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My Mantis Warrior space marines were met on the field of battle by the forces of the Tau. Fighting over a sparse landscape over an oil pipeline junction. My opponent, dakka's own wyomingfox. The battle: Annihilation w/ Pitched Battle deployment.

The Armies: 1500 pts

Mantis Warriors



HQ: terminator libby w/ SS, gate & null zone (I meant to change this but I forgot)
Elite: 9 sternguard w/ 3 c-plas, 3 c-melta, melta, flamr, srg w/ PF & c-melta in pod
Elite: Iron Clad w/ HF in pod
Elite: Rifleman Dread in pod
Troop: 5 tac in las/plas razor w/ dozer blade
Troop: 5 tac in las/plas razor w/ dozer blade
Troop: 5 scouts w/ BP & CCW, srg w/ c-melta & MB
FA: LS Storm w/ MM (proxied normal LS)
FA: 5x scout bikes w/ 3 gren lnchrs, cluster mines, srg w/ PW, MB & homing beacon

Theory is go first, infiltrate & scout move bikes w/ LS in support to vulnerable concentration of enemy. Turn 1, pods with Iron Clad and sternguard + libby drop on homing beacon and we all blow stuff up at close range while razorbacks and rifleman pour in supporting fire from the rear. No real plan if I don't go first. The army isn't really optimized for Tau, it's just my normal guys. Wanted to see how they'd do against something new.

wyomingfox's Tau: (I'm borrowing a pic from the battle report since we forgot to take an army pic)



Im guessing here... wyfox, send me notes by PM and I'll change the list.

HA: Commander Shaso + 2 shield drones
EL: 2 fireknife crisis suits, loaded
EL: 3 fireknife crisis suits, loaded + 2 gun drones
Troop: 6 fire warriors
Troop: 6 warriors in devilfish
Troop: 14 kroot w/ shaper
FA: 8 pathfinders in devilfish
Heavy: Hammerhead
Heavy: Hammerhead
Heavy: Broadside


The table:


Had some fun with some of my industrial terrain. Wyfox set it up and I had the opportunity to add or change it. Unfortunately I forgot completely about adding any LOS blocking terrain, which would come back to haunt me in a minute.


So... wyfox wins the roll and decides to go first. That pretty much kills my "master strategy" (which works pretty well when I get to use it). To make matters worse he's got a ton of long range, high strength fire power and there's no LOS blocking terrain to speak of. So I'm, well... pretty much screwed. Anything I put on the table is going to get shot to pieces before it has a chance to act unless I steal the initiative... not good odds. So against my better judgement, I elect to put my whole army in reserve, and outfllank the scout elements.


Tau Deployment / Turn 1

Wyfox forts up in the center of the table where he's got clear shots everywhere, puts the pathfinders in the cover of the pipes (on my table, being on the pipes gives a 5+ cover save as the oil they carry is valuable and people will try very hard not to shoot up the pipes). I had used my scout bikes cluster mines to booby trap a piece of terrain, but that wasn't it (and he never entered it anyway). He put the fire warriors in reserve to try and deny me VPs. His first move just adjusts the fort a bit by moving one of the vehicles up a bit.



The broadside is on top of the building which uses normal 40k building rules, counting as an immobile AV12 open topped vehicle.


MW Turn 1

My pods come down right on target on the left. To be honest I don't remember why I hit the left rather than going after the hammerheads on the right... perhaps I thought the targets were softer? Not sure, but I do remember there was a specific reason. In any case, shooting from the Iron clad does nothing but the sternguard route the kroot with bolter fire.


Score: MW - 1, Tau - 0


Turn 2

The picture secquence is kind of odd here so please bare with me. During the top of the 2nd, wyfox moves his vulnerable armor away from the potentially rampaging Iron Clad. Unfortunately both fire warrior squads come in and (I'm assuming) that based on the assumption that there was no way my stuff would survive the s-storm to come, he brings them in close to the action to help with the demise of my sternguard. All hell breaks loose but amazingly everything bounces off the Iron Clad. The sternguard aren't so lucky, but the librarian and flamer survive and pass morale.



