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1850 Tau vs Tau & GK Gus Indo vs Grey Therion
Mission: Big Guns Never Tire with 3 Objectives
Deployment: Dawn of War (12 inches in)
1850 Tau (from memory)
HQ: Shas'O with Iridium Armor, Cyclic Ion Blaster, Missiles, Target Lock, Drone Controller, 2 Marker Drone
Warlord: no look out sir against this model
HQ: Etherial
Fast: x12 Marker Drones (joined with the Shaos'O for 14 marker drones with BS5)
Fast: x2 x5 Pathfinders
Troop: x2 x10 Kroot with a hound
Troop: x2 x6 Firewarriors
Troop: x1 x12 Firewarriors
Heavy: x3 Rail-Broadsides with plasma and seeker missile with 2 Shield Drones and x3
Heavy: x2 Skyrays
Elite: Crisis suit team with Airburst Frag Launhcer, x2 Flamers and x3 Twin-Missiles
Elite: x2 Crisis suit teams with Twin-Plasma and Fusion
1850 Tau & GK
HQ: Shas'O, Iridium Armor, Drone Controller, Missile Pods, Cyclic Ion Blaster, Shield Generator, x2 Marker Drones
Warlord: re-rolls 1s to hit once per game
HQ-Ret: x2 Bodyguards Suits, Onager Gauntlet (Kung-Fu Flying Kick), x2 Twin-Missiles, x2 Plasma
Elite: Crisis suit team with Airburst Frag Launhcer, x2 Burst Cannons and x3 Twin-Missiles
Elite: Crisis suit teams with Twin-Missiles and Fusion
Elite: Crisis suit teams with Twin-Missiles and Plasma
Heavy: x2 Missile Broadsides with Missile Drones
Fast: x2 x8 Pathfinders
HQ: Order Xenos Inquisitor, x3 Servo Skulls, Psychatroke Grenades
Night fight turn 1 (like either army cares), 1 objective in each deployment zone, 1 towards the middle.
Tau&Gk deploy first; from left to right: Pathfinders, suits with twin-missiles and plasma (further from the camera), suits with twin-missiles and fusion (closer to camera), x2 Missile Broadside Proxies with missile drones, Terminators, Suits with twin-missiles, ariburst frag launcher and burst cannons, x11 firewarriors, Commander Suit unit with 4 marker drones. The TauGk objective is right behind the left corner of the rectangular ruin (and is skyfire, aka, useless for this game). Two units of firewarriros are in reserve, the second squad of pathfinders is outflanking (to the chagrin of a nearby spectator).
On the Tau side, the Rail Broadsides and Shield Drones deploy at the center of the field, followed up by the 2 5man pathfinder squads and the two skyrays with a unit of crisis plasma-fusion suits hiding behind each...
... continued by a unit of firewarriors with an Ehterial, Shas'O with 14 marker drones and a crisis suit team with an airburst frag launcher, twin-missile pods and 2 flamers. In reserve are x2 Kroot and x2 x6 Firewarriors.
The pure Tau attempts to steal the initiative but fails. The entire GK-Tau force is starring down at 3 Rail-Broadsides!
Pathfinders on the left scout forward and the entire GK-Tau force moves up except for the firewarriors which are left to guard the home base objective.
Markerlights and multiple waves of missile pods bring down the 3 broadsides but the shield drones are left unharmed (ironically enough). The shield drones make their morale check and GK-Tau fail to secure first blood!
In the assault phase, the GK-Shash'O moves forward, however, the remaining crisis suit teams are terrified by the skyray seeker missiles and either move back or attempt hug the nearest rocks to be out of marker lights line of sight (key word here is attempt).
Overview of bottom of Turn 1. The pure Tau player has lost 3 broadsides and most of the GK-Tau force is hidden behind the middle rock formation.
The pure Tau (Gus Indo) moves the marker drone blob with his Shas'O full speed towards the GK-Tau deployment zone while the Skyrays and suits shuffle to secure the right side of the rock formation. To my absolute amazement, the 5 pathfinders on the second floor of the ruins decide to live to fight another day and move to the lower floor, out of sight of the advancing towards them force.
