BR15: The Black Buzzards VS DE Tau Mech - 1500pts

Another game against Shadows Revenge, this time he was using Tau!

The armies:

Black Buzzards (DE)

HQ
Succubus, venom blade
Succubus, venom blade

TROOPS
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Lance, NS
8 wyches, Hekatrix, venom blade, PGL, Haywire
Raider, Lance, NS
5 warriors
Raider, Lance, NS

FAST ATTACK
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade
9 Reavers, 3 heat lances, arena champion, venom blade

HEAVY SUPPORT
Ravager, NS

Mechanised Tau (TAU)

HQ
Shas'o, Target Lock, Iridium Armour, Stimulant Injector, Missile Pod, Flamer, Shield Generator, Black sun filter

ELITE
2 Crisis, Twin-linked Missile Pods, Flamer
2 Crisis, Twin-linked Missile Pods, Flamer
2 Crisis, Twin-linked Missile Pods, Flamer

TROOPS
6 Firewarriors
Devilfish, Disruption Pod
6 Firewarriors
Devilfish, Disruption Pod
6 Firewarriors
Devilfish, Disruption Pod

FAST ATTACK
Tetra Scout, Targeting Array
Tetra Scout, Targeting Array
Tetra Scout, Targeting Array

HEAVY SUPPORT
Hammerhead, Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pod
Hammerhead, Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pod
Hammerhead, Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pod

Mission: The Emperor's Will
Deployment: Dawn of War
Night fight on first turn: Yes
First turn: TAU
Warlord Trait DE: Dust of a Thousand Worlds(Move through cover)
Warlord Trait TAU: Conqueror of Cities (Stealth and move through cover ruins)
Drugs DE: Hipex (three D6 pick the highest run)

Deployment:

The Tau spread out leaving no where to hide. I castled in a corner hoping that I would be able to keep my reavers safe by blocking line of sight to them. The Tetras also did their scout moves (not shown in the diagram).

Turn 1(TAU):

Everything moved up. Models that were not in range moved flat out. Missile pod fire from the commander and his crisis team took out both raiders, their shots guided by the tetras marker lights. The resulting explosions killed about four reavers, and a lot of warriors/wyches. The Railgun shot from the hammer head killed another four reavers and the three survivors failed their leadership test and ran off the board (this is turning into a signature move!).

Turn 1(DE):

The survivors of the raider explosions move onto the objective behind cover, the succubus got into the surviving raider which moved flat out into the tau formation. The ravager moved into the ruins and rolled a 1 for it's dangerous terrain test, fortunately it got to re-roll thanks to the succubus' warlord trait, it then opened fire on the commander and his suits, inflicting two wounds, the commander failed one of his look out sir rolls but managed to pass his invulnerable save. One reaver squad bladevaned the commander the other tried to get some out of melta range shots in on the tetra, doing nothing. This was a mistake as they should have bladevaned the commander (who I had forgotten had a flamer).

Turn 2 (TAU):

A crisis team took out the raider with the help of some markerlights. The other crisis team flamed the survivors leaving only the warlord succubus standing. She then managed a 5+ cover save against a rail gun (I had decided she was too arrogant to go to ground), before getting killed by some devilfish pulse fire. The Ravager lost a lance to a railgun hit. The shas'o's flamer killed six reavers reavers (burnanator!), and some pulse fire killed another. The other reaver squad who lost three to a railgun submunition round, fell back. The shas'o charged the lone survivor.

Turn 2 (DE):

The reavers rallied, the ravager fired to little effect, and the Shas'o finally cut down the reaver he was in combat with. At this point I conceded.

TAU VPs: N/A (Victor) DE VPs: N/A (Conceded)

Conclusion
Well I got well and truly Monta'Kaed! Despite preventing most of the Tau army from shooting my plan to use raiders to screen reavers backfired. It went downhill from there really, having lost a lot of my mobility, I didn't have much of a chance against such overwhelming fire-power and of course the brutally effective marker lights. However another loss another lesson, I tested what I wanted to test (castling with raiders, to block line of sight to the reavers to protect them from first turn shooting).

