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All my friends are away for the weekend, and I had the itch. It's time for a battle report! I've been trying to build something unconventional with Tau, so I decided to play that list against a slight variation on my CSM list. My computer overheated during my first write up of this, so I'm going to be brief to make up for lost time. Oh by the way, I completely forgot about my Obliterators, so this report is going to make the Tau look really bad, but then again, I’ve never played Tau before so it’s a learning experience.

Sorcerer Lord Nikolii, MoT, Warptime, Doombolt, 165
Father's Envoy, the Great Unclean One (Greater Daemon), 100
7 Possessed Marines, Champ, Icon of Nurgle, Rhino, 277
7 Plague Marines, Personal Icon, 2 Meltaguns, Champ, Combi-Flamer, Rhino, 246
6 Noise Marines, Personal Icon, 5 Sonic Blasters, Blastmaster, Champ, Rhino with Havoc Launcher, 255
10 Plague Bearers (Lesser Daemons), 130
2 Obliterators, 150
Predator, Lascannon Turret and Sponsons, 165
1488

Shas'El, 2 Missile Pods, Burst Cannon, Hardwired Multi-tracker, Hardwired Drone Controller, 2 Shield Drones, Hard-wired Target Lock, Bonding Knife 121
2 Shas'Vre Bodyguards, 2 Missile Pods, Burst Cannon, Hardwired Multi-tracker, 132
12 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Markerlight, Target Lock, Bonding Knife, 150
12 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Markerlight, Target Lock, Bonding Knife, 150
7 Pathfinders, Shas'ui, Bonding Knife, Devilfish, 2 Seeker Missiles, Disruption Pod, 204
7 Pathfinders, Shas'ui, Bonding Knife, Devilfish, 2 Seeker Missiles, Disruption Pod, 204
Hammerhead, Railgun, 2 Burst Cannons, 2 Seeker Missiles, Disruption Pod, 175
Skyray, Smart Missiles, Disruption Pod, Targetting Array, 155
2 Broadsides, Targetting Array, Team Leader, Target Lock, Hard-wired Drone Controller, 2 Shield Drones, 200
1491

Seize ground, 5 objectives, deployed Pitched Battle. Tau won to go and deploy first. They deployed north for the two story building, and spread out to get maximum coverage. Chaos deployed to play a Bull's Horns game (squize the enemy’s flanks into the body force moving down the center), but prepared change it into a Refused Flank depending on when the reserves showed up. Chaos fails to seize, but then rolls Scout for the Possessed, and I’m tempted to call it game right there. Refused flank ho!


Tau turn 1
The Possessed’s Scout move gets it out of LoS of the Hammerhead, but the Pathfinders make up for it. They tag it with 4 Markerlights, drawing all the missiles from the Devilfish, Immobilizing, Weapon Destroying and Stunning the Rhino. The Broadside can partially see the Predator, and takes a shot at it. They manage to Immobilize it and destroy it’s turret. The central Fire Warrior squad, and the Pathfinders behind them paint the Predator with their lights, in that round of shooting I really understand how Seeker Missiles should be played. They use the 4 missiles from the Skyray and hit the Predator’s side armor, exploding it.


Chaos turn 1
Everything moves forward and pops smoke, and the Possessed make good time running 6”.


Tau turn 2
The Possessed need to be dealt with immediately, and the Shas’el jumps on the roof to help. The Pathfinders get 4 Marker hits, increasing everyone elses BS to 5. The Broadsides fire their missiles: all hit, all wound, 1 failed save. The Deathrain open up, throwing 15 shots at it the Possessed, but they only manage to kill 2. The Skyray gets 1 Markerlight hit on, and fires its SMS and a Seeker Missile, and the Seeker bags another Possessed. The other Pathfinders need to keep the Rhino from getting up the center of the field, so they paint it with 3 Markerlights, stripping 2 off its cover and expending the Skyray’s last missile to wreck the Rhino. The Shas’el jumped back after his barrage failed.


Chaos turn 2
The Greater Daemon arrives, but Lessers don't. If the Greater gets put down with the Possessed, and they lose their Icon bearer, then having him in that position would be largerly worthless. Better to use him to clear the center objective, allowing Chaos to take the left side of the board. The Noise Marines fall back and fire their Blastmaster into the Pathfinders, killing two, but the Pathfinders pass their morale and pinning tests. The Greater Daemon assaults the Hammerhead, and the Possessed assault the Pathfinders. The Greater Daemon wrecks his target, and the Possessed run down theirs.


