Tail-spinning Tomb Blade Pilot
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1850 Khorne Chaos vs Tau
Aaron and I decided to finally get a game in after a month of our schedules deflecting the opportunity to play. He wanted an 1850 game, so I took a Khorne army I have been working on.
My List
Chaos Deamons/ Chaos Marines
DEAMONS
HQ
Thirster (2 greater rewards)
Herald of Khorne (Exalted/book of names)
Skulltaker on Jugernaut
Troops
15 Bloodletters w/ blood banner
10 Bloodletters w/ instrument
Fast
10 x Khorne Dogs
Heavy
Khorne Grinder (Flamer)
Khorne Grinder (Flamer)
CHAOS MARINES
Khorne Lord (Termy Armour w/ chainfist)
Troops
10 x Cultists
10 x cultists
Fast
Helldrake (flamer duh!)
Heavy
Maulerfiend
Aegis Wall- No weapon
Why Khorne? There’s a lot of anti psychic stuff runnnin’ around these days, and I just don’t trust those lists needing the powers to go off to be effective. Lots of Eldar allies, Tyranids, and even runepriests, and any one of those matchups can go bad if you are depending on invisibility/prescience/biomancy powers to do heavy lifting.
Aarons Tau List (bear with me, I don’t have a grasp on all the Tau weaponry)
HQ
Etherial
Commander in Crisis Suit. (2+ armour, 2 marker drones, 4+ invul., donkey punch, can give tankhunter/monster hunter etc., T5)
Elite
3 Crisis suits (2 had 2 Melta guns. The other had no weapons, but allowed the other two to twin link their melta guns.)
Riptide (3 Shot S7 gun that could be charged up to a S8 blast, Missisles on his shoulder)
Troops
20 Kroot or so with a hound for outflanking
12 Fire warriors (Sarge had marker light)
12 Fire Warriors (same)
Heavy
2 Broadsides (Each had 2 missile drones, skyfire, missile hands, missiles on shoulders)
Sniper Drone team w/ 7 Drones
Fast
Bomber
6 Pathfinders
14 Shooty drones
Lots of guns, guns, guns. Aaron wore me out going through the amount of shots and ranges before the game.
So a classic match up of a melee army vs pure guns in 6th edition.
We roll up a mission and get the scouring. We decide to do the mission Adepticon style and play a second primary mission….KP, with Fast being worth double. Deployment, Hammer and Anvil.
I roll rewards and the Thirster gains 4+ FNP and +1 wound/It will Not Die. Not bad. We roll warlord traits. Aaron gets gains Skyfire for 1 turn on his crisis suit commander and his unit. I gain- reroll all demonic instability tests when within 12” of the Bloodthirster. Pffttt! Im sure that will come in handy if the Tau start dominating the assault phase….near my Bloodthirster.
I deploy my Aegis in the center of the board so I had a launching point for assaults. I have 2 strategies in mind…..if I win roll off, deploy aggressive, and squeeze him into a corner, hope I can hold out against firepower of that magnitude. If I go second, I will deploy away from his army with most my stuff, and deepstrike about half of my army, with the far away deployed stuff coming up behind a turn 2 pounce.
We roll off and Aaron wins….he chooses to go first.
The board has 2 Rune Pieces on one flank of the Aegis, and they provide some LOS blocking. Aaron has a 3 story rune piece in his deployment zone and most of his army anchors to it. The sniper drones fill the top 2 levels along with the Etherial, and crisis commander. Fire warriors fill around the base. A Riptide stands between the large ruin and the board edge. Broadsides and pathfinders deploy in some area terrain 18” away or so. Aaron is careful to measure how far the Blaeflamer can reach when it arrives, and deploys behind that line.
The Tau are dug in. We placed terrain, and even though I got the LOS blocking runes in the center, Aaron put all his terrain in the back of his deployment zone, so it left a nice 12” killing zone in front of his army.
I put the Thirster in the opposite corner of Aarons ruin full of Tau. The maulerfiend and large Bloodletter unit hang out nearby. Mr. Grimmore is with this large pack also. I put the Chaos lord with a unit of cultists spread out on the back board edge (remember, hammer and anvil). The rest went in reserve. Grinders and Bloodletters drop, Skulltaker and Hounds outflank.
Now, do I attempt to sieze……why not. Im not really set up to alpha strike, and his reserves could react to my reserves (kroot walk on behind hounds and gun them down for example). I think what would Khorne do….he would seize…….I toss the dice and “6”…..seized.
We then roll up the value of the objectives (luckily we just remembered) and the pathfinders are near the “4” objective. The ruins full of Tau has a “2”. No mans land contains a “3” and a “1”. The Khorne Deployment zone has the “2” and “3”. Well that will definitely force my hand. If I had the high value objectives in my deployment zone, this game could nearly be over already. Well at least I wont be torn as to what to do….attack.
