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Shep and I were able to get in two action packed this games weekend to kick off the Sprue Posse's Planetary Empires campaign. Shep spent some time over the last couple of weeks painting up the planetary empires tiles to match his home board and Vostroyans - it looks pretty sweet. We did our territories last week at paint night - for those of you who don't know, in Planetary Empires different territories give you different bonuses which explains some of the inequities in our lists - and my USRs.

I once again brought the my Crimson Fists bikers with a couple of minor tweaks just to fill in some points - which of course I completely forgot to use (auxillary grenade launcher, I am looking at you).

1750 Crimson Fists Harriers
Captain Vaqaero (Artificer Armor, Aux Grenade Launcher, Hellfire Rounds)

8 Bikes (MM Attack Bike, 2x Plasma, Power Fist)
8 Bikes (MM Attack Bike, 2x Plasma, Power Fist) -- SCOUTS USR
8 Bikes (MM Attack Bike, 2x Melta, Power Fist)
5 Scouts (Power Fist, Missile Launcher)
5 Scouts (Power Fist, Heavy Bolter)

3 Typhoon Speeders
LS Storm (Heavy Flamer)
LS Storm (Heavy Flamer)

1850 Tau
Shas'el Commander (linked missile pods, target lock and hard-wired drone controller + 2 gun drones)

3x3 Crisis Suits (missile pod, plasma rifle and multi-tracker on each)

10 Kroot (7 hounds)
10 Kroot (6 hounds)
6 Fire Warriors

8 Pathfinders (devilfish with smart missile system, targeting array, disruption pod and multi-tracker)
2 Piranhas

2x Hammerhead (railgun multitracker, smart missile system, disruption pod)
2 Broadsides (1x team leader 1x drone controller, 1x hard-wired target lock and 2x shield drones)

Pregame and Turn 1
We rolled up a 4 objective Sieze Ground. We ended up almost making a minitable in the middle of the table about a foot in from the long edges and 18" from the short edges. Shep won the roll to go first (he was getting a bonus to the roll for his territories). He chose to make me go first and I started the table with everything in reserve. The Storms and the Scouting bike both chose to outflank.

Shep did a little bit of shifting around his turn but was pretty good with his deployment - the Kroot were both in woodland features near objectives. The fire warriors deploy in the pathfinders devilfish.



As an objective mission I obviously combat squadded everything - Multimelta attack bikes each had a small escort and the special weapons were paired with the sergeants.



Turn 2
The throaty roar of engines heralded the arrival of the Crimson Fists as the Captain led one of the bikes squads on at full tilt. The attack bike squad came in near the right flank.One of the scout-laden Storms came on from my left flank. The Fists managed to shake one of the Hammerheads and kill a single kroot in the woods on the left flank. I was trying to play this one a bit more long range than I typically do.

The Tau shot the Storm out of the sky and the opportunistic Tau also managed to kill 2 bikers. The scouts took up a defensive position behind the the wreckage but within easy range of an objective.



Turn 3
The rest of my army turned up on Turn 3 with the rest of my outflankers also coming in on the left flank. Since that was already pretty stacked on that side I chose to press the advantage with most everything else. I basically left the one MM attack bike combat squad hanging out there on the right.

The Crimson Fists firepower wreaked a terrible toll amongst the Tau Crisis Suits killing 2 from 1 squad and 1 from both of the others. Their natural xenos cowardice came into effect, as I know it would and resulted in two of the squads falling back - one of the two many squads leaving the table entirely.



The other crisis suits rally and shooting destroys the other Storm also on my flank despite it moving flat out. They also kill 2 of the bikes escorting the combat squad on the right flank.

Turn 4
Shooting manages to shake one piranha and destroy the melta on the other one.

The bikes that came in onthe left join the captain's squad in a joint assault on the kroot in the woods.



Their shooting beforehand wounds 10 but only accounts for 2 kroot in their dugin positions. The charge, however, saps the will of kroot and the bikes scatter the avian xenos. The outflanking squad consolidates out of the woods thanks to a high roll, the captain's squad gets a lower roll and so takes up position in the woods around the objective in order to prevent and fast moving contesting of the objective. I also triple charged the piranhas and the devilfish but don't hit the vehicles.



Shep's shooting kills the attack bike on the right flank and his escort goes to ground - he then fails his morale check and falls back to the objective where he will spend the rest of the game out of LOS. Shep also destroys the other Storm and kills 3 scouts - over the next turn both squads will be left with only 1 and they spread out at max range near the objective.

Shep jumps into action to claim/contest the objectives he can. The piranhas move flat out but are unable to get within 3" of the objective thanks to my canny bike placement.

The other kroot move towards the objective.

He is also forced to give me a rear shot on his devilfish.

Turns 5 and 6
It turns out I don't need the rear armor shot as the captain's squad's meltas destroy it. The other squad then takes an opportunist shot on the Hammerhead's rear armor (it was going to tank shock me off the objective) and immobilizes it.

Things go from bad to worse for Shep as the fire warriors are pinned by the destruction of thier transport.

The squad that killed the kroot moves over to the commander with his pathfinder escort and charges in and wipes them out.

One of the other squads charges into the unit of kroot - they have no hope of winning, but if the game ends on 5 the kroot are out of range of the objective.

They consolidate and set up a charge on the kroot to support the other squad and keep them from claiming the objective.



