|
|
The game was played out on three bar tables of varying sizes and bad fit pushed together. Paul Grogan had brought his landscaping scenery. This is the hexagon green bits with the river running through. This stuff is excellent for making up a landscape. It fixed the problem of gaps between the tables; it provided a more interesting and convincing arena; it looked good! The bushes and trees are from his huge collection, the ruins are the bog standard Games Workshop ones. |
 |
The game was played with the Dark Eldar starting in the first 12" at the far end of the table and the Space Marines in the 12" at the near end. The longest range weapons were 48" and the armies began about 72" apart. |
 |
The tiny Space Marine force formed a small
battle line - and stayed there throughout the battle. This was a
very interesting tactic. Their victory condition was for one of
these roughty-toughty, bio-engineered, power-suit clad super-heroes to
get to the other end of the table. I pointed this out a number of
times through the game.
"We know what we're doing" said the commanders. Hmm. |
 |
The two Dark Eldar commanders split their
forces roughly in half.
One commander sent three squads of Dark Eldar warriors climbing over the ruins on the left flank ... and were each slaughtered by the missile launchers, then bolters of the stationary Space Marines. Each time they received a volley of fire they advanced again, blind with the desire for the blood of their foe. One of these troops is Rob. Rob the Warrior. |
 |
Meanwhile, the entire right flank of the Dark Eldar hid behind the cover like girls for over half the battle. |
 |
Toward the end:
The Raider is immobile with the Space Marines out of range of its Dark Lance. It is 46" from a missile launcher. The warrior squad on board will be massacred when it blows up in the next turn. The six warriors in the right of the picture are the remains of 34 models. Dark Eldar strategy: charge, die, fall back, charge, get wiped out, send in the next squad. It got to the point of my considering giving them an automatic cover save since they must be charging from behind a huge pile of mass of dead bodies. You will notice the brave girlie Dark Eldar right flank dashed from one set of cover to ... another set of cover. What you cannot see is Rob the Warrior. He alone made it into hand to hand combat with the Space Marines. He assaulted the mighty dreadnought and made clangy noises on its hull. It tried to attack him back but stumbled around and missed him completely. He scratched its paintwork slightly. Then, unfortunately, as the Dreadnought tried to work out what the clangy and scratching noises were it raised its arm slightly, caught Rob and accidentally decapitated him. Woe for brave Rob the Warrior! |
Final result? VERY unpopular.
Neither force had achieved its victory condition. The result? A draw.
"A draw? But we massacred half of them!" "Yes but you didn't move."
"A draw? But we kept attacking and were really brave." "Yes, but you did the dying, not them."
Man of the battle? Rob the Warrior, of course!
What a jolly wheeze!
