The Imperial Knight, Death Incarnate, played a crucial role in the Imperial victory.

“The skies grow dark. The sound of battle fades. Here I lay, wounded beyond hope of another day. As my eyes close, I think of the Greater Good that I served, and I am at peace.”—a High Gothic translation of “Remembrances of a Warrior,” a book of Tau poetry discovered on the battlefield north of Gel’brek and later destroyed as heretical reading

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Continued from Part 2 . . . 

Final blows

As the fighting died away on the west flank, the horror of the battle for the xeno town reached its climax. A barrage from the Basalisks collapsed the last standing building, killing an entire squad of Fire Warriors and sparking a hasty withdrawal by other nearby troops.

Fighting in the unidentified xeno town was fierce, with Imperial armor suffering particularly high casualties.

An Imperial Knight, known as Death Incarnate, entered the own from the east and destroyed a Devilfish transport as enemy troops tried to embark. The combat walker soon found itself under attack by Crisis Suits obviously seeking to slow the Knight’s advance. With the support of its two Armiger escorts, the Death Incarnate quickly killed the smaller xeno battle suits and used its Thermal Cannon to take down a Tau Riptide as it appeared out of the black smoke covering the battlefield.

Finally, the severely battered Imperial infantry began to enter the town, executing any wounded Fire Warriors and clearing out snipers in the rubble. As the sun set, the xenos abandoned the town and fled.

The setting sun also brought the Tau flanking maneuver to an end. Although the xenos were noted for superior night fighting, sufficient Imperial reserves had reached the west flank, and the Tau finally found themselves outnumbered and outgunned by a sizable margin. They soon faded into the darkness and the fighting ended.

+ + END VOXCAST + + 

Post-battle Report

The performance of the 310th Cadian Regiment and Omu-12 Macraclade was satisfactory but little more. Col. Vance’s novel deployment to stymie the Tau’s annoying (and highly successful) “deep strikes” behind our lines worked, but it left Imperial armor vulnerable to infantry-armed anti-tank weaponry.

The reality is that Tau weaponry is highly effective, and unlike orks, they understand how to use sophisticated maneuvear and concentration of force to produce casualty rates among our troops that are unsustainable unless promised reinforcements reach the Crusade Fleet.

It is the opinion of the High Command Strategios that the Tau never intended to hold their defensive position but simply cause as many casualties as possible during our advance. This would explain why the Tau, as our Imperial forces took over the town late in the day, the xenos began to disengage.

Of course, this decision to withdraw also might be a consequence of the fighting to the west of the 310th. There, the Tau defenses appeared to waiver early when they caught sight of our Titans from the Legio Thanataris. These gods of war, equipped with some of the most powerful weapons known to Man, saw the xenos withdraw wherever they encountered these glorious and ancient walkers.

Whatever their reasoning, the xenos withdrew after a bloody fight and, as for the research center that the Mechanicus demanded be made a priority target, the Tech Priests saw its technological secrets go up in flames  as they advanced on its position. When the fires died down, there was nothing left of the facility but charred rockcrete and blackened plasteel.

TheGM: The scenerio, pulled from the 2015 codex, War Zone Damocles: Mont’ka – The Rules, was called “Echoes of War: Conflicting Agendas.”

In this scenario, there were two Imperial players, Imperial Guard and Mechanicus, and each had different objectives that could be obtained by cooperation or by self-interest play. As it happened, it actually proved more logical to work together, but it didn’t matter.: Neither Imperial player achieved its objectives. 

In fact, despite Imperial propaganda, the battle was a significant Tau victory. Oh, the Imperials came close to victory, but heavy tanks don’t move that quickly, and the delays in getting the infantry up front left the Imperials just a few inches shy of taking the most valuable objectives. 

Great fun, though.

Click here to return to the beginning of this battle report.

Click here to return to Part 2.

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