This Apocalypse battle is the beginning of our new summer map campaign, The War for Permian's Landing. We decided to play a two player campaign involving only Eldar and Chaos duking it out on the shattered remains of a dead Imperial planet, Permian' Landing. To begin we drew up a campaign map and created 24 territories.
We created 24 numbered markers and each of us drew 5 to represent our home territories, important locations which would both provide us with our resources and be the areas that we would be forced to take and hold. We are using a variant of the campaign rules that I've posted here
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/91179.page. We will each hold the 5 random territoris at the start of the game and then expand our holdings.
For the battle which follows we drew an 11th marker and used that to determine where the opening apocalypse battle of the campaign would take place, and also where the tie breaking 11th marker will be located. As it was, it was located between the chaos center of gravity and the eldar, shown as the imperial.
The background of our campaign is as follows. Orthalon is an agri-world, tucked away on the fringes of the Segmentum Obscurus on the outer edge of Abbadon's 13th Black Crusade. Widely considered by the Imperial to be of little strategic value, it was left under-manned and had a sizable portion of its PDF conscripted into off-world service. When a flotilla of Chaos warships emerged from the warp, the Adeptus Arbites released a astropathic warning message to all available forces and took up strategic positions around Permian's Landing, the capital city. It hadn't been more than a few minutes when the viral torpedos rained down on the planet, followed by a withering orbital bombardment which aimed to cush all coordinated military defense. The aerial bombardment was devastating, but the real horror came afterwards as the effects of the viral weapons became evident. The living dead, driven by a hunger for human flesh swarmed over the few PDF positions which remained intact. Those forces, lucky enough to remain hidden and fortified, remained that way. The Chaos war fleet led by none other than Abbadon himself, let the war against the undead rage until only the most heavily entrenched remained. Then his Black Legionairres struck. With all of the precision that ten thousand years of war had honed, the Blak Legion dug the imperials from their holes, burrowing into bunker complexes and sabotaging void shields. The planet had fallen and the Imperial defenders were driven deep underground away from the sky and the endless hordes of walking dead.
With their enemies cowed, the Black Legion pursued it's own inscutable agenda on the planet, reaching out to seize locations across the capital region. It was while the Black Legion traced the threads of inteligence back towards the answers they desired, that they first were aware that another foe had arrived, one that could not be so easily crushed. The Black Guardians of Ulthwe appeared from the ancient webway portals which had lain dormant for thousands of years. The legions of Chaos pushed forward ferociously, but found that the Eldar had quickly pounced on the installations and sites which Abbadon had deemed most essential to his plan. The witches were trying to interfere in his plans once again, and he aimed to steer the future in his own way, through fire and blood. He massed his forces and moved on Lab 11-16, a top secret laboratory where the imperials had studied the virology of xeno creatures and performed experiments the results of which both parties has a vital stake in...
The Forces of Chaos
The Forces of the Eldar
Deployment Zones
Objective Locations
The forces of Chaos deploy with a pair of deadly spearheads aimed at the closest objectives. One armoured force in the center, and another consisting of zombies and berzerkers led by Kharn on the left flank of the chaos line.
The Eldar deployed a mass of Guardians to meet the oncoming spearhead head with surrounding forces. Another smaller force was deployed to block the assault of the zombies.
Eldrad used his foresight to reposition his army, but as the Chaos army roared into the battle a massive barrage of thick black smoke blasted across no-man's land blanketing the Choas forces as they re-deployed to strike at the Eldar on their terms. Only the zombies and Kharn with his berzerkers moved forward into no-man's land as the rest of the army moved to strike at the Eldar force led by the Avatar.
Eldrad, intwined in the threads of fate, saw the ploy of Chaos and his army moved like a well-oiled machine to react. He summoned his eldritch powers, and despite improving the fortune of his immediate compatriots was attacked by daemonic forces from the warp, he fought them off. The Eldar, forced to use their strategic re-deployment to meet the threat of Chaos, met the armies of the warp head on.
The only meaningful fire cam from the Eldar forces that faced off against Kharn and the zombies. The Berzerkers were hit by a flurry of missile fire from the Dark Reapers on the adjacent hillside. When the smoke cleared, only Kharn remained. Twelve Guardians moved into firing range and targeted Kharn with all of their shuriken catapults. A storm of razor sharp disks tore through the air with a loud his, but Kharn pushed through it an it bounced off of his Daemonic armour like rain. He raised his axe and pistol and charged forward.
As the fusilade cleared Kharn was joined by ten bloodletters who stormed out of rends in the fabric of reality and joined Kharn and the insatiable zombies in their thirst for warm blood
On the other flank, the fast elements of the chaos army struck the flank of the Eldar army. The Chaos bikers and Raptors tore into a squad of Guardians and a group of Dire Avengers.
At the same time an orbital bombardment from the chaos fleet hit the center of the eldar line, sending guardian corpses flying into the air, protected only by the psychic shields of the eldar witches. When the smoke cleared, a farseer who had not been part of any of the guardian squads lay dead. The Avatar marched through the explosions emboldening the guardians around him.
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The Slaaneshi sorcerer slithered forth and leapt upon the Wraithguard.
The combats, steadied by the Seer Council and Avater whom inspired the Eldar army into fearlessness, moved into the next round.
With a sonic boom, the Cloudstrike Falcons screamed in from above the board, charging their pulse lasers and lining up to attack the Chaos line breaker squadron.
Meanwhile the Seer Council and Wraithlords moved into the Chaos lines and prepared to shred the minions of Chaos.
