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Points 1800

Allies: dark eldar (DE) 1500pt– Grant
-Mix of skimmer transports and very good assault troops!
Borkan Tau (see end for list) 295 pts

Opponent: SM dark angels - Peter. 2 Land raiders. 2 tac squads. 1 command squad. 1 techmarine squad. 1 dev squad.

Mission: Capture/hold objective

Deployment: Dawn of war

Result
Allies victory – held own objective and had DE within 3” of opponent objective

Summary
Opponent played for a draw, making no effort to gain objective in our deployment zone. Real spadework done by dark eldar skimmer transports carrying close combat troops to enemy deployment zone nearby objective. These troops tied up devastators and tactical marines for almost the whole game. DE skimmers on other flank drew almost all fire from 2 land raiders which did not leave opponents deployment zone!

Tau contribution – drones advanced and provided covering fire, but did not draw any shots themselves. Fire warrior alpha advanced across open ground and closed on objective but not near enough after 5 turns. Beta held the objective and were out of range for the whole game, as no attempt was made to get SM infantry to our objective. Shasel killed 2 marines with missile pod fire but plasma rifle out of range. Then got taken out by land raider lascannon (instant death).

Lessons learned
Range! 24 and 30 inch range is not as far as you think! Bear this in mind for future deployments.

Instant death (if shot by weapon whose str is double your T, you die regardless of wounds!) – what to do about these blasted lascannons and similar weapons? I was in cover and got a 4+ invulnerable save which I failed (obviously). Lesson 1 – always give commander a drone! Will have to ignore this lesson for a while as I am currently using all 4 gun drones that I have! (see τ1 list).

I suppose the other lesson is take heavy support (broadsides etc.) and target tanks early in the game. However this seems a bit dull. Alternative: EMP grenades +3 pts per model (FW, PFind), glance on a 4 or 5, penetrate on a 6!

Tau Borkan List

HQ
Shas’El Borkan Quixo. Plasma rifle, Missile Pod, HW target lock, targeting array
50+20+12+5+10 = 97

Troop
Fire warrior alpha - 5 fire warriors, 1 shasla, bonded
50+20+5=75

Fire warrior beta - 5 fire warriors, 1 shasla, bonded
50+20+5=75

Fast Attack
Drone squadron - 4 gun drones
2 x 12 = 48

295