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Author Topic: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring  (Read 942 times)

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Offline Wyddr

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1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« on: May 16, 2022, 10:17:07 PM »
Shas'ui Tor'na scanned the snow-dusted treeline, her stealth armor blending in perfectly amid the harsh, geometric blocks of the old gue'la power planet. Nothing - no sign of any enemy movement.

"You're certain the gue'la weren't lying?" she asked Shas'vre Mod'ru, her team leader.

"How would I know? That's Water Caste business. Keep scanning." Mod'ru was hunkered down in a narrow crevasse of the old plant, his suit plugged into the alien systems via a spliced data cable. Who knew what kind of legacy viruses interfacing with old gue'la technology would cause? The Earth Caste techs back in orbit would probably have to purge the suit's operating systems to have it fully functional again.

"Anything on your end, Hod'nisa?" Tor'na asked. The third member of their forward team - ever taciturn - sent back only a single chirp. Negative - nothing to report.

"Don't gue'la believe in ghosts?" Tor'na scanned the remainder of the old base - the power plant was closed, no sign of recent activity. And yet the gue'la - the newest disciples of the Greater Good - insisted the place was dangerous. Claimed anyone who came this close to the tree line didn't come back.

"Will you shut up?" Mod'ru growled. "I've almost got this done and we can get out of here. Just..."

"Keep scanning," Tor'na sighed. "I know, I know."

From his forward position, Hod'nisa sent back two chirps - movement detected. Tor'na had the discipline not to physically react, but her heart rate spiked as the telemetry data came in. They were moving quickly, whatever they were. VERY quickly.

"I'm reading four skimmers, very low silhouette, very fast." Tor'na said. She went through the pre-checks on her fusion blaster. "Ready to engage."

Mod'ru yanked the data cable out of the old power plant. "Negative. Stand down."

Tor'na was nonplussed. "That does not fit the mission briefing, 'Vre."

"I know. You were given the wrong mission briefing."

"What?" Tor'na was without words. "Why?"

She could almost hear Mod'ru's tight smile over the comlink. "Because, Tor'na - you're chatty. The 'El knew they would read your mind first."

Read her mind? "What does that even mean?"

Mod'ru beckoned her down into cover. "It means that they fell for it. Get ready for a show."


I actually got to play a game! A game! It's been a while! I broke the Tau out of mothballs to give the new codex a try against their old foes, the Craftworld Aeldari (or just "the Eldar" as we old fogies call them). The lists:

Bork'an Sept Battalion
HQ
Crisis Commander w/2x Burst Cannons, 1x Cyclic Ion Blaster, Overdrive Power Systems (Burst Cannons), Warlord: Seeker of Perfection

Cadre Fireblade w/ Promising Pupil: Through Unity, Devastation

Troops
Strike Team w/Pulse Rifles
Strike Team w/Pulse Rifles
Strike Team w/Pulse Rifles

Elites
5 Crisis Bodyguards, each w/ 1x Burst Cannon, 1x Tau Flamer, 1x Plasma Rifle; Shas'vre w/ Thermonucleonic Projector, 2x Shield Drones

Fast Attack
2 Piranha w/Fusion Blasters
2 Piranha w/Fusion Blasters
2 Tetras

Heavy Support
Hammerhead w/Railgun, Burst Cannons
Hammerhead w/Railgun, Burst Cannons

Transports
Devilfish
Devilfish

Craftworld Anaris Battalion
Custom Craftworld: Mobile Fighters, Students of Vaul

HQ
Farseer Skyrunner w/Doom, Guide, Singing Spear, Warlord: Seer of the Shifting Vector, The Weeping Stones

Spirit Seer w/Protect/Jinx, Kurnous' Bow

Troops
10 Guardian Defenders
10 Guardian Defenders
5 Rangers

Elites
6 Fire Dragons
5 Wraithguard w/Wraithcannons

Fast Attack
6 Swooping Hawks

Heavy Support
Falcon w/Brightlance

Transports
Wave Serpent w/Shuricannons
Wave Serpent w/Shuricannons
Wave Serpent w/Shuricannons

To Be Continued...
   
