Hello Battle Brothers,

since I am new to the WH40k universe I would appreciate some help with a mission concerning the Tau. I take over the setting from another GM who started with a lot planet which has been re-discovered after he has been cut off due to an warp storm.

A Deathwatch squad team accompanied a magistrate who was sent do re-integrate the planetary government into the empire. On the planet the squad team discovered that the Tau have set foot on this planet. They are the unofficial leader and equip the planetary defense forces with advanced technology.

So after this discovery the team retreated to inform the inquisition.

Now I am eager to know what could happen. I think the Inquisition would send a Deathwatch cruiser to conquer the planet and drive the Tau off world? What could the Tau empire do to defend that planet? Simply put some heavy star ships into orbit with additional orbital defense platforms?

Some helpt would be appreciated very much!

Thanks in advance,

TechVoid.

TechVoid said:

I suspect that the Imperium would send the Imperial Guard to reconquer the planet, reserving the Astartes for use on only the most vital worlds. The Deathwatch team would then be employed for elite commando/sabotage missions behind enemy lines, in support of the advancing Guard forces (knocking out Tau artillary batteries, assassinating key leaders, etc.).

Its unlikely the Space Marines would get involved at this time. A Imperial Guard army would be sent to secure the planet and destory the tau. The deathwatch would only get involved on a few occasions

1. Some artifact that relates to the past history of a chapter or has some signficance

2. The tau are proving to much for the IG

3. A well know Tau commander is there and the marines want to silence him once and for all

4. Their is chaos at work on the planet and the guard cannot be trusted

Ah,

thanks.

I had similar thoughts. So the Imperial Army will have to deal with the main Tau threat while the Deathwatch refers to more important killing blows.

I think I will come up with some detailed ideas to discuss.

Cheers,

TechVoid.

I have the imperial armour book 3? Taros campaign this deals with imperial guard and marines retaking a planet from the Tau (or trying to) its a really good read

TechVoid said:

In my mind the DW have a mission parameter to re-integrate the planetary government using the magistrate.

Firstly DW would not send marines unless they had evidence their services were required, so the team must have intelligence that would suggest a possible Xenos threat.

This being the case, the Kill Team would then seek out the Xenos, examine the forces, check defences, and if possible remove the high command in charge of the Xenos forces.

I very much doubt they would retreat to the Inquisition, even though their aims are similar, they are not the same.

So if I was GM in this situation I would set Mission Objectives to infiltrate Tau HQ and eliminate the command.

A secondary objective would be to remove sympothisers.

Tertiary would be to reduce defences to make it easier for the Imp Guard to mop up.

Well we do know that The Imperium have peacefull contacts with the Tau(Tau tt rulebook) due to bigger threats in the vicinity(Tyranids orks chaos etc). So The Magistrate Could demand to meet the Tau Leader to discuss matters of Tau withdrawal(using the deathwatch as scare-offs), of course this will lead to war since it is doubtfull that the Tau will Abandoned a newly "conquered" planet. It could even devolve into The deathwatch strangling the Tau Commander(or whatever) because of an especially devout black templar and have to fight their way off-planet into Imperial territory.

I think i will use this myself.

The spance marines will never ever ever side with a xeno unless there is dire situations eg a tryanid/ork/chaos invasion. The marines will see it as their duty to cut down the Tau in the emperor's name for not believing in his divine rule to rule the galaxy

Emperor's Champion said:

What about the marines that don't think the Emperor is a god, but "just" a man?

The Deathwatch specifically will engage in temporary alliances with xenos when the need arises, and the Deathwatch are marines. Maybe the Black Templars will be upset about it, but if they know what's good for them they'll do what the DW tells them to do.

Here is a radicals way to deal with the Tau:

- The Tau have been on this world for a while, spreading their propaganda and protecting the world from small threats.

- A radical Inquisitor arranges for Orks to show up.

- The Tau decided that the world wasn't worth the deaths they would take to keep it (they can't afford as many casualties as the Imperium can). So they leave the humans to fend for themselves.

- The Imperium arrives to fight off the Orks and spread propaganda about how cowardly the Tau are.

While the guard does suffer more casualties fighting the Orks than they would against the Tau forces, the Tau leaving is a propaganda victory that make the Imperium look like a saviour instead of the brutal invader that Tau propaganda makes them out as. So there will be much less resistance from the human populace.

