Daemonic Knights: Tau + SM vs Chaos and GK Batrep.

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!

Rescue the Squat: Batrep.

"Thornarim nodded at his newest recruit and looked back at the target. The Chaos Marines standing nearby were so far unaware of the Squat and his scouts watching them. Thornarim and his unit had been sent to recon the area, reports of Chaos forces gathering meant a force of Evandalists and Imperial Guard were dispatched to take care of them, and the venerable old Squat had come to seek them out. He tiptoe'd over the window ledge, and noted 3 Chaos Marines in red bloodstained armour stood near a crossroads in what used to be a thriving city. The traitors were part of a patrol, and were soon moving on past the building the Scout squad were using as cover. "Shiori, They be here. We await your presence book keeper" he said into a small device. The scouts took up position in the building, weapons ready. All of a sudden the floor underneath them erupted with noise, a man screamed as bones could be heared snapping. Thornarim motioned for quiet, and slid over to a gap in the floor. He looked down and saw two Chaos Marines hold a man on the floor, his legs already seperated from his body. The man cried and babbled, then one of the traitors stamped on his head, crushing the mans skull beneath his armoured foot. The old Squat moved back gently, but heard something small fall across from him. Elrynd, the new recruit, had been looking through another gap, but as he moved away a few minor pieces of rubble had fallen off the edge and alerted the Chaos Marines that someone was above them. Three heretics presence was felt almost immediately as the bounded up the plascrete stairs and confronted the old Squat and his 4 scouts. The scouts fired off shots with their sniper rifles as the Bezerkers pounced on them, one tripped but quickly regained his balance as one sniper shot hit him in the thigh, while another was shot in the shoulder pad which did little to heed his haste. Thornarim leapt towards the third with his combat blade already drawn, dodging a chainaxe while planting the blade into the Bezerkers neck. The Chaos Marine slumped as blood streamed out of the gap between his helmet and torso armour, Thornarim turned to see how his scouts had faired. All four had quickly been dismembered by the other two Khorne worshippers, Thornarim felt confident against one, but the other had more scars across his face than a war torn world. As they lunged at him they suddenly changed direction, one fell to the floor with a gaping hole in his head, while the scarred brute slammed into the wall and collapsing it into the next room. Thornarim quickly remembered his time with the guardsmen. While drinking some of the ale the guardsmen had, some had mentioned rumours of an assassin in the vicinity. Could this be true? The halfling quickly searched for the Bezerker who'd gone through the wall, only to see him rise, dust himself off, and once again lunge at the Squat. As the Chaos fool jumped onto the Squat his chainaxe suddenly fell as another high velocity shot tore his arm off. It did nothing to slow him down as he landed on Thornarim, headbutted him and then started to throttle him with his one hand. The old scout sergeant found a large rock, and started to pound it on the Bezerkers skull. Blood starting pouring down from his wound, but did nothing to loosen the traitorsgrip. Thornarim could feel his fight quickly disappearing, his eyes beginning to fail and his breathing becoming hard. He felt himself falling unconscious, and his last sight was the Khorne Bezerker staring at him as its foreheard quickly exploded, brain matter and blood showering the room, then the world was black."

And so the scene is set! Myself and Alun teamed up in an attempt to rescue my fallen Squat sergeant Thornarim Nafni, after Shiori Kiyoshi had received a comms from him but did not get another reply shortly after. We would be fighting the vile combination of Adam and Chris as they used Plague Marines and Khorne Bezerkers. 1500 points per player, Hammer and Anvil deployment!

Above you can see deployment, I had Shiori and a ten strong unit of Sterguard in the Crusader. Below, are Adams reserves, and the pitcure below that is my Stormtalon and Aluns Inquisitor and Grey Knights. 

My Crusader took a penetrating hit in the first turn stunning it, making it unable to move. This cause my lne to slow although Erasmus Torgeaz and his fellow bikers flew up the left flank, intent on destroying the Hellbrute and swinging back in to take down the Bezerkers Rhino that headed towards my lines.

Another unit of Khorne Bezerkers were quicly upon Thornarim, and bundled him into their rhino the turn after. This did not look good! 

Kharn and his fellow Bezerkers bounded out of their Rhino, intent on butchering the Guardsmen in front of them. Epistolory Shiori Kiyoshi and the Sternguard quickly disembarked out of the Crusader, its guns taking down the first few traitors, quickly followed by Shiori focusing his mind and unleashing a blast against them, killing another two. The Sternguards guns blazed away and Kharn fell as his armour was riddled with special-issus ammunition. One Bezerker stood, but was soon gunned down by the relieved guardsmen.

As Torgeaz aims his squad for the Hellbrute, the air grew warm as a unit of Nurgle Terminators teleported just 20ft to their right. Torgeaz motioned for the squad to continue as he steered straight for the Terminators, bellowing how his axe would be their end. Their champion stepped forward to meet the Space Marine captain, his chainfist buzzing away hungrily. It caught the side of Erasmus' arm and drew blood, but Torgeaz swung his axe around caught the Terminator in the head and cleaved his helmet in two. The other Terminators now strode forward, eager to prove their dominance, but none could outmatch the grizzled Captain as he took them down one by one. 

