Mont'ka Summary and Spoilers

I've finally gotten a copy of War Zone Damocles: Mont'ka, and finished reading the whole campaign and fluff in one sitting. I know there are readers or fans out there who either are too lazy (not a bad thing) or do not have time to read through 100+ pages of fluff, so for those people out there, I'll write a summary. Warnings: This summary will obviously include spoilers, so if you don't want to be spoiled, please don't read it. Otherwise, you can save some time reading it here.

I'll do the new Cadian formations and tactical objectives in another post. By the way, the so-called "new" Lords of War for the Astra Militarum are not new at all. They are exactly the same as the 8 Baneblade variants in Escalation, so if you already have Escalation, just refer to that book for your Baneblade (or its variant) rules. There has been no changes, no points deductions, no extra options. Disappointing as it means my 535-point Stormsword will still get slaughtered by the 2nd turn with only one turn of shooting. Sigh. Oh well.

Anyway, let's get started with the Mont'ka summary and spoilers!

Kauyon: The Story so far...

I don't really like Kauyon and so I didn't buy that book, but nonetheless I managed to read it and I'll summarize it.

After their crushing defeat on Agrellan, the Imperium retreated to Voltoris and sprang a trap of their own on the annoying and audacious leader Shadowsun, dealing her a humiliating blow and destroying her forces. Yay for the Imperial Knights of House Terryn! They are awesome! Anyway, the Tau Empire fell back to Prefectia, a fortress world, where Shadowsun the bitch lures the Imperium into a trap, including two highly revered Space Marine chapters, the White Scars and the Raven Guard. The Tau kicked the Imperium's ass as everything goes "just as planned" for Shadowsun, who proceeded to troll Raven Guard's former Chapter Master, Corvin Severax, the latter deciding for some reason to totally disregard the stealth and shadowy tactics his chapter is known for and brazenly charges into a Tau line to fight in the open. Just as when he thought he had killed Shadowsun, surprise, surprise! That was a mere double (or eight) despite the fact that Shadowsun's Stealth suit was supposed to be unique (I guess she finally decided to stop monopolizing the suit), and the bitch appeared in a Ghostkneel to destroy him in a pretty anticlimactic fashion. Oh well.

That's not including the shennigans pulled by some Commander in a Ghoststar suit clinging on naval ships in orbit, the Stormsurges literally appearing out of nowhere and having shields more powerful than the Imperial Knights, and the seemingly sad demise of our favorite Obsidian Knight who saved High King Tybalt and ended up falling into a ravine. But they never actually show him melt in magma, and as I always say, if they never, ever show a character's death - especially if he happened to fall off a cliff/ravine/into the sea, it means he will be back.

In any case, the Imperium got their sorry asses kicked and fled with their tail between their legs while the Tau Empire gloated triumphantly like the idiots they are, not knowing that the wrath of Mankind was about to fall atop them...

Chapter 1: Retribution Unbound

The Imperium appeared over Agrella, now renamed Mu'gulath Bay, in force, with a massive naval fleet that pummeled the Tau's pathetic navy and sent their starships running away like the cowards they are. And destroying a few in the process. Yay! Named Task Force Retribution, the Imperial Guard's objective is to teach the Tau a lesson, not to reclaim Agrella (not that anyone wants to live in that radioactive, toxic hellhole anyway), and to kick the blue commies' asses. Hell yeah. You don't mess with the Imperium, little Xenos!

They proceed to destroy the Tau orbital stations by sending the Space Marines in boarding missions, and the Raven Guard and White Scars, particularly after suffering from their brutal smackdown in Prefectia, took this task with relish. Yay. Kayvan Shrike is boss and way better than the corny Corvin and now severed Severax. Anyway, they proceed to demolish the orbital stations and free the way for the Imperial navy to hold orbit over Agrella and send their troops down. Let the massacre begin!

