Alarm klaxons blare as the Tau fleet was ejected from the warp. The ship AI reported main power offline. FTL drives, offline. Weapons, offline. Navigation, offline. One ship entered real space and slammed into the massive asteroid belt. The rest of the fleet quickly used maneuvering thrusters to come to a stop just outside of the belt.
The events leading up to being caught in the warp rift were still a bit hazy. They had been engaging in a heavy patrol action on the Imperial border. Traitor forces were engaging the loyalist as their patrol stealthily slipped in for a closer look. Someone or something opened a rift in the material plane or whatever it was called. Information on the Warp was sketchy at best for the typical Tau command staff.
With systems slowly coming back online, a Terran week by Earthcaste estimates, a few patrols were sent out to stealthily investigate the nearby belt and planet. One patrol in particular, was sent to what was later determined to be Valour IX.
Tau forces set down outside of a ruined city of unknown origin. Dark metal construction. Void of life and power. Kroot patrols were sent out in a fan to search the city with orders to move fast and strike hard. They wanted the element of surprise. Three units of twenty Kroot Carnivores were dispatched, one on each flank and one in the center. Each had a Kroot Chieftain except the east flank that had Anghkor Prok and Dahyak Grekh leading them. Two Great Knarlocs were deployed in the center as well.
A further two units of Kroot Riders, two Vespid units, and the Warlord XV8 Crisis Commander were held in reserve to act as reinforcements.
As they moved in, the buildings that were still intact hummed to life with a green glow! Eyes flashed green from dark windows and a lightning wreathed form appeared in a flash of green light. Two units of Necron Immortals were positioned between the east and west flank with a small unit of Tomb Blades to support them. A large unit of Canoptek Wraiths with Illuminor Szeras and a Plasmancer took the middle next to the C’Tan Shard of the Void Dragon!
The two flanking units of Kroot pushed forward and full speed, firing their Kroot Rifles into the Tomb Blades and Immortals. Two blades went down on the east, but one Reanimated. One Immortal went down on the west and stayed down. The middle Kroot unit fired at the Immortals and had no effect on their durability.
The Necrons responded in kind by firing upon the flanking units with extreme prejudice to exterminate all life in the galaxy. Devoid of cover, they were quickly cut down. The Chieftain on the west was critically injured, but his intervention saved four Kroot. The ones on the east suffered heavy casualties, losing fourteen of them to the brutal assault of Gauss and Tesla weaponry. The Wraiths attempted to charge Dahyak and his unit, but failed to reach them.
The Kroot reacted by leaving their wounded Cheiftain on the Objective Marker in the far west corner while the unit moved to engage the five Immortals. They fired their weapons, but had no effect again (This entirely was because of my rolls, I could not roll a 5+ To Wound for most of the battle for some reason that day). They charged in to keep their weapons at bay, but lost nine models to an impressive Overwatch! They were able to slay an Immortal and keep it down, but after losing another two in hand to hand combat they were down to four Kroot.
On the east, the mercenary Dahyak found the relic he was looking for on the Objective Marker. He needed to extract it (for most of the game for some reason, I kept rolling the same marker and so did the Necron player), so he ordered the Objective Secured so he could do his work. They fired and destroyed another Tomb Blade. They pulled back as far as they could and hunkered in place.
In the center, the other unit of Tomb Blades had raced to the center of the map to grab an Objective. The Great Knarlocs exterminated two of them with extreme primal rage. Neither Reanimated. The last one kept fighting as it had no other option. Or soul. Or fear. The center Kroot unit fired at the Wraiths closing in on Dahyak, but were unable to harm them.
The Necrons were eager for destruction of this new foe. The Canoptek Wraiths once again approached the Kroot and fired their weapons, but could not score any kills. They attempted to charge again, but failed (with a 3) at close range. The Void Dragon fired his power and spear at them as well, but the Spear was set to trickle charge and failed to hurt the Kroot with either hit. Gauss and Tesla once again scoured the unit, with Dahyak and Prok intercepting the incoming rounds heroically. They were both severely injured, but they saved the few Kroot remaining in the fox holes. They were down to four.
The Void Dragon moved in and killed the injured Great Knarloc, but the last Tomb Blade was slain.
On the west, the hand to hand combat lead to the last Kroot Carnivores being slain in exchange for one Immortal. The out look was grim for the critically injured Cheiftain.
The Tau Commander decided the time for action was right. The first unit of Kroot Riders came out behind the Immortals on the East, firing and slaying several of them while taking the Objective Marker they had just abandoned. The next group of riders arrived in the center behind their lines, taking another Objective Marker but were unable to harm the mighty Void Dragon. Both Vespid units dropped to protect the Cheiftain on the west. They fired their powerful weapons, cutting all three Immortals down, but all three Reanimated. The Cheiftain assisted by popping out of his foxhole and taking a shot at one of them to no effect.
