League Battle Report: Tau Vs Space Wolves

This has been a bit overdue getting it on but I finally had a bit of spare time to get the report knocked together. A week last Thursday we had the second session of our League, and this game would mean that each of the players would have played every one of their opponents once. This time my Tau would be facing off against Bradimus Prime’s Space Wolves, now I had made some slight tweaks to my list since the last time we played (in preparation for Vapnartak) but on the whole it was pretty much the same 1000 points.

Space Wolves: Task Force Jorgmundr

Ulf the Horrible, Rune Priest

3 Wolf Guard:
3 Combi Melta and 3 Powerfist
(Each of these is attached to a Grey Hunter unit)

Grey Hunters Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Powerfist, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Grey Hunters Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Powerfist, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Grey Hunters Pack:
8 Grey Hunters, Powerfist, Meltagun, Wolf Standard and Mark of Wulfen
Rhino APC transport

Long Fangs Pack:
1 sergeant, 5 Long Fangs with Missile Launchers

Tau Cadre

HQ: Crisis Suit Commander with Plasma Rifle, Airbursting Fragmentation Projector, Positional Relay, HW Drone Controller, HW Multitracker, 2 x Shield Drones, and 2 x Crisis Suit Bodyguards (each with a Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array and HW Multi Tracker)

Elite: 1 x Sunforge config Crisis Suit Team Leader (equipped with twin linked Fusion Blasters, Targeting Array, HW Drone Controller and 2 x Shield Drones).

Heavy: Hammerhead Gunship with Railgun, 2 x Burst Cannons, Targeting Array, Disruption Pod, Flechette Discharger, Multi Tracker and Sensor Spines.

Fast Attack: 4 x Pathfinders with Pulse Carbines and Marker Lights and Pathfinder Devilfish with SMS, Disruption pod, Flechette Discharger, Multi Tracker and Sensor Spines.

Troop: 6 x Firewarriors with Pulse Rifles in Devilfish with SMS Disruption Pod and Multi Tracker.

Troop: 6 x Firewarriors with Pulse Rifles on foot.


So we rolled for mission and got Capture and Control with Pitched Battle setup. We set the terrain up as follows:



Objectives were placed with Brad placing his in roughly the centre of his deployment and me placing mine on my right flank. I won the roll off for initiative an opted to allow Brad to deploy first. He placed his 3 Rhinos containing his Grey Hunters on his left flank with his Long Fangs occupying a crater in the centre of his deployment zone; Ulf the Horrible was grouped with one of the Grey Hunter packs.

I deployed my Hammer head in my far left corner with the 2 Devilfish just ahead, one with a Fire Warrior Team mounted inside and the foot slogging Fire Warrior team deployed immediately behind the Pathfinder Devilfish (with the aim of mounting them up on turn 1) the Pathfinders were on foot and in cover as far forwards as I could get them to the right of ‘fish and Hammerhead and the Command Crisis Squad deployed in cover towards the centre of the deployment. The Sunforge suit was held in reserve.

My "noble" opponent





Turn 1

As per usual I failed to seize the initiative so the sons of Russ had the first turn, his Longfang’s opened up on my pathfinders killing them all in a barrage of Frag missiles and his Rhino containing Ulf and a Grey Hunter pack held position behind cover whilst the other 2 advanced down his left flank towards my objective.

I advanced my Devilfish towards the Long Fangs position after mounting up the Fire Warrior team and moved the Command Crisis suits forwards so they would be in range to nip behind one of the ‘fish for some cover after firing. I then opened up with pretty much everything to try and remove the Longfangs but only managed for a couple of casualties, given that several of my rolls were only a point off I really felt the lack of my Pathfinders.





Turn 2

The Long Fang pack attempted to do something about the Hammerhead and although there fire was unerringly accurate the heavily armoured Hammerhead was able to weather the fire with ease, Ulf then called upon the power of the All Father and brought down living lightening upon one of the Devilfish destroying its engine and badly shaking it’s crew. One of the Rhinos roared in from his left flank and the Grey Hunter pack howled out and unleashed a hail of Bolter fire upon my Commanders team inflicting a minor injury upon him and one of his body guards, the team would have suffered more severe injuries were it not for the protective shield thrown up by the drones.

