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UK GT Heat 3 report stream of conscious stylee.

I had six great games against six great opponents. In fact, I’ve never had a bad game at the GT.

Naturally I took Farsight Crisis Spam.

112 – Shas’el with (plasma, missile, multitracker, targetting array, positional relay)
170 – Commander Farsight
692 – 4* bodyguards (plasma, missile, array, tracker, target lock, 2 shield drones), 2* bodyguards (plasma, missile, array, tracker, 2 shield drones)
46 – Crisis Suit, twin-missile, bsf
120 – 2 * 6 firewarriors
165 – Railhead (burst, decoy, tracker)
195 – Broadside team leader (2 shield drones, move+fire)

Weak link in the army is probably me, since I don’t play 40k much anymore and played with the army only twice before we went. That cost me in two games. Oh and hordes, but then no-one brings hordes to the GT do they?


i) Gamma Take and Hold v Tyranids on table 24

I’m over 50% of the way through my Genestealer horde - they are cool as anything. But there’s no way I’d bring it to the GT, although fair play to my opponent for trying it out. The table set-up had a nice long line of trees across the centre, which might have made a game of it, but I rushed farsight up the less dense and more lightly defended flank, smashing the genestealers lurking there aside and turning on their centre. I score with everything bar a Hammerhead torn down by vengeful stealers on the right flank and whole Tyranids are wiped.

My opponent took it all in good spirit – I’m not sure what he could have done differently. Farsight doesn’t really fear stealers in combat that much, unless they really arrive in volume. I win by c2200 Vps and my plan of 6 minor wins goes out the window…

ii) Table 2: Omega Recon vs Necrons

1 monolith, 8 destroyers, destroyer lord 2 wraiths, warriors in  squads and some immortals. Never played Necrons with Tau, can’t ever remember playing Necrons. Who wants to own a monolith? Ugh.

Anyway, line up broadsides on the middle edge behind a level 2 hill and firewarriors on each flank. He gets first turn, advances the immortals and nails a firewarrior squad. The Tau do nothing in return. Turn 2 the monolith deep strikes 6 or so inches in front of the broadsides and the lord and his wraiths appear on the back edge, zoom through the portal, puny staff of light the broadsides and then charge ‘em. The lord nails a sheild drone and the broadsides slap down a wraith. Drawn combat. Necrons in my lines, a monolith right behind ‘em, surely the Tau are doomed?

The Hammerhead turns up and then Farsight roars on the board, screams ‘Come On!’ and charges the necron lord. Farsight owns the lord in combat and the squad kills the wraiths. Testing on a –5 for lord and he is caught and run down. No ‘We’ll be back’ for you!

The monolith decides to land to get some cover form the railguns, but immobilises itself. Oh well. But they want revenge on farsight; 8 destroyers romp on and open up along with all the warriors that can and the particle whip. A fusilade later and farsight checks on a 10, but the squad is still there.

The other crisis suits turn up and farsight marches up the board. He puts 5 of the destroyers and then charges some necrons lurking the central woods, pwnzers and breaks them. The Broadsides blow up the monolith and the railhead retreats from the immortals.

All but one destroyer gets back up, and another barrage hits farsight taking him under 50%. Broadsides plus farsight, plus the other suits return fire and take all 8 destoyers. Farsight then charges the remaining necron squad and owns that too. I send a crisis squad forward to keep them running.

The immortals make one last dash forward, but fail to hurt the broadsides. Farsight turns and the remains of his squad plus the broadsides nail give immortals. Phase out time for the ‘cron. I score a win by about 1200.


iii)    Table 1: Gamma Secure and Control vs Necrons.

The air is pretty rarefied up here and the dead keep returning. Dan has two monoliths but fewer destroyers and no immortals. Both Monoiths deep strike of course. I know I’ve got to take the lord early and get rid of the monloliths, otherwise Farsight will simply get particle whip snipped to death.

The objectives are roughly across the table, one in the centre, on to its right and closer to my edge, and the on the left flank in the middle of woods. I don’t have much to contest with, so leave a cheeky deathrain on the flank along with some firewarriors, and put everything else in the centre. The middle of the board is a level 2 feature.
 
