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So it was time for our monthly RTT here in southern Maine. I brought my Tau as they are my one and true love in 40k.

My list
HQ
Shas'el - AFP, twin-linked missile pods, hw- target lock 93

ELITE
3x3 Fireknives - plasma, missile, multi 3x186

TROOPS
2x8 Firewarriors - 2x80
10 Kroot - 7 hounds 112

FAST ATTACK
2x4 Pathfinders - 2x48
2x Devilfish - disruption pod, flechette discharger 2x95
2x Piranhas - 2x fusion, 2x target array, 1x disruption pod, 1x flechette discharger 155

HEAVY SUPPORT
3 Broadsides - plasma, multi-tracker. Team Leader w/ bonding knife, 2 Shield Drones, hw- target lock 300
2x Hammherhead - railgun, burst cannons, disruption pod, multi-tracker, blacksun filter 2x170



We had a good turnout for our store (14 players) with a good smattering of armies which included:
1x Necrons (40 warriors, lord, deceiver, 2 monoliths, 10ish pariahs)
1x Tyranids (Tyrant, Tervigon, Trygon Prime, Lots of warriors, lots of genestealers, lots of gaunts)
2x Orks (1 with Ghaz, diversified Nobs, 90 boyz, 9 kanz. 1 speed freaks)
1x Tau (me)
1x Blood Angels (Mostly DoA with 1 Storm Raven)
1x Space Wolves (mostly Grey Hunters)
2x Ultramarines (1 with bikes, the other a demi-company)
1x IG (mix of aircav and leman russes)
1x Deathwing (40ish Teminators!!)
1x Double Wing
1x Chaos (double Lash, PM, 6 Oblits, Zerkers in Raider)
1x Gunline Marines (2 Rifle Dreads, 2 Las/Auto Preds, 3-4 Land Speeders, Dev Squad, Tac Squads)

First Mission Saw me paired up against Scott the Tyranid Player

His List From Memory
Tyrant - venom cannon, bonesword, lash whip, old adversary
Tervigon - crushing claws

2x1 Zoanthropes

8-10ish Unit of Warriors?
3x15 Stealers w/Broodlord
15 Devourer Gaunts
15 Termagants

Trygon Prime
Biovore



So obviously not the most optimized list. Scott is a new player and it showed.

Our mission was called King of the Hill

Spearhead deployment. Night fight from turn 5 onward, infiltrate, outflank, scout, deep strike in effect

Gain 1 point per game turn if you control a table quarter, gain 3 points per game turn if you control the objective in the center of the table.
+1 BP if you control all 4 quarters at games end
+1 BP if you control central objective for 3 turns in a row
+1 BP if you have no units in your deployment zone at game's end.
+1 BP if you destroy all your opponents troop choices.

He deploys right up on the border of the his deployment zone. I deploy in the standard Tau bubble wrap formation with kroot out front, piranhas behind that, and then vehicles and suits.




TURN 1
General advance on the Tyranid's part. some shooting sees me lose about half my kroot and a couple wounds on the odd crisis suit. he controls the center objective and spreads out to take the two neutral quarters. His tervigon spawns about 10 gants. In return I shuffle about and wipe out his infiltrating genestealer brood and most of his gaunts. My broadsides alpha strike his tyrant and kill in ( 3 marker light hits means my broadsides are BS5....). I turboboost my piranhas right in front of his other two stealer broods and his Trygon.





END OF TURN 1: Scott 4 points, Me 2 points.

TURN 2
He continues to shoot my kroot who go to ground for the two plus cover save while his genestealers and trygon try unsucessfully to blow up piranhas while losing about 8 stealers to flechette dischargers. A lucky lance shot from his zoans blow up a D-fish which in turn kills 3 pathfinders, 2 wounded crisis suits, 2 firewarriors, and about 3 more kroot. His tervigon poops out another 9 gants but he rolls a double so no more gaunts. My piranhas turboboost again to contest the center objective while I finish wiping out the gants and destroy the trygon with concentrated fire from broadsides and crisis suits.




