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The pistons of Tech-Master Garion's mover/loader arms hissed with effort as they moved a massive chunk of statuary which had once been fashioned as the bust of the Planetary Governor of Barden IV, Vardus Shereen. The workmanship was probably exquisite before the sky began to burn with the Tau suborbital munitions but now the esteemed leader was unrecognizable. He felt with an 82.6% probability that the main Tau force would begin landing operations in the next 24-48 hours. He had dispatched his subordinates to deploy support artillery and shore up the surrounding ruins to serve as defensive positions in support of the Crimson Fists weapons depot. They had to hold the depot until the Strike Cruiser "Stone Breaker" arrived in system with reinforcements.

When Garion was satisfied that the stone was in the optimal position to create a hasty fighting position he released the stone and set about using scrap metal to weld it into position. A nearby explosion shook the building he was in so hard that he was knocked to the ground. This was quickly followed by a second and then a third. He felt a quick moment of panic as he picked himself up and ran up the crumbling stairs to the roof top. He watched as the rolling thunder of blasts increased in intensity. The building across the street from his own shuddered under multiple impacts and began to implode. A strangled cry of pain came across his vox as several tons of rockrete and steel buried Tech-Brother Zhang.

Garion had been on both sides of enough sieges to know that when the firestorm subsided, the ground assault would begin in earnest and ahead of his calculations.


Shep and I felt like playing one of the expansion games this weekend and decided upon a Planetstrike game. Just to mix things up - he is usually the defender since it is usually at his place and one of our house rules is that home player is defender. I had a couple of days to think about this and decide what was going on - I have been doing a lot of tourney style play lately and wanted to do something a bit more thematic. I asked Shep what army he wanted to have attacking and he decided to dust the Tau off and we went with 2000 points and just decided to play mission 1 from the Planetstrike book. I also took a ton of pics and you can check them out in my gallery.

I felt that one of the first things that an invader would want to disable/take would be a weapons depot - especially an enemy like the Tau who want to minimize their own casualties so with that in mind I set about building my list.

The Lists
Crimson Fists Weapons Depot Garrison
HQ
Tech-Master Garion - Master of the Forge with Conversion Beamer
Troops
10 Tactical Marines (Missile Launcher, Flamer)
10 Tactical Marines (Missile Launcher, Flamer)
5 Scouts (Cloaks, Missile Launcher, Telion)
5 Scouts (Power Fist)
Elite
6 Sternguard Veterans (Power Fist, 2x Combimeltas, Heavy Flamer, Rhino)
Heavy Support
Thunderfire Cannon
Thunderfire Cannon
Thunderfire Cannon
Predator (Lascannon Sponsons)
Fast Attack
Land Speeder Storm (Heavy Flamer)
8 Bikes (2x Meltas, Multimelta Attack Bike, Power Fist)

The Evil Warmongering Expansionist Tau
HQ
shaso missile po plasa rifle multitracker x2
Elite
3x3 fire knife suits
Troops
6 fire warriors in warfish
Fast Attack
8 pathfinders in a warfish
4x single piranhas wit disrutption pods targeting arrays and fuson blasters
Heavy Support
3 broadsides with stabilizers team leader with drone controller and 2 shield drones
2x hammerheads with disruption pods smart missile systems multitracker and blacksun filters

The Battlefield
I set up the field as I imagine a weapons depot for a world on war footing would look. A quick note on the tall fences - we decided to treat them as difficult terrain and 5+ cover for non-vehicles only and a vehicle driving through it would remove the fence.



And just because it looks cool -



Turn 1
Tech-Master Garion watched as the comet tailed flares approached. He knew that there would be no way to return to the command bastion.

A trio of sleek white battlesuits landed before the building and fired a hail of missiles into the wrecked administratum building. Already weakened by the firestorm the floor gave way beneath him. He crashed through several levels before finally slamming into a rockrete support. His ribs were pulverized within his suit and his body's autonomic functions cast him into a healing coma. Seconds later he was buried beneath the detritus of the building.

Shep reveals the first of his insidious stratagems and Confusion Reigns swapping out my sniper scouts (which had been in a commanding position on a reinforced building on the extreme flank) with my Master of the Forge who had been in the center bastion. It should be obvious by the deployment of the bastions that I took drop zone denial.

