I traveled up to the bugeater this weekend in Omaha, NE and tried my luck against some of the players in the midwest. I will post a complete GT Report with pictures. Wont be able to get it posted tonight but here is my list.
HQ:
1 Commander, 168 pts = (Drone Controller + Command and Control Node + Puretide Engram Neurochip + Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite + XV8-02 Crisis 'Iridium' Battlesuit) (yes I gave him no weapons.. he is there purely to boost the broadsides and eat s8 shots.)
1 Aegis Defence Lines, 100pts (Quad-gun)
What are your alls predictions on how I did?
Alright here are some of the armies that showed up. The pictures are done with my phone as I recently moved and couldnt locate my camera to bring out for this one. Either way this is why I dont try to hard when painting as I already know I am not the best out there. Some of the Armies at the Bugeater 2013:
Spoiler:
Nids
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/503512-Imperial%20Guard2.html?m=2 Loved this IG Army
Scott's NORKS
Its inquisition and those are dreadknights.. what army it actually is...? Either way it looks cool!
Chaos Crons
Tau with a riptide and possibly farsight!
Your alls ideal build. 3 Riptides and plenty of marker lights. Tau
Necron AV 13 Spam
CORKS!
Horde IG!
Brad's Dark IG!
IGORK
Let's hope you don't run into too many Landraiders/Russes. All I see is missile drones so what's the point of the Drone Controllers? Those are pretty scary broadside units and Eldrad means they're never deployed out of position, and you've got decent mobility in your troops between the infiltrators and the jetbikes. If your opponents are disciplined enough to take out your troops or can get something in combat with your broadside units you're in trouble, but that's easier said than done. I figure you probably did pretty well as long as you didn't run into lots of AV14.
I'm glad you could make it back up after missing last year. I don't know if you saw the results, but you were 1 battle point away from tournament runner up. Really, really close.
TimmyMWD wrote: I'm glad you could make it back up after missing last year. I don't know if you saw the results, but you were 1 battle point away from tournament runner up. Really, really close.
Your list isn't exactly optimized, but because the new Tau are a top-tier codex and your skill level is high, I'd say you did pretty well. I predict a 4-2 finish.
Voted 4-2, Tau dex is is outrageous op if they can keep their gunline intact, so i think you lost the two where you where forced to leave that line to soon.
jy2 wrote: Your list isn't exactly optimized, but because the new Tau are a top-tier codex and your skill level is high, I'd say you did pretty well. I predict a 4-2 finish.
I am curious to know what part of it is not optimized?
To Thread: Will have the first round started tonight. You all are gonna love my first round match-up.
I think you have nothing to kill off av14s. One HH is not enough to do the job. I'm even worried a drop pod furioso oder iron clad dred might ruin your day.
jy2 wrote: Your list isn't exactly optimized, but because the new Tau are a top-tier codex and your skill level is high, I'd say you did pretty well. I predict a 4-2 finish.
I am curious to know what part of it is not optimized?
To Thread: Will have the first round started tonight. You all are gonna love my first round match-up.
Not that they need it, but it will sure make things easier (and better) for the army:
Riptides.
More markerlight support.
Without those two elements, your list is good, but it isn't a tournament-winner.
I would agree on the lack of Markerlights. Honestly all it would take is losing first turn and you've lost the Markerlights. Even if they survive, it'll be by going to ground, and that basically neuters them. Its a good list, and everything I've read of yours indicates you are a skilled player, but I think your list could show some improvements. I'm not overly bothered by no Riptides personally, so I'm voting 5-1. But, I'd definately say this isnt a tournament winner.
Alright I understand markerlights are good. What is the main benefit of markerlights that can be done to the same effect with prescience and perfect timing. Not to mention the commander that does both?
I would argue markerlights do very little that the Commander doesn't, but his powers combined are worth about 4-6 markerlight hits. For 168 points, you could have taken an additional 15 pathfinders, which is 7-8 markerlight hits on average. Granted, that doesn't give a Broadside unit the awesome Puretide stuff, nor the survivability. However, it does give you 15 more contesting bodies on the field and their markerlights can be used by any of the units rather than a single one the commander has joined. Also if you need it, it gives you an additional 30 S5 shots (though this is rarely useful, it is there). IMO it just splits up your threats a bit, whereas at the minute the Broadsides appear to be number 1 priority for most lists and you're in the interesting position where the model you've relying on to tank shots is also presumably your Warlord and crucial to the power of a unit. I may be wrong and you have far more experience with the army/at tournaments than I do but that seems like a list weakness to me.
Tomb King wrote: Alright I understand markerlights are good. What is the main benefit of markerlights that can be done to the same effect with prescience and perfect timing. Not to mention the commander that does both?
True, but rolling for powers is inherently unreliable, even Eldrad. Perfect timing can only be given to one unit, and since Eldrad wont have fortune then he can be killed. Obviously your Batreps will show how it worked out, and hard results always matter more than Theory hammer. My guess is though that any losses also involve a very early loss of Markerlights.
Tomb King optimized his list by not taking a lot of markerlights. To me this shows good design philosophy for list building. Psychic powers that are Blessings are highly reliable if the casting psyker is Ld10. Also using Divination in lieu of markerlights can equate to this lasting longer throughout the game. Pathfinders can be forced to go to ground or even quickly eliminated with shooting... For example they really don't like Griffons. For this GT points level I think this was a good decision.
Tomb King wrote: Alright I understand markerlights are good. What is the main benefit of markerlights that can be done to the same effect with prescience and perfect timing. Not to mention the commander that does both?
True, but rolling for powers is inherently unreliable, even Eldrad. Perfect timing can only be given to one unit, and since Eldrad wont have fortune then he can be killed. Obviously your Batreps will show how it worked out, and hard results always matter more than Theory hammer. My guess is though that any losses also involve a very early loss of Markerlights.
Eldrad had 4 psychic powers which he took on 3d6 dropping the highest. My chances of having divination where way higher then marker lights.
Dozer Blades wrote:Tomb King optimized his list by not taking a lot of markerlights. To me this shows good design philosophy for list building. Psychic powers that are Blessings are highly reliable if the casting psyker is Ld10. Also using Divination in lieu of markerlights can equate to this lasting longer throughout the game. Pathfinders can be forced to go to ground or even quickly eliminated with shooting... For example they really don't like Griffons. For this GT points level I think this was a good decision.
This is something a lot of people dont realize. Pathfinders are nice. But they are 11 points a model. They cant move otherwise they snap fire and they only have a 5+ armor save. This all added up equals me unwilling to run to many of them in a list. I tried multiple pathfinder units. Thought it was a bit overkill. TBH there arent many builds I fear with this army. There are only like 1 or 2 builds that I think would give me some trouble.
Alright here we go.
Round 1: Opponent: Space Wolves/IG Mission:
Primary: 5 Objectives deployed in an X on the board.
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Table Quarters (Same for all 6 missions )
Deployment: Dawn of War
His Army:
Rune Priest PA Rune Priest PA CCS in Chimera
Troops:
10 Grey Hunters w/ flamer; plasma; Wolf Standard, in Drop pod
10 Grey Hunters w/ flamer; plasma; Wolf Standard, in Drop pod
10 Grey Hunters w/ plasma; plasma; Wolf Standard, in Drop pod
10 Grey Hunters w/ Melta; Melta; Wolf Standard, in Drop pod
10 Grey Hunters w/ Melta; Melta; Wolf Standard, in Drop pod
Infantry Platoon:
PCS 3 x INF Squad w/ Autocannons
Infantry Platoon:
PCS 3 x INF Squad w/ Autocannons
Vendetta
Pre-Game Analysis:
Spoiler:
all in one! My strategy going into this match-up is seriously along the lines of I don't think I can win this game. Drop pod armies can be nasty for gun-lines. Not to mention Grey Hunters are imho the best units for drop pods. My biggest issue I see with this game is trying to protect myself while also getting to the objectives. Also I have to be able to handle his alpha strike and hopefully weaken him enough before he runs me through. I am missing my black mace prince and the ugly misfits already. After the initial shock of being paired with my worst possible match-up against one of 2 drop pod armies in the entire tournament I start to form a plan and hope it works. I can bubble wrap with the kroot. The powers I rolled were prescience, forewarning, invisibility, and foreboding.
Initiative: TauDar
Deployment: I deploy the aegis on my left flank. Rather then outflank the kroot which would probably die to mass las fire I bubble wrap with them on the outer most point inside the aegis. Inside of them I place the pathfinders, Hammerhead, Ethereal & Eldrad with some fire warriors and the unit of broadsides without the commander. On my far right flank I place the commander and the other broadsides on a hill. The commander is up front to tank wounds for the broadsides. I reserve 2 units of fire warriors and the jetbikes. He deploys both squads in a blob with the rune priest one on each flank. The rune priest both get prescience along with another power. He rolls to seize but fails to seize.
Tau Turn 1:
Spoiler:
I cast forewarning on the kroot and invisibility on the squad with eldrad and the ethereal. I put prescience on the left broadside unit. Shooting does minimal damage. On the right flank the SMS do some damage along with some of the drones as they all shoot twin linked and ignore cover. He passes his leadership though. Now its just time to weather the storm... Praying for a mishap!
SW Turn 1:
Spoiler:
So come the wolves. He deep strikes the 2 flamer squads on the far left flank and drops a 2 melta squad on the right flank to hit the commander and the broadsides. On the far left side one of the pods scatters back some so he has to move up a good deal to get in range with the flamer leaving it at the front of his squad. The kroot fire the quadgun and kill only one marine but it just happen to be the flamer. The left unit of broadsides fires SMS into that squad and drops 2 members of the far left squad also killing off the flamer. On the right flank the space wolves are in the open and pay for it. All 3 of the broadsides open up with everything. I kill 3 space wolves including one of the melta that is precision shot out of the squad. They actually flee but only go 3". On the left flank his grey hunters open up. Shooting at my pathfinders. They kill 1 pathfinder as the pathfinders go to ground. The other squad shoots at the ethereals squad but only kill 1 fire warrior. His left flank blob fires at the ethereal squad as well but only kills 1 fire warrior as they have a 2+ atm. At the end of this turn I have lost a total of 3 models. He has lost 7 including plasma overheats.
