1750 Kabal of the Dying Sun vs Farsight Crisis bomb

Drink of the succulent nectar birthed from the suffering of one of the lesser races.
Bear witness!
A school of the blue skinned fish-men have been lured to their dooms by threatening their weak and young. They jumped straight into an ambush designed to maim and capture some of their elite warriors for the arenas and flesh-pits.

Kabal of the Dying Sun with Coven of Lambent Hunger escort
Dark Eldar CAD
HQ - Archon, Animus Vitae, Agoniser, Blaster, SF, WWP, Venom w/SC
Court of the Archon, 4 Medusae
Troops - 2x 5 Kabalites, Blaster, Raider w/DL
Elites - 5 Trueborn, 4 Blasters, Venom
2x 5 Mandrakes
Fast - 2x 5 Scourges, 4 Blasters
Heavy - 3x Ravager
Formation
Scalpel Squadron, 2x Venom w/SC, 2x 5 Wracks w/Ossefactor

Farsight Crisis rapid response team
Farsight Enclaves CAD
HQ - Farsight
Bodyguard Team - 7 Crisis Suits, 2 Plasma Guns, 2 Burst Cannons, 10 Missile Pods, 6 Target Lock, VectorRTs, 12 Gun Drones.
Troops - Crisis Suit
3 Crisis Suits, 6 Missile Pods
Elite - Riptide, Earth Caste Piloting Array, TL-SMS
Tau CAD
HQ - Commander, Iridium, MsSS, C&CN, Onager, Stims, Flamer, Shield, Drone Controller, 2 Shield Drones (This was his warlord)
Troops - 2x 6 Fire Warriors
Fast Attack - 2 Tetras (Vehicle squadron. Not sure why.)
Heavy - Skyray, SMS

Mission: Maelstrom, Cloak and Shadows
Deployment: Hammer and Anvil
Night Fight: Yesssssssssss
Warlord Trait: DE - Towering Arrogance (Warlord and friendlies within 12" Fearless)
Tau - A Ghost Who Walks Among Us (3d6" jet pack thrust moves for Warlord's unit)
Combat Drugs: Nope. Anyone else confused as to why Scourges aren't all stimmed up?
First Deployment: DE
First Turn: DE

Initial Thoughts: I've lost to Farsight bomb played by this opponent a number of times with my Chaos Marines and Daemons, as have some of my Ork and SM friends. Wasn't feeling too good going in, but then I did bring lots of AP2. Trying out Blasterborn and Blaster Scourge for the first time, as well as the Medusae WWP drop. Biggest concern was not having anything in my list to manipulate reserves. Would it prove crippling?

Deployment: A few solid ruins in each DZ with plenty of small BLOS impassable terrain pieces filling up the middle.
I deployed first. Kabalite Warriors in their Raiders on objectives out of LOS in my back end. Ravagers mostly obscured behind BLOS or Ruins. Scourges, Blasterborn in Venom, Archon/Court in Venom, Scalpel Squadron in DS reserve, Mandrakes outflanking.
He put his Riptide behind ruins way out of my reach, both Tetras in ruins closer to my Ravagers, the unit of Missile Suits in a ruin partially hidden, and both units of Fire Warriors hidden from my side of the table in terrain. Skyray is similarly hidden behind BLOS. Giant scary Crisis blob in DS reserve.
He failed to seize.

DE Turn 1 -
Scalpel Squadron Venoms drop into his DZ, giving me LOS on both Fire Warrior Units. One scatters off the table and mishaps so he tosses it into the back corner of my DZ facing away from the table.
2 Ravagers and one Raider move to get LOS on the Tetras. Shooting puts one down and shakes the other. The other Ravager and Raider snipe out 2 Missile Crisis suits through a window. The wracks in his DZ disembark 1" away from a Fire Warrior unit directly under his surviving Crisis Suit, and shooting sees 5/6 Fire Warriors die horrible deaths even though they went to ground (3 from Ossefactor, 2 from Venom). But both infantry units pass LD!
I fail to get FB for the d3 VP but do score Obj 4.

Tau Turn 1 -
Riptide puts on his 3++ underpants and jumps up to put the squeeze on a Raider. But the snap-firing Tetra fails to markerlight it up, allowing me to Jink away the Riptide's shots. Yay 3+ jink! Surviving Crisis Suit tries to beat down another Ravager but I jink. Skyray jumps over cover to get into LOS of everything, but networked markerlight and snap shot SMS fails to hurt the nearby Venom. Fire Warriors in the back move into rapid fire range of my Wracks and open up with the surviving Fire Warrior, but Night Fight and FNP prove superior and they only kill 1 Wrack. Thrust moves his Crisis Suit downstairs to help the Fire Warrior next turn, and the Riptide further into ruins.
Still no first blood and he scores none of his cards.

