[Battle Report] Sons Of Horus VS Eldars 2500pts (English)

 

 Hello everyone,

Kibo here for an english translation of Rémi's incredible report of our last battle together. We heard that some of the non-french speaking readers of this blog would love to have some of the articles translated in english and we decided to give it a try with this battle report. 

For the last few months, Rémi (from Salaise Figurines Studio) and I (Kibo from SimpleAsWar) have been trying to schedule at least one monthly battle together. The rules are simple: playing narrative battle with nice fully painted armies on nice battle boards.

This month battle was set on an Eldar exodite world, full of forests, rocky hills and ice-blue river (looking back, this kind of reminds me New-Zealand). Rémi played its 2500 points Son of Horus army and I (Kibo) played a 2500-pts Eldar army.

As always, all the pictures were retouched by Rémi, JJ Abrams here we come ;)

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 Rémi knew that I was intending to play a quite tough Eldar army list in preparation for a tournament I attended last February during the International Games Festival in Cannes, France (for those not familiar with this event, it's the second biggest european games convention just behind Essen).

Therefore, Rémi packed his list with as many tough units as he could, and I have to say for an Horus Heresy list it was quite impressive.
His list was featuring:
- one Centurion with orbital bombardment,
- one Support Squad with plasma lead by the centurion all together in a rhino,
- one Catapracthii Terminator squad in a land raider phobos,
- one Xyphon Pattern interceptor,
- seven Lupercii (count as Gal Vorback),
- one Imperial Knight Paladin,
- one 15-men Tactical Squad with apothecary,
- one Javelin Land Speeder,
- one Contemptor Mortis Kheres,
- one Rapier Laser (aka Titan killer for those who have read the previous battle report),
- one Sicaran.

   

Deployment was standard, facing each other along the long edges of the board and with one central objective (the relic) right in the middle.

  

Unsurprinsgly, the not-so-audacious Eldars chose to hide behind their power defense line (count as Aegis line) with only two Vypers far on their left flank to protect said flank.

 

 

The Sons of Horus successfully secure the first turn and the whole army moves toward the objective.

 

 

The first Sons of Horus shoots were quite disappointing as they focus on trying to kill one of the Wraithknight twin. The Eldar armor proved its superior technology and was tough enough to prevent any damage. The only small success for the SoH was with the two Vypers on the flank which were seriously damaged. The command Rhino rushes through the Sons of Horus army and delivers the plasma squad and the Centurion, hence capturing the objective.

 

 

The Eldar response was as lethal as the Sons of Horus turn, which means not much. The only significant event was that the Knight Paladin lost three hull points after a sharp shoot from the wraithknight armed with two heavy Wraithcannons.

   

Turn-2 started quite well with the Javelin Land Speeder arriving from reserve and deep striking just behind a Wave Serpent carrying a Dire Avenger unit. The Sicaran finished to wreck the Vypers on the flank thanks to its ability to prevent jinx saves. The Knight Paladin shoots were unsuccessfull against the Wraithknight armor, lacking the required power to penetrate it.

   

The Centurion orders an orbital bombardment on the coward Guardians hidden behind their fortification. Unfortunately, the shoots lack precision and only a few Guardians fell in the explosions.

 

The Lupercii suddenly appear on the right flank with a clear target in mind: the wraithknight armed with a ghostglaive. Unfortunately their melta shoot miss, promising an epic hand-to-hand fight for the next turn.

   

The Javelin Land Speeder totally misses its own target and was promptly destroyed in response by the guardians close to it.

   

The Land Raider carrying the terminators rushes toward the left Eldar flank while firing with all its weapons at the Wraithknight, making it lose one wound.

   

Eldar turn-2 doesn't start well as the Wraithknight, avoiding the Lupercii, assaults the Sicaran and smashes it with a single strike. The Eldar Guardians decide to shoot at the plasma squad, killing 5 of its members.

   

The Wraithknight with the two heavy Wraithcannons focuses its shoots on the Imperial Knight, leaving it with only one remaining hull point. It will hardly survive to the next Eldar shooting phase.... The Lupercii finally assault the Wraithknigth with the Ghostglaive. After a terrible fight, one Sons of Horus is dead while the Wraithknight has lost two wounds. Fair fight, isn'it?

   

A Warp Spiders unit appears out of nowhere but suffers a deep strike mishap, enabling Rémi to place them anywhere on the battlefield. He chose to put them in the weapon range of his tactical squad. Unfortunately, the 30 Bolter shoots were just enough to kill three Warp Spiders over five, quite
disappointing for the Sons of Horus.

   

Disembarking from their Wave Serpent transport, the Dire Avengers start to shoot at the Sons of Horus tactical squad, followed by three eldar motojets just arrived from reserve. Half the marines were killed.

   

The hand-to-hand keep on going between the Lupercii and the Wraithknight but this time two Sons of Horus are killed while again the Wraithknight lost two additional wounds. The Rhino is destroyed by the Guardians. The Wraithknight with the heavy Wraithcannons removes the last hull point of the Knight Paladin despite all the pilot expertise at avoiding the powerfull eldar shoots. The Wraithcannons shoots end up by desintegrating the walker in an apocalyptic explosion.

 

The battle was at its turning point. The Laser Rapier and the remains of the tactical squad are killed by the motojets and the Warp Spiders while some Swooping Hawks land over the objective, capturing
 it.

   

A little too late, the Xyphon fighter finally enters the battlefield, only to see a battered Sons of Horus force. The aircraft shoots with all its weapons at one of the Wraithknigth making it lose one wound. These beasts are trully tough!

   

In a last desesperate attempt, the Terminators assaulted the Eldar Dark Reapers but were killed right after by the vengefull shoots of the Guardians close by.

   

A huge explosion shook the battlefield when a lucky shoot from the Wraithknight penetrated the Land Raider armor, igniting its remaining ammo and propagating the fire to its fuel tank.

   

Just before leaving the battlefield the pilot of the Xyphon identified the eldar warlord and unleashed its weapons fury on him. The Sons of Horus Centurion death was avenged but the battle was definetly lost for the Sons of Horus.

Eldar victory! (but everyone knows that Eldars are cheated)
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We hope you enjoyed this battle report. We had a great time playing it and writing it! We will try to keep this monthly battle thing as regular as possible. Little teaser, next time the battle will be set in Rémi's workshop as he just received some great battle mats from Frontline Games (you will also get a review about these mats, which seem to be very nice). Feel free to comment, we would love to hear what you think of these battle reports!

Kibo

Original article and pictures by Rémi from Salaise Figurines Studio.
Translation by Kibo from #SimpleAsWar.