The Sons of Ultramar

Another Crusade of Fire game day that I'm playing in at  Drawbridge Games. There must be something in the air, because a lot of folks are getting back into the 40k hobby suddenly. Including my opponent for this match. Jeff brought his Ultramarines out of the cryo-sleep of a long warp trip and right to the tabletop. 

 I absolutely love the mix of older and newer models. Look at these squads! Especially the Sergeants with the proper back banners!

Before I get on to the game, time again for my painting progress. For the game I added one new model (another D-Cannon Engine of Vaul support weapon), and brought one model I've not displayed before.

 Rogue Trader Era Eldar Musician, converted to be my Autarch in a Banshee Mask with a Fusion Gun. 

Did I mention my love of older models? This might be the oldest in my collection, though I gained it relatively recently in a trade with a friend. Back in the day, 40k Eldar had musicians. This guy has a series of wraithbone pipes on his back, like some combination pipe-organ/bagpipes head and back gear. I thought it made sense to make it a Banshee mask character, so I gave him a gun and painted him up. 

 A third D-Cannon to complete the set. 

Because Jeff is just getting back into the hobby, we went with pretty straight-forward lists for our clash using 1,000 points each. The battle was a regular one with objectives and diagonal deployment zones. 

 The Ultramarine scouting party arrived on the ruined planet of Junkatta in force, unloading two full Tactical Squads, a Devastator Squad, and a Predator Annihilator bristling with lascannons. Above them in the Strike Cruiser waited a terminator assault squad led by their company Captain. 

 Their initial probes located various xenos signatures in the ruins ahead. The near absence of the signals meant that it could only be the Eldar. Tau and Orks were not that stealthy, and Necrons and Tyranids don't bother to hide their signals. Aerial support photos revealed a group of the lithe Eldar warriors clustered around a battery of support weapons. The D-Cannons were being guarded by a group of Dire Avengers and a group of Guardians.

 As the Ultramarines advanced, they realized that there were infiltrators on both of their flanks. On the left flank waited six Eldar Rangers, only the glint of their range-finders revealing their camouflaged position. 

 On the right flank lurked a unit of Striking Scorpions, hiding behind a ruined wall with their deadly chainswords at the ready. 

 Once they made visual battlefield contact with the enemy, the Ultramarines charged forward--unleashing a hail of withering fire as they went. Their bolter shots found and felled two of the Striking Scorpions before they even left cover. 

 The initial optimism of the Ultramarines was lost when the Striking Scorpions retaliated. Their deadly shuriken pistols sliced one battle brother down, and another followed suit to the hail of micro-laser shards from their mandiblasters. The Exarch of the Striking Scorpions inflicted even more wounds, his deadly claw tearing open suits of power armor like tin cans. Yet the morale of the line held, allowing their battle brothers to join them in repelling the Eldar foe.

 With the tactical situation clarified, the Captain watching from the ship orbiting above set coordinates for the Assault Terminator squad to deepstrike and attack. With a crackle of energy the Terminators arrived at the dead center of the conflict. 

 The Eldar Guardians reacted quickly, leaving the safety behind the tall wall in order to fire upon the new arrivals. Their shuriken catapults cut down two of the terminators in a sudden burst--however they were dreadfully exposed to the terminators' retaliation. 

 Meanwhile, the remaining Striking Scorpions fled from the Ultramarines--their advantage in swiftness and speed was outmatched by the sheer numbers of the Space Marines. 

 The deadly hail of shuriken fire continued from both sides, with the Dire Avengers adding the weight of their volleys to the firing. Only the Space Marine Captain survived the hail of their fire, despite taking wounds from the weapons himself. The Dire Avengers, convinced they could finish him in close combat charged in, only to find him far too sturdy. He shrugged off their attacks with his toughness and terminator armor. However, he spent two full turns of attacking to no result against the Dire Avengers--his own attacks missing completely. Finally, he was joined by a group of Tactical Marines which finished off the few Eldar. 

 At this point, the numbers of the Eldar were dwindling. The Space Marines kept up relentless fire, continuing to shred their foes. At one point the Devastator squad's Lascannon-carrying member spotted movement in the distant ruins and let off a shot: it proved to be the Eldar Autarch. The bolt of powerful laser fire cut through his personal reflective field and set him aflame--killing him instantly. 

