Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

This is another Narrative Series similar to the Argo Cluster Campaign (currently on hiatus) - see this thread: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/0/524342.page
The set up is similar - the players control a force half way between a necromunda gang and a 40K combat patrol or small army in a series of story based battles against a GM who creates each scenario in advance. There is some limited advancement, characters can die, you can loot the battlefield, etc. In this case it is being run by my brother rather than I, and I am playing in it. While the Argo cluster game I was running was focused on the players as Rogue Traders with battles eventually getting fairly large, he wants to keep things smaller scale. The players are Xenos Pirates in an Imperial System - Kalgorad. I'm running Tau/human renegades, Insurgency Walker is running Dark Eldar, and another player whose username I don't remember is running Orks. Due to snow I was the only player player tonight.

(Insert cool fluff I will write later about renegade tau breaking imperial POWs they once fought against out of prison camp and trying to capture a shuttle).

My Force:




Mysterious Tau leader (Counts as Inquisitor)
Inquisitional Retinue - 1 x Hotshot Lasgun, 2 x Laspistol and CCW, 1 x Crusader, 1 x meltagun, 1 x bolter
5 Firewarriors
Crisis suit with TL Missile Pods and Flamer
3 Kroot + 1 Hound.


The Opposition and Terrain



On a wide open landing field, an Honor Guard is drawn up in parade formation to escort a high ranking dignitary off his shuttle, Capture the Shuttle, disable or destroy the Icarus Lascannon, Capture the dignitary and escape!




Unfortunately the Camera died at this point.

3 squads of IG
Lascannon
Heavy Bolter
Stripped down Transport Chimera with Heavy Flamer and Seeker Missile
1 squad Bad Ass Shuttle Aircrew.
A few odds and ends (vehicle crew, air defense crew, a couple of characters)


Well, I'm outnumbered 4:1 and out pointed at least 2:1. However, I can attack from any direction and they are strung out in a line. The shuttle platform requires a 5-6 on a 1D6 difficult terrain test to climb up, so I attack near the Icarus installation intending to roll up their line. I infiltrate the Kroot out of sight behind the platform and reserve my henchman war band with the vague idea of drawing the Imperials away from the platform and then rushing it from the side. The fire warriors and the crisis suit will be the attack force.

Overview of the Battle: Well, this is basically the story of how 5 Firewarriors killed about 40 Guardsmen over 10 turns. With a whole board to work with, 30" range, Str 5 AP 5, and little cover for the guard, the slaughter was brutal. It was touch and go though, and the Tau took heavy casualties. In turn 1 and 2 I managed to kill the Heavy bolter with the Crisis suit and the Lascannon with the Kroot. The Chimera was the dangerous element in the beginning - with it's heavy flamer it could roast any of my units. The crew did embark with the dignitary after the crisis suit failed to kill the Chimera, then next turn assaulted 2 guard… …who took him out with overwatch and a bayonet to the kneecap in in close combat. Embarrassing. The fire warriors had to take a turn off from guard massacre to take down the Chimera, then the Henchman Warband chased down and captured the dignitary. I decided not to try to bring in the war band in near the shuttle to grab it as the Aircrew stayed put near it, and I didn't think I could survive a turn of rapid fire. I was right, as one squad managed to catch the war band with a full volley and I lost half of them. There was an ugly scrum around the Icarus as one IG squad counterattacked to recapture it, but the war band saw them off. Barely. Gradually the small amount of lasgun and heavy stubbier fire the guard could put on the fire warriors (who stayed at exactly 30 inches, killed the first few models in the target squad, who then could not get into 24" range) whittled them down as they led the assault up the ramps. First there were five, then four, then three, and finally two fire warriors, followed by Aun' Mord, the three surviving members of the retinue and the hostage, stormed the platform assisted by the kroot who took this moment to skulk out from behind the platform. Victory for the Pirates!

Casualty rolls were kind, with only 1 model dying though several suffered wounds, including a FW reduced to BS 2 and the Crusader losing her Power Sword… : (

Loot Gained -
1 Shuttle
7 Orbit to Ground Missiles (these work in a pretty cool way - you target a grid co-ordinate on the board a turn in advance, then they arrive next turn and do not scatter). S8 AP 3.
5 Guard with lasguns (exchanged for Dignitary)
1 Assault 3 Auto Shotgun
1 Lascannon (Gets Hot).

Various advances, most usefully +1 BS on the suit.

Cool. a pox upon my job and the weather for missing this one!

Very cool indeed Truax! I would love to be involved in something similar someday, my schedule has me working most nights though :/

Too bad Red - I was hoping to see if I could connect with you for a game in the next week or so, as I have just about finished the Samurai army from the last campaign. : (

Modeling wise this one seems to involve mostly fighting imperial guard and marines (shudder). My brother has been painting up war zone figs to get ready for it. For my part, I think I will finish the rogue trader crew I started for the last campaign. In that one the crew were on the player's side, but in this one we will probably be trying to kill them off. That way if we ever get back to the Argo campaign they will be ready. Also the spaceship corridor table we were working on last time.



