Fate of Konor: Astramis Battle Report

No word on the winner at my local shop yet

This, is Astramis.

 Astramis is home to a key star port for the Konor system, named for Guilliman's adoptive father on Macragge. A large hive world, this represents a large population centre in Ultramar. This is where Chaos has landed first, and where Guilliman has arrived to defend his home.

This is where the Mu'gulath Bay Avengers have come to seek revenge for their burned home world:

Avengers assemble!

Having donned the blue of T'au blood, these are grim faced and determined soldiers. Their leader, the yet-to-be named Ethereal, holds aloft the new symbol for Mu'Gulath Bay... a single blue jewel wreathed in orange flame.

At once both sombre about their history and hopeful for the bright future they won defending their home, they look across the battlefield to see who else has landed.

That guy in the back is a lictor

Really big gun

Huge biomechanical monstrostiies roamed to shattered city-scape. A remnant of past Tyranid invasions or something new... it's hard to tell. They seemed content to let the Bay T'au to solidify their beach head.

And further to the East...

White and purple... looks good!

Oddly enough, you rarely see a lot of metalics on T'au

A fledgling Sept, still not fully equipped for war. Whilst they lacked the polish of the Bay T'au, they were present in much greater numbers, bringing heavier equipment.

Solid allies for what the Mu'gulath Bay Avengers saw amassing across the field.

Deployment

This isn't even the final deployment

The Imperium defensive lines were beginning to muster, and without sending a word of warning to the T'au. Looking to their Western flank they could see why.

Magnus the Red loomed on top of a low hill, demons gibbering around his feet, small gouts of warp flame erupting sporadically as they darted in and out between the lines of the Thousand Sons Rubricae.

Rushing forward to meet them were a squad of swift Blood Angel bikers, their chapter's Scouts taking aim in the ruins behind them. A partly completed Redemptor Dreadnought nestled in the trees, supported on the side by a Dark Angels successor chapter.

The Imperial Guard were in the process of moving artillery and tanks into position, Sergeant Chronus of the Ultramarines directing them as only one of the Emperor's finest tank commanders could from the top of a Predator bristling with lascanons.

And stepping out from behind the ruins occupied by Blood Angels, Roboute Guilliman himself. Dominating the battle line, he strode forward, calmly issuing orders for countless battle fields across the planet.

And behind him in the shadows lurked two assassins. A Vindicare took up position in the ruins with the scouts, ready to show the young Space Marines a thing or two about sniping. Keeping well away from the rest of the troops was the grim and foreboding presence of a Culexus assassin, ready to halt the psychic warfare of the Thousand Sons.

With more Tyranids pouring out of the ruins, the Mu'gulath Bay Firewarriors hurried into the poor shelter given by a small copse.

On your marks...

The Ethereal looked on the horde and realised that this battle was not going to be pleasant for the few T'au on their flank. He ordered his Fire caste team to secure resources for later fights... this would be one they retreat from.

Worth d3 Victory points and d3 Command points on capture

And then... the lines began to move....

Turn 1

Yes, the T'au did huddle close together...

The tide of xenos and demonic monsters surged forward, the Firewarriors leaping forward to seize what resources they could. The Crisis suits moved to good firing lines on an exposed human Leman Russ battle tank, their cloud of marker drones buzzing around emitting proximity alarms.

With a flash, Scarab Occult Terminators landed directly in the path of the suits fire! They were ready to threaten the Redemptor dreadnought hiding in the tress.

The psychic phase next was a storm of eldritch lightning on both sides of the T'au, as Tyranid and Thousand Son alike poured warp flame on the Imperials. Magnus was propelled forward by a Thousand Son sorcerer, landing near on top of the Leman Russ Battle Tank!

Magnus' and the other psykers' assault exacted a bloody toll on the Imperials, but the warp is fickle even for those that have such mastery as Magnus. He took damage from multiple perils of the warp.

