Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I went to the local GW store today and who did I happen to see there? SabrX, working on his Tau army. As those of you who have read his battle reports know, he's currently taking a break from playing Witch Hunters. While waiting for the 2-part WH codex to come out, he's been working on his new, competitive Tau list. His new Tau list is a very shooty army with a lot of bubble-wrapping kroots to protect his shooty core. With 9 broadsides and 9 fireknives (those are crisis suits with missile pods and plasma), it's an ultra-shooty army. Frankly, after my last game against Tau in which my opponent only brought 4 broadsides, 1 railhead (that's a hammerhead with railgun) and only 1 unit of fireknives, you could say I was a little bit concerned. In that game (battle report found here), my purifier knights were dominated by the humble Tau.

Now this isn't the first time I've faced SabrX's Tau with my grey knights. The last time we met, he brought a more conventional Tau army (battle report here), and I brought a super-fast footslogging grey knight army. That was one of his very first games with lots of screening kroots. The game ended up in a draw. He just didn't have the mobility to get to my objective as both of his kroots outflanked on the wrong side of the table (away from my objective). Otherwise, he was basically kicking the crap out of my army with his firepower and probably would have won had it been anything but Capture and Control.

So far, I have not beaten Tau yet with my knights. I decided to take my all-comer's Purifier GK list with but 1 minor change: I dropped the vindicare because of his poor performance recently and my 2 warding staves in order to get a 3rd venerable dread. My plan? Fight fire with fire. I'm going to show that I've got the volume-of-fire to take on his 9 broadside list....or so I hope.


------------------------------------------------------------


Grey Knights 2000

Crowe

Psyfleman Vendread
Psyfleman Vendread
Psyfleman Vendread

6x Purifiers - 2x Psycannons, 3x Halberds, 1x Sword, Rhino w/Dozers
6x Purifiers - 2x Psycannons, 3x Halberds, 1x Hammer, Rhino w/Dozers
6x Purifiers - 2x Psycannons, 3x Halberds, 1x Hammer, Rhino w/Dozers
5x Purifiers - 2x Psycannons, 2x Halberds Rhino w/Dozers
5x Strike Squad - 1x Psycannon, Rhino w/Dozers

Psyfleman Dread
Psyfleman Dread



Tau 2000

Shas'el - Twin-linked Missile Pods, Target Lock

2x Crisis Suits - Missile Pods, Plasma Rifles, Multi-tracker
3x Crisis Suits - Missile Pods, Plasma Rifles, Multi-tracker
3x Crisis Suits - Missile Pods, Plasma Rifles, Multi-tracker

6x Fire Warriors
20x Kroots
20x Kroots
20x Kroots
20x Kroots

Piranha - Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array
Piranha - Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array

3x Broadsides - 2x Target Locks, 1x Blacksun Filter
3x Broadsides - 2x Target Locks, 1x Blacksun Filter
3x Broadsides - 2x Target Locks, 1x Blacksun Filter


-------------------------------------------------------------------


PRE-GAME ANALYSIS:

Grey Knights:
I think that this is going to be a tough match for me. I've only got 5 transports and my opponent's got more anti-tank than all my vehicles combined, including my dreads. I don't expect any of my transports to survive, though I'm not too concerned about my dreads. I may lose a couple, but if he's going after my vendreads, it's going to take a lot of firepower for him to disable them.

While I plan to shoot it out with him, I'm still going to have to advance aggressively towards his army. I cannot win in a pure fire-fight. I must put the pressure on him, and the only way to really do so is to go after him. While my army is more of a reactionary force, I think that against Tau, you have to play aggressive. But that is one of the strengths of my army - I am flexible enough to play as an aggressive, assaulty army (wow, what an alliteration of a's) or as a passive, shooty gunline.

My only saving grace? No markerlights on the Tau force. Now my rhinos are going to get cover. Hopefully, that will let me get close enough to do some damage, that is, if I can survive his 9 S10 railguns, 18 S7 missile shots and 16 S6 plasma shots.

I still feel that I will have the advantage in Seize Ground due to the fact that Tau is traditionally weak at going after objectives. He's got the advantage in Annihilation as I found out last game. He can more easily kill my units with shooting than I can his. In Capture and Control, I think I will have a slight advantage primarily because I will be sending 10 units at him (4 troops, 5 transports + Crowe). My dreads can easily handle his piranhas and any outflanking kroots going after my objective.


