Iron Father Esarhaddon rarely left the forges aboard the Battle Barge that he now called home. It was even more uncommon for him to lead the Hands of Vengeance in battle, as his expertise was generally more useful when applied to the care and maintenance of the Chapter's sacred war machines. When the Monody Ascendant took it's position in orbit around Cerulean 4 to resupply it's water reserves the Machine Spirits of the mighty vessel whispered to the Master of the Forge that there might be something else of interest planetside. The Scouts' reports verified that the remains of a long-abandoned Adeptus Mechanicus outpost was located on the planet's southernmost continent though it had been disguised to appear as though it were an archaic form of castle, probably to fit in with the world's now mysteriously absent population. The Scouts had also discovered that a small force of Tau on the planet had also located the outpost. The Xenos had even attempted to contact the Battle Barge with overtures of peaceful relations. These fell on deaf ears, as the events of the last few months had left Chapter Master Yadon Napthal even more unable to countenance aliens than usual..
So it was that Esarhaddon now found himself monitoring the autosenses of the Space Marines already below him from the soothing interior of a Drop Pod. The Tactical Squad that accompanied him went about their pre-battle rituals, singing hymns of praise to the Emperor and swearing oaths of hatred against the awaiting foes. The Master of the Forge only placed his helmet against the bulkhead and felt the comforting hum of the Drop Pod's engines. He had personally blessed every Pod, Tank and Dreadnought that would be taking place in today's battle and he knew that their Machine Spirits were ready for war. An unfamiliar flicker of excitement sent a rustle of movement through his mechadendrites. His Servo Arms, which he no longer thought of as additions to his body, opened and closed reflexively. The Omnissiah was with him, this mission could not fail.
So this was my first game at what may be my new
LGS. My opponent was Ian who was a very cool guy and a lot of fun to play with. I'm giving his list from memory so bear with me here... I've got it within 10 points of 1500 so I think it's close enough? I'm just not sure about the wargear on his Shas'
el 
His List:
Shas'
El with
TL Missile Pods, Multi-tracker
6 Firewarriors, Devilfish with Disruptor Pods, Multi-Tracker, Gun Drones (x2)
9 Firewarriors, Devilfish with Disruptor Pods, Multi-Tracker, Gun Drones(x3)
Hammerhead with Rail Cannon, Disruptor Pods, Multi-Tracker, Gun Drones (x3)
My List
Master of the Forge, Servo Harness
Tactical Squad, 7 Bolters, melta gun, missile launcher, Rhino
Tactical Squad, 7 Bolters, melta gun, missile launcher, Sergeant with Combi-Melta and Powerfist, Drop Pod
Scout Squad, 2 Shotguns, 2
BP/
CCW, Sgt with Combi-melta and powerfist
Dreadnought,
TLLC/
ML Sargon
Dreadnought,
TLLC/
ML Hammurabi
Dreadnought,
MM,
DCCW w/
HF, XA, Drop Pod
Gilgamesh
Ironclad Dreadnought, Seismic Hammer with Melta Gun,
DCCW w/
HF, Assault Launchers, Drop Pod
Nebuchadnezzar
Land Speeder Storm, Heavy Flamer
We roll for mission and deployment and get Capture and control on Dawn of War.
Sorry about the blurriness, gotta keep a steadier hand I guess. I took this after deployment, my objective is right next to the Rhino behind the hill on the bottom left. His objective is behind that tower closest to him, there is a gray devilfish right behind it (you can see it poking out the back) and his Shas'
el is right there too. The red tanks all over the place? They aren't there! It's all in your mind. I have three Drop Pods in reserve; Gilgamesh, Nebuchadnezzar and the melta toting tactical squad. Scouts are outflanking in the Land Speeder Storm
I decline to seize the initiative.
Turn One!
Top:
Ian moves 4 Devilfish and 2 Hammerheads onto the table opposite my Rhino, and the third Railhead parks about 12 inches away from his objective. Apparently the Tau in all of their technological superiority have not invented headlights, so Night Fighting keeps Ian's guns silent this turn.
Bottom:
Drop Pod assault time! I decide I'm going to play for his objective as mine is pretty safe for the moment. Put my Nebuchadnezzar and Gilgamesh over by the lonely Hammerhead to my right and though they both scatter a bit they are still well within the range of their respective melta armaments. The Vindicator parks next to the Rhino on the objective trying to stay a bit behind the hill for cover purposes. Sargon and Hammurabi come in a little to my right so they can shoot at side armor all day if Ian continues to advance toward my poor camping Tactical Squad.
