Please pick apart my decisions and help me out for what went wrong and what I did right and how I can do better next time against
IG.
So I thought I'd get a practice game in last night and I really don't have a lot of experience against
IG so I got a buddy of mine to whip up a 2500 point list (I know it's not optimized but I figured it would at least give me a taste of how much damage I would have to do in order to pull out a win against a better
IG army)
Tau Vs
IG
First off the Tau list:
HQ
Shas'
el - AFP,
MP,
TA, HWMT, HWDC, Shield Drone, Gun Drone
Bodyguard x2 - T/L
MP, Flamer,
HW MT, Bonding Knife x1
Elites
Crisis x3 -
MP, PR,
MT, Team Leader with
HW DC, Shield Drone x2
Crisis x3 -
MP, PR,
MT, Team Leader with
HW DC, Shield Drone x2
Crisis x3 -
MP, PR,
MT, Team Leader with
HW DC, Shield Drone x2
Troops
Fire Warrior x6 - Devilfish,
MT,
TA,
SMS,
DP
Fire Warrior x6 - (Steals Pathfinder warfish)
Kroot x10
Kroot x10
Kroot x10
Kroot x10
Fast Attack
Piranha x2 - Fusion Blaster,
TA,
DP x1
Piranha x2 - Fusion Blaster,
TA,
DP x1
Pathfinders x8 - Devilfish,
MT,
TA,
SMS,
DP
Heavy
Broadside x2 -
TA, Team Leader,
HW Target Lock,
HW DC, Shield Drone, Gun Drone
Broadside x2 -
TA, Team Leader,
HW Target Lock,
HW DC, Shield Drone, Gun Drone
Hammerhead - Railgun,
TA, Target Lock,
MT, Burst Canons
It's what I did well with in the prelims and I felt I needed more practice with it more than anything.
His list was (from memory)
HQ
CCS - 3 plasma guns, medipack
Troops
PCS - Meltas, Chimera, heavy flamer, multi-laser
Squad 1 - Auto cannon, Chimera, heavy flamer, multi-laser
Squad 2 - Auto Cannon, Chimera, heavy flamer, multi-laser
Squad 3 - Auto Cannon, Chimera, heavy flamer, multi-laser
SWS - meltas (rides in 1 vendetta)
SWS - Flamers (guards a
HWS)
HWS - Las Cannons
HWS - Missile Launchers
Melta vet squad (rides in other vendetta
Fast
Fast moving flamer thing? Devildog I think it's called.
Vendetta
Vendetta
Heavy
Basilisk battery - 3 bassies
Leman Russ Squad- 3
LRMBT
1 Manticore
We roll for mission and it's Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment. I win the roll off and choose to go first.
We had one of the people at the store set up the terrain and he did some pretty unexpected things with it, I think it was pretty excessive but I figure I had best be prepared to fight on overloaded boards as well as planet bowling ball. If by some miracle I make it to the finals better to be over prepared than under.
My pregame thoughts are that I'll have to find some way to force him off his objective or at least contest it which means I'll have to do something a bit uncomfortable for me and that's actually go toward my enemy. I outflank 3 units of kroot as I figure they'll most likely be able to help me with some of the squadrons or at least shake the manticore, and if they end up on the wrong side they'll be able to reinforce my objective and maybe protect from his vendettas should he choose to outflank them.
Here's my deployment
And another angle
Pathfinders with
HQ support
And I'm not sure about my objective placement in retrospect but here it is
His response to my outflanking of my kroot is this deployment and to outflank with his vendettas containing a melta
SWS squad and his melta vets.
The russ without a turret is his manticore, the camo russ are his squad and the big guns along his table edge are the bassies.
His outflankers
Turn 1
I'm a bit intimidated by the sheer number of vehicles I'm up against and the
AV 12 facing me with all the intervening terrain granting cover saves (it's got windows but the windows at least?).
Movement:
I throw my piranha in his face to force him to spend a turn on them with at least his infantry auto cannons and maybe some of his heavy weapons, if he doesn't I'll open up probably a russ and a chim or his devildog for his neglect. I roll several 1s for my dangerous terrain checks on my suits and take wounds on almost every squad
lol.
