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The Suffering Redeemer slipped out of warp followed by the small armada that was seconded to this Crusade. Marshal Geryn stalked her bridge like a carnosaur - too long in the warp grated on what little patience he possessed. He would have been grateful for the distraction was the message not so dire.

The fifth world in this system, Aedies, was crying out to terra for salvation from an alien threat. Already their world had been under siege for a month.

"Have you any word, adept?" Geryn's gaze was fixed on the Machine God's emissary.

"No, my lord. Nothing. Not even static. The world is silent."

"Prepare the Spearhead, Veigne" the Marshal said, addressing the chaplain at his side, "we will conduct our reconnaissance in force."


This was a 2000 point league game though my opponent had 2050 due to a territory he had. I have only played Tau in a couple of 1000pt games with my Iron Warriors and in the 'ard Boyz against a Farsight Enclave list with a zillion crisis suits. I really had no idea what to expect other than that my vehicles would probably be nothing more than free VPs for my foe.

My list was:
The Crusade of the Suffering Redeemer

HQ
Marshal Geryn - Combimelta, Power Weapon
Geryn's Command Squad - 8 SB with Apothecary and 2 missile launchers
Reclusiarch Veigne - Boltpistol, termie honors, teleport homer, 3 cenobytes
The Emperor's Champion - Suffer Not the Unclean

TROOPS
First Crusade - 9 Init, 7 Neo, PF, Melta (EC and Reclusiarch run here)
Second Crusade - 6 Init, 1 Neo, Power Weapon, Flamer, Drop Pod
Third Crusade - 6 Init, 1 Neo, Power Fist, Melta, Drop Pod
Fourth Crusade - 5 Init, Lascannon

ELITES
Sword Brethren Terminators - 5 with 2 Assault Cannons

FAST
Attack Bikes - 3 with Heavy Bolters
Attack Bikes - 3 with Multimeltas
Assault Marines - 8 with 2 Plasma Pistols, 1 Power Fist

Opponents list looked like this (from memory and I don't have the Tau 'dex so some of the units may be in wrong force org)

HQ
Forge World Shas'o with Flechette Launchers, 3+ Invulnerable, some shootiness, shield drone
Shas'o Bodyguard - 3 battlesuits, plasma and fusion I think?
Regular Shas'o - Plasma, fusion, shield drone
Shas'o Bodyguard - 3 battlesuits, plasma and some other stuff, maybe fusion?

TROOPS
Firewarriors on foot, 12 with markerlight veteran
Kroot, 10 with no upgrades

ELITES
Stealth Suits - 5 or 6
Markerlight tower thingie (also forgeworld)

FAST
Piranha - Fusion gun
Piranha - Fusion gun
Pathfinders - 10 with Devilfish with some stuff

HEAVY
Sniper Drones - 3 teams of 3
Broadsides - 3, 2 with smart missiles, 1 with plasma, 1 drone
Hammerhead

Uhhh I think that was it.

We rolled a 6 for the mission which in our league lets each player roll their strategy rating to pick mission. I won and chose take and hold and we rolled that it was an Omega - we ended up with night fight on turn 1. The league also has secondary and tertiary missions. The secondary mission for this one was to have the most scoring units at the end. The tertiary was to have a minimum of 2 scoring troops choices at the end of the game. A primary win is worth 3 points and secondary is worth 2 and tertiary is worth one. Let me say as an aside here that this is a really cool convention - you can lose the main game but if you complete secondary and tertiary missions you can still get 3 league points. It is a new thing this season and is really helping to keep the divisions competitive - the difference between first and fourth place is only a few points as opposed to 20 or so like usual at this time of the season.

PREGAME
I have a preliminary bombardment that did absolutely nothing and with that taken care of, my opponent won the dice roll and chose to go first. We rolled fairly light terrain which could have been a challenge, but I put a hill pretty close to center of the table to give First Crusade a bit of cover. To my right there were a couple of forests and I put my command squad and Fourth Crusade in two different woods directly across from some ruins where the Kroot had infiltrated. With Escalation in effect the deployment was pretty fast on both sides of the table.

From my side of the table he basically deployed a unit of sniper drones on each flank and right of center. The firewarriors were pretty much in the center with the broadsides right behind them. The Kroot infiltrated into some building ruins to the right.

