Orkland Campaign- Part 5


This week, we were playing Seek and Destroy at 1125 points each. I couldn't make it last week, as I had an essay to write. Because of that, I suffered 3 automatic losses, so I really needed some victories.
Here was my list:

My list:
Rethyk- Haemonculous w. destructor & scissorhand
Qelyr- Haemonculous w. destructor & scissorhand
Squad Jarazhi- 9 Warriors w. blaster, splinter cannon, Sybarite w. agonizer
-Raider- disintegrator
Squad Rukifellith- 9 Warriors w. blaster, splinter cannon, Sybarite w. agonizer
-Raider- dark lance
Squad Dralekh- 10 Warriors w. blaster, splinter cannon, Sybarite w. agonizer
-Raider- dark lance
Squad Nethyr- 10 Warriors w. 2 dark lances
10 Wyches- wych weapons, Succubus w. agonizer
-Raider- disintegrator
Talos


EXTRACT FROM THE JOURNAL OF RETHYK, HAEMONCULOUS OF THE KABAL OF THE DARKENED SOUL:

The after a week’s worth of excavation, we have finally unearthed the metallic structure buried under the hill-mound. It appears to be a strange obelisk made of a smooth black material, and it has all manner of strange runes on its surface. I have been unable to identify the cypher, but the runes appear vaguely familiar. I suspect that this structure may date back to the pre-history of our race, when the Eldar empire was still just expanding. If so, then this is a magnificent find indeed, as it dates back to a time when our race was still strong. If this is an Eldar construct (and I could be wrong -- for all I know, it may be of Necrontyr origin), then I must quickly set to work unlocking its secrets.
Today, we gained more reinforcements from Commonage -- most notably in the form of more Raiders. The warriors are rejoicing at this -- they are by now sick and tired of walking everywhere. More surprising, however, were a group of Wyches from the Cult of Spite. I tolerate their presence only because they are allies of our Kabal -- otherwise, I would keep them out of any raiding force of mine. It’s not easy taking captives to practise my art on when the Wyches want those same captives as sport for their arenas.
Karath, the Succubus of the Wyches, behaved very insolently towards me in particular. She openly questioned my tactical judgement, and was constantly insisting that we launch attacks on the other races on the planet. Eventually, though, Karath got her way -- our scouts reported an increase in activity from enemy forces. We would have to strike hard to deplete their numbers and to keep them at an arm’s distance from our base. Since I had no intention of losing the ancient structure just yet, I gave the order for our forces to mount their Raiders and move out.


GAME 1- ELDAR (LAUTHELAS CRAFTWORLD)

Farseer- shuriken pistol, witchblade, Guide, Fortune
7 Guardians- starcannon
10 Dire Avengers- Exarch w. power sword & Distract
6 Howling Banshees- Exarch w. Executioner & War Shout
5 Dark Reapers- Exarch w. Eldar missile launcher & Fast Shot
Vyper- bright lance, shuriken cannon
Wraithlord- star cannon
Falcon- pulse laser, bright lance, shuriken cannon, spirit stones

