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Eli tässä on cut & paste version Adeptus Mechanicus Titan Legionin ja Dark Eldareiden taistelusta toisesta foorumista.

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Story

The Derknan system was not very old. It was settled but a century or so ago and thus was not very heavily industrialised and defended yet. The planetary governors had not spent very much on defence but to create infrastructure to the planets. The system had 2 habitable planets as well as a very mineral rich moon of Darknan VI. The moon had originally drawn the Adeptus Mechanicus to the system and was therefore most heavily guarded area. The planets were most farming as well as some higher technology cities due the somewhat heavy presence of the Mechanicus. The most important and quite well secreted information was the older archives found by the Tech Adepts within one of the Darknan Secunduses plains. These were extremely important to Adeptus, but as the archives were a rather large structure the Techno Magi had decided to not move them and study them within the planet. To protect it there was build a heavier defence areas. All in all it was a rather well developing system.

This changed when the Dark Eldar raiders of Ziel'ra hit the system. The raiding force was very large. Larger that had been seen for a long time. Both planets were hit equally and what little defences were in the orbits were quickly knocked out. Most of the defences of Darknan VI were defence platforms so they were unable to render much assistance...

In the command cruiser "Slaver of Worlds" the Ziel'ra was watching as the last of the Mon-Keigh defence platform were taken out. The platforms had given some amount of prisoners, but not nearly enough. For Ziel'ra was after a glory enough to give him seat in the council. He heard the footsteps that would be the Dael-Ghaks'

- Archon, the Eldar Farseer was right. We can detect dozen or so Demonstones on the planet. They are located below the surface of the second planets' third continent. The location is in grid 53'44. I've ordered the second phase to start and few flights of Ravens are prepped to make a better scan of the area. It seems that the Mon'Keigh have stored them within a largish structure dug underground.
- 'Damn these filthy monkeys. Do they realise what they have in here.' Ziel'ra seethed.
- I doubt it. Or they would not be in such an undefended planet.
- Ziel'ra turned towards Dael-Gak. 'They better not. For I will not be failed at this point. The Farseer held out long enough that the torture was getting annoying. And it has taken most of my influence to gather this force. Were I to fail in this it would not look good to the council. Be aware that if this fails, I won't be first one to suffer.' He turned towards the displays.
- 'Send orders to ready the raiding group. We have the stones to retrieve once the scanner flights have done their job. In a few days everyone should be ready to move out. Remember not to hit that specific area yet, so that the Mon'Keigh won't learn our intent.'

After this Ziel'ra spun around and started to leave but collided to a slave carrying a tray. The wine was spilt around and several drops hit his clack. Ziel'ra grabbed he's Agonizer and shot the slave, which fell to the deck twisting in agony. 'See that he learns to keep out of the way.' he ordered a nearby guard, ' Without legs that should be easier.'

The Tech Priest Tinagris was troubled. Several of the Titans prepared to defend the installation of Barchim Plains were not yet transported to planet. Only 'Bane of Mars' and 'Rapidfire were deployed'.
- 'My Lord' said the Parthin 'The Barchim Plains inform us that they were scanned quite heavily by several flights of the Dark Eldar. They are worried that the xenos might assault the installation. They request urgent help and have prepared the "Bane of Mars" as well as "Rapidfire" to be used if any of the foul xenos move towards them. So far that has not happened, but they are sure it will happen eventually.'
- Damn it. The storerooms of the place are not completely inventoried yet. We don't know if there is something that they want.
- The local governor has requested help from the installation but we have so far denied the use of Titans.
- I know. The Barchim Plains must be protected.
- 'We have no choice.' Tinagris sighed. 'Are the "Will of the Emperor" and "Darknans' Storm" as well as "Wolfsbane" and "Stormwind" prepared for transport already. We must send them to run the blockade while there is still time.'
- The transports report that they are ready. And prepare to move out 15 minutes. All available fighter crafts have been assigned to protect them and make sure that the transports get through.
- Good. Let us hope that the Machine God and Emperor smiles upon us and that the transports get safely there.