Dan gets first turn,shoots up some firewarriors with some destroyers, who retreat behind a wood, while his lord and wraiths advance to the middle. I send farsight up the middle to meet him. Bang, here comes a monolith, particle snipe on farsight scatters and kills a drone or two. Farsight gets in there shoots up some Necrons and charges the lord and wraiths. Line fluff time – he kills a wraith (should have attacked the lord) and squad does nothing v the lord. I lose a drone, drawn combat.

Bang, here’s another monolith. The Lord is pulled from combat (what i don't even get a consolidate? harsh!), everyone opens on Farsight and the lord plus wraiths charge back in. Spas’O Farsight gets hit five times and fails all his saves! Arrghh! The squad runs, but I ensure it can’t be caught.

Right, can this be salvaged? Probably not. Some shooting kills pretty much nothing as the broadsides are clearly drunk and hit nothing much all game, although the hammerhead gets a weapon destoyed result on the lith. The farsight squad falls back. The Necrons warriors advance and the wraiths move across to the secure the left flank objective.

Farsight’s bodyguard rallies (good old free bonding), and move behind a hill. Everyone else shuffles a bit, and the Hammerhead gets another weapons destroyed result on the lith. The warriors shuffle forward, the monolith moves out of LoS and onto the left flank objective and the lord + destroyers come to have words with the Hammerhead. 3 glancing hits and it’s down and out. The bodyguard leaps over the hill and rain plasma death on the destroyers and even the Broadside actually HITS something! Rarr, they all die, and the lord doesn’t get back up! I sneak that cheeky deathrain onto the left flank objective.

Final turn. The warriors shuffle to claim all objectives, the monolith shoots and misses the deathrain, and the wraith charges the it. Drawn combat. That’ll do.

Farsight’s squad moves up and nails one of the warrior squads down to two models, while the solo commander makes a suicidal charge at the warriors in the centre. He gets owned and flees. The Broadsides move up, claim the objective and have the choice of getting a cheeky single rail at the lith or finishing the two warriors. I figure my crisis suit is dead, so go for the rail shot. Dumb pissed Broadsides hoof it wide, but somehow the cheeky deathrain stays cheeky and stands up to the wraith in combat.

The result is we each hold one objective, but as farsight’s squad  is still holding so many points, I’ve managed to pull back a draw. Indeed, if I hadn’t charged the crisis commander and had instead shot the two warriors, it would have been a win, but I’m happier with the draw – and let’s face it, the cheeky deathrain should be so much tau chop suey by now. The two top VPs cracking heads for a draw is kind of what the top table result should be and it was a fantastic game.

Day 1 overall: 7 VPs and big VP margin, something I'm fairly happy with. Both Necron armies would have nailed my standard Tau list - the lists were too strong and the players too good not to lose - so its 4 more points than I would have had otherwise.

More to follow...




 

Great report Torgotch. I love the way you play Farsight, I have never seen Tau played so aggressively.

Where was this GT? When was this GT? Can you give us a little more info on the event?

Opps, UK GT Heat 3!

Thanks - more to follow this afternoon hopefully.

iv) Table 10: Seek and Destroy vs marines.

Dan and I were both on such huge VP margins, the draw didn?t knock either of us down by that much. I faced a balanced marine army with 2 speeders, 2 rhino squads, a dev squad, a scout squad with rifles and a command squad with fury plus fear. We had a reasonable quantity of low terrain, with the table centre was dominated by a level 2 hill. I placed the hammerhead, the cheeky deathrain and farsight behind a large wood on the right, the firewarriors and the commander on the left and the broadsides behind a piece of terrain in the centre.

The marines deployed with vehicles on the two flanks and the shooting squads in the centre. Tau first turn would probably have doomed them, but they went first, the rhinos zooming up and smoking, the speeders taking the railgun off the HH and shooting up some firewarriors. Return fire sees a speeder on the left stunned, while on the right farsight destroys both speeder and the rhino on the right a wreck. The marines bail out and hide behind it.

Memory gets a pretty hazy at this point. The commander arrives in turns two or three, and with the rhino squad takes out the surviving fire warriors the commander and the broadsides (which eventually falls to sniper rifles!). In response, farsight tags half the devie squad and begins his march across the board. In doing so he first nails the speeder, reduces the surviving rhino to a wreak, and kills the rhino squad. The Command squad think betters of hanging around and they move behind the wreck, the scouts jump behind cover and the surviving devies flee too. The footslogging marines in the centre move up to hill edge, but in turn 5 farsight leaps onto the top and annihilates them in one round of shooting.