Shooting sees Nebuchadnezzar hit with his Searchlights and miss with his melta(Vulkan, we hardly knew ye) but Gilgamesh hits and penetrates! And rolls a... 1. Stunned. Whoopdy-do. Hammurabi shoots at the illuminated Hammerhead and gets a penetrating hit but whether it was Disruptor Pods or the Castle in the way the cover save is made. Sargon runs to get a little more into position.
That's the end of turn one. Score is: 1/1
Turn Two!
Top:
The Devilfish behind the central tower moves away, ostensibly to avoid being Multi-Melta'd to death. The Shas'
El moves to get a clear shot at Gilgamesh. The stunned Hammerhead looks pleadingly at Nebuchadnezzar. Mwah ha ha! Everything else moves toward my objective. The lead Railhead shoots at my Vindicator and misses, the other one shoots and gets a penetrating hit but it's my turn to roll a 4+ for the cover save! The Shas'
El misses Gilgamesh with his Missile Pod and jumps back behind the tower, keeping it between him and the Dreadnoughts.
Bottom:
All of my reserves come in, and I get my choice of where I'd like my scouts to outflank so I choose directly behind the Hammerheads on my left, the Combi-Melta pointing at the rear armor of one, the Storm's Heavy Flamer pointing at the rear armor on the other. The Tactical Squad and Master of the Forge in the Drop Pod land right next to the tower that contains Ian's objective, and they split up.
Motf, melta gun and four bolters stand an inch away from the Shas'
El, the Sergeant, missile launcher and everybody else prepare to run into the ruin. Nebuchadnezzar advances on the stunned Hammerhead while Gilgamesh stomps toward the closest Devilfish. Sargon and Hammurabi move up to get a better shot at the Devilfish closer to my objective and the Vindicator drives to the top of the hill to blast away with that Demolisher Cannon.
My Scout Sergeant's Combi-Melta hits the Hammerhead! And Pens! Then I roll a... 1. Noticing a pattern here? The Heavy Flamer does some smoke damage to the other Hammerhead but not much else. Gilgamesh misses the other Devilfish, and Nebuchadnezzer doesn't bother shooting because I want the extra movement from the assault. I'm glad I shot my Heavy Flamer before I fired my Vindi, because it scattered off the lead Devilfish onto my Storm and blew the gun off of it.
My Rhino squad fires it's Missile and misses, Sargon and Hammurabi hit the Devilfish closest to them but those Disruptor Pods are doing their jobs. The Shas'
El is reduced to a smoking pile of goo by the Melta Gun in Combat Squad 1 and Combat Squad 2 runs into the building and is now holding that objective..
The Ironclad explodes the Stunned Hammerhead, as four seismic hammer auto-hits on rear armor will do. The scouts manage to do nothing whatsoever to the Hammerhead that they assault, as they are rather hard to hit when they moved 12 inches.
End of turn 2. Score is 2-0
Turn 3!
Top:
The Tau advance toward my objective! Looks like that Rhino is going to get some attention. They're leaving my scouts to have their way with that stunned Railhead but I think that keeping your eye on the objective is smart in this kind of mission. Two Devilfish peel off and unload 18 Fire Warriors right next to my Forge Master and his 5 Battle Brothers. The other nearby Devilfish shifts a bit backward, probably to stay out of Multi Melta
2d6 range.
The operational Hammerhead vaporizes my Vindicator. The Fish of Fury style attack wounds my
MotF and kills the melta gunner and two bolters, who make their morale check. The rear devilfish shoots it's Burst Cannon at my scouts but doesn't kill any.
The scouts are still in base contact with the Hammerhead and Wreck it.
Bottom:
Nebuchadnezzar is having a hard day, not really rolling higher than a 3 on his difficult terrain checks all game and rolling 3 1's to run over the next few turns. We'll draw the curtain on him for the rest this game. Gilgamesh keeps chasing that pesky Devilfish near Ian's objective. My
MotF and his two remaining Combat Squad members advance to pay the Fire Warriors back for their kindness. Sargon and Hammurabi continue their advance toward the main forces' flank while the Storm moves flat out in front of the advancing wall of armor to be a distraction and disrupt the formation. The Scouts move toward the Devilfish that shot at them.
The rocket from inside the rhino hits the remaining Hammerhead. Penetrating hit! Cover save...
Gilgamesh hits his nemesis, the gray devilfish! Penetrating hit! Cover save...
Sargon hits the Hammerhead with his Lascannon and gets a penetrating hit! Cover. Damn. Save.
Hammurabi hits with his Lascannon and his Missile and gets two penetrating hits! One gets through for an Immobilized result. Pretty much the only one that I didn't want.
