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First a little background. Back in the days of 4th edition I was admiring all the cool tau vehicle's, I wasn't a fan of the suit's, but I really liked the vehicles and the pathfinders and the fire warriors. So I set out to create a Tau army using those units. The thought was to build an explorer cadre, so I began modelling my fire warrior sergeants off of the tank commander model, giving them binoculars and range finders. So the basic premise of the list was that everything had to be vehicle mounted and/or a fast moving suit. Recently taking a break from all things chaos I've broken them out and am trying them out with the new fifth edition rules So here's the list I took for the game

HQ
Shas'el w/ missile pod, tl flamer, irridium armor, feel no pain

Elites
2 Crisis Suits w/ tl flamer, missile pods
2 Crisis Suits w/ tl flamer, missile pods
2 Crisis Suits w/ tl flamer, missile pods

Troops
6 Fire Warriors, Devilfish w/ sms, burst cannon, multi-tracker, disruption pods, targetting array
6 Fire Warriors, Devilfish w/ sms, burst cannon, multi-tracker, disruption pods, targetting array
6 Fire Warriors, Devilfish w/ sms, burst cannon, multi-tracker, disruption pods, targetting array

Fast Attack
2 Piranha w/ fusion blaster, target lock (1 with flechette and disruption pods)
2 Piranha w/ fusion blaster, target lock (1 with flechette and disruption pods)
4 Pathfinders, Devilfish w/ sms, burst cannon, multi-tracker, disruption pods, targetting array

Heavy Support
Hammerhead w/ rail gun, burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pods, target lock
Hammerhead w/ rail gun, burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pods, target lock
Hammerhead w/ ion cannon, burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pods

My opponent for the evening

Space Wolves
HQ
Rune Priest w/ jaws of the world wolf, lightning attack (d6 str7 power)

Elites
9 Wolf Guard w/ various toys, 1 cyclone (joined to a long fang squad), the rune priest dropped with this squad
5 Wolf Guard Terminators w/ various toys, 1 cyclone (joined to a long fang squad)

Troops
10 Grey Hunters, 2 melta, 1 power weapon, drop pod
10 Grey Hunters, 2 melta, 1 power weapon, drop pod
10 Grey Hunters, 2 melta, 1 power weapon, drop pod
10 Grey Hunters, 2 melta, 1 power weapon, drop pod

Heavy Support
6 Long Fangs, 3 missile launchers, 2 multi-melta's
6 Long Fangs, 3 missile launchers, 2 multi-melta's

The Table




Mission Type: Kill Points
Deployment Type: Spearhead

My Opponent won the role and decided to go first.

He deployed both long fangs squads in a building and called it good. If this had been a tournament game I would have reserved my entire army and left it up to reserve's roles to see who would have upper footing for the game. But I was curious if I could whether the fire power of the initial assault, and do enough damage to slow him down, I didn't really think so but I figured it was worth trying out. So I set up with devilfish in front to keep melta guns from hitting my hammerheads and castled up in the corner.




Space Wolves first turn: He chooses 3 grey hunter squads and the wolf guard squad.

Turn #1: Space Wolves
The wolves do the expected and drop in a line to cordone me off. First shot of the game 5 missile shots down my ion cannon hammer head. The rest of his shooting see's one of the pirahna squads destroyed, my far right devilfish immobilized and one other devilfish wrecked.
KP: Wolves: 3 Tau: 0



Turn #1: Tau
I then tank shock 2 other units, the far right unit fails it's leadership check and flees. I use my rail shots to shoot at drop pods. My plan is to shoot up the leftmost squad, try to pin the center squad and use drones to keep the third squad from closing in. I marker his center squad of wolf guard and get two hits, kill one with pulse carbines and force a pin check at -2 (which he passes on a roll of a 6). I snipe down one of the drop pods for an easy kill point, but only manage to kill 7 out of 10 guys from the leftmost squad.
KP Wolves: 2 Tau: 1

Turn #2 Space Wolves
He gets in his terminator squad. The rune priest leaves the wolf guard and goes and joines the termies. The 3 guys left move up and are able to melta my hammerhead, immobilizing it. His right squad of wolves have to fall back again, but are still within range to shoot up my drone screen, he melta's my devilfish immobilizing it, and then charges it and the drone, finishes off the devilfish in hth and remains locked with the drone.
KP Wolves: 4 Tau: 1

Turn #2: Tau
I snipe out another drop pod. Kill off the 3 man squad, but fail to do any real other damage to his army, lots of misses and what did hit was saved all except for a failed leadership check on the wolf guard which causes them to fall back. He kills off the drone and moves up.
KP Wolves: 5 Tau: 3

