This is the ongoing chronicles of The 501rst Muskokans, The Emperor's Own Lasguns.
From the journal of Lt. Max Power:
"There was a brief skirmish with a heavily armed necron force a few days ago just past the outskirts of some ancient ruins and odd crystal formations. They were clearly searching for something other than a fight, as there was an advance party that fled on contact for reinforcements when sighted and a brief but destructive battle was waged. While our casualties were suprisingly light, we lost nearly eighty percent of our armour and transports. The necrons we soundly thrashed with only 2 of there odd skimmers remaining and the field cleared of their living? troops. Sadly without our transports gone we were unable to persure and while we clearly had a moral and strategic victory, from a tactical standpoint it was a draw. The two carry over events from the days battle that had terrible influence on the events to follow were the grave wounding of our commander Captain Richard Johnson with their last parting shot from one of their handheld anti-tank beam weapons, and the spending of all of our storm eagle rockets. Captain Dick's prognosis isn't looking good and the medics have all but given up, calling for the techno-magi at his request).With our Commander at Death's Door 4th Platoon's Platoon Command Officer was placed in command of a large force sent to investigate into what the necrons are doing in this neck of our woods. We discovered two odd energy readings nearby to where the battle took place and set off to investigate."
This is where the battle begins:
Force Summary
Muskokan 501: The Emperor's Own Lasguns
CCS: chimera, 2 plasma, lascannon
Pcs1: chimera 4 flamers
power blob 1, power swords, 3 flamers, 3 missile launchers, commissar
power blow 2 power swords, 2 flamers, 2 autocannons, commissar
plasma vets in chimera
melta vets in chimera
vets with lascannon 3 grenade launchers x2
Leman Russ,battle cannon 3 heavy bolters
Leman Russ, autocannon 3 heavy bolters
pcs2 chimera 4 flamers
power blob 3 power swords, 3 grenade launchers, 3 autocannons, commissar
Dark Eldar:
Squad of Incubi, led by a Homonculus - all entered on a Raider with a Disintegrator Cannon.
Squad of Wyches, overseen by a Hekatrix with Agonizer, and accompanied by a Homonculus - entered on a Raider with a Dark Lance.
Squad of Trueborn Warriors (4 with Blasters), accompanied by a Sargeant - entered on a Venom with dual Splinter Cannons.
Vect entered the game with a squad of wyches and a Homonculus - entered on the Dais of Destruction.
Squad of Kabalite Warriors with a Sargeant - walked onto the table.
Razorwing Jet Fighter x 2
Talos Pain Engine (twin linked Haywire Blaster, an Ichor Injector and an extra close-combat weapon).
Deployment/T1 disclaimer: I didn't think about doing a report until the Dark Eldar Half of Turn 2 so the pictures start as Dark Eldar Elite stepped to the "reserves table" to get the troops that arrived.
Deployment:
"The chimeras sped out to where the first energy reading was and we imidiately saw what looked to be a ectangular container, just humming with energy. As there were no necrons to be see anywhere, Lt. Thorn had 3 squads from first platoon (my platoon) set up their missile launchers overlooking the entire area and took up defensive positions so the "crystal" could be retrieved. He sent the other two squads from my platoon up ahead to advance, cautiously, towards the second energy reading coming from a large intact building. I directed my Chimera to drive up with them around the hills to retrieve it as well. 2nd Platoon was swinging wide, incase there was any trouble so as to not get penned in with the rest of us through the narrow spaces between the rocks and ruins, the same with our 2 mounted veteran squads. The heavy support vets took up excellent firing positions behind first platoon and set up their lascannons and our heavy hitters drove up in support as well.
Deployment Summary:
Both the Lascannon vets deployed on the hill in the corner and the 30 man blob from platoon 1 took the other hill by the objective. The PCS1 and
CCS Chimeras Flanked them and to the rear corner of the table to try stay our of the driving lanes and outreach the Dark Eldar guns were the 2 Leman Russ tanks. The smaller blob deployed as far forward as possible around the ruins.
