Part 14: Day 15, The Pavonian Heartland, The Demes Northlands

Shas'ui Thean'tero shows great wisdom and acumen. We shall prevent any possibility of the Imperial Guard killing the Necron for us. Although it would make reconquering Kronus easier, I want the satisfaction of eliminating each invading army myself. On that note: we're attacking The Pavonian Heartland, because that is actually the province that the Imperial Guard have bordering on the Necron Stronghold.





It's a beautiful place, the Pavonian Heartland. Full of little forests and trees.



Lakes spattered about.



And vast, vast plains.



I hate it. This map is incredibly frustrating. On Hard, if the enemy gets a chance to build up their defenses, than you don't stand a chance at capturing it without a huge Honour Guard. This map is massive, making it difficult to trap to enemy in a choke-point and create a defense. Also, the Strategic Points are awkwardly spaced out, allowing the enemy to attack from either their North or East base with relative impunity. If you're facing a well entrenched foe, you have to rush each base and hope you can wipe them out before the enemy can snowball you. That said, if you can get this territory early on and fortify the choke-points by the lakes, you'll be laughing. Oh, by the way, I found the Imperial Guard. They only have a single base in the North-East and I'm firing missiles at them from a bush.



Where's that gunfire coming from?
Stand your ground, men! Find the enemy!
Yeah, see? There they are: a group of Guard with a Commissar. Guardsmen are decent against all sorts of infantry, but they need upgrades. Reinforce their squad, get some heavy weapons, and give them a leader. Without any of that, they die fast, and put out too little damage. Oh, it's also embarrassingly easy to break their morale. I haven't really spoken on the effects of morale yet. When you break a squad's morale, that squad loses 20% to their weapon accuracy and moves 20% slower. There are a few exceptions, but that's more or less how it works for all units. Now, Commissars boost the health and morale of any squad they're attached to. They can also execute a single member in order to make the Guardsmen fight harder, mitigating the problem of broken morale.



Whoa! The Imperial Guard become more dangerous when they start rolling out the heavy weapons. Lasguns are nothing compared to Tau Plasma Fire, but that Grenade Launcher just sent me flying.



Ah, Kasrkins. Elite units, the Guard can only afford to field a single squad at a time. Long range, high damage, and they're faster than regular guardsmen. Overall, they're just better.
You must be Shas'o Kais, the leader of the Tau forces on Kronus. I am Governor-Militant Lukas Alexander of The Liberators. This planet belongs to the Imperium and you shall return it!
You're welcome to try and take it from me.
Pah, I thought as much. Is it true you don't know how to fight in hand-to-hand combat? Allow me to give you a taste of my blades!


Why ever would I want to bother with "melee" when I can do--


--this! Eat Plasma Fire!


Fight on, men! Do--do not let this province fall--


Sanctioned Psykers. They have abilities that can do heavy damage to squads or individuals. They can also detect infiltrated units. A dangerous leader for the Guardsmen.


Ah, the Techpriest Engineer. Finally, something the Guard has that I'm jealous of. They are the quickest builder units of all the armies. Fasted to build, fastest to repair. They're also pretty solid defensively and offensively. In fact, they've got the most armour of all builder units. All Tau Castes are supposed to do their part, but I really feel like the Earth Caste phoned it in with their Builder Drones.


While giving time for the Earth Caste Drones to reinforce the Heartlands, the Guard tried to build up a proper defense. See, a GOOD Imperial Guard commander would have these Guardsmen inside of a turret or a bunker. Without Alexander, I'm afraid these Guardsmen are just prolonging their deaths. Let's see how they stand up against my Fire Warriors in a shoot out:




Shameful.


OUR DEFENSeS ARE READY.
Excellent. Tear it down!




You might as well stay where you are, O'Kais. Governor Alexander is coming back for another go.


They have vehicles this time.


I'll admit, the Guard have some decent vehicles. The Chimera here is pretty solid against infantry, and can hold three squads inside of it. There are ports on the sides of it, allowing garrisoned squads to fire out, making it extremely dangerous in capable hands. There are no squads inside this Chimera, so I'm wonder just how capable Alexander is.


Make this quick.


That's one.


And two!




While you were defending the Heartland, Taldeer attacked the Demes Northlands. Here are the reports:


First base down within minutes thanks to Broadside cannons.


Second base demolished a few minutes later thanks to Drone Squads.




Another failed Chaos attempt against the Orkz, otherwise no enemy movements. It seems they mostly just want a piece of the Tau Empire.


Well, we can more or less attack Strongholds at our leisure. We have quarantined the Eldar, the Space Marines, and the Imperial Guard. The Orkz, Necron, and Chaos Forces don't have many places to go. What's our next move?