I do enjoy the tactics at this scale, although we've dubbed it "Flame Hammer" since the flamer is the most terrifyingly decisive weapon around and the heavy flamer is like the Wrath of god.

Some Fluff:

Aun’ Mord Rinn shrugged.

It was a bad habit, unbecoming to an Etherial. Worse still, it was one he had picked up from the Geu’la. It was a peculiarly human gesture - a way of saying nothing. A tau with nothing to say would, instead, say nothing, or apologize for having nothing to say. Not knowing the gesture, Shas’la Homtet waited patiently for his answer. The crowded escape pod was silent, redolent with the stench of between three and five species (depending on how one counted) crammed together for an extended journey with limited life support facilities.
Briefly, but not for the first time, Aun’ Mord wondered if he was mad. He rolled the thought back and forth through his mind like a child’s toy and decided, again, that it was a moot point.
The young firewarrior, stared at the grim Etherial in his brown robes, the sleeve of his missing arm folded and pinned neatly up with a silver broach. He worked very hard to keep his hands on his pulse rifle from shaking as they gripped his powerful weapon. Aun’Mord spoke, casting aside doubt and ambiguity. The warrior deserved better.
“No.”
“No, Shas’la Homtet, we will not establish a fall back point. We will succeed or we will die. Consideration of retreat will not be useful. Once contact is made we will advance on the Geu’la shuttle until it is secure or we are all dead. In extreme circumstances we must focus only on victory. There are no contingencies.”

A terminal nearby pulsed to life, displaying more decrypted Imperial transmissions. Everything seems to be developing according to plan thus far. The shuttle was landed on the field and undergoing refueling.

They touched down with a crunch ten Kiloms from the target. The firewarriors fanned out first, establishing a perimeter with weapons at the ready. Aun’Mord Rinn followed with the rest of his motley assortment of retainers. Little 127B-456A-9H2J followed, stoping briefly to thank the machine spirit of the pod for it’s sacrifice. Flanking the Etherial on the other side the being known as Sidewinder slithered, the tau shield generator on her arm humming briefly through an ionization check. Towering behind them was Shas’ui Mulaan’s black Crisis suit, currently carrying much of their surplus gear and pitiful stock of weapons in a cargo sling. Like shadows the Kroot led by the Headhunter and his hound skulked out to the flank, not bothering to close the door to the pod.

The homing signal remained constant. It had led them here across the stars, following it’s pulsing signal for hundreds of light years. Somewhere ahead was the twin to Aun’Mord’s broach, a Xeno tech item bound to its twin by quantum entanglement. The terrain was a wasteland of rock and packed earth covered with abundant lichen. It provided good cover, but did not make for swift going. The hours toiled away.

They struck a cleared track, and after a moment Aun’Mord signaled that they should follow it. One Bee, as she was usually called, now took the lead. She was apparently unarmed and though small, a near perfect specimen of humanity. More importantly she spoke Imperial Gothic with a passable accent.

The first sentry fell for One Bee’s routine and died with a kroot knife in his back. One Bee closed his eyes with two deft fingers. Ahead loomed the crude prefabricated buildings of the prison camp, surrounded by barbed wire. The kroot loped past, and soon a narrow path was cleared. Thus far it had been easy, perhaps too easy. A search light on a tower panned half heartedly across the rocks before cutting out. In the distance the lighted landingfield bustled with activity, the shuttle looming on a high platform.

The signal pointed to a small structure near a gatehouse of some kind. It was either amazing luck, a trap, or destiny. There had been a time when Aun’Mord Rinn hadn’t believed in destiny except the kind of destiny a species forged for itself though co-operation, courage, and hard work. Now he wasn’t so sure. With the Gu’O he sought and as many others as they could liberate they would attempt to seize the shuttle and flee the planet to begin the next stage of his plan. He estimated the probability of success in this operation at one in three. Acceptable, all things considered.

Played the second game. Due to circumstances, it was again only me, which made it rather similar to the previous one - except this time the fire warriors had a boat to ride around in while slaughtering guard!



Imperial Heavy Water Transport Vehicle preparing to depart. Objective is in the control tower.



Decks swarming with Kriegsguard



Deck Guns!



We seize a boat!



Cutting across the bows while laying down merciless ST 5, AP 5 Shooting. Kroot can swim, because they have no armor save and are preparing to board.



Laying along side as the Tau command the decks. This turns out be a mistake as the Imperials hurl themselves into close combat, causing heavy casualties among the tau pirates. Not pictured, the team with the Aun "Counts as Inquisitor" approaches the command tower with the meltagun from the other side, after hiding in a warehouse most of the battle. The command bastion tower is destroyed and the imperials try to flee with the stasis bottles that were the target of the raid.



Denied by the Kroot Hound!

Pirates win, two models die and the suit takes a permanent wound. Gain 100 points of loot. Will probably buy at least one stealth drone. Firewarriors are pretty much OP in this setting, although they won't fair as well when the Space marines come after you.

Interesting reports and pictures.
The miniatures look very cool.

I like it, enjoy the battlefield being on a dock with the ship, really cool idea