Thanks to the leaks earlier in the week, I was able to play two games of 8th edition last night. I will post my 8th edition observations in a separate thread, so without further adieu, Game 1 vs Orks! (If I make a reference to a rule or term you don't know because you haven't seen the rules, that's what comments are for
, I will happily clarify for you).
1000 Point Battle
Deployment: Modified Spearhead Assault (4x4 table)
Mission: Border War, with First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker
This gets a little weird I know; this is an Age of Sigmar mission. I'm not in love with the Eternal War missions in any edition, and in my opinion, Border War is one of the most well designed missions
GW has produced. Anyway, each plaer has a home objective centered in their deployment zone. At the end of each player turn they are worth 1 to you or 4 to your opponent. And there are two midfield objectives equidistant from each other, each worth 2 points at the end of each player turn.
Armies
Tau Empire: Patrol Detachment
Cadre Fireblade
Ghostkeel: Fusion Collider, 2x Fusion Blasters, Multi-tracker
3x Crisis: 5x Plasma Rifle, 4x Burst Cannon
10 Breachers
Devilfish: 2x
SMS, 1x Burst Cannon
8x Pathfinders: Markerlights, Pulse Carbines
7x Pathfinders: Markerlights, Pulse Carbines
Broadside: Heavy Rail Rifle, 2x
SMS, Multi-tracker
Orks: Patrol Detachment
Warboss: Mega-armor, Powerklaw
Warboss: Mega-armor, Powerklaw
10 Burnas
30 Slugga Boyz: 3x Big Shootas
30 Slugga Boyz: 3x Big Shootas
5 Lootas
5 Lootas
Orks Deployment: My opponent placed his two big blobs as forward as possible, unsurprisingly; each supported with a Warboss behind. One unit of Lootas were holding his home objective with decent sight lines, the other was on his left flank, and and his burnas were on his right flank hiding behind a big piece of
LOS blocking terrain.
Tau Deployment: I placed my Devilfish behind a central
LOS blocking hill. My Ghostkeel and a unit of pathfinders deployed on the right flank, ready to move up and score the right border objective. I placed my larger unit of Pathfinders on the left flank to move towards the left border objective, though I planned on only being able to reach it in time to score it once before dying.
Turn 1: I finished deploying first which means I got to choose who went first and I took first turn. Pathfinders have a scout move now, and I used that to get in range of border objective 2 on the right. I wasn't in range of much, I managed to kill a few lootas, but most importantly I was able to score 3 points. On his turn he advanced with his boys (which is what running is called now). He killed a few of my pathfinders on the left flank but they held. He scored 1.
Turn 2: I moved in range of border objective 1 on the left flank with my diminished pathfinders. I killed a few more Lootas on my right flank, and a few boyz from his blob on my right as well, but again, not much died. (I play with a lot of terrain, it's more cinematic but not beneficial to Tau
) I scored 5 points this turn, scoring my home objectives and both border objectives. On his turn, he was able to charge my unit of pathfinders on my left flank and overrun border objective 1. He took some wounds off of the Ghostkeel with boyz and Lootas; but I used savior protocols to kill a stealth drone, in order to stay at 6 wounds so that my unit profile didn't degrade. This is a cool aspect of 8th edition in general, with diminishing effectiveness of (most) monsters and vehicles as they are damaged. He was setting up for either a turn 3 charge, or if I retreated, he would be able to take over border objective 2, completely dominating the mid board. He scored 3.
Turn 3: My reserved Crisis suits had to come in, and I dropped in behind his lines on my extreme left. I knew I would be charged by a Warboss which was still pretty close, so I shot at the burnas instead which he had hung back anticipating my Crisis. I killed most of them, but they held. On the right, I screened my remaining stealth drone out in front of my Ghostkeel and pathfinders in order to still score border objective 2 (drones can score now yay!) and save my important units for another turn. I killed a few more boyz and finished off the Lootas on my right flank. I also moved up my Devilfish a little to ensure I'd be able to dump out within that devastating 5" range for the Breachers. I scored 3 points again. On his turn he charged the stealth drone and consolidated to dominate border objective 2 and set up a charge on my ghostkeel. he charged my Crisis with the Burnas and the Warboss. I knew I couldn't do anything meaninful to the Warboss in overwatch so I shot at the burnas and killed 3 more, leaving 2. I miraculously survived combat only taking 2 wounds! I didn't do anything to him, so we were locked up with no morale tests required. (You only take them if you lose models now, not wounds). He scored 5 points this turn, so it was very close, 12-10 with him having first blood off my pathfinders.
Turn 4: Now I was ready to move in for the kill. I had denied the left flank, having nothing but the deceased pathfinders over there, so he had a whole unit of 30 boyz essentially doing nothing but advancing towards me. I had his Warboss and about 18 boyx remaining on the right around border objective 2. I dumped out the Fireblade and Breachers, and moved my Ghostkeel such that after the boyz were dead, the Warboss would be the closest model to the Keel (you can only target characters in 8th with snipers unless they are the closest model to you, wow!) The pathfinders hit with 2 markerlights, which while not as good as it used to be, allowed me to reroll 1s when shooting with anything that targeted the boyz. The Breachers got their +1 shot bonus from the Fireblade (old Ethereal buff at half range, now the fireblade has it which I think is fluffier). So that's 30 shots for those keeping score, and I had all within 5" for the S6 -2 rend shots. Needless to say, the boyz were history; vaporized in a cloud of blood and viscera. The Warboss was isolated and now my ghostkeel got to do what he was born to. The fusion collider rolled 3 on the d3 for shots, and added his 2 fusion blaster shots. I hit with 3, and at -4 rend, he was down to a 6+ save. He failed 2, and because I was at half range, got to roll
2d6 and pick the highest for the
d6 damage. I caused a total of 9 damage, so the warboss was wiped as well and I had retaken the right flank. I also fell back with my Crisis on the extreme left, vaped his 2 burnas and took the Warboss down to 2 wounds. Because they have the "fly" keyword now, they can fall back and shoot. Extremely fluffy and extremely powerful. At this he conceded because I had the lead on points already, and it wasn't going to get any closer. It was a tight game but I would have gone on to win comfortably.