- 'The transports reports in, My Lord.' announced the Tech Adept from one of the consoles
- Awakening from deep meditation Tinagris raised from the chair and moved towards the Adept. 'What is the report.'
- They managed to slip by the primary forces, but were detected and ambushed by several of the Dark Eldar crafts. Most of the defence fighters were lost as was ... the Warlord Titan "Darknans' Storm". Rest were safely landed near the Installation of Barchim Plains. They are already prepped and prepared for battle and have joined the rest of the battle group.
- Loss of only one titan was acceptable all things considered. But the loss of the mighty warmachine was a grievous blow. Tinagris thought. 'What of the Dark Eldar. Have they still moved towards the Installation?'
- No report of it, My Lord. So far the surrounding are has been rather quiet. There aren't large cities there. The

In the "Slaver of Worlds" Ziel'ra was furious.
- How did the Mon'Keigh get those transports through! They contained titans!
- 'We aren't sure ...' replied one of the communication officers
- 'Well get sure! You have time until I get back. Someone is going to pay for this and unless you find the responsible I will find a replacement for you ... For you won't be fit to serve without any limbs.' Ziel'ra spun around. 'Daul-Gak! We launch immediately. We must strike swiftly if we are to catch the Mon'Keigh unprepared.' he shouted as he started striding towards the bridge exit. Soon the puny filth would know the power of Ziel'ra

This game was played against blind army to a degree. I had possibility of Marines, Tyranids or AMTL. And my opponent talked about Marines, Eldar and Dark Eldar. The result was 3000 points Adeptus Mechanicus Titan Legion (AMTL) vs Dark Eldar. And what a battle it was to be. This game twists and turns for both involved.

About the story. I'm not so sure on the ranks of Mechanicus or any fluff on Dark Eldar so do point out if there is "obvious" mistakes.

Rules used

All Experimental rules.
Dark Eldar 1.2.1
AMTL v2


Adeptus Mechanicus Battleforce Delta-C3

Warlord Titan "Will of the Emperor" (BTS)
- 2 Quake Cannons
- 2 Gatling Cannons
+ Legate
Reaver Titan "Bane of Mars"
- Vulcano Cannon
- 2 Turbolaser Destructors
+ Multilasers
Warhound Pack
"Wolfsbane": Light Turbolaser Destructor, Plasma Blastgun
"Rapidfire": Light Turbolaser Destructor, Light Vulcan Mega-Bolter

Warhound "Stormwind"
2 Light Multiple Rocket Launchers
Leman Russ Cohort
Recon Cohort
Thunderbolts




Kabal of the Warped Shadows

Webway Portal

Kabal Coterie "Darkest Shadow"
- 4 Incubi
- 1 Archon
- 2 Raiders
- 1 Ravager
Kabal Syndicate "Black Moon"
- 6 Warriors
- 3 Raiders
Kabal Flotilla "Storms' Revenge" (BTS)
- 4 Ravagers
- 1 Vessel of Pain

Heavy Barge "Darkness Decends"
- 2 Vessels of Pain
Talos "Terror from Twilight"
- 4 Talos
+ Slavebringer "Soulkeeper"
Flight "Wings of Death"
- 4 scourges

Tormentor "Guardian of Darkness"
- 1 Tormentor Titan
Fighter Formation "Shadow Rays"
- 2 Raven Fighters




Deployment

The AMTL set up blitz behind a building near centre in eastern half. Dark Eldar put it more east behind a hill.

One of the secondary objectives on Dark Eldar side was between hill and building little over 30cm from blitz and another more to centre of battlefield little over 30cm from the first. On AMTL side one was northeastern side of a hill and other was near a lake in west. The centre objective on Dark Eldar side was replaced with a Wraithgate.

AMTL garrisoned the Sentinels to blitz between a hill and a building and in overwatch.

Rest of the deployment on AMTL side resulted in Leman Russ Cohort taking the eastern flank behind a hill. Next between Leman Russes and Sentinels was "Stormwind". Then west of Sentinel Cohort was "Bane of Mars". Some distance more near the centre was "Will of the Emperor". And taking the western flank was the Warhound pair "Rapidfire" and "Wolfsbane".