Tau:
Let's take a quick inventory of how many shots he has:

2 meltaguns
9 S10 railgun shots
16 S6 plasma shots
18 S7 missile shots
48 S5 shots
160 S4 shots

That's a lot of dakka there! Of course, not all will be able to fire at once, but if even 1 squad of kroots is able to rapid-fire at my infantry, that's 40 shots, 20 hits, 10 wounds, 3.33 dead knights. Then he's got broadsides who can split-fire and target up to 9 different units. Never thought I'd say this, but his army is actually pretty intimidating.

Kroots will bubble-wrap his units and piranhas will screen out my transports in annihilation. In objective-based missions, he'll probably outflank 1 or 2 units of kroots and use his piranhas for the last turn objective-contesting.

I think the key to a Tau victory, once again, would be to take out my mobility. Now let's see how successful he does with that.


-------------------------------------------------------------------

Looking forward to this one; let's see if the Grey Knights can redeem themselves after their poor performance against Tau lately.

Wanna see this one .... @_@

I think Tau have this one in the bag. He has way to many anti tank and low ap to kill your grey knights. Plus with so many screening kroot its going to be hard to get through them to his suits.

I have a feeling they will roll a objective game... which will equal a win for GK.

Another perspective of our battle, courtesy of SabrX himself:


PRE-GAME ANALYSIS:

Tau: (by SabrX)
In objective games, I would typically go second in hopes of contesting or capturing objectives at the last minute. However, jy2's Crowe list packs a lot of firepower. His Str8 Autocannons can easily instant kill my Broadsides or Crisis Suits. However, they weren’t as deadly as his Purifier squads. I’ve read jy2’s previous battle reports and know how devastating Cleansing Flame can be against large infantry squads. I opted to go first, hopping I could disable jy2's transports at the start of turn 2 and force his small purifier squads to slog across the board. After that, I could focus on his Dreadnoughts.

My side of the table had a large “Shrine of the Aquila” terrain piece, which would be perfect for hiding my forces out of TLOS on turn 1. It would make a good firebase. I left 5 units in reserves. The Fire Warriors weren’t any use until later in the game. I left 2 Kroot squads hoping at least one will come on from the right board edge and head towards the right objective. Both Piranhas would come in and hide behind terrain until turn 4 or turn 5, where they would move flat out and contest back or right objective.

If my strategy worked and the goddess of fortune smiled down upon me, the game should end with my forces securing home objective and the other two objectives either captured or contested.


-------------------------------------------------------------------


Mission: Seize Ground - 3 objectives

Deployment: Dawn of War

Initiative: Tau


-------------------------------------------------------------------


Map of the terrain:


Ignore the units on the table for now. They aren't actually deployed yet. SabrX was short a few broadsides so proxied some of my terminators as broadsides.

Placement of the 3 objectives:

This objective is in SabrX's deployment zone.


This objective is in my deployment zone.


Finally, the last objective is placed on SabrX's deployment zone but as far away from the other 2 objectives as possible.


-------------------------------------------------------------------


Deployment:

Tau deploys nothing on the board. He leaves 5 units in reserves: 2 kroots (outflanking), both piranhas and the fire warriors.


I deploy 1 single unit of purifiers in rhino in terrain.


Hiding just behind is Crowe.


SabrX then infiltrates 2 units of kroots. One unit is on top of the ruins on his own objective.

I don't seize the initiative. Didn't even try.


-------------------------------------------------------------------


Tau 1

Tau walks on towards the left side of the board. His suits see that big piece of terrain and then rev up their jetpacks. There is some proxying in this game. My grey knight terminators are proxied as broadsides here as are the very left crisis suits (with flamers).


Only 1 unit of XV88 suits manage to spot my rhino due to night-fight, but I manage to escape any damage due to cover. The rest of his army runs and his suits jump in the assault phase.


Grey Knights 1

My army comes in opposite his (and right by my objective). Lead rhinos, both with purifiers, pop smoke. My other purifier unit comes in on the opposite end of the table (not pictured) and pops smoke.


Here I make a move that surprises SabrX. My purifiers disembark from their rhino and start to make their move to the far-right objective. Crowe then hops onto their rhino and zooms 12" towards his line, popping smoke in the process.

In my shooting phase, 2 of my dreads spot his kroots and fire. Despite 3+ cover, I shoot down 3.


Tau 2

Tau movement. Only 2 of his reserves come in - the fire warriors and 1 unit of kroots. His jumping beans start jumping. Kroots get ready to rapid-fire Crowe once he destroys my ride.


Unfortunately, his kroots come in on the wrong side. He wanted them to come in on the right side of the board to claim/contest the far-right objective.