TURN 1
The Sniper Drones move into the ruins behind the kroot giving them a pretty good field of fire. The Firewarriors advanced into a rock field that was just a few inches out of the deployment zone. Shooting was pretty limited due to night fighting rules. He thought he had Blacksun Filters on his broadsides but when he double checked he had taken them out of the list (d'oh!)

First Crusade moves forward 4" and takes cover behind the hill. A couple of neophytes forget their discipline ;-) and hang off to the sides of the hill... The highest I roll for nightfighting is something like 21" which doesn't really cut it against Tau.

TURN 2
The Hammerhead shows up and drifts in on my left flank near a unit of sniper drones. The Pathfinders come on (they actually failed the roll but I didn't realize he had them in his list. I think that their Scout rule would have had them starting on the table so I told him just to bring it on since I thought it should have been on in the first place). He deepstruck in his stealthsuits on my left and suddenly the hill wasn't providing near the protection I had hoped it would. The hammerhead had LOS to one of the neos that I had hung out and since I was packed in kind of tight, the submunition round template really did some damage. The firewarriors, drones and kroot all fired at Fourth Crusade killing everyone but that lascannon. He RZed forward a full 5". I went ahead and moved him, even though it took him out of the cover of woods it set up a nice firing lane to the hammerhead. More critically, the First Crusade zealed forward 9".

Third Crusade and the Assault Marines both showed up. Third Crusade dropped in front of the Broadsides but drifted a bit to my left. The Assault Marines came on and set their sights on the Stealth Team. On to the shooting phase. Oops. Third Crusades drop pod now blocked that great firing lane that the lascannon had to the hammerhead. Instead it fired at a sniper drone team and failed the nightfighting roll. Third Crusade mostly takes cover behind their drop pod. The assault marines charged and wiped out the stealth suits but a very low massacre result meant that many of them were still on the hill.

The Emperor's Champion left the First Crusade to give me two chances of rolling high enough to get into the difficult terrain to charge the firewarriors. Both made it and when all was said and done a single firewarrior was falling back to his lines. The consolidate enabled the squad to make contact with the unit of sniper drones, however, the Emperor's Champion was standing alone.

TURN 3
The Forgeworld character shows up and comes onto the table right behind the stealth suits. One of the Piranhas comes on and moves into range of the Assault Marines. The Emperor's Champion simply ceases to be. The Assault Marines are cut in half from combined fire of drones and the Piranha. The lascannon toting marine of Fourth Crusade is sniped. Third Crusade takes a submunition round which knocks them down to half strength. They lose another of their member to the pathfinders but they are not pinned. Assault is predictable - the sniper drones are smashed into so many pieces of junk.

The attack bikes come roaring onto the table and take up a position between the two forests on my flank and take aim at the kroot in the building and, combined with the firepower of the command squad wipe the kroot out. Unfortunately the attack bikes are all that show up. Third Crusade knocks the Devilfish out of the sky with a short range melta shot. First Crusade moves along the length Broadsides before charging them. They smash them with Reclusiarch Veigne leading the charge and knocking out 2 himself. The powerfist bounces harmlessly off of a nimble shield drone. The broadside is hopelessly outnumbered and turns to flee but is cut down before he can. Filled with rage the crusade moves into the commanders unit. The surviving Assault Marines blast over the hill landing near the Pathfinders and charging them. Unfortunately since they are in a long line only 2 are in the kill zone and the pathfinders hold their ground even taking down an assault marine.


Reclusiarch Veigne looked around, calling for the Crusade to rally around him. He took a quick head count, matching the green icons his helmet's machine spirit revealed to him with the brothers at his side. He noted young See'an gasping for breath, unable to take his eyes off of the ruined corpse of his initiate, Merrin of Sagea IV. The distraction was momentary as See'an quickly made the sign of the Aquila and took up his place in the crusade. Veigne nodded grimly, this one will soon be ready for acceptance as a full member of the Chapter. Perhaps he would be gifted with Merrin's own armor could it be salvaged.

