Narrative Tactical Review: The Tau of War

Shas’O Tau’N Mal’Caor Run’Al surveyed the battlefield, a pall of smoke drifted across the ruins, the smell of death filling his nostrils and the tang of ionised air from pulse gun and las rifle made his skin tingle. The sudden silence was deafening, making his ears ring. He contemplated the loss of lives. This had been a costly victory as he had known it would be.

 As previously, the Tau air caste had bombarded the area, reducing a sizable part of the city to ruins, but unlike before the “Gue La” had dug in, their sizable infantry squads supported by elite assault troops and a multitude of specialist weapons. This was not the way he preferred the hunt but he had understood the need for consolidation.

He thought back to key moments of the conflict; An imperial troop carrier had dropped off a squad of assault troops that had nearly destroyed his own HQ and had then had made short work of a Hammerhead Gunship. The fearsome kroot that had been totally wiped out only accounting for a single enemy veteran squad and worst, their leader had survived the encounter. One of his Shas’la dying horribly, pierced by a dozen lasgun bolts. Although both Shas’ui from the fire warrior teams had shown themselves to be heroically courageous - either one would make a suitable replacement - his eyes stung from the personal loss he felt.

It had been necessary to use his infantry as a distraction, using them as little more than bait in a trap. The plan had been to surprise the humans with his reserves, who would surround and confound them, pinning them with massed fire. The plan had nearly backfired; partly due to the slight delay of his reinforcements and the resistance to superior Tau weaponry afforded by the cover the Humans had utilised; not to mention the unexpected arrival of so many Gue La by means of their sudden aerial attack. Had it not been for the stoicism of his fire warriors who refused to break even though their losses were considerable, the Tau initiative would have suffered a major setback if not total failure.

“The Hidden Spider” cast his mind back to the moment when victory (and defeat) had been decided.

He had been forced to abandon his stand-and-shoot stance when he realised that both his Shas' La had fallen to concentrated fire from two larger than usual enemy infantry squads and their Headquarters team. His own Battlesuit would not have withstood another salvo, so he had assaulted the snipers who had been targeting him, shooting as he went in.

One of the Human squads had broken cover, presumably aiming to overwhelm him with numbers. From the corner of his eye he had seen the veteran squad leader who had survived the Kroot attack charging though the ruins toward him, but the man levelled a powerful-looking hand gun and promptly disappeared in a ball of plasma energy. Luck had played its hand, so it was in this as it had been in many previous battles, and so it would always be “for the greater good”

The Humans had clearly learned from their comrades mistakes and had largely ignored the Broadsides, which having had no tanks to target had made little impact in the battle. Although savages, the Gue La were clearly not fools.

Mal’Caor Run’Al signalled to the Shas’ui for the force to move on to the next rendezvous point. He felt grief and anger over the heavy Tau losses, fuelling his desire to destroy all Gue La resistance. His mind was already formulating plans for the next and final conflict, this time it was not just for Tau, not just for “The Greater Good.”

This time it was personal.

The Coming of the Hellspore: Slumbering Evil

Being the report of Inquisitor Harlon Jade of the Ordo Xenos, submitted via astropath 109.997.M41

As part of my ongoing investigation into what could become a serious threat to Imperial security on many worlds, I present the following report of my activities on the mining colony of Valorax X and an explanation for my team’s extermination of all colonists.

I became aware of the threat caused by what I now call Sleepers thirty eight standard months ago on the hive world Goorad Prime.

A small cell of what appeared to be eco-terrorists were apprehended in an attempt to poison a large proportion of the principle hive’s water supply. This would have resulted in well over forty thousand deaths.

On convalescence and curious, I involved myself in the follow-up investigation. During interrogation, all three of the surviving eco-terrorists, though human, exhibited odd patterns of speech and psycho-neuroses. They proved 100% resistant to all forms of torture and gave up nothing. I conducted one of the interrogations myself and must admit to feeling unsettled by the curious insect-like way that the cell leader stared at me.

During post-mortem examination, all three terrorists were found to be infected by an unusual strain of the same virus they were trying to infect the hive with. Further examination revealed a discoloration of the cadaver’s bones. Although all members of the group appeared human in every physical respect, their skeletons were yellow.

With no further answers to find I closed the investigation, completed my convalescence and moved on.

