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Shas'O T'Pau peered out of the rear hatch of his Orca dropship. Beneath him, the rolling green fields of Yarov slid by.

While his Crisis command suit had a plethora of tactical systems and display options, there was an extra something provided by his own eyesight that no computer ever quite simulated. T'Pau relied on technology as much as any other Tau warrior, but also believed there was a subtle danger in depending on machines too much - if you grew too detached from reality, then you could also grow detached from the terrible cost of war.

Yarov was a case in point. The Tau had received a call for assistance from Governor Lebedev, the human O'Aun who ruled this world. He had claimed that he was under attack from renegade Imperial forces, in the form of the elite Astartes, the human equivalent of the Fire Caste elites. While wary of the possibility of human treachery and lies, the Etherals had decided that the request merited assistance, and so T'Pau's Hunter Cadre had been mobilised, with orders to isolate the battle zone, investigate, and seek an optimal resolution for the Tau Empire, either through diplomacy or force.

T'Pau had arrived to find a world in conflict, with cities in ruins and civilians massacred. There appeared to be not one but two separate Astartes forces on the planet, fighting not only the locals but each other as well. For the Tau'va the people of Yarov surely deserved release from their suffering, best accomplished of course via integration into the Tau Empire.

The Cadre's initial drop had gone well, with initial beach-head safely on the ground in an area far from any current fighting. Now T'Pau was on his way to the nominated command post, ready to advance to the next step of the Kauyon strategy.

A new thread of tactical data, flashing blue to indicate it was accompanied by an open com-link from the sender, popped up in his left field of vision. "This cannot be correct," he said after a moment spent surveying the information.

"I'm sorry sir," came back the response, "But I'm afraid it is. I did not believe it myself at first, thinking it a sensor glitch, but we now have sight of the enemy. They will reach the pods within five rai'kors."

T'Pau surveyed the data again. The second wave supply drops lacked the precision of the initial combat drops - they had, after all, expected to arrive in an area with no opposition. Somehow though, one of the Astartes forces had repositioned themselves by over one hundred tor'kans in less than a dec, and the vital supplies were already in danger of being over-run. "How did they move so fast without air transport?" he said, half to himself.

The reporting Shas'El decided to take it as a question for him. "I don't know, sir - we've never seen an enemy move so fast without air transportation. They must be se'hen che lel."

T'Pau nodded in agreement. "Regardless," he said after a moment, "We cannot lose those supplies or our entire foothold will be in danger of failing. Commit your initial strike forces - I will be there myself shortly with additional reinforcements."

The orders were given, and Orca banked towards the drop co-ordinates, and battle.


Planning

My force

This was my fourth game with the White Scars, previously I had slaughtered an Imperial Guard force, been annihilated in turn by mechanised Guard, and then won a tactical victory against the Dark Angels.

I now had a new unit to bring to the field - scouts, useful as a disruption force, and back-field objective holders. They also fit very nicely with the White Scars feel, reconnoitring the enemy position prior to the main lightning bolt strike.



HQ
- Captain Konchi - bike, relic blade, hellfire shells

Troops
- 5 bikes + attack bike - 2 plasma guns, meltabombs, multi-melta on attack bike,
- 8 bikes + attack bike - 2 plasma guns, meltabombs, multi-melta on attack bike
- 5 Scouts - camo cloaks, missile launcher, sniper rifles

Fast Attack
- Landspeeder - Typhoon missile launcher + heavy bolter
- Landspeeder - 2 x heavy flamers
- Attack bike - multimelta


My opponent

This was my first game against the new Tau, as fielded by Jim, and I knew there would be a lot of shooting coming my way!



- Commander T'Pau - Crisis Suit, Fusion Blaster, Missile Pod, Vectored Retro Thrusters, plus 2 Bodyguards with the same loadout.