« Last Edit: May 16, 2022, 10:18:09 PM by Wyddr »

Offline Grizzlykin

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2022, 07:13:43 AM »
Not gonna lie I like the set up and the opening story (why stealth suit when you have no stealth in your army though :D) still fun to read. I'm looking forward to the game. I like these list.
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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2022, 08:35:42 AM »
Not gonna lie I like the set up and the opening story (why stealth suit when you have no stealth in your army though :D) still fun to read. I'm looking forward to the game. I like these list.

Because their job is to hide, not engage. I'm pretty certain a Stealth Team has a lot of jobs that don't involve attack. Anyway...

Continued from Above

Mission, Terrain, and Deployment
We rolled The Scouring for mission, which seems to always be the mission we roll, but whatever - the Scouring it is. Terrain was fairly well distributed, with the theme being an old abandoned power station in some arctic wilderness. The NE quadrant of the board was mostly forest, with a river running from the SE to the N-center. The river began in a large waterfall (obscuring terrain). In the center of the board was a large reactor (also obscuring and impassable). There was an abandoned building in the SW corner (obscuring) and a small bunker and a watchtower in the NW (also both obscuring, but also small). Along the southern edge of the board was a defense line.

Secondary objectives went as follows:
Tau (me) took Stranglehold, Investigate Signal, and To the Last (which included my Crisis Bodyguards and the two Hammerheads). I didn't anticipate it would be easy to score Stranglehold and I've never had much luck (or need) to complete action-based objectives, but they were all I could really come up with.

The Eldar took Bring it Down (for obvious reasons), Raise the Banners (why not, I guess), and Scout the Enemy, which is an Eldar-specific "your rangers score free points" objective.

The Eldar won the roll-off for deployment zone and chose the eastern DZ. His deployment was pretty simple: the Hawks were in reserve, the four grav tanks with their various cargo clustered in the center (to be obscured by the reactor) closely followed by the Farseer, and the rangers infiltrated into the NE corner of the board, out of their own DZ, and where I would probably never bother with them. If the game went five turns, they would probably earn 10 VP with no trouble.

On my end, since the reactor was a huge LOS blocker for me, my forces wound up a little split. In the north, the four piranha were backed up by the foot Strike Team and one Hammerhead towards the back. In the south, the two Devilfish (w/strike teams and Cadre Fireblade aboard) were backed by the other Hammerhead, which deployed out of LOS behind the building down there. The Tetra deployed center-front of my DZ, obscured behind the reactor, since their status as vehicles would allow them to move and still successfully pull off the Markerlight action afterwards. Finally, the Crisis Commander and the Crisis Bodyguards planned to drop in via Manta Strike.

For my Tactical Philosophy, I chose Mont'ka. This battle would be over by turn 3, of that I was fairly certain.

Deployment


Tau Deployment Zone
Eldar Deployment
The battlefield

Turn 1
The Eldar won the roll-off for first turn. One Wave Serpent full of Guardians broke north to take the forest objective, one Wave Serpent w/Guardians broke south to take the eastern trench objective. The Wraithguard Serpent jetted straight ahead to claim the center objective, just next to the reactor. Finally, the Falcon w/Dragons aboard moved forward a little bit to the river, where it's high-powered weaponry blew apart one (Doomed) Piranha and damaged another. The second in that group was polished off by the northern wave serpent. In the south, the wave serpent there shaved a few wounds off the Fireblade's Devilfish.

Of note, throughout the battle I misused a stratagem, since I thought the new Docking ability of drones enabled me to use them for Savior protocols to cancel one hit by sacrificing one of the docked drones. At the time, I couldn't find the rule that said I couldn't do this, but I see how I missed it. I don't think this affected the game much, though - the Eldar were over-killing my Piranha with shuricannons to the point where they were dead regardless. But is was an error, and one I won't make in the future.

The Eldar scored Scout the Enemy this turn and two Bring it Down points.

Top of Turn 1


I was too excited to be playing the game and forgot to take photos this turn, alas.