The firestorm begins with all 7 firestorms being required to take out one of the Thunderfire cannons that had a nice flanking line of fire. Before the dust had even begun to settle the Tau arrived en masse. One of the Fireknife units appeared before the administratum building the Master of the Forge was reinforcing. I made all the cover saves from his plasma but rolled snake eyes on 2 missile pod wounds killing him.



The rest of Shep's units (everything bar 1 piranha, the pathfinders and a hammerhead) took up their positions - the 3 piranha zipped on the full 24" on my left flank with the broadsides coming on just behind them. They fired into the bastion with the scouts and shook it, preventing the scouts from firing in the following turn.



One of the fireknife teams deepstruck on my right flank and sniped the other Thunderfire cannon on that flank leaving the techmarine free to rampage, or something like that.



My reserves are equally impressive - I think I got everything except for the predator. The Sternguard came on by the broadsides, unfortunately they were in the rhino and would not be able to charge. Their shooting did account for a wound from one of the broadsides, however.



The Dreadnought also appeared between the broadsides and the piranhas and destroyed one with assault cannon and heavy flamer to the rear armor. The bikes accounted for a second one and both drone units failed were pinned.

The assaulty scouts caught a ride over on their storm and hopped off and charged the fireknife with the techmarine in support.



Shooting didn't really do anything but they were set up to charge.

They easily won the combat and wiped out the remaining suit when it tried to flee.




Hope to finish this up tomorrow.

Turn 2
Shep gets the rest of his army on the table and focuses much of his attention on the Sternguard and wipes them out. The dreadnought gets off easy from the two hammerheads - the first one destroys a weapon (Shep takes the close combat weapon/heavy flamer) and then the second immobilizes it making Shep wish that he had taken the assault cannon. The storm is also destroyed, killing a scout in the process.



The predator rolls onto the table behind the bastions. I place behind one of the bastions to keep it out of the broadsides LOS. The techmarine moves toward the tau lines hoping to cause some havoc before he dies.

The dreadnought's drop pod fires its storm bolter at the unit of two drones from the piranha and kills one. The bikes move forward and set up a dual charge on the drones if they hold, or a charge on the back one if not.

The thunderfire cannon shoots his airburst rounds at the pathfinders (I would rather they just get the 4+ armor rather than the 3+ going to ground cover save). I kill half the unit and the survivors issue that time honored tau battlecry "RETREAT!" and run off the table.

The only other major result of my shooting is to destroy the weapons on both surviving piranhas.



I make sure with my placement that only one bike is able to attack one of the drone units while the rest of the attacks go on the other thinking that it is likely that I will either win combat by only 1 and the other might hold on a 6. My gambit pays off, I kill one of them and the other holds and my bikes are safe from a turn of shooting and should get an extra d6" in Shep's turn - hopefully getting a high enough result to be in charge range of the broadsides.

Everything goes according to plan, I kill one drone and the other holds giving me a nice pile in move.



Turn 3
The warfish fires at the scouts, killing 2 (including the sergeant) but they hold position. The crisis suits which had killed the master of the forge turn their weaponry on the techmarine and gun him down.



The piranhas jump over the building on my flank moving flat out to get a cover save and set up a move on one of my bastions. The commander and his escort run to get a bit of extra room from the bikes but don't go far (either a 1 or a 2 - certainly not far enough).




The rest of Shep's shooting clears my right flank of any Crimson Fists units.



The bikes destroy the last drone and get a decent massacre move though one of the bikers moving through the wreckage of the piranha dies to the dangerous terrain.

Fortunately for me after a quick move they now have an easy dual charge on the broadsides and crisis suits.

My shooting stuns a hammerhead but is otherwise pretty anemic - as a side note - armor 13 doesn't get the respect it deserves. For that matter, at range even armor 12 is a pain in the at least for me. Maybe it is just something about the tau tech that confounds me (see the failed death or glory with a multimelta at the Wild West Shootout) but I digress.