Turn #3: Space Wolves.
His last squad of grey hunters comes in. Because of me backing up to get away from oncoming wolves it's able to drop next to my last mobile devil fish. He shoots up some fire warriors that were protecting the hammerhead, blows up the immobilized hammerhead, and blows up the other hammerhead. His termies assault and destroy the piranha's on the left. His empty pods drop near his long fangs on the other side of the board. And his wolves that were running, go back and destroy the devilfish on the right hand side, that was immobilized on turn 1.
KP Wolves: 10 Tau: 3



Turn #3: Tau
I start pouring fire into the terminators. And shooting the squads near me, peeling off some guys here and there, but nothing great happens.
KP Wolves: 10 Tau: 3

Turn #4: Space Wolves
Terminators shoot the drones who are blocking them, they lose one member and run, leaving the terminators out to dry. The rest of his guy's advance up.
KP Wolves: 10 Tau: 3

Turn #4: Tau
I flame the terminators again and manage to kill off the rune priest. 12 fire warriors combine fire and finish off the last 2 terminators. My stuff continues to run along the left edge of the table.
KP Wolves: 10 Tau 5

Turn #5: Space Wolves
They continue to move up. Kill off 2 of the path finders and one of the crisis suit squads and the last drone squad.
KP Wolves: 12: Tau 5

Turn #5: Tau
I finish off the wolf guard with shooting. My command moves up and charges into an advancing grey hunter pack (it was down to 5 models, no power weapon/fist left).
KP Wolves: 12: Tau: 6



Turn #6: Space Wolves
He kills off another crisis team, and 2 of the pathfinders and downs my last devilfish.
KP Wolves: 14: Tau: 6

Turn #6: Tau
I continue to pepper the advancing gray hunters.
KP Wolves: 14: Tau: 6

Turn #7 Space Wolves
He kills off the pathfinders and a unit of fire warriors.
KP Wolves: 16: Tau: 6

Turn #7 Tau
I charge in with my crisis suits a blazing and lock down a grey hunter squad.
KP Wolves: 16: Tau: 6

And the game closes with my commander still locked in hth with the grey hunter's. My other two crisis suits locked in with 2 grey hunters. And 1 lone fire warrior hiding behind a building!

He has left
About 25 marines between long fangs, and what was left of the different grey hunter packs.

After action assessment: There weren't any huge luck swings during the game. We did notice that on average my opponent rolled a little above average and I was a bit below average (except with missile pods). I really miss not having any broadsides. I may have to scratch my initial army concept and make it more of a combined arm's force.

I'm not impressed with the suit load out I have at all. Initially they were put into the list to help me handle horde more than meq and to help pop av10-11. The missile pod's out of 12 shots a turn i was only averaging about 4 hits ( I would completely whiff with 4 shots, hit with odds on the other, and then get 1 to two more). Don't know if it was just the dice rolling, but they did absolutely nothing for me this game. Right now I'm pondering swapping them all out for fusion, and or just dropping suits and adding more piranha's to each squad. The fire warriors actually did okay, in the long run my 180 points of fire warriors, definitely killed their points worth of grey hunters. The pathfinder's were very substandard, After getting my whole 2 hits the first turn, I spent 2 turns with 1 hit, 1 turns with no hits, and 1 turn with 3 hits. The commander did his job which was to hold something up getting close to my lines, and the piranha's did alright.

Facing 70ish marines with 40 of them in your face on turn one was fairly impressive. I may have to go for the re-match so I can reserve everything and then see how things play out. The problem is I still don't think I could have killed enough stuff over the course of the game, but I could have drastically reduced the amount of my stuff he could have killed. I'm on the fence of keeping with the theme or dropping it to go more effective. If I keep the theme I think I need to drop crisis suits and add more piranha's in, if I ditch the theme in go the broadsides. Thanks for reading.

Warmaster wrote:I'm not impressed with the suit load out I have at all. Initially they were put into the list to help me handle horde more than meq and to help pop av10-11. The missile pod's out of 12 shots a turn i was only averaging about 4 hits ( I would completely whiff with 4 shots, hit with odds on the other, and then get 1 to two more). Don't know if it was just the dice rolling, but they did absolutely nothing for me this game. Right now I'm pondering swapping them all out for fusion, and or just dropping suits and adding more piranha's to each squad.

I agree, I like the idea of MP/flamer, but I think the missile pod should be twin-linked, not the flamer (since it's just a backup weapon, not one you'll be using for most of the game).

I got a LOT of feedback (especially from the 40k army lists board here) to take deathrains (twin-linked missile pod suits) but mine served me really well with plasma rifle-missile pod. The AP3 is invaluable against MEQ armies! Cover saves are a problem, but when they're in the open... bam, bam, bam!

I like your list as a whole, but the broadsides would really help (even though it would break with the theme a little). Giving them advanced stabilization systems would mean they're sort of moving along with the rest of your fast army... right?

