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WARFARE 2005 Tournament Report

I participated in Warfare 2005 this year, a greatly enjoyable tournament held at Reading. I've done a write-up below, but I'm afraid i didn't get any photos, so what I've said may not be clear. Please feel free to ask any questions about army choices, movement or anything else that might be confusing - I've tried to describe everything such that new(ish) players can understand the decisions i made in the game.

(Note: this report was originally done for Tau online, so it may be a bit 'simple' for dakka folks... apologies)

Pt 1: Outline and Army List

Each year the Wargames Association of Reading presents its annual show competition, Warfare, featuring demo games, traders, and, above, plenty of competitions, from DBM to Warhammer.
 
http://www.readingwargames.co.uk/competitions.asp

Former GT winner Steve Butler organised the 40K tournament this year, and, although 40K doesn?t really count as a wargame, there was a good showing of players. I can?t remember the exact breakdown or numbers, but there was a very strong Marine contingent, a few Chaos players, 3 Tau, 2 Guard, and 2 Orks, and at least 2 Demonhunters, and a Tyranid army. Amazingly there was no Eldar, although the rulespack may have put the Seer Council players off somewhat (see below). CLWC attended in force, with 4 players.

As usual, I fielded Tau, but made the conscious decision to tone-down and experiment with the list. My GT list (which you can find in Army Lists) is far too nasty to take to this kind of event, so I went for a more 3rd edition style list. Dakari_Mane (Dan, more of him below) has expressed interest in seeing how markerlights in Tac squads might work, and, following a thread on Tauonline.org I was interested in seeing how Railheads and Ionheads matched up in 4th edition now I've got some experience of it under my belt... Plus, I just like Ionheads, they're different. Anwyay, the conclusions are at the end.

 

Shas?el Torgoch?s 'Red Unz Go Faster' Tauboyz Mercs

HQ (197)
100 ? Torgoch Shas?el (Twin Missile, Plasma, Hard-Wired Tracker, BSF)
97 ? Torgoch Shas?el (Twin Missile, Plasma, Hard-Wired Tracker)

SUPPORT (555)
180 ? 6 Stealth Suits
180 ? 6 Stealth Suits
195 ? 3 Fireknife Crisis Suits (Plasma Missile multitracker)

TROOPS (317)
87 ? Firewarrior Squad: 6 Firewarriors, Shas?ui w/ markerlight, Target Lock
80 ? Firewarrior Squad: 6 Firewarriors, Shas?ui w/ markerlight
80 ? Firewarrior Squad: 6 Firewarriors, Shas?ui w/ markerlight
70 ? 10 Kroot


SUPPORT (430)
200 - 2 Broadsides with 4 Shield Drones
145 ? Hammerhead with Ion Cannon, Burst Cannons, Multitracker, Decoy
185 - Hammerhead Railgun, SMS, 'tracker, target lock, decoy, disruption

PART 2: Rules Pack

I've included this for anyone interested - it is a *very* good set of rules for a 40K tournament and I recommend anyone thinking about running one to look at it. Others may wish to skip this.

(credit to Steve Butler)

WARFARE 2005.

A 4 game competition using 1500 point armies.

Armies can be used from any published codex (latest version only). Apart from this no other articles maybe used.

Games will start at 10.00 am and 1.00 pm on both days.

Each round will be fought using the same Scenario but each table will dice to see which level.

1,2 Alpha, 3,4 Gamma, 5,6 Omega.

Points will be allocated for the difference in scores except alpha level missions (see below)

0-150 Draw Winner 10 Loser 10
151-750 Solid Victory Winner 13 Loser 7
751-1200 Crushing Victory Winner 17 Loser 3
1201+ Victorious Slaughter Winner 20 Loser 0

plus extra points for the following.
+1 If your opponent has more points than you so far in the tournament.
+1 For each Headquarters choice not including Bodyguards/retinue, Destroyed or Fleeing at the end of the game" (If you want a big Seer Council then you could be giving your opponent a few points as each Farseer will count.)
+1 If the highest enemy unit is Killed/Destroyed or falling back at the end. This will included Bodyguard/Retinues but not Characters. Vehicles have to be destroyed
+1 For having a scoring unit in the enemy deployment zone at the end of the game #.
+1 For having no enemy scoring unit in your deployment zone at the end of the game #.
-1 If none of the enemy scoring units have been made into a non scoring unit
-1 For each unit having unpainted figures in.
# In the case of the Recon and Seek and Destroy scenarios the deployment zone is considered to be 12? from the center line.

