Guard commander Hay Ho Flint and Tau Shasel Goyus of Borkan had been meaning to team up for some time, having knocked lumps out of each other for the last 2 years or so.
An opportunity arose at a recent doubles tourney held at Kingdom of Adventure in Kircaldy. It was 1.5k doubles, lists went a little like this:
Tau
HQ-1
El Goyus PR,
MP,
FB,HWMT, 2 shield drones
E-1 3 suits TLMP, flamers, team leader with 2 gun drones
T-1 20 kroot
T-2 20 kroot
T-3 9 fire warriors in a fish with Dpods
Guard
HQ-1 Hay Ho flint and retinue
T-1 20 guardsmen
? master of ordinance, chimera
H-1 Russ with battlecannon, lascannon
F-1 hellhound
Game 1 vs Blood Angels/ Vanilla Marines (Team Calder)
Calder list
2x dread
TL AC
2x dakka pred
2x 10man assault jump troops both with sanguinary priest
1x libby w jump pack
5 scouts led by master of the forge
Calders Snr and Jr decided to deep strike 2 units of assault marines.
The mission was Annihilation, table quarters deployment. Team Calder won the toss and took 1st turn.
before battle is joined:
In marine turn 1, the speeders turbo boosted into the Allied lines
speeders advance
El Goyus and his battle suited brothers took a serious amount of dakka from the marines. By the end of the shooting phase a suit had been killed, another 2 wounded and 3 drones destroyed! Thankfully they passed their morale check.
dakka from preds and dreads
The Guard/Tau alliance responded with vigour. Hay-ho Flint waved his guardsmen forward and Goyus led his depleted crisis team into close quarters to deal with the speeders. This seemed to do the trick, as the suits missiles blew up one speeder and the devilfish surprisingly put paid to the other. The hellhound roared forward and engulfed the scouts in flame, killing 2 but they held firm due to the steely presence of the master of the forge.
hay-ho advance
In marine turn 2, one of the assualt units deep struck in. The marines decided to combat squad, one unit of 5 with sanguinary priest appeared near the kroot and one 5 man unit without priest came in next to the devilfish. The priest squad did little against the kroot, who had a 3+ cover save as they were in woods. The other unit did better, melting the devilfish and forcing an emergency disembark on the fire warriors inside.
Angels deep strike next to devilfish
Angels deep strike next to Kroot
The scouts and dakka preds focused on putting wounds on the crisis suits. Shots rained in from all sides, and only Elgoyus stood afterwards, and he only had one wound remaining!
Goyus hides
The dreads sent their autocannon shots into the hellhound, and blew both its weapons off.
The Tau and guard really needed to get rid of the deep striking marines.
Wrecked Fish battle vista
The marines who melta'd the devilfish got rapid fired by the fire warriors, and got caught in a deadly crossfire between
El Goyus and the fire warriors that killed them all.
On the other side, the guard sent lasgun after lasgun shot into the priests unit, for no losses. Sensing danger, the kroot rapid fired into the marines killing three, including the priest!
Guard and Kroot close in on Angels
In the marine turn 3, the second unit of assault marines appeared in the middle of the field. They ran in the shdooting phase as Hay Ho Flint reminded them he had a battle cannon. Stupid humans.
El Goyus continued to live dangerously, somehow surviving the dakka preads for another turn. The dreads however, glanced the hellhound until it became a flaming wreck. The smaller surviving assault squad moved in to take the large guard unit, but got wiped out in return!
Assault troops get taken by the guard
It was now Tau/Guard turn 3 and suddenly there was a rather large threat on the allied doorstep. Every gun was trained on the large assault squad. Only 4 of 12 died.
In the marine turn 4, the inevitable happened, the guard were assaulted and routed. Sadly
El Goyus eventually met his maker as well, eating one
AC too many.
Large Angel Guard assault
With time running down, the Allied forces tried in vain to secure a vehicle killpoint. Imperial gunnery did not live up to its reputation.
At first it seemed like a
KP victory for the marines, but then we realised that a sanguinary priest counted as a
KP.
So the game ended in a 5
KP draw. The marines had wrecked a hellhound, devilfish, crisis team, crisis commander and guard blob. The Allies scored 2 landspeeders, 2 combat assault squads and a priest.
