Space Hulk Deathwing

HELL YEAH! FOR THE EMPEROR!

We finally have a release date for Space Hulk: Deathwing! Well, it's not a precise release date, but it at least narrows down the period after so much time of waiting and guessing. Guess what? Space Hulk: Deathwing will be released in November 2016 on PC!

WOOHOO! And the Angels of Death shall descend upon the hated Xenos and purge our galaxy clean of them!

Anyway, here's the latest trailer. Have fun watching it, and savor the destruction we shall wreak upon the foes of the Imperium!

Heralds of the coming doom,
By cry of Raven, we are drawn.
This oath of war and vengeance,
On blade of exalted iron sworn,
With blood anointed swords aloft,
Advance we into Dread's dark shade.
Punishment divine unleashed with Hate
A wrathful storm of bolt and blade,
Purge with plasma, fist and shell,
Bring cleansing fire's righteous breath,
For the Emperor! Knights of Caliban!
The Lion's Anointed Angels of Death!
No forgiveness. No retreat.

Vendetta for Death from the Skies

Oh, right. There was quite a furor being made about the Vendetta being missing from the Death From the Skies supplement that Games Workshop released a couple of months ago. I was one of them, being the proud owner of three Vendetta gunships, so you can imagine my dismay when I learned that it was missing. I ain't gonna use no Valkyrie Assault Carrier. I want my triple twin-linked lascannons! But alas, it seems that Games Workshop has a vendetta against the Vendetta, and so did not deign to include them in their supplement. Ugh.

Well, fellow Vendetta owners, rejoice! For we have received an update from Forge World regarding the Vendetta gunship! Here are the rules for using the Vendetta in the Death from the Skies supplement! So now feel free to bring your Vendetta gunships to a dogfight and shoot enemy flyers out of the air with triple twin-linked lascannons!

AWESOME! For the Emperor!

Freeblade Chapter 6

Yes, I know. I know it is a stupid title, but I thought it was fitting because it is about a boarding mission.

That's why Chapter 6 of Freeblade is titled Too bored to board. Sorry, I can't help it. I like puns.

Anyway, this should wrap up the naval battle as well as describe the boarding action the Kamikaze Troopers and the Imperial Knight took aboard a Chaos Despoiler class battleship. It probably isn't accurate (I mean, seriously? A ship's corridors being wide enough for Taurox Primes and an Imperial Knight to stomp through?) but it was fun as hell to write and provided some much-needed character depth and development. I hope. I don't know. Anyway, it was...fun. Yeah.

I hope the naval battle was fun too. I read too many Star Carrier series by Ian Douglas. Yes, I am a huge fan of Ian Douglas (William H. Keith, Jr.), and have read almost all his military sci-fi series, including the Galactic Marines series - which consist of the Heritage Trilogy, the Legacy Trilogy and the Inheritance Trilogy - and Star Carrier series as well as Star Corpsman. I'm now just waiting for Andromeda Dark. Yes, if you're a huge fan of military sci-fi and space marines (and since you're reading a blog on Warhammer 40K there is a high chance that you are), I highly recommend his books.

Oh, and the naval battle that took place in Cadian Blood also helped. I mean, that was one badass captain and his Dominator cruiser! I wish they destroyed Terminus Est with their nova cannon, though. What a waste, but it was awesome.

Anyway, being an amateur writer, it's a given that I'll fail to emulate either of them, but I do hope you enjoy Freeblade nonetheless.

For the Emperor!

Freeblade Chapter 5

Yeah, I stayed up late just to complete this chapter. So I present to you Chapter 5 of my story, Freeblade. Yay.

This time I tried my hand at trying to write a naval battle. I know I suck at it, despite my scathing book reviews. Yeah, it's difficult to be a professional writer, and even more difficult to write a battle scene. I'm open to advice or suggestions for improvement, and so implore you to read this and tell me where I went wrong or something. I'm looking to get better, because I really enjoy writing and want everyone to enjoy reading my stuff.

And I can't do that if all I do is...well, I don't know. Anyway, please read Freeblade and tell me what you think. I hope you like the naval battle, but if you don't, then please offer suggestions and advice on how to improve. Thanks.

For the Emperor!