As for the feral Orks that this world now has, they can be controlled (but any control requires imports from the Imperium, making the world very scared about what would happen if the Imperium leaves) and the Inquisitor will (if he can't keep it secret) claim that worlds with such infestations do produce better guardsmen.

I came up with this scenario as a reason to get them down on the planet before things go wrong and they find that the real mission is not the one given in the briefing.

The Guard are certainly the most likely candidates for reclaiming the planet. Of course, if the Tau know the Guard are on the way, they'll ramp up the defenses, including orbital stations. These would make an ideal objective for Kill teams. It also gives a nice contrast between the Tau's super high-tech space vehicles and the gothic majesty of the Astartes. In terms of battlefields, it allows you to switch between brutal tunnel fights, and sprawling engagments in hangars and other open spaces, preferably in zero-g, to mix things up. Also, nothing brings a smile to a players face better than giving them a hyper-powered orbital railgun that does 10 bazillion damage to play with.

Of course, one thing to bear in mind if you go down this route: Bet you a tenner that at least one player (probably the anime fan) tries to drop the station onto the planet.

Some mission objectives off the top of my head...

1. captureing a Tau Etherial. (the holy grail of Tau Xenos research if they are alive)

2. securing a Tau map of their controlled space, with accurate numbers and disposition

3. salavgeing any new Tau tech for study by the Ordos

4.Elimination of valuble men and material. (Shas'o, Aun'o) (Tau Manta, Hammerhead/suit maintance parks)

DW are for special forces style work, not attrition warfare. This is a job for the IG, if it comes to open conflict.

Alternatively, the Imperium's ships are capable of wiping the floor with the Tau navy. Play to Imperial strengths. Turn up, blockade the planet, and blow the snot out of any Tau that turn up. Make a planet-wide broadcast and demand that the citizens lay down their heretical weapons and rise up against those who have misled them.... or you start cutting off vital supplies and dropping rocks from orbit on food production facilities. Pretty soon the people of the planet will be storming the Gov's palace themselves and handing over a selection of heads on poles.

Amidst this, the KT could perform surgical strikes and psychops; assassinating or kidnapping key figures for 're-education' and interrogation, disabling vital facilities, et cetera.

Emperor's Champion said:

Read Warrior Brood and Warrior Coven , both of which are novels about DeathWatch. Warrior Coven is basically about the DW KT working with a Eldar Craftworld (even visiting their craft world) to fight off and take down a Dark Eldar coven.

There are times a KT will work along side a Xeno to face off a greater threat. They won't trust the xenos, won't make a big issue of it if some xenos die, but they do on occasion.

This is something I have read on a regular basis in varieous 40k books - novels and game books.

The Imperial Guard are the Emperor's Hammer.

The Space Marines are His Sword.

and in the DeathWatch book, they do mention the above, in one form or another, plus say that the DeathWatch are the surgical strike of the Imperium.

On rare occasions of Extreme importance and High Dire need is a DeathWatch Force sent in a large number. I remember reading one such reference in the core book about a mission where they send 80 Marines along with 2 Dreadnaughts.... less than 10 Marines came back alive.

Just my 2 cents worth.

That high casualty mission was against an enslaver plague and is described in the history of the jericho reach:

http://www.fantasyflightgames.com/ffg_content/deathwatch/minisite/support/deathwatch-know-no-fear-lowres.pdf

In the core book, more than one kill team on a mission is a sign it is massively important/dangerous.

I'll add my support to the chorus of how it will be dealt with (all likely manipulated from the shadows by the Inquisition).

1. The Imperial Fleet will assemble a war host, and in short order gain complete orbital dominance. Also transporting the rest of the force to follow onto the planet.

2a. The Imperial Guard will descend (in their millions) and overwhelm the Tau defenders, retaking the planet quickly.

2b. If space marines are available, they will make surgical strikes at the Tau senior command, crippling their capacity to resist during the Imperial Guard invasion.

2c. If the Deathwatch are there, they will be engaged in recovering key xeno-personnel or technology for assessment and potential transfer to the AdMech for reverse engineering; hopefully before the IG or their SM brothers can blow it up

3a. The Adeptus Ministorum will go in to reestablish the Imperial Creed. The Sisters of Battle will aid them, conducting purges against the hardliners.

3b. The Administratum will go in to establish Imperial authority, assess the world for its tithe grades, and rewrite the history of the world to ensure that future generations will either not know of this Tau interregnum or will view it as a failed invasion.

