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 Battle Report - vs. the Tau

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Bookkeeper
Hellion
Bookkeeper


Posts : 40
Join date : 2012-09-14
Location : The Puzzle Box

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Empty
PostSubject: Battle Report - vs. the Tau   Battle Report - vs. the Tau I_icon_minitimeFri Jan 04 2013, 03:59

The House of the Scorpion had their debut performance against a Tau force being played by my arch-nemesis, my 19-year old son. The particulars are as follows:

House of the Scorpion:

HQ
Archon, Venom Blade, PGL, Shadow Field

Elites
4 Incubi, Klaivex,
Venom, Add’l Splinter Cannon, FF, NS

Troops
10 Kabalite Warriors, Sybarite, Blaster, Splinter Cannon
Raider, NS, FF, Splinter Racks

10 Wyches, Hekatrix, Venom Blade, PGL, Haywire Grenades
Raider (I forgot to give this raider any sort of upgrades – the cosmos would punish me for my lack of attention to detail)

Fast Attack
6 Reavers, Arena Champ, Venom Blade, 2 Heat Lances

Heavy Support
Talos, Twin Linked Liquefier, Twin Linked Haywire

Total: 999

Tau Cadre:

HQ
Commander Shas’o, Airbursting Frag Projector, HW Drone Controller (Shield Drone), HW Multi-Tracker, Iridium Armor, Stimulant Injector, TL Fusion Blaster
Crisis Bodyguard, Fusion Blaster, HW Multi-Tracker, Plasma Rifle, Targeting Array

Troops
12 Fire Warriors, Shas’ui, EMP Grenade, Photon Grenade
Devilfish, Burst Cannon, Decoy Launchers, Disruption Pod, Target Lock, SMS

12 Fire Warriors, Shas’ui, EMP Grenade, Photon Grenade
Devilfish, Burst Cannon, Decoy Launchers, Disruption Pod, Target Lock, SMS

Fast Attack
Piranha, Fusion Blaster, Sensor Spines, Targeting Array

Heavy Support
Broadside, TL Railgun, SMS, Targeting Array

Total: 996

The scenario was The Scouring using Vanguard deployment. Night Fight was in effect the first turn. I rolled Strategic Genius (re-roll reserves), the Tau rolled Intimidating Presence (Enemies within 12” of the general roll on the lowest Ld in unit). For combat drugs…I forgot to roll combat drugs! Ah well, further evidence this was my first time playing with the Dark Eldar!

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1deployment

I deployed my vehicles behind the BLOS building and the bikes at the far short end of the table, hoping that distance and night fighting would save them. The Tau deployed to cover the opposing half of the table, with one devilfish each on the two available thirds and the Broadside camping in a Bastion. He set up one of his fire warriors outside of his fish and behind a barricade. This would prove to be a costly mistake. His piranha sat near the Bastion and he reserved his commander in order to Deep Strike him in. He rolls to steal the initiative and…Six! This makes three of the last four games I have played where I’ve set up first and had the initiative stolen from me.

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1turn1mobiletau

Tau Turn 1:
The Devilfish on his right hops the building to move out towards my left flank, but has to go 10 inches to fully clear the building (Devilfish are wide!). The night fighting shuts down a lot of his first turn shooting, though the Broadside peeled a wound off of my Talos.

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1turn1kabalofthes

DE Turn 1:
Everything rolls out. The two raiders and the Venom jump their cover building and begin advancing towards the center. The reavers scoot up my left side towards the Devilfish on my flank. The Talos moves up slowly. In shooting, my Kabalites, firing snap shots for moving 12”, manage to kill two of the Fire Warriors behind the barricade and their D-Cannon puts down a third. Now that they’re below double digits, my Reavers forego heat lancing the Devilfish to Bladevane the warriors. Here is the first example of my dice being absolutely on fire. 6d3 hits turns into 15 hits on the Turbo-Boost, killing another 4. My Venom manages to scratch off one more. Having plunged from 12 Fire Warriors to 4, they make their morale test, but their utility has plummeted. The Dark Lance on my Wych raider and the Talos’ Haywire fire ineffectively at the piranha.

