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.

Kilted_Cleric (Collin) and I (Jim) played another battle with his Tau, this time against my Space Wolfies. This time, we both knew several days in advance the army the other chap would be playing..

Collin's Tau Exploratory Force.

HQ:
Shas O with Cyclic Ion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Drone controller, 2x shield drone, multi-tracker: 134 pts -ish

Elites:
Shas’vre Crisis Suit with Missile Pod, Burst cannon, Multi Tracker, Drone Controller, 2xShield Drone= 90pts

Shas’vre with Missle Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multi Tracker, Drone Controller, 2xShield Drone=102

Stealth Team
5xShas’ui 2 with fusion blaster, 1xShasvre with Marker Light=207

Troops x2

5x Shas’la fire warriors, 1x shas’ui with marker light, hardwire target lock and bonding knife= 75

Dedicated Devil Fish with targeting array, disruption pod,, multi-tracker, decoy launcher=105


5x Shas’la fire warriors, 1x shas’ui with marker light, hardwire target lock and bonding knife= 75

Dedicated Devil Fish with targeting array, disruption pod,, multi-tracker, decoy launcher=105

11 Firewarriors, 1x shas’ui with marker light, hardwire target lock and bonding knife=

Heavy

Broadside team (2) with Drone controller and 2xshield drones= 200

Sniper Drone Team=80 points

Hammerhead Gunship with Railgun, SMS, Disruption Pod, Target Lock, Multi-tracker=180

Total=1503 (point costs guesstimated at the moment)

Jim's Get of Freki -

HQ -
Rune Priest - (no wargear), Living Lightning, Storm Caller - 100

Elites -

Dreadnaught Hrolf - MultiMelta, PF, HF riding in a drop pod with Storm Bolter - 150

Wolf Guard - 4 WG in a Assault Cannon Razorback - 176
(plus 1 WG separate riding with the Swiftclaw pack)

Troops -
9 Grey Hunters, 1 Plasma Gun, 1 PF/bolter, 1 Bolter/Mark of Wulfen, 6 basic Grey Hunters in Rhino - 205

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Meltaguns, 1 PF/Bolter, 1 Mark of Wulfen, 6 basic GH in a Drop Pod with Storm Bolter - 230

10 Grey Hunters, 2 Meltaguns, 1 PF/Bolter, 1 Mark of Wulfen, 6 basic GH in a Drop Pod with Storm Bolter - 230

Fast Attack -
SwiftClaw Bikers - 3 basic Swiftclaws, 1 Attack Bike with MultiMelta, 1 Wolf Guard Biker with Thunderhammer - 213

SkyClaw Pack - 4 Bloodclaws (BP,CCW), 1 BP/Pfist, 1 PlasmaGun - 148

Landspeeder - MultiMelta - 60

Total - 1512

Army gallery here..
http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/images-6274-5767_Get%20Of%20Freki%20%28space%20Wolves%29.html

I was a smidge over, but it was workable. We set up our board to resemble an industrial warehouse district.. a fair amount of cratering. We agreed that the craters were difficult ground, and would provide 4+ cover saves to models in them.

Mission - Seize Ground - (5 objectives, represented by Abraham Lincoln iconograpy.. ie pennies)
Deployment - Dawn of War

I won the roll for first turn. Hmm..I decide not to deploy anything. Collin places his 12 man Firewarrior team in a ruined building, smack on top of one of the objectives!
Western side of the battlefield, with Firewarriors camping out


Eastern side, looking empty of enemies!



Collin decided to attempt to Seize Initiative.. and SUCCEEDS!!!! Whoops of excitement ring out..



Tau Turn 1

Tau Team Leader decides to send just the Sniper Team and the Broadsides onto the board at this point. He is sure that the SW will be droppodding onto his forces, and wants to keep his heavier tanks and troops in reserve.