END OF TURN 2: Scott 5 points, Me 4 points

TURN 3
He's getting close now but due to horrible fleet rolls he's out of assault range. I kill a zoan or two and destroy his terivgon.



END OF TURN 3: Scott 5 points, Me 6 points.

TURN 4
He knows he's in trouble so he spends most of his time trying (unsuccessfully) trying to kill my troops and blow up my piranhas. At this point it's a mopping up operation. I kill his last zoanthrope, the rest of his genestealers, and his biovore. He's got a damaged warriors squad in his home quarter while I've got about 3/4 of my army left.

END OF TURN 4: Scott 5 points, ME 11 points.

TURN 5
His warriors put a few wounds on with shooting. He has one warrior left at the bottom of turn 5.

END OF TURN 5: Scott 5 points, ME 16 points.

I win the round with a 20-0 massacre. Which sees me on table two in the next round against aircav IG.

The pictures may be a little confusing but I hope they jive with what I remember of the game.

Anyway, round two and three soon. I forgot to take pictures but I have vassal pics - now I have to figure out how to upload them to dakka... any suggestions?

Good start to the battle reps, look forward to seeing some pictures.

Good pics! Look forward to the rest of the reports!

You can attach wargaming-related pictures directly to your posts. Only do this with wargaming related stuff, though, as it hosts the pic on Dakka and also puts it into the Gallery. Click on the attachments box directly under the text field.

more cool pics from the tournament for no particular reason...


TheRhino's ultramarines

Loyalist Iron Warriors

DEATHWING

Tau Bubble Wrap (preview of round 3 versus DoA Blood Angels)

So game 2 saw me totally forget to take pictures, but I've recreated the battle via Vassal.

This time, the mission saw us playing Bumbling in the Dark from "Ard Boyz a couple year back.

Objective: both armies are trying to capture three objectives in the middle of the night. The catch is that neither side knows exactly where those objectives are. 6 objectives are placed on the table and the real objectives are "revealed" one at a time at the top of turn 2, 4, and 6.

Deployment: Dawn of War
Special Rules: night fight (entire game), deepstrike, outflank, infiltrate, scout, reserves

Victory Conditions:
Massacre: you control more objectives and have earned more KPs than your opponent
Major: you control more objectives and have earned equal of fewer KPs than your opponent
Minor: neither side controls more objectives, but you have earned more KPs than your opponent
Draw: neither side has objectives and tied on KPs.

Battle Point Modifiers:
+1 if you destroyed your opponents HQ choices
+1 if you destroyed all yoru opponents troops
+1 if you control all the objectives
+1 if you have more scoring units in your opponents deployment zone than he has in yours.

My Opponents List
CCS - Straken, astropath, officer of the fleet, 2 bodyguards, medic, 3 melta gunners
Marbo
2x Vet Squads - 3 meltas, democharge, sergeant w/melta bombs
2x Penal Legion Squads
3x1 Vendettas
Leman Russ LRBT Squadron - 2 LRBT with hull lascannons and sponson heavy bolters
Leman Russ Squadron - 1 Punisher w/Pask w/ hull and sponson heavy bolters, heavy stubber. 1 Exterminator w/ hull and sponson heavy bolters, 1 heavy stubber

Apologies about the vassal pics. They aren't 100% accurate - it's more of a general idea of what's happening. Some of the details may be off (how many in a squad are killed, vehicle statuses and such)



I win the roll off for first turn and force him to go first. He responds by reserving everything (which is a mistake in my opinion).

I deploy the kroot mostly out of LOS to his board edge in the fortress to the right near one of the potential objectives while I deploy a squad of firewarriors out of LOS in the giant defense laser near the other objective (represented in Vassal by the gun pit and walls)


TURN 1 IG
*cricket* *cricket*

Turn 1 Tau
I move all my forces on along a broad front with the hammerheads and broadsides central to respond to whatever flank he comes in on. Pathfinders turbo boost to the center of the board. Crisis Suits flank the heavy support with troops and pathfinders filling out the flanks.