- 3 man Stealth Team, Fusion Blaster and 2 Burst Cannons

- 2 man Crisis Team, Twin-Linked Plasma Blasters and Counterfire Defence Systems

- 4 man pathfinder team

- 6 man Fire Warrior Squad

- 6 man Fire Warrior Squad with attached Devilfish

- Piranha with Fusion Blaster

- Broadside with Railgun and Shield Drone

- Hammerhead with Railcannon, Smart Missile System and Blacksun Filters

- 3 Sniper Drone Team

Jim had a lot of firepower, but an immediate weakness suggested itself in the lack of troop units. If I could take them out then I might be able to play the mission for a win - however that I would have to survive for that to work! Also worth noting was that Jim was still new to the Tau - this was only his third or fourth game, so he was also still getting a feel for how his force worked.

Alright, can't wait to read this!

But you seem to have forgotten 4 pathfinders in your opponent's list, you can see the models in your picture, right in front of the broadside.

Set-up and deployment

The mission

We would be playing Crusade, with four objectives, plus the standard secondary missions - given my four troop units (thanks to combat squads), this definitely worked in my favour. In contrast Jim only had two minimum sized units of fire warriors, so would have to look after them carefully, or try for an an annihilation.

I also had more victory points available as Konchi Khan was a Legendary Fighter, although I did not really expect the Tau to accept any challenges! Meanwhile Jim's battlesuit commander could depend on an accurate drop.

The battle would start at night, but Jim won the roll-off for first turn and unsurprisingly decided to take it.


The battlefield

We would be fighting over this terrain:



Note the location of the objectives:
1) On top of the north-west bunker
2) In the crater in the north-centre
3) Between the large crater and the woods
4) Right behind the eastern bunker

While the mission specifies mysterious objectives, in the event we forgot about these.

We were playing using a Hammer and Anvil deployment - Jim also won this roll and decided to take the right side with the large hill as this would give his shooters a great field of view.


Deployment

As expected Jim used the central hill as a firebase, with pathfinders and sniper drones on top. Both crisis suit units were in deep trike reserve, while the stealthsuits chose to outflank

Both fire warrior squads and the piranha took the south, claiming the single objective in his deployment zone:



His heavy firepower took the north, with the Hammerhead and Broadside covering most of the battlefield:





Given the deep deployment zones plus the night-fighting I knew that only a few of Jim's weapons would be in effective range on his first turn. I therefore decided that cover was less important than minimising the distance I would have to travel, and deployed my bikes in a standard skirmish line across the field. The typhoon land speeder took cover behind the rock pillars in the south, while I tried something new with the twin heavy flamer one by deep striking.

That left the scouts - I was tempted to deploy them using infiltration, but in the end I figured that making sure of my home objective was more valuable. At the very least, Jim would have to divert significant forces to displace them, with no possibility of claiming that objective at he end of it.





As a result the battlefield looked like this:



I attempted to seize the initiative - and for a wonder rolled a 6! I would be going first.

As a Tau player I am not impressed with your opponents choice of suit weapons. As a rule I ALWAYS place two plasma rifles on my Commander and when I run additional suits as well. There is no reason to run a twin linked plasma rifle on even a regular Crisis suit. I have to ask, did the Tau player know he was to fight marines or is this a general take on all comers list he uses? At 1k points, the only XV8's I run are my Commander and a Monat that he deep strikes in with and then seperates after shooting using thrust moves. I also noticed no attached drones. I wish you well White Scar, I hope for a good fight.

White Scars turn 1

Seizing the initiative was a significant advantage for me - it allowed me to get moving and so benefit from my cover saves, as well as getting me close to the Tau. Following my maxim of Shoot the assaulters, assault the shooters, I would probably do the most damage once I reached close combat. I also decided to try something else new and go for a pincer assault, threatening both sides of the enemy deployment zone at once.

Therefore the four-man bike squad and lone attack bike in the north turbo-boosted as far as possible, to threaten the hammerhead and broadside.



In the centre the 5-man squad and Konchi Khan moved into the woods - this put them in perfect position to hit the fire warriors holding the objective next turn.