The game ends with all the marines cowering behind wrecks or ruins, and Farsight standing on a hill in the centre of the board, screaming ?COME ON!?, and daring anyone to come near him! However, nearly all the surviving squads were at half strength exactly, so I didn?t really get that much from them.

Win by 400 VPs.

Table 5: Omega Cleanse v Chaos Space Marines

Dan and I get drawn against each other again, so Commie-Bob from Flame On offers to swap with me.

Here we have to salute GW for their wonderful organisational skills. Bob is on 6 pts and should be table 30 or something, having lost the previous game. GW awarded him a win, both him and his opponent wins, and his reward for telling them their mistake is to be docked the points and told to play on table 6 anyway.

(As an aside, I did offer to call the game as a draw if it will help him, but apparently his VPs were low and he really needed two wins from two. I didn?t really want to give him the win for free as that means I may still need to score in the last game to ensure qualification, which I don?t think is an unreasonable position to take on GWs *fudge*-up)

My feeling is that people who have their scores dicked around with should simply be comped into the final. Not every player will turn up to the final anyway, and GW have the tables to cope with >150 players.

Anyway, enough of that. Bob has Slaaneshi army with 3 squads of infiltrating noise marines, 3 squads of demonettes, 2 preds, a Defiler and a Demon Prince. He wins the roll of for quarters, and chooses a nicely screened corner with 3 woods. I get to impassable buildings. The left flank has a level 2 hill, the right flank another hill and a section of woods, and there is a small wood in the boards centre.

Bob infiltrates everything, so the firewarriors occupy forward positions, while the broadsides set up behind the buildings. The noise marines set up behind the two hills, with the 3rd unit lurking much closer behind the woods.

Bob wins first turn. Worrying keening sounds emerge from the wood the advance of eight or so noise marines kills two firewarriors on my right. More marines appear out of some ruins on the left and another firewarrior?s eardrums explode.

In response, I advance the firewarriors into the woods on the right for the greater good, and bring the others back on the left behind the hill, such that they can offer some supporting fire on my right flank next turn. Rapid fire kills a noise marine and SMS from the Broadside takes down another.

Bob?s reserves bring on all 3 demonettes and a predator. The Pred places itself behind some woods on the far side of the table, while the Demonettes all appear around the wood on the my right flank. The marines in the wood engage the firewarrior squadron on my left, reducing it to two models, but they hold. The demonettes charge the firewarriors in the wood, rending the squad to death but losing 1 demon in the process.

Tau reserve rolls give me everything but farsight, so I throw it all on the right to try and suppress the demonettes. The squad that devoured the firewarriors falls to a fusillade of fire and failed instability, while the broadsides punch off another noise marine.

The other Predator and the demon prince roll on for chaos, and both enter the woods in the centre of the chaos table quarter. On my right, the demonettes think twice about all those guns in front of them, and fall back behind the woods. The noise marines shoot the blastmaster at the hammerhead, but the vehicle is well insulated.

The positional relay brings farsight on a 2, nice. The right flank has turned into something of a stand-off, so I bring him to face the noise marine squad on the left, who have been slowly advancing towards my home quarter: wham, bham, thank-you mam, as 14 plasma shots wipe them out in one volley. On the right, the broadsides move back, and combined fire from them, the hammerhead and the 2 crisis suits removes the remaining four noise marines in the wood. I pull Farsight back towards the centre, spread him out, and line up shots to drive the demonettes out from the behind the wood.

Faced with no choice the demonettes advance. The Defiler rolls on chooses to fire directly through a gap in the trees at Farsight, but the council is well spread and only 1 2 drones die. Both Preds open up as well, and a few more shield drones explode.

The Broadsides are feeling particularly purposeful, advance, and kill the Pred on the far side of the board. Even without the Pred, Farsight can?t stand up to the Defiler for too long and the Hammerhead swings out wide and scalps it from the side. Combined fire from the crisis suits kills another demonette squad.

The final squad of noise marines makes its play and mounts the hill while the demonettes charge the hammerhead ? no rends however. The Demon Prince marches forward, but is still a way away. Farsight jumps on the hill, kills a couple of noise marines and backs down again. Something kills the final Predator, possibly farsight, possibly the broadsides.