The Tau Commander himself dropped out of the sky with his Shield and Marker Light Drone, firing at the Void Dragon. The Marker Light missed, but he was able to inflict several wounds on the Void Dragon, though it seemed to just make it rather angry.
The Void Dragon did his best to kill the Knarloc, but it failed to do more than a few injuries with his shooting and Melee! In turn it did superficial damage to the Void Dragon.
The Canoptek Wraiths charged into the stubborn Kroot and slew all of them except Dahyak. He stubbornly refused to give up his relic information or the relic and kept them from getting the Objective for a second turn despite all odds.
On the west flank, the three Immortals engaged their many targets. One fired its Tesla weapon at the Cheiftain, but he hugged his foxhole closer than he hugged the Greater Good to his heart and survived without any further injury. The other two fired on the Vespids and injured one of them.
The Vespids did not take kindly to this, shooting and killing two of them, but they both reanimated. Again. They did move onto their Objective and take it away from them. The Chieftain also popped back out of his foxhole to take a shot with no effect.
The Void Dragon slew the Knarloc. It tried hard but was severely outmatched by the god fragment that was tearing it to pieces. More importantly, it kept it away from the critical fighting longer than anticipated, putting the Necrons back for total control of the field.
Dahyak was removed from existence, but not before forcing the Necrons to have to use a surprising amount of fire power. They secured the Objective, and the Wraith unit charged the last Kroot Carnivore squad. It did not survive the overwhelming power a full sized unit of Wraiths can bring to bear on one target.
The Kroot Riders in the back kept harassing the foe and stealing their Objective Markers. The Crisis Commander ensured the Void Dragon was unable to Heal itself effectively and taunt it back out into the open. One Vespid unit needed to grab the Objective Marker in the center, and flew at full speed with their Advance to grab it. There they remained behind the wall for a long time, hiding and ensuring victory was still possible.
The Chieftain on the west popped back out of his hole and blew an immortal’s chest plate off. It sparked and fell down for a few seconds, and then phased out back into the bowels of the Tomb World on Valour IX. The Vespids continued to shoot at the Immortals, and then watch them both Reanimate again.
The last Immortals, all two of them in the west flank, had one shoot at the Cheiftain but his weapon jammed. The other fired into the Vespids and killed the injured one. Then they both charged the Vespids! The resulting hand to hand combat ended with one Immortal going down and then Reanimating again, but nothing more.
The Void Dragon turned on the Crisis Commander, moving to engage it. His spear was having serious malfunctions this battle. The Overlord must have sabotaged it to teach the shard to stay in place. With the shooting being highly ineffective again for reasons unknown (so many, many 1s To Hit and several double 1s To Penetrate because of Armourbane), it charged the Crisis Commander! The spear lashed out over and over again, but was heavily foiled by the Shield Drone channeling more Greater Good than an Ethereal during a motivational speech. The shard was able to obliterate the Marker Light Drone and damage the leg of the Crisis Commander, but it survived! The gentle slaps it gave in return did no damage, but the Commander did not Fall Back.
The Canoptek Wraiths moved back towards the first Kroot unit, threatening to destroy them, but failed their mid ranged charge for the third time this battle.
The Kroot Chieftain was unable to assist at this point, and the Vespids engaged the Immortals in fisticuffs. No one was killed, injured, or mildly inconvenienced.
Kroot Riders that remained gave half hearted shots with little effect. The Vespids slapped the Immortals to no effect, but one got its sternum punched out and was injured. They decided, despite having great chances of fighting again later for the Greater Good and winning the battle for me they would run away! Who needs Objective Points the Ethereal is commanding you to take?
The Void Dragon at this point had some more trouble with the persistent Shield Drone, but was able to cripple the Crisis Commander’s suit.
It moved towards the Kroot Riders on the east flank, blasting away with a Spear that at this point has been determined to have actually been a prop from a museum rather than the actual artifact. They were torn to shreds by the Canoptek Wraiths.
On the west flank, with one more chance to turn the game into a Major Victory, and with a very high Ld stat, the Vespids decided to keep running instead of rallying and retaking the Objective Marker. They also got themselves out of range to shoot at anyone.
The Void Dragon chased down the second group in hiding. It struggled to kill them all at once (he was having a very bad day with dice), but he was able to cut them down after a second round of fighting.
With some potent C’Tan powers, the Void Dragon annihilated the last fleeing Vespids as the injured Kroot Chieftain failed to get into his foxhole in time and was Tesla’d to death.
The game was a draw! Tau at 16 and Necrons at 15.
If I had made one of those 2 Ld tests I would have denied the Necron player 2 points and gained 2 myself, resulting in 18 to 13, a Major Victory. It was a really good game, mostly designed to test the concept of shifting C’Tan Shards over to Lord of War slots. They would only be able to bring one Shard of any kind, but they could feel more like they should in lore (and Dawn of War 1, which is never a bad thing). We are working on testing the others and will release that as soon as it is determined to be tournament ready!
Alternate 40k Rules 