Greetings...
The weekend of Feb 18/19 I played in the Astronomicon Tourney in Dallas Texas.
For those that are not familiar with it, its an event with a lot of vary different missions designed to really test the skill of a general, rather than the talents of an army....some players don't like the missions, but I love 'em ...even the ones that hit me hard.
Astro 2012 Record;
Overall: Three wins, 2 ties, 1 loss.
Second in Terrain, Second in army list presentation. Did better than expected in painting.
Had a great time and made some new friends and it was good to play my tau again. As I don’t have the actual results in front of me, some of the points listed may be off slightly…
My Army – TAU. Yeah, thats right Tau. I am a competitive tau player (yeah, I know that's an oxymoron...).
While my list had a lot of standard tau units in it (well, there are only so many in the dex) it did have a few special things.
(Astro allowed
FW units and a few other goodies...their motto is "you should be able to play with your models...".
*
HQ Commander Ralai from Imperial Armour Second edition. This guy is very expensive, and while his firepower alone does not justify his cost (190) his survivability and versatility do in my opinion.
* Tau Human Auxiliaries – These are basically guardsmen, you know, 5+ save, a lasgun. I use them as cheap objective campers…and upgrade them with emp grenades to resist tank shock. They came in handy for extra shots, and as distraction units.
* Skyray – I love this thing. Oh, not for the seekers…for the two BS4 markers, the smart missiles and the fact that is a shot magnet most games. It is a force multiplier for tau, and I really love the model.
The rest of my army contained the usual suspects for a tau army; Crisis suits, firewarriors, broadsides, kroot, a piranha etc.
Game 1 Saturday: Tau vs. Deathwing – Breakthrough Mission – WIN : 11 to 2 (?)
The mission – breakthough was a great mission. Basically, pitched battle and standard deployment…the catch was the scoring. You got
VP for – enemy units, and any of YOUR OWN units you moved off the table on your opponents board edge.
The army: Deathwing was just nasty. Termies, Speeders and land raiders oh my! The guy I played against, Brian was a good guy, and I would happily play him again. Very tough list, but this mission set us on an even playing field so that helped.
The game: With the help of many railguns and markers I managed to neutralize his land raiders and then deal with the marines, termies and speeders. It was a great game with lots of VERY hard choices on what forces to keep on the table, or to move off….weighing the risk of losing an expensive unit, getting points for it at the cost of losing its fire power. A great game.
Most memorable moment: Putting wounds on his
HQ with lasguns!!!
I loved this mission, as it really forces choices a lot of very tough choices for the players regarding keeping units on the battlefield to utilize their firepower vs. safely getting them off for points scoring.
Game 2 Saturday: Tau vs. Logan Wing – Supply Pallet Mission: LOSS: 10 to 3
The mission: I think the actual name of this was “err supply”. Basically, three objectives are randomly scattered from the center of the table (post deployment – which was almost spearhead) on a board with a LOT of forest. I was not pleased with the abundance of cover…but that was nothing compared to…
The army: Spacewolves. My opponent was Tyson, a decent and sporting fellow from Austin I think and he was playing a “logan wing” list. I will be honest, I don’t like space wolves, and these were especially nasty. He had a land raider, a ton of termies and THREE special characters ALL WITH ETERNAL WARRIOR and invul saves. Oh, I just love eternal warrior...
The Game: Tragically two objectives fall close to him (one in his zone, the other just outside of it). I get one near my zone. It was a very tough game…Tyson was a very good player, and had a solid plan. I think he made zero mistakes in his game, and adapted well to my moves. I also I think played a solid game…he forced some very tough choices, just as I did to him.
Tragically, he had charmed dice. They were just amazing. While his raider was immobilized early (six rail guns will do that) his termies would just not die. He wisely had storm shields distributed well, and
HQ’s to soak my rail and plasma, and cover for the rest.
I could just not stop him. He managed to contest my objective, and I barely failed to contest the other just outside his zone . One thing I could have done better was to be more aggressive with my contesting units (I had three of them…one I did not move well, another I did not compensate enough for difficult terrain and the other he stunned with some very well placed target priority).
Most memorable moment: When I finally killed more than a single termie…on or about turn four he said “hey, see, you killed more than one this turn”. I offered to buy his dice….he declined.
We did I later realize read the scoring wrong, as it was a bit confusing….but it did not matter that much (we reported my score as 0, when it should have been 3).