Lord General Troskzer of Cadia is in charge of the entire military operation, but uh...he never shows up again, except in the end...where he still doesn't show up but is mentioned as being...um, "removed" from his post. Such is the price of failure. Anyway, the Cadian Imperial Guard regiments, along with Rhundvarian infantry, Blossak regiments, Nhadakin infantry, and even the Attilan Rough Riders (who never got mentioned ever again), land in force, deploying in three places in the south of the supercontinent containing Agrellan Prime. So you have the Imperial Western Spearhead, Imperial Central Spearhead and Imperial Eastern Spearhead, and we're focusing on the western spearhead.

We also have Skitarii forces from the Adeptus Mechanicus, and a bunch of Space Marine chapters. Plus the Imperial Knights. Never forget the Imperial Knights!

Anyway, the Cadian Shock Troops and Armored companies begin their slow and steady march up north to recapture Imperial territory and exterminate the filthy xenos. Yay. They...fail. Boo. They suffer ambushes and traps along the way, losing men and tanks, but they continue stoically, ignoring the horrendous loss of life, and grimly soldier on...for they are Cadians! Anyway, they get ambushed at the Black Ruins, get routed, but thanks to the legendary Knight Commander Pask, who outflanked the annoying and cowardly Longstrike who was leading his Armored interdiction Cadre, Pask's Squadron Batalica managed to pincer Longstrike's forces and trap them. Even better, we have three superheavy tanks, a Baneblade, a Banesword and a Hellhammer, dropping right to the rear of Longstrike, and the Cadians promptly take revenge and curbstomp Longstrike and massacre the Tau forces. Longstrike, by virtue of plot armor, cheats death and runs away like the cowardly xenos he is, and the Imperium is free to continue onward and upward. For the Emperor!

The first chapter belongs to the Imperium! Woohoo! Score one for the Imperial Guard! Death to the xenos!

Chapter 2: Imperial Spearhead

Shadowsun counters the Imperial Guard's advance with bold moves and ambushes while allowing her forces to run back into the cover of their defensive lines like blue pussies, and proceed to whack the poor and valiant Imperial Guard with underhanded tactics. However, we have help from the Adeptus Astartes, who land in Drop Pods and proceed to maul the Tau's defensive lines. Woohoo!

Accompanying the might of the Imperium are the soldiers of the Machine God, who funnily enough only show up in this chapter, only to disappear later. What the hell? Anyway, like the awesome cyber dudes they are, they show up unannounced like ghosts, surprising even the omnipotent Tau, and proceed to wreck havoc all over the place. Yay! The Imperium begin to slaughter the Tau, the Space Marines and Skitarii relentlessly overrunning their pathetic lines and the Imperial Guard making a valiant and diligent effort to keep up with their enhanced and augmented brethren, but they are winning! Shadowsun sends the Air Caste and bombers to bomb the hell out of the Cadians, but Colonel Starkzahn calls in Valkyrie and Vendetta squadrons to blow the freaking xenos out of the sky! Woohoo! We're turning the tables on the annoying Tau! AT LAST!

THE IMPERIUM IS WINNING! YES! For the Emperor!!!!

And just when the Imperium is on the cusp of victory, Farsight had to turn up and ruin everything.

Farsight Enclaves show up to help bolster the collapsing Tau Empire forces through some deus ex machina feat, turning the sky red and appearing out of no frakking where. Dude, didn't the Imperial Navy, like, cordoned the whole area around Agrellan off? Aren't the Imperial ships orbiting the planet to make sure no one gets through? How the hell did Farsight and his army get past the Imperial naval cordon? Did they teleport or something? Ridiculous.

Anyway, thanks to this insane deus ex machina, the Farsight Enclaves miraculously arrive and save the Tau Empire's blue, furry hides from being overrun. They proceed to outshoot and whack the poor Imperial Guard upside down, driving them back. Colonel Starkzahn regrouped at Blackfossil Ridge, but the Farsight dudes continue to asault and almost drove them back, despite the arrival of Ogryns, who beat the weak, frail blue xenos upside down in close combat.

