Battle Report from Taneloth by Matthew Sprange

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I can not take credit for the name. This site was named by Aaron Cains.

You can check out his report complete with pictures at:

The Colossal 40K Resource Site

The Taneloth Crusade at GW HQ, Nottingham, was a hectic weekend but I
believe everyone there enjoyed themselves immensely and we are all looking
forward to the next such event eagerly!

The way the campaign was constructed was chaotic to say the least!
Basically, all the players divided into two sides, the Imperium and Chaos.
Within each side, the armies were further split down into Divisions of five
armies each, with the Commanders chosen to rise above the rest of us. These
Division Commanders then reported directly to each side's Supreme
Commanders, all members of Games Workshop. All the tables in the Exhibition
Hall were laid out with fantastic terrain to portray the landscape of a
continent on Taneloth. Every Commander playing was given a map of these
tables which showed not only their position within the hall, but also how
they all connected for the purposes of movement - and this is where it
started to get really confusing! To move your army from one table to
another, you needed to get a form filled out with Movement Orders, which had
to be signed off by your Division Commander. This happened every 15 minutes
which is, of course, much shorter than your average 40k battle, so armies
would be moving all around you whilst you fought to the death with the foe
in front of you. It also allowed to scream to your Division Commander for
support when three enemy armies hoved into view across the table. Special
Characters were not allowed, but several were present in the battles -
basically, the Supreme Commanders allocated them for the most important
fights.

On top of all this, the Supreme Commanders were busy sorting out Orbital
Bombardments, Air Strikes, Air Lifts and contending with random events, such
as blizzards, the discovery of hidden tunnels and a solar eclipse that
seemed to annoy a lot of players who relied on superior firepower to win
their battles!

With all this in mind, I decided that my Sisters of the Argent Shroud
required some battle honours to retain their dignity in front of my Dark Ang
els army that had covered themselves with glory at the Grand Tournament.
Canoness Carmina was determined to show Belial how a war was meant to be
fought. . .

The first day started bleary eyed and before descending into the role of a
dedicated Canoness, I hot-footed it over to the Mail Order counter after
spying the Dark Angels Codex from across the hall - more Battlefleet Gothic
ships and the new Ork Warboss were on sale too - I recommend anyone to go to
these events, simply for all the cool things you can pick up, if nothing
else!

For the next hour, Supreme Commanders, Division Commanders and us mere
mortals plotted, schemed and gradually sloped into the hall to set up our
armies, everyone confident that their strategies would work. Plenty of time
was spent eyeing up the centrepiece of Taneloth - Facility 13, a HUGE
burned-out tank factory on a table big enough to hold four armies on each
side comfortably. It was obvious that the most bloody fighting would occur
on this table and I was determined to get stuck in at that point.
Unfortunately, my Division Commander (Ben Stampton, met him at the Grand
Tournament, great guy!) told us we had been ordered on to a flank, with the
aim of cutting into the sides of the vile Chaos horde and severing their
supply lines as the full weight of the Imperium hit them elsewhere.
Determined not to let the Emperor down, my Sisters immediately charged
across Taneloth, sweeping aside Chaos armies and plunging towards the Chaos
backline. The Chaos players showed themselves to be an argumentative lot
which culminated, in one battle, with one player's Chaos Marines destroying
an allied Dreadnought, because it had just gone into a frenzy and
immobilised his Predator. As this was a Take and Hold mission and the
Dreadnought was guarding the objective (a small Ecclesiarchy shrine), the
Sisters were able to move quickly in and take control. There was a brief
scare as first the Chaos army managed to summon a Bloodthirster and then
Kharn made his first appearance of the weekend! The Bloodthirster was sent
screaming back into the Warp before it got into close combat by my Seraphim
Squad (seriously!) whilst my girls just did their best to avoid Kharn for
the entire battle. The opposing Chaos armies realised that they had been
beaten and duly retreated in good order. Eager to prove their devotion
further, the Sisters raced forwards. . .

