Shas'el Maen'go listened to the Kroot grumble as the expeditionary force made their way through the overgrown ruins of what must have been a village before time and abandonment had their way with it. "Why are we exploring the world? There is nothing to fight here" One said to another in their odd language of clicks and screeches.
"Because we are upholding our end of a bargain." Responded the battlesuit commander. "The Eldar have lent us certain items and books that gave our researchers much insight into the nature of what the humans call Chaos and the Warp. But these materials must be returned. Somewhere in this sector there are a cluster of Webway gates that open a route to the Eldars Black Library, we must journey there and return these items. The Farseer who lent them mentioned something about "terrible fines" if we do not."
"We are here to ensure the Webway portals remain unused by those not authorized." As he spoke the expeditionary force crossed a hill and came in sight of their objective, a cluster of 4 distinctive Wraithbone structures stood surrounded by ruins and forested patches, of greater interest were the other beings here, charging for the portals from all directions were a mixture of tanks and foot soldiers, human foot soldiers.
"Arm weapons! Pathfinders forward! We must drive them back at once for the Greater Good!
The battle to Return the Books to the Black Library had begun. This was a 4 way 750 point battle using the army lists posted earlier. 4 objectives with kill points used as a tie breaker. We are all relatively new to the game so kinda made stuff up as we went so far as having a 4 way game. We rolled initiative anew after each cycle of turns so the play by play will be a bit odd looking.
Due to the objective layout, the fight turned into more of a pair of 1v1 matches than anything else, Tau fought Chaos, and IG fought Space Marines, I (Tau) took a few potshots at IG as well but was usually too far away from SM to do anything.
I deployed everything except the suits which I held in reserve for deep striking. Kroot squad went right on the objective, which was smack in the middle of a nice thick piece of forest terrain, they would remain there all game, Fire Warrior squad occupied another bit of terrain nearby and the space in between was occupied by the Devilfish, had Pathfinders a little bit behind the FW if I recall, Hammerhead deployed as far away as I could from anyone, there was no LOS blocking terrain so it didn't matter much where it ended up.
Chaos deployed at the objective nearest mine, which was in a corner, DP towards middle of board, Vindicators on the sides and rhinos between them, there was a good bit of cover there so maneuverability was kinda gimped, which saved my butt.
IG deployed in a sorta gunline on the table edge, command chimera close to the corner, the Leman Russ, objective, Leman Russ, and Armored Sentinel a little more towards the middle of table.
SM deployed opposite IG, combat squadded the 10 man squad and loaded up the 8 man with Captain in a Rhino, the Dreads deployed forward where they could attempt to come to grips with the IG armor relatively quickly. the combat squadded SM deployed on either side of the objective.
Turn one
IG
Started things off with some pie plates, all shooting was mostly ineffective, killed one marine and shook the assault cannon dread
Chaos
Fired he own pie plates, Kroot went to ground but lost one, FW lost one but stayed standing up, there was no movement whatsoever, this was her biggest mistake and Cap'n Pete declared the DP a waste of money (he bought it as a present)
SM
Moved everyone except combat squads forward, firing immobilized the Sentinel, Hunter Killer fired but either missed or failed to Pen.
Tau
Pathfinders lit DP up, mass firing took 2 wounds off it, Hammerhead stunned a Vindicator but was ignored to to Demonic Possession.
Turn 2
Tau won this one, this time immobilizing rightmost Vindicator and wounding the DP again, one more to go, Commander and Stealth suits came in, Stealth Suits aiming for a fusion shot on the nearest Leman Russ, they scattered out of range. Commander came in between me and the SM deployment, and accomplished nothing.
Chaos, Some moving this time! due to terrain and the immobilized Vindi, there was only room to get one Rhino out, so she camped the other on her objective, DP moved up as well and stunned the Devilfish. Shooting killed another Kroot, another FW
IG, got a vet squad in I believe, which took up position at the objective, shooting shook a dread, the assault cannon one again I believe, and a battle cannon shot succeeded at spotting and hitting my Stealth Suits, they bit it.
