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So, travelled to Gauntlet Games for a 1,500 pt. round of 40k with Jon. He just got his new Tau Empire codex and seems thrilled about it. I've still played a total of one game with my Black Templars thus far, so I need all the help I can get.

Anyway, lists looked something like this.

Black Templars
High Chaplain Grimauldus
Emperor's Champion w/ Uphold the Honor of the Emperor Vow (6+ Invulnerable Save and Immune to Pinning)
Crusade Squad 1: 10xInitiates, 6xNeophytes, 14x BP + CCW, 1xBP + PF, 1x Melta
Crusade Squad 2: 10xInitiates, 8xNeophytes, 16xBP + CCW, 1xBP + PF,
Crusade Squad 3: Same as 2
Tornado Landspeederx3 (Individual Units)
Venerable Dreadnought with Drop Pod, Heavy Flamer, Ass Cannon, Smoke, Extra Armor, Furious Charge

Tried Grim instead of using 2 Chaplains to skimp on points. Let's see if it gets me anywhere. Unfortunately, not having anyone to buy wargear for meant I had some extra points left over that I used to make my Dread venerable.

Tau Empire (as well as I can remember)
Ethereal (mostly for Leadership reroll)
Commander w/ Fusion Blaster, Shield Generator, Self-Destruct System, some other junk
2xCrisis Suits w/ Plasma Rifles and Twin Linked Flamers
1xFire Warrior Unit w/ Pulse Rifles
1x20 Man Kroot Carnivore Squad
1xBroadsides w/ Rail Guns, Shield Generator, 4xShield Drones, 2+ Armor Saves (translation: a *female dog* to kill)
1xHammerhead w/ Rail Gun and SMS system
1xPathfinders w/ all markerlights, Devilfish with smart missles

The table's devoid of any tall cover and the Tau guns can shoot just about anywhere, so I know this is going to be rough. We roll alpha secure and control, which is even worse as everbyody is going to start on the table and my templars are less than stellar at standing on top of objectives. Usually I would use the late turn speeder grabs for that, but we ruled that none of the terrain was tall enough to block vehicle line of sight, so I knew I couldn't count on them to make it to last turn.

The three loot counters get spread evenly across the board, with one on my left flank in a graveyard, one in the center of the board on a hill, and one on the right behind a low retaining wall. I attached Grimauldus to Crusade Squad 1 and placed them and Crusade two on the left flank to make a charge at the loot counter there, while the Emperor's Champion attached to Crusade 3 and prepared to charge the central hill. My speeders I tried to duck behind some cover and hope for first turn, so at least I can move them before the Tau open fire.

The tau set their sniper teams fanned across the back edge of their deployment zone. The broadsides and firewarriors set up with the middle sniper team, establishing a solid firebase with the Commander leading the Broadsides (to use his self-destruct to break them out of CC.) The hammerhead and Kroot set up towards my right flank. The pathfinders go to my left, and the ethereal ducks into some bushes to hide. The crisis suits deploy one to both flanks.

For the scout turn, the pathfinders confuse me by sending their Fish into the graveyard and disembarking.

I'm hoping to have a two pronged assualt. All of my units are starting with the 3+ save in the majority, so hopefully that and the invulnerable save will buy me some turns. The landspeeders are probably toast if I don't get first turn, which I don't.

Tau Turn 1
Even more confusing, the devilfish hovers out from the front of the Pathfinders, leaving them exposed to assault. The gun drones from the devilfish hover over in front of Grim's unit. Crisis suits advance. Kroot book forward to try and get into some trees that are situated next to the hill. Hammerhead moves up six for a shot at a speeder. The pathfinders light Grim's unit up with markerlights, letting the back sniper team rip into them with rail rifles, causing some wounds (sorry, didn't take as detailed notes as I'd have liked.) Between the Fish's burst cannon and the hammerhead's rail gun, one speeder ends up destroyed and the other ends up immobilized and stunned (so, effectively destroyed.) The broadsides manage to miss the third speeder, by some strange miracle. And then disaster happens. One of the sniper teams on the right flank fires into Crusade Squad 3, killing one initiate. On the ensuing righteous zeal check, I roll an 11, and the Champion turns tail and runs himself and 18 "brave" warriors of the Black Templars off the board. Chaplain Grimauldus' unit, angered by the Champion's treachery, roll a nine and start moving towards the pathfinders. We look in the rules to make sure terrain doesn't affect this movement (and it doesn't, which is going to be sick in Cityfight) and end up about an inch away from the Pathfinders. For again unkown reasons (apparently they lost touch with the greater good) the Pathfinders figure they're going to die anyway, so they assualt Crusade 1 and Grimauldus, while we're in cover, and die horribly. However, it's my turn to be dumb, as I decide to use the consolidate to head towards the devilfish rather than a more threatening target. The gun drones duck into a ruined building, since Crusade 2 is right there to assault them. But, I've at this point lost 1/3 of my army without getting a turn, so this is going to be an uphill fight.

