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So I played a game against my good friend today and I thought I’d post a quick battle report. I would be playing my new army, the Nova Dragons Space Marines
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/228197.page
My opponent would be fielding his in progress Tau army. We played 1500 points. Here is the breakdown of the armies.

Nova Dragons Space Marines
-Space Marine Captain in Terminator armour
-10 Terminators with 2x heavy flamers
-10 man tactical squad with flamer/missile launcher mounted in a Rhino
-10 man tactical squad with flamer/missile launcher
-5 Man scout squad with sniper rifles
-5 Man scout squad with bolters/shotguns
-2x Whirlwinds
-Predator annihilator

Tau
-Commander with airburst frag launcher and missile pod
-2 Crisis suits with variety of weapons and shield drones
-3 Crisis suits with twin linked plasma rifles, missile pods and shield drones
-12 Firewarriors with 2x gun drones
-12 Firewarriors with 2x gun drones
-8 Pathfinders with Devilfish transport
-6 man stealth suit squad with shield drones
-1 Skyray
-1 Broadside suit with shield drones

The Deployment
We rolled for the mission and got annihilation (kill points) with spearhead deployment (table quarters). The Tau got to deploy and go first (groan). Below you can see the battlefield and deployment (after the first Tau movement phase). I’ve got my marines pushed as close to the Tau as I can while the Tau have fortified a large central ruin opposite my deployment area. Off to one side his stealth suits threaten my flank. My sniper and close in scouts infiltrate there way onto the enemy left flank.


First turn
The Tau open up with a withering hail of fire and pepper my line with marker lights and long ranged firepower. The Rhino explodes in a shower of metal and flame and the tac squad within looses a man and gets pinned in the debris. Although the Predator and Whirlwinds are subjected to intense rail gun and seeker missile fire they remain undamaged. The tactical marines sheltered in the central ruin lose a few of their number to the fire warriors and pathfinders.

The Marines have survived the Tau firepower and prepared to move out. The Predator trundled into firing postion while the Whrilwinds remained stationary. The close in scouts moved up through the ruins in order to reach position for a next turn assault (if they survived). The Marines shooting was largely disappointing. The Fire warriors lost a few of their member to the Whirlwinds, the commander squad was stripped of drones and the Broadside was wounded and pinned by the snipers!

Turn 2
The Tau once again moved ahead with the crisis suits squads and unleashed an impressive array of firepower into the marine army. The small scout squad threatening on the left flank was rapid fired to death. The main turret of the Predator was blown off by the Broadside suit, however the Whirlwinds continued to prove remarkably resilient to the seeker missiles that slammed into them and suffered no damage. All but one of the tactical marines in the central ruin were killed by the crisis suits, firewarriors and pathfinders.. The only consolation for the marines was that two of the stealth suits crashed into the ruins and were killed when they used their jet packs to jump back in the assault phase.

Plenty of marines had been slain so far but now it was time for the Terminators to deep strike onto the table. The Terminators attempted to land right in front of the Tau army but they drifted off target back towards their own lines and landed on top of the central hill in the middle of the table. The tactical squad that was pinned in the previous turn slowly worked their way over the rubble of the destroyed Rhino (rolling a 2 on their difficult terrain test). The sole surviving tactical marine in the central ruin clambered from his vantage point and attempted to deny the enemy a kill point by tactically re-deploying to the rear area. The Predator blasted 2 of the stealth suits apart with its lascannons. The snipers once again shot up the Broadside but this time the armour actually absorbed the damage. The Whirlwinds continued to kill fire warriors. This time they caught a fire warrior squad out in the open and killed 13 of them (all but one). The Terminators opened fire with their storm bolters on the Tau commanders’ squad. 18 storm bolter shots managed cause a whopping 2 wounds (both of which were saved)!

Turn 3
This turn the Terminators would be subjected to a fearsome array of firepower as pretty much the entire Tau army targeted this obvious threat. In the end all but four of the emperors finest would succumb to the deadly barrage. The Predator lost another weapon mount to the Broadside while once again the Whirlwinds escaped damage. As an afterthought the Devilfish shot at the sniper scout squad. 4 wounds were inflicted and 4 ,3+ scout cloak cover saves were failed! The last remaining scout decided that he couldn’t stand up to firepower of that magnitude and promptly climbed down from his two story tower and ran off the table (rolling box cars twice in a row)!

Things were pretty grim but the Space Marines were die-hards and they pushed forward. The Terminators moved up and killed all of the Pathfinders with their remaining heavy flamer and storm bolters. The tactical squad moved up behind the Terminators but were still not in range to fire any weapons. The Whirlwinds fire once again but only managed to wing a Crisis suit and cause 1 wound. The Predator sends a lascannon shot towards the Devilfish but the shot misses due to the Tau vehicles disruption pod.

