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:HQArchon, Venom Blade, PGL, Shadow Field
Elites4 Incubi, Klaivex,
Venom, Add’l Splinter Cannon, FF, NS
Troops10 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 Attack6 Reavers, Arena Champ, Venom Blade, 2 Heat Lances
Heavy SupportTalos, 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
Troops12 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 AttackPiranha, Fusion Blaster, Sensor Spines, Targeting Array
Heavy SupportBroadside, 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!
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.
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.
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.
Tau Turn 2Commander 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.
DE Turn 2Turning 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.
Tau Turn 3The 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.
DE Turn 3Time 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.
Tau Turn 4With 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.
DE Turn 4The 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.
ConclusionI’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.
Subject: Battle Report - vs. the Tau 
Fri Jan 04 2013, 03:59