Sportsmanship:
You will be asked at the end of the contest to mark your best and second best game of the weekend. You will receive 2 points for a best game and 1 point for a second best game. These will be added to your gaming scores. In the event of a draw the sportsmanship will be used as a tie-break.

Terrain:
There will be items of terrain on each table, but players are required to bring 2 pieces each, they must be no smaller than 6? x 6? and no bigger than 10? x 10?.
There is a maximum of 1 size 3 terrain piece and 1 4+ cover save and a minimum of 1 size 2 piece and 1 5+ cover save.

All other terrain will be considered to be area effect and pieces will be as follows.
Woods Height 3, with a 5+ cover save.
Buildings Height 2 with a 4+ cover save.
Scrub and rocky areas Height 1 with a 5+ cover save.
Hills Height 2 with a 5+ cover save on the back edge.

The terrain that is positioned on the table is to remain as placed. The competing pair of players will form a pool of terrain pieces with the terrain provided by themselves.
Throw a dice the highest player can position a piece anywhere on the table that is 6? from the edge, the other play now positions a piece. And so on.

Now throw for the Level of mission, and then continue with the scenario.

Alpha mission points as below:

Cleanse

The player that controls the most table quarters wins
Equal number of quarters = Draw (10 points)
One more Quarter = Solid Victory (13points)
Two more Quarters = Crushing Victory (17points)
Three more Quarters = Victorious Slaughter (20points)

Secure & Control

The player with the most loot counters wins
Equal number of Loot Counters = Draw (10 points)
One more loot counter = Solid Victory (13points)
Two more loot counters = Crushing Victory (17points)
Three or more loot counters than the enemy = Victorious Slaughter (20points)

Seek & Destroy

The Player with the most scoring units left at the end of the game is the winner
Equal number of scoring units = Draw (10 points)
One more Scoring unit = Solid Victory (13points)
Two more scoring units = Crushing Victory (17points)
Three or more scoring units than the enemy = Victorious Slaughter (20points)

Recon

The player with the most scoring units entirely within the enemy deployment zone wins
Equal number of scoring units = Draw (10 points)
One more Scoring unit = Solid Victory (13points)
Two more scoring units = Crushing Victory (17points)
Three or more scoring units than the enemy = Victorious Slaughter (20points)

Take & Hold

The player with the most scoring units entirely within 12? of the table centre point wins.
Equal number of scoring units = Draw (10 points)
One more Scoring unit = Solid Victory (13points)
Two more scoring units = Crushing Victory (17points)
Three or more scoring units than the enemy = Victorious Slaughter (20points)

Pt 3: Battle Reports

Tables at Warfair are somewhat unusual in size, being 56? long and 68? wide. This tends to make traversing the table somewhat harder and means weapons that are ?only? 48? cannot be sure of cross table shots, something which should help the Tau, although I?m not certain it affected the game much.

Tables contained a mixture of level 2 and 3 terrain, with the odd level 1 piece. Buildings were treated as level 2, an unusual decision that lead to some odd shooting, where vehicles shot over buildings clearly taller than the model, but also made the games more interesting and is certainly not one I object to. Everyone was aware of how this worked and the tactical implications, and I saw no rules arguments ensue as a result.

Game 1; Gamma Take and Hold vs Greg W?s Space Wolves

I can?t remember Greg?s surname, but he plays in the Reading area and owns a very elegant Space Wolf army that looked something like this

Wolf Lord + Pack in Rhino
Ven Dred w/ plasma cannon
Grey Slayers in Razorback
Blood Claws in Rhino
Blood Claws in Rhino
Grey Slayers on Foot
2*Tornados
Triple Lascannon Pred

After terrain had been placed, the board was left quite open across the centre, with level 2 and 3 terrain up the flanks. One side had a series of woods, and Greg, winning the role off for sides, elected to deploy in with two coming up either flank, with his Pred on his right. I deployed first with Hammerheads in either corner, and placed my Broadsides at 3rd deploy on my right behind some level 2 terrain where they could happily snipe his Pred while covering the line of approach up that flank. The Crisis Suits covered the left, while the Stealth Suits prepared to engage infantry. The Kroot lurked behind a wood on my far right, hoping to intercept Speeders. His shooting killed a firewarrior

