Latera III. The eastern fringe of the Empire. Once a proud and mighty forge world, if legends and ancient records are to be believed, but long since abandoned by Man. Disturbing reports of Traitor Mechanicus activity, recently received from the nearby colony on Prassium IV, have provoked a response from the Empire. A task force from the VI Legion closes through the Immaterium, stalking the Archenemy in the faint light of the distant Astronomican...
A distress signal detected from a fledgling colony founded by optimistic Tau, for the greater good. First, intriguing reports of ancient human artifacts. Then, disturbing reports of active Chaos war-machines. Commander Farsight leads a detachment to investigate...
Arriving in orbit, the two small fleets enter into an uneasy alliance of convenience upon the realization that the Forge World has been heavily fortified by the daemon-machines of the Dark Mechanicus...
Planetfall.
The opening game of a mini-campaign. A 1500pt battle between the allied forces of Space Wolves and Tau, and Chaos Space Marines. Chaos started out with some free fortifications; the allies began turn 1 with some free orbital bombardment and everything in reserve, but rolling for reserve arrivals on turn 1. Mysterious objectives.
The Archenemy forces consisted of the fortifications (a macrocannon, a firestorm redoubt, and couple other nondescript buildings) manned by a warpsmith and 6 obliterators, a forgefiend, a hellbrute, and in reserve: a defiler and a Chaos Knight.
The Allied forces were made up of: wolf cavalry and blood claws supported by TDA wolf guard and a stormwolf gunship, lead by a Rune Priest; and a few broadsides on a tau moving wall thingy and a squad of crisis suits lead by Commanders Farsight and Shadowsun.
Farsight had the Armorbane shooting attacks as his planetstrike command trait.
The Rune Priest was gifted knowledge of smite and life leech.
Allies 1 (14:00)
The Allies conducted a bombardment from orbit before engaging, but the cunning warpsmith activated his void shields in time and they caused only minor damage to the his forces(-2HP on the forgefiend, shaken; -1HP on the redoubt).
Then the troops moved in.
Farsight and Shadowsun auto-arrived (planetstrike detachment bonus) from reserve with a large squad of crisis suits, deep striking in without scatter (warlord trait). Crisis suits took a couple of wounds from the Krak mines the warpsmith had deviously scattered around in advance. With pinpoint precision they unloaded their fusion weapons on the Macrocannon, detonating it. The wily obliterators inside escaped through a side door into an adjacent building, but suffered 2 wounds. Farsight's squad jetpack-moved a bit into the cover of the newly minted ruins.
The wolf cavalry held back and did not arrive. Blood claws arrived, but one was lost to a mine; the wolf guard and rune priest arrived. I wanted the wolf guard and blood claws to come on later, so I tried to scatter them into ongoing reserve...but I was unsuccessful and they just wound up in bad positions. (This was a dumb idea, for the record.)
The stormwolf blazed on and unleashed a devastating volley on the Redoubt, collapsing it. The obliterators inside emerged from the rubble unwounded, and revealed objective #3 as a grav wave generator.
Chaos 1 (15:04)
The Chaos Knight walked on from reserve (auto-on from detachment). The defiler made his reserve roll and also walked on.
The obliterators emerged from their building and fired assault cannons on the Stormwolf, scoring a hull point and shaking the crew. The Forgefiend triggered his daemonforge and scored another glance against the Stormwolf. (Lesson here: always jink?)
One of Farsight's bodyguards overloaded the Knight's weapons; it declined to shoot in order to avoid risking the Gets Hot.
The Hellbrute fired on the Wolf Guard terminators, killing two. (snake eyes armor saves!)
The Warpsmith failed to repair the forgefiend. IWND also failed.
The Defiler earned MVP status by firing his Battle Cannon into Farsight's squad, killing all of them but Shadowsun (who went to ground) with his AP3 instant death large blast.
(I think Farsight made his warlord roll such that he's not dead and can come back next scenario? or the one after that? But I apparently failed to write this down.)
Allies 2 (15:42)
The Cavalry arrived from reserve and advanced. The Broadsides also arrived on their floating wall thing.
The TDA advanced and the fired on the oblierators (including mind-bullets from the Rune Priest), but were ineffective.
Farsight enacted the Laser Burn Straegem, calling down a beam from his orbiting cruiser which killed two obliterators. One boardside missed the forgefiend; the other killed an obliterator. Shadowsun missed her snap-shots.
The Stormwolf closed to point-blank range with the titan and fired on it, but achieved nothing.
Chaos 2 (16:08)
The Defiler and the Knight advanced so they could get a clear shot on the cavalry. The defiler fired on them but scored no damage. The Knight fired on the stormwolf, but it remembered to jink this time and was undamaged. The knight also targeted a cannon on the cavalry, killing one, and a flamer on Shadowsun, but she saved. It then promptly finished her off in the assault.
The forgefiend also missed the Stormwolf with snap fire. The oblits killed one broadside. The Hellbrute vaporized the other broadside. No Tau left!
The Warpsmith again failed to repair the forgefiend, and it missed its IWND again.
Wolves 3 (16:35)
We could see where this was going.
The Stormwolf swung around in hover mode and unloaded on the Knight, scoring a couple of hull points but not stopping it.
The cavalry failed their charge against the Warpsmith. (Ouch!)
The lone remaining TDA Wolf Guard rook 2 wounds off the Knight with his combi-melta, and then another two with his chainfist in the assault before being stomped. (If there's any life left in that guy, put him in a dreadnought...) The Stomp incidentally wiped out the cavalry, who were not engaged but merely nearby. On my own turn.
Chaos 3 (16:52)
The Defiler wiped out one squad of bloodclaws with its battle cannon. The forgefiend and oblits shot the junking flyer but missed. The Hellbrute finished it off, though. A couple of the blood claws who were riding inside survived the crash.
The titan killed the rune priest with his cannon. Then killed remaining blood claws with rockets.
Tabled!
Edited by: Volkov on 5/4/17