Battle of The Five Armies*
*Hmmm. If this doesn’t sound familiar now it will do after Peter Jackson’s film version of the Hobbit is released
Overlord Kolokoff led a number of units in concert with Tyrannid, Chaos Marine and Dark Eldar forces attempting to dislodge a large Tau armoured division holding a complex of bastions at Gerraga. Attacking by deep strike, each element of the alliance was approx 1000 strong matching the Tau defenders.
Kolokoff led a strong unit of Lychguard and was supported by the Doom Scythe Wrathful Warrior together with squads of scarabs and Praetorians. The Tau had a major central bastion with two smaller ones on each side. They had a defensive trench guarding much of the right and defence batteries and turrets on the main and right hand bastion. A mass or battlesuits and broadsides held the bastions and their transports were massed behind the main position with troops on a final fortification at the rear.
Most of the allies would attack by deep strike, the hope being that each force would complement the others. As the engagement opened our Praetorians were our only contribution to the first wave, landing infront of the trenchworks on the enemy right. Tyrannids appeared to both sides of us further back and as more menacing units would draw much enemy fire.
Our opening bombardment had been largely ineffective destroying just one enemy vessel. Chaos marines appeared largely on the enemy’s left and centre whilst the dark Eldar approached from both flanks.
Progress was slow and casualties surprisingly light considering the firepower on display though a Dark Eldar transport on our right flank was an early casualty. The Praetorians contributed a single wound against the battle suits holding the trench but their deep strike had been off a few degrees, carrying them out of assault range.
Enemy piranhas clustering forward on the right took hits from the Tyrannids who also managed a deep strike within the enemy perimeter with two of their monstrous creatures.
The attack developed with damage affecting the central bastion and destroying the enemy’s left hand fortress as the chaos marines closed. The Tau tried deep striking their stealth suits on the left but they were quickly dealt with, meanwhile hordes of Tyrannids attacked the battlesuits holding the right hand trench, swarming over them despite the gaps torn in their ranks by enemy fire.
The Praetorians and a huge Tyrannid assaulted a piranha which the Tyrannid destroyed; our unit still took casualties from the ship’s defensive countermeasures which had been working very effectively for the Tau across the field. The explosion also killed the Tyrannid responsible.
The Wrathful Warrior arrived by deep strike close to the enemy on the left but it was hit by a lucky shot from a defence battery as it descended and was unable to open fire and it was immediately wrecked as it drew a torrent of fire including the from the fire warriors of three transports that might so easily have fallen to its death ray.
Our scarabs arrived behind the main bastion supporting a huge Tyrannid creature that was tussling with a Tau hero. They assaulted a Tau transport but inflicted only minor damage before being engaged by its passengers who they assaulted. The chaos marines meanwhile took the left hand bastion, driving out but fatally failing to destroy its defenders.
The Tau were forced to abandon the right hand bastion as it was destroyed but opened fire with their flamers on the Tyrannid breakthrough on the right destroying the attackers before returning to the wreckage of their bastion. The Tyrannids lost their huge drop pod to enemy fire as further units including at last our overlord and lychguard arrived. Their deep strike on the right landed in difficult terrain but only one lychguard fell. A few shots from Kolokoff against nearby fire warriors did nothing.
The Dark Eldar jet bikes and transport on the right were now destroyed and the Tau HQ on the left rallied and re took the left hand bastion leaving only the central bastion contested by some of the few remaining marines. Our Praetorians destroyed the third and final Piranha but were left tantalisingly out of range of the right hand objective and the Lychguard, not deep strike specialists could not take action either. Final assault by a Chaos Daemon and Dark Eldar destroyed a fire warrior unit on the right, but it was too little, too late.
Victory to the Tau therefore. Our units had all performed poorly: Nothing in the way of damage caused by the Lychguard who suffered 10% casualties or the Wrathful Warrior which was wrecked with out firing a shot. The Praetorians and scarabs did little better, the only notable success the destruction of a piranha by the former. They each suffered casualties of over 50% for their trouble.
Our strength when the units rallied was 600, a loss rate close to 40% but no squads destroyed at least. The Praetorians, the Venomous Blades gained Feel No Pain as a result. Our allies who had borne the brunt of the fighting had taken far heavier losses and the Tau despite having their bastions destroyed and losing more than half a dozen units were still fielding a formidable force.
9.6.12
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