First game of 8th ed, victory for the Greater Good! I am pleased to see Orks again though. Neither of us thought deeply about our lists, we just wanted to roll dice, learn the rules, and try some things out. But I think Orks and Nids, armies that needed some love, definitely got it and will be competitive. Now, on to game 2 against and army that's going to be REALLY good, Necrons.
Game 2: Tau Empire vs Necrons (Same mission for simplicity, but we reset terrain)
1000 Point Battle
Deployment: Modified Spearhead Assault (4x4 table)
Mission: Border War, with First Blood, Slay the Warlord, Linebreaker
Armies
Tau Empire: Patrol Detachment
Cadre Fireblade
Ghostkeel: Fusion Collider, 2x Fusion Blasters, Multi-tracker
3x Crisis: 5x Plasma Rifle, 4x Burst Cannon
10 Breachers
Devilfish: 2x
SMS, 1x Burst Cannon
8x Pathfinders: Markerlights, Pulse Carbines
7x Pathfinders: Markerlights, Pulse Carbines
Broadside: Heavy Rail Rifle, 2x
SMS, Multi-tracker
Necrons: Patrol Detachment
Destroyer Lord: Warscythe, Phylactery
Cryptek: Staff of Light
2x20 Warriors
5x Wraiths
Heavy Destroyer
Deployment: My list was very poorly equipped to deal with his, so I deployed again denying the left flank to focus on holding the right. Same as last game, everything save the Crisis deployed. He placed 2x20 warrior blobs on my left side, which I thought was curious because 1 blob would have been sufficient and he could have had each blob advance towards a border objective on both sides and been fine, but it turned out that was moot. His Wraiths and Destroyer Lord directly opposed most of my forces on the right flank. His cryptek stood in the middle of the warriors to give them a 4+ resurrection (ugh!).
Turn 1: I took first turn again to scout up + move to score border objective 2 with my pathfinders. I also made my one big tactical mistake of the game; I moved my ghostkeel very aggressively up the middle to kill the Heavy Destroyer and score first blood. I succeeded, but it was worthy of the old saying "Another victory like that and we'll be cooked!" He ended up smoking my Keel with Gauss fire on his turn 1, completely removing an essential screening unit for me and pretty much blowing any chance I had at the game. Anyway I scored 3, He moved up with everything, positioning his Wraiths for a turn 2 charge, he scored 1.
Turn 2: I held tight with a unit of pathfinders to score 3 again, and hung them out to dry for the Wraiths. I set up the second unit directly behind, trying to keep everyone within 3" of the objective to score it even while the Wraiths moved up and still screen for my Broadside and Devilfish. I killed 2 Wraiths in shooting by just using carbines and the Broadside. I positioned the Devilfish to score my home objective again while still moving forward a bit if they had to spill out. On his turn he advanced with his warriors to be able to score border objective 1 on the left. He charged and obliterated my forward unit of pathfinders. So we both scored 3.
Turn 3: My Crisis came in, and while I debated internally whether to try and take his home objective, I decided I needed to rescue my right flank from the Wraiths and Destroyer Lord. The Crisis don't have enough firepower to remove 20 warriors with a Cryptek so it really wasn't much of a choice. I dumped out my Breachers and between them, the remaining pathfinders, the Crisis and the Broadside I took out all the remaining Wraiths and took the Destroyer Lord down to 1 wound. I charged the Breachers in and struck first, because initiative is gone, chargers go first!, and killed the Destroyer Lord! Goodness I love Breachers. They do something incredibly cinematic every game; they are my favorite Tau unit by far. I scored 3 points again, so I was hanging with him, but in a very fluffy way the implacable Necron advance is intimidating and I was losing the entropy battle. He was conga-lining his warrior unit on the left out from border objective 1 to reach out and touch my home objective on the next turn. Ugh. And he still had a vice grip on his own home objective.
Turn 4. I moved the Breachers and Crisis towards his home objective, and flew the Devilfish over there to do something fun in a minute. I advanced my Broadside to try and block some of his warriors from getting close to my own home objective, and kept my remaining pathfinders at border objective 2 on the right. I killed 10 warriors in shooting and charged my Devilfish into his warrior blob around his home objective forcing him to pile in backwards towards his home objective instead of moving towards the middle. Tactics!
I also charged the Breachers in because they were going to die anyway. He lost none in combat, killing 2 Breachers and taking 4 wounds off the Fish, but lost 6 more warriors in morale. We both scored 3.
Turn 5. I ended up conceding here because I just didn't have the punch to take him out, and it was only to get worse, even though I had played it close the whole time. We rolled it out and he killed my Fish in combat, in addition to my Broadside and Fireblade with shooting. He was going to be able to reach out and score my home objective on turn 6, final score we guessed would have been 29-16 Necrons! Wow, they are going to be good and back to their phalanx days from 4th edition. I think we have the tools to fight them, I just happened to be better equipped to fight elite, tank/monster heavy units.
I'm going to start a different thread int he tactics page to talk about some of my observations about Tau in 8th ed, but I hope this was illuminating! I'm sorry for the lack of pictures, we were busy enough looking up rules, so I hope I was coherent in my explanation. More to come soon, and please check out my narrative Tau Civil War Campaign, with Game 3 coming this weekend, first of 8th edition in the campaign!
https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/723705.page