Tallarn: Ironclad

"Victory is a child of many parents. Defeat is an orphan." - ancient Terran aphorism, origin unknown

Tallarn: Ironclad by John French is about the Battle of Tallarn. As you guys probably know by now, I'm a huge fan of Imperial Guard armored regiments, and so when I heard there was a Horus Heresy book detailing the battle of the greatest armored conflict in Warhammer 40K history, involving over millions of tanks and armored vehicles, I was excited to get this book. Furthermore, when you look at the cover, you can see the tagline right at the bottom, "The Battle of Tallarn rages on, becoming the single greatest armored conflict in the history of mankind." Even the synopsis at the back hints at such a tale, with the line of the "...the poisoned earth shakes beneath the treads of countless battle tanks and war machines."

Unfortunately, Tallarn: Ironclad is not about that. Rather, it focuses on a few characters and small skirmishes between these characters, rather than open out into the vast, colossal armored conflict that the Battle of Tallarn background has so much potential for. The book does hint at it, yes, but the details of the larger war on a massive scale is only described within small excerpts ahout one to two pages long, not unlike those little bite-sized excerpts you see in codex and campaign books.

Yes...you got that right. The massive scale of the Battle of Tallarn is reduced into codex and campaign-styled bite-sized excerpts to give a background, rather than be the focus of the story itself. What a letdown. Or maybe it's my fault for holding such expectations and misinterpreting the synopsis. Oh well. But seriously, if I wanted to read excerpts of the Battle of Tallarn, I wouldn't have bought a novel. I would have just relied on the Imperial Guard codex or a Horus Heresy campaign book to read those kind of excerpts. I mean, Graham McNeill or Dan Abnett might have done a lot better in terms of weaving all the different threads together into a much larger story and either of them would have done epicly described battles taking place on an apocalyptic scale without needing to insert one to two-pages excerpts in the middle of chapters. They would have just melded these epic wars into the narrative itself. Why was there a need to divorce the larger battle from the more personal ones? If anything, the mere 235 pages that make up the novel does not justify its price tag of 18 British pounds (or S$45 - Singapore dollars). It's overcosted, and the whole "limited edition" thing is quite frankly, rubbish. Books are meant to be read and shared, not to be hoarded by collectors.



The writing style and content are okay. John French writes well, and his battle scenes are described competently. He might be no Dan Abnett or Graham McNeill, but he does his job adequately, and the characters are a joy to read about. I particularly like how he split the story into the viewpoints of four people, from Colonel Commander Silas Kord to Hrend, then Argonis, and then finally to Iaeo. He juxtaposes the goals and actions of these four characters, using Kord as a counterpoint to Hrend as the latter searches for the weapon Perturabo seeks, while Kord moves according to his suspicions that the Iron Warriors are attacking Tallarn for some insidious reason. They might be subtle, less direct opponents. On the other hand, Argonis and Iaeo have a common rival in Jalen, the Alpha Legion operative, who is investigating what the Iron Warriors' motives are. The way John French weaves and ties these four loose threads into a single, underlying plot is a joy to behold, and when everything comes together, particularly at the end, it's a really fun read.

So yeah, let me thank his wife, Liz French, and his editor, Laurie Goulding, for helping John French write this story. It had been entertaining in its own way, and I really like Silas Kord. I could relate to him, and he was quite the awesome character. Hrend is...well, I guess cool because Contemptor Dreadnoughts are always cool and that cover of him ripping open a tank (see above) just rocks. Argonis, on the other hand, is the typical Space Marine, y'know, loyal to his Primarch Horus (even though Sons of Horus is a traitor Legion), duty-bound, overly serious, blah blah. Iaeo is a really different viewpoint, providing insight into how the assassins of the Vanus Temple work. I can't say I really like her, but I did appreciate the difference she provided in viewpoints. She was cold, effective and cunning, even if brutal and merciless to her own allies. I might not like her character or the things she had done, but her thread was a very good read that provided an alternative perspective to the whole war. If anything, I feel Argonis was the loose end, an unnecessary thread who only existed so that his story and meeting with Jalen could be tied into Iaeo's encounter with the archenemy.

And wow, that twist at the end, where the faithful and loyal Origo turned out to be the third triplet of Jalen (after Iaeo subtly led the other two to their deaths) was just amazing. As I said, when it all came together, it just clicked so well.

However, that's probably the only part I like about the story, other than Kord being one of my favorite characters. The rest of the book kind of falls flat. This is not to say that it is a bad book (it is overcosted and not worth its price tag, though). My criticism stems from personal reasons rather than any fault of the writer. John French is a competent writer, no doubt about that. It's unfair to compare him to Dan Abnett or Graham McNeill or even Sandy Mitchell, who rank among the greats in terms of Black Library novelists. He's definitely better than Matt Ward, that's for sure.