3c. The Arbites will establish a blockhouse to monitor the Imperial Planetary Governer that is installed, and ensure he maintains his obligations.

3d. The Astra Telepathica will rejoin the world to the Imperium by establishing Astropathic Choirs across the world.

4. The AdMech will come in to assess the technology base of the planet, seize anything of value and establish dominance over the technology and production base of the world.

The Tau have absolutely no chance to stop any of this happened. They are a mouse fighting a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

no chance eh ? read the imperial armour Taros campagin where the Tau hand the imperial forces their arses

facing imperial guard, imperial navy and marines

against the might of imperium the Tau cant stand but the imperial forces are spread thin faces enemies within and without

As many have said before, the Imperial Navy and Imperial Guard would be the primary assault force. However the Deathwatch would be pulled in to perform commando style raids. A good series of missions could be based around the campaign.

1) The deathwatch uses a heavily cloaked ship and a modified pod to assault onto one of the tau orbital platforms. Their goal is two fold, to use the platform's weapons to damage the tau defense ships and the other orbital platforms then destory the platform itself. Once that is completed they will be performing a void down onto the planet.

2) Once on the planet they will be training a group of humans still loyal to the emperor. These will help support the deathwatch in the later half of the campaign as well as providing a non-combat goal.

3) In order to prepare the planet for the approaching Imperial Guard, the deathwatch need to establish a set of landing zones by scouting them out and eliminating any tau defenders and anti-aircraft guns in the area.

4) Lastly, at the beginning of the invasion, the Deathwatch will assault the primary tau communication center and rob the tau of their technological advantage.

If the planet is strategiacally important to the crusade and the Killteam is still on the planet they could be asked to destabilize the Tau hold of the planet. Maybe even get some of the humans to side with them and start a resistance movement. the fun part is that the Kill team have only a brought scope. Details of their various missions the team has to think of by themselves.

octus thats exactly what i am planning for my players a bit like the role of the US green berets in vietnam so fits kill team well and gives players freedom to plan their own war

Hardrainfalling said:

Well, the Tau can only do that a few times before their limited numbers are gone, and the Imperium have an endless supply of arses...

Hardrainfalling said:

Just remember that the DW doesn't report to the Crusade. If you're playing that part up in your campaign, just be sure you explain the tacticl importance of the planet and why the DW are assisting the Crusade Forces. It's totally justificable, but some players may want to know what's going on, and the DW of all people will probably be well briefed on the situation

Luddite said:

Tru enough, and it's a fair interpretation, but from what (little) I've read on Tau it's exactly as Hardrain says- against a massed foe the Tau don't stand a chance against the millions of men the Imperium has, but the Imperium is spread out to hell and back (literally in some cases). If the Tau weren't a significant threat to the Empire (and I'm not just talking about being able to 'convert' populations) then why would they get their own codex for TT and be one of the 3 primary forces the Imperium is fighting in the Reach? In fact, if they were so easy to run over, why wouldn't the Empire have decimated the Tau holdings in the reach years ago?

Charmander said:

Put simply, the Tau just aren't a big enough threat. In a galaxy of slavering monsters, daemons from hell, and soccer hooligan fungus-men, they're relatively low on the threat index. The Imperium's initial push to destroy the Tau (the Damocles Gulf Crusade) was only halted due to the appearance of the Tyranids. When forced to choose, the Imerial commanders decided that the Great Devourer posed a more immediate threat than the gray hippies.

From the tabletop core rulebook, pg. 119:

"A threat growing in strength is that of the rapidly rising younger races[...]Individually, these upstarts cannot hope to challenge humanity's dominance...but taken as a whole, then their containment promises to drain valuable military resources."

The issue isn't just the Tau, it's also the Draxian Hegemony, the Church of Dracolith, the Worldweave of the Noisome Reek, etc. There are so many tiny empires that when compiled form a threat to Imperial dominance.

So, could the Imperium annihilate the Tau? Heck, yeah. But to do that, it would be using soldiers that could be stopping Chaos, the Tyranids, or Ghazgkhull.

I look at the Achilus Crusade in a similar light. As it stands, the Crusade has been sent reeling by the unexpected resistance, coupled with the appearance of Hive Fleet Dagon. They're busy trying to hold their ground, let alone launch a full-assault on a new Tau world. It's like the Taros campaign: request 21 Guard regiments, get alloted 10. Be promised a legion of titans, get four Warhounds. The Imperium just doesn't have the resources to spare.