Captain Harry “Flash” Paget smiled as another dinner course was brought out. Some sort of braised meat dish swimming in a rich sauce with herbs and spices, his mouth practically watered at the thought. Say what you will about Cogheads, he mused, but they do keep a place running ship-shape. Thinking of shapes he turned to smile politely at the Countess VonDillenshae who was sitting next to him, her lush figure somehow squeezed into a sleek dress of red and gold that left little to the imagination since so much of her seemed intent on spilling out of the dress with every breath. His mouth definitely watered a bit at that thought.

Harry had been positioned on Iunden since the end of the failed counter attack on Saios. It was a pretty plum assignment for the most part, as his job was loosely described as “Imperial Coordinator” for the Imperial defense actions. As such it was usually morning meetings with the assembled commanders as they discussed ways to shore up defenses. Harry had discovered that, generally, all he had to do was show up, eat a sweet-pastry and drink some recaff, and just agree with whatever the Space Marines wanted to do, since they were going to get their way no matter what. After that all he had to do was occasionally tour a few defense facilities and allow himself to be hosted in the evenings at the various mansions of the Nobility that handled most of the shipping and sales for the Mechanicum. Harry had tried to be hosted at a few Forgemaster’s towers, but had found their conversation generally quite dull (though a certain red headed initiate with freckles on her nose and a rather sensitive area near her first dendrite graft had certainly helped pass the time…)

Harry was just telling a rather droll anecdote (and eliciting some quite impressive motions from the Countess as she laughed…there had to be adamantine reinforcement on that dress, else surely it should have torn asunder, he surmised.) “Blast it all,” snarled Captain Danik “Hellstorm” Hellsford, who currently sat across the table from Harry and the Countess. “When will this interminable waiting end and we be allowed to get to grips with the foe? I am sick and tired of this waiting!”

This pretty much assured Harry that Danik was a fool, because it was his experience that the more waiting you had and the less gripping with the foe, generally speaking the better off you were. Also, Danik was utterly ignoring the impish daughter of the Portsmaster who had been clearly interested in selling off her questionable chastity to any stirring chap who happened to look smart in Mechanicum dress reds. Frankly, Harry had been starting to debate his chances of luring her along with the Countess, by the wicked gleam in the girl’s eye she would probably be game for it, though the Countess might be against the idea of sharing a romp with a lower class. Such a shame how societal divides hampered potential alliances…

“Well, Danik,” Harry lifted his glass in slight toast to him, “I have little question that once we have assured these ladies’ immediate safety we shall be tasked with cleansing the rest of the problem with flame and furor.” It was always good to include comments about fire or burning in any commentary about dealing with heretics or aliens. The civilian population, especially the fairer sex, always seemed to lap it all up. Indeed, the Countess nodded encouragement to him, her hand slipping out to rest on his thigh in a motion that definitely made Sir Harry stand to attention.

“Not soon enough for me,” snarled Danik like the young idiot he was, who seemed to think a chest full of medals mattered anything if there happened to be a smoking crater in said chest. “You’re the hero here, Flash,” he noted, “couldn’t you drop a word in Raglan’s ear? Get our companies redeployed to the front?”

Harry took a bracing swig of wine to cover his look of horror. Oh, yes, doubtless he *could* get that fool Raglan to send them gallivanting to the front…not that he was likely to do that for all the golden aquilas on Terra.

“Why, you say that as though I haven’t been doing it already,” he snorted in dismissal. “Do you think for one instant I haven’t been sending daily requests to Raglan?” He felt his face flush as he banged his chest, a darn good show, he thought. And, yes, he had sent daily requests to Raglan, but it was always updates on the security of Iunden and listings of the demands of the Astartes and Nobles, he worked very hard to make Raglan feel he was intimately tied up in the affairs here and too busy to be called out to duty elsewhere.