He does manage to wreck my rhino, though it takes him more shot than he would have liked in order to do so. I must've made 5 or so cover saves! Crowe disembarks out of LOS of his rapid-firing kroots. Unfortunately, he is not totally out of LOS as some of my opponent's kroots perched atop the tall terrain can barely see. Fortunately, Crowe makes all his saves and is unharmed.


Despite cover, he blows up 1 rhino and immobilises the other. 1 purifier dies in the explosion.


Finally, one of his crisis teams fire at my disembarked purifiers with plasmas and missile pods. Thanks to cover though, I only lose 1 knight.


Finally, his suits jump back into the safety of the ruins. 1 of his suits twists his ankles though. Though slowed and moving with pain, he is still able to fight. (1 crisis takes a wound to dangerous terrain). Right kroots run back 5" away from Crowe and left kroots run forwards.

Man, I haven't done anything yet, and already I'm down 3 out of 5 transports. And I actually got off light from his shooting! I made more than half of my cover saves, and yet I still lost 3 rhinos. Well, at least all my dreads are full and functional.

Now let's see how I can come back from last round.


Grey Knights 2

Purifiers move towards the far-right objective. Far-right rhino follows suit. I popped smoke last turn, but this turn my rhino should be able to get cover from the ruins.


Strike squad disembarks. Purifiers then borrow their rhino and zip forwards popping smoke. My other purifier squad gets out of their immobilised rhino and follows closely behind the lead rhino, trying to stay out of LOS. Dreads advance.

Time for some payback!


I believe 3 dreads fire at 1 unit of broadsides. I insta-kill 1.


They then fail morale and run off the board.

The other 2 dreads fire at his suits. I believe I insta-gib 1, but they pass morale. Well, at least 1 squad of broadsides are gone.


Crowe then assaults his kroots. Here, I catch SabrX with another surprise. He assumes that I would be casting Cleansing Flame to kill his kroots and start picking up his dice to roll. I then stop him and told him I wasn't doing Cleansing Flame. In fact, I'm not going to attack at all. I'm just going to parry.

So 17 kroots attack me. Out of 34 attacks, he rolls something like 25 hits or so. Wow, way above average. Then he only does about 8 wounds to me. Way below average. I then roll 4 1's on my armor save! But wait....I pick up my failed armor saves and re-roll them again thanks to Parry. I then roll 4 6's! Crowe just scoffs off his kroot attacks.


Tau 3

Overview of the beginning of Turn 3.


All his reserves come in. Again, his kroots come in on the wrong side (he wanted them to come in on the other side with the far-right objective).


His suits jump forwards. One takes a wound to dangerous terrain.


Piranhas come in behind the tall ruins and stay out of LOS.


He goes after my rhinos. I make a lot of cover saves but finally 1 shot manages to immobilise my far-right rhino. It also got shaken and stunned from some of his other shooting.


Then he fires almost his entire army at my fast advancing rhino. I must've made 5-8 cover saves! My cover rolls were hot. When the dust finally settles, my rhino comes out with just a shaken result.

His kroots atop the ruins see my almost-hidden purifiers behind the rhino and open fire. Again, I roll well for my saves and only lose 2 purifiers.

Finally, his outflanking kroots open fire at my strike squad and kill all but 1 knight. I pass morale.


While jumping back behind the ruins, his wounded suit breaks his leg and dies.


His other suits then fail 2 dangerous terrain tests while also jumping behind the ruins. He puts 1 on his HQ and another on regular guy.

Wow....3 consecutive failed DT tests. Ouch.


Last but no least, Crowe casts Cleansing Flame on his kroots while parrying. I only kill about 6 out of 17, but that is enough for me to win combat and sweep them.


Grey Knights 3

4-man purifier unit has to go back to deal with his kroots. Dreads also move towards them.


The moment of truth as my purifiers make it to Tau lines.


My other purifiers disembark from their immobilised rhino.


Do you hear that? It's the sound of impending Doom creeping up....


Dreads, purifiers and lone striker kill a bunch of kroots. Luckily for them, they pass morale.

I believe 1 or 2 dreads fired at his exposed broadsides, but I couldn't see anything else. I fail to kill any broadsides.


Crowe assaults his HQ unit. I don't cast Cleansing Flame and just parry instead. He is not able to hurt me so we remain locked.


Tau 4

Overview of the beginning of Turn 4.


Kroots and crisis team go after my purifiers. If only his broadsides can take out the vehicle, then his kroots and fireknives should be able to finish off the purifiers inside.


Kroots advance.


