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Round 1





Squaring off against the Blood Angels for the first time, I was not eager to meet them in close combat. I was also surprised to discover how mobile they actually are. My set up reflects my caution. My Tau force is boxed in as a bating tactic

This picture is at the end of the Blood Angel movement phase(They got first turn.) In their blood thirst induced zeal they clearly rush towards my line.

End of round one.



One thing the Blood Angels forgot is simple. If the Tau are sitting still, it is because they are laying a trap. I scattered my forces and managed to destroy two squads. That Baal Predator is still quite alive however.

End of round three.



The Tau have managed to slay half of the Blood Angel force(Yet they still keep coming) while sustaining minimum casualties.

The Tau Battle Line however is quite threatened at this point and I admit I was starting to sweat. I sacrificed mobility for the ability to slay my enemy more effectively.



The Battle line has been broken. With Key units squaring off in an attempt to secure victory over the stubborn Blood Angels. Though their numbers may be reduced, the remaining squads are still a danger as they begin to engage my forces in me-lee combat



A different angle of the same placement. The Kroot...finally arriving to the battle. They were not in position to ambush the Rhino, thus securing victory.

End of Turn 4



The Blood Angels attempt to exact vengeance and have managed to slay many of the Tau. In response the Tau deploy their seeker missiles striking down four battle brothers(Including Commander Dante). The Two squads of battle suits managed to strike eight of the Blood Angels, with the Kroot managing to fall two of the Sanguinary guard, locking them in battle. The Devil Fish in the center of the battle field breaks formation(On orders from its Shas'O to meet the Blood Angels Guarding the supply dump on the other side of the map. The Tau Shas'O(Me) watches in horror as the Blood Angels fire their Melta guns into the white Hammerhead.

Turn Five



Tau Shas'O comes under direct assault with the sanguine guard failing a leader ship against the Kroot , but proves formidable in hand to hand combat, his Squad's battles suits prove an even match for the martial prowess of the combined Assalt Marines and the Sanguinary Guard. Dante of the Blood Angels follows the Devil Fish in an attempt to stop it from taking the ammo dump from his forces, with the Sanguinar dead, his leader ship proves to be an improvement.



The battle has become increasingly desperate for the Tau Expeditionary Force. The Shas'O has at this point single handedly holding off The Sanguinary Guard, and a survivor's squad of assault marines valiantly, but it has become clear he will be over whelmed. The cowardly Kroot Shaper shows some spine and orders his kroot to open fire on the assault marines who are preparing to join their brothers in finishing off the Shas'O, thus saving his commander. The Fire Warriors had their devil-fish destroyed by Sanguinary Priest's Melta-gun, but promptly gunned the heroic Marine down. Dante is suddenly killed in combat by a seeker missile, with the aid of the Tau Path Finders.

Through heavy losses, The Tau Manage to secure victory against the Blood Angels(I held two Points securely and My Devil Fish managed to contest the third point.

Army lists would be nice.

Nice pics. I like the houses.

nice game

Yea, It had me pretty nervous.

I have fought Vanilla Marines, but never these new Blood Angels.

This is one army I think is over powered a bit.

Army lists possibly? It is hard to tell what the BA fielded. He may have wanted to deploy his whole army centrally so he could blitz forward regardless of your deployment.

The way he set up pretty much guaranteed he would have to run straight in through the fire lanes for a few turns, maybe running DoA with Dante's tactical precision as well would have enabled him to only have 1 turn of shooting before assaults while the rest of his army closed in.

BA fielded (If memory serves)

Sanguinor

Three Assault Squads with Chaplains(Meltas)

A Baal Predator

A Demolisher

Sanguinary Guard, Dante

A Squad of Vanilla Marines, Two Rhinos, and another squad of Vanilla Marines.

Oh and a Furioso Dreadnaught.

What was your list?

X2 Rail heads(Disruption Fields, Burst Cannons, Multi-Tracker)

Shas'O and 2 Body Guard with plasma rifles and missile pods

X2 Battle Suit squads

16 Kroot
4Hounds
1 shaper

9 Vespid
1 Strain Leader

24 fire warriors(2 squads each with a Sash'ui

Two Devil fish.