Turn 4
The game was largely over now and things progressed quickly. The remaining Terminators along with the Captain were finished off with deadly close range shooting. The tactical squad was reduced to 6 in number. The Space Marine vehicles proved extremely tough and avoided damage once again.

In the marine turn the shooting from the marine vehicles was desultory. In the assault phase the tactical squad charged into the Crisis suit squad. In the resulting combat the marines failed to wound their enemy, lost a man in return, broke and ran from the combat!

The End
We called it at that point and there was to be no turn four. The marines only managed to score 1 kill point (for the pathfinder squad) while the Tau had scored 5 kill points (Captain, Terminators, Rhino and both scout squads). Its likely that they would finish off the few remaining tactical marines had there been at least one more turn.

This was just one of those games for me. My dice rolls were of extremely poor quality and this mission type (kills points, table quarters with Tau going first) is a great battle for a Tau gun-line to have. So far I’m 2-2-2 with my new army. This army is going to take some getting used to.

Nice battle report.

A question tho, in your report it says the first turn you pinned the broadside, but in the second turn it blew off an autocannon turret?

Were you shooting the whirlwinds at the fire warriors from turn one on? The only reason I ask is because they probably would have done better shooting into the pathfinders.

You're right, my bad. Sometimes the details get fumbled when you type them up. I definately pinned the Broadside with my snipers on the first turn so the Predator must have been damaged by a seeker missile. The whole game the seeker missiles and the Broadside were the only things shooting at my vehicles.

From the start I was targetting his Fire Warriors for a few reasons. First, he had a squad out in the open so this was too good to pass up. Second he had more Firewarriors than Pathfinders, they they were bigger more attractive targets. Third, the Fire Warriors were positioned in spots where my Whirlwinds could also get hits on nearby squds (namely the command suit squad). The Pathfinders were the only unit on the second story of a ruin so they would be the only squad hit. Basically, I targetted the Fire Warriors because I had the potential to kill more stuff.

Nice report, and really ace looking table! Both armies look great too (well, what's painted of the tau look nice anyway!). Looking forward to more battle reports.

I second that. The armies look very well painted. Will read the report when i get back online tomorrow. Its a quick browse this morning Im afraid.

Nice Report and pictures.

Great job on the report! Everyone has one of those games...just keep playing and keep up these great reports!

nice report and pictures as well. i like the close-up scout sqoud sceen.

That was pretty good I enjoyed it I wish you had taken more pics inbetween though. There was like one pic in the beginning and then some pics at the end of the battle.

The models are also very well painted and the terrain is good.

IMO i think you should've made a bigger attempt to assault the Tau, that's their weakness like with Necrons.

Yes, very awesome paint jobs on both side.

I find that Tau usually do really well vs. Space Marines. I agree that the best thing to do is to assualt asap.


I'm a Tau player and my victory usually depends on whether the opponent will shoot or assualt me. I had a Space Marine player fire at me the whole game, and in the end he decided to assualt my very big unit of Kroot. He crushed it with three Attack Marines and a Chaplain in one turn. It was rather painful.

Nice Batrep, and luvly pictures, both your schemes are lovely.

Our local marine player tends to get wasted against the gunline as well, and kp missions really hurt his list.

The Bringer wrote:Yes, very awesome paint jobs on both side.

I find that Tau usually do really well vs. Space Marines. I agree that the best thing to do is to assualt asap.


I'm a Tau player and my victory usually depends on whether the opponent will shoot or assualt me. I had a Space Marine player fire at me the whole game, and in the end he decided to assualt my very big unit of Kroot. He crushed it with three Attack Marines and a Chaplain in one turn. It was rather painful.

erm...I don't know aye, have you ever faced drop pod armies or ones heavy in vindicator?

Ha ha, that marine army's list is pretty ill suited for Tau.

only one broadside.. is that tau player crazy....

Rough loss but orange you glad you played each other??? Ok horrible joke but the fact that your marines and table look amazing isn't. Your opponents were nicely painted as well. Makes for a very cool game. Great report and good luck in the future with the Nova Marines!

Hey was there any reason for feilding 2 whirlwinds ecept for more firepower than 1?
because in my experience 1 whilwind is always enough even up to 3000pt games.
Also i never feild them against tau as they just dont fit in with my plan for the destruction of those annoying tau who always find a way to foil my plans!

Hi Ghetto-Fight, even though it sys im in america im actally in auckland NZ!!! Go the AB's!!!!!!!!!
good to see another kiwi round here.

It was a great battle report , and I really like your orange marines, I saw on your army page, that you created a vulkan out of curiosity why are you not running thunder hammer terminators and more melta weapons? Also I think you should take out a whirl wind for a Land raider redeemer.