Greg didn?t need the Ven Dred to get the first turn, and used it to advance everything up either flank. The Pred took a shot at some firewarriors, but missed. Return fire destroyed the Pred and Razorback and the Kroot advanced into the Wood and shot out a Speeder. Out of the transports, Greg continued his flank advance on his right, but was systematically destroyed by Stealth Suits, which then moved towards his deployment zone to claim mission points, while  the Crisis Suits and Ion Cannon ?head moved to claim the centre and score.

On my right, Greg paused to shoot up the Kroot in the wood, but left one alive and not running, but not before they?d downed another Speeder. I forgot about him for the rest of the game ? he should he been taking ?Kroot Alone? tests, but was hidden by a tree? The Broadsides snapped another Rhino, and The Hammerhead submunitoned the squad in the woods, forcing the Space Wolves to take cover behind it. Greg?s did nothing in his 5th turn, but thanks to a wood had a squad, a venerable dredd and a rhino available to run out and seize the objective on turn 6. Unfortunately, by electing to go 2nd they had to endure another turn of fire, which destroyed the Rhino, but somehow left the Ven Dred still intact. But in reply I had 2 Hammerheads, a Stealth Team, a Crisis Team and a Firewarrior team on the objective, scoring 785 points, and had only lost 70 points (as i assumed that Kroot had done a runner). The result was a massacre to me, and 24 tournament points.

Greg wasn?t quite aware of the width of the table when setting up, which did me enable to exploit range advantage. That said, he made the mistake of attempting to engage me too early, and, indeed, of attempting to engage me at all. A better strategy would be to slew his transports into the centre of the board, disembark behind them, and dare me to dislodge him from the wrecks.   

Game 2: Omega Recon vs Alex Fennel?s Pink Marines

Although he is probably best known for his ?Queer Eye for the Metallic Guy? pink Necrons, Alex Fennel is a very successful tournament gamer, and this particular pink marine army came 4th in GT Heat 1.

Commander with lightning claws on a bike.
8 Veteran Devs with 4 missile launchers, tank hunters, Vet with Powerfist
8 Veteran Devs with 4 Heavy Bolters, tank hunters, Vet with Powerfist
Dreadnought with donkey cannon
5 6 man Tac squads with lascannons
2 Landspeeder Tornados
4 Scout Bikes
Scout Squad with sniper rifles, possibly missile launcher

We extended the deployment zones due to the width of the board. Terrain was very dense on my left, with a line of woods almost splitting the board in two, with a small gap across the centre, and a lot of level 2 terrain up the flank. The terrain on the right was sparse by contrast, a large level 2 rock formation on my right flank and a large wood in the opposing corner.

In escalation Alex?s army presented a complex proposition, since my main anti-infantry units started in reserve. To face all those heavy weapons I had only 18 pulse rifles, 10 Kroot and 2 Broadsides? not a good fight. Furthermore, I couldn?t drive my ?heads into all those S9 shots, so to complete the mission I had to take the heavy weapons out the game

Accordingly I placed my Broadsides on the right flank, behind the rock formation, and lined up 2 squads of firewarriors in the outcrop just in front of them, with the third squad in the far left corner and completely impossible to target ? principally to exclude infiltration. Alex started scattering lascannons across the board, but once he saw my deployment was complete he placed his Vet Devs in the opposite wood along with a lascannon squad, which is pretty much exactly what I wanted him to do. His Scouts infiltrated in the centre of the board, hoping to use their sniper rifles on my firewarriors, hardly necessary considering how many guns were pointing at them. My Kroot infiltrated in one of the woods in order to fire-without-being fired upon on his central lascannon squads. He had a fearsome quantity of firepower pointing at my firewarriors, but nothing on my left flank, other than the scout bikes, which used their scout move to attack the cowering firewarriors.