In the bottom of Turn 1, I scooted the Tetras over and marked both the Falcon and the Serpent full of Wraithguard, since I wanted the opportunity to kill their respective cargo before they killed me. The Hammerhead in the north absolutely DELETED the Falcon with one brutal railgun shot (holy amphetamine parrot, that gun), doing 3 moral wounds to the nearby Farseer in the process. The Hammerhead in the south did the exact same to southern wave serpent, serpent shield be damned. Hammerheads are BACK, baby! It's been literal ages since they were last effective. 5th edition, was it? Anywho...

In the south the Devilfish moved forward and brought their punishing firepower to bear on the guardians, who had been forced to dismount after their wave serpent was split open like a fortune cookie. I killed 9 of the 10, leaving one left, though that one was stubbornly sticking to the objective.

In the north, the two remaining piranha zoomed forward, ready to wipe out the Wraithguard serpent but the serpent engaged Lightning Reflexes, which cancelled out my Markerlight token and the piranha fusion blasters missed once and failed to damage with the other. Oh! And they used Designated Tasking at the start of the turn to let their drones bail out and I had them float in my backfield, warding off any Swooping Hawks that got some bright ideas about killing my Tetras or harassing my Hammerheads.

The foot Strike Team seized the NW (tower) objective and threw most of their firepower at the closest Wave Serpent, shaving off 2-3 wounds or so. Three of the team, however, had LOS to that final guardian way in the south and, with a 40" pulse rifle range (thanks, Bork'an scientists!) and the use of Relentless Fusillade, but 6 shots on that LONE guardian with AP -2. And then what does the little bastard do? He only fails ONE save (on a 6! A SIX!) and my opponent spends for a Command Re-roll and HE GETS ANOTHER SIX. Goddammit!

Things went a bit better with the dismounted Fire Dragons, who were hiding in the woods up north after their transport was perforated like a punchcard ballot in a Florida election (i.e. "messily"). They lost one guy in the explosion and then the northern hammerhead's 22" range Acclerator Burst cannons (thanks, Bork'an scientists!) raked the remaining ones, killing another 2. They then failed their morale check, causing another guy to bail and leaving the Exarch and one random fire dragon. The exarch then fails his combat attrition test, meaning he skedaddles and leaves his buddy high and dry, hiding behind a pine tree with the massed firepower of the Tau Empire bearing down on him. What a jerk!

For all the damage I inflicted, though, I only held 2 objectives, which isn't enough for stranglehold to kick in, and I sure as hell wasn't performing any actions, so...here we are. I'm beginning to see why Vespid might actually be useful, vis-a-vis these "action" things.

Bottom of Turn 1


The Piranha get aggressive!
The Guardians disembark as their ride splits in half
Then there's this lucky jerk.
And this decidedly un-lucky jerk.

Score in Turn 1
Eldar: 4
Tau: 0

Turn 2
The Eldar's turn to lay on the pain! The Guardians in the northern Wave Serpent disembark and close in on the foot strike team, the river making very little difference to their nimble advance. They open fire at point blank range and wipe out seven of the ten firewarriors (I pay for Insane Courage so the last three don't run). The two remaining wave serpents toss their firepower at the remaining Piranha, killing one and badly damaging another. The last Fire Dragon moves behind the northern wave serpent and raises a banner on the forest objective.

In the south, the Swooping Hawks drop in to reinforce the SE objective while that lone guardian raises a banner on that self-same objective. The Wraithguard and their Spirit Seer, meanwhile, disembark from their serpent and amble down to vaporize one of my Devilfish. It explodes! I assume it explodes like everything else, so I check the entry in the book. Imagine my surprise when I learn that the Tau vehicles BLOW BIG. A d6 mortal wounds! Holy crap! The thunderous explosion kills the Spirit Seer, the Farseer (who had moved closer for cover, ironically), and knocks out one Wraithguard. That transport truly gave its life for the Greater Good. What are they packing those things with, anyway?

My Strike team spills out and they are then shot up by the Hawks, losing five or so. The Wraithguard charge them and I lose another one, but the gutsy little bastards don't break and pass their morale test.

The eldar score the primary objective 3 times over, which hurts, and also pick up more Bring it Down and Scout the Enemy points.

