Daedalus Nix came to Indianapolis for some job training, and sent SandWyrm and I an e-mail asking for a game. SandWyrm had the flu, and I was more than willing to give Daedalus a game.
Daedalus plays Tau, and this was his 2nd 'official' game. I let him choose what list of mine he would play down at the good 'ol FLGS.
Daedalus brought a Shadowsun led tau list:
| HQ 1 | ||
| Commander Shaowsun | 175 | |
| HQ | 115 | |
| Crisis Shas'el Commander | ||
| Twin-Linked Plasma Rifle | ||
| Targeting Array | ||
| Stimulant Injector | ||
| HWDC | ||
| Shield Drone | ||
| Bodyguard | 97 | |
| Crisis Shas'vre Bodyguard | ||
| Plasma Rifle | ||
| Burst Cannon | ||
| HWMT | ||
| Targeting Array | ||
| HWDC | ||
| Shield Drone | ||
| Bodyguard 2 | 97 | |
| Crisis Shas'vre Bodyguard | ||
| Plasma Rifle | ||
| Burst Cannon | ||
| HWMT | ||
| Targeting Array | ||
| HWDC | ||
| Shield Drone |
| Mechanized Troops | 165 | |
| 6 Firewarriors | 60 | |
| Pulse Rifles | 0 | |
| In a devilfish | 80 | |
| Multi-Tracker | 10 | |
| Flechette Discharger | 10 | |
| disruption pod | 5 | |
| Kroot | 84 | |
| 12 Kroot | ||
| Mechanized Troops | 165 | |
| 6 Firewarriors | ||
| Pulse Rifles | ||
| In a devilfish | ||
| Multi-Tracker | ||
| Flechette Discharger | ||
| disruption pod | ||
| Fast 1 | 85 | |
| Pirahna | ||
| Fusion Blaster | ||
| Targeting Array | ||
| Flechette Discharger | ||
| disruption pod |
| Heavy 1: Broadside | 125 | |
| Shas'ui Team Leader | ||
| Targeting Array | ||
| HWMT | ||
| HWDC | ||
| Shield Drone | ||
| Shield Drone | ||
| Heavy 2 | 185 | |
| Hammerhead | ||
| Railgun | ||
| SMS | ||
| Multi-tracker | ||
| Flechette Discharger | ||
| disruption pod | ||
| Elite 1: Stealth Suits | 205 | |
| 6 Shas'ui | ||
| Burst Cannons | ||
| Shas'vre | ||
| Markerlight | ||
| Bonding Knife | ||
| HWDC | ||
| Marker Drone | ||
| Marker Drone |
Daedalus chose to play against:
1500pt WH w/Inquisitor and Callidus
We rolled for missions, it was Sieze ground with 4 objectives, and Dawn of War Deployment. Hmm. not the best mission or deployment for this force. But it would be good for learning.
I think Daedalus won the roll for turn, and let me go first. Going second for nightfight, and going second to contest objectives on the last turn might help. So, I deployed, trying to get LoS to as much of the board as possible to prevent any possible Stealthsuits from hiding 12" from me.
The Inquisitor Dakka squad went in the building on one objective.
A Rhino and a Sisters Squad went on the other side of deployment, to prevent infiltrators.
Shadowsun lines up on the other side of the board, protected by not only Nightfight, but her own stealthfield.
First turn sees the Rhino move to pick up the Sisters, and the twin Exorcists move onto the board behind the 'safety' of a building.
My other two rhinos rush onto the board midfield.
I don't really get to shoot much. Night Fight and Stealthfields are a dastardly combo, and keep Shadowsun safe.
In Daedalus' turn, he moved a hammerhead and a Broadside onto the board. The Broadside moved onto the giant mountain in my far left corner. He was hoping to sit in the heavy cover, and hammer away at whatever he wanted. The Hammerhead didn't do anything but move onto the far right corner, and hide behind a building.
Turn 2:
saw the start of the new day.
Shelia decided Jersey Shore was rubbish, and thought dancing with a Broadside sounded like more fun. Better to fry someone Else's brain with the mind flayer rather than fry herself with crap Telly.
The Sisters that were midfield advanced and unloaded a bunch of shots into Shadowsun. "oh, we can SEE you now" You can see the wounded Guardsman in front of the Rhino (he's the objective)
My two Rhinos midfield raced ahead a full 12", and popped smokes. The sisters swung wide, around the giant rock outcropping, and the IST's swung right side, closer to the Blue Sisters.
