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Ok, now that my list is in beta stage, it was ready for field-testing. A friend and I went at it at our FLGS.
My list:
HQ - Ethereal: 50 pts

HQ - Cadre Fireblade: 60 pts

Troops - Fire Warrior Team: 100 pts
10 models; Shas'ui

Troops - Fire Warrior Team: 90 pts
10 models

Troops - Fire Warrior Team: 90 pts
10 models

Troops - Kroot Carnivore Squad: 131 pts
19 models; 18 Kroot Carnivores; one Kroot Hound; Sniper Ammo

Troops - Kroot Carnivore Squad: 131 pts
19 models; 18 Kroot Carnivores; one Kroot Hound; Sniper Ammo

Elites - XV8 Crisis Battlesuit: 141 pts
3x crisis suits; two of them equipped with twin-linked Fusion Blasters and Target Locks, one equipped with a TL Plasma Rifle and Flamer

Elites - XV8 Crisis Battlesuit: 141 pts
3x crisis suits; two of them equipped with twin-linked Plasma Rifles, one equipped with a TL Fusion Blaster, all three have Early Warning Override

Elites - XV104 Riptide Battlesuit: 190 pts
Ion Accelerator, twin-linked Fusion Blaster, Early Warning Override

Fast Attack - Pathfinder Team: 110 pts
10x pathfinders

Fast Attack - Pathfinder Team: 110 pts
10x pathfinders

Heavy Support - XV88 Broadside Battlesuit Team: 228 pts
2x Broadside Battlesuits with Heavy Rail Rifles, both equipped with twin-linked plasma rifles and Velocity Tracker, 4x missile drones

Heavy Support - XV88 Broadside Battlesuit Team: 228 pts
2x Broadside Battlesuits with Heavy Rail Rifles, both equipped with twin-linked plasma rifles and Velocity Tracker, 4x missile drones

Fortifications - Aegis Defense Line: 50 pts

Total: 1850 pts
Warlord trait rolled: Exemplar of the Selfless Cause



His list:
HQ – Reclusiarch
Death Company (7) w/ power fist in Drop Pod
Tac Squad (10) with flamer and heavy bolter in Drop Pod
Assault squad (10) w/ 2x melta and lighting claw and storm shield in drop pod
Assault squad (10) w/ 2x flamers and power sword on sgt w/ Sanguinary Priest w/ power sword
Predator with TL autocannon and lascannon sponsons
Predator with TL autocannon and lascannon sponsons
Dark Angels Librarian (Divination)
Deathwing Terminator squad (5) w/ assault cannon and chainfist
DA Tactical squad (5) w/ plasma cannon
DA Tactical squad (5) w/ plasma cannon

Warlord trait rolled: Coordinated Assault



Deployment: Dawn of War
Mission: Emperor’s Will

Random terrain setup; had 3rd party do it.

My opponent rolled higher for firsties.


His setup:
He placed the DA tac squad at each board edge in cover (one of them with the Librarian), and deployed both Predators mid-board.




My setup:

Deployed my Aegis Line; as for everyone else, I decided to turtle as I knew what to expect; all those drop pods and a Deathwing termie squad deep striking in, it was obvious I was in for quite an alpha strike. Decided it would be better to stay close and phalanx, that way I can take the most advantage of Storm of Fire and Supporting Fire.


Attempted to seize the initiative; failed.

TURN 1
Drop Pod Assault; a drop pod carrying the melta assault squad lands at the far right of my lines, literally right in front of my pathfinder team and FW squad carrying my Fireblade; the other drop pod lands opposite on the left carrying Death Company and his Reclusiarch. The Deathwing Terminators deviated way off and landed at the really far left of my deployment zone. My crisis team intercepted the Death Company, but early on in the game, I had some pretty crappy rolls and only killed one; my Riptide on the other hand was slightly luckier and I intercepted the drop pod assault squad with an overcharged Ion Accelerator blast killing three of them. In the shooting phase, the Predators targeted my Broadside team on my left flank, the drones taking the brunt of it (lost two); a stray plasma cannon shot meant for my pathfinders then scattered on to my Broadsides, killing the other two drones. The Death Company squad opened up with bolt pistols on the nearest FW team (the one not carrying anyone important), killing three. The deathwing then opened up on my Broadsides with storm bolters and an assault cannon, but causing no rends and my broadsides making all saves. My opponent then ended the turn, completely forgetting to have his assault squad fire.





In an unfortunate turn of events, my left Broadside team failed its leadership and ran off the board, granting my opponent First Blood. FW team passed.