The Demon Prince continues to advance, and noise marines on the hill kill 1 shield drone and pin farsight! Argggh! Ignoring the marines, the Tau attempt to go Demon Prince killing, but he resists two railguns and take only one wound from the missiles and plasma! Farsight can?t retreat from the Demon Prince, so turn 6 and in he comes! 1 shield drone dies, but aura of acquiescence keeps farsight in combat. Had I realised about that I probably would have thrown farsight at him turns ago, but nevermind no. No Tau hit back and we move up to surround him.

Tau turn 6 and Farsight is up against the Prince. The Prince gets the Dawn Blade in the face, but he?s drugged up the eyeballs and doesn?t notice. He doesn?t resist the hammer of crisis blows, however, and it?s down to 1 wound, killing 2 more shield drones in return. The rest of the army finished off the 2 troublesome noise marines, and stops to watch the action. We roll to carry on and get turn 7, whereby the Prince quaffs his drugs and dies! In your face Demon Prince! Farsight?s moves carry him into the left quarter and his unit can still score! That leaves results pretty one sided, some 2250 VPs to Farsight and 90 VPs to Chaos.

vi) Table 2: Omega Take and Hold vs Orks

The big win on table 5 propels me back up to 4th. The Tau player on table 1 as been docked 5 points for using an illegal list over 5 games and is drawn against Chris’s Iron Warriors, so we can effectively discount him (he proceeds to get massacred anyway). My opponent and I will be playing off for second place.

Unfortunately my opponent is me old mucker SpikyDavid, with his favourite army (the Ork horde) and his favourite mission. Bugger. I feel like Othello, doomed before the first turn is rolled.

I don’t think we need to go into this ignominious defeat in too much detail, as Dave has covered it nicely elsewhere. The Orks marched forwards, and where they went Tau tended to fall over. I forgot I had Ork fighters, forgot my squads were auto-bonded, and generally messed up.

The pivotal moment in the game came when I offered combat to a large Ork mob in turn 4 or 5 with Farsight, in a desperate attempt to draw them off the objective, but placed Farsight in the front rank. This enabled Dave to remove orks in BtB with my squad and win combat by killing Farsight with return attacks. It’s an elementary error, and one that may have cost me the game, but more likely cost me a slightly less heavy defeat. Once the horde is on the objective in force, it’s very difficult to remove it.

Elsewhere Dave has said my normal Tau would have fared better. I’m not convinced, especially not in this mission. There are so many durable mobile heavy weapons in the horde that they just grind forward and prevent the Tau manoeuvring to escape or realistically concentrating force.


VPs: 400ish v 2000ish. First ever result worse than a minor against my Tau in tournaments and first massacre for as long as I can remember.


Conclusions:

Final positioning is 14th, reasonable, but one which I don’t think adequately reflects the army’s potency and I was surprised and a little disappointed by the drop from effectively 3rd to 14th, after being in the top ten for nearly the whole thing.

Fighting the Horde in the last round was unfortunate, as I felt Farsight could deal more than adequately with any army on the top tables other than the Horde. While I’m generally in favour of the new scoring system, this game did illustrate one of its drawbacks, namely that there isn’t much reward for playing defensively against armies you can’t handle. Last year, I’d have taken the cowards route and given Dave 7 points for the minor win. In the new system a minor loss is no different to being massacred other than in VPs, so I bit the bullet.

The flip side, of course, is that we had a better game.

So Farsight will probably be back for the final, albeit in a slightly different configuration. The council is a little unwieldy at 20 odd models so I’m going to streamline it and probably add in a skyray for 2 mobile markerlights and an extra scoring unit.

Thanks for the reports Torgoch, great reads all. Nice job at the tournament, and your list is the most unique and interesting Tau list I think I've ever seen. Good luck in the final!

- Boss Salvage

Well congrats on qualifying, though that ork horde looks a bugger for farsight!!

Im actually planning on taking farsight to the final and i must ask how you thought the railhead performed? Was it actually worth it being the only tank in your army or was it not due to having to protect it too much?

