I challenged a friend of mine to play against my guard with his tau today, something he has not done since the new guard dex came out(he's been using his deathwing mostly, though his 1000 points of deathwing got utterly destroyed in a recent campaign that just abruptly ended do to the a certain furball getting at our campaign masters map for a while. The problem is the first person to attack him was dark eldar. witch heavy army vs. deathwing = rape.)
The randomly determined mission was the capture the objectives mission in pitched battle, 3 objectives were rolled:
Army lists:
222nd Cadian:
HQ Options
HQ 115 PF Reg. Std.,vox, Master of Ordnance
Troops Platoon1
Command squad 55 2 flamers, powerfist, 2 laspistol/ccw
squad A 80 vox,autocannon,plasma
squad B 75 autocannon,plasma
squad C 65 autocannon, gl
Commissar(attached to S2) 45 Power weapon
platoon 2
command squad 70 PS(),2 plasma
squad A 70 heavybolter,grenadelauncher,vox
squad B 65 heavybolter,grenadelauncher
squad C 65 heavybolter,grenadelauncher
Commissar(attatched to S2) 45 powersword
HW squad 105 3*lascannon
Veterans 145 powerfist( and 3 melta(, demolitions doctrine
Fast attack
Valkeryie 130 multiplerocket pods(
Heavy
Russ#1 170 tribolter config
Demolisher#2 220 2*plasma cannon, lascannon
eradicator#33 180 tribolter config.
Tau:
HQ suit
Shashel, plasma, cyclic ion blaster
Elites:
2 3 man battlesuit teams, missle launcers+plasma
6 stealth suit, targeting arrays
troops
6 fire warriors
6 fire warriors
Fast:
4 pathfinders+devilfish with disruption pod
4 pathfinders+devilfish with disruption pod
Heavy:
2 railheads with multi-tracker+disruption pods
3 broadsides, plasma, 2 shield drones, targetting arrays?
Comments: Do I smell something? This would be quite the cheese list in 4th edtion. 5th edition makes his tanks insanely survivable with a certain spammed no brainer upgrade, but his suits can no longer jump suit jump and he there is a glaring weakness in his ability to capture objectives. IMO it's very one dimensional and only is effective in killpoints. I'm glad I was not using my mechanized marines, as this list would be the rock to my scissors.
I win the roll to place/go first.
After deployment, the map roughly looked like:
BW=Barbed wire, T=Tower bunkers, B=bunkers, R=ruins/buildings, W=Wall, RW=Rockwall
yellow circles=objectives
Turn 1: Wow the refused flanks! I Move/run all of my platoon two towards the objectives nearest to the squads, S2B is in cover from the majority of the enemy due to the building and is providing cover to the other squad and two command squads. I gamble on outflanking with my veterans next turn. My eradicator and demolisher roll forward as well. Platoon one, the heavy weapons team, and HQ with master of ordnance provide supporting firepower. I inflict 5 glances/penetrates to his devilfish nearest his forces and a hammerhead, but he makes every freaking cover save. My demolisher fails to see the stealthsuits by an inch, my leman russ scatters off everything(in that packed formation!). My one thing i manage to accomplish this turn is "eradicating"(pardon the pun) the pathfinders on the roof of the tower, leaving the other squad inside of the bunker area.
His turn 1: He moves his foward towards mine and embarks one fire warrior squad into a devilfish. His broadsides destroy my russ's turret and hull heavy bolter. His hammerhead 1 explode my demolisher, hammerhead 2 lands a submunition of platoon command 2 and kills 2 members. His stealthsuits mow down 4 of squad 2A
Turn 2: My valkeryie comes in, and I roll a 6 on the outflank! I come off the south eastside of the board and drop my veterans right behind a hammerhead with battlesuits touching it. the meltaguns explode the hammerhead, by my democharge unfortunately scatters completely away from the edge of the tank next to 3 battlesuits. Platoon 2 squads continue advancing and make it to the objectives. Squad 2b recieve a "get down! from platoon command one and recieves a 2+ coversave in the ruin. Squad 2a stares off into the distance, wondering where the enemy is while it sits on the west objective. My lascannon team fluffs, but Squad1b manages to explode the devilfish with firewarriors inside. A eradicator shot later and the firewarriors are down to 2 men. Squad 1c manages to shake the other hammerhead which had carelessly left its side open to autocannon fire. My master of ordnance targets a battlesuit squad with his leader attached behind rock wall 1, but the shot scatter 8 or so inches to the west, landing directly over his stealthsuits! 4 are minced in the resulting fluke shot.
His turn 2:
He doesn't move alot, and not surprisingly my flankers take his firepower. Amazingly, the valkeryie survives the 2 battlesuit teams firing 12 misslepods+7 plasma rifles into it without a scratch. The broadsides end it though with a explosion. My veterans are massacred to 2 men from the resulting exposion and supporting firewarrior shots, and are assaulted by the battlesuit team afterwards and finished off(I just realized now that was a wrong move since he shot at the valkeryie with them, but neither of us thought of it at the time.) He lands one marker light on the 2+ cover save squad and reduces it to a 3+. The get 4 wounds but i roll 4 4+'s for my coversave.
Turn 3: No repeat of turn two for me this time. My platoon 2 squads, on two of the objectives, dig in with some more "get down" orders from platoon command squads. My Lascannon team finally does something and explodes the 2nd devilfish with the help of a "fire on my target". the resulting explosion kills one firewarrior, leaving one left from that squad. My autocannon team on the east shakes the hammerhead again, and I do one wound on the battlesuits with some heavy bolter fire. Otherwise the rest fluffed.
His turn 3: He moves his suits up(about 15-18 inches away from the objectives at this point) and fires a bunch at my dug in guardsmen, my 2+ coversave making damage neglible. At this point he excuses himself as he had to go. Though the game could have still gone either way at this point, I had two objectives and he only had 5 firewarriors left in total. To route me off the objectives he would have to send his battlesuits into assault, and my commissars would make that a waste of time.
I had hoped this would show him you can't get away with taking min troops in 5th ed, and he said he would make a change by making the 2 pathfinder teams combine, save buying a devilfish, and buy a few more firewarriors. I still dont think that would be quite enough, and his list is still completely geared to taking on MEQS with tanks. My armor was torn through very quickly, i was saved by my massed infantry and coversaves. I hope he faces against some green tide list or other "paper" to his "rock" to discourage him from the list he currently uses. Either way it was refreshing to play against tau again.
Question: If a tau vehicle with drones on it dies, do the drones "disembark" or are the automatically destroyed since they are still on it?.