On my turn, I retaliated. Seizing the opportunity, the right Pathfinder squad lit up the assault squad with markerlights and the FW team on my right flank, boosted by the attached Fireblade and within the Storm of Fire bubble from the Ethereal, and expending two markerlight counters, unleashed hell on the assault squad with a total of 44 pulse rifle shots at BS 5, wiping out the assault squad. On the other side of the board, the remaining FW team, within range of my Ethereal as well and boosted by markerlights from the pathfinder team opened up on the Death Company, killing all but the Reclusiarch. My center FW team then opened up on the Reclusiarch, but only half were in double-tap range, inflicting two wounds. My remaining broadside team fired on the assault squad’s drop pod for lack of other things to fire at (the predators were out of LOS), but poor rolls led to only one hullpoint being lost (just not a good day for my Broadsides…)




TURN 2
Reserve rolls; his tac squad riding in a drop pod was delayed, but his jump pack assault squad carrying a sanguinary priest came in. Unfortunately for him, the squad landed on my FW team (even after the re-roll granted by DoA), resulting in a Deep Strike mishap; even worse, he rolled a 1 on the mishap table, and the unit was lost…

He shuffled around his Predators, his Deathwing moved closer to my firebase, as well as his Reclusiarch. In the shooting phase, his Reclusiarch fired a bolt pistol at my FW team, and whiffed. His DW termie squad fired at them next and did significant damage, killing the Shas’ui and reducing the squad to four. His plasma cannon shot from his tac squad on his right flank connected with the pathfinder team on my left, and I lost three; the one on his left flank connected with my right flank FW squad, but they were luckier, losing only one as the Aegis line really saved their bacon. One of his Predators opened up on my crisis team in my DZ, killing one; the other Predator had no LOS to anything worth shooting at. All Ld. Tests passed. In the assault phase, his Reclusiarch attempted to assault the remaining FWs on my left; finally got to test out Supporting Fire to success as my Pathfinders snapfired their markerlights at him, amazingly scoring three hits, which I promptly used to boost those FWs to BS 4 for their overwatch, inflicting a final wound on the Reclusiarch, earning me Slay the Warlord.

On my turn, my crisis team arrived via deep strike, but scattered out of melta range for their fusion blasters, and a single Kroot squad arrived via outflank, taking up position in the woods on his left (currently occupied by a 5-man tac squad). I didn’t do much movement aside from moving the crisis team on my side out of LOS from those Predators. In the shooting phase, my left Pathfinder team scored 5 markerlight hits on the approaching DW terminators. I then spent those 5 markerlight counters to boost my Riptide to BS 8 and fired an overcharged large blast that hit dead-on (if it deviated, that BS 8 would have definitely helped), wounding all 5, and killing 3. Torrent of fire from my four-man FW team and the center FW team with my Ethereal finished them off. My newly-arrived crisis team luckily landed facing side armor of both predators, and split-fired their TL fusion blasters into each, and a TL plasma into one with lackluster results, blowing the autocannon turret off one, and doing nothing to the other. The Kroot squad rapid-fired into the tac squad in the woods, wiping them out. Back in my DZ, my crisis team there attempted to take out the remaining drop pod in my DZ to no avail. In the assault phase, my deep-striking crisis teamed jet-packed away 11”, out of LOS of those predators.




TURN 3
His tac squad in a drop pod finally came in, and he did the smart thing and dropped it right on or next to his objective (since he’s running dangerously low on scoring units).

In movement, he separated his Predators, sending the full-strength one to pursue my crisis team, and maneuvering the other one that just had lascannon sponsons remaining to take pot shots at my DZ. In the shooting phase, his unharmed Predator let loose on my crisis team, and I had some bad rolls with their cover save, reducing the squad to a single suit. The other predator fired at my weakened FW team on my left and picked off one more. His DA tac squad then fired a plasma cannon shot at my left pathfinders, getting a direct hit; I went to ground, but still ended up losing one. His drop pod then fired storm bolters into my FW team, killing two. The left FW team failed its leadership and ran off the board; the remaining crisis suit as part of the deep striking team also failed, but only fell back 3”.