Twelve thousand light years and many months away, my ship approached the mining colony of Valorax X for much needed supplies. We were welcomed to dock and trade but when my team and I boarded we found the colony almost deserted. It was run by a skeleton crew of eight. We accepted their hospitality, however feeling nauseous, I declined their offer of food. It was that happenstance that saved my life.

Half way through the meal, the team I had taken with me began to convulse as though violently ill. Simultaneously the eight crew members entered the hall carrying light arms of obvious xenos manufacture. I fought them off and fled back toward the docking bay, calling for help on my com.

Suddenly however, the halls were filled with abhorrent yellow skull-faced colonists, all reaching for me, using makeshift weapons in an attempt to apprehend me. I was captured and taken back to the dining hall.

The link between my investigation on Goorad Prime and this chance encounter was clear. The distinctive yellow skulls of my captors as well as the odd glassy stares of the apparently human “colonists” made it definite. Most horrifying of all was seeing several more of the leering skull-faced creatures wearing the clothes of my team mates. The poison in the food had evidently caused a transformation into these monsters.

One of the human-looking fiends began to prepare an injection of yellow fluid and I started to form an impression of what had occurred here.

These “sleepers” - the human looking ones had not been part of the original colony. They had arrived as we had and used their macabre drug to transform each of the colonists into one of these skeletal spectres, just as the team on Goorad Prime had attempted to do to the entire hive. They wanted to infect me too; possibly with a variation that would make me like them; and use my ship to move on.

Before I could be injected, the remaining members of my team stormed the hall and rescued me. Every one of the skull-faced abominations was killed, though several more of my men were cut down as well. The sleepers were also exterminated.

On further investigation throughout the station, it was clear an exodus had been planned. Ships had been made ready for departure.

I now believe that these sleepers, and the virus they insidiously try to propagate could cause severe problems for the Imperium. If this vile corruption spreads exponentially, it could soon form a major threat to our dominace of this area of the galaxy.

Where the Campaign Stands

Right! This took longer than I thought it would but here we see how the campaign stands at the moment.

These maps show the action currently taking place down the length of Valorax VIII's super-continent, Pariah.

My goal now is to take the conflict across Valorax to a much higher level, going from a series of minor incidents to all out kick-ass war. There are, for example, several factions who have yet to make their presence known in anything beyond a superficial capacity. It's time that they got involved BIG TIME!

New Momentum

Followers of Conflict Valorax may have noticed that for a website dedicated to following an ongoing narrative campaign in the bleak darkness of the forty first millennium, there has been precious little development in the campaign. Closer friends may have noticed that model showcases have tended to be of older models painted years ago rather than new projects I’m churning out. Well the reason for this is that for the past year I’ve been rather obsessed with Warhammer Fantasy primarily, with 40k very much on the back burner. I have a healthy network of Fantasy-playing friends and I’ve been caught up in the development of my Warhammer blog, Last Chance War.

Well hopefully this is about to change as I’m getting the tingles that mean my interest in 40k is returning.

So first things first, I want to review the current state of war across the planet Valorax VIII; take stock and really get a feel for where the campaign currently stands – prior to catapulting it forward hopefully.

So let’s recap the situation: Valorax VIII is a planet that has recently barely survived invasion by Tyranid Hive Fleet Manticore, a splinter fleet of Hive Fleet Kraken. The Tyranids were defeated on the whole but at a terrible cost to the military might and infrastructure of this once prosperous planet.

Because the Imperium at large refused to send aid in this very loyal planet’s hour of need, the population and government are quite rightly a little peeved and now there is some talk behind closed doors of becoming a separatist system, breaking away from the Imperium and telling them where to stick it.

But the planet is still very vulnerable and various alien races have already made landfall in the hopes of taking what they want:

• The Ork war band, the Shaggin’ Dogz, have invaded and apparently seek only battle for battle’s sake, but may have an ulterior motive as well.
• The Chaos Space Marines known as the Good People have come to take control of four powerful magical portals, each one capable of granting them dominion over vast daemonic hordes.
• The Tau are on a mission of vengeance against the Good People but they also wish to absorb Valorax into their own domain and continue to make strikes against strategic targets.
• The Necrons have risen from their hidden tomb complex in the frozen wastes of The Chill and march toward more populated climes to decimate all life they find.
• Hidden in their jungle hellhole, the Tyranids are not completely defeated and continue to grow in strength, regenerating their strength for another attack against mankind.
• After making various hit and run attacks, the Eldar are on the verge of a large scale invasion of the capital city.
• The Dark Eldar, their diabolical cousins, have arrived on Valorax, but their mission too, remains, as yet, a mystery.
• Meanwhile, the lost Space Marine chapter, the Crimson Blades, have returned to Valorax after one hundred years of exile to rebuild their power base and having recaptured their fortress, they are now striking out at the foul xenos invaders.