In the great push the Xenos and Chaos tenuous alliance was able to secure nearly all of the resources of the battlefield. Only a complete massacre of the enemy would result in an Imperial victory that day, thanks to the tactical cunning of the Ethereal, Magnus and the Tyranid Hive Mind.

The shooting began...

First the marker drones lit up the Battle tank, securing 5 hits on their target. It shone brightly in the Crisis Suits targeting computers, and they launched a barrage of missiles towards it, punching great holes in the vehicle, crippling it in the process. It would only take a few more hits to bring it to destruction.

Busily running the supplies they had captured back to safety, the Firewarriors took some hopeful shots at the Space Marines up in the bunker, but failed to bring any down.

Magnus the Red then charged the battle tank, and swept in away in a with his staff. He was caught in the explosion, stacking further damage on what he had taken already.

The Imperials hit back, Magnus vanishing in a cloud of fire power, with Guilliman's own shooting sending him back to the Warp.

Without Magnus to guide them, the rest of the Thousand Sons fell apart, a timely teleport strike from the Blood Angels to their rear acting as anvil to their biker assault to the front. The Rubricae vanished under the torrent of bolter fire from the bikers and phantasmal lightning from the Terminator armour clad Librarian teleporting with the other elites.

Even the Scarab Occult Terminators collapsed under assault from the Redemptor Deadnought, Tzeentch clearly having little interest in this battle now his objectives had been received. Their shielding failed them, and they were brought to just the single Sorcerer swinging defiance at the incomplete Dreadnought.

The demons drifted away after that, their commander not interested in fighting any further... leaving the Mu'gulath Bay T'au exposed to the front, rear and side.

Turn 2

The Ethereal looked at the foes around him, and perhaps foolishly decided upon shooting the Terminators. Despite an amazing number of marker lights hits, the full combined fire from the Crisis Suit missile pods and Firewarriors only succeeded in bringing down two Terminators.

Meanwhile, the Redemptor dreadnought finished off the remaining Sorcerer, bending and rending the armoured husk with it's enormous power fist. All that were left of the only Chaos presence on the field at this point were the Brimstone Horrors, doing a wonderful job of keeping the approaching Terminators at bay.

With the Dreadnought bearing down on them, the Tau closed ranks, bracing themselves for the Imperium's assault.

When you know you're in trouble...

Imperial response was brutal.

Cracks of sniper fire rang out, and the Ethereal nearly toppled from his hover drone, mortally wounded from the Blood Angels scouts. The assasin's rifle did the rest, and he fell, dragged to safety by the Fire caste warriors.

Bolter fire and a monsoon of destruction erupted from both the bikers and the Redeptor dreadnought. Firewarriors fell under the onslaught of the, and drone upon drone flew into incoming ordnance, intercepting the deadly blasts before they could harm the Crisis suits.

As the bikers charged, the T'au gunline shot defiance, managing to bring down a single biker. Victory seemed assured for the Blood Angels, as the massive bulk of the Redemptor Dreadnought moved in for the kill.

Shockingly, thanks to the heroic sacrifice of drones and the sheer toughness of the battle suits, the Mu'Gulath Bay Avengers escaped with only one lost suit, the pilot hitting emergency thrusters and retreating back to their Manta Drop ship.

Battered and bruised, it seemed inevitable the Fire warriors would break with the loss of their Etereal. But the bond between Fire Warriors is stronger even than the loyalty of Marines to their Emperor! They held, grimly reloading their pulse rifles for one last show of challenge to the gargantuan Empire.

Turn 3

Fall back to the bio-mechanical horrors!

All guns turned to the Redemptor, the drones and Crisis suits boosting away from close quarters, missiles and lone marker light streaming their retreat! The Firewarriors opened fire too, their support turret adding to the barrage.

Explosions rocked the woods and ruins, as T'au vengeance broke upon the Imperium's latest machine of death, great rents and gouts of flame engulfing the walker just as they did Mu'gulath Bay!

