The 25mm Warrior

Opie-Wan's Tau force and Jubie-X's Daemonhunters converged last night to fight a very unique game of 40K. Since I was gonna sit this one out (I was in a ton of pain last night) they grabbed my Imperial Guard Sergeants to use as objective tokens in a game that proved the battle for illegal immigration has even reached itself into the 41st millennium!

The back story is simple...

Imperial Guard troops are trying to defect over to the Tau. However their journey towards the greater good is met with the ire of the Imperium's Inquisition who are hell bent on making examples of these traitors!

It proves to be a no-holds-bard match up. Will the Imperial Guard Sergeants easily migrate over to the Tau or will their former comrades eradicate them for their treachery? We got Dawn of War in the scenario as an added monkey wrench to both sides plans.

Only some skill, tactics and dice will determine. With me as the photo bitch we will begin!

Props goes to Opie-Wan for witting up this battle report for the25mmwarrior.com

First up we got Opie-Wan's Tau 1000 pt list... The Sho'caor Sept

•Shas'o Pwan: XV8 Plasma rifle, Missile pod, Multi-tracker
•Fire Warrior Squad: 11 Shas'la w/ Pulse Rifles, 1 Shas'ui w/ Pulse
Rifle, Markerlight, Bonding Knife
•Kroot Carnivore Squad: 10 Kroot, 2 Kroot Hounds
•Pathfinder Squad: 5 Shas'la w/ Pulse Carbines & Markerlight, 1
Shas'ui w/ PC+ML & Bonding Knife
•Pathfinder Devilfish: 2 Seeker Missiles, Disruption Pod, Multi-
tracker
•Shas'ui Team Leader: XV88, TL Plasma, Multi-tracker, HW Drone
Controller, Sheild Drone
•Stealth Team: 2 Shas'ui w/ Targeting Array, 1 Shas'ui Team Leader w/
Targeting Array, Marker Light, HW Drone Controller, Black-Sun filter,
Bonding Knife, 1 Marker Drone
•Hammerhead Gunship: Railgun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod,
Target Lock, Multi-tracker

Now Jubie X's Daemonhunters (or heretic hunters in this case)

•Brother Captain Jubei X: Terminator armor, Nemisis sword, storm
bolter
•Stormtrooper squad 1: 4 w/ hellguns, 2 w/ grenade launchers
•Stormtrooper squad 2: 4 w/ hellguns, 2 w/ grenade launchers
•Grey Knight squad: 3 Grey Knights w/ stormbolters & nemisis weapons,
1 Grey Knights w/ incinerator, 1 Grey Knight Justicar w/ stormbolter &
nemisis power weapon
•Land Raider Crusader
•Dreadnought 1: "John McLain" w/ multi-melta, storm bolter, close
combat weapon
•Dreadnought 2: w/ lascannon, missile launcher
•Sisters Seraphim: 5 w/ TL Bolt pistols


•Turn 1. Game begins with night fight rules in effect.

Tau: Devilfish, Hammerhead, Broadside, pathfinders arrive, few scattered shot with no effect. "Hey, we have beer! Awesome!"

(Devilfish, Hammerhead, Broadside, pathfinders arrive under cover of darkness.)


Grey Knights: Lascannon dreadnought can not see the hammerhead, Jubie X wonders why he didn't take a searchlight. Brother Captain and Stormtrooper squad open fire on Shas'o, stormtrooper puts a wound on Shas'o. First blood to the Grey Knights.

(The stormtrooper squad blasts the Tau leader showing their suped up lasguns are no laughing matter)


Table at the end of turn 1



•Turn 2. Opie Wan first beer. Sun comes up!

Tau: The hammerhead fires Railgun at Lascannon dreadnought, shaking it. Shas'o and Devilfish unload on Brother-captain with stormtroopers, killing 5 troopers, they pass their morale.

(Opie Wans Tau makes the stormtrooper squad pay for that last wound to their leader)


Grey Knights: Stormtroopers lauch a grenade at Pathfinder squad, killing 2, Landraider puts a wound on Broadside Shas'vre

(Jubie X's Landraider unleashes on the heretics position)


Table at the end of Turn 2



•Turn 3. Opie's 2nd & 3rd beer

Tau: stealh team deep strikes, but scatters too bloody close to the grey knights, and I forgot that I could reroll it due to the Pathfinder Devilfish being in LOS. Hammerhead kills remaining stormtrooper with the Brother-captain with smart missiles, 12 man fire warrior squad rapid firing puts 1 wound on the brother captain, but
that's all he has. We all agree that that is silly, but rules is rules, so the brother be dead. The Shas'o reaches out with plasma and missiles, droping 2 stormtroopers from the other squad. Knowing they are in trouble, the stealth team opens up on the grey knights, downing 1 (not enough)

(The desperate firefight of the Stealth Team)



Grey Knights: Still no Serephim. Land raider brings the Broadside down, and another pathfinder. Grey Knights fire at the stealth team, doing 5 wounds, but only 1 failed save. Unfortunately for the stealth team the one failed save was not the guy who put them in charge reach of the grey knights. The grey knights charge, killing another stealth suit, causing the stealth remaining Shas'ui team leader and marker drone to flee, jumping 11 inches away from the knights.

