Last night I traveled an hour and half southeast to play in the last game of our escalation campaign. It was 1750 and I played a guy named Tony. He had some orks, unfortunately I didn't get his list exactly, but it looked awesome and he used more walkers than I had encountered before.
I was running
this, which is not really optimized to the play style I am discovering with Tau. One of the rules of the campaign was that while you could swap war gear, your squads couldn't get smaller so I was stuck with some choices I had made earlier.
We met at our club house (307 S. Main #3) in Moscow, Idaho, a space we rent out in a building downtown. It is wicked cool, four tables, terrain, a fridge, and all kinds of other stuff. Sometimes people can be a little lax in paying their dues and cleaning up, but a few very dedicated souls have kept the place pretty ideal. I will take a second now to thank those dedicated souls.
Magnus, Greg, James, and anyone else who is doing anything to keep our clubhouse up and running, thanks, you guys are awesome.
Back to the fight, this was our battlefield:
For the most part terrain was pretty much our standard. Shrubs gave a 5+, all of the unaccessible buildings were impassable, everything else was a ruin defined by its footprint. Stone walls were 4+ and we declared the water difficult/dangerous.
We were supposed to play the fourth Planetstrike Scenario however there were a couple things preventing us. First off, another couple guys were playing their last scenario at the same time, and they had set up first. They took all the cool buildings that could work as bastions from our terrain stash so we were left with kinda ghetto alternatives. The other, and more important factor in our deviation from the scenario was that the Planetstrike set-up rules were forcing us to hop all over the book. We were getting started at like 6:30 PM and I still had a 1.5 hour drive home, and Tony P had a 45 min drive home. In the end we decided for the sake of time we would just play an normal game and take a rain check on the scenario.
We rolled and got Annihilation and Dawn of War. Rolling off, Tony P won and chose his side, and to go first. Big surprise right? He deployed his Warboss and a couple of big mobs of shoota boys in some ruins.
Since he was set up pretty far forward, and in the middle, I knew that I was going to have to split up and make him walk to the corners I wanted as many turns as possible to shoot at stuff before he was in assault range and the kill point bonanza would begin. Fortunately he left me that little corner that had the water cutting across it (difficult/dangerous) so that would be an ideal place to make a stand since terrain could cause some wounds. My HQ and his bodyguard were put there.
I set up some fire warriors in the middle, nearest the other corner and infiltrated in my stealthsuits. In retrospect I really should have just tucked those fire warriors further back. I just didn't realize how far thirty inches was.
Turn 1Tony P (My opponent.) moved his army on and lobbed a shot from the gun wagon at the fire warriors. Cause of night fight it deviated like 10 inches and hit the stealth suits instead but a cover save was made to keep the stealthsuit alive.
I came on with my transports in one corner, and some piranhas in the other corner with my HQ suits. All of his walkers and his gun wagon where in the middle so I brought my broadsides on with a line of sight to those, again, in hindsight a poor choice as there were now two kill points sitting directly across from his mobs.
My first turn of shooting equaled a whole lot of can't see shit 'cause of night fight. However, my Hammerhead rolled high and lobbed a sub-munition shot onto the heads of the lootas in cover. Tony P rolled low, bombing like four 4+ cover saves. The lootas broke and ran off the board! One kill point for the Tau.
Turn 1 ends with me having 1 kill point, Tony P zero.
Turn 2Tony P's orks want blood. They kick it in gear and start moving out. He lobs a couple of shots my way but doesn't do much.
I return fire in my turn, but at this point his dice have decided to boycott anything less than 4+. A whole lot of nothing goes on on one end of the table. On the other I get greedy with my piranhas and race them up to open trucks. I have a target lock on one piranha so they both shoot at the trucks, 2 pens. One truck is immobilized and the other is destroyed.
I completely forgot to bring my pathfinders in on the first turn so they end up in negligent reserve. Using my positional relay I bring them in on a 2+ cause I have a shot at Tony P's deathkoptas. They unload, and his deathkoptas pass all but one armor test. Tony P's high rolling antics come back to bite him in the arse as he fails a pinning test from the pulse carbine.
Turn 2 ends with getting another kill point from the truck so I am up 2 zip!
Turn 3His orks slog forward. Ork bikes are able to take out the pathfinders that jumped deathkoptas on the other side of the board. Ork boys jump the piranhas that I was too eager with, getting one, stunning the other.
I drop in my melta suits on a suicide mission to go after the gun wagon and the dread (They have target locks). The effin mekboy obscures both, so two penetrating hits vanish with 4+'s. My railguns bounce off the battle wagon bearing down on me, and my hammer head takes one of three cans. On the other side I bring in my scouting unit of fire warriors (Veteran ability from the campaign.) as well as my other crisis suit. Everything on one side of the board with the HQ dumps their shots into the boyz that assaulted the piranhas, killing them all and saving my piranha from being hit automatically next turn.
Turn 3 ends with me having 3 kill points, Tony P 1
Turn 4So the melta suits die to the dread in a hurry. The deathkoptas shoot at the remaining piranha but only manage a Stun and Weapon Destroyed. The bikes, a turn out from having to go get my pathfinders in the corner, move to wreck havoc on everything in the water terrain corner. In a great round of shooting my fire warriors are pounded down to the last man. But he sticks it out!
In my turn I bring on my outflanking Kroot and handle the bike squad. They had USR Relentless as a veteran ability so they could rapid fire and assault in the same turn. It was pretty nasty. Everything in the water corner went to work on the deathkoptas and we finally got those to run, saving the limping piranha for another turn.
Turn 4 ends with me having 5 kill points, Tony P 2.
Turn 5, WaaaghhhhThis turn was bloody. Tony P's remainingg slugga boyz from the immobilized truck opened up on my kroot knocking a bunch down, then cleaning them up in assault. The boyz in the railgun proof battle wagon hopped out and shot the broadsides before assaulting them and wiping them out. The dread charges my Hammerhead and lands a hit cause rolling sixes is just what Tony P does. Lucky for me there was a lapse, and he only got a "1" on the vehicle damage chart. His 'kans manage to Immobilize and Stun my devilfish and Tony P hits a "5" on difficult terrain and is able to assault my stealthsuits in the second level of their ruin, wiping them out.
I lose three kill points in one turn.
I pop out my fire warriors, hoping the combined fire power of them and the drones can thin his mob and have a chance at making them run or pinning them.
It doesn't.
My hammerhead has to limp away 12" unable to contribute. My piranha gets to move for the first time in two turns. It jets 24" to the corner, unable to do anything, hiding to preserve a kill point. It takes 4 missile pods, 2 burst cannons, and 2 plasma guns to finish off the Immobilized truck. It left some half-hearted attempts at the squad of boyz in the ruins from the remaining transport, drones, and fire warriors. I killed one, and managed to pin the boyz squad. My pulse carbines were really coming through today!
As Turn 5 came to close I was feeling a lot like this fire warrior:
However, in a miraculous event, Tony P's dice decided one final time not to roll a "6". Instead rolling a "1" and ending the game on Turn 5. We worked out the final tally and I had six kill points, he had 5.
The Tau eek out a win!Really, I just dodged a bullet here. Had we gone to six there would have been eff all I could do about losing three kill points. I wouldn't have the guns on the board to take enough to even tie without some stellar rolls. The name of the game was dice for Tony P. When they fell good for him, they were real good. But when they fell bad, it was the difference between a win and a loss.
Tony P was a great opponent and I totally look forward to playing him again. Also a huge thanks to Magnus for setting this whole thing up and running it. It was a lot of fun and worth the travel every time.
Thanks for reading,
T
