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.

Hi again, this will be my 2nd batrep and again against elder! We were both trying out our 1500 point lists for the next upcoming tournie. He placed 2nd in the last tournie (I didn’t play in it) in 1250 with an elder jetbike council and support.

His list as I remember it:

HQ
Farseer – bike, stones, doom, fortune
Warlocks – I think he had 7 or 9, somewhere around there, all on bikes and with a variety of powers and spears/witchblades

Troops
Full squad of dire avengers in a serpent with exarch and bladestorm

Squad of pathfinders to sit on an objective

Min Squad of guardian jetbikes for late game objective grabbing/contesting

Heavy Support
Squad of war walkers with scatter lasers

Dark reapers with exarch who had a tempus launcher

My thoughts on his list: HOLY CRAP THAT’S A BIG DEATHSTAR. Now that panic is over lets see what I’ve brought to deal with it.

My Tau:
HQ
Shas'el - Missile Pod/Airbursting Fragmentation Projector, Targeting Array, Shield Drone x2, HW Multi-Tracker, Bonding Knife

Troops
Fire Warriors x6

Fire Warriors x6

Kroot x11

Elites
XV8 Fireknife Suits x3 - Missile Pod/ Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker, Team Leader, Bonding Knife, Shield Drone x2

XV8 Deathrain Suits x2 - T/L Missile Pod,Flamer

Fast Attack
Pathfinder x7
Devilfish with Disruption Pod

Pathfinder x7
Devilfish with Disruption Pod

Heavy Support
XV88 Broadside x2 - Advanced Stabilization System, Team Leader, Shield Drone x2, HW Target Lock

Hammerhead - Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pod, Multi-Tracker

Skyray, Burst cannons, Multi-Tracker, Targeting Array, Disruption Pod, Black Sun Filter

My continued thoughts pregame: Well, if I can bring down the deathstar I should be able to handle the rest of the army pretty well.

Mission: Killpoints (blah I have so many in my list!)
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Roll off! Eldar win and take the first turn

He deploys by castling up in one of the corners, keeping his war walkers behind some LOS blocking terrain, same with his wave serpent. His pathfinders and dark reapers hide in a building with a good view of the battlefield while his deathstar sets up more toward the middle of the board.

I deploy by castling up in the opposite corner as I can out-range most of his stuff and would much rather force him to come to me. Kroot outflank and I layer my units to ones that I feel I can afford to lose to a charge from that horrible jetbike council.

Turn 1 Eldar (I fail to seize)
He starts by fortuning his council and scooting forward 12 inches followed by the 6” assault move. Seeing me so far away he tries for his dark reapers and falls just short and goes flat out with his wave serpent to try and get in my face as fast as possible with his war walkers moving out from behind cover and running in the shooting phase.

Turn 1 Tau
I shuffle around a little and move my skyray out of the castle headed along my short table edge with my hammerhead going along the long table edge trying to head off his dire avengers group.

Shooting is where things go south for my opponent. I fire every marker light in my army at the deathstar and go to work. I start with firing off 6 seekers from my skyray and a few burst cannon shots downing 2 warlocks. My fireknives wind up their punch and manage to get at least 1 wound on each model with a few to spare and here’s the big one: he fails his 3+ reroll on his farseer and gets doubled out. After that happens I take some pot shots elsewhere but losing that model removes the lynchpin that holds his army together.

Turn 2 Eldar
He turbo boosts with his remaining warlocks and hopes to get a multi-charge off the following turn if they can weather the fire and goes flat out with his wave serpent and faces his rear armor at me, thinking that if I blow it up and his guys pile out he can at least get a charge off on me (he’s close enough to do it now). War Walkers move up and run again.

Turn 2 Tau:
Not much move but I put my hammerhead behind his wave serpent so if I just wreck it all of his guys will die.

Shooting sees the rest of his council mopped up and enough marker lights left over to remove the cover save from his wave serpent and explode it. I kill a few dire avengers after that.

He plays out his turn and after failing to kill anything else with his dire avengers he concedes.

Post game: I know I can’t rely on doubling out his farseer each game but I think I could have laid on enough fire power to only lose a unit or 2 to them as the aftermath. It was probably won during the setup when I could completely outrange him from turn 1.

And that is why i don't take jet-seers... one lucky shot and the Farseer is toast, then that unit is pretty useless without his powers and thats a huge point sink. Regarding your tau i'd either beef up your fire warrior units or take a few more 6 man squads. If its an objective game those units of six will be easy to take out for most players (plus S5 shots from your troops are nothing to be sniffed at) Most tau players i face don't take many firewarriors, but the one guy that does usually does better than the others (although it may be that he just plays better, but i think the extra shots help)

Thanks for posting your reports. As a beginner to 40k playing Tau I find them inspirational.

I'll try to post some of my own someday. All of my battle reports at the moment would be "and on turn 4 I got tabled again."

dayve110 wrote:Regarding your tau i'd either beef up your fire warrior units or take a few more 6 man squads. If its an objective game those units of six will be easy to take out for most players (plus S5 shots from your troops are nothing to be sniffed at) Most tau players i face don't take many firewarriors, but the one guy that does usually does better than the others (although it may be that he just plays better, but i think the extra shots help)

While I appreciate the advice I'll have to disagree on taking more troops. I've played objective missions and so far I haven't had a problem keeping my troops alive (small they may be) even in higher point games where my opponents really should have enough firepower to wipe them off the board. I tend to go for late game objective grabs through tank shocks to get my enemies off what I need to capture and so far it's worked pretty well! Besides, I hate firewarriors with a burning passions of 1000 white hot suns and simply don't have the money right now to buy more kroot/hounds (though long term I plan on doing so).

Yeah Councils are screwed vs Tau. Using markerlights to strip the cover save and pound with railgun submuntions. Easy win every time

You still get a reroll 3 up against submunitions. Its only ap 4

Small Firewarrior squads work if you keep them in Devilfish. That's what he did here, using the Pathfinder's Devilfish. It's not just six naked Firewarriors hanging out, flopping their junk around in the breeze; I mention this because it's not obvious that he did that from the battle report.

I think your army will do well in KP games but may struggle in objective games. I understand that you will put the FW in the DF but they are not that difficult to get rid of, even with disruption pods.

Good luck.

With 3 troops at 1500 points you should be good with Tau. Especially with 2 pathfinder devilfish to keep them comfy. Keeping them in reserve and loading them up in the devilfish when the time comes is helpful as well. Well unless there's drop pods and your devilfish get blown away.

razorlead wrote:Yeah Councils are screwed vs Tau. Using markerlights to strip the cover save and pound with railgun submuntions. Easy win every time

Unless of course, they take out your pathfinders early on. Honestly its not that hard. I hate when my opponent takes them out quickly.

MrDrumMachine wrote:Turn 2 Tau:
Not much move but I put my hammerhead behind his wave serpent so if I just wreck it all of his guys will die.

Emergency Disembarking would save the unit.