Black Templar Turn 1
Grimauldus' unit shuffles the meltagun forward to fire at the Fish. Crusade 2 moves up to the gun drones' ruined building. The one surviving speeder moves forward to fire on the Firewarrior squad. The meltagun fails to do anything but shake the fish. Two firewarriors die to the assault cannon, but pass leadership. Crusade 2 makes quick work of the gun drones and consolidates into the ruins.

Tau Turn 2
Snickering, the Crisis Suits each move to within flamer range of my bunched up crusade squads. The Kroot make it all the way into cover while the hammerhead hovers towards the right objective marker. Firewarrior return fire downs the one mobile speeder, while the hammerhead rail gun finishes off the immobile one. Sniper teams light up Crusade 2 with their markerlights so Jon can fire his smart missles off of the devilfish, causing a couple of wounds. The flamer shot kills four or five neophytes from crusade 2, but they pass the ensuing righteous zeal check and charge forward, locking the crisis suit into close combat before the bastard got a chance to jump away. Unfortunately, in my excitement, I forgot to run the assault that round.

Black Templar Turn 2
I roll to have the Dread arrive, and drop him in close to the Kroot forest. The meltagun finally hits it's mark and takes out the Fish, but too late. The dread unloads with its flamer and assault cannon on the Kroot, killing eight but again not managing to force them to retreat. Crusade 2 pulverizes the crisis suit they're assaulting, but then gets stuck in the middle of nowhere with their *donkey*in the breeze.

Tau Turn 3
The hammerhead circles around the Dread's pod to line up a shot, coming dangerously close to crusade 2. The other crisis suit apparently didn't get the memo, as he walks boldly into the graveyard to deliver some more twin-linked flamer loving to crusade 1. The firewarriors walk around the edge of the graveyard, apparently trying to get close enough to smoke Crusade 1 out of hiding. The hammerhead blows very large holes in the dread (rolled a six to destroy, and then another six on the reroll.) The explosion manages to kill some more Kroot, so I fell better because of that. The firebase and all the sniper teams open up on poor crusade 2, blowing away all but like eight of them, I think. The flamer kills acouple of neophytes, but the resulting zeal once again locks the crisis suit into CC. Crusade 2 fails their zeal roll, but I'm not entirely upset about that since it takes me towards the hammerhead and my meltagunner is still alive. I remember to run the assault this time, and kill the crisis suit, as well as consolidating within charge range of the firewarriors.

Black Templar Turn 3
Crusade 2 recovers via ATSKNF, moving 6" towards the hammerhead (resulting in a comment of "Wait a minute. What's this malarky?" from Jon.) Crusade 1 bunches up for the big push on the firewarrior squad. Crusade 2's meltagun manages to destroy the Hammerhead. When Crusade 1 charges, shennanigans ensue, as Grim's five attacks on the charge kill all but one firewarrior who, due to wound removal, is now no longer in base with anyone. I am informed that we're no longer in close combat and thus, I have to roll to overrun that one firewarrior. I roll a one. He rolls a five. The firewarrior escapes close combat, and the 2" consolidate leaves me one inch short of the Broadside team to continue CC. I try not to cry too much.

Tau Turn 4
Basically, the tau firebase kills all but Grim, one ceboyte servitor, and two neophytes in shooting. We zeal into close combat, but the close combat results in me causing no wounds whatsoever, even with revealing the Holy relic, while the Tau cowboy up and kill everybody but Grim from the unit.

We decide to call it there, as it's only a matter of time until Grimauldus goes down, freeing his one remaining scoring unit (the broadsides) to walk up to an objective over the next two turns and win.

All in all, not as bad as I expected after my champion's leadership roll screwed me first turn (he has since been captured by the Inquisition, been dubbed Traitorus Excommunicate, had his black sword removed so i can convert a non-pansy champion, and is awaiting beheading.) I almost pushed the game back to a draw, which is acceptable to me. Also, Jon's hammerhead if I remember correctly has yet to survive a game with me.

Lessons Learned:
1) Uphold the Honor vow is a mixed bag. On the one hand, I saved about 80 points worth of models with it over the course of the game and avoided pinning tests from the Tau. On the other hand, no cover saves kind of sucks. I'll definitely be dropping it when Medusa V rolls around.

2) Mixing Speeders and Dreads is maybe not a brilliant plan. I should probably either have one or the other at this point level. I know the speeders are worshipped as god's gift to space marines on the Dakka boards, but without sufficient terrain they're going to go pop first turn whatever I do, especially against a quasi-static Tau list like this one.

3) I need to remember to run my list correctly. Assaulting that crisis suit succesfully on turn 2 might have put Crusade 2 in a position to charge something during my turn and get safely into close combat.

4) Splitting forces lets the enemy pick my units off one by one.

