League Battle Report: Space Wolves V’s Tau (Again!!)

Life seems to be throwing constant barriers in my way to get these done in a prompt fashion but I’ve finally managed to get this done.
As described in my previous post I found myself facing off against Brad's Space Wolves again for the first 1500 point league game. The forces assembled were as follows:

1500 Point Space Wolf List

Space Wolves: Task Force Jorgmundr

Ulf the Horrible, Rune Priest

5 Wolf Guard:
3 Combi Melta and Powerfist
(Each of these is attached to a Grey Hunter unit)
1 Frost Weapon (attached to scouts)
1 in Terminator Armour with Cyclone Missile Launcher (attached to long fangs)

Wolf Scouts Pack
5 x Wolf Scouts

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

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

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

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

Land Speeder Squadron:
1 Landspeeder Heavy Bolter and Typhoon Missile Launcher

Land Speeder Squadron:
1 Landspeeder Heavy Bolter and Typhoon Missile Launcher

Predator:
Twin Linked Lascannon and Las Cannon Sponsons


1500 Point Tau List

HQ
Crisis Suit Commander in Fireknife config with 2 x Shield Drones

Troops
6 x Fire Warriors in Devilfish with Multitracker, Disruption Pods and Gun Drones.
6 x Fire Warriors in Devilfish with Multitracker, Disruption Pods and Gun Drones.
6 x Fire Warriors in Devilfish with Multitracker, Disruption Pods and Gun Drones.

Elites
3 x Crisis Suits in Fireknife Config
3 x Crisis Suits in Deathtrain Config
3 x Stealthsuits, Team Leader with Markerlight, Drone Controller and 2 x Marker Drones

Heavy
2 x Broadside Suits with ASS, 2 x Shield Drones
1 x Hammerhead with Railgun, Multitracker, and Disruption Pods

Mission

We were playing Annihilation with Spearhead deployment. We rolled off and Brad got the choice of first turn.

Brad deployed his Long Fangs in a tower towards the far corner of his deployment to give them a commanding view of the battle field; his Rhinos were positioned as close to the centre of the table and his Predator was along his table edge close to his left flank. He announced he was holding 2 Landspeeders and his Wolf Scouts in reserve




I opted for a very similar deployment; my Broadsides were positioned in a crater towards the far corner of my deployment with the Commander attached to the Fireknife suits in cover towards the centre of the table with the Deathtrain suits hugging the edge of the cover at the opposite side to the commanders team. My Hammerhead was deployed on my table edge towards my left flank. I infiltrated the Steathsuits into the building that all of the crisis suits were using for cover to get an elevated position (the other units could not as it was too close to the centre point of the table for normal deployment).





Turn 1

After yet again failing to seize the initiative it was down to Brad to take the first turn. 2 of his Rhinos rumbled forwards and popped smoke to cover Ulf’s Rhino at the Rear whilst the Predator moved into the cover now vacated by the Rhinos.



Ulf summoned the Jaws of the World Wolf which proceeded to see my Cadre ‘s commander disappear along with his shield drones into a chasm that promptly sealed itself back up….not a great start for me!
The long fangs unleashed a hail of missiles against the Hammerhead and although most of the shots were avoided thanks to the Disruption pods 1 did glance the engine nacelle immobilising the tank.

My turn kicked off with no small amount of panic, I’d already lost 1 kill point in the form of my commander and the Hammerhead was now a sitting duck if the Wolves manage to close with it.
I started by walking the Fireknife suits to the edge of the cover to allow them to maximise their fire and I jumped the Deathtrain suits into the open.



I started the firing by laying down some Marker lights on one of the smoke covered Rhino’s scoring 3 hits, the Deathtrain suits make use of the Marker support and are able to wreck the Rhino. The Hammerhead unloads a submuition round into the Spacewolves staggering out of the wreck managing to eliminate 1.



The Broadsides launched several Railgun rounds at the second Rhino that had popped smoke immobilising it, unfortunately the Fireknife suits were still badly shaken from the loss of their commander and were unable to capitalise on this and finish it off.



