Back
from Cally. Great weekend (even with all the snow!) My aim for the weekend was
to do better than last year (2-0-4), and better than at the GT Heat (2-0-4).
Usual
format, brief Bat reps and an overview.
Points
were 1850, 5 games with primary and secondary objectives scoring slightly
differently. It’s the qualifier for the Scottish ETC team – top 4 scots qualify
automatically, the rest are picked by the captain.
Game
1
Game
one was the scouring and vanguard strike. Up against grey knights. Coteaz, 2
strike squads, 3 dakka dreads, 5 razorbacks with psybolt ammo (3 of them with 3
man henchman squads), aegis with quad gun and 10 terminators. It was a very “5th
edition” list. My 5th edition Tau list (6 Broadsides, loads of
missile pods) would have ripped it apart, my “new” 6th edition list,
not so much. It’s still a good counter, but not the hard counter it would have
been in 5th.
I
got first turn, and gave it to him. I wanted to see whether he was going to
deep strike his terminators so I knew whether to set up a deep strike defense
or not. He deployed everything behind his Aegis. That meant I was able to
deploy in a more open formation, giving me more flexibility of movement. So I
set up as far away as possible, hiding the Tetras behind a building, and
getting the Hammer Heads out of range of his Preds. I gambled on him simply
advancing his termies across the table (what else was he going to do with them
and their 24” range!), so I reserved the Firewarriors in their fish, hoping
that they would come in turn 2, hop our, and dakka down the termies.
Well,
everything went to plan. The Railguns killed the armour, the Plasma Cannons
killed the strike squads, the Tetras refused to die (must have passed about 20
2+ saves on them!) and the fire warriors came on, jumped out and (with
marker light support) blew away 6 terminators in one round of shooting. The
remaining termis promptly failed their leadership tests and ran for it. While
they rallied next turn, it stalled their advance, and I was able to kill them
all before they got anywhere near my gun line.
A
19 – 1 win to me.
Game
2
As
always, the problem with winning your first game is that you are then on the
top tables! Next was a combination of the relic and Emperors will. I was up
against an odd army of Eldar and Dark Eldar. Farseer on a bike with a 7 man
seer council, two 9 man squads of reaver jet bikes, 2 squads of 3 guardian jet
bikes, a Phoneix bomber and a jet wing fighter, and some foot sloggers who
where just there to camp the home objective.
I
was at bit at a loss to know what to do against this army. It’s so fast I
didn’t think I could stop him snatching the Relic. And he could “lurk” at the
other end of the board until turn 5 and then snatch it. Hmmm…!
So
I decided that there was very little prospect of me getting his objective, and
that getting and keeping the Relic was pretty impossible. The plan (such as it
was) was to deploy everything in range of the relic, try and get first blood,
hold my own objective, and kill anything that goes anywhere near the relic.
It
didn’t really work! The problem was the phonix bomber. My opponent had
explained what it did, but I didn’t really listen well enough. It’s missiles
decimated the orks and the Fire warriors, and the reavers did the rest. In the
end I was lucky. I eventually killed the seer council, and the reavers, and the
guardian jet bikes broke and ran off the board. So in the end, nobody had the
relic, he held his home objective, and I managed to pass enough leadership
tests on orks and fire warriors to hang on to my own objective with one
remaining ork! So a loss, but not a huge one. Think it was 17 – 3.
Lesson
learned – do not get fire warriors out of their fish until absolutely
necessary! They are just too fragile to start on the board.
Game
3
Kill
points against Guard with space wolves. He had Company Command Squad, Platoon
Command Squad, Primaris Psyker, 50 man blob with Axes and melta bombs, 3 Vendettas,
2 Rune priests, 2 squads of grey hunters with Wolf Guard and a Hyperion Missile
Battery. He rolled on divination and got the power which grants a 4+
invulnerable save!
Hmmmm…..
my list really has no answer to Vendettas and a blob squad with a 4++. So the
plan was to kill everything else and ignore the Vendettas and the blob.
And
that’s what I did….. but he killed 2 units more than I did. I made one huge
mistake which lost me the game. I hadn’t clocked that the blob had melta
bombs, and I got a Hammerhead and a Devilfish too close. He assaulted both and
killed them (small conciliation was that I killed a bunch of guardsman in the
explosion!)
