During this battle my phone battery drive flipped its lid and killed my phone, so I was only able to take the one photo. I had a very entertaining battle and hope you enjoy its narrative report.
The Cadian Shock patrol, consisting of a healed up and replenished ranks for the Assault Platoon Alpha, had been tracking the Tau for some time. The resilient Lord Commissar, now with multiple heretical leader kills under his belt, was eager for some pay back. The borderline insane Chimera driver was also ready to engage, his newly acquired Chimera tank already modified in ways that would incite furry in the Adeptus Mechanicus.
The Cadian Shock moved onto the battlefield under the cover of a full solar eclipse with the intent of doing a sweeping destruction of the xenos forces. On the left, Guardsmen Squad Alpha with their newly equipped Flamer and Vox Caster took the southwest ruins. The east flank had the Lord Commissar, now equipped with Meltabombs, and the Veteran Squad moving aggressively forwards. they were now armed with Shotguns, three Plasma Guns, a Vox Caster, Demolition Doctrines, and the Sergeant had a new Bolt Pistol and Powerfist!
The center was intended to be a spear shaped assault, designed to force a gap in the foes forces and split them to be hammered by the Veterans, who could then sweep in to the west, joining with the spear head to crush the pocket resistance in the east. A Chimera with the Platoon Command Squad, now armed with a Standard, Medicae Pack, Vox Caster, and Heavy Flamer idled on the side. The Platoon Commander had a new Bolt Pistol as well for additional fire power. Guardsmen Squad Bravo joined them, also armed with a Flamer and Vox Caster now. The Chimera itself had received some upgrades of its own. Including a Light Battle Cannon, Heavy Stubber, Hunter Killer Missile, Dozerblade, Smoke Launchers, Extra Armour, Recovery Gear, and a Searchlight. No longer was it a minimum factory spec APC!
The Tau knew they were being pursued during their frantic flight back to their drop zone. Commander Shas’o Auzat once again took to the skies for delivering a lethal alpha strike. His force had received a supply drop and a risky LALO (Low Altitude Low Open) drop by a XV88 Broadside with 5 Pathfinders hanging onto it. Combined with the medical supplies, they were able to get their force back up to functioning with an additional 5 Pathfinders, Marker Lights for all of them, and the Broadside with its Smart Missile Pod Drone and 2 Linked Pulse Carbine Drone.
The rest of the forces setup with the Pathfinders in the less dangerous northwest ruins, moving after deployment in a sudden Scouting action to secure the ruins and get their snipers in position. A unit of Fire Warriors setup to contest the rocks, and the last unit of Fire Warriors setup to seize the graveyard. The Broadside setup to support the rocks and graveyard with its 2 High Yield Missile Pods, 2 Linked Smart Missile Pods, and the Seeker Missile.
The Imperial Guard acted quickly, well aware of the fire power Tau could bring after being decimated to a single man in their last engagement with Tau and the forces of Tzeentch. Guardsmen Squad Alpha secured the ruins thanks to last minute orders requiring it, instead of the original plan to move up with Medicae support from the Platoon Command Squad in the Chimera. They were able to fire at range and damage the heavy drone the Pathfinders had sitting up on the second floor with them.
The central forces were also foiled by high command, not Advancing as far as they intended to thanks to orders to secure the southern rocks. While they sheltered in place, the Chimera moved up and obscured them, firing a variety of weapons in all directions. A Pathfinder was cut down by las fire from one side, as the other cut down two fire Warriors. The Light Battle Cannon shot nailed the Broadside, but failed to get through its Front Armour. The Hunter Killer Missile went wide of its target as well, leaving it unscathed!
The Veterans moved up, firing what weapons were in range, also forced to slow down thanks to orders to secure the southern graveyard! (What luck right?). They fired Plasma Guns at long range, but were unable to get a clean shot through Cover. The Veteran Heavy Weapon Team managed to get a hit on the move with their Missile Launcher, but the round was defective and failed to detonate on impact! The Lord Commissar fired his Boltgun at the Fire Warriors across from him, but the Tau Armour held up to the powerful shots.
The Tau had planned a good setup with overlapping fields of fire to help support each other. The Pathfinders fizzled an Ion round off of the Chimera, decimated 6 of the 10 Guardsmen on the southwest ruins, and failed to harm the Lord Commissar with their terrifying Rail Guns. The Fire Warriors moved up, firing into the Veterans, killing about half of them, while the Broadside moved towards the Chimera and fired, with all of its weapons failing to damage it except the Seeker Missile. The One Use Only missile slammed into the driver compartment, stunning the insane individual. Reasons like this were why an officer would normally be assigned to oversee the tanks operations, but the crew preferred to drive by the seat of their pants and ditched him whenever they could.