Danik looked sheepish. “My apologies, I just-“

That was when the whole mood was ruined by the arrival of Sergeants Locke and Czernichev, Harry’s top aides. He actually considered both of them half insane. But they were brave and sturdy men, and seemed to think part of their job was to keep him alive at all costs…sadly they also seemed to believe he would also always want them to drag him into the middle of life-threatening situations at all costs as well. Czernichev paused to twirl his moustache and wink at the Portsmaster’s daughter, and she seemed thrilled to have the burly Vostroyan admiring her. Locke, the Cadian, all business, as usual, held up a sealed message scroll.

“Orders for Captain Harry Paget and Captain Danik Hellsford,” he announced happily.

“Glorious news, friend Captains,” announced Czernichev, “forward we are deployed, to establish hold of foot on Gimat. To battle we march!”

Hellsford huzzahed the news with a toast, and the assembled noble lords and ladies did as well, the ladies sad to see the gallant young men off, and the lords probably secretly happy the gallant young men would no longer be around to sample their foodstuffs, not to mention their noble ladies.

Harry tried hard to keep a stoic face on.

But he already felt like sneaking off to go drop his bowels in a privy chamber.
He was going back to the front.
Oh damn!

============================================================================

Aun'Sclera conferred with Commander Brightwave after their disastrous first venture with the Black Templars against the Chaos occupiers.

"We were not prepared," admonished Aun'Sclera. "At every turn, the enemy picked us apart as they smashed our Imperial allies. We must not allow this to happen again."

Brightwave blinked slowly, the deep crease in his forehead briefly becoming shallow.

"We have drilled, trained and practiced, yet this has happened." His bonding knife dipped towards the floor, unnoticed by either individual. "Our enemy has a new way of fighting, and we have been slow to adapt. We are bringing new technology in to assist us, but more importantly, our tactics must change accordingly. We have been too cautious. Our easy victories from our previous engagement have made us soft."

"We have also been without direction," said Aun'Sclera without intonation. "For that, I take responsibility. That mistake ends here. You know our strategic plan, of course. Now it is time to execute in order to follow the strategy. Our first goal must be recon in force. These tainted humans have gone to ground, and aside from their strongholds, have all but disappeared. This may be possible due to their sorcery, but we shall suss them out as we have done before."

"And the humans shall join us?" queried Brightwave. "Their shamanic technology does seem to be able to detect sorcery well."

"Yes, we will be accompanied by a Captain Paget and his detachment. "Prepare a mobile force to scout and, if we find the enemy, engage."

Scenario - Ambush at Gimat - You always double down on eleven


Imperial forces landed on Gimat intent on bringing the battle to the forces of chaos. Strangely though there appears to be no sign of the enemy. After many of days of searching they Imperial forces set up camp, separately of course as distrust of their xenos allies still runs deep. The forces of Chaos take this as an opportunity to strike...


Points level -
IG and Tau
Each army has 1500 pts. Standard force org

Chaos
2600 pts. Standard force org

Deployment –
IG and Tau deploy first and have separate deployment zones on diagonally opposite corners. Their deployment zones are rectangular extending 24" away from the short board edge and 12" from the long board edge. The short board edge on their respective sides is their board edge for the purposes of reserves and fall back moves.

Chaos deploys second and deploys as per the infiltrate special rule. He will get to place at least three units before the IG and Tau can begin alternating placement of infiltrators. Chaos iflitrators do not gain Outflank, unless they already had infiltrate or scouting rules. Furthermore Chaos units will be allowed to assault on turn one.


Chaos’ reserves can come in from either long board edge and the closest long board edge is used for fallback moves. (Note if you assume the 18" no infiltrate with line of sight zone Chaos’ potential deployment should look a bit like a barbell. There should be some LOS blocking terrain so there will be pockets that are closer).

Mission rules –
To represent the Chaos ambush they will have first turn although the IG and Tau can seize the initiative. Seize is on a six unless a Chaos unit is within 13" of an enemy model (16" if that model has night vision) in which case it is on a five.

Night fighting will be in effect automatically for the first turn and again on the second turn on a roll of five plus.