Lesson
learned – blobs are even more terrifying than I thought, and I really need
something in the list that will deal with AV12 flyers and guard blobs. The
difficulty is what!
Game
4
Eldar
and dark elder again. Eldrad, 10 Wraithguard, Harlies with a shadowseer, the
Baron and 2 Venoms with kabalite warriors, 3 squads of Guardian Jet Bikes and 9
(9!) war walkers. Mission was Crusade with 5 objectives, Dawn of War.
On
paper I should win this one. He has nothing that can damage my Hammerheads at
range, and he can only glance the Devilfish. As long as I keep away from the
Wraithguard and the Harlies, and kill the bikes and the Warriors it should be
good. I’m a little concerned about the weight of fire the War Walkers can put
out, but not really. My main concern is the Barron tanking wounds for the
Wraithguard on his 2++. However, the TO ruled that fortune doesn’t effect the
Baron, so it’s not too bad.
He
gets first turn and takes it. He sets up Eldrad, the Wraithguard, the Hariles
and both Venoms and leaves everything else in reserve (just realised he had too
much in reserve, ah well!). Oddly, he does not set up the Baron to tank wounds.
The Walkers are outflanking. I set up the Broadsides in the middle behind the
aegis, surrounded by orks. Everything else is on my left. I thought about
lining that board edge with infiltrating to Kroot stop him coming on
there, However, he had that covered by his 2 venoms which would have toasted
the Kroot, so instead I put the Hammerheads there, with a plan to move them up
the board edge and outflank the Kroot, hoping they would come in on that edge
to block the rest of it.
I
then seized the initiative! So taking advantage of the Wraithguard not being
fortuned, I pour everything into them in that first turn, killing 6 of them. A
good start. In his turn 1 nothing really happens, I think his venoms kill some
orks. My turn 2 one squad of Kroot come on, but come on on the wrong side! They
are isolated way over on the right, so I bring them on, on my side of the table
and hide them. I move up the Fire Warrior’s ‘Fish. The plan is to strip the
Harlies cover with the Tetras, and blow them away with rapid firing, pulse
rifles next turn. I kill 2 more Wraithguard, but my shots are then
stalled by Eldrad’s re-rollable 3++. I think I take a hull point of a Venom,
the Broadsides failing miserably to kill paper aeroplanes!
In
his Turn 2 all the War Walkers come on. One squad comes on, on the right, and 2
on the left. He keeps his bikes of with his warlord trait (the one that allows
you to re-roll reserves). And then disaster, he opens up with everything on the
Broadsides, kills 2 Drones and they fail a leadership test and run off the
board, giving him first blood and kill the warlord….bugger!
It
was a bit of a blow! I was beginning to feel I had this one in the bag, but
without the Broadsides it was going to be tricky, and giving up first blood and
kill the warlord was a disaster! But, I swallowed hard, sucked it up, and
pressed on with the plan!
Over
the next few turns I managed to squeak out the narrowest of wins. Highlights
were one squad of Firewarriors jumping out their ‘Fish, and killing 2 War
Walkers, getting charged next turn by the remaining Walker, and killing it with
Overwatch! The other squad of fire warriors getting charged by the Baron,
blowing away his Shadow Field with Overwatch, and then slapping him down in the
ensuing combat! And finally, a pack of Kroot holding up a squad of jet
bikes long enough in assault, so they could not snatch an objective
When
the smoke settled, I held 2 objectives and he held one. However, because he had
slay the warlord, first blood and line breaker, we drew on tournament points 10
each. However because I also had line breaker (gun drones FTW) I won on 6th
ed VPs 7 -6. The very (very) narrowest of wins.
Lessons
learned – don’t panic! But also – I wonder if it is worth that extra 25pts for
the Shas’o and his leadership 10!
Game
5
Big
guns never tire, hammer and anvil, against Space Marines. Captain on a bike
with a squad of scoring bikes, 3 pods, one with a tac squad and 2 with
Ironclads, 2 more tac squads (one in a Rhino) and 2 Thunderfire cannons.
Hmmm…
when I saw his list and the mission I knew I would have to try quite hard to
lose this one (or be very unlucky!). I gave him first turn, so I had last turn
to grab some objectives, and set up the 30 orks to bubble wrap my gun line.
