Game II: Downtown Vidighese

The Town of Vidighese - Praxedes IV 071.747.M41

Game: 1000pt Capture and Control
Result: Draw (Imperials and Tau contest one victory point and the other is uncontrolled)
Factions:
- H'Russ Sept 1000Pts
- 291st Death Korps of Krieg 1000pts

For those who don't know, our group plays every Friday night (GMT). Last Friday was a painting day, where we all got together to help each other paint armies and work on terrain and modelling projects(keep an eye out for the Kroot with pink Hair!). So no game. This Friday there wasn't going to be a game either as a few of us had evening commitment in the real world. But rather unexpectedly we did manage to get a game in doing the day instead!

Four Imperial standard days later, the Tau made a move to push the Imperials further out of Vidighese. Tau H'Russ sept met 291st Krieg Patrols in the center of town.
A squad of Fire warriors had occupied the upper floors of an Imperial shrine, establishing a forward observation post overlooking an intersection close to the center of town, not far from the Imperial Front line.
The OP allowed Tau forces a clear view of an imperial strong point. It was not long before harassing fire from Tau artillery and Fire warriors became intolerable, and an Imperial response became imperative.
The forward line was reinforced with equipment and troops quietly, then on the morning of 071.747.M41, Men and machines all along the sector moved up the jump off tape awaiting the whistle to commence the attack. Unfortunately on the right flank a unit of dismounted Grenadiers were spotted by a Tau Piranha team supported by Kroot. All along the line Tau forces opened fire into the Imperial positions.
The Imperial response didn't take long to kick off. Pre-designated artillery called in by the Master of ordinance smashed into the building opposite. LasCannons added to the devastation carving chunks out of the masonry with bright flares of energy. then the Bane wolf opened up. The scream of superheated air could be heard across town as the multi-melta in its hull scored a hit on the Tau observation post vaporising the corner of the shine. Even the stone built shrine of the Emperor couldn't take that kind of punishment and the whole building fell in on itself carrying all of the Tau down to the ground with it.
The Tau preempting fire had not come without consequences, on the right flank, Tau Piranha's accounted for two of the Veteran Grenadiers.




Over on the Left flank a Kroot kindred that had been infiltrating into the Imperial lines looking for weak points, took the opportunity to rush the men of Krieg, hoping to destroy the heavy weapons teams wreaking such havoc on their Tau allies. They burst through the doors of the ruined hab-block as the Mortar teams finished a fire mission, smashing the Kroot kindred supporting the Piranha's. Mortar men and LasCannon crews looked up as the aliens burst through the doors behind them wielding their deadly double headed rifles.






Crewmen dropped their heavy equipment and rushed to engage the Kroot pouring through the door. Within moments, 4 Kroot bodies lay dead surrounded by 10 dead Kriegers Leutnant Kluge-G7772-9 could see the slaughter from across the ruins. Making a quick decision he lept from his position shouting for his staff to follow him. Commissar Lord Nero had also seen the threat on the left and lept up from where the company command had been directing artillery on the Tau OP and sprinted into the melee.
The Leutnant's squad together with the Commissar Nero struck like a lightning bolt,laying about themselves to great effect. They were too late to save the last of the heavy weapons teams , instead the wreaked bloody revenge on the Kroot kindred felling over half of them and driving them back towards the doorway of the hab.

Over on the right flank of the Krieg line, the veterans of the Death Korps Grenadiers fought out their duel with the Tau Pirannas. The nippy Tau vehicles sped around the corner of the Imperial chappel as the Imperials tumbled into the cover of the same building. Two men carrying Melta guns were left ouside the lintel their squad mates had clambored through. They turned as one and sent screaming beams of energy into the side of the passing skimmer gutting it from stem to stern. The stricken machine smashed into the ground spilling parts and blood as it went. Angry drones from the Piranha's spat at the grenadiers trying in vain to exact revenge for the destruction of their ride.
Its twin sped on, cutting open the rear of the grenadiers parked chimera with plasma beams, smashing through the track guards and splintering the tracks. The shattered tracks un-spooled behind the chimera immobilising it as it continued to hose down the survivors of the Tau Fire warriors in the collapsed shrine.