Alex rolled first turn, took it, and moved the bikes up to gun down the firewarriors, but only caused 1 casualty. However, we had rolled night-fight for turn one, meaning that, as all units were also ?concealed?, all those guns were unable to spot my firewarriors in the rocky outcrop. I promptly moved my firewarriors back behind the formation, effectively taking half Alex?s shooting out the game. My Kroot shot off a marine, and the firewarriors on the left killed to scout bikers with rapid fire, while the Broadsides used their SMS to shoot the over-enthusiastic Scouts.

Turn 2 Alex responded by retreating the scouts, and got a speeder and dreadnought on from reserve. His Scout bikers assaulted the firewarriors, but the combat was tied. The Tau started to arrive in force, with a Commander, a Stealth Team and the Railhead appearing on the back left of the battle field. The Railhead swatted the Speeder out the sky with a railgun, the Kroot killed another marine in the wood and the Commander and Stealth team assaulted the scout bikes, beating them down in close combat. Massacre victory and everyone bar the non-scoring commander began to advance.

Turn 3 Alex got the 2nd Speeder from reserve, but still not the commander, a pity as I wanted to know where this unit was planning on going. Other than his army pretty much stood still, waiting to see what I was planning, apart from the squad in the wood, which by his point was fed up with being shot by invisible Kroot and began to retreat. I got a second Stealth team and commander, which followed the first up the left flank, the Crisis team, which I brought up to support the firewarriors in case Alex began to get any ideas about advancing his troops. We were playing escalation, afterall, and in potentially 9 turns his army could still cross the board. Not much shooting occurred with most units being hidden, but the railhead dropped a submunition in the packed wood, killing 6 marines in one shot!

Turn 4: Alex finally got his commander and moved it up behind the left of centre wood to guard the left flank. His marines in the wood promptly retreated outside it, pretty much removing them from the game, and his central lascannon squads moved across the centre of the table further to my right. On my left I continued the advance and failed to hit anything with my shooting, but moved the Kroot out the wood and the Stealth teams onto the far left of the field to prevent the commander engaging. The Ion head finally arrived.

Realising there was not much hope of stopping my advance, Alex threw his commander forwards behind a building, hoping to assault over the rock formation. At the same time his speeder came into play and shot the broadsides, killing 2 shield drones ? they promptly failed their morale and ran 5? back. I moved up my Hammerheads, but eschewed the option of sniping his commander through the gap in the woods with my railgun as it?s a bit rude for this type of game. Concerned the commander would be in charge range, however, I retreated my firewarriors. Despite sending it with 9 S6/7 shots, however, the Speeder wasn?t even stunned, and as my broadsides failed their rally test it was easy to see what was coming. For the final turn proper the speeder shot forward and forced the Broadsides off the table, while the commander moved behind the rock formation. The Crisis Suits retreated further, albeit into the Line of a Lascannon, but outside the commanders charge range, and downed the speeder in the process. The firewarriors shuffled again, putting a wound on the commander in the process. If we played another turn the commander could kill a firewarrior squad, but wouldn?t reach the crisis team, even on a massacre 6. Assuming they didn?t run after they were shot.

On the other flank both the Hammerheads at the Dredd, but couldn?t hurt it. Otherwise the Stealth Teams both scored, but the Hammerheads, the Firewarriors and the Kroot were all 1 turn out of scoring. And at that point the game ended.

Alex had scored 200VPs for the Broadsides, but nothing else. I scored 2 speeders, the scout bikes and at least 1 half squad, plus 360 for 2 scoring units in the enemy deployment, only enough for a minor, but with 2 extra tournament points. Had the game continued, even if I lost my right flank, I would have gained another 500 for scoring units, and probably would have taken the dread too. Had we been playing on 48? board, I?m sure I would have converted to a decisive on turn 6. As it was i got 13 points for the game, plus 2 more tournament points, giving a total of 15.

At this point I was in 3rd position with 39points, behind SpikeyDavid (who massacred Steve Butler?s Demonhunters to be on 48) and Dave Pike?s Blood Angels, not too bad for the end of the first day.