Knight Commander Pask then counterattacks with his tanks, to initial success, but through plot armor and anime-type shennigans, the Eight dive in and wipe out the entire tank squadrons by them freaking selves. What the hell?

Then for some reason Shadowsun decides to unleash the Stormsurge ballistic suits. Only now. Not when she was losing earlier and getting her ass handed to her on a plate, but when...I dunno, they think it's time to press their advantage after Farsight's arrival. Wait, what? You hold them back even when you're gonna get overrun and eliminated, but when you're holding your own, you decide to unleash them to press your advantage!? Oh boy.

The Skitarii have their own agenda, and after raiding the Tau's enviro-engines and tech (they have a cool scene where the Holy Requisitioner formation teleports in, steals all the cool Tau tech, then proceeds to teleport out of there with all their loot - brings a smile to my face, and reminds me of them Orks), they see this new Stormsurge and they want to steal those to dissect and study them. So the Skitarii surprise the Tau with their peek-a-boo stunts by jumping out of the swirling storm and grabbing hungrily at the beautiful Stormsurges (I don't blame them, I want one for my Mechanicus army too). And then...the Skitarii are never mentioned again in the rest of the book. Huh? What?

Anyway, after wiping the floor with Squadron Batalica, Longstrike the cowardly slimy bastard proceeds to snipe Knight Commander Pask when he has his hands full dealing with the Eight and is the sole survivor. Or at least his new squadron mates do. The guy has no honor, neither does his squadron. Pask's tank gets destroyed. NOOOO!!!!

The Imperial Knights and growing Imperial Guard reinforcements then tear the Tau a new one and Shadowsun is forced to retreat and call everyone to fall back. Including her hated foe, Farsight. Yay. The Imperium wins again! Bonus points for the Skitarii, or the Adeptus Mechanicus, who got what they wanted! Awesome. Anyway, the Tau pick up on the Obsidian Knight, who was supposed to have died on Prefectia, and they quail like the cowardly xenos they are. Dun dun dun!

And abruptly, this battle ends and suddenly a few weeks have passed. Way to transit there, Games Workshop. Anyway, apparently for some reason we're thrown to a timeskip of a few weeks later, where the impatient Imperium can't wait for victory and decides to throw in the Assassins. An Assassin Execution Force full of the most awesome killers in 40K. Why they didn't throw them in from the start, I'll never know, but...whatever. We need a premise and story to feature these badasses, and Games Workshop decided that this campaign is it. Uh, okay.

The Tau continue to scheme like the filthy xenos they are, and for some reason they reveal that they can...gasp! Control the weather! Wow. Oh well, the psykers and Space Marine Librarians did that in Kauyon, so I guess we can allow the loser Tau to do the same here, Heh. Anyway, the Tau plot to use the weather and storm against the Imperium. Interestingly, after the timeskip, the campaign was summed up as the Tau winning every major battle across the whole of Mu'gulath Bay BUT for some reason they only have a single strongpoint left in the end. What the hell? So the Tau win all their "major" battles but lose the war? I guess I can live with that, but it's annoying how the Tau win every freaking thing and the minor battles are brushed off. And I find it weird that they can lose all their strongholds except one despite "winning" EVERY major battle. But we've to accept it because our spiritual liege says so and deems it unfair that the Tau loses even a single major battle in a campaign book about their tactics (that's why it's named Mont'ka, the Killing Blow).

At least it's not as obnoxious as Kauyon where the Tau effortlessly wins every battle and everything goes just as planned, with only a few sentences "billions of Tau died" or the cost was great tacked on at the end as an afterthought in case readers think they're winning too easily (but they are!).

Chapter 3: Ultimate Retribution

The final battle YAY!

