Three-way Attrition

 Last week on the 5th of November, Kushail, Da Masta Cheef and I gathered to play a three-way game of Warhammer 40,000 9th edition. I brought my Black Legion Chaos Space Marines,

Cheef brought his Tau,

 

and Kushail brought an all Dreadnought list of Lions of Harlech.

We decided to use the Open War deck and chose War of Attrition. We randomly drew a Twist card  and got Exhausted, much to Kushail's glee, as it ment all models had their Strength characteristics reduced by -1. We all pulled Ruse cards which we kept secret from each other until they were revealed. 

This isn't going to be one of my typical battle reports, but more like a highlight of what happened. Cheef took so many photos that I"m having a difficult time figuring out what's what, or when was what, or why we took a given photo. So, I am going to focus on who eliminated which units. We only counted a unit destroyed when the final model was pulled as a result of shooting, close combat in the fight phase or elimination during the morale phase. Assists did not count for anything other than bragging rights. 

The dice eating lava board

The Lions of Harlech won the roll-off to go first, Chaos would go second and Tau would go last.

 

Looking at home in a Chaos shrine...

According to my notes there were no destroyed units in the first turn. Although I almost wiped out the Tau Hogziliaries, but one sneaky piglet got away! 

This little piggy...

The ruckus of turn one.

LIONS OF HARLECH TURN 2

The Hellbrute, despite using the Fire Frenzy Stratagem during the Lion's Shooting Phase and getting some Overwatch shots, failed to withstand the double onslaught of the Ironclad Dreadnoughts and was ripped apart. The Lions scored 220 points. 

The pathetic demise of a Hellbrute. 

BLACK LEGION TURN 2

"Shoot 'em down boys!"

One of the Lion's Itonclads was destroyed by the Psychic powers of the Sorcerer Lord in Terminator armor. 

The Black Legionaires wiped out the Tau Jaloo Auxiliary. 

The Black Legion take the lead with 235 points. 

Lining up for a strife,

TAU TURN 2

The Tau didn't eliminate any units but they put a considerable hurt on the Black Legion and picked off a few wounds from some of the Lion's Dreadnoughts. Using the Outflank Ruse card, the Piranha and Ramora Drone harassed the Lions of Harlech while a squad of Breachers, Kroot Carnivores and a Kroot Shaper showed up in the Chaos deployment zone. They took a wound or two off of the Chaos Sorcerer. 

End of Turn 2 points: 

Lions Of Harlech: 190

Chaos Space Marines: 230

Tau: 0

LIONS OF HARLECH TURN 3

I have heard it said somewhere that 40k is a three-turn game in the sense that the winner can usually be determined by end of turn three. Well, Kushail was determined to make that theory a working one. The Chaplain Dreadnought charged my Exalted Champion, and, well, pulped him. This earned him another 90 vps 

CHAOS SPACE MARINES TURN 3

The traitor astartes didn't eliminate any units this round but they did hold their own against the Dreadnought onslaught. Both of my psykers put some hurt on the Chaplain Dreadnought using Smites of Infernal Gaze powers to achieve this. Of Particular note was the Aspiring Champion of Legionaires Squad 3 by rolling an against the odds Morale test and keeping the Chaplain tied up a bit longer. 

The Vindicator putting the hurt on the Dreads. 

TAU TURN 3

No units were taken out by the Tau in this round but they put a lot hurt on my Legionaires squads and tore some armor off of some dreads. But the Kroot did manage to get a charge in on my Chaos Sorcerer. The Chaos Sorcerer took a few wounds from these guys but he killed a lot of them in return. The failed morale check caused a lot more pain on the Kroot but the remaining ones were still in the fight.

LIONS OF HARLECH TURN 4

The first few rounds were just a big wind-up for Kushail and his Lions of Harlech, and on Turn 4 he landed his killing blows. In the Shooting Phase he shot down the Ramora Drone, and picked off the Kroot Shaper. Then he squashed a squad of Chaos Legionaires. He racked up 190 points from all of that and it was looking like he was going to be hard to catch up to.

Out flanked but fully armored. 

