Unwise Alliance
Overlord Moroc’ Shosh was forced into a desperate alliance with Dark Eldar Raiders to prevent recovery of an Eldar artefact in a ruined shrine in desert wastelands on Zeta Pirapilas. With a royal court of three well equipped lords and two crypteks he was supported by just two troop squads, one of immortals and one of warriors and three heavy destroyers.
He was able to take advantage of an old sentry pylon that had once defended the site and had air support from the Doom Scythe NNV Killing Fury and Night Shroud bomber, the NNV First Blood.
The Dark Eldar deployed two transports loaded with troops with more in reserve. With our strength rated at 1500 and the Dark Eldar similar, we matched the tightly packed ranks of Blood angel marines and sanguinary guard led by one of their cursed priests and a librarian.
Our troops took the left and the heavy destroyers the right with our overlord in the centre. We advanced towards the relic, inflicting early casualties across the enemy ranks despite their heavy armour and psychic shenanigans. Unfortunately, these few casualties were to be the high watermark of our success.
The enemy landed a drop pod behind our left flank and it disgorged a walker close to our sentry pylon. The enemy troops reached the ruined shrine, a densely packed target for the First Blood which now attacked dropping its death sphere amongst the sanguinary guard, but killing just one. How were they resisting this? One unit was blinded temporarily by the blast.
Dark Eldar further transports and a fleet of their winged creatures also appeared, the latter threatening the enemy rear with their deep strike. We damaged the enemy walker with gauss fire but the sentry pylon’s hit did nothing. Very few marines fell to the combined efforts of the dark Eldar and our destroyers which were attempting to set up a crossfire from the right.
We braced for the assault of the walker but it never came, meanwhile an enemy gunship appeared on our left and counterfire from the enemy marines destroyed the attacking winged dark eldar. Marines penetrated the shrine and destroyed the dark eldar entering from our left.
Another dark eldar unit deployed in to the building from another transport and we advanced our HQ in to the shrine too. The First Blood was wrecked and crashed, hit by several enemy units including a lucky melta hit from the blinded sanguinary guard.
On the right our heavy destroyers narrowly failed to pick off the enemy warlord from long range. The Killing Fury meanwhile was still inbound after having to detour to avoid several heavy imperial cruisers in low orbit. We assaulted the enemy HQ in the shrine together with our dark allies who had also brought up heavy support on our right flank.
Moroc challenged the enemy priest but despite mindshackle scarab success could not injure him. Our assault failed to inflict many casualties, the dark Eldar elites having some success but not enough. Our HQ did nothing but took no losses. Now the enemy brought on a second gunship from the right. Our sentry pylon which had tried unsuccessfully to intercept the first now failed just as spectacularly again.
The First gunship deployed commander Dante and a third squad of sanguinary guard on our left, close to our immortals. Five fell to the enemy fire, and only one recovered to face the assault which wiped out the remaining three with no trouble. The gunship meanwhile opened up on our warriors killing six, only one of which reanimated.
The Dark Eldar meanwhile had lost their transports and heavy support, all exploding, one under assault and two to melta fire. The sanguinary guard, recovered from their blindness now wiped out our destroyers and the gunships and walker which was down to one hull point but still functional, destroyed the sentry pylon.
The ongoing assault in the centre remained inconclusive as did the challenge, but the dark Eldar unit was destroyed and marine reinforcements poured in to the shrine. Although the Killing Fury was only seconds away together with a Venom loaded with wyches, we had lost three units and the warriors down to just two were not going to be contributing, surrounded as they were under the guns of the walker, drop pod and two gunships, with Dante’s unit in strike range.
We were not losing our assault, but we weren’t wining it either, the Dark Eldar Archon fell in single combat with the enemy librarian and the Dark Eldar signalled immediate retreat. We had no choice but to phase out as well. The enemy had lost no units, with a handful of casualties amongst their troops, estimated losses no more than ten percent.
The Dark Eldar had lost virtually their entire force apart from their final never committed reserve. We had lost four units and 70% of our warriors, nearly half of the available force. The tactical result then academic, possibly 12 -1 with our victory point only owing to Moroc’s survival.
20.7.13
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