In an unforeseen turn of events, one of the suits in the squad with the airburst fragmentation launcher is within line of sight to the Tau marker drones (that are at BS5)! 8 marker light hit later and 2 skyray volleys of 3 and 2 missiles and the GK crisis suit team is out of the game, giving up first blood!!! In the assault phase the Shas'O and drones continue moving forward.
Turn 2
Spoiler:
Top of turn 2: 6 firewarriors come to reinforce the GK-Tau line. All the suits move forward towards the nearest Skyray to avenge their fallen comrades! The patfinder squad light up the skyray and Shas'O command squad pulverizes it to death using the puretide chip to re-roll armor penetrations. Unfortunately, everything else save for a 2-3 pathfinders are out of line of sight, but using copious amounts of missile pods they are removed from play. In a combination of luck and the Ehterial bubble both pathfinder units make their morale checks.
In the assault phase all Daemonhunter units advance towards the center of the battlefield.
Overview of Bottom of Turn 2. The pure Tau prepare to bring some serious hurt!
The Kroot outflank the Daemonhunter's Line!
For the greater good!!!!
A squad of firewarriors also comes from reserve at the top. The GK-Tau are now surrounded from all sides!!!
In perfect unison, the plasma-metla crisis suits clamber the wrecked Skyray and train their sights on the nearby Shas'O and command squad. Out of camera, the marker drones and remaining suit squad continue to advance towards the GK deployment zone.
In shooting, the pure Tau, through line-of sight blocking or bad luck don't score a single marker light hit! One Kroot squad runs to get more models into the forest while the upper squad obliterates 5 of the 8 pathfinders.
On the other side of the conflict, the two plasma-crisis suit teams and the 6 firewarriors demolish the command suit unit, leaving the Shash'O with only 2 wounds and 1 marker drone that belonged to the bodyguard suits. And to add insult to injury...
... at the end of the assault phase all of the suits are behind line of sight! I have seen good Tau maneuvering but this was insane !!! They came, they killed, they went!
Turn 3
Spoiler:
Top of 3. The GK-Tau have decided that the Kroot have somehow "offended their family and the Shao-lin Temple" and, obviously, they must be surrounded and killed! The pathfinder squad scouts on the left flank while 11 more fire warriors join the fray and prepare to barbeque some chickens at point blank!
"There are two Krootox down there but I don't see any...wait a second, they're Kroot all right. I can see one of them now."
"Aaaaaaaaa!"
"Whua HUA HUA HUA!!!!!!!"
The GK-Tau Shas'O abandons the marker drone and joins the nearest crisis suit unit. The entire army proceeds to then fire and wipe out ... 2 pathfinders and 7 kroot In the assault phase the crisis suits scurry about aimlessly.
The last reinforcements come in, not bothering with cover or terrain. The suits that eradicated the command squad come out of the ruins to play again!
On the other flank the Shas'O with the 14 marker drones finally clears the rocks, while the remaining suits take aim with an airburstfragmentation launcher and complementary missile pods at the firewarriors holding the objective behind the left ruin.
When the smoke clears (or more like when the marker light hits cleared) another crisis suit team falls victim to seeker missiles, half of the broadside team gets chewed to pieces by crisis suits and firewarriors, another pathfinder bites the dust and the firewarriors defending the objective are pined reduced to down to 6 models.
Turn 4
Spoiler:
Top of Turn 4: The GK-Tau muster what strength they have left and fire everything into plasma-fusion crisis suit team near the ruin; all weapons that are out of range of the suits fire at the Kroot. At the end of the shooting neither the Kroot nor the suits have been removed from the game.
Bottom of Turn 4: The pure Tau tighten the noose around the Daemonhunter force! The Skyray continues to move forward in preparation to capture the GK objective on Turn 5! The cirsis suits continue to erase firewarriors and crisis suits alike while a grand total of 2 gun drones from the skyray are parked exactly 1 inch away from the Terminators to prevent them from moving forward in the movement phase and attempt an assault.
The writing on the wall is more than clear and the fat lady is singing quite audibly! The Tau-GK force throws in the towel and surrenders!