I win combat with the bikes by 4 thanks to the power fist and multiwound models. the broadsides leg it off the table but the crisis suits hold. The bikes swarm around them though Shep has cleverly ensured that my power fist is in base to base with a crisis suit (closest to closest - that was a tactical error on my part, I should have had a regular biker in front of him and then been able to float it) and cannot direct them on the commander.

Turn 4
Brother-Sergeant Daen ducked low avoiding a short range plasma burst, dropping his bike in the process. He dropped his shoulder and lunged with all his might, the artificial nerve bundles in his armor amplifying his already prodigous strength. He caught the battlesuit around its mid section and knocked it back
into one of its companions. All three tumbled to the ground in confusion. Daen was the first to recover.

He activated the disruptor field of his power fist and ripped the "head" off of the battlesuit. There was no blood. The pilot was safely contained in the body but the damage was catastrophic nonetheless and the suit fell lifeless. Daen's fury continued to build and sparks would not satisfy his rage. He punched his fist through the body of the other suit. This time there was blood and an alien cry of agony.

Daen stood and looked for the next opponent when a bright flash exploded in the sky above him followed by an absolute darkness. Rippling explosions along his battle armor brought his focus back to the melee around him. One of the battlesuits was trying to avenge his fallen comrades with a short range burst of rocket fire. Fortunately for Daen the quarters were too close for the rockets to fully arm. He charged the battlesuit.


Shep took this opportunity to reveal his final stratagem as the sky darkened. Black Sun filters are awesome. And I hate them. One of the hammerheads destroyed the bastion on my right flank. The tau were systematically clearing that flank for their landers, no doubt.



The piranhas jumped over into contact with my left bastion to ensure he had contact on it - my turn 4 would see them having a cover save and on turn 5 if I destroyed them, there was every chance that the drones would end up in base to base with the bastion. His clever move also effectively locked the marines inside preventing any krak grenade heroics. I guess it bears mentioning here that our house rule is that buildings count as terrain rather than an occupied vehicle for purposes of enemies touching them. Even if there are models inside the bastion who could be hugging the walls. Like I said, it is our house rule, feel free to use it or not, but just be aware that it is the law of the land where we play so don't say that he couldn't do that because they would be within 1". It feels more in the spirit of the game which is really what the supplements are about (in our group's opinion).

The tau battlesuits were prepared for the sudden darkness band took advantage of the confusion by killing two bikers. The Crimson Fists, however, were wholly unprepared and so taken off guard that they only caused a single wound from the fist resulting in a drawn combat.



The darkness seriously thwarted me as I failed to have range on pretty much anything. The predator did spot the closest piranha and lit it up with a spotlight though failed to hit the elusive speeder thanks to the flat out cover save. The thunderfire cannon fired at them and was also thwarted. The marines in the bastion fired out with a missile launcher and the flamer covered both skimmers.



I ended up with a pen and a glance on each. Both resulted in the immobilization of the skimmers which destroyed them. Once more Shep tells me that flamers are not anti-vehicle tech. Once more I feel like I would rather believe my lying eyes than his voodoo "math".

In close combat the Fists are still recovering from the sudden darkness and whiff everything. Luckily they don't suffer any wounds in return, but still... this is just getting silly. At this point I am hoping to lose combat so I can combat tactics out and get my meltas on the hammerheads.



Turn 5
The game is serious at this point. This could be the last turn and Shep puts caution to the wind, advancing with everything he can and touching every objective with at least 2 vehicles and blocking the entry point for the scouts (and unforunately not on a side with fire points! Note to self - pay more attention to that when setting up terrain - I am so used to ruins and area terrain...) Shep's shooting blows off the Predator's lascannon sponson but that is about it. Things are fast and furious now.

The bikes continue their whiff fest.

The Tac Marines in the bastion fire through their firepoint and kills a drone, causing the other to fall back. The thunderfire wipes out the other unit of drones clearing that bastion. If the game ends, Shep wins. If not, I might still have a chance.

The game continues.

Turn 6

Shep is in position and doesn't have a lot to do other than make a whole lot of cover saves (which he does, and admirably). His shooting is largely desultory - he doesn't want to destroy the bastion my scouts are in but the tac marines in cover suffer two wounds.