Early Game Analysis:
Spoiler:
I played a near perfect first turn and it really gives me a lot of hope in a game I looked at as a possible auto lose situation. Interceptor was crucial in hampering the amount of damage I could take. However, it came at a cost as now my broadsides cant shoot those same weapons. This is where the missiles earn their keep and keep the squad firing. Also any weapons not fired for interceptor can still be used so the left broadsides can still fire just not their sms. I wouldn't mind getting my reserves in this next turn as it would help me clear the immediate threat I still have at my door. Even with the early success it is hard to kill 23 MEQ that are currently at my doorstep.
Tau Turn 2:
Spoiler:
I roll for reserves and none of them come in. This is fine though as I would like to see where his other marines come in. Would of been nice to see if I could kill off his space wolves though. Eldrad cast foreboding on the kroots as well as forewarning. He also drops prescience on the broadsides. They move up to shoot the marines on the far left flank. The kroot move over ready to receive a charge if needed. They also maximize the ethereals bubble of extra shots. On the far right flank I decide I am going to charge the 7 space wolves. I can give them furious charge but 7 is a lot. I decide the best course of action is to shoot them first with the missile drones. I succeed and drop them to 4 but they auto flee . I am now closer then i want to be and primed to get charged back. On the far left flank the kroot, broadsides, fire warriors, and the hammerhead shoot at the space wolves. The result is they clear the left flank of any space wolves. Of the 30 original spacewolves only 4 remain alive.
SW Turn 2:
Spoiler:
The emperor smiles upon the wolves as all of their reserves come in. Both drop pods land on the far right flank. After seeing the destruction wrought in the marines on the left flank this was the right choice. The vendetta also comes in ready to level the broadsides as well. I intercept his vendetta and hit it twice and manage a pen and a glance. However, since I only ignore cover in my shooting phase he makes his jink for the pen result. I fire the quadgun that way as well but only manage one more glance. The vendetta shoots at the broadsides but is snap firing and fails to hit. The space wolves on the flank auto rally. He moves up and all of those squads fire at those broadsides. He manages to kill 1 broadside and 3 of the drones. He also does a few wounds to the commander. The 4 man squad then charges me while popping their banner. The end result is a tie combat 1 to 1.
Tau Turn 3:
Spoiler:
This time all of my reserves come in. Both fire warriors squads come in the right flank to help and eliminate the wolves there. This is a must as I cant afford to let him claim that obj or table quarter. I just hope the broadsides can hold. I make the broadsides stubborn with the commander. Eldrad gives the bikes invisibility and I turbo them to the center. I did this because my opponent didnt want to agree we could get another turn in and left it open for either way. I give the kroots forewarning and move them up giving them run and shoot with the ethereal to a little bit of when the pathfinders made them BS 4 still. I focus fire on the closest SW squad on the right flank and they flee with only 5 survivors. In combat the commander manages to hold and they kill 1 more of the space wolves and lose combat but stubborn lets them hold.
SW Turn 3:
Spoiler:
He cast prescience on his rune priest. The one on the left gets it to go off the one on the right perils. He takes out some of the kroot. The 5 man squad that fled rallies and moves to hit the jetbikes but fails their long charge. His space wolves finally kill the commander in combat with the final wound that I decide to take instead of passing to my last drone. They sweep the drone and consolidate towards that far right objective. The vendetta moves that direction and lands on the objective. He appears to be trying to contest it automatically if I am unable to get within 3".
We decide to play another turn as it is tied all the way to tertiary and there is still enough time. Also we didnt measure how close I was to bottom obj so this is just quick glance.
Tau Turn 4:
Spoiler:
I cast invisibility on the middle bikes again. I go to cast forewarning on my kroot and my opponent says that is for psyker and his squad only. I apologize as I had been casting it all game differently. It is perfect timing that is cast on the psyker and his squad. Didnt realize this mishap til later. Either way I settle for putting prescience on the broadsides. The ethereal does the same run and shoot ability. The bikes move towards his guardsman but I get a poor run with the kroot and only one model makes it within 3". With only a 6+ save they wont be able to hold it so instead of turboing up to contest his objective I turn around and make sure I get the middle because if I lose it I am hosed. On the far right flank I move up one squad to hte left of the objective and move the other to intercept the space wolves. The hammerhead shoots down his vendetta finally. The entire squad inside is killed off. The combined firepower from the kroot and the broadsides kills off his squad in the middle. I run the fire warriors onto the obj better on the right flank and run the other squad up to keep him from getting past me. Even if I lose one of the 2 objectives I still have the game locked up pretty good with kill points. Now its just time to ride it out.
He cast prescience on both rune priest and perils with both. The one on the right dies. He moves his left blob up and issues the command fire on my target re-roll successful cover saves and shoots at the bikers. I roll my 2+ saves: , 3, ! He then shoots the chimera at the last one and I roll my save. ! That really hurt. He then shoots his auto cannon at them in the blob and does 3 wounds. He also shoots his 3 drop pods on the right flank at my fire warriors on that objective doing 1 wound per pod. My saves: . My leadership ,3! They flee off the board. The auto cannons in the middle give me a 5+ cover save. I roll a 5, 6, and 6. That at least redeams some of what just happened as I was able to hold onto the middle objective. He charges my fire warriors remaining on the right flank and does 16 wounds. I fail 11 and get wiped out before swinging. He consolidates onto that objective. All i can do at this point is . Victory was snatched from me just like that as my opponent managed to do everything he wanted to do except kill the kroot.
AAR:That was a painful loss to take. The tau did so well and then just fell apart there a the end. I am still proud of how well the army did considering the match-up. Had the dice been just a pinch more kind on that final turn I would of been able to hold on to the upset win. I actually consider dropping out and just heading back home here because I had training the next night throughout the night. After some consideration I decided I drove 3 1/2 hours myswell get some games in and see how well I can do the rest of the day. The mvp for this game is pretty close between the commander and eldrad. Eldrad was a constant not failing a single power. The commander would of been MVP hands down had he held out for just 1 more turn. lol. Either way it was a good outing and I enjoyed the challenge of taking on one of my worst possible match-ups. Especially when my opponent is a skilled general.
If that is Hulksmash's army, then I think you will lose this matchup. It's hard enough for your army to deal with 60 MEQ's coming down in drop pods and getting the alpha strike on you, but one that is run by a general the caliber of Hulksmash? And can we say bye bye broadsides as they fall through the gaping chasms.
Asmodai Asmodean wrote: That Chaos Cron army.... Only way it could be worse is two more ABs.
Not really. In this case, he is trading 2 AB's for 1 more heldrake with CSM being primary.
Dozer Blades wrote: Tomb King optimized his list by not taking a lot of markerlights. To me this shows good design philosophy for list building. Psychic powers that are Blessings are highly reliable if the casting psyker is Ld10. Also using Divination in lieu of markerlights can equate to this lasting longer throughout the game. Pathfinders can be forced to go to ground or even quickly eliminated with shooting... For example they really don't like Griffons. For this GT points level I think this was a good decision.
Hmmm....interesting.
Psychic powers are anything but reliable nowadays. 4 powers isn't guaranteed to get you the power you want. I've seen Swarmlord fail to get Iron Arm just as many times as he has gotten it. Divination is a single-point-of-failure. Enemies that focus on Eldrad's unit can and will wipe it out, especially since he is forgoing Fortune to get Divination. Same as 1 unit of pathfinders. That is why you need multiple sources for markerlights (not necessarily pathfinders) - for redundancy against the situations you just described.
But the Tau are still new. I'm pretty sure they will win a major GT and very soon, especially when more and more good players start running Tau. Trust me, you're going to see winning builds more similar to Yakface's Rippling Markerlight army (though with some riptides thrown in).
Tomb King wrote: Alright I understand markerlights are good. What is the main benefit of markerlights that can be done to the same effect with prescience and perfect timing. Not to mention the commander that does both?
Markerlights can benefit more than 2 units. It can also remove cover for multiple units. The commander's buffs only affect the 1 unit he is with.
My philosophy on force multipliers is this - the more units you can benefit, the better. That's why powers and abilities such as Enfeeble, Misfortune, Doom and Markerlights I feel are superior. They benefit the entire army. The exception is a power that benefits a single unit but only if that unit is a deathstar-type unit (i.e. Invisibility, Fortune, Iron Arm, Precognition on deathstars or monstrous creatures).
Jaws can be a problem, but this SW army is using the Rune Priests in the blob squads - remember that SW Drop Pods can only hold 10 models, so there won't be any psykers podding in. With proper movement, Tomb King can probably keep out of the 24" range.
I'd still give this one to the Space Wolves, if only due to the number of scoring units. The TauDar list can't engage enough targets (or deal enough damage) to fight all those Grey Hunters.
People it's the old Eldar codex. Runes of Warding is still active so JAWWS isn't as deadly as it is with the new Eldar codex.
JY2 you've seen Swarmlord fail to get iron arm as many times as he's gotten it? Then you haven't seen him roll 4 times on Biomancy many times. The odds say differently. 4 rolls to get one power out of 6 rerolling any doubles. He will get iron arm more times than he won't. Those are the odds and how we love our odds in this game.
Yeah jy2 it's not nearly as bad as you make it out to be. He does have to face off versus two rune staffs this game but something like that is fairly rare now.
No my opponent was from minnesota but was not brad. As for the drone controllers. No I did not catch that. I was playing it wrong all weeekend. My apologies to all of my opponents. Though TBH the main damage caused by those units were from the broadsides themselves. You all will see. I will try to post this round one tonight.
Siphen wrote: Jaws can be a problem, but this SW army is using the Rune Priests in the blob squads - remember that SW Drop Pods can only hold 10 models, so there won't be any psykers podding in. With proper movement, Tomb King can probably keep out of the 24" range.
I'd still give this one to the Space Wolves, if only due to the number of scoring units. The TauDar list can't engage enough targets (or deal enough damage) to fight all those Grey Hunters.
Hmmmm....guess I'm a little rusty with my Space Wolves. The last time I ran them with drop pods was back in the 2010 Ard Boyz. Lol.
In any case, if it was me, I would have left 2 hunter units with only 9 men for some flexibility for these types of situations. Great against tyranids, tau and wraithwing necrons.
DarthDiggler wrote: People it's the old Eldar codex. Runes of Warding is still active so JAWWS isn't as deadly as it is with the new Eldar codex.