Game 3: Alpha Level Cleanse vs Dan Fortnum?s Sons of Dorn

Dan was in 4th, also with two victories. He is a fellow CLWC player and one of the game?s strongest Ork players, but for this game he was testing out his new marine Sons of Dorn list, which looked something like this:

Ld 10 Librarians with Fury, Fear, Command Squad with powerfist, in rhino
Ld 9 Librarian with Fury, Command Squad in rhino
3 tac squads with lascannons
Speeder with melta
Predator Annihilator: Lascannon Sponsons.
Predator Destructor: Lascannon Sponsons, Pintle Storm Bolter, Extra armour.
Predator Annihilator: Heavy Bolter Sponsons, Pintle Storm Bolter, Extra armour

Dan has run into my Tau before and has a healthy respect for them. His marine list was a 'GT possible' that had been devised to take on Tau and win, hence the libs. I?d played a variation with 2 Dreadnoughts instead of 2 Preds with my Dark Eldar the previous week, and after having lost 2 Ravagers and mutiple units to Fury of the Ancients in a massacre loss, I had a healthy respect for this army too. As it was an Alpha level game, it had ?draw? written all over it.

But we don?t play for draws.

Although there was plenty of level 2 scenery, Lvl3 terrain was really limited on this board. Recalling the brave performance of the Broadsides in the previous game, I started them somewhat forward, convinced that they would get furyd off the board. My Hammerheads began in the far corner. Without infiltrate, I set up two flanking forces, Stealth and a commander on the left, Crisis Suits, and 2 Commander on the right, deploying up the short board edge. While the right flank was much stronger, I intended to use the long-range fire of the HHs to support the advance up the long-board edge.

Dan made critical mistakes in his deployment. He placed 2 tanks in cover to engage my forces, but then panicking, deployed his remaining lascannons well back, covering the flanks, but not in a position to threaten me. This wasn?t necessarily a bad plan, seeing as in Alpha Cleanse the rulespack stipulated that results were calculated by controlling quarters ? and he was well position to seize them. But he the two command squads to do this, and it allowed me too much freedom to attack.

I got first turn, and with all those exposed hulls, had to take it. I advanced up both flanks, while shooting stunned a Pred and took a lascannon and heavy bolter from another. Dan responded by withdraw his damaged tanks as best he could, but didn?t really move far enough. The rest of his forces, behind woods on the two disrupted quarter table edges, presently out of sight. One librarian snake-eyed and killed a firewarrior, while the other shot through the Kroot on the right, a firewarrior squad and eventually the broadsides. Somehow no-one was pinned, although I lost a Kroot, a firewarrior and a drone.

Turn 2 things started to go wrong for the marines. The remaining Pred had moved slightly to intercept Stealth Suits, but my Hammerhead could advance to see it. The markerlights kicked in the railgun immobilised it with a pen hit. The commander on my left immobilised the Ld9 command rhino while the Stealth Suits advanced further. In centre the Ion Cannon exploited its range advantage to begin the process of destroying the lascannon squads that had accompanied the LD9 Lib squad on their trek, and one of the broadsides with LoS continued gunning at the retreated Pred, but only stunned it. Dan responded by placing everything in cover or behind woods, and dug in. His Fury again backfired, wounding the Ld10 librarian, while his Ld9 failed to cast. Despite the destruction, the game was still in the balance with each player holding 1 and contesting 2, and each force well dug in. Dan?s speeder, however, could move to contest my quarter and as he had turn 6, I had to carry the game to him.

Turn 3 I continued my Stealth advance and moved the Hammerheads further forward to support them ? must contest, no matter what. The Crisis Teams shuffled over further looking to finish off the central Pred, via the side armour, and perhaps take on the marines on the right. The Broadsides beat them to the Pred, but next turn I could begin attacking the marines. Dan responded to this threat by retreating the mobile HB Pred behinds the woods with his Speeder and throwing the rhino forward across the gap between the woods and the board edge. The rhino smoked and everyone ran in behind it. Fury took my commander off the table, but it couldn?t score so I wasn?t bothered.

