Turn 2The orks begin by advancing the Kans (still moving rather slowly) up the center while the Dread recovers from its hits last turn (the grot riggers do, in the end, repair a hull point). The Kans open fire on the Ethereal's Devilfish, dropping a *ton* of flak on its flank. I choose not to jink, since I figure I'm just dealing with a couple glancing hits--no big deal, right? Well, even though my opponent only landed 5-6 hits with all the grotzooka fire, he still manages to roll *three* 6s (AHH!). Fortunately, I turn around and roll my Disruption Pod save and get a 6, saving the Devilfish from untimely destruction. Such is short lived, however, since the bikes (driving through the wrecked trukks) open fire on the drones bubble-wrapping that devilfish and, though they don't have a lot of guys who can see (because of the wrecks), still get enough dakka down there to blast down one drone, making an assault on the Devilfish possible.
The fleeing tankbustas rally, but can't really see anything to shoot. The other tankbustas disembark, but thanks to the penetrating hit last round, they are only firing snapshots. They take their 5 rokkit snapshots at the Bladestorm suits. They get *3* hits! Dammit! I roll my cover saves and only make one of the things, so there go the two bodyguard suits--blammo. The rokkit launcha on the immobilized trukk kills one drone in the southern team, too. Both drones make their morale checks, but they aren't functional bubble wrap anymore.
The carnival of 6s continues with the damned Koptas, who swoop out to get on my piranhas' tails. Now they're hitting on 5s and damaging on 5s with only 3 shots apiece. Running the numbers, the two of them *together* should have only managed one or *maybe* two damaging hits, so neither piranha jinks. Welp, the first kopta hits three times and pens twice, killing its piranha. The second one does THE EXACT SAME THING AGAIN, killing the second Piranha. Jesus. If he keeps rolling 6s like this, I'm straight-up doomed.
The Lobbas drop their bombs aiming at the Missile Commander (my warlord), but it takes a bad scatter (even with the Ammo Runt) and instead manages a couple hits on my Missile Commander. He, of course, tanks 2 out of 3 saves and is down to one wound. Ugh.
Now, the dreaded assault phase. The northern group of shoota boyz go for my Devilfish. Overwatch from both groups of drones and the Deathrain suits kills about 5 Orks, but they do manage to assault anyway, wrecking the Devilfish and spilling the Ethereal and his escort onto the pavement. It's okay, though--I would have been disembarking them next turn, anyway. The other group of Shoota Boyz tries a charge on the second Devilfish. Overwatch from the Plasma Commander and Riptide, though, proves deadly accurate, thanks in part to the Marker Drones using their overwatch to mark the target. I kill 5 orks there, as well, and they fail their charge. Supporting Fire for the win!
Top of Turn 2
Orks preparing to chargeA Pyrrhic VictoryThis is now a crucial turn for me--if I don't take out the bikes now, I'm going to wind up with tire-treads all over my army. Likewise I've still got a lot of little groups of orks and those Koptas to deal with. Before we get into all that, though, the good news: the Kroot arrive and outflank right where I want them to--the NW corner of the board, within easy distance to take out the Lobbas next turn. They run to get a bit closer, hoping to make any shot by the Lobbas a risky one, rather than waste their bullets trying to kill artillery with shooting.
The Deathrain suits and commander use their turn to blow apart the Dread before it can get up and moving again. Then it was my *intention* to leap the plasma commander out to blow apart one Kopta, but the doofus failed *another* dangerous terrain test and failed yet *another* armor save and basically kills himself flying into a steel girder or something--no more Commander. Instead, the 5 remaining drones in the area all team-up to blow up only one kopta--the closest one.
Now to the western flank. The marker drones mark the bikes with only 1 hit, but it's enough. The Ethereal's strike team advances and is joined by the other one from the second devilfish. The majority get into rapid fire range and the Ethereal calls for the Storm of Fire. The two Strike teams and the remaining Devilfish work coordinating firepower and *also* cash in the markerlight token, making all units BS5. For those of you keeping score, that works out to 54 pulse shots, hitting on 2s. The bikes are atomized into a green haze, and I don't even get to the point where I have to roll for the Devilfish. The Riptide fires on the shoota boyz who crushed the Ethereal's ride, but it mostly chokes and only kills the nob, leaving 6 for my overwatch next turn to deal with. Lastly, the Hammerhead coordinates with the two remaining drones and drops a submunition shot on the second group of shoota boyz, killing everyone but the nob. The nob winds up pinned, thanks to the drones' pulse carbines.
