Fuel Run

 Back on Octarius, the vicous legionaries of the Black Storm decided at the same time to secure some promethium fuel as a team of Tau Pathfinders.

The deployment zone are opposite corners. In the other two corners are two objectives worth 2 VPs each at the end of the game, while in the centre is the fuel pump where from the spout Prometium can be pumped, 1 VP for pumping and 3 VPs for each fuel objective controlled at the end.

The Tau were very conservative early on but the marines took the aggressive approach, advancing on the flanks and through the middle.

The heavy gunner clambered on top of the fort ruins and had a wide open field of view, but his reaper chaincannon failed to kill a tau Blooded, leaving him with one wound.

The return rail gun fire severely wounded him in return.

The plasma gun exchanged fire with a railgun and while severely wounded he took out the Xenos and moved to cover by the pump.

The Aspiring Champion of the squad decided to act. He charged the Tau line, murdering the grenadier with a fell swoop of his blade before turning the overheated plasma pistol on a rail gunner who died a painful death.

The Shas'ui leader approached with a primed fusion grenade and greviously wounded the enemy, but not enough to kill. In return, the champion overwatched him to death with more plasma.

As the game moved into the second half, casualities mounted.

The Annointed and Shrive Talon approached in cover ready to charge the Tau lines while the Balefire Acolyte and gunner held the middle pump.

Finally the Ion gunner took down the Aspiring champion before he could kill again.

With the champ down, the drone controller took control of the marker drone and pumped some fuel. With a promethium objective on the table, the stakes are raised!

The plasma gunner, desperate to maintain control of the centre ascended to the pump's platform to have clear line of sight to the recon drone but only damaged it. Return fire soon removed him from his perch.

The Annointed let the daemon loose and charged the lines but came up short. The Tau fired everything they had at him but he shrugged it off. Would the enraged possessed marine break their lines!?

The Balefire Acolyte unleashed warp fire on the drone and destroyed it, securing the promethium fuel... for now.

At the top of turning point 4, the Ion gunner once again proved his worth as he swung the weapon around and blasted the possessed marine with 22 points of damage, and his daemonic energies were insufficient to keep him standing.

The Shrive talon extracted some revenge, but the Tau turned mass carbine gunfire on the Balefire acolyte psyker to incapacite him and secure the promethium.

In the end that proved to be the winning move as the Legionaries 4 points from tac ops could not compete with the 8 VPs the Tau had from two objective markers, 1 from pumping the fuel, and 3 from controlling the promethium at the end.

Great game!