 The Predator rolled across the battlefield to engage the enemy D-Cannons. While it was immobilized by their counter-fire, it finally managed to destroy each of the weapons with precision Lascannon bursts. 

All that remained for the Eldar were the six Rangers. While their fire had taken its toll on the Devastator Squad, they were unable to secure any objectives that mattered--even when they rushed forward at the end of the battle. The Rangers, knowing the battle was lost to the Ultramarines, slipped off under the cover of the ruins. The Ultramarine Captain, wounded and covered in plascrete dust from the battle, realized that their intel would help the Eldar strike back. Yet it was a well-fought rout of the xenos forces, and a win for the Crusade of Fire in purging the system of their menace. 

Overall a great game. Jeff was a fun opponent, and I loved seeing his force. Such classic elegance of the big blocks of Space Marines plus a Predator as opponents. The classics are classics for a reason. The game ended with the Ultramarines scoring four victory points, and my Eldar registering zero. Ouch! The Eldar no doubt are planning some greater strategy: pulling the Ultramarines to this planet no doubt left another spot open for Eldar schemes to be advanced. That's the joy of Eldar: win or lose, it's all just a part of the broader tapestry of the fates. I'm excited for another game against Jeff and these Ultramarine foes!

A Pair of Crusades

I'm starting off a group playing modified Crusade of Fire rules for games of 40k, and last night was the first happening at Drawbridge Games here in Pittsburgh. Given that it was just starting out, we began with 750 point forces. This is some coverage of the two games I played (using my Eldar army).

First up, my painting progress. I'm not feeling too enthused with my Eldar, but I still managed to paint another model to add to my force. Don't get too excited, it was a single Eldar Ranger:

Obligatory "Games Workshop sure loved topknots during the 80's didn't they" comment

The model joins a unit of five others for this game, which are presented below. I also forgot to photograph the starting layouts of the two games--so this picture of the Rangers will have to suffice.

The Rangers. I at least remembered to photograph them before the first game. I've never loved them as a unit in the game, but the models are really fun and varied so I often field them in my forces. 

For the campaign kick-off, I wrote up a short mission that represented forces first arriving on the different planets of the Corvus Sub-Sector. It represented lines of battle forming while scouting elements were out of position. The mission is below as was presented to the players:

So after we got the movements on the campaign map done and everything set up, it was time for my games. I used the same 750 point list in both games, first against Jason's Dark Angels and then against Kevin's Skitarii (with Inquisition allies). Some highlights from the games follow: first up, Game One against Jason's Dark Angels. 

Game One began with the Dark Angels scouting force located deep in Eldar territory in an abandoned cityscape on the planet. Initial drop landings had placed them in scattered fashion, and their calls to reinforcements were steady. 

The small scouting group had some back-up from the beginning, however. An orbital-dropped automated weapon emplacement was positioned in the area where the Space Marines were exploring. 

It was the automated weapon that detected movement in the distance: hooded and cloaked shapes dashing for cover near the ruins of a tall skyscraper beyond. With a whirring sound, it began firing at them--one of their number fell, as the rest clung to cover. 

The group of Eldar Rangers that was doing the scouting for the Eldar force had needed to dive for cover to save themselves from the turret gun. As such, they were unable to make further progress by the time Dark Angels reinforcements arrived. Both a flyer gunship and a unit of Ravenwing Bikers came from reserves, and their combined shooting utterly annihilated the remaining Rangers. 

The Eldar reinforcements arrived, and returned fire upon the advance scouts of the Dark Angels--who were dashing across the battlefield to return to their own lines. A Wraithlord, its steps surprisingly smooth and graceful for something so tall, fired deadly shots into the advance scouts and killing a few of them. Later, the advance scouts would be finished off by a squad of Dire Avengers that unloaded from the Wave Serpent. 

The Dark Angels flyer set its sights on the War Walker, having taken a single glance from its sky-firing Eldar Missile Launcher. With precision, the Avenger Mega-Bolter tore the fragile Eldar walker to ribbons. Yet the cramped space of the city ruins left the flyer with nowhere effective to turn--so it flew off to swing wide before another strafing run. 