Sniper team heads into the crater, and the Broadsides walk on 5 inches, and lock their legs in anticipation of targets arriving.

end of turn


Space Wolf Turn 1

The Landspeeder and Skyclaws come into the board on the eastern side, using one of the warehouses to stay hidden from Tau gunsights. Tau Commander taunts them, making clucking sounds. (grin)

Thanks to Drop Pod Assault, 1 of the 3 pods I have comes down.. I chose a Grey Hunter squad, keeping Dread Hrolf in orbit until a Hammerhead should appear. Pod was placed close to the broadsides so that the Suits were between the pod and the edge, in case of drift.. but the Pod headed over to the crater, just stopping short of the huge divot. Doors drop down, Grey Hunters emerge, and rapid fire into the broadsides.



After the less than thrilling shooting phase, 1 of the Shield Drones disintegrates, and a Broadside takes a wound.

end of turn
Tau Turn 2

Rolling for reserves, Tau Collin gets his Hammerhead, both Devilfish, and one Crisis Suit. Crud.

The Devilfish come in on the far corners of the board, ready to do a pincher movement, maybe... and the Hammerhead glides in behind a warehouse. The Crisis Suit deep strikes into the open court in the center of the board, ready to Jump, Shoot, Jump next turn



Tau shooting phase is REALLY statistically lousy. The Hammerhead fired subminutions into the GH, and either failed to wound or I made just about every armor save. 1 single Casualty. The Broadsides fired their TL Railguns into the Drop Pod.. and either missed, or on the 1 that did hit, rolled a 1 on the Armor Penetration check. Sniper Team fired into the GH.. and did nothing. Sniper team gets mocked from the FW squad in the ruined building, but they ALSO fail to kill a single GH.


Space Wolves Turn 2

Reserves... I get the Rhino of Grey Hunters and Rune Priest, and the Dread in Drop Pod.. ooookay..

Drop Pod dread goes in front of the eastern Broadside, and drifts towards the Hammerhead! Woot!..Dread gets out with a clean shot on the Hammerhead side armor.. The Tau send up a chant of "Evil! Evil!".. The Rhino trundles on the board heading for the objective and co-incidentally near that lone Crisis Suit standing in the open. The Grey Hunters in the Tau Backfield scootch a bit closer to the Broadsides, reading their bolters, whilst the Skyclaws hop around the Warehouse sensing Crisis doggie snacks.. the Landspeeder wends its way into the warehouses, and gets a bead on the Devilfish in the NE corner..





Shooting for the Wolves was interesting.. the Grey Hunters managed to remove the last shield drone and the wounded Broadside using only Bolt Pistols (and the Meltaguns... lol) . Hrolf the Dread failed to hit the broad side of the Railhead (Hang your head in SHAME!)!

The Rune Priest summoned Living Lightning to destroy a Shield Drone on the lone Crisis Suit, with the SkyClaws picking off the other with Bolt Pistol fire. Plasma Gunner in the Rhino managed to hit, but not wound the Suit. The Drop Pod Stormbolter in the GH Pod accounted for a destroyed Sniper Drone.

The Landspeeder lines up a shot on the Devilfish, and immobilizes it on the edge of the board!

Assault Phase... the Skyclaws pile into that drone-less Crisis Suit.. and pull it down with no losses themselves!



They then consolidate towards the Devilfish to assist the Landspeeder.



and the Grey Hunters assault the remaining Broadside which crumples like tinfoil! They consolidate towards the Hammerhead to assist with Melta-ing it into junk..



Tau Turn 3

Tau Commander decides to show up in person, as well as the other Crisis Suit.. Stealth team continues to slack off. Commander Deep Strikes into the center of the open space, close to the Blood Claws, whereas the Crisis suit comes in over by the FW team in the ruins.

The NW Devilfish moves 12 inches up.. and the Hammerhead slides sideways 6 inches away from Hrolf... and the 6 man Fire Warrior squad disembarks from their immobilized Fish.. and start walking towards the objective that the LS is guarding.

Western side


Eastern Side


Tau Shooting-
The Hammerhead manages to Stun and Shake poor Hrolf.. no moving and shooting for you! The FireWarriors in the ruin manage to kill another Grey Hunter. The Crisis Suit attempts to destroy the Drop Pod, and manages to do nothing except scratch the paint.