Skyray sounds quite an interesting idea actually. Mark mentioned that you'd talked about putting a sniper team to marker up for farsight, i guess the sky ray does that role even better with its mobility and scoring nature.

In my opinion all Railheads are as a much liabilities as they are ever a necessity. They?re large, difficult to hide and easy to kill. In the Tau army they are one of the few things that can press the opposition by moving forwards, but in the Farsight list Farsight?s bodyguard is the thing moving forwards. So no, basically, I don?t think the Hammerhead itself is necessary.

I do, however, think a railgun distinct from that in the Broadside squad is a necessity. The Broadsides may run, and the single squad may be outmanoeuvred. Broadsides are 0-1 IIRC, (which may be well off, I don?t recall when I last actually looked at the Farsight options, I just assumed I knew what they were for the GT list), so you really are stuck with a Hammerhead for the final railgun.

Did it work for me? Yes and no. The railhead moved to get a shot on a defiler, but that was really due to Bob?s eagerness to get the shot. Had the Defiler hidden better and stayed indirect, the HH would never have got the rail shot off.

Other than that I don?t think it did anything that Broadside?s couldn?t have done except die. It dies much more easily than Broadsides. Very good at that was my Hammerhead.

I don?t really buy into the ?only tank in the army? theory. More hulls just means more targets for lascannons or Asscannons in the Tau army. When running 3 in the final I lost 5/9 ?heads that hit the table on day 1. If I play regular Tau again in the GT style environment (so probably never as I live in Norwich now) then I?d be inclined to run 2 broadside squads and an Ionhead.

Kewl reports. If I were to play Tau, a Farsight list is by far the one I'd play. I love the background of that character...and the killy it brings isn't too bad either!

Capt K

I think you summed up the updated scoring system perfectly: it made for a better game. We all like to win, but we all enjoy getting a good game in. I like the system and hope the US circuit for 07 will be using it.

Thanks for the report. I've read various forums hyping the Farsight list and I think you helped prove how ugly it can be. It's always a bummer, though, when someone comes up with something that throws off the bell curve IE: an Ork Horde played by a knowledgable player. Damn the non MEQ player (kidding).

Thanks fo the kind comments. In the right mission I think Dave would agree Farsight could beat the Horde, but that mission probably isn't an escalation and certainly isn't take and hold.

The weekend with the Farsight list has suddenly rekindled my interest and Tau and 40K, so hopefully I'll play a few games before the next GT!

Posted By torgoch on 12/01/2006 9:32 AM
If I play regular Tau again in the GT style environment (so probably never as I live in Norwich now) then I’d be inclined to run 2 broadside squads and an Ionhead.

That's exactly how I run my Farsight list, actually. 2 Broadsides (albeit in a single squad) and an Ionhead. Works well for me. Properly equipped, a Farsight army is the ultimate MEQ killer (and thus can kill anything pretty well). I have the most trouble with horde armies and objective missions, just like you had in that battle against the Ork horde.

Having the Ionhead just increases my MEQ killing power. But it's mostly a distraction. Even the Broadsides are expendable. As long as O'Shovah gets the job done.

Case in point: last night I faced off in a 1,500 point battle against Droppod Marines. Of course I get to go first. It's Escalation and table quarters, so I spread out. But everything comes on in the second turn! His Librarian then makes one FW squad and the Broadsides run off the table due to FotD. Meltaguns (even though only one hit and it was outside of 6" ) blow up the Ionhead. Not a good turn two.

But then, over the rest of the game, Farsight proceeds to rip apart two Terminator squads, two Tactical squads and a Dreadnought (5 attacks on the charge will do that for you!). Farsight was the only unit of mine that killed anything, save for a lone Crisis Suit destroying droppods.

And, funnily enough, I used to live in Norwich before I moved to the US. Beautiful city, but so damn quiet.

Posted By torgoch on 12/02/2006 3:56 AM
Thanks fo the kind comments. In the right mission I think Dave would agree Farsight could beat the Horde, but that mission probably isn't an escalation and certainly isn't take and hold.

The weekend with the Farsight list has suddenly rekindled my interest and Tau and 40K, so hopefully I'll play a few games before the next GT!

I think we'd have to play a couple more games to get an idea of the sort of firepower that the council can put out - the trouble is, I think that they have to get stuck in to really make their points back, and that's rarely going to work out against the orks.