Turn 2 IG
The objective in the center of my lines is revealed to be one of the "real" objectives.
He gets both tank squadrons, a vet w/vendetta squadron and a Penal Legion Squad and Marbo. Vendetta comes on the right flank along with the legion squad. Shooting sees him kill some kroot and 2 crisis suits. Both tank squadrons move at cruising speed (about 8-10"), hug cover and pop smoke. Marbo drops his demo charge but it scatters badly and only kills one crisis suit from the center squad. Everyone makes their morale checks.



Turn 2 Tau
Piranhas fly up in front of LRBT squadron. Hammerheads advance to the center of the board. Left Firewarrior squad mounts up and zooms up to the newly revealed objective (marbo currently contesting). Commander and Left most crisis squad advance behind hammerheads. On the right, my kroot scramble out of cover to get the charge on the IG Penal Legion while my 3 remaining crisis suits from squads 1 and 2 shuffle around to get shots on the newly arrived vendetta. D-Fish on the right moves to further shield my kroot should they not be able to get back into cover following the assault.

My shooting sees the piranhas blow a battle cannon off a LRBT and the Left most Hammerhead destroys the damaged tank. The other hammerhead hits, but fails to pen the exterminator. the FCW squad camping near the defense silo can see marbo perched up on his fuel tank and blow him away. Broadsides and crisis suits in a flurry of shots manage to blow off two lascannons, immobilize and finally explode the vendetta - killing 4 of it's occupants. They pass morale and pinning. Kroot charge the penal legion squad and wipe them before they can swing. They cosolidate back into cover.



Objectives: Tau 1, IG 0
KPs: Tau 2, IG 0

TURN 3 IG
He gets Straken and his vendetta and his other vet squad with vendetta. Penal Legion Squad 2 still fails to show up. The damaged vet squad advances and blow away my pathfinder squad on the right.
He outflanks on my right with Straken and turbo boosts right up in front of my b-sides. His other vendetta shows up on the opposite side and snipes my commander. Pask and Co kill my lone crisis suit from squad one while the lone LRBT blows a fusion gun off one of my piranhas.



TURN 3 TAU
Piranhas manuever to get a side shot on the leman russ battle tank while my hammerhead split up one remaining near the center while the other flanks left as back up for the piranhas should it miss. Kroot once again jump out of cover and prepare to assault the IG vet squad. Crisis squad 3 jump out to get shots on the left most vendetta while my center shift around a bit to get shots at Straken's Vendetta and any cargo that may spill out. Shooting sees my piranha miss but the left most hammerhead aces the remaing LRBT in a massive explosion (my hammheads never missed a shot all game). my b-sides and crisis squad 2 (2 members left) open up on Straken's Vendetta and blow off all three lascannons and stun it. Crisis Squad three on the left flank blow a lascannon off the veteran's vendetta and shake it. Kroot charge out of cover and kill all the vets from the damaged squad. They consolidate back into cover.



Objectives: Tau 1, IG 0
KPs: Tau 4, IG 3


TURN 4 IG
The objective my firewarriors are camping on is revealed as "real"
He's in trouble and he knows it. His penal legion squad shows up on the same side as my right flank. Pask and Exterminator move forward and wipe out my kroot. Straken dismounts a meltas a shield drone before charging my broadsides. His shaken Vendetta on the left turbo boosts to contest the newly revealed objective. His penal legion squad is now contesting the right most potential objective located just outside the fortress (my d-fish is sitting right over it). Close combat sees him to a boatload of wounds to my broadsides but critically I manage to allocate all the power weapon wounds to the shield drone. I lose the shield drone and get a wound on my team leader and a wound on a regular broadside. In return, I kill the astropath and a melta gunner. I pass my morale test.



TURN 4 TAU
Piranhas move around to behind the Punisher and exterminator while everything else shuffles around. My hammheads move back to the center of the board to help deal with Straken when and if he gets out of combat. Crisis Squad two backs away from the melee and target straken's now mobile, weaponless vendetta. D-fish pivots and target the penal legion squad. Shooting sees me stun and immobilize the vet vendetta while my two crisis suits from squad 2 immobilize straken's vendetta. Hammerheads hit both shots on Pask but fail to damage his squadron. Piranhas whiff with the fusion blaster. D-fish snipes a couple of penal legion guys. Combat sees him kill off the wounded team leader b-side and the other wounded broadside. In return my lone b-side kills a bodyguard and HOLDS! In other news, crisis squad three charges the now immobilized vet vendetta and blow away the last of the lascannons. These vendettas are going down hard.