The immobilized Devilfish manages to Stun the driver of the Landspeeder, but the FW with their Pulse Rifles totally wreck it. Tau Commander brings the Cyclic Ion Blaster online.. and fails to kill a single Skyclaw. His Plasma Rifle does account for 1 of them though..

Oh.. the Sniper Team in the crater? They miss again.

Assault phase -
Tau Commander jumps backwards 6 inches to put some distance between him and the Skyclaws, and the Crisis Suit gets closer to the Grey Hunters.

Space Wolf Turn 3

Swiftclaw Bikers and the Wolf Guard arrive.. Bikers turboboosting onto the board, getting ready to head around the corner and tackle the Devilfish in the west. The Razorback trundles on and locks the TL Assault Cannons on Tau Commander. Hrolf the Dread contemplates the Railgun with calmness, confident that the Tau couldn't hit him. The Grey Hunters slide past Hrolf, and heft meltaguns. The Skyclaws prove to Tau Commander that 6 inches is not enough to get him away... and land ready to assault. The GH Rhino parks on top of an objective.



SW Shooting-
The Skyclaws and the Plasma Gunner in the Rhino take the drones off the Commander. The Melta guns ALSO miss the Hammerhead (mega sigh). The Razorback targets, and kills, Tau Commander with well placed Assault Cannon rounds. And.. once more, the 2 Drop Pod stormbolters manage to kill Sniper Drones, leaving the Spotter alone with his pistol.. contemplating ending it all.

Assault phase.. none! All targets dead!

Tau Turn 4

Once again, the Stealth Team, realizing that things are not going well, fail to answer the call to duty.

The Crisis Suit jumps over the building, to target the Swiftclaws, the Firewarriors in the NE continue to advance to the objective, and the Hammerhead slides around the warehouse to support the FW. The NW Devilfish moves a bit, and the Firewarriors inside hop out.



Tau Shooting-
The Hammerhead cannot see anything, and the FW in the NE can't either. The Spotter of the Sniper team, takes a pistol shot at the GH, with no effect. The Crisis Suit, the 12 man FW squad in the ruins, the Devilfish and the 6 man FW Squad ALL shoot at the Swiftclaw bikers, and the turboboost 3++ saves biker bacon.. no casualties.

Assault Phase - The Crisis Suit jumps behind a warehouse

Space Wolf Turn 4

Reserves.. I get the last Grey Hunter in a Drop Pod squad! The Fish + 6 man FW squad looks tasty, so I drop the pod that way.. and get a great Scatter roll for placement.

The GH Hop out of the pod, as the Swiftclaws come around the corner..



The Skyclaws move back towards the Hammerhead, landing on top of the Warehouse, in a good position to assault later in the turn.



The GH in the Rhino stay put, as does the Razorback and the backfield GH move into the crater to assault the poor Spotter... Hrolf the Dread runs around the back of the Warehouse and gets a good bead on the rear hatch of the Hammerhead.

SW Shooting -

Hrolf manages to punch a shot in and immobilize the Hammerhead!

The Skyclaws fail to injure the Hammerhead with their Plasma gun, so.. down to the assault phase for them. The GH and Drop Pods shoot the Spotter down before assault can happen..

Over in the west, the Swiftclaw Attack Bike shoots the Devilfish and Melta's it into an incadescent fury! When it goes critical, 3 of the GH have perished as well as 3 of the Fire Warriors from inside it. The remaining 3 Fire Warriors don't have a lot of time to bemoan their comrade's fate, as the GH rapid fire them into oblivion..



Assault Phase.. the Skyclaws assault the Hammerhead and FAIL to get there by an inch! Aarrrg. The GH feel lost in the crater..

Tau Turn 5

The Tau Commanders eternal spirit sends the Stealth team in (Go Avenge Me!).. and they Deep Strike behind the GH Rhino in the SW south.

The NE set of Firewarriors advance further to the objective in front of the Hammerhead.

The Crisis Suit hops on top of the warehouse and targets the Bikers.

