New campaign Blog- the High Threat Reaction Cadre returns...

[Galron]

New year, new campaign. My local store is launching a new escalation league in two weeks so I figured I would play Tau. I have owned 5ish tau armies over the years since I preordered the original box back in 03 or 04. Whenever that was and we were still speculating on the size of the revealed Devilfish. In 5th edition I used a very suit heavy list, this was pre-riptide/ghostkeel era. Even then the standard was a tau castle even though there was no overwatch. I had switched from a Sliscus Raider Deep strike alphastrike army after getting tired of playing it at 'ard Boyz(an actual tournament system that encouraged you to bring the most broken list you could at 2500pts, flat out saying it was not about fluff etc), I sold it and picked up Tau again(3rd time by that point)  and decided to base it off an old book series of short stories called "The Fleet." In it was a story series that followed along a group of marines in a unit type called a Reaction Company who were the elite of the marine infantry and sent in lightning fast to the hardest missions as they popped up when there was no time to organize and send regular marines thus they typically took 75ish% casualties and was volunteer only. So I adapted this to my new Tau.

 

I wanted the newest tech and for them to be highly mobile and to hit with hard punches. It worked well, I usually fielded 2 or 3 crisis teams, an XV-9 team with PIGs(they were brutal at the time) Shas'O Rally(renamed as Shas'O Kason, callsign "Night Hammer." There were a pathfinder team or two and some obligatory fire warriors. It was a really nasty list for the time and I had multiple opponents tell me they were not expecting that playstyle out of Tau.  

 

Not sure why I sold it but I did, and then started a new one, and sold that at some point. About six months ago I started collecting Tau again, picking up lots on ebay and from friends, selling off other armies I knew I wouldnt play but was collecting anyway(Orks for example) .

 

So on Feb 5th I will be starting this new Tau campaign, which weirdly coincides with the release of the codex. The first 500 points I already have done so I will be using old codex, which isnt too bad actually,  even old Tau do well at low points.

 

I am using custom traits of Hybridized Weaponry and Up-gunned. I am aware both of these either do not exist or will be changed when the actual codex drops, but lacking a full codex, this works best. I am really thinking Borkan after the first game since their traits really plays well with tough crisis suit deployment and not having to be right in the opponents face.

500 Point Patrol

Shas'El Sharp'e

XV-8 3 Fusion Blasters+ shield Generator

WLT-Precision of the Hunter

 

Breacher Team x6+ Shas'ui

Kroot x10

 

Stealth Team

Shas'vre, all with burst cannons and ATS

Crisis Team Shas'vre, all with two burst Cannons+ATS/ Cross Linked Stabilizer Jets

 

So everyone that matters has 22" range with burst and fusion and all the Burst cannons have -2ap. Should be decent enough at 500 points to do some damage and knock most units onto their Invuls and then I have the commander to drop in on any Plagueburst Crawlers, baby knights, and dread knights that cheesy people bring to 500 point games. I was surprised that all this fit into 500 points. Without the codex, i have no clue what I will bring in 750 or my second 500 point game. Since there is no consistency on the rumors of fire warrior squad size that remains up in the air as well.

 

 

[Galron]

  The garden was green and lush, filled with colorful avians and flying insects bouncing from bright flower to bright flower. The packed gravel path meandered in no particular direction through the garden in between blossoming trees and spring flower bushes and bed. Now and then an earth caste tender would be present, typically an elderly tau in retirement volunteering his or her skills to stay useful for the good of the garden.

 

  A taller member of the fire caste followed the path unhurriedly with his hands behind his back and strolled over to a white wooden bridge to look into the water. Fish of every color of the rainbow swam in various schools. It was a very peaceful place. He had never been in the meditation garden of the Tash’var Sept military command before and was still early for his meeting with Aun’O Korbah, the Ethereal attached to high command.

 

  He wore his dress uniform uncomfortably. He was much more accustomed to his duty jumpsuit or the tight bodysuit he wore. The dark blue-green uniform with its tight neck collar felt stuffy and constricting. It could simply be his distaste for being here at High Command instead of in the field training with his combined cadre and working the new members in.

 

  “Ahhh, Shas’O Kason, or should I say ‘Night Hammer?’” asked a voice from close behind him, “You are ahead of schedule.”

He spun quickly, half in surprise that someone could sneak up so closely on him. A tau female, even taller than his own considerable height, stood on the bridge less than an arm length away. She wore very elaborate tan robes with various symbols and glyphs sewn in in silver thread. Fairly attractive although much older than himself. She had a bemused smile on her face, apparently entertained by his surprise at having snuck up on.

 

  “Very few people can do that.” He said simply as he bowed low in deference to the high ranking Ethereal.

 

  “We Ethereals aren’t normal people though are we?” she said returning the bow slightly. “Walk with me, commander, there is much to discuss and very little time to do it.” She began a slow walk down the bridge in the direction he was going before.

 

  “Yes, Aun’O.” He replied and falling a step behind to her right.

 

  “You no doubt know by now of the issues the 6th wave of expansion is incurring in dealing with the Imperium of Man, yes?”

 

  “I have heard about set-backs and that the enemy is building momentum for a counter attack.”

 

  “Commander Shadowsun has put out a call for reinforcements from distant Septs like ours. We have decided to respond to the call and are sending a large task force along with large elements from several other Septs who currently are not involved with the conflict.”

 

  “Since I am here, I assume my own cadre will be taking part in this little adventure?” He asked.

 

  “Indeed, though not as you expect.” She approached a pool of perfectly flat white sand with several large grey boulders sitting embedded in the pool. From a group of moss covered stepping stones she nimbly hopped over and landed on one of the boulders and sat cross legged in a single elegant fluid move. “Please have a seat.” She commanded indicating the other boulder.

 

  Kason half wondered if someone had purposely put these two boulders here for this purpose knowing how many would be here in advance. He looked at the other side of the pool near the other boulder and saw a similar stepping stone path and not near as elegantly managed to land on the boulder, being forced to put his arms out for balance before gaining it and quickly lowering himself to an uncomfortable sitting position.

 

  “You could have simply walked across the sand.”

 

  “It would have left prints ruining the pool. I am quite sure some Earth caste member labored for a good deal of time making this sand pit flawless.”

 

  “Interesting observation for one callsigned ‘The Hammer.’” She said with a smile.

 

  “I wasn’t the one who gave that name to me and when I find him or her, we will be having some words.”

 

  She laughed quietly, almost imperceptively, but for the cyber hearing implants he had had installed after an injury destroyed his natural hearing in his left ear. “Be that as it may, Commander, your cadre will indeed be going on this ‘adventure’ as you call it. Your task force will be going to Versa 4 to seize it from the Imperials and others and deny its use in their war effort.”

 

  “Havent heard of Versa 4. Are we currently engaged there?”

 

  “You probably wouldn’t have.” She answered. “It’s a second line world a bit back from the front line deep in their territory."

 

  “Not that I am opposed, mind you, but why are we going to extend that far out? Seems we will get easily cut off.”