On a sad note I think the only way forward is dropping the reaver squads down to two.

All in all the game was an absolute blast and as usual Shadows Revenge was a fantastic opponent that is really helping me up my 40k game. Thanks Shadow!

Hope you enjoyed the report!

Gutted. There's something so cool about your tri reaver list, and its such refreshing change from venom spam.

If your gonna castle, would trophies seem a good investment to help stop the readers running?

I'm awaiting the next instalment of the buzzards journey with interest

2 Reaver squads is logical, what will you take for those ~250 points?

Tetras actually are one example why Imperial Armour is not widely accepted by all. Alpha strike ability they provide, for this cost and with this platform is quite funny, in a very grim sense.

Furious_george_ii wrote:

Gutted. There's something so cool about your tri reaver list, and its such refreshing change from venom spam.

I have a few more list to try, mainly a reserve based list that aim to minimise the damage of not going first. But for now I think I need a bit of a break away from the three reaver squads as fun as they are. It would be good to try something different and come back to it at a later date. As for venoms I have never been a fan, there is just so much creative stuff you can do with raiders as they are designed to be be able to block like of sight to other Dark Eldar models (reavers, talos, hellions etc).

Furious_george_ii wrote:

If your gonna castle, would trophies seem a good investment to help stop the readers running?

Yes I think they would be a sound option, especially after loosing reavers on the first turn due to leadership tests three games running.

Furious_george_ii wrote:

I'm awaiting the next instalment of the buzzards journey with interest

Thanks, I appreciate the support. It might be a bit bumpy now that the skill level of my opponents has increased considerably, but I'm sure I'll figure something out.

Azdrubael wrote:

2 Reaver squads is logical, what will you take for those ~250 points?

No idea just yet.

Azdrubael wrote:

Tetras actually are one example why Imperial Armour is not widely accepted by all. Alpha strike ability they provide, for this cost and with this platform is quite funny, in a very grim sense.

They got a whole lot nastier with the disruption pod change, talk about one upgrade revolutionising an entire army! To say mech is dead in 6th is madness with Tau, DE and IG still running very strong mech lists. Personally I think the whole infantry shift is a knee jerk reaction.

Knee jerk would be a good term there. Mech is very far from dead.

I haven't gotten a chance to pya with or against tetras yet, but I know the first thing I'm getting if I ever revamp my tau...and the first thing I'm going to try and kill if I ever come up against them.

Don't have much to add really, just that I'm very interested in seeing where you start taking the army now. I'm sure you've been asked already in one BR or another, but what are your thoughts on adding in allies?

the funny thing is that distruption pods keep getting better every edition. All it did in 4th was only caused glancing hits in 4th (which still blew up tanks btw), than in 5th it gave them a consent 4+ coversave. Ok, very good for 5 points... Now what do you we got, a 3+ coversave if they move??? It should of just been stealth, not shrouding... 5 points man... we have to pay 10 for a 5++

Fraust wrote:

Don't have much to add really, just that I'm very interested in seeing where you start taking the army now. I'm sure you've been asked already in one BR or another, but what are your thoughts on adding in allies?

It will be interesting, I'm quite exited to be honest. As for allies, they are tough to fit in at 1500 points, if I did take allies it would probably be Chaos Daemons:

HQ
Great Unclean One - 160

TROOPS
3 Nurglings - 39

At only 199 points its quite easy to fit into a list and provides a massive bullet magnet to draw fire away from the rest of your army whilst at the same time providing area denial.

Shadows Revenge wrote:

the funny thing is that distruption pods keep getting better every edition. All it did in 4th was only caused glancing hits in 4th (which still blew up tanks btw), than in 5th it gave them a consent 4+ coversave. Ok, very good for 5 points... Now what do you we got, a 3+ coversave if they move??? It should of just been stealth, not shrouding... 5 points man... we have to pay 10 for a 5++

Yeah for an upgrade that was originally not great it's had a good run.