Turn 4: I had to do something about the Speeder, so threw the Ion head forward directly at it. On the left the Stealth suits began the destruction of the Librarian command squad, but the Hammerhead failed to glance the immobile pred, but I absolutely refused to take the bait and attack the smoked Rhino. Dan left the chassis in place, and attempted to knock out the Hammerheads, but to no avail. In response I finished off another tact squad with the Ion Cannon, which I threw forward again. Able to finally remove the obstruction, the Crisis Suits advanced into the open en masse, looking for pen hits on the rhino - 6 plasma, 6 missile shots and bingo! A pen 5 on the rhino, annihilating it and killing 5 of the marines packed behind it. On my left flank the Stealth team continued to knock down the other librarian squad and reduced it below scoring and the HH killed the 2nd Pred

At this point Dan knew it was over. He threw the Speeder at my advancing on head but only glanced it, and moved his remaining squads into the woods, hoping to survive the final turn of fire. Turn 6 Tau shooting downed the Speeder, killed the final Pred and reduced the librarian squad further, but not below scoring. In response he FotDed my commander, Crisis team and Kroot, but the Stealth were out of range and contested the quarter. I won 3 quarters ? 0, equivalent to a massacre as this was Alpha, and scored 4 more tournament points.

Dan fought hard, even in adversity. With clearer deployment and a little more luck on the psychics and vehicle hits the army would have presented far more of a problem and could well have won the game.

At this point I was in 1st place with 63 points.

Game 4: Secure and Control vs David Richardson?s Green Horde

In game 3 Alex Fennel had also scored a massacre, launching him back into 4th, while David Richardson scored a minor win over Dave Pike?s Blood Angels. This left me and David on table 1, while Alex battled Dave Pike on table 2. All four of us could potentially win the event.

Dave is one of 40Ks top players. He finished 21st in the GT final with Orks last year, took 2nd place in Warfare 2004, and runs the SVA campaign weekend and the Starsmash tournament. He is fellow CLWC player, and we?ve encountered each other?s armies before. In our last game his GT Speed Freaks and my GT Tau ground out a hard-fought draw? This time, however, Dave was trying out the walking Orks as a possible GT army, while I had 2 submunitions less than I liked?

Big Mek, Kustom Force Field, Slugga - 46
Painboss, Slugga, Choppa, 8 Cyborks - 132
Flash Gitz, 4 with rokkitz, nob with a rokkit - 84
Ard Boyz, 11, 3 with Rokkitz, Nob with powerklaw - 200
Slugga Boyz, 19, 3 with Rokkitz, Nob with powerklaw, bosspole, big orns - 240
Slugga Boyz, 19, 3 with Rokkitz, Nob with Rokkit - 214
Slugga Boyz, 19, 3 with Big Shootaz, Nob with powerklaw - 205
Tankbustaz, 5, 3 with rokkitz, Nob with Rokkit - 106
Tankbustaz, 5, 3 with rokkitz, Nob with Rokkit - 106
20 Grotz, Slaver with squighound - 74
2 x Buggy, Twin-linked Rokkit, Riggaz - 84

Yes, there?s a lot of rockets there and they all move 6 and fire, so I was very cautious about engaging this army in the open with Stealth Suits? People mock Ork shooting, but BS2 is made by mass firing, and even with Tau I?ve been outshot by Orks before.

This game might get somewhat confusing. Initially we placed the scenery on the flanks, but I decided to move my lvl 3 wood into the centre - otherwise there would be too little terrain for the Orks to sustain an attack. This made for an interesting table, with three woods across the centre, albeit with small gaps in between, and large level 2 pieces on the flanks. Finally there was a small wood in David?s far left corner.

Objectives were focused on my left flank in the centre, in a large diamond shape, meaning 1 unit could grab them all. A solitary objective was placed in the rock formation on my right. This meant that the main battle would be fought on the left flank, and accordingly, while David placed the rocket buggies on my right flank behind the wood, ready to move out and grab in the last moment, he lined the rest of the horde up from the left board edge to the centre.

I placed the railhead in the right corner, hoping to move up and bombard across the table from a distance. The Broadsides railguns were entirely useless in this game, so I started behind the wood on my right, hoping to use the SMS from behind cover. As it turns out I was perhaps optimistic about my ability to defend them? the rest of the army lined up on the right, using the lvl 2 building for cover against those rockets. The Ion Cannon stayed at the back left corner. I didn't expect to kill anything with it this game, but did hope to seize all four objectives in turn 6. The Kroot infiltrated into the central wood. They?ve seen off so many Orks before, that I was confident they would perform well there, despite the exposure.

