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RTT 2000 - Game Empire June 2006

Well, it's back for the every two months 40k tournament over at Game Empire in San Diego.  Last time, I got beat badly enough (1-2-0) that I didn't even bother writing up a batrep.  Hopefully this time will be different.

Tau Empire 2000

HQ
1x Shas'O - Plasma, Fusion, HW Multitracker, Vectored Retro Thrusters, Stim Injectors.

1x Ethereal

Elite
1x Crisis Battlesuit Team - 3x Fireknife (Plasma, Missile, MT)

Troops
2x 12 man Firewarrior teams w/ Rifles and Shas'ui
1x 12 man Firewarrior team w/ Carbines and Shas'ui
1x 21 man Kroot squad w/ 12 Carnivores, 8 Hounds and Shaper

Fast Attack
2x 8 man Pathfinder teams w/ Shas'ui.  2x Devilfish w/ SMS, MT, TA, DL
1x Pirahana w/ Fusion Blaster and TA

Heavy Support
1x Broadside Team w/ 3 suits and 6 Shield Drones
2x Hammerhead Gunships w/ Ioncannons, Burst Cannons, MT, DL


Game One - The Hunted vs Chris w/ Space Marines

Chris is playing a Traited Marine army w/ Cleanse and PUrify.  His army consisted of:

Librarian w/ Fear, Fury and command squad w/ meltaguns and Standard mounted in a Rhino
Dreadnought w/ Assault Cannon and Heavy Flamer
1 Tactical squad with twin flamers mounted in a Rhino
2 Tactical squads w/ Lascannon and Plasma Gun
2 Scout Squads, one with Sniper Rifles, the other with Shotguns
1 5 man Bike squad w/ meltaguns and Power Fist
1 2 man Attack Bike squad w/ Heavy Bolters
1 Land Speeder Tornando
1 Vindicator tank
Something else I can't remember, but which probably died to Markerlighted Ion Cannons.

The table has decent cover and firelanes with 2 buildings in each deployment zone and small forest patches around the battlefield.  I deploy across my board edge with a center firebase.  I load my center building chock full of Pathfinders and Rifle Warriors, with the Broadsides standing out in the open next to them and both Ionheads hiding behind the other building.  Chris also deploys across the board, with his Infiltrating Scouts moving up to engage the firebase.  He picks my Broadsides as his Hunted selection, while I choose his Bike Squad.  He wins first turn.

Turn One - Marines
Both Bike squads turboboost from behind cover, angling for a 2nd turn charge opportunity on the Broadsides.  The Rhinos rush the center line deploying smoke while the Dreadnought gets slowed down by the building it's placed in.  Out of range, the Vindicator gamely drives forward hugging cover to deny railgun shots.

Not much is in range, but Sniper Rifles plink away at the center firebase along with a few lascannon shots.  Nothing worth mentioning.

Turn One - Tau
I shift a Pathfinder Devilfish and an Ionhead to block the direct bike charge against the Broadsides.  The Carbine Warriors swing up the right flank, hoping to eventually get into the enemy deployment zone.

The Librarian Rhino eats a salvo of Ion Cannon fire and Missile Pods and dies, trapping the occupants.  The other one's smoke protects it and keeps driving.  Markerlights illuminate the Sniper Scout team and both Rifle teams blow them out of cover and back into the carrying case.  I don't have a angle on the approaching Bike teams, but they won't be able to get into CC next turn.  I plug a few Marines here and there, but the Railguns only shake up the smoked Dreadnought.

Turn Two - Marines
The Bikers manuever to engage the Ionhead with their meltaguns, while the Attack Bikes stay out of sight, hoping that they'll get a charge opportunity soon.  The surviving Rhino drives through a building and drops its cargo off next to the Carbine Warriors and Kroot on the right.  Shotgun Scouts Move Through Cover and approach the center Tau firebase, hoping they'll survive to charge next turn, while the Dreadnought and the Land Speeder moves up to support them.  The Vindicator is on the complete wrong side of the main fight and i'tll take it some time to get close enough to fire.

