Purposeful Hammerhead Pilot
Murrieta, CA
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My list was as follows:
HQ- Space Marine Captain 210pts
+Relic Blade
+Storm Shield
+Artificer Armor
+Space Marine Bike
+Digital Weapons
+Meltabombs
Troops- Space Marine Bike Squad 275pts
+3x Extra Bikers
+Powerfist
+Meltabombs (Only here because I had 5 points left over and the captain would be in this squad allowing me to drop 2 meltabombs on a tank if need be)
+2x Plasmaguns
+Attack Bike
+Multi-Melta
Troops- Space Marine Bike Squad 260pts
+3x Extra Bikers
+Powerfist
+2x Meltaguns
+Attack Bike
+Multi-Melta
Troops- Space Marine Bike Squad 310pts
+5x Extra Bikers
+Powerfist
+2x Meltaguns
+Attack Bike
+Multi-Melta
Elites- Assault Terminators 200pts
+5x Thunderhammers/Storm Shields
Fast Attack- Stormtalon Gunship145pts
+Typhoon Missile Launcher
Fast Attack- Stormtalon Gunship 145pts
+Typhoon Missile Launcher
Heavy Support- Vindicator 120pts
+Dozer Blade
Heavy Support- Vindicator 120pts
+Dozer Blade
Heavy Support- Storm Raven Gunship215pts
+Twin-Linked Multi-Melta
+Twin-Linked Lascannon
+Extra Armor
[2000pts]
10kp
Opposing List: Tau
1 Shas'O (Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, Multi-Tracker, Shield Generator)
Bodyguard (Plasma Rifle, Missile POds, Multi-Trackers, Targetting Array), Team had 2 shield drones (don't know who had the drone controller)
4x 12 Fire warriors (Sergeants with blacksun filters in all squads)
2x 8 Pahtfinders (Had Sergeants, not sure if he had black sun filters I don't use them on these squads)
Required devilfish had diruption pods and sensor spines.
2x Hammerheads (Railcannon, dual burst cannons, mutli-tracker, disruption pods, sensor spines)
1x 2 Broadsides (Team leader with target lock, both had Targetting array) 2 shield drones.
1x 3 Crisis Suits (Fusion blaster, flamer, multi-tracker, team leader had multi-tracker) (1 Shield drone, 1 marker drone)
Deployment: Opponent won both the roll to go first and the roll to choose sides. The mission was Purge the alien on hammer and anvil.
My warlord rolled -1 enemy reserves. His warlord rolled precepts of defeat (his words, not mine)
He deploys his pathfinders all the way forward at the edge of the deployment zone. He place the broadsides centrally on the forest behind the central hill. 1 hammer head and devilfish on each side (firewarriors waiting patiently outside to hop in on turn 1 as the fish actually belonged to the pathfinders. He places 2 squads on firewarriors into forest, one each behind a pathfinder squad (he put them on opposite sides of the map). The plasma/missile suits deployed behind the hammerhead on his left (my right) side. His Fusion/Flamer Squad is placed in reserve (deepstrike).
Looking at my opponents army, and having played tau before, I know the best way to fight them with bikes is to simply dump every bike I can into Their face with turbo boosting. So I deploy the vindicators behind the central hill so as to keep them out of line of sight of the broadsides. I then surround the front and sides of the tanks with bikes to get a 5+ cover from the hammerheads who will inevitably move to take shots at them (I know he has markerlight, but I'd much rather force him to spend the lights on the tanks than helping other units kill bikes). Aircraft reserve, and termis stay on board the storm raven. My deployment is toward the right side ignoring his left flank.
I roll to steal (as taking first turn away from the tau would allow me to rush his forces before I get shot up) The roll fails and the opponent procedes with turn 1.
