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Yo, so I decided a few days ago that I would write a report of my next game using my mech IG army and had planned to have pictures and all sorts but forgetting my camera was not part of the plan *doh*. Anyway I will try my best to describe the action!

My opponent was playing Tau, and both of us were pretty rusty with 5th edition still (Im a recent fantasy convert after a 2-3 year gap since playing 40k seriously). My list was one I decided to try out and was as follows:

CCS-4 flamers, chimera

Inquisitor with 2 mystics

vet squad-3 meltas, chimera
vet squad-3 meltas, chimera
vet squad-2 meltas, chimera
vet squad-3 plasma guns, chimera

vendetta

demolisher and executioner squadron
hydra
medusa,enclosed crew compartment, siege shells.

His list was roughly:

Shas'o missiles + other guns+drones

2x2 crisis suits, missiles, plasma and some fusion guns on the 2nd squad+drones

3x12 firewarriors with 1 devilfish, 1 was on foot and hid in cover all game far away!
15 kroot and 4-5 dogs or something

6 pathfinders with devilfish(2nd squad of firewarriors used this)

2 broadsides with shield drones
hammerhead with railgun
hammerhead with railgun

So quite a small army, but pretty fast and 4 railguns a turn were always scary (I forgot how good markerlights are until this game).

We rolled for mission, got kill points (sigh..), pitched battle deployment but I did win the roll off to go first..at least my chimeras would get a chance to pop smoke!

The terrain was quite heavy, with ruins dominating my left flank, some woods and a control tower just infront of my central deployment and some more woods to the right. This meant my tanks would have to split up and could get stuck in chokepoints if care wasn't taken. I decided to weight my right flank of all my chimeras with leman russes protecting their left side, and hydra, medusa and vendetta behind the russes. My general plan was to use the russes/medusa as a pivot and my chims would sweep round clearing his right side then moving to the left. Since my centre had some pretty heavy terrain I was quite confident my 4 tanks in the middle could absorb alot of fire and hold on while my chimeras did the job. I also decided to not outflank the vendetta because I was hoping I could get a suicide vet squad onto either his broadsides or hammerheads early and at least get them shaken while I got across the board. The inq deployed just behind the vacant vet chimera ready to embark and zoom off.

The Taus deployment was as I expected, with him quite spread out so I would have to split my force or only end up with a chance to kill 1/2 of his force. The firewarriors started disembarked, kroot infiltrated on my left flank in some ruins (damn kroot...), 1 unit of crisis suits with his HQ behind a hill and the other crisis suits in reserve for deep striking purposes. The broadsides and hammerheads were all quite well hidden in cover. My vendetta zoomed foward with its scout move right towards the broadside squad.

IG 1st turn: My vendetta continued its charge across the board and my melta squad got out right infront of the broadsides with some ruins in the way...I was going to eat alot of rapid fire pulse rifles after but there was a plan! All the chimeras roared at max speed using their smoke launchers, the russes also lumbered foward 6 to get in demolisher range while the medusa and hydra stayed hunkered down in terrain. The melta gun vet squad opened up on the broadsides, killing 1, with the shield drone and cover protecting the 2nd. The demolisher and executioner also decided to finish him off (there were some firewarriors also very close in that forest so they would likely be hit too.) The demolisher and 2 plasma cannon shots hit, but I couldn't kill him however 5 fire warriors perished. The hydra stunned 1 devilfish that was near my chimeras (the other was miles away behind a wood) I was hoping this would leave the firewarriors stranded for next turn. The medusa landed a siege shell right ontop of a hammerhead but the disruption pod did its job. Finally the vendetta shot a cheeky lascannon which was also cover saved. Not really the best start..but at least 1/2 the broadsides were down and both fire warrior squads looked in trouble.

Tau 1st turn: The firewarriors near the stunned devilfish tried to get behind it/embark but failed miserably, rolling a double 1 for difficult terrain. The other squad moved to the edge of the woods ready to rapid fire my vendetta vet squad. The crisis + hq unit got ready to JSJ on the hill infront of my vendetta. 1st of all he markerlighted up my leman russ squad and got 5 hits (gulp), then he rapid fired his 6-7 firewarrior squad on the vet squad..I went to ground but still lost 6 and ended up falling back. He opened up with both hammerheads on the leman russes, with him reducing my cover save to 0 and increasing their BS both to 5 (jeez..). Luckily only 1 glanced but he still got the 6 he required and destroyed the demolisher. The other broadside fired at the chimera with the inquisitor in and immobilsed it. The crisis suits unloaded on the vendetta but luckily for me failed to do anything. I had stupidly left my medusas side armour exposed to the infiltrating kroot squad and they stunned it (thank god for armoured crew compartment..jeez).


