Post by The Black Jackal on Jun 26, 2011 0:50:33 GMT -5
Hunting the Hunters: 2000-point Tau vs. Dark Eldar
It was approaching sunrise when Shas'O Nu'Vosh and his advance patrol reached the village. There had been a number of mass disappearances in the area, ultimately culminating in the entire population of this village simply vanishing overnight. Vehicles parked in the streets, clothes hanging out on lines to dry, half-eaten meals left unfinished; it looked like a normal day in a farming village like this, except the people were nowhere to be seen. Yesterday, a patrol sent out to investigate the disappearances failed to report back in, thus requiring Nu'Vosh's unit to secure the area so that more thorough investigations could be performed with sufficient defenses.
The Shas'Vre leading the missing patrol was one of Nu'Vosh's sisters, and so he felt compelled to lead the advance patrol himself. With any luck, he would find her alive and bring her back to base without incident...
Mission Rules: Standard Dawn of War Capture and Control
The Raiders:
2x HQ: Archon w/ Blaster - 75 each
2x Elites: Trueborn - 168 each
4x Trueborn w/ Blasters
Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Night Shield
Elites: Succubi - 255
Dracite w/ Power Weapon
3x Succubi w/ Hydra Gauntlets
6x Succubi
Raider w/ Chain Snares, Night Shield
6x Troops: Kabalite Warriors - 130 each
Warrior w/ Blaster
4x Warriors
Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Night Shield
Fast Attack: Reavers - 103
Arena Champion
Reaver w/ Grav Talon
2x Reavers
3x Heavy Support: Ravager w/ Night Shield, Flickerfield - 125 each
Total: 1999
The Garrison:
HQ: Shas'O w/ drone controller, missile pod, plasma rifle, multitracker, shield drone
HQ: Ethereal
Elites: Stealth Team
Stealth Suit w/ Fusion Blaster
2x Stealth Suits
2x Elites: Crisis Team
Shas'Vre w/ TL Burst Cannon, Flamer
2x Troops: Fire Warrior Team
Shas'Ui w/ drone controller, 2x Gun Drones
11x Fire Warriors
Photon Grenades
2x Troops: Fire Warrior Team
Shas'Ui w/ drone controller, 2x Gun Drones
7x Fire Warriors
Photon Grenades
Troops: Fire Warrior Team
Shas'Ui w/ drone controller, 2x Gun Drones
7x Fire Warriors
All models have carbines and photon grenades
Troops: Kroot Carnivore Squad
Shaper
9x Kroot
2x Kroot Hounds
2x Fast Attack: Pathfinder Team
Shas'Ui
5x Pathfinders
Pathfinder Devilfish
2x Heavy Support: Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pods
Heavy Support: Hammerhead Team
2x Hammerheads
Deployment:
As dawn approached, Nu'Vosh, an accompanying Fire Warrior team and a Devilfish belonging to one of the nearby Pathfinder teams reached the market square. The town, like the rest of the planet, once belonged to the distant Imperium of Man that so callously abandoned millions of their own soldiers when they retreated from the Damocles Gulf, and it was here many years ago that one such abandoned company of Guardsmen set up defenses in order to hold this town to the bitter end; in fact, the small bunker complex and piles of sandbags strewn around the area were all that remained of those heroic, foolish humans.
As they approached the bunker, Nu'Vosh's sensors discovered the source of the distress transmission; the beacon to the missing battlesuit's black box was still broadcasting its locator signal. If there was no battlesuit wreckage nearby, it meant that the pilot must have ejected, and the two were separated somehow before landing.
My opponent won the roll-off and decided to go first (exactly what I hoped he'd do), and deployed a Pathfinder Devilfish (we weren't sure if the one transport allowed in DoW deployment had to belong to the unit deploying, but I allowed it anyway), his Battlesuit Commander and a full squad of Rifle Warriors with drones. I responded by keeping everything in reserve.
For some reason, he assumed that I was deep striking my entire force and since we play without declaring how reserved units will come onto the table (more interesting that way), I indulged his misguided train of thought by remaining silent, but I suppose an occasional predatory grin escaped my lips when he wasn't looking.
My Combat Drugs result was #3: +1 Strength.
Turn 1 Tau:
"Commander!" the team leader reported, "I'm picking up faint life signs approximately 60 paces ahead.* It could be a survivor, sir."
"Recover that survivor," the commander ordered, "I will collect the recorder module and call for reinforcements." The Fire Warriors made haste to reach the survivor, while Nu'Vosh, with a burst from his suit's thruster pack landed near the recorder. Meanwhile, the Devilfish's gun drones detached from their cradles and backtracked while the Devilfish itself moved forward, both searching for more survivors.
*Since Tau count in base-8, the number is much larger than we would expect. For us, it would be approximately 48 paces.
Nothing much happened during his first turn. Without anything to react to, all he could hope to do was place his units in the best positions to interfere with my strategy (which he had assumed was deep striking my force) and move to occupy the best deep strike zones. The gun drones attached to his Pathfinder Devilfish disembarked and moved to this end.
Turn 1 Dark Eldar:
As Nu'Vosh approached the recorder, he opened a wireless link with its memory banks and began searching for something, anything, that would help him understand what happened here that would cause more than a thousand humans, Earth Caste and Fire Caste Tau to simply disappear. All the while, the commander could not help but feel that something was amiss, as if someone was watching them...
Nothing at all happened in this turn, as I had nothing on the table and my reserves weren't going to arrive until next turn.
Turn 2 Tau:
Within moments of calling for reinforcements, Nu'Vosh was pleased to see his fellow Fire Caste warriors arrive so promptly and in such show of force. A pair of Hammerheads, a pair of mighty Broadsides and many tens of Fire Warriors, including several stealthy Pathfinders; this unit should be sufficient to hold the village and fend off whatever was the cause of these disappearances.
He was, however, surprised to see an Ethereal accompanying one of the Fire Warrior teams. "Aun," the commander said in reverence, "Your presence is unexpected, but welcome."
"Shas'O Sa'cea Kais G'kar Nu'Vosh," the Ethereal responded, "I have decided to observe this operation myself. Please continue with your mission."
"Forgive my insolence, Aun," Nu'Vosh replied, "but do you think it wise for you to be present in such an uncertain situation as this? We still haven't discovered the cause of the disappearances."
"It is precisely because of these disappearances that I must be here," the Ethereal declared majestically, "The Greater Good is threatened when those that believe in it cannot even be sure of their safety in their own dwellings. I will see that the cause of all this is identified and dealt with, Shas'O. That is your task as well."
"Commander, Team One reporting," came the voice of a team leader over the comms, "We have secured the survivor, and she has been identified as Shas'Vre El'Anya, sir. She requires immediate medical attention."
