Opponent: Austin (Tau Empire)
Deployment: Vanguard Strike
Mission: Crusade
Shas'O w/Missile Pod, Shield Generator,
Blacksun Filter, Vectored Retro-Thrusters, Stimulant Injectors,
Failsafe Detonator
6 x XV15 w/Shas'ui, Fusion Blaster,
Bonding Knife, Blacksun Filter
12 x Fire Warriors w/Shas'Ui, Blacksun
Filter, Rail Rifle, Bonding Knife, Markerlight
12 x Fire Warriors w/Shas'Ui, Blacksun
Filter, Rail Rifle, Bonding Knife, Markerlight, EMP Grenades, Photon
Grenades, Devilfish w/Smart Missile System, Sensor Spines, Decoy
Launcher, Disruption Pod, Flechette Dischargers, Blacksun Filter
Hammerhead w/Railgun, Smart Missile
Systems, Multi-Tracker, Target Lock, Disruption Pod, Blacksun Filter
One of the surest signs of an
inexperienced Tau player is a proliferation of stuff. While many Tau
units can't really take anything at all (Fire Warriors, Kroot,
Vespid, Pathfinders), the ones who can have options out the wazoo.
And many of them look like perfectly reasonable things to take. They
all do interesting, even valuable things, and some of them stack
together nicely enough. But they also eat into your points, and
being a fourth edition codex Tau don't have a lot of points to spare
for bells and whistles. Which is why, as soon as I looked at
Austin's list, it was pretty obvious this would be less of a game,
and more a teaching experience.
My list, for comparison.
Shas'El w/Airbursting Fragmentation
Projector, Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Hard-Wired Blacksun Filter,
Hard-Wired Multi-Tracker
2 x XV8 w/2 x Plasma Rifle, 2 x Missile
Pod, 2 x Multi-Tracker
2 x XV8 w/2 x Plasma Rifle, 2 x Missile
Pod, 2 x Multi-Tracker
2 x XV8 w/2 x Twin-Linked Missile Pods,
2 x Flamer
8 x Fire Warriors
8 x Fire Warriors
XV88 w/Advanced Stabilization System
XV88 w/Advanced Stabilization System
Hammerhead w/Railgun, 2 x Burst
Cannons, Multi-Tracker, Blacksun Filter, Disruption Pod
Aegis Defence Line
Lots of units, with lots of guns, and
nobody drunk on wargear options. In my experience, barring tactical
wizardry, this is the only way to run a successful cadre.
We rolled up Vanguard Strike and
Crusade, and I won the roll-off, selecting my corner and dropping my
objective neatly behind one of my Aegis sections. I spread out in
the usual three-point formation, the corners anchored by XV88s
supporting a team of Firewarriors, with the Fireknives there to
provide close support. My commander, attached to the Deathrains, and
the Hammerhead made up the central spur, the tank hidden as best it
could behind a large hill. Austin opted for a more aggressive
approach, though also a less optimal one; one Fire Warrior squad,
joined by his commander, held the objective on top of a hill opposite
the one my tank was hiding behind, with his Hammerhead hiding it
behind it in a mirror of my own strategy. The Fire Warriors with
attached Devilfish, meanwhile, started out on the left edge of his
zone, along with his XV15s, the lot of them just raring to go. He
failed to seize, Night Fight kicked in, and we were off.
Unfortunately, the first turn was less
than impressive. I'd put my Fire Warriors too far back to open up on
his lines, and my suits found their shots either going awry or being
blunted by Night Fight or Disruption Pod saves. I made no major
advances, just shuffled around a little, and let Austin go. He sent
his XV15s and Devilfish off as fast as he could, just as expected,
while his commander took the odd potshot at my Fire Warriors behind
the Aegis line, while his Hammerhead proved just as ineffectual as my
own. Unfortunately, while the Devilfish is good, it isn't that good;
putting it so far out in front earned it a railgun slug through the
nose, wrecking it and spilling its contents out into open midfield.
Where they perished mightily, caught under the guns of my own two
Fire Warrior squads and the significantly more deadly firepower of my
left-side Fireknives. Poor guys never knew what hit them. In
return, however, Austin managed to do what I had failed at, using his
Hammerhead to take out my own with a solid explosion that,
thankfully, failed to do any collateral damage. His XV15s popped out
from around the side of a building and took a few pot-shots at my
Fireknives, who thankfully were behind the curve of the Aegis from
that angle, since the fusion blasters were in range. Stymied, they
jumped back into cover, though a bad roll left them slightly exposed.
Amazingly, that squad of XV15s would go
on to completely destroy my left flank. They took casualties from my
Fireknives, but not as much as they might've without their stealth
fields, but over the next several turns they managed to shoot one of
those Fireknives, break my Fire Warrior squad, and then charge and
defeat both my remaining Fireknife and my XV88. There might only
have been one of them left by the end, but that little guy earned his
keep!
Unfortunately, his success was mostly a
sideshow. On the main stage, I managed to shoot down Austin's
Hammerhead after a few more turns, its submunition blast singularly
failing to do the job when it came to clearing my Fire Warriors off
the objective; a 4+ cover save, jumping to 2+ when he really got a
solid roll to wound and I opted to go to ground, proved too tough to
overcome with just a single vehicle's weaponry. Meantime, his single
battlesuit, anchored to a unit of Fire Warriors, was steadily chewed
up by a pincer strike of my own commander and the Deathrains coming
left and high, and a Fireknife team, supported by the surviving XV88,
coming in low and right. At the end of Turn 5, when the game ended,
he'd completely lost the squad and commander, leaving him shot
entirely off the table save for that single, valiant XV15 hiding down
on my far left flank.
Running Score: 2-0-0
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