Tau are a very dangerous opponent for Dark Eldar, Pulsae Rifles really dish out the hurt. 6th edition has really benefitted them as a whole too, it has made made them the fast, mobile shooty army they were supposed to be. Disruption pods are just unbelievably good now too. Unlucky, that was a really tough list to go up against.

Mush...if I remember right you play daemons from time to time...have you used a great unclean one before? I've used one alot in 5th but I don't think I've brought him out but maybe once or twice in 6th. In my experience he's good against some players and some armies, but I think he's not going to add much to your list. GUO's are big and scary, but they're slow. Yep, deep strike helps with that, and you can drop him off in the midfield or up closer to your opponent and if they're playing a static army their going to freak and shoot it (and not the rest of your army), but against the armies you've lost against? I imagine they'll manuver around it, and ignore it until everything else is busted apart.

You're right though, I keep forgetting you're playing 1500, and that's not a good point level for allies.

Do you plan on eventually playing higher point games or is 1500 where you want to stay?

Now you've got me thinking of daemon allies for my own DE...and the fact that I really need to come up with an idea for fiends (sculpting wise)

Fraust wrote:

Mush...if I remember right you play daemons from time to time...have you used a great unclean one before? I've used one alot in 5th but I don't think I've brought him out but maybe once or twice in 6th. In my experience he's good against some players and some armies, but I think he's not going to add much to your list. GUO's are big and scary, but they're slow. Yep, deep strike helps with that, and you can drop him off in the midfield or up closer to your opponent and if they're playing a static army their going to freak and shoot it (and not the rest of your army), but against the armies you've lost against? I imagine they'll manuver around it, and ignore it until everything else is busted apart.

I think the trick is to deepstrike the GUO onto/near an objective or use him to shut down an area of the board. He is effectively an area denial unit, sure he can't contest, but he will kill most things that come too close (especially now that his movement is better). This forces your opponent to deal with him, and any units not shooting at the rest of your army is a real boon.

Fraust wrote:

Do you plan on eventually playing higher point games or is 1500 where you want to stay?

I'll most likely stay at 1500 as its the standard in the UK, and personally I think 6th has cemented that even further as games take a bit longer so higher point games end up taking too long.

Fraust wrote:

Now you've got me thinking of daemon allies for my own DE...and the fact that I really need to come up with an idea for fiends (sculpting wise)

Personally I always liked the spider conversion, all plastic and easy to do, reasonably affordable too.

I'm converting spiders into hopping fly/spider/wasp things to act as screamers of tzeentch and/or rough riders in a traitor guard army...otherwise I would be all about that conversion. My tentative plan for fiends now is using plastic LotR wargs and covering them in green stuff and adding in tentacles.

Like I said, I think against some armies that will work, but I don't think it will give you an improvement over the armies you're struggling with. Doing it quick like, it takes what, three venom to kill a GUO? 36 pulse rifle shots? I think in both of those cases he's dying the turn your opponent wants him to die. Also, I don't think he's any faster. Last edition he was slow, so moved 3d6 and take the highest, and could run. This edition he moves six. I guess he's faster due to the changes in assault...but I'd call that iffy.

EDIT: I forgot all about feel no pain until I'd hit submit...I still think he's fragile against DE and tau, but he's not as bad off as I thought.

You do have me wondering though...and I'm back in town, with my DE...and my huge arsed GUO...hmm...

Hehe, it's just an idea for allies, and it is really cheap seeing as you are not paying the HQ tax and the troop tax is 39pts of awesome, nurglings are by far the best value daemon troops their problem has always been they don't score. Also the GUO is T6 4+ invulnerable, FNP and 5 wounds, so it takes 45 splinter shots on average to kill him (BS4), 89.9 pulse rifle shots (BS3), 135 bolter shots (BS4), 60 multilaser/shurican cannon/scatter laser shots (BS3), and 45 autocannon shots (BS3). So he will take a lot of your opponents fire.

The important part is his average threat range has gone from 9.92 to 13, and then there is the projected fear of him potentially charging more, sure he won't charge 18" but he potentially can, and that will affect your opponents decisions.