"Team One Leader," the Ethereal said with royal composure, "A Pathfinder team has been recalled from search and rescue to this area. You will use their transport to escort Shas'Vre El'Anya to base, where she will receive what treatment she needs."
"By your command, Aun," the Shas'Ui replied as he turned back to the wounded battlesuit pilot. One of her legs was missing, ending at the knee, and she was bleeding from many wounds where her suit's control interface had been torn from her flesh, presumably when she ejected. Lying in a pool of her own blue ichor, she was a pitiful sight indeed; a proud, skilled and accomplished Fire Warrior reduced to a whimpering, helpless wreck.
"Team Leader!" one of the warriors under his command addressed him, "I've been listening to reports from all over the area. There is no sign of any hostiles anywhere in the operation zone."
"Nothing?" the Shas'Ui responded, "Nothing to suggest a battle at all?"
"No, Team Leader," his subordinate reported, "No wreckage, no bodies, no remains, no spent ammunition, either. It's as if nothing at all happened here."
"If that's the case," the team leader mused, "then what shot down the Shas'Vre?"
About half of his force came in on this turn. His Broadsides, an Ionhead and two squads of Fire Warriors were deployed in one corner (his Pathfinder Devilfish was sitting in the opposite corner attempting to look threatening), his Pathfinders themselves took up residence on the lower floor of the ruin in his deployment zone. His Commander moved to secure the beacon and was joined by two more Fire Warrior squads, one of which was escorting his Ethereal. His other Ionhead took up residence in the other corner while his first Fire Warrior team moved to secure the pilot. Again, with nothing to react to he continued to delude himself into believing that I was deep striking my entire force.
Turn 2 Dark Eldar:
Within moments, the Shas'Ui's musings were answered. More than a dozen arrow-shaped craft flashed darkly into existence not four paces in front of him. 12 tall, lithe human-like beings* descended from one of the larger ones with unreal grace, sporting wicked blades, light armor and simple bodysuits with parts barbarically cut away to expose bare flesh. In a single motion, before anyone else could react, these agile creatures leapt into the fray and in the blink of an eye they sauntered on their way, leaving not a Tau standing.
Elsewhere, Fire Warriors were falling left, right and center as the smaller craft began spraying lethal bursts of toxic death at them. The gun drones were swiftly torn to pieces by a pack of mad jetbikers driving their bikes' razor-sharp blades through their armor and other systems. The larger gunships, projecting dark beams of unlight from their guns obliterated both Broadsides and its supporting Hammerhead. Several of these beams found their way towards Commander Nu'Vosh, but their unnatural rays were stopped mostly by the stalls he was behind, the last one failing to slay him when his shield drone darted in its path and was destroyed by it. A couple shots from the smaller craft found their way into the cracks in his suit's armor; his primary hydraulics system had failed and his ejection system was damaged in the barrage. The Devilfish also succumbed to the darklight beams from the deck of one of the smaller craft, exploding in a flash of blue light as its reactor was breached.
In all the chaos, the wounded Shas'Vre cried out as loudly as her crippled throat would let her, completely horrified, "It's happening again... Oh, Ethereals of the Greater Good, it's happening again!"
*Again, because Tau count in base-8, the actual number of Succubi was 10, the legal maximum unit size.
This was when the game itself actually started. All of my squads deployed mounted (only the Succubi dismounted afterwards), with both my Archons and Blasterborn retinues sidling up next to his Pathfinder Devilfish, the Reavers bladevaning his dismounted gun drones to death (+1 pain token), the three Ravagers moving onto the middle of my deployment zone, the Succubi's Raider right next to them and my six Blaster Warriors' Venoms in a line with targets readily available for their splinter cannons.
In the Shooting phase, one of my Blasterborn squads claimed the Pathfinder Devilfish with ease (5 Blasters tends to do that) and my Ravagers and Raider succeeded in slagging both of his Broadsides, the Ionhead supporting them and knocking off the Commander's shield drone. Additionally, the Venoms took a couple wounds off the Commander and easily claimed a dozen Fire Warriors and a few Pathfinders from a total of four squads. My Succubi also inflicted a couple shooting casualties with their pistols, but even if they didn't their exploits in the Assault phase would have made up for the difference anyway.
In the Assault phase, the Succubi completely obliterated the Fire Warriors holding the pilot objective with an impressive 43 attacks from everyone, not counting the Dracite who added another five hits and four kills with her power weapon. They didn't consolidate far, but enough to put them behind the bunker to avoid getting shot to death.
Turn 3 Tau:
Things were looking grim for Nu'Vosh's Cadre when the raiders appeared, destroying their targets with almost contemptuous ease. The darkness that shrouded their vehicles made it all but impossible to get a target lock, but the Pathfinders were able to light up what looked like one of the smaller craft's power supplies, which the battlesuit commander, veteran of a hundred battles against numerous foes, promptly obliterated with a well-placed missile. The target fell to the ground and the darkness surrounding it lifted, but its passengers appeared to be unharmed.
"I humbly advise that we retreat, Aun," Nu'Vosh said to the Ethereal as he jumped back behind the stalls again, "we can notify Command of the situation and send in a whole Contingent to deal with this threat. We have already fulfilled our primary objective here, for we have identified the cause of the disappearances."
"There is no need for that, Shas'O," the Ethereal responded, "for they have fallen into our trap. Remember your studies of the Kauyon, Fire Caste." The commander, humbled by the Ethereal's wisdom, finally understood why his Cadre had been deployed where they were; to draw out the attacker and trap him as any patient hunter would.
The Ethereal's words soon proved to be true as a Monat dropped from the sky and, with support from the nearby Fire Warriors, shot down two of the jetbikers and drove the remainder off, while nearby a small team of Stealth suits seemingly materialized from nowhere, weapons blazing, before finally closing with one of the smaller craft and tearing it apart with their powerful arms. Perhaps they could also deal with the threat at the same time now.
Needless to say, my opponent was getting worried after the carnage I inflicted upon him when I finally arrived in force. His Stealth suits and one of his Crisis suits came in on this turn, both in the same area. The Stealth suits outflanked right next to my Blasterborn squads and his Crisis suit scattered right in front of my Reavers (fortunately for him. If he had rolled a little lower, he would have suffered a mishap). One of his remaining Fire Warrior teams (the one badly mauled down to a couple drones and Warriors) maneuvered to set up a kill zone for my Reavers.
