2nd Brimtok battle

The Brimtok Campaign is off to a good start finally. Another game has taken place between my Mantis Warrior space marines and my brother's Tau forces. Our battle this time was a 1500 point space marine force versus 1000 points of Tau. Advantage marines, but the Tau got extra bonuses in the form of orbital bombardment and anti-plant barrage. The struggle was for an observation post located in a mountainous and forested region. Unfortunately, I don't have any mountain terrain, so hilly would have to do (small hills). You be the judge:

The mission was Annihilation and the deployment was Dawn of War.  Not a good prospect for the Tau, as they were on the short points end of the stick. This time I thought I would put my heavy hitters in the center of the line and flank with lighter forces.

Marine scouts infiltrate through woods and brush.

Too late! Tau infantry have reached the larger post. Tau commander approaching.

The Crisis battlesuits moving in with a unit of gun drones.

The allied Leman Russ could pose quite a problem!

The Tau commander is moving under the platform.

Scouts reach the edge of the woods and engage the Tau. One scout down!

The attack bikes moved around the scout's side to flank the large platform. By now, the Tau had taken the smaller platform as well and a hovercraft was entering the field by that tower. My Chaplain joined a squad of tactical marines heading for the small platform while my Devastators, Whirlwind, Vindicator, and Dreadnought headed toward the Leman Russ.

The Mantis Warriors move up.

The Landspeeder and attack bikes figured to flank the large platform and engage the gun drones and Crisis battlesuits. The scouts job was to pin the Tau infantry in the platform. The Whirlwind wanted to stay out of line of sight and fire barrages. But what to do about the Leman Russ?

Mantis Warriors keep the Tau from taking the platform.

But watch out for the Hovertank!

I tried to knock out the Tau vehicles with Hunter Killer missiles, but those all missed. All fire directed at the Leman Russ was either too short or missed. At least the Tactical squad kept the Tau infantry from advancing. Lucky for me, the Tau commander kept forgetting to use his marker lights and guided missiles launched from the hovertank! This would have been a perfect time for the Tau to use an anti-plant barrage to wipe out the cover for the marines, but it was completely forgotten. Unfortunately, for the Tau, the opening orbital bombardment was a disappointment as well.

Frack! The Crisis unit has joined up at the platform and begins eliminating the scouts. 

Bad luck for the marines. The Landspeeder gets shot down, and the attack bikes take hits. The Vindicator weapon is destroyed, and no missile launchers seem able to get any glancing hits on the Leman Russ. Then luck changes a bit. A lascannon hit stuns the Leman Russ crew. The Tau commander rushes out to engage the tactical squad.

Tau Crisis battlesuits attack!

David launched his Crisis unit toward the scouts to use his flamers. The scouts took casualties but stayed in action. The gun drones were whittled down by the attack bikes. And now, the Crisis unit was in view of the dreadnought.

Tactical Squad and Chaplain Maximus engage the Tau commander.

The tactical squad assaulted the Tau commander and cleaned his clock. The dreadnought began picking off Crisis battlesuits. The Whirlwind made a mess of Tau infantry on the platform.

The Dreadnought makes a mess of the Crisis Unit.

The Dreadnought eventually finishes off the Crisis unit, the remaining scouts finish the Tau on the platform, and the attack bike ends the gun drones. The lascannon in the devastator unit has had the only luck with the Leman Russ so far.

Chaplain Maximus and the Tactical squad assault the Leman Russ!

The consolidation of the tactical squad after defeating the Tau commander put them in range to assault the immobilized Leman Russ (lucky lascannon shot!). Their grenades did the trick just barely, knocking out the tank. The Tau now remembered to use their marker lights but failed to get a lock. The hovertank moved in towards the smaller platform to engage the marines.

Last moves of the Tau. Their marker light just wouldn't engage!

Maximus and the boys assault the hovertank!

Maximus and the Tactical squad just barely manage to knock out the hovertank at the end. I forget who wiped out the last of the Tau infantry. A devastating win for the Mantis Warriors.

Our next battles should be a couple of 500-point patrol games of Space Marines versus the Space Orks!

For the SNS game night in June, we're planning two games: Field of Glory ancients, and some sort of WW2 dogfighting game in the Pacific. This weekend many of us will be involved in the GAJO store D-Day games using Flames of War.