My first game of
40k in 2011 and for almost 6 months, so rules rust might make an entry; just ignore it if it does, as chances are that i've already realised and having repeats of "You did ____ wrong" throughout the thread is both unhelpful and annoying.
My list:
HQ:
Shas'
el w/ Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array,
HW Multi-tracker, Stimulant Injector,
HW Drone Controller, 2 Shield Drones, Bonding Knife - 142pts
Elites:
2x Crisis Battlesuits, 1 w/ Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker and 1 Team Leader w/ Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array,
HW Multi-tracker - 139pts - CBS 1
1x Crisis Battlesuit w/ Team Leader, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, Targeting Array,
HW Multi-tracker,
HW Drone Controller, 1 Shield Drone, Bonding Knife - 97pts - CBS 2
1x Crisis Battlesuit w/ Team Leader, Plasma Rifle, Missile Pods, Targeting Array,
HW Multi-tracker,
HW Drone Controller, 1 Shield Drone, Bonding Knife - 97pts - CBS 3
Troops:
10x Fire Warriors - 100pts -
FW 1
10x Fire Warriors - 100pts -
FW 2
10x Fire Warriors - 100pts -
FW 3
Fast Attack:
6x Pathfinders + Devilfish w/ Disruption Pods,
SMS, Targeting Array, Multi-tracker - 180pts
Heavy Support:
2x Broadsides 1 w/ Targeting Array (this is what my list said, I had played them as having A.S.S. for the first half of the game because that's what I always had them with) + 1 Team Leader w/ Targeting Array, Boning Knife,
HW Drone Controller, 2 shield drones,
HW Target Lock - 205pts
Hammerhead w/ Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pods, Multi-tracker, Blacksun Filter - 170pts -
HH 1
Hammerhead w/ Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pods, Multi-tracker - 165pts -
HH 2
Total - 1500pts
Space Marines - Don't know exact list, so bear with me.
HQ:
Vulcan
Librarian w/ Null Zone (at least)
Chaplain w/ Terminator Armour
Elites:
10x Terminators w/ Cyclone Missile Launcher
Dreadnought w/ Multi-melta
Troops:
10x Space Marines w/ Meltagun and unknown heavy -
SM 1
10x Space Marines w/ Flamer and unknown heavy -
SM 3
10x Space Marines w/ Flamer, Missile Launcher -
SM 2
Total - Something in the region of 1500pts I imagine.
First turn - Me
Deployment - Pitched Battle
Mission - Capture and Control - Objectives In the broadside's building the largest ruin.
Terrain (ignore the white block on the far right-hand side, I couldn't be bothered fiddling with paint's page sizes after I imported the images from Open office Draw, so the board edge ends at the right-hand side of the double ruin in the bottom right):
Setup:
Turn 1:
I'd forgotten that the Pathfinders didn't have to start in the fish, so I had to get them out this turn. Crisis suits moved up to harass and the hammerheads trained their railguns on the dreadnought, neither shot doing anything. The Broadsides were out of
LoS of the dreadnought, so fired on the marines in the building to no avail. The Monats fired on Vulcan's unit but did nothing, with the Commander and the double suit unit doing nothing the librarian's marines in the building. Expecting the marines to take advantage of this lack of anything, I prepared for the worst.
The worst didn't come. The dreadnought didn't move far, failing to do anything to my hammerhead with his multi-melta. Similarly, shots from every other unit failed to do a thing. Turn 1 had come and passed as if it wasn't even there.
Turn 2:
Things got better from here. My pathfinders shuffled into the building vacated by the second unit of
FWs, who had gone into the devilfish. The hammerheads position themselves for another strike on the dreadnought, and my crisis suits jumped up for a strike on the marine squads. Shooting saw the dreadnought obliterated by HH2, rolling a solid penetrating hit that would've caused a result of 7 on the damage table if it went that far. A single marine of squad 3 was taken out by bits of exploding dreadnought. The second hammerhead trained its railgun on the dazed unit of marines and fired a submunition shot into their midst, rolling a successful hit that caught every single marine under the template and erased several from existence.
The commander and his unit jumped towards the Librarian's unit, engulfing them in rapid-fired goodness, but cover made sure that only 2 marines were taken out by the onslaught. Vulcan's unit were similarly pinned down, but only a single marine was taken down as the esteemed Salamanders Chapter Master made sure his unit found the best spots of cover possible. The broadsides fired but ultimately did nothing.
The wrath of the Salamanders came in the form of a 10-man terminator squad led by a terminator chaplain that materialised in the middle of the field. Vulcan called the decimated marines of unit 3 behind the Librarian's building and signalled the shooting phase with the meltagun of his squad vaporising the shield drone of Battlesuit 3. The Salamanders Chaplain gave the order to fire, with he and his unit raining bolter shells at the broadsides, their thick armour easily weathered the storm of shells, not even denting as a cyclone krak missile struck the chestplate. The fury of the Salamanders had been stopped in its tracks.
Turn 3:
(this image is a little wrong, but I can't be bothered with the hassle of fixing it and re-uploading to
PB, you should spot what is wrong anyway)
The Battlesuit Commander pulled the Crisis Suits back, noting the marines had not expected the power that would soon be brought to bear upon them. With the space marines curled up behind cover like frightened animals, the Tau were free to level every weapon in their arsenal at the terminators. The Chaplain watched in horror as 4 red dots appeared against members his unit from the pathfinder markerlights and the giant railguns of the hammerheads slowly turned to face them, with the rugged battlesuits powering their weaponry; the entire Tau army had their eyes upon the terminators.
