The Shadowseer appeared in front of the Willow Prince, coalescing out of the darkness in the Prince's spartan quarters.
"There is a disturbance in the weave, Troupe Master. Interlopers are setting in motion a path that could lead to destruction."
"Show me." said the Prince.
Gazing into the Shadowseer's mask, he saw a verdant plain, dotted with ancient buildings and an idyllic farm. White armoured beings busied themselves with excavation in the distance, and time seemed to speed up around him as he saw an ancient shrine dedicated to Chaos unearthed by the excavation. The white armoured ones were quickly overwhelmed, and a tidal wave of blood poured out from the chaotic nexus.
The Willow Prince suddenly felt himself pulled into space, and when he stopped, he watched from above the galactic plane as the blood tide grew to drench the entire galaxy. Drawn back to reality, he nodded once at the Shadowseer. He knew what had to be done....
Had a game with Fauzi's Tau to apply what I had learnt from my game with Alan. Instead of taking a full CWE warhost, I used what I knew best and went back to a Harlequin Masque, bringing the Warhost (and two WK) as allies. I did warn Fauzi beforehand though. His army I think consisted of two Riptides, a huge blob of broadsides, Pathfinders, and Farsight.
He failed to seize and psychic powers didn't really matter that much this game. Mission was Cloak and Shadows, so we kept our Maelstrom objectives secret from each other. The name of this batrep is a reference to the fact that we only had WFB (now AoS) terrain to use ;)
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| Harlequin Deployment; majority of my units are on the left flank, which was good, as Fauzi deployed his Broadsides on the right. I drew Hold the Line, Recon, and Witch Hunter |
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| Wraithknights lead the charge upfield towards the Tau gunline, fragile troops hidden behind |
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| Massed firepower kills shield drones and puts multiple wounds on Farsight and his bodyguard |
The Willow Prince watched from afar as wave after wave of shuriken fire was poured into the enemy commander's bodyguard, and was mildly surprised to see them emerge relatively unscathed. For all the focused firepower, the commander and his bodyguard still stood. One had to concede that these young races had a certain skill in constructing hardy weapons of war....
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| Farsight falls back and regroups near his Riptides, right Riptide takes a wound from failing to Nova Charge. Farsight falling back helped, as that meant he could only fire snapshots this turn. Nevertheless, Fauzi managed to blow up a Starweaver, leaving one Troupe footslogging it. |
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| One tanky Wraithknight. Helped by poor shooting from the Tau despite the markerlights, only takes two wounds. Fauzi does manage to destroy the Starweaver which was behind him, for FIRST BLOOD. I secure Hold the Line for 1 point. |
Shas'vre Au'nar shielded his Shas'O from the murderous fire as they fell back. There was little to be gained for the Greater Good by standing firm, and despite his Shas'O's famed preference for Mont'Ka tactics, sometimes the strategy to lure the enemy out held merit. He radioed for covering fire as they fell back, and the Tau lines burst into life in a blaze of blue energy, targeting a large yellow walker that was stalking its way towards them. Au'nar's Blacksun filters automatically kicked in as the various munitions struck home with the luminescence of a miniature sun, and he watched in disbelief as the yellow construct shrugged it off like rainwater. This thing was tougher than a Riptide, and it would take something special to bring it down, he thought...
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| End of Turn 1, the Tau are pinned against their edge by the oncoming Harlequins/Eldar |
Turn 2
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| Everything is again poured into Farsight's unit, for SLAY THE WARLORD, but everything else is out of reach for an assault. |
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| Kroot Outflank and come in to contest the objective. |
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| Combined fire from all the Tau brings down Wraithknight and three Troupe members |
As Starweaver and Voidweaver were brought down by pinpoint fire from the Tau battle line, the Willow Prince directed the members of the Third Act to close the distance. Massed firepower from jetbike and the Wraithknights had slaughtered the enemy commander, but the threat to the future was still abundant. If they did not wipe out or break the enemy completely, these Tau would only return to unearth the unholy artifact buried beneath the surface of the world. A thunderous boom made him snap around, and he saw that one Wraithknight had been cored by one of the Tau weapons. It would take much work for the Shadowseers and Bonesingers to repair the damage caused, but he was certain that it could be done. Swinging his attention back to the battle, he ran forward with the rest of his Troupe of the Dark....
Turn 3
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| All my vehicles are wrecked at this stage. But I push my units to grab and identify all the objectives to score the Recon card. Harlequin Troupes predictably wipe out the Kroot in assault |
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| In what has to be the worst roll of the game, Fauzi's Devilfish transport rams the rear armour of my Vyper jetbike, but fails to even damage it! I score more objectives this turn, but Fauzi's bad luck continues and his Pathfinders break after losing just one of their number. |
The Troupe of the Light's charge quickly brought them into contact with the Tau auxillaries, and the slaughter began. Faster than the eye could see, monomolecular blades spilled innards on the grass beneath them, while Harlequin Kisses caused Kroot to jerk around in macabre dances before falling to the ground like marionettes with their strings cut, their insides hollowed out by the monofilament wires. With an eye on the battle on the left flank, the Willow Prince and his accompanying Troupe of the Dark wheeled towards the artillery suits that had brought down one of the Wraithknights, intending on stopping the deadly bombardment. Supported by the remaining Wraithknight exile, the Third Act used its gargantuan form as cover, shielding themselves from the unrelenting railgun and missile fire...
Turn 4
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| My four objectives scored plus 1 extra for Slay the Warlord. We're running out of time so we call it at the end of the psychic phase.
He has 3 points to my 5, but is running out of units to take out my
remaining wraithknight, harlies and jetbikes. |
White armoured shapes fled the field in disarray as the Harlequins swept onwards in a riot of colour. The Tau lines had been broken by a Wraithknight charge, and though they still had the greater numbers, the Tau no longer had the heart or stomach for the fight. Sporadic fire from the giant Riptides still posed a threat, but they only acted as a screen for the retreating Tau forces. As the two giant battlesuits took to the skies to retreat, the Shadowseer and Farseer began the ritual to destroy the Chaos nexus for good...
Victory to the Third Act!
Post game thoughts:
That was really bad luck for Fauzi. Almost all his S8 shooting either missed or failed to wound, leaving rending hits as the only way he was grinding down the knights. Meanwhile the main bulk of the Harlie force were still relatively intact, along with the Solitaire. It would definitely have been close if we had continued playing, if his luck evened out. The tactic of using WKs as linebackers seemed to work, and I need to test it out a bit more.
GG Fauzi!