The Dark Eldar cowered in reserve
Turn 1:
"With the heavy weapons deployed and the first "crystal" 'secure', the our new commander drove off to follow my 4th and 5th squads, who advanced at a running pace to reach the cover of a small odd looking ruin. My other three squads were directed by our ever vigilant commissar to take up betten firing positions for the lasguns. As veterans of many campaigns, we both know that the strength of our forces lies in the humble mass firing of the lasgun, over fancier, flashier weapons. I've never taken up the much valued Plasma Pistol myself, as I know all too well what happens when having the power of a small sun in your hands overheats!"
Turn 1 Summary:
The
PCS/
CCS and small blob advanced and ran ran ran, while the large blob advanced to better firing positions on the hill.
The Dark Eldar continued to cower
Turn 2:
"Everything was quiet until we saw blips on the our chimera's screens and before I had a chance to say anything over the vox, our newly promoted commander started shouting orders to "take cover, pop smoke and get firing lanes!". My boys in the open foolishly ran into the ruins well out of range and line of sight of almost any help and 2nd platoon, having no idea what was going on stormed forward, franticaly scrambling for cover and setting up their autocannons penning in their own command squads Chimera in their haste. The other two mechanized vets roared forward and the whole area was covered in a cloud of haze as smoke rolled across the field. Then we saw the enemy. Two small craft and Two Fighter Jets entered the field. Cursing under my breath I steelied my squad for battle and cursed thedark xenos gods for conspiring to face our famed company under a jumpy, green CO. Then all thoughts had to be pushed aside as the screams of close quarters fighted blared over my command vox. From what I've been able to tell from the survivors 5th squad's Sgt. Mason managed to get up close and personal with his beloved power sword "Bessy" and hacked down two of them and as their horrifying leader swung to cleave him down, Commissar Brant tackled him and was slain. Seeing this, Mason tried to save as many by ordering them to run and take cover deeper within the ruins. They owe their lives to him, but would not be able to do anything for the remainder of the battle."
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Turn 2 Summary:
The rest of the Muskokans took the field, with the 2nd platoon and PCS2 Chimera comming in and running to get good firing positions on the hill on the far side of the field and the 2 Chimera vet squads drove on. The smaller blob already midfield advanced and ran ran ran again into the large ruins for cover and everything advanced slowly. Not knowing what would show up, all the vehicles poped smoke. On this Turn I made 3 large mistakes, but I'll get to them at the end.
The Dark Eldar come on with a good number of units including both Razorwings, a Raider full of wyches and a Venom loaded with Trueborn. Shooting is generally ineffective, with one razorwing fireing all it's weapons at the PCS2 Chimera and the other shooting everything but the missles. The missles bare scatter or not at all, and only 1 blobman dies and the Chimera is unharmed. One vet on the other side of the board also drops and the smoke saves the
CCS Chimera from damage. The wyches decide to fleet, charge and slaughter the small blob; killing most, lossing 2 in return to a very skilled and angry Sgt. and running down the rest. They consolidate to the very back of the ruins and pray to their dark gods for protection.
Turn 3:
"As the xenos pursued them, they were met by the crack of lasguns and a volley of frag missiles, but our commander was too jumpy and couldn't calm down to order the men properly so a few xenos survived. Even the big guns spoke up, but they were too well hidden at the other end of the ruins and I cursed quietly for our Lt foolishly sending them to "safety there". But that was then. Now there was a battle to fight and I ordered the mounted vets to follow me and we drove ahead towards our objective. Fortunately, he had set up our heavy weapons with good fields of fire and it was reported that the smaller craft had been brought down and our men continued to fire at the passengers as they tried to escape the wreckage. 2nd Platoon, having recently been equiped with autocannons put them to good use and their commander was able to report that a Fighter had been downed. It was then we saw another transport skim over to our objective and I could see the armour clad warriors with vicious swords riding it. I'm not sure if these races can speak or undertand our language, or even if they have mothers or what they look like, but as 2nd Platoons Chimera kept getting hit to no effect, I a grown man who has seen battle on a dozen worlds was shocked at the obceneties my fellow officer was able to yell over his load speaker. And if he's right, thanks god we fought them and not their mothers that day. The joy and laughter within our hull was short lived as the Company commander's vox sizzled out for almost a minute, hit by some sort from a flying monster and hand held anti tank beam weapons."