JY2 you've seen Swarmlord fail to get iron arm as many times as he's gotten it? Then you haven't seen him roll 4 times on Biomancy many times. The odds say differently. 4 rolls to get one power out of 6 rerolling any doubles. He will get iron arm more times than he won't. Those are the odds and how we love our odds in this game.
Then I've bucked the odds. This is from my experience running the Swarmlord and from playing against Janthkin's Swarmlord nids. Though in Janthkin's defense, he normally goes for Telepathy first in order to try to get Invisibility (I still don't see him get Invisibility consistently enough, however).
And actually, you could get the same power twice. It's happened to me before. Get a crappy power. Swap out it for your Primaris. Then roll and get the same crappy power again. Lol.
Tomb King wrote: No my opponent was from minnesota but was not brad. As for the drone controllers. No I did not catch that. I was playing it wrong all weeekend. My apologies to all of my opponents. Though TBH the main damage caused by those units were from the broadsides themselves. You all will see. I will try to post this round one tonight.
He's got a decent list, though if it was me, I'd take out 1 grey hunter each from 2 units for the flexibility of being able to put my HQ's in there if I wanted to.
Theorius wrote: How do the space wolves have any chance? Not all of them come in same turn do they?
Intercept alone will do 24 missiles into 1-2 units.
Then he tries to shoot dudes past the aegis with bolsters and a few plasma?
Then the suits do 50 more shots?
The troops have 30 str 5 guns, 20 snipers and an auto cannon.
The ethereal makes them all stubborn with his leadership...
30 will come down on Turn 1.
Fire Interceptor and then you can't fire on your own turn.
Fire warriors can go-to-ground if they want. I would have no problems with them snap-firing next turn.
The troops will have less than 30 str 5 guns, 20 snipers and an auto cannon after 1 turn of GH shooting (or they will be snap-firing if they g-t-g).
Yeah for stubborn because now you're going to have 1 less shot each for your troops next turn.
Decisions, decisions....
But most importantly, don't miss the forest by focusing on the tree. The job of the hunters is to keep the Tau army distracted while the guardsmen go after the objectives and table quarters. Yeah, they may kill all the hunters by the end of the game, but if Tau is not careful, they are going to find themselves grossly out of position relative to the objectives. They may take VP's, but SW/IG should be able to take objectives and table quarters.
However, none of this takes into consideration the skill of the general. We know TK is a very good player. We know nothing of the skill of his opponent. Overall, the OP will have an uphill battle but it is still a very winnable game for him.
Theorius wrote: How do the space wolves have any chance? Not all of them come in same turn do they?
Intercept alone will do 24 missiles into 1-2 units.
Then he tries to shoot dudes past the aegis with bolsters and a few plasma?
Then the suits do 50 more shots?
The troops have 30 str 5 guns, 20 snipers and an auto cannon.
The ethereal makes them all stubborn with his leadership...
30 will come down on Turn 1.
Interceptor can only snapshot and then you can't fire on your own turn.
Fire warriors can go-to-ground if they want. I would have no problems with them snap-firing next turn.
The troops will have less than 30 str 5 guns, 20 snipers and an auto cannon after 1 turn of GH shooting (or they will be snap-firing if they g-t-g).
Yeah for stubborn because now you're going to have 1 less shot each for your troops next turn.
Decisions, decisions....
But most importantly, don't miss the forest by focusing on the tree. The job of the hunters is to keep the Tau army distracted while the guardsmen go after the objectives and table quarters. Yeah, they may kill all the hunters by the end of the game, but if Tau is not careful, they are going to find themselves grossly out of position relative to the objectives. They may take VP's, but SW/IG should be able to take objectives and table quarters.
However, none of this takes into consideration the skill of the general. We know TK is a very good player. We know nothing of the skill of his opponent. Overall, the OP will have an uphill battle but it is still a very winnable game for him.
It only snap fires if it has sky fire. Interceptor works fires just fine at regular reserves. Turn 1 posted so far.
If tau go first I don't see how the Wolves/IG stand much of a chance, Tau have enough shooting (and a handy re-deploy from Eldrad to make sure it's all in postion) to put a serious dent in those blobs, then deal with the wolves as they come in piece-meal. Wolves getting first would give them a better chance at doing so decent damage. Space in the Pods for the priests would have made a huge difference.
This used to be one of the friendly sub forums. Now there is a lot of hyper criticality. If your list is not good enough to win a GT then it is deemed as non competitive. If these opinions were coming from lots of GT winners I'd be fine with that but it's not the case.
Also, not noticing how drone controller works is epic fail..
Nonetheless, I'm still rooting for you, TK. Hopefully, RoW's last hurrah will be a good one.
Yea what is worse is no one ever pointed it out either. I played several practice games with this army and then the tournament. Either way you will see in the later games how much i actually used them. As for the spoilers. It makes for easier loading. I dropped 2 of them out and cleaned it up some though.
TK forewarning is any friendly model within 12" of the psyker. Foreboding and precognition are psyker/psyker and sqaud only. You let your RD 1 opponent get one over on you! ;p As you were playing it right to begin with. Not sure how much difference it would have made.
Tomb King, I believe you used the Drone Controller correctly. There are 2 entries in the Tau codex that specify what the Drone Controller gear does:
Page 68 : All Gun Drones, Marker Drones and Sniper Drones in the same
unit as a model with a drone controller use the bearer's Ballistic
Skill instead of their own. If a unit contains several Drone
Controllers, use the highest Ballistic Skill amongst the bearers.
Page 105 : Drones in the unit use the bearer's BS.
I have checked the latest Tau Codex FAQ and see no mention of this. If some one has a reference to new FAQ please kindly post it. Until then I see no reason not to allow a missile drone to use the bearer's BS.
thejughead wrote: Tomb King, I believe you used the Drone Controller correctly. There are 2 entries in the Tau codex that specify what the Drone Controller gear does:
Page 68 : All Gun Drones, Marker Drones and Sniper Drones in the same
unit as a model with a drone controller use the bearer's Ballistic
Skill instead of their own. If a unit contains several Drone
Controllers, use the highest Ballistic Skill amongst the bearers.
Page 105 : Drones in the unit use the bearer's BS.
I have checked the latest Tau Codex FAQ and see no mention of this. If some one has a reference to new FAQ please kindly post it. Until then I see no reason not to allow a missile drone to use the bearer's BS.
missile drones are not gun drones, sniper drones or marker drones.
you listed the rule correctly, and he used drone controller incorrectly as he used it on missile drones.
Either way what is done is done. They will faq it eventually to fix it.
Round 2:
Opponent: Imperial Guard
Mission:
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: 3 Objectives in no mans land (Big Guns)
Tertiary: Table Quarters (Same for all 6 missions )
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
His Army:
CCS in Chimera w/ 4 flamers
Elites:
5 Storm troopers with 2 melta
5 Storm troopers with 2 melta
Troops:
Veterans w/ 3 melta in chimera
Veterans w/ 3 melta in chimera
Veterans w/ 3 plasma in chimera
Veterans w/ 2 melta & 1 plasma in chimera
Veterans w/ Melta, plasma, and flamer in chimera
Fast Attack:
Scout Sentinel w/ lascannon, HK missile
Scout Sentinel w/ lascannon, HK missile
Devil Dog w/ heavy flamer
Well no one said it would be easy. This is definitely not a match-up I am looking forward to. Heavies are scoring and he has 2 leman russ that I dont really have a good solution for. In fact I dont have much of a solution for AV12 either. He has a ton of flamers and the demolishers can ID all of my broadsides. The only way this could get worse is if he had manticores. Top this all off with the fact that are board is . Lets just say their is a good amount of LOS blocking terrain on this board. This will be a tough match-up and the first 2 turns will be telling of how the game will go. I have to kill those leman russ somehow and keep them from killing the broadsides.
Deployment:
Spoiler:
As expected he forms a AV12 wall. He deploys the hydra's on the far right. My only benefit is I can stretch the flanks some but this nice large structure in the middle is BLOS for just about everything. We rule it as not DT as it has ramps and walkways and its 3" to climb to upper levels etc... I deploy the hammerhead on the far left. One broadside unit with commander in the tower and one in a ruin/crater in my deployment zone. One unit of fire warriors deploys ready to run up a ramp and the other deploys in a line ready to run up behind the aegis and claim that middle objective. My warlord trait is FnP while within 3" of an objective. Not much good that will do given his amount of high strength shots. The ethereal joins this squad along with eldrad. I outflank the kroot and reserve one fire warriors squad and the bikes. The pathfinders infiltrate on the top of one of the buildings ready to marker light one of his leman russ. He rolls to seize and fails to seize.
Tau Turn 1:
Spoiler:
I cast prescience on the back squad of broadsides and on the hammerhead. The hammerhead moves out to the left flank to shoot at his leman russ side armor. I use the pathfinders to ignore cover but I only manage a glance. The red fire warriors on the right flank move up into the building and run to get behind cover. The top squad of broadsides takes some pot shots at his leman russ and manage to cause one glance. 2 HP down but still kicking. My broadsides in the back finally deal the first blow as they explode one of his chimera that had a hull heavy flamer. Other then that I fail to do any real damage.
IG Turn 1:
Spoiler:
He advances his far right chimera and move the leman russ up behind the structure so I cant see them. He fires at my pathfinders and kills 3. They flee off the top and another dies from DT. They wont rally. Most of his vehicles fire at my middle fire warriors but I make a decent number of saves. There numbers are definitely dwindling though. He fires his hydra flak tanks at my back broadsides and kills off 3 of the drones. He takes a few pot shots at my hammerhead but doesnt do any damage.
Tau Turn 2:
Spoiler:
Kroot and fire warriors fail to come in. The bikes come in so I hide them on the far left of my tower to avoid them getting killed off. I get nervous with eldrad being in the fire warriors in the center so he leaves them and joins the back broadsides. The red fire warriors on the right flank get triple shot from the ethereal and move out to shoot into the vehicles side armor. They pen a ridiculous amount of times but only wreck it. The broadsides in the middle explode another vehicle this time it is the one next to the leman russ. I was trying to wreck or immobolize it and block the leman russ behind the train. On the left flank the hammerhead shoots and destroys a vehicle as well. The rail guns are really carrying their weight in this one.
