A 2000 point 8th edition game between Space Wolves and a Tau force augmented by some orkish mercenaries they had hired for the occasion. We used the "Blitz!" mission: the xenos force, augmented with plentiful (if not timely) reinforcements, was charged with attacking a fortified Imperial position. Can their attack push the space wolves back quickly enough to change the shape of the front?
The Imperial force was lead by Bjorn the Fell-Handed and two rune priests, and included grey hunters in a crusader-pattern land raider, 3 squads of long fang heavy weapons teams (2 mounted in razorbacks), 2 squads of snipers, and a squad of skyclaws. By the grace of the Emperor, an Imperial Assassin was on site preparing for an opertaion when the attack began.
The Xenos force was lead by Commander Farsight. The Tau included Shadowsun, two squads of stealth suits, two squads of crisis suits, sniper drones spotted by a marksman. The mercenary contingent was made up of two squads of boyz, a squad of storm boyz, some flash gitz with heavy weapons, lead by a weirdboy.
Deployment (14:30)
The imperial land raider and razorbacks, as well as Bjorn and the plasma cannon long fangs, took up defensive positions. Bjorn and the land raider dug in to protect themselves from early shooting. (Wolves down to 4 of 8 command points.) The grey hunters and missile and lascannon squads of long fangs took cover in their transports. The snipers and skyclaws prepared to strike from hidden positions.
The orks came swarming into the no-mans land surrounding the base. The Tau stealth teams and Shadowsun infiltrated close to the base with their teleport homers, hoping to position them for a pinpoint strike by Farsight and the crisis teams.
The ork freebooter's vessel dumped garbage from orbit in what might have been intended to be a preliminary bombardment, but none of ths strikes found their mark.
Xenos 1 (14:43)
The stormboyz engaged their rocket packs to quickly advance through the field, landing dangerously close to the plasma cannon long fangs. (Xenos spent a CP to advance them 6".)
The Weirdboy jumped the flash gitz through the warp, to close and fire on Bjorn, causing minor damage to his chassis. (Comment: Bjorn, despite being a dreadnought, is a character. So they couldn't have targetted him if I hadn't deployed him so far forward. Don't do that next time...)
The stealth teams advanced into the imperial base, and one team deployed its teleport beacon before firing on the land raider and scoring a hit with one of their fusion blasters. Farsight teleported into the midst of the imperial forces and closed on the land raider. (Wolves used a CP on land raider saves. Down to 3.)
Long range fire from sniper drones targetted the plasma cannon long fangs.
The stormboyz closed on the fangs, using their rocket packs to jump up onto the imperial building. A few of the rockets exploded, vaporizing the orks. A handful more orks were exploded by imperial proximity mines set around the outside of base (wolves down to 2cp). But the remaining orks wiped out the long fangs. (Perhaps I should deploy them a bit further back...)
Farsight charged into the land raider, taking a wound in overwatch. His feeble blows glanced from its mighty hull, but his presence managed to distract the machine spirit sufficiently to prevent it from firing its armaments.
Imperium 1 (15:38)
Grey hunters and one of the rune priests exploded from their land raider to surround Farsight. The tank pulled back a bit in an attempt to get a clear shot. One of the rune priests conjured a storm about the stormboyz, giving them -1 to hit.
The remaining two squads of Long Fangs disembarked from their razorbacks and took up firing positions in the ruins. A shot from a lascannon vaporized one of the stealth suits, while frag missiles killed a few stormboyz.
The sniper scouts and the imperial assassin emerged from the shadows and took aim, wounding Shadowsun and Farsight.
Massed fire from the grey hunters and some of the tanks, together with psychic attacks from the rune priests, brought down Farsight and Shadowsun's drone squad. (2 kill points for the imperium.)
Bjorn charged out of his fortified position to hold the gate against the flash gitz, killing several.
The headstrong skyclaws, perhaps a bit too hungry for glory, dropped down deep into the heart of the enemy force in an attempt to engage the weirdboy, then either failed their charge or maybe I forgot to make the attempt!
