So I've been delving into the competitive world of tau lately using my own style. One of the more unique things about my list is that I do not use 2 of the things that most tau players deem mandatory; markerlights and broadsides. I also use what some tau players an excess of piranhas and firewarriors. But if you'd like to know more about the theorycraft of my army or have any suggestions please visit that threat here
http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/355070.page.
So here's the condensed list I used for the game:
HQ Shas'
el
plasma/missile/
MT,
HW Shield drone, bonding knife
Bodyguard x2
1.plasma/missile/
TA,
HW MT,
HW Shield drone
2.plasma/missile/
TA,
HW MT
(x2)
Troop Firewarrior x12 in Devilfish w/disruption pod, multi-tracker,
TA
(x3)
Troop kroot x16 = 112
Fast Attack Piranha x3
Targeting array x3, fusion blaster x3, disruption pod x2
(x3)
Heavy Hammerhead = 165
Railgun, disruption pod, burst cannons, multi-tracker
(x3)
= 2499
My opponents list was (to the best of my knowledge)
HQ Kaldor Draigo
HQ Librarian: hammer, psychic powers etc
Paladin x10 : apothecary, psycannon x4, psybolt ammo, brotherhood banner, stave, variety of weapons (few swords, most mastercrafted)
(x2)
dreadknight: incinerator, psycannon, greatsword, teleporter
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Pregame: So we rolled for mission and it ended up being killpoints and pitched battle, which honestly made my heartsink as he had 3 monster units total and I had well... an ungodly number of
kp's on the table. So I knew immediately that I would most likely have to table him in order to win, but I decided to not fret and to try and make it as good of a game as I could knowing that I had numbers on my side.
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Deployment: he won the first turn and decided to go first, here are some pics of his and my deployment.
If you havent figured it out yet, he gave his dreadknight the scout
USR, and used it to do his teleporter move before the game even started! How rude! Also you might have noticed that I'm using some catachan jungle fighters as proxy for my kroot as they were stolen! But no worries I bought a box of em today and next time you wont have to see this hideousness on the field again. Also in the corner nearest the dreadknight are my 9 piranhas, the picture didnt turn out well however, sorry about that.
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Here we go! *note that in pictures, yellow arrows = shots fired, yellow lightning = status changes, red lightning = destroyed units, hearts = wounds inflicted, blue arrows = movement, and green arrows = disembarking
top of turn 1
he immediately starts wearing away at my fireknives, a good choice on his part as they are probably the most dangerous unit to him. He kills a bodyguard and 2 drones
His OMGWTFBBQ! dreadknight moves in for the kill and single-handedly pwns 4 piranhas and 2 drones die from an explosion (curse you side armor incinerator!), his 2nd group of paladins focuses on my other piranhas and destroys 2 fusion blasters.
bottom of turn 1
My piranhas and a devilfish attempt to get some revenge on the paladins and dreadknight but only do 1 wound to the dreadknight, though they did do a successful job of bubble wrapping themselves.
everything else fires at the main paladin squad doing a fair number of wounds, 2 of my railguns hit the s10 shot but are saved against. Crisis suits hide behind the ruins and fish in the assault phase.
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Top of turn 2
He moves his paladins up the field attempting to finish off the crisis squad from turn 1, killing a guard and putting a wound on the commander who passes his leadership test.
His other paladins destroy the devilfish and the ensuing explosion takes out half of the firewarriors inside. The dreadknight BBQ's some more drones and destroys a weaponless piranha. He moves into assault the piranhas but utterly cannot hit on 6's even with rerolls.
Bottom of turn 2
The untouched fireknives move in behind the dreadknight and roast him.
The devilfish move in and unload and form a choke point with their mass and the drones as Shas'
el'O'
el' has ordered operation bubblewrap to commence! The paladins take fire from the kroot, devilfish, drones, 2 pie plating hammerheads, the lone commander suit, and every firewarrior in doubletap range! What resilient little buggers!
The piranhas and drones move in to fire on the weaker paladin squad with the help of a pieplate from a far away hammerhead, a couple of wounds are done though no fusion gun finds its mark. Holy drones batman did we just pin paladins? Hells yes we did.
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Top of turn 3
His main paladin group triple assaults me, killing the catacha.... kroot, and the 2 squads of 2 drones blocking my firewarriors.
Bottom of the 3rd
The devilfish form a pincer in front of the firewarriors attempting to block the paladins from getting through next turn as the firewarriors back up and doubletap, this with the added support of the hammerheads and a double 1 on his librarian for the shrouding and double 6 from draigos hammerhand help whittle a few more paladins away and take down his 300 or so point librarian.
The piranhas and undamaged crisis suits continue to whittle away at the other paladins, no pinning this time though :-(
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Top of turn 4
He multi assaults my drones and firewarriors, wiping the drones and causing the firewarriors to flee. He also moves into cover on his consolidation.
He smashes my poor devilfish, wrecking both of them.
bottom of the 4th
I continue to whittle away at both squads!
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Top of the 5th
realizing at this point that he just need to survive, he risks dangerous terrain to assault my firewarriors, losing a paladin but wiping a squad and causing the other to flee while he consolidates toward the untouched fireknives nearby.
He tries to kill what he can with the other paladins, and kills the 4 northernmost drones.
bottom of the 5th
My piranhas fail to kill the weaker paladin squad, forcing me to move my fireknives in to kill them instead of draigo, but they succeed!
The hammerheads and commander kill all but draigo and the apothecary which are now toughness 5, yuck!
Luckily the law of averages is on my side and the game continues on to turn 6!
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top of the 6th
Having forgetten to make my assault phase moves, Kaldor sees an opportunity and attempts to lock himself in with the fireknives to win the game, the fireknives being the only unit around strong enough to A: kill draigo, and B: survive and assault from him a smart move on his part. I, however, being a jerk, take his wounds on the commander and bodyguard with the drone controllers making 2 deaths turn into 4, the surviving
fireknife fails his needed snakeeye leadership rolls and runs off the board.
Bottom of the 6th
draigo and the apothecary are finally brought down by the commander and hammerheads! Tau win! Though its important to note that if the game had ended that turn I would have lost 17 killpoints to 3
lol
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postgame commentary coming soon! Hope you enjoyed!
greyknights mvp: Kaldor draigo!
This dude is so worth his points, hes impossibly hard to kill for a shooty army and in an assault will tear you a new one. He can give the dreadknight the scout
USR and he took 3 railguns to the face before he died because hes got friggin eternal warrior and that what he does. No wonder chaos leaves him alone, I certainly wanted to!
2000 Orks
1500 Tau 
7K Points of Black Legion and Daemons 
5K Points of Grey Knights and Red Hunters 
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
.....LVO GT 2014 Team Tournament - Best Generals
And if you're drinkin' well, you know that you're my friend and I say "I think I'll have myself a beer" 
W: 1 L: 1 T: 1
750 point Black Templar smashmouth army 