IG Turn 2:
Spoiler:
Both sentinenals come in as well as both stormtrooper squads. One sentinal comes in from each table edge. The storm troopers deepstrike both on the left flank. One behind the hammerhead the other closer to my broadsides. I intercept with all 3 units. The back broadsides fire SMS at one of the storm troopers and kills off 4 of them. The last one flee's. The quadgun shoots the storm troopers behind the hammerhead and again 4 die. They also flee. The last broadside unit shoots the sentinal on the left flank and kills it off as well. On his turn I killed 270pts with interceptor. He moves up with his other chimera on the right flank and flames the red fire warriors. Every model he can see and that is in range dies. Only 3 remain. The back broadsides take a wound from the hydra's and lose the remainder of their drones. My opponent attempts to move the wounded leman russ forward and roles a for DT taking the vehicle out of the fight. He moves the other leman russ around and takes a pot shot at the broadsides. This is what finishes off the last of the drones in that unit. They pass their morale though.
Tau Turn 3:
Spoiler:
My kroot and fire warriors come in from reserves. The kroot make it to the right flank. The fire warriors approach the guardsman to their front now in the open. The broadsides up top shoot their drones and wreck his last sentinal. The hammerhead fires a blast on the imperial guardsman moving up the ramp. The SMS and the big blast kill off that squad. The 3 warriors on the tower move up and explode his last chimera on the right flank. Those models fail and flee. The kroot shoot the back of his leman russ. Even with snap shots I manage to glance once with a sniper shot and the krootox pens but does not damage. The broadsides in the back try to get the last hp off of it and manage to glance it finishing off his last leman russ. With that we decide to call the game.
Post Game AAR: The game went very well for me. I cant remember if we called it on turn 3 or turn 4. But the basic facts were provided above. The railguns were amazing in this one. S8 ap1 can really do work on vehicles. This is only increased when you can give yourself ignore cover and tank hunter. My opponent got a little unlucky with some of his roles and the board was crazy with that terrain but the Tau/mainly the broadsides really showed up in this one. At this point I am finding it hard to not auto include interceptor on the broadsides. It just that good. Being able to stop peoples first or second turn suicide units is amazing. This game gives me hope as I figured I would of had a harder time against the imperial guard. My list is built for flyers and as of yet I have only played one. With there being a few drops in the tournament there is a very small chance I could come back and win the GT still. Fingers are crossed and I will need to max points just about every game.
missile drones are not gun drones, sniper drones or marker drones.
you listed the rule correctly, and he used drone controller incorrectly as he used it on missile drones.
You have two interpretations of the same rules at odds with each other, why does one override the other?
I will post this in YMDC as I do not want to hijack this thread.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Round 3:
Opponent: Orkz
Mission:
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: 4 Objectives placed by players)
Tertiary: Table Quarters (Same for all 6 missions )
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
His army:
HQ:
Mega-Armoured warboss; cybork body; power klaw; stikkbombs
Mega-Armoured warboss; cybork body; power klaw; stikkbombs
Elites:
15 Lootas
Troops:
6 Meganobz (2x shoota/Rokkit kombi weapon; shoota/Skorcha Kombi weapon)
6 Meganobz (shoota/Rokkit kombi weapon; shoota/Skorcha Kombi weapon)
with BattleWagon (Deff Rolla; Armoured Playes; Red Paint Job; Big Shoota (X2)
20 Shoota Boyz with Nob w/ Power Klaw
20 Shoota Boyz with Nob w/ Power Klaw
BattleWagon (Deff Rolla; Armoured Playes; Red Paint Job; Big Shoota (X2)
BattleWagon (Deff Rolla; Armoured Playes; Red Paint Job; Big Shoota (X2)
BattleWagon (Deff Rolla; Armoured Playes; Red Paint Job; Big Shoota (X2)
Pregame Analysis:
Spoiler:
Nothing like an AV14 wall that can wreck my entire line before assaulting. I will have to get them out of their transports fast or this game could get ugly. Deffa Rolla's could panic my army off the board if I am not careful. My best course of action is to get the hammerhead firing and try to get it to pen them. If that doesn't work I will have to try and take advantage of side shots. The only hard part is the deployment makes my ability to get to the flanks harder. If I keep his battlewagons from hitting me I got this one. If at least 1 of them makes it to my lines I will most likely fall to mass green orkz. At this point if I lose it would make it easier to pack up and head home as I have no hope of pulling anything out. Either way I am gonna give it my best shot.
Deployment:
I deploy in a line ready to go to ground when needed. I place the commander on the left flank up front to tank wounds for the broadsides and the other broadsides on the right flank. The Hammerhead takes the center. The kroot are outflanking and the bikes are in reserves. He deploys loota's in the far left battle wagon. Then has nobz in the next one with a warboss. Then the battle wagon with the shoota boyz and on the right flank the last nobz squad with the warlord in it. He rolls to seize and fails.
Tau turn 1:
Spoiler:
I unleash the paylod as broadsides fire diagonally across the board trying to get side armor. After all of my shooting though only 1 battlewagon is taken out. Atleast one of the nobz squads is foot slogging.
Orkz Turn 1:
Spoiler:
The other turn battle wagons move up and flat out towards me. His loota's target my warlords squad but he makes all of his saves.
Tau turn 2:
Spoiler:
Luckily I manage to finish off the last two battle wagons advancing my posiiton. The nobz make pretty good saves though. The boyz on the other hand take some wounds from the fire warriors and flee. I try to shoot at the loot battlewagon but to no affect. None of my reserves made it in.
Orkz turn 2:
Spoiler:
His boyz rally up top. The nobz begin there slow movement towards my line. The loota's shoot and kill off some of my firewarriors in front of the nobz.
Mid game analysis:
Spoiler:
With all of his battlewagons gone I can now dictate the engagement. His nobz are still a big issue though and will need to be dealt with. If I can kill them off I should be able to pull this game off. If they finish making it to my lines they will most likely eat a unit or two easily.
Tau turn 3:
Spoiler:
http://www.dakkadakka.com/core/gallery-oembed.jsp?format=json&url=http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/505637-.html Both of my reserves come in. The kroot outflank on the left side and come in with the krootox behind the back left battlewagon. The bikes move up on my right flank and are waiting for a last turn flat out. The kroot actually wreck the last battlewagon and mass fire from the fire warriors and broadsides bring down the nobz and send them running. ON the right flank the ethereal and fire warriors again force the ork boyz to panic. This time neither will rally. With both of them running and little chance of turning and the game out of reach we call it.
Orks Turn 3:
Spoiler:
His two troops continued to flee so we called it.
Post game Results and Thoughts:
Spoiler:
Primary: Tau
Secondary: Tau
Tertiary: Tau
Post Game AAR: After entering the game I realize the deployment actually favored me rather then hamper me. With me having the ability to limit his avenues of approach and also deploy farther back from his assault based army it prevented him from doing any real damage. As soon as the battle wagons went down it was only a matter of time. The kroot outflanking the way they did was just icing on the cake. I am seriously impressed with how this army preforms. The kroot are amazing and I might try and find a way to get another unit in the army in future tournaments.
I predict that you'll get 3 down before they assault but impact of the 4th will be minimal as the shoota boys will be the ones that make it. The meganobs will go down to broadside fire.
Good reports, happy you won, but as an IG player its sad to see one of our biggest advantages, Tanks and Av12 transports, being dealt with so easily, the meta is really different vehicles are looking less and less viable.
Spartan089 wrote: Good reports, happy you won, but as an IG player its sad to see one of our biggest advantages, Tanks and Av12 transports, being dealt with so easily, the meta is really different vehicles are looking less and less viable.
I know how you feel. I have the 56th MID sitting around collecting dust. I am still an IG player at heart.
Round 4:
Opponent: TYRANIDS Mission:
Primary: 5 Objectives (Placed in X)
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Table Quarters (Same for all 6 missions )
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
His army:
HQ:
Swarmlord (Got Iron Arm)
Flying Hive Tyrant Twin-Linked Devours
Elites:
Doom of Malan'tai (Psychic Shriek) in spore
3 Hive Guard
2 Zoanthropes
Troops:
Tervigon
Tervigon (Got Iron Arm)
16 Termagaunts
15 Termagaunts
Fast Attack:
15 Gargoyles
Heavy:
2 Biovores
Fortification:
Skyshield Landing Pad
Pregame Analysis:
Spoiler:
Great so I have a static gunline against spawning nids with 5 objectives as the primary. This is going to be a hard one to pull off. Especially given that he has a skyshield he just camp out on with the big guys and receive some invuls. To make matters worse if he is able to close the distance with the Flyrant then he can kill off an entire squad with its shooting. I would be lying if I said I was looking forward to this match-up. My target priority has to be tervigons and then the flyrant unless I cant possibly ignore the flyrant. I have to control his troop spawning to an extent or there will be no winning this one. It is safe to say I am in trouble on this one. Win or lose it was a good run. If I lose here it will make it easier to head home as I have training late the next day.
Deployment:
Spoiler:
I win the roll to go first. I will have to make it count. I deploy both broadside units on the top right part of my deployment. The hammerhead is placed in the back of the hill. 2 units of fire warriors deploy behind the aegis. I infiltrate the pathfinders in the area terrain on the right side of my deployment. He deploys the flyrant on the far left flank with a unit of gaunts next to them. He places a unit of biovores behind the ruins in the back of his deployment. Both tervigons are deployed on the skyshield. The swarmlord to the right of skyshield behind the middle piece of terrain along with the last unit of gaunts. The 3 hiveguard, and 2 zoanthrope deploy behind the skyshield along with the 15 gargoyles. I then use eldrads d3+1 redeploy and place one broadside unit on the hill in my deployment and the other on the far left flank to maximize my range to the tervigons. He attempts to seize and fails.
Tau turn 1:
Spoiler:
With my risky redeploy I put all of my shots into the iron arm tervigon. After fire from the quadgun, broadsides and the hammerhead it finally falls killing a few gaunts. The last broadside unit targets the other one and does 1 wound.
Nids Turn 1:
Spoiler:
He attempts to cast iron arm on the swarmlord and takes a perils. He gets the tervigon off the skyshield and hides behind the blos terrain in the middle. The flyrant advances up the left flank and sits behind the ruins their poised to advance next turn. The gaunts on that side move around behind the ruins. His biovores move up a little and fire but fail to kill anything major. The gargoyles move onto the skyshield as they advance. The dangerous hive guard move up behind the skyshield as well. Luckily still out of range.
