Chaos attacks on Mordecai repulsed

Novogorod Vs Death Guard. Victory to Novgorod, did not lose warlord, did kill warlord t4 concede. Plague marines advanced into the centre in front of a refinery that Novgorod had a built a defensive line around, and evaporated to the gun line T2. Plague burst crawlers survived everything shooting at them and a leviathan was butchering infantry on the left, but Death Guard didn't have enough left to control the battlefield and Novgorod still had infantry tagging the leviathan and bayoneting the characters. Warlord went down to a demolisher though.

On Mordecai the forces of chaos continued to enjoy a superior supply and logistics situation to Kutuzov's armies throughout 06.020M42. However, despite their best efforts they were unable to shift the Imperial armies away from their new defensive lines and penetrate into the heart of imperial territory.

In mid 06.020M42 the Death Guard once again tried to force Kutuzov's flank in the south, attacking from Kuneus towards Fort Vengeance. The Novgorod Guard defending however were well dug in and prepared, so as the Plague Marines advanced towards a refinery complex that represented their first objective, they ran into a solidly held defensive imperial line which annihilated them in short order. The Imperium then launched a counter offensive to deal with the enemy artillery, but the plagueburst crawlers proved difficult to dislodge. The guard lost a great deal of men in this counter attack, as the Death Guard employed a terrifying hellforged leviathan pattern dreadnought. With tank support rolling up behind however, the Novogorod kept on piling in their infantry waves, and the Chaos attack fizzled out before even reaching their first line objectives. Kutuzov's men had once again payed in blood to defend the territory won so dearly by the invasion.

Further north the Emerald Serptent attempted to summon a daemon horde which briefly succeeded in penetrating the imperial lines. However the airborne reserve of Scion forces quickly countered the offensive, wiping out the daemon horde and returning the front lines to their previous positions. The chaos forces kept attacking, but no progress was made.

Tau brush off ork raids

Despite forging ahead with their campaign in the Perseus Deeps, the Tau still had a number of enemies to face apart from the Imperium and Chaos. For now, the tyranids and necrons had failed to represent a significant threat in the systems the Tau had been fighting over, but the orks, with their haphazard and somewhat random approach to space travel still posed an ever present danger to the Tau Hadron Expansion Sphere.

The Tau had made sure they had adequate forces garrisoning every world they now controlled, and they maintained a rapid reaction force to deal with any unexpected incursions. One such raid by the orks occurred in early 06.042 as a number of kill kroozers and ork escorts appeared in the Echo Reach system. The garrison called for aid, and the Tau reacted swiftly, driving off the ork space vessels and quickly eradicating the greenskins who had landed on the outer world before too much damage was done. It was a reminder to the Tau however, that while they were consolidating their hold over the Hadron Expanse, they would never be in any way "safe".

Tau claim Dnatha Prime

By mid 06.020M42 the Imperium were ready to launch their counter offensive on Dnatha. Supplied by fleets in the Hadron Expanse a new force of highly mobile airborne troops were deployed to the last remaining Imperial sectors on the main world in order to launch a lightning and highly mobile assault against the invading Tau armies. By now, Commander "Farsight" had arrived in support of Malkaor, and the Tau braced themselves for the imperial attack.

 

Knowing the strength of the enemies airborne quick response force; Commander Farsight had requisitioned an air asset of his own in the form of a tiger shark, ready to ambush the imperial aircraft when they arrived. It appeared suddenly striking swift and true; destroying both a vendetta and vulture gunship while also crippling a valkyrie with its immense firepower. The guard commander, recognising the threat immediately brought everything they had to bear against it. While they eventually brought it down, the Tau aircraft had bought Farsight's forces the time they needed to advance and take control of a critical building in the centre of the engagement, and they now prepared to dig in and fight it out from that strategic location.

 

The subsequent volley of Tau firepower was crippling, with a greater many shots landing on target due to the imperial aircrafts' need to remain stationary to be most accurate. Now the imperial commander, realizing the battle was almost certainly lost and believing escape was also unlikely, decided the best way they could serve the Emperor would be to take the life of commander Farsight. Robbing the Tau of such a commander would surely have an impact in future battles.

 

The elite scion plasma command squads descended from their one remaining aircraft and fired volley after volley of incredibly accurate fire into Farsight and his squad of bodyguards. When the smoke and fire cleared Farsight still stood, the bodies of his bodyguards dead at his feet. It seemed the guard had failed. The remaining guard attack force was quickly mopped up. Farsight dispatching the enemy warlord himself in close combat. As he turned to his forces with his blade raised in victory there was a sudden crack of thunder and Farsight collapsed, crashing into the dirt and sand.