Pix
More stuff moved?!
Shooting:
I think my best bet is to work on the bassies and russ squads as he's got so many points tied up in them and their ability to
ID my crisis suits while denying them their armor saves and sometimes cover saves does not thrill me so I go to work.
I end up clearing out 2 bassies and a russ while stunning the devildog and a chimera.
Hooray railguns and failed cover saves for his basilisks.
Assault:
Jump, jump, jump, jump around?
Turn 1
IG
Movement:
He shuffles some tanks around, doesn't move the basilisk or the manticore though.
Shooting:
He tries to bring it down! with his las cannons on my squad of piranha in front of his leman russ squad and fails. The other
HWS is out of range for the same order. His bassie gets a shot off on some crisis suits that scatters onto my pathfinders and kills 1. His manticore gets 3 shots and puts them on a crisis team. 2 scatter onto one of my devilfish and one lands dead on. The crisis team loses a member and a drone, while the devilfish is immobilized and weapon destroyed. His russ fire on a different team and take out an unwounded member and a drone. His infantry shots kill off 1 piranha from each team and weapon destroy one as well which dumps out the gun drones who aren't pinned and free to wreak havoc!
Picture results:
(I love magz, they make awesome flight stands)
Crisis team hit by Russ squad
Crisis team and fish hit by manticore
Assault:
Nuffin.
Turn 2
Hey I lived! Nothin bad happened that I couldn't handle so far and I feel like my target priority is pretty good so lets get into it.
Movement:
First off my kroot come in. All of them. On his side. With a special weapon squad vulnerable to charge, his manticore unmoved and his basilisk open topped I do a small dance in my head and start moving my crisis suits and unharmed devifish with fire warriors up field toward his objective and hopefully pull some side armor shots on a chimera or 2. My unharmed piranha scoots around his devildog to draw a line on a chimera with support from the gun drones that were attached.
Moves:
Zomg Krootz?!
Crisis to save the day!
And a crappy blurry pic of my piranha about to chomp on a chimera
Shooting:
With a good shot at disabling his manticore and basilisk I focus my railguns on other things, like that some of the chimera and the russ.
I fire the rails from the building with my objective in it as they have a clear shot and wiff or do no damage. I take out the chimera that was next to the russ squad and work over another chimera pretty bad. I take out the las cannon
HWS with
str 6/7 and 2 of the missile squad with some missile pods from my
HQ.
My piranha and drones shake the chimera they were aiming for while a squad of crisis suits ripps off both weapons and immobilizing the devildog near them.
Then I jump into assault and hope to get some results out of my Kroot.
They pile into their respective targets
I wipe the flamer
sws and only stun the manticore but at least 1 squad of kroot gets to relative safety with a good massacre move.
Basilisk is now weaponless and imobilized though!
(We just switched the models for the basilisk and manticore so we could remember that it was now weaponless but the manticore wasn't)
IG 2
Movement:
NO reserves come in, ouch. He positions some squads to vaporize 2 of my kroot squads but doesn't have the room to manuver to bring much of anything to bear on the third squad;
Shooting:
Poof go the kroot
And his russ work over the squad of crisis suits they were before and manage to somehow leave me with a suit left. Thanks!
Assault: He doesn't
Turn 3
Pictures are staring to get sparse because the store is closing pretty soon (we've been going a bit slow and chatting a bit as well)
Movement:
Well with 2 squads of kroot gone but the manticore still stunned I figure I should keep it from shooting and move my remaining squad of kroot into range to take it to task. My
HQ and fish keep rolling closer to support what little I have over there and hopefully take some good shots on my way. I hang back 2 squads of crisis suits in anticipation of at least one vendetta coming out and doing bad things.
The fire warriors in the fish have been holding tight until a vendetta or something takes them out of it and then would move to support my objective if they had to.
At this point I think I have to take out the russ squad if at all possible and start my shooting phase.
Shooting:
My first 2 shots from the group up in the building hit, glance and pen, and I get a 4 for the pen and a 5 for the glance which takes them both out! I unfortunately blocked
los from my other broadside group to anything with my hammerhead as I had anticipated shooting the leman russ squad with them (even though they would have received cover saves).
