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A few days ago I walked into my GWS and was told that a tournament was going on, Apparently it was an ongoing tournament over the last few months where you played one game a month and at the end of three months (this one), the results would be sent in and the top three people in the country would get a ticket to Las Vegas. I didn't play the 2 games before this one but someone else did, so the manager paired us up so he could get a match. Fine by me, a game is a game, and God knows I don't get enough of those.

It would be a throwdown between my tau and his vanilla marines

Tau:
HQ:142

Shas'El commander (Airbursting Frag Projector, missile pod, targetting array, bonding knife, positional relay, stimulant injectors, HW drone controller)
....Gun drone
....Shield drone

Elites:581

Crisis teams Blaze and Burn @236 each
..Team leader (plasma rifle, missile pod, targetting array, HW multi-tracker, bonding knife, HW drone controller)
....Gun drone
....Shield drone
..Shas'ui (plasma rifle, missile pod, multi-tracker)
..Shas'ui (plasma rifle, missile pod, targetting array)

Crisis team @105
..Shas'ui (burst cannon, missile pod, targetting array)
..Shas'ui (burst cannon, missile pod, multi-tracker)

Troops:500

2 squads of-
..8 Firewarriors (pulse rifles) @80
....Warfish (SMS, multi-tracker, targetting array, disruption pod) @120

10 Kroot (5 kroot hound) @100

Fast Attack:160

Piranha Squadron @85
..piranha (fusion blaster, flechette dischargers, targetting array, disruption pod)

Heavy Support:435

Broadside team @265
..Team leader (targetting array, HW target lock, bonding knife, HW drone controller)
....Shield drone
....Shield drone
..Shas'ui (targetting array)
..Shas'ui (target lock)

Hammerhead Gunship @175 (railgun, burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pod, built in targetting array, target lock, flechette dischargers)

Marines (by memory):

HQ:
Company commander (Relic Blade, Storm shield, digital weapons)

Captain? (Relic Blade, Bolt pistol, standard?)

Elites:

5 terminators (stormbolters, chainfists)

Drednought (CCW, Multi-Melta)
..Drop Pod ( missile attachment)

Troops
2x 10 man tactical squad (melta, flamer, plasma, missile launcher)
..Sergent (melta bombs, bolt pistol, CCW)

5 man tac squad
..Sergent (melta bombs, bolt pistol, CCW)

5 scouts (4 sniper rifles, missile pod)

Heavy Support:
Vindicator (Cronos?, extra armor)
Vindicator (extra armor)
Predator (Autocannon, 2 x lascannons, heavy bolter)

Deployment: Pitched Battle
Game Type: Annilation

He wins the roll off and makes me go first.

I deploy with the kroot and broadsides on the left. My suits, hammerhead, and piranha deploy on my right flank. FW squads are in reserve

He deploys his two 10 man tac squads and his terminators deploy opposite of my broadsides. He tries to hide his vindicators from my broadisdes LOS and place them behind a large mound and outpost where he places his company commander. His predator deploys opposite of my hammerhead with his 5 man squad to the right of it.

(The bins with the toxic waste spilling out of it counts as impassible terrain)

This is my first time writing a battle report and my first time using VASSAL, so any critque is aprreciated

Also sorry for the blury pics, something wrong with my computer I guess

Board Setup

Turn 1:
My opponent failed to seize, so I will continue to go first

*pre-turn assesment-
Seems as though he will try to go after my left flank and attack my bait, the broadsides. I'll start to take out his weaker left flank so I'll be able to him on two sides when he advances. Fingers crossed that the drop pod will not do much damage.

Tau:
Hammerhead moves up and to the left
All suits move into firing positions

Army deployment and first tau movement phase


Broadsides splite fire and take on the left vindicator and the predator. They manage to wreak the vindicator and shake the predator. Cronos disembarks from his vindicator
Crisis team Blaze fire ineffectivly at said predator, however.
Command squad and the Hammerhead fire into the right vindicator, and shake it.
Crisis team Burn down two scouts

first tau shooting phase


Suits dance back into cover

Tau-1 Marines-0

first tau assualt phase


Drop pod comes in right in front of the hammerhead
All marines except scouts move up, Cronos joins green squad
Predator moves up a bit so that the vindicator can sneak in behind it.

Dred shoots at the hammerhead, but fails to hit
Scout missile launcher does nada to the command team
Company Commander calls in his orbital bombardment on the broadsides, but it scatters off and kills three kroot.

Nothing in assualt phase

Tau-1 Marines-0

marine first turn


Turn 2:
*pre-turn assesment-
Thanks to getting rid of his big guns, his shooting was ineffective. Time to get rid of that dred, finish off the vehicles, and take out the assualt squad. With that, I would be able to flank them.