The Commissar Lord cut down the last of the Kroot Kindred on the on the Left flank and took a quick survey of the battle field though an up-link into his ocular implant. The Tau on the left had collapsed. on the right, they had been stalled and the Imperials retained controls of the field. In the In the Center the Tau OP had been smashed into ruins and a squad of Korpsmen had launched an assault across the road, into the ruins seeking to dominate the ground. Nero could feel the crisis of the battle was approaching. Across the piles of shattered plascrete and flak board, Hauptmann Alder remained hunched over the map board directing the progress of the battle. If the battle was to be won it would be done in the center. Nero flicked his power sword clean of Kroot blood and turned to each of his surviving colleagues holding their gaze for a moment he shouted:
"For your Emperor" and charged out of the building into the street.

Rules for Dark Angel Games

Victory and Campaign Points
Dark Angels score Victory points and campaign points differently to other forces

Win : 1VP and 1CP on a roll of 6+ per Fallen slain
Draw : -1 VP (cannot take below 0) and -1 CP + 1CP on a roll of 6+ per Fallen slain
Loss : -1 VP (cannot take below 0) and -2 CP + 1CP on a roll of 6+ per Fallen slain

After a game that the dark angels were present roll a D6 for each member of the Fallen that was slain. The Dark Angels gain 1 additional CP for every roll of 6

Win Conditions
Dark Angels are always playing annihilation against the Fallen. If 8 or more Fallen are killed, the Dark Angels gain a win, 4 or less they have lost. This may mean that both players can achieve a victory point.


The Fallen
In any game against the dark angels there will be Fallen Angels, the Fallen will be represented by a full strength (170 pts) tactical squad with any options that do not increase the squads points cost. The exception to this is the Sergeant who can select any war gear he is normally allowed (any amount).

The Fallen can be split up into sub squads as the opposing player feels is appropriate (e.g. 1 squad of 10, 2 squads of 4 and 6 using the rules of Shaefers Last Chancers (Codex: Imperial Guard 4th Ed.)
If split and a sub squad of 1 is made that marine is treated as having the Independent character Universal Special Rule.

Due to the nature of the relationship between the Dark Angels and members of the Fallen
both are subject to the Preferred Enemy Universal Special Rule against one another.

Hunt the Fallen
At the start of the Dark Angels shooting phase, if any member of the fallen is within 12" of a Dark Angels unit that unit must direct all its firepower at the fallen and any squad they may be with and then assault in the following assault phase.

Leave no Witnesses
The Dark Angels will not allow their secret to become public knowledge and thus will fire upon Imperial allies as well as enemies to keep their secret safe.

Any allied or enemy unit which has line of sight and is within 6" inches of a fallen becomes a target for the Dark Angels.

If all witness squads are killed then one extra CP dice can be rolled, if any are left alive then - 1 CP rolls.

Game I: Counter attack at Vidighese

Game: 200opt Capture and Control
Result: Tau Victory (Tau control one victory point and contest the other. )
H'Russ Sept 2000Pts
Vostroyan CCCLII Firstborn 1000pts
291st Death Korps of Krieg 1000pts

The Town of Vidighese - Praxedes IV 058.747.M41

The Town of Vidighese was silent now. For the last few days it had been a scene from hell. For two days Artillery from LCXI Division down to regimental level had pounded the town with every calibre they had, smashing buildings, parks, manufactories alike in an effort to break up the Tau defenders in the Town. The barrage lifted as suddenly as it had arrived. Dazed Fire warriors scrambled from basements to the ruined town above, clutching pulse rifles ready for inevitable assault. On the outskirts of town men of the 291st Death Korps of Krieg had assaulted the ruins and soon swept them from the town.