Unfortunately, the Sisters had done so well and so fast that despite the
fact they were only one step away from the rearmost tables that the Chaos
armies started on, they were also completely unsupported as no other
Imperial Commander had managed to keep up with the feisty girls! The
Sisters smacked hard into one Chaos army and started to maul it, but they
were then quickly ambushed by Dark Eldar AND Necrons. The fight was by no
means fair, but the Necrons were quickly broken and the Sisters beaten back
by only the narrowest of margins. By this time (late morning), the Chaos
Commanders had seen the breakthrough and had closed in behind the Sisters,
cutting off their retreat. Utterly disbanded by this dastardly move, the
Sisters started the long trudge back to the Imperial lines. . .
After a light lunch, Canoness Carmina was ordered to take to the field
again, with fresh troops obtained by my Division Commander. For the rest of
the day the girls were to simply hold back and halt any breakthroughs that
Chaos managed to achieve - and they did not have to wait long. A bitter
fight had been developing for quite a while right in front of the waiting
girls, between two Chaos armies and a Necron force, against loyal Sisters
and Marines. The back of the Chaos armies were eventually broken, but the
Necrons had managed to slip through a secret set of tunnels they had
discovered whilst fighting and were surreptitiously heading for the Imperial
back line. Ably supported by a contingent of Sisters from my Division
Commander, my Sisters readied for combat. They had a surprise when Asmodai
of the Dark Angels deigned to fight alongside them, no doubt to try to teach
them the true meaning of worshipping the Emperor. The Necron Raiders fanned
out across the whole battlefield in an attempt to hold as much ground as
possible but though the Immortals gave the girls some trouble, particularly
in close combat, the Sisters were able to beat back the robots convincingly.
The only downside was the embarrassment Canoness Carmina felt when she had
to report that, under her own direction, Asmodai had fallen on the field of
battle. With this day's fighting over, both forces entrenched their
positions and awaited the start of fighting the next day.

I arrived back in the hall early enough and looked warily at the huge
Facility 13 table. The day before, massive Imperial and Chaos forces had
fought over it all day, with some Commanders fighting for eight hours
straight to no avail. Neither force could throw the other out of the
Facility and the day's fighting had ended in stalemate for them. I was no
longer sure I wanted to fight on that table any more. . .
After a quick discussion with the Supreme Commander, my heart dropped. Two
Sisters armies (including mine) had been picked to hold the main Chaos
armies within Facility 13. I could not believe my ears - two Sisters armies
against what would undoubtedly the full weight of the Chaos force? Asking
about the possibility of support, I was merely told 'what we can get, when
we can get it.' Super.

Smiling at our opponents across the table, my Division Commander and I
started to deploy our Sisters on our side of the ruined factory complex.
The Chaos players could not believe their luck - their Khorne Berserkers,
Renegade Guard and disgusting Eldar would only have to face a few girls to
dominate the battlefield.

Overall, things started to go as well as could be expected for our side.
Multiple Battle Cannon shells decimated our lines as the girls scrambled for
cover and Khorne Berserkers cleared the girls out of the cover. A Callidus
Assassin nearly managed to eliminate the Eldar Farseer, throwing the alien's
lines into disarray as their sought to contain the killing machine, whilst
the brave Seraphim leaped far forward, desperate to clear a Guard squad out
of a ruin, shortly before the rest of the Platoon took notice and opened
fire with everything they had. The Seraphim managed to survive this blast
of firepower (I had actually managed to make 21 consecutive Power Armour
saves and was really honking the Guard player off!) - until a Leman Russ
turned its huge turret around and sent them to meet the Emperor. It was at
the point when both Kharn and Abaddon turned up that I began to beg our
Supreme Commander for support. An Eldar raiding force fighting on our side
turned up briefly but was soon called away elsewhere and a Doomwing started
to strafe our lines before it was chased away by a loyalist Thunderbolt.
All the while, Kharn and a HUGE Chaos Lord on a Juggernaut were rampaging
through our lines - apparently Kharn's bodycount was up to 52 by this point,
though I had stopped counting after the first two dozen or so. . .
As the Chaos forces moved closer, we knew the Sisters could never hope to
match them in close combat. My Division Commander's army was broken and had
to retire from the battlefield. Just then, the Emperor smiled upon Facility
13.

A few things happened very quickly. My Sisters were reinforced by another
Sisters army, from the Order of the Bloody Rose - quickly ordered forward,
they bolstered the lines were my Sisters were weakening. Abaddon fell to
heavy weapons fire (a big cheer resounded across the hall at that) and then
a solar eclipse occurred - until it ended, Night Fight rules were to be
used. Every Sisters player cheered at that, but the Renegade Guard
Commander was soon very upset when he realised that he could no longer
target the girls at such long range. Disgruntled by this turn of fate, he
retreated from the battlefield (I am telling you, it happened this way!),
leaving the Eldar wide open to be broken, forcing them to retreat as well.
That just left the Khorne player, who was VERY good (and a lot of fun, he
could really get IN to his army!) and was causing a lot of grief to the
Sisters of the Bloody Rose as he crashed through squad after squad, just
leaving a trail of broken bodies behind Kharn and his Lord. The Order of
the Bloody Rose was close to breaking and my own Sisters were close to
retiring as well, until Kharn made a fatal mistake and charged through a
ruined building, sweeping aside all defenders - only to realise when he got
inside that the Sisters of both Orders were waiting for him with a solid
wall of Bolters, Bolt Pistols and Melta Guns. After the smoke had cleared,
only a shattered ruin of armour remained of the once great champion. No
longer would he plague the Imperials on Taneloth. The Chaos Lord, who had
achieved nearly as high a bodycount as Kharn finally fell when he
inadvertently revealed himself to one of my Retributor Squads and was burned
away by Melta fire.