 

  “You are correct. The Imperial’s attention will suddenly be on you as Versa 4 is a strategically vital rallying point for units and ships heading to the front. It is located in a clear channel between some rough areas for ships in warp space carrying forces heading to defend their space from Shadowsun and others.  It is used as a marshalling point for bringing different army groups together before going forward, thus it’s vitally important for the Imperials. They will have to go far around these storms without having control of the system. This will relieve pressure on Commander Shadowsun’s campaign and hopefully allow her to link up with you in a timely manner. Further there is evidence of older technologies that our scientists wish to examine themselves and that we would wish to prevent the other races from possessing. Word has gone out and there appears that many races are converging on this world for that reason.”

 

  “Who will I be reporting to on this mission? I find it odd an Ethereal of your stature would be briefing a simple cadre commander when it should be delegated to a higher level commander to do so.”

 

  “You are far from a simple cadre commander, Night Hammer.”

 

  He winced at the name again.

  “You really need to lock down your emotions on that. Its not a bad name as names go. I understand the traditions of the Fire Caste. There is a lot of pride in the troops when they give a Shas’O a name. You have done a phenomenal job working in the area of combined cadre work especially while in command of your Reaction Cadre, which typically work on their own, at the far pointy end of the stick as I have heard other Fire Caste say. The tau military has succeeded so far on the cults of personalities of its leaders and the utility of its multitudes of cadre types. While this approach has worked on the various worlds we have fought on in the past with individual cadres operating almost independently on worlds, like Taros, where there is room for each to do their own thing, times are changing.” She tilted her head.

 

  “The Imperium of man has adapted. While many of my colleagues refuse to believe it, the nature of war itself has changed. Our galactic northern Sep’t worlds have continued to innovate. New armor such as the Supremacy suit and Storm Surge are evidence of that. The Imperium has increased its effectiveness on the field and the older tactics of every cadre for itself with minor direction and coherency is inefficient. Yes we should encourage initiative in our commanders, but it is no longer an individual race to the finish. Cadres need to be able to work more closely with each other than ever to achieve the victories we have had in the past. Our new weapons require new tactics to effectively use them. Your experience in working with and integrating experimental equipment rather than pushing it off to the side like many traditional commanders has put you in the spotlight as someone worth paying attention to.”

 

  “Further, I wanted to meet you personally. Being new to this arena, you will find in the future that people of my, ‘stature’ as you say, tend to brief other important people of similar ‘stature.’”

 

  “Great, this one of those things where you answer the question without actually answering the question?” The impact of what she just said dawning on him.

 

  “Your name fits you perfectly as you hit the nail on the head.”

 

  “I really don’t like talking to you people.” He said.

 

  Her eyes seemed to brighten to a lighter shade of red seeing his mirth for what it was. They were quite attractive, he thought, and went well with her demure smile. He shook his head slightly, he had heard it was a common effect of being around high level ethereals and rumored to be one of the reasons they took over so quickly in the past.

 

  “So who is the commander for this mission to save Shadowsun’s escapade into Imperial territory?”

 

  “That’s quite simple, Shas’O Kason,” she answered, demure smile changing to a predatory grin, “You are.”

 

No I will not be writing this long of a narrative for every update. I happened to have this as the intro to a novel I have been writing off and on for years and changed some of the names. It was actually started for the third wave expansion if that gives you any indication of how long I have been working on it.

Edited January 24, 2022 by Galron

[Galron]

Like a lot of people I got hold of the majority of the digital copy of the codex. Its still obviously missing things like the custom sept stuff so bearing that in mind I went ahead and made a list for the 500 point game next weekend. Just have to finish painting weapons that I never normally used in the past.

 

Borkan was a no-brainer as it appears to fit my style of play, I also do a fast paced Mephrit army for Necrons.I can actually use everything I had planned on using + 4 extra fire warriors just with some major weapon swaps. My original plan pre-new codex was a fusion commander, 3 twin busrt cannon crisis with ATS, 6 fire warriors, 10  kroot and 3 stealth. I was going to go with the +1ap burst cannon and extra range traits. At this point thats not an option.

 

Sooo. How does this sound?

Enforcer Battlesuit- Borkan WLT, the super shield relic, a Burst cannon, a flamer, and a cyclonic ion blaster- Whole point here was give the increased range of Borkan(does anyone else start doing the Muppet Chef voice when they say that?), he gets -1 AP on all weapons from his trait and 6s to wound do a mortal wound. The shield is 4++ but the first fail each round reduces damage to 0. So along with the enforcer suit, he also has the S7 weapons or less are 1 higher so most guns will only wound him on a 6.

 

Crisis suits- I was going to go for death rains. Yeah 90 points for two on each suit steered me away from that. So I went Missile Pod, Plasma, Burst cannon, target lock. Thats 150 vs the 190 I was going to have. I higher points I might drop the bursts and put the pods back on.

 

3 stealth suits

10 strike team fire warriors

10 kroot.

 

I havent had the chance yet to see what the better secondaries are for me but with 27 dudes on the table, I should have sufficient firepower to hurt elite armies at 500 points. I dont have much to take on heavy armor but if they are bringing heavy armor then they arent going to be doing many secondaries and I might have to Leeroy Jenkins my command suit into combat with a heavy vehicle just to take it out of the fight.

 

Any suggestions or critiques?

 

 

EDIT: So apparently like many people I have been reading the points thing wrong, not to mention that the suits come with certain gear already built into their cost. So I have redone the crisis and commander. I might eventually swap to Farsight Enclaves because I have a cool conversion for Farsight himself. Its nothing spectacular, but I like it using a crisis commander model and the Red Dog conversion kit. 

 

ColdStar Commander- High Output Burst Cannon, Flamer(Thermonuclear projector), Oneger Gauntlet, Fusion blaster, Shield Gen.

 

Crisisx3 Missile pod, plasma, Burstcannon, Irridium

 

Should provide a good mix of firepower on these tiny boards and point sizes and the Bork Bork trait should keep them safe from normal firepower at this level. The three other units remain the same giving me 27 bodies on the field. 

Edited February 2, 2022 by Galron

[Galron]

Shas'El Kotare soared over the dry dusty valleys and plains of Versa 4, scouting on his own, elated to finally be off the constrained and claustrophobic confines of his assault transport. They had landed in the early hours to establish a foothold on this supposedly important rock.

 

It looked like once it was a verdant world, he could see the former water courses winding below him. There were ruins of the civilization that was here not too long before, be it paved roads and bridges still crisscrossing the plains or the actual ruins of buildings, most of which were destroyed that dotted the landscape. There were even the skeletal remains of trees in places, the bark long since sandblasted off by the unrelenting wind.

 

"CONTACT! CONTACT! This is Delta Five in Quadrant Three. Imperial Forces patrol sighted and engaged, requesting backup." Kotare quickly brought up his HUD and shifted his suit to land nearby where a Firewarrior and Kroot Patrol were pinned down around some ubiquitous ruins.

