The Devourer Strikes

Since the destruction of most of Hive Fleet Kraken years before, Kandavar has played an integral part in providing forces to defend against another emergence of the dreaded Tyranid foe. PDF forces have been drafted from nearby worlds, deep scanner probes sent out into the cold void, massive fortifications and newly forged space stations now stand defiant on the eastern fringes.

However, space is vast and scanners, soldiers, and even walls can be overcome with the right application of power and cunning. The Hivemind adapts and overcomes or starves and dies out. The Hivemind has gourged on enough human biomass to have gained a better understanding of its prey. With this knowledge infiltrating lictors and genestealers now understand that eliminating certain targets can allow for the bioships to come to lesser harm when attacking a planet.

PDF commanders, watch standers, astropaths and even power generator operators are all targets once they can be identified .

The fall of Signa IV came from one of these infiltrations as a genestealer stowed away on a Rogue Trader ship made way onto the moon and infested deeply into the the defense force and the servitors operating the scanners were all eliminated by las shots to the back of the head.

When the bioships arrived there was little warning for defenses to be raised on Signa IV and the moon was quickly stripped of all life. Barely satisfied the Hivemind moved on to bigger and better meals and Yuion is next in line to be attacked.

Yuion is almost 95% covered in water, with the major export being varying types of seaweed that can be used as dry rations. On the small amount of land a very small fruit is grown called the "Yui" fruit. This small fruit is only grown on Yuion and is used in medicinal practices and highly sought after. Combined with the fact the Yuion is the largest agri-world within three subsectors, its survival is detrimental to the existence of the people of Kandavar and their neighbors.

The Hivemind has shown itself again now and forces are being assembled to thwart this new threat. Fresh off of the loss of Tanacus the Emperor's Shadows make haste to Yuion. Also, arriving late to the attack at Tanacus the 8th company of Charcadons make warp transit into the Sector at the head of 3rd, and 6th company of Sons of Medusa. Bolsetered with more of the Emperor's elite Yuion most hold.

This planet is the perfect recipe for the Tyranids and if consumed would not only greatly expand the the Tyranids biomass reserves, but would make the sector fall apart to hunger. Will the defenders hold onto their precious resources, or will they be the appetiser.

The Fires on Tanacus

As the Tau approached, what remaining Imperial Naval Forces prepared for battle. The twin orbital platforms were ready to fire soon after the xenos ships came into scanner range and fire calculations were entered and the order given to fire once they entered maximum range. What they were not ready for was range in which the Tau could fire upon them. Three new Custodian Class Battleships stopped just short of the range of the Imperial defenses and unleashed a torrent of heavy rail cannon fire into critical points in the rings structure, causing it to collapse and plummet down into Tanacus atmosphere reaping catastrophic destruction  on the delicately assembled structure that is now keeps the planet together.
 

With the destruction of the defense rings on the attacking side, the Tau Battle Fleet moved into drop ship position on Tanacus. As the fleet prepared to discharge its cargo, the remaining Kandavar Battle Fleet struck the flanks on the Tau attempting to destroy as many ships as possible before being completely destroyed.

 Even with the battle in orbit happening hundreds of Manta and Orca crafts descended upon Tanacus thousands of battlesuits jumped from their delivery craft to lay rapid assaults to vital Imperial structures and quickly destroy as many Legio Titans as possible before they could be awakened for war. Over a dozen of the new Riptide battlesuits that were so successful at Mu'Gulath Bay cleared the way for more tau reinforcement to arrive.

The opening moments of the battle saw the Imperials sorely pressed back, and only a few points  of resistance still remained. With such a killing stoke aimed at Tanacus the planet was sure to be crushed. All hope of survival was fading from the defenders and Tau watercaste began to blair their propaganda overhead from the dropships as more Tau forces were marshaled forward.

Then from out of nowhere they struck. Space Marines of the Emperors Shadow Chapter deepstriked in behind Tau gun lines, or right between an attack force ready to crush the defenders of Tanacus. Quickly what seemed like a rout of the Imperial Forces turned into a great thrust back into the heart of the enemy. Battle Barges and Strike Cruisers came on the rear side of the Tau fleet still dueling with the Imperial Navy, destroying dozens of spacecraft in their initial assault. tau reinforcements began to slow, and the battle on the surface began to turn.