The Ravenwing finally committed to battle after lurking around the ruined building for some time, driving straight at the Wraithlord. They managed to inflict one wound with their plasma guns, but the absurdly tough wraithbone construction of the Wraithlord kept it fighting effectively. The ensuing close combat was a wash, and the Ravenwing thought better of their assault and chose to hit-and-run their way out of combat immediately. 

After the Dire Avengers had destroyed the remainders of the Dark Angels advance scouting party, the rest of the Dark Angels appeared from reserve. They managed to shoot the Farseer to death by coming from behind, but the battle had already swung heavily in favor of the Eldar due to victory points. With a clear end in sight, the Dark Angels fled the field leaving the victory to the forces of Iyanden. 

This is a two-for-one blog, because I played a second game that evening: this time against Kevin's Skitarii. The Skitarii are the foot troops of the Adeptus Mechanicus, soldiers with all sorts of crazy weapons and technological gear. We diced off and set up, ready for the game. 

This time the Eldar Rangers were carefully positioned and concealed in the top of a massive building, communicating the approach of Imperial forces to their support. When the enemy came into view, the Rangers reported a number of Skitarii warbands, and another strange unit accompanying them. They zeroed in their sights to try and make out these foes on the battlefield below. 

The strange grouping seemed to be four aliens, yet were obvious in Imperial employ. The Rangers realized they must be an Inquisition warband belonging to what the humans referred to as "Radical Inquisitors: those members of the Inquisition who used Chaos and Xenos technology and even creatures in order to bring battlefield success to the Inquisition. (Kevin modeled his Inquisitor's retinue after the Guardians of the Galaxy!)

The leader of the Imperials was an Inquisitor in a red coat, wielding two strange pistols (suspiciously like Star-Lord heh). The Skitarii vanguard unit he led advanced with a hail of gunfire--completely cutting down the lone Warlock who had rushed forward to gain the middle ground objective at the start of the battle. 

The Eldar Wraithlord had hung back in cover, the ancient mind contained within the soulstone powering the great construct not knowing what to make of the strange warriors of Mars. A unit of them bounded forward on long, spring-loaded legs: Sicarian Ruststalkers. They charged into the great construct and attacked, their weapons surprisingly effective against the towering Eldar form. While it was able to slay a few of them, the Wraithlord ended up succumbing to the strange transonic weaponry they wielded. 

The Skitarii Rangers had deadly long-barreled weaponry, that plagued the Eldar from a distance. Loathe to commit forces to the open where they would be shot down, both sides hung back and engaged in a somewhat fruitless shooting battle. 

The Dire Avengers again played a pivotal role in the battle, shooting down the last of the Sicarian Ruststalkers and securing further objectives near their own deployment zone. The Eldar had gotten ahead in objective controlling, and remained that way until the conclusion of the battle--while ample troops survived on both sides, Eldar mobility and power to control fortune (read: "luck in drawing objectives") had led them to a slight victory. 

Two good games, and a good start to the Crusade of Fire campaign. I'll do more updates both about my own games and about the campaign as a whole as it goes forward. In addition, I'm thinking of ways to keep the campaign balanced--so it was timely that I spotted Bell of Lost Souls' idea of "Classichammer" just today. Right now we're recruiting players and starting off, but as games grow bigger it will be critical to be sure and balance things effectively for games. 

Crusade of Fire: Campaign Overview

This is the ruleset overview of the Crusade of Fire variant rules that we'll be using for the current 40k campaign at Drawbridge Games (starting June 18th). These rules are based off the Crusade of Fire, but with some tweaks for play in our league. Players who are interested in joining the campaign are welcome at any point, and can contact info@drawbridgegames.com.

What a player needs to participate: 

One or more armies for Warhammer 40k, gaming supplies, and a desire to play some fun games!

Forces can scale in points by player agreement. Preferred points totals to shoot for are: 750 points (representing small skirmishes), 1,250 points (moderate battles), 1,850 points (large battles), and 2,500 points (massive conquests).