In my half of the turn, NONE of my reserves arrive, leaving my one dread and two marines to face the entire Tau army alone for yet another turn! The Iron Clad and marines move aggressively forward, forgoing firing for an Iron Clad assault on the crisis battle suits and a multi-charge by the lone sternguard and libby on the two fire warrior units. The sternguard and libby put both units to flight. The Iron Clad only manages to kill one drone but is now "safe" from fire and has effectively bogged down one of the crisis units. The marines use their follow-up move to hide behind the advancing dread in the hopes of surviving the next shooting phase.


Score: MW - 3, Tau - 0


Turn 3

Anticipating the immanent demise of his crisis team, wyfox moves his units to a safe distance from the Iron clad. Everything else opens up on my poor marines and they evaporate in a puff of atomized ceramite and blood.



Incensed at the loss of their beloved librarian, the entire Mantis Warrior army decide that the time for tea and biscuits is over and arrives en'masse (with the exception of the scout bikes who are out back trying to see who can ride a wheelie the longest) & the last pod. Bad things happen to Tau hammerheads. Autocannon and bolter fire pings uselessly off of the blessed crisis team #2.



Score: MW - 6, Tau - 2


Turn 4

Tau devilfish continue to scatter left and the Broadside can't pass up the opportunity to shoot the Iron Clad in the kiester, blowing him up. The second crisis units fires at one of the razorbacks, stunning it and taking out the las cannon. In my half of the turn, the bikes and the last pod arrives. More fire pings off the immortal crisis unit. However the scouts and the LS Storm manage to strip the shield drones off the unit, which should hasten their demise.



The bikes maneuver behind one of the devilfish and combined fire and assault result in an ex-devilfish.


Score: MW - 7, Tau - 3


Turn 5

Momentum slowly starts to shift and the remaining 4 Tau suits have more fire power than the rest of my army combined. In turn five they target the LS Storm and the damaged razorback exploding both. Luckily there are no casualties among the passengers.



In the Mantis Warrior's half of the turn, the exposed infantry move to engage the remaining Tau while the Rifleman and razorback move up in support. The bikes put themselves in position for another attack run at the second devilfish and take out it's main gun. Once again the suits are immune to fire, though I'm pretty sure they'll need to be repainted. The foot scouts on my right flank however, get some bolt pistol shots off at the pathfinders, kill two and route them.


Score: MW - 7, Tau - 5


Turn 6

The Tau continue to press their advantage in fire power and the now combined battle suits wipe out the scout bikers and immobilize the Rifleman. The pathfinders however, continue to route off the table.



The Mantis Warriors continue to tighten the noose on the Tau. Gunfire however, continues to bounce harmlessly off the battle suits. The pods target their bolters on the stray drones from the devilfish wreck for and easy kill point but only succeed in taking out one. The foot scouts decide caution is the better part of valor and stay hidden behind the Hammerhead wreck so as not to provide an easy kill point for the Tau.


Score: MW - 8, Tau - 6

Turn 7

In the final phase, the Tau open up on the Dreadnought hoping to kill it. Unfortunately, everything misses or bounces off.



Once to Tau have of the turn ended the Mantis Warriors were assured of victory and the battle was called for lack of sleep.

Final Score: Mantis Warriors - 8 , Tau - 6

Mantis Warriors were victorious!


So, a really fun game but really nerve wracking. At various points we were each convince we were about to be out of the game... but it didn't work out that way. The dice gods will provide I guess. In spite of the weakness of the Tao dex, I was happy that my army performed so well under very negative circumstances.


Grades for the battle:

Libby: B (didn't really do any libby stuff but part of that was my forgetting to adjust his powers before printing my list, but his termiator armor was instrumental in his survival and his attacks were what led to the two units of fire warriors taking flight)
Sternguard: B- (responsible for helping to take out 3 units, that being said never fired any of the combi-weapons and they were *supposed* to go after vehicles... never did that, mainly due to my deployment of them. However they proved their versatility by accepting anti-infantry duties)
Iron Clad: A (not that he set the world on fire, but his flamer and CC did account for a lot of casualties & he was a major headache for the tau to deal with)
Rifleman: D (no effect on battle... pretty though. I keep thinking I should experiment with a normal dread in the third pod just for curiosities sake... I think another regular dread dropping late in the game might be a real issue for an opponent to deal with)
Tacs in Razors: C- (didn't really do anything though I think the razors took out one of the Hammerheads)
Scouts in LS Storm: A (Wrecked Hammerhead, killed both shield drones and put the pathfinders to flight... pretty much took the right flank all on their own)
Bikes: C+ (took out transport and were a big enough threat to be the subject of some pretty concerted fire... not on the table long enough to do much else)

Hope you enjoyed the Bat Rep, thanks for reading!