5) A chaplain for every unit. Having Grimauldus just ended up resulting in his unit sprinting off and leaving the other squad behind. Also, I'm not sure about leaving the Champion in charge of a unit either. Statistically he shouldn't fail leadership checks that often, but when he does the effects could be disastrous.

6) Grow a pair. If I'm running assault, I have to get past cover as fast as possible. Ducking Grim's squad behind cover as long as I did gave the enemy the ability to fire at one squad at a time, kill it, then move on to the next in subsequent turns.

Comments welcome.

I thought that in 4th edition even if you kill all the possible enemy models in cc (while some are out of the danger zone) the squads are still locked and you still have to roll leadership and everything?

Although it sounds like everything there happened as I would have expected it to following this rule...(guys died, firewarrior fails + flees, you fail to catch as he flees...this stuff all happens before pile in moves and such)

You guys made a few rules mistakes with assault, but meh. If you are running 3 large squads on foot, speeders are okay if you have cover. However, it's going to take your units a while to run across the board before they become a threat to most armies. So the opponent targeted the easy stuff...the speeders. Against this army, you were out manuevered. I'd start with 2 huge squads of templars, attach a chappy to one the EC and a highmarshall to the other and then drop pod the rest.... Capt K

You guys made a few rules mistakes with assault, but meh. If you are running 3 large squads on foot, speeders are okay if you have cover. However, it's going to take your units a while to run across the board before they become a threat to most armies. So the opponent targeted the easy stuff...the speeders. Against this army, you were out manuevered. I'd start with 2 huge squads of templars, attach a chappy to one the EC and a highmarshall to the other and then drop pod the rest.... Capt K

Thanks for the comments thus far.

What were the mistakes? My first army was necrons, so I'm trying to learn what I can about this strange "assault" phase I spent so much time trying to avoid.

There seemed to be a lot of consolidation moves after combat when there should have been Massacre rolls. In the one example you charged a crisis suit, killed it, and only consolidated. In another example you consolidated 2" instead of the 3"... the only thing I can think of is that you are calling your massacre rolls consolidation moves, when the two are different....maybe that is confusing me...so I am going off of how I'm reading it, and they are looking like mistakes, when maybe they aren't? is that the case? Referring back to list choices, I think that adding another DP dread with AC and Heavy flamer would definitely help your cause. Capt K

You're right, I was calling consolidate moves massacre moves. Doh!

I think I did consollidate 2 instead of 3 though. Grr. That's what I get for just believing someone instead of looking the rule up myself.

The 2 Dreads thing is where I'm looking as well (in addition to possibly switching to a drop pod assault, where the Dreads would play a large role as well.)

Again, thanks for the comments.

You might want to have a chat with your buddy about his army list.



There are several things wrong with this...first of all, putting flamers on crisis suits in almost always a bad idea as you don't want your crisis suits getting that close to anyone. Second of all, is it even possible to twin link a flamer? Its not like you can miss with the first shot.

Just my 2 cents!

Ummm, do you realize you revisited a 6 month old thread? He may have had a few more games with his Tau Empire since then.

Ignore the fact that this is threadcromancy.

I would say that your list is pretty good, but seems to be wanting in a couple areas:

Drop Grim. 195 points for 3 ablative wounds and a Reclusiarch that doesn't die half the time is a ripoff. You can buy a regular Reclusiarch for 95 points and slap on a bolt pistol to get him his +1 CC attack to bring him to 96 points.

I've found that the best way to deal with my opponents is to send my forces in several waves. Rather than tell you what is inadequate or what is good about your list, I'll show you how I run mine. mix and match as you like.

----
I use a tooled up command squad with a Marshal and attached Reclusiarch (and 8 Initiates) with the Infiltrate ability to start close to my enemy. They are paired with an 8-man SB squad, which in my opinion, only really pay for themselves with Infiltrate, so that they can get in close and dominate their opponents.

Once they're on the verge of CC, I use a teleport homer to beam down a 5-man termie squad that packs a pair of ACs. I use them to pummel harder targets and soften up the line I'm about to assault.

These three squads would, on their own, only last for a few turns against armies with dedicated assault troops, so I follow up with a podding Venerable Dread with the AC + Heavy Flamer DCCW combo, and a 10-man assault squad led by a second Reclusiarch with a J-pack. They usualy get to the enemy line around the same time as the DP Ven. Dread, which is one or two turns after the first wave.

I follow them up with a third wave - a pair 10x5's with the EC in tow. I usually take "Accept Any Challenge..."

I run a pair of MM Attack Bikes and a pair of MM Typhoons (paired in one FA slot) for my med-range anti-tank. I also like to use a destructor with a HB sponsons and a PM Storm Bolter. It pumps out 10 shots a turn, and has rendered entire broods of guants useless in one glorious turn of shooting. Not very Templar, but it helps to have a dedicated heavy weapons platform to drop infantry - it backs up my (2) 6-man ML/Plas squads very nicely.

Just some thoughts. Again, ignore the threadcromancy.

CK