No, no, no! Dark Eldar Don't use fortifications!

A wealthy noble family from the Dark City offered a bounty of 10,000 slaves for but 10 Ultra Marine slaves. This kind of bounty could put a Kabal on the map. A relatively unknown Archon by the name of Nog'ral thought he was up to the task. He had few men, only a single Dracon, and a hfew fistfuls of Sybarites leading squads, but what he lacked in numbers, he thought he'd make up in tact.

He, and his Kabal headed directly for planet Tykev VI, which was recently defended by the Ultra Marines against an assault by Necrons. The planet was hit hard, suffering planetwide devastation of their defensive infrastructure. One lone city, called Tellstat, managed to maintain a defensive stronghold. That is where the small number of Ultra Marines left to defend Tykev VI were holed up. They were under orders to maintain order on the planet, and defend what was left of it's population until Tykev VI could be reinforced.

Rather than assault Tellstat and the Ultra Marines directly, Archon Nog'ral had one of his technical guru's intercept a secure communications channel that the Ultra Marines were using to coordinate their planetside activities. Through the spoofing of some scanner blips, and a faked distress message, he drew the Ultra Marines out of Tellstat, about six hundred miles away, to a small town that had value as a fuel repository.

Immediately after the Ultra Marines left Tellstat, Archon Nog'ral ordered an assault on a poorly defended building in a remote zone about 50 miles outside Tellstat. It was only 3 buildings, manned by about 15 people, so it was a massacre, over in seconds. But it was also a communications hub. With control of these buildings, Nog'ral was able to control every communication into or out of Tellstat.

He left a single squad of Kabalite Warriors, led by Sybarite Contrell to control the communications hub, and headed for Tellstat. Without the support of the Ultra Marines, and with much of their forces depleted, or otherwise deployed elsewhere for the reconstruction, Tellstat was a pushover. In less than an hour, Archon Nog'ral and his forces wrested control of Tellstat from the meagre forces that defended her.

Comandeering the fortress at the center of Tellstat, Archon Nog'ral is escorted by his Dracon, Keltasis to the main chamber of the tower, overseeing all of Tellstat. Pointing to the most defensible portion of the room, Archon Nog'ral orders a squad of warriors, "Set up my command center there."

Looking back towards Dracon Keltasis with a crooked grin, he says, "Beautiful day for a raid, isn't it?"

Dracon Keltasis nods, tilting his head inquisitively, "Indeed, but I don't understand why we're bothering with attacking this husk of a city. This ruin holds no value for us. We could have engaged the Ultra Marines hours ago, taken our 10 slaves, and be on our way home, rich. The 100 slaves we will get here will mean nothing when we have 10,000."

Archon Nog'ral hesitates for a moment, squinting at Keltasis for a moment before taking a heavy breath, then releasing it as he stretches, looking out the window of the tower. His gaze drifts for a moment across the defensive batteries set up to protect this fortress, interupted by the sound of the building's intercom bleeping, "BLEEEEP, Archon Nog'ral, this is defensive station alpha, Sybarite Contrell and his squad are here."

Archon Nog'ral reaches out and presses the button for the intercom, "Yes, send them up."

Looking back towards Dracon Keltasis, Nog'ral quips, "Yes, well, you may be righ..." He stops, stepping towards Dracon Keltasis with a smile, "Oh, Keltasis, you've gotten a bit of peasant blood on your Dracon bolts..." Archon Nog'ral reaches out and slips the symbol of the Dracon station from Keltasis' shoulder, swiping at it with a cloth as he moves towards the door. "Allow me.."

At the same time, Sybarite Contrell walks into the chamber, followed by his squad of warriors. Contrell dips his head towards Nog'ral, "Archon, I've done as you ordered. The Ultra Marines have received the message, and are on their way back here as we speak. They know nothing of Tellstat being in our posession."

Nodding, Archon Nog'ral says, "Excellent. Have your men join the other squads in manning the defensive batteries. Those marines will never know what hit them." Nog'ral holds up a finger, his other hand thrusting a Dracon pin into the hand of Contrell. "But first, execute Keltasis for incompetence. You're my new Dracon."

Keltasis didn't even have time to protest. His eyes widened at the order, followed by the sound of Contrell speaking without hesitation, "Kabalites, FIRE!" A hail of splinter fire quickly followed.


The moral of this story: Don't tell a Dark Eldar they can't use fortifications "because it's not fluffy". Any Archon worth his salt is going to do what he wants anyway, and might shoot you in the face at the end.

Hehe. :-) Point taken. ;-)

Its just that the picture you get imagining Dark Eldar fights are not them finding defensible positions, but storming them or withdrawing from the field.

On the other hand every Kabal has a fortress-spire and for a good reason... The true mastery of war lies within using ALL assets available and not in keeping true to one predictable way to wage war.

Communications hub for the whole planet? 15 guards should be enough.
Stupid humans!

I do like the moral of the story. Sometimes it could be just what you need, and what Archon wouldn't use what he needed?

thesaltedwound wrote:

Communications hub for the whole planet? 15 guards should be enough.
Stupid humans!

It wasn't a hub for the entire planet. It was a local hub, which is why it was within 50 miles of their target city, and just allowed them to control communications into or out of said city.

Ah sorry, I wasn't paying proper attention to the names!
Stupid humans though, right? I mean. You're not trying to say humans aren't stupid, I hope.

Of course not, the cattle!

Indeed, I think the real message to take out of this is that Dark Eldar are unlikely to take fortifications with them to war, but will quite happily use other people's!

For this reason, I am quite happy to use fortifications, I'll just have the aegis line the 'wrong' way round on the table for fluff reasons.

The_Burning_Eye wrote:

For this reason, I am quite happy to use fortifications, I'll just have the aegis line the 'wrong' way round on the table for fluff reasons.

Again, not necessary. As the story above illustrates, fluff can easily justify using fortifications facing the "correct" way as well.

Yeah but funnier if it is the wrong way methinks. Well written story, Betray! Quite fun.