The Alliance. Tau and IG vs Chaos Batrep.

Both myself and Alun formed a formidable gunline, but we also knew if anything came close and assaulted... we'd probably have a drubbing! The Hammerheads with their incredible range took the right flank, where they could aim their guns almost anywhere on the table. The Riptide stood guard behind the bastion that occupied my Fireblade and 12 firewarriors. 

The Chaos forces also had a Bastion, in which stood a squad of havocs with autocannons, and below was a plague marine havoc squad with heavy bolters. Both dangerous to our forces! A large deathguard unit stood with Typhus, while Khorne forces mostly mustered on my right. Two hordes of Zombies took the centre behind khorne rhinos. 

Adam aka Nurglecommand looking suitably disgusting, drinking Plaguefly Bile. 35% apparantly!

The Imperial Guard were weary of the new alliance, they had heard stories of fighting beside Tau and against them. Some whispered that the Tau even inducted humans into their 'septs', although this could surely not be true. Who would turn their back on the Emperor? Guardsman Ornack looked across to the enemy line. Those traitorous scum had turned their backs, and they would now pay. 

The Imperial Guard started to rush forwards eyes firmly set on the objectives given to them. They heard autocannons firing, and as Ornack looked at the enemy bastion from where they came it was suddenly illuminated with strong beams of light. Then the Pulse Rifles of the Firewarriors sang. An astounding number of shots flew from the friendly fortification and tore apart the heretics standing atop the tower. Ornack noted the sudden silence of autocannon fire despite the chatter of other weapons. Seeing this he heard the familiar booms of battlecannon, blood red rhinos torn apart and Bezerkers flooding out of them.

"My Lord, do you feel we can trust the Xenos?" Sergeant Varyun's question was the very question that had been flowing through Shiori Kiyoshi's mind since he had been tasked with this mission. A force of Imperial Guard and Tau were repelling a Chaos force, but reports had sighted a vile Nurgle Zombie horde flowing towards the area. Chapter Master Enniko had entrusted Shiori and the Tactical Squad Varyun to drop pod down to the sight and attempt to stem the zombies from entering the battle. As the drop pod thundered down to the planets surface, all Epistolory Kiyoshi could think was how much the Tau could be trusted. So far, they had proved their word was true, but Kiyoshi would think twice about turning his back to the aliens. "The have remained honourable so far Varyun, they may also wonder if we are honourable, its time to prove it." 

 Leo'Audo had seen one Chaos squad dead. Their heavy weapons were lo-tech, but were as deadly as the Tau's and would decimate his brothers if allowed, but this was now rectified. He could see Ra' Fellau zipping around with his marker drones, commanding from the front and assisting all he could. As the humans blew up one of the Chaos Rhinos, he could see a squad of the dreaded bezerkers leap out of the wreck and aim straight for the Tau leader.Then the Angels appeared.

"The sudden impact always brought a rush to the Librarian. The drop pod smashed onto the ground as the pistons hissed and the doors swung open. Landing amongst the Chaos lines the Librarian saw a Death Guard havocs squad firing their heavy bolters at the Imperial lines. Kiyoshi immediately brought his psykers abilities to the fore. As power rushed to his fingers, an energy covered he and the Tactical Squad Varyus to protect them from what would come their way as he unleashed a blue flamestorm over the Havocs. Somehow nothing happened, although bolter fire from the Tactical Squad took down one of the plague ridden marines. Shiori looked around suddenly feeling a presence, to see that from both sides they were being rushed by Khorne Bezerkers. Their numbers were small, but any number of the crazed traitors were dangerous. The Librarian then saw 'them'. Mutated, shambling hordes of zombies coming out from a mist. There were at least a hundred. Three of squad Varyus were shot apart as three of the Khorne Bezerkers hit into them. Shiori trusted them to hold them up as he would take care of the others. As the Bezerkers came within the last 20 yards, lights suddenly lit their armour, and then they were vapourised as a Tau Crisis suit used a melta like weapon to annihilate the heretics. He saw the Crisis suit do a nod-like gesture as it jumped off to assist others, and felt reassured suddenly about the alliance. He turned to see Sergeant Varyus and the rest of squad about to embrace the zombie horde. He leapt in and took down a score with his force sword, but still they kept coming."

Alun explains some dastardly tactic or how many natural extracts he uses to wash his hair. 

Ornack hunkered down from the enemy fire. Heavy bolters had slaughtered the squad, and he was left with Guardsman Jenk. "I thought the xenos were helping us!" he screamed as the air exploded above them. Ornack glanced up and saw that the immense Tau walker had unleashed a huge beam of energy towards Typhus and his deathguard. He looked at the target and could see half of the plague marines were killed in the explosion. "That helps" he shouted back to Jenk. As he turned to see his reaction Jenk launched up to reach the objective, a dead Tau with some sort of device in his hand. As the guardsman jumped over the crator bullets jolted into his body, taking his legs from under him and making him tumble back down the crator edge next to Ornack. "Shit" Ornack thought to himself, he was now the last man in his unit. He peeked up again to see more Imperial and Tau fire hit Typhus and his squad, a Forgefiend, at least what was left of it, sheltering them from some fire but still a couple of the resiliant marines fell.