Shadowsun made sure it was an ex-rhino. The hammerhead traded was shaken by the exorcists, and hid.
Daedalus' reserves only yielded one squad in it's devilfish. It shot at the Blue Sisters.
Turn 3:
I rushed my other two rhinos forward, unloading the IST's, and moving the Cannoness and Seraphim close behind.
The Blue Squad moved over to get a Melta shot on the Hammerhead. She shoots, she scores! and cleans up what the exorcists didn't.
Shelia finished her dance with the Broadside, and begins her long trek home, or "oh geez, I don't want to get eaten by Kroot coming in from reserve"
On Daedalus' half of turn 3, The giant squad of suits came on, as did the other Devilfish.
You can also see Shadowsun exploded the Sister's rhino out from underneath them, and he shot up the blue sisters squad pretty good, but they stuck.
Turn 4:
The Seraphim jumped forward, and charged the Crisis suits, laying them low, while the Cannoness dealt with Shadowsun. The Sisters and IST's hoof it backwards to claim objectives.
Daedalus' Kroot show up, and shoot at the Seraphim, taking down a few. I think the Stealth suits come on and poured good shots into the Seraphim, but go go gadget faith Invul. save.
Turn 5:
The Seraphim shoot and charge the Kroot, tying them up.
The firewarriors kill the meltagunner, but don't take down the superior.
Summary:
Daedalus moved a piranha onto the objective with the IST's, to contest it.
I had 1 objectives to 1 contested objective. I had a good time, I think Daedalus Nix did too. It was kind of fun to pull out an old list, and play it again. I hope it was a good learning experience for Daedalus.
Without bonuses for reserves rolls, I'm not sold on putting much in reserves. I prefer to have all of my force available, and maneuver to where I need my units. I would have had a tougher game if everything but the Kroot came in first turn.
Being on table at beginning of 2nd turn would have let him fire into me. Tau, being shooty, needed to unload on me before I got close and shot him.
Thoughts anyone?
Yeah, starting everything on board would have given the Tau a lot longer to shoot, especially if they put up the kroot or piranha to block incoming units.
ReplyDeleteMore Crisis suits is always a good idea.
Bodyguards are too expensive. Could have had another squad of plain suits. Stealth suits didn't show up in your bat-rep - that's usually how much good they do me too. Start that piranha on the board unless you have a real good reason not to. Kroot should have been placed to stop you charging in on the Broadside or something. All-in-all though, kudos to Daedalus for a darn fine showing so early in his Tau career! I was getting treated like the new kid on the cell-block for a long time when I started my Tau :-)
ReplyDeletebtw, I <3 Soundgarden
ReplyDeleteI just kept Hearing 'Black Hole Sun' in my head every time I sat down to write the article.
ReplyDeleteLike the song, didn't like the video.
Y'know, I'm not sure the stelth suits ever made it on either. that would have made a difference. IF they Did, it was last turn.
Putting things in reserves can mess a lot of planning up.
Kroot around the Broadside would have been good, but the Asassin can show up wherever she wants. They all would have had to have been hugging the board edge, huddled around the Broadside.
It's an awesome song, and ofc was my first thought on seeing the title.
ReplyDeleteThat's a nice report, overall...but it doesn't have the top-down deployments I so crave. lol
Don't make me dig out 90's Dwarfs to read!!
Yeah, I get nostalgic thumbing through those old White Dwarf rags with their tactical maps and informative pictures. Whereas the current ones I thumb through in the store just give me nerd rage every time I see another garbage IG list get steamrolled by the army release of the month.
ReplyDeleteGreat post. The stealth suits would have done better, but I made a novice mistake and jumped them back to the edge of the table. Ah well - learning curve :)
ReplyDeleteThere ultimately were two things I could have different. First is play a lot more aggressive than I did which has been said. The other is, as Farmpunk points out, if I had dropped a targeting array for a Positional Relay on the commander and started him instead of Commander Shadowsun then I could have played it a bit more like I wanted: save most my vehicles for turn 5 and race them to objectives.
Still it was a fun game and a good learning experience - especially since I got to learn about crap the screws with my deep strike.
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ReplyDeleteLet it just be said that that Callidus is way too luck sometimes lol I've been on the receiving end of that little girl and she had daddy issues and is more than happy to take it out on ur favorite unit every time.
ReplyDelete