<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "2014 08 12 1000 pts. Tau vs CSM"]]>

<![CDATA[Latest posts for the thread "2014 08 12 1000 pts. Tau vs CSM"]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/17.page JForum - http://www.jforum.net 2014 08 12 1000 pts. Tau vs CSM
This is a bit behind, but I wanted to post a short battle report from my first ever 1000 point game. I played against same opponent from last time, Rob, the man with the Joker styled Chaos Space Marines (CSM). He brought another chaos marine list and I used my own Tau battle cadre. Here are the army lists
Tau Empire

Spoiler:

Joker Chaos Space Marines

Spoiler:

Pre-game
The game was Eternal War: The Relic with Hammer and Anvil deployment. There was Night Fighting on turn 1. His warlord trait was Inspiring Presence and I got Master of Ambush (which I rerolled and got the exact same thing again.) His psyker powers were all from Telepathy discipline and he had Dominate, Invisibility, Shrouding, and Psychic Shriek. Wow, rough set of powers to fight from what I have read around Dakka. His gift of mutation was Mechanoid which bonded his CSM Champion with his bike and raised either his toughness or armor saves. I choose the table end; he set up first and took the first turn.

Deployment
The picture shows how I had my Commander and my Broadside together on top of the platform with their drones. One unit of pathfinders was in the ruins (red) to the right and the other was under the platform. One fire warrior team was also in the ruins (grey). The other was by the Devilfish. The Hammerhead was next to the ruins with a good field of fire.

Spoiler:

Rob put his cultists in front of the commander and broadside. The obliterator was near the center in a crater with the Rhino off to the side opposite my ruins. The bikes were basically next to the Rhino in from of the ruins. The 3 Hellbrutes were in orbit. The Relic was on the crashed airship in the middle of the table.

Spoiler:

Chaos Turn 1
The movement was pretty much all rushing towards me. Not a lot of subtlety. The bikes turned towards the commanders platform as did the Rhino.
The Psychic phase had 7 warp charges (WC) for him and 4 for me to deny with. He made his bikes Invisible and cast Dominate on my Pathfinders under the platform.
Shooting had the bikes turbo boost and the cultists run at me. The Rhino pops smoke. The Obliterator fires a plasma gun and misses.

Spoiler:

Tau Turn 1
My movement was pretty basic. The pathfinders were Dominated so I did not try and move them back from the onrushing Cultists in hope of taking shots at them. My Fire Warriors with the Devilfish loaded up to try and redeploy over behind the platform to help the pathfinders against the cultists. The Crisis team came around the corner of the building for a shot. My Commander and drones shuffles a bit around the broadside, but nothing dramatic. Everyone else held their ground.
Shooting had my Dominated Pathfinders fail their leadership check and do nothing. However my other pathfinders put 1 Markerlight and got a Rail Rifle kill on the bikers. My XV8 team then killed another biker using my Markerlight. The Hammer Head shot at the Rhino but missed. The Broadside, commander, and drones hit the Obliterator for 1 wound.
In the Assault phase, my XV8s jumped back around the corner of the building.

Spoiler:

Chaos Turn 2
Here come the Hellbrutes. Per the special rules, they all come in at the same time with one reserves roll. But they come in all over. Luckily for me, one scatters off the table, mishaps, and is lost in the warp. Technically I think that was first blood, but I am not sure. The other Hellbrutes land with one behind my Devilfish for a rear armor shot and one in front of my ruins stronghold.
In other movement, the cultists close to charge range on my dominated pathfinders and the bikes close on the commander and broadside in hopes of charging.
Psychic phase is again 7 WC and the Sorcerer tries Invisibility, Psychic Shriek and Shrouding. Only Shrouding goes off however due to poor rolls. (Not any deny success on my part either.)
In the shooting phase, one Hellbrute glances my Devilfish, which could have been a lot worse. The other misses the Hammerhead. His cultists hit 9 times against my pathfinders, get 5 wounds and I save 3 of them. The Rhino drops a Havoc on my other pathfinders and kills one. The Bikers kill some drones and the Obliterator misses a lascannon shot on the Devilfish.
The assault phase resulted in the Cultists charging my pathfinders. Overwatch is useless and the cultists get 41 attacks, 14 wounds, and I save 4 of them. Pathfinders dead. I think this was the real first blood.
The bikes charge the commander, and again overwatch is useless. However, the bikes fail the charge as they have to come up on the platform and that made the charge just too long.