After A few hours of patrolling the ash wastes, we encountered a force of our Craftworld kin near an abandoned mon-keigh building. On closer inspection, they turned out to be warriors of Craftworld Lauthelas. We had already annihilated a force of their warriors several weeks ago, and I was all too eager to send more of their kin to meet them in death.
As the Craftworlders were still deploying, we struck hard and fasts, swooping down on their lines like a swift knife. Squad Jarazhi and I quickly disembarked near a squad of their Guardians and leaped into an assault. Many of the Guardians fell to our jagged blades, but they fought back, cutting down two of our number with their knives. Though we outnumbered them, they bravely (or perhaps foolishly) fought on. To our right, meanwhile, Qelyr and Squad Rukifellith descended on a squad of Dark Reapers atop a hill. In a fierce battle, one of them fell, but they stubbornly fought on as well. Meanwhile, Squad Dralekh’s Raider grazed a Lauthelas Vyper and sheared off its bright lance.
In hindsight, I will admit that my charge was perhaps a little premature. The Lauthelas quickly reacted to our assault: a nearby squad of Dire Avengers, led by their Farseer, moved up to aid the Dark Reapers, while a squad of Howling Banshees disembarked from a nearby Falcon grav-tank to assault us. The Faclon then moved forwards and opened fire on the Talos, damaging it with its pulse laser.
Needless to say, we were quite stunned when the Banshees charged into us, their deafening shrieks momentarily paralysing us. Before we could react, half of our warriors fell to their crackling blades. Neither Jarazhi nor I could maintain the squad’s discipline, and our warriors broke and fled. The last thing I remember was being run through by a power sword, and then there was darkness.
Thankfully, the regenerative blood-worms injected in my body healed me later. From the account of one warrior from Squad Nethyr, after Squad Jarazhi was scattered, the Dire Avengers launched their own counter-assault on Squad Rukifellith, with similar results: Squad Rukifellith was run down by the Aspect Warriors for almost no loss in return. I am growing to hate Aspect Warriors . . .
Squad Dralekh, meanwhile, having disembarked earlier, moved forwards near the base of the hill and poured a torrent of fire into the Dark Reapers. However, oddly enough, only two of them fell. Obviously, the Lauthelas Farseer was predicting where the shots would hit, and telepathically instructed the Reapers on how to avoid them. Meanwhile, Squad Dralekh, and the three Raiders concentrated their fire on the Falcon and succeeded in destroying its pulse laser and stunning its crew.
Seeing that the initial assault had failed, Karath directed her Raider to fly forwards. In a blinding burst of speed, the Wyches leapt out of their Raider and charged into the last Guardian from the squad I had assaulted. Before the poor fool could react, he was reduced to a hundred small sliver of flesh by the Wyches’ flashing blades. Whipped into a battle-frenzy, the Wyches charged on into the surprised Howling Banshees.
Meanwhile, a Wraithlord came around the corner of one of the buildings and opened fire on Squad Jarazhi’s Raider, blasting off its disintegrator with accurate fire. The Dire Avengers, meanwhile, moved in front of Squad Dralekh, and, under the psychic guidance of the Farseer, wiped them out in an accurate hail of shuriken fire. The Wyches’ assault, meanwhile, lost its momentum against the Howling Banshees: the shrieking warrior-maidens cut down three of the Wyches quick succession. In return, Karath tore one Banshee cleanly in half with her agonizer. The rest of her sisters, however, failed to fell any of their opponents -- their blows were parried or dodged with alarming ease. Obviously, that Farseer was again showing them the strands of the future, allowing them to predict the Wyches’ moves. The Wyches’ morale broke, and they fled, barely outrunning the Banshees.
Meanwhile, the Dark Reapers targeted the Talos with their missiles, but, thankfully, failed to cause any major damage. In return, the Wyches’ Raider targeted them with its disintegrator and reduced them both to smoking ash. The Raiders of Squads Dralekh and Rukifellith, meanwhile, together with Squad Nethyr, brought their dark lances to bear on the Falcon and blasted apart its cockpit. The burning wreck of the tank came crashing to the ground mere inches from the Talos and the Dire Avengers. Meanwhile, Squad Jarazhi’s Raider, now bereft of its disintegrator, moved up to position itself between the main battlefield and the Wraithlord on the right flank. Hopefully, that would slow it down . . .
With a shriek, the Talos hurled itself onto the startled Dire Avengers. The claws of the machine-beast tore a gash across the Farseer’s chest, but it was not enough to kill him. In return, the Seer failed to find any weak points in the Talos’ carapace with his witchblade. Despite this, though, the disciplined Dire Avengers held firm.
As the battle came to a close, Karath managed to rally the Wyches, only to come under heavy fire from the Vyper and the nearby Wraithlord. They lost five more of their number, but despite this, refused to run. Meanwhile, the Talos ripped apart another Dire Avenger. Despite this, however, our force was now too few in number to defeat the Lauthelas host. Seeing this, Karath, the only senior leader who wasn’t seriously injured, called a retreat (a fact that strikes me as odd -- I never thought that Wyches had any common sense).

