Guilliman's Demise

Tau & Chaos forces ready to take on the Imperium

Last night was supposed to be revenge for mine and Lewis' forces against Ultramarines. However, it was not to be as they had help from the Dark Angels and we lost.

The game mode was The Prize, and they gained first turn, killing Lewis' Knight immediately and crippling my Riptide. They then grabbed the objective and took it straight inside a Landraider (which had a 4+ invun and gave -1 to hit it). Knowing that we had already lost the game, we instead decided to hunt down Guilliman and take him out. We succeeded (twice, no less) and in turn were the first factions to actually take him out so far!

The first time was from a squad of Cultists, Breachers and Crisis Suits and then second time was from Tzeentch Flamers, more Cultists, Strike Teams and a Coldstar Commander.

Overall it was an extremely tough game and our heavy hitters were taken out almost immediately, nearly crippling our entire forces in one fell swoop. Some fluff from the Tau perspective is below the photos.

Guilliman's first death

Shield Drones with 4+/5++ are horrible, especially when you roll like this..

Moments before the second death of Guilliman

Lewis also joined me in the 5's and 6's with his Disgustingly Resilliant

Guilliman's Demise

Pax'nera Sept was still reeling from the crushing defeat at the hands of the Ultramarines. Barely a week had passed, Gottfried, the pilot of the Knight, was still in critical condition despite having 24 hour care. Tau medical staff were not used to treating human injuries, but they couldn't let him die.

Steadstrike stood outside the medical room, watching over him, deep in thought, when he was interrupted by Tallet, one of the Militia Leaders of the Canis Aureus.

"The Ultramarines are advancing on our position. They say Guilliman is marching again and he's brought friends.. Dark Angels."

The Tau commander sighed heavily and simply nodded, electing not to say too much.

"Very well. Prepare yourselves. I will have the shell sent for."

~~~~~~~~~~

"This plan had better work O'Lynu'ka."

Farshot was a Hammerhead ace, one of the best pilots in the Sept. A good job really, as his gruff demeanour and abrasive personality certainly earned him no favours.

Steadstrike smirked a little, uneasy.

"It will work my friend. All we have to do is draw him out. I care not for whatever trinket they are after."

There behind them stood a towering Knight, far bigger than a Riptide suit. It was as imposing as they remembered. If only it wasn't a fake..

The Ultramarines poured all of their firepower into the shell, destroying it near immediately, but the plan had worked. Guilliman himself had entered the battlefield and was striding right towards the group. However, he was so focused, he neglected his flank and left himself exposed. A Breacher team opened fire, weakening his incredible armour as a group of Crisis Suits, led by Steadstrike himself in his Coldstar suit, dropped in behind, unleashing the fury of their Fusion Blasters and Ion Blasters, tearing chunks out of his armour, leaving his body exposed. The Cultists then moved up and opened fire, their bolter shots tearing Guilliman's leg and arm off as he crumpled to the ground unmoving.

~~~~~~~~~~

Amazingly, despite the fact he lost limbs, Guilliman rose again. The battle was nearly over; Farshot's Hammerhead was destroyed, the Riptide crippled and the Crisis team reduced to ash. Guilliman was advancing fast, firing upon the last of the Plaguebearers. Even Steadstrike felt a pang of guilt as the cries of the Chaos forces rang out as the Primarch tore them down.

More Cultists rained down bolter fire, backed up by Strike teams unleashing their pulse rifles, tearing open the man's armour. He wiped the blood off his chin, expecting to take them all on.

Pushing his suit as fast as it would go, Steadstrike barrelled into him at full force, knocking the man from his feet. Pinning him down, the Tau Commander said no words, only a singular, hatred-filled glare as he pointed his burst cannon at the once-mighty Primarch pinned at his feet. Without a shred of remorse, guilt or empathy, he opened fire, severing Guilliman in half with white-hot pulse rounds.

The Fall of Faustus

Steadstrike about to face Faustus

Over the course of the weekend, and after a year of playing, I managed my first solo win against Lewis and his Canis Aureus! It was a hard fought victory but luck was on my side. The objective was to find a supply cache and I managed to sieze initiative as well as finding the cache on one of my objectives on the first turn.

From that point, the game switched to pure defense for me. Through a combination of good rolling and some tactics, I managed to pull off a win. I have a new found respect for Terminators, as well as Runic Armour, as the amount of shots they managed to survive was absolutely insane. I had 2 squads of Fire Warriors, 20 models in total, a Cadre Fireblade, a Riptide and a Coldstar commander, all focusing their fire on one model, Vlees, who managed to survive 2 full turns of shooting!

Overall the game was incredible and for my first real win, I couldn't have asked for it to be any better! Some fluff from the battle follows the photos.

Sun Shark flying low over Noise Marines and Terminators

Despite all that firepower, Vlees survived!

Fire Warriors preparing their barrage

The Fall of Faustus

Steadstrike couldn't help but blame himself. The needless death of so many warriors at the hands of the Death Guard made his blood boil. Calming his nerves, he received a message informing him of a supply cache on a nearby desolate world. "A good way to de-stress I suppose.." However the message was not without warning. The Canis Aureus had been spotted in the sector and were closing in fast.