Covering lascannon fire from the two rear Tactical squads down the blocking Devilfish and meltaguns sink the Ionhead.  Grumble grumble grumble.  Twin flamer fire and bolter rapid fire torch my Kroot pack, barely kill enough to force a morale check, which the Kroot fail and run off the board.  Grrrrr.  At least the Shotguns don't do anything.

Turn Two - Tau
Unable to get a clear shot at the Librarian command team hiding behind their busted Rhino, I track in on the closer threats, figuring that the Broadsides can survive a biker charge for a while.  The Pathfinders light up the Shotgun Scouts and the twin Flamer Marine squad, and both disappear under the Markerlighted fire from the Fire Warriors and Fireknives.  The Commander's fusion blaster and the surviving Ionhead pummel the Dreadnought and blow off both arms, but it still keeps coming!  Finally, hoping to reduce the odds in the upcoming fight, the Broadsides track in and donate lethal hypervelocity love to three of the Biker squad.  

Turn Three - Marines
Pulling themselves clear of the wreckage, the Librarian command squad advances on the Tau firebase, readying every Tau player's favourite psychic ability.  Unphased by the sudden death of three of their members, the remaining two bikers and the two attack bikers roll forward and engage the Broadside team.

Bolter fire bounces off the Broadsides, and Ethereal rerolls counter Fear of the Darkness handily.  Let's see how well I do in CC.

Bikers have a decent amount of attacks, but 2+ Armour and Toughness 4 are stalling them out.  The Powerfist beats a few Drones into the ground, but the unit is Fearless thanks to the attached Ethereal.  On the bad side, T5 for the Bikers is going to make it rather hard to kill them myself with the Broadsides and Drones.  Nothing to do but keep swinging.

Turn Three - Tau
Figuring that I'm doing awfully well right now, I abandon the firebase and head forward towards the Marine lines, figuring the Librarian squad is going to die this turn and there's really nothing to stop me.  Note to self: This isn't quite the brightest idea and it's really not worth the risk to the army for one stupid extra battle point.

In any case, the Librarian squad gets beat up, but the Librarian and the Sergeant remain standing.  The Dreadnought gets shaken again, but is still operational.  A rather poor shooting phase and a good way to remind myself that just because I'm doing well is no excuse for overconfidence.

Close combat is a disaster!  I kill a Biker, but the Powerfist kills three Shield Drones (!!!), and consolidates into Base to Base with the Ethereal!  Oops.

Turn Four - Marines
I've given Chris a chance to swing the game right now and he's definitely going to take it!  The Librarian charges into CC with the nearest Fire Warrior team and begins bashing them, while the armless Dreadnought hits my commander.  At least I've properly screened my Elites, but it's still a pretty big mistake.

Fire Warriors die like flies to the Librarian, but the Dreadnought can't injure the Shas'O, who promptly Hit and Runs away from the fight.  In the Bike fight, an Attack bike goes down, but the Ethereal gets squished.  This really isn't good at all.


Turn Four - Tau
Well, this is another fine mess you've gotten us into, Ollie.  In divine payback for my screwups, I make 5 Leadership rolls in a row, and nobody runs.  In fact, I now have a chance to use a skill that I've never used before.  Preferred Enemy: Marines. Of course, it only applies to the guys OUT of close combat, so unless I'm planning on running into the fray and attempt to beat down the Librarian with pulse rifle butts, I'm thinking that's probably not the best use of my units.  With the Librarian about to finish cleaning his force weapon of Tau blood, I scatter my forces reasoning that he can't catch them all!  And with all these VPs I'm giving up, I sure as heck am gonna get that +1 battle point for getting in his deployment zone.

There's not much to shoot at, but my Ionhead slides across the board, finds a side angle, and puts the poor Vindicator out of its "never close enough to shoot" misery.  That's everything good that I've got as the Librarian lays waste to the rest of the Fire Warriors trying to penetrate Artificer Armour.  And then 6" consolidates into my Shas'O.