The Tau Fireblade looked for his squads next target. He glanced to the right, and could see a Chaos Terminator stomping towards the Imperial lines with a retinue of Bezerkers. Just as he was about to give the order for his squad to fire the Imperial Guard line opened up, taking most of the Chaos Marines away. The Chaos Lord bellowed in defiance and stomped ever closer. Leo'Audo then saw a silver figure leap over the aegis defence line and bound into the Chaos Lord. Mighty swings of swords clashed, and both launched vicious attacks into each other. The Tau Fireblade was partly impressed, very few in the Tau culture could stand up to such ferocity in hand to hand combat, and even give back as good as they gave. The two titans fought and it seemed everything else stood still.

 Crowe returned the blows and struck out with his tainted blade. The Chaos Lord took the shot, then swung his own weapon at the Castellan, severing his arm from the shoulder. Crowe winced as the Khorne chosen took out his blade and readied his arm to strike again. Crowe used the last of his energy to pull his weapon free of the traitors terminator armour and stick it into the vision slit of the heretics helmet. The Daemon weapon was still coming at Crowe however, the Guardsmen nearby watching the battle gasping as one of their champions fell. The Chaos Lord laughed, then fell silent as his ancient terminator armour slumped to the floor motionless.

"The Marines held their own, and none had fallen of the Evandalists apart from the three that were against the Bezerkers, who had all died either facing each other or by the swarm of dead pouring over them. Varyus tore heads off with his chainsword and shot others in the face with his boltpistol, while the rest of the squad used their bolters to fend them off and shoot down zombies when their guns were free. The Sergeant ripped another zombie in half, stepping back to help free his chainsword. As he did so, 3 zombies fell onto him clawing at him desperate to end his life. Shioro kicked one off quickly as his sword took anothers head clean off by the neck. One of the squad fired bolter rounds, sprayed the decayed brains of the third all over the armour of Varyus. The Marine turned around and was suddenly set upon himself by more of the mutants. falling as their mutated limbs broke through his power armour and tore at his flesh."

Ornack took another glance, hoping not to be spotted by the traitors. Gunfire was becoming more and more hard to hear, but it still rang in the Guardsmen ears. He saw Typhus and his last few death guard walking towards the dead Tau warrior, and knew that whatever the alien ally had held, the Chaos forces wanted it. He turned his back to them about to offer another prayer to the Emperor, when suddenly the ground around him vibrated. He opened his eyes back up to see the huge Tau walker striding towards him, firing over the crator behind which he was hiding. He took another glance over the edge and could see Typhus and the Plague Marines being hammered by Ion cannon, missiles, battlecannons and Pulserifle fire. As the last of Typhus' retinue fell, a huge force struck the Herald of Nurgle and suddenly he was gone. Ornack launched himself over the crator edge and kneeled next to the dead Tau firewarrior. The device was flickering, and he would never know what it was, but he had helped secure it. The Riptide strode over into the crator, and planted each of its legs either side of Ornack and the objective, firing at the last remnants of the Chaos forces.

"Shioro leapt into the last 3 zombies and decapitated them with his force weapon. Sergeant Varyus ordered the last of his men to check for any left, but they all seemed to have been dispatched. Shioro turned to see the Tau battlesuit jetting towards him. It stopped a few yards in front of the Librarian and stood as tall as a dreadnaught, one drone hovering near the shoulder. Its small head nodded at the Evandalist psyker, and it jumped back away to its comrades. "Lord Eniko, the Tau have stood by their word. We have completey decimated the Old Enemy and all objectives are ours. Sergeant Varyus and 5 of his squad remain along with myself. Drop pod took a hammering but it still operates, its machine spirit is strong." Kyoshi closed the small communicating device built into his wrist armour and walked over to his comrades. "My Lord, it seems they do hold honour. Does this mean we can trust them?" The Librarian looked at Varyus. "It would seem that we do, at least for now. Be ready for transport, we'll assess this with Eniko and I'm sure we'll hear from our new 'friends' soon."

So another game with Tau, this time with some Space Marine allies. I wanted to take them so I could link them in with the previous game me and Alun had against Adam and Chris. Its nice to keep the narrative going! We finished the game with 17 points to the Chaos total of... 0. Wowser! I think our strengths were being able to concentrate fire on what we needed too, although Chris' Chaos Lord did get close, and I did lose a squad of Firewarriors to a single Raptor that didn't die in overwatch. Otherwise the game went well! My plan to hold up the centre of the Chaos line for a couple of turns with the Marines worked a treat, with a few surviving the game including the Librarian alive too. 

Using a Crisis suit Commander with a squadron of marker drones was amazing too, I always got at least 6 marker hits out of 8 which made them incredible reliable. Do I prefer these or Pathfinders? Close call I think! The Hammerheads did ok, although their first turn wasn't, they both hit but failed to crack the front armour of a Chaos Predator. The Helldrakes were a nuisance, but didn't control the game as much as they can. The Riptide and Firewarriors with Fireblade were my best units, their firepower tore apart Chaos squads including Typhus, who was then finished off by a Railgun shot. All in all a great game, lets see if the story continues!