Shovah remembered the day four solar cycles ago that the Vior’la sept brought the Greater Good to this Imperium planet of Drocak. As he stared at the setting sun he recalled how the humans had rejoiced at their arrival. Local forces put up little resistance; the Imperium was a cruel place and this agri-world had been worked to the bone. Despite its fertility the people were starving, with almost all of their produce being sent off-world as tithes. The sun dipped below the horizon allowing him to catch his first glimpses of the planet-bound ships. The Imperium was returning to try to reclaim Drocak as if it were a lost prize, but their warriors can not deny the light of Tau’va. They will die to the combined strength of his warriors and the people of this planet. They will not allow their home to be enslaved again.

John came over on Saturday for a couple of games and we kicked off with a game of 40k. I’ve never played against the Tau (in fact I haven’t played most armies!), so I had little idea of what they did. We decided to play at about 75 Pwr (it was 73 for John and 77 for me). We also decided to use the Open War deck, which I’ve heard good things about. It’s basically a way of randomising the scenario. Here’s the draw from the deck:

Saying I had little idea of what Tau did, I did at least know that they were a shooty army. The scenario had us with close deployment zones, an objective in the centre of the table (we pretended it was valuable intel from an Imperial spy) and a boost to the speed of troops! This looked tailor made for the Blood Angels (John randomly drew the cards, so I didn’t stack them in any way!). As the Tau force was smaller they also got a Ruse card, but I didn’t know what it was.

Predictably this proved to be a very blood battle, mostly for the Tau (!). The Baal Predator practically blasted a unit of Kroot and Fire Warriors off the board on its first turn. Intercessor fire also proved quite deadly to the Tau troops. The Hellblasters focussed on the Sun Shark Bomber, but could only plink a little damage on it. My Terminator Captain Warlord with Thunder Hammer charged into the Riptide and some Fire Warriors and kept them occupied for a while, dealing a lot of damage to the Riptide (which was eventually finished off by my Captain in Gravis Armour) and wiping out the Fire Warriors. My Warlord deep struck with a unit of Terminators, but they were less fortunate. They failed their charge and fell to Pathfinder and Devilfish fire. All told, things were going poorly for the Tau. One flank disintegrated and the Blood Angels were doing well on the other. My Primaris Ancient swooped in the grab the objective on Turn 4, but there was little John could do about it. His ruse card turned out to be tactical reserves, which allowed him to bring back a unit. At the time the best unit he’d lost was the Stealth Battlesuits (previously taken out by the Predator), so they came in as close to the Ancient as they could, but they couldn’t stop him getting away.

It was a convincing win for the Blood Angels in the end, in a match up that very much suited them…

Until next time,

Owen