So myself and Bam teamed up to continue the narrative from the last few weeks. The general idea was that my Tau were holding a strongpoint, and I'd be attacked possibly by two combined forces of Chaos and... Grey Knights. Yes in terms of 'usual' fluff this is wrong, but as you read along you'll see that my ideas from a narrative standpoint hold up as they'll be Chaos themselves, ableit a very elite force of 'Chaos' terminators with a 'Dreadknight' like Daemon entity. 1500 points, PURGE!!! I also didn't take as many pictures as normal mainly because of time constraints. We had to finish early as the venue owner wanted to have a chat to us about a number of things which proved quite fruitful.
Deployment! Chris' rhinos were given infiltrate due to a warlord trait, and so where right in my face early on.
I was stood next to Bam when we both noticed the cultists... I began singing "The cultists came in two by two hurrah, hurrah" as Bam turned and looked at me about to sing the same thing too.
The Tau force looked Eastwards, their Space Marine allies had passed on information that Chaos forces could be in the direction as some strange power readings were taken. Leo' Audo kept a keen eye as the mist that rolled before him reminded him of a recent battle involved 'dead' creatures. He wondered how the warp could influence the dead to come back to life. The Tau knew little of the Warp of the psykers and warp beasts were but their knowledge. But these reanimated corpses were knew information and would be passed on. Suddenly an alarm went off. Leo' Audo looked at his comms device. "Enemy APC's incoming, Crisis Team Mutaia report Chaos squad using jump tech coming in from our left, ready yourselves!" Commander Ra'Fellau had issued the warning, and the markerlights from his drones were already picking out the Chaos Rhinos from out of the mist. The Riptide behind Leo'Audo's position suddenly moved up, aiming its gun at the right flank and unleashing a huge blast over the heads of the pathfinders, tearing apart a building.
The Pathfinders had been getting into a position when they had heard heavy feet stomping towards them. Swithcing on their Markerlights they aimed towards the noise to see 5 Chaos Terminators trying to flank the Tau's main force. As the Markerlights shone on them, they could see that one was larger than the others, with more grisly trophies than the Pathfinders had seen before. As the vile image shocked the Tau scouts, missiles tore into the Terminators, but all rebounded off their armour. The Terminators failed to pause and steadily advanced towards the Pathfinders. All of a sudden, part of the building the Terminators had been working around was blown apart and with it, 3 of the Chaos Terminators. The Pathfinders adjusted their helmets and saw that two remained, one of which was killed being the Chaos Lord.
The Tau Fireblade looked on in dismay as they armour of the Bezerkers bounced most of the Firewarriors shots off, and they tore into the Tau soldiers like the Kroot hounds would tear into a meal. Turning his attention to the next target another squad of Bezerkers were heading towards the Tau lines. Leo'Audo's unit unleashed a torrent of pulse ammo at the unit but little of them fell. The Hammerhead to Leo's right took aim and blew one of the heretics rhinos up, but none fell in the ensuing explosion. As the mist started to rise he saw figures teleport ahead. They wore silver armour, and looked like the Grey Knights of the Imperium but unholy flames surrounded them. They levelled their guns at the Hammerhead and blew it up with accurate fire. Then just in front of the Tau Fireblades building, a huge squad of the unnatural terminators appeared. Leo'Audo felt fear, he knew how resistent Terminator armour could be against pulse rifle fireand knew there was little he could do. Deja Vu hit as he heard a mechanical scream and a drop pod hit the ground. Out came Space Marines who immediately began to exchange fire with the Chaos Terminators. None of the Traitors fell, but only a couple of the Space Marines died, their power armour holding true.