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Turn 3 Summary:
The PCS1 Chimera and the melta and plasma vets advance up the middle, while the
CCS demonstrates his incompitance by begining his long string of failed orders, no epic fails though, just general incompitance on all his rolls. The
CCS Chimera and Lascannon vets combine their firepower and wreck the Venom, and the command squad pours fire into the survivors melting 3 in total, 2 Trueborn and one Plasma veteran. The Platoon 2 blob opens up on the Fighter that saved it's missiles and brings it crashing down to the ground a flaming wreck. Everything else opens up on the wyches in the ruins and it seems their gods were listening. 2 wyches and the homonculus survive without going to ground. The Dark Eldar raider with incubi arrive at this point and simply cower behind the building, unable to take the objective, but also unwilling to face the Imperial Guard force. The remaing fighter continues to fail to destroy the PCS2 Chimera although the talos, which also floats onto the board on this turn stuns the
CCS Chimera. The surviving trueborn also fire, but only manage a shaken result. The remaining wyches re-embark and flat out move to hide behind some rocks.
Turn 4:
"Almost sadly the commander's voice popped back over the vox and he ordered our chimeras to advance slowly and take out that second transport. Before I could make any suggestions, he stated that he was returning to our lines and then hopped out of his chimera and tried to shout orders across a explosion filled battlefield to the men. I would have told him the transport was hull down and we'd be better continuing full bore, but it was too late, you can't argue with your commanders orders if your commander is still alive, but making a strategic advance away from his vox!!! I read my suviving commissars report afterwards and learned that as his 2nd Plasma Gunner took aim at the small squad on foot advancing towards them, seeing his second bodyguard melt to the archaic tech was too much for the coward and he broke into an undignified run. Before the commissar could get in bolt pistol range, the first transport swung around and he was slain, running like a coward, unlike the veterans who took many casualtied but stood firm and cut down to but three xenos. Then a transport, the same silouette as the ones before entered the battlefield. It was brimming with weapons, full of screaming troops and had heavily reinforced armour. I didn't have time to worry about what might happen when their leader finaly showed up, since it happened right away. Both our Chimera and the one housing our plasma gunners was hit hard enough to stop them in their tracks, albeit only temporarily."
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Turn 4 Summary:
The army continues to advance slowly as more fire power is poured into the Dark Eldar cowering at the back of the battlefield. The
CCS jumps out of his stunned Chimera and spreads out to keep the Trueborn in 12" of the Plasma gunner and the Officer in 12" of the Lascannons. The chimeras roll forward 6" and try to knock out the Incubi's transport so that the can't just zip anywhere and everywhere, but can do no damage. The big blob tries to recive orders to "Fire on My Target" on the remaining trueborn but that fails so they kill only one and the lascannon vet's orders fail and they fail to damage the raider or the talos. The Commander's last remaining Plasma Gunner takes aim and causes 2 wounds, eliminating both a Trueborn and himself. This of course breaks the
CCS and they flee back to our lines. The Second platoon, still trying to keep the fighter from knocking out our chimeras, blasts off a dark lance, but that's it.
The last 2 Dark Eldar reserves enter play. First a squad of 20 warriors move and then run to take and hold the objective and the building it's behind. Now the Dark Eldar take to the field with their heavy hitter. Vect and his transport with
ac 13 and full of wyches flies on 6"... and stops. It fires at the PCS1 Chimera, stunning it. Epic. The Fighter fires on the plasma vets and stuns them as well, with the talos advancing slowing but steadly forward and immobalizes the
CCS Chimera. The Raider comes out of hiding and moves over to the first lascannon vets and multi charges them and the
CCS to keep it from rallying next turn. Also this will let me get my commander armed with a power sword into the fight and that should ensure the death of these 2 wyches and their master. So I roll an 12 and the
CCS is scattered to the wind. The combat is short and not sweet, with 4 wounds being done to the vets and all the return wounds saved by the wyches. They break and are run down.