Tau Shooting -
The Crisis Suit manages to kill 2 of the Swiftclaws with plasma and missiles, and the Firewarriors in the ruins eliminate another Grey Hunter in the Pod. The Firewarriors in the NW, double tap and rapid fire death into the Skyclaws, claiming 3. The Hammerhead swings it's Railgun around and fires into the ground at Hrolf's feet, while Smart Missiles patter like rain from the Dread's armour. The Skyclaws fail their Morale, and retreat!

The Stealth Suit fusion guns make short work of the Rhino, wrecking it, and the GH disembark.

Assault, the Crisis Suit jumps off the warehouse, and the Stealth Suits move a bit back to the back line of the Wolves.



Space Wolf Turn 5

Thanks to Knowing No Fear, the Skyclaws regroup themselves. The Swiftclaws turn and chase after the Crisis Suit, but fail to get close enough for a future assault. The Grey Hunters continue to pick their way thru the crater, while their compatriots move right up to the ruin! In the backfield, the Hunters reside in their Rhino wreakage. Hrolf advances upon the hapless Hammerhead.

Shooting -
The Drop Pods, the crater GH, and the other GH squad outside the ruins, all fire into the FW inside.. killing 7 of them, and they break and run! The Swiftclaws manage to put a wound on the Crisis Suit with bolter fire, and the GH and Razorback combine with the Rune Lord's Living Lightning to eliminate 3 of the Stealth Suits.

Hrolf fires again, and blows the Railgun turret off the Hammerhead! (cheers!)

No assaults at this point.

Collin rolls to see if this is Game Over.. but no.. we continue at least one more turn.

Tau Turn 6

The Crisis suit flanks the Swiftclaws, and the Stealth Suits don't move. The Fire Warriors regroup at the edge of the ruins, and the other FW squad claims the NE objective!

Shooting -
The Stealth Suits manage to kill another Grey Hunter off the Rhino, and the Crisis Suit puts a wound on the Attack Bike. The FW rapid fire into the Skyclaws, but fail to kill them. The Hammerhead swivels it's SMS system, and blasts Hrolf.. this time penetrating his defences and wrecking him! (Poor Hrolf... we can rebuild him.. we have the technology).



Assault - the Crisis suit moves away from the bikers, and the Stealth suits slide 6 inches further away from the GH Rhino wreck.

Space Wolf Turn 6

The Grey Hunters from the Pod manage to advance into the ruin and secure the objective. The GH in the crater STILL slog towards the ruins. I forget to move the Skyclaws.. (they are out of my field of vision, but.. no excuse!) .. The Swiftclaws catch up to the Crisis Suit again!



Shooting - The Swiftclaws eliminate the Crisis Suit finally! The 2 GH squads and the Drop Pods knock the Fire Warrior squad down to 2 models.



The Rhino GH and the Rune Priest reduce the Stealth Suits to one model..



Assault - None really, thanks to forgetting about the Skyclaws.. and the GH shooting their bolters instead of bolt pistols.

Collin defers to me for the "end of game" dice roll.. and we play the 7th Turn!

Tau Turn 7

This turn is about taking as many SW down as possible..

The Stealth Suit moves slightly away from the GH rhino, the FW camp on the objective in the NE, and the 2 firewarriors in the ruin take cover and prepare to perish for the Greater Good.

Shooting -

The FW in the ruin rapid fire into the GH squad sharing the ruin with them, and kill one. The other FW squad, along with the Hammerhead SMS system eliminate the Skyclaws..

Space Wolf Turn 7

No real movement other than the Swiftclaw pack turboboosting to get a SLIGHT chance of contesting the objectve with the FW.. but they are not close enough. (Attack Bike ends 5 inches away)



The Drop Pods of all things are the unit that eliminates the Fire Warriors in the ruins..



and the Rune Priest's Living Lightning short circuits the last Stealth Suit.

Game Over

Post game discussion

Oh good lord.. we BOTH had some serious dice pain in this game. Tons of shots, tons of missing.. I did get the better luck though.. almost all my early armor saves were perfect. The Tau seem to not be able to hit big metal boxes that were right in front of them..

I am not sure why he Deep Striked 2 lone units smack into several lanes of fire .. I did ask if he was sure he wanted them there, and .. he did. Hopefully he will come in and comment his thinking.

