So, in anticipation of the impending release of the new Apocalypse rule book, TJ organized a 'small' apocalypse battle at the outpost.
The forces uld comprise roughly 6000 points a side, with Doc Selvam and Cash commanding the Tau on the side of Order and TJ, Pat, Aaron and Chiat commanding the forces of Chaos.
The forces disposition (roughly):
Order - Tau coalition
Doc Selvam - 3000 pts Tau
Cash - 3000 pts Tau
Chaos - CSM with Daemon Allies
TJ - 3000 pts Iron Warriors CSM
Pat - 1500 pts Daemons
Aaron - 1000 pts Daemons
Chiat - 500 pts Death Guard CSM
(with some reinforcements from Rommel)
After setting up terrain and selecting the new Strategic Assets cards, we proceeded to bid for the deployment setup. Chaos side bid 2 minutes and got to go first.
Terrain set up saw remains of a large imperial city in ruins on the left flank and a wide no mans land to the right with a dense forest on the Tau side and the remains of a fotress of redemption on the Chaos side. For the purposes of this game we decided that the weapons emplacements would not be functioning. We also placed 6 objectives (3 on the Tau side and 3 on Chaos side). The Tau had brought the Stealth teams and Crisis suit Apoc formations.
The bulk of the Tau forces decided to deploy in the ruined city on one of the objectives while some mechanized units deployed within the dense forest to hold another objective.
The Iron Warriors deployed around the fortress of redemption capturing one of the objectives, with a Chaos Warhound Titan anchoring the right flank.
The Death Guard deployed opposite the Tau in the ruined city, immediately holding 2 of the objectives.
Turn one saw Chaos using their first Strategic card which was Precision Deployment. The first wave of about 1000 pts of Daemons deep striked without scatter right in to the Tau lines on their right flank. This proved to be disastrous for the Tau as the next turn of shooting saw the Tau lines decimated and only a few units were left, with control of the right flank strongly in Chaos hands.
Several Daemon MCs also deep striked in to the city to try and shift the Tau forces from their objective. The Deathguard units in the city commenced a shooting battle to try and thin down the rest of the Tau forces. While the Tau forces focused fire on the monstrous creatures advancing on their position.
At the end of turn 2, Chaos was in control of 3 objectives while the Tau held 1, with another 2 being contested. The Tau in the city had also managed to kill the Bloodthirster and Daemon Prince that was harassing their lines. Another DP was still rampaging through their lines though.
The new Apoc rules include scheduled breaks, as some stuff happens in between or after the breaks. We broke for lunch on schedule and headed off for some chicken rice while recapping what had happened in the first 2 turns and planning our strategy for the coming turns.
Back from lunch, the Tau used one of their Strategy cards to deploy a force field around one of the objectives, while CSM used their Strategy of Daemonic Allies to return up to D3 slain units to the battle. The Tau looked on in dismay as both the Bloodthirster and DP they had spent the last turn killing redeployed onto the battlefield. Such is the fickle nature of Chaos!
The Daemons commenced to deepstrike their Tetragon of Darkness Apoc formation onto the right flank to capture the remaining 2 objectives. Unfortunately the Bloodthirster scattered and would be delayed for another turn,
Combat was fast and furious with both sides trading fire, with the Tau suffering mounting casualties.
The Tau managed to bring on their armoured units on the right flank and commenced bombardment of the Chaos forces, who suffered relatively light losses. The Warhound advanced on their position to hold the objective.
The Tau had deployed 5 large units of kroot to pressure the Chaos left flank. But, on the next turn however the Bloodthirster managed to arrive via DS with his cohort of bloodletters to face the kroot and the Tetragon of Darkness was successfully created giving all the Daemons within shrouding.
By this time both Aaron and Doc had to leave, so we decided to call the game, with Chaos holding 5 of the 6 objectives.
In all it was an amazingly fun afternoon of dice rolling with some fantastic highlights and devastating setbacks all contributing to a tense and hard fought game.
But this is just a taste of what is to come, with the launch of Apocalypse, Game Master TJ will be organizing another big Apoc game in the coming months, so now would be the time to start finishing painting up your armies.
Waaaagh!!!!