 

A Manta flew overhead and a squad of crisis suits disembarked. His radar picture detected a further unit of stealth suits approaching from the enemy's rear area. He landed behind a large ruin while the crisis team landed nearby on it and promptly found out the floor was unsecure and they crashed to the bottom floor scattering the kroot team huddling there.

 

"Get your asses in the game, enemy troops approaching!" He yelled as a trio of golden jet bikes screamed around a ruin guns blazing.

 

So had my first game with the new Tau today. As said above, this was a patrol 500 point game. I brought the list above but subbed out the Irridium suit in the crisis team with a shield generator. It was really hard to come up with secondaries as its only 500 points and my opponent only had a total of 7 Custodes on the board. 3 jetbikes, 3 infantry dudes with spears, and a terminator captain with 8 wounds(yes, you read that, 8 flipping wounds and toughness 6 and a 5+++).

 

The mission was Insicive something or other. I took the mission specific secondary which if I held my opponent's objective I got 5 points. I also took RND and the tau secondary that gives 4 points for controlling half or more objectives than your opponent or something like that. I deployed with Kroot and crisis in a big ruin and pregame moved the kroot within walking distance to the center right objective. Fire warriors were in other terrain on the bottom right. Commander was behind the big ruin but on my home objective. He piled all of his guys in tall ruins at the top left of the board.

 

His T1: He drove his bikes forward to within 10" of the Firewarriors onto the center left objective. He could also see the crisis suits in the building through a window. His infantry and captain ran forward as well. His bike shooting was nasty killing 3 firewarriors with a hurricane bolter and 2 crisis suits with those missiles after the shield guy failed his shield and failed my CP reroll. Firewarriors promptly failed their morale check and lost a guy and then lost two more in the attrition test. Having played necrons for 6 months straight, I am not used to morale checks. He went to charge my Firewarriors who then popped the Photon Grenade strat and he needed a 12 to make it.

 

My T1: Firewarriors held firm. Kroot moved up to the center right objective. Commander moved over a bit to 16" of the bikes so he could shoot his flamer. Ready to rock and roll and nuke the bikes. Then he pulls the biggest BS strat GW has come up with and denies all rerolls this phase against his bikes. So I do manage to kill two bikes despite not having any rerolls and do a couple wounds on the last guy.

 

His T2: He moved the bike close to my commander, not sure why he didnt move closer than he did as he still had a couple inches of movement left. His infantry and captain moved and advanced onto the left objective. His bike whiffed his missile attack. His captain used his grenade launcher and killed three kroot. He went to charge my commander so I popped my Repulsor field strat. He rolled a three. Spent a CP and rolled another 3.

 

My T2: Commander and pet crisis moved up on top of the building keeping the bike in sight. Firewarriors retreated back and did RND in that corner. Kroot backed up behind terrain. Stealth team landed on his home objective. He forgot I had reserves. COmmander split fire against the bike and the infantry and he killed the bike. He popped the no reroll strat again. Between commander and the crisis I did two wounds on his infantry squad. I think my stealth team did one of those too.

 

His T3: He ran his captain back toward the stealths and held the objective. His shooting was all directed at the stealth team and thanks to Borkan trait did no damaged although they were also in cover so they had a good save anyway the time or two he did hit. Captain charged, they popped the repulsor field strat but he still made his charge and hit most of his attacks and then failed to wound half of those and then I saved most of those losing one guy. The counter attack was predictable.

 

My T3: Commander suits bound forward with the commander getting within a couple inches of his three man squad. Firewarriors advanced to the other table corner. Kroot moved up as backup to the commander. Stealths held firm...for now. For some reason he did not pop the no-reroll strat again so combined shooting wiped the three man squad out before I could charge onto his objective. Stealth team Wall of Mirrors out of combat off the board. Nothing says they cant.

 

His T4: He moved his terminator captain back towards the left objective but fails a charge and his shooting now reduced against my suits because of Borkan does nothing.

 

My T4: We consolidate my crisis and commander 16" from him. Stealth suits pop back up on his home objective. Firewarriors move deeper into the corner and RND. Kroot move deeper into the upper right corner to get ready to do the same next turn. He remembers his strat this time and I knock 6 wounds off him anyway.

 

His T5: He moves closer to my commander instead of the closer crisis suit. His shooting does like one wound to my commander. He charges the commander who pops the repulsor field strat yet again and he fails the charge.

 

My T5: We only kept playing because he had To the Last as a secondary. Kroot RNDd. commander hit the captain with a Fusion gun and he failed his invul. I rolled max damage plus I was within half range. He managed to 5+++ half of the damage but he only had two left.

 

So I won 89-23 I think. Wow Photon Grenades and Repulsor Field were lifesavers. Best strats in the book. I loved the Wall of Mirrors one too though. He had purposely taken the katah that made you have to roll off to fall back. WOM doesnt isnt falling back. Overall liking the new book. The no-reroll thing sucks against tau. With 4+ BS we really need those rerolls. Oh well, lets see who is next.

 

 

 

 

Came up with another 500 point list I might try if I am facing a less than elite army with no vehicles. A fireblade, 2 strike squads, 2 devilfish, kroot and kroot hounds. Basic idea would be for the kroot to hang back and do back field stuff. Hounds run forward to grab easy objectives. Devilfish with fireblade support try to swarm fish of fury. Looks fun to me so we will see.

Edited February 7, 2022 by Galron

[Galron]

The Stealth team crept through the ruins of the former human city devastated in some war hundreds of years prior. A slight breeze blew dust that caused their stealth fields to make the space they occupied to blur. Near them heads both high and low sniffing the air and ground, a small team of war dogs sauntered through the ruins  as well looking for any sign of the many enemies on Versa IV. Their landing and beachhead had gone almost unopposed and this sector, the next layer of the phase lines from the landing zone had been quiet so far. "Lurps" teams(Long Range Reconnaissance Patrols) like theirs hadn't detected more than their analogues from some other races with only minor skirmishing between them. 

 

Their war dogs were highly adept at nosing out hidden enemy troops who managed to evade the stealth team's scanners. Usually used as a more wild shock force by their Kroot allies, the recon elements of the tau had found they were easily trainable by shapers into various roles, from finding traps and IEDs to searching for downed pilots and missing troops.

 

The small group was on a two day patrol in this blasted desert that was formerly a city. Most scorch  marks from whatever destroyed in so many years ago had been scoured by the sand and wind although the gaping holes and former craters no filled with loose sand still remained, as did the occasional glimpse of ferrocrete roads under the dirt and what little scrubby plants that managed to survive. 

 

The lead hound suddenly stopped and cocked its head towards a large structure in the South West several hundred meters away. The rest of the pack followed suit and several gave mournful low howls and whimpered. The teal colored pinions on their backs raised in threat. In the HUDs of their suits a warning glyph appeared. The Shas'vre radioed his parent unit in this sector, a mechanized patrol of firewarriors.

 

      "Red  One, this is Ghost Six-Five, over."

    

      "Go ahead Six-Five, Red One Actual."

 

      "We are picking up a strange energy reading coming out of grid square 452623. Break."