Factions: 

The Crusade of Fire tracks both factions and players within the games, and rewards both for success. On the factions side, there are five in the campaign. Each of these factions have sent agents to the Corvus Subsector, which are the planets which are the center of the campaign. An enormous warpstorm known as the "Crow's Eye" had long kept the region isolated from the rest of the Imperium, but they finally disappeared: leading to many factions making a sudden and desperate grab for control of the system. Players pick their faction based on their primary detachment.

The Crusade of Fire (Imperial Forces acting under orders from Terra and the Emperor): These ships were launched in order to bring the Corvus Sub-Sector back under proper Imperial control. Initially dubbed "the Crusade of Light" with the purpose of bringing the light of the Emperor to the worlds that had been denied it so long, their sudden encounters with the waiting Servants of Ruin, Prophets of War, and The Oblivion's guns meant that it must be a Crusade of Fire instead. Any Imperial force can choose to be Crusade of Fire except for Adeptus Mechanicus armies.

The Defenders of the Sun (Imperial Forces acting under orders from the local Planetary Governor and from Mars): These ships came not from Imperial center, but from the next sector over where an ambitious Planetary Governor-- Rougeaud Yen, the Duc d'Elchingen--had made a deal with the servants of Mars. He would instruct any forces under his sway to secure planets for quick extraction of data, materials, minerals, and anything else of value. While still nominally working with others from the Imperium, certain clashes between their ends and the ends of the The Crusade of Fire developed and spread in the sub-sector. Adeptus Mechanicus armies must fight for this faction. Any other Imperial force can choose to be Defenders of the Sun.

The Servants of Ruin (all Chaos and Daemon Forces): The warpstorm activity of the Corvus Subsector was a perfect cover for the advances of Chaos. All of the planets within the system fell from Imperial rule to greater and lesser extent, and cults more numerous than to be believed were hidden everywhere. From this power base, raiding fleets of Chaos Space Marines and local Daemonic incursions were launched into the face of the Imperials, seeking to make the Corvus Sub-Sector a permanent beachhead for the waves of Chaos.

The Prophets of War (all Eldar and Tau forces): Greedy eyes and forces vying for their own foothold also had an interest in the sub-sector. The Eldar, graceful and ancient, as well as their Dark Eldar kin recognized that denying a foothold to others was a means of protecting their own interests. Likewise, the Tau sought to pursue missions of denial in the region--like the Eldar they were not interested in control, but rather claiming planets in the name of denying or increasing the cost of both Imperials and the "dangerous" races from achieving them.

The Oblivion (all Necrons, Orks, and Tyranid Forces): Some forces exist simply to ruin and destroy. A sliver of Tyranid Hive Fleet Jormungandr routed toward the region as the warpstorm subsided: the planets and their inhabitants suddenly visible to the distant controlling intelligence of the devourer. At the same time, the current Orks vying for the title of Arch-Arsonist of Charadon also took an interest in the sub-sector: the possibility of looting technology and demolishing foes meant an opportunity to prove oneself as a warboss and quite literally grow in stature. Finally additional tombs of the Necron Mephrit Dynasty and other smaller dynastic enclaves have awakened with the increase in mining and exploration in the worlds from Adeptus Mechanicus-motivated forces. While these three forces could hardly be said to be "allies", they each have the goal of utter desolation, destruction, and extraction of resources.

Each win by a faction will add to the faction points, and will involve the spread of their faction markers across the various planets of the Corvus Sub-sector.

Battles and Campaign:

Each Battle: The campaign tracks success of factions and the successes of individual players. When two players challenge each other, they declare which factions their forces are fighting for (if they have a choice).They then fight as detailed below in "Battle Scenarios". Following the results of the battle, both players will then record the battle and submit the scoring sheet. There are two scores that get recorded: the winning Faction gets 1 faction point. As for players, they secure campaign points as follows: a win is worth 3 campaign points, a draw is worth 1 campaign point, and a loss worth 0 points. In addition, players gain an additional bonus 1 campaign point after a battle if they have added a new painted unit to their army (this is registered with the GM's by showing them the boxed/unpainted unit during the session before).

After completing the scoring sheet, the winner then replaces one of the opponent's faction markers with their own. If the defeated opponent has no faction markers for their faction, the winner may expand their faction as if a tie. If the battle is a tie, then either or both players can place one of their faction's flag if there is an same-planet empty tile adjacent to one of their own faction-controlled hexes.