Early Game analysis:
Spoiler:
Taking out the iron arm tervigon first turn was huge for me. It actually gives me a fighting chance now that his spawning is cut in half. Still have no solution for the swarmlord next to the middle objective. The ruins on the left flank are going to give me fits as well as I have no way of getting any unit behind them that could hold that objective. As it stands I am still unsure of how I will take the objectives. Could really use my kroot to silence those damn biovores.
Tau Turn 2:
Spoiler:
I roll for reserves and actually get one of my kroot in along with hte bikes. I was kind of mixed on whether I wanted the kroot in or not because of doom. They outflank but get the right side. Which is kind of nice but not what I wanted. They can now make a play for that objective but I needed them in the enemies backfield. The bikes I didnt want to see until late game. I try to cover some area and make sure doom doesn't come at me. I dont really have too many viable targets. The top broadsides can barely see his tervigon so I take some pot shots at it and wound it some more. The bottom broadsides decide to pick off a biovore and instant gib it. Not much goes on this turn.
Nids Turn 2:
Spoiler:
Naturally doom comes in first chance and lands right next to the kroot. I intercept with all i got. I start with the quadgun and it kills the pod he is hiding behind. Then I fire the broadsides.
Gotta love them to wound rolls. The instant death shots that make it through are saved. He levels the kroot with casualties including a psychic shriek that he gets off. The kroot actually flee towards me. losing around 40% of their numbers. The swarmlord moves up some along with the gargoyles. They begin to close the distance. The hive guard move under the skyshield. His tervigon spawns gaunts for his back objective. The gaunts on the far left flank advance up some. His flyrant holds put or he forgets to advance it. Either way its safe atm.
Mid-game Analysis:
Spoiler:
Seriously not looking good for the greater good atm. He is bearing down on me. My one way to get one of the objectives is currently running and they didnt even run far enough to escape doom if they rallied. . I have a near full unit of gargoyles at my front door a flyrant one fly move out and the swarmlord a turn away from charging. At this point its go big or go home. Either way if I lose it makes leaving easier. Actually went into this game with only 7 people undefeated. So its possible that I could climb back into it if I pull this one out. Slim chances but a chance none the less. <<<hates fighting nids in obj games. Its like fighting draigowing in kill points.
Tau Turn 3:
Spoiler:
My last unit of firewarriors enter from reserves and I decide to go for the gold. I move on 6" and target the flyrant with everything I got. The greater good is with me and I manage to do 3 wounds to it. On the other side the kroot rally. I cast invisibility on them to help survive their impending doom. The firewarriors with prescience fire into the gargoyles along with the quadgun. The back broadsides also fire into the gargoyles. The result is devastating and they kill off the gargoyles. The bottom broadsides fire the drones into the swarmlord but I only manage four wounds. My opponent rolls his saves. , , two, two and the swarmlord dies. The fire warriors in the back fire into doom and I manage 1 wound finally. That turn was huge I might actually be able to pull this off.
Nids Turn 3:
Spoiler:
Doom starts making his way to my home objective. He has his ability go off and the kroot make their leadership. The pathfinders are not so lucky. Doom also takes a perils wound from trying to cast psychic shriek. On the far left flank his flyrant jumps over to charge me. He fires at me but I make some decent saves. The gaunts charge first and I kill one or two on the charge but they make it. The flyrant comes barreling in. I encircle him and the disciplined fire warriors slap fight him as he advances slowely through the ruins. Somewhere along the line a firewarrior trips and falls firing his pulse rifle into the flyrants face killing it instantly. (The fire warriors actually roll two 's to wound in close combat and he failed one. The gaunts do a number but its a tie combat.
Tau Turn 4:
Spoiler:
The kroot move farther away from doom and move up to shoot at some of his gaunts now approaching that objective. The broadsides on the hill fire and finish off his last tervigon. I move back to around 13" from doom and fire everything at him. He takes a few wounds but is still alive. The instant death shots dont hit him. On the left flank I move the missle drones and the broadsides up some. The firewarriors in combat get slaughtered by the gaunts and they consolidate onto that far left objective.
Nids Turn 4:
Spoiler:
Synapse starts becoming an issue and the far left gaunts in the ruins fail and stay where they are. The zoanthropes move over to escort his gaunts to the far right objective. Doom advances towards my lines and is just out of 6" and he elects not to charge given the amount of shots I could fire at him via snap fire and triple tap from ethereal. His gaunts at the top shoot at the kroot but fail to do any damage.
Tau Turn 5:
Spoiler:
Well its now or never. I cast invisibility on the bikes and turbo them to the far left objective where the gaunts are hiding. I cast prescience on the fire warriors up front and triple tap them. All of the fire warriors unleash hell into doom and he finally falls. With my opponent only having the zoanthropes left I target them with the broadsides and instant kill both of them. Killing off the last of his synapse creatures. The kroot move up and rapid fire the gaunts in the back all but 2 die. The commander joins the bottom broadsides and the drones move up and fire twin linked ignore cover shots in the the gaunts on that objective killing the 5 they can see. They pass their leadership though but I am pretty sure they are still over 3" away from the objective atm.
Nids Turn 5:
Spoiler:
Just about everything fials synapse. One guant squad in the middle passes and he attempts to make it to the middle objective but is out of range. We roll to see if the game ends and it does.
Post game Results and Thoughts:
Spoiler:
Primary: Tau
Secondary: Tau
Tertiary: Tau
Post Game AAR: Holy I actually pulled it out. My army preformed admirably in this one. I was able to eliminate threats as they came up in this one. All except doom that is. Man I hate that bug. "The only good bug is a dead bug!" 10pts for correct movie reference. The kroot once again saved my bacon in this one staying alive and holding that objective. I think my opponent thought he could handle them with the gaunts and biovores while doom tied up my home objective for the game had he made combat. The best part about all of this is I didn't just win I managed to still max my points. I start hovering over at the judge table to hear the results to see if I could still make best general as there were 2 rounds left and if only 3 undefeated remained I might be able to climb back in. Unfortunately who ever played the undefeated player had lost. 4 Undefeated players remained. With me having no chance to win the competition as I never really try for the painting award, and me having training from 2100-0300 the next night I inform the judges that I will be dropping and heading home. It sucks as I was making a hell of a run out of it. The added bonus is I save money on a hotel. I say good bye and made my way to the exit.
Spoiler:
I got the doors and thought... man I have already drove up here and this will make a nice report. it! I turned around and walked back in and told them I will play. Myswell, as I had already driven the 3 1/2 hours to get there. Now the added bonus is I spent $120 for a one night stay. Hope I made the right choice staying.
Good win against the tyranids. Your opponent played directly into your hands, he fed his army into your guns piecemeal. He needed to jam all his forces at you at once and hope that enough things got through to slaughter your fish in assault. Learning to cope with losing a ton of models early to have a chance to win later is a difficult lesson to learn. Trying to keep everyone alive is a guarantee that most of your models will get slaughtered.
Slight OT diversion, but earlier in the thread you mentioned you were going to a fantasy tournament last wekend. Was that at Table Top Games and how did you do there?
I noticed, in the first report against the wolves, that you intercepted with your SMS and missiles on your right most broadsides. I don't think you can do that. Multitrackers only work in the shooting phase, so you can only shoot 1 gun in the opponents movement phase, unless you are the riptide.
Thanks. I love that movie. Though the 2nd one is definitely the worst of the 3.
Dozer Blades wrote:Very impressive win there versus the bugs.
Reference is from Starship Troopers.
I was impressed with my army in this one. They held in there and made this win possible. The biggest issue he had was hiding his monstrous creatures. They were tall enough that the middle piece of terrain wasn't able to fully hide them and I ignored cover.
Spartan089 wrote:Congrats on defeating those damn bugs, great read! Who said you can't play aggressively with Tau.
MVP moment was the fire warriors killing that flyrant. Dealing 3 wounds to it from shooting was bettter then I hoped for. Getting 2 wounds in combat was just icing on the cake.
bogalubov wrote:Good win against the tyranids. Your opponent played directly into your hands, he fed his army into your guns piecemeal. He needed to jam all his forces at you at once and hope that enough things got through to slaughter your fish in assault. Learning to cope with losing a ton of models early to have a chance to win later is a difficult lesson to learn. Trying to keep everyone alive is a guarantee that most of your models will get slaughtered.
What kind of puppy do you have?
Well he didnt necessarily come in piece meal. The swarmlord showed his face the same time the gargoyles did and the flyrant was one move out. Had either the swarmlord or the gargoyles survived one turn of shooting he would of been able to put pressure on me.
As for the dog I have a 10 week old full bread German Shephard Puppy. His name is Russ!
JWhex wrote:Slight OT diversion, but earlier in the thread you mentioned you were going to a fantasy tournament last wekend. Was that at Table Top Games and how did you do there?
Yes it was at TT. I ran my VC's with 2 mortis engines, a 43 block of ghouls, and a Ghoul King on a terrorgheist. Massacred a tough skaven army game one, was massacred by some cannon wielding ogres game two and my third round opponent had to bug out so I was given an auto massacre. Not a bad showing for the VC's.
crazedcatatonic5 wrote:I noticed, in the first report against the wolves, that you intercepted with your SMS and missiles on your right most broadsides. I don't think you can do that. Multitrackers only work in the shooting phase, so you can only shoot 1 gun in the opponents movement phase, unless you are the riptide.
Yea I did it with the right broadsides only in one of the turns. The opponent made all the saves from the SMS either way. He corrected me on it too for a different reason. He said I could only fire one weapon with the interceptor rule. So that is how I played it for the rest of the day. Multi-tracker would be the right reason you cant. Interceptor is for the model not the weapon in the tau codex.
It seems that you were hesitant (putting it mildly) at your ability to win for EVERY game. Yet you won all but one. Perhaps your pre-game analysis is not particularly accurate?