That being said I don't plan on running a GUO just yet, I just think for such a cheap cost to include him in the army he's an interesting option worth considering.

I've kicked around the idea of guard as allies a few times. Still haven't sat down and gone through it...as soon as I realized they wouldn't be scoring I kinda scrapped the idea...but you're talk about daemons has made me reconsider.

Any clue who/what your next opponent is going to be?

Fraust wrote:

Any clue who/what your next opponent is going to be?

Just had another game against Shadows Revenge, with a list I really enjoyed (he was playing SoB) the report should be up tomorrow.

I'm enjoying your battle reports a great deal and learning a few tricks from them.

I think the castle using the raiders as screens can be effective, I've used it with empty raiders. However it's important to leave some room for the inevitable explosions to take place without covering too much of your army.

I've dabbled with reavers a few times but never really got them working, probably as I only took 1 unit of 6. The last couple of battle reports have I think shown the weakness in the list with so many reavers. You only had 7 targets in the last list and I feel that this, just isn't enough. The loss of any 1 unit can hurt your army pretty badly. Target saturation is a problem with this few threats.
It's a pity because I have really enjoyed the exploits of the Black Buzzards and I'd like to see you continue with them. I'd like to see you tak the list up to 1750 points and see how it does, 1750 is what a lot of events in the UK are running at, the notable exception is ToS.

I've used Daemons as allies before and really enjoyed it. My idea was to take a Herald as HQ, minimum unit of horrors and a soul grinder. Slapping the soul grinder in front of an enemy line really focuses their attention and with 4 HP's it provides a bit of durability that we don't have.

Hope you keep going with the buzzards and looking forward to more reports.

kenny3760 wrote:

I'm enjoying your battle reports a great deal and learning a few tricks from them.

Thanks, glad you get something out of them, I'm not that experienced a player.

kenny3760 wrote:

I think the castle using the raiders as screens can be effective, I've used it with empty raiders. However it's important to leave some room for the inevitable explosions to take place without covering too much of your army.

Yeah, I learn't that one the hard way.

kenny3760 wrote:

The last couple of battle reports have I think shown the weakness in the list with so many reavers. You only had 7 targets in the last list and I feel that this, just isn't enough. The loss of any 1 unit can hurt your army pretty badly. Target saturation is a problem with this few threats.
It's a pity because I have really enjoyed the exploits of the Black Buzzards and I'd like to see you continue with them.

They sure have. More so a problem of not going first and reavers survivability being crippled as a result if left on the table. I have also realised that three raiders are just a liability as their are no other threats to draw anti tank fire away from them, this combined with S4 explosions is problematic, even more so when going second.

As for the Black Buzzards, I'm only at the tip of the ice burg, currently I'm running two units of nine to change things up a bit, and already it has opened up invaluable insight into understanding the rolls that reavers can play in a DE army. Sure my lists might not be as reaver heavy as they were but they will remain a key element in my army regardless.

kenny3760 wrote:

I'd like to see you tak the list up to 1750 points and see how it does, 1750 is what a lot of events in the UK are running at, the notable exception is ToS.

I won't be able to any time soon as time is quite a limiting factor and with 6th edition even 1500 point games are quite long. But I'm sure I will get round to it at some point.

kenny3760 wrote:

I've used Daemons as allies before and really enjoyed it. My idea was to take a Herald as HQ, minimum unit of horrors and a soul grinder. Slapping the soul grinder in front of an enemy line really focuses their attention and with 4 HP's it provides a bit of durability that we don't have.

Not to mention the latest FAQ giving it a 5+ invulnerable save! Sounds like a plan. Again so far I'm trying to stay away from allies just to really help me get to grips with all the choices in our dex, it's a real labyrinth of possibilities.

kenny3760 wrote:

Hope you keep going with the buzzards and looking forward to more reports.

Thanks, the next report is up and the list was very exciting to play (Talos, Grotesques, WWP, Reavers you name it).