He looked beyond the crusade and saw Valnos armored in the holy garmets of the Emperor's Champion leaping the crumbling remains of an aqueduct. Valnos glanced back at Veigne and saluted him with the Black Sword before charging the huge gunsuits. It looked as if he might be able to make it to comfort of close combat but at the last second one of the battlesuits shifted slightly bringing the immense railguns to bear. Less than a second later Valnos was blown back nearly a hundred meters. The armor was unmarked but also unmoving.

One of the green lights flickered in Veigne's helmet before changing to crimson as the machine spirit delivered word of Valnos' demise, the sigils indicating massive organ failure and internal bleeding.

Veigne's fury was palpable. "For Valnos! For Sigismund, for Dorn and for the Emperor!" Without a look back he led the Crusade over the wall and into the lumbering alien battlesuits.


TURN 4
The last Piranha and the Crisis Commander's unit shows up. They deepstrike in near the center of the table but more in my deployment zone. They wipe out Third crusade in a storm of plasma fire. The assault squad manages to kill another couple of Pathfinders but lose another of their number! The aliens have decided to sell their lives dearly. The alien commander's advanced suit shows itself to be all but impregnable to close combat. In addition it is filling the area with razor shards which take down a neophyte. The combat is a draw as a drone is smashed to the ground.

The final drop pod arrives landing between the ruins on the right which still hold a sniper team and the center of the table. Second Crusade hugs the cover it provides from the snipers and fire on the rear armor of a nearby piranha, unfortunately even the rear armor is proof against their weapons. The attack bikes have line to the flank of the other piranha and knock it out of the sky with their heavy bolters. The multimelta attack bikes come on from my right flank and take aim at the sniper drones. Fortunately a good sight test gives me LOS to them. All 3 multimelta shots his as well as the 3 bolter shots. The unit is wiped out despite 4+ cover saves.

Chaplain Veigne works his way into combat with the tau leader but his attacks are confounded. Fortunately the power fist of Initiate Mogaba of Zuul is more than a match for one of the bodyguard. The bloodshed is too much for the Tau leader and he orders a retreat of his guard, dragging their wounded comrade along (he rolled an 11 for the morale check. Ouch, that was a LOT of points to lose to a single powerfist hit...) The crusade consolidates towards the hammerhead.

TURN 5
The crisis suits in the center turn their fire towards the Second Crusade and kills 2 of them another one is lost to a piranha. They RZ towards the crisis suits. The tau realize that, thanks to the zeal move, even with their jetpack move that they will not be able to get out of charge range of the vengeful Second crusade so decide to take the initiative. The hammerhead kills a couple of members from First Crusade and they move closer to the hammerhead. The assault squad is knocked down to just a powerfist remaining but combat is finally won and the pathfinders are scattered as they break from combat. The assault marine moves towards the sniper drones on my left flank. The crisis suits surprise us both by winning combat and the knocking the crusade down below scoring. I am out numbered but make my armor save.

The terminators still don't show up. Hmmm... apparently they are having trouble with the teleport pad on the Suffering Redeemer. The First Crusade knocks the hammerhead out of the sky with their meltagun. The assault marine made his alone test and moved to charge the sniper drones. One of the drones survives and hovers above the wreckage. The other attack bikes move over to threaten the crisis suits or turboboost to the center of the table. The command squad finally gets out of the forest on the left but has no hope of getting the mission objective so they set up a good firing lane. The assault marine wins combat with the drones (it was scary when I took a wound charging in but I made the save) and the drones fall back. The assault marine just consolidates to within 6" to shepherd them off the table.

TURN 6
The drone from the piranha moves to try and distract the attack bikes. It fires but doesn't wound. The assault in the middle of the table resolves with a battlesuit falling but taking an initiate with it.

The techmarine on the Suffering Redeemer slaps an "out of order" sticker on the teleport pad with a shrug. He says something about having to order a part but it might take a couple of weeks. The multimelta attack bikes turboboost to the center of the table. The other attack bikes ignore the drone and turboboost to the center of the table. The command squad fires two missiles at the last piranha knocking it from the sky. The battle in the center between the crisis suits and second crusade continues, the game ending with the drone hovering nearby and a single crisis suit locked in combat with an initiate and a neophyte but surrounded by attack bikes and with the remnants of First Crusade advancing on him.