Top of 1: The hammerheads move forward on each flank to line up shots on the vindis. The Fire warriors load up in the devilfish. The suits jump a little forward. The firewarriors in the forest stay put (1 forest turns out to be ironwood, the other is carniverous) After advancing he bengins shooting. On my left, his pathfinders lay a single markerlight hit on my vindicator, on my right the pathfinders score only 2 markerlight hits (so far... so good). The railguns fire. on my left he drops my coversave by 1, rolls to hit, and misses. On my right, he adds 1 to BS and drops my cover by 1 he fires and immobilizes the vindicator (damn, but at least he didn't get first blood) He fires some long range fire at my bikes but it all bounces off of the 2+ armor save of my captain. The carniverous forest manages to eat one of the fire warriors.
Bottom of Turn 1: I proceed with operation "bum rush" And move all of my bikes 12" forward to the tau lines. Unfortunately without "dust of a thousand wolrds" to protect my bikes, I fail 3 dangerous terrain test on my meltabike squad as I drive over a hill and lose 2 meltagunner bikes, and another mook biker. The mobile vindi advances and lines up on the hammerhead and devilfish that are next to eachother. The vindi fires and takes a single hull point off of the devilfish (a weapon destroyed result), but the disruption pod protects the hammerhead, and I catch a single shield drone in the demolisher plate as well, killing it. The bikes all then turbo another 12" towards the tau line.
Top of 2: This for me is the moment of truth. My hope here is that he simply cannot kill enough of my bikes to keep me from swarming him in CC. The enemy rolls reserve, but rolls a 1 and gets nothing. He moves his left hammerhead forward to shoot at the vinidicators, the right hammerhead pulls back trying to put some distance between it and the bikes in front of them. Both devilfish disgorge firewarriors in a protective line between the rest of his army and my bikes, and in a daring move he tank shocks all 3 bike squads with one of the devilfish (the other fish pulls back in front of the broadsides). In a stroke of luck for him my captain's squad rolls an 11 on moral and falls back (I was hoping to blast him with a meltaun in Death or Glory) The other squads that he would hit didn't have any melta in the path of the vehicle so I declined death or glory with them. The fall on the bike squad is 12" Since the other bikes were behind the captain They angled to my left as they fell back and ended up on the other side of a hill mostly out of line of sight or the bulk of the tau army. Deciding that a carniverous jungle was a bad place to hang out the firewarriors on the far corner push forward out of the trees and into the open. The combined wieght of the railguns (I messed up and moved my vindicator too far forward and the broadsides could see it) Take down my forward vindicator (first blood is claimed). One squad of pathfinders assists in the destruction of the vindicator, the other squad lights up a bike squad for a metric f*** ton of BS5 bolterfire on my biker squaqds. When the dust settles, my plasma squad has the sergeant and a single plasmagunner remaining. The meltasquad (the one who lost both meltabikers) has a sergeant, a biker, and the attack bike remaining. The firewarriors that decided the carniverous jungle was a bad place to live set their sights on the captain's squad and pick off a bike. Both bike squads pass morale.
Bottom of 2: Things are looking OK for me. 2 of my bike squads are shot to hell, but they are in a good position and my captain's bike squad only down 1 bike. I roll reserves and all 3 aircraft show up. I line up the storm talons one on the flank that I had refused with my bikes. One lines up on the pathfinders, the other on the fire warriors, both in the open. The storm raven comes sceaming onto the board stoppoing just in front of the hammerhead on the left. The captain's bike squad regroups and advances in front of the dual squads of fire warriors that had murdered many of my bikes. The remnants of the plasma bike squad move toward the pathfinders stacking up in anticipation of an assault. The other remaining bike squad stops next to the devil fish to claim an easy kill point. It turns out that that easy killpoint isn't so easy, I score a hit with the meltagun but he jinks. The stormraven splits fire, the Multi-Melta fires into the hammerhead in front of it, scoing a stun result, and the missile's and twin-linked lascannon slam into the devilfish in front of the broadsides, but jink saves stop all but one shot which merely immobilizes the vehicle. The captains squad decides to hold fire, not wanting to scare off their intended assault targets. The plasma bikes do the same. The stormtalons do some serious damage to their respective targets killing 4 firewarriors and 4 of the pathfinders. Neither squad is pinned by the stragfing runs. The firewarriors hold their ground, but the pathfinders fail morale and fall back 3". In assault the captains squad mult-assault both firewarriors and my captain takes a single wound to overwatch. The captain and bikers swiftly butcher the enemy, sweeping both squads. The plasma bike squad makes it to the pathfinders unharmed and the pathfinder sergerant duels the powerfist sergeant on the plasma team combat is won 3-0, and the pathfidners are sweeping advanced by the bikes. The remnants of the meltabike squad assault the devilfish in front of it but fail to do anything but glance the devilfish. I made back some points this round but now my captain's squad is still sitting in front of some fireknife suits and firewarriors.