Ok, not really much to do, I grimore the maulerfiend and fail, so he runs behind a building. Thirster flies up behind a building. The rest of my army cautiously walks forward, measuring max range of Pathfinders, sniper rifles, missiles, all the while, not yet ready to commit to the head long charge.
Bottom 1. Aaron shuffles around, Takes some pot shots at The thirster and causes 2 wounds. He fires the broadsides at the Maulerfiend and manages a glance. Snoozer turn, but just opening moves to a really good fight.
Top 2. I roll for the Bloodletters w/ instrument and get them. I then auto get to pick antoher unit to bring in, so I grab a grinder. I also get the other grinder, the remaining cultists, and the khorne dogs. Helldrake sits tight.
TOP 2. I roll for Skully and the dogs, and they are coming in from the pathfinder flank. With that in mind I try to use the grinder to pressure the ruins full of Tau. I drop one about 10” in front of the Broadsides, the other about 10 “ in front of the ruins full of Tau. I Grimore the Maulerfiend and it is Successful. Maulerfiend dashes forward and is at the exact middle of the board already. Thirster swoops forward as well, and flies near the pathfinders, away from most of the Tau guns…well as away as you can be. First grinder targets some lowly firewarriors, and the flamer w/ the reaper arm cut down 9 Tau. The other Firewarrior squad doesn’t fare much better with 7 going down. Cultists scurry around finding objectives to sit on, with the Khorne Lord on a flank in case Kroot decide to show up. I am poised to hit with a lot of things next turn, now the question is….how many can he take out in his turn.
Btm 2. Aaron gets the bomber, large blob of drones, and the crisis teams. Kroot hang in reserve. His bomber comes in nose to nose with the Thirster. Crisis suits drop in on one of my grinders (within fusion blaster half range). The drone blob drops BEHIND my army near the lord attached to the cultists. The drones unload and kill every cultist. The Lord stands there dumfounded as to what happened to his followers.
First Blood to TAU.
The bomber does nothing to the Thirster. The Crisis team unloads on the Grinder but he deflects 2 Pen rolls with his invul. save. It leaves Aaron one pen. roll to make, and ….immobilized. Eh….Ill take it, hes alive and that’s more than I was expecting. Riptide unloads on Thirster, but the 4+ FNP holds up and I merely take a wound. Broadsides unleash on the Maulerfiend, but his 3+ invul save is proving to be a thron in Aarons side, and no damage is taken. The rest of the shooting results in 2 Khorne Dogs being killed. Aarons suits jump effortlessly away from my mobile grinder, hunkering down around the ruins. Aarons drone bob jumps away from my Khorne lord, and I wonder if I can even rech those things next turn.
Top 3. Helldrake stays in the warp. Thirster vector strikes the Bomber and wrecks it. Skully and the dogs eat the pathfinders without much resistance. I roll for Warp Storm and …..-1 to all Invul saves. What the…well that sucks. Maulerfiend…..I realy want to send him in, but my only real target is the crisis teams, and I don’t like the idea of those twin linked fusion guns going off in overwatch, as well as a riptide for back-up. I don’t see anything that can reliably catch the drone squad so Maulerfiend does an about face and backtracks to the blob of drones that are mocking me. He quickly destroys the entire unit to “no retreat!” This frees up Khorne lord to go attach to the other cultists blob. I grimmore my large blob of bloodletters, but they fail! No invul. save for them this turn. I hunker down behind the Aegis. My other bloodletters are behind one of the ruins toward the center of the board, out of site/ out of mind (hopefully!). The girnders team up and kill 3 fire warriors from the larger squad, and 2 from the smaller, as well as took out 3 drones from the broadsides, as the flame template went overhead. Not a bad turn, I did some damage to his support units, but all his “big guns” are fine at this point.
Btm 3. The Kroot come in and Aaron spends the majority of the turn weakening Skulltaker and the dogs, so they don’t cause havoc charging him next turn. When the smoke cleared, I had 4 hounds left, 1 was wounded, and Skully had only 1 wound left. The grinder that was still mobile, was blown sky high by the fusion crisis team, who had the commander jump and and pitch in some tank hunter. The riptide, and broadsides bounced around getting into position to break out a little bit. My offensive push is quickly stalling out. I don’t know if killing his troops was the right strategy, as all his nasty stuff is unscathed.