Top of Turn 2


He raises a banner?! The absolute gall.
"When you're a Jet you're a Jet from your first cigarette til your last dying day..."
Picture these Wraithguard covered in soot with a shocked, Wile E Coyote expression.
Oooo, beating the Tau in close combat. HOW ORIGINAL.

In the bottom of turn 2, I bring the hammer down again. My primary objective here is...objectives. So, yeah. Tactical genius, right?

Anyway, I want to take back the tower objective, keep the SW objective, take the SE objective, and knock the Serpent off the central objective. If possible (a stretch), I want to contest the forest objective in the NE. Doable? Maybe. Here we go:

The Tetra fall back behind the reactor, giving them LOS to the Wraithguard, who they mark up after the strike team they were facing falls back onto the SW objective. After disembarking its strike team and Cadre Fireblade, the remaining Devilfish moves forward and guns down that stubborn little guardian and no strands of fate or anything saves his sorry little but from pulse-related incineration.

The Crisis Commander and Bodyguards drop into the Eldar DZ and open fire. The plasma rifles and burst cannons fire at the Wraithguard and, when joined with the remaining strike team and the cadre fireblade AND the burst cannons on the Commander AND the burst cannons on the southern Hammerhead, I manage to wipe the unit of stubborn wraith constructs out. The Bodyguard flamers burn the Hawks to ash in short order, meaning that SE objective is mine. We throw down their stupid little flag.

In the north, the northern Hammerhead puts a railgun slug through the central Wave Serpent and kills it dead (I will never, ever get tired of killing Wave Serpents this easily. It's been decades, friends. DECADES!). The southern Hammerhead throws a submunition onto the Guardians, killing more than half of them, and the rest is taken care of by a combination of drones, Hammerhead burst cannons, and the strike team--the tower objective is mine!

Having achieved all of my aims, I go for the stretch goal--having the remaining piranha contest the forest objective. My commander's Ion Blaster tries to take out that lone fire dragon, but no good--the little guy makes all his saves. The piranha then has the choice between trying to blow up the wave serpent (very unlikely) or killing the lone fire dragon (not bad odds). I go for the latter, but I miss, so nothing-doing.

I scored no primary objectives this turn (I only held one objective), but by the end of the turn I've scored Stranglehold, at least, and am set up to sweep the board on all future turns.

Bottom of Turn 2


The cavalry have arrived!   
Tower objective = mine
SE objective = mine
Central objective = nobody

Score in Turn 2
Eldar: 24
Tau: 3

At this point, the Eldar are far ahead on points, but there's no way he can actually win the game, even if we play one more turn--I will get 15 points next turn, he lacks the ability to stop me with his 1 transport and 6 infantry, and I'm scoring 15 for To the Last no matter what. My opponent elects to concede. If we're being generous, his score would work out to another +3 points (Scout the Enemy and Bring it Down) for a final of 27. Mine would be a minimum of 33 (15 for having 3 objective next turn and 15 for To the Last). He concedes the game.

Post Mortem
This was a fun game, if brief. The Tau hit like a ton of bricks, are pretty mobile (in this build), and crisis suits and hammerheads are back as very effective units. I could have managed my markerlights better, but I've never emphasized markerlights in all my Tau playing career (going back now, what, 18 years?!) and I've never felt their lack. This is especially true now, where most units are effective on their own even without that handy little +1 to hit and, seeing how that's all markerlights do these days, there are times I can pretty easily live without it.

Honestly, the Crisis Bodyguards felt like overkill, but that's mostly because of how fast this game went. Honestly, I don't think I've ever played a 9th edition game that went past Turn 3 in any meaningful sense. Is that just me? Everything these days is just SO deadly that I have trouble seeing how one side or the other just isn't decimated in the early game. Either that or one side of the other has such a commanding point lead that continuing is pointless. This can be fun, sure, but it doesn't really make a super healthy edition and I haven't really felt like 9th is working very well. Granted, I've only played a handful of games (screw you, COVID!), but that's the sense I get.