Critical to the defense of the planet was the holding of the relic Macro Cannon. With the Emperors Shadow's  pressing the assault, the Cadian  876th formed a cordon around "Old Betty" as they liked to call her. Unable to fire the cannon into space for fear of damaging the allied ships there, the cannon was realigned to fire at the Tau landing zone and killing thousands in its first call to war.

When all seemed to be turning in favour of the Imperium, the worst thing happened. In the opening moments of the battle when orbital platform sections fell into the planet and broke apart one of the major grav generators holding the metal surface of Tanacus together. At first one section fell and then more begin to break apart of crumble down in to the fiery core of the planet.

The Tau were defeated and denied the planet Tanacus, but it also no longer belongs to the Imperium. Space Marine forces teleported back to their battle fleets, but billions of citizens died as they could not make it to a bulk carrier in time to escape.

With the loss of Tanacus Imperial Forces prepared to return to Kandavar when a signal was received. A Tyranid threat has re-emerged and struck Signa IV the outermost moon of Yuion. With the Tau pushing in on the Sector the timing on the Tyranid threat could not have been worse. However, this is the Time of Ending and things can always get worse.

 



Destiny of The Greater Good

Destiny of The Greater Good

Lying directly to galactic northeast of the Tau Empire the soldiers of Kandavar have had their run ins with the upstart race. The military might arrayed in the Kandavar would be more than enough to hold back the problematic Tau if it wasn’t for the recent threat of Hive Fleet Kraken and the effort to hunt down isolated dormant sleeping cells that still hide within planets previously devoured by the Hive Mind . Luckily for the people of Kandavar the Tau do not yet posses warp travel technology and the distance from Dal’yth across the Perdus Rift in northern Tau territory is far for the near light speed space craft they possess.

 

However, that will not keep the expansionist Tau at bay forever. Aun’Va has deemed it time for the Third Sphere Expansion and Kandavar will see war soon.

A new commander has been awoken from cryostasis to lead the attack. Years before on Sha’Draig a young Shas’Ui made the killing shot against a Hive Tyrant that ended the threat from Hive Fleet Gorgon, now newly appointed by the ethereal caste Commander O’Shasshi has prepared for the opportunity to strike.

 

 

While Commander Shadowsun has already started the expansion phase across the Damocles Gulf, Tau forces have been preparing for war on Kandavar. As forces have been mounting in preparation, probes were sent out into Kandavar space to spy on the Imperial Forces. Finally after one year of patience the time has come. Always so slow to react, Imperial Forces in Kandavar have finally received the plea for aid from Mu’gulath Bay and a retribution fleet has been sent out.

The closest planet across the Perdus Rift is Tanacus and this is where the Tau must establish a beach head for further advancement into Kandavar. Even with a massive portion of Kandavar’s fleet out of the picture, Tanacus is not defenseless. More steel than planet anymore, Tanacus has been all but consumed by the Mechanicus. Ringed by twin orbital defense platforms, along with the entire Cadian 876th defense force, Tanacus is almost as well defended as Kandavar herself.

The timing is right, and the hunter as made the decision to pounce, but nothing is more dangerous than a cornered animal.

 

Marshall your forces and deliver the Mont’ka to those that stand in the way of the greater good, or stand firm and expunge the vile xenos from the domains of mankind. Which will you choose?

 

Kandavar Campaign

Crushing at Kandavar

Campaign

 

On the outskirts of the Eastern Fringe the Kandavar System was originally discovered by Rogue Trader Suleman Kandavar in 756.M32.

With the exception of a feral Orc tribe little stood in the way of a quick assimilation of the Kandavar System. Mechanicum cartographer survey teams assigned the Kandavar System as a level Beta resource system due to the abundance of precious adamantium on the planet x75638.35 now called Dependance and small extractor teams began the oh so glorious process of removing it.

The neighboring planet to Dependance was within tolerances for human settlement and was named Kandavar after its founder. A small PDF garrison was established and Kandavar was left to provide it tithe. 

In 384.M37 the Imperium saw it necessary to increase the number of Space Marine chapters patrolling the Eastern Fringes. Kandavar played a pivitol role in this for two reasons. First being the convient fact that Kandavar currently has a stable warp route, and second is that for the first reason The Lords of Terran deemed it that a new progenoid processing lab would be established to facilitate the rapid expansion of Space Marines in the area.

Kandavar saw a rapid expansion in growth for the next thousand years as defenses were raised and construction of all forms came flooding into the system to the will of The Lords of Terra. Yuion was the next planet in the system selected for utilization to provide the food stuffs for the ever increasing population as Kandavar was quickly covered from its north to south poles with hive cities, and defense works and was no longer capable of production of that manner. 