That was two days ago. Korpsman Drusus Keppler-A5031-7 stood squinting into the growing light, in what remained of the second floor of an Imperial Hab-block, in the very same ruins where two days before, Tau Fire warriors had struggled him and his squad mates in a nightmare of close combat.
Now he stood waiting. The counter attack would be soon. Tau always counter attacked at dusk or dawn. He had overheard one of the officers commenting that it was because the Tau had superior technomancy in their helmets and tanks. Korpsman Keppler didn't know what to make of that, but then he didn't really care either. The Keppler gene-coda that made up his sibco batch had not been selected for its curiosity trait.
Keppler raised the optic visor to his eye pieces and took in the outskirts of the town in which he stood. Increasing the magnification he zoomed in on a LasCannon emplacement manned by guardsmen from the Vostroyan CCCLLII Firstborn. They had moved up during the night and taken over the right wing of this sector of the line, allowing the men of Krieg to consolidate into a smaller section of the line.
He zoomed the magnification back out and swept the optic visor across the hills overlooking the town. Without light intensifiers there was not much he could see, but the Watch master had told him to stand here and watch the hills and the watch master was his older brother, so he must obey.
When the first salvo lanced out from a Tau rail gun , Keppler was still standing looking out over the darkened hills. The shot struck a three story building down the street, causing Keppler to flinch back behind the lintel of the door he was sheltering in. The Vostroyan LasCannon teams responded almost immediately, quickly followed by the Death Corps own LasCannons emplaced in the highest ruin.
Tau tanks sped through the gloaming, men of the CCLII Vostroyan and Death Korps rose to meet them head on. In the center of the line, conscript replacements receiving a lecture on discipline from Commissar Khutuzov surged up full of zeal. Throwing themselves out of the building with abandon, they ran directly into the guns of a Kroot pack who had infiltrated a wood land copse just out of town. Young Kriegers fresh from the sibling companies ran into a wall of fire.


Behind them the Captain of the recruit platoon urged on the recruits, the Young men of Kreig, conditioned from childhood required little urging from the Commissar or Captain to throw themselves out of the building. The first wave out of the ruins paid a heavy price, as Tau built Kroot rifles and air burst fragmentation rounds cut them down before they could take more than a few paces.






In the ruins further to the right of the Imperial Line, Korpsman Keppler slithered down from the first floor of the ruins to join the rest of his squad on the ground below. Over at a hole in the rock-crete wall, Watch-master Leor was peaking out at the advancing Tau tanks. One had made the mistake of nosing into the street between him and the Building housing the recruits. Looking Back at Keppler and the others he communicated his orders with a few quick hand gestures. The squad would assault the tank with grenades as it passed.
Keppler scrambled over the blocks of fallen masonary to a shattered and empty window. As the tank passed the squad rose as one and rushed into the dust cloud raised by the passing antigrav wave. Men scambled up over the tank , some went to the back hatch looking for weak spots there. Keppler had barely had time to toss his own grenade into the left hand impeller pods of the Tau tank when he was blinded by the actinic glare of the Watchmasters melta bomb detonating on the hull. The whole tank lurched violently to one side. then seemed to bulge from the inside as secondary explosions ripped through the hull. the tank nosed down and slashed into the street, shedding composite armour fragments in all directions. The Tank slid for a few few yards before comming to a halt.
Keppler opened his eyes and levered himself up from where the explosion had tossed him against the building he had just recently vacated. He blinked in a daze at the ruin of the Tank before him. Great steaming fissures had opened in its hull, leaving torn bundles of fibre hanging from the great rents in its flanks. He watched as a long thin box was pushed through one of these gaps from the inside of the tank. He was still trying to determine what it might mean when the first burst from the Tau pulse rifle shattered the rock-crete above his head. Instinct and gene-bred reflexes took over, Kepplers body bucked and threw itself up and spun around in an attempt to get over the wall back into cover. The second burst from the Tau rifle was better aimed, corrected by its machine spirit. It followed his movement, strafing the walls and catching him a glancing blow on the meat of his thigh as he tumbled back over the lintel of the window he had assaulted through. While not enough to kill him, the wound was enough to stop him moving much faster than a crawl. For Keppler the Battle was over.
Later when he woke up in the Medicae tent he would learn that the Tau counter attack had succeeded in throwing the Imperium back into the outskirts of Vidigese. 80 Guardsmen had been wounded killed or gone on the missing roles including almost all of the replacement sibco.