Battle Scenarios: Battles for each will be basic victory points using the tactical objectives deck only (no additional objectives such as "first blood" or others). Players will place numbered 1-6 objectives (each placing three, rolling off for first placement, no objective within 12" of another) prior to determining sides for the battle. Players generate three objectives from the tactical objectives list to start the game, following the usual rules for tactical objectives in the main rulebook. Races are allowed to substitute their own racial objectives deck/options from the Codex should they choose to do so. Regular games will be 5 turns in length. Occasionally variant scenarios will be made available for games, depending upon the progress of the campaign.

Expansion Phase: After each week of the campaign, there is a campaign expansion phase where the players for each faction can choose to expand their control of planets/jump to empty adjacent planets. That will occur on Thursday nights, and factions who have no player representatives there will have their expansion chosen for them. Expansion means either: 1) placing another control marker adjacent to one they already have, or 2) placing a new control marker on an open spot in the map if they have no other control markers or no room to expand on their current planet(s). The painted planet maps and faction markers will be kept at Drawbridge Games.

Golden Flags: There are various territories marked with Golden Flags on each planet in the GM's map (hidden from the players) that represent pieces of a Doomsday Device that can be used by a faction. When a flag is uncovered by expansion after a battle or in the expansion phase, then the next game played by that faction uses the special "Doomsday Component" mission for their next battle (to be revealed later). To be able to build the device, a faction needs to discover and successfully battle to recover 4 Doomsday component pieces. If the Doomsday Component mission is failed, then a new secret space containing a Golden Flag on that planet will be determined by the GM's.

Using Doomsday Weapons: Once a faction has 4 components, they can begin to target other planets. They place a special "Doomsday Weapon" marker in the space that they build it, and it can fire from that space to any other planet each Expansion Phase (each week). To fire, the faction representative(s) select one space on a planet other than the one the device is housed upon. They then roll a single d6. On a result of a 1, the device malfunctions, was sabotaged, or simply doesn't work any longer--it is removed from the board. On a result of 2, remove the faction flag in the targeted square but the square remains unaffected. On a result of 3-6 that space of the planet is irrevocably destroyed and will remain destroyed for the remainder of the campaign. If 50% of a planet's squares are destroyed, then a chain reaction happens and the entire planet collapses into itself and is destroyed. Note that the one exception to the need for 4 components is the Oblivion faction--these races are more focused on destruction than others, and thus only need 3 components to construct a Doomsday Weapon marker.

Removing Doomsday Weapons: Doomsday devices are well defended, so they must be assaulted from adjacent on-planet squares only. This means (usually) that a force will need to invade another adjacent space to get one of their faction markers adjacent to the weapon, and then have a player of that faction challenge a player belonging to the faction that possesses the Doomsday Weapon. This attack will use another special scenario "Stop Armageddon" for that battle (again, to be revealed later). Once a Doomsday marker is removed, the faction's count of Golden Flags achieved returns to zero.

Reinforcements:

Players can spend their campaign points to buy upgrades, strategies, and additional units to assist them in their attacks. They declare their spending prior to the battle, and can only buy ONE reinforcements choice per game.

Campaign Points Cost	Reinforcement Type
1	Give me more men: Bolster their own forces, giving them more points to spend than their foe. This allows a player to bring an additional 50 points for small games (750 and 1250) and 100 points for larger games (1,850, 2,500, and larger).
1	Orbital Bombardment: After deployment, they may make a single Strength 8 AP 3 Ordinance Large Blast shot at their opponent’s force before the game begins. The shot scatters 3d6 on a miss, with no reduction in range.
2	Command and Control: Randomly determine one HQ choice for this army after deployment (across all FOC’s and formations). That HQ choice gains the “objective secured” special rule for this battle.
2	Glorious Commander: Their warlord is able to have two warlord traits for this battle. Roll once for each. If the warlord has re-rolls, or a required trait, they only apply to the first trait. They may choose from two separate tables if they wish.
4 (Crusade of Fire and Defenders of the Sun only)	Death Incarnate: You have hired a single assassin (Eversor, Vindicare, Callidus, or Culexus) which joins your forces for the battle
4 (Servants of Ruin only)	Daemonic Nexus: You may field an additional unit of daemon troops (up to 150 points) with your army for free, counted as its own detachment.
4 (Prophets of War only)	Engines of Vaul / Earth Caste Production: You may field an additional vehicle (up to 150 points) from your primary detachment’s army book with your army for free, counted as its own detachment.
4	Hunker Down: You may field one Fortification choice (up to total 200 points) for free for this battle
7	Shipboard Raid: Using this “reinforcement” the player gets to play an alternate mission: “Shipboard Raid”, which will be revealed only when this is first chosen. Players should notify the GM’s in advance when they intend to undertake this mission.
7	Critical Experimentation: Using this “reinforcement” the player gets to play an alternate mission: “Defend the Lab”, which will be revealed only when this is first chosen. Players should notify the GM’s in advance when they intend to undertake this mission.