Final score:
Pure Tau: 1 objective (+1 one more in the bag next turn), linebreaker, first blood
Tau GK: 1 objective (behind the rocks), no secondary
Turn 5
Spoiler:
Game ends on Turn 4
- 4000
- 1500 6th ed codex: 2 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws
Too bad about the loss. Gus is a very good Tau player and definitely has the experience edge on you. His armies always give mine problems.
You basically lost this one because you were playing his game. You were going towards him and he was picking off your guys. He then stopped your advance with his unsung heroes - the gun drones - by blocking you from reaching the objectives. Very shrewd play on his part.
Looking towards to playing against your Tau-GK sometimes in the future.
I think Termies are a bad idea. I'd rather have some Strike Squads and a Dreadknight. Also, COTEAZ!
Thank you for your comments! I absolutely 100% agree with you that Coteaz and Strike Squads or some Inquisition troops (many many combinations come to mind) are vastly superior to the GK-Terminators, however, after playing multiple games with Coteaz I can assure you that I hate his guts! Stike Squads are the same story for me, compared to the Daemonhunter Grey Knights they are not fearless, have only 1 attack each, no shrouding... to me they feel like they belong in Codex Space Marines rather than codex Grey Knights and I avoid playing with them whenever possible. I don't like the Terminators much either, but at least they come closer to the Daemonhunter codex and with the banner and the xenos inquisitor grenades have to potential at being a half decent counter assault unit. As far as fielding a Dreadknight is concerned, I just don't see how a DK is any better than the new Riptides.
jy2 wrote:Too bad about the loss. Gus is a very good Tau player and definitely has the experience edge on you. His armies always give mine problems.
You basically lost this one because you were playing his game. You were going towards him and he was picking off your guys. He then stopped your advance with his unsung heroes - the gun drones - by blocking you from reaching the objectives. Very shrewd play on his part.
Looking towards to playing against your Tau-GK sometimes in the future.
Gus hasn't played 40k in a long time so I was hoping to negate his Tau experience! The psychological effect of having entire units disappear from Skyrays that don't even have line of sight to your unit was too much for me! I also fell for his Kroot distraction and send way too many units to counter it (and not effectively at that too). I should not have kept the second pathfinder squad in reserve, i should have moved the initially deployed firewarriors forward as well and should have deepstruck the terminators (and left the inquisitor in reserve to counter assault the kroot?).
Overall this was an extremely fun game with both sides doing a lot of maneuvering before the real fight got started. I think the new Tau codex has the potential to be extremely entertaining!
I am looking forward to playing against you Tyranid list again, right now I am 0-2 to it I believe!
- 4000
- 1500 6th ed codex: 2 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws
ouch, that one had a good start but turned out badly I think mostly through positioning. In a GK+ Tau list, I've really done the best so far with suicidal GK terminators if I was going that way and just deep strike them into the enemy gunlines in the back or side somewhere. That way they are at least a psychological threat that people have to keep some stuff to defend their back sides.
I usually still use coteaz as a firebase now less effective than ever thanks to so much ignore cover but him with a few crusaders or at least enough ablative wound acolytes holding down a corner with plasma cannon servitors and maybe a monkey or two to stop outflankers has worked out fairly well. Just keep him 13' from the board edges and you are in good shape. Park him with an interceptor quad gun or icarus and you can shoot it twice at incomming guys. Once with IBEY, and then again as interceptor. Pretty much keeps the flank clears. You can then just ignore the other flank for the most part or pick off anything that comes in that far away with long distance shooting next turn.
A DK would be there to help out with the suicide termies as well as force your opponent to deal with something that can be in his backfield just about anytime you like it to be. His flamer can burn down most Tau infantry fairly handidly especially including drone squads, pathfinders in cover, fire warriors and etherals hiding in the back.
Seeker missles have not done that much for me yet. I think they are great vs other tau and taking out crisis suits but you gotta remember that they still remove closest models first. That means you just need some better positioning and keeping a cheap gundrone or two closer to the enemy that presents the biggest threat to you (i.e. suck up instagib lascannons/seeker missles). I've been keeping broadsides alive that way for quite a while. Their drones can move and fire while individual models stand still. I just shuffle the drones around to block things for the broadsides. Etheral or attached IC will keep them from running off the field most times anyway.