The Stealthsuits, Fireknifes and Deathtrains then attempted to put a little distance between themselves and the rapidly approaching marines by jumping away (even though I had 5 to roll a total of 8 dangerous terrain checks for the jump I passed the lot!!! Practically unheard of!)



Kill Points: Space Wolves 1, Tau 1

Turn 2

Moving into turn 2 things were running at an even keel, although a commander for a Rhino is a pretty unbalanced exchange it did at least mean I had a kill point and the Greyhunters that had staggered out last turn were pinned currently so I wouldn’t have to worry about them so much for a turn.
Brad rolled for his reserves and managed to bring on the lot, so 2 Landspeeders screamed in on his left flank and the scouts snuck onto the battlefield within spitting distance of my Broadsides!




Ulfs rhino advanced to the cover of the ruin in which my suits were hiding in and the predator rumbled out to get a line on the Hammerhead.



Although the Predator was able to lay down a ferocious barrage of fire against the Hammerhead the AI controlling the Disruption pods was able to turn all of the Predators fire away….it did however mean it didn’t notice the missile barrage coming in from the Long Fangs which managed to finish the job they started last turn and turned the Hammerhead into decorative scenery.



Both of the Landspeeders unleashed a ferocious torrent of fire against the Fireknife suits but they managed to avoid injury thanks to hiding behind a wall!
With a howl that chilled the blood of the assembled Tau the Scouts bounded into the cover the Broadsides were in and launched a ferocious assault. The Shield Drones flew across into the horde and were torn apart without even managing to make the Scouts break their stride. The scouts then hit the remaining Broadsides like a hurricane, killing 1 before he could even take a swing at his attackers and injuring the other, the surviving Broadside suit tried in vain to fight his way clear but was run down by the howling pack before he’d gone more than a few steps!



Back round to my turn again and things were looking a bit grim. I rolled for reserves and got 1 of the Fire Warrior squads coming on. I brought their devilfish in on my left flank to try and lay down some fire on the Grey Hunters which failed to shift any more of the pack.



The Stealthsuits drop 2 Markerlights onto Ulf’s Rhino and manage to destroy the Storm bolter on it. The Fireknifes open up on the other Rhino and manage to result in the crew being shaken.



The Deathtrains swoop in against the Scouts hoping to avenge their fallen comrades and unleash several waves of prometheuim and although they managed to engulf the entire unit in flames the entire pack emerged slightly singed but otherwise fine!



The Stealthsuits moved back into cover losing 1 of their number to a misjudged landing and were joined by the Fireknifes, the deathtrains moved to put a bit of distance between themselves and the Scouts.



Kill Points: Space Wolves 3, Tau 1

Turn 3

Muttering litanies to the Omnissiah taught to them by the adepts of Mars the crew of the immobilised Rhino struggled and finally managed to fire the engines back into life to the howls of appreciation from the Grey Hunter pack riding in the rear!
The Predator opened up on the Devilfish, the fire was mostly ineffective due to the disruption pods but the crew were shaken. The Grey hunter pack, having now recovered from being pinned against the wreck of the Rhino sprinted through the cover to get close enough to the Devilfish to negate the benefit of the disruption pods, combined fire from their Combimelta and Meltagun manage to Stun the crew but the Devilfish remained intact…mostly.



Ulf’s Rhino roared around the side of the cover and with a howl to the Allfather he led the pack of Grey Hunters out to finally get to grips with the enemy! Again calling on the Jaws of the World Wolf he managed to eliminate 2 of the Deathtrain suits, the lone survivor then faced the full fury of the Grey Hunters and disappeared under a storm of Bolter Rounds!



The Landspeeders opened up on the Fireknife suits, their combined fire managing to kill one.



The Longfangs opened up on the Devilfish but their missiles bounced off the hull.

So again I was left smarting from the mauling I’d taken during my turn, I managed to get another Devilfish onto the table and moved it into support the first one. The Fire Warriors in the stunned Devilfish charged out and put some fire into the Grey Hunters managing to kill one.



The Stealthsuits and Fireknife’s move up to get some shots at the now mobile Rhino but only manage to shake the crew.



The Fireknifes attempt to jump back into cover but due to a disastrous roll on my part (snake eyes baby!) ended up with one dead and the last suit pilot injured.