Win conditions –
In the direct middle of each imperial forces deployment zone and the direct middle of the board is an objective. Each objective is worth three points each
Kill points are in effect for this mission worth one point each
First blood and slay the warlord are also in effect worth one point each, line breaker is not used.
Finally each faction will receive one secret mission worth four points for Chaos and two points each for the IG and Tau.

==============================================

Secret Missions!

Chaos – kill or otherwise remove from play the Tau Warlord. Chaos is aware that if they can inflict enough damage to the Tau command structure that the cowardly race will withdraw their support from the war effort.

Tau – have over half of your Heavy Force Org slots still in play at the end of the game. The Tau are very mindful of their limited resources and the amount of time it will take to resupply, and thus do not wish to waste their equipment needlessly.

Imperial Guard – Nominate a single Company or Platoon Commander model as ‘Captain Paget’ have it end the game within 6” of the center objective and still on the board. It can be falling back (after all, being alive is more important than looking scared in Harry’s world). As usual, it is all about ‘looking heroic while still living’ to Captain Paget, he wants to make sure he absorbs some glory while also walking off the field with all his important bits still attached.

The I’orek Expeditionary Force

They featured a Crisis Suit as their warlord.
A number of 2 man Crisis suit squad sin support (one kitted out with missile pods, though no early warning, to oppose flyers (*cough*Hellturkeys*cough*)
A pair of Ionheads.
A large squad of Kroot
Assorted Fire Warriors and Pathfinders plus some Devilfish


The 1st Allied Mechanicus

A Company Command squad for Warlord.
2 Platoons with Heavy Weapon attachments.
A large blob of Conscripts.
4 Chimera
3 Leman Russes (two standard and one Punisher)
1 Hellhound
1 Bane Wolf
1 Squad of Stormtroopers


The Thousand Sons

Chaos Sorcerer on Disc w. Burning Brand (Warlord)
Chaos Sorcerer on Bike
2 big mobs of Pink Horrors
A handful of Cultist Squads
Some Havocs w. Flamers or Melta in Rhinos
2 Heldrakes
2 mobs of Flesh Hounds of Khorne

Here you can see the lay of the land.


The dice and markers show the deployment zones that the Imperium and the Tau selected for themselves. The IG will take the upper right zone, and the Tau the lower left.
As the IG player I fully understood that it was almost assured that a large amount of Chaos units would position themselves out of sight on the other side of the nearby hill.



The Tau set up in their corner amidst the old ruins of a temple. A few Devilfish are positioned to help break up charges while Fire Warriors and Crisis Suits position themselves for lanes of fire.


The best work around for being WS 2? Just park a big honkin’ skimmer in front of you. Fish of Fury? More like Carp of Cowardice, amirite?


Chaos then gets to position its forces…

Harry Paget didn’t like it. They had set down on Gimat upon the Piscus Plains and had begun heir march on Forbearance Hive. All reports had indicated they should expect intense opposition. Instead, what they had found was…

Nothing.

No raging Chaos Space Marines. No howling and gibbering daemonic entities. No debased Cultists. …no frightened civilians. No animals either. Not even so much as a single bug had been spotted by Benny and the Ratling scouts. Needless to say, this failed to relax him, and he had started to make extensive efforts to prepare an armored escape force for himself at all times, prepping up some Chimeras with extra fuel and supplies and performing “emergency checks” on them each night when the Tau and Imperial forces made uneasy camp near one another.

In fact, it was while he was in the middle of one of these checks on the ninth night that he heard the howling…


Sorcerous magic ripples through the air as the forces of Tzeentch appear from nothingness to do battle with their foes.


As expected, a large force of Flesh Hounds appears on the other side of the blind hill the IG had chosen as their base camp.


However, a second wave appears on the plains ahead of them as well, cutting off the IG from their Tau allies.


Slavering jaws and eager howls announce the coming slaughter.


“You are the puppets, and we pull the strings!”
Cultists form up quick battle lines as well, supporting their daemonic masters.


“Burble-gibble!”
Chaos Spawn fester and blossom into existence as they howl into the night sky.


“The Architect of Fate stands with us, you are but toys upon his board!”
The sorcerer speaks potentially 4th wall shattering prophecy as he leads his army forward.