 

He waited a couple seconds, "Energy is unknown to our systems and appears to be increasing as we sit here roughly 250 meters away. Break."

 

      "Its really disturbing our dogs. We are going to tether them and investigate, over."

 

      "Negative Six-Five, hold position and observe, we are inbound at this time. ETA Five mikes, over."

 

      "Roger that, holding position. Six-Five out."

 

The Shas'vre shrugged in his armored suit. If the Fireblade wanted to go stick his neck out instead of his team then so be it, who was he to complain? He had one of his team bring the dogs to a nearby ruin off to the west and tether them there so their howls wouldnt give their position away and sat there and watched the energy spike on his scanner continue to rise.

 

******************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

  The lead Devilfish screamed across the plain, its engines at max power. In the back a full team of camouflaged firewarriors sat holding on to loops hanging from the ceiling, their pulse rifles stowed safely next to each with magnetic locks holding them in place. The young Fireblade commander sat with his back to the front of the transport, glad that he wore a helmet as the noise was deafening and it would have been amusing to watch the squad's heads banging against the walls and the heads of the warriors next to them if his wasnt doing the same. He couldnt complain though, he told the vehicle commander to get to the point the patrol found as fast as possible.

 

   The intercom chirped from the vehicle commander, "Thirty seconds until target location. I am seeing a weird green glow coming from the ruins. Piping it down to you." 

 

  On his helmet HUD a small window opened coming from the Devilfish's sensors showing the rapidly increasing in size ruins. Small blue icons showed were the stealth team and its hounds had spread out in overwatch of the position. "Get us up there and drop ramps. All teams prepare for combat."

 

  The two armored transports toned down their jet engines and slowed to a stop. Immediately the ramps dropped and the well drilled firewarriors got up grabbing their rifles as they went.

 

  Before they even had a chance to spread out a great black portal surrounded by ethereal green lightning opened in the ruin and a nightmare of forces poured out. Chrome metal humanoids began marching out in good order as well as flying metal creatures with razor sharp claws and groups of silver beetles, all lead by a silver and gold creature several heads taller than a firewarrior carrying a large scythe. All quickly oriented on the two squads of firewarriors and their transports.

 

  The disciplined firewarriors and transports opened up with their pulse rifles in a withering hail of blue energy concentrating on the fastest moving opponents.. The first squad struck down the swarms of beetles. The larger flying creatures were pummeled by the fire of the other squad but almost all of their shots simply went through their silvery bodies as if they were made of mist. 

 

In the distance, seeing the firewarrior patrol way over extend, the stealth Shas'vre simply shrugged again. "Alright boys, guess we get the job of pulling their asses out of the fire."

 

 

Played a fun game with a concept I wanted to try out. We are still at 500 points in the league. I played a makeup game with this guy because on the way to my actual assigned game, some meth head rear ended me and made a run for it and I chased him down and ran him off the road where he then ran into some woods on foot. (By the way, really stupid of me to have chased him in the first place, this is Florida after all, but I was seeing red when he took off). Vehicle was stolen, out of date tags, and the back was filled with tools and equipment.  That side note out of the way, so I managed to get this game in with someone who also missed their 500 point game. 

 

My opponent was new to the game and was playing necrons which is my primary army so I gave him some pointers on secondaries and told him not to take certain secondaries against me that he was planning on taking. He still hasnt gotten the concept of scoring is worth more than killing but I went over more strategy and list building after the game. 

 

I brought a Borkan patrol with a fireblade(puretide engram chip, through unity devastation) 2 barebone strike squads, 2 barebone devilfish, a bare stealth team and a kroot hound squad. He brough Novokh necrons with 10 warriors, a lord, 3 scarabs, 5 immortals with tesla, and 4 wraiths, not sure what his relic or warlord trait was. We were playing sectors mission, I took Until the last, Survey(mission secondary) and Behind Enemy lines. He took raise the banners(rarely a good choice in 500 point games) survey and Purge the Vermin.

 

His T1: I pregame moved my devilfish towards the objective in his neutral quarter. He moved all of his guys out stringing out his warriors on his home objective. His shooting did 2 wounds to a devilfish and failed his 12" charge. My T1: I got stupid and went for a decapitation strike on his fast scoring units and drove everyone up to make sure the units I needed to be  closest were there. First volley went great and I wiped his scarabs. I used a devilfish on his wraiths and did 2 wounds. The second firewarrior squad did 13 wounds. He saved 11 killing the wounded wraith and my fireblade and devilfish combined did another wound to it. Not what I wanted. I also advanced my hounds into some ruins that were just barely 3" from the objective and they sat there the entire game, great use for 24 points. 

 

His T2: Predictably it didnt go well for me. The only thing that helped was he did weird things when charging which saved me. I lost one entire firewarrior squad and the other dropped to 5 guys. I also went down to 7 wounds on a devilfish. My T2: Survivors jumped back into their devilfish and went across the board to his home objective and killed a couple fire warriors. My wounded devilfish bounced into his deployment zone as well. My stealth team jumped onto my home objective and fired up one of his wraiths.

 

His T3: He moved his immortals onto his neutral objective and moved his warriors back over to the undamaged devilfish. His remaining wraith went after my wounded devilfish. I think his shooting and melee did 2 damage to the occupied devilfish and his lord did another 2 to the damaged one bracketing it.  The wraith wiffed its attacks and wounding. My T3: gained 4 points for behind enemy lines. I disembarked my squad and fire blade back onto my neutral objective and moved the devilfish out of combat nearby them. My really damaged one moved to the corner in his deployment zone and paid the CP to disembark the drones in the corner where he couldn't get them. I also moved my stealth team into ruins that were within 3" of my home objective. Stealth team killed an immortal. I killed all but one warrior with my fire warriors but then 4 got back up, then my fireblade shot and killed another one. 

 

His T4: For some reason he was hell bent on killing the fire warriors and killed a couple, the lord killed them down to one guy. His immortals failed to wound my stealth team(Yay Borkan). His Wraith failed to wound my devilfish. My T4: I paid 2 CP to autopass my fire Warrior squad leader and jumped him and my fireblade into their devilfish and drove over near the stealth team. The stealth team killed off the immortals. On the other end of the table the devilfish bounced to the other side of the quarter forcing the wraith to pick one unit or the other. The drones did no damage to the wraith. The less damaged devilfish did in fact kill the wraith with some very lucky shooting.

 

His T5: I somehow missed something in the above because my  Stealth team had finished off the warriors turn 4. End result is the same. He killed my two drones threatening his home objective with his untouched warlord. My turn started and since there was literally no points in killing the lone warlord we ended the game.

 

I won 89 -25. I made some major errors by being too aggressive turn 1 which cost me a lot of dudes. I do like the buff version of the Fireblade. I will be keeping at least some of that combo in the future. He should have moved his warriors back into the building and raised banners the first turn of the game. I dont know if it would have changed much on my end as I was continuing to score even losing  most of my fire warriors but it would have let him score a bit more.