Kill Points: Space Wolves 4, Tau 1

Turn 4

Continuing with the aggressive push on my position the Landspeeders swept forwards attempting to eliminate one of my Devilfish but their fire was less than effective. The Scouts burst out of cover heading for my last Fireknife, several bolter shells hit their target but the Crisis Suit managed to maintain integrity.



The Predator swung around and opened up on the other Devilfish, most of the hits glanced off but one penetrated the hull and set off a chain reaction within the fuel store! Four of the Fire Warriors inside managed to scramble clear before their transport tore itself apart.



Ulf and his Greyhunter pack had now closed with the Stealthuits rendering their Stealth Fields useless, the ensuing fire saw another suit fall.



The Longfangs split their fire sending 2 missiles at the still smouldering squad of Fire Warriors killing one of them and another 5 into the other Devilfish wrecking it.
With a howl the assembled mass of Space Wolves surged forwards eager to finish things. The scouts leapt into cover and hacked the Fireknife down and Ulf lead the charge into the Stealth Suit and Marker Drones. With a sickening crack heard across the battle field the pilot of the Stealthsuits skull was smashed to cinders courtesy of one of the Grey Hunters Powerfist.



The remaining Grey Hunter pack swept forwards into one of the remaining Fire Warrior Squads and the Gun Drones that had managed to survive the Deveilfish being wrecked. The fight was short and brutal, as one expects with the Sons of Russ! First the Gun Drones were smashed apart and then they turned their attentions onto the Fire Warriors, cutting all bar one of them down before they even managed to raise a hand in self defence. The last Fire Warrior attempted to make a break for freedom but the wolves ran him down!



At this stage I had 1 under strength unit of Fire Warriors left on the table and the last Fire Warrior unit and their Devil Fish sat in reserve…..I felt this would probably not be a strong enough force to grab the 10 kill points I would need for a draw so I opted to concede the game at this point!

Final Kill Points: Space Wolves 10, Tau 1

Conclusions

Well as per usual I had fun but still got a thorough kicking. Looking back I made 2 key mistakes that cost me badly:

1) Holding the Devilfish in reserve – not too sure what I was thinking here, in Kill Point games it really is key when playing Tau that you bring as much fire down as possible to thin your enemy out before they close with you, holding the Devil Fish in reserve meant I was short 18 Pulse Rifles, 3 Burst Cannons and 6 Twin Linked Plasma Carbines at the beginning of the game.

2) Getting pinned in my deployment zone – essentially I should have started moving everything out of my deployment zone as soon as the game started to keep Brads forces at distance, as things went I stood there like a pudding and let him roll me up.

Now I don’t want to take anything away from my opponent as Brad is a very good player and he knows his Space Wolves inside and out but he would have probably had a bit of a rougher time if I hadn’t made those mistakes….this was proven by the game we had last night that ended much closer (although I still lost it was a much more satisfying loss!) – the battle report for that should be appearing on Space Wolves Grey at some point in the next week so keep an eye on it for a slightly more pleasing result!

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.

Vapnartak Game 4

Game Type: Cleanse (see below)

Ok, I was entering this battle dead last in the ranking and it was my last chance to salvage a bit of pride for The Greater Good!!! This was a scenario that I think the organisers had come up with called “Cleanse” – basically the table was divided into quarters and each player deployed into quarters diagonally opposite each other. The winner was the player who scored the highest "game" points at the end of the match. Once the last turn had finished players counted as controlling a quarter if they had a scoring unit within it and no enemy units present, your deployment quarter was worth 1 game point, either adjacent quarter was worth 2 game points each and you opponents deployment quarter was worth 3 game points.

My opponent was playing Space Marines and was fielding a Terminator Librarian with a unit of Terminators on foot with Storm Shields and Thunder Hammers, 2 Tactical Squads (1 in a Rhino and 1 on foot) and 2 Predators.

He deployed everything at the start of the battle with his Tactical Squad in cover in the middle of his deployment zone with his 2 Predators at the side with his Terminators and Librarian further forwards and the Rhino with the second Tactical squad in a similar position.