David sensibly gave me first turn. The Railhead missed, despite being guided, and the rest of the shooting knocked out a few grots and a few sluggas. The Orks began to march forward, and killed a firewarrior. However, due to my poor placement, the Orks could see the Kroot, so turn 2 I felt compelled to throw them forward? rapid fire killed off most of the grots, and the Kroot set receive charge. The submunition killed a couple of rocket boyds, and the sluggas on the left were further reduced, but I wasn?t really killing enough Orks for Dave to be too concerned. In response the Cyborks charged the Kroot, and the grin was quickly wiped from my face when the Kroot pulled down a solitary cybork and were promptly slaughtered and run down.

Turn 3: things were looking worrying. The Cyborks had occupied the centre in strength, the rest of the Orks had reach the woods, and the flash gits had moved alarmingly close to the railhead. I had bloodied the nose of the Orks on my left wing, but there were still five rockets waiting to open up on the Ionhead if they got much closer. Fortunately they were at the front of the unit in a nice line, so I advanced the Stealth to circa 16? and sniped the front rank, along with those four rockets, off the board. Markerlighting the flash gits, I submunitioned and SMSd them leaving just four of them. The central Stealth Suits, the Crisis Team and the Commanders all opened up on the Cyborks, reducing the squad to 3. The Orks on the left ran, but began mobbing up, but in the centre the Cyborks held. The green tide advance had been blunted ? but not stopped.

In the centre, the Cyborks moved out the wood on the far side and headed towards the Broadsides, but despite difficult terraining 6 were still outside charge range. The surviving Flash gitz followed, as did 3 remaining rocket boyz. On the left the Orks moved up to the woods, leaving me the left wing clear, but with less and less to shoot. Rockets and big shooters launch down the centre, reducing my Stealth team to two men - fortunately they held.

I moved the surviving Stealths across the try and attack surviving cyborks, but despite the aid of a firewarrior squad?s shooting and markerlights, failed to inflict a wound. I finally resorted to using a commander?s missile pods to knock out the closest cybork ? the squad promptly ran, but mobbed up with the rocket boyz behind them. The Railhead attack the Flashgitz, but still left the Nob alive on 1 wound, forcing me to use all 8 Broadside SMS shots to knock him out. Meanwhile the Ion head and Crisis suits returned fire on big mob who shot the Stealth Suits through the gap in the woods, knocking out a few more rockets and big shootas. Having mobbed up, the, cybork/rocketboy conglomeration charged the broadsides, but fortunately the unit held. Elsewhere the Orks moved into hiding, bunching up behind the woods.

The Ork flanks had pretty much collapsed, but the central move was now incredibly strong and deeply entrenched. Furthermore, although the Ork numbers had been substantially reduced, due to careful mobbing up David still had large scoring units poised to seize objectives. For turn 5 I began moving units forward ready to contest. The Hammerhead dropped a submunition round on one of the packed Ork groups, killing 7 of them, but David cunningly removed the models from the far side of the unit, the side facing the Stealth team. I charged the Rocketboyz/Cybork Squad with the Stealth team, but lost combat? both Broadsides and Stealth ran and the surviving 2 Orks headed towards my central firewarrior squad. Realising his vulnerabilty to submunitions David spread the Mobs, but the movement forwards of the Ionhead, which was capable of claiming 4 objectives by sitting in the middle of the diamond they had formed, forced David to advance into the woods with his largest surviving mob. The rockets fired and, as luck would have it, the single glancing hit came up ?6?. Curses! The firewarriors pulled down the final rocketboy, but lost combat and were also run down by the rampaging Cybork. This left the Cybork in the bizarre position of holding the points for a unit of Rocketboyz?

Turn 6: Or what we shall call ?where I mess it up?.

Its very important in ?Secure and Control? to remember where the objective counters actually are. Conversely, it?s a very bad idea to assume they are simply next to the turn dice? which is what I had done, meaning that despite leaving my Rail head on the right flank the entire game in order to contest the objective, when it came to the crunch the model was too far away. It could contest the turn dice, but you don?t get much for that?.

On the plus side the Railhead gutted the Ork mob in the woods, forcing it to retreat and mob up as it was below scoring, adn i shot the hell out of that damn cybork with a commander. On the left I advanced my Stealth to claim and my commander as well ? an odd decision, since I can?t score with the commander, and one I would regret. Crisis suits and firewarriors made sure I contested 3 objectives overall.

Oh that foolish move with the commander...