With Tau gaining battlefield superiority, the Imperial Guard acted the best they could now that they could secure their orders. The southwest squad rallied from their foxholes, firing with no effect at the Pathfinders. The Veterans moved up as far as they could without leaving the south graveyard to get their Shotguns in range, but failed to do more than kill two of the Fire Warriors and both of their Drones, both of which were gunned down by the Lord Commissar! Their Krak Missile failed to hit the Broadside despite remaining stationary.
The Chimera moved up at half speed due to the crew being dazed. It got close to the Pathfinders, and combined with the Platoon Command Squad was able to burn two of the Drones with Heavy Flamers. The Battle Cannon round landed perfectly placed in the upper window, blow away another two Pathfinders and destroying the heavy drone. Its Heavy Stubber and Lasguns raked the central Fire Warriors trying to hold the northern rocks, killing all but two.
Shas’o Auzat was receiving orders from his Ethereal to gain Supremacy, despite the fact that they were in a fighting retreat. The Greater Good was the Greater Good, so he intended to drop behind the Chimera and remove the APC and troops holding the rocks. His legs and maneuvering thrusters had not had a chance for proper repair yet, and he Scattered way off target, landing besides the remains of Guard Squad Alpha. Well out of effective range of the partially concealed Chimera, he opted to remove the Guardsmen from the ruins instead! He blasted away with his Burst Cannon, Fusion Blaster, and his Drone’s 2 Linked Pulse Carbines, but the Guardsmen dug very good foxholes and the Sergeant managed to survive!
The Broadside continued to move to flank the Chimera, gaining easy shots on its Side Armour. All missiles were fire into it! The Smart Missiles managed to get one Penetration, and many more happened from the High Yield Missile Pods! Through very good engineering, the tank managed to just barely keep running. The recovering driver was once again blasted through the spall lining and sent into a daze again. In addition, 3 of the Lasguns and the Heavy Flamer were Disabled as well!
The Pathfinders turned their attention to the Chimera again, but the Ion Round missed and the Pulse Fire bounced off the Front Armour. There were some well placed shots, but its Armour held! Their snipers tried to pick off the lone Guardsmen holding the southern rocks, but one failed To Hit and the other round disintegrated in mid flight, failing to kill the Guardsmen (worse Sniper (2+) rolls ever!), and the Marker Lights only were able to get a single lock established with the Battle AI in orbit. The Chimera survived!
The remaining Tau Fire Warriors fired into the Veterans again, forcing them to Go To Ground or be annihilated! Despite this, all of them were killed or incapacitated except for the Sergeant and Lord Commissar!
With a solid fulfillment of orders from High Command, the Lord Commissar was ready to face the xenos foe in hand to hand combat! But Orders came in requiring him to hold the south graveyard again! He rallied, but the Veteran Sergeant kept digging his foxhole deeper. After scoring another high value friendly execution, the Lord Commissar was once again foiled by the well built Tau armour their infantry wore.
The Guard Squad Alpha Sergeant poked his head out of his crispy ruins and tossed a Frag Grenade, but it failed to damage the Drones or the Commander.
The Chimera, still stunned, reversed with one side facing the rocks, firing weapons in all directions. One Lasgun clipped and damaged the Tau Commander, while the right side weapons danced Lasfire off of the broadside. The Heavy Flamer in the hull trickled fire into the Pathfinders, killing another. Its Battle Cannon fired at the Tau Commander but went way off target. The Squad that was accompanying them once again received orders to hold the southern rocks, so they did so, but several others joined the lone guardsmen in calibrating the skull probes for observation. Bravo squad then fired Lasguns into the Pathfinders, forcing them to Go To Ground or be obliterated!
Shas’o Auzat, tired of the Sergeant’s defiance, moved around the building, and fired every weapon into his corpse. After making sure the Sergeant looked more in common with his home world than he did with other humans, he felt it time to move on.
The Fire Warriors fired everything at Lord Gentry, but failed to injure the Lord Commissar. The Broadside began pursuing the Chimera, firing every Missile into its Front Armour, but failed to do any damage! The Pathfinders had failed to rally! They joined in firing Snap Shots at it, but were unable to get any hits!
The Lord Commissar was being punished by High Command for something, he just knew it. Once again, orders to hold the bloody south graveyard came over the comms. He shifted slightly, firing at the Tau Commander and did not damage.
The Chimera had orders to hold the north graveyard, so it moved at full speed away from the Broadside and deposited the Command Squad by the Fire Warriors. They were all promptly burned away by the Heavy Flamer in the Squad. The Chimera’s weapons once again blazed in all directions, killing the last Fire Warriors by the rock. It finally got a solid hit with the Light Battle Cannon on the Broadside, but one of its Drones intercepted the shot! Finally, able to secure its left flank with Cover, it fired Smoke Launchers on its right flank to force a poor choice of engagement from the pesky Broadside.