Waves of Pink Horrors pour out of the darkness, their hands already crackling with eldritch fire.


A second wave appears, moving toward the Tau lines.


The Flesh Hounds begin their charge.


Imperial soldiers and Kroot Warriors stand shoulder to shoulder, all previous disagreements forgotten, as the great enemy approaches.


Flesh Hounds rise over the crest of the hill before diving down it towards the Imperial lines.


A wave of flame from the Burning Brand opens the engagement, downing a handful of Imperial and Kroot defenders.


Here is your flashlight and t-shirt, welcome to the Imperial Guard, now stop the horde of Khorne beasts.
You may requisition for better supplies once you complete your first mission.


The Conscripts of the Whiteshield stand their ground and prepare for glory.


When all is said and done, the Conscripts are obliterated.


The Kroot and Blob squad prepare to repel the charge.


Souls on fire.
Hemmed in by armor behind us.
Trapped by elite combat daemons in front of us.
It’s an Infantryman’s life.


The Flesh Hounds howl, still hungry and angry, what can stop them?


Answer: A Hellhound, a Punisher, a Blob squad, and a Chimera all firing into them. Flames erupt in great waves as multiple flamers and the gatling gun of the Punisher Leman Russ blast apart Hound after Hound.


Some tau shooting and an orbital bombardment dig a big hole out of the Pink Horrors.


The Tau fire Warriors also fire at the distant Chaos Cultists.


Rejoice, we have found something weedier than us!


The Tau left flank had been almost clear of enemies to begin ith, but with some shooting they clear away the threat of a Cultist squad and also down a Chaos Spawn.


Against the distant Horrors they do a bit less damage, the right flank is still threatened.


“Do you want to live forever!?!” The Sergeants and Minustorium battle priests wade forward into combat.
“If you do you better charge,” adds the Commissar.
The Blob Squad charges into the remains of the weakened Flesh Hounds, tearing them apart.


“Men of Mars, for the Omnissiah!”


The Guard reform their battle lines, drawing up to face the remaining hounds.


The Kroot and Autocannon Heavy Weapon Teams fire at the Hounds, downing some more daemons.


More Chaos forces appear, a squad of Havocs with flamers and some Cultists deploy near the Tau lines.


“All is…ASH!” The Havocs raise their flamers towards the horrified Fire Warriors…who don’t seem to notice the irony.


“Raaargh!” A Heldrake sweeps through the murky darkness, diving over the cowering Cultists below as it approaches the Tau battlesuits.


Nurgle Heldrake? No…no…probably just a trick of Tzeentch…yes!


The Heldrakes prepare to reap a deadly toll.


Unfortunately their damage rolls end up resembling this.


Just a moment to appreciate the pretty summoning circle the Cultists drew in this Rhino.


Distorted Cultists, wracked with mutation and the sorceries of the witch shamble into view.


The Havocs let loose with their flamers, destroying the Tau line.


“Hold the line!” The Catachan troopers ready themselves as the Sorcerers and their Spawn approach. The Kroot proved unstable and began to flee after coming under Chaos shooting.


Can they manage?


A visual representation of every ‘Deny the Witch’ roll made thus far in the game.
Mars and Tau don’t cotton to no trickery.


The Flesh Hounds quickly consume half the Heavy Weapon teams.


“Dare you to face eternity, servant of the Corpse Emperor?”
“I fear no evil, for the Omnissiah is with me…and also I have a few feet of fine Mars steel in my hand!”
The Armageddon Sergeant raises his blade and accepts the Sorcerer’s challenge, managing to inflict a minor wound on him. Unfortunately his bravado does him little good versus the sorcerer’s power axe, and he is felled.


“The power of Chaos compels me!”
Tzeentch rewards his servant by promoting him to daemonhood.
…which…actually…pretty much weakens his invulnerable save, robs him of his armor and other upgrades, and leaves him as an unattached character right in front of a number of IG vehicles.
The Chaos general makes a comment along the lines of; “He probably would have been better off just becoming a Spawn”


The Kroot manage to rally, and move to help protect the remaining Autocannons.