RESULT: LOSS
It was a hard fight, but in the end, he had 3 scoring units to my 2. In retrospect, I shouldn’t have charged so early, especially since the Dire Avengers and Howling Banshees were in a prime position to counter-charge me. There are so many “what ifs” to this battle: if the Guardians had broke and fled, then I would swoop into his Avengers, and only one unit would get counter charged. If I had ignored the last Guardian with my Wyches and instead charged the Banshees, I probably would have beat them -- I would get my full charging bonus, and he wouldn’t have had time to cast Fortune on them. All in all, I’m thankful that I at least managed to keep the Wraithlord from charging any of my units, though in the end, I probably should have charged it with my remaining Wyches: there’s the off chance that I could have inflicted 2 wounds on it with Karath’s agonizer, reduced it to half strength, and ended with a draw.
On an interested side note, however, I didn't lose a single Raider in this game -- which is a first for me, since I usually lose at least 1 Raider in every game I play.

Lesson Learned: Whenever you launch an assault, make sure there’s no one around to counter-charge you.





GAME 2- NECRONS

Necron Lord- Staff of Light, Resurrection Orb, Veil of Darkness, disruption field
Necron Lord- war scythe, Resurrection Orb, phylactery
20 Necron Warriors
20 Necron Warriors

After our defeat, we headed back to our base-camp to regroup and heal our wounded. Eventually, myself, Qelyr, Jarazhi and Rukifellith completely healed, and the losses each squad suffered were replaced. Many of our warriors were fuming at this defeat -- our Craftworld kin always seem to be one step ahead of us. Karath and her Wyches, in particular, were quite angry at having been bested in close combat, and I was beginning to fear that they might vent out their anger on the rest of us. I considered launching a sneak attack on the Lauthelas base, but I decided against it: their Farseer would probably be able to predict the attack and react accordingly.
Eventually, though, an interesting development occurred: our scouts reported a large, monolith-like
structure several miles to the east of our base. I was quite understandably quite surprised to hear this report -- that area had been patrolled weeks before, and nothing had been found there. This report needed investigating . . .
At a moment’s notice, the our forces mounted their Raiders and sped off towards the area where the structure was supposed to be. An hour later, we reached the location to discover that there was, in fact, a large monolith sitting in the middle of the planes. The massive structure was covered with strange alien symbols, and an eerie green light glowed from its peak. Clearly, this structure had not been made by Eldar or mon-keigh hands.
As we slowly approached the monolith, however, a small circular area at its base suddenly glowed. Fluid, green energy began to ripple in the circle, bathing the surrounding area in a bright green glow. As we watched, a number of metallic, skeletal figures walked out of the swirling portal, holding onto rifles whose barrels glowed with the same eldritch energy. The sight of these warriors sent unnatural shivers down my spine. We had stumbled across a tomb of the Necrontyr.
I gave the order to spread out behind a stone ridge. As we watched, two large groups of Necron Warriors walked out of the tomb complex, each group led by a sinister, shrouded Necron holding onto a strange staff. The Necrons began to advance towards us, one phalanx advancing in the wake of the other. Not wasting any time, I directed my own raider to move around a ridge on the right flank, while the Talos and a few other Raiders edged closer. Our Raiders and Squad Nethyr opened fire on the Necron vanguard, reducing some of their four of their warriors to molten metal slag. I grinned at the accurate fire of our warriors, but my grin disappeared when an orb held by one of the Necron Leaders suddenly glowed brightly. The slag that used to be one of the Necron Warriors rose up in a silvery liquid mass, and slowly began to solidify and take shape. As I watched, silvery mass soon reshaped itself back into a whole, undamaged Necron, which held onto its gauss rifle and fixed its hateful gaze on our direction.
With deathlike slowness, the Necrons advanced forwards. The front group moved around a stone ridged down the right flank, with the second group advancing relentlessly behind it. I knew that, since the Necrons could rise again after hits from our weapons, we would have to strike hard and fast against them.
At my command, the Wyches’ Raider and my own moved up towards the first group of Necrons, accompanied by the Talos. Without wasting any time, we leaped from the decks of our Raiders and hurled ourselves in a charge at the Necrontyr. Shrieking the battle-cries of their cult, the Wyches launched themselves at the Necrons, leaping and striking with terrifying precision. So swift and deadly was their assault that they cleared the area before Squad Jarazhi and I could bring our own rifle-blades to bear on the Necrontyr. Karath personally felled three of the Necrons with her crackling agonizer, while her sisters sliced apart three more in a display of amazing skill. I must confess, I was stunned by the lethal efficiency and ferocious assault of the Wyches -- I am glad they were fighting with us and not against us! My Talos, meanwhile, also launched itself at the Necrons, and tore apart three more of them with its deadly claws.
Under such a furious onslaught from our warriors, the Necrons, surprisingly enough, turned around and tried to flee. Rejoicing in the slaughter, we pursued them, hacking their slow warriors down as they fell back. Before long, it was over -- the ground was littered with parts of Necrons bodies, and their leader itself was torn apart by the Wyches. I laughed at the carnage -- already, half of the Necron force had been destroyed!
After destroying the first group of Necrons, however, I ordered Squad Jarazhi and the Wyches to move back towards their Raiders, while the Talos moved forwards towards the second group. I reasoned that, if we swept onwards towards the second group now, they would turn their guns on us and scythe us down before we made it. The Talos, though, being as tough as it was, could potentially survive a volley of enemy fire. The Wyches were loathe to move away from an enemy, but Karath reluctantly agreed.
As the Talos moved towards the Necrons, however, the air seemed to shimmer and distort around the silver warriors. As we watched, the Necrons abruptly vanished into thin air.
Shouts from the back of the battlefield made us turn around. Far behind us, near Squad Nethyr and our other two Raiders, the air was shimmering and distorting. Before we could react, the second group of Necron Warriors appeared behind our lines. By the jagged pits, their technology amazes me!
To our surprise, however, as soon as the Necron Warriors teleported half our lines, half of them suddenly crackled with energy and exploded. As soon as this happened, the rest of them abruptly vanished again.
Stunned, we turned around, expecting to see them teleport in front of us again. To our surprise, however, no Necrons appeared. Even more surprising, the monolith itself was gone! Where the massive structure had once been, there was now only empty desert. The bodies of the Necrons we had slain were also gone. We were all quite dumbstruck: it was as though nothing had happened . . .