Dark Eldar only had 3 formations to deploy. The Heavy Barges of "Darkness Descends" were set up behind a forest in centre. The "centre" of the Dark Eldar line was Tormentor titan "Guardian of Darkness" While Kabal Flotilla "Storms' Revenge" was deployed to blitz behind a hill in east.

Turn 1 "Closing In"

Initiative Dark Eldar

The battle starts with the "Guardian of Darkness" moving to take cover behind a large building. Imperials respond by ordering the Thunderbolts to go to Combat Air Patrol (CAP). The Dark Eldar response is to bring it's own fighters into play as "Shadow Rays" ground attack. Coming in from east the turn and target Leman Russ Cohort. Two hits are scored, but the mighty Imperial Tanks shrug off the attack.

Sentinels are ordered to scout forwards. But they are having a smoke break and hold removing both BMs and Overwatch. The Dark Eldar plays time and the Kabal Flotilla moves a bit to hug the hill in east. Leman Russes are next and they obviously have decided that moving out attracts more aircraft and hold removing BMs.

Seeing that the Imperials are hesitant to move from the line, the Dark Eldar decide to show how it's done. The "Black Moon" emerges from the Wraithgate on double. They move forwards towards the Sentinels and fire. However no hits are scored. After this display of fire they move again to take cover in a nearby building. This causes one the warmachines of Imperium to react. Warhound "Stormwind" advances at full speed going over the hill and targeting the building with barrage of missiles. However the effect is less impressive as only one Warrior unit dies.

Still disappointed by Imperial inactivity the "Soulkeeper" makes it's entrance from eastern end of board. The craft makes a ground attack moving a bit ahead of the Ravens and targeting the Leman Russes. This causes the Thunderbolts to respond by engaging the slower moving craft. Coming in from west the Imperial aircraft move quickly with afterburners to circle the battlefield following the Dark Eldar craft and ending behind it, next to Ravens to avoid most of the AA fire. However the Slavebringer can fire behind as well and one of the 'bolts is hit and it explodes into a ball of fire. The other fires at the enemy, but the shadowfield causes the shots to go wide. Then the "Soulkeepers'" twin dark lances aim at the Leman Russes but once more the armour of the tanks saves them from further damage.

The the western flank of the Imperials start moving as the Warhound pack responds to Legate commands. The only target within range is the "Dark Moon" and advance brings the Warhounds within range. With a hail of laser and bolter fire "Wolfsbane" and "Rapidfire" wreck 2 Raiders and a unit or Warriors breaking the formation. However the Dark Eldar choose not to fall back. Then as some targets finally arrived within the range of "Darkness Descends", the Vessels of Pain double making the classic move ahead fire and move back to cover. The target is the Warhound pack. The first of them is hit several times with phantom lances and it loses all voidshields as well as 1DC.

Then there is only Imperial actions left. And the "Will of the Emperor" starts by doubling ahead and targeting the "Dark Moon". But something is wrong with the targeting arrays as all shots miss! Only a unit of Dark Eldar die to BM. Next it's the "Bane of Mars". It doubles as well moving towards the "Stormwind" to keep the aircraft within AA range and target the warriors. The turbolasers wreck the last raider, but vulcano cannon misses and a single Warrior unit survives within the building as two Warriors are killed by BMs.

End Phase

The "Soulkeeper" moves within Reavers multilasers and both manage to hit. The save fails and the aircraft loses 1DC. However no hits are done to the Ravens as they move through behind the "Soulkeeper".

All the formations remove BMs, but the last member of "Dark Moon" fails to rally and falls back to another building in Dark Eldar side.