Tau turn 3
The Possessed still really need to die, or they’ll lose all the units in that area. The Skyray gets a single Markerlight hit, increasing the Shas’el’s BS, but its SMS is otherwise ineffective. The Shas’el fires, hitting 12 of the 15 shots, but only wounds twice (there were something like 8 3’s, so thanks Papa Nurgle). Both the wounds are saved. The Broadsides try their luck, and through some wound allocation they over-kill everyone but the Icon Bearer. The Shas’el assaults the grinning daemonkin, and delivers the mont’ka. Meanwhile the Fire Warriors have the objectives to worry about. The enemy has three scoring units to their two, and that needs to be fixed. If they can kill off the Noise Marines, they’ll have a shot, so they make a bee-line over the warehouse.


Chaos turn 3
The Lessers finally show their useless selves, and Nikolii dumps them on the far left objective. The Pathfinder’s support will be the death of the Noise Marines, so Nikolii casts a Warptimed Doombolt along with the Plague Champion’s combi-flamer and kills the squad to a man. The Greater Daemon makes some great difficult terrain rolls and catches the fleeing Devilfish. Despite having moved 12”, the Greater Daemon wrecks it. (The picture was taken after I did the Tau's next movement, so imagine the Tau units where they were in the last picture.)


Tau turn 4
The Firewarriors desperately try to kill the Greater Daemon. Their Markerlight sticks, and it increases the Shas’el’s BS. The squad, however, is too shaken by the Greater Daemon’s rampage to shoot straight and fails to do any damage. The Shas’el and his squad put two wounds on the beast, and the Broadsides fail to do damage. Meanwhile the bottom Fire Warriors engage the Noise Marines, killing 3 including the Blastmaster.


Chaos turn 4
The Noise Marines fire into then assault the Fire Warriors, killing one then two respectively. The FireWarriors kill a Noise Marine in return and make their Ld test. The Greater Daemon sweeps the other Fire Warriors and I call the game here. Chaos has won, but that doesn’t matter. I learned how I need to tweak the Tau list: no static elements. It needs to be able to move constantly and use the Seeker Missiles to hit weaker armor facings before moving in for the kill.

First, interesting report. I guess you're playing yourself?

Second, you're right that Tau need to keep moving or they die. That said, I like using pathfinders as the single static element. They're a great support unit, plus it gives your opponent something to run towards, which sometimes makes him ignore the faster, but more valuable, mobile stuff.

A few comments on the Tau list:

1. It looks like you separated your commander from his bodyguard. That's a no-no, though the codex is a little confusing.

2. Given that you're planning to shoot vehicles with seekers (a plan I've wanted to try) you probably don't need the twin Missile Pods.

3. Turn the bodyguards into regular fireknife suits. The pair would cost exactly 2 points more, be far more effective against anything in power armor and vehicles, and only slightly less effective against hordes.

I could also say stuff about getting more crisis and kroot, but since you're running sort of a concept list, I won't.

Thanks again for the report.

A 3 man stealth marker team is a decent source of mobile marker lights (team leader marker +2 drones).

Thanks for the report.

Heh, well the lesser daemons weren't as useless as they were described .
Possessed + scouts in a rhino is awesome...

No static elements...but that means no more pathfinders...which is the most cost effective means of getting alot of markerlights to support a heavy seeker missile army.

CrazyK's suggestion is not cost effective in addition you lose out on an extra (mandatory) vehicle with the pathfinders...

If the Lessers had shown up on turn 2 instead of the Greater Daemon, the game Tau would have been tabled by turn 4 instead, which I why I called them useless.

I am a big advocate of the Stealth Marker Teams, but in this list you can take a decked out Skyray for 10 points less, which will give a higher statistical average of Markerlight hits. However, I'll recant no static elements. What I need more than total mobility is mobility with my Seeker Missiles, so I'll definately be adding some Pirhanas. I'll need a veritable swarm of them though, because they'll be the majority of my anti-tank, both anti-transport and heavy vehicle. That probably means all the railguns are out.

My computer at home is broken, so I won't be able to work out an actual list for a couple weeks. Oh well, good luck without me.

Broadsides+Advanced Stabilization System=moving big guns.

Seriously, broadsides are your friend.

Pirahnas are like 65 points each and die very easily because they have to get so close to do anything. They're good as one-shot suicide units, like land speeders for marines, but you don't want to depend on them. They also take fast slots so unless you're fielding a squadron which WILL die quickly and draw tons of fire, you're limiting how many pathfinders you can take.

Just a thought.