Inf Platoon
PCS - plasma gun x 2; plasma pistol
Inf Squad: Flamer
Inf Squad: Flamer
Inf Squad: Flamer
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Mortar
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Mortar
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Heavy Bolter
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Heavy Bolter
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x Heavy Bolter
Inf Platoon
PCS - Melta gun; 2x Plasma Gun; plasma pistol
Inf Squad: Flamer
Inf Squad: Flamer
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x AutoCannon
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x AutoCannon
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x AutoCannon
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x AutoCannon
Heavy Weapons Squad: 3x AutoCannon
Fast Attack:
Vendetta
Fortification:
Aegis Defense Line
Pre-Game Analysis:
Spoiler:
Holy dakka this isnt going to be a fun game. Win or lose its pretty much just going to be roll some dice and remove some models for both sides. The army reminds me of horde orks. The conclusion can be drawn pre-game and you just need to roll the dice and see if they win or not. DJ is the owner of the army and he is actually a local player that I have played several times before. I have faced this army once before and that was at the midwest massacre last year. I had won that one narrowly as my Space wolf allies claimed the relic for me and he could not kill them off in time. On this occasion he traded out his ork allies for more guardsman. I am pretty sure I can pull kill points but its the objectives that are going to give me fits. His army is pretty much a point denial force. If I win it wont be a big win. If I lose it wont be a big loss. Kind of sucks but that is the cards I have been dealt in this one. I am going to target prioritize his lascannons unless I see an easy kill available. I hate playing the dakka game with guard as they have a silly order to make you re-roll cover saves. This is one of the few armies in the tournament that can actually outshoot me and possibly shoot me off the board. The deployment both aids and hampers me. It guarantee's my fire warriors are out of range but in the same since my broadsides can back off and use their range if I want them too. However, I might need to get my droids involved to help limit his firepower.
Ladies and Gentlemen your predictions?
The army to be faced:
I seem to have a lack of pictures for this game but there isnt that much moving for either side.
Deployment:
Spoiler:
He deploys with his troops covering most of the board. I deploy back some but use eldrads ability to move up so I can use the drones on turn 1 atleast to help limit some of his shooting. I have first turn which should help me do some damage before he can bring his full amount of fire power to bare. I also bring the kroot on to help hold my objective as I need the bodies. If I outflank they will just get slaughtered on the turn they come in by the amount of dakka that he has. No use in throwing them into the meat grinder. After I redeploy up some to take full advantage of my drones and such he rolls to seize and gets a .
IG Turn 1:
Spoiler:
He opens up on my drones and kills off every drone in the bottom squad. The commander makes the saves that get to him. He does take 1 wound from a lascannon(iridium armor saved me from ID). Auto cannons and heavy bolters pelt the firewarriors squad with eldrad and the etheral in it. They actually break and flee. Morters are dropped in and do a real number on the kroot. They manage to hold at least. The fire warriors on my left flank take some casualties but hold. That was a painful turn.
Tau turn 1:
Spoiler:
Luckily the ethereal and eldrad rally with that firewarriors squad in the ruins on my side. I put forewarning on the kroot to help them stay alive. The broadsides on the left flank open up and with the ability to ignore cover do a real number on a heavy weapons team which flee's but cant retreat because there is no room which auto kills them. On the right flank the broadsides kill off a heavy bolter team in the same way. The hammerhead drops a template trying to kill the squads off that have the lascannons. It does a good deal of damage.
IG Turn 2:
Spoiler:
His vendetta arrives from reserves and he takes it along the back edge of the board diagonally to avoid interceptor. It has a PCS in it. I intercept with the bottom broadsides but fail to do any damage to it. He moves a few of his troops to leave room for them to fall back if needed. The mortars come in again doing some damage on the kroot. It is a basically a game of endurance as I continue to whether the storm. I really need my troops to hold that middle objective and currently its not looking good for their ability to survive. He takes some more shots at my commander but he makes his saves taking one more wound in the process.
Tau turn 2:
Spoiler:
One unit of fire warriors comes in from reserves the bikes do not thanks to the officer of the fleet. I move the firewarriors up to join the ones already hiding in the ruins. Eldrad joins the broadsides on the right flank to make use of his perfect timing power. I also cast forewarning on the kroot again. On the left flank since I intercepted I take this time to move the broadsides back out of range of most of his weapons. The broadsides on the right flank open up and kill his lascannon heavy weapons team on that flank.
Mid-Game Analysis:
Spoiler:
I am doing alright on kill points with 3 at this point but my objective is struggling to hold on as he is pounding it with firepower every turn. I need to keep them alive and get a few more kill points as he can kill off those two squads and this becomes a game again.
IG Turn 3:
Spoiler:
His vendetta makes its move towards me and lines up on my commander and the broadsides and hammerhead. He fires into the hammerhead trying to finish it off as it had taken a glance earlier in the game. I make my jink save on the one pen he has. The mortars rain death on me some more and the autocannons are also doing some damage. His guardsman on the flanks start to advance.
Tau Turn 3:
Spoiler:
The kroot get forewarning again and my broadsides on the left flank bring down his vendetta finally. The hammerhead drops a template on the lascannon squad again on his side and this time I force them to flee. On the right flank the broadsides kill off an auto cannon team. The most important thing that happens in this turn is my jetbikes fail to come in still and time is looking like we will only have one more turn.
IG Turn 4:
Spoiler:
With victory out of reach my opponent moves all of his troops towards his objective to maximize how many are holding them. Basically playing point denial at this point. He fires some more mortars and snap fires a couple of guns at me but I am able to hold my home objectives.
Tau Turn 4:
Spoiler:
My bikes come in but they are too little too late as the objectives are 54" away and I cant make it to them in one turn. I direct fire at one objective trying to clear them off but he passes his leadership for one and holds.
Post Game Results and Analysis:
Spoiler:
Primary: Tau
Secondary: Draw
Tertiary: Draw
Post Game AAR: As I stated before its not really too fun a game in these match-ups. The army is so one dimensional that it forces you to match it and deny what it does best which is dakka. I still manage 20 Victory Points in this one as I win primary and tie the other two. So I still have a pretty good chance at the top 5 but every point counts. The hammerheads template in this one was big because it was S6 which instant killed heavy weapons teams and even when it scattered it still did a number to other units. I actually gave up 0 kill points in this game. Had my opponent had some leman russ to throw my way he probably could of pushed me off of my objectives. Even worse if he had a manticore or two to hide behind that big BLOS hill in his deployment zone it could of brought an early end to all of my scoring troops. I actually predicted pre-game that the best I could do in this one was win primary and draw secondary and tertiary. This was too my opponent who was a local and that is how the game ended. I don't like when games just require dice to be rolled and the outcome is pretty much set. Foot guard can be viable but they need some assault elements. Making them all shooty is IMHO not the way to take them. DJ's army is at least themed though and he has a back story to them so I cant really dislike his build. Believe it or not I am a bit of a fluff guy myself. It was one of the main reasons I never played grey knights.... their fluff is terrible!
Spartan089 wrote:I don't see your hammerhead doing that much work in your games, was it worth it to bring it?
It was instrumental in some of the games. Its my only unit that can threaten av14. Also its pie plate helped in game on and game two as I dropped them on space wolves and then guardsman in the open. You might see it get some action in this one as well.
ImotekhTheStormlord wrote:It seems that you were hesitant (putting it mildly) at your ability to win for EVERY game. Yet you won all but one. Perhaps your pre-game analysis is not particularly accurate?
A good general recognizes the weakness in his army and see's how his opponents army can exploit them before he ever does. That being said if I can prevent those said weaknesses from being exploited then I can pull of a win where it is likely that I shouldn't have.
Take for example game 1: I should of been massacred. However, with interceptor and psychic powers I was able to deny my opponent his main advantage which is his turn 1 alpha strike. He gets a good turn 1 alpha strike and that game ends by turn 4 with me being wiped from the board.
Game 2: My opponent has his leman russ demolishers which i have no good solution for and they can instant gib my broadsides. Had my opponent deployed them a little better and got them forward he could of taken a real toll on my fire power and probably won that game easily.
Game 3: The deployment ended up hosing my opponent. That and the fact that I got first turn really hurt him. Had my dice not been hot on turn 2 then I would of had either meganobz or a 20 man strong of boyz hit my lines. Take note that I am leadership 10 so if I hold then he grinds me down and kills me off. They would be contesting my objective if it locked for the game and he could of just sat back on his two.
Game 4: The main advantage of my opponent is he had throwaway scoring units. Had he deployed his skyshield better which he had placed when he walked over and just left it where it was he could of used it either more defensively or more offensively. Me killing off his iron arm tervigon on turn 1 cut his ability to spawn in half. If that tervigon spawns then he can spawn to units of gaunts turn one and send them my way as cannon fodder. If he does this with doom coming in turn 2 and the flyrant moves up instead of hiding for a turn then one turn 2 I would have 15 gargoyles, 2 units of guants, swarmlord, and a flyrant to deal with. My opponent made a few tactical mistakes along with some bad saves and I was able to capitalize on them.
You pre-game analysis have been a little conservative but in actuality, Tau can still hold their own against most of the opponents you played against. Game #5 will be no exception. He's got a bunch of easy kill points and you're likely to get more of his than he is of yours. Then your jetbike can easily contest/claim a table quarter. Overall his rate of fire will drop much more quickly than yours. However, I predict that this game won't go past Turn 3, with you taking all 3 mission objectives.
BTW, the tyranid/tau matchup brings up some painful memories. I went up against Tau/orks and charged a unit of 6 fire warriors with a flyrant with 3W remaining. He then dies in assault, thus costing me the game...
Then in another game vs Tau, my bugs fail 5-6 charges from 6" and less. Ahhh....more good times....
I really like this report. It's good insight. I play Tau myself and when I first saw your list I immediately thought there are a few things I would do differently, but you are doing a great job playing this list. Congrats. I really never would have considered rail sides over missilesides. Knowing that the drone controller can't boost the missile drones, would you still take them? I imagine the new eldar would eat them up pretty easy. Also, what is your MVP so far? It seems like one of your support units would take this prize.
jy2 wrote:You pre-game analysis have been a little conservative but in actuality, Tau can still hold their own against most of the opponents you played against. Game #5 will be no exception. He's got a bunch of easy kill points and you're likely to get more of his than he is of yours. Then your jetbike can easily contest/claim a table quarter. Overall his rate of fire will drop much more quickly than yours. However, I predict that this game won't go past Turn 3, with you taking all 3 mission objectives.
BTW, the tyranid/tau matchup brings up some painful memories. I went up against Tau/orks and charged a unit of 6 fire warriors with a flyrant with 3W remaining. He then dies in assault, thus costing me the game...
Then in another game vs Tau, my bugs fail 5-6 charges from 6" and less. Ahhh....more good times....