CHAOS TURN 4

Now trailing the Lions in points I was desperate to get rid of some of these Dreadnoughts. My Legionaire with the Balefire Tome finished off a Contemptor Dreadnought with Infernal Gaze earning 150 points for me. And my Sorcerer used Infernal Gaze to eliminate the Chaplain Dreadnought for 180 points. A moral victory indeed, but one short lived, as the Kroot took him down in the Fight Phase. It was the Tau's first points in the whole game so far, but an impressive 120 points and a crushing blow to my army. 

TAU TURN 4.

"Surprise!"

The Kroot, having showed the rest of the Tau how to draw blood, inspired the rest of the Tau to continue to do so. They finished off the rest of my big squad of Legionaires (220 points!) and blasted away the Vindicator (130 points). 

LIONS OF HARLECH TURN 5

It was mopping up time as the Lions finished off The Taus Breachers (95), the Hogziliaries (80 points), the Kroot (84 points) and the last of my units, the Legionaires (215 points). The Lions had this one in the bag, it was just a matter of sorting out the details.

CHAOS SPACE MARINES TURN 5 

(We're dead Dave, we're all dead.)

TAU TURN 5

The Tau got the final kill of the game by taking out a Contemptor Dreadnought (150 points).

"It's coming right at us!!!"

It was a fun game, even though I was tabled I dished out a fair amount of hurt and we had good fun. So here are the breakdown: 

CHAOS SPACE MARINES: 565 Points

TAU: 620 Points

LIONS OF HARLECH: 944 Points. 

Victory to the Lions! 

The stand off.

There's  a lot little things that occurred in this game but I don't recall where they fit into the play-by-play of the game. Things like, I need to keep a guy a alive and he had to make three 6+ saves, he rolled two 6's, I uses a CP reroll and got the third 6. Etc. It's those little moments that make games like this one especially fun. I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Menage a T'au

 The stars have aligned, the seals have cracked, the visionaries cry out warnings and omens while only the gods pay attention. Yes, it's again time for  Da Masta Cheef and I to play a game. My first since November of '21st actually. We decided on 850 points for this match up. 

Regular readers (or a more fitting descriptor might be "irregulars") may have followed my exploits in building and painting up my Deathwatch army. And now finally I get to give them a shakedown. Cheef wanted to only play 850 points so I worked up a list. 

The Patrol is lead by my Deathwatch Librarian. Oddly I have names for the Sergeants leading my squads but not for the chaps leading the army. An oversight I must correct soon. He is armed with a Bolter and a Force Sword. He has the relic The Tome of Malcador and has been upgraded to a Chief Librarian. This allows him to know three psi powers in addition to Smite. His three powers are Premorphic Resonance, Fortified With Contempt and Psychic Cleanse. The Tau, eschewing the Psychic Phase altogether, means I will have a phase all to myself that I can exploit against him. Or attempt too anyway...

The rest of the force was gathered up. Featuring two squads of Deathwatch Veterans (Squad Chroneth and Kill Team Neverness), a Deathwatch Terminator squad with three Assault Cannons), a Veteran Bike Squad and a Razorback. It's almost the majority of the Deathwatch models I have painted in the past six months. 

857 points of Deathwatch.

All of this was packed up and ready for transport with the intention of killing Xenos when, surprise, the Adepta Sororitas showed to cut in on the action. So we agreed to a three-way tussle. But first, let's check out the Tau. 

The Tau (or T'au to you young 'uns) are known as the Dal'yth Tau Second Line Auxiliary Cadre. They get the abilities of being part of the Dal'yth Sept. They are led by Sub-Commander 'Firestorm' in a Crisis Battlesuit. He has an array of weapons (Airbursting Fragmentation Projector and a Thermoneutronic Projector; nasty!). 

A Cadre Firebaugh and a Kroot Shaper round out the Tau HQ choices. Two Strike Teams Breacher Team, Kroot Carnivores and Hogziliary Strike Team round out his troops. A Piranha rounds out the army.  They came out to be 847 points, ten point less than the Deathwatch and vastly outnumbering them. Seems like a good challenge for my Deathwatch... also, Cheef's girlfriend's son Frankie was assisting him in his first game ever. He was going to control the two Strike Teams. You can see more details regarding the Tau perspective of this battle on Cheef's site. 

Septicons unite!