A Stormraven screamed from overhead as Ra'fellau braced he and his drones for asault. He had provided markerlight fire to assist several units but now cultists were rushing his position. None fell as he shot but as they attacked he kicked one to the floor and crushed the skulls of two others by swinging his guns at their craniums. They tried to fight back, but their blows unable to penetrate the Iridium armour the Tau commander was testing. The drones tried to hit the cultists, two of them hovering into the cultists and knocking them to floor, blood spilled from their mouths. the final few cultists roared with power as Re'fellau calmly leapt upon one crushing him under his weight and kicking the other in the torso breaking his ribcage. The Tau commander glanced to his left, seeing the Crisis Suit team had easily dealt with the Chaos Raptors who had tried to sneak upon them but were having trouble penetrating the armour of a Chaos Predator. A Drop Pod shrieked down on the other side of the tank and out stepped Space Marines whose melta weaponry damaged the vehicle. Ra'Fellau's markerlighters were already on the tank when a Railgun shot impacted the side and tore a hole throw the vehicle, rendering it useless.
The huge unit of Chaos Terminators issued a challange to a unit of Marine Terminators who had just arrived from the Stormraven and routed a unit of Bezerkers who had been hacking efficiently at a squad of their brothers. The Chaos unit finished their shouts when the Riptide lowered its gun at them, unleashing a blast of immense Ion power. 4 of the terminators killed, then plasma blasts hit them from a flanking Space Marine predator, its Plasma Annihilator cannon killing 2 more. The units then met in combat, as a huge being part mechanical part Daemon wooshed nearby. It was smaller than a riptide, but held a greatsword in one fist and a large cannon on the other. It levelled its cannon at the Riptide but the Tau walker took the impact and shrugged it off with impunity. Its returning fire knocked the Chaos contraption back and damaged it, as a Space Marine Ironclad launched itself into combat with the large being. The Daemon swung its sword at the Dread but using its powerfist smashed the blow to the side and then used its huge hammer to knock the daemon in its stomach area, smashing it open. A Chaos Terminator could be seen, its body smashed in two unable to control its large mechanical body and it dropped to the floor.
The last of the Space Marine Terminators fell, its Storm Shield unable to prevent the amount of attacks from killing its holder. The Chaplain fought the Champion of the unit, he had already been wounded and knew he could not last much longer against the skill and brutality of the Traitors attacks. The enemy stepped back, he and his unit the last alive of the Chaos force and the Chaplain took a moment to draw breath. His torso had been hit and was bleeding, a lung probably punctured. He stared at the Chaos Champion and then yelled his Litanies, rushing the Chaos Lord and readying his Crozius in the name of the Emperor. Before he could launch his attack however his vision was blinded and he staggered back, unable to see anything. As his eyes came too the Chaos Terminators were gone, teleporting back to where they came.
Leo'Audo surveyed the battlefield. The enemy force shad been destroyed or driven off, but there had been a cost. The pathfinders and a unit of Firewarriors had been slaughtered, and two Hammerhead tanks blown up. Both could be repaired perhaps but that was for the Earthcaste to decide. The Space Marines recovered their fallen and respectful nods were shared between the Tau and their Imperial allies, each battle making their alliance stronger and honing their abilities. What the Marines lacked in technology they made up for in ability and resilience, and the Tau were soon beginning to see the strengths of their allies and know how to utilise it alongside them. And they would need too, for many battles were ahead of them.
So a win for me and Bam, but there were a couple of points I was very worried! Chris' bezerkers having infiltrate got them close to my lines and I lost a Firewarrior squad due to not concentrating enough fire on them. Killing Chris' Chaos Lord was a stroke of luck, he had a 1+ armour save, which meant I'd need ap1 fire to make him take invuns. I shot my riptide at him and his terminators, took two termies out and then chris rolled a one for his lord, which is always a fail! Good for me, bad for Chris! I also took down three of his raptors in overwatch when they charged my crisis suits, two of them having the bs2 overwatch ability. The huge amount of grey knights in front of my lines were the second worry point, the riptide taking down 4 and bam took another two down, but luckily they went for Bams terminators where they had a pretty good fight. They took down the termies but Bams Chaplain survived as the game ended.
All in all a great battle, and some nice little moments in there that translated well to story!
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