 

A vindicare assassin whose presence in the battle had so far gone unnoticed, now made himself known, placing a well aimed shot into Farsight's back at the base of the neck. Farsight's second in command Malkaor immediately spotted the threat and using the speed of his coldstar battlesuit quickly dispatched the assassin with a strike from his fusion blades. While the Tau had succeeded in taking this important ground and crippling the enemy air force; Commander Farsight had been dealt a mortal blow and only time would tell if he would live.

 

The success of the Tau had broken the imperial capability to defend the remaining settlements on Dnatha Prime however. The garrison was quickly overrun and by 1906.020M42 the Tau had claimed another world for the Empire. Now they turned their attention to the next system in their expansion plans, the system of Palantir.

Necrons defeat chaos on Hexis

While the Eldar continued to search for clues on Hexis, the Necrons continued to harrass all forces attempting to gain entry to the tombs to the south west of Praxis. By mid 06.020M42 the entire region around the Haknur plateau had become de facto controlled by the Ha'Tek dynasty, and the necrons across the world were showing signs of reanimation.

 

In a surprising strike, the chaos forces to the north of Praxis, mostly small bands of Alpha legion, found themselves under direct assault by a very aggressive necron force on 1606.020M4. Supported by a fully activated Monolith, units of Lychguard quickly surprised and overwhelmed the Alpha Legion forward positions, and the Monolith itself advanced into the chaos lines, using its portal of exile to remove a particularly stubborn tech marine from the universal time stream.

 

The Alpha legion forces were completely shattered by the attack, and the forces of chaos retreated into the city of Praxis for defence. Now the traitor legions found themselves confined to the city, with eldar and necron forces pressing in from the west, and the Imperium and Tyranids to the north south and east. Meanwhile as the necron threat grew, it remained curious that the eldar had not as yet sought to deal with their implacable ancient enemy.

Tau clear chaos from Mimir system

In the Hadron Expanse, Malkaor had almost completed the invasion of the Dnatha system. The tau now turned their attention to Mimir, a system claimed by the federacy and tau, but then attacked by the Emerald Serpent in 019M42. Since then the fortunes of chaos had waned, and their overall interest in the Hadron Expanse had decreased. Gregland 100 and another minor world were still in the hands of the traitor forces however, and Malkaor realised that taking these worlds back would not only free resources from the Mimir system, but also confirm that it was the Tau Empire, not the Federacy, who were the senior partner in the Hadron Expansion Sphere.

 

The Federacy were in no position to argue, and on 1206.020M42 the tau commander's forces simultaneously landed on both planets. The inner world fell quickly, as it was largely undefended, but on Gregland 100, named for reasons lost to time, the Emerald Serpent put up a strong defence. The chaos forces summoned daemons, including a particularly fearsome Bloodthirster, to the horror of Malkaor's army, but after a brisk engagement, the overwhelming firepower of the tau finished off the chaos defence of the planet. With Mimir back under "alliance" control, the tau made plans to take the fight to the last chaos bastion in the Hadron Expanse, Boltarean.

Aeldari raid Hexis - Raven Guard smashed

The Aeldari forces were still active on Hexis as 06.020M42 began, as the xenos continued to search for ancient necron clues to discern the location of the missing Necron Device, and to find out everything they could about the Nexus Arrangement. Their continued activity brought them into contact with the other factions on the world, and increasingly with the Imperium. Sudden eldar raids would eliminate Adeptus Mechanicus archeotech parties and disrupt their own mission to discover more of the Necrons' secrets. Having had enough of this interference, the Mechanicum appealled to Konev and his war council for protection.

Konev increased Imperial Guard protection for the Mechanicus research teams, but he did not have enough forces to ensure complete protection from the Aeldari, who were able to strike anywhere on the world with overwhelming force. He didn't have enough forces to adequately track down and destroy their webway portals, but he did receive an offer from help from the Raven Guard chapter of space marines. Held in reserve, as a new attack began to materialise on 0606.020M42, the Raven Guard prepared to attack the eldar army.

The Raven Guard deployed aggressively to cover the approach to the Necron tomb it had become clear the eldar were intent on sacking. Many of their units tool up forward positions, hoping to harrass the approaching enemy force from all sides. However, the astartes underestimated the speed and agility of the force now approaching, led as it was by harlequin forces. This left many of the astartes units effectively unsupported, and the harlequins made expert use of the terrain to perform hit and run attacks, tearing the astartes force apart piece by piece, while avoiding fire from the Raven Guard Repulsor Executioner and other heavy assets.