But this is far from all...

As various factions of the Valorax Guard battle against their enemies, other forces of the Imperium make their presence known:

• The Witchhunters of the Ordo Hereticus are in-system, investigating heresy wherever they find it and though their principle target is the Crimson Blades, it cannot be long before they turn their gaze on the planetary government.
• The Grey Knights have been attacked in space by the Valorax-loyal Battlefleet Carrion. They too will seek answers at the end of a blade.
• And the Adeptus Mechanicus are building up a vast stockpile of arms in secret for some mysterious but unrevealed purpose.

With one faction yet to be revealed, Valorax is already at boiling point as secluded battles edge closer to full scale war!

So that’s the situation as it stands.

In my next post we’ll look at the situation on the ground, at the conflicts that are raging, and how they fit into the greater environment of the planet Valorax.

Another Failure

Necrons vs Deinosus Crimson Blades | Rob v Tim | 40k | 51 | 108.997.M41

In the far Chillward regions of Kaltirey, the Necrons continued their implacable march Scorchward. They had passed now outside the vicinity of any Guard outposts and moved now through the deep snow fields, blasted by blizzards but moving ever onward nonetheless.

But ahead of them, silhouetted figures moved in the snowstorm. The Necrons slowed, narrowing their visual detection units. Suddenly explosive shells streamed out of the white mist, hammering into their lines and the Deinosus Space Marines ran forward, Triceranoughts bellowing in fury as their cortex units flooded their systems with rage inducing hormones.

The Necrons showed no fear or surprise. They had defeated this opponent before after a series of tactical validations. They calculated only a 17% chance of significant loss now.

The Bladelords and Hunters ran forward, opening fire with bolters, plasmaguns and meltaguns, bringing down the lead Necrons, but scuttling fast round their flank came a gigantic insectile Tomb Stalker. It didn’t slow as it parted the ranks of the Bladelors, ignoring their bolt and plasma shots, ripping them apart one by one.

The Necron ranks opened for a moment and floating forward came the sinister form of the Necron C’tan: the Deceiver. The marines ran forward led by Felix Wulf and engaged him but they lacked the strength to harm him at all! Methodically, the Deceiver started to crush them, one after another. Realising the situation was untenable, Felix Wulf ordered his squad sergeant to activate his homing beacon.

The air started to crackle and spark, the godlike Deceiver pausing momentarily as it crushed the larynx on one of the marines. Then the sergeant transmatted up to the orbiting Black Scabbard and the Mammoth landed hard in its place. The great hairy beat trumpeted and crashed into the C’tan, knocking him back and Felix grinned. “Take that you bastard!”

But even the mammoth barely had sufficient strength to wound the Deceiver while every return blow tore chunks out of its flesh. It wasn’t going to work!

And meanwhile, the Necron warriors continued to march implacably forward.



"You will leave this battlefield immediately you hairy brute!"

A team of Raptor Riders pulled ahead of the Space Marine line, engaging a unit of Immortals. Their powerful weapons and the strength of the raptors’ jaws proved to be a dangerous combination, but any victory was insufficient. Both Triceranoughts were crippled now; the aggressive strength of the Deinosus battle group was diminishing to the critical level.

There was nothing now for it but to call a withdrawal.  

Captain Woolf put the withdrawal code out across the com and slipped out of the reach of the deceiver’s swinging fists as it ripped the Mammoth into its constituent parts.

The battle was over; and once again the Space Marines of the Deinosus battle Company had failed to halt the Necron advance.

On Dark Wings

Dark Eldar v Necrons | Tim v Rob | 40k | 45 | 101.997.M41

One faction had yet to appear in the Valorax Crucible but they had long been watching the planet.