In the Shooting phase, his Stealth suits failed to wreck one of my Blasterborn squad's ride with a fusion blaster and two burst cannons, his Crisis suit unleashed his flamer on my Reavers but failed to kill any of them (in fact, it took the combined firepower of the two supporting Fire Warrior teams to take out half of them, forcing a Leadership test that they failed and zipped off the table). The squad guarding his Ethereals opened up on my Succubi, but failed to take out any of them, while his Battlesuit Commander managed to pick off a Venom that his Pathfinders had lit up. His remaining Ionhead and last Fire Warrior team did manage to shake a couple Venoms, but did no lasting damage.
His Stealth suits ended up assaulting the Venom they failed to kill with shooting and succeeded in wrecking it, forcing the Blasterborn squad inside to walk.
Turn 3 Dark Eldar:
Talmeth was irritated. What he wanted was an easy raid, with no losses like the others had done. Now, he was taking on a whole Cadre of Tau warriors, and three of their smaller battlesuits had just torn his ride apart, forcing upon him the indignity of walking. Naturally, he felt vindicated as he and his entourage of Trueborn lanced them to death with their blasters. Of course, this meant that he was now effectively out of the fight, but it mattered little. All of this was but a small part in a greater plan that he and his twin brother Tabris had devised, and Tabris was just as able as he in securing yet another flawless victory.
The corsair brothers' plan was to secure favor with the Black Jackal by delivering to him millions of slaves taken from a well-defended Tau world, as a demonstration of their skill, cunning and daring. At first, they would stage small raids at strategic points on the planet's surface, making individual farmsteads disappear without a trace, scaling their raids up to wiping entire villages like this one off the map in preparation for a grand example of masterful strategic deception.
Ordinarily, Talmeth would have loved nothing more than to secure those slaves, stab his brother in the back and claim all the glory and prestige the Jackal's favor would bring for himself, but he and Tabris were cursed. An act of betrayal while they were in their wet nurse's womb left them symbiotically linked; if one of them perished, so would the other shortly thereafter, and none of the Haemonculae's art could save either of them. So, as a result, they needed to work together as a matter of survival, and they proved to be quite the pair.
So far, even with this minor setback, their plan was proceeding perfectly.
My Succubi loped predatorially into the bunker, my dismounted Blasterborn moved to get a better firing solution, the Succubi's Raider moved to the dismounted Blaster Warrior squad so they could get a ride in future turns and one of my Ravagers moved to support my other Blasterborn squad in taking out the lone Crisis suit while the other two maneuvered towards the last Ionhead in an effort to eventually destroy it.
The dismounted Blasterborn completely annihilated the Stealth suits (they didn't have a chance), the mounted Blasterborn claimed the solo Crisis suit, its accompanying Ravager took out the mauled Fire Warriors' drones, causing them to flee off the table, and their supporting Fire Warrior team (which had been unmolested up until this point) lost close to a third of their members from splinter fire. On the other side of the board, my other Ravagers slagged the Battlesuit Commander and nailed another Pathfinder, and my other splinter cannons continued to chew small chunks out of his other Fire Warrior squads. Unfortunately, my Succubi didn't roll high enough for fleeting to be able to assault his Ethereal Guard.
Turn 4 Tau:
Another lance of unlight penetrated Nu'Vosh's battlesuit's reactor, leaving him seconds from certain death. Intending to survive, he activated his ejection system, but to no avail: the suit's control interface was ripped from his body, mortally wounding him in the process, but the hatch failed to open when his ejection seat fired. He had but a fraction of a second to realize his imminent demise before he was reduced to a dark blue stain on the inside of the suit's cockpit and his battlesuit exploded in a brilliant flash of blue light.
The other Monat, watching his commander die like that, started up his flamer and dropped down next to the bunker, where the scantily-clad barbarians were sheltering from the Cadre's fire. With a mighty roar, the flames gushing out from his shoulder-mount weapon roasted half of them alive, but even though the flames touched the others just as much, they seemed to enjoy it in a perverse sort of way.
"The survivor is unrecoverable," the Ethereal declared, "Fall back to the beacon for regroup and counterattack. Monat, you are now in command of this operation."
"By your command, Aun," the battlesuit pilot responded as he moved back towards the beacon.
Elsewhere, a pack of Kroot stalked behind the line of fell craft. Spraying at one from behind, they succeeded in knocking off the nose gun and wounding the top gunner, while a fortunate Ion Cannon hit from the remaining Hammerhead struck down both the pilot and gunner of another. The Ethereal knew that the medevac Devilfish with its Pathfinders would be arriving soon, he just hoped that it wasn't already too late...
His other Crisis suit and his pack of Kroot came in on this turn. His Crisis suit landed next to my Succubi, prepping his flamer menacingly, while his Kroot outflanked behind my line of Venoms. Elsewhere on the table, my opponent realized that if he wanted to do anything other than lose he'd have to pull his Fire Warriors back to the beacon and regroup, so his Fire Warriors began retreating toward his objective.
In the Shooting phase, his last battlesuit unloaded his flamer into the bunker my Succubi were stalking inside, torching half of them with its burning caress. His Ionhead succeeded in trashing one Venom, while his Kroot shot a splinter cannon off another one and stunned the rest of the crew.
Turn 4 Dark Eldar:
Unfortunately for the Kroot, their actions alerted the rest of the Warriors to their presence, and that drew the attention of their guns. "This isn't combat, it's sport!" one warrior proclaimed as she slaughtered one Kroot after another with her Venom's top-mounted gun. The Raider belonging to the Succubi, having picked up a Warrior squad that had been inconveniently dismounted, lanced the battlesuit from behind, blowing it apart with a single palpable hit.
Meanwhile, Tabris' Venom casually pursued the retreating Fire Warriors, felling a few with fire from its Splinter Cannons and the Succubi deftly pounced upon the Pathfinders, shredding them with contemptuous ease. With their flesh slick with Tau ichor and a murderous glint in their eyes, they were more than prepared to slaughter another half-dozen of the wretched creatures.
Enraged by the loss of so many fine Wyches to an upstart T'au, I tore that last Crisis suit up with a combination of splinter fire and, when that failed, a well-placed Dark Lance shot from my Raider. The dismounted Warrior squad and two other Venom squads only claimed about half of the Kroot (as this was the beginning of the period when my luck started running out) and my other Blasterborn squad, wanting for targets pursued his retreating Fire Warriors as my Ravagers and three other Warrior squads began converging on his objective. My Succubi finally exited the bunker and began to get to grips with the Pathfinders, which they likewise obliterated in a single Assault Phase without allowing the enemy a single attack.
Turn 5 Tau:
Finally, the other Pathfinder team arrived. Darting in between the Venoms and the Hammerhead, they jumped down from their Devilfish and laid down a barrage of fire strong enough to jar the nearest of the deadly skimmers.