Top of 3: My opponent rolls for reserves again, but rolls a 3 (my warlord trait delays his fusion/flamer squad). The Hammerhead on his left pulls back further away from the bikes. The pathfinders regroup and move back to their original location. The firewarriors on both sides stand their ground. The crisis team adjust slightly to take a bead on my captains's squad. The devilfish, looking to score some more luck tankshocks the captains squad again. This time however the meltagunner at the back of the squad is ready for him. I pass leadership and take a death or glory shot on the devilfish. Turns out I got both as the shot explodes the devilfish and my metagunner dies in the resultant explosion. The stunned hammerhead takes a shot at the immobilized vindicator trying to pick up a killpoint but misses. The broadsides (using split fire) take one shot at the storm raven and my left storm talon, but miss due to needing 6's to get the job done. Fire warriors in the open return fire on the storm talon taking a single hull point away from it with a glancing hit. The other hammerhead dumps a submunition round into the captains bikes, and long with the burstcannons takes a second wound from the captain. The crisis team and firewarriors pour fire into my captain's squad and kills off a biker, the attack bike, and a sergeant who dove in front of a plasma shot to save my captain. The captains squad passes morale.
Bottom of 3: At this point my only remaining hurdles are the fire warriors in the ironwood, the crisis team and the broadsides. The captains squad and the plasma squad both stack up on the crisis team. The stormtalons both advance 18" towards the targets they shot last turn. The storm raven, still not close enough to drop hammernators on anything but a hammerhead zooms right up to the broadsides. The small squad with the sergeant and attack bike moves towards the immobilized devilfish to claim another Killpoint. In the shooting the attack bike shoots and fails to kil the devilfish despite his lack of coversave and me being in melta range. The storm raven dumps its remaining missiles into the broadsides Killing a single shield drone. The captains bike squad and the plasma bike squad fire into the crisis team (I was close enough that I didn't expect to kill enough to push him out of assault range, and if he ran he would fall off of the board). I kill the last remaining shield drone on the crisis team. One storm talon blasts the pathinders who go to ground saving a single pathfinder. The other stom talon kills another 5 firewarriors. The Pathfinder makes morale as he cowers on the ground pinned by aircraft fire. The remaining firewarriors on the left flank cut and run after having been decimated by another turn of air to ground fire. The crisis team with Shas'o however holds their ground in defiance. The 2 bike squads by the crisis team assault the suits and overwatch kills the plasmagunner. In assault the Shas'O issues a challenge, I accept with the powerfist sergeant hoping to crush his 4 wounds with my powerfist. Hammer of wrath hits deal 1 wound to a suit. The Shas'O fails to grab hold of the sergeant, the sergeant then hits him with the powerfist, only to be stopped short by the commander's shield generator. The captain meanwhile butchers the remaining suits. The Shas'O passes morale and stays locked in combat.