Objectives TAU 1, IG 0 (1 contested)
KPs: IG 3, Tau 4

TURN 5 IG
Pask and Exterminator turn around and blow one piranha up and blow the fusion gun off the other piranha. Gun drones disembark and pass their pinning check. Straken and Co. finally destroy the last b-side in assault and consolidate 6" toward the central objective my D-fish and firewarriors are holding. He spreads out to avoid pie plate death. Since the crisis suits are in close combat with the vendetta they rain more blows on the hull and finally wreck it. Vet squad spills out to contest the objective.



TURN 5 TAU
Although I would later find out I had plenty of time (I forgot it was 2 hours 15 minute round instead of 2 hours), I assume this will be the last turn and go for the kill. Gun Drones get around behind the exterminator and shake it. Crisis Squad two, the d-fish (which disembarks it's FCWs) and both hammerheads maneuver to get shots on Straken's squad. Crisis Squad 3, the remaining pathfinder squad, the FCW squad at the defense laser all target his vets. Shooting sees the first submunition take his bodyguards and officer of the fleet. Second submunition kills his medic and a melta gunner. Crisis Suit squad 2 wipes out the rest of the squad and puts some wounds on straken. FCW squad rapid fires Straken off the board. Crisis Squad 3, pathfinders squad 2, and FCW squad 2 rapid fire the vets off the board and the d-fish on the right kills a penal legion dude. Game is called as all he has left are two penal legionaires (who broke and ran) and Pask's Punisher and Exterminator.




Final Results
Objectives: Tau 2, IG 0
KPs Tau 7, IG 4

His choice to reserve everything really hurt him as his reserve rolls sucked. I think turboboosting everything up turn 1 would have been much more threatening. As it was, his force was divided and easy pickings for my anti-tank. Another mistake was constantly bringing in infantry on the left hand side where the kroot were just waiting.

MVPs: blacksun filters for my hammerheads - I never missed a night fight roll all game and my piranhas. They took alot of firepower off my suits and infantry and his reaction to them was all out of proportion to the one melta gun they had.
LVP: probably my commander as there wasn't much infantry for him to shoot on the left side.

Coming off a second massacre (well major in the first game with 3 bonus points) and the 23 points I had now saw me in third place right behind Kan Wall Orks with Ghaz and Nobs and a DoA Blood Angels list which is what I ended up getting paired against (great...). Fourth place was being held by a Speed Freak Ork list which ended up facing off against the Kan Wall.

Another great report! Looking forward to the last game.

You really shot him to pieces. There were a couple of moments where I thought the outflanking stuff might do enough damage to give you a fight, but it was not to be, 'eh?

Great battles. Very solid list. One of the few Tau armies done right that I've seen here on these battle reports. Keep it up.

thanks for the kudos - I'll throw up the third battle tonight. Here's the preview.

I was playing Dave, one of our resident GW tough guys. His lists are universally hard as nails (2x jetbike seer councils, DoA BA, Dark Elves for Warhammer etc..) He was currently tied for first place with our other warhammer tough guy Nate. I was about two or three points behind as far as BPs went. Right behind me was a newer player named Steve who is rapidly building a beautiful Speed Freaks army.

Anyway, here's our mission.

Hero Huntin'

You are tasked with killing the enemy general at all costs. Failing that, you must destroy as many of his elite units as possible.

So it's a modified KP scenario.
3 KPs for every HQ choice
2 KPs for elite, fast attack, and heavy support, and HQ choices that do not occupy a slot (command squads, munitorum priests)
1 KP for troops, dedicated transports
Importantly, drones do not count for KP.