As for this specific game, I think probably my opponent would have been better served concentrating all of his forces in one direction, rather than splitting them the way he did. As it stood, I was able to take his army apart piecemeal and the Tau are always going to have more stuff than the Eldar in a full-board battle. He might have jetted south (or north) and focused his attack and done better. Maybe not, though, given how mobile my army is, but who knows?

I will be playing Tau again, that much I do know. This was a fun game and I look forward to future challenges. Thanks for reading and thanks, as always, to my opponent!

(Finished this report, btw)

Double post merged - Iris.
« Last Edit: May 19, 2022, 06:55:51 PM by Irisado »

Offline Irisado

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #3 on: May 30, 2022, 06:05:12 PM »
I'm no expert and I certainly have not read that many ninth edition report, but what I have seen would suggest that ninth edition is very unforgiving and that the games don't last for very long.  Your report was entertaining.  I particularly liked the part about the Florida election cards ;).  The actual mechanics of the game though were brutal for want of a better word.  I'm happy not to be playing!  I'm glad that you had fun though and it's good to see some games being played after so much time having stay away from everyone for obvious reasons.

Congratulations on your victory and thank you for the report :).
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #4 on: May 31, 2022, 08:40:52 AM »
I don't think my opponent's list suited the new Eldar's strengths. I'm not really convinced Mech Eldar is necessary anymore, and a more hybrid approach, with more of their terrifying firepower available for use at game start, probably pays off better.

Also, Railguns are back to what they were all those many years ago in 3rd/4th Edition, where they deleted what they hit.

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #5 on: May 31, 2022, 06:35:26 PM »
I was never a fan of mechanised Eldar, so if that has been rendered less effective by the new rules, I see that as a positive.  Maybe my old mixed army list might work in the current edition.  I'm not about to test it though.  I'd be interested to see your friend give it a try.
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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #6 on: May 31, 2022, 07:54:57 PM »
I was never a fan of mechanised Eldar, so if that has been rendered less effective by the new rules, I see that as a positive.  Maybe my old mixed army list might work in the current edition.  I'm not about to test it though.  I'd be interested to see your friend give it a try.

See Roboknee's latest report! That features my steady Eldar opponent deploying a somewhat more hybrid approach to greater effect.

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #7 on: June 1, 2022, 05:07:07 AM »
Ironically, I had just opened that topic after replying last night, but I was too tired to finish the report.  Hopefully, I'll read it tonight, but if not tomorrow for certain.  It has been too long since I've seen anyone use a more dynamic Eldar army list, so I am looking forward to seeing how it performs.
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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #8 on: June 1, 2022, 07:08:41 PM »
Gotta apologies, I read this earlier, but didn't have time to reply.

I'm really excited you're getting in games! I will say, that I've played a few games of 9th, and I do believe it's my favourite edition so far. There is certainly an upgrade in the destructiveness of some things, but I do like how all the armies, and unit rules have heaps of character to them, and nothing really seems to preform outside of how you'd expect they would in the lore.

There are elements of some of the newer books preforming very well competitively in contrast to earlier releases, but that's not a conversation for now.

It's hard to get a full grasp, but I do feel like your table is seriously lacking in substantial Line of sight blocking terrain. I do think that the table should have enough terrain that you can hide your whole army outside of LoS turn 1. Makes for a much more tactical and dynamic game, other than just blasting folks T1.

I have played vs a bunch of Tau in the past few months (almost half my games at a team tournament last month), and they are a difficult army to play against. Your list is unlike those I've seen, in my area folks don't bring any armour, and rely mostly of a few units of crisis suits to do most of the heavy lifting.

Aeldari are also a faction which can kick in teeth, I didn't really see you make mention of the Strands of Fate in the game, did it come into play at all? My experience is that those fate dice are hugely impactful in games with and against Aledari, and make them really hard to deal with.

I do feel that the Aeldari army from list building lacked the tools to deal with your army, he didn't have really any anti-tank, which meant he could not really hurt you too much. I just don't see a focus to the list, and do feel he probably would have been better off leaving the wave serpents at home and having more units.
 
I look forward to seeing more reports!