My hammerhead blasts at open troops and I take out a fair number while my crisis team gets some side shots on a chimera to weapon destroy, stun, and immobilize it.
Where'd it all go?!
Missing members and a messed up chimera
In assault I move up a bit more with my
HQ and my kroot assault the manticore. 30 auto-hits later I have 6 6s and manage to stun, weapon destroy, and immobilize it!
IG turn 3
Movement:
One vendetta with the vet squad shows up! And it's on my side!
He places it on the other side of the board and manages to snag a cover save from everything on the ground because of the building and angle.
He also gets a chimera ready to toast some Kroot on the barbie
He also moves close to take out my piranha that's been harassing him
Shooting:
His vendetta tries to chase off the broadside group in the building that can get a good shot on it and only takes out a gun drone after cover/invulnerable saves and they pass leadership. He immobilizes and stuns my useful piranha. Against the Kroot he only kills 5 but they break.
Kroot run back to chill with my
HQ and fish
Assault: Nothin to see here!
Tau turn 4:
Oooooooookay! I think I've got a good shot at a win, just gotta take that vendetta on my side down now and then the other when it probably comes on next turn and probably on the same side.
I move accordingly to get some shots at the vendetta and move my
HQ up to take out the squad of guard that are getting close again to their objective.
Kroot don't rally but don't run much at all.
Getting close with suits for shots at the vendetta and as clear as possible for my railguns
Shooting:
Everything I throw at the vendetta misses, glances and either shakes or stuns, or pens and shakes or stuns or gets saved. Ugh.
On the bright side that guard squad my
HQ was aiming at is now MIA.
Assault:
Few things shuffle around, the crisis teams jump a bit closer to the vendetta as it now HAS to die before it can get to my objective and maybe get some shots at the other vendetta when it shows up on my side.
IG Turn 4
Movement:
His vendetta with the melta
sws does show up, but on the other side of the table!
I figure I'll lose my kroot (because of the proximty to the edge of the board and enemy models), probably 1 suit and the drone from my
HQ and the fish, and get some rail shots at it from the other side of the board after I kill the other vendetta. The vendetta on my side of the table turbo boosts in my direction.
He also starts moving what remaining troops he has in the direction of his objective to claim his and contest mine on the final turn if it ends on 5.
It must die now!
Shooting:
Everything happens as predicted in the movement and I pass my leadership on everything.
Assault:
lol
Turn 5 Tau
Movement:
I get a few plasma rifles in rapid fire range of his vendetta and disembark my fire warriors to get close and kill the vet squad inside when I bring down the vendetta.
My
HQ jumps forward to try and kill as much of his remaining troops as possible. Kroot run off the board, and the fire warriors in the fish that was taken out by the
sws gets ready to waste them
Shooting
Poof go the
sws. Good start. Poof go the troops that were closest to his objective. Alright!
Markers on the vendetta, 4 hits! Remove cover save for a squad of broadsides! 2 hits. . . . .2 glances??? 2 stunned results?!?!?! Okay fine. Second group of broadsides! 1 hit, 1 pen . . . cover save. Okay, full group of crisis suits with some rifles in rapid fire range! 2 missile pod hits. . . 1 pen, 1 glance. . . cover cover. Umm. . . last group of crisis suits ho? Whiff!
Uh-oh.
Assault: blah
IG Turn 5
Store is closing and here's what happens: His vets get out their 2 inches, move up to the base of the building and make their run move to contest. His vendetta just for icing rushes up and contests as well. Back on his side he gets his 1
HWS member from the missile launcher squad about 5 inches away from his objective and tank shocks my
HQ away from it. Throws his run roll and gets a 6 (he even failed his move, move, move order on the unit and still got there >_<
Roll for the game to go on and it comes up a 1. Game ends, I lose. I've got the majority of my army still on the table and he has 2 chimeras, 2 vendettas, his
CCS, a melta vet squad and 3 more scoring models on the table. On turn 6 I would have assaulted his vets, and probably killed at least the one vendetta contesting my objective. On his side of the table I could have jumped around, had a couple shots at the claiming squad and probably contested as well. But I didn't get the chance.
Overall a good game, not really sure what to take away from it and if I could get some critique I would be very appreciative.