...and then the Sisters show up! Mike (formally know as Rt Voril) just got this army, less than two weeks ago, and they are just coming out of the assembly stage, so excuse the lack of paint. Mike is a great painter so I have no doubt that these will look amazing in time. His force is led by the Highlord of Terra herself, Morvenn Vahl. I had to laugh at how over the top she was. I mean, her printed out Battle Scribe entry was two and half pages long!  She was joined by two squads of Battle Sisters, a squad of Paragon Warsuits, and a Retributor Squad. 

Ecclesiarchal transports are rather crude affairs.

We found a simple three-way set up on a Google search and used it to lay out our deployment zones. We chose the Storm Their Lines mission but then we decided to do something a bit silly and pull four twist cards. We got Champion, which augmented one of our Character's Wound and Attacks by 2+, and their Strength and Toughness by 1+ , System Interference which reduced the range of Auras, Indescriminate Projectiles which rained down mortal wounds every round and finally Hatred. 

Deployment.

The Adepta Sororitas went first, then the Tau and finally the Deathwatch. The first turn was mostly a movement game. Sure there were some small fire exchanges, mostly between the Paragon Warsuits and the Kroot. The Tau on my side were fixated on taking out the Razorback which they nearly did. By the time it was my turn, that poor tank was down to just a single Wound. A single one of my bikers was killed, which is actually impressive that only one died from the hail of fire that rained down on it. 

"Bring down that tank!"

With only one Wound remaining the Librarian and Kill Team Neverness bailed out of the Razorback as it's integrity was quickly collapsing under the whittling Tau onslaught. The Kill Team took the Objective in the crater while the Librarian moved to support the nearby bikers. The Deathwatch Veterans with the four Heavy Bolters almost completely deleted a Sister squad and once Morale was rolled for, they were indeed deleted. The bikers charged into the Tau squad. The Librarian was needing to do this also and botched his charge roll. Using a CP reroll he botched it further with a roll of two 1's. He was totally exposed. To my dismay only a few of the Tau died, thanks to Cheef's notorious ability to make Saves and pass Leadership tests. 

End of Turn 1.

At the end of the first Turn the Adepta Sororitas have 1 VPs, Tau have 2 VPs and Deathwatch have 1 VPs. 

Turn Two was a blood bath compared to the previous round. The Hogziliary were wiped out by the approaching Sisters. The Kroot were also targets of these fanatical warrior women, with only one left remaining. 

Nothing can save their bacon.

The Librarian was mowed down as predicted. Being left out in the open due to a failed charge, he just couldn't survive having more than half of the tau army blasting at him. The added Toughness and two Wounds only made his demise take a little longer.  It was a bummer.

But at least the bikers got to kill some more Tau in the close combat phase.

I honestly thought the bikers would've been better than this, but eventually their foes were defeated. Again, Cheef's uncanny ability to roll successful Saves stymied my 28mm ambitions...

The Tau in the tower target the Librarian, ready to remove his final Wounds 

The Terminators arrived on my turn and they mowed down the Tau squad on the hill. Three Assault Cannons in a single squad is.... awesome!

Terminators wipe out a squad of Tau.

By the end of Turn Two, the Adepta Sororitas have 2 VPs, Tau have 4 VPs, and Deathwatch have 2 VPs. 

The single Kroot holds an objective. 

We contemplated stopping here as it was getting late and Mike and I didn't suppose that we could catch up to the Tau's current points. We agreed to play one more turn. 

Turn three. 

Beginning of Turn 3. 

Turn 3 starts off with the Sisters making a bold ploy to take an objective in Tau zone. It works, as the final Paragon Warsuit kills the final Kroot and takes the objective. 

I pushed Mike in declaring a 12 inch charge ("You got nothing to lose and you'll be claiming the objective if you kill them.") And as you can see in the pic below...

Yeah, double 6's.

...the Sisters made the charge! 

There was much slapping and scratching.

Conveniently, he was able to position those models to get some of them close enough to claim that objective. 

On the Tau turn, the Strike Team wiped out the Paragon Warsuit. And the Tau also eliminated the Veteran Bikers. The Tau leader charged the Terminators, but it didn't go his way and he took a lot more damage than he dealt .

The Warsuit charges the DW Termies.

Also of note was the charge of the Kroot Shaper (painted in a fabulous red tone) against Morvenn Vahl. Hilariously, that guy was hidden from Mike's POV for the whole battle as he pretty stayed in the same sitting area at the table for much of the game. So he didn't see it nor did he know that it was even there until it jumped out and charged his leader.. It really didn't end well for that poor Xenos bugger, but the surprise reaction was quite amusing regardless.