Turn Five - Marines
With nothing on the board except for a poor abandoned Tac squad desperately trying to hide from the Ionhead and the Librarian wasting my army singlehandedly along with his buddy the no-armed Dreadnought, there's not much to do.

The Biker/Broadside battle is very slowly starting to tilt in my favour, as the Bike Sergeant goes down under the loving caress of a Smart Missile pod, removing his Power Fist from the fight.  Additionally, I also pick up a cool 400 pts for that being the Hunted unit.  Now I just need to prevent that from happening to the Broadsides, and all should be golden.  The Librarian force weapons the Shas'O and the Carbine Warriors get charged, wounded, and run down, all by an armless Dreadnought.  Oh the shame.

Turn Five - Tau
As the Tau scatter in all directions away from the lunatic Librarian, the Broadsides continue to bash the Attack Bikes over the head ever so slowly.  This is the slowest close combat I've ever seen and it'll probably go the next three combat rounds too.

Turn Six - Marines
The Armless Dreadnought roams freely across the battlefield, roaring in triumph having cleared all opponents in the immediate vicinity.  The Librarian decides to put himself behind his steel buddy, as getting plugged in the last turn really would be a shame for such a mighty warrior.  Oh yeah, an Attack bike takes a wound.  Whee.

Turn Six - Tau
My Ionhead does donuts in the Marine deployment zone while frying the last remaining survivors of the Tactical squad.

And in the last CC round, the Broadsides kill an Attack Bike, win combat and force them to run from combat!  Go Tau!

And that's all for that game.  Despite my best efforts to lose the game, the Marines have lost nearly their entire army and I've got a few units parked in their deployment zone (which wasn't part of the mission).  I will take that +1 optional battle point and savor it as I realize exactly how many Tau just died for that stupid point.

Game Two - vs Allan playing Word Bearers

1 Daemon Prince of Death
2 Obliterators
1 CSM squad with Lascannon and Plasma Gun
1 CSM squad with Plasma in a Rhino
2 packs of Bloodletters
2 packs of Daemonettes
1 pack of Flamers
1 pack of Furies
2 Havoc squads, one with Tank Hunting Autocannons and the other with Missile Launchers

Mission is Scouting Engagement, where only two Troops choices are allowed to start onboard, with everything else in Reserve.  Board terrain is similar to the last match, with scattered buildings and forests.

I start a Rifle team, a Carbine team and use Scout to bring both Pathfinder teams on board (but obviously without their Devilfish).  After the Dakka trainwreck thread on Pathfinders, I expect this to cause some contention among the readers. Allan didn't seem to have a problem with it, but if he marked me down on Sportsmanship, I think I'd understand.  My stance on this is based off Imperial Guard command squads with attached Sentinels, if it helps any.

Viewing the terrain, I figure that Allan will either rush center with the Rhino squad in open ground or sneak around the side buildings.  Either way, I'm going to be swimming in daemons if I'm not careful.  I set up all four squads covering the open ground attempting to discourage him from taking the direct path in.

The Word Bearers deploy the las/plas squad and the Rhino squad on the side.   Allan wins the start roll and gives me first turn.


Turn One- Tau
As I don't really want to advance closer just yet, I stay pretty stationary, with the Carbine team moving out towards the Rhino.

Turn One - Word Bearers
The Rhino jets forward staying behind the side building and the squad disembarks, ready to summon next turn.

Turn Two - Tau
With yet another unprecedented display of dice rolling, I hit almost every Reserve roll, with only the Fireknife team remaining offboard.  Granted, Scouting Engagement gives a +1 to Reserve rolls, but my army just floods onto the table.  As the Rhino is behind the building and out of LOS, I know the Daemons aren't going to be summoning into the open ground.  I set up my skimmer wall oriented towards the Rhino with space behind the skimmers taken up by additional forces, leaving no room to summon.  My Pathfinders set up to illuminate the heck out of that building.  Here, daemon daemon daemon.  =)

With no direct LOS, Devilfish SMS shots arc over the side building and immobilize the Rhino.