Piranhas flat-out 24" towards the far-right objective in preparation for a Turn 5 contest. While jumping out of the ruins, I think he fails another 2 dangerous terrain tests, killing another one of his fireknives. Thus, his 3rd squad of fireknives has just 1 guy left.


3 railguns, 4 missile shots and 4 plasma shots later, my rhino is stilll just shaken. My streak of cover saves is on ! SabrX can't believe my luck.


Kroots fire at and kill off my lone striker on my objective. I've still got my purifiers there though.

BTW, we swapped out the lizardmen objectives for unpainted, unbased marines as objectives because the store took them back.


Charge! That's 45 kroot attacks (some died earlier to my shooting) and 2 crisis suits.


Oh no you didn't? You did! You scratched my new paint job. I'm stunned!

In the only other assault, Crowe casts Cleansing Flame but fails to penetrate their armor save. I then fail to rend his suits and we stay stuck in combat.


Grey Knights 4

Things are starting to look bad for Tau as my purifiers disembark. The rhino tank shocks forwards 12", but both units pass morale.


I reposition my far-right purifiers to get better shots at his piranhas.


Dreads shuffle around. Purifiers go after his kroots. They kill a couple with limited shooting.


2 dreads fire at 1 piranha and destroy 2 weapons from it. My purifiers than go on to explode the other piranha.

Finally, 3 dreads aim for his exposed broadsides and insta-pop 2 of them. Luckily for them, they pass morale.


Purifiers charge his kroots.


Cleansing Flame followed by assault wipes out his kroots completely.


Then my hammerfiers multi-assault his kroots and crisis team. I should kill a lot with Cleansing Fla....WTH! I fail my psychic test on a roll of 11.


No matter. I didn't need Cleansing Flame as I insta-thump both his suits with my hammer and shish-kabob a few kroots. He only kills 2 of my knights and I sweep his guys.


Finally, Crowe rends his Shas'el's unit twice and then sweeps them.

What a painful turn for Tau....


Tau 5

Overview of the beginning of the end.


Fire warriors come out to play.


Last piranha turbos to contest the far-right objective.


Now SabrX has a slim chance to pull out a draw. He can't get to my objective. What he needs is:

1) Hopefully by some miracle have his piranha survive.

2) Kill off or tarpit Crowe and my purifiers so that I cannot contest his objective (or kill his last 2 scoring units left).

3) Have the game end on the bottom of Turn 5.



He fires 30+ S4 rapid fire shots from his kroots, 12 S5 shots from his fire warriors and 4 S5 smart missiles from his broadside at my 4 purifiers. I beat the odds and 1 purifier survives!

Then he sends a railgun shot to Crowe's face (only 1 of his broadsides could see Crowe) which Crowe barely ducks. However, while ducking that railgun shot, Crowe gets tagged by a plasma shot from his last fireknife. No biggie, it's just a flesh wound.


Grey Knights 5

Crowe walks through the ruins. Hmmm....who should I take out? Broadsides or kroots on objective?


Purifiers go to claim their own objective. Dreads advance.


Other purifiers go to claim the far-right objective as well as to deal with the contesting piranha.


In shooting, 1 of my dreads kill off his lone, exposed broadside.


Another one dread kills off his lone, exposed and last crisis suit.


Purifiers explode his contesting piranha.


Finally, 3 dreads and 1 unit of purifiers fire at his kroots on his objective. I kill enough to force morale....which he then fails. Off they go, leaving his objective empty.


Well, that just made it a no-brainer. Crowe goes to fulfill my goal....which was to kill all his broadsides. Too bad I completely whiff in combat and fail to wound his broadsides.


However, the result is clear and we call it here.


I've got my objective....


....as well as the far-right objective.


Tau objective goes unclaimed.




Victory to the Grey Knights!!!

How do you fit 5 dreads in the army? Are they HS as well as elites?
Also this will be good, although i think that some bad dice rolls could doom the tau with their fireknives, as there are no markerlights to increase the BS of them.

btw, jy, aren't plasma rifles S7, not 6. Just saw that in your first post.

I'm looking forward to this...

Imp. Monkey

Imperial Monkey wrote:How do you fit 5 dreads in the army? Are they HS as well as elites?
Also this will be good, although i think that some bad dice rolls could doom the tau with their fireknives, as there are no markerlights to increase the BS of them.

btw, jy, aren't plasma rifles S7, not 6. Just saw that in your first post.

I'm looking forward to this...

Imp. Monkey

Tau plasmas Str 6 and doesn't get hot

oh, my mistake...sorry

That is very lean, very spammy Tau list. However, I think it sacrifices bit too much to get maximum number of infantry and Suits on the board. It is perhaps bit too dependent on getting a great 1-2 turns and demoralising the opponent with Railgun killyness.