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1turn2mobiletau

Tau Turn 2
Commander does not come in this turn (which is described in the narrative as the Commander watching the battle, wanting to jump in, and his bodyguard telling him to wait a moment). Devilfish on his right disgorges its payload of Fire Warriors and gets out of their way. The Vaned Warriors, the Piranha, and the empty Devilfish pour fire into my reavers, whose ability to zip around the table and murder infantry had a profound psychological effect. Jink saves mean I only lose one model. The disembarked Fire Warriors light into the Kabalite Warriors’ Raider, immobilizing it. The Broadside puts another railgun shot into the Talos, but fails to wound.

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1turn2kabalofthes

DE Turn 2
Turning my attention to the healthy Fire Warrior squad, the Kabalites and the Incubi’s Venom blast them with splinter fire, killing seven. The reavers bladevane their way back across the table, slashing one more FW off of the turn-1 depleted unit and wipe out the recently disembarked one. The Wyches’ Raider advances and takes a shot at the piranha, and the Talos stays near the objective in my corner and fires his haywire. Both are, again, ineffective.

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1turn3mobiletau

Tau Turn 3
The Commander drops in on my left, ready to engage the Kabalites and the Archon. Rapidly running out of troops and now terrified of my reavers, the Tau turn to my transports to try and slow down my other troops. This proves almost decisive. The piranha rolls up and fusion blasters the Wyches’ Raider. One explosion later, my unit of 10 Wyches is down to 4. That worked out so well for him, the Broadside puts a railgun shot into my Venom, which also explodes, taking an Incubus with it. Suddenly the center of the table is covered in difficult terrain, with my melee units right in the middle of it! Both of them pass their pinning test, but are somewhat far from the enemy. The Commander and his buddy fire at the Talos, but only manage to strip off another wound. The Fire Warriors attempt to support the other shooting, but are too few to make much of a difference now.

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1turn3kabalofthes

DE Turn 3
Time to charge! My Wyches advance on the Piranha and the Incubi come out of the rubble towards the commander. My Kabalites fire everything at the commander. If we’d been playing straight up, the Blaster shot would have killed him as he was the nearest model to the shooting, but it was my son’s second outing with 6E and the shooting allocation rules versus the shield drone was a rule he hadn’t run into before; otherwise, he would have kept the shield drone in front. I give him the invulnerable save and he makes it. The splinter fire is withering, but the 2+ armor save for the Drone and the Iridium Commander mean I kill the drone and stick the boss with two wounds, but that’s it. I then bladevane them for good measure, killing the bodyguard and leaving the Commander with a single wound. My Talos declares the first charge, taking the overwatch shot from the boss, which fails to wound! (Yay!) Then he fails his charge (Boo!). The Incubi and the Archon, however, succeed in reaching the commander. The Wyches also successfully make it to the piranha. The Archon does not get through the Commander’s armor, but the Incubi make short work of him. The Wyches hit the piranha with haywire, but only manage to take a single Hull Point.

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1turn4mobiletau

Tau Turn 4
With two Fire Warriors and his Piranha left for scoring, the Tau begin to seek objectives. The piranha drives away from the Wyches and the the Devilfish move to try and kill off a few more of my troops. The remaining Fire Warriors and their transport erase the rest of my Wyches. The Broadside finishes off my Talos. The other Devilfish takes a few potshots at my Incubi, but their 3+ armor saves them.

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Devtau1turn4kabalofthes


DE Turn 4
The Kabalites turn on the remnant of the Fire Warrior unit and wipe it. My reavers slide up alongside the Piranha and Heat Lance him into a wreck amidst my exploded vehicles. Down to only his Broadside and the two Devilfish, the Tau concede.

DE Victory (Concession) – I had First Blood and Kill the Warlord and could have probably gotten linebreaker over top of the 4-point objective.

