As I've said before, the whole conflict was a feint to draw out and commit as many Imperial forces as possible to battle and hunting down 'fleeing' Eldar as far away from the (fortified) mining complex as possible in order to let the Farseer and a small escort sneak in, revive Irillyth, and get out. They fought in such a way to facilitate that, and it worked.
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only British.
Actual (alleged) girl. Alpha Female.Originally Posted by Jes Goodwin
As opposed to blitzing the whole complex before most of those Imperial forces and the Inquisitor who could piece it all together got there in the first place
? You'd think the Corsairs, at least, would have experience with overrunning an unprepared, less defended (comparatively) target). Again, maybe there's a good reason why that wouldn't work, we're just not shown enough from the eldar side for a lot of things to make any sense.
Exactly, we only get the Imperium perspective. Why risk assaulting the mining complex when the entire planetary forces could converge on the area while the Eldar are in the tunnels, or could block their escape on the way out. The idea that they could blitz the tunnels, find Irillyth, revive Irillyth and get out of the complex and back to the webway without meeting significant resistance on the way in or out is highly flawed to my mind. We know the webway portals were a considerable distance away from the target.
The location of Irillyth is the problem, if he had been somewhere more accessible than an Imperial mining complex that was heavily fortified it may have been easier to a smash and grab. But even if the Eldar forces cudl have smashed the planetary forces (likely) they may not have been able to extract Irillyth from the tunnels, or the IoM may have decided the tunnels were indefensible and detonated the reactor, destroying Irillyth anywy. People keep assuming that because lots of Eldar died it was a failure, instead I think it better to see it as a mark of how significant the return of a Phoenix Lord was that they were willing to expend so many lives and such effort drawing the IoM forces out and keeping them occupied away from the caverns/mines.
I'm not saying the book is perfect, there re a lot of issues with it, but for me the battleplan was not one of them.
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only British.
Actual (alleged) girl. Alpha Female.
Eh, had they gone for the command point, I doubt anyone would care about a mine complex somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Least of all to detonate it - chances the Imperials would just abandon it as they abandoned an entire continent to concentrate their forces and protect what is important to them. Without the Inquisitor having the time to arrive, clear the mess and get his bearings, who would think the Eldar would care for what's in a bleeding mine?
For me the biggest peeve is that the battleplan is a contrivance to let the Imperium have a better chance of a fair fight (with low-key early skirmishes and slow escalation that could allow for Imperial reinforcements to arrive that had no reason to be at Belsavis at the start) against an Eldar force that surprised it and for a long time was superior (on paper). To that reason, it was necessary to have the Eldar not play to their strengths (prescience, picking their fights, here even numerical superiority) which leaves us to imagine why they didn't do so. There could be reasons, but we aren't given anything. This all could be avoided had the planet the PL was on be one with a significant Imperial presence, like a serious forge world or a fortress world, and the Eldar would have to deal with a defense that didn't need a contrived reason for a genius general just happening to be there, an inquisitor to get said general clearance to do things his way just happening to be close enough, or Space Wolves or Titan legions in the near vicinity. The planet could have been important enough to have all that in the first place.
And hey, having stuff happen just in the right time and hitting those one-in-a-million chances is supposed to be the Eldar schtick anyway
'cept the mine had a garrison, automated defenses, bunkers and big blast doors throughout, the danger of Irillyth being destroyed in the crossfire or the Eldar being trapped inside remains even if Imperial forces C&C was shot to pieces. I still think the Eldar were just playing it safe, deploying massive forces to draw allthe available IoM forces into the conflict, tie them down chasing eldar while the farseer snuck in after the mine had been denuded of its defenses somewhat. Given that the eldar were always going to be the antagonist that were beaten off in some form I think we were lucky itwasn't a whole lot worse.
As I said, I certainl agree it could have been done better, but it could have been much, much worse and it was entertaining enough.
In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only British.
Actual (alleged) girl. Alpha Female.
Entertaining, but I was kinda likewhen I realized the fluff part was finished.
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