Rather, what I don't like was the whole revisionist history thing. As you know, the Tallarn Desert Raiders are one of the most famous Imperial Guard regiments in the Warhammer 40K universe. You can check back in the old codex (2nd, 3rd, 5th ed) or Only War RPG books, and they all describe the Tallarn Desert Raiders as mobile guerilla fighters relying on hit-and-run tactics. They also described the Battle of Tallarn as a hollow victory for the Imperium, who managed to win the battle at great costs, primarily thanks to the Tallarn military conducting lightning-quick guerilla warfare against the Iron Warriors and making it so costly for them.

Yet, for some reason John French sounds like a closet Iron Warriors fan. Now, I don't think he is, but the writing style and content somehow implies that he loves the Iron Warriors, and the narrative often slants toward the Iron Warriors' favor. Throughout the whole book, the Iron Warriors are described as always winning, and the Imperium always losing. Okay, I get that the Imperial Army failed to break through and conquer the Sightless Warren fortress that the Iron Warriors constructed (or actually converted from the Sapphire City) THREE times. I mean, the fun of reading was to see how the Imperial Army went against overwhelming odds and drove out a Traitor Astartes Legion, right? But no. When every engagement (with the total exception being the Rogue Trader fleet called the Golden Fleet) goes the Iron Warriors' way, with them winning every engagement either detailed in the excerpt or in the narrative of the novel itself, something is seriously wrong here. This isn't a balanced tale of how the Imperium forced the Iron Warriors to pay a devastating cost. No, for some reason it seems that the Iron Warriors were winning...not easily, admittedly, but seriously? Every engagement?

For example, there was a scene where Silas Kord and his armored company were ambushed by Dark Mechanicum forces, and they were basically wiped out to only Kord's Malcador assault tank War Anvil and Origo's Scout Razor, but in almost the same chapter Hrend's armored team went and destroyed a company that included TWO super-heavies - 1 Baneblade and 1 Stormlord, even though they don't have any super-heavies of their own. To rub salt into wounds, he did so by destroying half of that armored company, including the Baneblade, without losing a single tank. He only lost 3 of his Predators and 1 fellow Contemptor Dreadnought to the Stormlord, whose Vulcan Mega-bolter chewed through...but they brought it down eventually. The Baneblade got destroyed too easily, with just a hit or two, and the Leman Russ tanks that escorted it did absolutely nothing. Yes, they were completely useless. It's as if the Stormlord alone was the only thing that could fight the Iron Warriors. Now, I'm not against the Iron Warriors winning, I just think they're winning way too easily, especially when the Imperium has been described throughout the entire book as losing battle after battle after battle. Seriously? Even the Golden Fleet that wrecked the Iron Warriors fleet before running away for some obscure reason (why not stick around and finish the fight?! What's the whole point of running through the system, wrecking orbits, destroying supply transports, only to leave right after that?!) wasn't a part of the Imperium.

Worse, it seems that John French has confused the Iron Warriors for Tallarn forces. As I wrote above, any Imperial Guard fan who is remotely familiar with the fluff and read the old codex and campaigns will know that the Tallarns are famous for their guerilla warfares, lightning-fast hit-and-run raids and cunning ambushes. Yet in this story, the roles are reversed. Iron Warriors, who are supposed to be masters at siege warfare, turn into the freaking ambushers in this story. Remember when I said Hrend and his armored company went and wrecked a company that had the Baneblade and Stormlord in it? Yeah, they did so in a Tallarn-styled ambush. If you're talking about tanks rushing in and taking an armored convoy by surprise, it should be the Tallarn doing that, hitting an Iron Warriors convoy then running away after inflicting maximum damage! Not the other way round! And in case you wonder if this was a one-off...it was not. Kord and his Tallarn armored company, who should be the one carrying out guerilla warfare, ended up being on the receiving end of a Dark Mechanicum ambush!

Oh, and the failed third attack on the Sightless Warren at the beginning of the book? Turned out that the Iron Warriors knew the Imperial Army's assault was coming, and they had ambushes ready to pincer the Tallarn armor and wipe them out as they attempted to retreat. So much for Tallarn being masters of guerilla warfare and determinedly wreaking havoc on the Iron Warriors by hitting and running and disappearing into the sand before the Iron Warriors could track them down and destroy them.