My biggest performer this game probably had to be the Grey Hunters.. took a huge amount of fire and had great armor saves... my underperforming unit was the Razorback with WG inside.. never really got to use them.. and the majority of hits dealt by the Assault Cannon were saved.

I think I would nominate the Tau Sniper Team as the worst performer on his side of the table.. not sure of the best at this point..

Anyhow, comments welcome.. and any glaring rules issues too..

-Porkuslime

Not obvious why he would want to sieze the initiative in the first turn.

Yeah, seizing in this match seems like a silly choice. As is shooting his broadsides at the POD and not the angry marines standing next to them. The Tau player didn't play very well overall.

Good report though

double post ready below \/

No offence to your friend but lone crisis suits are a recipe for disaster.

interesting lists overall

A hate to say this but 2 of your drop pods should have come in at the start, its 1/2 rounding up so 3/2 = 2 when rounded up
oops sorry double posted

Hey, I seen that before!

I would like to thank Collin and Jim for inviting me to sit in and watch as the battle commence. As I haven't played in over eight years, lots of things came rushing back to me. I often interrupted play to ask questions or make some inane comment and they were both very patient with me. I hope one day that my Space Marines be one of Jim's victims!

Being the Tau commander in question I have to say a couple of things:
1. This was my second outing with the army, the first time I would have been tabled had I not conceded so holding one objective was a serious victory for Hunter Cadre Kant'win'a'match
2. Due to lack of models I made a tactical decision to make independent crisis suit teams, this was a bad choice and will hopefully be remedied before the next time we play.
3. I really should have brought an ionhead
4. was trying out a new load out with my shas' still not sure what I am going to do with him.
5. Jim is terrified of stealth teams for some reason, so I will continue to bring them if they would only get up off their keisters.
6. I am not sure why I dropped my suits where I did, I blame to much caffeine and my brain being preoccupied with the release of Mass Effect 2.
7. I will soon be melting my dice down and burying them in a pit consecrated by a young priest and an old priest sealing their unholy aura far away from an innocent world that needs better luck.

Over all though I was pretty pleased with the way my Tau held up and I am going to be making adjustments to my list for the next time I face Jim and his rabid, drooling space puppies.

My one real question is: How was the SMS on the Hammerhead able to get shots on the Dreadnought's rear armor?

As far as Crisis suits go, I really need to write an Article about this, but since I haven't, here's some basic advice:
- You have tons of S5 AP5 shooting elsewhere in the army. Never put Burst Cannons on Crisis Suits.
- Run them in pairs (at least), and run them with Shield Drones (which you did). Don't forget the Bonding Knife, as it allows that last suit to rally if broken.
- Missile Pods are your workhorse weapon. Great against light armor and medium infantry, and good against most other targets. The 36" range is one of the longest in the Tau arsenal (sadly), so take advantage of that as well.
- Plasma and Fusion go well together (although others will argue against this). Great for punching through Power or Terminator-type armor, and can carve up vehicles from the side/back as well.
- I can't say that the Cyclic Ion Blaster is worth it; the S3 is very limiting. I much prefer the Airbursting Fragmentation Projector, as you'll do more wounds and it ignores cover, which is great for your squishier targets.

Hope this helps!

I've been playing Tau for about 6 months now.

For the most part I agree with Lorek, especially on the CIB, unless you're rolling 6's it's not worth it, you're better off paying for the plasma or fusion.

As a whole you should be using your marker lights like crazy to buff your BS or reduce cover saves.

Another thing I've learned the hardway is to use your multi-trackers; move the full 12" each turn so assaults hit on a 6, keeps you out of range of meltas and maximizes the disruption pod's benefit.

You were right to put your firewarriors in cover.

You need some pathfinders, trust me on this one; maximize usage of marker lights so your broadsides are BS 4 and twin-linked.

Speaking of, the way I recommend use of broadsides is team leader with shield drones and the other one has target lock so you're threatening 2 targets with them per turn.

I would LOVE to fight on a board like that, with large LOS-blocking buildings and such.