On my turn, the single crisis suit regrouped. My other Kroot squad came in via outflank on the same board edge as the other Kroot squad, and also took up position in the large patch of woods on my opponent’s left with the other squad, but deeper into his board edge to secure Linebreaker. My crisis team in my DZ moved closer to the drop pod that’s been picking off my guys, and my Riptide moved in position to get LOS of the DA Tac Squad on my opponent’s right. Shooting, my Kroot squad that was already on the board loaded their sniper ammo and opened-up on the side armor of the undamaged Predator, getting three rends, two of them penetrating, but only generating Stun results. My Riptide fired its standard Ion Accelerator shots at the DA tac squad, killing two. Overall, a very uneventful turn. If you were wondering why I haven’t been doing anything with my Broadside team, it’s because my opponent has been doing a good job of keep things out of their LOS. Plus if I tried to maneuver them to get LOS to the other Predator, he would’ve just moved it out of LOS before I got there. So, Broadside, as well as the rest of my guys will just take a break…

TURN 4

No movement. In shooting, the Predator that was stunned by my Kroot snapfired its autocannon at my lone crisis suit, and managed to do a wound. His other Predator fired lascannons at my center FW squad (with my Ethereal) in a desperate attempt kill enough to trigger a Ld. Test; he failed as I went to ground and made my saves. He fired his plasma cannon at my left Pathfinder team, desperate to finish them off, but, like the FWs, went to ground and made all my saves.

On my turn, both Kroot squads concentrated their sniper fire on the Predator with one remaining hullpoint and finished it off. My Riptide kept firing pot shots at the DA tac squad, this time only killing one.



At this point, we called it and did not proceed to Turn 5. There was nothing he could really do at this point to shift the victory in his favor; we both had our objectives, he got First Blood, but I got Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker, and there was really no way he could unseat those Kroot without pulling that Tac squad off his objective, and no way he could do enough damage to my Ethereal FW squad to trigger a Ld. test (not with me going to ground behind an Aegis line and ruins to boot)

OUTCOME: 5-4 Tau
VICTORY FOR THE GREATER GOOD!
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Very nice battle report. Thanks for posting.

Great Batrep and I really like the Tau list. Well put together and takes advantage of what Tau can bring to the table. I expect you can do quite well with that list.

Good report, and i like the red tau scheme. It seems your army is very balanced, and i think it will do well. I might swap out one unit of broad sides for a big unit of sniper drones...take a look at them...they gain BS 5 from the drone controllers...can have a potential 3 marker lights in the unit, plus the sniper gun is both a 48" range rapid fire weapon, plus AP 5, which is unusual for a sniper gun, so at 24" you get 18 sniper shots hitting on 2+, wounding on 4+, with rending and precision shot!

I don't think he really needs sniper drones. What I would recommend however, is keeping the SMS on Broadsides. The homing and ignore cover at 30" range is great and enables them to effectively engage GEQ/Ork infantry. I'd rather have that then plasma because at short-range his list should have the effective RoF to deal with most units, as I feel this BR clearly demonstrates.

Anyway, keep writing Batreps and showing people how awesome the codex actually is!

Thx for the feedback, everyone!

@LValx I can see where the torrent of shots would come in handy, on the other hand, though, I already have that in spades.

I felt that the Broadside config I have kinda has everything covered: the rail rifles w/ velocity tracker for anti air (because str 8 ap 1 against flyers is no joke; I was hoping he would bring a Stormraven to the table to REALLY test it out) and also for light-med vehicle popping, the plasma rifles add anti-TEQ to their abilities, and the 8 missile drones add just enough high-strength, med AP to the mix. I look at my Broadsides as the "swiss army knives" of my lists, and (with the exception of that bad Ld. roll) tough enough to withstand a lot of punishment to boot (kinda like having all your eggs in a safe rather than a basket).

As for sniper drones, I agree and I REALLY want to field them, but they just didn't fit. For the points, Kroot are a lot more versatile. Sure, they don't have the range or BS of sniper drones, but they make up for it with infiltrate and torrent of fire due to their large numbers. But, like I do like sniper drones, and I am thinking for my next project of doing a Shadowsun-themed stealth list which includes them.

Yeah, I understand wanting Plasma, but I personally prefer to kill TEQ by simply forcing a ton of armor saves. And the SMS, IMO, works better with the other weapons due to the longer range. 30" full effect range is much better than 24" rapid fire. But to each their own!

Your kroot should not have shot when they arrived as sniper ammo changes their gun to heavy 1 like all sniper weapons, can't rapid fire either. I think kroot work better now by taking the 3 krootoxes with the kroot guns, a unit of 10 + 3 ox is only 135 I believe and can shoot 6 s7 shots at 24" when they outflank which is handy on side armor.