Meanwhile, the Hammerhead pilot obeyed the Ethereal's retreat order. Being the daredevil he was, he slid over a building into a small gap between it and the stalls that was barely wider than the Hammerhead itself, in the hopes that the enemy would have to go the long way around to get to the beacon.
Running from the pursuing Venom, the Fire Warriors falling back to the beacon were stunned at the sight of the half-naked barbarians reveling in the slaughter of the Pathfinders they had overwhelmed. Angered at the brutality of it all, the team leader merely pointed at them and said one word.
"Fire."
With no regard to the amount of ammunition they were expending, they only managed to kill two of them, but it appeared to be enough to drive the rest of them off.
On the other side of the market square, the remaining Kroot charged the Warriors that were without a transport thanks to the Hammerhead's gunnery skill. While they were swift, the pale killers were frail and fell easily, but one of them, with a burst of fire from her gun as she was clubbed to death managed to wound the Shaper as she died. The Shaper flinched in pain as he tried to remove the splinters poisoning his veins, but many of them went too deep, and could only be removed at base.
This was the turn in which he was clearly most hopeful. Because of the terrain and his deployment I was unable to get anything of mine close enough to contest the beacon, his other Pathfinders came in on the correct side and stalled my Venom wing's advance and his Ionhead moved to block LOS (mostly) to his Fire Warriors holding his objective.
While his shooting failed to accomplish much (he shook a single Venom and shot at my Succubi enough to make them flee off the table), his Kroot assaulted and killed the dismounted Warrior squad, which was a nuisance.
Turn 5 Dark Eldar:
"Hurry! Surround and eliminate them! We cannot allow even one to escape!" Tabris yelled out as he and his Trueborn retinue fired from their Venom's deck, supported by the transport's twin Splinter Cannons. Several more of the pitiful Tau were butchered from this fusiliade, more specifically the squad that had driven off Aelendria and her Succubi; there would be a reckoning with her later, Tabris told himself as he indulged in the slaughter.
On the other side of the square, Tabris could see his Warriors hosing down the Kroot with overwhelming amounts of Splinter Fire and destroying the approaching transport. Hearing a cry coming from nearby, Tabris had to fight back an urge to laugh at his foolish twin brother for the indignity he had to suffer through by running across the square as fast as his legs would carry him. Served him right for being a target...
This was the turn that I got as many of my units into place as I could and hoped that the game didn't end in a draw. I finished off the Kroot and took out the other Pathfinder Devilfish, and managed to take out a few more Fire Warriors in the process. Nothing special.
A 6 was rolled when determining whether another turn would be played, and so my chances of winning improved greatly.
Turn 6 Tau:
The Fire Warriors, hounded by the Archon's Venom, did the only thing they could do at this point; retreat to the beacon where their Ethereal stood, guarded by the last of their Cadre and the only surviving Hammerhead.
Continuing their barrage, the Pathfinders eventually took out one of a Venom's grav vanes, causing it to careen into the ground, but nothing else happened to it, it didn't explode or throw its passengers out at deadly speeds or anything.
Meanwhile, the Hammerhead's gunner fired off a volley of pulses from the turret's ion cannon, raking across the hull of one of the gunships, and tore it apart in midair. His crewmate, the pilot, cheered. Perhaps there was hope afterall...
More retreating, the immobilization of a Venom and the loss of a Ravager best defined this turn.
Turn 6 Dark Eldar:
However, that hope was short-lived. The larger transport flew low overhead, snatching away a couple of the Ethereal's guards with its trailing chains and hooks. Their cries of pain and dismay only excited the warriors aboard as they prepared for the coming slaughter.
The Tau's morale was lessened further when a Ravager lanced away the Hammerhead's turret. In response, the Ethereal stood tall, preparing to make an inspirational speech to the remaining Fire Warriors, but he was cut short when fire from a Venom's splinter cannons riddled him with holes, his body spasming wildly as he fell to the ground. This was good, Tabris thought to himself, Now, they will grow irrational and make mistakes, which will cost them their lives. Tabris and his brother had studied the Tau extensively in preparation for their raid. They needed to know everything they could about their culture, tactics, society, anything that they could exploit as a weakness, and they just happened upon one. When one of their Ethereals dies, all Tau nearby grow more fierce and aggressive, but they also become more predictable as they begin to act less rationally. Now that they had killed one, it was time that they exploited this weakness in their psychology...
I moved flat-out with the Raider, claiming a couple models from the Ethereal's unit with its chain snares, my Ravagers took off the turret of the Ionhead and prevented it from shooting next turn (in case there would be one) and took out the gun drones that disembarked from the wreckage of his other Pathfinder Devilfish. I also brought a Venom from the rear to bear, with the intent of hopefully taking out his Ionhead and remaining Fire Warriors, but neither happened, unfortunately. However, I did manage to slay his Ethereal, to great comedic effect.
Another 6 was rolled at the end of the turn, and so the game went on into its final turn.
Turn 7 Tau:
Furious at the murder of their precious Ethereal, the remaining Fire Warriors unleashed a torrent of fire upon the sinister raiders, but for all that fire all they accounted for were the crew of one of the gunships.
"Retreat for now," the Hammerhead pilot ordered, "We'll regroup and call HQ for more support. We'll need at least a Contingent to bring an end to these raiders!"
At this point, the only way my opponent could hope to not lose was to take out the Raider and both Ravagers, but he only succeeded in downing one Ravager.
Turn 7 Dark Eldar:
Tabris watched with pride and glee as his minions destroyed the last of the Tau's primitive skimmers and sprayed down the last of their soldiers with fire, leaving no survivors. He knew that after the disappearance of an entire Cadre in this area, the planet's defense force couldn't ignore their actions here, and would soon be arriving in force.
It mattered little, as all this was going according to plan. The more troops the enemy dedicated to searching for absent raiders, the fewer troops there would be guarding the real prize: the capital city with millions of inhabitants there for the taking. After learning of their success at abducting the entire population of a well-defended planet, the Jackal would have no choice but to reward them with a place in his court...
At the end of the Shooting phase not a single Tau was left standing and not one of their crude skimmers was left intact, so the game ended with me tabling him and controlling both objectives.
Parting thoughts:
The Succubi were fantastic, making whole squads of infantry disappear in a gory, but elegant, mess, and the Venom spam worked out better than I had expected, but the Night Shields were what won me that game because they forced him to fight me on my terms and actually engage me, especially since the alternative was weathering torrents of splinter fire.
This was the sort of game I want to play all the time; one where we are both playing at our strengths, where the loser can still manage a draw until the very end and the winner still finds his opponent challenging, and a game that can easily have a story develop around it. This, my friends, is what 40K is supposed to be like.