"Surprise!" "Was he there the whole time?!"

Not much happened on my turn other than the Deathwatch Terminators killed the Tau leader in the close combat phase. 

Thunder hammers and power fists for the win.

Killed 'em dead! 

Down with the Xenos filth! 

And that was all. The Sister took those two objectives, in addition to holding one in their own Deployment Zone to accrue 5vps in this turn taking their total score to 7vps to the Tau's 5 VPs and the Deathwatch's 3 VPs.  A win for Mike's new Adepta Sororitas army!  Even if we did have more time to play I doubt the Tau of Deathwatch could have caught him in VPs let alone surpass that score.

In hindsight, I had an uphill climb from the get go. There was no cover or LOS blocking terrain in my DZ, so I felt like a sitting duck for most of the game. My army was built around the Librarian being able to dish out buffs to the other Deathwatch units throughout the game but losing him before he got a second turn was a painful event for sure. Another factor was that Deathwatch have an ability (Chapter Tactics) called Deathwatch: Xenos Hunters which allows the Deathwatch to rerolls hit rolls of a 1 in melee, but also allows them to select a Battlefield Role  (i.e. HQ, Troops, Elites, Fast Attack, Flyer, Heavy Support, Fortification, Dedicated Transport and Lord Of War) and throughout the whole battle the Deathwatch can re-roll a wound roll of 1 against that Battlefield Role. Yeah, I totally forgot that. We were amused that my Xenos Hunters were better at killing humans than they were actual xenos...

The Tau were impressive. The Sept ability to always be treated as if they were in light cover from ranged attacks was a very beneficial thing. My Warlord trait could have removed that from at least one unit at a time had I remembered it. Or, had he lived long enough for it to matter. Frankie seemed to relish blowing up the Razorback. It's a shame we weren't playing an older edition of 40k when exploding vehicles were more dramatic, and common, thing to observe. 

And finally the Sisters did very well. They took a lot of punishment but, at the end of the day, they executed the mission parameters whereas the Tau and Deathwatch were more into killing targets than they were objective acquisition. And it cost us. 

It was a fun game, and it's got me thinking about playing more with the Deathwatch and getting a better grip on their rules. 

Games here...

As an aside, there was a huge turn out at Hobbytown that night. And it was noisy! But it was very cool to see everyone and their models. I got to observe a few very hard fought and challenging games, and there was an atmosphere of fun and enjoyment in the game hall. And that is what I missed most over the past two years of lockdown restrictions and social avoidance, and I hope to be back at it again soon.

...and games there!

Review: Space Wolves, Legends of the Dark Millennium

Space Wolves is a strange book as one's first impression might give it the appearance of an anthology due to the fact that it has four (4) authors. Yet is is not an anthology, but in fact it is a rolling romp that takes you and the Space Wolves through many different warzones while facing quite a variety of foes. The four (4) writers split this book up into eight chapters, each with a title that, again, would make the casual browser assume this is an anothology. They wrote two chapters each, and instead of mixing this up, they instead wrote two chapters back-to-back. Not sure why it was done like this... was there a plot that was structured that was handed off to these writers to fill-in and elaborate on? Or did one guy set the stage for the next guy to twist and roll with and set up for the next guy and so on?

The basic plot is that Logan Grimnar, the Great Wolf himself, along with his entourage, have not reported back from their last Great Hunt. So Ulrick the Slayer and Krom Dragoneye set out with an army of Space Wolves to find him by seeking out the clues to track him down.

OK, onto the juicy details and a ton of SPOILERS!

The first chapter in the book is called The Feast of Lies. (That would have been a great book title huh? Very Black Library...and grimdark.) It is written by Ben Counter. Basically we see what a typical post-Great Hunt feast looks like, as the Wolf Lords gather to boast,  get drunk and hype yarns about the achievements of their respective Companies. Logan Grimnar is late to his own party however,  and Ulrick is concerned. One of the guest speakers from the Fenrisian tribes tells a twisted tale of Logan Grimnar that causes the Space Wolves to have a freak-out rage fit and soon this guest speaker is outted as The Changling itself!