Wow. Tricky decision. My head says Tau; they have far superior numbers and staggering firepower, as well as plenty of anti-meq weaponry and have a much more 'depth' than the Grey Knights list...
Then again, my head also says that I always vote for the wrong option in these reports and I don't know why, but I think the Knights may have it; they've got impressive firepower, although it pales in comparison to the Tau's and the Purifiers should be making a mess of the Kroot.
I want to go for the Tau, by all rights on paper they look like they'll have it, but I've also got a gut feeling the Knights will get it.
So... I've gone for a draw.

Can't wait JY2, your reports are my favourite on this board and I know both you and Sabrx are skilled players, so this should be great!

Voted draw, think it all comes down on how fast TAU will demech the greyknights.

if purifiers can put the pressure on his screens this can go either way.

But this would have been the perfect game to test a callidus i can see her doing serious damage and take a lot of attention for a turn, maybe just buying the time to mess up his strategy.

I'm leaning towards another Tau victory here, mainly because those Broadsides may simply rip up your Rhinos, just like last time.

Report should be out later today.

Imperial Monkey wrote:How do you fit 5 dreads in the army? Are they HS as well as elites?
Also this will be good, although i think that some bad dice rolls could doom the tau with their fireknives, as there are no markerlights to increase the BS of them.

btw, jy, aren't plasma rifles S7, not 6. Just saw that in your first post.

I'm looking forward to this...

Imp. Monkey

Yeah, grey knight venerable dreads are elite choices and regular dreads are heavy support. IMO GK purifier-dread-spam is a very strong build if done properly.

And Zid is correct about Tau plasmas. Apparently, they have mastered the art of plasma technology.

Backfire wrote:That is very lean, very spammy Tau list. However, I think it sacrifices bit too much to get maximum number of infantry and Suits on the board. It is perhaps bit too dependent on getting a great 1-2 turns and demoralising the opponent with Railgun killyness.

Yeah, some of the most competitive lists out there are spammy lists. The trade-off here is pure firepower against support units. Theoretically, why isn't support units such as pathfinders needed? That is because of the abundance of screening units. In a perfect Tau world, it goes like this:


I shoot you with 9 railguns, 9 missile pods and 8 plasmas.

You kill 1 kroot screen.

I shoot you again.

You kill kroot screen #2.

I shoot you some more.

Kroot #3 down.

I shoot you for the 4th time.

Last kroot unit finally goes down.

Can you survive 5 rounds of my shooting?


Weight-of-fire, or volume-of-fire, is the strategy here. If he can get a few rounds of fire through relatively unmolested, then he may not care about my cover saves.

Just Dave wrote:Wow. Tricky decision. My head says Tau; they have far superior numbers and staggering firepower, as well as plenty of anti-meq weaponry and have a much more 'depth' than the Grey Knights list...
Then again, my head also says that I always vote for the wrong option in these reports and I don't know why, but I think the Knights may have it; they've got impressive firepower, although it pales in comparison to the Tau's and the Purifiers should be making a mess of the Kroot.
I want to go for the Tau, by all rights on paper they look like they'll have it, but I've also got a gut feeling the Knights will get it.
So... I've gone for a draw.

Can't wait JY2, your reports are my favourite on this board and I know both you and Sabrx are skilled players, so this should be great!

Lol. Sorry to put you through this, but at least it seems like the last couple of matches your predictions were pretty good.

Valek wrote:Voted draw, think it all comes down on how fast TAU will demech the greyknights.

if purifiers can put the pressure on his screens this can go either way.

But this would have been the perfect game to test a callidus i can see her doing serious damage and take a lot of attention for a turn, maybe just buying the time to mess up his strategy.

Honestly, even without markerlights, I feel that this list has a better chance to de-mech my knights than the previous Tau army I played against (with 4 broadsides, 1 railhead, 2 deathrains and 1 fireknife unit). But at least this time, it's Seize Ground and not Annihilation that we're playing. I don't necessarily have to reach his forces....just need to get to the objectives and defend them.

One of these days, I'll give the new callidus a try. I just find it kind of hard to justify taking her in my all-comer's list over another dread or the vindicare.

I vote Tau out of principle.

Valkyrie wrote:I'm leaning towards another Tau victory here, mainly because those Broadsides may simply rip up your Rhinos, just like last time.

Ouch. Those were some sad memories.

Lt. Coldfire wrote:I vote Tau out of principle.

Hey, Fresno! My neighbor!