The bikes finally manage to wipe out the crisis suits and commander and desperately try to be relevant - they get a rear armor shot with a lot of melta on one of the hammerheads and destroy it leaving only the warfish in contact with it.

The predator shifts to get a side armor shot on the hammerhead but still fails to do anything. I don't have much other shooting but in an act of petulance I fire everything that I can at that single falling back drone before my Dreadnought does just to remind him not to get immobilized. Unfortunately it falls to the Brother-Ancient to deal with the drone, which he does with authority. With that, the game ends with a victory for the tau attackers.



After Action Review
Wow. That was by far the most fun Planetstrike game I have played and pretty high up there in terms of must fun 40k. It was a really tight game and Shep had some clutch cover saves (stupid disruptor pods!) At the end I think Shep's only models on the table were the three vehicles which were scoring 2 of my objectives - which is all that he needed for the win. He stuck to the mission and played a really tight game.

It was really fun to break out a lot of Shep's terrain and it made for a really cinematic gaming experience. I think we may have to follow this game up with a Cityfight game or two as I struggle to regain the initiative in the war for Barden IV. If only the Stone Breaker had arrived in system with the promised reinforcements!

Commendations
The assaulty scout squad did pretty well - coming on with the storm and then getting the charge is pretty awesome. The thunderfire cannon again did well - I think it is testimony to their effectiveness that Shep put all 7 firestorm shots on them and then devoted a crisis suits.

Condemnation
Missile launchers. I really had trouble getting them to do anything. Granted, tau armor is pretty high on the side, but still - out of probably a dozen hits over the course of the game they accomplished exactly 0. I couldn't get that 4 I needed. I think my Tac Squads are going to trade their missile launchers for multimeltas. They are typically within 24" just because of how I like to use them, so the long range of the missile launcher is largely wasted and from 12-24" the MM is the same strength with ap1 giving it a boost on the chart.

Anyway, thanks for reading, this is really long, I know, but it was a really really fun game and it looked awesome (in my opinion).

Awesome report.

I wish I had games like this. ><

A very fun read, and the game looks like it was a blast!

Great battle report and some nicely themed terrain to boot!

The painted portions of both armies look great as well... I can't wait to see them both finished up.

Now, if only I could find some time to get in a bit of planetstrike with either of you two...

loved the table, looked like an excellent game! Bravo!

Shep? As in Miniwargaming's Shepp?

It's about time for my color commentary, I should think...

Som showed up and I just gave him unrestricted access to my terrain set, and he came up with a really cinematic looking stage for our battle. There were things he could have done with his bastions that would have been more "competitive" and some of the terrain could have been "gamier". But planetstrike is so breakable in so many different ways, that the best way to play it is cooperatively.

In that spirit, both of our lists were soft. They were comprised of decent units, played by able generals, but there was nothing cut-throat going on.

I did have to burn 7 firestorms to finally kill a thunderfire cannon (but not the techmarine) I haven't run those numbers yet, but I'm willing it bet that was a little steep of a cost. Confusion reigns was the perfect stratagem for Soms set up. It's a little mean, but he took it in stride, I moved his stealthed/bolstered scout unit into a bastion and replaced them with a master of the forge, which a crisis team and warfish should have been able to take out before that conversion beamer fired, and they did. Even with all of that good work before the game really started I was petrified of the reserves he had, especially with their random table edge arrivals.

Just dumb luck saved the broadsides from a turn 1 charge. The only unit that arrived on my back line was a sternguard unit that was married to their rhino when Som organized his reserves. The broadsides ultimately weren't worth a whole lot in this type of engagement, the same goes for pathfinders. The broadsides could at least shoot the turn they walked on with S&P, but they didn't really do a lot, and were harried by reserves until they finally got chased down and locked in to combat. the pathfinders didn't get to shoot the guns i wanted all game, my usual technique of joining a shas'el to them for leadership and extra wounds wasn't used, and so they were a spineless unit, best left at home. I would have killed for a vespid unit this game.

The biggest unit I missed was the kroot. I was so excited by the prospect of "not needing troops" that I just dismissed them. They would have been a real threat to the thunderfire cannons on the short table edges with an outflank, and i could have then saved my crisis suits to hunt down tactical squads (or those pesky bikes). The tac squads would have had to put bolter shots into the kroot, and that means no missile shots into my armor.