IG 2nd turn: I was gutted I had forgotten to pivot my medusa to face the kroot but heh ho I wouldn't make that mistake again ! Anyway the chimeras moved foward 6 this time, ready to shoot the firewarriors, the executioner moved another 6 trying to get away from that pathfinder squad (the range for his markerlights was very close). The vendetta moved foward 6 right in the hammerheads face so I could ignore the disruption pods. My vet squad was rallied by the HQ order (woot, go orders). The firewarriors right next to the devilfish were blown away by 5 multilasers, 3 plasmas and 5 meltas and the hydra managed to stun his devilfish again =P. The broadside was melted by the executioner, and finally the vendetta did an awesome job and blew the hammerhead apart, RESULT!.

Tau 2nd turn: His crisis suits deep striked in just out of range of my mystics (curses) but in range to fusion gun the rear armour of my executioner..oh crap. He JSJ his other crisis suits again (this is a reoccuring theme by the way!), everything else stayed in cover. Unfortunately his marker lights were just in range still and he got 5 more hits..he then proceeded to blow the executioner up with the fusion guns alone. The hammerhead shot at the medusa but luckily it was saved by cover. The vendetta wasnt so lucky this time and went down to a hail of missiles (I probably should have run it away but I guess it got a railgun :/). The kroot failed this turn to do anything to the medusa thank god.

IG 3rd turn: It was time to show the Tau how nasty melta guns are this turn I thought, moving the previously rallied vets into range of his deep striked crisis suits, 1 chimera with meltas next to the stunned devil fish, another chimera near his other devilfish that was floating around too close for its own good, and finally the command flamer squad tried to go through some ruins to line up a nice shot on the other firewarrior squad but immoblised itself (doh.) The medusa opened fire on the other hammerhead, hitting it perfectly and destroying it in 1 shot (suck on that stupid disruption pods). Both devilfishes died, as did the crisis suits near the melta vets. The other firewarrior squad came under intense multilaser fire again but went to ground and only a few died.

Tau 3rd turn: Things were looking bad for the Tau army but alot of his army was still on the other side of the board from my chimeras now so it could be a long last few turns for me. He JSJ again with his crisis suit unit destroying my medusa, the markerlights doing the job again. Everything else had either gone to ground or couldnt hurt anything.

IG 4th turn: At this point I was 3-4 kill points up and decided It would probably be better for me to keep the chimeras hidden and in cover far away from those markerlights than try and catch the damn crisis suit unit leaving me exposed to their fire. My vet squad on foot that was still alive got ordered into the forest, ready to go to ground if need be. The hydra was the only thing in range and killed 2 pathfinders, unfortunately not breaking them. The remaining firewarriors who were in the forest got blitzed by 5 chimeras again, wiping them out.

Tau 4th turn: The crisis suits JSJ and killed a chimera even with a cover save..doh. This spilled their squad out who then got shot to pieces by the remaining firewarriors who had been hiding all game, they fled and never rallied even with orders =(.

IG 5th turn: I plinked away with the hydra at the pathfinders taking them down to 1, but they still refused to run.

Tau 5th turn: JSJ luckily did nothing this turn. The kroot were trying to be sneaky and get into the side armour of my hydra but were still out of range after moving.

We rolled to see if the game ended, but it didn't..curses!

IG 6th turn: My hydra finished off the pathfinders with 1 autocannon after moving away from the kroot.

Tau 6th turn: JSJ again killed a chimera...

And the game ended there, which was good for me because those crisis suits were starting to annoy me =p!.

Overall in kill points I got 9 kill points he scored 6 I think, was quite close but I got the win. Phew.

Was a very fun game, my 2nd and 3rd turn sort of decided the outcome of the game taking out all the railguns since they were his main armour killers.

Thoughts on my list:
-I need some sort of indirect fire to sort out units like that crisis suit JSJ b*llocks, or perhaps some more vendettas?
-The medusa was facing the chop, but proved itself very useful this game taking out a hammerhead and forcing the other to pass a coversave or almost certainly eat a pen hit on the 1st turn. My opponent generally had to shoot it quite a bit before it finally died. It is a bit lacklustre after the tank targets are down though.
-1 vendetta is sort of meh but I can't fit another in without dropping something.
-Flamers are alright but I really miss the melta guns on the command squad..not sure if I should keep them or not.
-I NEED more hydras somehow!

Lessons learnt:
-Pathfinders must die first...markerlights are one of the best things in the game right now.
-I forgot how annoying JSJ is.
-I need a way to deal with forces which spread out like this..not sure if I should split my chimeras up to deal with it or end up facing the prospect of only getting a few killpoints while some of my chimeras are picked off and end up losing..hm

My next list is going to try something like this:

CCS-Meltas
2xvets meltas
Infantry platoon-flamer command 2xinfantry squad with flamers
inq with mystics
5 chimeras
2 vendettas
2 hydras
medusa
executioner

I want to try dropping the demolisher (which is sad but it just is so short range), for a hydra and a vendetta-the 2 infantry squads sit in the 2 vendettas and claim objectives or flame/rapid fire a squad in desperation or I can put my 2 vets in there depending on what is needed, the chimeras go to the CCS/inq/PCS and 2 squads of vets or infantry again depending on what is needed. Thoughts?

