Game 2 Tau vs. Space Marines
Stuart_Kinnaird is one of my few regular opponents these days and we know each other well.. I expect a flyer and maybe some guard allies.
Stuarts List
Master of the Forge
Tac squad 1 flamer multimelta
Tac squad 2 flamer multimelta
Tac squad 3 flamer
ML
Tac squad 4 flamer
ML
Attack bike w/
MM
Dread w/ plasma cannon
Mission/ Deployment: Big guns, Vanguard strike
Pre-game thoughts
Not the sort of force I was expecting. Still, 40 marines not to be sniffed at, even with the
SM dex showing its age. I think my volume of fire will be enough to take them down, my main concern is the dreadnought getting into my lines. But the mission should favour me as I have 6 scoring units, I outrange my opponent and he doesn't look to be particularly mobile.
Idiots note:
There is a mix up with objectives[my fault]. Stuart thinks [correctly] the map is as shown in the book and I think as the controlling player I get to chose whatever corner I want - not so according to p119
brb. Stuart therefore places objectives in what he thinks will be his corner, and ends up being in on the same table edge but at the other corner. Blatant misreading of the rules by me, and the game is most certainly a bogey. Still interesting to see how the TauDex performed though.
Early doors
Stuart splits his forces. 2
Tac squads go for the forest on his table edge housing 2 objectives. The kroot blob infiltrate nearby:
I have my Fire warriors, ethereal and crisis suits on the same flank on the other side of a mysterious river. 2 Other
Tac squads, master of the forge and dreadnought go on the opposite flank:
The single Objective on this flank is in my deployment zone, nearby some sniper kroot. The rest of my force is quite central. Stuart siezes the initiative and his guys pour forward, inflicting damage on both units of Kroot. The 20-model blob fares better due to their being in natural verdant environment. In return the Kroot, Fire warriors and Ionhead team up to annihilate one
Tac squad and decimate the other. I get first blood by missile-spamming the attack bike, it looks like the marine assault is already blunted.
Mid Point
The two unscratched
tac squads led by the master of the forge “cross the rubicon”, which turns out to let them re-roll their armour save!
They focus their fire on the nearby sniper Kroot and annihilate them.
The remnants of the last
tac squad on the other flank charge the Kroot.. but are so weakened that the Kroot beat them down.
This flank is now completely uncontested.
Last act
The two
tac squads decide to advance out of the mysterious river, blowing up the two missile drones on the broadside. However they are now in the open and are taken to bits by the Ionhead and pathfinder-guided vespid [the vespid faring surprisingly well in
CC]. The broadside finishes off the dreadnought to complete a tabling.
Post-game thoughts
Clearly this game is more of a ‘what-if’ due to the deployment bungle. However faced with 40 marines the Tau didn’t blink. The main advantage I had was my range, and there were not really many fast-moving threats for me to deal with. Once the
MM-toting attack bike had been taken out it was a case of outranging lots of tactical marines. Another factor in my favour was a relatively sparse table, meaning my AP3 weapons were much more effective. If Stuart had kept his force together I wonder how that would have panned out.. especially with the threat of a charge from a dreadnought. But overall it’s another case of lots of shots=win.
Automatically Appended Next Post: Game 3 Tau vs. Dark Eldar
I was playing dakkanought Caranthir, and with 2 wins apiece this is probably the tourney decider. I’m looking at his list, packed with light vehicles and T3 infantry, thinking: auto-win. But I know Caranthir is a very good player, having won tourneys in the past. But just because of the lists, I’m confident.
Caranthirs List
An
HQ – angry pointy eared pirate chick
8 wyches in a raider with Dark lance
8 wyches in a raider with Dark lance
7 wyches in a raider
4x venoms with an assortment of small units riding inside
Mission/ Deployment: Scouring, Dawn of War
Pre-game thoughts
I played dark elder in a recent tourney with my sisters and netted quite a straightforward win. This coupled with my better range should make things easier than it was with a sisters army. However, a couple of factors balance things out. 1- Caranthir is a very good
DE veteran. 2- we are on a
LOS-blocking ruins table, and his warlord trait is stealth ruins.
Early doors
I have a fire warrior castle in the centre, broadside on the right in ruins, vespid on the left in ruins. I decide to outflank the big Kroot blob to grab an objective late on.
Caranthir has his vehicles hidden behind big ruins, gets first turn and its night fighting. He turbo boosts 2 of his raiders up my right flank next to my broadside, but almost entirely out of
LOS.
On the other (vespid) flank, another raider does the same.
The
DE shooting breaks the Kroot snipers who run. The turn after that it’s the crisis team who feel the overwhelming venoms wrath. I have a frustrating 1st shooting phase- I can see hardly anything due to Caranthirs excellent use of
LOS blocking terrain. The vespid try and take out their nearby raider, but can’t even manage to glance it. The broadside can’t see anything and its
SMS can’t get past the armour of the raider. The Ionhead takes a dark lance off one raider but can’t hurt the other one.
Midpoint
The two raiders disgorge their wytch cargo, who charge and tie up the broadside in
CC. The vespid are charged and wiped by their wytch opponents. The splinter cannons on the venoms start work on the fire warriors, who go to ground to limit the casualties along with
FNP 6+. The Ionhead immobilizes a raider: this is probably my biggest achievement so far. The wyches win combat against the broadside and run it down.
Endgame
The kroot outflank near a Dark Eldar objective, and with the help of fire warriors, finally take out a venom. They take a turn of shooting without fleeing, and in their turn attempt to multi assault 2 small units for a glorious objective grab.. but get beaten back and run down. The fire warriors attempt to rush an objective but I miscalculated their move and they fall well short of scoring. The wyches take a turn of shooting but have the luxury of 3+ ruin saves and
FNP, and although I haven’t taken much damage, it’s an overwhelming objective victory for the Dark Eldar.
Post-game thoughts
Um.. I played a better general? That is part of the answer but not all of it. The terrain helped, as did the warlord trait which granted stealth ruins. The other big part in the jigsaw was the high mobility of the Dark Eldar. Few other armies have the mobility to utilize
LOS blocking terrain as effectively as the fast moving piratical pointy-ears. Was my deployment flawed? Possibly. I thought the broadside would be safe due to the volume of fire it puts down.. but this is useless if it can’t see anything! Also re-deploying it does decrease its accuracy somewhat [too right! I hear you say]. If I played this game again I’d probably castle everything in a massive blob and move the blob en-masse to the highest value objective. As it was my limited fire lanes neutered the destructive potential of my fire warriors completely. Caranthir was a worthy winner of the Tourney [his second victory in its 4-year history].
And in the end?
I love the new dex. Love it. The best thing [as other Tau have pointed out], is its versatility. I haven’t even thought about mech, or riptides[ok, ok so I’ve thought about *them*], or flyers, or gun drone squadrons, or other
HQ choices. As I said to dakkanought embraceyourinnergeek, this should keep us out of trouble for a few years.
FOR THE GREATER GOOD
3000 Points
500 Points