Turn 2 "Rapid Assault"

Initiative Dark Eldar

The Eldar decide to give the initiative to Imperials. Titan commander thanks and decides to make a flank attack. Order is passed to the Warhound pack to make a quick dash forwards to fire at the "Darkness Descends". However there is problems with Warhounds taking orders and Legate Ferduin must interfere to get the "Wolfsbane" and "Rapidfire" to respond. After that the Warhounds double ahead and west clearing the forest between them and the Vessels of Pain. The turbolasers and plasma blastgun is brought to bear. With some gunners having very good day the light turbolasers score 5 hits, while the plasma misses completely. Both of the Vessels lose their shadowfields as well as after failed saves 1 damage is done to the first one. Retaining the "Stormwind" doubles to east clearing a building and targeting the "Storms' Revenge". Once more the area is covered with missiles and 1 Ravager is explodes in the process.

Dark Eldars response is to sustain with the "Darkness Descends". The firing commences, but the Dark Eldar have problems targeting due to las fire and only 1 additional damage is done to the "Rapidfire". The sentinels are next, but their smoke break is hard to stop and they hold moving a bit forwards. The Dark Eldar then continue to pound the Warhounds as "Darkest Shadow" makes it's entrance and engages the Warhound pack. In quick assault one of the Warhounds is brought down while the other suffers 2 damage and a critical (which causes it stumble away from Dark Eldar). In return only 1 unit of Incubis is killed. The Dark Eldar win with a large marginal and the broken "Wolfsbane" retreats towads the northwestern corner of the battlefield. The victorious Kabal mounts up and moves behind a small forest near the lake to make sure some forests is between them and "Will of the Emperor".

The Imperials play for time and orders the remaining Thunderbolts to CAP.

Next is the Kabal Flotilla "Storms' Revenge". They advance moving out towards east and clearing the hill to fire at the "Stormwind". However the missile barrage has caused some problems and they only manage to strip the voidshields off of Warhound. Seeing that the crafts move outside of the hill, the Leman Russ Cohort doubles over the hill and fires at the one visible target with their battlecannons. They manage to hit it and the shells cause internal explosions wrecking the craft. The "Storms' Revenge" breaks and moves a bit backwards to the hill.

In west the "Shadow Rays" get orders to make a ground attack at the "Wolfsbane". They move a bit from the Dark Eldar end to bring themselves within firing range. The lone Thunderbolt responds to that and comes in from east and attacks the Ravens from side. The stormbolters and multilasers fire dropping one craft from air. The second Raven gets to fire at the Warhound and with lance easily penetrates the ailing war engine causing it to collapse to the ground destroyed.

In east again the "Bane of Mars" doubles towards northeast and brings itself within firing range of the Dark Eldar Tormentor titan "Guardian of Darkness". Turbolasers spitdeath as several hit home but the vulcano cannon misses. The titan loses all shields as well as 2 DC.

Dark Eldar response is to call "Soulkeeper", but stands down due to laser damage to it's hull. In the centre the "Will of the Emperor" is unable to get anything within it's range and resolves to march across the centre of the field towards the Dark Eldar lines. The "Guardian of Darkness" ponders on what to do and resolves to marshall removing the BMs.

End Phase

Both aircraft formations leave without problems.

The lone Warrior units fails to rally once more and it falls back even more. The Kabal Flotilla "Storms' Revenge" rallies only after the Ziel'Ra contacts them and promises the commanders of the craft a visit to his personal "chambers" if they are to fail him in this.

Turn 3 "Engage"

Scourges of Flight "Wings of Death" teleport to a building behind Recon Cohort.



Initiative Dark Eldar

The turn starts with "Wings of Death" engaging the Sentinels into firefight. Since we were rather sure of the outcome, we decided to throw Sentinel attacks first. 2 Hits and 2 kills! Return fire score 4 hits. And the dices are thrown ...



All 4 saves! Resolution is +3 for Sentinels and Imperial player rolls ... snake-eyes. Groan can be heard as the Dark Eldar side rolls ... 2 and 1. Sentinels win by 2 wiping the Scourges out! Jubilation can be heard in the cockpit of the "Will of the Emperor". Dark Eldar Archon is stunned of the situation ... and orders the "Darkness Descends" to descend into the middle of battlefield. Vessels of Pain then double towards the objective on AMTL end in west. They move once and fire all they got at the "Will of the Emperor". This causes the mighty Warlord Titan to lose 4 shields and then they move onwards to take cover behind a building near objective.

