The 43rd Armored Company suffered some losses as it attempted to storm the Tau position on the southern flank of the xeno defensive line.

“Do you feel that, proud xenos? The talons of the Raven Guard are closing about your throat. But have no fear. It will all be over soon.”—Vordin Krayn, Shadow Captain of the Raven Guard’s 3rd Company

 * * *

Continued from Part 1 . . .

Imperial breakthrough

Although dismayed by events to the north, Colonel Vance did not waiver in his duty. Indeed, he managed to outflank the Tau forces to the south. Several Lemon Russ tanks, along with two squadrons of Sentinel walkers, maneuvered their guns to get behindd the xenos and target the weaker side and rear armor of the Hammerhead tanks.

A battery of Basilisks also was brought forward to target the entrenched Fire Warriors, who held out for a time against heavy casualties but eventually withdrew.

Overwhelming numbers and a relentless attack finally began to beat down the Tau defenses to the south. Tau casualties became to climb, and the village (lower left in the photo) was reduced to rubble, leaving the defending Fire Warriors vulnerable.

That still left a team of Crisis Suits to hold the line. Thankfully, Colonel Vance had sent two squadrons of Sentinels around the enemy position, and the Crisis Suits soon found the Imperial walkers behind them.

The Crisis Suits used their superior mobility to move to a position to shoot, then fall back behind a sand dune, and harass the Sentinels. The walkers simply charged straight at the enemy battle suits, taking casualties as they advanced, and engaged the Crisis Suits at point-blank range. One by one, the Crisis Suits fell.

Now the Tau line was broken, and the 43rd Armored wasted no time turning north and following a road that led behind the enemy-held hills.

But the enemy had no intention of allowing the 43rd Armored to outflank them without a fight. More Hammerhead tanks and a Riptide moved into a nearby town in front of the Imperials and a bloody exchange of heavy weapons fire followed.

It was a fight to hearten the souls of any loyal Imperial subject. A vanguard of Lemon Russ tanks moved forward, firing as they advanced. Two Imperial tanks were destroyed, but the thick armor of the remaining tanks endured everything the enemy threw at them. By the time the 43rd reached the town, a half-dozen xeno tanks were hulks and the rest were retreating.

Two battalions of infantry—Cadian and Tallarn—advance up the center as Colonel Vance attempted to outflank the xeno defenders in the hills.

Tau ambush

At this point, Colonel Vance ordered his reserves—a battalion of Cadians and another of Tallarn—to advance along the center of the Imperial line and strike the xeno-held hills from the south, advancing on the flank of the 43rd Armored.

“My intent was to hit the xeno position all along its now-turned flank. The xenos would be committed all along the line, and they wouldn’t have enough reserves to hold back our attack,” Vance said.

Yet the xenos had one last duplicitous card to play. As Imperial infantry marched across open ground toward the hills, they came under fire from gun drones and a Riptide armed with a rapid-firing Heavy Burst Cannon.

“The xeno tactics were cowardly but effective,” Commodore  Lucius Antonius said during a news conference. “Equipped with jet packs, the gun drones and Riptide would rise to the crest of a hill, rake the Imperial lines with heavy fire, and then drop out of sight.”

“They repeated this tactic multiple times,” he added. “Each volley wiped out the front rank of our troops, but the xenos would disappear before our troops could lock onto a target.”

That’s not to say Imperial troops were helpless, Vance wrote in an after-action report. Imperial artillery targeted the hills, and intelligence officers that later inspected the battlefield reported a significant number of xeno casualties caused by the barrage of Earthshaker cannons.

A Hammerhead tank explodes in a village behind the xeno-held hills. A wall of Lemon Russ tanks advanced steadily forward up the road, weathering Tau fire and slowly whittling down the xeno defenders.

A costly success

Despite rising casualty numbers, Colonel Vance pushed forward. When the xenos finally fell back, however, he ordered his men to allow the xenos to slip away.

“The xenos were flanked, and there was no doubt their position was compromised,” Vance noted in his report. “But they enemy was withdrawing in good order, and I determined that, as the Crusade’s ground troops are a finite resource, we could not sustain an offensive that cost us more troops than the enemy.”

“The xenos,” he added, “were withdrawing, and that was our main objective.”

Although some senior officers questioned that line of thinking, and at least one Inquisitor was highly vocal in his displeasure, General Wendall Gauge, commander of ground troops, accepted the decision to allow the Tau to withdraw without further fighting.

“We wanted the xenos pushed back so their artillery cannot hit our landing zone. We succeeded in that. And, although the Imperial Guard is not afraid of casualties, we were expecting reinforcements for the Crusade—and they haven’t shown up.”

“We will continue the fight, but it’s simply reality that we cannot sustain an offensive if we lose two soldiers for every enemy soldier.”

+ + + END TRANSMISSION + + +

Click here to return to Part 1 of the battle.

TheGM: This was an Armageddon-sized fight inspired by a scenario in the War Zone Damocles: Mont’ka codex published in 2015.

I wanted my Crusade battles to feature some scenarios different than found in the main rule book (7th Edition), so I decided to base my Dal’yth campaign on the eight scenarios in the War Zone codex.

Now, I know the scenarios were written to represent the war on the Sept world of Mu’gulath Bay in 999.M41. 

But the Corvus Cluster campaign is set 250 years earlier and, as every year in my campaign is tied to a year in the “real world,” it would be 2275 (275.M3) before I get to the Mu’gulath Bay war. I intend to live a long time, but still . . . .

So I’m using the scenarios now. It includes a lot of cool tactical situations, including a boarding action of a orbital station and an assassin’s strike. How cool is that?

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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.