An angelic shadow

During the Damocles campaign the major confrontations were between the Forces of the Imperium and the fledgling tau empire. It is reported that the Dark angels were dispatched to counter Traitor legion activities in the surrounding systems.

The dark angles were recorded as having accomplished their mission in the latter part of 742.M41 and withdrawing to muster at the FAZE system, but 5 years on rumours persist of a fleet of ships bearing the badge of the 1^st legion floating around the Praxedes system on the edge of the Damocles gulf as if searching for something, whether these stories hold truth to them only the dark angels know.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

+++++++DATE: 058747/M41

++++++++REF: 009822/PT

+++++++++TO: Scion Lucrecia Du-Vayne

+++++++From: Inquisitor Thelis

++++SUBJECT: SAFETY OF PRAXEDES

My lord

I shall waste no time with pleasantries and formalities as the matter of which I write to you is of the utmost impotance.

The picts I have sent with this communiqué show a vessel which appears to be of imperial design under the command of the 1^st legion astartes heading on a course to the praxedes system, these picts were recovered amongst others from a drifting hulk of a cruiser reportedly transporting a portion of the CCCLII Vostroyan regiment to praxedes quintus.

These picts were the last taken and the trajectory my navigators have plotted put the vessel on a course to praxedes.

According to imperial records the Dark Angels were involved in a few skirmishes on the outskirts of the Damocles gulf after which they were withdrawn, if this was not the case imperial records have been deliberately altered for purposes unknown.

Yours sincerely

The Emperor’s loyal servant

Inquisitor Jaela Thelis

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Praxedes IV (Praxedes Quintus)

Population: 10 Billion
Tithe Grade: Exactus Civilised
Geography: Two Continents separated by a thin channel. A large world spanning ocean containing small island chains, High concentrations of Sulphur turn the sea yellow.
Mountainous Agricultural Plains , Temperate to desert climate, Low Albedo with a dry atmosphere. Two moons one inhabited.
Government Type: Oligarchy
Planetary Governor: Scion Lucrecia Du-Vayne
Adept Presence: High, Adeptus Administratum, Imperial Guard, Some Adeptus Ministorum clergy, Adeptus Arbites fortress.
Military: Imperial Guard, High Quality; Corporate Armies, Noble Private Armies, Poor/medium quality.
Trade: Praxedes principal export is sulphur, taken from the extensive sulphur reclamation plants around the coasts of the world. These plants serve a dual purpose, removing sulphur from the planets oceans while creating fresh water for the population to drink. there is little free standing fresh water on Praxedes IV with most waterways ranging from brackish to acidic. Some grains also thrive in the highly acidic soil, allowing bumper harvests, and accounting for Praxedes IV other main export, foodstuffs. The Praxedes systems principal trading partners remain the other systems of the Tortuga Marches and the Tau empire. Lying as it does in a spur of worlds off
of the transit corridor across the Damoclese Gulf this is unlikely to ever change.