In west Leman Russes are ordered to double but they hesitate and even the Legate Ferduin cannot get them moving so they end up holding. Obviously the firing of battle cannons were not what they were meant to do ... The tanks rumble their move onwards spreading out. Next is the "Guardian of Darkness" and it engages the "Stormwind" into a titanic battle of "king of the hill". The fight between them is devastating as both get hit several times. Neither of the two war machines manage to save anything and they both collapse with groan of metal on the hill.

In the centre the "Will of the Emperor" booms out Imperial Warmarch and advances into forest, trees splitting like twigs. The weapons then take aim at the maximum range into the "Darkest Shadow". Quake cannos and gatling cannons fire filling the area into one huge explosion. Only Archon Ziel'ra and another unit of Incubi survive and the formation is broken hugging the treeline for safety. Retaining in east the "Bane of Mars" is commanded to double, but fails and resolves to fall back towards AMTL own blitz on hold.

The "Soulkeeper" is next and it performs an ground attack dropping the Talos' of "Terror from Twilight" to fire at the Sentinels. However the combined firepower of the Dark Eldar aircraft and group forces only manage to kill one Sentinel, thus the formation is not broken. To drive the point home, the sentinels double moving around the building and bringing it between them and Kabal Flotilla. Then they fire at the "Terror from Twilight", but the armoured vehicles saves the las cannon beams easily.

In east the Kabal Flotilla "Storms' Revenge" decide to marshall and moves to keep themselves close to the hill as well as Blitz objective. The Imperiums last activation is Thunderbolt which ground attacks to kill the last warriors stand of "Dark Moon". The "Shadow Rays" stand down due to damage caused to them last turn.

End Phase

The "Soulkeeper" lifts off and starts to move towards the Dark Eldar edge. However it gets within the range of "Bane of Mars'" multilasers and the laser barrage destroys some engines causing it to spiral and crash. The "Darkest Shadow" fails to rally and Taloses and Sentinels fail to remove BMs. The rest remove BMs normally.

Conditions are checked. Due to Sentinels, the Dark Eldar is unable to get 'Blitzkrieg' and 'Take and hold' so situation is 0 - 0. 4th turn is thus played.

Turn 4 "Final Conflict"

Initiative Dark Eldar

First is the "Terror from Twilight" and engage. To take revenge on loss of Scourges the armoured vehicles engage the Sentinels. This time there is incredible luck helping the and the Recon Cohort is wiped out without any losses on Dark Eldar. Retaining the "Darkness Descends" is ordered to double, but activation fails and the war engines move slightly towards the objective. Realising that the eastern flank must be annihilated, the "Will of the Emperor" turns around and doubles towards the objective behind a building. Some amount of "Storms' Revenge" is visible behind a hill and that it enough for the Warlord. Quake and gatling cannons fire filling the hill side with explosions. Two Ravagers is wrecked as well as 1DC damage done to the Vessel of Pain.

Dark Eldar put the remaining Raven fighter on CAP.

Rest of the activations are Imperials. First the Reaver "Bane of Mars" doubles towards the AMTL sides blitz and targets the "Terror from Twilight". Only few turbolasers hit home and vulcano cannon misses so the Dark Eldar craft saves the hits easily. Then Leman Russ Cohort doubles ahead to hill and targets the remaining Vessel from "Storms' Revenge". Battle cannons as well as las cannons fire at the unshielded war engine. Several hits is caused and one penetrates the hull. This is enough to destroy the tank and it crashes into the hillside. Then finally the Thunderbolt is ordered to stand down.

End Phase

The victory conditions reveal that the battle ends in 3 - 0 victory for AMTL (with 'Break Their Spirit', 'Take and Hold' and 'Blitzkrieg').


AMTL blitz and centre of the battlefield. Reaver has fallen back to protect blitz from Talos.


Dark Eldar blitz cleared by Warlord and Leman Russes.