Everything we have here, almost everything at least, can be seen through. Lots of CoD buildings and hills that don't cover enough. Results in many many vehicles blowing up because of trick shots through holes in buildings.

Zid wrote:interesting lists overall

uhm no, the tau player's list was nothing short of gak, but ofcourse it's his second run.

enmitee wrote:

Zid wrote:interesting lists overall

uhm no, the tau player's list was nothing short of gak, but ofcourse it's his second run.

Well, he is limited by models that he owns.. I think he fields everything at the moment.. making up to 1500 thru upgrades.

porkuslime wrote:

enmitee wrote:

Zid wrote:interesting lists overall

uhm no, the tau player's list was nothing short of gak, but ofcourse it's his second run.

Well, he is limited by models that he owns.. I think he fields everything at the moment.. making up to 1500 thru upgrades.

Maybe you guys should play 750-1000 point games until he's able to expand more then. Just saying.

Fielding single crisis suits is just asking for them to die quickly, and knowing that you were up against SM why take burst cannons? there anti horde not anti MEQ plasmas and fusions are much more effective.
Again as no-one has replied to this bit, the drop pods at the start should have landed 2 not one so the whole game was out of wack because of this.

fireflyer wrote:
Again as no-one has replied to this bit, the drop pods at the start should have landed 2 not one so the whole game was out of wack because of this.

How CAN we respond.. ? You are right, rules say that.. and next time will do it different. Second time playing with the pods, and in the first game I only used 2 of them against an eldar army.. so this time was the most pods I have fielded.

I don't THINK the game would have changed much if the Dread Pod came in one turn earlier, but it might have caused him to re-deploy the Hammerhead. Dice rolling skills would probably have not made a whole heck of a lot of difference though.

Thanks for the report. I like seeing games where people are playing with available models, building their future armies, and refining their play!

Good pics, too.

- Blackbone

I haven't played my tau recently, but I've always loved lone suits. For the tiny points you pay for them, they rock, especially if there is any terrain that actually blocks line of sight around - and a single suit can hide behind a lot of things. You just have to remember that you only paid 50 pts or so for them.

To the Tau player

If you took the shas O for the BS 5, its more points effecient to take an EL w/ a Targ array

And if your going to take single suits, you may consider equiping them as suicide deep strike suits and putting a pos relay on your HQ.. not saying build a ninja list, but if your limited by your model selections you gotta go w/ what you can build

Also, you may enjoy searching Tau drop pod defense/kroot bubble wrap..its a nice way to defend against drop pods w/o holding your army back.
It just slaps it all out there in a formation that prevents most of the damage to your army, while leaving them high and dry for your return fire. That is if they are dumb enough to try and crack your castle.

Tau and drop pods are never a good mix, but Kroot-wrapping is good as a defence.

Some tips for Tau:

Lone Crisis suits do work as suicide suits. Upgrading to a Sha'vre is mostly pointless as it is a waste in points and only takes away points to give you a combat omph which Tau do not need since they should not be in combat.

Now for loadouts:

Plasma+Missile Pod
Fusion + Plasma
Twinlinked Missile Pods

And for my commander my favorite is Airbursting Fragmentation Projector and the Cyclic Ion Blater. Both being 18" Range is great. Take a Shas'El and add in a targetting array with a hard wired multitracker and you have a 100 point model about. A shield drone and stim injectors will give you a lot of protection as well that hampers most crisis suit units.

Use range to your advantage. In Drop pod assaults the Positional Relay will come in handy since youcan bring in one unit a turn and with a pathfinders devilfish have pinpoint accuracy from turn 2 on for deepstriking crisis suits. Twin-linked fusion or twin-linked flamers deepstiking will makequick use of vehicles or infantry.

Yes, more suits, and more AP2 and lower weapons will work wonders for you.

But on your team leader suits, make sure to hard wire the multi-tracker and the drone controller and take a targeting array as your third hard point. I like running an 'O with a shield generator in the third hard point for a bit of extra insurance, though an 'el is certainly cheaper

We had a rematch last night..

report is now up..

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/278265.page