I deployed my hammerhead in the far corner of my deployment with my 2 Devilfish in to the far left of my deployment area; the pathfinders were sat in a stand of trees on the forward edge of my deployment zone to the right and my Command section were deployed roughly in the centre of my deployment zone.

The Marines had the initiative so they went first the Terminators trundled forwards followed by the Rhino and his Predators and Tactical Squad tried some ineffective fire against my Devilfish.

I’m glad to report that this final battle was the one that saw the Cadre work exactly as it was supposed to! The Terminators came under a hail of long range fire and turn after turn were whittled down until only the Librarian was left and able to close with any of my units and the solo suit dropped in right next to the predators and was able to completely eliminate the first Predator and destroy the turret on the second before he died, the Devilfish (after helping to eliminate the Terminators) moved round to occupy one of the adjacent quarters and the game ended with the Tactical squad from the Rhino and the Librarian locked in melee with my command squad contesting the quarter I deployed in, my opponent having complete control of his deployment quarter and me claiming one of the adjacent ones with my Firewarriors – so with 2 game points to my opponents 1 I was able to claim victory and finish the day on a respectable 12 points (well, more respectable than 1 at least).

Vapnartak Game 3

Game Type: Seize Ground with Dawn of War Setup

Now, let me just start by saying that I really, REALLY, hate Necrons. I don’t know what it is but I’ve never seemed to be able to beat them with my Tau and this game, I’m sad to say, was no exception.

My opponent set up with his 2 units of Warriors and Night Bringer (I think it was the Night Bringer at least, big bugger with a Scythe) in a building pretty much camped on top of 1 objective and pretty close to a second, the third objective was over the other side of the battle field. He held his Heavy Destroyers and a group of Scarab Swarms to come on at the start of turn 1.

I deployed the Devilfish with the Fire Warriors mounted inside close to the lone objective and positioned my Command suits behind cover towards the middle of the battlefield.

Turn 1 kicked off with me yet again failing to seize the initiative so my opponent brought his Destroyers and Scarabs on and pushed them towards the lone objective and moved his Night Bringer in a bee line towards my command suits, fortunately all of his rolls for night fighting came up short so I was spared any fire for the first turn.

On my turn 1 I brought everything on bar the solo suit, my Hammerhead deployed directly facing the building the 2 Warrior squads were encamped in and the Pathfinders moved up to take position in cover at the centre of the battle field, their Devilfish picked up the last unit of Fire Warriors on its way across to lay some fire down on the units pressing towards the lone objective. Most of my rolls for Night Fighting came up pretty well and I was able to knock down a few Warriors and smash a few scarabs (although most of the warriors did get back up).

The rest of the battle was pretty close all in all and we almost got called for time by the referees as things went right down to the wire – I managed to drop my solo suit next to the Night Bringer but didn’t really do anything before he cut him in half with that damn scythe, both Devilfish got immobilised and even though the Pathfinder one was crawling with Scarabs I completely forgot about the Flechette Dischargers on it (all together now....DOH!!!) until after the battle which may have turned things on that side of the battle field around, and although I managed to continually kill a god 7 or 8 Warriors a turn almost all of them stood back up again (I think I only accounted for about 6 truly dead by the end of the match).

Then we got to my Turn 5, potentially the last turn of the game – on my left my opponents Necron Warriors had moved to claim both objectives, I had my Command Suits and still fully functional Hammerhead on that flank but I knew if things went to turn 6 that the Night Bringer would be in the mix as he’d been heading straight for my commander all game. On my right I had a unit of Firewarriors inside an immobilised Devilfish that was crawling with Scarabs, what was left of the second unit of Firewarriors that had crawled out of the wreckage of their now completely destroyed Devilfish and my pathfinders. The Scarabs were close to the objective but not near enough to contest but the destroyers were close enough to it.

My plan for turn 5 was to make a desperate play to try and scrape a draw out of things, or maybe even a win as a very long shot – what I intended hinged on 2 things (asides from hoping for spectacularly bad dice rolls from my opponent), that the fire from my Hammerhead would completely wipe out the unit of Necron Warriors on the closest objective on the left which would leave my command suits free to engage the second squad, and that I could engage the destroyers in melee with the Firewarriors on foot in such a way that would pull them far enough away from the objective marker that they were no longer contesting it and then the Fire Warriors in the Devilfish would be able to get out of the side that had no scarabs on and roll far enough on the run dice to claim it. This would leave 1 objective completely open, 1 contested and 1 in my possession and while it was a very long shot it did at least have a slim chance at victory.