The Raven Guard realised they had made a terrible tactical mistake, but as they withdrew, they ensured the harlequin force did not succeed without taking casualties. Identifying the aeldari commander, the expert snipers of the astartes managed to take out an important commander, keeping their aim on him even after he broke line of site. The action was however a terrible defeat for the astartes and a particularly devastating strategic loss. Although Konev couldn't know it, the loss of the necron tomb to the Aledari meant the xenos finally pieced together the information from the ancient necron race. They had located the missing device, and had found vital new information on the nature and location of the Nexus Arrangement.

House Stroganov blocks chaos push

Although the main chaos operation to take back Mordecai Secundus was winding down, the chaos forces continued to launch assaults along the front line, attempting to disrupt Kutuzov's orderly withdrawal. One such attempt was made by a force of chaos knights, who launched an offensive from the south near Kutuzov. This was dangerous for the withdrawing Novgorod Guard, so Kutuzov ordered in his own mobile force of House Stroganov knights to counter this attack.

 

The two sides were relatively evenly matched, and they faced off on the plains of Mordecai Secundus with the Imperium deloying an Errant and Gallant class on their right and a Valiant with an Armiger in the centre of the battlefield. Facing them the chaos army deployed three medium class knights in their centre, supported by traitor astartes. The chaos forces charged into House Stroganov, losing one of their knights, but severely damaging the Knight Valiant. Despite repeated attacks the Valiant survived, but the battle saw a great loss in terms of these mighty war machines. Eventually the imperial force managed to outmanoeuvre the chaos force, taking a key objective towards the rear of the enemy force and unhinging their supply lines. Forced to retreat, the chaos attack was prevented from interfering with Kutuzov's withdrawal and the fortification of the "Kutuzov Line" continued.

Picture from: https://www.warhammer-community.com/

Emerald Serpent grind down Kutuzov on Mordecai Secundus

The battle all along the front line on Mordecai continued into the first week of 06.020 as the Emerald Serpent continued to pile on the pressure. Kutuzov's forces were stretched thin, but the Novgorod Guard proved unyielding as the chaos forces assaulted them relentlessly. Eventually however the chaos forces managed to achieve a breakthrough in the north, as the Aether Striders, supported by a mass of khornate and nurgle daemons and the warhound titan Terminus Rex forced their way through Kutuzov's lines just south of Fort Drago. Now the imperial general had a real problem, as a breakthrough here could lead to a mass encirclement and the loss of the vital Sathugar Mines.

 

Kutuzov reacted immediately by sending in his Novgorod reserve force, and a fierce battle erupted at the site of the chaos breakthrough. The Warhound was brought down and many of the greater daemons banished back to the warp. The casualties were heavy on both sides however, with a lance of House Stroganov and whole regiments of Guard sacrificed in order to stem the chaos advance.

 

The result was inconclusive, as although the breakthrough had been contained, the forces of the Emerald Serpent had not been removed from their advance positions. Reluctantly, but with no alternative, Kutuzov ordered a withdrawal to a second set of defensive positions further east. The overall result of the chaos operation was on paper a success. They had retaken ground lost to the Imperium and pushed the front lines back hundreds of miles during the course of the offensive. However they had failed to retake the Sathugar mines or break the imperial defences. Kutuzov ordered more defences built. He would grimly hold on to the ground he had taken in the name of the Emperor until the last man.

Picture from: https://www.warhammer-community.com/

Mordecai Tersius Front lines 0505_020M42

Malkaor invades Dnatha Prime

As 06.020M42 began the Tau high command had been suitably chastened by the debacle of their first invasion attempt of Dnatha Prime, and were determined not to make the same mistakes again. For the second invasion, the Tau waited until their own intelligence confirmed that there were no astartes in the area. Having confirmed that there were no space marines on the world through aerial intelligence.

 

These recon missions ensured the Imperial Guard defending the world were well prepared however, and as the forces of Malkaor landed and moved towards the single imperial settlement, the Librian 57th and 101st regiments, experienced at fighting Tau, were waiting for them. Accurate artillery fire soon caused havoc amongst the tau forces, and the Librians rushed forward en masse - inviting the Tau into open warfare, trying to use their superior numbers to simply overwhelm the xenos' ability to fight back.

 

At first this strategy worked, and although the Tau sent in their own infantry, breachers equipped with devastating close range weapons, the cost to the Tau from the pumelling artillery barrage was immense. Malkaor lost his heavy broadside and Riptide support to the onslaught, and an high altitude drop from the Imperium's elite scion forces started to collapse the Tau right flank, even as Malkaor's troops began to overwhelm the Guard forces on their left.