Wow. Very surprising. I totally thought the Tau were done for when ironclad+sternguard showed up in their backfield, but it was actually fairly evenly matched. If he had even one more broadside, things would have gone differently.

Oh and BTW all of the Tau suits are "fireknife" configuration, Plasma Rifle+Missile pod+Multi-tracker.

Fixed... thanks PraetorDave. Yeah, he was about ready to call it after turn 2, but we talked about it & I kinda convinced him to keep going. There's just so much firepower in those suits and they're surprisingly hard to kill with a couple of drones to have to go though... at least with the weapons my army had available.

Great Battle, with beautiful armies on both sides

Just a few bits of advice from a Tau player however.

To Gitsplitta, I think you should've aimed at those pathfinders at bit earlier, if those suckers hit with half or more of their markerlights, chances are something is going to die

Also, you might wan't to tell wyomingfox that the new Tau FAQ states that drones are destroyed with a vehicle when the vehicle is destroyed, and don't give up a kill point if that happens. the only time gun drones give up their KP is when the player volentarily disembarks them (always a bad idea when playing anniliation)

Also, to wyomingfox, on the last turn I would've targetted those drop pods in your back field, AV 10 open topped is waaaaaay easier to kill then a dreadnought, and there were three of them

my 2 cents

Great game. I really like marine v. Tau (It's what I play more than anything.)


@myth Drop pods are AV12 Open topped.

Nice batrep! it never ceases to amazes me how well Tau do. If you look at the codex you go 'Meh', but in the hands of a capable opponent, they'll flit away, be surprisingly hard to kill, and hit like a ton of bricks in the shooting phase. The one thing that gets them good is S8 pie

@myth: The marker lights were definitely an issue. I'd intended to target them much earlier but with the odd way my troops came in I always seemed to have other priorities. Finally threw my scouts at them but it was almost immaterial by then. My opponent (wyomingfox) is really a nid & SW player, this was maybe the 5th or 6th time he's played his Tau army since he got it years ago. Not surprised that a FAQ would have eluded him.

OH, and as yamgren mentioned... pods are AV12 open topped... so they'd still have to pen 12 one way or the other. He thought about it a long time, but I'm guessing he decided that since I was going to get one more turn, it would be better to knock out the dread if he could. Those 4 AC shots can be a real pain (though they really didn't do anything up to this point).

my bad on the misinformation then, but instead of weathering the dread's firepower, he could've jumped behind the forementioned drop pods, maybe even blocking LOS from the dread

One of the devil fish actually survived . Had its gun blown off though...the drones deployed in support of taking out those pesky bikes. And missed the part about gun drone auto destroying...that is actually a huge boon to Tau. The score was still 8 to 6 in the end though.

The broadside shot at the dread as the dread had more potential to earn Gits more KP. I believe that the crisis suites did fire at the pod...but AV 12 is real hard to crack when all you got is strength 7 weapons...they all failed to pen. If I was thinking more clearly I would have walked the broadside back into the tower (stabilzers) and shot at his rhino (ID threat) which otherwise was Hull down...rather than the dread. Regardless, the broadside missed to hit.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
On turn three I was a bit disallusioned...and made two big mistakes. I didn't remember if I had moved the hammerheads over 6" (rolled the dice and on a 4+ they decided that I hadn't). And to top it off, forgot to fire them at his two drop pods.

Fixed the narrative. Thanks for the corrections wyfox. That would've made the score 7 to 6 with me having one more turn to try to do something (not that I accomplished anything the turn before). Either way a close and very fun game.

LOL...You still had 8 KP (2x FW, 2xHH, 1xDF, 1xCS, 1xPF, and 1K) with the potential to wrack up another KP in the bottom of turn 7 . Always a good time playing with Gits and seeing all his pretty figures...and eating home-cooked meals.