It was approaching sunrise when Shas'O Nu'Vosh and his advance patrol reached the village. There had been a number of mass disappearances in the area, ultimately culminating in the entire population of this village simply vanishing overnight. Vehicles parked in the streets, clothes hanging out on lines to dry, half-eaten meals left unfinished; it looked like a normal day in a farming village like this, except the people were nowhere to be seen. Yesterday, a patrol sent out to investigate the disappearances failed to report back in, thus requiring Nu'Vosh's unit to secure the area so that more thorough investigations could be performed with sufficient defenses.
The Shas'Vre leading the missing patrol was one of Nu'Vosh's sisters, and so he felt compelled to lead the advance patrol himself. With any luck, he would find her alive and bring her back to base without incident...
Mission Rules: Standard Dawn of War Capture and Control
The Raiders:
2x HQ: Archon w/ Blaster - 75 each
2x Elites: Trueborn - 168 each
4x Trueborn w/ Blasters
Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Night Shield
Elites: Succubi - 255
Dracite w/ Power Weapon
3x Succubi w/ Hydra Gauntlets
6x Succubi
Raider w/ Chain Snares, Night Shield
6x Troops: Kabalite Warriors - 130 each
Warrior w/ Blaster
4x Warriors
Venom w/ 2x Splinter Cannons, Night Shield
Fast Attack: Reavers - 103
Arena Champion
Reaver w/ Grav Talon
2x Reavers
3x Heavy Support: Ravager w/ Night Shield, Flickerfield - 125 each
Total: 1999
The Garrison:
HQ: Shas'O w/ drone controller, missile pod, plasma rifle, multitracker, shield drone
HQ: Ethereal
Elites: Stealth Team
Stealth Suit w/ Fusion Blaster
2x Stealth Suits
2x Elites: Crisis Team
Shas'Vre w/ TL Burst Cannon, Flamer
2x Troops: Fire Warrior Team
Shas'Ui w/ drone controller, 2x Gun Drones
11x Fire Warriors
Photon Grenades
2x Troops: Fire Warrior Team
Shas'Ui w/ drone controller, 2x Gun Drones
7x Fire Warriors
Photon Grenades
Troops: Fire Warrior Team
Shas'Ui w/ drone controller, 2x Gun Drones
7x Fire Warriors
All models have carbines and photon grenades
Troops: Kroot Carnivore Squad
Shaper
9x Kroot
2x Kroot Hounds
2x Fast Attack: Pathfinder Team
Shas'Ui
5x Pathfinders
Pathfinder Devilfish
2x Heavy Support: Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pods
Heavy Support: Hammerhead Team
2x Hammerheads
Deployment:
As dawn approached, Nu'Vosh, an accompanying Fire Warrior team and a Devilfish belonging to one of the nearby Pathfinder teams reached the market square. The town, like the rest of the planet, once belonged to the distant Imperium of Man that so callously abandoned millions of their own soldiers when they retreated from the Damocles Gulf, and it was here many years ago that one such abandoned company of Guardsmen set up defenses in order to hold this town to the bitter end; in fact, the small bunker complex and piles of sandbags strewn around the area were all that remained of those heroic, foolish humans.
As they approached the bunker, Nu'Vosh's sensors discovered the source of the distress transmission; the beacon to the missing battlesuit's black box was still broadcasting its locator signal. If there was no battlesuit wreckage nearby, it meant that the pilot must have ejected, and the two were separated somehow before landing.
My opponent won the roll-off and decided to go first (exactly what I hoped he'd do), and deployed a Pathfinder Devilfish (we weren't sure if the one transport allowed in DoW deployment had to belong to the unit deploying, but I allowed it anyway), his Battlesuit Commander and a full squad of Rifle Warriors with drones. I responded by keeping everything in reserve.
For some reason, he assumed that I was deep striking my entire force and since we play without declaring how reserved units will come onto the table (more interesting that way), I indulged his misguided train of thought by remaining silent, but I suppose an occasional predatory grin escaped my lips when he wasn't looking.
My Combat Drugs result was #3: +1 Strength.
Turn 1 Tau:
"Commander!" the team leader reported, "I'm picking up faint life signs approximately 60 paces ahead.* It could be a survivor, sir."
"Recover that survivor," the commander ordered, "I will collect the recorder module and call for reinforcements." The Fire Warriors made haste to reach the survivor, while Nu'Vosh, with a burst from his suit's thruster pack landed near the recorder. Meanwhile, the Devilfish's gun drones detached from their cradles and backtracked while the Devilfish itself moved forward, both searching for more survivors.
*Since Tau count in base-8, the number is much larger than we would expect. For us, it would be approximately 48 paces.
Nothing much happened during his first turn. Without anything to react to, all he could hope to do was place his units in the best positions to interfere with my strategy (which he had assumed was deep striking my force) and move to occupy the best deep strike zones. The gun drones attached to his Pathfinder Devilfish disembarked and moved to this end.
Turn 1 Dark Eldar:
As Nu'Vosh approached the recorder, he opened a wireless link with its memory banks and began searching for something, anything, that would help him understand what happened here that would cause more than a thousand humans, Earth Caste and Fire Caste Tau to simply disappear. All the while, the commander could not help but feel that something was amiss, as if someone was watching them...
Nothing at all happened in this turn, as I had nothing on the table and my reserves weren't going to arrive until next turn.
Turn 2 Tau:
Within moments of calling for reinforcements, Nu'Vosh was pleased to see his fellow Fire Caste warriors arrive so promptly and in such show of force. A pair of Hammerheads, a pair of mighty Broadsides and many tens of Fire Warriors, including several stealthy Pathfinders; this unit should be sufficient to hold the village and fend off whatever was the cause of these disappearances.
He was, however, surprised to see an Ethereal accompanying one of the Fire Warrior teams. "Aun," the commander said in reverence, "Your presence is unexpected, but welcome."
"Shas'O Sa'cea Kais G'kar Nu'Vosh," the Ethereal responded, "I have decided to observe this operation myself. Please continue with your mission."
"Forgive my insolence, Aun," Nu'Vosh replied, "but do you think it wise for you to be present in such an uncertain situation as this? We still haven't discovered the cause of the disappearances."
"It is precisely because of these disappearances that I must be here," the Ethereal declared majestically, "The Greater Good is threatened when those that believe in it cannot even be sure of their safety in their own dwellings. I will see that the cause of all this is identified and dealt with, Shas'O. That is your task as well."
"Commander, Team One reporting," came the voice of a team leader over the comms, "We have secured the survivor, and she has been identified as Shas'Vre El'Anya, sir. She requires immediate medical attention."