So, I moved the Command Suits into position so they could assault either unit of Warriors if needed and opened up with the Hammerhead on the closest unit but failed to wipe them out, as I needed at least one of these objectives contested by the end of the turn to at least get the draw I fired my command suits at the same unit and launched an assault leaving just one objective in my opponents hands.

On the other flank I launched my attacks and assaulted the Destroyers but my run roll came up short so I couldn't move my free Firewarriors close enough to the objective to claim it.

As things stood we ended up playing turn 6 as well and the Night Bringer tore my Commander and the rest of his unit apart allowing what was left of the Necron Warriors to consolidate back onto the objective. The Scarabs stopped playing with the Devilfish and engaged my unit of Firewarriors in close combat so even if my plan had of come off without a hitch it still probably wouldn’t have changed the end result.

As I did have some Troops left on the table at the end of the battle I only lost one of my 2 points for a loss – there was now no chance that I’d finish on zero points which was a small, well...very small, comfort for the day.

I was now placed dead last on the league table and as the next match would be the last of the day I had one chance remaining to grab the win I had hoped to end the day on.

Vapnartak Game 2

Game Type: Annihilation with Spearhead Setup

So, after my first crushing loss I found myself playing Chaos Space Marines in round 2 – another army I’d never faced off against before but I was at least on vaguely familiar territory as I have played marines quite often so knew roughly what to expect from most of my opponents units (although the Daemon Prince did give me a few surprises).

So my opponent deployed first in his corner holding nothing in reserve – if I remember right in addition to the Prince he had 2 Rhinos each one with Troops inside but I can’t remember what type and 2 units of obliterator terminators.

As this game was for kill points I deployed everything as far into my corner as I could – I figured most of my units would have the range on him and I would hopefully be able pick away at him as he closed with me.

Turn 1 was pretty much a wash for my opponent with none of his fire having any effect but he did advance his units somewhat, my return fire fragged a rhino in cover (thanks to Markerlight assistance) along with a couple of the surviving passengers and I also advanced my command suit to try and take advantage of the cover.

Turn 2 was yet again where things began to get.....unpleasant for the Tau – his Deamon Prince used a “lash” ability to haul my Command Suits into assault range of his forcibly dismounted Troops and although they managed a few turns mixing things up in hand to hand thanks to their advanced technology (shield drones FTW) they inevitably they fell to the Chaos horde. My lone suit was actually able to do the job he was intended for this game and landed close by the remaining Rhino and turned it into slag, the passengers of said Rhino then expressed their displeasure for this somewhat directly by kicking him to death. The rest of the game pretty much involved the obliterators slowly pecking away at my vehicles whilst the Prince romped through what was left of my units.

End result was yet again that I was left with nothing on the table but at least this time I had managed to kill some of my opponents units so I counted it as a slight improvement over my first game. So, game 2 done and still sat on a big fat zero points, at this stage I was looking at the distinct possibility of finishing on zero and was not looking forwards to the potential comments I'd get from Bradimus Prime and Neil on the drive home!!! Still 2 more games to go but at this stage the chances of me walking away with the win I had hoped for were looking bleak.

Vapnartak Game 1

Game Type: Capture and Control with Pitched Battle setup

This was to be my first game of the tournament and I drew Chaos Deamons. Now, I've never, ever, played against Deamons before and I haven't even looked through there codex so pretty much everything about this army was a mystery to me - additionally as my opponent had no vehicles my little "tank buster" suit would have somewhat less of an impact in this game.

I had the first turn and deployed everything other than my reserve suit onto my left flank, my opponents objective was pretty dead ahead of where I had deployed and mine was exposed on my right. I knew he would try to land something nasty near my objective so I figured this deployment should give me the breathing room to get a few rounds of fire in at them from range.