Thanks for reading and I hoped you found the report entertaining...with some luck I should do some more of these and Ill remember my camera next time! Any discussion about the lists or what I could do better are very welcome, as are if I played any rules wrong!

Looks like it was a fun game, Tau can be a tough nut if they play well.

Your list looks solid, but i'm not certain if I would drop down to only one AV14 tank, it will be drawing a lot of fire and probably will not get to live long. Personally I would keep the LRD.

Yes, definitely keep the dem. It did a wonderful job in your game doing its most important job.

Diverting fire away from your chimeras!

He could have totally hosed you by focusing all those S10 railguns and fusion blasters on your chimeras and wiping out your transporation, but he could not afford to do that because he simply cant ignore those big tanks.

I find that Vendettas work Much better with more than one so my recomendation would be to replace the Medusa either another Vendetta or two more Hydras. But thats a style thing as Im not a fan of the Medusa personally but I dont dispute its effectivness.

I have been playing wiht the Flamer Infantry platoon as well and the PCS with 4x Flamer in chimera has been very effective. The flexibility to alter your deployment and who rides in the vendettas depending on opponent and mission is also very helpful.

Thanks guys for the comments.

I definately think Tau are going to be one of the hardest lists to play with mech IG..we had a rematch today and I got beaten this time.

I ran:

CCS w/meltas
Inq w/mystics
2xvets w/meltas
PCS w/flamers
2x IS w/flamers
6xchimeras
2xvendettas
executioner
demolisher
hydra

He had a similar list but dropped the a unit of firewarriors and some stuff for more crisis suits. Lack of barrage hurt quite a bit, but the demolisher + executioner kept me in the game I guess =/. He did exactly as you said bigtmac68 and wrecked my chims very quickly leaving me only able to try and take out his hammerheads with vendettas and demolisher cannon which proved too difficult

I like the list though, like I said I miss the option of indirect fire and the extra hydra would be really handy but the list is quite balanced in all areas and has some decent mobility.

The flexibility with 2 vendettas indeed was excellent, I had both infantry squads in them all game pretty much hoping to get a 2nd last/last turn objective grab. I wonder if 1 vendetta, 1 valk would be better but I probably need the lascannons more.

Against Tau I would go with what you did the first time, put melta squads in the valks and go right for his railguns. between the vendettas the Executioner and the vets you shold be able to finish off his railguns quickly, while the demolisher, hydra and your troops put all its effort into killing his pathfinders. If you take out his railguns and pathfinders early, you have him, if you dont you will probably loose.

Mech Tau vs MechVet IG is a pretty even match and will come down to who has better target priority and the luck of the die. Tau have answers to all our tricks but they share almost all of our weaknesses.

Yeah I probably would have done that, problem was I lost the roll to go first and was worried about the vendettas being shot down in the 1st turn so I put them both in reserve..might have been a mistake since I got them both 3rd turn which meant I lost a bit of firepower.

Would you squad up the leman russes or leave them seperate? I've tried both ways I do like squadding up to protect the executioner and also gives me something to blow away any deep strikers-but of course means my executioner has to advance otherwise demolisher cant fire :/, and obviously immobilised is dead.

When playing tau as guard you have to be as aggressive as possible. And if he is shooting at your cover saved Vendettas on turn one then those chimeras are advancing in the clear , win/win. If you loose both Vendetta's to a destroyed result and loose both squads you have lost the game, but the odds of that are very low, and if he does not then you are already in control of the temp and pacing of the game.

At 1500 points you just cant afford to be without 1/5 of your army for one third of the game. Use your scout move to rattle him. that 4+ cover save gives you a better chance than bringin them in two turns after he has rail gunned all your chimeras into oblivion.

As for the squadroning of the russes, well I go back and forth on that. I have tried both and there are advantages to both. In general though I prefer going separate I think, but it is a very very close thing that depends on your playstyle.

Moving the tanks is no big deal due to lumbering behemoth, all you loose is one plasma template from your executioner.

Yeah thats true, those lascannons could have helped or at least getting the vets right up next to him on the 1st turn. Do you get the going fast cover save because of the scout move? I thought you only got it for moving during the actual game turns o_o.

I don't actually use sponsors on my leman russes, 1st of all they are a lot of points and 2nd of all I move them alot + keep them 1/2 in cover so always end losing at least one of them :/.

I am still going back and forth on the demolisher, its a very nice tank but the range is putting me off in favour of a manticore.