Finally my southern 6-man bike squad decided it was worth slowing down a little to take a shot at the Devilfish - unfortunately this didn't work as while they took off a hull point with a glancing shot, they failed to kill it. The typhoon also tried after moving forwards, but the darkness defeated its krak missiles.



Tau turn 1

The Tau therefore faced a seriously fast enemy which was 12"-24" close than expected - not ideal!



However this was also the situation in which Tau should do the most damage, with exceptionally heavy firepower at their disposal.

Firstly the sniper drones, broadside, and hammerhead (submunition round) opened up on the units threatening them assisted by the pathfinders. Luck and night were on my side though, and in the event only one bike died.

In the south the fire warriors has a great view of the bikes, and two died under their pulse rifle shots:



Meanwhile the piranha and devilfish detached their drones, which moved to form a screen in front of the threatening units. Behind this the piranha moved up to block the bridge, and the fire warriors in the devilfish disembarked into the bunker.



That was it though - amazingly, I had suffered only three casualties!

White Scars turn 2

Now I had the chance to do some damage:



The bikes in the north moved forward for a shot at the hammerhead - unfortunately neither was in short range with their multimeltas, and the tank was still alive. This was made worse when I failed the charge with my lead squad. Uh oh!

In the south things went a little better. The captain and his squad moved forwards to hit the fire warriors in the open - unfortunately two managed to kill themselves in the woods, and and the attack bike fell to supporting fire from the other nearby units.



However the Tau fire warriors stood no chance in close combat, and were wiped out to a man.

On the southern bridge I decided to use my typhoon to take out the covering drones - possibly a waste of firepower, but it enhanced my mobility by giving my bike squad (minus one self-immolating plasma gunner) a clear run into assault with the piranha. As you can see this was no problem for multiple krak grenades!



I had also tried to deep-strike my heavy flamer land speeder next to the units on the hill this turn - unfortunately a bad scatter saw it hit the fire warriors, so it would have to wait for another turn. Finally the typhoon failed to hurt the devilfish.

As a side note, I had had the same number of models kill themselves this turn as Jim had managed to cause in his turn!

Tau turn 2

The Tau were down one fire warrior unit and the piranha, but otherwise were intact:



In addition all three reserve units arrived on schedule. The commander and bodyguard, knowing they would not scatter due to his warlord trait, positioned themselves to kill my commander.



Plasma fire poured into him, and the last biker accompanying him died, but his Iron Halo carried the Emperor's protection, and he survived with a single remaining wound!

The other crisis team came in in the north - this time, combined with the pathfinders removing cover, sniper drones, broadside and the hammerhead, managed to completely kill the three bikes and two attack bikes there. My northern pincer movement was no more, but it had certainly distracted the Tau heavy support. I would have to wait to see if the price was worth it...

Finally the stealth team out-flanked next to my typhoon, but failed to do any damage, leaving it fully functional.

White Scars turn 3

I was seriously hurt with two bike units and the lone attack bike down, but still had my scouts on one objective, my (wounded) commander, and (most importantly) a bike unit in range of the fire warriors in the bunker:



Firstly the typhoon, helped by the snipers, targeted the stealthsuits.



Two went down but the third was still alive and unbroken - this still potentially gave Jim linebreaker, as well as threatening my typhoon.

The last remaining bike unit shot and then assaulted the fire warriors in the bunker:



Despite their protection, they could not withstand the bikes and were wiped out in close combat. Jim now had no troops!

Finally, my Konchi Khan charged the Tau commander and his bodyguard - he sailed unscathed through the overwatch fire, and challenged T'Pau to personal combat:



Unbeknownst to me, T'Pau had a close combat upgrade allowing him to swap his normal attacks for a single devastating attack. Jim therefore accepted, knowing that all he had to do was survive in return for this excellent chance to kill my warlord.