Turn Two - Word Bearers
Reality twists apart and hellspawn materialize on the battlefield in droves.  Unable to get into charge positions, they drop into the side building, with scatter rolls mostly on target.  One Bloodletter pack, both Daemonettes and the Furies summon to the field while both Havoc packs enter on the far side setting up opposite the open ground.  The Rhino squad moves towards the skimmer wall hoping to get into a better summoning position.  The Furies jump towards the Tau line, but remain inside the building to take cover from the inevitable fire, while the Daemonettes follow behind.  Two Furies roll 1's and fall through the floor, but they're still ready to inflict mass death next turn.

With a single (!!) plasma volley, the Rhino squad shoots down the right-most Ionhead and the Bloodletters difficult terrain over the wreckage and hits the Carbine Warriors!  Ack!  So much for the skimmer wall!  In CC, the Warriors obviously get beat the heck down, but the Ethereal keeps them fighting.

Turn Three - Tau
Well, that didn't go quite as well as planned.  With the Carbine Warriors holding the Bloodletters in place (by dying horribly), the Kroot rush forward and prepare to break them out of the melee.  I reform the wall, figuring that the Daemonettes can't possibly get close enough to engage.  The Furies however will definitely be able to fly into CC, so they're currently target #1.  On the Reserve side, the Fireknives Deep Strike nicely on the other side of a building from both Havoc squads, while the Pirahana turbos forward to join them behind cover.  They'll start picking away at the heavy guns next turn or so.

Markerlights spot the Furies and a volley of pulse fire mows them all down, while the surviving Ionhead and the Command Suit tear into the Rhino squad. Some Daemonettes also eat guided rounds and suffer badly.  Unfortunately the Broadsides miss all their shots against the Havocs, with twin-linking not helping at all.  =(

The Kroot charge into the Bloodletter pack, inflicting 3 kills, but 4 Fire Warriors die and the Kroot break and get run down along with the Carbine Warriors.  So how come the Tau haven't invented explosive close combat Drones yet?  =P

Turn Three - Word Bearers
The Daemon Prince arrives on the battlefield, but he's hopelessly far away from the fight and rather unlikely to ever see combat.  Obliterators appear on the battlefield, while the 2nd Bloodletter pack appears in the rather crowded side building.

Obliterators lascannons shoot down a Devilfish while autocannons and missiles bounce the other Ionhead around.  The remaining members of the first Bloodletter pack charges the Shas'O and put three wounds on him, whereupon he promptly jumps out of close combat.  Unwilling to advance into the Tau guns, the rest of the Daemons hide in the building.

Turn Four - Tau
I don't think I have any chance of going for the mission goals, so I decide to stay in my zone and deny any Chaos model from getting in for the extra points.  I manuever backwards, staying out of charge range of any of the daemons and just hope to weather the storm of fire from the Havocs.

The Fireknives are in perfect JSJ position and with the Pirahana drones, begin shooting up the Havocs.  The firebase continues to pound on the Daemons stacked up in the side building, but the Broadsides perform poorly again and only blow a single Obliterator away.

Turn Four - Word Bearers
The Flamers fail again to summon to the battlefield, but the Havocs hold their ground and unleash death upon the Tau firebase.  The Ethereal keeps everybody stable, so that part's good.  I think the battle's somewhat bogged down right now, with neither side willing to make an aggressive move.  Maybe.

Turn Five - Tau
The Fireknives continue to lay waste to the Havoc squads, but without Markerlight support, they're not quite as devastating as usual.  The last Obliterator falls to a triple rail volley, so at least that thorn is out of my side now.

Turn Five - Word Bearers
Flamers finally appear on the battlefield and immediately cause problems.  27 S5 AP4 shots are really a bad thing for Tau infantry and the firebase begins to break apart as the infantry tries to get out of LOS from the shooty daemons of doom.

