Review: Mont'ka

Mont'ka by Games Workshop
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

During the second Damocles Crusade, the Imperium sends a punitive force, composed of the elements of the astra militarum, adeptus mechanicus, imperial navy to the former Imperial world of Agrellan. Supplementing them are the space marines from the Raven Guard & White Scars chapter, as well as Imperial Knights of House Terryn. Their objective, retake the now Tau dominated world of Macgulath, which serves as a key supply point for their sphere of expansion.

Arrayed against them are the forces of the Tau empire, led by Commander Shadowsun, as well as Aun' va the Ethereal supreme. Also making an entrance is the surprise assistance from the renegade Commander Farsight as well as the forces of the Farsight enclave. The former hero of Tau, may not hold the leadership in high regards, but still regards himself as a loyal soldier of the Tau race.

Right out of the gates, we are treated to a mass mobilization and deployment of war assets, in typical Imperial fashion. Millions of men, armor and tanks make landfall into the cursed toxic plains of Agrellan.

Imperial might, iron will and never back down, downright suicidal tactics, meet the precise tactical skill and technological superiority of the Tau military. The superior quality of the individual Tau forces, combined with able leadership by commanders such as Shadowsun, mean that from the onset, the Tau are able to deal devastating casualties to the Imperial forces. And that is without the benefit of any orbital support.

But as the Tau would come to realize, the Imperium of Mankind holds sway over a million worlds, not by paltry things such as tactics, strategy or technological prowess. They do so by sheer numbers and bullheaded vengeful strikes. For every imperial soldier that the Tau cannons manage to kill, tens more take up the place, willing to wreak the Emperor's rightful vengeance upon these filthy Xenos Interlopers.

The Tau are about to find out that in engagements with the great behemoth, there are no victors, only survivors.



Full Disclosure, I belong to that faction of fans of Warhammer 40k who despise everything about the Tau. Something about their hilarious naivete about the greater horrors of the universe, combined with their Eldar levels of highbrow arrogance, not to mention the bigotry of the Greater Good, just ticks me off.

At least the Aeldari have been around for a couple of million years, and have some substance to back their claims. But a young upstart whose entire race's history could be summarized to a scant few millennia, acting like they're entitled to galactic dominion, hilarious doesn't start to cover it.

Having gotten that out the way, I went into the novel, looking to cheer for the Imperial invaders, even though the title seemed to favor the other side. Right off the bat, I love the imperial line up put on display here. The men of the Astra militarum, the not so men of the Adeptus, Imperial knights, Adeptus Astartes, and even a whole freaking kill team from the Officio Assassinorum, one from each temple.

But expecting the Imperium to win because of their numerical superiority is not always an expected outcome. Because as numerous as their numbers are, the armies of the Imperium are plagued by inefficiency, archaic military doctrines, and poorly stretched logistics. All of which are being exploited by the Tau, whose military doctrine focuses on tactical overwhelming strikes with little damage to themselves. Unfortunately, the foes they're dealing with are as relentless as an Ork Horde or Tyranid swarm. And their already limited resources would be pushed to the brink.

The title of the book is one of the two Tau military doctrine, Mont'ka of which Shadowsun is a master of, as opposed to Kauyon which Farsight has mastery in.

In the Imperium side, every faction is given a chance to shine in their own limited way to showcase their prowess and specialties. Be it Commander Pask Tank Squadron reminiscent of the real life Desert fox, or Lord General Troskzer, who is reminiscent of Patton in his bull-headedness.



The Mechanicum & their Skitarii legions are skittering about, more interested in plundering valuable Tau technologies than achieving victory.



Sadly, the Imperial Knights of House Terryn & the Adeptus Astartes, the two strongest units in the field, often get shafted for the story to happen. The Imperial knights get trashed by the Tau's newest super-secret weapon, only being saved at the last second thanks to the enigmatic Obsidian Knight. While the Astartes are led around the noose by Farsight and his cohorts. And poor Kor'Sarro Khan of the White Scars was yet again denied a proper hunt of Commander Shadowsun.



The Raven Guard & new Chapter master Kayvaan Shrike are just sort of there. You'd think they will be more involved in this conflict, seeing as how last time their Chapter master was annihilated by Shadowsun.



The Whole thing ends in a massive Kerfuffle, the campaign deemed a failure, and much like Russians recently in Ukraine, the Imperium leaving massive numbers of men and machines in the field.

The sweet taste of victory would elude Shadowsun however, as the Ethereal supreme is killed by an Culexes Assassin. And the Imperium, as a final f**k you, dropped a cyclonic torpedo to the world, engulfing everything but the main hive world, protected by its shield war in magma and flames visible from orbit.

The Tau plot armor in this story is pretty thick. Like how Tau managed to gain superiority over the Imperial forces in almost every engagement. Ambushes which manage to reap overwhelming toll from the enemies. Deus ex machina in the form of Farsight and his forces arriving to bail out Shadowsun. It's like, tau can do no wrong, while the Imperium is f**king up at every turn.



I mean, Farsight, gets dropped by a Vindicare & a freaking Eversor Assassin, in quick succession and manages to essentially walk it off. Shadowsun escapes an assassination attempt by a Callidus assassin due to, reasons. Frankly, if it weren't for the Culexus assassin offin the Ethereal Supreme, the whole kill team would be no better than a wet paper napkin.

Then we come to the topic of Shadowsun. One thing I have with Tau novels is that their characters have no interesting aspects, Farsight being an exception. Things are no different in case of Shadowsun, there is nothing remotely interesting about her, other than she is a 'tactical genius'. Something which is shown down our throat at least twenty times over the course of the story. No character motivations other than the obvious, no shifting loyalties, no inner conflicts, no obstacles or failures. Even if the Tau themselves fail, she is perfect. The one halfway interesting thing she does, letting Farsight go, is so blasé and predictable it's not worth mentioning. If you ask me, the Khan is right about being stiffed on his hunt.

Finally, the climax of the book. All the forces involved pull out way too fast, to the detriment of the Imperium, for some greater threat. It all seems so contrived and rushed and not at all satisfying. They could've done better.

All in all, a decent read, if only for the variety of tactics being shown on the always ambushed imperial side. Pick it up if you're a Tau fan.


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