At this point the writing is well and clearly on the wall. I am claiming 3 objectives and 1 is unclaimed. Shep might be able to contest 1 of the ones I have but that is not enough.

A victory for the Crimson Fists!

After Action Review
Well, that is 2 games down without the Command Squad and I didn't miss them at all. The Typhoons did decently in both games so they will be staying in the list at the cost of the command squad.

Hall of Heroes
Everything in my list did pretty well - but I will have to give it to the outflanking plasma squad. They destroyed the weapon and shook the other piranha, helped wipe out the kroot in the woods, wiped out the pathfinders and commander and then charged in to stick the other kroot in place to keep them from the objective.

Wall of Shame
Well, everything went well for me in this game. I played patient and that helped out, I think. I have no nominees for the Wall.

Honored Foes
The Pathfinders were a constant thorn in my side - weather by raising the rest of his armies BS as needed and stripping me of my turboboost cover save they earned my grudging respect.

I'm very glad you like the Typhoons, I don't use them, but they are by far my fav of all the speeders.

Canny bike placement: HA! "Infantry model" being impassible terrain to AV. Aren't you glad not all AV are tanks!

Triple charge! It always brings tears of joy to pull it off and see being pulled off...even if it doesn't do anything to 2/3 of the units charged.

Tau Pathfinders: yes, almost an auto-include for tau lists.

@Shep:
How were the kroot?
Did they help or hinder?
Did you get to shoot more than combatty with them?

@Somnicide:
I'm glad you are enjoying times without the command squad. They work for some and not for others.
I don't personally like them as you may know, but their application can not be denied...it's just cost being the issue.

My 7 Cents.

Sanctjud wrote:How were the kroot?

Big kroot units with hounds are a constant source of surprise for me as I learn tau. I already knew going in to tau that kroot with hounds are both the best troops tau have, and insanely pivotal in their ability to push back alpha striker or assault rush armies. In this game they match up so poorly with bikers, I basically got them into woods, in a scoring position, and did my best to control movement with them. Charging out of the woods to contact biker units on my side of the table that have combat tactics is pure suicide, and my shooting isn't quite up to snuff with them. Still 17 strength4 ws4 2attack models (almost half of them with I5) for 112 points is a good deal.

One thing I have been grappling with is their leadership. Against shooting I have had no real problem, and against close combat, non-stubborn non-fearless troops either win it or are dead meat anyway, but I have been terrorized by tank shocks. Nash is about to post a batrep where I play his guys and russes IG list, and even with two almost full units of kroot standing on a lone objective, they were harassed right off of it by a lone damaged russ that just kept rinsing and repeating tank shocks (and not failing dangerous terrain tests)

Sanctjud wrote:Did they help or hinder?

They certainly helped. The fire warriors did what they do every game. Survive for 4-5 turns, then maneuver into melta range because they have to go and score, the fish a-splodes, I take 5 wounds on the passengers, they fail a pin, or they fail morale, they are so frustratingly useless. It is another issue with leadership, but unlike with the kroot, I'm not tempted to shell out 15 points for LD8 and a bonding knife. the codex makes me take them, so I'll take as little as I can until they're brought into the world of 5th edition. Kroot are the only reliable scorers I have. I've been getting criticized about how few troops i have by my opponents, but really I'm just trying to stay shooty (hard to compete with 5th edition IG shootiness) while fielding the minimum amount of scorers I can.

Sanctjud wrote:Did you get to shoot more than combatty with them?

They were terrain this game. They got involved in 2 combats, one of my units won, one did not. I initiated neither of them. I shot quite a bit with them, it might have accounted for a single bike. i drew the chargers on the big charge into taking 10 dangerous terrain tests. Som decided he wasn't going to fail any.

I'm delusional, I don't expect much from the troops choice of any codex. They have that additional role, so are instantly forgiven for their shortcomings. But there isn't anything particularly hard to kill in the tau army in the troops slot, kroot have some great utility, but unfortunately, that same utility puts them in harms way almot every time (outflanking into enemy lines, screening assault units, pushing back alpha strikers) all of that stuff gets them killed, and then I'm left counting on the old fire warrior failfish.

Something I'm currently toying with is the following. I'm running 3 troop units, one fire warrior, 2 squads of kroot. However the kroot are sitting at 12 models (10 kroot, 2 hounds). I'm also running two pathfinder squads.

I'm re-using the pathfinder d-fish for transports for the kroot. It allows you to advance deploy the kroot and then scout up with the d-fish and then hop in them on turn #1. This allows them to do some of the utility options and then run away .

I briefly thought about that idea. Infil the kroot up to block early movement and deep strikes, but scoop them up in a dfish when they got threatened.

Glad to hear that it works (at least sometimes). Thanks Warmaster

Just looking at your deployment. It looks like you didn't really use your kroot to block the outflankers.

How much of your opponents army was outflanking.

Setting up completely on 1 side and blocking the corner could definitely help keep them from getting shots on your crisis suits the turn they come in.

Fourth picture down; it brings me tears of joy to see an enemy army surrounded by bikers.
It just looks so cool.

Shep: The Pirahna gun drones look to have been forced out of their 'seats' late in the game.
Did you think to use them as:
-Impassible terrain
-blocking charges
In addition to the devilfish.

Sort of stuff.

I feel if you could have blocked that biker charge on the kroot and had an extra round of shooting from them or anything else wishing to focus on the charging bikers.

My 7 Cents.