The Guardians moved to take the Chaos objective in the center of the board, and fired into the Havocs manning the position.
The Seer Council unleashed a wall of destructor flames which incinerated an entire squad of twenty zombies, who were vaporised.
The Fire Prism, newly arrived, took aim at the deflier, and blasted it's drive carriage, causing the daemonic beast to thrash about wildly. roaring with fury.
The Eldar moved into assault, and the melee became a messy swirling mass, with Kharn hacking his way through guardians and zombies being cut down, and then rising up again to eat the flesh of the living.
The Wraithguard, joinedby a wraithlord, managed to drag down the Chaos Sorcerer.
On the other flank, the Raptors, led by a different chaos sorcerer, killed and pursued a squad of guardians, while the bikers were mobbed by two more squads of guardians. Still, the combat broke in the bikers favor, but they were heavily outnumbered.
The Obliterators, Terminators, and Abbadon, as well as the remaining daemons all appeared, ready to inflict a painful round of firing on the eldar.
The Obliterators moved to take the objectives in the eldar backfield and shot up the Dark Reapers.
Abbadon arrived in the midst of the Chaos Melee and pulled out his Daemon Sword, ready to draw some blood.
Meanwhile the combined forces of the Chaos center moved to attack the Avatar and try to break the Eldar center.
While the Chaos attack proceeded against the Avatar, the Line Breaker squadron put an apocalyptic blast into the guardians in the building, blowing the building to pieces.
The attack on the Avatar involved massive amounts of rapid firing bolters and plasma weapons, but inflicted no harm on the enraged Eldar god of war.
A squad of three Chaos Terminators with melta guns knocked the prism cannon off of the fire prism, which swiftly bolted away from the building.
Abbadon's retinue let loose with their flame weapons and killed three witches, but could not assault.
Meanwhile, two flights of furies arrived to help the beleagured bikers and began tearing into the guardians around them.
The Daemon prince charged the Wraithguard and killed two of them.
Kharn and his minions finally hacked their way through the guardians in their way, and stood ready to face the attack of the Eldar leadership.
The Eldar leadership, now in position after taking tremendous losses aains their basic infantry were poised to strike a series of deadly blows agains the forces of Chaos.
An Autarch, along with his squad of Warp Spiders touched down on the roof of the builging where the Obliterator hid and fired at him through the building.
The Falcons with their guns now fully charged opened fire on the line breakers, destroying one and tearing the gun free from another.
In the most deadly move Eldrad joined the Seer council, the Autarch and the Wraithlord in shooting everything at Abbadon and his retinue. When the destructor fire cleared, only Abaddon persisted and he had taken a wound.
In the center, the Avatar charged the Plague Marines and hacked his way through half the squad.
The rage of the Avatar pulled him away from the guardians and dire avengers who faced the bikes. They fled and were either pursued or annihilated.
In Abbadon's combat against the Seer Council and all, he took another wound from the autarch before rolling a 1 for his daemon weapon roll. The Seer Council and the Wraithlord finished him. Abbadon was laid low, but for story purposes teleported away at the last minute.
After a turn in which many nosebleeds were inflicted Chaos attempted to re-establish momentem. The Chosen guarding the objetive in the Chaos backfield managed to immobilize a Falcn with their plasma guns, but it had vectored engines.
After the Guardians and their Wraithlord had inflicted numerous casualties against the Havoc squad holding the Missile objective, they ran forward to try and seize it. The lone armed Vindicator had other plans and killed seven of the Guardians and caused the rest to flee.
The Bikes and Daemons continue to pursue the broken Eldar across the board.
Meanwhile the Obliterator who had been targeted by the Warp Spiders took the fight to them, killing a few with a flamer blast and then charging in to crush two more with his power fist. The Warp Spiders jumped out of the combat at the end of the round.
On the other side of the board the other wraithlord charged the Daemon Prince ready to hurt him, just as the daemon prince wiped out all of the wraithguard except their surviving warlock.
Kharn, enraged by the slaughter of Abbadon, made his way around the combat as his Daemons and zombies charged he seer council. He singled out Eldrad and dove on top of him. In a flurry of vicious blows he cut down the reknowned seer, who also for plot purposes figured out a way to escape.
Entering the final player turn of the game, the swooping hawks who had been skylepaing the whole game, and dropping bombs to little effect dove in on the obliterator holding one of the Eldar home base objectives. With a masive volley of sun rigle fire they managed to kill the obliterator sitting on the objective, but they had dropped outside 6" of the objective itself
The Warp Spiders inflicted a similar death against another Obliterator, but had to retreat to grab the objective that the Hawks had scattered away from, as it was a vial objective worth two points.
This left the last Obliterator in control of the other Eldar objective
In the Chaos side, the Falcon circled the hill manned by the chosen and let loose against them with their weapons, they could not bring the squad below half, but they did manage to take the objective away, due to hight points values.
In the Center the Avatar attacked the Chaos marines holding the central objective. He came in swinging, and despite his best efforts could not kill the chaos sorcerer, and lacked the points to overcome the marines who secured the center.
Despite a last minute run towards the objective with the Fire Prism, a group of zombies managed to hold the objective in the Chaos corner.
The combats in the center between the Seer council and Kharn, as well as the fight between the Wraithlords and Daemon Prince ended in a stalemate.
At the end of the day the final score in objective points was 3-3. It was a bloody, bloody, draw.
With their legendary characters both badly wounded, the two sides each retreated with some measure of the spoils and looking to win more decisiely next time.
Next time...
Bretonnians 