The Master of the forge kills a few Fire Warriors with his flamer and Plasma Pistol. The flamer also hits the rear armor of a Devilfish but I don't roll a 6. The two bolt pistols do nothing.
Assaults! My scouts stun the Devilfish and the Master of the Forge and the remnants of Combat Squad 1 win their dual assault and break one squad but the other stays around.
End of turn 3. Still 2-0.
Turn 4!
Top:
The fleeing Fire Warriors rally, and the Devilfish that can do so get very close to my objective. The Fire Warriors that were in the Devilfish that the scouts stunned get out and sight in on them. The Devilfish near Ian's objective shifts around a bit.
The immobilized Hammerhead stuns Sargon, the Fire Warriors kill two scouts, who pass their morale check. All kinds of guns on those leading Devilfish open up on my Rhino and shake it. The one Fire Warrior in the squad that rallied this turn that is in range fires at the scouts but misses.
My Master of the Forge and his squad do a few wounds to the Fire Warriors and run them down, consolidating toward the Fire Warriors that escaped them earlier.
Bottom:
My 3 remaining scouts make a break for the immobilized Hammerhead, I'll be needing a good roll to get an assault on it. Gilgamesh continues chasing his Devilfish. Hammurabi moves to shield his stunned brother, also getting into the rear arc of one of those Fish near my objective. The Storm moves flat out again to obscure the right side of my Rhino. Just to gild the lily, the Rhino pops smoke. Master of the Forge and company move toward the forest dwelling Fire Warriors.
Gilgamesh misses the Devilfish near my objective. Hammurabi blasts his target Devilfish out of the sky. The
MotF kills enough Fire Warriors to cause a check, they flee.
The Scouts roll a 5 to assault and wreck the Immobilized Hammerhead.
End of turn 4. Still 2-0, though things are about to get interesting over at Camp Rhino.
Turn 5!
Top:
Ian seemed to be banking on this game going to turn 6. He unloads his one of his 2 remaining mounted squads right next to my Rhino, I believe in order to glance it to death and then on turn 6 have the other squad and Devilfish come in to mop up. The other Fire Warriors are moving in to finish off those scouts. The Devilfish near Ian's objective positions itself for a turn 6 contest-of-objective run.
The scouts die pretty brutally to massed rapid fire Pulse Rifles, but nothing happens to the Rhino. Due to a failure of Ian's dice I don't even have to make a cover save.
Bottom:
My tactical marines know what happens if you're totally surrounded in a Rhino that gets glanced to death, so they pile out of the Rhino and prepare to assault the nearby Fire Warriors. Sargon and Hammurabi continue their flanking advance, Gilgamesh moves toward the Devilfish that he's been chasing all day. The Master of the Forge and his squad exit the cover slowly. The Storm parks on my objective, just trying to be on the objective to contest if, Emperor Forbid, the Tactical Squad and Rhino should be destroyed next turn.
Bolt pistols kill some Fire Warriors, as I didn't want to shoot the Devilfish and wreck it and be denied the assault. None of my Dreadnought shooting harms anything. The
MotF squad runs toward some Fire Warriors.
The Tactical Squad assaults the Fire Warriors as well as the Devilfish. They win by 5 and the Tau are caught in a sweeping advance, the Devilfish is unharmed. They consolidate away from the table edge.
We roll to see if the game ends, and it comes up a 2!
End of turn 5. The Surviving Tau Tank makes the final score 1-0. Space Marines win! Good game, man.
Iron Father Esarhaddon didn't bother watching the Tau Cadre retreat. They were beings of flesh and blood and therefore weak. Retreating was simply their nature.
"Alert the Monody Ascendant that we have secured the objective, Brother" he murmured to no one in particular. The two marines standing next to him looked at each other for a moment in confusion before Brother Enlil activated his vox bead and made the report.
"Set up a perimeter around these buildings immediately. I wish to commune with the Machines within" he continued as Tactical Squad Samium approached in their Rhino. As they disembarked Brother Enlil relayed the Iron Father's instructions to them, but Iron Father Esarhaddon had already disappeared into the dusty darkness within the abandoned outpost. Within a few moments he had integrated one of the ancient devices he found inside with the auxiliary power cells built into his armor. Finally, with a sigh of anticipation, he struck the rune of activation on the cogitator's control panel and became one with the Machine.
What a fun game! I don't get to play against Tau all that often so this was a rare treat, especially when you consider the striking paint scheme on Ian's models. He played a good game, he just gambled and lost on the game going to turn 6. Looking forward to our next match.
I'd have to say that my MVP in this game was my scout Sergeant. He really put a beating on some tanks, and getting rid of those rail cannons made my squad in the Rhino breathe a whole lot easier.
And I hope you all enjoyed my battle report!