You should root for the home-team. Oh, wait. SabrX is also from San Ho....

I like your strategy here for going against his massive dakka power. Idk if itll work though, If I were him I would just ignore the dreads and go strait for the transports, b/c you said yourself you cant win in a fire fight against him. If he takes out the one thing that is gonna get him into CC than I think he has a great chance of winning, unless he gets very unlucky and your dreads end up blasting his Broadsides. But I dont think that will happen, b/c even if it does he has 9 of them!!!
But, if he does go for your dreads and your transports make it to turn 2 I think you'll have a good chance of getting him into CC and wreaking havoc with your troops. He does have a lot of kroot, but they are terrible when it comes to keeping morale, and they don't have any hounds to help out in CC. So like just about every space marine tau match I think it'll just come down to whether you can reach his battle line in time, but this guy seems like he knows what he is doing. I am gonna have to give him the advantage here and say he will win. I cant remember if you posted or not he gets first turn?

I'm voting Tau on this one, but who knows, maybe the dice gods will smile on you... (I still think you're gonna get ripped a new one by 9 broadsides)

I think this Tau list is weaker than the one JY2's Grey Knights lost to last game! In my opinion, Firewarriors, with S5 and their incredible single shot range + marker lights + shuttle or two for tank shocking > 60 more Kroot. That being said, I still think Tau have this in the bag!

The Crowe list lacks outflanking (from a grand master), Stormraven (suicide charge), harrassers (any teleportation unit) or even deepstriking units. In other words, this GK list will have trouble putting pressure on the Tau player, and a Tau player that is not under pressure can loose only to some really horrible target priority decisions / or if he/she decides not to move and shoot with their suits every turn. (which seems to be the case here as I don't think that these broadsides have the upgrade to be able to move and fire!)

Grey Therion wrote:I think this Tau list is weaker than the one JY2's Grey Knights lost to last game! In my opinion, Firewarriors, with S5 and their incredible single shot range + marker lights + shuttle or two for tank shocking > 60 more Kroot. That being said, I still think Tau have this in the bag!

The Crowe list lacks outflanking (from a grand master), Stormraven (suicide charge), harrassers (any teleportation unit) or even deepstriking units. In other words, this GK list will have trouble putting pressure on the Tau player, and a Tau player that is not under pressure can loose only to some really horrible target priority decisions / or if he/she decides not to move and shoot with their suits every turn. (which seems to be the case here as I don't think that these broadsides have the upgrade to be able to move and fire!)

Although I completely disagree about this list being weaker, The fact the Tau player decided to equip his BS with black sun filters instead of A.S.S. is...very puzzling to say the least lol This isnt a night battle right? That is one weakness he does have, his BS have no A.S.S. which is going to hamper his shooting ability, or shield drones to save them from enemy fire. But I really feel the A.S.S. is more mandatory than the drones

But if you look at the tau players earlier game against Dark Eldar youd see just how effective the kroot can be over FW, he got off 60 rapid fire shots!!! The terrain got more kill points on him than the DE player managed to, and the kroot ended up eating up all of the DE units keeping them from knocking out his guns

Turns 1-3 posted.

darkcloud92 wrote:I like your strategy here for going against his massive dakka power. Idk if itll work though, If I were him I would just ignore the dreads and go strait for the transports, b/c you said yourself you cant win in a fire fight against him. If he takes out the one thing that is gonna get him into CC than I think he has a great chance of winning, unless he gets very unlucky and your dreads end up blasting his Broadsides. But I dont think that will happen, b/c even if it does he has 9 of them!!!
But, if he does go for your dreads and your transports make it to turn 2 I think you'll have a good chance of getting him into CC and wreaking havoc with your troops. He does have a lot of kroot, but they are terrible when it comes to keeping morale, and they don't have any hounds to help out in CC. So like just about every space marine tau match I think it'll just come down to whether you can reach his battle line in time, but this guy seems like he knows what he is doing. I am gonna have to give him the advantage here and say he will win. I cant remember if you posted or not he gets first turn?

Tau is going first. And yeah, he knows what he is doing. He's a pretty good player.

Grey Therion wrote:I think this Tau list is weaker than the one JY2's Grey Knights lost to last game! In my opinion, Firewarriors, with S5 and their incredible single shot range + marker lights + shuttle or two for tank shocking > 60 more Kroot. That being said, I still think Tau have this in the bag!

The Crowe list lacks outflanking (from a grand master), Stormraven (suicide charge), harrassers (any teleportation unit) or even deepstriking units. In other words, this GK list will have trouble putting pressure on the Tau player, and a Tau player that is not under pressure can loose only to some really horrible target priority decisions / or if he/she decides not to move and shoot with their suits every turn. (which seems to be the case here as I don't think that these broadsides have the upgrade to be able to move and fire!)