Background: Founded in M22 in the explosion of colonisation after the creation of the Navigator gene allowed Humanity to travel further and faster than ever before.
Praxedes IV was chosen for colonisation because of its relative fecundity and possibility of exploiting its Sulphur oceans.
Conquered during the Great Crusade, Praxedes IV were brought to compliance by the Blood Angels chapter of Space marines. The population resisted fiercely and was reduced to almost nothing by the chapter. The population was again reduced to almost nothing during the Plauge of
Unbelief in M36 when the planet joined the wrong side in the Imperium wide civil war. Saint Frankel of the Wounded Heart is remembered for helping to bring the remnants of the population back into compliance.
By 704.M41 the Praxedes system had become a major trading partner of the Tau Empire, along with much of the rest of the Tortuga Marches sub sector. Whilst it was never officially annexed by the Tau, the level of infiltration of the ruling elite was such that more of the planets wealth was heading out to the Tau Empire than to the Imperium. Soon even the tithe was not being met, but by this time the Imperium had plans afoot for the Damoclese Crusade, so rather than launching a punitive expedition against one system, Praxedes would be added to the target list of a Crusade.
Praxedes IV was reached in 742.M41 and invested by the LCXI Division of the III Damoclese Crusade army. Fighting was intense at first and the Imperial armies quickly established dominance over the weaker PDF forces. The Tau responded quickly throwing several septs at the world to 'protect their commercial interests' in the system. Control of the system see-sawed back and forth before settling into a front line across both continents of the world of Praxedes IV, where the line stalemated.
During the withdrawal and aftermath of the Damoclese Crusade the Command staff successfully lobbied the Crusade command for the right to stay and complete the re-conquest of the Praxedes system. However they were granted no other assistance and the world has remained in contention ever since.

++++ Awakening ++++

The yellow sea, a vast mass of land slowly becoming desert. Located near the equator of the main continent of Praxedes IV. Little life exist in the area, and what does live is concentrated in small Oasis's. Life is harsh for all in the area. But this will shortly change. Not because of environmental or technological change to make life easier. No, the change will be that all life in the yellow sea will be extinguished.

Deep below the yellow desert reside vast catacombs. A shift in the tectonic plates caused by the fighting between the Imperials and Tau empires causes a localised quake. Shards of stone fall from the ceiling of the catacomb. It takes almost a minute for these shards to impact below. A few of the shards create dull thuds as they hit the ground, but many impact with a metallic ping.

Millenia dormant circuits start to activate and the catacombs start to pulse with an eerie green glow.

Battle For Praxedes IV Campaign Rules

Introduction

The goal of the campaign for Praxedes IV is basically the same as the previous campaign for H'Russ:

• To keep the book keeping to a minimum;
• to have a definitive end in a reasonable space of time;
• provide a framework to tie games into a narrative whole.

As such we are broadly keeping the same rules as that campaign.

Victory Conditions

the first player to Reach a total of 8 victory points.

Factions
This campaign contains the following factions:

• Necrons (Codex: Necrons)
• Biel Tan (Codex: Eldar)
• 291st Death Korps Panzer Grenadiers (Codex: Imperial Imperial Guard)
• CCCLII Vostroyan First Born (Codex: Imperial Imperial Guard)
• H'Russ Sept (Codex: Tau Empire)

All factions except Necrons may form alliances. All alliance members gain the VP' s and Cp's for a game played where they had figures on the field.


Victory Points
Gain One victory point per game where the player was on the winning side.

Campaign Points
For each game played a player may accumulate CP's based on the result of the game. CP's can be redeemed for Veteran Skills or points bonuses in a single game.

Win = 2 CP's

Draw =1 CP's

Loss = 0 CP's

Redeeming Campaign Points
CP's can be used to buy a roll on the Veteran Skills table at the following rate:

• 1CP = Preliminary Bombardment
• 4CP = 1 Random Veteran Skill (Roll once on the veteran skills table E5:p263 and add it to the army list)
• 6CP = 15 % points bonus for one game

Army lists
Games must be played with a valid army list and you must have it available for inspection by your opponent at time of play.

An army list may be changed at any time during the course of the campaign with no detrimental effects.

Using veteran skills
Veteran Skills are gained by a player for their faction by spending CP's. Roll once on the veteran skills table E5:p263 and add it to the army list.

The veteran skill can be applied to any legal unit in the army for a game.

The unit carrying the Veteran Skill must be declared to the opposition at the begining of the game or it cannot be used for that game.

If a unit carrying a veteran skill is completely destroyed (or the vehicle explodes) during a game then the Veteran Skill is permanently lost and is removed from the players faction.