Turn 5:
"With the commander dead and the full force of our enemies upon us, I acted quickly. I grabbed a potable vox and headset and let my men out the hatch and we booked it towards the objective. I order the melta gunners to drive straight over the large hill and the chimera made it over, if only barely. The
CCS's chimera, immobalized but still able to fire gunned down the last xenos with the hand held anti tank beams and set the vehicles self-distruct before jumping out. The monsterous creature tore into the chimera but was met with only pain and bloody ichor. Things took a turn for the worst as the missiles launchers fired at the new reinforced transport, but were unable to pierce it's armour and everyone else on our left flank fired into that one close combat squad and were only able to kill one of the three survivors. Seeing that my squad and the mounted veterans are outgunned AND outmatched I order the Leman Russ not to fire on that transport, but to blow it out of my air! AND WHAT A BOY!!! The explosion nearly floored us where we stood! 2nd Platoon's commander, compitant as ever, ordered his boys to keep up the firing and blew up the second flier as well. you could see xenos bodies flying as a battle cannon shot hit, and then two vehicles exploded around them. This was took much for the cowards and they started to flee! HA! Victory was at hand! Then the oddest thing happend. Instead of attaking us, their elite soldiers cowered in their transports wreckage but not from us. Their commander's transport swung over to the objective and as his men fled the field, his entourage lept out and subdued them, loading them into their transport. Who knows, maybe they went to the same training camp as our commissars! He then led his retinue towards the crystal and out of my sight. I tried to order another excellect shot from my new favorite Leman Russ crew, but I got only static over the vox. While not destroyed, it was hit and wrecked moments after it last fired and would not be usable again this battle."
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Turn 5 Summary:
The melta vets advance again and all the other chimeras are stunned, immobilized or stuck behind stuff. The blob on the right continues to reek havok on the Dark Eldar and hit and explode the last Flier, the shrapnel killing off 2 Warriors. The PCS2 Chimera also helps out and guns down 2 more. The Leman Russ Excecutioner tries to live up to it's name and opens fire with 3 heavy bolters and it's autocannon on the wyches and... kills one wych. The other vets try to finish the job and fire point blank into them... missing with all three grenade launchers and lascannon and doing one wound to the homonculus via lasgun fire. Epic. The PCS1 disembarks from the chimera and moves/runs over towards the objective, but is well out of range even for a turn 6 run, although they and they flamers will be huge if the game goes to turn 7. At this point, the Leman Russ's Battle Cannon finaly does something worthy of being called a cannon. Having rolled forward to be able to see the ass end of the Incubi raider, it fires and lands a direct hit and a pen, exploding the Raider. Incubi damage is negligable, but the initial battle cannon blast and the raider exploding combine to kill 7 more warriors, breaking the unit in the poccess and they flee off the table, being to small to rally. The immobalized
CCS chimera, knowing their end is near do some more damage and fire on the lone remaining Trueborn, gunning him down.
The Dark Eldar do little, the incubi staying out of sight in the crater of their raider and vect living up to his name... or rather his cowardly reputation, slides over to behind the far side of the building and he and the wyches get out and take up positions in cover around the objective. The Talos charges and shows why you can never take anything for granted (see picture), barely destroying it's objective and taking a wound in the explosion! The raider's single dark lance manages a hit and a pen on the Leman Russ with the battle cannon and the damage turns up a 5! Curses!!! The wyches kill off the second lascannon vets, saving their wounds again and consolidate right up to the
IG objective! Tensions high, nerve
raw, the die is cast and the game... the game decides to..... continue.
Turn 6:
"I called up my only remaining commissar over the command vox and told him that holding our objective was his responcibility. I would be seeking glory! With his usual sarcastic tone he made sure to ask 'in the emperor's name, I trust?' before laughing, shouting to fix bayonettes and turning the vox off. I shouted orders for the my melta gunners to 'get stuck in' and they roared off to do so. I radioed over to 2nd Platoon and told Bill that if he wanted me to pay him back, he better send some fire support my ways and between the two groups... well it worked, I'm alive. As I was about to wish good luck to my 4 flame throwing mates, my vox range up with a familiar sgt's voice saying 'Sorry, L.T. we're back up and running now. We won't make your party but we'd like to pay a visit to a very ugly lady!'. I didn't need to respond as I could hear his chimera's engine come back online and he sped off. I will say this though. Those monsters make horrible noises that make my skin crawl when they're burned to death by plasma. As my men reached the side of the building we could hear the crack of lasguns, the hiss of meltaguns and the screams of xenos dieing. Just as we were about to run around the corner, two things happened. First I heard the sound of a skimmer slidding, cowardly away and secoondly, the commissar's vox spoke up again to inform me that the xenos were dead or fleeing and the objective was ours."