The Space Marines are lured away by Farsight Enclaves and their Crisis battlesuits, and Shadowsun then whacks the poor Imperial Guard who's bereft of the support of the Emperor's Finest. Oh well. Thankfully, the Imperial Knights hold, and the appearance of the Obsidian Knight, who rampages in the Tau's lines like the Emperor's Wrath incarnate, helps them win at least a portion of the battle. Unfortuantely the Baneblade gets destroyed. NOO! Then the Hellhammer at least destroys a lot of Hammerheads and a Stormsurge. The Knights also take a toll on the Tau before being forced to retreat. Fortunately, the Obsidian Knight takes over and annihilates the freaking xenos.

While the Tau slay and massacre the Imperial Guard in great numbers, the Guardsmen keep coming, an endless tide of soldiers marching stubbornly to their deaths as they seek to literally drown their enemy in blood. This is the Imperial Guard. We are BLOBS. The Tau can kill as many of us as they want, but they'll run out of pulse rounds and lasers before they wipe us out! The Storm thing was annoying, though. Oh well. The Tau continue to direct their storm to annoy the Imperial Guard and cause us to cough. Ouch.

Anyway, the assassins launch their attacks. The Vindicare, like the badass he is, leaves a trail of blood and kills lots of Tau before sniping Farsight. He manages to break Farsight's shield generator with shieldbreaker ammunition, but his second shot, meant to take the guy's head, is intercepted by a bodyguard. Damn. Anyway, a Pathfinder team, led by the legendary Darkstrider, picks up on the trail of death the Vindicare left behind and attack him after his failed attack on Farsight. Being an awesome dude, the Vindicare slaughters the whole team except for Darkstrider, and though wounded the evil Tau manages to kill the Vindicare and shoots his body until his rifle runs dry. Ouch. Poor guy.

The Eversor fares little better, the berserk assassin going around massacring lots and lots and lots and lots of Tau (no, seriously, he's a one-man army who mopped the floor with a whole Tau contingent by HIMSELF), takes on the Eight solo (that takes a lot of guts, man! Well...guts the Eversor will lose later, but you get what I mean), and even kills Ob'lotai 9-0, the AI Broadside. Nice. Anyway, Farsight manages to shoot the poor guy, but like a berserk zombie, the Eversor keeps getting up and killing more Crisis suits. Awesome! At the end, though, he is slain when Farsight slices him into two (I told you the Everor will lose his guts), but the Eversor laughs and explodes, wounding the poor guy. Farsight survives again because of plot armor, but oh well. Sigh. We still need him anyway.

The Callidus takes on a more subtle tactic, sneaking in and disguising herself as an Ethereal and tries to cut Shadowsun, who again by virtue of plot armor survives being stabbed in the heart. Or in the side, anyway, because of her super Tau instincts. Argh. Anyway, the Callidus kills a lot of Pathfinders and even Kalas Starshoud, but dies to the damned Shadowsun's fusion blaster. What does it take to kill that trolling bitch?! RAGE

On the other hand, the Culexus does awesomely, killing everyone with his animus speculum (or psyker power that isn't psyker power) or just appearing invisible to all the Tau while strolling inside their base casually. Epic. Anyway, he kills loads, and like the Eversor, is a one-man army who infiltrates and wipes out an entire base by his freaking self. Nice. He then assassinates the jerk Aun'Va, who was ungrateful and bitchy to Farsight despite the latter saving his life So totally deserves his end, I tell you, which is neither swift nor merciful. I would have loved a more elaborate description as it's always fun to see the filthy xenos suffer horribly, but alas I guess the spiritual liege decides to leave it to our imagination. Anyway, finally we get a victory for our assassins and the Imperium! Woohoo!