Very cool battle report hope to see a rematch.

@wyfox: Oh yeah, forgot to give myself credit for the first crisis unit.

@Jwalker: I hope so too!

Well if you ask real nice maybe gits can carve out some time from his otherwise very busy schedule.

That board....
Those armies.....

One day i will play a game as good looking as this, great read
Love how back and forward it seemed to go

Thanks MikZor. You keep working at your terrain and board and one day you too, will be able to posts battle reports just like this one!

It was quite the see-saw affair... fun that way actually.

Great batrep. Nice figures, nice battlefield, but it turned out differently to what I had expected.

Very enjoyable report, love the terrain style you have even if it was missing some BLOS (which you acknowledge).
Pics were great and it was easy to follow the action.

leaving my one dread and two marines to face the entire Tau army alone for yet another turn!

Epic stuff

Glad you guys enjoyed it! Have a game vs. Imperial Guard lined up for tomorrow evening. Will try to take pics for another battle report (to be written some time later... they take a lot of work). Dawned on me that I never graded out my units... Arakasi got me into the habit of this and does make some sense to look back and see how things did by unit. Will add it to the OP.

Rifleman: D (no effect on battle... pretty though. I keep thinking I should experiment with a normal dread in the third pod just for curiosities sake... I think another regular dread dropping late in the game might be a real issue for an opponent to deal with)

5th edition reminds me more of paintball...its more about saturating the air with "lead", than nessesarily accuracy of a single shot. In that respect 4 strength 7 shots on a mobile chasis isn't too bad. However, strength 7 only goes so far...and by far I mean not past AV11. Autocannons volume of fire is good at straffing AV 10 and 11 like rhinos, razors, raiders, ravagers, warwalkers, war-truckz, ect.

It's pretty mediocre against AV 12 and 13 like Chimeras, Dakka Preds, Hammer Heads, Dreads, Drop Pods, and ect.

Do you think dropping an assault cannon dread in the third pod (AP 6 but rending) would have been more of an issue for you to deal with? given say... a heavy flamer as well? My gut is not to rely on the rending so I keep coming back to the rifleman as being 3 or 4 really dependable S7 hits... but you can't even count on those for marine kills, so it's kind of meh. I suppose I could go with a standard multi-melta/HF configuration... that would free up a few points.

Gitsplitta wrote:Do you think dropping an assault cannon dread in the third pod (AP 6 but rending) would have been more of an issue for you to deal with? given say... a heavy flamer as well? My gut is not to rely on the rending so I keep coming back to the rifleman as being 3 or 4 really dependable S7 hits... but you can't even count on those for marine kills, so it's kind of meh. I suppose I could go with a standard multi-melta/HF configuration... that would free up a few points.

Dropping AV12+ anything in my backfield would give my Tau pause, especially one with a boosted ID PF . But the real question is...would two DP dreads be a good idea against most other army lists...that can and do spam melta?

Well, I need to drop pod something to get my two pod assault at the game opening... That's kind of why the sternguard are there, a melta shot isn't that big a deal there, especially if I remember take/use something like force dome. So the initial drop would remain dread and sternguard, but the third drop, rather than being an empty pod, would bring in another dread for close support.

Well, the role of the riffleman is to open up transports early on so that your significant mid-range units can shoot/assault its contents. It's just that it is not very good against AV12 transports (IG, Tau, Eldar, Orc -- common BW Spam). Strength 8 is much better. Can devistators take a DP?

Not sure.

Tau vs Drop Pod Army Tactics lesson.

Step 1) Start with everything off the board.

Step 2) Enter the board far enough away from the Pods to avoid immediate rapid fires and assaults.

Step 3) SHOOT!!! FOR THE LOVE OF THE TAU'VA SHOOT!!!!

Jefffar wrote:Tau vs Drop Pod Army Tactics lesson.

Step 1) Start with everything off the board.

Step 2) Enter the board far enough away from the Pods to avoid immediate rapid fires and assaults.

Of course, Gitz wasn't playing a DP army, he simply has DPs in his army .