He
podded in one ‘clad and one tac squad, and killed some orks. In my turn I
killed the tac squad and immobilised the ‘clad.
In
his turn 2 the second ‘clad came in and managed to immobilise one of my
Hammerheads (a very risky deep strike right on the edge of the board
which I did not think he would go for!). His scout squad outflanked on my
side, and ran into a ruin, and his bikes moved up. He killed some more orks. In
my turn 2 I killed the ‘clad, and most of the bikes. The small squad of orks
and one of the Kroot squads came in and failed to kill the scout squad (it went
to ground in a ruin for a 2+ cover save).
In
his turn 3 he killed some more orks, and a shield drone. The remaining bikes
failed their charge on a pack of Kroot. In my turn I moved up both ‘fish
heading for the central objective. I killed the remaining bikes, but not the
captain. The Kroot charged the scout squad and wiped them out.
In
his turn his quad gun fired at one of my ‘fish, he rolled a 6 to pen, I rolled
a 1 to failed my 2+ cover save, and he then rolled a 6 to blow it up. He then
smacked the Fire warriors with the Thunder fire cannons and the survivors
ran…..! A blow, but not a disaster as the other fish moved up to reach the
objective in my turn. His captain also charged a pack of Kroot, wiping them
out, but he was not able to consolidate into cover. In my turn 4 I killed his
captain and the remaining devilfish moved onto the 2nd objective,
with the Firewarriors ready to hop out and claim it in turn 5. At that point we
were running out of time, and we agreed turn 5 would be the last turn.
In
his turn five I had an anxious moment. He killed enough shield drones to force
a leadership test on my Broadsides who were holding the home objective…but they
passed this time! In my turn 5 I claimed the middle objective, and finally
killed a Thunderfire cannon for an extra point!
A
16-4 win to me!
This
game was closer than I thought it was going to be – the problem were the
Thunderfire cannons. I just could not risk getting my Firewarriors out their
fish as they would have been pounded by the cannons. Without their fire power,
it was trickier putting down the captain (with his artificer armour) than it
would have been if they could have simply torrented him away.
So,
I went 3-0-2 and ended up with 55 tournament points, enough for best Tau
general. I also came 23rd out of 87. Very pleased with that. Sadly
however, I was not in the top 4 Scottish players (think I came 5th or
6th, but not sure) so didn’t qualify for the ETC team…..!
List
analysis
This
list performed much better than at the GT, but it still has problems.
The
reason for improved performance is partly greater experience in playing the
list. I played a much more fluid game, and really only castled up in game 5, to
counter the podding Dreads. I still made mistakes of course (deploying the
Firewarriors out their fish in game 2, allowing the melta bomb wielding blob
squad to assault my vehicles in game 3), but I had more comprehensive plans for
all my games than at the GT.
However,
the list was also improved. The biggest change was the quad gun and fewer orks.
The quad gun was OK, but is laughable against AV12 flyers. Fewer Orks was a big
improvement. The 30 “man” mob was ideal for bubble wrapping when needed, and
was much more manageable than the 2 30 man mobs I took to the GT.
Interestingly, one change made a big difference – the sensor spines on the
D’fish. I put them there as an afterthought really, but when you don’t need to
worry about terrain, it makes deploying the Firewarriors so much easier.
The
other thing was that the Firewarriors worked much better this tournament. In
game one they blew away a 6 terminators, in game 3 they blew away a pack of
Grey Hunters, and in Game 5 they killed the War Walkers (and the Baron in
assault – although that was a bit of a fluke!). They are still very vulnerable
once thet are out their ‘fish (Game 2 and Game 5, where they stayed in their ‘fish
almost the whole game for fear of the 2 T’fire Cannons). But if you get your
timing and your positioning right, they’re OK (still not great, but OK).
Having
said that, I was kinda lucky in my match ups. I didn’t play Wraith Spam
Necrons, nor flamer/screamer spam demons. Against Demons I think I might stand
a chance, providing I managed to get the ork bubble wrap right. Not sure what I
would have done against Wraith Spam however.
I
also have no answer to AV12 flyers, nor really to a guard blob.
Further
thought required.
EYIG
