Conflict
and Resolution...
In the middle of the battle field stands
Logan Grimnar, the High King of Fenris, locked in combat with Harlequin
leadership while the Avatar and Karandras with his scorpions speed to join the
fray. The Eldar Dark Reapers stand on a
high platform, seemingly out of reach, Dire Avengers hold their ground, and
Warp Spiders move in and out of realty, closing in on the Wolf Rune Priest
who’s been casting the elements as weapons from afar. In the far corner, the Long Fangs with their
four missile launchers look for a new target...
The harlies are too quick for Logan, each
dealing multiple blows with explosions of holographic color and leaving trace
images of themselves behind to confuse the Wolf King. Logan
takes another wound but ignores the pain, slaughtering all but the harlie
master with the next wave of his axe.
Long Fang frag missiles explode with wide bursts of shrapnel, claiming
another scorpion or two as the sinister eldar warriors cross the field. By the time Logan slays the last harlequin he is attacked
by the towering Avatar, the Scorpion Lord Karandras and his nimble
hunters. The fighting becomes more
furious. After surviving a horrific
amount of blood loss, Logan ,
fighting on until death, cleaves the burning eldar god with his smoldering
frost axe, finally extinguishing the fire within it’s metal carapace, along
with the last striking scorpion warrior.
Karadras had been crouching at the ready, his powerful scorpion’s claw
clicking, waiting for the moment to strike (at Initiative 1, actually) and deals
the final blow to the Space Wolf lord.
Among the pile of bodies—wolf king, grey hunters, harlequins, scorpions, and even
the lifeless Avatar—only the master of scorpions remains alive.
The Reapers, thinking themselves immune
from the battle, are ambushed when the Wolf Scouts finally come into the game
(reserve rolls were not working for J until about turn 4). They climb the landing platform and fire
their bolt pistols and melta gun (melta rolled a 1 to wound, I believe), killing all but the
Reaper Exarch (I think one reaper had died from shooting earlier). The reaper, rather than face 5 snarling space
wolves whom he knew would defeat him, turned his tempest launcher skyward and
fired two rounds straight up. They soared
above and then plummeted down on top of himself, a suicide of spectacular
proportions. (Okay, he fired at the
wolves and deviated two cluster bombs right on top of his own head, but I
prefer the noble suicide to the incompetent demise.) The Dire Avengers then counter-attacked,
spraying shurikens as they went. The
melee between scouts and avengers was long and painful (I have recently
accepted that DAs are pretty much a purely shooty unit—I romanticized them
thinking they were flexible and all-round good troops, but really, in melee
they generally disappoint. Asurmen gave
them Defend and Shimmershields for a reason: they need them!), one
Wulfen-afflicted scout dealing 7 attacks in one round, but ultimately the Dire
Avengers won the bout. (We actually
misplayed ATSKNF for the wolves, who would have turned to fight instead of being
wiped out in the DA sweeping advance—we’ll know better next time, but for now,
I’ll take it.)
The warp spiders (suicide troops of
little to no value in my previous games), now that their razor-sharp
webbing wasn’t needed elsewhere, dispatched themselves to the role of
assassins. Making two teleport moves a
turn, they popped in and out of reality until popping inside the bunker where
the rune priest was holed up, lacing him up in so much monofilament
webbing that his limbs were severed in the mere act of turning to fight. They then proceeded to engage the long fangs,
until then an unreachable thorn in the Eldar’s side. With another round of webbing they routed the
wolves, who climbed down from their tower, then rallied to fire back. One warp spider was vaporized when a
bunker-busting krak missile slammed into his abdomen. Another round of webs failed to kill all the
wolves, so the exarch, armed with two power blades, led his spiders into melee
combat with the three remaining wolves.
(Again, these guys are SHOOTY units—twin power blades doesn’t make you
Wolverine, spider-boy!) At the end of
Turn 7 this combat was still going on, neither side able to wipe out and route
the other in that last turn of combat.
(Actually, I screwed up here too—had I teleported in within 6” of the
wolves while they were still in route-mode I could have chased them off the
board. Again, not versed enough with the
40,000 rules yet.)
And so at the end of the battle there
remained 3 long fangs, 1 warp spider exarch, Karadras, and the dire avenger
exarch with one of his DAs. Seven models
lived. So who won? Tallying kill ponts, the Space Wolves had 6,
and Eldar 7. Eldar victory, but not by
much! Hell of a game.
MVP: I
used to name an MVP for each battle from my army when I wrote up my little
reports (which pretty much no one ever saw but me). For this game I have a few candidates. The Avatar is my first thought, having proven
nigh invulnerable and sucked up a LOT of firepower, plus dealing plenty of
death, including the only man who could take out the large-template-blasting
vehicle in my midst. The spiders and
avengers get a nod too: the spiders stayed alive for a change and actually went
about assassinating those at a “safe” distance once the major threats were
under relative control; and the DAs actually defeated Marines in combat! The last candidate is the well-deserving
Karandras, scorpion phoenix lord. He
brought his boys in to help with the termies, helped kill the wolf cavalry,
delivered the killing blow to Logan ,
and was still alive at the end of the game.
And the winner is... The Avatar! He died but accomplished so much and just took such an amazing
beating--krak missiles, lightning, power weapons, plasma bolts... what a bad mutha!
Boobie
Prize: For this game, a boobie prize is also
warrented for the Eldar. Again, multiple
deserving candidates. The night spinner
tank that specialized in holiday tree decorations (though that was partially my
fault for forgetting the twin-linked rolls).
The “suicidal” reaper exarch who fired two cluster bombs straight into
the air and had them land on his own head (though he did some killing well
before that shameful episode—plus that can still be passed off as an honorable
bow-out before overwhelming odds). No,
the winner of the boobie prize has to be the goddamn cowardly jetbikers who
ditched their friends at the first sign of trouble in turn one! Congrats, you losers!!
***
Wow, writing up a three-part report was a lot of work! The game didn't take this long! (and the worst part is only like 3 people will probably read it!)
I need a break...
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