By suneokun.Right, I won't bore you with a huge amount of detail as the match was heavily against me. For starters, we rolled Annililation and Dawn of War - so deployment was weird. I deployed a serious list of Tau bashing glory... in relatively poor positions, ooops!
That said, my guard fought hard and importantly, would probably have made it to combat if not for the game ending.
Kochi VI Assault Force: Tried to go for firepower AND close combat crunch - note to self, don't bother doing both...
HQ
- Command Squad: Heroic Leader, power sword 3 vets with close combat weapons and a meltagun and Nork Deddog in a HB/ML Chimera with smoke, all with Carapace.
- Commissar Yarrick and 5 orgyrns in a Heavvy Flamer and Multilaser (with heavy stubber and smoke) Chimera.
- 2 Missile Squads of 6
- 1 Armageddon Style Sentinel
- Kochi Vet Sappers [6], 2 plasma and melta, 3 shotguns, power sword and storm bolter.
- Orgyrns with Chimera (with Yarrick)
- Techpriest Engineseer with 2 combat Servitors and 2 technical servitors
- Command Squad with plasma gun, missile launcher, medic and power weapon.
- Squad Alpha, Missile Launcher and Plasma.
- Squad Beta, Missile Launcher and Melta.
- Conscript Platoon [20] with two flamers.
- Hellhound with Smoke and Heavy stubber
- Sentinel with Lascannon
- Rough Riders with lances, sergeant with powersword, carapace, frag grenade.
- Leman Russ Battle Tank (Lascannon, Heavy Stubber, smoke)
- Leman Russ Battle Tank (Heavy Bolter, Heavy Stubber, smoke)
Shas'El and Shas'O
2 Crisis Suit Teams [3] (mostly toting plasma and twin linked Missile Pods)
Stealth Team (3) with Gun Drones (6)
3 Squads of 10 fire warriors
2 Groups of 12-15 Kroot with Hounds.
Devilfish and 8 Pathfinders (one with a rail rifle)
2 Hammerheads (Ion Cannon and Railgun)
2 Broadsides.
1 Piranha
Battle Report
Dustin wins first turn and sets up his two fire warrior teams in cover, one supported by a crisis Shas'El. I set up opposite with all the anti tank weapons in cover. The conscripts behind the missile launcher teams in the center and the command team to the left, sheltering behind a building. The command Squad Chimera rolls on the left flank and goes at top speed.
Synopsis of the game: Dustin manages to manage his fire lines well and pounds my missile launchers into submission. The Missile launchers in return aren't good enough to destroy any of his vehicles and are torn between hitting the tank and trying to destroy the troops in his buildings. The Leman Russes arrive on the left flank and manage to destroy 5 kroot and 2 crisis suits in one shot! The missile launcher manage to kill one team of fire warriors and stun the hammerhead before being wiped out. The conscripts are a ridiculous meat shield that Dustin ignores. Unfortunately Yarrick and the Orgyrns and the Command Squad never make it to combat because the game is cut short. The Rough Riders are wiped out despite their carapace - bloody pulse rifles. The leman Russes are good but the lascannon russ fails to kill a ion hammerhead. Both the flanking sentinels miss their lascannon shots (It's a bloody tank! How can you miss a tank!) and die badly... The flanking Vets blast a gundrone and then charge into close combat with the Stealth team - only to get beaten up - the only close combat of the game and I'm beaten - groan... The two squads get tangled up in pinning shots from gundrones (which are a real pain)... and by the time my hellhound arrives, all it can do it shoot the blaster off the piranha...
The game wasn't finished, but considering he still had 20 odd Kroot to draw on, I was unlikely to win - but we never found out as we had to stop a turn from 'first contact!
Final score - 7:2 to the Tau.
What I learnt from the game is this.
- Either go for close combat totally, or go for firepower totally.
- Carapace armour is a waste of points.
- Keep heavy weapons at least 30" away from Tau.
- Bring more firepower. I need to buy a demolisher or a Basalisk - advice please!?!
- Lascannons and Mortars - Missile Launchers might be versatile but what I needed was 7 mortars and a set of lascannons to mix it up. The S9 is essential for killing tanks. Mortars are ideal as they pin, and the tau were getting a 4+ save whether I went for AP4 or AP3 or not.
- Ratling Snipers with a rending/pinning weapon and +1 cover save, these guys could have nullified and slaughtered the tau. 36" range helps too!
- And Finally - Cameoline, that 3+ save would have been great and would have also forced the pathfinders to waste ALL their markerlight shots nullifying.
Doctrines: Camo, Sharpshooters, Ratlings, Techpriest
- HQ - Mortar, powersword, meltagun.
- HQ - Deathwatch Kill team
- 2 x Missile Launcher teams (camo and sharp shooters)
- 2 x Mortar teams
- Elites - Ratling Snipers
- Elites - Veterans [10] with 3 plasma and missile launcher (infiltrate, (camo and sharp shooters)
- Elites - Techpriest Engineseer (with 2 combat and 2 technical servitors)
- Troops - Command with Missile Launcher (camo and sharp shooters)
- Squad 1 - Missile Launcher (camo and sharp shooters)
- Squad 2 - Missile Launcher (camo and sharp shooters)
- Squad 3 - Missile Launcher (camo and sharp shooters)
- Remnant Squad - Flamer
- Conscripts [20] - 2 flamers
- Hellhound
- 3 x Sentinels (bring on at back - behind cover/tank)
- 2 Leman Russ Battle Tanks
- 1 Basalisk
So in final conculsion, I enjoyed the match up. We should have made the battle smaller (my fault - I wanted to bring everything!) and then maybe we would have got somewhere. I learnt a lot from this game, Dustin is an efficient player and likes to chip away at an enemy. This battle has proven to me what fun (and how effective) the Tau force is to play, both fast, nimble and with incredible firepower.It's also demonstrated to me just how out of touch the Imperial Guard codex is ... too many ways to lose currently. Oh well, roll on April.