Having said that - I think that Farsight have an easy minor over the orks in Seek & Destroy, just kill around 400 points worth of the orks, taking the equivalent damage on farsight - you're still over half strength, but the orks are down 400 points, easy minor win for Farsight.

I think Recon could be okay for Farsight (again though not if escalation).

The Orks have to cover the table as they are outranged by the Tau, so Farsight might be able to barrel up one flank.

Take and Hold is doom I think, no matter what, and i wouldn't be especially confident in secure and control. Farsight struggles for scoring units in cleanse, but can force the orks to cover a long distance under fire. Perhaps doable in Gamma, especially if a cheeky deep strike pays off, but much less so in Omega (but then we know that already!)

But I still think the odds are against me in this match-up. I predict we get drawn together again in the final and I get squashed

 

Posted By Stu-Rat on 12/02/2006 4:37 AM

And, funnily enough, I used to live in Norwich before I moved to the US. Beautiful city, but so damn quiet.

Did I not tell you O'Shovah would work?

I've spent the last two years in London, so Norwich is quite a nice break. Not sure how long I'll stay for, but i reckon i'll be hear for the next three years.

Good WFB group here, but the 40k is less developed. A nice little group started about 6 months before i moved here though, so in another year or so we might get something more substantial going.  On the other hand, its a nice excuse to start considering more off the wall lists, like my long-planned never-really-begun zoat army...

 

Excellent report and a TAU army concept I never saw potential in. Looking very much forward to hearing from the finals with you having more experience with the lists, what little tweaks to fine tune the army and the playing field getting nastier.

My Tau army is such a dilemma to me. Not nice enough in comparison to my new armies to take to tournies anymore, and too nice to justify making a new one. But I love Crisis suits (have 9of them) and shield drones (12of them) so I might give this far sight show a try at home.

Cheers,

FYI When Nercons use the Monolith's Portal to leave combat the enemy ALWAYS get to consolidate.

That's interesting - i specifically asked my opponent and he said no, preventing me from hiding farsight in the middle of the squad.

Hmm sounds like one of 2 things happened there:

1. He teleported the Lord and left the Wraiths, preventing you from being able to make a consolidate move because you were still locked. This was illegal because the Monolith can't teleport Lords unless they're attached to a Necron unit.

Or,

2. He Teleported the unit of Wraiths and the Lord together, and denied you your consolidate move. Either because he was mistaken, or he was cheating. You'd have to make that call, as I wasn't there and don't want to make false accusations.

But I've noticed in general, whenever a unit can voluntarily leave an assault without the risk of getting swept, (Hit and run, or Necron Portal being the most common two) the enemy always gets a chance to consolidate. On that note whenever a unit "recovers" from a situation that could have made it lose coherency, regrouping, assault, etc. a unit may usually IMMEDIATELY consolidate. GW seems to have written the 4th ed. rules so that any given unit should NEVER be out of coherency at the start of the player's turn. I know I've never had it happen if they weren't falling back.

Posted By Lordhat on 12/25/2006 7:04 AM

But I've noticed in general, whenever a unit can voluntarily leave an assault without the risk of getting swept, (Hit and run, or Necron Portal being the most common two) the enemy always gets a chance to consolidate.

 

Daemonhosts teleporting out don't give them the opportunity to consolidate.  Granted, this isn't neccessarily voluntary either...

Posted By Lordhat on 12/25/2006 7:04 AM
2. He Teleported the unit of Wraiths and the Lord together, and denied you your consolidate move. Either because he was mistaken, or he was cheating. You'd have to make that call, as I wasn't there and don't want to make false accusations.

But I've noticed in general, whenever a unit can voluntarily leave an assault without the risk of getting swept, (Hit and run, or Necron Portal being the most common two) the enemy always gets a chance to consolidate. On that note whenever a unit "recovers" from a situation that could have made it lose coherency, regrouping, assault, etc. a unit may usually IMMEDIATELY consolidate.

Quick question, where's the entry that allows units to Consolidate after a Necron unit Portals out of CC?  I took a quick look through the Necron Codex and FAQ and didn't see anything that would allow that. 

Wow. My 2nd. printing codex doesn't say that either. I know the the 1st printing did. Or maybe it was the FAQ. Well now I feel like the proverbial horse's A$$.