Battlesuit Bonanza
Overlord Morbineus led a 1498 stong force against Tau Commander Farsight and his heavy battlesuit armada attacking Coriaclyn Minor. He had two squads of seven warriors, one of which he led himself on the left, the other entrenched on our right. A unit of ten tesla armed immortals occupied the left flank and ten scarabs spread across our centre.
Other forces started in reserve. These were: A unit of nine aconthrites, the Night Scythe NNV Quelled Rebellion with eight deathmarks and a cryptek aboard, and the Doom Scythe NNV Unbroken.
Commander Farsight stayed in reserve with a commander and nine battlesuits. Two transports packed with fire warriors also appeared on the battlefield opposite us. The central objective lay between our forces and we advanced towards it, the Tau opening fire first but with little effect given the range.
Then Farsight deep struck on our left in front of the advancing immortals. The eleven battlesuits were screened by an estimated twenty six drones ready to absorb any fire we could lay down. The battlesuits opened up with flamers, destroying utterly the advancing immortals before they could fire a shot.
The Quelled Rebellion arrived and disembarked her deathmark unit and which opened fire, as did our warriors. The aconthrites also arrived by deep strike and opened up with their melta weapons. A heavy toll was taken but mainly of the drones which protected their battlesuit charges. The scarabs assaulted but were wiped out by the enemy flamers.
Fire continued to be exchanged; the deathmarks took surprisingly few losses despite coming under heavy fire. The right hand warriors meanwhile fell to advancing enemy fire warriors who were brought up on their transport. The aconthrites now assaulted the battlesuits, taking some losses but now almost all the enemy drones were gone and their entropic strikes began having an effect.
Meanwhile the deathmarks and warriors were able to wheel towards the enemy fire warriors attempting to seize the objective. The Quelled Rebellion having warmed up its disruptors on the battlesuits unleashed a volley on the nearest warriors and more than half of the nearest squad was destroyed.
The assault continued, a bloody war of attrition, four battlesuits now armour free as the aconthrites did their deadly work. The nearest enemy transport stood up well to our attacks but the final survivors of the closest fire warriors fell. The other transport moved round behind us and disgorged its warriors as Farsight finished off the aconthrites, but now only a few suits were left.
Farsight assaulted our HQ, challenging Morbineus and slaying him after his mindshackle scarabs narrowly failed to take effect. Remarkably the warriors held despite losing half their number. The deathmarks and their cryptek had finished the enemy transport and now the Unbroken arrived at last, destroying several suits and warriors and damaging the other transport. The fire warriors’ morale broke and they fled.
The Unbroken took a couple of glancing hits, meanwhile the Quelled Rebellion continued to arc around trying to bring its weapons back to bear on the Tau. Our warriors fell and the deathmarks were finished too as the fleeing fire warriors managed to rally. The Unbroken fired its Death Ray and destructors again and the last two suits of Farsight’s unit fell whilst he lost half his wounds.
The engagement broke off: Neither side had secured the objective; Farsight remained, wounded with 30% of his warriors and a damaged transport. We had the Unbroken still operational but damaged and the Quelled Rebellion intact. We had lost our warlord and failed to win first blood, so tactically a defeat. We had lost six of eight units deployed, the Tau had lost three of six, it’s estimated that the Tau losses amounted to 80%, our strength of 275 represented just under 82% losses.
27.4.13
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