Yeah...if you're an Imperial Guard fan or familiar with Tallarn lore, you'll be going "HUH?! What in the Emperor's name!?" right now. Like I said, revisionist history.

To make matters worse, the Tallarn and Imperium were given their obligatory victory (because the fluff has already deemed it so) in a very grudging (or so I imagine) manner. No, the Imperium didn't win because they forced the Iron Warriors' hands and made the war too costly for the latter. They didn't win through sheer grit and determination. Nope. According to John French, the Imperium won only because the Iron Warriors, particularly Perturabo, the Lord of Iron, was ordered by Warmaster Horus to pull out. The way John French put it, the Iron Warriors and their Chaos forces could keep on going and win eventually, but Horus had to throw a fit and force Perturabo to withdraw all his forces from Tallarn just so he could have consistency with established fluff. I'm just as perturbed as Perturabo at this.

I mean, c'mon...the Iron Warriors bias is strong in this book. Even in the excerpts regarding the big picture, there was one scene where the Imperium forces conducted a surprise attack that broke through the Iron Warriors' orbital defenses and fleet to land reinforcements and armored vehicles for the final battle against them. Now I understand the need for a final battle that forced the Iron Warriors to withdraw, but as I said earlier, the way the final battle was concluded and ended via Horus forcing the Iron Warriors' Primarch to withdraw left a terrible taste in my mouth. I wanted the Imperium to at least have some credit for forcing their hand, not everything being strung along by the Iron Warriors as the entire book had been about (or by Iaeo, who was the one Imperial force who actually did any good). But despite the Imperial Navy's success in smashing thee warships and orbital platforms to land reinforcements, the Iron Warriors would soon counterattack and that this was only buying time. John French was basically implying that the Imperial Navy wouldn't win against the Iron Warriors' counterattack. Yet another bias slant toward the Iron Warriors. Ugh.

I mean, it wasn't enough that the Imperium won the war at great cost...but this revisionist history had the Iron Warriors winning all the way only to technically "lose" by being ordered to pull out by the Warmaster? That was a cheap, anti-climatic way to end the story, which was unfairly slanted toward the Iron Warriors almost the entire way. It's taking way too much liberty in rewriting the history of Tallarn and ignoring all the usual fluff about Tallarn Desert Raiders and their long history of guerilla warfare. Where was this guerilla warfare and hit-and-run raids they were so famous for? Not one mention of them actually carrying their specialties out, and when it was indeed executed, it was done by the enemy Iron Warriors who are supposed to be masters at siege, not ambushes!

On its own, Tallarn: Ironclad is a good read, and I honestly enjoyed the way the four different threads from the different viewpoints of several characters tied together into one single underlying plot. On the other hand, I couldn't stomach the Iron Warriors bias, and was more than annoyed at the way history was revised and rewritten to slant toward the forces of Chaos. Give the Imperium some credit, man. And the anti-climatic ending was just unsatisfying. Not only that, the big-scale battles were reduced to separated excerpts instead of being tied to the whole narrative, and the Tallarn and Iron Warriors seemed to be mixed up by a writer who confused who specialized in what...

As a side note, since I didn't like the ending where Iaeo tried to terminate Kord and his immobilized tank, I'm going to add a little something. Basically Iaeo failed to realize that Kord's distress call wasn't the only signal being transmitted. The Iron Hands have also been tracking down Menoetius and his Predator, and when they went to search for them in the Hacadia Flats, they found the damaged War Anvil. Silas Kord and his crew were rescued, and their report regarding a stray Iron Warriors armored assault group seemingly in the middle of nowhere was lost among the millions of reports submitted about the Battle of Tallarn. That's why nobody knew about the Cursus thing. In fact, Kord himself didn't know about it either, just that the Iron Warriors were searching for something beneath the earth. And at that time, he was too wounded to care what they were searching for, and by the time he recovered, nobody paid much attention to him to search for that place again.

Kord also retired after the Battle of Tallarn, probably to take responsibility for losing his entire company. Origo somehow survived and disappeared after that, most likely returning to the Alpha Legion. And the Tallarns lived happily ever after in this grimdark galaxy of Warhammer 40,000.

Well, anyway, as I said, the gripes I have with Tallarn: Ironclad are personal stuff concerning fluff. If you're looking for a book to read to pass the time and be entertained, Tallarn: Ironclad certainly achieves that. But beware, you are paying a premium for a thin book with not a lot of content. I can buy a Warhammer 40K novel that is twice or almost thrice the length of Tallarn: Ironclad for two-thirds of its price. So yeah...be warned that the price tag isn't justified. And if you're an Imperial Guard fan like me, prepare to be outraged by how the history for the Battle of Tallarn has been callously revised and rewritten to slant in the Iron Warriors' favor.