Great game, on to the next one!
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Game 2 vs Guard/Daemons (Team Zerg Rush)
Capture and Control, pitched battle deployment.
zerg rush list:
4 x 10 guard veterans w lasguns
Command suad in chimera
Russ with battlecannon/las
5 ratling snipers
2x 10 daemonettes with icon
soulgrinder
8 seekers
Guard and daemons won the toss. Kroot outflanked, suits tried a deep strike, devilfish with fire warriors was held in reserve.
Guard deployment
ratling snipers
Allies deployment
The soul grinder and one squad of daemonettes came down on Guard/Daemon turn 1. The daemons scattered into impassable terrain and rolled a 3 on the mishap table, ending up splashing down into a pond, killing one. The soulgrinder lined up its S10 AP1 shot to take out the hellhound, but missed.
Daemonettes mishap into lake
Soulgrinder deployment
Not much else happened in the first allied turn either. The master of ordinance killed 2 daemonettes with an orbital bombardment and the leman russ hit something for a change, disabling the soulgrinders close combat claws.
In guard/ daemon turn 2, the second unit of daemonettes deep struck in near the allied guard lines. The unfortunate original unit of mishapped daemonettes rolled terribly on difficult terrain and run moves, and ended their move still in the lake. The leman russ pounded the allied guard blob but with cover saves only one or 2 died. The soulgrinder blew the flame turret off the hellhound.
Hellhound flamer destroyed
On allied turn 2 both kroot units appeared on the flank near the action. Very lucky.
Kroot get flank move right
The green kroot whittled one daemon unit down to a single model. The allied leman russ took aim at the enemy command team chimera and blew it up. This was great news for the brown kroot. They multi-assaulted a unit of vets and the command team, routing them both. The multi melta on the hellhound sucessfully took out the soulgrinder with a long range shot.
In daemon/guard turn 3 the seekers arrived to threaten the allied blob guard. The russ took aim at the hellhound and immobilised it with a well placed lascannon shot.
seekers turnip
Two guard vet units turned and rapid fired the brown kroot, who took horrendous casualties and ran like the wind for the Tau table edge!
The brown kroot couldn't rally and kept on running, however their green bretheren managed to close in on another unit of vets.
Green Kroot assault veteran squad
Also this turn, the fire warriors turned up in time to take on the seekers. Massed pulse rifle fire combined with guard lasguns took them all out.
Fire warriors rapid fire seekers
The fire warriors were now in easy assault range for the remaining daemonettes, who exacted boody revenge, utterly annihilating them in Guard/Daemon T4. The green kroot took some fire but didn't run.
In the Allied turn 4 the green kroot reached the enemy objective while the allied guard blob rapid fired the last of the daemonettes, who died in a blaze of glory.
In the final turn the guard tried desperately to shift the kroot off the objective but to no avail, and in the allied turn 5 the crisis team turned up just in time to roast the last of the guard vets.
Kroot claim objective, devilfish hangs around in background.
Win! Fun game against what it has to be said was a very squishy list.
Onwards to game 3!
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Game 3 vs Team Fail (Orks)
The mission was 4 objectives and dawn of war.
Team Fail went for a numerous Ork Kan Wall list
30 boyz, nob
30 boyz nob
30 ardboyz nob
3x3 kans
KFF guy
3 deffcoptas
10 deffguns
The TGA won the toss and deployed 2 units of kroot on halfway to push the orks back. The orks responded by deploying nothing!
Form line!
As you can imagine the first turn for both sides was a non-event. The guard moved up on the allied left flank and the suits reinforced the right. In the ork turn 3 huge mobs of boys lumbered up behind their kan wall. A unit of 3 deffcoptas also moved to threaten the allied lines.
scary numbers
In the TGA turn 2, all fire was focused on the deffcoptas as the allies were worried about their rockets, assault and contesting capability. Two coptas were blown up and the third fled. The orks responded with some woeful run moves, however they were getting closer to assault range on both kroot units. The deffgun unit targeted the hellhound and glanced it into a wreck.
Concentrate!
