Time to Get Cracking

Right then, after the mad painting dash for Vapnartak I've kind of taken a bit of a break from the paint brushes for a few weeks but now that I've got a 1500 point list in mind I'd quite like to get the remainder of it painted well before Mayhem rolls around so I can get a few practice games in with a fully painted Cadre.

In order to field the list I detailed in my last post I need to get the following painted:



That comprises of the following

1 x Devilfish (part done)
3 x Stealthsuits (fully painted asides from the bases)
2 x Broadsides
2 x Marker Drones
2 x Shield Drones
4 x Gun Drones
2 x Crisis Suits (still in boxes)

Now the perceptive amongst you will probably have noticed that only one of the boxes is actually a Crisis Suit, the other one is a Crisis Suit Commander - as the only difference between a bog standard Crisis Suit and the Commander is a different head and as you get all the bits in the Commander box set that are in the box for the standard Crisis Suits my plan is to magnetise the head on so that I can swap him between being a normal suit and a command suit.

Taking Things up a Notch

Ok, so I've got my 1000 point Cadre pretty much sorted now (well painted at least) so now I need to build up to 1500 points in preparation for the Mayhem Tournament and the next stage of our "Tale of Four Gamers" league (Click the link to see a description by Bradimus Prime of where the idea for the league originated). So with that in mind I've been trawling several sources online, not least of which is Old Shatter Hand's fine Blog The Tau Of War which I HIGHLY recommend to any Tau Player, to try and get to a point where I have a pretty balanced 1500 point list.

So my first attempt with my newfound knowledge and the learning I have taken away from Vapnartak and getting regular beatings at the hands of Bradimus Prime amongst others (remember kids, losing is just an oportunity to learn how to win...unless you suck...like me lol!!!) comes out at 1475 points and is as follows:

HQ

Commander Shas'el (Airbursting Fragmentation Projector, Plasma Rifle, Hard Wired Drone Controller, Hard Wired Multi Tracker, Hard Wired Target Lock, Target Array)
2 x Shield Drones
2 x Fire Knife Config Bodyguards (Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Targeting Array)


Troops

3 x 6 man Fire Warrior teams with Devilfish (Burst Cannon, Disruption Pod, Multi Tracker)


Elites

1 x 3 man Crisis Battlesuit Team in Deathtrain Config (Twin Linked Missile Pod, Flamer)

1 x 3 man Stealth Marker Team (2 x Stealthsuits and 1 x Team Leader with Bonding Knife, Hard Wired Drone Controller, Hard Wired Target Lock, Markerlight, Burst Cannon and 2 x Marker Drones)


Heavys

Hammerhead Gunship with Rail Gun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pods, Multi Tracker

1 x 2 man Broadside Team - Team Leader (Advanced Stabilisation System, Bonding Knife, Hard Wired Drone Controller, Hard Wired Multi Tracker and Smart Missile System) Broadside Suit (Advanced Stabilisation System, and Smart Missile System) and 2 x Shield Drones


So, thoughts, suggestions, and outright scorn is all appreciated people!

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.

League Update

Tonight was the second night we had managed to have for our little friendly league and I was facing off against Bradimus Primes Space Wolves, I'll be putting a full battle report up for this in the next few days but the long and short of it was that I ended with another defeat. That said my Tau Cadre did perform much better than they have in previous forrays and all in all I'm very happy with the way things played out(well, asides from the Sunforge suit deciding to deep strike himself to death that is!!!).

Table at the top of the blog is now updated with the current standings, the Imperial Guard and the Ork's pulled a draw out of things so are still locked in the middle of the table.

Vapnartak Conclusions

Well, for my first tournament things went quite well. I had a very fun 4 games and was able to get the win that I was hoping for so I consider the day to have been a resounding success.

Out of the 28 players who turned up for the day I finished 25th which I am very happy with all things considered. The list seemed to do everything I wanted it to do and the only really issues I found was that when I made the odd mistake it cost me badly as there is very little room to absorb losses in this list.

The next tournament we are planning on attending will be Mayhem at Warhammer World in April so next step is to work out what I want to do to my list to expand it up to the 1500 points I’ll need for that and then to get painting again!

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.