+ Thought of the day + Not even in death does duty end.
Dreadknight is nice because he is a good assault unit and torrent flamers are always wonderful. The riptide can ignore cover too but his blast still relies on hitting whereas torrent flamer gives you the control. You also have to expend 2 MLs to get the cover busting. I think they are still great to have and i'd probably field one and one riptide just for flexibility.
sudojoe wrote:ouch, that one had a good start but turned out badly I think mostly through positioning. In a GK+ Tau list, I've really done the best so far with suicidal GK terminators if I was going that way and just deep strike them into the enemy gunlines in the back or side somewhere. That way they are at least a psychological threat that people have to keep some stuff to defend their back sides.
I agree. For some reason I thought that the Terminators can stay behind the rock and jump out at the last moment and claim one of the two objectives that was close to them, unfortunately, they simply got ignored/blocked in. Other than deepstiking them (which was a great option) there was also the possibility to keep them moving forward, have them sacrificed at Turn 3 to draw fire away from the rest of the army, or even have them come from a regular reserve and basically auto-take the home deployment objective while ALL fire warriors were pushing forward. What amazes me about the Tau book, is that ALL of the above are viable strategies, you actually now have choices to make during the game! That is a huge improvement over the old Daemonhunter or current Grey Knight books!
sudojoe wrote:I usually still use coteaz as a firebase now less effective than ever thanks to so much ignore cover but him with a few crusaders or at least enough ablative wound acolytes holding down a corner with plasma cannon servitors and maybe a monkey or two to stop outflankers has worked out fairly well. Just keep him 13' from the board edges and you are in good shape. Park him with an interceptor quad gun or icarus and you can shoot it twice at incomming guys. Once with IBEY, and then again as interceptor. Pretty much keeps the flank clears. You can then just ignore the other flank for the most part or pick off anything that comes in that far away with long distance shooting next turn.
As I mentioned earlier, I think that Coteaz and inquisition friends are AMAZING! As a matter of fact, I will go as far as say that I have had games were my inquisition force (roughly 280 points in a GK game) has completely outperformed my entire grey knight army (1400+ points)! Shoot at reserves, plasma cannons, plasma guns, crusaders, assassins that can switch between weapons, 12 point objective holders, melta bomb squads, bolter squads, psykers... you have a tool for everything and it is usually some of the cheapest point values in the game. That being said, I detest the Inquisition and I will not play with it again even in the most competitive of competitive tournaments, they are just a bunch of undercosted models.
sudojoe wrote:
Seeker missles have not done that much for me yet. I think they are great vs other tau and taking out crisis suits but you gotta remember that they still remove closest models first. That means you just need some better positioning and keeping a cheap gundrone or two closer to the enemy that presents the biggest threat to you (i.e. suck up instagib lascannons/seeker missles). I've been keeping broadsides alive that way for quite a while. Their drones can move and fire while individual models stand still. I just shuffle the drones around to block things for the broadsides. Etheral or attached IC will keep them from running off the field most times anyway.
The drones on broadsides, especially the missile broadsides are incredible, and they of course can be repositioned. When it comes to crisis suits however, things become a bit murky: It took me a very very long time in 5th Ed to get into the idea of playing crisis suits without drones. The advantages are simple: the unit costs less, fewer weapons fail to fire because of range limitations and the unit has a smaller footprint (3 models that can fly around can be surprisingly easy to hide sometimes). When it comes to weapons that ignore cover, line of sight and armor... having the drones would have been nice! I don't expect many people to get into the habit of taking multiple seeker missiles and if they do there is always the option to deepstike the suits.
LValx wrote:Dreadknight is nice because he is a good assault unit and torrent flamers are always wonderful. The riptide can ignore cover too but his blast still relies on hitting whereas torrent flamer gives you the control. You also have to expend 2 MLs to get the cover busting. I think they are still great to have and i'd probably field one and one riptide just for flexibility.
sudojoe wrote:
A DK would be there to help out with the suicide termies as well as force your opponent to deal with something that can be in his backfield just about anytime you like it to be. His flamer can burn down most Tau infantry fairly handidly especially including drone squads, pathfinders in cover, fire warriors and etherals hiding in the back.
jy2 wrote:I see a dreadknight in your army.