Xenos 2 (16:28)
None of the xenos sustained assault rolls passed, so no reinforcements this turn.
Shadowsun and her stealth team advanced on the missile long fangs and their razorback, but the emperor protects, despite using a filthy xenos reroll (xenos down to 3 cp).
The stormboyz jumped down from their building to engage Bjorn and try to free the flash gitz up to shoot. Both sides used a command point in this battle. (imperium down to 1; xenos down to 2.) Bjorn survived on one wound and killed a few orks.
The second squad of stealth suits deployed their beacon, and the crisis teams teleported in to attack the imperial snipers and lascannon long fangs, killing several scouts.
The skyclaws were wiped out by psychic attacks from the weirdboy and fire from the boyz.
Imperium 2 (17:02)
The heavily-wounded Bjorn pulled back out of combat so that the imperial tanks would have a clear shot on the orks.
Fire brought down shadowsun, a team of stealth suits, and the storm boyz (Wolves up to 5 kill points) and whittled down the crisis teams. The vindicare took a shot at the weirdboy, reducing him to one wound.
Wolves used their last command point.
Xenos 3 (17:30)
The horde of ork boyz, perhaps tiring of waiting for the weirdboy to jump them, began advancing through the killing field.
Shadowsun and her drone squad came back in as reinforcements (she looks familiar...). Xenos spent a CP on something, one left.
Crisis suits killed a long fang sergeant. Sniper drone fire ineffective.
The one remaining flash git died in a glorious charge into Bjorn's holy flamer. (6 kill points.)
Imperium 3 (17:45)
Lascannon fire killed a crisis team. Bolter and plasma fire from the grey hunters took out the other. 8 kill points. I think the assassin took a shot at the farsight marksman but didn't kill him.
Xenos 4 (18:14)
More storm boyz and flash gitz arrive as reinforcements, as well as another Farsight, in a second Xenos wave.
The weirdboy teleports the storm boyz into the fray, but explodes into a flash of warp energy in the process. (9 kill points!) Such are the rewards of warpcraft.
The sniper drones kill 3 lascannon long fangs. Stealth suits finish off Bjorn and the remaining lascannon guy.
The stormboyz multi-charge into the grey hunters and rune priests. One rune priest goes down, the other just takes a wound. Storm boyz consolidate into the land raider, preventing it from shooting.
Imperium 4 (19:00)
Overrun, the imperial forces fall back to secondary defensive positions and fire into the ork horde, wiping out the storm boyz in morale (10 kill points).
Xenos 5 (19:16)
A crisis team and a stealth team joined as reinforcements. Another weirdboy too. Xenos continued to swarm accross the field and into the imperial base.
The new weirdboy teleported the flash gitz in.
Sniper drones killed one missile long fang. Flash gitz kill another 3. The one remaining missile launcher guy passes morale.
Stealth suits damage a razorback.
Boyz charge another razorback but maybe fail the charge.
Imperium 5 (19:40)
Fire from tanks and grey hunters wipes out a squad of boyz. (11 kill points.) Wolves overlooked the stealthy stealth suit hiding in their end zone -- oops.
Tank fire killed a couple flash gitz and the vindicare wounded the weirdboy.
The game continued...
Xenos 6 (19:56)
Advanced. Some tau got into the end zone.
More boyz and storm boyz arrived. Weirdboy jumped the stormboyz into cover in the imperial base.
Shadowsun finished off a heavy bolter scout.
Sniper drones took out the last missile long fang.
Flash gitz target the grey hunters, but the emperor protects.
Imperium 6 (20:20)
Small arms fire shoots up the flash gitz and takes out the sniper drones (12 kill points). The vindicare finishes off the weirdboy (13 kill points).
The game ends.
Xenos have two units in the 2 point zone (flash gitz and that sneaky stealth suit bastard) and 5 in the 1 point zone (storm boyz, boyz, shadowsun, farsight, shadowsun's drones), for 9 points.
Close victory to the imperium.
Edited by: Volkov on 10/28/17