Deployment: Pitched Battle
Special Rules:
Night Fight (turn 1), deep strike, outflank, reserves, infiltrate

His List: Descent of Angels Blood Angels
HQ
Librarian - jump pack, shield of sanguinius, preferred enemy power
Librarian - jump pack, shield of sanguinius, preferred enemy power

ELITE
3 Sanguinary priests - all with jump packs, one with power weapon

TROOPS
5 Death Company - power weapons, powerfist, Lemartes
Death Company Dread - blood Talons, melta, heavy flamer?
10 Assault Marines - flamer, melta, powerfist, inferno pistol?
10 Assault Marines - flamer, melta, powerfist, inferno pistol?
10 Assault Marines - 2 meltas, powerfist

HEAVY SUPPORT
Predator - autocannon, lascannons
Stormraven - multi-melta, lascannon, 4 bloodstrikes... maybe something else.


Pre Game Thoughts
Blood Angels.... damn. My list was better suited to smacking the two potential Ork players. FnP assault marines are tough for Tau to take and I think it is the Tau's worst match up. He had a definite psychological advantage going into this final game, but I was determined to make him work for it. The bright side is that he has almost as many KPs as I do (23 vs. 26). Another advantage is that I can happily throw away devilfish and firewarriors to conserve my more valuable suits.

Neat teaser! Sounds cool!

Thanks also for including shots of armies from the tournament. I recognize Todd's Ultras; faced him at the Boston Brawl this year.

I need to get back up to Crossroads for another tournament some time. The one I did get up for, Matt beat me down with his Orks to win it.

december 18th, 1850 points. $10 entry.

Prizes for 1st, 2nd, Best Sport and others based on attendance. We're averaging between 14-18 players a month

Okay, so for some reason, I can't get my vassal pics to work... I'll give you the text version.

So once again, for the mission and the opposing army list, look up a couple posts.

For those of you who may have forgotten, here's my list

Shas'el - AFP, twin missile pods, hw - target lock 93
3x3 Fireknife Suits - missile pods, plasma, multi-tracker
2x8 Firewarriors
10 Kroot - 7 hounds
2x4 Pathfinders
2 Devilfish - disruption pod, flechette dischargers
2 Piranhas - fusion blasters, target arrays, 1 disruption pod, 1 flechette discharger
3 Broadsides - plasma, multi-tracker, Team Leader w/ 2 shield drones, hw-target lock, bonding knife
2 Hammerheads - railgun, burstcannon, multi-tracker, disruption pod, blacksun filter

You can see my set up in the bubble wrap formation higher up in the thread. The BA player put everything in reserve and forced me to go first. Great.


Tau Turn 1: I spread out to further limit his drop options. He's got decent drop zones on either flank, or he could drop right in front of my entire army, but he's got a minimum of 18 inches to get to the suits on the inside. I consign my troops and finders to an early death.

Blood Angels Turn 1: *cricket* *cricket* "Uhm, Shas'el, why are we all just kind of standing here?"

Tau Turn 2: I turbo boost my piranhas to further limit his drop options.

Blood Angels Turn 2: He rolls and gets 2 of his assault squads (both with attached priests, 1 with attached libby), his predator, and his stormraven full of death co. and death co. dread. He plays it risking and drops both squads on my extreme right flank. One squad barely manages to stay on the table and the other comes about half an inch shy of mishaping on my right most pathfinders. His stormraven turboboosts up the right flank while his predator sneaks on in the center of the board to line up shots on my hammerheads.

Shooting sees his closest assault squad flame my pathfinder squad into oblivion while the other squad manages to blow off a burstcannon off one of my d-fishes. Storm Raven via PotMS blows a fusion gun off one of my piranhas. Pred whiffs against my hammerhead.

KPs: BA 2, Tau 0

Tau Turn 3: Time for the crisis suit shuffle. Crisis Suits surge right (only one squad gets in rapid fire range though) while the rest of the army shuffles to fill in the gaps behind them. The damaged d-fish moves slightly to keep the further away of the two assault squads from being able to jump 12" directly towards my suits. They'll either have to detour around them, jump into terrain, or spend a turn dealing with it. Piranhas scoot around the side of the stormraven while both hammerhead shuffle around so they can see both the Raven and the Predator.