While his list has scary firepower, I must admit that it can probably be tweaked slightly. I myself think that he should try to fit in a squad of pathfinders in there and give his broadsides Advanced Stabilisation System. I wouldn't say either list is stronger or weaker....just different. This one's got a lot more firepower but lacks the support units that the other list has. Overall, I say SabrX's Tau is a much more aggressive build than most other Tau armies.

Yeah, my list is slow but steady. In true MSU-fashion, I have no high-priority targets. Thus, no stormravens with uber-units in them. Everything is about equal. Then again, that is the strength of MSU. Destroy any 1 unit and it won't affect the performance of the whole too much. But in reality, I can't afford it. Purifiers and vendreads are expensive enough. My build just doesn't give me much room for other expensive units.

darkcloud92 wrote:
Although I completely disagree about this list being weaker, The fact the Tau player decided to equip his BS with black sun filters instead of A.S.S. is...very puzzling to say the least lol This isnt a night battle right? That is one weakness he does have, his BS have no A.S.S. which is going to hamper his shooting ability, or shield drones to save them from enemy fire. But I really feel the A.S.S. is more mandatory than the drones

It's Dawn of War so the first turn is night-fight. But I agree with the A.S.S. I think mobility is really important and gives added flexibility to the broadsides. It really depends on the map, but if you play on a terrain-heavy map, you're going to wish you had it.

Looking at the Report Turns 1-3 only, things are not going well for Tau at all!

Going to come down to the Piranhas with late game turbo-capping, otherwise it's looking like a GK win to me.

That battle seems a little lop-sided on the dice luck. Ouch for the Tau player. . .

Battle report completed.


Enjoy.

Thanks for posting the battle report jy2.

Ouch! One of my worst game plays.

I was plagued with bad luck. My two Kroot squads were forces to outflank on the left. I made a lot of penetrating hits, but jy2 saves 95% of them, and that’s a lot considering how many times my Suits penetrated and glanced. His dice were hot! The ones that did usually get past his cover save ended up being shaken or stun. Jy2 didn’t fail a single fortitude psychic test. On turn 3, I fired 4 Railguns, 4 Missile Pods, 2 rapid firing plasma rifles into one smoked purifer Rhino, but jy2 made all his cover saves. I then assaulted it with 45 Str4 attacks and 6 Crisis Suit attacks. I only manage to land a single glancing blow, which downgraded to a shaken. On turn 4, there were 4 purifiers out in the open. Jy2 predicted they wouldn’t last after my shooting. 12 Smart Missile System shots, 30 rapid firing Kroot, and 6 rapid firing Fire Warriors later, 1 manages to survive. Crowe was hot. In the beginning he assaulted a squad of Kroots. Out of 45 attacks, I forces 9 armor saves. Crowe fails 4 of them, but parry and roll 4 6’s!

This was my second time fielding 9 Broadsides. I made a couple mistakes moving them on the board. I moved one squad of Broadsides on top the left hill, assuming they could get a clear shot through the “Shrine of the Aquila” terrain piece. Later on, jy2 exploited their limited vision by moving his forces far enough forward where my Broadsides couldn’t see them. Thus, they had to forgo shooting on turn 2 and move to a better firing position. A second Broadside team moved into the Shrine of the Aquila, but only 1 could make it to the 2nd floor. Once again, the Shrine of the Aquila foiled their vision. They didn’t have many vehicles to shoot at other than the lone Rhino in the middle and the Rhino on the far right. The one Broadside team that did have a clear shot was deployed in the middle and out in the open. Unfortunately on turn 2, they suffered 33% casualty and failed their moral test, running off the board.

Throughout the game, the Crisis Suits were doing most of the damage. Thanks to JSJ, they could spring out, get a clear view to shoot at vehicles, and jump back into the Shrine. Unfortunately, the Shrine didn’t completely block TLOS. There was one open door, facing jy2’s dreadnoughts. It also didn’t help that I failed 5/7 dangerous terrain test, killing whole suits.

My Piranhas did squat. I was gambling they would survive long enough to contest the far right objective. In hindsight, I should have placed the second objective closer to the left and used my Piranhas to roadblock jy2’s Rhinos. Perhaps I should field 2 x 2 Piranhas, boosting their chances of survival.