My opponent rolled and got his second wave as coming in first and dropped in with 2 units of troops (each one pretty much landing on top of each objective), some flying nasty’s and his big lad (Nurgle greater daemon I think). He moved his big lad forward and flyers towards the main body of my army whilst his 2 troop units secured the objectives, in return I lay down a bit of fire against the big lad assisted by Pathfinder Markerlights whilst moving the devil fish over towards my objective to try and shift those troops. My Suit came in and I decided to drop him near my opponent’s objective to try and soften up his troops there a bit.

His next turn was where things started to go a little pear shaped for me, he charged his big lad in against my HQ and ended up routing what was left off of the table and his flyers tore through my pathfinders like a dose of salts and he assaulted my lone suit with his troops on the objective. His other wave came in and pretty much proceeded to cause havoc amongst what was left of my forces – in the end I lost everything for absolutely no response....so far, not so good.

Points at this stage were a big fat 0 as, although I got 2 for losing, I lost 1 for losing a HQ unit and another 1 for having no troops on the table at the end of the battle.

Vapnartak Tournament

Ok then, Sunday was the big day - 40k Tournament at the Vapnartak games show in York. The format of the day was 4 x 1000 point games lasting for a max 80 minutes each. Although I was happy that the list I was planning to take was reasonably versatile I wasn't expecting to place very highly as it was my first ever tournament and I there are allot of armies out there I don't have any experience with - my main plan was to go down, have a few games and have fun (even if I got annihilated) and I decided it would be a real mark of success if I managed to get even 1 win.

The list I was running broke down as follows:

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 Crisis Suit (upgraded to 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.


That lot comes to bang on 1000 points and I was reasonable happy that it had something in to deal with most situations, well, other than close combat but Tau aren't particularly strong in that regard anyway.

The general plan was to deploy everything other than the lone Crisis Suit for the start of the battle (or in the case of Dawn of War on Turn 1). Deploy the Pathfinders on foot, preferably in cover with nice lines of sight for dropping Markerlights onto enemy units, and mount the non-mechanised Fire Warriors into their Devilfish on turn 1 moving it so it had line of sight on some big nasty piece of enemy armour. Turn 2 bring the lone suit in from reserve on a 2+ with the benefit of the commanders positional relay and drop in as close as possible to the aforementioned big nasty armour, using the scatter re-roll from the Pathfinder Devilfish's Marker Beacon if needed. Then the rest of the battle would pretty much involve trying to stay out of the way of the enemies units as everything can move 12 inches a turn and still shoot and in the games which involved objective grabs to try and sweep in and contest and control enough to win on turn 5 (and hope that the dice gods would be with me for there not to be a turn 6!!).

So, the 4 games I drew broke down as follows:

1) Capture and Control with Pitched Battle setup vs Chaos Deamons
2) Annihilation with Spearhead Setup vs Chaos Space Marines
3) Seize Ground with Dawn of War Setup vs Necrons
4) Cleanse (will explain this one in the battle report) vs Space Marines

The games were set up in a kind of Swiss style so after the first round (which was just purely random) you would be playing against someone on a similar amount of points to you who you had not played before. You were awarded 10 points for a win, 5 for a draw, and 2 for a loss with the potential to gain or lose some bonus points for meeting various conditions (eliminating the highest points cost enemy unit, wiping your opponent out, etc).

My next few posts will give a brief Battle Report for each of the games I played (details may be a tad light on these due to the fact I didn't really have time for note taking on the day) and some overall conclusions from my first tournament experience.

Battle Report: Tau Vs Imperial Guard

Ok, I’ll be telling this mostly from the Tau point of view and as it’s my first attempt at a battle report I apologise in advance if I’ve missed anything out. This was my first game in our league, I was facing off against Von Muller's Imperial Guard and we were fielding 1000 point armies.