Overall a good game, I played well and met a challenging opponent whom I would happily play again…as long as he brings new dice!
Seriously however, I find wolves to be very challenging with tau...I do fine with other armies, but I need more practice with tau against them...I am about a 50/50 record with my blue skins and the space pups.
Game 3 Saturday: Tau vs. Mech Guard – Lost Patrol Mission: WIN 11 to 2?
The mission: Lost patrol was very interesting. Basically one unit starts in the other player’s deployment zone, and has to make it back to yours. Both players start with everything else in reserve (if I recall) and go at it!
The army: John C had his guard. A very dangerous list with FOUR medusa’s in squadrons of two each. John is a great player and has a great looking army (and a really neat display board). Tragically, the mission, dice and vehicle squadron rules would conspire against him.
The Game: After scratching my head a bit, I decided to make my
HQ my “patrol” as he was ironically my most durable unit – as long as he did not get caught by a medusa…no single one shot would kill him.
Unfortunately for john, his “patrol unit”, a squad of guys in a chimera – was not so durable… I managed to take them out fairly easily. While my target priority is usually fairly good, his reserve rolls made it easy for me – the medusa squadrons came on one each turn and I regarded them to be the most immediate threat in his army early on. It took all my long range firepower but that combined with the squadron rules (ouch!!! One reason I try to avoid squadrons when I can) made a very rough game for john. John
never once complained or whined, even with a tough scenario, some very weak dice and bad squadron results, earning my respect as a player.
Most memorable moment: “Those drones must die!!!” John’s last squad gaining a moral victory by eliminating a squad of drones of mine.
Game 4 Sunday: Tau vs. Sisters – Truck Stop Mission: Tie 8 to 7 (I think that was it…).
The Mission: Truck Stop…a convoy of easily damaged trucks holding the objectives (crates) scatters and moves off the map…with the players attempting to stop them and capture the objectives. Interesting note: exploded trucks destroy the objectives contained within. This was an awesome mission with tons of tactical choices.
The army: Played against Zach and his Sisters of battle. I think this may have been only my second time facing a Sisters army, and to be quite honest, while the 3+ save was all too familiar it was nice to not deal with more marines. While a bit reserved (well, compared to me) Zach was a good guy and a solid player, and I would happily play him again. Oh, and as a note….um…some of those sisters can jump!!!
The game: This was a lot of fun. The trucks were going everywhere and we were shooting at everything! I really enjoyed the tactical opportunities on shooting at trucks getting near your opponent, and the risks involving the low armor open topped vehicles. One key point in the game was when a squad of sisters arrived by deep strike right near my lines….after TOTALLY failing to shoot them away (Zach forced a lot of choices on me – sign of good play on his part) I moved a wall up to block them…only to then realize they were jump. This was an
EXCELLENT example of a mistake on my part in not asking about jump troops and not being familiar with other codexes. I had a plan, and executed it well...it was just the wrong plan!!
In the end we both had a few minor mistakes and some great combat moments and the game ended up in a draw when we hit time. Fun game, good army to play against and great opponent.
Most memorable moment: My kroot actually won an assault and swept a squad of sisters!!! This, this was wonderful (well, for me, not the sisters). I sooooo get tired of “And they shall know no fear”.
Game 5 Sunday: Tau vs. Sisters – Intermission mission: Win 11 to 2
The Mission: Intermisison is kind of a “break” mission in the event…its basically just a victoy point mission. I had mixed feelings…part of me was hungry for another astro mission, but on the other hand…at this point I was totally wiped and getting exhausted…so the simple mission was a nice …intermission.
The Army: I faced Chris C, my old nemesis from wargames con!!! Chris was a great guy, who handed me one of the worst defeats I have ever had (with any army) in wargames con last year (speed freaks orks are brutal against tau). This time Chris was running Sisters army with some cool looking conversions.
The Game: I managed to set up first and critically go first dispersing my forces across the board. I put a strong middle (my suits, firewarriors, skyray and commanders) and spread the broadsides out to the edges to give me flexability. Looking at the terrain, I decided that my mobile
BS squad was better suited to the right flank, and gave them a unit of human auxiliaries for screening. Christ set up all on my left side (his right) creating a denied flank maneuver. If I had not built a strong center, or put my mobile broadsides on my right flank, this could have been devastating for me. Many people say games are won or lost in deployment – I have found that deploying tau can indeed be critical to the game. Finally, I decided to infiltrate a squad of kroot into a central wood, in an excellent harassment position.