Having just (and finally) read the background material in Wrath of Magnus prior to reading this story, I immediately found this development to be utterly fascinating. And I could not help but wonder if this story was setting the stage for that event. It is a thought that would linger with me throughout this read.

The second chapter, The Caged Wolf, also by Ben Counter, sees Ulrick attempt to track down Logan Grimnar to the planet Dactyla where the book's pseudo-prologue had established he was at fighting Tau. War-porn ensues and we see lots of Tau and Space Wolf death. The chapter ends with Ulrick being stomped by a Tau Battlesuit. It was like Ben Counter was setting up a situation for the next writer to try to get Ulrick out of.

The day is saved when Krom Dragoneye arrives with this Drakeslayers. Krom is a big fan of war porn apparently, and just had to disobey orders to stay put on Fenris and join the ruckus. This is how the third chapter, Eye Of The Dragon by Steve Lyons, starts off. I found reading  Steve Lyons writing to be smoother and I quickly read his Chapters, but this probably is because of how much I enjoyed watching Krom and his gang fight for their lives when the Dark Eldar show up in the Dactyla warzone. By the end of Eye Of The Dragon Krom and a bunch of his Drakeslayers are figbting for their lives in the arenas of The Dark City of Commorragh. The fourth chapter, fittingly titled Dark City, details the hopelessness and cruelty of the Dark Eldar arenas. I found this to be far more entertaining than I thought the book was originally going to go. The Dark City ends on another cliff hanger, as worn out and battle weary Krom is about to be forced to fight a Talos pain engine.

Rob Sanders kicks off the next set of chapters with The Darkness of Angels, and happily,  he too seems to enjoy writing about Commorragh and it's grisly arena. I am thankful for this, as it proves to be some good story telling. Krom earns the trust of an unlikely ally, Balthus, a Dark Angel Interrogator-Chaplain. And together they take advantage of the situation when a rival Dark Eldar faction attacks the arena. They escape through a web-way portal back into real-space.

The next chapter, the Wolf Within, also by Sanders, reads like it should have been in two parts. The first part dealing with the Space Wolves and Dark Angels almost killing each other via ship-to-ship combat before realizing that a bit of mutual trust and cooperation might help both Chapters with achieving their goal.  Don't let this glossy summary disuade you, this was brilliantly written and actually a bit tense considering all that came before it.

Once they get over their desire to kill each other they decide to follow clues that lead them to the low-grav hive world of Stratovass Ultra where the two forces have tracked down a traitor marine named Sathar the Undone. This was a fun romp through the upper hive spires that ends with one of this book's unique characters mauled to death by a Wulfen. Yeah, that surprised me too.

C.L. Werner, writer of the dreadful novel Runefang (which is apparently so shitty that even the Black Library doesn't acknowledge it.) wrote the last two chapters Scent of a Traitor and Wrath of the Wolf. Werner does good work here, and describes a place in the Hive city that I have never seen described anywhere before: a crematorium. It was a very unique backdrop for a showdown with Sathar. Ulrick ends up making something of a deal with Sathar in exchange for info on how to find Logan Grimnar. The deal, which the Dark Angels absolutely can not know about, has the Space Wolves and Dark Angels assault a chaos cultist summoning ritual. It is Tzeentchian in nature and there are even Thousand Sons present. It was a well staged encounter and it was a fun read. Sathar, the noblest and probably most likable Chaos agent I have read in a long while, is true to his word and gives the Wolves the clue they need to find Logan Grimnar. There is some fascinating internal debate with Ulrick the Slayer coming to terms with the fact that he's relying on chaos agents for assistance. Again, this (in my mind) further sets up and strengthens the Dark Angel involvement in the Fenris Warzone supplements.

Wrath of the Wolf takes the Ulrick and Krom's forces to  the Eye of Terror where they do indeed locate Logan and have an epic show down with the Tzeentchian Daemons who have been maneuvering the Wolves all along apparently. I have spoiled enough of this book so far without being too detailed so I shall not reveal who the ultimate foe is (it isn't The Changling but he is present). The Wulfen do appear to assist with the rescue, and there is a bad-ass Wulfen Runepriest (that I would love to have a model of) who is their apparent leader. The Wulfen stay behind by the story's end and the beaten and battered Space Wolves limp off back to Fenris.

