New Tau (trip HH) vs Dark Eldar (coven) 1500pts

So I thought I would try something different and post the individual battle reports. This will allow for some more in depth discussion on the actual game at hand.

1500pts vs NewTau



The Tau List:
Fire Cadre
Suit Commander - Irridium, Super Punch, Hit and Rin, Missile pod, plasma
6 FW
10 FW
6 FW
4 Pathfinders
4PathFinders
4Pathfinders
HH , Longstrike railgun submunicion, move through cover
HH , railgun submunicion, move through cover
HH , railgun submunicion, move through cover
Allies:
Mephiston
5 Blood Angel Scouts with Sniper Rifles

The Dark Eldar list:
Urien Rackarth 3 Uber Grots in a raider
10 wracks, 2 LG in a raider
10 wyches, HWg, Hex w/vb in a raider
5 warriors blaster- venom
5 warriors blasrer- venom
5 Scourge 2xHWB
5 Scourge 2xHWB
Talos TL SC - TL LG
Talos TL SC- TL LG

Comments appreciated Hope you enjoy the battle report.

Great report as usual, Skari. Good win with 2nd turn and no nightfight. Think you would have kept the win had the game gone the distance? I couldn't tell if the Tau had any more troops left.

I like the look of your current list, though have you thought about putting the scourge into one unit? Two HWB just isn't enough to wreck a tank in one go, but four could do it. It occured to me because they arrived on different turns. Also, why didn't you shoot up Longstrike's Hammerhead first, as it's the most dangerous? Maybe you didn't have LOS, but you may as well take advantage of the decent range of the HWB (well ,compared to fusion guns!).
Something else I noticed about them is that they are a bit of waste when your opponent brings no vehicles - like in your recent games vs daemons.

Glad to see you are giving your talos liquifier guns now, it really paid off!

For the Tau, I don't really understand the idea of a lone assaulty commander. Seems a bit wierd, but then I'm not au fait with all the current Tau builds doing the rounds, just the more standard ones. Still, he kept Urien tied up for a bit.
I aso laughed when your opponent said that his tactics next time would be to have less terrain...perhaps by pulling a Jedi mind trick on you while setting up the board?
"These are not the terrain pieces you are looking for.."
Mephiston aside, the advantage was really to you when the forces were that close.

Anyway - keep up the good work! And, if you'll indulge me:
Squierboy - OUT!

@Squierboy - Thanks , im glad you liked the report. I appreciate the comment. I think that I had the game in the bag. With mephiston and his commander dead, the wracks would have eventually taken out the last FW squad and the talos would have annihilated the last FW squad. I still had 3 more warriors moving up to get the relic, but I would not have needed it to win. The only wild card would have been longstrike.

I have considered the 10 scourge. I like the 2 5 man units. If i need all 4 at one thing... then all 4 fire at the same thing. It just forces the enemy to split fire.

If the enemy brings no tanks the scourge use their shard carbines, and the HWB's become abalative wounds.

The assaulty commander was interesting. this was his first game with the tau so I guess he just had something in mind.

I will indulge you. Lol, that made me laugh.

If your deepstriking the scourge have you thought of giving them heatlances, or blasters? They both double up as good anti infantry weapons, and would make both your scourge units a threat. Though it does commit you to deepstriking (in the case of heatlances).

As usual great stuff, look forward to the next one.

Mush- Yes, I have considered heat lances for at least one squad to make them more of a threat when deepstriking. I would drop a few wyches to pull off the upgrades. The list still needs some tweaking, but its getting there.

Would you ever switch out the wyches for more wracks or do you think you need the wyches?
I'm currently starting a Kabal/Coven hybrid army but to be more fluffy I was looking to exclude cult units just because points-wise its hard to balance the three.
Do you think the wyches play an integral role or would switching them for wracks not make a huge difference?

If I had the wracks I would take them.

I don't get why you didn't take your third Heavy support slot, another talos would have been good as you're playing Coven, but I know you've got a razorwing I've seen in other reports, would have been better here I think, he could have had the same role as the scourges, except a flyer is harder to shoot down than scourges. Scrouges vs tau, not really smart if you ask me, even basic fire will hurt them a lot, you made a good attempt though, i'll give you that.

I have to admit, you had no luck with Urien this time, the grots were beaten pretty easily too. I(m not a fan of putting such a character in a Tau army, doesn't make much sence, GW allowing to take other allied wasn't a good call or they should have given better rules to make it more believable.

The terrain clearly gave the Dark Eldar the advantage, we're not always that lucky, that type of terrain is also ideal for a full talos/cronos force (3 engines)

@ Khain mor: Yes, the third heavy would be good. But I dont have another taloi. I have been making it harder for myself on purpose so that I can get better at the game and don't rely on things like ravagers and razorwings to do the heavy lifting. Then grotesques and urien fear anything str 10 or that causes ID. And placing terrain as a DE player is always of utmost importance.