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This battle represents my first go-round with the Tau, and my army is by no means full functioning; I simply put out on the board what I had fully painted so far. The results really weren’t too bad and made me want to finish this army. This battle was roughly 500 points, although I think that we were both in the 530 point range when it was all said and done, and the game was played on a 4x4 board.

Game type: Cities of Death, Urban Assault
Tau vs. Eldar roughly 500 points
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Cadre Kais’myr
HQ
Shas’el Vior’ka Eoro’bentu
MP/PR/MT
ELITE
2 x Crisis Suits
MP/PR/MT
TROOPS
6 x Fire Warriors
10 x Kroot
FAST ATTACK
6 x Pathfinders
Devilfish
ELITE
1 x Broadside
SMS/MT
530ish points


ELDAR ARMY
HQ
Avatar
TROOPS
5 x Pathfinders
5x Pathfinders
HEAVY
1 x Wraithlord
525 points
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
We decided for the game’s sake that to contest meant to be within 1’’ of the building in which the objective was placed.
DEPLOYMENT
My opponent chose to deploy first. He holed up his Pathfinders in his own building, and in retrospect they should have raised more havoc than they did. His Avatar was in the middle of the board ready to be unleashed, with the Wraithlord bringing up the rear. During his infiltrate, he placed his second unit of Pathfinders off my left flank in cover.
Being the first time I have ever played my Tau, I really had no idea how to deploy. I figured I wanted to place my Broadside in an elevated position, and if all went well I could raise hell with him, hence his placement on top of the tower. I placed my Pathfinders in a central location (the building in which I also placed my re-roll to hit stratagem). I really had no idea how integral this unit is. I think I’m in love! My Fire Warriors protected an advance from my left (and really raised hell when coupled with my Pathfinders). The Devilfish and Crisis suits were deployed in the right flank and I was going to use the JSJ strategy to pick off his units. I kept my Kroot in reserve to swoop in late game.


TURN 1
My opponent failed to seize the initiative and I began my assault. To start turn one, I fired my Markerlights on the Rangers on my left flank, and unleashed a barrage with my Fire Warriors, killing a lone Ranger. My Broadside fired on his Avatar, and saved via is Invuln. The Fish and Suits move up the right flank and tried to lay down some fire again on the Avatar, to no avail.

BOTTOM
My opponent opened fire with his death star Pathfinders on my Broadside and decimated it. His Left flank Pathfinders fired on my Fire Warriors and missed completely, his Wraithlord began to advance. The Avatar fired a barrage into my Devilfish, missing with everything.

TURN 2
Again, I tried to fire on his Avatar with my Devilfish, and again he saved. My Pathfinders markerlit his squad of Rangers, and the Fire Warriors wiped out the entire squad, freeing up the left flank. The crisis suits had very little luck against the Wraithlord.
BOTTOM
My opponent advanced his Wraithlord toward my objective, while his Avatar destroyed my Devilfish, and the secondary explosion destroyed one of its drones.

TURN 3
In an attempt for one last stand and to slow the advance of his Wraithlord, My Pathfinders put their markerlights into him, scoring one wound from the Fire Warriors. On the right flank, I decided to move my suits over to help defend the advancing Wrathlord.
BOTTOM
His Wraithlord fired its scatter laser and on other weapon into my Pathfinders, causing them to run off the board.

TURN 4
The Firewarriors rapid fired on the Wraithglord, all missing (bad luck today). Pathfinders ran off board, Suits moved to solidify my objective.
BOTTOM
Using his flamer, the Wraithlord took out my entire Fire Warrior squad, leaving nothing between him and contesting my objective!