Allied gunline
By now the Tau allies on the right flank were seriously lacking the blast markers to deal with the advancing orks(they were tantalizingly out of flamer range, and
El Gouys had lined his boys up against the 4+ save ardboys instead of the 5+ boyz. One rapid promotion too far?!). The crisis team blew up 2 kans on the allied right and immobilized the other. The guard blasted away to little effect. In the ork turn both units of kroot were assaulted and routed. Tau commander Gouys shook his head – in both cases the kroot forfeited run moves to get some shots in their turn. Silly Kroot, forgetting about Ork fleet moves! To add insult to a rather significant injury, they took pitifully few orks with them, especially on the Tau right flank.
Suits reinforce right - but is it enough?
Orkses advance
Since we had only time for one more turn, the pressure was on the allies. Thankfully the allied shooting was a bit better. Ord blasts killed 6 of the ard boys. And the Russ and lasgun blob annihilated the boyz unit on the left flank. The right flank was seriously over run, despite the arrival of the fire warriors in their fish. The orks destroyed everything on the Tau flank and the kans run move took them into contesting distance with the guard blob.
The Kill
Late reinforcements
With no time left for T5 and in any case the result not really in doubt, a comprehensive loss for the alliance!
Ah, killed by orks, plus ca change!
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Game 4 vs Team I like Tweenies (Wolves/ Blood Angels)
The mission was C&C, and spearhead deployment.
The tweenies had a very assaulty list:
10 greyhunters and priest in a drop pod.
rhino, 10 death company
rhino, combat
tac
combat
tac
speeder with missile launcher
2 melta attack bikes
5 longfangs
The Wolf-Angels won 1st turn and deployed mechanized units on the deployment zone edge.
Tac combat squad and longfangs were sitting on the objective, deep in their deployment zone. On the allied side, both units of kroot outflanked. Firewarriors were in reserve again. The drop pod didn’t come in till turn 1 so the guard castled in a corner around the objective with hordes of men and vehicles crowding around it – this proved to be a problem later in the game! The tau suits looked to engage the mechanized advance of the marines by hiding behind a building.
deployment
The marines won the toss, the drop pod coming down right next to the guard forces. The grey hunters were already swarming all over the objective!
Drop pod assault!
But limited damage was done to the allied units. The allies hit back, rapid firing the grey hunters but only killing one or two. The crisis teams took out the speeder with their missile pods.
El Goyus, who had broken off from the crisis team, managed to stun a death company rhino despite its popped smoke.
suits size up rhino
The master of ordinance blasted the long fangs, who ran when 2 of their number were claimed!
.. But then they regrouped automatically in marine turn 2! Training their sights on the crisis suits, they killed the remaining gun drone and wounded a suit. Morale check.. you know what happens next! The surviving suits had seen enough and fled off the table. Any Tau general knows the hell of seeing their prized elite unit rolling high teens on their
3D6 flee move, taking them off the table!
wheres my suits?
The grey hunters charged the guard blob squad and caused several casualties, but the summary execution by the commissar meant they stayed put for now.
fight to the death!
By way of revenge for his elite brothers,
EL Gouys popped the death company transport. He and the death company played hide and seek for the rest of the game.
The grey hunters eventually over-powered the guard units despite a second unit of vets charging into the combat (their path was obstructed by all the armour!). The kroot actually came on to this flank to reinforce it, but their path was blocked by armour and the sheer mass of humans!
kroot cant get into the fight
However the grey hunters were eventually caught in a vehicle crossfire leaving only the priest. The fire warriors unloaded on him, but miraculously he survived! He was contesting the objective!
immortal priest?
He responded by assaulting the fire warriors. They somehow took his last wound and consolidated onto the objective!
The game was decided in the Wolf-Angels deployment zone. The
tac rhino had moved onto the flank to protect it from the kroot. Ord blasts destroyed the footslogging
tac squad, and then the kroot outflanked, surrounding the rhino and destroying it!
kroot wreck rhino!
Since the vehicle was completely surrounded by the enemy, they couldn’t perform their emergency disembark and were killed, leaving the kroot time to walk onto the objective.
Win for the alliance!
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With a performance of 2 wins, 1 loss and a draw, 5th place was 'secured' for the Allies. Perhaps humans and tau can get on after all.....
A great day of games and some definite future opponents acquired! Oh, and brother bartius won best painted army!