The OTHER Ancient Race

In addition to my Mephrit Dynasty Necron army, I have another 40k force, a rather large Iyanden Craftworld Eldar army. I've got nearly 6,000 points of the army painted, and decided to give them a go in a recent game.

Advancing via the coolest Craftword ever, from the Doom of the Eldar board game.

I've been working on this army for ages, so the good thing about it is that I can limit myself to only fielding painted models! So that means that as I include units in this blog, I'll photo the unit when I first field it. However, I also definitely plan on sticking to my "every time I play I paint at least one new model" rule as best I can--which I did for this game as well. First up are the prior models I've painted, ending with my new addition (a unit of 5 Howling Banshees). 

Wave Serpent with Twin-Linked Missile Launcher

Painting yellow is just plain annoying. But worth it, I think. I really like the way I worked out my scheme. I use a much deeper base for my yellow: a really deep, almost brown color. Then I went my my all-time favorite blue hue: Games Workshop's Stegadon Scale Green as the contrasting blue. It makes the models dark and brooding, especially with dark grey and washed recesses. To make the models pop, I chose purple soulstones and blue windows (with gloss varnish). I'm really pleased with how they look on the table!

Falcon Grav-Tank with Missile Launcher and Shuriken Cannon

Another skimmer from the force--this one heavier armed but with smaller transport capacity. I'm glad I fielded two of them, as I can show the different color patterns on the vehicles. They'll all have a various scheme: mostly yellow, but with some sections in the deep blue. That way they look like a complete army, but each vehicle has its own unique scheme. 

 Farseer

An oldie but a goodie. This was one of my first models (this guy and a box of the old plastic Eldar guardians with lasguns), and survived time, travel, and being stripped and repainted. I love this style of Ghosthelm, and while the new Farseers and Spiritseers are great looking miniatures, this one just has a special spot in my heart. 

 Ten Guardian Defenders with Missile Launcher Weapons Platform and Warlock with Singing Spear

The story of Iyanden is that so much of their population died from a Tyranid invasion of the Craftworld itself, that they have few Guardians left. Hence my current possession of only a single squad of painted Guardians (I have another on-deck for assembly and painting sometime). I'm pleased with the look of the squad and their Warlock leader. It's also a good time to mention my basing scheme (as I'm on to the infantry now). They're from Dragon Forge Design, the "Lost Empires" version. They make for simple, cool looking bases--in addition to being somewhat heavy so models balance and stand a lot better. 

 Ten Striking Scorpions with Exarch using a Scorpion's Claw

Ah, the Striking Scorpions. Or, as they've been dubbed by some of my foes, the Shirking Scorpions (for failing to do anything but hide in a building during one battle). Great infiltrating melee unit, and illustrative of one of the great things about Eldar: the variety of color schemes. With all the different types of Aspect Warriors, each one can be painted a little differently--helpful for when my eyes are bleeding from all the yellow. The following units are all other Aspect Warrior shrines--with each I tried to have them link to the full army, but also be their own aspect color. 

 Ten Dire Avengers with Exarch armed with Power Weapon and Shimmershield

 Five Warp Spiders with Exarch using Twin Death Spinners and Powerblades


 Five Dark Reapers with Exarch toting a Tempest Launcher

Two Vaul's Wrath support weapons: D-Cannons

Rounding out the force were two D-Cannons. Their rain of distortion fire can be very deadly, and I really like the models. They make sense for the Iyanden: their under-trained troops would still be given access to the most deadly of weaponry, so Guardian-crewed support such as the Vaul's Wrath artillery, War Walkers, and Vypers would be common. If you follow the blog, you'll eventually see how common these things can be in my force. 