TURN 5
In true Tau fashion, I went for a late objective contest. The Kroot came in with a roll of a 6 to decide which side they entered from, choosing to come in right on my opponent’s objective building! I really thought that I was going to win here via contest. I didn’t think he could drive my Kroot out of there, and he couldn’t really shoot them because they were out of LOS of his Pathfinders. I also knew his Wratihlord couldn’t move the distance needed to contest my objective. I thought I had a chance, at least. My Suits solidified my objective.
BOTTOM
His Wraithlord moved as far as it could, but could not reach my objective. That left it up to the Kroot contesting his base. His Avatar charged my Kroot and only scored 2 unsaved wounds! I was expecting 4 or 5. All I needed to do was to do 2 or more wounds to draw or win the assault and contest the objective. I remember having about 20 dice worth of rolls for the assault, and I must have rolled 13 ones! I didn’t even get one hit against the Avatar. I lost the assault and was forced to flee off of the objective.

End of game roll ended the game.
Cadre Kais’myr 1, Eldar 1
Tactical Draw

WHAT I LEARNED
I always like to reflect on my battles. If anything, I learned that I need to paint more Tau! I really fell in love with them and this army really was a patchwork deal. Once I get more units available as well as more suits, I think it will be a force to be reckoned with.
I was really unlucky in the final assault and only needed a few more dice to go in my favor to get the win. Not a bad first game with the Tau.

I dont know if you posted your list before you played but if that is all the models you have then you could still tweak them a bit in the gear dept....

Fireknives are expensive in a low point game.... Firestorms tend to be cheaper and just as effective once you run the math on them... Not saying never use them cause the AP 2 rocks just maybe not in this style of game.

10 Kroot with no trees to linger in = 10 dead kroot. (On a side note though I dont really like Kroot and maybe biased?)

6 Firewarriors on foot just die.... Bump it to 12 and get a leader with a bonding knife. Much more durable unit in low points games....

Pathfinders are Blargh at this points cost.... I would rather field 2 deathrain suits or something along those lines...

1 Broadside without ASS.... Not sure about this one either... As the only railgun in the whole list you want it to move and shoot.

put 12 FW in DTC and put on a disc.pod - not much, but above 12" shots, you get a 4+ CS.
Geting down the Avatar. Now thats a tricky thing with tau. High T, immune to melta. I play eldar, but dont like the Avatar much. in a 1500 3 WL with 1-1 BL and 1-1 sword, 20 WG with seer+1-1 fortunedoom seers, one with extra mind war. In 500...id basically use 2 walkers, 2 da in serpent and a doomseer. thats base.

but to this...forget the croots without forests or other cover terrain. They die.
fw, punc'em up to 12, dtc+ DP
and maybe a nother of this magnitude.
Put plasma-fusionblaster+multi on cmd
get close with FW and try to cc the rangers. Their better in mele d'oh, but you can tie-em up.
CMD: jump as fast as you can to the WL, fusion it and when your done, plasma the avatar. As an idea: put the FW.s out, tankshock the pathfinders, then mow'em with rapid fire and the DTC. on the move, they only have a 5+ save and a 5+ cover save. They cant take armor saves - ap 5 - but htey can make cover saves and they'll take it, but they cant fire their nasty guns.
Ow, and if you can afford it: a squad of FW of 6 at your objective.
OR
1 normal broadside(70), 1x6 fw at the objective (60) - keep 'em in cover, out of LOS.
1x12+DTC with DP and multi tracker.(120+95=215) so far thats 345.
Shas'el with twin flamer and shield (76 for a total of 421)
Now get a crisis. XV8 tl flamer+shield (51 for a total of 472)
you dont have much points left, but make shure you drop the XV-s on the pathfinders and flush-em out with the flamers. If you fail to wound no problem, their twin linked, remember? Reroll wounds. Put Put a leader in the hideing unit of FW, give him a marker light, put only his head and gun out to get LOS and start marking the Wraithlord. Then the Avatar. As long as this is done - round 2-3 - start your DTC and try to get the fw in the range to capture.

Or for the survivability of your broadside, you can leave the DTC in front of it with front armor. This way, they'll both geta 4+ Cs. Not the best, but better than in the open. After WL dies, start skimin' to the obj.

but thats just me, now to get prepared for a 750pt eldar vs spacewolfs XD

Wow, guys!! Thanks for all the great feed back!! I will tweak this list a bit as I have added a few more Pathfinders and a Piranha since this game! Cant wait to see your battle efernux!