As I line up my shooting the libby squad powers up shield of sanguinius but he rolls a double two and takes a wound. My B-Sides and three squads of crisis suits open up (one squad is out of plasma range though) open up on libby, priest and assault squad. When the smoke clears, he's got his priest, libby and two assault marines left. He made a ton of 5+ invuln saves. My piranha whiffs against the stormraven, but my nearest hammerhead shoots at it - hits, rolls a 6 to pen, he rolls a 3 for his boost save, and I roll a 4 on the damage table! It's wrecked! Thank God. Angry Marines and the Angry Dread pile out... they are in cover. My remaining pathfinder squad manages to get a markerlight on the predator which is enough for my other hammerhead to ace his tank after having it's BS bumped to 5 (I hit on a 2!).

One squad can't get out of the libby's charge range so I leave them right where they are. The other 7 suits jump back until they are lined up in three parallel conga lines with the b-sides the furthest towards his edge of the table.

KPs: BA 2, Tau: 4

Blood Angels Turn 3
He sees that I can effectively play keep away with my suits for the rest of the game if he doesn't do something. He gets his third ASM squad with libby and priest and has them drop in on the far left. I'm effectively surrounded so I am going to have to punch a hole or shoot 'em down before they get to me. Dread and Death Co. both Rage towards the weaponless D-fish while the untouched ASM squad on the right jumps around to side armor. 3 melta guns later sees the d-fish a smoking crater. Luckily the Death Co. is out of charge range.

Libby, Priest and his Two remaining ASMs charge the stranded crisis suit squad that I left out in the open and wipe them out. After he consolidates, he's sitting about 4-5 inches away from my suit block.

KPs: BA 5, Tau 4

Tau Turn 4
I'm actually not feeling too bad about this game and I think Dave is feeling a little disappointed even though it's pretty obvious he's going to win. I shuffle around one of my FCW squads on the right to make them the closest target for the death company (leading them away from the suits) while my kroot get out of the way. My piranhas hop over the hull of the destroyed raven while the hammerheads start moving out of my deployment zone. Unfortunately, I misjudge my movement on the right most hammerhead which will come back to bite me.

In shooting, my left most firewarriors squad, my pathfinders, and some other random shooting combines to kill 1 or 2 ASMs on the left. I take down a Death Co. with rapid firing FCW while my piranhas and both hammerheads combine to immobilize and blow bother arms off the Death Dread. Suit blob wipes out the remains of the libby/priest ASM squad and put a couple wounds on the untouched squad on the right.

BA Turn 4
Blood Angels are in charge range on the left and manage to get charge my pathfinder and FCW squad. His Death Co. charges my FCW on the right but manages to get his P-fist guy *just* into contact with my right most hammerhead. His right most ASM squad manages to kill of shield drone on my B-Side squad with shooting. The Death Co. predictably wipe out the FCW and he gets a stun on my hammerhead. ASMs on the left wipe out both the pathfinders and the FCW but shockingly his preferred enemy power causes a wound on his libby (second double one this game). The left most ASM squad gets a good consolidate move.

KPs: BA 9 Tau 11

Tau Turn 5
The moment of truth for me. I have no realistic chance of wiping out both the ASM squads. My B-Sides are likely to be charged next turn and I can't really move the full 6 inches in any direction. I decide that I'll I'm going to head left (more potential KPs that way and it's away from the Death Co.) wipe out that squad with shooting and then jump out of charge range leaving my B-sides behind to take the charge (2+ save may last long enough for me to get away from his army). Some funky jumping later and my B-Sides movinig up to rapid fire range sees 7 missile pods, 6 plasma rifles, and 3 twin-linked plasma rifles in rapid fire range of his ASM/Libby. Result? I roll horribly and only manage to kill about 5 of 'em. He's still got the Libby with one wound, his priest, and 1 guy left. Okay, I've got like a bunch of crisis suits in charge range. If I charge everything, I should be able to bury him under 31 Str 5 CC attacks. If I can break him and get decent consolidate moves all my suits will be out of charge range. BTW, Death Co. blows up the hammerhead

This is the key moment of the game. I declare my charges, and my b-sides get in there. Due to some very astute pile in moves on his part, both my crisis suit squads are about 1/8 and inch out of charge range My b-sides actually win combat by killing the libby.