Chris started his deadly advance, but many of his most dangerous (or what I felt were) units fell to focused fire (target priority and focus fire key to using tau). Of course, some units made it through (Celestine …won’t that witch stay dead!!!!) but I fed them units to eat while keeping my most critical units moving away. Now, although I did play a solid game, and had solid dice, Chris did indeed have several bad rolls at key moments (ok, he had a few great ones too…but the bad ones were ugly).
Most memorable moment: Chris failed a statistically obscene number of saves against my kroot…who were redeemed for their humiliating loss from wargames con!! However, it was so bad…I owe Chris a six pack of his favorite beer for it!
Overall it was a fun game, and a great opponent - if you get a chance to play against chris take it, he is a great guy with a fun army.
Game 6 Sunday: Tau vs. Nids – Roll the Bones: Tie 8 to 7.
The missions: We were on my dinosaur valley table, with the mission “roll the bones” which was basically one objective in the middle. The table has two large hills (24” x 36”) in opposite corners, with terraced steps and rocky outcrops. Its kind of designed to look like a valley, with gargantuan dinosaur bones littering the valley floor. One interesting thing about this table; it has a lot more cover than it looks, especially to a player smart enough to use it well…and my opponent did.
The Army: Kenny was my opponent and nids were his army! Yeah, no marines!!! I think Kenny and I had crossed paths upon several occasions, but this was one of the first times we had ever gamed. He ran a very interesting nid list Hive Tyrant, Tervigon (troops), gants, three dakka fexes and a huge horde of stealers with a broodlord. As I play nids (love my bugs!!! GO Xenos!) everything was fairly straight forward except I never run broodlords, so was a bit fuzzy on their specific powers.
The Game: We started across the hills, and Kenny managed to go first. We both deployed, and as expected he infiltrated his huge swarm of very deadly stealers. I put my Kroot, fish/firewarriors and pirhana in reserve. As I know nids fairly well and Kenny was a good player so I did not expect him to make any mistakes, thus the game went fairly as much as I had estimated…except for one key thing. I never count on good luck, but this time, I at least counted on averages. Oh, kenny’s dice proved me wrong. Don’t get me wrong – he played a very solid game – pressuring me with his stealers and the implacable march of his fexes…even knowing when NOT to spawn gants.
Even with markerlights to strip cover and a ton focused fire I could not get enough of his stealers to fail saves. Overall the game was tough, but I managed to eventually shoot troops off the objective at game end for a tie. I think both of us played well and it was a close game. Another turn may have seen a different result.
Kenny was a decent fellow with good sportsmanship – while not as much a chatterbox as myself (heck, who is?) I look forward to get a chance to get to know him better and play more games! I loved his nids and it inspired me to finish a couple of conversions on my nid army.
OVERALL
It was a great weekend and I am fairly happy with how I did. It is a huge challenge using their dex at times but I love my little sci-fi blue guys and really enjoyed being able to use non-codex units.
A few lessons learned for me;
• Get more rest. Finishing my army and terrain at 2am before an event is not a good idea, especially when I am playing my tau (they are a lot more draining and challenging to play than any of my other armies).
• Read more books – I encountered a couple of rules I was weak on during the games, specifically on abilities I never use in any of my armies, but things I should know.
• Ask a few more questions – I am already decent about asking about specific units, but I now need to make sure I don’t forget “are those jump”, especially when playing tau.
• Move those troops! – With such fragile troops and in limited numbers tau players have to be very careful with their troops. This becomes even more critical when time is limited. In at least two games, my troops were 1 turn away from being where they needed to be.
• Test your list! – Going into the weekend I had only played this list once. It was a departure from previous builds in many ways. I can at least say that it performed close to my estimates for the most part…some things good some things bad.
• Don’t count on average rolls – oh boy. While I never count on good luck, I need to not count on average …had one mission that I made this mistake, and instead of a win, it was hard work to pull out a tie in the face of very non-average rolls.
I had a great time, and really enjoyed the missions – even the ones that were stacked against me as they really pushed my game and forced me to think out of the box. I can say, that you can never judge a game early…positive or negative…never give up or get overconfident.
So, thats my battlereport from a Competitive Tau player (yes, I know - its an oxymoron)!.
Want to Trade my space wolves for TAU!!!
Conquer ignorance with thought. Conquer brutality with precision. Conquer all with unity, for it is The Greatest Good. -"Commander Shas'o Strikesheild" 