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Salamanders vs Tau Empire Batrep

The Tau Empire's Third Sphere Expansion fleet has once again laid claim to the imperial world of Nimbosa. After heavy fighting between the invading forces and the local PDF, the Tau have landed a more permanent force on the planet to begin the process of converting the populace to the Greater Good, and eliminating those who resist their arrival. In response to the distress beacons activated by the Planetary Defence Forces of the Imperium, Forgefather Vulkan He'stan led a contingent of first company veterans, backed up by war machines from their armoury, and second company marines down to the surface of Nimbosa, in an attempt to delay the Tau assimilation of the civilian population, and allow them to be evacuated. If possible the Salamanders would also try to deal a crushing blow to the Tau forces by assassinating the key Ethereal present on the planet.

Ethereal Aun'Kais of the Third Sphere Expansion fleet oversaw the emancipation of the Gue'la populace to the Greater Good. Having removed the opposing forces from the planet, he began recruiting Gue'vesa to the cause, and removing those who continued to deny the correctness of the Tau'va. Suddenly sensors indicated an approaching force of Gue'or warriors; Aun'Kais assembled his warriors into their battle formations, and awaited the arrival of the enemy.

The forces

Salamanders:
HQ
Vulkan He'stan (Warlord trait: Iron Resolve)
Librarian, mastery level 2 (Pyromancy: Fiery Form, Sunburst, Flame Breath)

Troops
Tactical Squad (5), Meltagun, Combi-melta, drop pod
Tactical Squad (5), Meltagun, Combi-melta, drop pod

Elite
Sternguard Veterans (10), 2x Heavy Flamer

Fast Attack
Assault Squad (5), 2x flamer, drop pod
Assault Squad (5), 2x flamer, drop pod

Heavy Support
Stormraven Gunship, Extra Armour
Whirlwind
Land Raider Redeemer, HK Missile


Tau Empire
HQ
Ethereal, 2x Shield Drones (Warlord Trait: Lead by example)

Troops
Fire Warriors (10)
Fire Warriors (10)
Fire Warriors (10)
Fire Warriors (10)

Elites
Crisis Suit, 2x Fusion Blasters
Crisis Suits (2), 2x Fusions Blasters
Crisis Suits (3), 2x Plasma rifles

Fast Attack
Pathfinders (5)
Pathfinders (5)
Pathfinders (4), Recon Drone

Heavy Support
Broadsides (3), Early Warning Overrrides
Hammerhead, Railgun, Submunitions, Longstrike
Skyray Gunship

Fortification
Aegis Defence Line

Deployment

Tau

Objective 2 is in the red ruins at left. Objective 3 is just inside the Tau ADL


Objective 5 is in the grey ruins just behind the Recon Drone


Reserves


Salamanders

The Sternguard and Librarian are in the land raider. Objective 6 is just behind the ruins, near where the stern guard are standing. Objective 1 can be seen just in front of the wrecked Leman Russ


Objective 4 is in the terrain in front of the whirlwind.


Tau Turn 1
6 Cards drawn, set aside one card that was for an objective in the salamander end, to be discarded


Back two broadsides advance to bring the whirlwind in range. The Broadsides manage one penetrating hit on the whirlwind, causing a crew shaken result.



Salamanders Turn 1
Cards


Movement Phase

Assault Squad with flamers drops down next to the pathfinders with recon drone, and prepare to fire



Land Raider drives up towards objective 1, time to save some civvies


The other Assault Squad with flamers drops in next to the advance pathfinder scouts, but gets targeted by the EWO broadsides


Shooting Phase

Flamers open up on pathfinders on both flanks, wiping out most on the right flank and all on the left flank


These marines only took two casualties from the broadside barrage, and was able to keep all their flamers

BBQ success!


END OF TURN 1
Salamanders up 4-0 (Secure objectives 1, 4, first blood, no prisoners)


Tau Turn 2

Movement Phase

The double fusion suit team deep strikes next to the land raider and objective 6


They prepare to fire!


Shooting Phase

Plasma Suits decimate the assault marines



The Fire Warriors shoot into the assault squad with extra encouragement from their ethereal, but their pulse rifles have trouble punching through the well-maintained ceramite of the salamanders.


Longstrike Turns his Hammerhead toward the enemy whirlwind, destroying it.


Double fusion suits, with help from markerlighting pathfinders penetrate and explode the land raider, the sternguard and librarian pour out, ready to engage the tau.