The biker unit set their eyes on the Hellbrute who had cripsed one of their number with its multi melta, and unleashed their own melta weapons at the beast/machine. The hot stream of melta tore straight through the Hellbrute and it slumped to the grounds, horrible screams coming from within its torso. As the Bikers veered around its huge carcuss, a greater target loomed into sight, a Defiler.

Typhus and his huge number of plague zombies had shambled slowly forward, overseeing the rest of the forces were carrying out his masters wishes. The Squat would be a good plague bearer, and papa Nurgle would smile wryly as one of the rare subhumans would bloat up and become a haven for flies and disease. Suddenly, Typhus became aware of a presence, and as he turned around the air fizzled as an Inquisitor and some Grey Knights appeared in front of the Chaos Champion. Their psycannons and storm bolters blazed into the walking dead and tore most of them to pieces as Typhus immediately strode towards them. Another Hellbrute noticed the Grey Knights and started to shift its enormous weight towards the terminators, eager to spill loyalist blood. 

The Grey Knights managed to evade most of the Hellbrutes blows, and planted a coupel of Krak grenades just under its torso. The first explosion did nothing and a maniacal laugh burst from within. It looked down upon them in pity as its giant mutated fist raised to deliver another blow, and the second krak grenade exploded turning its torso outwards and buckling the heretical machine. The Grey Knights quickly turned to see the Inquisitor lose his leg to Typhus, whose scythe swung through the Terminator armour the Inquisitor wore felling him. As Typhus turned his attention to the Grey Knights the Inquisitor swung his Hammer into the back of Typhus, the blow sending him spinning around and his scythe lunged intot he Inquisitors head. The blows from each force weapons taking the others lives, killing each other in one almight moment.

The Bezerkers Rhino had been wrecked, and now they carried their captive towards their lines where reinforcements laid wait. The form of a defiler was an easy target for aid, and the Chaos Marines headed towards the ancient daemonnic machine. As they did so, they were fire upon from all angles. Traitors fell as the guardsmen and Sternguard carefully aimed all their weapons at the Khorne followers, butchering them all as Thornarim was dropped to the floor. The Defiler saw the prize, and started to bound forward to capture it. 

The bikers took aim at the Defiler as its attention was turned elsewhere, the first Melta shot missing but the other hit the beast in the side. Feeling the superheated beam the Defiler turned around quickly unleashing a battle cannon shot at point blank range, killing three of the bikers and then swiped away the last with one of its gian crab like claws. 

The metal beast quickly turned its attention to the fallen Squat just as a Tactical Squad moving in to carry him. The Defiler leapt forwards to stop them but was blown out of the air as the Stormtalon swooped in, krak missiles taking out its claws and assault cannon churning into its body. The other Chaos Marines could see the battle was lost and much of their number had died. The retreated out of the building and were able to get away. Thornarim opened his eyes, feeling something wet upon his brow. Above him was a guardsman and Shiori Kiyoshi, Epistolary of the Evandalists. "Trouble?" asked the Librarian. Thornarim stared at the psyker intently, before letting himself smile. "Aye, any left?" "None that we're aware of, it looks like one unit got away that were station in that building." Thornarim spat as he rose to his feet, his body aching and cuts and bruises making him feel sore. 

"Those bastards are mine, I've got some laddies to avenge."

Day of 40K.

Thats right, a day. we opened the doors at 10am, and were able to get started by mid-day. We thought about this for a wee while, so I was able to organise to have the hall we play in for a full day for a pretty good price. Let the onslaught proceed! 

We had two teams, Imperial, and non Imperial. On the Imperial side was Morgan and his Space Wolves, Aaron and his Blood Angels, Jamie with his Grey Knights, and myself with my Evdandalists and new allies the Tau. Chaos gods had spoken into the minds of Louis, Mike and Owain, Bam fielded his Legion of the Damned army with the evil ones, and Alun and his Necrons also stood to invade the Emperors world.

First of all we played two games. Owain, Mike and Louis vs Morgan and Aaron, whereas myself and Jamie took on Bam and Alun.

The Imperium lost both opening games, not a good start! We'd decided also to make a note of player points, and after the first game Bam had taken the lead and I was not far behind. Not bad considering a loss! Jamie's Grey Knights failed to make much impact and lack of numbers proved decisive. I still had some troops left and had my Termies killed Bams Captain and Dread or I could have finished off his tactical squad holding a vital objective, I could have stolen the game. Moral victory, not just for that but my Predator gained revenge against Aluns Doomsday Ark by blowing it out of the sky, YES! 