David?s surving Ork mob came tearing around the woods, and as he was just in assault range, launched into the commander, tearing him apart. Using the massacre move, the Orks were able to distribute to contest 3 of the objectives on that flank. The buggies zoomed up, seizing the objective my Hammerhead had hoped to contest, giving Dave a 2-1 lead in objectives and another 100VPs for my HQ. The end result? Another David-Alex draw.

To be fair, I think David played the game brilliantly, and fully deserved a win, which thanks to astute use of this slaver, who hung around until the end eventually charging and beating 5 Stealth Suits, he came one morale check away from. I didn?t play effectively, made stupid mistakes, and my gameplan was tactically unsound. As it was, Dave took 14 tournament points to my 12. However, as I was 4 points ahead at the start of the game and Alex Fennell had beaten Dave Pike?s Blood Angels, that left me in 1st place! Victory to the Tau!

Final Warfare Standings

1st: Alex Whitehead (Tau)
2nd: David Richardson (Orks)
3rd: Alex Fennell (Marines)

CLWC took 1st and 2nd place overall, a club standing we have to be pretty pleased about.

The biggest congratulations and thanks, however, go to Steve Butler, for organising the event.

Some brief thoughts on the 'fringe' units I took to this event.

Markerlights in Stealth Squads: Overall these didn?t perform, although appalling shooting against the Space Wolves meant that only 1 hit for the entire game. Otherwise, while I?m comfortable with my plan of taking a single markerlight firewarrior squad to the GT, purely to deny Guardian squads a cover save, multiple squads aren?t worth the effort.

Broadsides: While the Broadside is incredibly destructive, in 2/4 games they were a liability, having nothing to shoot and running off the table. More careful play might have preserved them in one game, but against Alex Fennell?s marines the dice took the decision out of my hands. An ethereal may have helped, but this is yet another model that needs to be defended, and again, as Alex proved, the old adage ?they will reach your lines? remains quite true.

Ion Cannons: I?d hoped to find that with the Broadsides on the table, the Ion Cannon Hammerhead would be free to roam blowing things up. On the contrary: my commitment to getting massacres means I am far less blasé about losing the tank than once I was. VP denial is crucial to Tau play. 

Furthermore, the game has changed considerably. In 3rd edition, Tau was about building an army capable of defeating rhino rushes and you needed as many AV11 glancing hits as possible: the hull-down rules meant that it was almost impossible to ever get Pen hits on transports. The Ion Cannon was better at doing this and was better at destroying marine infantry. However, cover is all over the board now, and shooting marines are invariably deployed in cover, further diluting the Ion Cannon potency.

Also I underestimated how useful the AP1 rule is, in comparison to the multi-shot nature of the Ion Cannon.

The bottom line is that in no game, at any point, did I say to myself, ?I?m sure glad that?s an Ion Cannon? on that Hammerhead. On contrary, a Railgun would have been more useful in every situation.

Excellent report. Seems like you faced some real good opponents. You're right about the rules, it seems pretty tight and I'm thinking about proposing them for my local store's tourneys.

Congratualtions and thanks for the great report! I'm glad you included the the rules for the tournament as they should help organize a few in my area. I also enjoyed your post-battle analysis of the units as 4th Edition has changed their roles significantly.

Looks like everybody had fun over all and and extra congradulations on the win. I just wonder about the Ork rooster. Unless there is something else going on, you are required to take a Warboss. He seems missing from the list and as such you cannot have both a big mek and a painboss.

Congrats mate, doing Tau proud!

Also found your findings useful since was wondering what i should arm the HH i was planning to buy soon. Everyone says to go Rail Gun but something *Seemed* to be there about the Ion, clearly im seeing things. Also interesting with the multiple small units of Markerlight groups, never thought it would do anygood for me, but you got the wins with it.

I think this is the best 40k Tournamnet report I've ever read at dakka. Congraz on the win and looking forward to more of these!

Infact, I'm getting more and more serious about coming to UK GT again. I was 7th in the finals back in 2003, but the heat+final system was quite an investment, and with such a high level of competition available here in Finaland has been enough for a while. Now I'm starting to feel the UK GTs again... A couple of friends have also been thinking of a return, so maybe team Finland will return in force in 2006.

Thankyou Migs, coming from you in particular that is a real compliment.

The next stop is the GT final I think!