 

Eventually, it was the elite Tau commanders in their versatile battlesuits that had to stabilise the situation. This they did, although even Malkaor himself was injured as the he and his fellow commanders rushed about the battlefield, using their close range melta weapons to put the imperial armour out of action. One tau commander unfortunately found his weapon fail him at a critical moment, and his basilisk target fired a heavy shell at point blank range, obliterating him.

 

The battle raged outside the main settlement for many hours, until the Tau finally overcame the imperial attack, though suffering heavy losses. The remnants of the Imperial Guard regiments defending the city regrouped for a last stand within the settlement itself, as Malkaor assessed his losses and the Tau regrouped for a final assault on the city. The Tau were within touching distance of securing the Dnatha system, but one final effort would be needed. The Imperial Guard remaining in the city prayed to the Emperor for deliverance.

Orks hold Imperial Guard on Hexis

On Hexis, the race was on to find the Nexus Arrangement. By 06.020M42 most races had worked out that the ancient and powerful artefact was not actually on Hexis, but clues to its location were. Scattered across the ruined wasteland lay partial records of the Necron dynasty that had created it. Six partial records had been identified, but no faction had seen all of them. If all the clues could be pieced together, it was hoped the location of the Nexus arrangement could be discovered.

 

The Imperium knew that one part of the partial record lay in Ork held territory, as part of a mural on the wall of one of the ancient tombs. Whether the Orks knew the importance of what they had was unknown and irrelevant. Konev ordered an attack to clear the xenos from the eastern ruins of Menthoteph in order to gain the third part of the puzzle of the Necron Nexus Arrangement.

 

The Novgorod Guard advanced on the Ork forces that massed on the plains infront of the city of Menthoteph. Disciplined lasgun fire made an impact, along with the heavier imperial firepower from mortars, and the orks suffered from a number of failed charges. Not being able to get into the imperial guard lines cost the greenskins, but their numbers where overwhelming. More and more ork boyz turned up supported by clanking greenskin constructs known as Gorkamauts. Despite the imperial armoured support laying waste to great numbers of the orks, the advance was effectively halted. Realising the imperial guard would run out of ammunition before the orks ran out of troops, the assault was called off, and the necron artefact remained in ork hands.

Mordecai Secundus: Southern attack

On the southern end of Kutuzov's front on Mordecai, imperial intelligence had indicated that nurgle worshipping Knight forces were attempting to outflank his lines. In order to head this move off, the imperial general deployed his most experienced Novgorod regiment to block the knight's progress. As the chaos war engines loomed out of the mist, the local commander gave the command for his forces to open fire.

 

The traitor knights were taken by surprise by the sudden hail of fire from a well prepared enemy. Within minutes, two of the largest Despoiler class knights had been destroyed, their void shields overwhelmed by accurate and continuous fire from the imperial lines. One was taken out by a sole tank commander, who managed to find a weak spot in one of the larger war engine's armour.

 

Although the War Dogs caused heavy casualties in the Novgorod infantry, the fusilade of the first few minutes had effectively blunted the chaos flanking advance, and the remaining knights withdrew. As Kutuzov reacted as best he could to the shifting battle now raging along the front lines, he was forced to keep an eye on his reserves of ammunition, praying to the Emperor for the continued supply of precious equipment to his theatre of war.

Chaos launch new offensive at Mordecai

On Mordecai the situation for the Imperium was grim. Supplies, already struggling to get through after the collapse of the Foramen interdictum, were further reduced following the appearance of the daemon world Astralis. After several transports simply disappeared, the Imperium was forced to run convoys from the outer system to the inner world of Mordecai Secundus, and ammunition, food and other equipment was becoming scarce in Kutuzov's armies. An offensive by the Imperium was out of the question, but the general feared that the forces of chaos would launch an all out attack on his lines.

 

To prepare for the inevitable attack, Kutusov moved his experienced Novgorod Guard units into position along the southern front line, where he believed the main assault would come. All along the front Kutuzov deployed artillery en masse, especially Manticores as these units still had large numbers of ordnance available.

 

On the other side of the lines, as the Imperium dug in, the forces of chaos were indeed planning a big offensive. The traitor forces planned a large strike in the centre, using their elite Emerald Serpent contingent backed up by traitor Legio Titanicus units and vast hordes of traitor guard regiments. This force smashed into the Imperial lines in early 06.020M42 in a violent battle that would last weeks.

 

The early part of the engagement saw the use of Kutuzov's massed battery fire, and the Emerald Serpent took heavy casualties as the sky turned black with missiles. However, as the first week of 06.020M42 progressed, the chaos forces started making more headway, taking their objectives slowly. As the central struggle continued, Kutuzov was alerted to a situation developing on his left flank near Kuneus.