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7 pathfinders
1 Shas'ui

did the tau player set up the terrain perchance? that 18" killzone with only a single 1" long piece of terrain in front of his troops looks suggestive of that.

Nope, the terrain was set up by a third party, and the BA player had first turn. I simply ended up working with what I had, personally I prefer open terrain so that I can move my army around more effectively.

The idea was that open terrain dramatically favors the type of army you are playing since it reduced the availability of 4+ cover. I think instead of Chaplains maybe a Librarian would be a good addition to this army for Shield of Sanguinas. I personally think any all foot slogging BA army should run 2x of them and should use Dev's as HS to blow open transports...see Mercer's reports for reference.

I will scope it out and tell my friend.

I like the trees! And wow, Tau fighting off Assault Marines in melee?

Kavalion wrote:Tau fighting off Assault Marines in melee?

Yeah, something seems HIGHLY fishy about this. Tau should have been wiped off the field around turn 3. Makes me wish I had a better idea of what exactly was going on here.

Ailaros wrote:

Kavalion wrote:Tau fighting off Assault Marines in melee?

Yeah, something seems HIGHLY fishy about this. Tau should have been wiped off the field around turn 3. Makes me wish I had a better idea of what exactly was going on here.

hey, my tau have defeated charging orks, a demon prince, and a carnifex in close combat! don't underestimate us, five fingers!

p.s. the ork fight was 12 on 3 and the demon prince and carni only had 1 wound by the time they got to me.

what did the vespids do?

The Vespid got their asses kicked.

Really you should not say "Tau" fighting off space marines

It was a Shas'O, and his body guard fighting holding off Sanguinary guard. The game ended before that Melee could be resolved, but I'm positive he was dead. It just worked out because that Shas'O managed to buy some time.

Funny how quickly people forget we play with dice.

poontangler wrote:Funny how quickly people forget we play with dice.

Yes, but tau collapse once their opponents get into close combat, and BA is the army possibly MOST designed to get into close combat right away. You must have had some absolutely supremely amazing luck, or your opponent must have made some very serious mistakes.

I can't really say he did any thing wrong, I just maneuvered around him better.


As Far as a Shas'O holding the line, He has a WS of 4, a toughness of 4, and a strength of 5, not to mention the body guard, has similar stats(and multiple attacks, and shield Generators) I never hoped he would win, what I had hoped was he would lock up two squads, and he did. By doing that it put me in strong control of my point, as well as enabled my Devilfish(With troops inside) to lay claim to a second.

I laid a trap, the enemy fell for it.


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Plus I have seen stranger stuff happen. I saw a squad of guardsmen rout a squad of Nobz.

Sorry to be nitpicky, but what does " Dante is suddenly killed in combat by a seeker missile, with the aid of the Tau Path Finders. " mean? He was killed while in combat?

Also, nice game.

Dante got painted by marker lights from my path finders. I used it to fire a seeker missile at him. Dante failed his save..and suffered instant death.

Some constructive criticism: Future battle reports that you do should be more detailed and include more exact lists. As it stands, I really have no idea what's going on in this bat rep, and the pictures do nothing to clear it up.

Appreciated.

Good new Bat Report. For the future, adding turn by turn updates really help people understand what is happening. It seems like he spent a lot of points in special characters and you ID'd them with seeker missiles. Thank you for the report.

Pretty much, But I never take on a lot of seekers, maybe one or 2. They are too expensive and are not strong enough.

Awesome colors on the Tau. Good choice on having straight up rail guns on the hammerheads

Thanks for the props. My battle suits need serious help, but im working on that.

The Rail gun is useful, but I can not hate on the Ion Cannon. I often use Ion cannons when facing Tyranids. Two Ion-head tanks will help table any monstrous creature based army.

What are your battlesuits equipped with? And are they crisis or broadside?

They in this battle, they are fire knives.


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They in this battle, they are fire knives.