Konchi Khan's Hammer of Wrath attack failed to do anything, but then his relic blade swung - and in an amazing display of martial skill hit and wounded four times with four attacks! Commander T'Pau fell down stone dead, and his bodyguard fled in terror, only to be ground under the wheels of the victorious captain. Not only had I just slain Jim's warlord, I also had an extra VP from my own Warlord trait.



Tau turn 3

At this point things were looking pretty bad for Jim - I was well ahead even on secondary victory points, and he had no troop units to claim any objectives of his own. However there was still once chance left - if he could wipe me out, he would win by default!



Firstly the lone stealthsuit fired, stripping a hull point off the typhoon but otherwise leaving it fully functional. Next, the units on the hill opened up on my last set of bikes, killing two.

More importantly, the plasma-armed crisis suits managed to take the last wound off my commander, granting Jim Slay the Warlord.

Finally the Hammerhead used its excellent range to good advantage, hitting my scouts in the bunker. They took cover as the round hit them, but still lost two members of the squad (two 1's on the dice).



White Scars turn 4

I was now running short of units (and my remaining land speeder also failed to arrive):



Figuring it was better to keep my bikes moving to distract the enemy units on the hill, I threatened the pathfinders:



They duly died under a hail of bolter fire, I didn't even need to charge them:



My pinned snipers and typhoon were not as lucky, failing to take out the last remaining pathfinder.

Tau turn 4

Jim had to do some damage, and do it fast - we might only have this turn and one more before game's end.



Firstly the last remaining stealthsuit fired - and sent my typhoon crashing to the ground.



On the hill the snipers, crisis suits, and broadside opened up, killing another biker and wounding my attack bike. As I had with every leadership test this game, they held with no problem.

Luckily this time the broadside had problems with its targeting system, and missed the scouts by miles.

White scars turn 5

I only have five models left on the field:



It also didn't help that I forgot to bring on my land-speeder! However my scouts, having recovered from pinning thanks to the hammerhead's terrible shot last turn, were free to kill the stealthsuit, who died with a krak missile to the torso.

My last two bikes killed one of the two crisis suits with their shooting, but were then gunned down in overwatch (the suits having an upgrade allowing them to fire at BS2). Now it was all down to my scouts...

Tau turn 5

The Tau had a lot more units than me, but most were badly out of position:



The two surviving gun drones from the devilfish moved up, aiming to get into firing range of the scouts next turn.

This turn though, only the very long-ranged sniper drones and the hammerhead could hurt my them. At least the hammerhead was more accurate with this shot, but by seeking cover I passed all of my saves. The scouts were still alive...

We rolled for the game end and... it would continue! Jim had another turn to try and wipe me out.

White Scars turn 6

I was really short of units:



However, this time I remembered my landspeeder - it deep-struck accurately now, and its flamers wiped out the two threatening drones.



Tau turn 6

The tau had another chance:



The last crisis suit had also been moving up, and the missile pods had no problem at all taking my land speeder down.

Once again the sniper drones and hammerhead targeted the scouts, and once again I took cover - successfully. They were still alive.

We rolled for game end again - and this time I breathed a sign of relief as a 4+ was rolled. I had survived!




Result

The final scores were:

White Scars

(3) 1 x objective
(1) First Blood
(1) Slay the Warlord
(1) Legendary fighter

Total = 6

Tau

(1) Slay the Warlord

Total = 1


White Scars 6 - 1 Tau - VICTORY FOR THE WHITE SCARS!



Conclusion

Phew - though the final score was decisively in my favour, Jim gave me a few nasty moments there, and I thought for a while that he would table me and win by default!

The new Tau are pretty nasty when it comes to firepower, with nice 'force multiplier' options such as improved BS, better overwatch fire and ignoring cover. They will be a handful to face again, and I can expect to take significant casualties. Both Jim and I made some mistakes here, but I feel that mine did not have as serious an effect on the mission. In addition I'll freely admit I was lucky when it counted - in particular seizing the initiative was very helpful, and so too was my commander surviving all that plasma fire!

