For some unknown reason, there is a lull.
The Iron Warriors led by Lord Warsmith Boroth, have arrived at Eidolon to seek an ancient Eldar weapon which is buried deep underground.
The Eldar, however; have intercepted comms traffic and realized what the Iron Warriors are up to. They have decided to intercept and stop the Iron Warriors before they get their hands on a potentially very dangerous weapon.
This is where we pick up our story. Landing on Eidolon, the Eldar and Iron Warriors have to first head to the access tunnels to the underground caverns. This first game is the race to the access hatches.
NOTE: This game is meant to be a 'part 1' of sorts with the next game being the 'part 2', you cannot play just this one game or the second game without playing the other game because they won't work or make sense.
We played on a 6' x 4' board. The deployment zones are L-shaped in the two opposite corners, 7" onto the board. There are 3 objectives but only 2 per player: the one in the center and the one to the left of that player's deployment zone all the way in the corner.
After a unit is done moving if it is within 6" of the objective, that unit may be removed from the board. Any unit removed from the board may then be used in the next game.
The next game is 1,000 points with standard force org. From the units removed from the board in this game the player may add those exact units onto his 1,000 point force, ignoring force org, up to 2,000 points total. The removed unit will be intact and used in the next game as if it hadn't taken casualties from this game.
This is how we played this scenario, victory points were used no night fighting or anything else. Fairly simple scenario but with a lot of tactical and strategic depth, or at least I like to think so.
Here is the initial deployment (The red circles indicate the objectives):
Here is the Eldar deployment, he took a lot of hand to hand units, which usually isn't his thing but make sense because of the next game, he will want to get them through into the underground.
As you can see below he did take some long range fire, which would come in handy.
Here is part of the Iron Warriors deployment:
The Warpsmith moves off to the left in his rhino with his Chosen bodyguard. The Eldar counter by moving a Wave Serpent loaded with Dire Avengers.
On the right flank the Iron Warriors' Vindicator moves forward and parks behind a building to dissuade the Eldar from attempting to move towards the corner objective. The Eldar choose to move forward approaching the middle of the board.
The Iron Warriors spot this move and attempt to counter by moving into the central building while the raptors turn and move closer to the central part of the board. The Vindicator stays put, a good deterrant.
The Warpsmith and his chosen continue to push the issue and move again towards the objective with another rhino following them up. The Dire Avengers disembark and the Wave Serpent makes short work of the Warpsmith's Rhino.
The Eldar continue their advance with a Wraithlord holding their left flank.
An Iron Warriors Marine squad is the first to enter the underground after disembarking from their Rhino.
The Warpsmith is getting tired of the Eldar trying to disrupt their plan and fires the meltagun-attachment on his Mechatendrils, blowing the Wave Serpent sky high. The other Rhino advances but there are some Striking Scorpions in the far building that will have something to say about their advance.
The rest of the Iron Warriors continue their central advance as do the Eldar.
The Vindicator makes its move and turns the corner, levels its cannon and opens fire! Its shell hits home but the Wraithlord's magical Eldar resilience holds up and he simply shrugs off the shot.
Meanwhile, a squad of Eldar Striking Scorpions make a dash for the tunnels and clamber down the ladder into the darkness beneath.
The Warpsmith;s squad is flayed to death by tiny shards of metal from the Dire Avenger's Shuriken catapults. The Warpsmith's superior armor keeps him safe from the Eldar firepower.
While the Warpsmith may not have been injured the fact that his squad is gone made him rethink his strategy of taking the far corner objective. He decides discretion is the better part of valor and falls back to a position closer to the rest of his forces.
Not for the first time and certainly not for the last time the Waveserpent and the Helbrute exchange fire. The Helbrute becomes immobilized.
This is the end of the first part of our tale but soon part 2 will be posted right here.
Until then...