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Eldar vs Tau

Submitted By: Date: August 24, 2004, 11:39:30 PM Views: 2184

Cormer Lir gazed out across the valley, using his senses to locate the Tau forces that had invaded this world of Ashbelac. There, on the left, the Tau warriors crouched behind their Kroot minions. In the woods, the Kroot lurked alone. On the hill to the right, the strange clumsy looking battlesuits held position behind a screen of Tau warriors. And finally, in the center, the massive flying tank was accompanied by a single unarmored Tau. Looking back at his own force of Striking Scorpions and Howling Banshees in Wave Serpents, and he and his bodyguard in their Falcon, the Farseer felt nothing but confidence concerning the battle ahead. "Come brothers. It is past time we taught these fools their place in the universe."
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His Falcon sped forward, Pulse Laser firing to little effect, downing a single Tau warrior. The Wave Serpents on the left fired their linked Brightlances at the Tau tank, to little effect. Tau railguns blasted their heavy projectiles across the valley, flashing uselessly in azure lightning on the Wave Serpent shield as the Eldar coursed forward. The clumsy battlesuits leapt forward, firing missiles and plasma blasts at the Falcon, rocking the vehicle with near misses and temporarily blinding the main targeting array. Cutting hard to the right, the Falcon paused with it's back to the forest as Cormer Lir and his bodyguard emerged from their tank, shredding the undergrowth with psychic force. Shrieks of pain from the avian mercenaries lurking within told them of the effectiveness of their assault. Charging forward into the woods, however, Cormer Lir's attempt to twist fate in his favor came to haunt him as daemonic forces attacked him from the warp. His Ghosthelm blinded them to his location, but still, his powers availed him naught and he and his bodyguard stood exposed as they watched the last remaining Kroot flee from the forest, gibbering in abject terror. Though he felt that his time in this battle would soon be over, he could feel how the rest of the combat was progressing as the Striking Scorpions destroyed their Kroot adversaries with ridiculous ease, charging into the Tau cowering before them. As across the battlefield the Tau warriors fired with no great effect into the Striking Scorpions preparing to slaughter them. The battlesuits and other Tau warriors opened fire on Cormer Lir, pulse blasts, plasma bursts, and missile barrages slaying 4 of his 5 bodyguards and wounding him sorely. "Quickly brother. This was unforeseen, but we must not fall here. Help me back to our forces." Limping from the woods, he looked back across the battlefield. The Scorpions had remounted their Wave Serpent, and the Banshees transport had dealt with the heavy Tau tank in a most... decisive manner. The strange little Tau had begun burrowing under the smoldering wreckage, seeking any refuge from the storm that had descended upon his people. Moving along the valley wall, the Wave Serpents fired together, still to little effect as the Tau shield drones interdicted the fire shot of the heavy battlesuit. Smashing into the Tau warriors, the Scorpions burst from the cover of their transport, shuriken pistols shredding the shield drones of the battlesuit as the Exarch moved forward to cleave it in half. Having destroyed the lone unit, the Scorpions turned on the last of the Fire Warriors, smashing them in mere seconds before moving forward to destroy the last two battlesuits. While the Falcon and Wave Serpent poured in fire, destroying the shield drones, the Scorpions advanced unopposed as the Tau tried desperately to stop at least one of the tanks firing on them, to almost no avail. Charging into close combat the Scorpions made short work of the Tau bodyguard whilst their Exarch dealt with the enemy commander. Cormer Lir was satisfied with the performance of his warriors. Gazing across the valley it looked vastly different from the peaceful scene he had remembered earlier in the day, strewn with smoldering wreckage and alien corpses. "I find it difficult to believe that even the humans can fear these pathetic upstarts... They seem to me to be hardly worth the trouble of raising Khaine." 
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Or, in less "literary" terms, my Eldar recently fought their first engagement against the Tau, with Farseer -w- Fortune leading a group of Warlocks (3xDestructor, 1xEnhance and 1xEmbolden) commanding a force of 10 Banshees -w- Exarch (Acrobatic, Executioner) in a Wave Serpent (Spirit Stone) with TL Brightlance, 10 Scorpions -w- Exarch (Crushing Blow, Biting Blade) in a Wave Serpent (Spirit Stone) with TL Brightlance a Falcon (Spirit Stone, Holofield) with standard Pulse Laser, Scatter Laser and Shurikats. Arrayed against them was a Tau force of 2 squads of... 2 squads of Fire Warriors (8 of them in each, IIRC) with 2 gun drones attached to each squad, 2 squads of 10 Kroot (again, IIRC), a Hammerhead with Railgun (proxied), a Broadside suit with 2 shield drones, a Tau commander armed with a plasma gun and missile pack, his bodyguard with the same weapons, and one lonely Tau Ethereal. Seeing as how we ended up playing on a relatively cramped 4'x4' table, we decided against a mission and just went for pure slaughter. Which it was, if almost totally one sided. Basically, in... 6 turns I killed off every last Tau except for the Ethereal for the loss of 3 Warlocks, 2 Scorpions, and the Pulse Laser off of my Falcon. And the only reason I lost that many Warlocks was because I rolled three bloody sixes on my psychic test for Fortune. And then proceeded to fail BOTH of my break tests (Embolden proved to be useless) and ended up having my Farseer retreat ignominiously off the table. I left the Ethereal alive because I didn't want the Tau running away before I could kill them.

I really do fail to see any concern over the Tau. Admittedly, the force that I chose was a bit more nasty than what I usually take, but the Tau player had won his last 4 games and was getting a little overconfident. Yeah, the Tau have some nasty ranged firepower. We, on the other hand, have REALLY nasty close combat troops and Wave Serpents. Or, rather, we SHOULD have Wave Serpents if GW ever gets its priorities straight. As it is, the only reason I have any Wave Serpents is because I got a couple great deals on Fire Prisms so the cost per tank ended up being under $50 per Wave Serpent. But I'll save the rant for later...

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