Assault Phase

Fearing retaliation from the space marines, the tau thrust away and into the ruined structure


Tau defence line, end of turn 2


Salamanders turn 2
Objectives


Movement Phase

A Tactical Squad arrives in front of the Tau line, and prepares to fire melta weapons into Longstrike's Hammerhead


The rest of the melta-toting marines arrive behind the broadsides



The Salamanders Librarian and sternguard veterans chase after the crisis suits


The broadsides activate their EWOs again, killing two marines before the remainder open up with their meltas


The final assault marine moves to rescue those civilians hiding at objective 2,


Shooting Phase

Tactical Marines kill a broadside and a missile drone with their meltas. The second melta squad fires at Longstrike, but he jinks his Hammerhead and avoids the shots


Assault Phase

Librarian and sternguard assault and destroy the crisis suits


END OF TURN 2
Salamanders up 7-2 (objective 2,2,6 for salamanders, Recon and Psychological warfare for Tau)

Tau Turn 3

Movement Phase

The final fusion suit arrives next to the last assault marine


Plasma suits jump forward to seek out Gue'vesa hiding at objective 1


Shooting Phase

The final assault marine falls to fusion fire


Once more the salamanders' ceramite proves resilient in the face of pulse fire, taking only two casualties from a full volley of fire.


The second tactical squad is shot to death by several squads of fire warriors' pulse fire


Assault Phase

The squad of Plasma Crisis Suits thrusts over to objective 1 and extracts some more gue'vesa for the Greater Good, and the fusion suit goes looking for more humans at objective 2.


Salamanders Turn 3

Stormraven fails to arrive, leaving the sternguard to stay in the ruins. They fire on the plasma suits, dealing some damage.


The drop pods keep firing their storm bolters on full auto, pegging a few fire warriors


END OF TURN 3
Salamanders up 7-4 (objective 1,2 for Tau)

Tau Turn 4

Cards


Movement Phase

Fire warriors advance to bring the sternguard into range; the tau uncover a group of humans hiding right under their defence line (objective 3)


Plasma suits move to get a clearer shot on the librarian and get inside rapid fire range


Shooting Phase

Pulse fire and plasma shots kill all the sternguard, but the librarian survives. The Crisis Squad thrusts back to objective 1.



Salamanders turn 4

Movement Phase

The stormraven arrives, lining up shots on Aun'Kais' squad. Vulkan He'stan and the remaining sternguard deep strike out of the stormraven.


Shooting Phase

The librarian unleashes his psychic powers on the crisis squad, destroying most of the unit. The sternguard will finish it off immediately thereafter


The stormraven destroys most of the ethereal's fire warrior squad, but does not harm Aun'Kais


END OF TURN 4
Salamanders up 7-6 (tau 2 points for objective 3, with warlord trait)

Tau Turn 5

Movement Phase

Fire warriors advance to shoot at sternguard


Aun'Kais joins up with another fire warrior team


Shooting Phase

Commander Longstrike takes aim with his railgun and kills the Librarian


Fire warriors and broadsides fire at Vulkan He'stan's sternguard, destroying them, but leaving the Forgefather unharmed


Salamanders turn 5

Vulkan advances on the fire warriors and unleashes a stream of burning promethium, causing several casualties.


The Stormtalon drops into hover mode and tries again to kill Aun'Kais. More fire warriors, and both shield drones sacrifice themselves to pretect their celestial.


The fire warriors break, but are not routed completely.


END OF TURN 5
Salamanders up 8-7 (Linebreaker for Salamanders, Witch hunter for Tau)
Game continues:

Tau Turn 6

Tau Forces advance to kill the Gue'or leader, while Aun'Kais is protected again by his loyal fire warriors. Vulkan He'stan goes down to the weight of fire upon him.


Salamanders turn 6

The Stormraven shoots several more fire warriors, who go to ground under the fire, but still give their lives for Aun'Kais.

Final Score 10-8 Tau (Kingslayer, Slay the Warlord)

The Salamanders successfully evacuated more imperial citizens than the Tau could root out, however the loss of their Librarian and Vulkan resulted in an overall loss for the space marines. The Tau would hold Nimbosa for now, once again marking this world as one of their own for the glory of the Greater Good.

Dig the narrative, and always interesting to see the player behind in the beginning pull ahead at the end. Thought the Sallies had the Tau for sure.

Only thoughts were maybe roasting fire warriors instead of pathfinders w/recon drone in the beginning, to clear a space for a melta drop to nail the sky-ray.

Awesome to see someone use pyromancy! Too bad the Land Raider didn't make it close enough to BBQ fire warriors.

Tau play was pretty solid, decent targeting priority all the time. Seems like the marine player passed an inordinate amount of saves vs those Broadsides.

Well played on both sides, and as usual looks like the Maelstrom missions rock hard.

Great batrep, can't wait to see more!

Thanks for this cool report

Thanks folks! I've got a Tau vs Tau game coming on friday, that I'll be batrepping. I'll likely get that posted up by saturday sometime.

Great report! Can't wait to read the new one you have coming!

Nocturus wrote:
Great report! Can't wait to read the new one you have coming!

Here it is.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/604148.page