For Jim, I think a key learn is that he needs more troops - two minimum sized fire warrior squads just doesn't cut it in any objective-based mission. While his firepower is truly impressive, it comes at the cost of those core units - and ultimately that's what will win the majority of games. Once the fire warriors are down, he's usually just left with the possibility of annihilating an opponent - and it's just that, a possibility.

I also think that he should have balanced his deployment a little more. As it was his key heavy hitters (broadside, hammerhead, one set of crisis suits) were on one side of the field, while the two key targets for me - the fire warriors - were both close to each other on the other flank. This was made worse because the central hill in his deployment zone prevented the hammerhead and broadside from providing covering fire to the fire warriors.

It's also arguable that he should have sent a crisis team against my scouts. While this would almost certainly have displaced them from the objective and got him linebreaker, it would also have meant leaving either my commander or my bikes threatening the hammerhead unengaged. This was a difficult call to make, and I'm not certain whether it was the right one or not!

For myself I should have kept my last bike unit alive behind the bunker once I took some casualties, instead of killing irrelevant units. This would've reduced the chances of Jim wiping me out, and then either given me a chance for Linebreaker, or forced him to divert attention from my scouts, increasing their chance of survival.

While I was much more disciplined at staying on-mission in this game, I still tend to think in terms of my objectives first, and killing things second - denying the enemy victory points is often forgotten! I think I will have to try and tone down this very aggressive attitude in future...

I actually have two units of the match for the White Scars - Konchi Khan and my scouts. Konchi managed to wipe out a fire warrior unit, followed by taking down the Tau commander and his bodyguard in single combat, earning me two VPs. The scouts also worked exceptionally well, not in terms of what they killed (one stealthsuit) but in terms of what they gave me - a safe objective in home territory, freeing up my bikes to concentrate on the assault. I will definitely be taking these guys in future!

Overall it was an excellent game against a good opponent, and it could so easily have swung the other way!

Still enjoying your reports, congrats on a hard fought win.

 M'Kachen's Nemesis wrote:
Alright, can't wait to read this!

But you seem to have forgotten 4 pathfinders in your opponent's list, you can see the models in your picture, right in front of the broadside.

Quite right, I've checked with my opponent and he forgot to provide them in the list he gave me! Fixed.

Also glad to see I'm successfully got at least one person waiting in anticipation for my battle reports

Prophet of Khaine wrote:
As a Tau player I am not impressed with your opponents choice of suit weapons. As a rule I ALWAYS place two plasma rifles on my Commander and when I run additional suits as well. There is no reason to run a twin linked plasma rifle on even a regular Crisis suit. I have to ask, did the Tau player know he was to fight marines or is this a general take on all comers list he uses? At 1k points, the only XV8's I run are my Commander and a Monat that he deep strikes in with and then seperates after shooting using thrust moves. I also noticed no attached drones. I wish you well White Scar, I hope for a good fight.

Jim is still a pretty new Tau player - this was only his third or fourth battle with them at all (not just with the new codex). He's reading this thread so I'm sure any advice will come in handy! One point to note was that Jim was very tight on points, given the variety of units he manage to include, perhaps that had an effect...

 KhorneDawg wrote:
Still enjoying your reports, congrats on a hard fought win.

Thank you!

I'm not too sure about the idea of dropping one set of bikes for a squad of scouts. I still think that 5 more bikes could have helped more. I think dropping one of the speeders would have been better. And I bet you sure are glad you kept the artificer armor on the captain.

 Nafarious wrote:
I'm not too sure about the idea of dropping one set of bikes for a squad of scouts. I still think that 5 more bikes could have helped more. I think dropping one of the speeders would have been better. And I bet you sure are glad you kept the artificer armor on the captain.

If it was five bikes I'd totally agree with you, however the cost was effectively two bikes and two plasma guns. In return I got another troops unit, another contesting fast attack unit, four sniper rifles and a missile launcher - I feel it was a worthwhile trade, though I'm prepared to be proven totally wrong next game!