 

Now for some reason the league is going straight to 1000 points instead of 750 which has thrown all of us who dont live on the discord page off "but we have said it multiple times on discord...." so my 750 plans will have to combine with my late game plans to get me to 1000. I pretty much have to go away from my mechanized theme for this round and just add in suits. In three weeks I need to finish a hammerhead and build a devilfish from scratch.

 

At this time, my list will be the same as above but with 3 fusion Hazards added along with a Borkan Coldstar burst cannon dude, and three crisis with double flamers and a plasma gun each along with shield generators. So High threat response to the rescue. No clue who I am playing, but it at least wont be the WAAC player who beat on a new guy by bringing Morty at 1000 points and then takes  offense when people call him out on it.

Edited February 28, 2022 by Galron

[Galron]

Through the fog of the boggy ruined city the stealth team and three ghost keels trudged slowly as to not give away too much of their positions suddenly, the lead stealth suit halted and gave the freeze signal and all three units spread out along the wide avenue immediately froze in a way machines could only do, their stealth fields ceasing to shift and they blended seamlessly into the back ground.  "Goshawk Six, Reaver Two, over."

 

  "Go two."

 

  "Our sensors are picking up what appears to be some sort of warp interference. I think we are close to the blue wizards. Over."

 

  "Hold position and await reinforcements. We arent far behind you and we have a trick for these magic marines. Over"

 

  "Roger, out."

 

The stealth suit team felt the hum of the devilfish before he actually saw it as it moved up the flank behind him. On his HUD he saw further IFF blue markers indicating more of his Eclipse Cadre moving into position across a wide front.

 

The quiet of the advance was ended as a giant blue and gold treaded tank erupted from ruins and firepower lanced out from its bristling guns. Immediately the devilfish behind them took the brunt  of the fire and the engines and nose were ripped from it, its twin drones quickly disengaging and floating free, the troops in the back leaping from all three troop doors. 

 

On the other side of the field, a similar tank emerged from the ruins and fired all of its weapons on a Skyray Gunship that was creeping along that flank but due to the driver's skill at negotiating and using terrain to its advantage, it managed to avoid the worst of the hideous firepower. In the center of the field a squad of stiffly moving blue and gold marines wielding sorcerous runic bolt weapons stepped onto a strange stone circle on the ground, elevated above the muddy ground and began chanting and then turned their weapons on Goshawk Six's crisis command team who were advancing with the main body.

 

Tetras screamed out of cover and quickly pointed their high intensity markerlights at both the enemy squad and the giant tank. On everyone's HUDs red icons turned green with target locks. Troops moved forward, firewarrior teams found other stone circles and without targets the Shas'vres began scanning them while the rest provided security. Kroot maneuvered in the back field protecting the cadre's line of retreat if needed. 

 

The skyray closest to the land raider variant opened up with a full rack of seeker missiles which pummeled the ancient vehicle. A nearby ghostkeel added its Cyclonic Ion Raker and found a weak point in the armor striking the Promethium fuel tank. Four smoking figures in now charred armor climbed out of the wreckage as well as a more decorative figure in a purple robe with a staff. His robe was still burning in several places. 

 

The nearby firewarriors opened up with their pulse weapons as did the stealth team, dropping the still reeling ancient armored figures down to a lone staff wielding sorcerer and the more decorative figure. Goshawk Six, seeing the opening fired his own fusion gun and his own overcharged cyclonic ion blaster and reduced the decorative armor into mere smoking melted slag.

 

In the center, the crisis suits fired their weapons at the marked marine squad on the ritual circle and with the help of a second nearby ghost keel turned the small unit into so much broken and melted piles of armor. The western side of the field faired more poorly as both skyrays poured both of their missile racks into the land raider but only scored massive dents and broken armor plates.

 

Now the thousand sons thought they were the masters of this ambush and multiple units in blue and gold began to appear on the field, some on the center circle, some to try and challenge the eastern flank. A large unit of beautifully decorated deep blue terminators appeared point blank in front of the crisis team and immediately opened fire on them joined by other center squad. All three veteran crisis suits fell in quick succession. The drones from the former devilfish were killed by the remaining member of the first raider's cargo and several firewarriors drop from the new squad

 

"Time to drop the hammer. All units engage at this time." Goshawk Six said as he watched mounting casualties in his force. From out of the gloom on the far end of the field a third Ghost keel appeared followed by a swarm of gun drones. On winged jet packs a small team of firewarriors landed behind the center squad leveling their neutron blasters. The entire tau force went on a close range offensive. 

 

*********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

 

So I went back up to Savannah for the weekend and met up with one of my best friends for a game. I didnt know what he was playing in advance and he didnt know what I was playing. I was experimenting with a new list I thought up and wanted to try out. He played his tournament 1ksons with 2 Landraider Achilles with their 2 twin multi-meltas each and the quad launcher in the hull, 5 squads of 5 rubric marines, 10 scarab occult terminators, and two characters. He is a veteran of many many competitive games and often plays on The Glacial Geek channel. Its a beautiful army to look at.

 

I started pulling my force out and he started asking "How many railguns do you have?" "None." "How many crisis teams?" "Just the one". "How many ignore invul weapons?" "None." "Then golly gee are you playing against me?"

 

An enforcer commander with CIB, fusion, prototype flamer.

Fireblade

3 sky rays

3 ghost keels(2 cyclonic, 1 fusion)

1 breacher squad

1 strike squad

1 kroot squad

1 devilfish

1 crisis team with plasma, 2 AFPs

1 stealth team

1 Vespid team

1 squad of gun drones

2 Tetras

All played with Sa'cea sept

So his response, "you are fielding a list of tau trash units?" "Yep."

 

I kept the fusion ghost keel, gun drones, and vespid(I printed jet packs and added them to firewarriors since I hate the actual vespid models) in manta-strike. He put three rubric squads and the terminators into reserve through some 1k Sons special rule. This was the mission that had six objectives and not controlling the home objective means no CP.. Not sure what his secondaries were besides Mutate terrain. I took engage, RND, and Whore the witch(duh).

 

His T1: He drove his Achilles out and blew away a devilfish and I lost one dude. He only inflicted 5 damage on my far right skyray. My T1: tetras markerlighted the left side land raider and the squad in the center backfield objective. Skyray 1 drops it down to a couple wounds left and the nearby ghostkeel 1 overcharges and kills it. One dude dies and the rest jump out onto the leftmost objective. They then get fired on by the firewarriors, fireblade, and stealth team, killing all but the sergeant and leaving his warlord within 18" of my commander with no LOS(sheer luck, I didnt plan for this) who then fries him. The crisis and another ghost keel 2 wipe out the center rubric squad, while the other two skyrays and the ghostkeel 2 overcharges(doing a couple mortals to himself) and manage to bring the other land raider down to its second bracket.