As always, their agenda was multi-faceted and yet to be revealed but the first target of that mission was based in the ruined town of Frostgate, not far from the Freeze and close to the Necron Tomb Complex.

Too close to the Necron Tomb Complex.

As the Dark Eldar moved through the frozen city their sharp senses detected dozens of metallic footsteps echoing amongst the ruins along with the fizz of gauss weaponry.

They fanned out immediately, readying their splinter weapons. They had hoped to avoid contact of this nature but they were ready for it nonetheless.

The Necrons came into view and the Dark Eldar took up position in cover, shooting through windows and cracks in the masonry. The Necrons were completely undeterred. Their objective was to cleanse the area of all resistance. They did not even use what available cover there was. To them, the victory was already determined, calculated to encompass all possible variables.

Except they hadn’t taken into account the wild card nature of Dark Eldar tactical acumen.

The Dark Eldar gave fire, redeployed and gave fire again. The silver warriors did their best to fight back but they lacked the speed to deal with the subtle feints and withdrawals.

In less than an hour, every Necron warrior was a sparking ruin and barely half a dozen Dark Eldar warriors had been injured. The dark ones held the battlefield and that left them free to pursue that agenda.

They moved off through the ruins, leaving the broken metallic shells behind them, leaving no clue to the real reason for their presence there.

Survivors in Escavar

Escavar Mavericks v Daemons of Khorne | Tim v Gill | Space Hulk | 43 | 095.997.M41

One month had passed since the Calamity of Escavar had wiped out almost all life in the ruins of the former capital city and now in the wake of the Daemon Storm, horrific daemons crawled through the shattered buildings, spreading corruption to everything they touched where once Tyranids had lurked and crawled.

In all that time there had been no sign of the Escavar Mavericks.

Until now.

How some had survived, no one outside the ruined city could know, but survive they did.

A platoon of Mavericks crept through the shattered buildings, assessing the strength of the daemonic infestation, conducting reconnaissance for the bulk of the force, still in hiding. Pausing in one of the cramped alleyways, Captain Shore flicked his com-unit into place and gave the hand signal for his master vox operator to relay his signal back to base. “The daemons are everywhere. They’ve taken this part of the city entirely.”

The signal came to withdraw but Shore could see the closing blips on his auspex. “Negative. We’re surrounded with closing contacts on all sides. Overwhelming odds. There’s no way through.” He gritted his teeth and fired up his chainblade. “We’re just going to have to kill them all!”

His men grinned. In perfect unison they all checked their charge cartridges and fired up their illumination units so that they could tell, in the gloom, who was friend and who was about to die.

Then the alleyways in every direction crowded simultaneously with Bloodletters of Khorne.

The platoon squads took careful aim and eliminated the encroaching daemons. As charges ran low on their lasguns, the front men would step aside for their brothers to step forward. The daemons came closer and closer but as soon as it looked like they’d meet the lines the squads pulled back to another pre-prepared fire-point.

The Primaris Psyker attached to the platoon used his powerful mind to predict their new attack vectors and direct the fire before shattering the oncoming attacks with lightning.

Captain Shore shot bolt after bolt into the filthy daemonic flesh then cut into them with his chainblade as they got close.

But still the daemons came!

There was no way that the Mavericks could defeat them all. But defeat them they did. They kept up the firing discipline for seven straight hours, eliminating every single daemon that came their way and only losing seven men. The tight confines of the alleys had worked to their advantage – had given them the upper hand they needed.

All around them, the daemons lay dead.

The Escavar Mavericks were back!

“There’s no way through. We’re just going to have to kill them all!”

- Captain Shore of the Escavar Mavericks

Return to Lapitar

Tim (Tyranids) vs Peter (Chaos Space Marines)

Deep in the heart of Lapitar, the jungle canopy lay still.

Then came the roar of jet engines as the dropship fell from the dense cloud cover and swept low and the branches and foliage rattled under the pressure.

Erasmus Bachmann and his Dark Elite had returned.

Their previous visit to the dark bowers of Lapitar had been fruitless in every way but one: the location of the Pernicious Gate was still not known exactly but its general location had been verified. And now they knew what they faced. This time there would be no surprise attack.

The area was relatively clear of Tyranids when they made landing. The heavy bolters on the landing craft picked what stragglers there were off then withdrew as the landing party fanned out to take position off the bastions and landing pad available. This time their strategy was different: lure the Tyranids in to a defensible position then eradicate them, cutting their numbers down sufficiently to allow them to search the jungle freely.

