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It's been a while since I've used my Daemonhunters, so I decided to dust off the cobwebs and take them down to my LGS for some action. Lo and behold, who should I face but a Tau player with 4 broadsides. Oh joy.

I gave him the option of playing against 2 land raiders or 3 land raiders. Now most people cringe when they see my LR-spam but for some reason, he had a smile on his face. I'll take 3 please, he said. Oh joy.


My list:

1500 DAEMONHUNTERS (Mine)

Grey Knight Grandmaster - Icon, Incinerator

Inquisitor - Emperor's Tarot, Incinerator

5x Grey Knights - 2x Incinerators
5x Grey Knights - 2x Incinerators
5x Grey Knights - 2x Incinerators

Grey Knight Land Raider - Extra Armor, Smokes
Grey Knight Land Raider - Extra Armor, Smokes
Grey Knight Land Raider Crusader - Smokes

1500pts



Now I'm not sure about all his upgrades, but from what I can tell, this is what he brought (I could be a little off).

1500 TAU

Shas'O - Fusion gun, TL-plasma, 1x Shield Drone
2x Body Guards - Fusion gun, TL-plasma
Ethereal
10x Honor Guards

3x Crisis Suits - TL-plasma, 1x Shield Drone

12x Fire Warriors
12x Fire Warriors
12x Fire Warriors
12x Fire Warriors

2x Broadsides - Advanced Stabilization System, 1x Shield Drone
2x Broadsides - Advanced Stabilization System, 1x Shield Drone



-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Dawn of War
Initiative: Grey Knights


DEPLOYMENT:
Daemonhunters deploy nothing and will come in on turn 1.

Tau deploys in the middle with 1 fire warrior squad in a small ruins, another fire warrior unit in front of them and his HQ + bodyguards behind the ruins.

They fail to seize the initiative.


DH1
GK's roll in, from left to right - land raider, land raider crusader with Inquisitor and land raider with Grandmaster.


Tau 1
Ethereal and honor guard comes in on the right corner. 1 broadside unit comes in on the left corner behind terrain. The other broadside unit comes in near the center by the ruins, as does the crisis suits. The other fire warriors come in to the left and right of the middle ruins. His HQ unit jumps forward, ready to fire his fusion guns. I tell him that they're only 12" range so they jump back behind the ruins in the assault phase.

Middle broad sides can't see due to night-fight but left broadsides roll 33" and sees my left land raider. They then proceed to immobilise it.


DH2
LRC and right LR proceeds to move 12" forwards and pop smoke. I fire 2 lascannons at the left broadsides and 1 at the middle broadsides and proceed to roll 3 1's to wound. LRC fires the hurricane bolters at his fire warriors and kill a couple. It uses PotMS to fire the multi-melta at one of the broadsides but his shield drone makes it's save.


Tau 2
His fire warriors spread out, forming a wall. His HQ crisis jumps forwards again but is still out of fusion range so later jumps back into cover. He fires his broadsides at my 2 approaching land raiders and only manages to shake one of them.

DH: 0, Tau: 0


DH3
I move 12" again and disembark my knights. Grandmaster splits from his squad upon disembarking.

My land raiders fire their lascannons and multi-melta at his broadsides and, between me rolling 1's to wound and him making his shield drone save, I don't kill any. Grandmaster fires his incinerator at the middle broadsides but fails to hurt them. My 2 grey knights, on the other hand, kills a bunch of fire warriors with their incinerators.

My grandmaster then tries to charge his broadsides but can't fit through the space between his 2 fire warrior units. Uh oh. Miscalculation on my part. Thought he could fit through there. Now he's stuck in the open. The grey knights charge the 2 fire warrior units they shot at and easily route them. One squad of knights consolidate behind the Grandmaster to try to get cover from his crisis suits next turn. The other unit of grey knights consolidate forwards towards the ruins so that his command unit cannot jump forwards to try to shoot them down.

DH: 2, Tau: 0


Tau 3
His HQ unit jumps to the left and the crisis suits jump forwards. Right fire warriors get to rapid-fire range of my right grey knights.