Handshakes went all around the table (except from that Guard player, he had
mysteriously wandered off. . .) and the Sisters players breathed a huge sigh
of relief. We had done it! After five hours of solid fighting, the Sisters
had managed to succeed where powerful Marine and Guard armies had failed. A
HUGE cheer filled the hall when it was announced that Facility 13 was now,
finally, in Imperial hands. I just collapsed in a chair, satisfied in the
knowledge that I had served the Emperor well.
Until my Division Commander tapped me on the back. What are you doing, he
asked - Chaos is mounting a counter attack, get to it and defend the place!
I swear I nearly died! I could not believe that I would have to go all
through that again. There was not much time left before the campaign drew
to a close, so Jervis came over to the table and suggested changing the
victory conditions a little. Basically, if the Chaos forces could force the
Imperials off one side of the river, then Facility 13 would be contested.
If the Imperials could retain both banks, then victory would be theirs. The
Sisters of the Argent Shroud and the Bloody Rose would fight together once
again, along with the fleeting Eldar player, who we ordered to stay and
fight this time!

Our opponents were to be the same we faced in the last battle and this time
they were out for blood! Cunningly, I suggested to the other Commanders
(all right then, I ordered them!) that we just keep our heads down, not do
anything stupid and not take silly risks. The plan would have worked
perfectly if Chaos had done what I expected them to do! I had believed that
they would stream forward, desperate to sweep the Sisters from the
battlefield once and forever. Imagine my shock when I saw their deployment,
pretty much their full weight on the smallest bank with only a skeleton
force on the wider area where I had expected the main battle to take place!
The Eldar were detailed to wipe out this unsupported skeleton force so they
could join up with our armies on the smallest bank. My forces were spread
between the two, ready to plug any gaps, whilst now, it seemed, the Order of
the Bloody Rose would bear the full brunt of the Chaos charge. They
weathered well under a hail of Battle Cannon fire, but were swept aside FAR
too quickly when the Khorne Berserkers ploughed in. I only had one squad on
that side of the field and my Sisters quickly beat a retreat back, away from
the rampaging Khorne maniacs. Very soon the Bloody Rose Sisters were broken
and fled the battlefield, leaving me with just a small squad of Seraphim
straining their Jump Packs to reach the small shore and a small squad of
cowering girls running as fast as they could behind the shattered building
that had seen Kharn's death with a blood crazed Khorne Lord only a few steps
behind them. The game got fast and furious now as we knew there were only
five minutes left in the entire campaign and the game lay on a knife edge -
I swear, we were so pumped up that we managed to get in a dozen turns within
those five minutes! The Seraphim leaped bravely onto the bridge separating
the two shores, before leaping into the river as the Khorne Lord appeared at
the other end of the structure. They finally managed to make it on to the
other side before a very long ranged Battle Cannon shot wiped them out. The
Sisters squad behind the building were confident that they could keep their
distance away from the Lord until a Khorne-bedecked Rhino screeched round
the corner in front of them. Sobbing briefly at this turn of fate, the
Veteran Sister leading the squad did the only she could - order the squad to
leap into the building! The game was getting very tight and very frantic at
this point and I hunted madly for the dice to make a difficult terrain test,
before I noticed the Khorne player (great guy, did I mention that?) tapping
on my shoulder - 'don't worry about it mate, the game's over!'
Overall it was a hell of a weekend, with the Loyalists carrying the day by a
fairly convincing margin - another planet safe from the predations of Chaos.
As always, I met new people, arranged games (didn't drink much this time)
and had a great set of battles. I really can't recommend this sort of
weekend enough. I travelled 200 miles to reach it, but others travelled MUCH
further (did that Italian guy REALLY come from Italy? They seem to for the
Grand Tournaments!). You really have no excuse, try it!

Matthew