The Shorehammer game table with battalion headquarters set up. The troops haven’t been placed yet, but it will soon be the sight of a bloody battle.

“Withdraw! Withdraw! We’re being outflanked. Kroot are inside the camp. Evacuate senior officers before it’s  . . . .“—Vox transmission picked up by 15th PDF Regiment, approximately 10 kilometers from the 728th’s HQ

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Post-Battle Report of Tau Attack
(3 989 743.M41)

Kroot hounds proved a dangerous resource for the xenos. Guardsmen were forced to divert their fire to the fast-approaching creatures, allowing Kroot auxiliary troops to advance under minimal fire.

At approximately 10:12, 3 989 743.M41., the headquarters of the 3rd Battalion, 728th Cadian Regiment, came under attack from a Tau raiding party that managed to slip undetected through Imperial lines. 

The battalion’s camp was redeploying at the time of the attack, with the new camp only half-built, and only two dozen or so personnel—mostly construction workers, clerks, cooks, and HQ staff—were on site. The only senior officer on the scene was Captain Zarath Falz, commander of Baker Company, who had been assigned to oversee the HQ’s move.

Pickets reported the Tau incursion when it was 500 meters away,  and Falz barely had time to deploy available personnel to defend the camp. It must be stressed that the HQ was not caught entirely by surprise, a false rumor that has gained currency with the troops.

The Tau plan appeared to be a single envelopment of the camp. Fighting began when an advance screen of guardsmen traded fire with a squad-sized group of Kroot  advancing in a skirmish formation behind a screen of ferocious “Kroot hounds.”

The attack of the 3rd Battalion’s HQ occurred in the forest between Tau-held Aruna and Imperial-held Malifax.

The avian xenos took significant casualties as they advanced , but the Kroot managed to reach the Imperial line. In hand-to-hand combat, the more muscular xenos began to prevail, and Captain Falz, who courageously led from the front lines, ordered his surviving guardsmen to fall back to a new defensive position.

On the Imperial left flank, however, a Tau transport [Classification: Devilfish] raced across open grassland, using a copse of trees for cover, and threatened the flank. A Mechanicus Tech Priest, accompanied by a sergeant and eight men, attempted to meet this threat.

Kroot warriors advance through the tall grass and thick woods surrounding the headquarters camp.

Although supported by a Taurox armed with a heavy bolter, this small force was unable to halt the Devilfish’s approach. It roared to a stop not 30 meters away, and a squad of Fire Warriors hurriedly disembarked and opened fire with plasma rifles that quickly whittled down the opposing guardsmen.

One guardsman bravely charged the xenos with the intent of throwing a frag grenade, but he was shot down and the explosion’s effects fell short of its goal.  [A posthumous commen-dation has been submitted for approval.]

After 15 minutes of fighting, the few surviving guardsmen withdrew. Captain Falz reports his men managed, albeit barely, to destroy any sensitive equipment and documentation of value to the raiders.

Casualties included one sergeant, two corporals, 15 guardsmen, as well as the loss of a Scout Sentinel and Taurox.

By the time reinforcements reached the site, the xenos had withdrawn. The camp had been put to the flame.

Tau Fire Warriors disembark from a Devilfish transport and quickly turn the flank of the Imperial defenders.

Assessment: The raid failed to acquire sensitive documents or ranking personnel, and the damage was so minor as to prove nothing more than minor inconvenience to Imperial defenses.

Still, such a breach of the lines is unacceptable. The xenos appear to have penetrated Imperial lines through a gap between the 15th PDF Regiment and 3rd Parto  Militia Company. Although defenses are always weakest at the juncture of two independent commands,  disciplinary action is recommended for officers’ failure to properly guard this part of the line.

TheGM: As with every convention game hosted by the Corvus Cluster, the results of every battle have some impact on the overall narrative story of our nine-year-old campaign. The impact of this battle is as follows:

The Tau did find a partially burned but readable map of Imperial deployments after guardsmen fled the camp. In the next tabletop game, the Tau will be better coordinated because of the information they acquired. Thus, they can choose the table edge where their reinforcements arrive.

A small tactical advantage appropriate to the scale of the battle. 

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The Corvus Cluster is a Warhammer 40K blog documenting our gaming adventures in the fantastical sci-fi universe of Games Workshop.