And my captain didn't have the artificer armour - it was pure luck! I'm seriously thinking about adding it back in though, and simply avoid using him as a bullet-catcher for the rest of his squad.

I can't tell you how much I love the scouts paint job!!! I just started thinking about start a white scar army and only take scouts, cause that paint job is realllllllllly cool.

Nice fight man, I thought the Yau were gonna win that for a moment! Can't wait to see if there are more epic battles like these!

Insane Smile wrote:
I can't tell you how much I love the scouts paint job!!! I just started thinking about start a white scar army and only take scouts, cause that paint job is realllllllllly cool.

Really? That's amazing, I'm a terrible painter!

My thinking with the scouts was that they could either a) be wearing White Scars armour with camo cloaks, or b) be in full camo gear. I decided to go for the second, partly because it's quicker and easier to paint.

In order to keep them looking like White Scars I used a white base, with different layers of lighter and darker grey. The inspiration actually came from AngelGrinder's Imperial Guard Vendetta - as I don't have an airbrush I used the disruptive shapes instead of the much cooler digital pattern (also not sure how effective this would be on irregular surfaces). As I had decided to go for full-on camouflage, I chose to eliminate anything else that might compromise their stealth, so for example there's no metal or reflective surfaces anywhere on the models.

 gnoise wrote:
Nice fight man, I thought the Tau were gonna win that for a moment! Can't wait to see if there are more epic battles like these!

Thanks, I was severely worried at certain points as well... and 've got another game scheduled this weekend so more soon!

I'm really enjoying your battle reports. Your battles are always hard-fought with and against not so common lists. Not only that, you do some good coverage of the field with pictures and a good narrative.

Keep up the great work

On Turn 4 you said your Landspeeder failed to arrive, but units in reserve arrive automatically on Turn 4.

Good report though, very in depth without being exhaustive to read. I enjoyed your other reports too. I may have to start doing more 1000 point battles with my mates, as they take less time and would be easier to write reps on I reckon. Looking forward to your next report.

 TheDraconicLord wrote:
I'm really enjoying your battle reports. Your battles are always hard-fought with and against not so common lists. Not only that, you do some good coverage of the field with pictures and a good narrative.

Keep up the great work

Thank you, it's always good to get feedback on your work!

 HerbaciousT wrote:
On Turn 4 you said your Landspeeder failed to arrive, but units in reserve arrive automatically on Turn 4.

Good report though, very in depth without being exhaustive to read. I enjoyed your other reports too. I may have to start doing more 1000 point battles with my mates, as they take less time and would be easier to write reps on I reckon. Looking forward to your next report.

Oops, I quite forgot about that, as well as forgetting it in turn 5... I will have to remember next time.

I also agree with you that that the 1,000 point sized game is good for battle reports - enough that there's a decent variety of units, not so much going on that you lose track. Each unit is important enough to affect things, and easy to remember and keep track of.

More White Scars action coming shortly, thanks for the comments!

Prophet of Khaine wrote:
As a Tau player I am not impressed with your opponents choice of suit weapons. As a rule I ALWAYS place two plasma rifles on my Commander and when I run additional suits as well. There is no reason to run a twin linked plasma rifle on even a regular Crisis suit. I have to ask, did the Tau player know he was to fight marines or is this a general take on all comers list he uses? At 1k points, the only XV8's I run are my Commander and a Monat that he deep strikes in with and then seperates after shooting using thrust moves. I also noticed no attached drones. I wish you well White Scar, I hope for a good fight.

100% agree. I find the list to be lacking any kind of balance really and I'm overall confused by the makeup of the list.

I enjoyed reading this.
Unfortuantely my opponent later today (first time I will ever face tau) will be fielding a firewarrior heavy army.

Your battle reports with your white scars prove very interesting. I enjoy reading them and hope to see more soon.

good luck, and thanks for the comments! Show those Tau who's boss...

Just for the record, We beat the tau

 ascended_mike wrote:
Just for the record, We beat the tau