• Did I like it? For the most part I did. It was a fun romp, however, I couldn't help but have a few complaints. The Space Wolves really seem like a bunch of narrow-minded battle waeary simpletons for too many parts of this book. 
• Was it hard to put down? The scenes in Commorragh were very difficult to put down, and the last chapter was a real hoot to read through. The book did have some clunky bits though, mostly the second chapter. 
• Could I care about the characters? Somewhat. Ulrick the Slayer goes from likable to dickhead at the turn of a page and also goes from serious bad-ass to enfeebled old man almost as fast. He got his ass handed to him by some foes that simply shouldn't be that tough. Krom faired far worse however, especially on Commorragh. There were a few unique characters that I enjoyed following along with throughout the story, but in typical Black Library fashion most of these characters proved to be expandable. Throughout this tale the Space Wolves come off as half-competent old men too bad-ass (mostly in their heads) to stray from what they feel is honorable vs. smart. They die in quite spectacular droves to the point that one wonders how they ever lasted this long into the 41st Millennium... Come to think of it, my Space Wolves death toll on the tabletop really isn't that far off from this book. 
• Did the writer truly grasp how the 'world' of the 41st millennium works in the sense that it doesn't betray or retcon previously established (as I know it) lore? I would say that, yes, these guys handled the material well. The first chapter was a bit weird as it was the most over the top party with extreme bragging and drinking yet written in a way that reminded me of simple Norse tales. I imagine one doesn't just survive living on Fenris without learning how to epically over-exagerate the epic sized animal that you epically killed epically each time you tell the epic tale. 
• Was I being talked down too? The first chapter felt this way, but as the story unfolded the tone of the story loosened a bit and,  truth be told, these four writters managed to come together to tell a fun tale.
• How predictable is this story? Not very. Don't get me wrong, it's a man-hunt tale involving the most important Space Wolf shy of Russ himself, it was obvious that they were going to find him. But the story sets you up with thinking that the man protagonists were going to be Tau, the side-step into the arena on Commorragh was quite a pleasant and enjoyable tale. The plot may have been predictable in the sense that they would find Logan, but the twists, turns and trappings were all fresh and difficult to predict. 
• Do I recommend this book? I do. But only if you like Space Wolves or Klingons (Space Wolf characters often get written like power armored Klingons to me). Especially if you want to read what is sort of a set-up for the Warzone: Fenris campaign books.

A Tale of Two Duds

Got together with the gang and we agreed to play a four-way free-for-all Kill Team game.

01100100 01100001 01101110 01100011 01100101 00111111

I showed up with my Celestial Lions Kill Team. I decided to take a Plasma Gun this time, and made him a Specialist. I gave him the ability to Ignore Cover with his shooting attacks. Then I bestowed the Missile Launcher with Feel No Pain and the Marine with the Scope got Murderous Blow.

Celestial Lions ready for deployment.

The Bob brought out his Skitarii Kill Team. I have never faced them before and I was curious to see how they would perform.

Skitarii, radiating the awesome.

Da Masta Cheef brought along his Rainbow Warriors.  He would remark often during the game that we were playing a pair of dying  Chapters.

A prismatic assembly of Rainbow Warriors.

And finally we have Wolfy's Fem Fa' Tau Kill Team, gathered to snipe and blast those who deny the Greater Good.

(Chorus) "The Greater Good".

The field was set and the forces deployed. We agreed to a Kill Point game, with Secondary Objectives and Primary Objectives being 1 VP per Specialist killed. With our traits rolled up, the Tau and Celestial Lions had Leaders who got the Quick Thinker trait (Steal Initiative on 4+) and the Lions won that roll-off.

Four corners claimed and held.

Turn 1.

The Celestial Lions sally forth and the Missile Launcher begins his streak of epic uselessness by missing with his shot at the Skitarii walker.

Perfectly lined up to miss.

Likewise the Skitarii advance as well, but one Lion failed to take advantage of LOS blocking cover and was the first casualty of the game. The Lion Missile Launcher was struck by a weapon that inflicted two Wounds and I rolled two 6's for the save!

A tense stand off.

The Rainbow Warriors pranced forward into the waiting pulse rifle sights of the Fem Fa'Tau...

Chasing the Rainbow (I know, couldn't resist).