(The Grey Knight are having trouble inflicting the kind of casualties the Tau have been hammering on them)


Table at the end of turn 3



•Turn 4. Dang, that's alot of beer, I better slow down, I work in the morning.

Tau: Flanking kroot arrive and move into cover near one of the objectives. Stealth suit regroups and runs for cover along with the remaining pathfinders, trying to get clear of the Landraider. The Hammerhead immobilizes the Lascannon dreadnought, and the Shas'o continues to send anti-tank fire into the stormtroopers, blowing another 2 to bits.

(Tau Fire warriors enjoy the tactical advantage of being in an elevated position)



Grey Knights: Seraphim will show on a 2+! No problem, right? Of course not, when do women ever do what you want? Next the Land raider moves to melta range of the devil fish; and rolls a 1. So the Melta-dread(John Mclain... named this because he never dies) fires at the devilfish... and rolls a 1. Stormtroopers launch a grenade into the firewarriors moving to claim the central objective, killing 1, the Las-dread repays the Hammerhead, immobilising it. The Grey knights take the free 6 inch move and assault the gundrones, easly killing them, consolidating into the central ruins. I need a beer.

(Just one of Jubie X's many "Ones" that he rolled)


Table at the end of Turn 4



•Turn 5, beer 4... you can still fight when your drunk!

Tau: Stealth suit pops out and calls in a seeker strike against the GK, killing 1. Shas'o Pwan Kanopie jumps in close, plasma cutting through armor, killing 2 more. Then the smart missles from the Hammerhead bring down the Justicar. Fire warriors scramble up the ruins as fast as possible to get to the objective.

(Tau Warriors desperately climb up the ruined building to their prize while their tanks give some much need suppressive fire below)



Grey Knights: Serephim finaly show, and pull a perfect deep strike to contest the objective, knights can now pull a draw if they can kill the fire warriors holding the central objective. The las-dread fries a couple of kroot, every thing else in range opens up on the Fire warriors, who are fairly exposed, killing 7. They make their morale check however, and stay true to the greater good.

(The Sisters show up right next to their target)


Table at the end of turn 5



•Turn 6... beer 5... The 25mm Warrior rolls to see if he game continues and rolls a 4. The battle rages on!

Tau: Devilfish downs one of the remaining stormtroopers. The Hammerhead fires at the landraider, immobilising it, but not stopping it from unleashing hell on the remaining firewarriors. It also reaches out with it's smart missles dropping a serephim, along with the Shas'o frying another, leaving 3 for the Kroot to deal with. 10 Kroot vs 3 girls, no problem right? These are the kroot who went toe to toe with
a dreadnought for 3 rounds! These are the kroot who got charged by a unit of Terminators and cracked them like a tin of sardines! Yea. The girls kicked their stripey backsides. Out of 24 attacks hitting on 4 and wounding on 3 I got 1 lousy unsaved wound. Mathhammer can suck it till it turns purple. Anyways, kroot fail their morale save, and get killed by the 2 remaining seraphim, leaving me only in control of 1 objective, not looking so good all of the sudden.

(Confindent of their numbers, Tiger Kroot engage the Women of The Emperor)

(...and get their asses handed to em)


Grey Knights: with nothing else much to shoot at the Las-dread unloads on the Shas'o, a krack missile finding it's mark and insta-killing the Shas. The landraider fires everything at the 6 shas'la holding the objective, killing 5. The last shot, a multi-melta, hit the last remaining model, the Shas'ui team leader, and needed a 1 to fry him, and draw the game... and Scott rolls another 1. The doughy Shas'ui makes him morale check, and stands his ground, keeping controll of the
objective.

(A lone Tau stands victorious in the face of some heavy fire and claims the traitor guardsmen for THE GREATER GOOD!)


(The die that decided the game... tough break Jubie X)



•Game ends. Tau 1 objective, Grey Knights 0 objectives.

Analisis (Opie-Wan): Amazing how the game can turn on a dime. I went from being in a very strong position at the top of turn 5, controlling 2 of the 3 objectives, with most of his troops melted into mooshy piles of super- heated ceremite, to 1 guy barely holding the middle objective and nothing else, at the bottom of turn 6. While I had some pretty bad luck with rolling, Jubie X had worse, so I can't complain too much there. I once again blew the deployment of my pathfinders and broadsides, and then later the stealth marker team, practacly giving the knights free shots.Broadsides need to deploy centrally, with clear lines of sight. Not. Behind. A. Frelling. Building. He did soak a fair amound of fire tho. Same story with the pathfinders, I ran them around a bunch and acomplished exatly squat, except catch bullets. If the game had gone to turn 7 it would of at least been a draw, with possibly even the knights squeaking a win (he had a single stormtrooper left)

Analisis (The 25mm Warrior): Man Jubie X had a rough time with all those damn one's he rolled. Amazing how you can have a good force with good deployment and yet loose due to the dies. I love it when games come down to just one decisive action and as fate would have it Opie-Wan walked away with the win

Jubie X's army really shines in the end game. In the past two games it has happened where he pulls from a seemingly smashing defeat to where he is only allowing the enemy to walk away with a marginal victory. I think this is awesome since he is a new player. If the dice had been just a bit different or the game went on for another turn the battle would have been much different.

I dread the day his dice line up with the Emperors Will