Revenge of the Drukh - Battlefleet Gothic Part 6

Following their defeat at the hands of the Falcon Guard main fleet during the Battlefleet Gothic tournament earlier this year, the local coven of Drukhari were out for revenge. They engaged a part of the Falcon Guard fleet consisting of smaller ships in orbit around a moderately sized gas planet among the nebulas and asteroid fields of the outer system, catching four strike cruisers and five Gladius frigates in a Surprise Attack! (we tested out sub-plots for this Fleet Engagement - the Drukhari rolled up a Surprise Attack, meaning the Space Marines could not go on special orders for the first 2 turns (including, importantly, Brace).

Gladius frigates hiding behind a nebula (3D printed ships).

Four Falcon Guard strike cruisers orbit the gas planet.

The Marines deployed cautiously, hiding their ships behind nebulas and the planet. However, as Dark Eldar escorts approached, the Gladius squadron commander broke discipline and advanced out from the nebula to attack and destroy a pair of the larger Drukhari boarding escorts. This was a huge mistake, as they then received the full brunt of an enemy battlecruiser and numerous other escorts without recourse to the Brace special order. The Gladius squadron was destroyed in short order, the only consolation being they were wiped out before being boarded by the sadistic Elves.

The remains of the opposing escort squadrons float in front of the Dark Eldar.

What happened next was fairly simple, with the Space Marine strike cruisers closing the range and wiping out the Dark Eldar torpedo boats. By that time, the rest of the Dark Eldar fleet had arrived and hammered the always ill-fated Angel Sinistre, battering her into a drifting hulk with Phantom Lances, massed weapons batteries, attack craft and teleport strikes.

Next, Gathering Storm (my carrier-cruiser) came under heavy fire and was then boarded by the Drukhari flagship. Despite support from the fleet flagship Adamantine Will, Gathering Storm was crippled, with enemy boarders slaughtering the bridge crew and destroying her shield generators and engines.

With Gathering Storm barely managing to escape and disengage, Adamantine Will and Vigil of Caliban managed to cripple the enemy flagship with close-range bombardment cannon, Thunderhawk strikes and teleport raids from the Veteran Honour Guard.

The two remaining undamaged strike cruisers after the Dark Eldar had escaped, with the hulked strike cruiser drifting away silently in the background.

The Drukhari at this point did some quick calculations and decided to disengage their whole fleet while they were still ahead, zipping away into the void. The Falcon Guard were left holding the field, but had suffered very heavy casualties, losing on points and on sub-plots (theirs being to prevent at least half their capital ships from being crippled or destroyed).

Ship and squadron cards attest to the heavy losses.

Conclusion

This was a good game, finished in just 2 hours for 4 turns, and the sub-plots were an interesting addition - they will be very important for campaign games. It got me moving on making my Battlefleet Gothic terrain (pretty quick and easy really).

The Space Marines' firepower was dismal throughout - the strike cruisers only really got in one effective barrage the whole game, largely due to the Dark Eldar shadowfields and bad dice-rolling. The only aspects of the Marine's fleet that worked were the Veteran Honour Guard and some of the Thunderhawks doing a reasonable job. The Gladius frigates had potential but I tragically and stupidly wasted them on Turn 1.

The Dark Eldar are a very solid fleet, with special rules enhancing them in almost all aspects, from survivability, to firepower, to boarding actions, to manoeuvrability - their only weakness seems to be their lack of shielding against teleport hit-and-run attacks and 'all-eggs-in-one-basket' with their weapons, meaning a critical hit in the right spot, if remaining unfixed, could potentially make an expensive ship useless for a turn. However, I did beat them once before with a larger ship with adequate bombardment cannon firepower and good resistance to boarding actions, so the battle barge or grand cruiser might still be the way to go vs. this opponent. Also, the Marines might have just had a bad day with relatively ineffective shooting and some bad tactics by me.