For the Emperor.

Battle Report 10

All right! I managed to have another Warhammer 40K battle yesterday, but due to family reasons (a hospitalized uncle), I was unable to write the report and upload it yesterday. I apologize for the delay. But I am now imbued with a renewed respect and admiration for healthcare workers. And I'm not talking about the doctors. I'm talking about all the nurses and cleaners. I really have to raise my hand in salute to them. Without them, we are screwed.

Healthcare is really important, these nurses work long hours without complaints, while dealing with all sort of nonsense from half-awake patients. They really deserve our respect. They remind me of medics in the military, probably different patients but same kind of work. I need to work that element into my stories one day. Anyway, this isn't a tribute to them, so I'll return to the relevant topic at hand.

It was an Imperial Guard versus Tau battle, and it was extremely fun. I might have lost but it didn't feel like a defeat. That's the great thing about Warhammer 40K - I play it for fun, I play it for fluff, and even if I lost in points, I could still find something fun and delightful about it.

Onto the battle report. I used a Cadian Battle Group, or Draconian Battle Group because you know, I use my own Imperial Guard regiment from my own fluff. And Draconians are Cadian wannabes, so yeah. Anyway, I decided to go with a company command squad for the Battle Group Command, the Emperor's Fist Armored Company for the Core, and a Stormsword as the Super-heavy Element in the Auxiliary choice. I was actually considering using Stormtroopers/Militarum Tempestus instead, but I was too lazy to deploy so many infantry figures...and besides, I wanted to remain close to the fluff. What kind of armored company goes around with just Leman Russ tanks and no Super-heavy Support? It's much more fluffy to have Leman Russ tanks escorting a Super-heavy tank, so I went with a Stormsword primarily for fluff reasons.

I might have fared better with Militarum Tempestus, but we'll never know. Maybe I'll try it out next week, but I'm afraid I won't have time to go to Battle Bunker for another game because my mother probably wants me to go take care of my uncle instead. We'll see.

Anyway, we rolled off, I started first, and it was Tactical Escalation.

My army consisted of:

Battle Group Command
A company command squad with a heavy flamer and 3 flamers

Battle Group Core Emperor's Fist Armored Company
Leman Russ Vanquisher with lascannon (Tank Commander)
Leman Russ Battle Tank with lascannon (squadron mate)
2 Leman Russ Punishers with 3 heavy bolters each (separated into 2 squadrons)
Leman Russ Executioner with plasma cannons
Tech-Priest Enginseer

Super-heavy Element
Stormsword

My opponent's army consisted of a Combined Arms Detachment, because he didn't want to use the Mont'ka or Kauyon formations or Hunter Contingents. So, well, yeah. If I recall, he had something like this:

HQ
Ethereal
Fireblade Cadre

Troops
2 Fire Warrior Strike Squads (I think)
Devilfish
Fire Warrior Breacher Squad

Elites
Ghostkneel
2 Crisis Suits

Heavy Support
Skyray Missile Gunship
2 Broadsides

Infiltration Cadre
3 Pathfinder teams
2 Stealth Suit teams (3 each)
Piranha

So yeah, now to pictures galore!

Turn 1

My opponent was a very helpful guy, and he taught me how the Tau worked. He explained the rules of the Infiltration Cadre and how the Markerlights would turn the Seeker Missiles into instant-hit projectiles that strike my tanks at the rear. Upon hearing that, I panicked and decided to eliminate all of his Pathfinders and Markerlight providers first. Now that I think about it, that wasn't a very nice thing to do...sorry, man.

I opened fire with my Stormsword at two Broadsides because I was hoping the Apocalyptic Blast marker would cover both Broadsides and the Pathfinder team in front of them. It actually scattered forward, completely missing the Broadsides but instant-glibbing the Pathfinders in front of them and turning them into bloody pastes and strips of blue xenos flesh. Hah! The lascannons fired, and missed the Piranha, and I think the Devilfish either made its cover save (there was Night-Fighting and it was behind cover) or I missed. The heavy bolters on the other hand wiped out a second Pathfinder team.

So yeah, First Blood to the Imperium! For the Emperor!