The shooting phase was declared and the railguns opened fire with submunition shots, taking advantage of the close proximity inside the terminator squad. The first shot scattered wide, the chaplain sighed in relief, only to duck as the next shot scored a direct hit upon the terminator in front of him. The veteran warrior toppled backwards, his armour rent and torn with another whose soft armour had been ripped to pieces. The broadside battlesuits added their railguns, blasting a hole through a third terminator. Pulse Rifle fire added a mist of energy from which ripples of plasma fire from the crisis battlesuits tore through at unpredictable angles, lancing across the Terminator's armour and ripping through it. Missiles joined the flurry of plasma and impacted heavily against the besieged terminators.
As the last missile buried itself in the face of a terminator, the firing ceased. Of the original terminator unit, only a single terminator and the chaplain remained, the bodies of their fallen brothers lay groaning around them, their armour torn and blasted open by the furious shooting of the Tau.
Vulcan had could not believe his eyes; where once there stood eleven of his finest warriors, there were now only two. The ferocity of the Tau attack had been wholly unexpected, the casualties it had caused even less so, but he was determined to make the Xenos pay. He led his squad up towards the ruin in front of them and readied himself for the counter-attack.
Vulcan and his squad rolled poorly for difficult terrain, tripping over and falling short of the building. The marines of squad 3 joined the Librarian's unit inside the building. The Chaplain and the final terminator powered onwards, hulking towards the objective in the broadside's building and charging the Fire Warriors inside. Whilst the warriors of the Fire Caste fought bravely, dealing a wound to the fatigued Chaplain, they were ultimately felled, and the Chaplain led the Terminator to the floor above.
Turn 4:
The Crisis Commander ordered suits 2 and 3 to intercept the Chaplain before he reached the objective and to keep him away as the Fire Warriors in the devilfish set a course for it. Powering onwards, he set his eyes upon the marine objective; if the chaplain reached their own, the best he could do was to keep the marines from having theirs too. Ordering the third squad of
FWs out of their building, they marched on towards the marine objective.
Shooting saw the broadsides blast through the remaining terminator as soon as he was visible, but the chaplain was quicker and ascended before the broadsides could reload and fire again. Fed by co-ordinates from the battlesuits, the chaplain was peppered by smart missiles from the devilfish, but to no avail, not even the markerlights of the pathfinders could aid the missiles in finding a gap in his ancient armour. The crisis battlesuits arrived too late to fire upon the chaplain. Valiantly, battlesuit 3 powered his jet pack and ascended upwards to strike the Chaplain in melee. The commander and his unit fired at the marines inside the building and the hammerheads pounded Vulcan’s unit with submunition, the combined efforts however, only saw a small handful of casualties.
Despite his bulky armour, the chaplain was faster, dealing a wound to the crisis suit, which held, vowing to keep the marine away from the objective.
Vulcan led his marines towards the Librarian, confident that the chaplain would be able to deal with the Tau in combat. The Librarian ordered the marines out and bathed the battlesuits in flame and bolt shells, killing off 1 shield drone and dealing a wound to the commander, the Librarian's null zone was not needed. Combat saw the marines charge the battlesuits, sheer numbers of attacks dealing a wound to one of the suits. The chaplain finished off the battlesuit and used his momentum to run past the window that the pathfinders were using.
Turn 5:
The devilfish pilots realised the situation was growing dire, and ploughed the APC into the building. The immobilised transport opened all hatches and the Fire Warriors poured out.
FW unit 3 darted towards the marine objective and the hammerheads lined up to shoot down Vulcan's unit and leap into the marine lines to keep them from claiming their objective. battlesuit 2 saw his partner fall and powered upwards to engage the chaplain. Shooting saw the chaplain's armour deflecting the railgun projectiles, but they left little that could protect him from a further strike. The hammerheads claimed more casualties from Vulcan’s unit and the devilfish fired its smart missiles at the chaplain, but the dense cover was too thick for even the guided missiles to cleanly traverse. The Fire Warriors were too far away to do anything, and Battlesuit 2 charged in to intercept the chaplain.
Combat saw the crisis commander fall to the Librarian's powered strikes and the team leader falling with him. The remaining suit fell back; the sight of his experienced leaders falling was too much. The marines attempted to follow, but the battlesuit's jet pack soon outdistanced them. The chaplain, fatigued as he was, only managed to strike down the shield drone, the crisis battlesuit's enhanced attacks barely parried by the chaplain's crozius.
Even as the Tau bore down upon the remaining marines, the beacon of Vulcan's objective sent a distress signal to a nearby Imperial Fleet. The Tau didn't have time to activate their jamming device, and were forced to flee as the Imperial Cruisers and undoubtedly to rest of the Salamanders chapter made a course for the planet. Although defeated, they had not left the Salamanders chapter unharmed; depriving them of 10 of their hardest veterans, an ancient warrior dreadnought and countless numbers of battle brothers had struck a hard blow to the chapter who, although victorious, knew that further encounters with the Tau race would not be easy.
Records from the Damocles Crusade had painted the Tau as lacking in both tactics and experience; obviously they had learned well from that conflict, a trait that could pose significant threat to the Imperium in future fights. The Salamanders would have to approach their next skirmishes with any Tau with extreme caution, they obviously learned quickly, and the information they had gathered from this battle would mean a deadlier opponent waited in the next.
Game Ended - Turn 5 -
SM had 1 objective to the Tau's 0.
And if you're drinkin' well, you know that you're my friend and I say "I think I'll have myself a beer" 