“For Mars! For glory! For the Omnissiah!” Harry Paget sticks his head out of his Chimera and waves around his plasma gun meaningfully a bit so that others can see him before quickly hunkering down again. After all, only an idiot actually ran around shooting one of those damned plasma pistols.


An imposing IG armored core rolled up in Harry Paget’s wake, their guns sighting in on the Chaos lines.


The Bane Wolf appears to support the Hellhound as they prepare to unleash flame and gas upon the Chaos Spawn.


The Punisher fires its weapon, downing the new Daemon Prince in a matter of seconds in a hail of firepower.


“For the Omnissiah, with me men!” Captain Hellsford charges his men forward, ordering them to fire their weapons at the Spawn. He raises his plasma pistol, fires, and promptly melts his face off. The rest of his squad and the flame and gas attacks manage to tear apart the Chaos Spawn and the last Sorcerer anyway.


Autocannons tear into the Flesh Hounds.


Leman Russ battle cannons bark out loud bellows as they shatter one of the enemy Rhinos.


“Looks like those cowardly xenos need some backup.”
Sergeant Callahan and the Red Daggers dropped in front of the Tau lines, ready to show these puny Tau how the Emperor goes about killing stuff.


Their firepower tears apart the flamer Havocs.


“Stop denying the witch! Stop it!”

In a fit of desperation Chaos tank shocks with a Rhino, targeting the Storm Troopers of Red Dagger and also the Tau commander (of note, if they could kill him or remove him from play in any way it was worth 4 VPs). The Tau player, who was behind my Stormtrooper squad, tested first, failed, and rolled high enough to run off the board (aka 4 VPs!)

Then I came back from getting a drink and passed my leadership test.
And, not even knowing the secret Chaos win condition, I opted to Death or Glory it.


“A Chaos vehicle driving towards us, flee, FLEE!”
The Tau quaver as Sgt. Callahan simply sneered and stepped forward, “Munson, toss me the melta gun!”
Taking it up in his hands he stood his ground in front of the onrushing vehicle and fired.


“Feeling lucky?”
The Chaos vehicle ground to a halt in a sputtering ruin, immobilized.


The Heldrake is sent in to try to finish the job.


Gouts of flame tear apart the other Crisis Suits, but the Commander emerges unscathed.


Tau forces close in on the weakened Pink Horrors.


The Company Commander stands unafraid in the smoking ruin of his Command Chimera. Still exhorting his men on to battle and victory.


The last push of Chaos surges forward.


“Fire at will!”
The Autocannons reap a toll as the Cultists charge in.




The Flesh Hounds hurl themselves against the Imperial armor, but manage to do no damage.


As Captain Harry Paget stands by the central objective the forces of Chaos withdraw under the withering firepower of their foes.

Chaos got first blood - 1 point
The Tau fulfilled their secret objective and hold an objective - 5 points
The IG slew the Chaos Warlord and hold 2 objectives - 9 points

The Imperium and Tau Win!

Imperium MVP
A couple of possibilities here as a number of units performed quite well. I think I’m going to give the nod to the Punisher Leman Russ though. I had originally taken it as a bit of a whim choice and maybe a weapon versus Heldrakes, but when John’s Chaos suddenly became a lot of daemons all of a sudden its high output medium strength shooting became invaluable. From sawing apart Flesh Hounds to blasting apart the Daemon Prince, the Punisher performed amazingly every round. Honorable mention is probably the Stormtroopers and the Tau Crisis Suits that popped one of the Heldrakes with one round of shooting.

Imperium WTF
I guess I’ll toss this at…the Platoon Commander who melted his face, if simply because, really we didn’t have anything do poorly. Maybe the Kroot? Simply for breaking? I dunno, they still did okay and served their job.