RESULT: VICTORY!
This has to be one of my luckiest victories ever -- mainly because my opponent was decidedly un-lucky. First, he blew the leadership test that allowed one of his big Necron squads to be run down (complete with their Lord, who later failed to get back up with his phylactery). Then, the other squad tried to use the Veil of Darkness to teleport behind my lines. Unfortunately, they scattered too close to the board edge, and, as a result, lost half of their number, which was enough to make them phase out. This meant that I had won in only 2 turns without losing a single Dark Eldar! In retrospect, though, I should have been a good sport and allowed him to re-roll the scatter dice to give him a fighting chance. Even if he hadn’t fluffed with the scatter dice, though, it still would have been an uphill battle for him, as I would need to kill only half of his squad to make him phase out.


GAME 3- EMPEROR’S CHILDREN

After our rather odd encounter with the Necrons, I saw an opportunity to inflict more damage on our enemies. A few weeks ago, our scouts found the base-camp of the Emperor’s Children -- the Space Marine servants of She Who Thirsts. We had beaten the Emperor’s Children before in two encounters, but in a third, they defeated us in our bid to capture the elixir of life. Today, we would have vengeance.
As we neared the base camp, our forward scouts reported that most of the Chaos warriors were absent -- obviously out fighting other enemies. I was disappointed that we would not get to destroy the majority of their forces, but at least there were some left over for us to destroy.
Our raiding host swept down on the enemy camp in a whirlwind of destruction. Only a handful of Chaos Space Marines stood to defend the base, and they were quickly cut down by our warriors. We rampaged through the camp, slaying and burning all in our path. The altars to She Who Thirsts were destroyed, and their own slaves and captives were taken back to our raiders (we will put them to much, much better use than those decadent fools). By the time we left, the enemy camp had been reduced to a smoking, burned-out shell littered with dead bodies.
With our enemies destroyed, we can now turn our attentions to trying to open the edifice we have unearthed/. It might take some time, but I am sure we will eventually unlock its secrets.

RESULT: VICTORY! (By default -- the EC player failed to show up)



Next week, in the final day of the campaign, we will be fighting 3-player Seek and Destroy missions at 750 points each. Combat patrol rules will be in place, with the following exceptions:
-3-wound characters are allowed (but no 2+ saves)
-must have at least 2 troops choices
-vehicles may have a total AV of 34