My best unit that game? Although they weren't flashy, the hammerheads shook bastions, shook and weapon destroyed the predator and just moved up steadily towards the bastions, arriving right on time, base to basing two of three bastions.

Som might expect me to name the shaso and crisis suit team that held up his bikes for 3 turns. I would, but the frustration of a single gun drone holding against 8 bikes with a power fist and an attack bike, only to watch a 5" consolidate, 12" move and 6" charge contact both my 280 point broadside unit and my 300 point crisis team + commander prevents me from doing so. I was set up to unload the broadsides and the crisis team and two hammerheads into that bike squad, but the protection afforded by the close combat prevented that.

My worst? The pathfinders. The broadsides might have been expensive and underwhelming, but at least they had some game impact. The pathfinders showed up, debarked fired pulse carbines at sternguard to no effect, were fired on by a single thunderfire cannon and booked. The survivors of that unit will be punished.

It goes without saying that the firewarriors were terrible, I bought the required 6, they hung out in a devilfish all game, and essentially made that devilfish 60 points more expensive. But I had to take them so nothing to discuss here really.

Beautiful terrain, and a great report! Thanks guys!

hey everybody, thanks for the nice comments, it is good to know that all of the hard work or writing these up is appreciated.

Dude Can I request, you pull out the daemons, I fell in lof with the fluff for them and would skip the battle report to read the fluff first. Koko, The eye, and The brain became highlights of my time in Iraq. I'm having my first kid in a week and that would be a cool baby warming gift to see them in action again.

Wow, first off, congratulations! My own nurgling is nearing a year. Man, there is no way I can refuse a request like that. Perhaps it is time for a bit of an interlude...

That was a really good bat-rep, thanks for taking the time to do it for us all

Somnicide wrote:Wow, first off, congratulations! My own nurgling is nearing a year. Man, there is no way I can refuse a request like that. Perhaps it is time for a bit of an interlude...

Just popped back in here to check up on the debriefing (great batrep, btw), and saw this.

Do it, Som, do it! Feed your inner daemon!

Nice batrep - always cool to read a good Planetstrike one! The white-painted Tau looked great, too. Thanks for taking the time to write 'er up.

Looked like a really well fought battle. Bravo to both sides.

Perhaps next time you could reverse the sides? I know Tau are pretty fearsome defenders (Able to field more heavy support, and tau have some of the best in the game)

"I make sure with my placement that only one bike is able to attack one of the drone units while the rest of the attacks go on the other thinking that it is likely that I will either win combat by only 1 and the other might hold on a 6. My gambit pays off, I kill one of them and the other holds and my bikes are safe from a turn of shooting and should get an extra d6" in Shep's turn - hopefully getting a high enough result to be in charge range of the broadsides."

Were these drones from separate squadrons or something?
Otherwise I'm wondering how that worked exactly.

Thanks for all the hard work of doing a full, pic'd report of your Planetstrike battle! The pics and detailed turns really bring it to life.

- Blackbone

@Timmah - The drones were the survivors or two different piranhas that had been destroyed.

@Superscope - Yeah, Shep is usually the defender, we felt a bit like mixing it up some. The rules for Planetstrike really go a long way toward fun brutal games. In fact, it has us looking back at Cities of Death again just because it has been so fun to play nonstandard games.

@Necroagogo and Million - Thanks for the nice words - the positive feedback really helps keep me motivated to write these things.

@Tinfoil - My painting table is now covered with daemons. My wife was laughing at me last night because I kept pulling things out of the box saying "oh yeah, I love this army!"

Somnicide wrote:@Timmah - The drones were the survivors or two different piranhas that had been destroyed.

Ah, I guess I just thought that they both came from piranhas in the same squadron. (in which case they all disembark as 1 squad)

But anyways, very nice bat rep. Enjoyed reading the whole thing and seeing how planetstrike plays out.

Nah, it was 4 individual units of 1 (attacker in planetstrike gets 6 FA slots)

Ah, too use to playing normal 40k.