Turn Six - Tau
Crisis suits take down one of the Havoc squads and jump backwards to safety.  They've had a pretty easy game which is just fine by me.  I zap a few Flamers, which seems to discourage the daemon packs from exiting the building.

Turn Six - Word Bearers
The Flamers whack a few more scattered infantry, but that's pretty much it.  The daemonic advance stalls out well short of the Tau deployment zone, but the Tau have played defensively nearly the entire game and also have no chance to score.

Yup, it's a draw.  An all-out rush by either side would have decided the game decisively, but it's a pretty good chance that the rusher would end up dead dead dead.  Off to the third round.

Game Three - Aaron playing Necrons

Hey, it's Aaron again!  I played him two tournaments ago and had a pretty good game.  Hope it turns out well again.

1 Destroyer Lord with Disco Ball and Warscythe
1 Lord w/ Veil and Disco Ball
1 pack of 10 Flayed Ones
3 packs of 15-ish Warriors
1 pack of 1 Destroyer (oops, illegal!  Didn't find that out until later)
1 pack of 3 Destroyers
1 pack of 1 Heavy Destroyer
1 pack of 3 Heavy Destoyers
1 Monolith of Vast Entertainment


The mission is Cleanse II, with a massively huge terrain piece in one of the corners.  It's big enough to hide the Monolith behind, put it that way.  There's room behind it too, so it's a prime infiltration spot to grab a corner safe from incoming fire.  The rest of the corners have decent cover, but the center is pretty open with a few patches of broken ground here and there.  I think I like this board.  =)


I deploy corner castle with my Pathfinders dug into cover and my guns ready to deliver across that nice open range.  The Necrons are spread lengthwise across the board with the single Destroyers parked behind cover to ensure WBB rolls.  Aaron wins the infiltration roll and puts his Flayed Ones behind the huge hill.  Nuts, now I'm gonna have to dig him out of there.  I elect a Rifle team and Shas'O to get the job and the they deploy over thataway.

Aaron wins first turn and he's going to take it, with the Monolith wisely set to Deep Strike.

Turn One - Necrons
The Necrons advance Phalanx style towards the center of the board, but all my armour is out of range or behind cover.  The Flayed Ones move forward, ready to engage the Kroot next turn.  Shooting is mostly ineffectual and I prepare to counter-volley.

Turn One - Tau
Pathfinders light up the approaching Destroyers and Ioncannons beat down both packs.  I get a little too greedy and try to split fire to take down both 3 man squads simulatenously, and I leave a single one from each one.  Not very good fire selection.  On the side of the giant hill, the Fire Warriors advance into close range, raining pulse rifle fire down on the Flayed Ones.  Nothing much happens though.  The Shas'O flies over the hill on his jets and charges into the Flayed One squad to tie them up, while my Rifles manuever for another volley.

CC is pretty much a wash, as the Flayed Ones really can't hurt the commander, but he's not doing too much in return.

Turn Two - Necrons
No Monolith this turn.  Yay!  The Phalanx continues its advance, but a single squad Veils away to the corner to support the Flayed Ones.  Destroyer fire arcs down on the Tau skimmers, but they survive with nothing worse then a Shaken result.

The Shas'O and Flayed Ones hit each other a few more times and then the Commander zips out of close combat, leaving the way clear for the Fire Warriors to open fire.

Turn Two - Tau
This time I make better fire choices and both Destroyer packs (including the single backup ones) drop into the dirt.  Without mobile long range fire, the Necron phalanx is in big trouble.  On the side, the Rifle Warriors continue blazing into the Flayed Ones, but 3+ armour, BS3 and WBB is proving too difficult to overcome.  The Commander charges back in after melting a few Necrons with his weapons.

Turn Three - Necrons
The Monolith drops from the sky, scatters directly into the center of the Tau line, and as Fire Warriors run in panic "the sky is falling!", the Gauss Flux arc reaches out, hits 7 units (!), wrecks both Devilfish and causes mass wounds across the army.  Boy do I hate that thing.  Fortunately, the Ethereal reroll keeps anyone from breaking and the phalanx still isn't close enough to fight.