Forces: Imperial Guard
Company Commander with Vox Caster and Las Cannon detachment.
Platoon Command mounted in Chimera with 3 Flamers and Vox Caster.
Infantry Platoon comprising Commissar and 3 Infantry Squads
Veteran Squad mounted in Chimera’s with a Las Cannon and 2 x Plasma Gun detachments
Veteran Squad mounted in Chimera’s with a Las Cannon and 3 x Melta Gun detachments
Leman Russ Demolisher
Basalisk

Forces: Tau
Crisis Suit Commander with 2 man bodyguard and 2 shield drones
2 x 6 man Fire Warrior teams mounted in Devilfish with Disruption Pods, SMS and Multitracker
2 man Broadside Team with 2 Shield Drones
Hammerhead with Disruption Pod and Multitracker


Mission: Seize Ground
Deployment: Dawn of War

We were playing for a total of 5 objectives marked on the following picture in red dots and we both opted not to have anything deployed at the start of the battle.



Commander Von Muller had the initiative and moved his entire battle force into play, he positioned his basilisk screened by his Infantry Platoon on his left flank, his Company Command and 2 Chimera’s carrying the Veteran squads on his right flank and had his remaining Chimera carrying his Platoon Command and the Demolisher in the centre. He moved his infantry forwards to secure the first objective and advanced his mechanised elements forwards also.



The Tau proceeded onto the field leaving the Devil Fish carrying the Fire Warriors in reserve. The broadsides occupied the cover on my left flank whilst the Commander, not wishing to risk moving at speed into the terrain, moved into position behind cover on the right – this would shortly prove to be costly. The Hammerhead moved into the centre of the deployment zone to attempt to lay some fire down but due to the persistent darkness was unable to acquire a firing solution.



The Chimera’s carrying the Veteran Squads began their advance down the Imperals right hand flank laying down fire on the Broadsides supported by the Company Commanders Las Cannon, however the Broadsides superior armour and position in cover meant they were able to shrug this fire off for no effect. The Broadsides and Hammerhead then returned fire upon the Chimera’s immobilising them both but not before they achieved an advanced enough position to secure the second objective for the Imperials.



The Demolisher rumbled forwards but was unable to gain a firing solution against the Hammerhead due to extreme range. Roaring into life the Basilisk launched a shell across the ruins of the buildings and landed a direct hit upon the Tau Commander, as the smoke cleared he was still standing, however his bodyguards were not so fortunate.



Cursing himself for not occupying the cover whilst he had the chance and blinded by rage the Tau commander launched himself forwards hoping to avenge his fallen brothers only to fall victim to the combined fire of the Infantry platoon.



The Demolisher and Chimera carrying the Platoon Command drew into range of the Hammerhead and were able to acquire a firing solution through the haze of the disruption pods to force the Hammerhead to make a considerably less than graceful landing.

The two Tau Devilfish powered in from the rear, attempting to rapidly advance onto the some of the objectives however concentrated Imperial fire disabled the engines of the rear Devilfish and reduced the lead transport to a rapidly expanding cloud. The surviving Fire Warriors from the lead Devilfish, knowing that the capture of these objectives was vital to the Greater Good, attempted to advance onto the closest objective but were too badly shaken – knowing that they would get no further in their immobilised transport the remaining Fire Warrior team braved the imperial fire and moved across the open in support of their comrades.



The Basilisk then opened up again, it’s target the now immobile Hammerhead!



Cheers initially met the shot as the Tau sensors aboard the Hammerhead were able to determine the shot would land wide....which rapidly turned into cries of despair when the round deviated directly into the middle of the, now closely grouped, Fire Warriors!



The remaining Fire Warriors shakily proceeded to advance and capture the nearest objective, salvaging some small amount of pride. The Imperial’s, emboldened by the xeno carcases littering the battle field, focused their fire upon the Broadsides causing one to fall and destroying the accompanying shield drones – unable to stand under such onslaught the remaining pilot pulled his Broadside off of the battlefield.

As the remaining Fire Warriors prepared themselves to sell their lives dearly the call came in over the comms – the allotted time to secure this area had expired and they were ordered to withdraw and regroup with the main Tau battle force. Their comrades had given their lives....for nothing.

Conclusion
Well, this was the first occasion I had had to face off against Von Muller 1 on 1 with my Tau and I think my inexperience of the Imperial Guard cost me somewhat along with a few mistakes along the way but it was an enjoyable game and if nothing else I did learn a few lessons out there (like always take the risk and move my suits into cover!!!).