The Dark Elite found their positions and readied their weapons. And then the Tyranids came, surging out of the foliage, scything talons flashing and jaws bared.

The Dark Elite levelled their bolters and opened fire, eviscerating the first wave. They reloaded calmly as the second wave approached then eviscerated them as well. They reloaded a third time. Now the third wave was closer. Armoured fingers worked quickly; efficiently; but no longer perfectly calmly.

Then the Tyranids were on them. Genestealers swept up onto the landing platform and ripped into the power armour of their enemies, peeling it open. The Broodlord at the fore froze one of the marines under his powerful gaze then gutted him and half a dozen of his brethren.

The Chaos Defiler fired blast after blast from its battle cannon, ripping termagants and hormagaunts apart but then from the ground rose the gargantuan form of a Trygon Prime, towering even over the trees. Giving out a roar, the Defiler scuttled forward, charging into it but the vast claws of the beats tore it into blood-soaked pieces before it even had the chance to strike back.

Erasmus Bachmann summoned his vast psychic powers to scan outwards while his Terminators readied themselves to take the assault of a cluster of Genestealers and a Hive Tyrant, searching for the Pernicious Gate’s exact location. The Hive Tyrant charged closer, its hoofed feet pounding the soft earth but Bachmann couldn’t respond or prepare himself. He had to focus only on his objective.

The Tyrant was closer. It was almost upon him. But he still couldn’t find the gate!

The Hive Tyrant and genstealers struck simultaneously. The Terminators stepped in to meet them but against the combined assault they had no hope. Still Erasmus searched for the Gate but to no avail. There could be no failure this time. Failure meant death. He strained his senses into the ether, probing as his Terminators were cut down one by one.

Then the last of the terminators fell and the Tyrant was on Bachmann himself but a split second before its talons could impale him to the ground he caught the gate’s exact location and hit the activation rune of his personal teleporter.

The Hive Tyrant roared in anger, cheated of its prey as the rest of the swarm tore into the remains of the landing party. The remaining troops stood little to no chance but that didn’t matter anymore.

Erasmus Bachmann had the exact location of the Pernicious gate. Soon it would be his!

The Ongoing Conflict

A new chapter of the Ongoing Conflict has been added to the Ongoing Conflict Page.

The story is hotting up as the Crimson Blade Space Marines take desperate actions to consolidate their position on Valorax, the Tyranids make their grisly return and the Necrons stop losing and start winning!

Mission Briefing: Return to Lapitar

Erasmus Bachmann took stock of the present situation in his Battle Barge "The Litany of Jeopardy". The loss of his elite Terminators was slightly irksome, but there were plenty more available to take their place. What was more challenging was the large force of Tyrannids where none had been predicted and the psychic interference they created. The Chaos Sorcerer turned slightly to his "Comms" officer, or more accurately to the console incorporating what had once been his officer - Sub space message to Sorcerer-aspirant Damian Ergo, I have a little task for him. Erasmus allowed an almost invisible smile to crease his mouth, the use of another Sorcerer would certainly help against the alien psychic energies and if Ergo instead of he, became the primary target of the cursed Tyrannids then so much the better! 

In a sequel to The Lost Gate, the Dark Elite are going back into the jungle to find the second Pernicious Gate and take control of the daemons held within. The woods are infested with Tyranids but this time the Chaos Space marines know approximately where they’re going…

Board Layout

• The board layout is duplicated exactly from the previous mission.

Deployment

• The board will be divided into six equal sections.
• Each Chaos squad will roll 1d6 to see which section they deploy in.
• Because they are fairly sure of the gates approximate location they will be allowed a single reroll for each squad. This will enable them to take full advantage of the bunkers and landing pad and also enable them to maximise the distance from the board edge to prevent first turn charges by the Tyranids.
• The Tyranids will move first and enter play from the board edge. Each Tyranid squad will roll for which section it is to be deployed in.

Game Length

• The game lasts for six turns or until the time limit is reached.
• If an even number of player turns have been played half an hour before the time limit is reached the game will end without a new game turn being started.

Victory Conditions

• Both sides are attempting to gain or maintain control of the jungle area. Victory is determined using the rules for Kill Points.