DE: 1   Tau: 0

DE Turn 2 -
Both units of Mandrakes show up; one by the 6 Fire Warriors, one by the surviving Tetra. One unit of Scourges DS near the Riptide and Skyray . This leaves my Court, Blasterborn, and another unit of Scourges in reserve to wait for his Crisis blob. Talk about perfect.
Raider gets a lance shot off at the Skyray, shakes it. Scourge Blasters add a single pen but he jinks it off. Wish I'd brought Haywire... Mandrakes try drop the last Tetra, no glances. Other Raider blows it up with its lance. All three Ravagers pour fire into the Riptide but he saves the 5 wounds I land. Venom w/Wracks stuck in the corner moves and boosts up behind BLOS. Mandrakes put down 2 Fire Warriors, Wrack Venom puts down one more. They fall back 1" shy of table edge. Wracks shoot Crisis Suit, stick 1 wound. They multiple-assault and kill the lone Fire Warrior.
I score Overwhelming Firepower and First Blood on the Tetra, Behind Enemy Lines with 2 Wrack units and a Venom for 3 VP, and capture Obj 1 with a Ravager.

Tau Turn 2 -
Farsight and company show up! Sad panda. They drop in neatly behind all three Ravagers and with LOS and range on the mishap Wrack Venom and both Kabalite Raiders. With Target Lock and Ignores Cover and Twin-Linked and every other special rule, the twelve trillion guns blow up or wreck all three Ravagers, the Venom, one Raider (Kabalites pinned), and put a weapon destroyed hull point on the remaining Raider. Falling back Fire Warriors fail to rally and run screaming off the board. Skyray shuffles over to stop Scourges getting rear armour and ends 1 Scourge with snap-fired SMS (would have killed 2, but yay 6+ FNP!). Riptide fails to shoot any Scourges (yay 6++ Ghostplate Armour!) and fails his charge. Crisis blob thrust moves onto an Objective and into ruins. Lone Crisis Suit beats down a Wrack in CC.
He scores Obj 1.

DE: 7   Tau: 1

DE Turn 3 -
Blasterborn and Court both show up. Blasterborn Venom scatter into his Crisis Suits, but by our interpretation of the skimmer rule debate they safely bounce away like a Drop Pod. WWP Court drops in a perfect location to hit Crisis Suits and no drones. 8 models under the Medusae Eyeburst template (he forgot I had templates incoming, and I completely forgot to remind him. I swear.), 32 hits but rolling only 13 wounds. This kills 6.5 Crisis Suits (who are in a coma and being dragged back to Commorragh as we speak ). Surviving Kabalites in Raider join in and puts down .5 Crisis Suits. Last Venom puts one more wound on a Suit and claims objective. The Trueborn kill Farsight. Pinned Kabalites take out 1 drone. Wracks clamber onto objective, Ossefactor misses drones. Mandrakes shoot and charge Riptide. Zero damage and I lose two Mandrakes, but Riptide successfully locked in CC. Other Mandrakes jump on objective. Scourges wreck Skyray no problem this time. Wracks and Crisis Suit play cards instead of fighting in CC.
I score Ascendency for 1VP.

Tau Turn 3 -
He is quickly running out of units. Good for me, bad for him. Crisis Commander unit manages to blow up the Trueborn and Archon Venoms but as luck would have it all my models survive the explosions. Power From Pain really saved my bacon. Crisis blob thrust moves onto a nearby objective.
Riptide squishes two Mandrakes in CC. The Crisis Suit follows his big brother's example and slaps one Wrack to death.
He scores Obj 3, Big Game Hunter from blowing up my vehicles.

DE: 8   Tau: 3

DE Turn 4 - Last unit of Scourge drop into my DZ from the sky and kill 3 Drones from the blob. Medusae and Archon melt another 3 Drones and the last half of the last Crisis Suit. Crisis Commander makes 8 2+ saves and one 4++. Kabalite Warriors disembark from their Raider. Them and the Trueborn both screw up and use rapid fire instead of only the Blasters, meaning they can't Furious Charge this round . Combined they kill maybe one more drone. Useless. Who is in charge here?!? The Archon, that's who. As punishment he charges into the Commander, whose flamer kills two Medusae in overwatch. Challenge issued and accepted. Witness the greatest slap fight in the history of ever. No wounds dealt or taken in this challenge for the rest of the game. Venom and Scourges in his DZ positions to shoot the Riptide in case it ever escapes CC. Mandrakes hide out in terrain to ensure 2+ cover Linebreaker later.
Crisis Suit and Wracks go back to playing cards. Riptide stomps the last Mandrake and is free.
Score Hungry For Glory for challenging the Commander to a polite debate, and 1 VP for securing the Trophy Hunter objective.

Tau Turn 4 -
Commander and Archon discuss the finer points of finger painting over cups of herbal tea. Drones and Medusae eye each other in distrust but decide to follow their bosses' leads and not kill each other either. Riptide points his guns at the Scourges... and kills 1. Successfully charges them though fails to kill any in CC. Crisis Suit remembers what is going on and beats another Wrack to a smiling, bleeding pulp.
No VP scored.