 Five Howling Banshees with Exarch carrying an Executioner

Anyhow, that's the (long, sorry) set of what I brought to the game, so on to the battle report. It was my 1,500 points of Eldar versus my friend Justin's 1,500 points of Ultramarines Space Marines using the new codex for them that was just released. We played at Phantom of the Attic Games in Oakland, a great spot for an afternoon of battle. We placed the objectives, and rolled for deployment: setting up on diagonals and my Eldar getting the first turn. 

 The Iyanden War Host poised for battle. 

 The Ultramarines arrayed for war. They fielded a great number of Tactical Marines: three full squads in Rhinos, and two five-man squads to secure objectives. They also had a full unit of Assault Marines, a Devastator Squad, and a Dreadnought with a twin-linked Lascannon. The force was led by two heroes of Ultramarine legend: Second Company Captain Cato Sicarius and renowned Librarian Varro Tigurius.

 The Eldar struck first, reaching out with their heavy weaponry from the start. A single shot from the D-Cannon landed at the front of a Rhino, completely wrecking it as the singularity warped the sides until they curled outward. The squad inside climbed out, undeterred in their goal of cleansing the alien menace. 

 On the other side of the board, the two remaining Rhinos surged forward--securing an objective in the crater as well as menacing the fragile Guardians. 

 The Striking Scorpions had been hiding inside the ruined building, only to come rushing out to assault the now transport-less Space Marines. The Warp Spiders watch on as they stand atop the collapsing building, their strange death spinners ready to deliver vicious firepower against the mon-keigh.

 The Striking Scorpions were effective in devastating the unit of Space Marines, but that didn't mean that a few failed to hang on until the bitter end. Librarian Tigurius was caught in a melee, denying him the time to use some of his ranged psychic powers. Eventually he challenged the Exarch, but was greviously injured by the Scorpion's Claw and took no further part in the conflict. 

 The Assault Squad had their numbers halved by a relentless round of deadly-accurate shooting from the Dark Reapers, yet they pressed on. Hoping to eliminate the Wave Serpent and deny its mobility to their foe, they charged in and swung with their weapons at the un-armored underbelly and rear of the vehicle. However, they only inflicted a single hull point with their attack. 

 With the enemy focused on the Wave Serpent, the Dire Avengers inside decided it was time to get out and engage in some destruction of their own. Thinking the storm of shuriken blades from their Avenger Catapults would be enough, they hopped and let loose a volley. Sadly, they too only inflicted one hull point: it was a good day for rear armor apparently. 

 At the same time, the Howling Banshees disembarked to bring the combat to the foe in an emplacement by an objective. The Falcon is not an assault vehicle, so they had to hop out and take what cover they could from the nearby tank and weather a hail of enemy shooting before they could charge. 

 Unfortunately for the Howling Banshees, the shooting of the Space Marines was too much to weather. They fell to the weight of small arms fire, their frail bodies not quite nimble enough to dodge the hail of projectiles. Only one remained at the end of it, and found herself facing off against the Sergeant of the Assault Squad. 

 The Striking Scorpions consolidated their victories and moved on to new prey. They attacked the entrenched squad from behind, killing them all with a flurry of Mandiblaster fire and Chainswords--allowing them to take control of the needed objective. 

The Space Marines unload from their Rhino, led by Captain Cato Sicarius (he's the one with the red icon on the back banner in the back). After the back-and-forth exchange of Boltgun and Shuriken Catapults, the Space Marines finally charged into combat. It ended with only Cato Sicarius standing, however, as after their Exarch was slain the remaining few Dire Avengers' morale broke and they fled from the field. 

The game ended with a tie at 9 victory points each. The Eldar had a couple of objectives that took time to complete, while the Ultramarines managed to snag a few objectives with their steadily dwindling numbers. The battle ended with a mere four Ultramarines on the table, but those four were sufficient to keep the game evenly tied. It was a fun battle, and good to face the iconic Ultramarines in such nicely-painted fashion.