Top 4. Drake comes in and circles around the newly arrived Kroot, killing a dozen or so with the flamer. Skulltaker breaks off to kill a lone fire warrior, but dies to a dangerous terrain check moving through area terrain on cavalry…..NOOOOOO!!!! The Flesh hounds back off and cower behind the Temple of skulls, trying to hide from the fire power sitting in those ruins. I grimmore the Maulerfiend, and he fails!! He sits tight behind a building. I roll warp storm table and …..snake eyes!! The hounds roll a “10” but luckily my Thirster was within 12” so I re-roll and “5” no harm/no foul. Thanks warlord trait I mocked an hour ago! Thirster charges and finishes off the Kroot, but now he is on the ground. My immobile grinder shoots a lone fire warrior, and kills him. I really cant do much else but sit and absorb shooting form the shootiest army until the game ends. Sounds good.
Btm 4. His army finishes off my Immobile Grinder. His amry unloads on my thirster, and he kills it with his final shot. The broadsides also blew the Helldrake out f the sky. Aarons riptide jumps towards the middle, threatening the objective near my blob of Bloodletters. His crisis suits jump to get ready to contest my objective in no mans land near my smaller bloodletter suad.
Top 5. I risk leaving the objective my small Bloodletter unit is holding to make an attempt to kill the Crisis suits. The gamble pays off and the crisis suits are wiped, and as luck would have it…I consolidate 6” to get back to scoring the objective. I roll Warpstorm and +1 invul save…..Alright, that’s what Im talking about. Khorne dogs come out from behind “Temple” to get the 4 point objective(Scouring). I grimore the Maulerfiend to put pressure on the center and I fail the grimmore test again!! Huge bloodletter blob kicks off banner to make the charge on the riptide. I wont be able to kill it (probably) but at least he isn’t shooting. He does 2 wounds, I amazingly do two wounds as well. Aaron is down to 1 scoring unit, but can he shoot dead/contest my objectives. We shall see.
Btm 5. Aaron fires everything at the 8 Bloodletters on the no mans land objective and kills them down to 2. I am forced to go to ground, and only because of my 4+ invul. did I survive the smart missiles (ignores cover). His commander jumps away to threaten the Dogs objective in case the game goes on. Broadsides sit within 6” in case the hounds got any ideas. Aaron needs the game to go on. We roll and…it goes on.
Top 6. Bloodletters and Riptide continue the slap fight at this point (he needs 5’s to hit me, I need 6’s to wound him). I grimore Maulerfiend for a possible turn 7, and the grimore fails…..again…..for the 6th time. Just sit and take it, that’s all I can do.
Btm 6. The Tau open up on the Khorne dogs, but when the smke cleared, they had 2 dogs remaining, with wounds missing. Some small arms fire kills the 2 bloodletters holing an objective. The riptide manages to kill a few bloodletters, but there are to many to clear at this point. We roll to see if it continues and….it ends.
OBJECTIVES
I hold a 3 point objective with the Khorne lord/cultists, and the 4 point objective with the hounds. Tau hold a 2 point objective in some ruins.
VICTORY TO CHAOS
KP
Tau Killed
Thirster- 1 KP
Skulltaker- 1 KP
10 x cultists- 1 KP
Helldrake- 2 KP
Grinder – 1 KP
Grinder – 1 KP
10 x Bloodletters – 1 KP
Total- 8 KP
Chaos Killed
Fire Warriors- 1 KP
Kroot – 1 KP
Crisis suits- 1 KP
Pathfinders- 2 KP
Bomber- 2 KP
Drone Blob – 2 KP
Total 9 KP
VICTORY TO CHAOS!
The Tau also had First Blood and Slay the Warlord…….Chaos only managed Linebreaker so Aaron would have had Tiebreaker had he won KP or objectives…
Close game, and a lot of fun. Dice went back and forth, and lots of laughs.
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Tail-spinning Tomb Blade Pilot
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You know I dont really know if there was an MVP. Everything in my army far outclassed him and melee, and I pretty much dropped, took fire, killed small easy to kill units, then got oblitereated by fire. I was just able to hold up well enough to survive the game. Nothing of mine really survived much firepower, except maybe the Thirster, and that was due to making grounding checks more than his natural resiliency. I guess the hounds, as their outflank ability let me get into a good position. Also, the grinders did force him to move away, and bought me a turn or two of his guns being brought to bear on my squishy units.
Pretty much if the Tau army wants a unit to go away, it does. They seem very similar to the Mech Guard in its hey day, when you needed 4 or 5 threats to really hurt that army at once, or the guard would be able to melt anything less than that. I never really closed with the Tau. I killed one unit of Fire Wariiors with shooting, the flyer was destroyed via vectorstrike, and the Kroot were crippled by a Helldrake, the Thirster just finished the last few off. The pathfinders were sort of left alone once the hounds arrived, and gobbled up.
When the Tau turtle up, they are nearly impossible to close on, especially with the friendly 6" overwatch rule. The problem is, they cant play board control with that turtled up army. At least thats how I see static shooting Tau, I have not fought a fully mobile, prancing around the battlefield Tau force yet.
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7000pts
(In Progress)