Your kroot should not have shot when they arrived as sniper ammo changes their gun to heavy 1 like all sniper weapons, can't rapid fire either. I think kroot work better now by taking the 3 krootoxes with the kroot guns, a unit of 10 + 3 ox is only 135 I believe and can shoot 6 s7 shots at 24" when they outflank which is handy on side armor.

If you are referring to when they took out the tac squad, they did not fire sniper ammo, just their standard Kroot rifle ammo. The Tau codex specifically says I can choose between the two weapon profiles. As for when I wrecked the Predator, both squads of Kroot were already on the table for one full turn and didn't move before I opened up with sniper ammo.

Hmm...I do like the Krootox idea, though, but maybe in larger games. They get rather pricey at 25 pts each...

I think they only fired sniper the turn after they arrived. Cool list. I am still iffy myself if the sniper rounds are worth it for the kroot but they worked well for you, so I am looking at them harder. I like bubble wrapping the kroot around my FW and suits that form the back line but I can see them doing stuff being outflanked, with hounds you gain acute senses too. I like the krootox but at 25 points man that is pricey esp for T3 which is so easily insta-deathed with all the S6 dakka out there.
Thanks for the battle report it was great, pictures great and the read was easy to follow... thanks

A my bad then. i like your list a lot btw and ace color scheme

The only thing that really bothered me is the poor performance in my crisis suits. I don't know, it could be the relatively bad dice rolls I have with them, or because I'm rusty (this was my first 40k game in over two months, and even longer with Tau). But, I am reconsidering their loadouts, or maybe trading BOTH in for a Hammerhead w/ Longstrike.

Also, even though Tau were my first army when I got into the hobby, I've been playing IG for the past two years. So, its going to take some getting used to again. A good analogy would be that I went from wielding a broadsword to wielding a scalpel.

Great battle report! It's always good to see Tau beating up on some Imperial scum.

Just wanted to make a quick case for including some Hammerheads in your list: they've always been key to taking down heavy armor and especially after the nerf to broadsides I feel they are almost necessary now. I think in this battle especially if his tanks had been a bit more deadly you might have been in trouble, since he was basically outranging you: with a hammerhead or two you could have popped those predators better than the fairly risky deepstrike melta crisis suit move you made there.

I find crisis suits are generally much better suited to taking down heavy infantry. However, it may be with the strong firewarrior base you have and those two big broadside squads you don't actually need crisis suits for anti-infantry; in which case you could maybe drop them for some hammerheads.

Thank you for the enjoyable bat rep.

You played castle defense to counter his deep strike. Unfortunately the SM player did not alter his tactics whatsoever to counter that. Blood Angels take alot of finesse and precision to play, your opponent just smashed up against you like water on rock by deep striking into BS5 rapid fire range.

I did not like how he split his initial drop pod alpha strike in two. Most of his units were so spread out they gained zero tactical synergy. This gave you easy choices to blast away at. He should of deployed his 20+assault dudes normally and just assault you in turn 2 & 3.

3 drop pods can also be deployed (empty) via deep strike to block LOS, granting SM a tactical edge.

No assaults? Shame on you Blood Angels!

Deep strike mishaps are also unacceptable.

Question: Were the Pathfinders & Tau Ethereal priority targets for the BA? Looks like those units had untold amounts of buff to share...

I believe that Drop Pods cannot BLoS.

LValx wrote:
I believe that Drop Pods cannot BLoS.

In some cases where one is very thrifty with model placement it totally does. And yes, I'm talking about opening up the doors too. You can easily hide 5 tactical marines behind it's hull for 5+ cover save. I admit there are some little holes to shoot through. I would argue that some models would be totally blocked by the pod, making your op-pent focus fire. In some cases this could be major effect on shooting phase if say your getting shotup by Tau plasma and missiles.

And my point above is to put 2 drop pods next to each other or overlapping each other to gain even more LOS blocks and cover saves. Drop next to a another piece of terrain and you instantly have a little zone to group up. Make your opponent have to waste shooting to knock out that AV12 with 3 Hull points. Putting a deathwind ML on a drop pod makes it a serious threat that eats up valuable shooting.

In this battle the marines could have avoid any direct rapid fire from the nearby TAU., or at least make the TAU move to gain LOS. 2nd turn the Tac dudes move 6 inches around and assault. Drop Pods are great tools when used this way.

Claiming a cover save from that is fine but at that range I would expect plenty of markerlights to be in range and negate that easily.

Secondly drop pods are easy to remove themselves creating more of a problem for the Marines inside via exploding, pinning and difficult terrain.