The pre-game analysis are taken into account of what I am worried about before that game starts. I didnt have an opponent this GT that I rolled up and stated this is whats going to happen and its a shoe in victory for me. In past tournaments I have had that experience a few times though. On those occasions it is not my form to criticize a players chances pre-game because you know as well as I that most armies at a GT level can win any given day against most opponents. If I had to pick one I would say the orks had the biggest miss match against me. That and the missions deployment made sure none of his battlewagons would hit my lines.
crazedcatatonic5 wrote:I really like this report. It's good insight. I play Tau myself and when I first saw your list I immediately thought there are a few things I would do differently, but you are doing a great job playing this list. Congrats. I really never would have considered rail sides over missilesides. Knowing that the drone controller can't boost the missile drones, would you still take them? I imagine the new eldar would eat them up pretty easy. Also, what is your MVP so far? It seems like one of your support units would take this prize.
Without a doubt the mvp in my army doesnt even shoot a weapon. Eldrad is amazing but I would have to argue that the commander is the undisputed MVP. What he gives to his unit is borderline broken. Twin linked shots, that ignore night fight and cover. Ill take that anyday of the week. The only down side is ethereals are auto-include in tau armies. Limiting my ability to spread the love.
Spartan089 wrote: Hey just noticed, where is the snap shot of your army?
Being that I didn't try on painting I didn't take one really. The deployments are the best way to see them aligned. They are barely met the 3 color minimum as I changed to this army last minute.
I really enjoy reading the reports for your sixth edition armies. It showcases your talent a lot more than IG in my opinion. I like how your pre analysis does not give away early who will win and keeps it exciting from turn to turn.
Dozer Blades wrote: I really enjoy reading the reports for your sixth edition armies. It showcases your talent a lot more than IG in my opinion. I like how your pre analysis does not give away early who will win and keeps it exciting from turn to turn.
That is another reason I post the pre-game analysis the way that I do. I will post the results to this game in the morning. Got a 4 day this weekend. Gives me time to bust open this eldar codex. I swear eldar are the new marine killers.
Dozer Blades wrote: Cool beans! : ) Can't wait to a batrep of yours featuring the new eldar.
Yea I have been testing them out. The council only being able to join a couple of squads kind of sucks and if you bring a spirit seer and dont get the good powers then it kind of sucks for what your trying to do. It seems like eldar will depend a lot on pre-game rolls. I love how guardians can now be AP2. That totally isn't over-powered when your basic troops can fire rending equivalent shots.
Round 5 posted. In round 6 you all are going to see me match-up against the army build I dread more then any other army in the warhammer 40k universe.
I'm really impressed with your Army, Im sad to say I doubted your Tau in the beginning but it shows you don't need the new toys to win (Riptide) just superior strategy.
Spartan089 wrote: I'm really impressed with your Army, Im sad to say I doubted your Tau in the beginning but it shows you don't need the new toys to win (Riptide) just superior strategy.
Yea I am not a fan of the new riptides. They draw fire which can be nice but anything that tempts me to wound it myself is a no go for me. Especially on something that is almost as expensive as my broadsides.
Alright ladies and gents. The match-up I loathe.
Round 6:
Opponent: Grey Knights
Mission:
Primary: Objectives (Placed in the middle of the board)
Secondary: Kill Points
Tertiary: Table Quarters (Same for all 6 missions )
Deployment: Dawn of War
10 Strike Squad w/ 2 psycannon, psybolt, daemonhammer on justicar
10 Strike Squad w/ 2 psycannon, psybolt, daemonhammer on justicar
Heavy support:
Nemesis Dreadknight w/ heavy incinerator
Nemesis Dreadknight w/ heavy incinerator
Pre-Game Analysis:
Spoiler:
I knew I would draw it eventually. Draigowing. Not a fan at all. With the primary being objectives and those objectives being in the middle of the board I am not really feeling to confident going into this game. I did get misfortune as a power which is nice. If I can get that off it might help me kill off the paladins. Also with his army having a 24" threat range I can deploy back and limit that amount of shooting he has turn 1. The paladins hit my lines and I seriously lose this game. Plain and simple. They definitely have priority. Hopefully I can kill draigo off quick enough to start directing fire at the paladins themselves. If draigo makes some good saves then there is nothing I can do to stop them from reaching me and I am not fast enough to get away from them. This is another one of those nightmare match-ups for me. Every unit in his army can cause some serious damage to mine.
Your all's predictions?
Deployment:
Spoiler:
I win the roll for first turn and deploy with the broadsides in the ruins on the far left side. With the intent of moving them with eldrad of course. He deploys his paladins on the far right flank and then I use eldrads ability to redeploy to get good LOS on them. As stated before I deploy back just over 30" to minimize the damage they can do turn 1. He uses grand strategy and gives scout to the paladins and the dreadknight on the left flank. He then rolls twice to seize and gets a . That is back to back games where I have been seized on. is all.
GK Turn 1:
Spoiler:
He advances his paladins and the dreadknight on the left flank. They are within range to do so damage and they lay into me with both fire and bolter. The red fire warriors squad on the left flank is engulfed in flame. 8 fire warriors perish instantly. The paladins unload into the commander and the broadsides. He manages to cause 2 wounds on the commander through dakka and also kills 2 drones from LOS. Everything else in his army moves ups and runs and gets a very nice run roll. His army is already closer then I want it to be.
Tau Turn 1:
Spoiler:
I misfortune the paladins on the right flank ready to bring some of them down. The broadsides on the right flank shoot and manage to kill off the dreadknight on that flank. The rest of my army proceeds to shoot at the paladins. Draigo only takes 1 wound despite misfortune and him eating all but 1 railgun(precision shot killed a paladin). I only manage to kill 3 paladins despite the amount of wounds that I cause.
Early Game Analysis:
Spoiler:
At this point it is hard to see me pulling this one out. Even getting the powers off the way I did the dreaknight is going to devastate my lines and the paladins at the latest will hit me on turn 3. The best I can hope for is bringing him down under weight of dice. If he makes a bunch of 2+ re-rollable saves then there is nothing I can do about that.
GK Turn 2:
Spoiler:
He advances all units except the one that is within range on the middle objective. His dreadknight drops a template on eldrad and the ethereals squad. He kills all the firewarriors and then the ethereal makes 2 los and eldrad tanks them but takes a wound. The paladins open up on the commander and the broadsides. Again the commander takes the saves and los's a bunch to the broadsides killing off a few drones and one of the broadsides. I get down to the last wound to save and just decide to take it on the commander and roll a . His strike squad fires at the other broadsides and kills off the front broadside. The middle squad fires at eldrad and the ethereal and I go to ground keeping them alive.
Tau Turn 2:
Spoiler:
Neither of my reserves come in. I misfortune the dreadknight and try to misfortune the paladins but he denies it. The broadsides on the left flank open up on the dreadknight and the quadgun helps with a few shots and the dreadknight falls to a clamor of joyful cries amongst the tau ranks. I rapid fire on the right flank into the paladins and manage to wound draigo once. The fire warriors on that flank along with the broadsides moved back to get more of a gap between draigo and my forces. On the far left flank the 2 fire warriors from the red fire warrior group continue moving out wide left to try and draw fire as he only has 4 units left that can shoot now down to 3.
GK turn 3:
Spoiler:
He begins to close the distance almost close enough to charge me. Eldrad and the ethereal make a silly amount of saves this turn to stay alive. He kills off some of the fire warriors and the broadsides do pretty well on saves as well. Not much happened this turn.
Mid-game Analysis:
Spoiler:
He had a chance to cripple me there and I made some good saves and stayed alive. I have one more turn to punish him or he will be on me. My hardest challenge atm is even if I can kill the beast at my door... it is still an objective game. Lets see what I can do. "FOR THE GREATER GOOD!"
Tau Turn 3:
Spoiler:
I get misfortune off on the Paladins again. The jetbikes come in from reserves and enter on the right flank. I then turbo them to the back right corner of the board out of range and los. The fire warriors shoot first and manage to bring down draigo in a hail of gunfire. I immediately divert all broadsides to the paladins and start instant gibbing paladins with every shot. My broadsides are hot here and all the railguns hit and wound. For the first time this game I can see me actually pulling this off.
GK turn 4:
Spoiler:
He advances the strike squad on the left flank at the broadsides and he pulls the paladins back as the game is waning and he needs them to hold that objective on that side. He fires into my left broadsides and kills the front broadsides. With only 1 broadside and a missle drone left I roll a leadership and get an 11. :wow. I remove them and then my opponent states and the drones too. I had tunnel vision and didnt realize I had 3 more drones in the squad. They didnt need the test afterall. I put the 2 models back on the board. With the front broadside dying my opponent has just over 6" to charge for the very front model. If he charges my entire line gets to snap fire at him. Not sure what I would of done here but he elects not to charge. There is no right answer in that situation. I probably would of charged though as I am going to fire at him either way next turn.
Tau Turn 4:
Spoiler:
The kroot outflank and come in on the right side. Instead of running them i elect to shoot at the paladins. I misfortune both the strike squad and the paladins. My army opens up with devastating effect at the tide begins to turn. The bikes in the back corner turbo to the far side of that objective on the right flank as I am unsure if we will have time or not to keep playing. I probably could of held them for a turn. The paladins are taken down to just the single paladin and coteaz.
GK Turn 5:
Spoiler:
He pulls back to his objective on both sides trying to maximize the range from me to him. He fires his middle squad at the bikes on the right flank and shoots amazingly well and I fail my saves. The paladins now hold the objective. The strikes on the far left flank cant make it to that objective.
Tau Turn 5:
Spoiler:
I misfortune the paladins again as well as the squad in the middle. The ensuing barrage kills them along with coteaz. The kroot run onto that objective, the 2 fire warriors on the left flank move up and run to that objective but dont make it. I kill off the last 2 strikes on the left flank with small arms fire. I fire whats left of my army at his final unit in the middle and kill all but 3 strikes. He makes his leadership check. With only 3 models left on the board we roll to see if the game continues. He rolls a . The game ends.