The Shas'O does his usual dance, but the Veiled Warrior pack is getting close enough to engage soon.

Turn Three - Tau
HATE HATE HATE.  The Monolith eats three railgun rounds and slams into the ground, smoke drifting from its wrecked shell.  With the phalanx exposed in center ground, the Ionheads move backwards to avoid any lucky gauss hits, while the Fireknives donate Markerlighted plasma and missiles to an unlucky Necron Warrior squad, inflicting heavy casualties.

The Shas'O Hit and Runs too far to get back into CC with the Flayed Ones, so the Rifle Team delivers one last volley and prepares to duke it out.

Turn Four - Necrons
With no chance of closing with the Tau firebase, the Necrons hunker down in the center of the board, hoping to use their numbers to absorb incoming fire.  On the right, the Veiled Warrior team rapid fires the Commander, but his armour and FNP means he only takes a single wound.  The Flayed Ones rush the Rifle Warriors and close combat begins anew.

Turn Four - Tau
It's turned into open shooting season as Markerlights negate what little cover there is and Ioncannons, Railguns and Plasma rifles vaporize an entire Necron Warrior squad.  The Kroot and Pirahana have worked their way around the left flank and are posed to either move into the center or the Necron home quarter.  Both are fairly safe, hiding behind terrain.

In CC, the Flayed Ones inflict horrible damage on the Rifle team, but they remain in combat.  The Shas'O rushes back into combat, but still can't do much damage.

Turn Five - Necrons
WBB turns the last center Warrior squad into a big Warrior squad, but they're still in a really bad location.  A few Flayer rounds flare out, but the Tau infantry is unimpressed.

On the right, the Veiled Warriors charge the Shas'O, hoping to take him down by sheer weight of numbers.  They fail to inflict any wounds, but the Fire Warriors die under the Flayed Ones' claws, and the massive outnumbering bonus causes the Shas'O to break and run, only to be caught from behind by the Flayed Ones and run down.  So much for claiming that corner.

Turn Five - Tau
Oh well, such is life.  In another vicious display of firepower the remaining center pack suffers under a storm of plasma and ion bolts.  Kroot rifles and the Pirahana account for the few remaining survivors, and the Destroyer Lord suddenly standing alone takes a volley of railgun shells and collapses in upon himself.  The center of the battlefield belongs to the Tau.

Turn Six - Necrons
With one corner controlled by the Flayed Ones, the last Warrior pack Veils into the Tau home corner to contest.  It's not a bad move at all, since moving out to take the center has left the Tau home corner open and the Veil is right on target, putting the Warriors behind LOS-blocking terrain.

Turn Six - Tau
Well, I can't get a shot at either of the two remaining Necron squads, but from the center I can easily claim both remaining corners and contest the other ones.  That's all folks!


We finish in enough time for me to watch the main table, with the only two undefeated players going at it.  It's a pretty good game, but it ends one turn too early for my buddy Johnston, who loses on quarters to Jim's Tyranid horde.

The results come out, and surprising as all out to me, I'm voted Best Overall!  Although I went 2-0-1 and Jim went 3-0-0, his army isn't completely painted and I win on soft scores.

All in all another great tournament by the Game Empire staff.  I highly encourage anyone in the San Diego area to check them out!  Got to meet Allan (Blackmoor from Dakka) and see Darrian13 again, which is always great.  Hope you enjoyed the batrep.

Great report, very characterful. I love the way you describe things, particularly the librarian and the armless dread. Well done!

Your Pathfinders seem to have done a lot of good work.

Nice report, was easy enough to follow, did the carbine warriors do anything all tournament?

Was the piranha worth it?