Results:
Crushing Victory for the Black Templars
Primary Mission - Black Templars 2270 VPs to Tau 1217 (he got the extra 240 for my termies never showing up)
Secondary Mission - Black Templars 3 units to 0
Tertiary Mission - draw with neither army having any scoring troops choices

AFTER ACTION REVIEW
I think my opponent was a fairly new player or perhaps more of a painter than a player. His army looked great and had some interesting models but he made a few crucial mistakes that I think cost him the game. Also, turn 1 at night fight didn't help him any. He really threw good money after bad when my big crusade hit the center lines. His deployment was pretty risky and was an obvious weakness for me to exploit. There were a number of units that I was able to just consolidate into. Also, pulling his characters on the table near that combat was bad for him. I think he might have been better off just writing them off and clearing out to shoot me up when I wiped them out. He also didn't move his hammerhead much. He got his firing lane and then stuck to it. It didn't matter for a couple of turns but I was able to get a penetrating melta shot on both that and the devilfish due to them not moving.

On my side of the table, I was very happy with how things went (obviously, I won by a lot). That being said, everything worked like I planned. I suffered some horrendous casualties from shooting but once I made it to combat it was really over. Also, I have been reading some bike tactics on the bolter and chainsword and had planned on using my attack bikes almost as devastators - keeping them back, being careful with their lanes of fire but keeping them flexible. They worked out really well and I am looking forward to continuing to use them again.

Overall though, it was a very fun game and I look forward to playing Andreas again.

If you made it this far, thanks and congratulations ;-) I'd love to hear any feedback or thoughts.

COMMENDATIONS:
Obviously unit of the match was the First Crusade with the EC and Chaplain. They single handedly accounted for a unit of firewarriors, a sniper drone team, a full broadside team, a crisis suit team with special character and finally a hammerhead. The large crusade combined with servitors is absolutely brutal.

CONDEMNATIONS:
Well, it would have been nice to have the terminators show up... also I wish I would have remembered my camera


Chaplain Veigne walked in silence next to Apothecary Night. He approached the broken form on the ground, a magnificent blade less than a meter away, still attached to the fallen's wrist by a think adamantine chain. He whispered a soft benediction before kneeling beside him.

Apothecary Night passed a medico-auspex over the body and shook his head. "He is at the Emperor's side."

Veigne reached down and reverently removed the helmet of the Armour of Faith. Valnos' face wore a peaceful expression with the slightest hints of a smile at the corners of his lips. A think trickle of blood trailed down one cheek and when Veigne laid his head on the alien ground blood quickly began to pool beneath it.

"Be about your work, Apothecary and give thanks. This ground is hallowed by the blood of heroes."

really great report the fluff made it extremely enjoyable, keep it up for the rest of the tourney if you can, say that the reason you keep fighting with the same guys is because even after death their souls still fight for the emperor

Enjoyed the Battle Report Thoroughly. Just enough fluff to make me love it.

Great, I am glad you guys enjoyed it. I have a game against an evil khorne worshipping army in red tomorrow. You all know, Blood Angels ;-)

I plan on posting one after that as well.

good stuff, neofright. I liked the addition of narrative - adds some meat to it all. I play Templars too, so I'm always looking out for tactics and methods used by other people to compare and contrast them to my own.

CK

I really hate 'fluff reports', where someone writes a report in fluff. Blow-by-blow accounts of battles done with fluff are often really bad.

What I like are reports that contain a little bit of fluff here and there to add flavour to the report - just like the one above! Good job neofright. Pity about the Emp's Champ.

BYE

Huh, I've never seen that happen with a deepstriking unit, I use 2 squads of assualt marines and the latest they've ever arrived is turn 4. Crap rolls I guess.

vercingatorix wrote:really great report the fluff made it extremely enjoyable

It helps when you are a professional writer... Now if I could convince neofright to write fluff for my batreps here, then I'd get a few more replies i bet.

hey neo! the apocalypse game bat rep is swiftly slipping to page 2 with no replies.. Find it and give me some fluff! the least you could do after I avenged your crusade with the mighty baneblade 'Deathclock'

heh...

Also, where is that Blood Angels batrep you promised us?