"Team One Leader," the Ethereal said with royal composure, "A Pathfinder team has been recalled from search and rescue to this area. You will use their transport to escort Shas'Vre El'Anya to base, where she will receive what treatment she needs."
"By your command, Aun," the Shas'Ui replied as he turned back to the wounded battlesuit pilot. One of her legs was missing, ending at the knee, and she was bleeding from many wounds where her suit's control interface had been torn from her flesh, presumably when she ejected. Lying in a pool of her own blue ichor, she was a pitiful sight indeed; a proud, skilled and accomplished Fire Warrior reduced to a whimpering, helpless wreck.
"Team Leader!" one of the warriors under his command addressed him, "I've been listening to reports from all over the area. There is no sign of any hostiles anywhere in the operation zone."
"Nothing?" the Shas'Ui responded, "Nothing to suggest a battle at all?"
"No, Team Leader," his subordinate reported, "No wreckage, no bodies, no remains, no spent ammunition, either. It's as if nothing at all happened here."
"If that's the case," the team leader mused, "then what shot down the Shas'Vre?"
About half of his force came in on this turn. His Broadsides, an Ionhead and two squads of Fire Warriors were deployed in one corner (his Pathfinder Devilfish was sitting in the opposite corner attempting to look threatening), his Pathfinders themselves took up residence on the lower floor of the ruin in his deployment zone. His Commander moved to secure the beacon and was joined by two more Fire Warrior squads, one of which was escorting his Ethereal. His other Ionhead took up residence in the other corner while his first Fire Warrior team moved to secure the pilot. Again, with nothing to react to he continued to delude himself into believing that I was deep striking my entire force.
Turn 2 Dark Eldar:
Within moments, the Shas'Ui's musings were answered. More than a dozen arrow-shaped craft flashed darkly into existence not four paces in front of him. 12 tall, lithe human-like beings* descended from one of the larger ones with unreal grace, sporting wicked blades, light armor and simple bodysuits with parts barbarically cut away to expose bare flesh. In a single motion, before anyone else could react, these agile creatures leapt into the fray and in the blink of an eye they sauntered on their way, leaving not a Tau standing.
Elsewhere, Fire Warriors were falling left, right and center as the smaller craft began spraying lethal bursts of toxic death at them. The gun drones were swiftly torn to pieces by a pack of mad jetbikers driving their bikes' razor-sharp blades through their armor and other systems. The larger gunships, projecting dark beams of unlight from their guns obliterated both Broadsides and its supporting Hammerhead. Several of these beams found their way towards Commander Nu'Vosh, but their unnatural rays were stopped mostly by the stalls he was behind, the last one failing to slay him when his shield drone darted in its path and was destroyed by it. A couple shots from the smaller craft found their way into the cracks in his suit's armor; his primary hydraulics system had failed and his ejection system was damaged in the barrage. The Devilfish also succumbed to the darklight beams from the deck of one of the smaller craft, exploding in a flash of blue light as its reactor was breached.
In all the chaos, the wounded Shas'Vre cried out as loudly as her crippled throat would let her, completely horrified, "It's happening again... Oh, Ethereals of the Greater Good, it's happening again!"
*Again, because Tau count in base-8, the actual number of Succubi was 10, the legal maximum unit size.
This was when the game itself actually started. All of my squads deployed mounted (only the Succubi dismounted afterwards), with both my Archons and Blasterborn retinues sidling up next to his Pathfinder Devilfish, the Reavers bladevaning his dismounted gun drones to death (+1 pain token), the three Ravagers moving onto the middle of my deployment zone, the Succubi's Raider right next to them and my six Blaster Warriors' Venoms in a line with targets readily available for their splinter cannons.
In the Shooting phase, one of my Blasterborn squads claimed the Pathfinder Devilfish with ease (5 Blasters tends to do that) and my Ravagers and Raider succeeded in slagging both of his Broadsides, the Ionhead supporting them and knocking off the Commander's shield drone. Additionally, the Venoms took a couple wounds off the Commander and easily claimed a dozen Fire Warriors and a few Pathfinders from a total of four squads. My Succubi also inflicted a couple shooting casualties with their pistols, but even if they didn't their exploits in the Assault phase would have made up for the difference anyway.
In the Assault phase, the Succubi completely obliterated the Fire Warriors holding the pilot objective with an impressive 43 attacks from everyone, not counting the Dracite who added another five hits and four kills with her power weapon. They didn't consolidate far, but enough to put them behind the bunker to avoid getting shot to death.
Turn 3 Tau:
Things were looking grim for Nu'Vosh's Cadre when the raiders appeared, destroying their targets with almost contemptuous ease. The darkness that shrouded their vehicles made it all but impossible to get a target lock, but the Pathfinders were able to light up what looked like one of the smaller craft's power supplies, which the battlesuit commander, veteran of a hundred battles against numerous foes, promptly obliterated with a well-placed missile. The target fell to the ground and the darkness surrounding it lifted, but its passengers appeared to be unharmed.
"I humbly advise that we retreat, Aun," Nu'Vosh said to the Ethereal as he jumped back behind the stalls again, "we can notify Command of the situation and send in a whole Contingent to deal with this threat. We have already fulfilled our primary objective here, for we have identified the cause of the disappearances."
"There is no need for that, Shas'O," the Ethereal responded, "for they have fallen into our trap. Remember your studies of the Kauyon, Fire Caste." The commander, humbled by the Ethereal's wisdom, finally understood why his Cadre had been deployed where they were; to draw out the attacker and trap him as any patient hunter would.
The Ethereal's words soon proved to be true as a Monat dropped from the sky and, with support from the nearby Fire Warriors, shot down two of the jetbikers and drove the remainder off, while nearby a small team of Stealth suits seemingly materialized from nowhere, weapons blazing, before finally closing with one of the smaller craft and tearing it apart with their powerful arms. Perhaps they could also deal with the threat at the same time now.
Needless to say, my opponent was getting worried after the carnage I inflicted upon him when I finally arrived in force. His Stealth suits and one of his Crisis suits came in on this turn, both in the same area. The Stealth suits outflanked right next to my Blasterborn squads and his Crisis suit scattered right in front of my Reavers (fortunately for him. If he had rolled a little lower, he would have suffered a mishap). One of his remaining Fire Warrior teams (the one badly mauled down to a couple drones and Warriors) maneuvered to set up a kill zone for my Reavers.