  

With no time wasted, the Firestorm Cadre found themselves touching down in the nick of time, with the Aureus not far behind them. As luck would have it, the supply cache was on their end of the battlefield. All they had to do was hold it. Then Steadstrike saw him. The one who had humiliated him time and again. Faustus. Holding back his anger, he delayed his strike until the optimum moment, eager to live up to his own moniker.

  

Deploying quickly, he found the old sorcerer was just as fast as ever. But Steadstrike was ready. Despite having his suit partly torn open, he lashed back and managed a quick retreat from the charging man. Taking a slow and steady aim, he raised his burst cannon and closed his eyes, squeezing the trigger. When he opened them, there was barely anything of the man he once faced.

  

The battle was not over however. The Crisis team had been held up in combat with Danor, another potent psyker of the Aureus. Rushing over, he commanded all his forces focus fire on an advancing Terminator squad. Eventually the pulse fire found weakness in the armour and downed the two foes, just for another to come walking forwards. Yet this one was different. No matter how much firepower was sent his way, the rounds glanced off his armour, some even seemed to bend around him. His advance was only halted when Danor fell. Steadstrike knew it was futile to push the victory they'd earned and ordered his Cadre to pull out. The supplies had been claimed and the battle was won. An old enemy had been removed, only to be replaced by another.

 

"Vlees.. Well done.", Steadstrike shouted over to him as they boarded the Manta.

Clash with Death Guard

Clash with Death Guard

On Saturday I played against Death Guard, and my friend Josh, for the first time. They were as brutal as I expected them to be, but regardless it was a great game!

Myself and Mia managed to hit quite hard in the first turn, the Sun Shark certainly coming into it's own, obliterating half of a squad of marines (despite being taken down by a flamer from a Cultist...!). The Riptide was surprisingly effective too, as I'd heard bad things about it's condition in 8th from various sources online. Thanks to some good rolls and greater tactical prowess however, the Chaos forces bought the game back and ended up tabling us.

 

Bloat Drone staring down the Cadre Fireblade

A Major Deafeat

You could smell the fear in the ranks. Pax'nera Sept were no strangers to Chaos, having fought it many times over the past year, but this was different. The Death Guard were here, a terrifyingly grotesque and powerful foe, worthy of respect and fear. 

This was Shas'El Tau'n Bra'dax's chance to prove himself to Steadstrike. Before donning his Coldstar suit, he gave his Fireblade a quick rundown of the plan, along with the famed Commander Shadowsun. A Lord of Contagion had been seen on the field and they all knew this was going to be a tough fight. 

They weren't wrong.

The hulking Riptide unleashed it's fury upon the incoming marines while the Strike team used their mobile fortifications for cover, advancing up the field. A dreadnought soon fell from the firepower of the Crisis teams, but alas the favour soon turned to the Chaos forces. Shas'El Tau'n was torn to pieces as his suit gave way and soon enough, the entire Tau force had been eradicated.

Skirmish with the Imperium

So last night at our FLGS, we played a 2000 point game. Myself playing Tau alongside David's Eldar against Darren's Salamanders and Lewis' Space Wolves.

It was an interesting game - the deployment was either the 2 edges of the table or 18" in the centre. We won the roll off and chose the edges. The twist was Warp Storm, which luckily only really affected the Eldar player, as no one else fielded Psykers. The game mode was the one where you add up the Power Level of any unit completely destroyed (I forget the name, but it was a good one!).

The game only actually lasted until the end of the 2nd turn, as we started late and the shop was being shut earlier last night too. We prevailed 27-26, but it honestly could've gone either way.

Below the photos is some fluff from the Tau perspective.

Tau forces preparing for battle

Eldar Guardians watching over from the rooftops

Breachers and Jet Bikes advancing

Very little remained after the hail of Shuriken and Pulse fire

Commander Steadstrike joins the battle

The alliance with the Eldar may be an uneasy one, but it is still mutually beneficial regardless. The Tau learnt their lessons from the Drukhari incident so naturally they were cautious at first, but so far it has proved fruitful. When they received word that Imperial forces were moving in, it was only natural for the Xenos races to fight back together.

O'Lynu'Ka mobilised a strike force quickly, hoping to ambush the advance before it pushed too far into their territory. By the time they arrived, the Salamanders and Wolves had already dug themselves in well and to his surprise, none other than Vulcan himself had accompanied them. "Hmm, looks like we've managed to make quite the impression.." he mused to himself.

Positioning his forces around their flanks, supported by Eldar, Steadstrike gave them their final warning. When it was ignored, he gave the order. The clouds darkened as the looming Sun Shark flew low, dropping its pulse bombs onto the Marines below, the Breacher teams loading into their Devilfish and his trusted Fireblade, Shas'el Ka'mais Tsua'kran, barking orders to the Strike team, their pulse rifles aimed squarely at Vulcan and his guards. It was then that O'Lynu'Ka noticed a familiar figure entrenched in one of the buildings below his Manta ship. 

"Jostein..?"

It was less than a month ago they fought side by side against the impending Tyranid invasion and now they're here, once again fighting each other. The Commander sighed heavily, knowing his opponent is a worthy one. Turning his back, he headed to his newly outfitted Coldstar suit and began preparing to enter the battle himself.