Blood Angels Turn 5
His Death Co. chase after my kroot (who will lead them on a merry chase for the rest of the game). His ASM squad charges and kills two of my crisis suits. I manage to roll a two for my break test . In other news, my B-Sides continue to own the other ASM squad by killing the Priest. So there is that. He gets a wound through to my shield drone so tied combat. My commander and remaining Crisis Suit squad are along the far left edge of the board now.

KPs: Tau 16, BA 11

We go to Turn 6!
I was winning! But now I'm going to die. I don't have much to do this turn except try to get my commander and remaing suit squad out of charge range. My hammerhead aces a death co guy while the kroot continue to run away. My lone crisis suit predictably dies and my B-Sides and ASM marines beat on each other to no effect. Critically, the nearly full strength squad of ASM gets a full 6 to consolidate after beating down my Crisis Suit. yet another

Blood Angels Turn 6. His ASM squad is now in charge range of my suits. He charges, I lose horribly my commander runs off the board. The end. B-Sides and that Single ASM continue to beat the crap out each other.

End of the Game: KPs Tau: 16, BA 18.

So Dave gets a minor with a couple of bonus points (more scoring units in my deployment zone, killed all my HQs) while I get a minor loss with one bonus point (killing his HQs). We both wander over to the other table to watch Ghaz and Kan Wall wipe finish wiping the floor with Ghaz and Speed Freaks. So we knocked ourselves out of contention. Dave ended up getting second while I settled for third place in the tournament which is about average for me.

Post Battle Thoughts: I'm not too displeased with my performance. I made a couple range guessing mistakes (the failed crisis charge, the hammerhead movement). The bubble wrap did its job. It's really hard to effectively deny good drop zones to Blood Angels with their 12" move and D6 scatter. It's even harder to deny them good movement when they are down and I felt feeding them bait squads worked well. I feel the best you can hope to do against them is deny them their full 12" movement along the vector which would be move damaging to you (see D-Fish my turn 3).

The key move was when he decided to drop his third ASM squad on the left, thereby cutting off my escape route. This squad, although they didn't kill that much, restricted my movement and allowed the remains of his strong right flank assault to catch and route my army. MVPs of the game goes to that squad.

My MVPs were the B-Sides. They killed between 12-15 space marines with shooting (all with either 4+ or 5+ cover/invuln saves) and directly accounted for at least 10 KPs (both libbys, two priests). They were still alive and swinging against that one lone ASM from the left squad at the end of the game.

The tournament was great fun and I encourage anyone to come up and play. Next tournament is on the 18th of December, 1850 points, 10 dollar entry fee with usually top 2 getting store credit along with best sport (there is no army comp/painting score).

Hope you enjoyed the read.

Good read!

DOA is a tough match-up for Tau indeed.

My buddy plays Tau and I Blood Angles, sadly right now our area's frequency of play is WAY down so for the past few weeks its been Tau vs Doa every Tues Night.

I figure it's good training, if I can learn to survive Tau rapid firing and he can learn to avoid my ASM squads we will become better against armies with lesser abilites in those areas.

Awesome report writing. I've got a tourney coming up and I think that I'll be stealing some ideas from you. That mostly includes the army pics before-hand. Thanks for taking the time to write this up.

Great report, I was confused by one statement you made...

Due to some very astute pile in moves on his part, both my crisis suit squads are about 1/8 and inch out of charge range My b-sides actually win combat by killing the libby.

I assume you mean defender's react moves? How does defenders react matter for being in range of a charge, since it happens after all assaulting units have moved. Maybe I am misinterpreting something, but it seemed like an important 'hinge point' for the game.

calypso2ts wrote:Great report, I was confused by one statement you made...

Due to some very astute pile in moves on his part, both my crisis suit squads are about 1/8 and inch out of charge range My b-sides actually win combat by killing the libby.