Onto the next round, and to make it interesting we all had to nominate who was playing on what table. We had three, so that meant the Chaos team would have two duos and a single, whereas we had one tandem and two single players. After thinking about how they may plan their attack, I calculated that Owain and Mike would play together, Louis and bam would tema up, and Alun would be on his lonesome. And I was right. I took on Owain and Mike, Aaron and Jamie took on Louis and Bam, and Morgan and Alun continued their storied rivalry.

I won deployment and set up knowing that a good opening round of shooting would be a great start and put the Chaos side on the back foot. As Mike and Owain deployment Bam and Louis cheered as they stole the initiative. Unlucky! Owain rolled to steal it in our game... and promptly rolled a six. No! I'd set up quite aggressively too, with a couple of units fairly open.

 The first turn saw my Hammerhead nearly being destroyed by a Defiler, luckily I made the cover save. Mikes Dread was in range with its multimelta, hit, penetrated and then blew it up. That was painful! My Hammerhead failed to hit anything all game until the final turn, despite only needing to roll 3+. It was fianlly able to kill Owains Slaanesh dreadnought and deny him a point for having a unit in my deployment zone. My Land Raider was able to destroy the Defiler and deliver my Captain and Termies onto Mikes objective, where my Warlord roll to make my Captain a scoring unit would prove vital. The Stealth team were able to cause some pain to Owains troops, slowly whittling down his units. My Storm Talon killed Lucious the (not so) Eternal with a couple of Krak Missile shots and also managed to kill more of Owains squad to deny them another objective, although he was able to get his other unit on there. After the first turn I felt like I was going to lose, but managed to wrest control and get a vital win. Elsewhere, Aaron and Jamie were pounded, losing to the vile duo of Bam and Louis. Morgan and Alun fought out a stalemate, each side unable to capture the relic. Final game!

This was on a bigger board, 8x4. 3x3 and 2k points each. Me, Jamie and Morgan versus Louis, Alun and Bam. Vitaly we got the first turn, although Night Fighting was in effect.

 

Due to time constraints, we were only able to get in three turns each, and that was 3 hours of game time! We had played for 12 hours, and every hour was packed with fun. This was still plenty of time for plenty of blood to be shed. Jamie managed to get himself some better luck in this game and got us our first kill points. First Blood by taking out the Doomsday Ark, great start to the game! My vindicator survived 4 glances by getting a 6+ cover save due to nightfighting by rolling two sixes, cue me fist pumping. Morgans drop pod troops and blood claws were embroiled in long combats that swung either way, although Logan Grimnar killed himself after mind control scarabs infiltrated the old mans mind and made him smack his own head. Should have retired! My storm talon killed bams predator and a necron flyer, I also took out a big necron warrior squad and chaos squad with my captain and termies, and my firewarriors took out a last raptor and finished off a couple of terminators that were Fabius Biles bodyguard. We also lost a lot of units, 2 Land Raiders, my Hammerhead, and several squads all died in the name of the Emperor. However, it was not in vain! After the third turn we had more victory points, although overall from the other games we were down by several. After much totalling up we had discovered that I had the most points of any player, YES! Not sure how but it was nice to see that I've got back to winning ways, especially against such good opposition. 

I know there are many other tales of heroism and luck, sneakyness and straight out jamminess, but my memory barely remembers my own stories let alone other peoples. I'm very happy with how my Tau have integrated with my Space Marines and look forward to perhaps one day fielding and all Tau force. 

Onwards!

Club Showcase pt 2

Welcome again folks, here comes the Tredegar Wargames Club showcase... part 2!

 Tomb Kings by Venerable Mike

 Inquisitor scale scratch built Techpriest by venerable Mike

 Inquisitor by Alun

 Grey Knight by Alun

 Grey Knight by Alun

 Death Company by Scout Mike

Blood Angels Venerable Dreadnought by Scout Mike.

Part one is here

Tredegar Wargames visit to WHW!!!

This is the trip to Warhammer World I'd mentioned in my first post, with a selection of photos. I'm hoping for the next trip we can try get more of the mini's painted as they look so much better in the pictures when they're done!

Sorting out deployment, took a little while!

Battle commences! Each player had 3000 points, with an allied force of Blood Angels, Eldar, and Grey Knights taking on a Chaos force with Necron allies.


One Eldar titan missing... a Necron monolith appeared at its rear, blew up the titan and then was caught in the blast. As if that wasn't crazy itself, the monolith took out several nearny Space Marine scouts!

An almost overhead shot of the battle midway... everyones going for the bridge objective!

Nurgle marines on an objective... hard to shift!

The last image of the table, an allied win! The bridge objective was the crucial win, as the Imperial/Eldar allies took this and captured win. Close game though, and definately inspired me!

And heres everyone at the end. For myself it was an amazing experience and seeing the miniatures gallery was simply awe-inspiring. Can't wait for the next trip to actually play!

Tredegar Wargames club website can be found here http://tredegarwargamesclub.yolasite.com/