Alien Artefact found on Tanus IVb

Having painted up the Tallarn force they needed a proper run out………

Tanus IVb

Somewhere in the depths of space a powerful alien artefact has been located. The Emperor has despatched a crack force of Tallarn desert troops to recover the Artefact and ensure it doesn’t fall into the control of chaos. Unfortunately chaos troops have already landed on the planet. The Tallarn force will have to fight their way from the drop zone, locate and capture the entrance to a series of underground tunnels and then retrieve the Artefact. What neither side knows is the planet is infested with an indigenous species which due to the artefact has mutated and multiplied into a powerful, mindless swarm…….on Tanus IVb you will definitely hear people scream 😱

Scenario

The campaign will be fought over three separate but linked battles using Xeno rampant. Each side having 30 point force for each battle. 

Battle 1 Drop Zone Ambush. We randomly rolled to see which force was landing and which in Ambush. As it happened the Tallarn were landing their objective to get off the table. chaos would be deployed in the corners of the 4x4 table. Only when the ambush was deployed would the Tallarn decide which table edge to escape to, which would force chaos to spread out their troops.

Battle 2 Industrial Complex. The winner of the above would choose their deployment edge in the next battle. A cluttered industrial complex in the desert where 6 tunnel entrances have been located they must be captured and explored. A unit would need to take a turn and activate on a 6+ to open the tunnel entrance to capture it.

Battle 3 The Tunnels. The winner above would be able to choose one tunnel entrance in the final scenario but others would be random. No vehicles in the tunnels the artefact in the centre needed to be captured and if possible removed out of the tunnels.

Indigenous Alien species : these were a NPC they would swarm from Alien spawn points on the table. When any unit moved within 6” of such a node a D6 test would be taken

1&2 nothing happens, 3,4&5 Aliens appear at the node but don’t attack, 6 the aliens arrive and immediately attack. The battle one only small aliens, battle two small and medium and battle three the possibility of giant Xeno arriving. In every wild charge phase a test would be taken for any aliens on the table, and they would randomly assault any unit within range. This fight would then be resolved, these alien wild charges would not prevent the active side also then having to carry out wild charges in their phase. In the first two battles the nodes would act as tunnels with multiple alien units potentially spawning. But in the final battle they would only spawn a single unit.

Obviously with three battles there were a lot of events so as usual not a blow by blow account, just a few highlights.

Battle 1 : Dropzone Ambush

The Tallarn force arrive in the centre and have chosen to exit the table from this nearest edge. In this picture the exit looks easy but there is an enemy Tank off to the left !

The Tallarn mainly light infantry, they do have effective Armour piercing weapons but limited body armour. The Walker is really tough

The Walker stumbles forward triggering the first Aliens to arrive

These charge the Walker but bounce off its armour

and now the theme of the first battle…..more aliens arrive this time charging the chaos militia

Having decided the Walker is too tough more Xeno charge some of the Tallarn infantry

‘Chaos’ now began with Xeno spawning and charging everything in sight, we laughed a lot as our troops were cut to pieces. At one point the Chaos forces chose to spawn another Xeno unit realising the Aliens were tougher and more effective at killing the Tallarn !

The Chaos commander looks on and fires long range into the melee

Finally after a lot of dead Tallarn, and quite a lot of chaos troops one unit and the Walker do make it off the table. However this is not enough and chaos have won the first battle.

Battle 2 : Industrial Complex

After the first turn the two forces now charge forward. Chaos choosing to arrive from the far side

More chaos troops thrown into the attack

Both sides much more cautious if the Xeno spawn points after the first battle !

The chaos General controlling form the rear

Inevitably though more Xeno arrive, in the distance Tallarn have some cavalry who rush forward, but this triggers more Xeno who push them back

With both sides claiming two tunnel entrances, the Chaos Walker manages to reach the central tunnel

Lots more laughing as the Xeno again take control and kill both sides

A final twist as a more powerful Xeno life form is released, these are even more brutal than the smaller species ! But the chaos force has won again having the bulk of the tunnel entrances

Battle 3 : The Tunnels

Having won the previous battles chaos choose to access the tunnels from entrance A and B, Tallarn who have to roll randomly will access from D and C. The Xeno nodes will only release a single unit but there is no way to the Artefact without triggering at least some Xeno

The Tallarn advance cautiously down the first tunnel

Hordes of shambling and ‘contagious’ chaos mutants push down one tunnel

The first Xeno released are luckily still the smaller breed

Ooops spoke too soon  !

Slow progress from this end of the tunnels

The chaos troops are tough but slow and also get caught by Xeno 

Form the far end the Tallarn are quietly making progress

With only one node they manage to push the Xeno back

One of the shambling horde are forced back and inadvertently trigger the node at the artefact itself. With trepidation we rolled on the Xeno chart arrghhhh ! A massive giant creature is realeased, very lucky for the Tallarn they are out of range and it instead heads the other way trapping the chaos forces

An opportunity finally opens up

Chaos forces are pinned back in their tunnels unable to kill the armoured Xeno

Even though it brings them into range the Tallarn infantry rush upto the artefact

Their remaining colleagues sacrifice themselves to draw the Xeno away from the centre, they die a horrible lonely death in a dark tunnel on a remote planet….such is life for the foot soldiers of the Empire !

It takes a turn to remove the artefact but they pass the activation, at this point with chaos pinned down the battle was effectively won. The artefact has been secured for the Emperor.

One final shot of the tunnel complex at the end of the battle

Well that was pretty fun, we had a lot of laughs mainly caused by the random nature of the Xeno and our inability to kill them. In hindsight perhaps we would have made the Xeno slightly easier to kill but such is the way of the universe you never know what you may find on remote planets ? All three battles were fun and quite closely contested. The rules worked out quite well and it was great to get the Tallarn out on the table. We are now planning a larger single battle so we can get all the Tallarn on the table in one go.

A bit more painting going on but I am then away to the Ardennes for a week, but hopefully popping into to Partizan on the way back.

Thanks as always KBO

Matt