I assume you mean defender's react moves? How does defenders react matter for being in range of a charge, since it happens after all assaulting units have moved. Maybe I am misinterpreting something, but it seemed like an important 'hinge point' for the game.

Re-ee-ee-ally?! I did mean the defender's react moves. I was told by three different people at the store that it was charge, defenders react, measure charge for the next unit etc etc. that would have totally changed the game. Now I know

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:

calypso2ts wrote:Great report, I was confused by one statement you made...

Due to some very astute pile in moves on his part, both my crisis suit squads are about 1/8 and inch out of charge range My b-sides actually win combat by killing the libby.

I assume you mean defender's react moves? How does defenders react matter for being in range of a charge, since it happens after all assaulting units have moved. Maybe I am misinterpreting something, but it seemed like an important 'hinge point' for the game.

Re-ee-ee-ally?! I did mean the defender's react moves. I was told by three different people at the store that it was charge, defenders react, measure charge for the next unit etc etc. that would have totally changed the game. Now I know

I always took it to be.
If 2 units are charging one...
Two units charge.
Both Units can make charge
Charging units pile in.
Defenders react
Chopy Chopy time..

The individuals in the shop were wrong, you cannot use the Defender's React move to pull units into charge range of other units or to clear charging lanes for additional units either.

As a Tau player this is probably better for you because it means a wide screen can protect the entire front of your lines if the models a spaced correctly without being 'drawn away' by a charge at the opposite flank.

I was going to point that out too. The rulebook is VERY clear that ALL assaulting units move, and THEN defenders react.

Great report, though.

Good to see Tau doing so well. Further proof that good generalship is always the chief deciding factor (although some good rolls always help).
I haven't really ever thought much of giving B-sides plasma rifles, but it seems like they are pretty dangerous after all.

Tortoiseer wrote:Good to see Tau doing so well. Further proof that good generalship is always the chief deciding factor (although some good rolls always help).
I haven't really ever thought much of giving B-sides plasma rifles, but it seems like they are pretty dangerous after all.

Yeah, plasma/multi B-sides are great. In my typical take-all comers list (of which this is a good representation) I find that the advanced stabilization system is generally not something I need. I either set them up with good fire lanes, or in the case of dawn of war, I just rely on missile pods and hammerheads for the first turn shooting. Dawn of War usually sees a lack of targets for the first turn anyway (I'm only going second 1/2 the time) and most players tend to try reserve/deep strike tricks against me.

In larger games, when I'm taking mutlitple b-side squads, I'll give one of them BASS and keep the other plasma/multi.

The greatest utility for me is the 24" "no-go" zone for tyranid monsters, daemon princes, greater daemons, and certain heavy units like Nobs, Obliterators, and the like. One of the interesting aspects of our terrain at the FLGS is the wide variety of multi-level ruins, buildings, bunkers, and similar structures. Heavy assault units will quite often be within 12" but out of assault range. Hitting a Space Marine squad with 6 twin-linked plasma shots and 3 twin-linked railgun shots makes a mess of most units.

My Tau do alright. I am not some great general, I make plenty of rules mistakes and some boneheaded moves. I think my saving grace is that I have stuck with a general style of list for my Tau (hybrid mech with strong, static shooting elements) and played a ton of games with it. No one here plays what I would call a min/maxed army so the much-maligned weaknesses of the Tau aren't as exploited as I find them to be when I take 'em to 'Ard Boyz.

Sgt_Scruffy wrote: My piranha whiffs against the stormraven, but my nearest hammerhead shoots at it - hits, rolls a 6 to pen, he rolls a 3 for his boost save, and I roll a 4 on the damage table! It's wrecked! Thank God. Angry Marines and the Angry Dread pile out... they are in cover.

Might be an old rule or me just being mistaken, but I thought if a fast skimmer moved flat out/turbo boosted, then if destroyed its occupants would be destroyed as well? If I'm wrong then please ignore

Only if it is destroyed in the movement phase in which it turbo boosted. This is clarified in the new FAQ and a common misconception.

What you might be thinking of is that an immobilized result also destroys a vehicle that moved flat out.