Squad Bravo got orders to hold the northern rocks, so they moved around and were forced to expose themselves to heavy fire! They fired at the Pathfinders, killing all but one sniper who was highly encouraged to Go To Ground thanks to the accuracy of the volley.
Highly upset, the Sniper fired and missed with his unwieldly weapon. The Broadside decided the Chimera was not the immediate threat or worth its frustration and instead annihilated most of Squad Bravo. The Shas’o Auzat Jumped the ruins and finished the rest of Bravo himself!
The Lord Commissar finally had no new orders to act on, but was isolated with the choice of moving into the open to engage the Broadside or hiding behind the fence and engaging the Crisis Commander. Wisely opting for light cover instead of none, he squeezed through the the gothic fence and fired a bolt round at one of the Commander’s drones that had broken off and blew it into pieces.
Orders had come in, and the only one that was possible given the situation was for the Command Squad to go from the the northern graveyard all the way to the northwest ruins with the last Pathfinder. In a heavily damaged tank. Right past a very tall and angry combat suit covered with missiles. Orders being orders, and the driver being insane, made it happen. The Platoon Command Squad piled in the back and the Chimera took off, racing towards the Objective! Lasfire poured from each side, killing the Commander’s last drone and the Broadside’s as well! The Cannon fired, but went off target due to the tank doing a serpentine maneuver. The other weapons fired at the Broadside but had no effect.
Shas’o Auzat moved towards Lord Commissar Gentry, tired of his games. Firing all weapons, he was dismayed to see the weak but effective Refractor Field fully stop both of the Fusions rounds and some of the Burst fire! The Lord Commissar was heavily injured but survived!
The Pathfinder with the Rail Gun, fired at the Lord Commissar but missed. The Broadside fired at the Chimera, and did not. The crew attempted to locked down the tank, but it was nowhere near enough to save it. Rounds ripped through the passenger compartment, forcing the Command Squad to dive out of the Tank and were Pinned. The tank exploded moments later, hitting all five of them with shrapnel, but the superiority of guard flak was demonstrated because only one was injured. The Platoon medic was able to patch that injury up, leaving them functional!
The battle could have ended, but the Tau did not retreat. Orders from High Command were still to take the ruins from the Pathfinders, but also wanted a bloody hand to hand demonstration from the xenos to remember the Guard by. Despite being down to just command staff, they acted! The Platoon Command Squad rallied, getting up amongst the flaming debris and Charged the Pathfinder. The Platoon Commander did an amazing display of Chainsword work and viciously tore through the xenos scum’s armour with every strike!
The Lord Commissar moved closer at a sprint, lobbing a Meltabomb at Shas’o Auzat. Mindful of his legs in combat from last time, he swatted the device away. To his dismay, it latched on with a loud clang and started beeping frantically. A moment later, his suit’s burst cannon was blasted loose, dangling by a cable! The Lord Commissar Charged, sliding up underneath him. In an attempt to keep him away, Auzat reflexively tried to swipe him away but had his Fusion Blaster blown off in similar fashion! He stumbled backwards, but was unable to land any blows in return! Shas’o Auzat held his ground though, and did not break for safety.
Once again annoyed, the Broadside fired all missiles at the Command Squad. Due to a blue screen of death with his targeting harness, most of the missiles failed. The volley of Smart Missiles were dead on though, and the Platoon Commander through himself in front of his troops to save them. He was heavily injured in the process but survived!
Lord Gentry was faster in hand to hand combat, and planted a Meltabomb on the back of the heavily damaged Crisis Suit. Desperate, Shas’o Auzat cycled his Shield’s polarity, which dislodged the device and it detonated harmlessly into the ground! Weapons were offline and unable to be brought to bear on the injured human, so he attempted to stomp on him instead! He was able to get a solid hit on his leg, possibly breaking it, but he was still in the fight!
Suit in critical condition, the Commander activated his thrusters and retreated with his Broadside. In no condition to pursue, the Guardsmen slowly gathered back together and waited for evac.
Cadian Shock win 9 to 4 with a Moderate Victory!
This was the second in a series of games to introduce a friend to Warhammer 40k. This also is a good test to see how well small games of Alternate Rules balance out, as it is intended to run from 2k-3k for a balanced army. The additional models massively helped the Tau out, giving them both the volume of fire they needed as well as the bodies to hold priority objectives. The guard entirely put their points into upgrades, as they had almost none before. This helped a massive amount for supporting units around them throughout the entire fight!
Alternate 40k Rules 