 

His T2: He brings in all his reinforcements afraid that I would wipe him off the board if he didnt. His terminators land on the center objective. He brings in a rubric squad on the home objective and one over on my left near his one dude. Terminators wipe the crisis suits with help from his home field guys. I think his raider did damage to ghost keel 2 but he actually saved quite a few from his 5++ and the fact he had a hard time not rolling ones and twos to wound. On the left the lone dude killed off both drones and the squad weirdly only killed two firewarriors with all its shooting(not sure how that happened). My T2: I move my leftside firewarriors to point blank and shuffle a few units around here and there. I bring in my reserves right behind him. I wont go into detail on who shot what. He had a single rubric left on his home objective, a single terminator at one wound remaining on the center objective, a magister and 2 rubrics on the far right objective with my strike squad. 

 

His T3: He killed some firewarriors and got my strike team down to one guy.  I obviously wiped him off the board on my turn. 

 

He couldnt believe my oddball list that I had never played before crushed his tournament list. I scored 99 points I think  to his less than 10. I call it a successful demonstration lol. Aside from a reroll here and there, I didnt use any strategems. I also forgot that skyrays have their own markerlights(first time ever using them in 20ish years of tau).

 

Things I am going to change. Dropping the drones who in two turns of shooting did nothing even with the GK's drone controller buff. Also dropping one of the cyclonic GKs. Replacing them with a second devilfish and two fusion Piranhas with a seeker each. It was an enjoyable game from my end lol

[Galron]

Yeah, I felt sorry for my opponent on this one. Not going to write it up because its just a bunch of the same. Took on a Dark Angels list at 1k, he has terminators, the improved DA specific terminators, 6 blade guard, 5 intercessors and a chaplain, DA specific bikers with twin plasma each.

 

I fielded what I had ready, crisis with 2xflamers and a plasma, + irridium, 2 marker lights, and a prototype flamer

a cold star with HOBC, protoBC, fusion blaster,

2 strike teams

2 devilfish, one SMS, one drones

Hazard suits with fusion cascades

Fireblade with destruction through unity

 

I got turn one and didnt move forward, my firewarriors, commander and devifish killed one terminator squad and did a wound to a blade guard. Crisis got a plasma through on the bikers. He had no choice but to move forward towards the center objectives.

 

T2: I moved my FW force and dropped my hazards. Firewarriors and commander killed off the DA specific terminators. Crisis wiped a Blade guard squad before I got to use my protoype flamer. Hazards inflicted mass damage on the bikes but he had a 4++ and saved all but one. His intercessors shot a crisis suit and the two marker drones.

 

T3: hazards jumped over to the intercessors and shot them all in one volley. Crisis killed the bladeguard, firewarrors killed the chaplain, coldstar killed the last bike with mortal wounds before he even bothered to roll armor.

 

He was rolling very poorly so even despite having fairly good invul saves and transhuman on most of his army, I just swamped him with D1 saves.

 

Outtakes:

-Once again, a fireblade is an amazing force multiplier if you are using fire warriors.

 

-Hazards did not earn their points back but then there were not the vehicular targets like dreadnoughts running around like I expected either. roasting a full squad of intercessors in one go was pretty cool. And hey if the 0-1 crisis team thing ends up being true, hazards make a good alternate for the fusion blaster ones.

 

-Crisis with twin flamers did some major work. They did some very impressive damage on high armor units just in pure volume of forced saves.

 

-Another thing that I just thought of was use of vehicle drones which typically I find to be useless. In this scenario when your rear objectives are secure, say if you are facing a mostly foot slogging army like I did, pay the CP and drop the drones off a devilfish. I by chance only had the points for SMS on one of my devilfish so as I was pushing forward with my wave of firewarriors followed by their devilfish and fireblade and commander, I left my 2 drones off the devilfish behind to sit on the objective, they even got to fire once with predictable results. 

 

Things I need to work on:

-Picking secondaries. I kind of screwed myself by not having good secondaries. I took engage which I maxed. RND which I only got 3 of and Clean victory or whatever the grind them down-ish Tau secondary is called and got 5 I think. Maxed primary. At low points there really isnt that many secondaries that we can get. RND was kind of a forced 3rd choice since I was lacking anything else.  Any suggestions?

 

-Using strats: I need to use more strats. In every game I have played so far I have not been using many strats. This game I used the repulsor field strat once, the disembark drones strat and a reroll or two. I think I still ended the game with 6 CP. 

 

I get to play this army again on Tuesday, just going to play the same list and see how it goes. I am against a new player again, this time with Ultramarines, I have no problem playing new people but I would like to see how it does against another veteran. I always give after actions with the newer players for them to improve on, what worked, why it didnt work, units that they need etc. This guy needed a squad of hellblasters or devastators, badly. He is list building putting his most powerful units in first without the means to support them in the objective game.

Edited March 14, 2022 by Galron

[Galron]

"FOR THE EMPEROR!" was yelled across the battle field as blue armored marines rushed forward to try and take positions further in the ruined suburbs of what was once a major city. 

 

Uncharacteristically their opposing tau met them mid field. Devilfish landed in front of the advancing marines, burst cannons blazing blue fire into their ranks, smart missiles launching in AI directed swarms. Firewarriors leapt from the open doors of the transport, their pulse rifles blazing at the incoming hulking blue marines. 

 

Goshawk bounced his coldstar suit on top of a ruined tower and both of his burst cannon fired at the highly visible targets. These three carrying medieval shields and swords had ran to the limited cover of a small wall but his own target lock picked them out easy enough and most of his up-gunned spinning barrelled burst cannons fire washed over them. "We are in a desert, who the hell wears bright blue in a desert?" His own mottled camo armor blended in extremely well with the sand blown ruins as did the armor and vehicles of his patrol force.

 

On the building several dozen meters to his left a crisis team landed on the roof and began pouring plasma fire into some eradicator class marines wielding big bulky melta weapons. Their flamers engulfed the remains of the three marines in the terrain between them. 

 

The shouting marines were destroyed to the man, 10 of their intercessors with pistols and chainswords all lay scattered on the sand, evidence of the efficiency of his two fire warrior squads led by Fireblade Bowman who was already redirecting their aim.

 

An explosion ripped out acorss the field as the last eradicator managed to fire off his melta weapons hitting with all of its firepower and destroying one of his precious devilfish. The crisis team, angered by the destruction of their ally jumped forward and finished off the lone marine and then turned their flamers on some sort of space marine ATV melting its tires and causing the ammo for its gatling gun to explode killing the gunner and driver.

 

Another squad of intercessors emerged from a building, bolters blazing killing several firewarriors. The closer squad lobbed photon grenades at the marines exploding in brillant white balls of light blinding anyone not wearing a helmet designed to block that frequency of light and the marines stumbled into each other instead of charging valiantly into combat.

 

Goshawk waved his troops forward and signaled his reserve, a team of XV-9s. A unit of marines was forming a backline firing postions that was starting to take a toll on his troops. Already inbound, the slightly more aerodynamic Hazards suits landed neatly behind the intercessors and opened up with their arm mounted fusion cascades melting all of them into smoking piles ceramite. Marines continued to fall and he swung forward and opened fire on an untouched unit of plasma wielding hellblasters killing three of them. His crisis team added their plasma to the volley and were just in range to BBQ the marine lieutenant that had stepped out to charge his line. 

