I have a suspicion that the Thundabeast's telekinetic defence is partly based on the composition of their natural armour. If we research it, we may be able to improve our personal and possibly vehicular armour. That it's effective even against mass-less laser attacks is a bonus.
Assault on Fjol IV Part Fifteen: Settling In
T=13:24:00-14:24:00
You decided to hold your ground, fortify and begin a sustained bombardment of the Dark Eldar forces, taking full advantage of the fact that your artillery has almost wiped out almost the entire Dark Eldar artillery in the region.
The Dark Eldar harassment over the night becomes even more cautious as the Dark Eldar general either decided to concede the outer region to your, prepares for a major attack or begins to run out of men. Given that you have already killed over twelve million Dark Eldar you would not be surprised to find out that there are not that many more Dark Eldar left within the city. Despite their caution they fail to achieve even a two to one kill ratio and you expect that the number of attacks to drop even further tomorrow night, if not halt entirely.
T=13:24:00-14:12:00
Dark Eldar harassment d100=23+150(skill)+40(Dark Eldar)+50(speciality)+43(Martial)+20(terrain)+20(home ground)+40(caution)=386
Imperial Defence d100=65+220(skill)+35(Theatre Commander)+83(Local Commander)-40(night)+50(defensive positions)=413
Dark Eldar kills 11d6=34 Iron Guard Mechanised Infantry Regiments killed
2d6/10=2/10=0.2 PDF Siege Infantry Brigades killed
2d6=10 PDF Heavy Infantry Regiments killed
Imperial kills 6d6*3=13*3=39 Regiments of Dark Eldar Warriors killed
Your artillery spent the night pounding at the remaining Dark Eldar Macrocannons and managed to destroy another two after spending hours slowly grinding down their defences. The return fire, while accurate killed little over a percent of your remaining men, an easily affordable amount.
T=13:24:00-14:12:00
399 Artillery Regiments vs Dark Eldar artillery d100=24+57(skill)+35(Theatre Commander)+83(Local Commander)=277
Dark Eldar Defence d100=33+120(skill)+170(Defences)+43(Martial)=366 -6
kills 2d6/5=10/5=2 Macrocannons Destroyed
2/6 Dark Eldar Macrocannons destroyed
4 Iron Guard Mechanised Infantry Regiments
7 Iron Guard Armour Regiments
2 Iron guard AA regiments
16 Iron Guard Artillery Regiments
1 Iron Guard Sentinel Regiment
1 Helltrooper Rough Rider Regiment
1 PDF Transport Regiment
1 PDF Mechanised Infantry Regiment
1 PDF Light Infantry Regiment
0.1 PDF Siege Infantry Brigades
2 PDF Armour Regiments
1 PDF Artillery Regiments
2 Black Iron PDF Armour Regiments
2 Militia AA Regiments
Once the sun rises and the night attacks of the Dark Eldar halt your forces start further fortifying the area currently under your control. As well as clearing a killing field on the edges of your fortifications and further strengthening your fortifications this consists of locating the secret passages that the Dark Eldar have been using to great effect and either blocking them off or fortifying them. By the time that the sun sets your defences area rather formidable, in part due to the work put in by your combat engineers and siege infantry, and will be able to make attacks by the Dark Eldar even more costly.
T=14:12:00-14:24:00
Your artillery managed to destroyed the final Macrocannons just as the sun set, giving your total artillery dominance over the Dark Eldar. You expect the Dark Eldar to either attempt an attack on you, try to bomb your artillery, fort up and wait for your to come to them or retreat now that you have silenced their last big gun.
T=14:12:00-14:24:00
382 Artillery Regiments vs Dark Eldar artillery d100=76+55(skill)+35(Theatre Commander)+83(Local Commander)=249
Dark Eldar Defence d100=9+120(skill)+170(Defences)+43(Martial)=340
kills 3d6/4=16/4=4 Macrocannons Destroyed
Dark Eldar Macrocannons Wiped out
4 Iron Guard Mechanised Infantry Regiments
7 Iron Guard Armour Regiments
2 Iron guard AA regiments
23 Iron Guard Artillery Regiments
1 Iron Guard Sentinel Regiment
1 Helltrooper Heavy Infantry Regiment
0.1 Helltrooper Siege Infantry Brigades
1 PDF Transport Regiment
1 PDF Mechanised Infantry Regiment
1 PDF Light Infantry Regiment
1 PDF Heavy Infantry Regiment
0.1 PDF Siege Infantry Brigades
3 PDF Armour Regiments
1 Black Iron PDF Heavy Infantry Regiment
3 Militia AA Regiments
Now that you have silenced the final Dark Eldar Macrocannon there is nothing stopping you from bombarding the Dark Eldar to weaken them before your final assault. The first decision you will have to make is whether you want to take the entire outer city before assaulting the inner city or whether you want to attack the inner city first.
Note voting will be split over this update and the next, which will be a update on what has happened in the rest of the campaign
[] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[] Attack the inner city without first taking the entire outer city. - This will leave your forces more vulnerable to flanking but you are confident that you would be able to both secure your flanks and attack the inner city, particularly if you have taken the time to severely reduce the defenses of the inner city with artillery bombardment. - This will allow you to make the attack on the inner city earlier and with greater force but will allow the Dark Eldar to easily escape or reinforce the city and will allow you to threaten a smaller section of the inner city.