I have 3 Dreadknights and regularly play with 1-3 in my lists and I completely and utterly fail to see how you would ever justify taking a Dreadknight in a Tau list over dropping a few crisis suits for a Riptide. Always remember that while the DK has a nice stat line, it is SLOW unless you pay a lot of points for its shunter.
Thank you guys for your input and comments!
- 4000
- 1500 6th ed codex: 2 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws
jy2 wrote: You actually have a model of the dreadknight in your BR, but I don't see him in the list. Is he a proxy for another unit?
I have a model of a dreadknight in my battle report? .... .... oh, Oh, ohhhhh!
Are you thinking of this suit? This is my 4th Ed Commander Farsight (or Commander Deathscythe). In this battle report I am using him as a regular twin-missile + plasma daemonhunter crisis exoskeleton suit.
The Dreadknights use the Gundam Hell Deathscythe Hell 1:100 while my 4th Edition Farsight uses the smaller 1:144. I don't think that Farsight really brings anything special from a competitive point of view to the new Tau Codex so the moment I have enough new suits to field (I have to get up to 12 crisis suits) I will retire the model. (sorry for the horrible photography)
- 4000
- 1500 6th ed codex: 2 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws
@Grey Therion
The good news: The report was very entertaining and I hope you continue to make more in the future. I especially liked the star wars quote.
The bad news: What the heck dude! If you are going to fall for a outflank distraction at least remove it from the board. I'm a little disappointed considering you just beat me today with this list.
I know there is a serious intimidation factor with Gus's Tau and you were obviously a bit overzealous. I'm sure you will do better next time. The problem was definitely not your list.
I see what you meant about short term gain.
@Gus Indo
Nice one dude! I am going to have some serious issues against your play style when we finally get our game in. I hope you give Bobby a well deserved rematch of the rematch soon.
@Grey Therion
The good news: The report was very entertaining and I hope you continue to make more in the future. I especially liked the star wars quote.
The bad news: What the heck dude! If you are going to fall for a outflank distraction at least remove it from the board. I'm a little disappointed considering you just beat me today with this list.
I know there is a serious intimidation factor with Gus's Tau and you were obviously a bit overzealous. I'm sure you will do better next time. The problem was definitely not your list.
I see what you meant about short term gain.
@Gus Indo
Nice one dude! I am going to have some serious issues against your play style when we finally get our game in. I hope you give Bobby a well deserved rematch of the rematch soon.
Thank you for the harsh but honest criticism!
- 4000
- 1500 6th ed codex: 2 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws
I am the pure Tau opponent from this report. I agree with GreyTherion's analysis but I can add my own later
VorackTheGrim wrote:
@Gus Indo
Nice one dude! I am going to have some serious issues against your play style when we finally get our game in. I hope you give Bobby a well deserved rematch of the rematch soon.
Thanks! But get ready, you're next!
ajsnips44 wrote:Is that a Bulgarian flag on your brotherhood banner bearer?
Yes it is, I painted the banner. GreyTherion can probably elaborate on it
ajsnips44 wrote:Is that a Bulgarian flag on your brotherhood banner bearer?
Yes it is, I painted the banner. GreyTherion can probably elaborate on it
All but one of the terminators in the report were painted by Gus before the new Grey Kninght codex was released. Needless to say it was extremely convenient that the codex introduced a banner as a playable item! The banner itself is the Bulgarian flag in vertical position on the back, and for the front I asked Gus to draw a failed proposal from 1995 for the new coat of arms (link to image below):
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Coat_of_arms_of_Bulgaria_%281995_proposal%29.svg
!!! They came, they killed, they went!
- 4000
- 1500 6th ed codex: 2 wins, 1 loss, 0 draws 
.....Bay Area Open GT 2013 - Best Tyranids 
1750 ?W-?L (about 50-50)
7000pts
(In Progress)