 

The area now secure, his remaining troops set out to perform the post action assignments. Each scanning their assigned areas for anomalies, doing first aid on the wounded and securing prisoners of which there were very few and calling for an Orca to shuttle them to the rear for interrogation and internment. This sector was secure. Time to get ready for the next push.

 

************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

My opponent wasnt as new as I thought he was, having been playing UM since rogue trader days, but hadnt got in nearly as many games over the years as he would have liked. Not going to go turn by turn. He pushed forward his army in waves which was the exact wrong thing to do against me as it gave me less targets to concentrate on so I pushed forward and nearly wiped out his first wave of 10 assault intercessors, bladeguard and eradicators down to a single wounded eradicator. I lost one devilfish to the eradicator in return and my two crisis marker drones to his hellblasters at long range. After that is was just me mopping up. For the 4th game in a row, tabled the opponent on T3.

 

Goshawk is a mean commander suit never failing to at least do several wounds plus the 3 mortals.

 

Fireblade with star pupil and Through unity destruction is the best buffing character you can get for the points and really amps up fire warriors.

 

Fire warriors themselves, once thought of by many as a tax, are amazing when buffed and killed the majority of the marines in this game accounting for an

eradicator, 15 intercessors, and 2 wounds in hand to hand with the LT. 

 

Hazards- again didnt have their choice of targets but went elite killing dropping a read guard of 5 intercessors in one volley with no support or strats.

 

Crisis- did extremely well with their two flamer, one plasma set up killing two eradicators, a blade guard, an LT, and an ATV and only lost the two marker drones to the hellblasters.

 

Next is almost the same list, same HQs, the crisis drop a marker drone and add a thermoneutronic flamer, a stealth, vespid, and kroot team so I can finally go do actions, 2 skyrays, lose a strike squad and add a breacher squad. 

[Focslain]

That is the thing I started noticing is that firewarriors are really good with the right buffs. Also nice to see someone else using the XV9. I have two to keep my farsight detachment all suit and still cheap on the PL.

 

Hope your skyrays do well, it's nice that they got the love they so needed.

[Galron]

"Goshawk, this is Viper Three Six," The Coldstar commander and his Reaction Cadre cruised high over the continent remaining on station to aid in the ever expanding Tau invasion. The dark interior of the Orca was lit by the glow of several charged fusion cascades from the Hazard suits of Reaper Four's team. A Ghost Keel and his personal Crisis team rocked gently in their suit cradles. "Sir, I have eyes on a large contingent of the Imperium's Grey Knights. They seem to have their own suits and are doing some sort of ritual. Coordinates are in our AO, not sure how they infiltrated so far behind our lines." "Roger Three-six, continue to observe, I am moving Hunter cadre to intercept. Be on the ground shortly." "Pilot, vector to the coordinates I have highlighted on the map and orbit at Angels 2." "Flamehawk 1, Shas'O Goshawk." "Yes honored one." The venerable Fireblade responded. "I am highlighting a target. Move with all haste. Enemy appears to be Imperial Grey Knights doing some sort of ritual. Cant be good for us. I want you to hit them from two different sides. My team will drop down the center and I will leave some elements of my RRC as a reserve." *********************************************************************************************************************************************************************** The Devilfish and Skyrays flew across the grassy plains. Ahead a few scattered ancient ruins stood starkly against the blue sky. A glint of silver reflected the sun from behind heavy wall. The Devilfish peeled off to the right right flank while the Skyrays slowed to engagement speed and released a salvo of missiles from their racks. Amazingly striking one of the giant battle suits of the Grey Knights. In the middle the Crisis team and Goshawk landed and fired on another suit wielding a giant sparkling sword. However, instead of impacting the suit, it vanished in a flash of light, reappearing on the flank of a Skyray. "Reaper and Ghost, I need you to land already at these coordinates..." ************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************* The league continues. Today I took on the #2 guy, I am ahead of him by 1 point. I brought Borkan Goshawk as usual-dakka Borkan build Fireblade with extra WLT- Destruction through Unity a Breacher squad a kroot squad A strike Squad Crisis team, all with 2 flamers and a plasma. 2 shield gens, an early warning system, one Irridium suit. Hazard team with fusion Cascades and 2 Shield drones GhostKeel- fusion collider and 2 fusion guns 2 Skyrays 2 Devilfish

 

He had three strike teams, a dread Knight grand master with the teleport when aimed at, 3 dread knights, a dreadnought, librarian with all kinds of crap, a techmarine and an apothecary and 4 servitors. We played corners, I took Engage, RND and whore the witches. For once secondaries were easy for me. He took the Purify, stranglehold and I dont know his third.

 

T1: I did 4 or 5 damage to a dread knight with a skyray. I shot his grandmaster with the three plasma from the crisis, and he used his port to jump to the far left corner objective. So they retargetted another dreadknight and did 3 damage which he promptly healed with the techmarine. My devilfish went to my right. The kroot sat on my home objective and did RND. His T1: The grandmaster sat on the far left objective and he nuked one of my skyrays. On the other side he did 11 damage to a devilfish. He moved another DK into the forest in the center and fired on my crisis but failed to do any damage.

 

T2: I moved up my Kroot towards the the left corner objective and moved my remaining skyray onto my home objective. I dropped my ghostkeel to the left of his warlord and my hazards in between his warlord and the dreadnought. The devilfish disembarked the firewarriors and fire blade. Shooting went great. Killed the warlord with the ghostkeel and a Hazard. The other hazards and skyrays failed to kill their dreadnought target. Commander and crisis plasmas killed the center DK. Flamers killed 4 out of 5 Strikes sitting on his home objective. Did a fair bit of damage to a third DK with FWs and DFs. His T2: Ported another DK to the far left objective and dropped the librarian out of deepstrike in my home corner behind the skyray. His DK near the ghostkeel killed the drones and did couple wounds to the GK. One drone on the Hazards went down to massive light fire. The libby dropped the skyray down to 1 wounds remaining with various psyker spells. Close combat sucked. He dropped a DF down to 2 wounds with a strike squad. Charged his remaining free DK into my crisis who OWd and did 5 or 6 damage. The other strike squad failed a charge vs my Hazards but Dread managed to get sunk in and killed a drone and a suit. The DK against the crisis killed one.

 

T3: Kroot and Ghost keel killed the far left DK. Goshawk jumped onto the ruins over his apothecary, techmarines and his servitors andsplit fire killing the apothecary and 2 strike squad guys threatening my hazards. My hazards fired into close combat vs the dread, hit 5 times and inflicted well over 12 damage. The crisis fired at their DK and dropped it to one wound. reamining firewarriors(lost the breachers to shooting and morale). The skyray tried to shoot the libby but failed. His T3: Libby moved forward. The strike squad charged the hazards and got overwatched and lost two more and then went hard core and killed both Hazards. The techmarine overcharged to shoot my commander and predictably rolled a 1. He had no CP for a reroll. Libby nuked the skyray.