Post Game Results and Analysis:
Spoiler:
Primary: Draw
Secondary: Tau
Tertiary: Tau
Post Game AAR: I managed to weather the storm in that one and bring the pain late in the game. I was surprised at how handedly this army dealt with that match-up. I loathe grey knights and it feels good to beat the match-up I loathe more then any other. Had the game continued I would of been able to max points in the final round. Misfortune proved instrumental in this one as I was able to nullify the advantage of terminator and power armor. In addition, eldrad shut down his psychic powers as most turns he didnt try his powers thanks to a perils early on. The only bad thing about this game was that I am pretty sure my opponent tanked my sportsmanship score for no apparent reason after this one as he was less then secretive about being obvious when flipping it over real fast and trying to hide it. Its another reason why i am not a fan of sportsmanship scores on a per match basis as the games result directly affects sportsmanship scores. Not discrediting my opponent or anything as it happens all the time. Just sucks each time it does. Other then that it was a good outing and I had a lot of fun at this tournament. I will post a tournament result and AAR for the whole event later.
In my eyes it comes down to how fast you can blow up the dreadknights. You have the weight of fire to be able to down the paladins, but not if the dreadknights end up blowing up your firewarriors on turn two. Down the dreadknights early on and you should be able to survive the paladins impact and with a bit of luck win. On the other hand, you can't tie, otherwise he wins on killpoints, so its going to be tough.
You've got enough VoF to take down those dreadknights. Paladins will probably make it to your lines, but they won't do so unscathed. You definitely have enough VoF to make him concerned, though with your lack of AP2 weaponry, it's not going to be easy for the Tau either. This game may depend on what psychic powers you get. If you get Misfortune or Hallucination for Eldrad, you're golden. Otherwise, it's going to be a tough fight for Tau, though a winnable one.
jy2 wrote:You've got enough VoF to take down those dreadknights. Paladins will probably make it to your lines, but they won't do so unscathed. You definitely have enough VoF to make him concerned, though with your lack of AP2 weaponry, it's not going to be easy for the Tau either. This game may depend on what psychic powers you get. If you get Misfortune or Hallucination for Eldrad, you're golden. Otherwise, it's going to be a tough fight for Tau, though a winnable one.
I got misfortune but did not get hallucination. Would of been nice to get it though.
Spartan089 wrote:Those heavy flamers templates are going to suck if the dreads reach your lines. Coteaz's buffing is going to be a problem too.
Well Coteaz buffing can be limited by 3d6 to cast. Eldrad does help in that regard. Actually forgot in pre-game set-up how annoying torrent can be.
Deployment is posted. Will get the rest posted up tomorrow morning.
If you continue to play Tau Eldar what changes do you envision with the new eldar codex out now?
I have been looking in to that a lot lately. Trying to a grasp of this new dex. It is hard to not take eldrad as his redeploy ability is so broken still. You saw me use it throughout the tournament to gain positional advantage pre-game. The bikes are still amazing and cheap. The biggest change is eldrads powers are not as reliable and he doesnt shut down other psykers the way he did before. Still trying to finalize what I am going to bring to nova. Might run two different armies.
As far as i have seen now pure Tau are crazy, but if they need to come out for objectives they have issues. I would say Tau-Orcs is the best you can get, adding a horde element to the gun line is what they need.
Anyhow well played as your skill did win you some very unfavourable match ups.
Valek wrote: As far as i have seen now pure Tau are crazy, but if they need to come out for objectives they have issues. I would say Tau-Orcs is the best you can get, adding a horde element to the gun line is what they need.
Anyhow well played as your skill did win you some very unfavourable match ups.
Well that is what kroot bring to the fight. That horde aspect. Not sure I would take 30 boys over 20 kroot, krootox, and hound.
Tournament Results and After Action Review:
Tournament Results:
Spoiler:
Best General Totals: (This cant be right as Brad lost the last round. He should have 125 battle points.)
Matt Root 6-0 141
Brad Townsend 5-1 150
Eric Bailey 5-1 134
Cody Jiru 5-1 121
Brett Perkins 5-1 120
Sweepstakes totals: (They didnt calculate battle points in sweepstakes but only win loss, otherwise Eric might have taken sweepstakes)
Brad Townsend 5-1 125Bp Sport 52, Paint 30, Bonus Paint 5, (Total) 0.914815
Eric Bailey 5-1 134BP Sport 50, Paint 30, Bonus Paint 3, (Total) 0.885185
Player’s Choice: Connor Hogan (Daemons)
Best Sports: Anthony Guidotti (Tyranids)
Best Painted: Richard Coles (Imperial Guard)
Tournament Runner Up: Cody Jiru (Dark Eldar / Eldar)
Tournament Champion: Matt Root (Tyranids)
Sweepstakes Runner Up: Eric Bailey (Chaos Space Marines / Necrons)
Sweepstakes Champion: Brad “Hulksmash” Townsend (Dark Angels / Imperial Guard)
Review:
Spoiler:
It was a good overall event. The venue is a high school and the money is donated to the debate club as a fund raiser. So I like that and they provided food both days for 7 dollars which also went to the club. The only thing I really didnt like is the missions. Having table quarters as the tertiary every game and alternating two primary missions made for a really boring run. Might suggest next year mixing it up a little more. Mind you they did have one where heavies were scoring and scouring where fast were scoring but those were modified from the book missions so they could of just said HQ's scoring one game and gotten the same effect. Other that it was a well run event. My 5th round opponent playing point denial and then my last game ending on turn 5 ended up costing me tournament runner-up by 1 point. I didnt leave without a prize though.
My army grades and review:
Spoiler:
Ethereal: (A-) This guy was good for me throughout the event and didnt die once. His 12" bubble of leadership really helps the tau stick around. I wish he wasnt an auto include because his only roll is as support and he is very squishy.
Commander: (A+) This guy was amazing throughout the event. He really made my broadsides which area already good IMO that much better. He didnt fire a single shot the entire tournament but still managed to help accumulate the most kills out of all of my units. He will be in just about every tau list I run if I can help it. The iridium armor helped me tank some instant death wounds that frequently find their way towards your broadsides.
Eldrad: (A+) Too bad he has changed now. He was so damn good. His powers were pretty much auto-pass. He shut down armies that relied on psykers. I am sad to see him change but who knows I might field the new eldrad to a similar effect. (lvl 4 psyker now). However, the biggest impact he had was his redeploy ability. If your facing an eldrad based army and your opponents deployment doesnt make sense be mindful it will most likely change.
Kroot (A) These guys outflanking is a must for gunline tau. They provide a way to get to those distant objectives. The only downside is their leadership. If I could do anything differently I would throw in a kroot hound to give them re-roll to which side they come in. Their biggest kill is they did 2 HP to a leman russ on outflanking.
Fire Warriors: (B) They are good for dakka but so is the rest of the army. I keep them around to benefit from their range and as a deterrent if someone decides to get close. They are still too stationary though as they hide behind the aegis to stay alive. If I was better at 4+ saves I would be more aggressive with them.
Pathfinders: (B-) These guys did a few minor things but my army doesnt really need them. I ignore cover through the commander or through psychic powers. That is their biggest boost. They can jump the fire warriors to BS 5 but that bonus is minimal considering the points. Might not take them in the next event.
Hammerhead: (A-) Its solo shot is nice for trying to instant Gib T5 models and for AV14. However, its best quality is its versatility. The S6 ap4 template is great against GEQ and even MEQ if they are clustered up enough as not many people expect pie plate tau. People are telling me to take the skyray but I am unsure I want a one turn 6 shot and done vehicle. Especially if I whiff. I love the range on this guy.
Broadsides: (A+) Everyone is telling me to run these guys as missile sides. I cant justify 4 S7 shots at 36" over 1 S8 Ap shot at 60". Plus the drones are firing missiles. I can mix it up and have the best of both worlds. Plus in that last game you all saw the effect it had on paladins. If I had gone missile heavy they probably would of shredded me. I like the range on this army and the ability to reach out and touch the enemy from just about anywhere on the board. Plus I have to say early warning override is an auto include on these guys. Being able to shoot at peoples reserves when they come in is amazing. Especially when the drones can still shoot next turn as well as any weapons you didn't fire.
Aegis Defense Line: (B) This thing saved my bacon on multiple occasions. However, the quadgun didn't get a single flyer kill. I was right to assume people would start drifting away from flyers with the new tau dex hitting. It was still nice for overwatch though as people are deepstriking and/or outflanking more often now.
Overall army preformance: (A) I really liked how this army handled situations. That last game in particular they took a beating at the hands of the grey knights and I lost only 1 Kill Point. In fact most of the games I didn't lose much of the army even when facing the drop pod space wolves. I will have to dive into this new eldar codex and see what I want to run with the tau or if I feel the eldar enough I might make them the primary. I should have an idea of what I am bringing to nova by mid july.
That trip tide army was mine. Glad someone posted it somewhere that I know of. And your first opponent the drop wolves, I barely won that game. Beat him by 20 victory points. He was tough. But I got him for you and the greater good.
Alex the Fate Changer wrote: That trip tide army was mine. Glad someone posted it somewhere that I know of. And your first opponent the drop wolves, I barely won that game. Beat him by 20 victory points. He was tough. But I got him for you and the greater good.
Glad to hear tau took them down. I should of had them. How did your army end up finishing?
)
all in one! My strategy going into this match-up is seriously along the lines of I don't think I can win this game. Drop pod armies can be nasty for gun-lines. Not to mention Grey Hunters are 
but fails to seize.
He passes his leadership though. Now its just time to weather the storm... Praying for a mishap!
Both drop pods land on the far right flank. After seeing the destruction wrought in the marines on the left flank this was the right choice. The vendetta also comes in ready to level the broadsides as well. I intercept his vendetta and hit it twice and manage a pen and a glance. However, since I only ignore cover in my shooting phase he makes his jink for the pen result. I fire the quadgun that way as well but only manage one more glance. The vendetta shoots at the broadsides but is snap firing and fails to hit. The space wolves on the flank auto rally. He moves up and all of those squads fire at those broadsides. He manages to kill 1 broadside and 3 of the drones. He also does a few wounds to the commander. The 4 man squad then charges me while popping their banner. The end result is a tie combat 1 to 1.
, 3, 
,3! They flee off the board. The auto cannons in the middle give me a 5+ cover save. I roll a 5, 6, and 6. That at least redeams some of what just happened as I was able to hold onto the middle objective. He charges my fire warriors remaining on the right flank and does 16 wounds. I fail 11 and get wiped out before swinging. He consolidates onto that objective. All i can do at this point is 