The Leman Russ tanks had varying results of success. The Leman Russ Vanquisher fired at the Skyray, only for the guy to make his cover save. The Leman Russ Battle Tank completely missed his shot, his battle cannon completely scattering away from the Pathfinders and Breachers I was aiming at.

On the other hand, my 1st Leman Russ Punisher tank reduced a 20-men Fire Warrior squad into half of its size by hosing them with bullets. The second wiped out the Pathfinder team right in front of the Fire Warrior squad. Dakka is awesome. On the other side, my Leman Russ Executioner forced the 3rd Pathfinder team to go to ground and wiped out half of their number. Both squads passed their morale, thanks to being within the 12" bubble of the Ethereal, but they sustained heavy losses. I was lucky with my Executioner, the tank not rolling any Gets Hot! rolls for its plasma cannons and main Executioner cannon.

My opponent's turn came in and he moved all his forces up. As I basically wiped out two of his Pathfinder squads, all his Reserves instantly arrived via Deep Strike, the two Crisis suits, two teams of 3 Stealth suits each and the Ghostkneel arriving and blasting my Stormsword. The Pathfinders who had gone to ground missed their Markerlights because they snap-fired, and the Skyray managed to put a single Markerlight on the Stormsword for the Deep Striking dudes to fire upon him. For all that firepower, however, I think they only managed to take 2 hull points off it. The Broadsides fired at my Punisher and only managed to take one hull point off it but did destroy a heavy bolter sponson on its left. The Piranha flew ahead and took shots at my Company Command Squad, but they made their cover saves. Similar with the gun drones all scattering around everywhere. I think he embarked a Fire Warrior squad into the Devilfish and drove it up somewhere, but that's about it.

Oh, he did his Jump Shoot Jump and actually lost a Stealth suit to Dangerous Terrain. Wow, that was unlucky. Worse, it was the Stealth Suit with fusion blaster. Oh boy.

In any case, my opponent scored an objective, I believe, so we were pretty much even on points.

Turn 2

I continued firing with my Stormsword and basically wiped out more of the Fire Warriors in an attempt to kill the Ethereal and Fireblade Cadre, but they survived. The Pathfinders were finally eliminated by the Executioner who didn't roll any Gets Hot! rolls again for the second time. Lucky! The Stormsword's combined firepower managed with the damaged Leman Russ Punisher managed to put 3 wounds on the Ghostkneel, and the Stormsword's lascannons took a single hull point off the Piranha. I think the Vanquisher either fluffed his shot against the Ghostkneel or he made his cover save (or both, since I fired both the Vanquisher cannon and lascannon). I also fired the heavy flamer and flamers on the Ghostkneel after using the Monster Hunter order, and despite wounding on all hits, the Ghostkneel made all his armor saves. Ugh.

The 2nd Leman Russ Punisher wiped out 3 Stealth suits, which was good, meaning only one team was left. The Leman Russ Battle Tank again did not do anything, his stupid Blast Marker scattering yet again. His lascannon fired at the Ghostkneel in an attempt to kill it (thanks to the Tech-priest Enginseer giving him Power of the Machine Spirit) but he made his cover save.

The retaliation was brutal as you would expect. The Crisis suits jumped out of their hiding and tried to wipe out the Stormsword with the fusion blasters, as did the Ghostkneel, plus the Skyray fired all his seeker missiles after firing the Markerlight at the Stormsword, bringing him down to either 2 or 3 hull points. I believe. I lost a single guy with a flamer to burst cannons from gun drones, Piranhas and a Stealth suit team (the 2 remaining ones). The Broadsides fired their missiles at the side armor of my wounded Leman Russ Punisher, but I managed to make all the cover saves, luckily. Phew. The suits, as you would expect, jumped, shot and jumped.

He disembarked the Fire Warriors from his Devilfish to capture an objective, and at this point of time my opponent was pulling away on objectives scored despite losing a significant amount of his forces. That's why Maelstrom is so fun, it gives people a fighting chance!

Turn 3

I killed one of the Stealth suits with my heavy bolters on the Stormsword and completely wiped out the Fire Warrior team attached to the Fireblade Cadre and the Ethereal, both of whom were still unscathed. On the other hand, the Apocalyptic Blast Marker also hit the Skyray, and the AP1 caused him to explode, killing a few more Breachers beside him. Wow. But the Skyray at this point had already used up all his missiles so it wasn't much use. Whoops.

Anyway, the Executioner tried to fire on the Breachers, but rolled 2 of his Gets Hot! rolls this time and lost 2 hull points in a row. I guess I used up all the good luck in the first 2 turns. Oh well. Worse, the 1 that hit failed to wound the Breachers. WHAT?! Poor dude.

