Part 21: Day 18, Tyrea, Attack (Victory)

An excellent plan. Heck, Gregory and I can take care of the Chaos Forces pretty much on our own! First, though, we need to make our way up the land bridge to the hill where the Eldar have the Relic.






Resistance has been light, but steady. Thank goodness for this Hammerhead Gunship.




Ahh, the Webway Portals. Through these devices Taldeer is teleporting in Eldar from Craftworld Ulthwé directly. If we can take hold of them, or destroy them, she won't be able to call in reinforcements and we'll be able to eliminate the Eldar presence on Kronus.


Capturing all three critical location points signify our control over them. If we can take all three and hold them for 10 minutes, we win the match. That's no fun, though, so we'll dismantle the Eldar base bit by bit.


The enemy has taken a Webway Gate. Drive them back!!


The Eldar have fortifications set up all along this mountain top.


Their main base is heavily defended, with only three narrow points of entry. We're not going to bother with the other two, though, only the main entrance. Thanks to the Drone Harbingers I can leave them to forever spawn Drones directly into their base to slowly whittle down their defenses and keep them distracted whilst I do other things. The Eldar army is quite literally stalled at this point.


There's some vehicles we haven't really seen before. That's a Falcon Grav Tank. It functions as an anti-infantry weapon and can transport troops around. Not really concerned about those.


Fire Prism Tanks, on the other hand, are a mild concern. They have a skimmer ability that lets them "hop" over terrain, and have a massive prism cannon that can disrupt infantry and absolutely wreck Tau vehicles. Drone Squads don't stand a chance and melt like nothing before them--which is why I prefer to have the Harbinger Drone Swarms, since they're disposable and don't bunch up in the same way. Tau Tanks are also weak to them, so we need to keep as many of our vehicles away from them as possible. Unfortunately, Taldeer knows this and loves spamming these platforms.


That's a Fire Dragon. Excellent anti-vehicle unit, but they are short-ranged and pretty much useless to standard infantry. They do have interesting stabilizer tech, so they recover from being knocked down especially quickly--not that it matters, since when a Tau gun knocks you down you're more or less dead already.


Right now I have my Fire Warrior Bodyguards and Hammerhead Gunship idling by the Webway Gate. The Drone Harbingers are set to spawn right up that ramp, so they provide the vision needed for the Warriors and Gunship to keep firing on anything near that entrance. Namely, the Avatar of Khaine. This set up is more or less automated meaning I can bug out and do whatever I want elsewhere knowing the Eldar can't really counterattack.


Ah, and there's Gregory now. Come, Gregory, I've found a new toy for you!




The Schismatic Chaos Cult also attempted to defend their base with mines. Like the Orkz, they aren't much threat.


Light defenses. Okay, Gregory, here's the plan: we're just gonna run past all of the Chaos buildings, turrets, and units in order to find the Chaos Sorcerer. When you find that Sorcerer, eat him. That's all there is to it.


Aaaahh, my lord, we have trouble!


W-what is that? A dinosaur? Kill it! Why aren't we killing it? Shoot more bullets at it!


Good boy, Gregory. Ignore the turrets, eat the sorcerer.
Did you just say--WHY?!?! DON'T EAT THE SORCERER, GREGORY!!


Oh god, oh god, oh god, it's eating me, IT'S EATING ME!
You know what, don't actually eat it, Gregory. It's probably tainted and the Kroot tell me they're forbidden to actually eat Chaos Forces. Go on and spit it out now. We'll get you some proper food at the Eldar base.


That's a good boy! Who's a good boy? You are!


Without the Sorcerer to lead them, the base collapses and the Chaos Forces retreat. Easy.










Hmm, with the western road cleared, Mission Group Theta has made contact with the cadre. Excellent work, O'Kais. Make sure you give Gregory my thanks as well. Tell him he's a good boy.
Of course. Attention Tau Forces, we have defeated the Chaos Cultists and are sending in reinforcements. Bring the Gunships to the front lines and prepare to move on to the Eldar base.


Sure thing.


Our enemy has us pinned down.
Farseer, what shall we do?
Keep firing, damnit! I will not lose to this arrogant asshole.
Uh, perhaps you should not be flinging such stones, Farseer. Glass houses, and all that.
Get out there before I shoot you myself.
Of course.


Heads up, Shas'o. We have captured three new strategic points in the area around the former Chaos base. Not that we need any more requisition, but I believe it is now impossible for us to run low on resources.


Excellent. Here's my current attack force, for the record: two Harbingers (you can spot their lights in the fog) are spawning disposable drones into the base to absorb enemy fire, my Fire Warrior Bodyguards (along with Aun'el's) fire safely from a distance, flanked by the two Hammerhead Gunships who joined us. All other forces I'm holding back because they would otherwise needlessly die. As it stands, the only unit we've been losing are the temporary Harbinger Drones, of which we have an endless supply thanks to the three slag deposits we own.


