Betalis III Campaign - Assault on Company Vengeance: Deployed directly in the path of the Mymeara host, Company Vengeance, with General Myndoras Odon leading from the fore, clashed with the Craftworld Aeldari forces as the last rays of the system's cold blue sun were smothered by snow clouds pouring in from the north.Skimming ahead of Mymeara's infantry was a vast armada, hundreds of squadrons of Jetbikes, Hornets and Vypers. In stark contrast to their Corsair brethren, Mymeara's pilots demonstrated no desire to dive down upon their Imperial foe and satisfy a barely checked thirst for battle.Instead they came in low, in tight surgical formations, forcing the rear ranks of Company Vengeance to hold fast their fire lest their shells impact among their own front lines. The change in tactics served the Asuryani well.The wake of that devastating first sortie was strewn with the hulls of over seventy Leman Russ tanks and Chimeras, their thick armour plating scored by shuriken fire or the crew killed as Pulse Laser and Prism Cannon fire penetrated their tank's armour.But such losses were expected. Against the more chaotic attacks of the Aeldari Corsair pilots, standard tank tactics had sufficed, but to maintain such tight formations when faced with the main body of the Asuryani assault would have proved suicidal -- their more disciplined pilots would simply have stayed out of range of Company Vengeance's guns and attacked from afar.Once the battle was underway, Company Vengeance's numbers would be too few to repeat that manoeuvre. Instead they would engage the xenos aircraft in smaller groups, the experienced tank crews of the Cadian 6th Armoured Regiment fighting the battle on their own terms.The plan worked, but not as effectively as General Odon had bargained for. Having recently fought the Ork horde on Saras VII, a force that barely kept in check at the best of times by its Blood Axe Warlord, the Cadian officers reverted to the tactics which had worked there. These had to be quickly countermanded and replaced with more effective manoeuvres to use against the disciplined Asuryani army.Yet, as if the attack from the air wasn't enough for the Imperial forces to contend with, the first of the Asuryani land forces arrived.Deploying swiftly from the Mymeara portal far off in the west, squadrons of Wasps, the Aeldari species' long-legged assault walkers, launched themselves into the heart of the battle, their pilots using a combination of the Wasps' speed and the manoeuvrability afforded by their jump jets to land amongst Company Vengeance's squadrons.The tactic soon found some of the less-experienced sponson gunners from the Vaust 14th Regiment blasting away at tanks from their own side as they became fixated on the target in their sights, oblivious to anything else.Then, as the Jetbikes, Hornets and Vypers came round again for a second attack run, the Asuryani Wasps would propel themselves swiftly out of range as the Asuryani craft cut yet another swathe of destruction through Company Vengeance's lines, adding to the steadily growing numbers of burning tanks littering the battlefield.Yet with the benefit of General Odon's years of experience, the Astra Militarum force was nothing if not adaptable. The veteran tank commander ordered the Cadian crews to split up their squadrons; one tank from each was to separate off, presenting itself as the vulnerable target the Asuryani pilots were prowling the battlefield for.Once it had secured their attentions, it was to speed off as fast as it could, luring the xenos flyers straight onto the waiting guns of the rest of its squadron. It was not a precise or reliable tactic, but when it did work it was devastatingly effective.