Tau:
Both FWs rightfully decide to stay out of the action

All Crisis teams move up
Hammerhead moves away from dreadnought
piranha starts to make its move to find some back armor

The command squad and Crisis team blaze fire at the dread and manage to destroy its multi-melta
Hammehead also fires at the dread, and immobilizes it
Crisis team Burn offs two more scouts
Broadsides split fire again and destroy the last vindicator. Yet do nothing to the predator

tau 2nd turn: movement and shooting


Crisis teams Blaze and Burn move up to start sweeping left
Command team moves back behind the hammerhead

Tau-2 Marine-0

Marine:
Everybody moves up
Cronos detaches from green squad (don't get why)

marine 2nd turn: movement


5 man assualt squad takes a wound from the multi-tracker suits from Crisis team Blaze
Missile launcher from green squad gets through the hammerhead's disruption pod and takes off the railgun
lone scout shakes the piranha
Predator takes out a gun drone from the Command squad

Nothing in assualt

Tau-2 Marine-0

marine 2nd turn: shooting and assualt


Turn 3:
*pre-turn assesment-I will miss the submunition from the hammerhead because of all of the clumped up marines, yet the burst cannons are still formitable. Gotta wipe out the flank so I can start to make progress on my left

One FW team decides it is time to shine and comes in from reserve. I move them on in front of the broadsides to support the kroot's charge.

Kroot move to intercept terminators
Suits move into firing lanes
Hammerhead moves to the right
Piranha moves foward near the predator, next turn=back armor

Broadsides pop the drop pod and wreak the drednought
FWs are unable to kill a single terminator in the shooting phase, poor kroot
Fire from suits down two marines from black and green squads.
Crisis team Blaze's fire leaves only the sergent from the 5 man squad standing

tau 3rd turn: movement and shooting


Suits do a jig in assualt pahse
Kroot assualt terminators and kill one, however they lose two kroot. Thankfully they stay in combat

Tau-4 Marines-0

tau 3rd turn: assualt


Marines:
Commander moves out of building towards Crisis team Blaze, so does green squad
Black squad moves foward towards broadsides

marine 3rd turn: movement


Black squad annialates FW team to two, FWs start to flee off of the table
Green squad opens up on Crisis team Blaze, wounding the targetting array suit and killing the gun drone.
Scout fire at Crisis team Burn, but misses

Commander has an amazing assualt roll and makes it into combat with suits, sergent also joins the fray. In this combat a wound is done to the last unwounded suit, the multi-tracker suit dies. No wounds are done in return
In the kroot combat, another termie goes down but takes down two more kroot. The brave kroot stay in combat

Tau-4 Marines-1

marine 3rd turn: shooting and assualt


tau 4th turn: movement and shooting

Turn 4:
*pre-turn assesment-
I was a little risky with my suit placement and it bit me in the butt. Those Kroot aren't going to last long so I have to be ready to get rid of the terminators. Also, have to take out the IC to get those easy KPs

Other FW squad comes on and I place them in the middle of the field away from the action

Command suits move to fire at green squad
Crisis team Burn targets Cronos from across the map
Hammerhead moves up to try to protect Crisis team Burn from assualt just in case Blaze can't hold on
Piranha manuvers into the back arc of the predator

Combined SMS fire from the warfish and broadsides take out two marines from black squad
The Command Squad, trying to enact vengence for the FW squad, take aim at green squad and reduce them to two models! the missile launcher marine and a commander look around, ear drums popping from the noise of carnage all around them, and see nothing but the remains of their brother marines.
Hammerhead's burst cannons rip into the last scout and score me another KP
The piranha wreaks the predator with close range melta
Crisis team Burn pop Cronos with missile pod fire

Tau 4th turn: movement and shooting


In CC, Blaze are routed and the kroot flee from combat. In a display of awesome rolling, the commander gets within charge range of Crisis team Burn after their assualt move.

Tau-7 Marines-3

tau 4th turn: assualt


Marines:

Green squad regroups, terminator move foward
Company commander moves close to Crisis team Blaze

All marine shooting does no damage to my units

marine 4th turn: movement and shooting


In assualt, the sergent charges the hammerhead but fails to do anything
Company commander assualts into suits and wound 2 of them, taking non in return

Tau-7 Marine-3

marine 4th turn: assualt


The rest of the game is pretty cut in dry with the commander wiping out Crisis team Burn but getting IDed by the piranha (Piranha also took out sergent)

endgame


Tau victory

Tau-8 Marines-4

All in all everything went to plan with just a few hickups on my part

1.I was too aggresive with my suits and it got 2 squads killed, I've got to be much more conservative with them to keep them alive. As with them I could of done a lot more damage against my opponent
2. I placed my FWs out of their fish and they got destroyed by shooting the next turn. I've got to begin to realize that my FWs aren't that tough and try to keep them in their transport for as long as possible.

C&C appreciated

Nice Battle report. I definately like the style of it and this could be one of the best I have seen. Keep up the good work!

kind of off topic but how did you get warhammer 40k to work on vassal?

kind of off topic but how did you get warhammer 40k to work on vassal?

apparently Vassal got the OK from GWS, there is a recent thread. But I have seemed to have forgotton where. Can we get some help on finding this?

Couple of questions regarding your army list - did you know in advance you'd be up against MEqs?

If so, why the frag projector? The blast is nice, but largely ineffective against MEqs, whereas plasma would have been a better bet - and why no hard-wired MT? Figure that should always be standard for a commander.

