This match was something special for me. A very good and old friend of mine (no Aleator club member) finally managed to finish the last strokes of the brush on his Tau Empire Kill Team. If memory serves me right the start of this task dates back almost six years. I was very excited when he told me that he was about to finish them soon and that we could finally set up a match which we talked about since ages. And I have to say that I was surprised in quite a positive way. These are the very first miniatures he ever painted and he even magnetised the weapon options for the Crisis suits. Very well done and a brilliant start!
The format of the Kill Team matches proofed to be a great thing again as (obviously) even common mortals are able to paint and play with it. One does lose a bit the perception on things when you’re sitting at your hobby desk almost every evening for the last couple of years (just like a regular contributor to this blog – Oops!). Sorry for the bad pictures, I forgot to turn on every light in the living room.
During the aggressive expansion of the Tau Empire in the galactic east there have been several encounters with Imperial forces. As the Aleator Sector is also located in this part of the galaxy it was only a matter of time since there would be a confrontation. Of course the Men of Argos were the first who did confront the Tau as they are quite similar to the them keen explorers themselves.
Today’s incident happened during the siege of a barren world with dense human population. Nevertheless it was a high priority objective of the Tau attack, thus the few imperial defenders could not hold ground against the xenos invasion. To capture back lost territory the Astra Militarum did sent out an elite task force of Scions to locate an important drop of supplies to support the weakened local defenses.The Tau on the other hand located unexpected activities of the Gue’la on a position that was considered to be already overrun by the Fire Caste. The ambitious Shas’Ui’Kaor’on rallied a team of Fire Warriors and Crisis suits to crush every growing opposition.
The Fire Caste Tau of Shas’Ui’Kaor’on.
The Astra Militarum Scions of Argos.
We agreed on a regular Kill Team match and got the mission “supply drop”. The Tau arrived first on the battlefield and started to take cover in the abandoned imperial stronghold.
The Scions from Argos were forced to attack from an angle with less cover.
As soon as the Tau got a hold of the Guardsmen they opened fire on them.
On this range the advanced weaponry of the Tau was far superior to the high energy laser guns of the Scions and the first blood was shed by the Tau.
As the firefight went on the mission objectives got checked one by one – the main objective was still to be found and the men of Argos hoped that it would be the one located in their placement zone.
A daredevil Scion with a flamer ran forward to check the next to last objective and to the misfortune of the Guardsmen he discovered the main objective right in front of the Tau gun line.
As there were already a hand full of dead humans on the ground and not a single Tau the battle looked grim for the Scions. They braced themselves and started an attack against the breach that Tau forces had opened up long before them. And with blazing laser guns they really could push the Tau back, even destroy a Crisis suit.
But the Shas’Ui’Kaor’on had built up his defense properly.
Without mercy the Tau took down one Scion after another…
…before the men of Argos could take cover in their just captured position.
Only a few men survived, their squad morale broken.
It was impossible for the last remnants to escape the dense fire of the Tau.
Only two Scions survived and threw themselves in close combat to escape the enemy fire for a short time.
A tie, one fight was won by a Fire Warrior, the other by a Scion.
During the last seconds of the match the Fire Warrior was able to secure the objective, thus hindering the mission of the Astra Militarum.
As the last Gue’la was shot down the Shas’Ui’Kaor’on nodded satisfied. Today’s victory belonged to the Tau.
Best regards to my comrade and xenos opponent, really enjoyed the game. The long range and strength 5 of the tau guns were a real pain to deal with especially if you mostly have guns with a max. range of 18″. It was a horrible defeat for my forces but I was rewarded with an epic scene as the Scions took the breach with a roaring flamer and blazing guns. I really hope that we won’t have to wait years again for our rematch mate.