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My army:
termy libby with gates avenger ss and fs
Pedro Kantor
2 10 man tac squads with flamer plasma gun/cannon and missile launcher
5 man scout sniper team
10 man sternguard vets in drop pod
5 man sternguard vets (with libby at start)
3 attack bike suad with melta's
2 vindicators
anti infantry talon

my opponent:
3 12 man fire warrior teams
hammerhead
skyray
commander and body guard
6 pathfinders
6 stealth suits
3 crisis suits
ethereal

So game 5 of the tournament , I draw the tau for a game of purge the alien on short board edges. My immediate thoughts crap im in trouble here. out ranged out gunned and generally all round out classed in my armies primary strength.

so we start the game, rolling for sides, warlord traits and what have you though i cant remember what we both got.
i won deployment and he failed to sieze the initiative later on.
so i deployed a tank on each flank with one supported by a combat tac squad and the other by the bikes and libby pedro and vets kept the talon and drop pod vets for reserves obviously and deployed the rest of my guys in the centre figuring my best chance of winning was a pincer manuever the scouts later infiltrated into ruin.
my opponent pretty much tried to counter my deployment and then we were off with his suits out flanking me

Turn 1 no risk no glory was my theory drop podded the vets in on his very board edge and didnt scatter off thankfully.
combat squading on way out and killing 9 fire warriors from vengeance rounds from one squad (all 10 hit) and killing the commanders body guard and 4 drones with the other combat squad (ouch far better than i could of hoped for)
The libby cast gates trying to redploy pedro and vets who suqaded togeth (i know 570 odd point unit)24 inches up the board but scattered back 10 inches from landing zone and the unit re opened on the 3 remaining warriors only killing one
the plasma cannon team vindicator and a supporting com squad only managing to kill 2 fire warriors out of a total of 14 wounds the snipers also hitting the same squad ended up killing the sergeant another markerlight out of action
the bikes gunned it forward full speed and then with premeasuring realised they eren't going to shoot much of vaules so gunned them in turbo boost out los
the retailiation was far less painful then i expected, lossing a total of 1com squad from the drop pod and first blood. an attack bike and a vet from the liby unit. though i did loose 4 off the second com squad from the drop pod.
the skyray having to fire all of its weapons at one vet to kill him was the highlight of turn 1 and even the TO stood watching at that point was like that shouldnt of happened based on dice averages

turn 1 summary: po Tau 1 Marines 0 (a couple of drones survived in the body guard) so tau 1 marines 1

turn 2 libby attempted to jump marines forward again but perils so they wallk forward killing 2 path finders in the process
pedro abandoned the unit and called an orbital bombardment down destroying the hammer head
the barely damaged unit took on the wrath of everything on the same side of the table and lost everyone (they had no one else to shoot that turn)
the bikes gunned it forward hitting the unit attached to the ethereal killing 5 (out of position to go for the diminished skyray the talon arrived gunning it along one board edge at max speed in zoom mode. still no combat but tau looking not so good atm since i go one to loose 0 models on turn 2

turn 2 summary: po tau 1 marines 2 secondary: tau 1 marines 1

turn 3: the talon flies around quite freely doing its thing, killing a few more drones on the commander leaving him exposed now
the vnidi's advance up again with their support, the libby successfully jumps the vets into combat range for next turn and they open up not killing anything thanks to cover
the bikes shoot some more failing to kill and attempt a charge but fail
pedro walks up the board shooting killing nothing
the final drop pod vet goes down to tau shooting
and both the crisis suits and stealth suits arrive killing both vindi's

turn 3 summaryO Tau 4 Marines 2 Secndary Tau 2 Marines 1

now this is where the game gets really interesting


Turn 4
the talon gets vector locked allowing it to just stay on the board fire its assault cannon into the rear of the skyray penetrating 4 times but he made all 4 3+saves as i was still technically in the side armor
the bikes charges the ethereal's unit taking a wound and killing 3 warriors in combat but the held their ground thanks to the ethereal
the libby left the unit ( a mistake in hindsight and you will see why shortly) jumped back to avenger the stealth suits killing them all gotta love ap3 s5 tear drop template shot 6 hit and dead out right on 2's which he did but... peril's himself to death. not the big issue
the sternguard vet's advanced up and charged the path finders not loosing a model on way in, and the resulting attacks wounded 6 times and he proceeded to roll 6 5+... dammnit and with nothing else left in range my heavy weapons and supporting marines opened up n finished the crisis suits off
in my opponents turn he failed to do anything with the commander but back him away expecting like me for the vets to finish the path finders off and then either join and wipe the ethereal out or advance up on the commander laying down the poisoned 2+ wounding shots off but no they yet again won the combat by not dying and not killing me (i call it a win when a 5+ beats a set of 4 models doing 3+ 3+ and then a 5+ to save) the ethereal and co lost the last of the fire warriors but still stood his ground also. well thats my turn 5 plan gone down the drain

Turn 4 summary : tau PO 5 marines 5 tau secondary : tau 1 marines 2

turn 5: with nothing else to do on either side some minor movements were made, and combat insued for both our turns with yet again not 1 path finder dying and the ethereal surviving.

turn 6 my final turn being key as if i loose anything anywhere i loose my final game of the tournament
pathfinders die finally ethereal dies finally and my guys consolidate out of los

final score tau 6 marines 7 secondary tau 2 marines 2 (lost pedro somewhere alond the lines can't remember where)

summary
i got greedy i engaged the path finders thinking easy kill in combat giving me a free 9- 15 inch free move and figured them joining the ethereal combat if neccessary, my opponent admitted he underestimate the power of the libby given everyone he had played using them doesn't use codex powers anymore, dont know why but i think they are awesome
i couldnt get over to his warlord to secure absolute victory nothing tactically wrong just unlucky in combats we both agreed if the turn 4 combat had gone different his being tabled would of been theoretically feasable which sucked both ways
the tournament worked on a 20-0 system and based on casualty reports i was 5 points off maximum kill points tournament points and if i had got warlord i would of walked off with a 20-0 game in which tau were shot to gak but masterful in combat. i mean wth lol]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/536662/5790892.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/536662/5790892.page GMT