 

T4: in a nutshell crisis took out the center DK. GK moved out ad killed the last Strike guy. Firewarriors fell back from their melee with the last strike dude on the board who was then killed by the commander along with servitors. At this point he only had a Libby on my home objective who purified on his turn.

 

T5: Ghost keel and crisis +kroot all opened up on the termy librarian who had a 1+ save, 4++ invul and a 5+++ FNP. The final shot available from the GK killed him with a fusion blaster.

 

Game ended 88-20(I think, might have been 40) The only objectives he got were purifies and some primaries. So I rocket up even higher in the league before my final game. I think I am going against a stormsurge list but he is a newer player. Even with a middling score I think I will still outpace anyone else. My opponent has a hard game ahead of him and he needed a decent score this game.

 

So even with my very non-optimized and headcanon list I roasted the optimized GK force. Starting to think that maybe Tau are a bit OP.

Edited March 28, 2022 by Galron

[Focslain]

 

 

So even with my very non-optimized and headcanon list I roasted the optimized GK force. Starting to think that maybe Tau are a bit OP.

 

Actually you took just what you needed to deal with him and stuck to your objectives. Also seems like he had issues getting his shots to stick. 

 

Also didn't help him giving you an easy 15 pts with the secondary since his entire army is psychic. 

[Galron]

I do enjoy showing up to a game and having people immediately ask how many hammerheads, railguns, or stormsurges I am bringing. I still have massive issues picking my secondaries. I really cant find any that really go well for me outside engage. RND is tough especially in lower point games where I need every swinging...gun involved in shooting. Behind enemy lines isnt bad with all my deep strikers and movement but its in the same catagory as Engage. The Tau secondaries are crap for the same reason that RND is hard to pull off. My next list has a unit of stealth suits whose entire job is going to be actions so maybe I will do the whole wall of mirrors trick to bounce them around.

 

I love when facing a psychic army or a force that has 150+ wounds just because it makes picking that third one so much easier. 

 

My list vs the other Tau army is different than this one. Dropping the skyrays and bringing a second ghost keel but with simple Cyclic Ion Collider and some burst cannon, plus a unit of stealth suits and kroot hounds. This makes me a little less reliant on undocking the drones from the devilfish as fast as I can to have them baby sit objectives. 

[Galron]

Ugg that was a brutal fight. I never looked for so many strats in a game. His force seemed pretty tame, storm surge, shadowsun, a coldstar commander, an ethereal, 2 body guards, 2 tetras, a breacher squad, a strike squad, a stealth team, a broadside with two shield drones, and a devilfish. I swapped some things around and brought a Hammerhead. I wasnt expecting such a brutal fight. I am not going through a write up, I was tired going into it and even more so now.

 

From what I remember, he got first turn and hail mary'd a devilfish with breachers way into my backfield and got shots off on my commander who I thought was safe behind cover. There went 4 wounds. Meanwhile he did heavy damage to my devilfish and my hammerhead thanks to tetras and destroyer missiles. Kroot dropped to 2 models. My turn had me wipe the breacher squad with my commander, Hammerhead wiffed. Killed two of his stealths and their drone.

 

His T2, I kinda got lucky, he killed both devilfish, hurt a strike squad,thankfully forgot to fire his stormsurge and we didnt realize it until well into my turn. His commander failed his charge and reroll leaving him in the open with his body guards, although my Hammerhead managed to overwatch and hit twice and wound twice. Killing the commander and his two drones. My turn rolled around and I dropped all the suits and was going for a triumphant alpha strike. Hammerhead hit the Stormsurge for 7 damage but was reduced to 4 damage thanks to that strat. Hazards screwed themselves on numbers of shots and hit him once and did 5 damage. Ghostkeel completely wiffed on the stormsurge. The only highlight was the crisis team flaming Shadowsun and killing a drone and doing 3 damage to her. Commander did minor damage to the broadside, leaving him in the open. No one made their charges.

 

His t3 killed the hammerhead which promptly blew up, killed the remains of the strike squad, several kroot hounds, and his remaining bodyguard who the breachers managed to damage. They then died to other stuff. COmmander died to the railside. My T3. Hazards fired up the storm surge and dropped it to 5 wounds and then charged it. Crisis suits killed off Shadowsun, yay me. Stormsurge wiffed again on the storm surge and charged the strike squad.

 

Game ended with all my hazards and ghost keel on his home objective with 2 fire warriors. I killed the etheral with the crisis squad and took the center. He had two objective. I was kind of angry with this so I am going to take a break from tau for awhile. To make things worse, I think the grey knight player I played on Saturday gave me covid. Game ended my with a win 55 to 53 only because I had the painted army bonus. Hope thats enough to give me the overall win.

Edited March 31, 2022 by Galron

[Malakithe]

Wow this has been great to read. Some crazy stuff going on

[Galron]

The sleek tau fleet continued to fire as it pursued the Imperial forces. A huge battleship veered to the side presenting its huge broad side to the tau. Its flank turrets firing as soon as they had firing solutions. A Tau Custodian class ship's shields flared brightly and died. As soon as holes appeared the Imperial vessel concentrated its fire on the holes and quickly the tau vessel went nova and erupted from within. The Imperial battleship's victory was short lived however as the tau fleet couldnt allow a ship like this to come along side the formation.

 

As soon as it started turning, AI assisted gunnery officers of the air caste were already prepping short range torpedoes and forward facing rail macro-cannons to fire. Most of these were launched before the battleship even opened fire with its devastating broadside and struck seconds after. The already weakened battleship's void shields flared and crashed as multiple depleted Uranium metal bulllets the size of a fighter moving at a close fraction of the speed of light tore through them as if they were not even there and ripped into the superstructure of the massive ship, followed seconds later by terminal velocity torpedoes slamming into it. One impacted into a still blazing hole from a rail macro-cannon  and pierced the spine of the ship before exploding. The battleship bent in half and a series of explosions rocked the two halves.

 

However due to veering the fleet after the sacrificial battleship, it brought the Tau fleet off course from the main Imperial force desperately trying to escape the inner system's gravity well to leap into the warp. A few of the more manueverable ships  were able to bring their rail cannons to bear and fired off long range shots most of which missed or collapsed shields. 

 

The fleet commander decided further pursuit was a waste of resources and ordered a small pursuit force to harry the retreating warships and transports while the bulk of the fleet returned to Versa to support mopping up efforts there.

 

The capital had fallen weeks before. With the pullout of the Imperial marines and their Grey Knight allies on their still unknown mission, all that remained was small groups of easily isolated human guerillas. The Necron tomb had fallen back to sleep once the earth caste used an experimental temporal distortion device. That area however was under close scrutiny and three entire hunter cadres now patrolled the perimeter of that area while drones moved in and out of the distortion effect to report to command. 

 

So the incredibly short campaign is over. The hardest fight was against another tau player. I won 1st but after playing that tau player, the difference between my 1st and 4th was a painting score. That last game.... I have played tournament armies that were less frustrating.