In the Shooting phase, his Stealth suits failed to wreck one of my Blasterborn squad's ride with a fusion blaster and two burst cannons, his Crisis suit unleashed his flamer on my Reavers but failed to kill any of them (in fact, it took the combined firepower of the two supporting Fire Warrior teams to take out half of them, forcing a Leadership test that they failed and zipped off the table). The squad guarding his Ethereals opened up on my Succubi, but failed to take out any of them, while his Battlesuit Commander managed to pick off a Venom that his Pathfinders had lit up. His remaining Ionhead and last Fire Warrior team did manage to shake a couple Venoms, but did no lasting damage.
His Stealth suits ended up assaulting the Venom they failed to kill with shooting and succeeded in wrecking it, forcing the Blasterborn squad inside to walk.
Turn 3 Dark Eldar:
Talmeth was irritated. What he wanted was an easy raid, with no losses like the others had done. Now, he was taking on a whole Cadre of Tau warriors, and three of their smaller battlesuits had just torn his ride apart, forcing upon him the indignity of walking. Naturally, he felt vindicated as he and his entourage of Trueborn lanced them to death with their blasters. Of course, this meant that he was now effectively out of the fight, but it mattered little. All of this was but a small part in a greater plan that he and his twin brother Tabris had devised, and Tabris was just as able as he in securing yet another flawless victory.
The corsair brothers' plan was to secure favor with the Black Jackal by delivering to him millions of slaves taken from a well-defended Tau world, as a demonstration of their skill, cunning and daring. At first, they would stage small raids at strategic points on the planet's surface, making individual farmsteads disappear without a trace, scaling their raids up to wiping entire villages like this one off the map in preparation for a grand example of masterful strategic deception.
Ordinarily, Talmeth would have loved nothing more than to secure those slaves, stab his brother in the back and claim all the glory and prestige the Jackal's favor would bring for himself, but he and Tabris were cursed. An act of betrayal while they were in their wet nurse's womb left them symbiotically linked; if one of them perished, so would the other shortly thereafter, and none of the Haemonculae's art could save either of them. So, as a result, they needed to work together as a matter of survival, and they proved to be quite the pair.
So far, even with this minor setback, their plan was proceeding perfectly.
My Succubi loped predatorially into the bunker, my dismounted Blasterborn moved to get a better firing solution, the Succubi's Raider moved to the dismounted Blaster Warrior squad so they could get a ride in future turns and one of my Ravagers moved to support my other Blasterborn squad in taking out the lone Crisis suit while the other two maneuvered towards the last Ionhead in an effort to eventually destroy it.
The dismounted Blasterborn completely annihilated the Stealth suits (they didn't have a chance), the mounted Blasterborn claimed the solo Crisis suit, its accompanying Ravager took out the mauled Fire Warriors' drones, causing them to flee off the table, and their supporting Fire Warrior team (which had been unmolested up until this point) lost close to a third of their members from splinter fire. On the other side of the board, my other Ravagers slagged the Battlesuit Commander and nailed another Pathfinder, and my other splinter cannons continued to chew small chunks out of his other Fire Warrior squads. Unfortunately, my Succubi didn't roll high enough for fleeting to be able to assault his Ethereal Guard.
Turn 4 Tau:
Another lance of unlight penetrated Nu'Vosh's battlesuit's reactor, leaving him seconds from certain death. Intending to survive, he activated his ejection system, but to no avail: the suit's control interface was ripped from his body, mortally wounding him in the process, but the hatch failed to open when his ejection seat fired. He had but a fraction of a second to realize his imminent demise before he was reduced to a dark blue stain on the inside of the suit's cockpit and his battlesuit exploded in a brilliant flash of blue light.
The other Monat, watching his commander die like that, started up his flamer and dropped down next to the bunker, where the scantily-clad barbarians were sheltering from the Cadre's fire. With a mighty roar, the flames gushing out from his shoulder-mount weapon roasted half of them alive, but even though the flames touched the others just as much, they seemed to enjoy it in a perverse sort of way.
"The survivor is unrecoverable," the Ethereal declared, "Fall back to the beacon for regroup and counterattack. Monat, you are now in command of this operation."
"By your command, Aun," the battlesuit pilot responded as he moved back towards the beacon.
Elsewhere, a pack of Kroot stalked behind the line of fell craft. Spraying at one from behind, they succeeded in knocking off the nose gun and wounding the top gunner, while a fortunate Ion Cannon hit from the remaining Hammerhead struck down both the pilot and gunner of another. The Ethereal knew that the medevac Devilfish with its Pathfinders would be arriving soon, he just hoped that it wasn't already too late...
His other Crisis suit and his pack of Kroot came in on this turn. His Crisis suit landed next to my Succubi, prepping his flamer menacingly, while his Kroot outflanked behind my line of Venoms. Elsewhere on the table, my opponent realized that if he wanted to do anything other than lose he'd have to pull his Fire Warriors back to the beacon and regroup, so his Fire Warriors began retreating toward his objective.
In the Shooting phase, his last battlesuit unloaded his flamer into the bunker my Succubi were stalking inside, torching half of them with its burning caress. His Ionhead succeeded in trashing one Venom, while his Kroot shot a splinter cannon off another one and stunned the rest of the crew.
Turn 4 Dark Eldar:
Unfortunately for the Kroot, their actions alerted the rest of the Warriors to their presence, and that drew the attention of their guns. "This isn't combat, it's sport!" one warrior proclaimed as she slaughtered one Kroot after another with her Venom's top-mounted gun. The Raider belonging to the Succubi, having picked up a Warrior squad that had been inconveniently dismounted, lanced the battlesuit from behind, blowing it apart with a single palpable hit.
Meanwhile, Tabris' Venom casually pursued the retreating Fire Warriors, felling a few with fire from its Splinter Cannons and the Succubi deftly pounced upon the Pathfinders, shredding them with contemptuous ease. With their flesh slick with Tau ichor and a murderous glint in their eyes, they were more than prepared to slaughter another half-dozen of the wretched creatures.
Enraged by the loss of so many fine Wyches to an upstart T'au, I tore that last Crisis suit up with a combination of splinter fire and, when that failed, a well-placed Dark Lance shot from my Raider. The dismounted Warrior squad and two other Venom squads only claimed about half of the Kroot (as this was the beginning of the period when my luck started running out) and my other Blasterborn squad, wanting for targets pursued his retreating Fire Warriors as my Ravagers and three other Warrior squads began converging on his objective. My Succubi finally exited the bunker and began to get to grips with the Pathfinders, which they likewise obliterated in a single Assault Phase without allowing the enemy a single attack.
Turn 5 Tau:
Finally, the other Pathfinder team arrived. Darting in between the Venoms and the Hammerhead, they jumped down from their Devilfish and laid down a barrage of fire strong enough to jar the nearest of the deadly skimmers.