Also, bonding knives are useless in Commander squads of less than five models - there's no such thing as being down to 25%!

Otherwise not a bad list (I'd personally nix the Kroot, but I hate Kroot. A lot ) and definitely a good batrep. Look forward to seeing more!

Couple of questions regarding your army list - did you know in advance you'd be up against MEqs?

If so, why the frag projector? The blast is nice, but largely ineffective against MEqs, whereas plasma would have been a better bet - and why no hard-wired MT? Figure that should always be standard for a commander.

Also, bonding knives are useless in Commander squads of less than five models - there's no such thing as being down to 25%!

Otherwise not a bad list (I'd personally nix the Kroot, but I hate Kroot. A lot ) and definitely a good batrep. Look forward to seeing more!

No, I made this list as an 'all-comers' list. I don't see the need to spend the points for it. Either he should be shooting one, or shooting the other. VoF is made as he is with the 2 man squad.

The commander has drones, so if one dies, that's 33% casualties.

Thank you for the good comments. hope to make another soon if I can get a game in next weekend

You misunderstand regarding bonding knives - they allow you to regroup even if below 25% strength (which would normally keep you from regrouping). They have no effect on normal morale checks.

In a three-man team, there is no such thing as being below 25% strength. So the bonding knife is wasted points.

Cool report, I always love vassal maps in BatReps. How was your opponent? Seems like he took a few lumps in the beginning that he never made it back from.

You misunderstand regarding bonding knives - they allow you to regroup even if below 25% strength (which would normally keep you from regrouping). They have no effect on normal morale checks.

In a three-man team, there is no such thing as being below 25% strength. So the bonding knife is wasted points.

No, bonding knifes allow the unit to regroup if under half strength.

It is useful because if the unit loses both of its drones, it is under half strength. Usually, if the commander failed his morale test at the end of the shooting phase he would continue to run off the board as he is under half strength and therefore can never regroup (pg. 46 under Regrouping). But with the bonding knife, he can regroup if there is no enemy with 6", as the bonding knife negates the under half strength rule.

Cool report, I always love vassal maps in BatReps. How was your opponent? Seems like he took a few lumps in the beginning that he never made it back from.

My opponent was a little rusty as he have not played in over a month. And it didn't help him that my list is made to alpha strike my opponents big guns/ mobility with railgun and mass missile pod fire if I get first turn.

Were you taking photos of the computer screen, or did you use the screenshot option? Those tend to come out much better

Were you taking photos of the computer screen, or did you use the screenshot option? Those tend to come out much better

I did have screenshots, yet they wouldn't show on dakkadakka as my computer had nothing to run it on (or something like that, not that tech savvy) So in the end I did take pics of them with my camera off of the screen.

Very nice report, thanks! I like your "mix 'n match" style in the list, it suits me better than the "redundancy means everything equal" style of lists Btw, I prefer to have the AFP not on the commander, his high BS is kinda wasted on it.

I've never run my marines in a list like that, but having two Vindi's and not finding a way to cover them somehow is just asking them to go by by. Seemed like a weird marine list for a tournament game.

Nice battle report.

Question: About the FW team did they not make a single save/coversave? Did the SM roll amazing or was there another squad firing at the FW?
My math has the squad of 8 that is showing doing a max of 8 wounds if all were within rapidfire range or using stormbolters. FW armour save would take that down to 4 unsaved wounds. To me it sounds like that unit didn't roll worth a flip more than any inherent weakness on the part of the FW.

Oh yeah, congrats on the win

Very nice report, thanks! I like your "mix 'n match" style in the list, it suits me better than the "redundancy means everything equal" style of lists Btw, I prefer to have the AFP not on the commander, his high BS is kinda wasted on it.

Thank you, I think it is put to good use as the scatter is greatly reduced if it doesn't hit.

I've never run my marines in a list like that, but having two Vindi's and not finding a way to cover them somehow is just asking them to go by by. Seemed like a weird marine list for a tournament game.

Yea, as I said he was a little rusty and it showed in his deployment. He did a good job of protecting the vindicater (from the hammerhead), yet he seemed to forget about the broadsides *shrug*

Nice battle report.

Question: About the FW team did they not make a single save/coversave? Did the SM roll amazing or was there another squad firing at the FW?
My math has the squad of 8 that is showing doing a max of 8 wounds if all were within rapidfire range or using stormbolters. FW armour save would take that down to 4 unsaved wounds. To me it sounds like that unit didn't roll worth a flip more than any inherent weakness on the part of the FW.

Oh yeah, congrats on the win

You hit the nail on the head focusedfire. The FWs must have had a pre-game drink(/lots of drinks)as they were complete fails this game. In fact, they have been fails the last 3 games. This is weird to me as my FW teams usually make up at least half of their points during a game, but recently that has not been the case.

Great report! I only noticed one glitch and correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe your Shas'El is illegally built. The AFP, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, and Positional Relay all take up hard points and you can only have 3 hard points.

Noc

Nocturus you are correct (I noticed that as well). You only have 3 hard points available and the Shas'el is using 4.