Twin-linked flamers on squads of crisis suits from what I've seen does not work very well, simply because of armor saves. Denying those saves with plasma rifles and fusion blasters assure you deaths rather than simply hoping your opponent fails the armor saves.

Overall an interesting battle report. The table looked like it was an odd size. Was it 6'X4' or something else? It might just be the angle of the pictures.

You might want to look into rail rifles for your pathfinders as well. Throughout the game they normally give a couple of kills for me. S6 AP3 is a nice weapon to have even though it takes away a markerlight. Still I've been getting fed up with my pathfinders lately.

great report your at a bit of a disadvantage vs SW's which sucks. Drop Pod assault armys are brutal!

Nice report, thanks. Getting 4+ drop pods in your face on turn 1 makes for a tough go of things definately.

Any chance you could've deployed with a long screen of infantry to foil his chances of getting melta shots in the first turn?

Were you using disruption pods to get cover saves from his missile launchers? If so, how did they work out?

If you were fielding an all-comers Tau list, what changes do you think you will make to include SW and Daemons as fairly regular opponents?

- Blackbone

Very interesting report

I've only ever played Space Marines once with my mech Tau and it was Dark Templar. Anyway, I had 3 Broadsides and 3 MP/PG suits and the AP1/2 were really nice in keeping the termies away

Rapid firing plasma guns are probably mandatory vs marines.

Good report, that many SM drop pods smashing down early doors is going to be hard to deal with for any army other than some huge inf horde.

Was out of the loop for the weekend on vacation but some comments back.

@RiTides: I agree the single missile pod just isn't doing enough damage. Maybe it starts to shine against rhino rush's, and ton's of land speeders.

@rogueeyes: My original theory for the flamers on the crisis suits is as follows. Put flechettes on devil fish's park suits behind devilfish. Let someone assault the front of the devilfish then jump up and flame them, kind of like a modified fish of fury. The problem is that you can't easily hide suits behind devilfish, people can almost always see some part of the model and then shoot them. So while the tactic looked good on paper I don't think it's working out on the battlefield. The table was 6x4 I was trying to take pictures down the long edge to catch more of the table.

@Blackbone: I don't really have enough infantry to provide that sort of a screen. However in the other, bit more static list I'm tooling around with, there is a huge squad of kroot and hounds (around 20) just for that purpose. I think for an all mech list the best drop pod list is just staying off the table and risking the reserves roles. At least for Tau. I think Eldar could get away with starting on the table and then just zipping away from the bad guys.

The disruption pods are worth every bit of their 5 points . I don't think I would ever field a devilfish or hammerhead without one and put them on every other piranha in a vehicle squad.

I think for a good all comers list you really need at least 1 three man unit of broadsides, but I'm thinking for a true all comers list you need 6, and I really like the multi-tracker, plasma rifle suits. 9 ap2 shots at 12 inch's all twin linked will make a lot of people pause I think. And if running with the broadsides I feel like an ethereal is almost mandatory for re-rolls and to make one of the units fearless.

I thought battles were only lasted for 5 turns.

5-7 in most cases it is based on a dice roll.

Shad0w wrote:I thought battles were only lasted for 5 turns.

All of the standard missions in the rulebook are variable length games. They go a minimum of 5 turns. At the end of the 5th turn you roll a d6 and on a 3+ you play another round. At the end of the 6th turn you roll again and on a 4+ you play another round. The standard game does not go more than 7 turns.

I would play without the Ethereal. Fearless is overrated for them, and if he dies then everything on the table is falling back. The Broadsides are already going to be a target - why make them more so? 3 Broadsides and 2 shield drones in cover should be good enough.

If you want your army better, you NEED good suits. ATM your suits suck, flamer range is where they should NEVER be, that means they can get assaulted and die. MP + PR or MP + MP is the best way you could support your army IMHO.

NT on the game though...

this is a 40k game...
in the whfb battle report section...
am I the only one who noticed this?

nice batrep.

I agree with previous posters on the suits. alot of people I play with are MEQ, so I have alot of anti-armor weapons. Maybe drop one of your fw squads or something to max out your battlesuits because those will be the thing that kill the most marines. A 3 man squad w/ plasma rifles have 6 shots, which without twn linke will hit at least 3 marines. This means 3 dead marines because of the 2+ wound. With a multitracker you have more kills. Suits are worth it in the long run

BIBBI wrote:this is a 40k game...
in the whfb battle report section...
am I the only one who noticed this?

When I posted a battle rep in the wrong forum, I got next to no replies on the battle at all. Just 4 or 5 people telling me I was in the wrong place. I was a bit confused too when I was reading this one!

Actually I don't know how I did it, but my post exists in both the Warhammer Fantasy Battle Reports and the Warhammer 40k Battle reports, it even eventually sinks up the comments from both sides, so somehow it exists it both.