The Rainbow Warriors have a sniper scout that took a shot at the Celestial Lions Missile Launcher but it was ineffective. Then, from out of a bush, a missile streaked out to strike the Celestial Lion Missile Launcher with a dud missile. I was surprised by this, and did a double-take just to try to see the guy...

Has mastered the art of not being seen.

The Tau shot at the Rainbow Warriors. I think she killed one too but I don't recall.

Turn 2

It was another round of futility from the Celestial Lions, they only managed to shoot a Rainbow Scout to death. The Lion's Missile Launcher traded unexploded ordnance with the RW Missile Launcher, but nothing else of note happened.

The Lions, thinking that they have a strategy.

The Skitarii however was here to kill. A guy with a plasma rifle thing totally fried the marine that was on point before the walker ran up and turned another marine into the dust.

Two hearts replaced by one foot.

The Rainbow Warriors and Tau continued to move and shoot against each other. The RW Missile Launcher exchanged the unexploded ordnance back to the CL Missile Launcher, and his combi melta guy slagged another Lion. The Fem Fa'Tau was beginning to maneuver against the Skitarii also, as it was clear that they were a threat to every faction. She managed to take a wound off of the Walker.

Turn 3

I found myself quickly running out of models. At this point I was getting worried about my prospects. I threw Krak Grenades at the Skitarii Walker and they either missed or failed to penetrate it. The Plasma Gunner walked up, rolles a 1 and a 6. The 6 wounded and wrecked the walker. But the 1 resulted in him killing himself and breaking my own army!

Imagine a big ball of plasma in the open space

The Skitarii pressed on, killing more marines and they killed the Fem Fa'Tau Battlesuit earning another VP.

The Skitarii sweep in.

The RW and Tau let fly with a lot of shots. When the smoke cleared I had only two models left, and the other factions were all starting to see a significant bodycount as well.

Turn 4.

Yikes, only two guys left! The Missile Launcher and the Vet Sgt. I decided to focus on the two Skitarii coming up on the board edge. With surprising success, the ML hit and eliminated a skitarii guy with a Krak Missile! The Vet. Sgt closed in on his partner and they ended up locked in combat.

Locked in radioactive combat.

More combat errupted around the field. The Skitarii press forward to engage both the Rainbow Warriors and Tau. During the Skitarii Close Combat phase the Celestial Lion Vet Sgt defeated his foe and boldly advanced towards the Skitarii.

Scout Season is now open. 

This guy took a Wound from Overwatch fire before killing the Pin-up Tau in the Close Combat phase.

Wounded by Overwatch. 

The Rainbow Warriors retaliated. Of particilar note was the Sniper Scout who had moved forward and actually managed to hit with a snapfire shot and killed a Skitarii. We laughed as  it seemed he had to snapfire in order to hit anything!

"Maybe if I hit with a snapfire I get that new paint job..."

In the Tau turn, the xenos scum took their revenge on the machine men. They also tried to deal with the Rainbow warriors as well, but it seemed the Tau were having difficulty bringing them down.

Turn 5

Things are going fast now, with all of us having so few models left. The CL Missile Launcher  reverted back to 'useless' status by shooting another dud rocket at the RW Missile Launcher marine. My Vet Sgt advanced toward the remaining Skitarii survivors. However the Skitarii, eager for maximum VPs, proceed to shoot the Vet Sgt off the table. That karma was quickly cashed in as the Tau would table the Skitarii on their turn.

The picture below shows a stand-off that took a few rounds to resolve, but the Rainbow Warrior scout would win it only to then be vaporized by another Tau on their last turn.

A close quarters stand-off.

Turn 6 and 7 came and went with a flash. The game ended with my Celestial Lion Missile Launcher still trading dud missiles with the Rainbow Warrior Missile Launcher who was still in his bush.

Celestial Lion Missile Launcher view.

Rainbow Warriors Missile Launcher view.

Final VP tallies, as best that I was able to keep up with them:

• Skitarii 9 VPs
• Tau 3 VPs
• Rainbow Warriors 2 VPs
• Celestial Lions 0 VPs 

It was a fun game, with the Skitarii clearly being the foe everyone was fearful of. I performed poorly in the game, the dice dicked me over each chance it got. Even the victorious moments had a price. In hindsight  though I can't say that the Tau and Rainbow Warriors faired too much better...

And what the hell was up with our Missile Launchers?!

"Dude!" "Doooode!"

Hah!