The Drones aren't getting very far, though, since the Eldar have really ramped up production of Fire Prism weapons. Let's focus fire on the Avatar and bring it down.
With pleasure.


How could this happen? None have beaten me until now--


Uh, Farseer?




Farseer?
I know! I saw! Did you think I didn't see that?


With the Avatar down, it's easy work to dismantle the outer defenses. Now I move the Fire Warriors up to flank the edges of the ramp so that the Hammerheads can slowly whittle down unit production facilities. As ever, the stream of Harbinger Drones is constant.


They're sending out Seer Councils now. Commander support infantry. The are really powerful, effective against all types of units, and can detect infiltration. Against a pair of Hammerhead Gunships, they are dust!


Hmm. I thought they Eldar tried real hard to not die. That doesn't seem to be the case here.




Alright, we've brought down enough of their defenses, it's time to let Gregory loose.
Hooray!




I feel it important to point out that the Krootox are doing an equally admirable job at cleaning up this position.


That's a lot of dead Eldar. Taldeer! Hey, Taldeer! You could have left! Where did she go?


Well, that takes care of the main base. Someone take a picture of Gregory next to the Eldar banner!
ACTIVATING DRONE CAMERA. SMILE. *click*
Aww, slap a filter on that and post it to my Instagram. #heytaldeer #gregory #taurule


Tau infantry starting clean up of the defenses around the other Webway Gates.


Haha, man, does Taldeer think that will stop us?


Kroot Hounds have secured a second Webway Gate.


Gregory and I have the third.
Make sure you don't capture the points. Destroy every last Eldar building and unit. It's funnier that way.
As you wish, O'Kais.
Haha, okay, are you ready? Get a load of this cutscene:


Haha, what's that? Is Gregory fighting a magma man? But didn't we already kill the Avatar? I tell you, this cutscene is some Eldar revisionist bullshit.




I mean, this part is more or less true. Aun'el is going to call down Air Caste strikes on the Webway Gates.










The Webway is closed to us now. We are trapped on this world.
Boooo, I already defeated you and your Harlequin!


The Avatar of Khaine has fallen.
That already happened too, and as much as it pains me to say, Hammerhead rail cannonfire did it, not Gregory. Okay, so maybe I prefer this aspect of the Eldar's alternate history.












Go, all of you. Find what refuge you can in the wilderness of this world.
Actually, we killed every last one of the Eldar in Tyrea.


Escape is still possible, Farseer--
No, it's not! I know for a fact that I killed you, Harlequin. You barely made it down the ramp before Fire Warriors cut you down.


Okay, this shot looks pretty badass, but I didn't field nearly that many Kroot.


I do not deserve that title, Harlequin. My vision has failed us all. My fate is here and I shall not flee from it.




And so Taldeer makes herself out to look like this mega badass who does an awesome last stand against overwhelming forces in order to give the last of her Eldar a chance to escape.


Not a bad story, but as you saw, not what actually happened.


In truth, I didn't see Taldeer's unit while playing this map. It's entirely possible she died in the never-ending barrage of Harbinger Drone fire and I just missed it.


Or maybe the game never spawned her unit on this map. Who knows? I assume she actually did quietly sneak away, since who else would produce this blatant Eldar propaganda? Not the Tau, I assure you. The Eldar suffered a shameful defeat at Tyrea, with every single unit and structure captured or destroyed.






Good work, O'Kais. We have another move this turn, thanks to Fury. Let me show you our currentoptions in a handy list:

• The Ariel Highlands, currently owned by the Space Marines. Would grant us the Bulwark ability.
  
• The Vandean Coast, currently owned by the Space Marines. Would grant us the Industrial Production ability.
  
• The Orestan Plains, currently owned by the Imperial Guard. Would grant us a Crisis Suit Honour Guard.
  
• The Morriah Coast, currently owned by Chaos. Would grant us a Skyray Missile Ship Honour Guard.
  
• The Murad Swamplands, currently owned by Chaos. Would grant us the Kroot Elder Shaper Harbyx--
  

I recommend that option, O'Kais. It's about time we free Shaper Harbyx from his imprisonment.
As I was saying:

• The Aceria Forests, currently owned by Chaos. Would grant us the Increased Manpower ability.
  
• The Janus Savannah, currently owned by da Orkz. Would grant us another Kroot Alpha Pack.
  
• The Rhean Jungle, currently owned by Chaos. Would grant us a Crisis Suit Honour Guard.
  
• The Rhean Floodlands, currently owned by da Orkz. Would grant us Kroot Hound Hunting Pack.
  

Of course, we could always defend this turn and build requisition for better Forward Bases and defenses, or even just move next to an enemy stronghold to prepare for another killing blow.
Leave it to the War Council.