Chaos MVP
The Flesh Hounds. Yeah, a squad died when exposed to the full firepower of my army plus an assault, but still. They did exactly what they were supposed to, which was put the IG on their back foot and pressure the line. Really, if the Sorcerer hadn’t been popped and the IG had done a little less damage in shooting (or maybe the Horrors had managed to shoot once or twice more…) then probably Chaos could have carried the day on the IG corner. The only reason they came as close as they did was because of the efforts of the Hounds in clearing out the piles of infantry I had buried in there.

Chaos WTF
The Sorcerer becoming a Prince and basically becoming far easier to kill as a result.
(dis)Honorable mention to the poor Pink Horrors, who might have been good, but they got shut down by just a devastating streak of sixes on the DtW rolls.

Captain Paget looked down on the body of Hellsford as it was carted off, shaking his head ruefully. Poor fellow, a bit of a prat, but probably not deserving that fate. It was also a bit of dumb luck that the retreat of his armored column was being interpreted as a “heroic charge” that had turned the tide of the battle. Harry wasn’t about to tell them that he’d just thought the daemons had mostly attacked the other side of the encampment.

Oh well, their defenses were secure, and now, blessedly, the Imperium was going to be sending extensive relief forces. If Harry had any say in it at all he was going to manage to talk his way onto one of the Carriers and get himself shipped back immediately to Iunden.

He suspected he wouldn’t be that lucky though.

========================================================

"Your after-action report does not mention that the humans had to save you from an onrushing tainted transport tank. One of their elite troops stopped it with a primitive fusion weapon moments before overrunning your position, correct?" Aun'Sclera's usually flat tone was tinted with disapproval, but whether it was over the omission in the report or of the event itself, Commander Brightwave could not be sure.

"I usually do not include events in my reports that 'almost happened', Aun'Sclera. I limit myself to what did happen. Regardless, our patrol was a success. We turned the ambush back upon the ambushers, destroying much of their force and gravely wounding two of their sorcerers. Their use of Etherfiends shows that they either have a better hold on this system than we thought, or that they are desperate. We are not certain which at this point."

"And the strategic objectives set forth by Captain Paget were controlled?" asked Aun'Sclera.

"Yes, for the brief period we needed to control them. I still do not understand the human need to "control" territory, but it seems to make the humans more effective. I am glad of this weakness in them, though."

"Do not be so certain that it is a weakness. We have seen what they will do to feel safe in certain areas, and such a mindset can make them very dangerous. If you give an enemy no means of escape, you give him no reason to run," instructed Aun'Sclera.

"Then let us clear a broad escape avenue for these tainted humans, and drive them from Gimat."

========================================================

The daemon prince, Khell’dor smiled as it regarded the devastation below.

”You seem quite happy considering it was your side that lost.”

Khell’dor noted that the voice had used the phrase ‘your side’ not ‘our side’ but was unsurprised. Nyx was a powerful being, but capricious and playfully dismissive of its toys, certainly unlikely to think itself overly bound by any alliance.

”Poor Kharn also seemed quite upset when he heard about the Hounds. He killed more than a few of your men when he heard the news. Also a few of his. Then he loaded all their skulls into a catapult and fired them at my slaves while screaming insults. He is rather unhinged.”

“None of it matters,” Khell’dor shrugged, “I knew that Aphopis was shortly due to ascend, I had to make sure that his rising star fell into disfavor.”

”How cruel,” Nyx’s voice twinkled with laughter, ”you would not be thinking that I was in too much ascendance, would you?”

“Of course not, m’lady Nyx,” Khell’dor dipped his head in observance to her. “Besides, I very much need you to help us locate the Elendil Thrakul before Nurgle does.”

”Yes, he smells so. It is distasteful.” Nyx sighed, stretching its body languidly and even Khell’dor was forced to marshal his willpower to keep from staring transfixed. ”So, we are ready for the next part of the plan?”

“Indeed. Gentukama is a fool, and the Imperium and Tau are our puppets. Once we have the Eldar, we shall control this sub-sector and more, Tzeentch wills this.” Khell’dor smiled as he turned to gather his forces, Gimat would need to be defended, it was as good a point as any to distract the Imperium with. But it was simply the opening gambit in a larger game, and only he and Tzeentch could see all the pieces.