Surprise Devastation
Overlord Lemert and his Ninth tactical support legion, having eliminated a cadre of Imperial Guard defending a munitions factorium on Girano Delta was victim of a surprise attack by Blood Angel marines. The marine force was unexpectedly supported by Dark Eldar raiders though it’s not believed that the attackers were coordinating their assaults.
Lemert had the Annihilation barges NNV Violator to the north east of the factorium, the NNV Eliminator to the South East and the NNV Night Hunter to the South West. Occupying the heights of the factory were five destroyers including three heavies, their lighter brethren on the flanks.
The overlord himself was with a squad of immortals to the west with seven pariahs between him and the screen of warriors protecting the north flank. Five crypteks were searching the building east of the main complex.
The attack opened with two imperial gunships approaching from the south and a squad of blood angels approaching from the south west. A Dark Eldar heavy support skimmer appeared from the south east and a transport and two Talos engines appeared from the north. The Night Hunter exploded under fire from the gunships and the northern warriors were mown down by the Dark Eldar.
Our immortals began to take losses from the marines as did the destroyer squad whilst the Eliminator was eliminated by late fire from a Dark Eldar dark lance. Reeling from the attack, we had few targets in range but the Violator opened fire on the payne engines and the destroyers, pariahs and immortals opened fire on the enemy fliers causing minor damage to both.
Critically, the crypteks attempting to deep strike using the veil of darkness failed to make the battlefield and were forced into reserve after attempting to attack the rear of the dark Eldar transport.
The enemy were quick to get amongst our immortals whilst a Dark Eldar force of wracks appeared to the west. The Violator was destroyed by the enemy engines and the pariahs took fire too.
Our destroyers moved down to attack the marines who had wiped out the immortals and the hapless Lemert. Meanwhile the Night Scythes NNV Dawn Assault and NNV New Order arrived with much needed reinforcements. The Crypteks rematerialised to the north behind a Dark Eldar transport, and destroyed it, but another was already arriving.
The wracks suffered casualties from the Dawn Assault and the squad of deathmarks it teleported in, meanwhile the New Order dropped its passengers, also deathmarks to the south. The crossfire of the New Order, her deathmarks, the destroyers and pariahs shredded the marines, but the crypteks were devastated by dark Eldar troops and another blood angel unit disembarked from a gunship.
The other gunship dropped its troops behind the New Order’s deathmarks and the scythe itself was badly damaged by skyfire from the gunships. The destroyers and pariahs were destroyed but the wracks though depleted, continued to hold out against the deathmarks’ assault. Our other deathmarks held out for a while before they were destroyed by the librarian and his marines. On the northern front, the last cryptek fell to the old enemy.
The New Order destroyed the newly arrived Dark Eldar transport that turned out to be carrying grotesques but that was the end of the action. We had lost ten units out of thirteen deployed, only one depleted squad of deathmarks surviving plus the two damaged Night Scythes, total losses 1681 out of 1995 or nearly 85%.
Only three enemy units had been destroyed with minor damage to the enemy gunships and some marine losses to two units. The wracks were down to a single survivor but the Dark Eldar’s payne engines were intact together with their grotesques and troops who had both survived the destruction of their transports.
23.8.13
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