On his right, a third trio of Destroyers including one heavy making up the third unit of a destroyer cult formation.
High ground on the right flank was occupied by a second squad of warriors and on the far right six tomb blades, the final component of the Reclamation legion. Three were armed with Gauss Blasters, three with tesla carbines, all but one were kitted out with Nebuloscopes and Shield vanes.
With no reserves, the strength of the Decurion was fully deployed at 2000. Harkiss determined to attack before nightfall when the Dark Ones would have superior vision. The enemy had jet bikes facing our left with a Venom loaded with wychs. Scourge lurked in cover towards the centre.
Two raiders loaded with Kabul warriors were in the centre and facing our centre right, a Ravager. On the extreme right of the line a giant Tantalus was ready to deal death, crewed by incubi who guarded their archon warlord.
There were six objectives scattered evenly across the battlefield. The central and left hand objectives on the Dark Eldar side had little of interest, but on the right a skyfire coordination nexus was in operation. On our side, the wrecked vindicator had a functioning scatterfield generator to hamper assault, in the centre a cloaking field operated to protect those close to the central thicket where Harkiss was in position.
Finally on the right hand objective there was a targeting relay that would improve the accuracy of any controlling unit. The action opened poorly for us, both sides had objectives to seize ground, us the centre, the Dark ones our left. We advanced, opening fire on a raider and the Ravager but all our hits were evaded by the sleek vessels. We did however secure the objectives on our side of the field.
Having suffered no losses of any kind the enemy now advanced too, their Raiders taking the centre and right, the wychs disembarking to take the left. Enemy fire concentrated on our larger unit of praetorians that had advanced towards the central objective. Two fell, our wraiths proved more resilient, absorbing everything thrown at it.
A tomb blade fell to the Tantalus on the right; the scourge attacked our praetorians but were destroyed by them. The bikes assaulted our wraiths and killed two and wounded another with their hammer of wrath caltrop enhanced attacks. Two bikes also fell and we had secured first blood even though we were on the defensive. One nil to us at the end of the first phase.
We now had additional objectives including our own right hand objective that we already held of course. We engaged across the whole front and the enemy vehicles continued to evade effectively, however the venom and the raiders eventually took hits and two were immobilised. The destroyers on the left failed to assault the venom and our scarabs joined the assault against the jet bikes, losing one swarm but reducing the bikes to just one.
Our tomb spyder meanwhile had already generated two additional swarms and now badly damaged the wych unit aided by fire from our left hand warriors. Our smaller praetorian unit now failed to assault the still mobile raider but the other succeeded with their void blades and wrecked the raider which disgorged its passengers, ironically securing an objective they needed.
They also required their own left hand objective so an instant two point score to the enemy against our one this turn put the enemy in a two one lead straight away as the counter attack began: Their full range of reserves now arrived, a second unit of scourge deep struck close to our warriors on and around the vindicator.
Also on the left, a Razorwing swooped in towards our centre attacking our central immortals but doing little damage against the resilient troops. A second Ravager arrived in the centre. The Tantalus now took out a couple of warriors on the right and the tomb blades took the full force of hits from several enemy units and were destroyed to the last bike.
The original Ravager turbo boosted to our rear close to the right hand warriors, whilst back in the ongoing assault the wraiths and scarabs finished the last and lead biker and consolidated towards the pair of wychs cowering on the left. The two one enemy victory this turn tied the score at two each at this point.
We now identified the enemy right hand objective as a priority and a destroyer wing wrecked the immobilised raider on the right forcing its Kabal passengers to disembark. We could only damage both ravagers despite concentrated fire from multiple units but our wraiths easily despatched the wychs in assault and the immobilised venom was destroyed by assault from the scarabs.
Our praetorians now engaged the kabal warriors occupying the central objective, but they were not destroyed though the odds were evened. Our void blade equipped praetorians did better assaulting the newly arrived ravager and wrecking it.
Having destroyed three units in assault now scored us an impressive three victory points, we also had four objectives occupied against only two held by the enemy which scored us two additional points.
The enemy warlord now emerged to attack our right hand destroyers and the incubi moved against our right hand warriors. Our praetorians sheltering behind the wrecked ravager took one casualty from the Kabalites on the right, but the Archon failed to injure any of our destroyers despite shooting and assaulting them.
The flier attacked our right hand warriors but failed to kill any and with the incubi close by it didn’t risk full fire. The praetorians still fighting the other warriors in the centre reduced them to just one, but that was enough for a point to the enemy for that objective. 5-1 this turn, 7-3 overall.
The warriors and spyder which had been badly wounded by the scourge, now destroyed the three remaining flying creatures, leaving almost no enemy forces on the entire left hand side of the battle ground. The wraiths headed towards the action and the left hand destroyers were falling back to threaten the enemy ravager in our deployment zone.
Fire from these destroyers now blew up the ravager and the Triarch Stalker in the centre which had failed the previous turn to damage the Tantalus now blew it up with its melta heat ray. The central destroyers and immortals tried snapshots at the Razorwing and managed one glancing hit.
The single Kabalite warrior denying our three praetorians the central objective now fell at last and our other praetorians attacked and assaulted the other still undamaged kabal warrior unit, cutting down two, then killing more in the assault causing them to break. The relentless elites finished off the cowardly scum and now held linebreaker.
Incredibly, the archon remained deadlocked with the destroyers and even more incredibly, the warriors won their combat with the incubi though their morale held. The deadlock continued as the enemy flier withdrew and the archon still could not wound the destroyers. The warriors now lost four of their remaining six but their morale still held against the superior force of the incubi.
The scarabs and warriors held both left hand objectives, the immortals and praetorians held those in the centre, no one controlled either right hand objective though the incubi and warriors were fighting over one and we had praetorians close to the other.
Our two units of destroyers including the destroyer Lord; the Triarch Stalker, Tomb Spyder and the two wraiths were available to join the fights against the Archon and eight remaining incubi; it was just a matter of how long it took them to arrive. Holding no objectives meant that the Dark Eldar could not add any more, whilst we would be open to four more next turn.
Our existing remaining objectives involved challenges, and given that our destroyer Lord was about to arrive and we would take the North Eastern objective next turn, that was two more victory points assured even if te Lord lost the challenge. Given all this the enemy decided, perhaps unsurprisingly, to withdraw. We had taken two scoring objectives and linebreaker this turn giving us a final score of 10-3.
Enemy survivors of incubi and the archon, plus the departed Razorwing amounted to an estimated 400 points representing an 80% casualty rate. The Dark Eldar had deployed 14 units and lost 11. The Razorwing was damaged, the Incubi reduced by 20%, the Archon was unwounded.
We had lost just one unit, the tomb blades. One unit of warriors had taken 80% losses, the immortals 40%, the Praetorians had lost 42% with both units down to three, half the wraiths were gone with one survivor wounded. The three destroyer units had suffered just one wound between them, the tomb spyder had lost two of three wounds.
Apart from the destroyer Lord and two units of destroyers that were undamaged, the Overlord himself was also unharmed, plus one unit of warriors and the Triarch Stalker. The scarabs had lost one swarm but actually had two more than they had started with as the spyder had spawned three swarms during the engagement,
Total losses were 644 but allowing for the recovered scarabs actual strength was down 604 or a little over 30%. A conclusive and devastating victory for our forces with the formation benefits for the destroyers, reclamation legion plus the Decurion reanimation benefits all being particularly effective.
28.3.15
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