Meanwhile, the Hammerhead pilot obeyed the Ethereal's retreat order. Being the daredevil he was, he slid over a building into a small gap between it and the stalls that was barely wider than the Hammerhead itself, in the hopes that the enemy would have to go the long way around to get to the beacon.
Running from the pursuing Venom, the Fire Warriors falling back to the beacon were stunned at the sight of the half-naked barbarians reveling in the slaughter of the Pathfinders they had overwhelmed. Angered at the brutality of it all, the team leader merely pointed at them and said one word.
"Fire."
With no regard to the amount of ammunition they were expending, they only managed to kill two of them, but it appeared to be enough to drive the rest of them off.
On the other side of the market square, the remaining Kroot charged the Warriors that were without a transport thanks to the Hammerhead's gunnery skill. While they were swift, the pale killers were frail and fell easily, but one of them, with a burst of fire from her gun as she was clubbed to death managed to wound the Shaper as she died. The Shaper flinched in pain as he tried to remove the splinters poisoning his veins, but many of them went too deep, and could only be removed at base.
This was the turn in which he was clearly most hopeful. Because of the terrain and his deployment I was unable to get anything of mine close enough to contest the beacon, his other Pathfinders came in on the correct side and stalled my Venom wing's advance and his Ionhead moved to block LOS (mostly) to his Fire Warriors holding his objective.
While his shooting failed to accomplish much (he shook a single Venom and shot at my Succubi enough to make them flee off the table), his Kroot assaulted and killed the dismounted Warrior squad, which was a nuisance.
Turn 5 Dark Eldar:
"Hurry! Surround and eliminate them! We cannot allow even one to escape!" Tabris yelled out as he and his Trueborn retinue fired from their Venom's deck, supported by the transport's twin Splinter Cannons. Several more of the pitiful Tau were butchered from this fusiliade, more specifically the squad that had driven off Aelendria and her Succubi; there would be a reckoning with her later, Tabris told himself as he indulged in the slaughter.
On the other side of the square, Tabris could see his Warriors hosing down the Kroot with overwhelming amounts of Splinter Fire and destroying the approaching transport. Hearing a cry coming from nearby, Tabris had to fight back an urge to laugh at his foolish twin brother for the indignity he had to suffer through by running across the square as fast as his legs would carry him. Served him right for being a target...
This was the turn that I got as many of my units into place as I could and hoped that the game didn't end in a draw. I finished off the Kroot and took out the other Pathfinder Devilfish, and managed to take out a few more Fire Warriors in the process. Nothing special.
A 6 was rolled when determining whether another turn would be played, and so my chances of winning improved greatly.
Turn 6 Tau:
The Fire Warriors, hounded by the Archon's Venom, did the only thing they could do at this point; retreat to the beacon where their Ethereal stood, guarded by the last of their Cadre and the only surviving Hammerhead.
Continuing their barrage, the Pathfinders eventually took out one of a Venom's grav vanes, causing it to careen into the ground, but nothing else happened to it, it didn't explode or throw its passengers out at deadly speeds or anything.
Meanwhile, the Hammerhead's gunner fired off a volley of pulses from the turret's ion cannon, raking across the hull of one of the gunships, and tore it apart in midair. His crewmate, the pilot, cheered. Perhaps there was hope afterall...
More retreating, the immobilization of a Venom and the loss of a Ravager best defined this turn.
Turn 6 Dark Eldar:
However, that hope was short-lived. The larger transport flew low overhead, snatching away a couple of the Ethereal's guards with its trailing chains and hooks. Their cries of pain and dismay only excited the warriors aboard as they prepared for the coming slaughter.
The Tau's morale was lessened further when a Ravager lanced away the Hammerhead's turret. In response, the Ethereal stood tall, preparing to make an inspirational speech to the remaining Fire Warriors, but he was cut short when fire from a Venom's splinter cannons riddled him with holes, his body spasming wildly as he fell to the ground. This was good, Tabris thought to himself, Now, they will grow irrational and make mistakes, which will cost them their lives. Tabris and his brother had studied the Tau extensively in preparation for their raid. They needed to know everything they could about their culture, tactics, society, anything that they could exploit as a weakness, and they just happened upon one. When one of their Ethereals dies, all Tau nearby grow more fierce and aggressive, but they also become more predictable as they begin to act less rationally. Now that they had killed one, it was time that they exploited this weakness in their psychology...
I moved flat-out with the Raider, claiming a couple models from the Ethereal's unit with its chain snares, my Ravagers took off the turret of the Ionhead and prevented it from shooting next turn (in case there would be one) and took out the gun drones that disembarked from the wreckage of his other Pathfinder Devilfish. I also brought a Venom from the rear to bear, with the intent of hopefully taking out his Ionhead and remaining Fire Warriors, but neither happened, unfortunately. However, I did manage to slay his Ethereal, to great comedic effect.
Another 6 was rolled at the end of the turn, and so the game went on into its final turn.
Turn 7 Tau:
Furious at the murder of their precious Ethereal, the remaining Fire Warriors unleashed a torrent of fire upon the sinister raiders, but for all that fire all they accounted for were the crew of one of the gunships.
"Retreat for now," the Hammerhead pilot ordered, "We'll regroup and call HQ for more support. We'll need at least a Contingent to bring an end to these raiders!"
At this point, the only way my opponent could hope to not lose was to take out the Raider and both Ravagers, but he only succeeded in downing one Ravager.
Turn 7 Dark Eldar:
Tabris watched with pride and glee as his minions destroyed the last of the Tau's primitive skimmers and sprayed down the last of their soldiers with fire, leaving no survivors. He knew that after the disappearance of an entire Cadre in this area, the planet's defense force couldn't ignore their actions here, and would soon be arriving in force.
It mattered little, as all this was going according to plan. The more troops the enemy dedicated to searching for absent raiders, the fewer troops there would be guarding the real prize: the capital city with millions of inhabitants there for the taking. After learning of their success at abducting the entire population of a well-defended planet, the Jackal would have no choice but to reward them with a place in his court...
At the end of the Shooting phase not a single Tau was left standing and not one of their crude skimmers was left intact, so the game ended with me tabling him and controlling both objectives.
Parting thoughts:
The Succubi were fantastic, making whole squads of infantry disappear in a gory, but elegant, mess, and the Venom spam worked out better than I had expected, but the Night Shields were what won me that game because they forced him to fight me on my terms and actually engage me, especially since the alternative was weathering torrents of splinter fire.
This was the sort of game I want to play all the time; one where we are both playing at our strengths, where the loser can still manage a draw until the very end and the winner still finds his opponent challenging, and a game that can easily have a story develop around it. This, my friends, is what 40K is supposed to be like.