In hindsight, there were two things I would have done differently. I would have placed both objectives close to each other, making it easier to guard. I also would have infiltrated all 4 Kroot Squads with a triple layer defense. This would have stalled Crowe for a few turns. I also would have moved all 9 Broadsides towards the middle and out in the open, where they would have good field of vision. They would also be far enough forward where if they failed a moral test, they have a chance not running off the board.


Despite the outcome, I’m still confident that 3 x 3 Broadsides without Advance Stabilization System can still work. I just need more practice and better placement. One alternative idea is to deploy one squad on the extreme left, second squad in the middle, and third squad on the extreme right. This would make it more difficult for my opponents to hide their vehicles out of TLOS and for my opponent to split his/she wants to neutralize all three.

If I did upgrade to Advance Stabilization System, I would reduce the numbers to 3 x 2 Broadsides. Advance Stabilization System takes up 1 Battle Suit support system slot, which means no Target Lock other than the squad leader. 3 Broadside squads with Advance Stabilization System can shoot up to 6 different targets, which isn’t bad against most mech armies. One less Broadsides means more points for other units such as Pathfinders (neutralize those pesky cover saves!) or Piranhas. The only time where I would need 9 Broadsides is against crazy vehicle spam armies such as IG, Dark Eldar, Razor-spam, or in this case 5 Grey Knight Dreadnoughts and 5 Rhinos.

Lesson learned, better placement with Broadsides, and sacrifice more kittens to the dice gods!

Well played jy2. Congrats for scoring a victory against the Greater Good.

Would the game have been any different had jy2's dice rolls not been so hot?

Have some more questions and observations later, but for now I'm in a rush.

This is pretty typical for Tau in the 5th edition. If your opponent has a hot dice on cover saves, there is very little what you can do. I've had this happened to me many times. Which is why I like to have Pathfinders around. Too bad that the other Markerlight sources suck.

Just couple of questions for SabrX:

-why have two target locks for Broadside teams? I've found that I typically want to fire my Broadsides at something which I really, really want to blow up and that means shooting it with at least two Broadsides. Also Blacksun filter seems sorta pointless since you can usually use it only on first turn of Dawn of War, when you can't fire anyway, as your suits don't have A.S.S. Put one on your HQ though? Might just get lucky blowing up a Rhino...

-why you didn't disembark the Drones off the Piranhas, since this was not a KP game?

As for Jump infantry, I've been under impression that when they move like normal infantry, they don't have to take Dangerous terrain test. So what I've always done is that I move the suits into difficult terrain as a foot move, thus avoiding the DT test (they have to take it though if they use their Jetpack move).

Congratulations on ending your streak!

Lukus83 wrote:Would the game have been any different had jy2's dice rolls not been so hot?

Part of the reason why I lost was poor positioning of my Broadsides.

I'd like to think the outcome would have been different if jy2 didn't make 95% of his cover saves for his vehicles. A single Rhino should have been dead after getting shot at by 5 Str10 + AP1, 4 Str7, and 4 Str6 shots.

Other then that, jy2 played a solid game. I've read his other battle reports of Crowe being a 1 man army. He's nigh unstoppable in the assault phase, being able to force a draw combat resolution on the turn he assaults. He's a beast with his 2+/4++ re-rolls.

Backfire wrote:
Just couple of questions for SabrX:

-why have two target locks for Broadside teams? I've found that I typically want to fire my Broadsides at something which I really, really want to blow up and that means shooting it with at least two Broadsides. Also Blacksun filter seems sorta pointless since you can usually use it only on first turn of Dawn of War, when you can't fire anyway, as your suits don't have A.S.S. Put one on your HQ though? Might just get lucky blowing up a Rhino...

I want my 3 Broadsides to shoot at three different targets. Broadsides are limited to 1 Battle Suit support system. It also costs a lot of points running 9. 3 Broadsides with 2 Target Locks and 1 Blacksun Filter is the cheapest configuration.

-why you didn't disembark the Drones off the Piranhas, since this was not a KP game?

I was hoping my Piranhas would last long enough to contest either back or right objectives. If they did survive, I would disembark the Gun Drones, increasing the number of contesting units. Unfortunately, they can't disembark after moving flat out. Under the new FAQ, the Drones die if they didn't disembark before the Piranha gets destroyed.

As for Jump infantry, I've been under impression that when they move like normal infantry, they don't have to take Dangerous terrain test. So what I've always done is that I move the suits into difficult terrain as a foot move, thus avoiding the DT test (they have to take it though if they use their Jetpack move).

I've had too many games where my Crisis Suits rolled too low during difficult terrain test. On a good day, normally I don't fail 5/7 dangerous terrain tests when making the jump move.