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Turn 6 Summary:
This was the small push as 2 out of the 3 chimeras driving hard had taken too many stunned/immobilizing hits. The
PCS ran ever closer hoping for a chance to get in on the action, while the melta vets's chimera moved 12, spun around and disgourged it's occupants. The plasma vets, finally unstunned, did the same, although well out of range of the enemy objective, the talos was a huge threat. with T7, the and not a vehicle, the blob can't hurt it and because there are so many models it would be hard to keep all of them 12 inches away from it. So it fell to the vets to end it. The excecutioner, eager to redeem itself for failing to accomplish anything of note all game pivoted to bring the full force of it's guns to bear. To begin, the PCS2 chimera opened up on the wyches on their objective, but failed to kill anything. The blob's autocannons also shot and knocked off 2 of the wyches, leaving just the melta vets to fire and fire they did. Rapid firing lasguns and melta guns brought down 5 wyches, dispite cover, but alas, that would be all. They passed their moral check and held fast. The plasma vet, pouring plasma into it do 3 wounds, just to make sure.
The Executioner then opened up and threw 3 heavy bolters and it's autocannon onto the single wych and her wounded master. He took his second wound and she died, but that was it. Most unimpressive. It fell to the untouched blob to finish him off and in Sgt did it via powersword. The Dark Eldar turn was fast (the store closed 5 minutes ago), and jumped straight to the surviving raider. It aimed it's shock prow and sped forward. Death or Glory time! The missile launcher hit and rolled a 4, a wreck! BUT of course, there was a flickerfield save to be had... 6! So, here comes to moral check.... nothing but bad luck this game, moral wise, so far so I must have been saving up for this one roll of the dice. Correct! 2 and 4. much less that 9. Hoorah!!! The models moved an inch away fromt he skimmer's base and it is well out of 3 inches required to the objective. Somehow the dark eldar managed a tie in spite of horrifying losses.
Thus the game ended.
Post game evaluation: Sadly, it's a technical tie at best. Had either of us realized at the time that while you measure guns and embarking from the hull, you measure other distances from the base of the skimmer he'd probably have moved 12 inches instead of 8 for his tank shock. But to the men on the ground, the managed to hold on to a tie and that's good enough for the narrative.
I'm very satisfied with most of my units. For me and my guard, as an "all comers" list, I have the most trouble with Dark Eldar. The biggest disapointment was my mistakes on turn 2 that cost me the game. This is my third game using chimera's and I din't realize that smoke grenade were part of the movement phase, and not the shooting phase. So I lost 6 inches on the three chimeras that were speeding off to take the
DE objective. The second issue was I din't quite realize how big a chimera is and I didn't leave enough room to move the 2nd
PCS chimera past the big blob. They were my only heavy weapons on that side and I didn't think to lose a turn's shooting until it was too late. The third HUGE mistake was to keep forgetting that casualties don't matter to my 20 man blob. They are going to die, either by shooting or by assualt, so I should have kept them out of cover and midfield advance to the objective instead of worrying about moving into the ruins. Those wyches in the open would have been toast, or if they sped off towards the 30 man blob they would likely have been ground down and either killed by the blob or after the blob finaly died by the lascannon vets. The "null deployment" of the Dark Eldar takes away a huge advantage I have, massed fire, but offers me an equally big one as it lets me get my men moving forward. I advanced, but spent too many inches moving into cover that only helped the wyches stay out of trouble after the blob was dead. I'm happy the game played out as it did as I 100 percent played half my army properly and with average dice over the course of the whole day, the army played as expected. Fortunately, the only parts of my army that I made major mistake with were the parts I'm not accustomed to using, so I learned more than my fair share of lessons on how to use them more effectively. I'm satisfied with the moral victory, crippling almost his entire army, but I'm even more satisfied knowing where I went wrong and seeing exactly when I made my mistakes. Ideally I'll learn for next time.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Hrmmm, I'll try to figure out how to get pics where they're supposed to be
Automatically Appended Next Post: Actually, if anyone knows what to put inbetween the img /img that would be helpfull for next time.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Never mind, I think I've got it. I'll have to do it properly for the next one. :(