His HQ unit fires at my LRC but only 1 is within double-melta range. Still, he manages to immobilise it. He then fires his left broadsides at my GKGM, hits with both and then proceeds to roll 2 1's to wound. So he is forced to fire his middle broadsides at my GKGM. Only 1 hits and my GKGM makes his 4+ invuln save. He then directs his crisis plasmas at my Grandmaster as well. 6 plasma shots later, my GKGM takes only 1 wound after making 3 saves. He curses at my HQ. 2 squads of fire warriors and 4 of his honor guards who were in range fire at my right grey knights and wipes them out. His suits then jump back. I believe his Shas'O takes 1 wound from dangerous terrain this turn.

DH: 2, Tau: 1


DH4
Moment of truth. My Grandmaster moves towards his fire warriors in the ruins and the left knights towards his broadsides. I would've gone after his HQ but wasn't sure I could have made it into assault with them.

The land raiders fire at his broadsides and still can't kill any of them. My Grandmaster decides not to flame his warriors, fearing that that would put them out of his assault range. The grey knights and Inquisitor flames/shoots his middle broadsides and kill the shield drone.

I then assault. Grandmaster kills a few warriors and then sweeps the rest. Grey Knights kill 1 broadside and they stay locked in cc.

DH: 3, Tau: 1


Tau 4
His HQ and crisis suits jump forwards. His left broadsides fire at my LR and fails to do any damage. 2 of his fusion guns from his HQ unit are within double-melta range, and they explode my right LR. The crisis let loose another 6 volleys of plasma at my Grandmaster and this time, he doesn't survive.

In assault, my grey knights kill off his middle broadsides and consolidate towards his HQ unit.

DH: 4, Tau: 3


DH5
My immobilised LR and the LRC fires at his left broadsides. They kill the shield drone and finally instagibs one of the broadsides. Fortunately for him, they stick around. My grey knights and Inquisitor incinerates his HQ unit, putting 1W on one of the bodyguards and killing the shield drone. I then assault and kill off his HQ. They then fail morale and hop off the board.

DH: 6, Tau: 3


Tau 5
He moves his fire warriors and crisis to shoot at my knights. The last broadside fires at a land raider but whiffs. He then rapid fires with his crisis plasmas and fire warriors. Due to cover, they are not able to kill off my guys. 2 of the 5 knights survive, but the Inquisitor dies.

DH: 6, Tau: 4


We roll to see if the game continues, but it does not.


Victory to the Grey Knights!!!

Yeah. Tau are a shooty army. Grey Knights are a mid-range army that likes to shoot then counter assault. Matchup itself is rough, add in the fact that Broadsides will wreck all 3 Land Raiders by turn 2 and it shouldn't even be close.

Pvt. Jet wrote: Broadsides will wreck all 3 Land Raiders by turn 2 and it shouldn't even be close.

I dunno if I'd go that far.

But I'd say with no termies, your GK may be in pretty big trouble. maybe you'll get lucky and lascannon out a broadside or the Shas'o before you make it across the board.

with that list, and no psycannons, if you start right at the front edge of your deployment zone, zip full speed across the board and pop smoke, you can hopefully get into incinerator & assault range before your transports get popped.

hemingway wrote:
with that list, and no psycannons, if you start right at the front edge of your deployment zone, zip full speed across the board and pop smoke, you can hopefully get into incinerator & assault range before your transports get popped.

That was my plan, except for the fact that we got Dawn of War deployment.

Your probably gona win because TAU cant pop 14 armor easily.

I agree Railguns are so bad against AV 14...

I think the question in the poll is funny because the Tau army was introduced and then updated in a 10 year time period when in that time period the Daemon Hunters book hasen't been updated once. I'm pretty sure that the Daemon Hunters need more attention then the Tau.

Should have gone with a 75% foot army with psycannons. Use that shrouding!!! The Tau can't use their range as well against you, and then you have some decent firepwoer to bring to bear once they try to get in range to shoot you. And since he dodn't have vehicles this could have been a farily even game.


