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Shas'el M'yen Hunter Cadre

Shas'el w/ Missile Pod, AFP, Targeting Array, HW Multi Tracker, HW Drone Controller, 1x Shield Drone - 112 pts
2x Crisis Suits w/ TL Missile Pods, Targeting Arrays -106 pts
2x Crisis Suits w/ Missile Pods, Burst Cannons, 1x Multi Tracker, 1x Target Lock, Team Leader w/ HW Multi Tracker, HW Drone Controller, 1x Shield Drone, Bonded - 135 pts
3 6x Fire Warriors - 180 pts
13x Kroot - 91 pts
2 4x Pathfinders - 96 pts
3x Devilfish w/ SMS, Multi Tracker, Targeting Array, Disruption Pods - 360 pts
3x Broadsides w/ 2x Target Lock, Team Leader w/ Targeting Array, HW Drone Controller, 1x Shield Drone, Bonded - 255 pts
1x Hammerhead w/ Railgun, Burst Cannon, Multi Tracker and Disruption Pod - 165 pts
Total: 1500 pts

Warboss Lemmy's Speedfreaks
Big Mek w/ KFF and Cybork Body – 95 pts
Warboss w/ Power Klaw, Cybork Body, Attack Squig and Bosspole – 115 pts
11x Boyz w/ Nob w/ Power Klaw and Bosspole – 106 pts
11x ‘ard Boyz – 110 pts
12x Boyz w/ Nob w/ Power Klaw and Bosspole – 112 pts
12x Boyz w/ Nob w/ Power Klaw and Bosspole – 112 pts
12x Boyz w/ Nob w/ Power Klaw and Bosspole – 112 pts
19 Gretchin w/ Runtherd – 67 pts
5x Trukks w/ Red Paint Job, Reinforced Ram and Boarding Plank – 250 pts
20x Stormboyz w/ Power Klaw and Bosspole Nob – 280 pts
Deffkopta w/ TL Rokkits and Buzzsaw – 70 pts
Deffkopta w/ TL Rokkits and Buzzsaw – 70 pts
Total: 1499

It had been only an hour since the Orca dropship carrying Shas'la Shi's team had dispatched them on this planet, yet the young Pathfinder had been on edge since his very first step onto this alien soil. He knew nothing about this world except that the Ethereals had decreed its capture would serve the Greater Good. As his team patrolled the perimeter of their camp, they crested a hill overlooking a vast plain, and La'Shi almost dropped his pulse carbine. The remains of an Ork Deff Dread lay in the middle of a crater not 100 yards away, and as La'Shi scanned the clearing, he noticed another destroyed ork mech, as well as a scouting beacon that had been placed by earlier Tau expeditions. As the four Pathfinders stood silent in the face of this scene, a faint buzzing could be heard in the distance. Snapping out of his daze, La'Shi lifted his markerlight designator to his helmet and targeted the source of the buzzing. Two Ork deffkoptas came screaming over the horizon, and behind them crude ramshackle Trukks. "Greenskins!" shouted La'Shi as his teammates sighted the oncoming threat. He radioed the information back to camp, and Shas'el M'yen's response came quickly over the comm. "Threat acknowledged. Maintain position and reinforcements will arrive shortly." La'Shi drew a deep breath and found the oncoming Ork machinery again in his sights. He steeled himself for the fight to come.

Mission: Seize Ground - 3 Objectives
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Orks win roll-off and take first turn.

La'Shi heard the sound of thrusters behind him and turned to see three Devilfish and a Hammerhead zooming over the hill. Across the field, he could see a second group of Pathfinders take up positions on another hill, with Broadside Battle Suits behind them for support. Spearheading the force was Commander M'yen, flanked by two teams of Crisis Battle Suits.





The greenskin force was rapidly approaching. The two deffkoptas sped ahead of the bulk of the orks, and each targeted one of the skimmers. The deffkopta to La'Shi's right sped directly for the Devilfish nearest to his team, while the other kopta made its way toward the devilfish screening the second Pathfinder team. As La'Shi watched the Orks advance, he noticed one of the orks' rocket packs explode, vaporizing the pilot. Loud explosions sounded throughout the battlefield as the koptas fired rockets at their targets, but the crude ork explosives detonated before finding the skimmers. The koptas charged and hacked at the devilfish with saws, but the armor of the tanks proved too powerful to cause any serious damage. La'Shi returned his attention to the mob of trukks approaching him, and spotted one ork gesturing frantically from the back of his trukk, a large mechanical device strapped to his back. Now that the orks had gotten closer, La'Shi could see the faint shimmer of a force field surrounding the ork forces.
"Target sighted," said La'Shi as he brought his markerlight to bear dead center on the ork's chest. The rest of his team followed suit as La'Shi opened a comm channel to the Broadsides standing on the opposing hill. "Distance to target: 250 meters." The battle suit's pilot responded almost immediately. "Target confirmed. Firing." Two railguns fired at the ork's trukk, one shot sailing barely over the ork's head, the other landing dead center on the rear axle. The trukk came to a screeching halt, the ork riding it screaming in fury. The third broadside's shot did not target the same vehicle, and instead hit the trukk spearheading the assault. The railgun's projectile blew the trukk to pieces, trapping the orks under a pile of flaming debris.
Quickly scanning the battlefield, La'Shi saw the Fire Warriors that had been in the Devilfish closest to him disembark and fell the ork deffkopta in a hail of pulse rifle fire. The second deffkopta was also felled across the battlefield when the devilfish it had attacked opened fire with smart missiles and burst cannon fire.