[] Write in Plan
Inside City
Total: 1,993 Midgardian Regiments
413 Iron Guard Mechanised Infantry Regiments
761 Iron Guard Armour Regiments
258 Iron guard AA regiments
198 Iron Guard Artillery Regiments (321 when you detach other Basilisks)
2.5 Iron Guard Siege Infantry Brigade
46 Iron Guard Light Infantry Regiments
35 Iron Guard Sentinel Regiments
Total: 161 Specialist Regiments
6 Helltrooper Vanquisher Regiments
8 Helltrooper Hellhound/Devil Dog Regiments
8 Helltrooper Bane Wolf Regiments
5 Helltrooper Artillery Regiments (14 when you detach other Basilisks)
2 Deathstrike Batteries
1 Life Eater Fungus Deathstrike Battery
2 Helltrooper Sentinel Regiments
29 Combat Engineer Regiments
81 PDF Transport Regiments
Total: 918.5 PDF Regiments
29 PDF Infantry Regiments
116 PDF Mechanised Infantry Regiments
146 PDF Light Infantry Regiments
78.5 PDF Heavy Infantry Regiments
7 PDF Rough Rider Regiments
17.1 PDF Siege Infantry Brigades
342 PDF Armour Regiments
-25 PDF Artillery Regiments (24 when you detach other Basilisks)
Total: 166 Black Irons Regiments
17 Helltrooper Infantry Regiments
18 Helltrooper Mechanised Infantry Regiments
13 Helltrooper Heavy Infantry Regiments
12 Helltrooper Light Infantry Regiments
3 Helltrooper Armour Regiments
17 Helltrooper Drop Infantry Regiments
17 PDF Infantry Regiments
32 PDF Light Infantry Regiments
23 PDF Heavy Infantry Regiments
18 PDF Armour Regiments
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
Can't let their people or whoever is leading them to escape. Doing this will ensure that.
EDIT: Also GM I think their's some miss spellings in the options and on the firsts sentences. For example "The Dark Eldar harassment over the night becomes even more cautious as the Dark Eldar general either decided to concede the outer region to your,".
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
Yeah I'm gonna go with this. Even with all the tunnles it will be not only much harder to both retreat or reinforce but a multiple prong attack on the inter city with worrying about flanking attacks.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Attack the inner city without first taking the entire outer city. - This will leave your forces more vulnerable to flanking but you are confident that you would be able to both secure your flanks and attack the inner city, particularly if you have taken the time to severely reduce the defenses of the inner city with artillery bombardment. - This will allow you to make the attack on the inner city earlier and with greater force but will allow the Dark Eldar to easily escape or reinforce the city and will allow you to threaten a smaller section of the inner city.
The tunnel network makes true encirclement impossible so there really isn't much benefit to taking the outer city.
There is no way our artillery is going to collapse any major deep tunnels, all the bombardment will do is collapse some of the surface tunnels and entrances.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
I'm gonna have to contradict you on that. For one if take the outer city we can hit the inner city from multiple sides. Two we are much less likely to be in the middle of a assault on the walls and suddenly salve army in the flank screwing us over. Three no matter how many tunnels there are they just can't fit as many troops through them as they could just walk down the street and out the gates.
There is no way our artillery is going to collapse any major deep tunnels, all the bombardment will do is collapse some of the surface tunnels and entrances.
Again so what? They just can't get all their troops out through the tunnles as they can out in the open. Even then we can put a roaming force outside the wall to find them when they pop up leaving the tunnles..
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
We should minimise the amount of troops that escape the city so that they don't survive to harass us later.
[X] Attack the inner city without first taking the entire outer city. - This will leave your forces more vulnerable to flanking but you are confident that you would be able to both secure your flanks and attack the inner city, particularly if you have taken the time to severely reduce the defenses of the inner city with artillery bombardment. - This will allow you to make the attack on the inner city earlier and with greater force but will allow the Dark Eldar to easily escape or reinforce the city and will allow you to threaten a smaller section of the inner city.
1: It's more important to eliminate the enemy command structure, which is in the inner city.
2: If some Dark Eldar run away to hide in the wilderness... well so what? Deprived of their technology infrastructure, unable to access psyker abilities, they really aren't that important. The plan is to take the whole planet and colonize it. If we take and destroy the cities and fortresses, then any stragglers won't last long.
2: If some Dark Eldar run away to hide in the wilderness... well so what? Deprived of their technology infrastructure, unable to access psyker abilities, they really aren't that important. The plan is to take the whole planet and colonize it. If we take and destroy the cities and fortresses, then any stragglers won't last long.
You are seriously underestimating the abilities of the Dark Eldar. So far, the only things that have worked out for us at all since we've been on the ground are static defences and artillery. Everything else has resulted in massive casualties on our side.
If they were to go commando out in the wilderness, we'll eventually win due to our numbers (though with the casualties we're taking, even that assumption is suspect.) However, it's delusional to expect them to die easily and without absurd amounts of casualties on our side as a result.
We need there to be as little harassment as possible as we march to reinforce the Imperial Trust Guard. Taking the Outer City first will allow us to achieve that goal.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
[X] Take the outer city before beginning your attack on the inner city. - This will require that you take and hold a far larger area but you are confident that with heavy use of your artillery and a bit of patience that you will have issues taking the outer city. - This will allow you to greatly restrict the Dark Eldar's ability to flee or reinforce city and allow you to attack the inner city from any direction but you will suffer casualties before attacking the inner city and it will delay the final assault.