When all settled, the Dreadnought still stood, limping on it's last wound towards the suits.

Sudden unease struck Guilliman, as he ran up the field to see this pocket of resistance on a flank he thought he had won when Magnus fell. He called more Terminators to break this flank once and for all... but perhaps that was his mistake too.

Knowing their window for escape was short, the Shas'vre crisis suit leader ordered the full retreat, as more Tyranids came swarming from behind to tackle the incoming Terminators.

The battle was won, with the Tyranids and other T'au sept overwhelming the Imperium on the Eastern flank, the tenacity of the Mu'gulath bay avengers having held the Western front to make any Imperial victory an impossibility.

Guilliman himself was effectively out of the battle, and the two squads of Elite Terminators would never be able to march fast enough to impact the rest of the enemy battle line.

There would be more battles for Astramis. But this day belonged to the Xenos factions.

Whilst it may not have been the personal vengeance they wanted, Mu'gulath Bay had shown the fire of their Sept could not be quenched from Imperial Exterminatus. And they would return.

For the Greater Good.

Post battle analysis

What a day! The battle lasted about 4 hours from start to finish, and the sheer number of units on display was great.

The Mu'gulath Bay Avengers did good work in holding the Imperium back for as long as they did, particularly with the larger Thousand Sons force falling apart as quickly as they did. With them gone the Mu'gulth Bay Avengers were outnumbered in Power levels to the tune of 3 to 1.

What swung this part of the battle i favour of the Imperium was the early loss of Magnus. It's a universal rule in role-playing that you don't go cowboy, splitting the party up. Whilst having as huge a model as Magnus makes that tempting, getting that close to Guilliman, a Redepmtor dreadnought and two assassins was not the best tactical choice. But hey, live and learn.

Unlucky rolls for the Sons was also a large factor. As they're a small and elite force, a run of bad luck hurts them more than, say, 100+ orks.

Not that the T'au are immune to criticism here. 

The missile pods are definitely not the best option for Crisis suits, and using them as a more mobile version of Devastators is not using them to form. Their toughness in the combat, and the ease at which they jumped out of it to bring their guns to bear again gives me a really clear idea of what they can be used for. As a distraction unit, they work really well. Dropping into the mid-field with some middle ranged weapons would probably be better for them.

Also, more flamers for overwatch. I think I might turn these into a pseudo close-combat unit, meant to tank close combat attacks in between shooting phases.

Drones are flat out amazing. The ability to take a multi-melta wound on a suit and just remove a drone is nothing short of game breaking. I've always been in favour of a drone heavy list, and now they have the crunch to support my personal fluff... I don't see why there needs to be a single T'au foot soldier not in a fearsome mecha as a bullet sponge if a drone can do it better!

Which brings us to Firewarriors. I'm not impressed with them as a gun line. I only had a single unit here, but all their fire power really just tickled the enemy. I shouldn't expect much from them, as they are standard troops, but the marker light support isn't good enough to support them any more. I would shelve them again, replacing them with drones but for one cool interaction.

The Cadre Fireblade allows them to fire an extra shot at half range. Due to an interesting quirk or wording, this means that the Firewarriors can fire not just three attacks with the pulse Rifles, but 4! I'll need to do a proper analysis of this before I use it properly (and so I can just show the chain of logic to my opponents rather than just explaining it), but I think I would pair the Fire Warriors up with a Fireblade in a Devilfish, and drive them towards the enemy. Then proceed to unleash 40 Strength 5 shots at them, internally supported with the Fireblade;s marker light!

For now, I will need to re-jiggle my army list a bit. The Ethereal's days are numbered, and I think he'll be best converted into a Fireblade. I'm also going to bolster my army with more suits... but cheaper Stealth suits this time. Next week's mission is Elites, and I have the perfect colour scheme planned!

Until next time.

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