Now that their force field had been incapacitated, the orks branched off in different directions. One trukk drove toward the broadsides on the hill, and the second sped directly at La'Shi's location. The Pathfinder readied himself for the ork's assault, but it never came. Instead, the trukk moved toward the devilfish in front of La'Shi and a number of orks poured out, screaming with the thrill of battle. Their crude weapons found holes in the skimmer's armor, and the tank was torn apart by an explosion. Three of the orks were destroyed by the fireball, but the remaining orks turned to La'Shi's team and smiled, their large crooked teeth jutting out of their mouths. Across the battlefield, La'Shi caught a brief glimpse of one of the Crisis Suit teams escorting El'M'yen overcome by the attacks of an ork warboss.



La'Shi swung his markerlight around and sighted the orks directly in front of him. He turned to the fire warriors who had exited the recently destroyed Devilfish and yelled "Open fire!" The furious assault of pulse rifle fire killed all but four of the remaining orks, who dove to the ground in an attempt to save themselves. Elsewhere, La'Shi saw two trukks blow up after being hit by railgun fire, and any remaining trukks had discharged their occupants.



With a cry of dismay, La'Shi looked over and saw to his horror that El'M'yen and his guards had been overrun by greenskins, their battlesuits lying broken beneath the ork's feet. La'Shi cursed under his breath and turned back to the battlefield. He saw tiny green creatures at the back of the battle, making their way toward the downed Shock Attack Gun, swinging wrenches and other tools. La'Shi reasoned that the orks were salvaging parts from previous battles, and relayed this information to the remaining Tau units. With this new information, the Tau vehicles sped toward these downed machines, attempting to drive them away. La'Shi again sighted the orks in front of him, and the pulse rifles of the nearby fire warriors saw the greenskins fall.



The orks were momentarily stunned by the sudden rush of Tau firepower approaching their position, but they quickly recovered. The ork stormboyz jumped over the trees in their path, losing one of their numbers as his pack exploded, to try to stop the advance of the Hammerhead. Likewise, the orks who had threatened the devilfish earlier began chasing it, trying to bring it down. However, the Tau skimmers were too fast for the greenskins to damage, and La'Shi breathed a sigh of relief.



As La'Shi looked out over the battlefield in the rapidly darkening twilight, he made out the lithe bodies of Kroot auxiliaries approaching over a hill. With a furious cry, they ran forward and fired on the orks who had gotten to work tearing apart the Tau scouting beacon. La'Shi had come to realize that his part in this battle was finished. His team was too far away to impact the battle, and La'Shi could only watch as the remaining Tau skimmers sped head-on toward the downed machines in an attempt to drive the greenskins off.



Within minutes, the sky had grown so dark that La'Shi could not see without the aid of his markerlight designator. He brought the targeting system to his helmet, and was dismayed to see that the orks had dismantled the machines they wanted. However, the Tau skimmers had cut a path directly into the heart of the orks that were tearing the scrap apart and in their hurry to get out of the way, much of the scrap the greenskins wanted to salvage was left behind. Dragging what little they could, the orks retreated into the darkness. La'Shi looked back to where his commander had fallen, and breathed a sigh of relief. Although severely damaged, El'M'yen and his Crisis Suit Pilots had survived the battle. There was nothing left now but to fall back and prepare for the inevitable ork counter attack.

Result: Tie

Well, there we have it. This was my first story report, so if anyone out there has any suggestions for improvements, I'm all for them. With regards to the game, it was a great time and easily the closest game Claypool and I have played. Hopefully the fact that we tied isn't a fluke and that I'm getting better, but I guess we won't know until we play again...

Very nice read =) At first I was like "Aww come on, write it so I can understand what's going on!" but it was actually great! =) Very exciting read ^^

An excellent read and a great game! Nicely done both of ya!

what college dorm are you playing in?

We're playing in the scenic Village at CWRU.

Case Western? Do a lot of people play there? (Just curious because I'm applying there and these sort of things are good to know!)

I'm actually VP of the Wargames Club at Case and chupathingy is the Secretary. We game weekly on campus and usually have 6-8 people show up at every meeting. We use school funds to buy terrain for the club and regularly provide transportation to local tournaments and events.

Cool. Haven't heard of anything like that at any other schools thus far. Not a deciding factor per se, but good to know.