DE: 10   Tau: 3

DE Turn 5 -
Kabalite Warriors, Trueborn and Scourges all charge into the Archon/Commander melee and wipe out the rest of the drones. Archon Twinkletoes and Commander Tightpants have moved on to showing each other their latest breakthroughs in basket weaving.
Surviving Wrack and Crisis Suit stuck in CC forever. Riptide and Scourges stuck in CC forever (Yay 6++ Ghostplate!).
The rest of my forces shuffle around onto objectives and in/out of LOS of whatever is nearby accordingly.
I score Obj 3 twice and Obj 2.

Tau Turn 5 -
The vile Dark Eldar Archon was rumoured to have been dancing a waltz with the steadfast Tau Commander, though this information comes from secondhand sources as all the potential witnesses died of natural causes before returning to the Dark City.
We roll out the other CC matches and no unsaved wounds land anywhere. Everyone is locked in Combat.
He concedes gracefully.
As gracefully as he dances...

End of match: I have Linebreaker making the final score 14-3 in favour of the Dark Eldar.


We both enjoyed the match and had a great time playing Maelstrom missions as always!
C&C on either of our lists, tactics, etc, welcome and appreciated!

This puts me at 1 Win 1 Loss vs Tau with the new Codex. I lost the last one to Tau Hammerheads, Riptide, 3 units of Fire Warriors, 3 units of Pathfinders, a Quad Gun Aegis, Fireblade, and 2 units of Missile Broadsides with a smattering of Plasma Crisis Suits and a Burst Cannon Commander suit drop.

Mistakes I made: Leaving him a nice empty safe landing spot behind ALL MY SKIMMERS for his Blob to land. What else did I do wrong?
Mistakes he made: Bringing guns to a dark matter fight? I couldn't tell ya.

DE MVP: Hands down the Archon/Medusae Court/Venom WWP drop.
DE worst unit: The entire Scalpel Squadron formation. Failed to get First Blood, failed to kill a single 1-wound Crisis Suit in CC over 8 phases and a shooting phase, half of them scattering and then getting their ride shot to bits before missing two last shots with the Ossefactor. Stupid dice.

Tau MVP: Probably the 1 wound Crisis Suit who beat up 3 out of 4 Wracks in CC over 8 combat phases.
Tau worst unit: To my mind his Skyray, which managed to kill a single Scourge before being shot to death.

Questions: How to kill an Iridium Commander?
Worth putting Solarite/Haywire Grenade on Scourges to ensure they get the job done?

Thanks for taking the time to read!

Oh I hate Farsight bombs. To see how much they can take out is crazy. If only they would lose the upgrade to let them all shoot at different targets at full BS is BS.

But well done! Sounds like you did some pretty impressive saves there!

Haha, loved the descriptions of the melee fighting. Glad the medusae bomb worked well for you too. I've been wiping out some nasty stuff with them myself. The precision we can place them really lets us erase any one threat and seems to make the enemy scramble to deal with them. It may start encouraging your opponent to run interceptor more than split fire, so be ready for that. The raider would really be the one to take the brunt of that attack though.

Well done on your latest raid. Good read as well. I was cracking up the whole time over the epic battle of commanders.

Grub you said it, Target Lock is the bane of my existence. The 2nd most brütal bs ever after markerlights.
Not only does their army ignore all of YOUR army's rules, it also ignores half of the game rules too!

lessthanjeff, thankee kindly! Yeah the Medusae bomb is scary solid hey? Interceptor doesn't scare me too terribly much, thinking of trying a Raider with a couple Sslyth inside next time to help the unit out.

barenone I appreciate that haha, thanks.

Its a pain, its just the cheesiest cheese and it takes the biscuit. Me and my friend who played orks combo'd up and he basically spread out a 30 man boy squad bubbles around everything important! The Farsight bomb player was just so frustrated!

Haha so he couldn't get close enough to shoot without fear of being mobbed?

Think of the orks as a blanket, he went for a full shooting ork list. Litterally covered the table, spread them all out with Dark Eldar gunboats cocooned in the middle. He had no where to go of use without misshapping because he took such a large amount of bodyguards! (also lots of forest terrain). When he did come down it was well out of the way and he only took a ravager and a venom before being shot to pieces by the Orks. Worth it.

My Ork buddy and I have played against Tau/Tau, though I was playing CSM at the time, and we won by the skin of our teeth. We spammed our respective bikes. But I'll definitely run this concept past him and see how he feels about it.
Cheers!

Nice Battle Report. I have a buddy that like to run a Farsight bomb that has killed me too many times. I plan on trying some Grot bombs on him next time we play.

Haha I wouldn't say it was effective, more funny!

Funny > effective sometimes. It's just about making sure you do funny properly.