Nice Batrep. Congrats! Necrons vs. Tau is a tough match up and despite some strange things happening (Your Tau leader getting chased down by initiative 2 necrons?!), you managed to pull off a big win. Good job. Capt K

Thanks guys!

coelomate: Well, that Dreadnought annoyed the heck out of me all game, apparently being made of Railgun proof armour (except for his arms). Come to think of it, I've been having bad luck against Dreadnoughts lately.

Killkrazy: Yeah, I get a lot of mileage out of my Pathfinders. I've been rolling various ideas around on why nobody else seems to have any luck with them, but I'm not quite sure. I think it has something to do with my army design as they're specifically integrated into the army inside of just a "splash" addition. *shrug*

vsurma: I've been fooling around with Carbine Warriors for the last few tournaments, and I think they're pretty good. It's nice to be able to move and shoot instead of either having Rifles stand around all day or run desperately to get to rapid fire range. With heavy Markerlight support, Pinning also works pretty well (although I'm still fiddling around with that part).

CaptKaruthors: Well, the Tau Commander is only I3 anyways, but the Flayed Ones (at I4) were the ones that got him in the end. Oh well!

Yup, it's a draw. An all-out rush by either side would have decided the game decisively, but it's a pretty good chance that the rusher would end up dead dead dead.

Yup, that was my thought.

Half way through the game I was playing for the tie. There was no way I could get to your fire base and assault, so I knew that if I would try it, I would lose the game for sure. So I started to pull everyone back and hiding behind the buildings.

I knew this game was going to be a bad match up for me. That is why I took the option to go second when I won the dice roll to see who goes first. I had two bad options:
#1. I could go first and summon a lot of demons in no-mans-land and get shot to pieces as you come on, or
#2. I could go second, and hope to survive your shooting and try to find a way to get past your vehicles.
Neither option was a good one.

1 Daemon Prince of Death

A walking, non-statured lord is hardly a demon prince of death. I think the whole tourney his kill total was 4 necron warriors. The reserve mission denied me any hope of him doing anything with him walking 6" from the board edge. He was build for 4th edition because he has infiltrate, and if there is no infiltrate he just hops in the rhino. But I am working on my statured prince as we speak, and he will truly be the Demon Prince of Death!

The Kroot charge into the Bloodletter pack, inflicting 3 kills, but 4 Fire Warriors die and the Kroot break and get run down along with the Carbine Warriors.

That 5 man bloodletter squad was my MVP for the tourney. I ended up bringing 1850 points to a 2000 point RTT, so I hastily borrowed 5 bloodletters from Darrian13. Not only did they kill all of those Tau and hack up your Shas'O (and survived the game), but in game #1 they killed a terminator squad and made about 11 inv. saves. And they would have won the game for me in game #3 to if my game would have gone the full 6 turns (It was cleanse II and we only got to turn #5 and they were still off of the board. If I could have summoned them on turn #6 they would have held a table quarter, and won the game for me.) Oh well. I need to borrow them again next time.

Oh, as a non-Tau player I thought those marker lights were great from the pathfinders. Being able to shoot at BS4 and reduce cover saves had a huge impact.

Although I went 2-0-1 and Jim went 3-0-0, his army isn't completely painted and I win on soft scores.

Although I am still a bit of a tournement newbie , I am glad that I had a hand in trying to slow you down.  

 

interesting Heavy Support setup...I'll have to give that one a try.

Blackmoor, you are not borrowing my bloodletters anymore. Since I let you borrow them they have not performed well for me. You have given them some bad mojo, and I don't like it.

I finished round 2 early so I got to watch half of this game. Quite frankly I am amazed it ended in a draw, it sure looked Like Spam Musubi was crushing you. The mission also favored shooty lists over assault lists, and I think we all know which list the shooty one was.

Great batrep and congrats on winning the RTT Erik. Game Empire (San Diego) always has great tourneys with a very high level of competition, winning there is a great accomplishment.

Darrian

I think your Pathfinders work well because you include a lot of them so you can cover the whole table and always have a target you can use them on.

Do you make o-musubi (Japanese rice ball snacks) using spam?