Conclusion
I’ve got a lot of learning to do. I completely forgot to equip the Wych Raider or roll for Combat Drugs. I put my Raiders in harm’s way too readily and my Wyches paid the price for my folly. Having seen the devastating effect that explosions had on my troops, the Tau should have tried to blow up the Kabalite Raider, rather than leave it there to act as a floating firebase. He wants to play one more 1000 point game before he moves out mid-month, so I think I may swap out the Archon and Incubi, putting a Succubus with the Wyches and some Blasterborn on the Venom. I also think I’m going to experiment with the Ravager in place of the Talos, whose dice were as cold as the Kabalites’ were hot, but certainly takes home the Least Valuable Player award for this game. Tau high-strength weaponry is somewhat mitigated by their Ballistic Skill, but still packs a wallop. I think working towards a slightly more shooty army may go in my favor. I don’t want to just trade fire with him – that way lies madness – but until he learns to try and maneuver with me, I can harass him fairly effectively.

Having given Battle Chronicler a go, I have two questions: 1) Is there a way for me to custom-size the transports, as they came out a little small, and 2) How do I take individual models off as they die? Feedback is always appreciated! Cheers.
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Mushkilla
Arena Champion
Mushkilla


Posts : 4017
Join date : 2012-07-16
Location : Toroid Arena

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PostSubject: Re: Battle Report - vs. the Tau   Battle Report - vs. the Tau I_icon_minitimeSat Jan 05 2013, 14:56

Great report! Well played. Smile

Personally I'm not a fan of the haywire blasters on talos, they just don't seem that effective (at least in 6th they could stun lock). In my experience the splinter cannon has been a far superior choice, and gives out impressive suppression fire on a durable platform (also helps you get a pain token as soon as possible). Also from the report it sounds like it did its job: draw fire away from the rest of your army, and meant your transports lasted a lot longer.

Bookkeeper wrote:
Having given Battle Chronicler a go, I have two questions: 1) Is there a way for me to custom-size the transports, as they came out a little small, and 2) How do I take individual models off as they die? Feedback is always appreciated! Cheers.

Have you checked out this Battle Chronicler Tutorial? It covers removing individual models and creating custom size models. If you need any more help just PM me.

I have added your report to the The Big Thread of Illustrated Battle Reports! sticky at the top of the Realspace Raid section.
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Bookkeeper
Hellion
Bookkeeper


Posts : 40
Join date : 2012-09-14
Location : The Puzzle Box

Battle Report - vs. the Tau Empty
PostSubject: Re: Battle Report - vs. the Tau   Battle Report - vs. the Tau I_icon_minitimeSat Jan 05 2013, 19:32

The Talos certainly kept the Broadside busy, which is a point in its favor. While the Haywire didn't accomplish much of anything, I just don't know if I need even more anti-infantry fire.

Thanks for the kind words! The boy wants a rematch before next weekend, so I'm thinking about how I might switch up a few things. Archon and Incubi may go for Blasterborn in that Venom,with a Succubus leading the Wych Raider.
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Squierboy
Kabalite Warrior
Squierboy


Posts : 197
Join date : 2012-09-23

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PostSubject: Re: Battle Report - vs. the Tau   Battle Report - vs. the Tau I_icon_minitimeSun Jan 06 2013, 14:59

Bookkeeper wrote:
The Talos certainly kept the Broadside busy, which is a point in its favor. While the Haywire didn't accomplish much of anything, I just don't know if I need even more anti-infantry fire.

Thanks for the kind words! The boy wants a rematch before next weekend, so I'm thinking about how I might switch up a few things. Archon and Incubi may go for Blasterborn in that Venom,with a Succubus leading the Wych Raider.

You'll probably save quite a few points doing this, as the succubus is cheaper than the archon,and you can afford to drop 2-3 wyches in her place. The blasterborn will end up costing around the same as the incubi, so fairly straight swap there. I reckon you'll have around 80-90 points, then if you take off a vehicle upgrade or two, the blaster from the warrior squad and/or maybe the arena champ's venom blade, since the RJBs are mainly a shooty/bladevane unit, you can afford a 2nd ravager (or talos)! Boom! Assuming you have the miniatures for this.

Regarding the game, yes it is too easy to forget important stuff sometimes. This is called a JervisJohnsonism. Ironically you remembered to roll for the warlord trait that did absolutely nothing to help you!

Great report though, thanks for putting it up. Good luck with your next game, let us know how it goes.
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PostSubject: Re: Battle Report - vs. the Tau   Battle Report - vs. the Tau I_icon_minitime

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