With my jump back moves, I advance the Riptide, getting it in the way, and I move my drones in the center into a thin line protecting my Warlord's unit from an over-eager Kopta attack.
Bottom of Turn 2
Sneaky Kroot!The Ork offensive is bluntedDO NOT MESS with the Storm of FireDefensive Drone positioningTurn 3The Kanz move forward, finally free of the ruins, but they only really have range/LOS to the nearest group of drones, so they fire on them. An avalanche of blunderbuss shot later, and two (free, worthless) drones are dead. I am pleased--anytime an enemy is shooting at my worthless vehicle drones, I know I am winning.
In the west, the stragglers of the ork assault do what they can. Both tankbusta units fire at the remaining devilfish. It jinks, but that doesn't help it much, as in this game I can't seem to make a 3+ save to save my life. It is wrecked in short order. The remaining nob fires at (something), but is too rattled at the evisceration of his unit to do anything. Then the 6-boy shoota squad fires on the Ethereal unit, killing 3, and charges. Overwatch from both Firewarrior squads, both drones, and the Riptide is BRUTAL, killing 5 boyz. One boy charges in and is killed by the Ethereal before he can swing--assault managed.
The last Kopta swings behind the Hammerhead, hoping for a repeat performance from last turn. His bullets bounce off, so he fires up the buzzsaw and charges. Sadly for him, the Deathrain suits overwatch and blow the Kopta out of the air before he can make contact. Supporting Fire does it again, this time thanks to the extended range it gets from the Hunter Cadre!
Finally, the Lobbas shift their sights towards the Kroot...and wildly overshoot, their shells going off the board.
Top of Turn 3
Kroot incoming!Deployment zone secure!Not pictured: dead KoptaNow we clean up and go home. The Kroot assault/eat the grots manning the Lobbas with little trouble and consolidate in the direction of the NW objective. The Marker drones score 3 (!) hits on the Killa Kanz and I use those hits to boost the BS of the Deathrains, Hammerhead, and both remaining drone squads up there by a whopping 3. The ensuing fusillade of missiles, ion blasts, rail shot, and pulse rounds (all hitting on 2s, all with some kind of re-roll, many with re-rolls to damage) knocks out 4 of 6 Kanz, force field be damned. I do, however, take *another* wound on a crisis suit due to a Dangerous Terrain test (sheesh!). In the west, the Ethereal calls for another Storm of Fire. One Strike Team wipes out one group of Tankbustas, the Riptide kills off the second one. Then the two remaining drones and the second strike team fire on that lone nob. I do 11 wounds, but he has cover for a lot of this stuff, so he rolls 11 cover saves. He dies, of course, but I just want to point something out: my opponent *only failed 2.* Just 2 saves. That's nine 5s or better on dice showing. Holy crap.
Bottom of Turn 3
The roll in question. With only 2 Killa kanz, an immobilized trukk, and a Mek with some grots on the board, my opponent concedes.
Final ScoreTau Empire: 10 (2 objectives, First Blood, Linebreaker, 2 Heavies)
Orks: 3 (1 objective)
Post MortemI suppose we might have played one more turn, but the outcome was not in doubt, here. I would have blown him off the board with little trouble. This is the first time in a long while I've played Tau, and it's good to see they still work well. My 2 Mechanized Strike Teams + Ethereal combo is nasty, nasty, nasty. You might note that I take relatively few markerlights, but I feel that Coordinated Firepower generally counteracts that liability. And, of course, Supporting Fire w/Flamer-toting Crisis Suits is just death on wheels. Everything in my army performed pretty well with the exception of the Piranha (who I never expect much out of anyway--I take them for the drones as much as anything) and the Bladestorm Suits (who got really unlucky). Other than that, no complaints. Tau firepower is as overwhelming as ever.
The real trick here, ultimately, was the Ork choice of Deployment Zone. He picked the worst possible corner. Yes, it kept his guns save, but at the cost of limiting his mobility and *not* limiting my own. Had our corners been reversed, things would have been a trifle more complicated for me (but only a little). The other big thing here is that Orks are going to have a hard time competing with Tau at the higher point levels. Supporting Fire, especially with the extended range afforded the Hunter Cadre, is deadly effective. It also is very frustrating for an army that needs to assault, and that's one of the reasons I don't play Tau all that often against my gaming group--they piss them all off.
Still, I really do like the Tau. I love the models, I love the play style, and I love the fluff--they are among my favorite factions in the game. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to play them more in the future. I'm thinking about trying out the Farsight Enclaves next--see what I can do with a billion Crisis Suits.
Anyway, it was a fun game. I hope you enjoyed reading it, and thanks to my opponent!