The damaged Punisher killed the Piranha, while the other Punisher basically destroyed the Firewarriors by wiping out almost the whole squad and leaving only 2 Fire Warriors and 1 Guardian Drone left, who broke morale and began fleeing toward the end of the table. The Vanquisher fluffed his shots against the Devilfish, missing both of them. The Stormsword killed the Ghostkneel, taking out that last remaining wound with his lascannon, yay. The Battle Tank fired upon the Breachers and I think killed about only 3 of them or so, but they obviously held morale.

By this time, my opponent didn't have much forces left on the table, but he was pulling ahead on objectives. He continued his hit and run tactics with his Crisis suits, pulling them out from cover and taking out my Stormsword. The explosion scattered forward and took out a couple of gun drones that had detached from somwhere. The Devilfish rushed forward for some reason while the devastated Fire Warrior team did not regroup and continued to run back to the edge of the table. The Broadsides opened fire on the wounded Executioner tank and took him out with a hail of missiles. Those high-yield missiles are really effective. I think I lost 2 more Veterans from my Company Command Squad here to combined burst cannon fire from lots of stuff, I can't remember. But something hilarious happened. The Stealth suit attempted to charge my Company Command Squad survivors, and survived the Overwatch - I mean, I had wounded him with D3 wounds from Wall of Flame from my flamer, and I rolled a 3, which meant 2 wounds, and scored a hit with 1 overwatch from the Company Commander's boltgun. However, he saved all 3 wounds with his 3+ armor save and got in.

He failed to do anything with his Hammer of Wrath, and my Imperial Guardsmen stepped up, only to kill the Stealth suit with a...bayonet. Yes, that's right. The smoking armor that protected the weak Tau from a wall of flame and a boltgun round, broke down and fell to a simple bayonet. Wow. That was just so hilarious I couldn't stop laughing. The Tau really are ridiculously weak in melee. This single instance proves it.

Turn 4

With the loss of my Stormsword, the tides were turning, I believe. The Punisher managed to kill the Cadre Fireblade, while the other guy was out of range of anything. Oh well. The Battle Tank took out a couple of the advancing Breachers, while the Vanquisher destroyed the Devilfish in front of him. Something like that, I believe.

My opponent drew Assassination this time, and he threw everything he had to kill my Company Commander, which he did with all the missile bombardment from his Broadsides. Not only did he score that objective, he also scored Slay the Warlord. I don't think he did much to my tanks, though, while his Ethereal ran into hiding to deny me Slay the Warlord. Oh well. But his Crisis suits were finally in full view of my tanks.

Oh, his 2 Fire Warriors and Guardian Drone did a heroic regrouping thing by rolling two ones and passing morale. They then proceeded toward an objective.

Turn 5

The gun drones all ran toward me or something, I can't remember. I do remember completely wiping out the Breachers with my Punsher or something, yeah. The other Punisher killed one of the Crisis suits, while my Vanquisher took potshots at the Broadsides and killed a single missile drone. My Battle Tank, which was useless for most of the game, fired upon the last crisis suit...only to scatter back onto my own Punisher tank and glance him. Ouch. WHY!?

I don't remember much but I think he tried to kill my Punisher tank, only to fail and miss his shots. Oh well. His gun drones also didn't do much while his Fire Warriors proceeded toward an objective or something. His Broadsides fired at my Vanquisher, only for me to make all my saves. Phew.

Turn 6

I remember killing the Fire warriors and Guardian Drone with my Punisher, missing with my Vanquisher, or something. But that's about it. I don't remember doing anything with my Leman Russ Battle Tank, or maybe I mixed up the events of Turn 5 with Turn 6. Hmm...well, whatever.

My opponent missed all his shots, and charged my Vanquisher and Punisher with his gun drones and Crisis suit. The former didn't suffer any damage, and neither did the latter despite the Crisis suit's attempt to strip him of his remaining hull point with melee. And nothing happened, ha ha. I think the Broadsides retaliated by stripping my unscathed Punisher of one hull point with their high-yield missiles for killing the Fire Warriors, but did no further damage than that.