Kandavar quickly became a prominent system on the fringes of the Imperium and soon eclipsed all other systems in the area except for beautiful Macragge.

For thousands of years now Kandavar has stood as a bulkwark for humanity spreading the Emperors Will into the lightless edges of mankinds domain, but now is the Time of Ending and no where is safe in the galaxy that knows only war and Kandavar is no exception. 

  

Warhammer 40K: Escalation

So the new Escalation book is out and everyone is already in an uproar about how bad it is, and that it has changed 40k forever, and the game is broken, and they are not going to play anymore because the game is play to win, and just fuck GW!!!

Isn't this just a little extreme? Anyone that has played even one game of Apocalypse with super heavies can tell you that super heavies are not all that! Super heavies can actually be quite a liability, and in games of escalation they are even more so.

So to start why the overreaction?

#1 is that D-weapons are too strong for regular 40k. I can see this sentiment. No one wants to see their SS/TH termies wiped out in one round of shooting, but this can be done without D weapons. I think the biggest actual problem with the D weapon is that models get no inv save. Well luckly there is not that many D weapons allowed with the current Lords of War units (currently).  Besides with example above a S10 AP1 shoot can be just as bad as this D weapon. D weapons are tough, but there are ways around this which I will explain later.

#2 I can take a Reaver Titan in a 2000 point army.  I actually read this is someones rant, and was surprised. There is no Reaver Titan in the book (actually the only titan is Revenant, unless you count Stompa's). The main point this guy brought up was is there is no limitation to amount of points you can spend on a LoW unit in a game. This makes the best gripe about this book is why did GW not use the same 25% limitation that FW did in the Horus Heresy books? Probably because 1 of 2 things. Either they are dumb or they felt it wasnt really necessary. I'm going with the later of the two.

#3 These rules make the game pay to win more than ever. This comment has been flying around a lot lately mostly due to the rapid releases we have no, and that everyone that has the newest and coolest toys are the only ones winning. Now I play Blood Angels and still take home a fair number of wins with them (maybe because it was written by Ward) and dont fill this is ever the case. For the price of a Baneblade I can by four Leman Russ, and I know most IG players already have four of them. I think that anyone that really wants to buy one of these super heavies will find a way to buy it. Save lunch money, not buy something else that they want or to start slinging crack on the side. What ever the case, I think you will buy it, if you really want it or think that you need it. Now, I will explain that you don't need to have one to still win at 40k.

As I was saying about these big boys being a liability.

#1 Heavy point investment. The points cost are so high for these Behemoth that can equally put out something superior to it with normal units for the same cost. For example I could take two units of 5 ea Sternguard equipped with a melta and 4 combi meltas in a drop pod for the same points as a Banehammer and blow the crap out of the thing before it fires at me, and probably do it with just one of the units. Now that super heavy is gone and I could of done it without the same points investment.

#2 Victory points. In Apocalypse the destruction of these bad boys give away a VP, but in Escalation they give a VP for every 3 hull points/wounds done do the vehicle/creature. This is a big factor to consider when deciding to deploy a LoW and should not be taken lightly. Between all the melta/tank hunter/ordanance/auto glance on a 6/poison  it is not hard to hurt these guys.

#3 Large blast markers suck. Having those mega super ginormour apocalyptic pizza pie blast markers of destruction can be a hindrance to yourself. The reason for this is that you will be playing on a 4X6 ft table instead of a an apocalypse sized table and since you cannot place the blast marker to be even partially touching any friendly models base or hull a smart player can move right up into your face and keep you from using the biggest advantage of having a super vehicle. Speed is the key and with all the scout / turbo boost moving allowed out there they can be in your face quick and SM drop pods are the best at this. Plus if they dont also have a LoW they will get a +1 to seize the initiative so there can be a good chance you will not get to even shoot that awesome warmachine.

I think this book provides something that a lot of players actually want, and that is to be able to use their big toys without having to do a huge apocalypse game. Lets face it, 40k takes a while to play and Apocalypse can make you want to take a nap and come back later to finish up.

Even with the points I made about super heavies not not being all that, some of you guys might still not want to play with this rules set because if issues 1 and 2. I would recommend trying it out first, because of the liabilities first, and then if it doesnt feel right to you, try making some house rules like inv. saves can still be made against D weapons or implementing the 25% of points cost rule. I think you will not need it though.