While all this is going on, the Imperium decides to withdraw all its troops for some obscure reason. Huh? What? Why? Apparently Task Force Retribution was deemed a failure even though they have only been fighting the Tau for WEEKS. Not even months. Mere weeks. And campaigns can take up to years. But some idiot (or maybe our spiritual liege who needs an excuse to end the story quickly instead of letting it get drawn out) decides that the Imperial Guard should withdraw. Er...what? A new Lord General has replaced Lord Troskzer, and we don't care or give a damn because the guy barely gets any mention or does anything of note throughout the entire campaign, and his first order is retreat. What the hell!? Cadians never retreat! We make tactical withdrawals, but we sure as hell never retreat! Draconians are Cadian wannabes, so I speak for them as well, but we aren't involved in this campaign so we're counted as Cadians now. Anyway, the Space Marines run away, disgruntled at a lost chance to have their vengeance, half of the Imperial Guard is successfully evacuated within 3 days for some stupid reason. Knight Commander Pask is revealed to have survived, is wounded but recovering, and the Imperial Knights fly away. The Obsidian Knight disappears, but High King Tybalt knows he'll show up again to haunt the Tau. Argh. Anyway, many millions of men are abandoned, half of the Imperial Guard left for dead on Agrellan below. DAMN IT! Why must you do this?!

It makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. They could just evacuate everybody, but they don't because Grimdark. For no tactical purpose, no real reason, no NOTHING! The Tau isn't even winning! If anything, the Imperial Guard would have won out of sheer attrition, and I bet the Imperial navy could take on the Tau navy and drive them off despite Shadowsun's optimism. I don't see the logic in all this at all!!!!

Anyway, before the Imperium leaves, they decide to give the Tau the finger, and a giant "fuck you" by firing a warhead into the planet. Nice. The Adeptus Mechanicus rocks, and Tech-Priest Dominus, Magos Arcotholitis laughs knowingly at his little present, knowing that the Imperium is going to screw the Tau over just before they run away. Muahahaha.

Agrellan gets destroyed. HA HA HA HA! Take that, Tau! They want to use it as a Sept World to expand, but now they can't! Not only that, the whole of the Damocles Gulf has become a roiling inferno so the Tau starships are now unable to cross over to this side of the galaxy! The Tau are basically trapped on this side without any reinforcements or anything, and the other side can't get to them! Nice going, Mars! We made them pay! HA HA HA! Die, you filthy xenos! Die!

Anyway, the strongpoint of Lo'vasht'au, the one earlier that the Imperium tried to assault in one last battle, is the only thing that remained. Many millions of Tau died (as did our poor, brave and gallant soldiers of the Imperium...NOOOO!), and the world has become a wasteland. Ha ha ha! Stuck and trapped within that single shield-dome, the Tau have nowhere to go and nowhere to return to. The Tau had never before tasted so deeply from the bitter cup of defeat. Take that, you loser xenos!

Farsight runs off to T'lasla, which is part of his Enclaves, because it has come under attack by the ravenous Tyranid hordes of Hive Fleet Leviathan. Now maybe you'll be begging the Imperium for help instead of trying to suck up to the Ethereals and Shadowsun. Speaking of which, his motives for helping them is explained away as "For the Greater Good" and they leave it at that. What the hell? Yeah, he's altruistic and noble, but that's stretching it a bit much, considering the Ethereals all want him dead for treason. Damn.

Aun'Va is confirmed dead, Shadowsun is weakened by her injury, and the Tau is left to lick their wounds. Ha ha ha!

The Adeptus Mechanicus has won this time, folks! A sinister and brutal victory, but a victory nonetheless, and the Imperium shall teach those upstart, scheming, sniveling xenos what it means to go against us! This why I'm a fan of the Adeptus Mechanicus! MUAHAHAHAHA! For the Omnissiah! I mean the Emperor! Whatever.

Chapter 4: The Colors of Rebellion

Uh...there's no fluff here, only painting schemes. And only for the Farsight Enclaves because screw it, the Cadians don't need them for some reason. Whatever.

Anyway, that's the summary and spoilers of War Zone Damocles: Mont'ka. I hope you've enjoyed it! Grab a cup to savor the bitter tears of Tau after their defeat, and laugh triumphantly with the Imperial victors as we chatter in binary cant all the way back to Mars! Don't forget to update your status in the noosphere! We beat the hi-tech Tau with our so-called low-tech - those filthy xenos have no understanding of what the Machine-God wants! We are the chosen one!

For the Omnissiah! Er...Emperor!