« Last Edit: June 1, 2022, 07:10:26 PM by Lord of Winter and War »
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #9 on: June 2, 2022, 08:54:26 AM »
It's hard to get a full grasp, but I do feel like your table is seriously lacking in substantial Line of sight blocking terrain. I do think that the table should have enough terrain that you can hide your whole army outside of LoS turn 1. Makes for a much more tactical and dynamic game, other than just blasting folks T1.

I'm not necessarily saying I disagree, but if true, this demonstrates a *broken game.* I've used more-or-less the same terrain set for the past five editions of the game and it is only in *this* edition that this has become a problem. "Having enough terrain to hide your entire army," if a necessity, is absurd and ridiculous. I had 5 pieces of LOS blocking terrain on that board, which is a good bit. A lot of units were hidden round one, but not all, and that should result in a playable game if this edition of the game is at all workable.

This advice, while possibly correct, is damning if true. The game needs a major, major overhaul. 

Quote
I have played vs a bunch of Tau in the past few months (almost half my games at a team tournament last month), and they are a difficult army to play against. Your list is unlike those I've seen, in my area folks don't bring any armour, and rely mostly of a few units of crisis suits to do most of the heavy lifting.

I would like to play a very crisis suit heavy list, but I lack the models. This is the Tau army I've played for ages, more or less, and it worked a treat. No complaints (though I do miss my legions of tiny drone units getting in the way everywhere).

Quote
Aeldari are also a faction which can kick in teeth, I didn't really see you make mention of the Strands of Fate in the game, did it come into play at all? My experience is that those fate dice are hugely impactful in games with and against Aledari, and make them really hard to deal with.

He had and did use Strands of Fate on several occasions. It made exactly zero difference in the outcome of the battle, frankly. I think it allowed the Wraithguard to endure the plasma rifles of my Crisis Bodyguards pretty well, but it didn't actually affect their ability to survive the round. Likewise, when you are rocking a Doom/Guide combo, getting 6s to hit/wound on a weight of fire unit makes a negligible difference. 

Quote
I do feel that the Aeldari army from list building lacked the tools to deal with your army, he didn't have really any anti-tank, which meant he could not really hurt you too much. I just don't see a focus to the list, and do feel he probably would have been better off leaving the wave serpents at home and having more units.

I generally agree, but it's strange to say "he didn't have antitank" when he's got Fire Dragons, Wraithguard, and a Falcon on the board. What qualifies as anti-tank for the Eldar these days, anyway?
 
Quote
I look forward to seeing more reports!

More coming, I'm sure. Need to iron out our schedules to get in another game soon.

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #10 on: June 3, 2022, 01:48:31 PM »
Finally got a chance to read through the rest of the report. Fun game between my two favorite 40k armies! Fast & Furious, that's how I think these games should play when involving both of these factions  ;D. Yeah the firefight was intense, and then in turn 2 reading the T'au take out all their targets in a game-winning K.O. was pretty cool!

I've actually acquired a small force of T'au empire that is on its way. Aim to turn it into a 2k list at some point, but I'm thinking either Vior'la or the Standard T'au scheme.

Also - as someone who has used wave serpents to good affect with the new codex - did your opponent remember the transhuman - only wounds on 4s rule?

It also has an invul to I believe - bad luck if he remembered both of those considering how well the Hammerheads trashed those transports this game!

Thank you for the report! On to the next one  :).

I think I might try to get some reports up and running myself at some point. I need to remember how what software you're using - it's been a while.
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Offline Wyddr

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #11 on: June 4, 2022, 07:08:43 AM »
We used all the appropriate rules, yes. I think I used a command re-roll once to re-roll the wound roll. The 5++ was ineffective, since railguns ignore invul saves.

Offline Myen'Tal

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Re: 1500 Tau Empire Vs Craftworlders - The Scouring
« Reply #12 on: June 6, 2022, 05:41:29 PM »
Understood, the luck of the dice!

May I ask the software you are using for your battle reports? I know I asked a few years ago.

I think I should be able to figure it out this time. I've got some interesting games coming up  :).
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A Sanctum of Swords: Embers Edition is coming soon w/ audiobook!

 


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