Once things got round to me things didn’t start well, although my Sunforge suit was available the targeting projections indicated that he would crash into one of the Rhinos upon landing even with the advanced assistance from the Pathfinder devilfish and the drop was delayed (damn health and safety!!!!).



I proceeded to dismount the Fire Warriors in the immobilised ‘fish and moved them forward through cover on my left flank to try and come at the Wolves objective from the side and I moved my Commander and the other Devilfish so they would have a good spread of fire against the Grey Hunter pack and through their combined fire they managed to eliminate 6 of them and cause the rest to fall back towards the perceived safety of their deployment zone.



The commander then jumped into the cover provided by a crater and the Fire Warriors on the left ran forwards.



Turn 3

The now empty Rhino gunned forwards at my Command team and attempted to run them over, the highly disciplined squad manoeuvred out of the way.



What was left of the Grey Hunter Pack rushed forwards and in their fury at the loss of so many of their companions destroyed the SMS system off of the Pathfinder Devilfish with a well placed melta shot and then ripped the burst cannon from the chassis for good measure.



Yet again the Long Fangs attempted to eliminate the Hammerhead and this time their shots landed true destroying the Railgun and badly shaking the crew. Ulf again attempted to call forth the fury of the All Father but the lightning’s rained down somewhat wide of the Fire Warriors he was attempting to fry.

I began my turn with again attempting to bring my Sunforge suit into the battle, and ignoring the severe weather warnings he attempted to drop in. Sadly enough of his body has yet to be recovered to warrant a proper burial although most of it is already several feet into the side of a nearby mountain.

As they were unable to fire the Hammerhead and Pathfinder Devilfish moved forwards along my left flank and my command squad moved out to get a better line of sight on the survivors of the Grey Hunter pack and the combined fire from them and the immobilised Devilfish killed the remainder.





Turn 4

The Long Fangs again managed to make a nuisance of themselves by managing the stun the crew of the last mobile Devilfish. Again the fury of the All Father was called upon and this time the living lightening managed to fry the delicate circuitry of one of the Commanders shield drones. Yet again the drive of the Rhino tried desperately to mow down the Command team but they were able to manoeuvre out of the way again.

I dismounted the Firewarrior team in the stunned Pathfinder Devilfish and moved them through the ruins on my left flank to support the other squad of Fire Warriors who were proceeding towards the Space Wolves objective. My Commanders team moved towards my objective hoping to contest it next turn when the final Grey Hunter pack would move into position and managed to stun the crew of the empty Rhino so wouldn’t have to worry about getting run over next turn!

Turn 5

The Rhino containing the Ulf and co pulled up to the objective in his deployment and dismounted, the Grey Hunter pack then proceeded to unleash a hail of fire against the rear most Fire Warrior team leaving one solitary team of Fire Warriors to try and do something about that objective that was now firmly in the hands of the Sons of Russ.



The last Grey Hunter pack dismounted from their Rhino close to my objective and with a cry to the All Father they charged in against the Command team. The combat was short and brutal and was a testament to the Space Wolves ferocity as not a single one fell in the ensuing melee that resulted in the death of my entire command team; they then consolidated back onto the objective.





The immobile Devilfish and last few Fire Warriors attempted to lay some fire into the Grey Hunter pack with Ulf but had no effect.

The game then drew to a close leaving the glory in the hands of the Sons of Russ!

Conclusions

Well, although this was another loss for the Tau I did finish the game with a significant amount more of my force on the table than in previous games against Bradimus Primes Space Wolves so I was quite pleased that the game wasn’t a white wash. The only 2 things that let me down in this battle was the complete, total and utter failure of my disruption pods (I failed every single roll with the damn things!!) and the Sunforge suit deep striking himself to death but these are all aspects of the game and hopefully the dice gods will be more on my side the next game I have!!

All in all I feel that I’m slowly but surely getting the list refined and getting much more comfortable with the type of mobile warfare you need to undertake to get the best out of my Cadre. My next step is to get my list battle ready for the next game in our League and then to take part in the Mayhem Tournament in late April so I have a fair bit of work ahead of me in the coming weeks.