Edit: Funny thing is, I am massing both of these armies at the moment in anticipation of updates. GKs were my first 40k love! i'm so excited to hear rumors of their update

Lucid wrote:Should have gone with a 75% foot army with psycannons. Use that shrouding!!! The Tau can't use their range as well against you,

Average shrouding range is 31.5"

That's more than enough for any gun against footsloggers.

Battle report has been updated and can be found on the 1st post.

Lucid wrote:Should have gone with a 75% foot army with psycannons. Use that shrouding!!! The Tau can't use their range as well against you, and then you have some decent firepwoer to bring to bear once they try to get in range to shoot you. And since he dodn't have vehicles this could have been a farily even game.


Edit: Funny thing is, I am massing both of these armies at the moment in anticipation of updates. GKs were my first 40k love! i'm so excited to hear rumors of their update

Psycannon-spam and shrouding is only decent against foot armies. Otherwise, it is fail against mech. Shooting it out with Tau will end in a drawfest.

Did I miss something or is he running a foot army? do the broadsides and crisis suits have an armor value? Granted its not a surefire way to win, but i'd choose them over flamers, since flamers have a nasty habit of denying you close combat.


Haven't read the report yet, but congrats on the GK win. Obviously didn't need my advice

Basically I brought 2 lists with me. 1 with 2 LR's and the other with 3. I didn't bring any dreads or psycannon lists with me as I don't normally play a foot list, so I just played with what I brought.

lol Railguns VS av 14 really arent that great, good yes great no. Generally hate tau due to bs3 even w/ tw/lk

good game and nice report

Yeah, he should've ditched the Ethereal and honour guard and instead get some pathfinders in a devilfish. BS4 twin-linked railguns and no cover....oh joy.

the grandmaster really sealed the deal here. your LRs didn't do much.

The LR's generally never do...at least not in terms of offense. Generally, they're to get my knights to where they need to go and to provide protection for them. They also block off the enemy and make it hard for them to assault/shoot my knights.

Land raiders are designed to be bullet magnets. If those railguns had been firing at say the grand master or dreadnoughts (if there were any) or something they would have wrecked ass. Str10 still has trouble penetrating av14.

Melta is king. Railguns are a close 2nd.

Grey Knights could use some sort of awesome unit instead of Termies, like, Void Marines or something.

I don't mind grey knight terminators. Just give them 3++ storm shields like regular marines.

Guess we'll just have to wait til early next year to see what goodies they get in their new codex.

Good batrep.

Sad to see a Tau player lose, but I've had game when I focus fire on things (like your HQ that dodged incoming fire like crazy). Sometimes the dice roll bad. I'm surprised he took the ethereal. I've never used mine, considering I'd rather have more crisis suits, but I guess he wanted more guns on the field.

I think I can see his strategy but he shoulda focus fired more. All railguns on landraider 1, then landraider 2, then 3. Then plink away at your army. But from reading your report, he didn't do too bad. His broadsides actually did better than mine. Lol.

I think both sides shooting luck was just low in this game. SO many 1s to wound.... and 4 Railgun shots a turn with AP1 should have popped at least ONE raider by turn 2. Didn't happen.

I definitely would have gone pathfinders over Ethereal any day of the week. THAT would have made your day a lot less enjoyable

Yeah we both rolled bad on our shooting but great with our saves initially. Not only did he fail to do any real damage with all those railguns (besides the lucky 1st turn immobilise), but I failed to insta-gib any of his broadsides for the first 1-3 turns with my twin-linked lascannons and LRC multi-melta.

He definitely could've improved on his strategy. Non-focused fire was one mistake. Concentrating on my LR's when my knights were already disembarked and killing his units was another. I also felt he made a mistake deployment-wise. Probably should have deployed them together and form multiple screening units. Also probably should've deployed broadsides at opposite corners and make me split up my army if I wanted to go after them.

I do hear that ethereals are bad. I definitely agree that by dropping them and getting pathfinders or other units would have made his army better. But he is new with Tau and I'm sure his list will eventually evolve into a better one.