The game ended at Turn 7, but I still had about 4 tanks left while my opponent's forces were completely devastated. He had lost 3 teams of Fire Warriors and Fire Breachers, 3 Pathfinder teams, 2 Stealth suit teams, a Ghostkneel, a Piranha, a Crisis suit, a Skyray, a Devilfish, his Cadre Fireblade, and only had his Broadsides, a single Crisis suit and an Ethereal left. A devastating, pyrrhic victory for him, if anything. But as he put it in his own words, he still won the game, and that was what mattered. He had 9 objective points to my 5, and that gave him an overwhelming victory in terms of Maelstrom points.

But as I said, I didn't feel like I lost the game even though I was technically defeated. Crushing the Tau with overwhelming firepower felt good, and I had fun, which was the most important thing. Most important of all, I managed to use my tanks, which was great. I wanted to use them in a game before I leave for Minnesota, and it was good to see the awesome firepower of my Stormsword before I leave him in my locker for years.

And besides, the nature of Warhammer 40K allows us to create any narrative we want. For this particular mission, the Tau might have won, but the Imperium didn't feel like they were defeated. It was something like this:

The Tau Empire prepared an ambush force for a traveling armored convoy. Their objectives were to assassinate the Company commander in charge of the armored company, and to steal the data. To that end, they succeeded - the Company commander lies dead, and they have retreated with the data after suffering grievous losses. On the other hand, the Tank Commander of the Vanquisher took over and rallied his forces to inflict heavy damage on the retreating xenos, unaware that the Tau had already completed their insidious objectives. Mistakenly believing that they have won, the Imperial forces laughed at the escaping Tau, but little did they know the cunning xenos had escaped with a valuable cache of tactical data and would use this in their advantage to ambush the Imperium again.

Something like that, so yeah, it's not a clear-cut situation of win-lose, but let's make it win-win for everyone! It's not a competitive game anyway, it's for fluff and fun reasons, so let's head in that direction!

I hope you've enjoyed this Battle Report. For the Emperor!

Imperial Guardsmen fitness levels

It has come to Regiment Command's attention that Imperial Guardsmen's fitness levels have been declining at an alarming rate. We are aware that the Draconian Armored Defense Force is an armored regiment whose soldiers travel and traverse battlefields in the safety and comfort of our mighty tanks, but that is no excuse to neglect your fitness training.

We are already lenient enough by not putting our Guardsmen through Spartan training that our elite Kamikaze Troopers undergo*, and have lowered the standards for passing Physical Proficiency Tests so that the majority of you can pass with minimal training. However, it is clear that this act of compassion has led to Guardsmen taking advantage of the system and slacking in their physical training.

You will be required to run through the battlefield on occasions, so it is important to maintain your fitness levels.

Therefore, we shall impose upon our regiment a stricter regimen. We recommend that our Guardsmen follow these advice if they want to pass this training.

1. Your running speed and stamina will be tested by having you escape an Obake, a 3-meter tall alpha predator native to the forests of Draconis III. The test will only end after 20 minutes of continuous running from the Obake. Therefore we suggest that you improve your cardio and build up your stamina.

2. Your arm strength will be tested by making you do 20 pull-ups above a pit of spikes. Losing your grip will prove fatal, so we advise you to make sure to train your arm muscles.

For those Guardsmen who are not confident of passing these challenging fitness tests, we will allow you to apply for Physical Proficency Preparatory Training. Please report to your regiment's Commissar for more details. It has proven very effective, as an honest testimony from Trooper Yoshida shows.

"I was able to run faster under the threats...uh, I mean encouragement from the Commissar's bolt pistol.** This training is very effective in preparing you for the deadly...uh, challenging fitness tests, and doubles as simulations for life-and-death situations in the battlefield!"

For those Guardsmen who think no amount of training will help, or suffer from disabilities and other combat injuries that will impede them in the fitness test, we strongly recommend you to approach the Adeptus Mechanicus for treatment. The forge world of Draconis IV will provide bionic implants, enhancements and augmetics to cure your condition. There is a very high chance that you might be promoted to join the ranks of the revered Skitarii warriors, so ensure that you sign up at the slightest opportunity!

Quote for the day

"If the price for victory is death, then that is a very small price to pay indeed."

*The Kamikaze Troopers' elite training program includes being sent to the Death World Nephelium in the neighboring system of Arcturus and surviving the predators and toxic environment there for 3 months, clearing a 100-kilometer road march within 3 days without any rest or stopping, and a 50-km triathlon complete with full body armor, equipment, weapons and field pack.

**Fear not, Guardsmen, for the bolt pistol - in addition to being an instrument for encouragement - doubles as the revolver the commissar uses as a referee to start sprints and races.