Top of 4: The fusion/flamer suits finally arrive on scene and deepstrike behind the crippled vindicator to claim an easy kill point and possibly linebreaker (all of my other assets are in the opposing deployment zone now) The Hammerhead that was stunned earlier adjust slightly to get back in the fight and lines up to shoot at the storm raven. The other hammer head pulls all the way back to my opponents boad edge. The fire warriors in the Ironwood forest move forward slightly to get more bodies in double-tap range of the squad with the attack bike. All railguns take aim at the storm raven in a last ditch effort to keep hammernators from assaulting the broadsides, but fail to land any hits on the flier. The firewarriors double-tap the bikes and kill one of them, leavinng only the sergeant and an attack bike. The fuision team somehow only manages to deliver a glancing hit to the back armor of the vindicator. The squad with the attack bike fails morale and falls back. Combat resumes with the crisis team and the bike squad is forced to stand and watch as Shas'O finally rips the powerfist sergeant off of his bike and pulles him neatly in half. Deciding to pull back I use combat tactics to fall back away from the combat. The Shas'O fails to catch me and I fall Back 12" Shas'O gets only a sinlge inch of consolodation.
Bottom of 4: The captain's squad stacks up on the shas'o. The squad with the attack bike regroups and zips over towards the hammerhead that is at midfield. Both storm talons stay in flight mode. One swings to the right of the last remianing pathfinder, it's turret swivelling around to keep the pathfind in sight as the craft flies past. The other trains on the hammerhead at the back edge of the board. The storm raven drops out of hover mode, moves just past the broadsides and unloads hammernators right next to the broadsides. The wounded vindicator returns fire on the Fusion/Flamer crisis team, but misses. The attack bike squad wrecks the hammerhead with bolters and a krack grenade. The storm talon aimed at the hammerhead manages to wreck it's target. The other Talon kills the lone remaining Pathfinder with it's assualt cannon. The Captain's squad unloads on the Shas'O, but the shield generator holds strong against the meltagun. The storm raven manages only to kill a single firewarrior with its meltagun. In assault, the Hammerators rush the broadsides and destroy them with little effort and gain 6" of consolidation towards the firewarriors. The Captains squad charges Shas'O again. This time the captain accepts Shas'O's Challenge and runs the suit commander through with his relic blade after ramming the commander with his bike.
Top of 5: No movement. The firewarriors seeing their commander fall, decide to ignore the onrushing hammernators and drown the captain and his bike squad with pulse rifle fire. The Fusion/Flamer suits finally kill off the Vindicator stranded in my deployment zone. My captain and the remnants of his bike squad die in a blaze of glory as the firewarriors rain vengeance down upon them.
Bottom of 5: All aircraft enter hover mode and move 12" towards the fuision flamer suits in my deployment zone. The bikes that killed the hammerhead do the same. The terminators move towards the Firewarriors. The Aircraft and bike kill but a single drone from the crisis team. The hammernators butcher the firewarriors until they flee and hit the board edge.
We roll to continue and play continues to turn 6. The Tau player wants to see if he can claim 1 more KP. He moves the fusion/flamer suits forward and kills the attack bike leaving only the sergeant. I pass morale and he then assaults me. I challenge him, he declines, I pass all armor saves and am able to kill 1 drone and 1 suit with the powerfist. The suits fail morale and are swept. Game ends due to tabling.
The Tally: My opponent had 5 KP, first blood, and slay the warlord for 7VP. I had all 14 of his KP, slay the warlord, and linebreaker for a total of 16kp. Despite the score desparity it felt close until turn 3.
Given that I own a Tau army I knew their weakness and what they tend to fear. And while the tau codex is old, this was a fun fight. I hope to see some new tricks in the tau codex, whenever it comes out.
The Aircraft were able to help me cover the off side of the field and my speed allowed me to rush him with more bodies than he could kill.
As usual, I wouldn't mind any thoughts or advice you guys have to offer on the list or these games.
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Space Marines (Anything but BA or GK): 6k
Tau: 3k