Spoiler:

Tau turn 2
This turn my Fire Warriors advance to shoot at the Hellbrute and the Bikes. My Devilfish drops the other Fire Warrirors off where they are to engage the Hellbrute. (and there are no more pathfinders to support.) The commander and broadside with remaining drones drop back some to try and avoid the upcoming cultist charge.
During the shooting, the railgun misses a point blank shot on the Hellbrute standing right there next to him. Sigh. My fire warriors shoot at the cultists (once I realized that they can’t hurt the Hellbrute with S5) and get 5 hits, 5 wounds, and 3 kills. The Commander and the Broadside destroy the Rhino, but not any passengers. The other fire warriors and pathfinders are pretty ineffective on the biker CSM. The Crisis team damages the Hellbrute, but not much else.

Spoiler:

Chaos Turn 3
This turn the Hellbrutes roll a Rage condition and ignore any shaken results. The Chaos bikes change from heading towards the commander and head towards the fire warriors in the ruins. The cultists move up onto the platform with the commander and the broadside prepared to charge.
The psychic phase went well from my perspective. I actually denied the witch on his Psychic Shriek and he failed his Invisibility roll.
In Shooting, the Hellbrute missed the Hammerhead. The other one flamed two fire warriors to death. The bikers used their flamers on my other fire warriors near the ruins but I saved all those hits. The bike bolters get 6 hits, 5 wounds, and I save only 1 hit. The cultisted shoot 17 pistol shots at my commander and broadside but only manage to kill the last of the drones.
The CSM from the dead rhino run towards the Relic. The Obliterator manages to kill the broadside leaving my commander all alone facing 17 cultists…
Then comes the assault phase. The Hellbrutes both charge. The one misses the Hammerhead with all his close range attacks. The other assaults the fire warriors in the ruins and kills one. My weapons can’t even hurt it. So I opt to use OWAU and promptly get swept by the Hellbrute. Sigh again.
The bikes also assault the fire warriors (before we find out the Hellbrute kills them all) and my Pathfinders use supporting fire to overwatch. They kill a flamer bike. Then the chaos bikes fail their charge roll.
The cultists charge my Commander and he is also challenged by the Champion of the cultists. The challenger get 0 hits while the commander fights like a boss and gets 4 wounds on the cultists. The mob then does 8 wounds in return and I save only 5 of them. That leaves enough to kill the commander. Slay the Warlord to Chaos.

Spoiler:

Tau Turn 3
My Tau try and move back behind the platform, away from the Hellbrute raging in the ruins. My Crisis suits try for a side shot on the Hellbrute as well.
In the Shooting phase I start with the Railgun. All I really wanted was to see my S10 AP1 railgun hit something. And once again the rail gun misses. Triple Sigh.
On the other hand, my remaining fire warriors with their Devilfish gun down the cultists. I score 12 hits from the warriors and all are kills. The burst cannon on the Devilfish does 1 more kill.
My side shots from the Crisis suits I believe all miss as do the remaining pathfinder shots from in the ruins.

At this point we call it. I still had my crisis suits and a unit of pathfinders and fire warriors as well as the hammerhead. But he has his CSM securing the Relic and two Hellbrutes rampaging. He also still has his sorcerer and a few bikers left. Plus these three turns took like 3 hours. The biggest lession of the game is that I need to learn my rules more. Rob is also new to 7th and had not used Psykers under it before. Between those factors, this game took a long time. Overall, I think I could have done better, but I am relatively happy with my performance. My biggest disappointment was the Hammerhead in never getting a successful railgun shot off. I have to remember to bring markerlights before I shoot next time.

Comments are welcome as always. More reports to come.
Thanks,
Duncan]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614679/7193958.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614679/7193958.page GMT 2014 08 12 1000 pts. Tau vs CSM ]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614679/7194784.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614679/7194784.page GMT 2014 08 12 1000 pts. Tau vs CSM Still get the hang of my armies and this was my largest game yet. Tau really need some better Psyker defense.

Thanks,
Duncan]]> http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614679/7194991.page http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/preList/614679/7194991.page GMT