Campaign Prologue Battle Report

Forces: Iron Hands (2500 pts) vs. Tau (1800 pts) and Necrons (700 pts)

Mission: Vital Intelligence

In the beginning days of the The Great Rift engulfing Culdor, the Imperium’s forces drew back to the cities and population centers and prepared to defend them against the threats that had begun to rise up.

One of those cities, was the Imperium stronghold of Ivenheim, and when the Great rift opened, a Battalion of Iron Hands Marines happened to be investigating and purging Genestealer cults in the outskirts of the city.

Late one night, a few hours after sunset, green glowing blasts and dark shapes began to sweep through the field around Ivenheim and into the suburbs around the city. The Necrons had awoken and were blazing a path of destruction towards the heart of Ivenheim.

The Iron Hands mobilized their Repulsors, dreadnoughts, and Warsuits and were led by Iron Father Feirros and Captain Brimstoll in defense of the city. After hours of fighting the Necrons and pushing the back, the iron Father sensed that the Necrons were just toying with them and testing the cities defenses, or worse yet, they were distracting them from some other assault.

When the Iron Hands thought they had just about mopped up the Necron forces, their scanners picked up numerous Xenos ships entering the atmosphere near Ivenheim. The Tau, led by Commander (-), a student of Commander Shadowsun, soon dropped onto the fields behind the Necrons, and were immediately opened fire upon by the Iron hands.

The decision to fire came from Captain Brimsoll despite the urging from the Iron father to cease fire until they found out where the Tau’s allegiances lie. Seconds after landing, the forces of the Tau took up arms against the Iron Hands to prevent the iron Hands from blowing any of their ships out of the sky.

The Tau, who have never found allies in the Necrons, destroyed dozens of Necrons in the backfield of the battle, before they realized that they weren’t attacking back. The Necrons were singularly focused on the Iron Hands, and weren’t even defending themselves from the Tau.

The Tau had only dropped a small patrol force to parlay and scout the lands around Ivenheim and perhaps help the Imperial forces, so after getting bombarded by Imperial guns and not seeing any aggression from the Necrons, Commander (-) gave the order to focus fire on the Iron Hands and ignore the Necron threat. The Tau had found and was taking advantage of a unexpected ally.

The Tau and Necrons moved from Data Post to Data Post, trying to download information and maps that could prove invaluable for their forces, but were repelled time after time by the Iron Hands. The Iron Hands eventually focussed fire on the Necrons, who suddenly stopped getting back up, leaving the Tau alone against a superior force. Command (-) was eventually wounded badly by Iron Hands sniper fire and had to be medivac-ed from the battlefield, leaving a Tank Commander and a Riptide to cover their retreat.

The Iron Hands Marines had repelled the Necrons and had started a conflict with the Tau. The Necrons dissapeared back into whatever dark vault from whence they came and the Tau limped back to their fleet ready to observe and approach the next opportunity on Culdor more carefully.

Winner: Iron Hands (Bill)