SM
Everything moves forward again, in shooting the melta dread blew up the command chimera, they save versus pinning but subsequent shooting whittles the squad down to force a moral check, they fail and fall back 11 inches off the board, so much for orders.
Turn 3
Chaos
DP stops being interested in the Fish and tears into the Fire Warriors, killing 3, they predictably do nothing back but do pass their leadership, other shooting weapon destroys and immobilizes devilfish turning it into a piece of terrain for the rest of the game, as no interest was shown in killing it off.
IG
The remaining squad comes on and takes position next to the middle Leman Russ Tanks kill the Assault Cannon Dread, a battle cannon shot also scatters back and kills a guardsmen. Another SM dies in the back to Plasma or something.
SM
Melta dread Assaults nearest LR, wrecking it, this was bad actually as due to the terrain there is no quick way in to the objective for his infantry in the rhino. They unload and begin trudging over anyway, the Dread needs to move for this to work though. shooting kills a single quardsman.
Tau
Hammerhead wrecks a rhino, Kroot firing kills 2 of the squad that piled out, the DP finishes of the Fire Warriors.
Turn 4
SM
shooting kills a guardsmen, Dread assaults and kills another, nothing more.
IG
Leman Russ kills the remains of one of the combat squads on Blabbadons objective, Plasma from the sentinel kills 2 from the other. And an autocannon shot gets one more. Guardsmen immobilize Dread in combat, now there is no way in to the objective.
Tau
Burst cannon fire from the Hammerhead finishes the Demon Prince. Commander suit takes a shot at some guardsmen, killing 2
Chaos
Shooting kills one Kroot
Turn 5
Chaos
in shooting and assault manage to kill 3 total Kroot, they pass leadership and are locked
IG
Finish off the marines in the backfield, and kill one from the disembarked squad. Assault see weapon destroyed on the DCCW and one guard die.
Tau
Commander blows up unengaged Vet Squad, they fail lead and flee 11 inches off the board again. the Kroot/CSM fight kills one each, the drones off the devilfish join in for some reason but do nothing.
SM
Load up into the Rhino and book for their own objective, nothing happens in assault.
Turn 6
SM still gunning for the objective, they unload the squad and are just in reach to reclaim it, another guard dies to the dread.
IG, kill about half the marines with shooting, the Guard squad finally gets wiped out in assault
Tau, railguns Leman Russ, immobilizing it, yay. The assault draws with no wounds on either side.
Chaos, nothing happens, assault draws.
Turn 7
IG gun down 2 more marines, leaving only the captain, not being infantry he can only contest. his own objective now
Tau
Nada, all shots miss or are ignored by demonic possession, and assault draws.
Chaos, finally looses the last marine in combat, securing my objective
SM
Immobilized Dread meltas the sentinel.
So, end of game we have
Tau 1 objective, 4 KP
Chaos 1 objective, 1 KP
SM contested objective, 5 kp
IG no objective,(their holders died against the Dread and the Russ was the next closest unit, can't hold and outside 3 inches anyway) 5 KP
My end game thoughts:
I got lucky on my end with Chaos not moving on the first turn. Gave me a free turn of shooting at the DP and was the difference between me sorta winning or getting eaten and wiped off the board.
I still am experimenting with weapon loadout on my commander, the AFP was pretty darn lackluster, I think I'll just take a flamer if I require anti infantry in the future.
My Stealth Suits failed me hard, they literally scattered maybe 1/4 an inch too far back for me to shoot the tank, then failed miserably at living, I don't think I can run these without shield drones anymore
Chaos was way too cautious, not much more to say about that.
IG didn't have enough troops, but the big problem was the location of the Chimera at the beginning, it had no room to maneuver and was caught in a corner, with orders that fight may have gone dramatically different
SM were also not aggressive enough I think, I always figure even vanilla marines will tear apart guardsmen in assault so if you have a chance at it don't bother shooting and just charge in there. Hard to outshoot Guard anyway. Real bad luck with the immobilized dread though, if that didn't happen, or it exploded, they coulda got in and captured the IG objective with no trouble.
No more 4 way battles though, too damn long.