I was going first, so if I had reserved everything, Gitz could have deployed centrally along his 12" deployment line while dropping two empty pods and keeping his AV13 dred in reserve. His stern guard have a libby with gate; so he could deploy them safely out of the way till my forces trickled in. Then by the end of turn one, he would be able to advance uncontested to the center of the board, which is his sweet spot. From the center, he could strike out at leasure as my forces trickled in. I blundered a few times, being a Tau noobe, but I don't think my central deployment was a mistake...just my oppinion though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Anyways a break down and grading of my forces:

Commander Shaso (2 Shield Drones; HW Drone Controller; Bonding Knife; Stimulent Injector (FNP); MP; PR; Multi-Tracker): B+; He was rolling with the 2 man crisis unit and together they shot up the sternguard, libby, biker squad, and razor back. I should have given him a fusion blaster and target lock (allows model to split fire) instead of the missle pod as my crisis suits were useless against his numerous AV12+ units. The CS ability to was hindered by the lack of LOS blocking terrain; still, his unit did a remarkable job of not dying

2 man Crisis Suits (PR; Multi-Tracker; MP): B+; see above.

3 man Crisis Suits (2xPR; 2xMulti-Tracker; 2xMP; Team Leader with BK, Drone Controller, 2 Gun Drones, and TL PR): B; great anti-infantry, but my list desparately needed some more anti-tank punch; I should have given the team leader a fusion gun and target lock. The gun drones could also be better served as shield drones which would have a 3+, 4++.

14 man Kroot Squad with Shaper: B; the bubble wrap. The lack of LOS blocking terrain and area terrain made finding cover saves for my guys a challenging task...which led me to keep my army a bit too clustered together IMO and caused me to trip all over myself when his DP showed up...even then, my poor chicken drums were still denied cover . Never-the-less, they made Gitz shoot something other than suits...and that is the reason they are in the list.

6 man firewarrior squad: C-; thier only purpose is to ride along in the PF DF and not die; unfortunately, I kept them out of said DF...however, along with the other 6 man squad, they put a total of 10 wounds on Gitz's Libby led sternguard squad...which along with the 6 CS should have wiped them all out. It's just that Gitz had the gall to make all but one save .

6 man firewarrior squad (DF with DP): C-; see above.

Hammerhead (RG, SMS, Multi-Tracker, Target Array, DL, DP): D+; They folded faster than a carnifex. Still, I didn't use them well so chalk this up to "WyomingFox, you're doing it wrong" ...like taking SMS, not keeping thier backside to the table edge or each other, not moving over 6+ when firing only the RG, forgetting to shoot the DP, ect. I should have gone with 2 burst cannons and possibly a Target Lock (so that the anti-infantry guns could shoot infantry while the anti-tank guns shoot tanks).

Hammerhead (RG, SMS, Multi-Tracker, TA, DL, DP): D+; see above.

8xPathfinders (Shasui with BK; DF with DP): B+; they helped the Commander's CS unit take out...the stuff they took out, via boosting their BS or reducing his cover saves. Of course the second Gitz breathed on them they ran off the table...not that leadership 8 is great, but I failed all but 1 leadership check during the game...and it was the one leadership check I wanted to fail

Broadside (Team Leader, HW Drone Controller, 2 GD, BK, Advanced Stabilization System): B+; remember when vehicles didn't have cover saves...rediculous cover saves...well, I got to relive that moment high up ontop Gitz's tower...and it was GOOOOOOD . He took out the dread and storm that were reaking havok in my backfield. Advanced Stabilization System ended up being nice given that I could enter and exit buildings (ie the tower) while still firing the big guns. The gun drones could also be better served as shield drones which would have a 2+, 4++. The GD also lowered the unit's toughness to 3...not that it was an issue in this particular game.

Automatically Appended Next Post:

Gitsplitta wrote:Not sure.

Devistators can take a DP

Very Cool Battle Report. Look forward to a match against Gitsplitta and hopefully Wyfox at some point. Great Bat Rep guys

Hey Eiluj, there's another bat rep for you here. You might get some ideas about fighting both me and dajobe.

Gits

Thanks, I need all the help I can fighting IG, I rarely get a chance too and it will be my first time in 5th edition.