[40k] Tau Third Sphere Army, - UPDATE 26th April - MiF Report Round 5 Options

[ormo]

Yep, I saw this army at mif, and was like meh. This only like the most awesome tau army ever and puts aaaalllllll my painting skills to shame.

I loved it. Great work, and to see this up close was truly amazing.

Kudos to you sir!

[Face]

Melbourne in Flames Tournament Report

Hey All, I have been told to write a report on how one little Kiwi took on 132 Aussies and won.

My sister moved to Melbourne about six months ago, so it was a good opportunity to get visit her, play toy soldiers and get free accomodation
I pulled an all nighter on Tuesday to finish the army and arrived in Australia on Weds. Did all the touristy stuff over the week.

Saturday rolled around and arrived at Phoenix Park with the following;

HQ
Shas'el - Airbursting Fragmentation Projector, Missile Pod, Flamer, Stimulant Injector, Hard Wired Multi Tracker, Hard Wired Drone Controller + 2 Shield Drones
131

Elites
2 Crisis Suits - 2 Plasma Rifles, 2 Missile Pods + Multi Trackers
124

2 Crisis Suits - 2 Plasma Rifles, 2 Missile Pods + Multi Trackers
124

2 Crisis Suits - 2 Twin Linked Flamers + 2 Fusion Blasters
86

Troops
9 Fire Warriors - Pulse Rifles
90

8 Fire Warriors - Pulse Rifles
80
Devilfish - Disruption Pod
85

10 Kroot
5 Kroot Hounds
100

10 Kroot
5 Kroot Hounds
100

Fast Attack
5 Pathfinders
60
Devilfish - Disruption Pod
85

Piranha - Fusion Blaster + Targetting Array
70

Heavy Support
2 Broadside Suits - Advanced Stabilisation Systems, Team Leader, Hard Wired Target Lock, Hard Wired Drone Controller + 2 Shield Drones
200

Hammerhead - Railgun, 2 Burst Cannons, Disruption Pod, Multi Tracker
165

75 Models
1500pts Total

With other commitments, I had found time for only a single practice game with this army. So was going in way undercooked.

The breakdown of the 300pt total;

120pts for Battle Scoring
- 15 for a Win, 10 for Draw + 5 for a Loss

o +1 for breaking your opponent’s army
o +1 for achieving more Kill Points than your opponent
o +1 for destroying your opponent’s highest pointed HQ unit
o +1 for destroying your opponent’s highest pointed non-HQ unit
o +1 for having a scoring unit in your opponents deployment zone

60pts for Army Composition

60pts for Sportmanship

30pts for Painting

30pt for Army List + Theme



Met up with some familiar faces and then got stuck into round 1:





Round 1
Mission: Let the Galaxy Burn - All area terrain is either on fire [dangerous] or smoking [+1 cover save] Also it is all LOS blocking ala 4th edition.
Deployment:Spearhead
Opponent:Frank Stewart

List:Chaos Space Marines

Typhus

4 Nurgle Terminators

Land Raider w. Daemonic Possesion

7 Plague Marines on Foot
7 Plague Marines in Rhino
7 Plague Marines in Rhino

Defiler


I won the roll and deployed first, trying to get as much clear LOS as possible, while forcing the Death Guard vehicles to move through terrain if they wanted the direct line to my army.



We had three objectives, two of which were infiltrated onto by a kroot unit. They held these from start to finish, not doing a single thing all game.


My first shooting phase was so-so just destroying a rhino. The Land Raider was hit by three Railguns, but ignores shaken + stunned so nada.

Frank had the worst possible start with the Land Raider clipping terrain and immobilising itself. Typhus and his boys they had the hard slog across the table.
The Second Rhino made a beeline for an objective held by kroot. The defiler fleeted.

The Piranha scoots forward and promptly misses the rhino. The Hammerhead aces it thou.


The Broadside make quick work of the Defiler


Typhus and 4 Terminators are now in the middle of the table outside cover. The balance of Tau firepower wipes them from the board.

Death Guard disembark and charge the piranha, stunning it. Lascannons and Plasma bounce off the Hammerhead.


The Heatwave suits deep strike in, flaming plague marines. Fire Warriors and suit chip in to reduce the squad to three. I use detached Gun Drones to form a fence so the powerfist cannot reach the broadsides.


The next couple of turns sees the Heatwaves destroyed in assault, Land Raider destroyed and the last 15 odd plague marines systematically wiped out.



And the Tau pouncing on the last objective


It was a harsh game and very one sided, but Frank took it like a champ.

Result: Tau Victory - 20pts

This post has been edited by Sirath: Apr 15 2010, 11:39 AM

[Tyra_Nid]

Talk about australian hospitality

I hope you never violate our sacred shores again.

Dont tell anyone but they are from armorcast.com

You told me the missiles and flame effects were all hand sculpted!

Now I feel even more justified in the sports snipe I gave you.

[Face]

Round 2
Mission: Saving Ryan’s Privates - Seize Ground with 4 objectives, Each player then chooses one of the objectives as his opponent’s Private Ryan.
Each Ryan is worth three objectives and can be moved by scoring units.
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Opponent: Andrew Toms

List: Dark Eldar

Archon on Jetbike
Dracon with Incubi/Warrior + Drazhar retinue

Wyches + Raider
Warp Beast Pack

Warrior Squad + Raider
Warrior Squad + Raider
Warrior Squad + Raider
Warrior Squad + Raider

Ravager
Ravager
Talos

I played NZ Nationals over Easter using Dark Eldar so felt confident I could tackle Andrews' army.

We secretly chose each other Ryan's hiding spot, I chose the far right objective with very little cover nearby.

I won the first turn and deployed overlooking two objectives. Andrew placed his entire army in reserve. My Kroot infiltrated onto the huge ruined landing pad to check an objective. The Naga outflanked.
The Pathfinders used their scout move to check another. Neither of these were my Ryan.
A Dfish nipped over to the far right objective. Ryan popped out. So we both had chosen the same place.


With no enemy, my first and second turns were moving and running Kroot downstairs. The Heatwave suits helpfully did not arrive.

The Dark Eldar arrived, Archon + Dracon boosting 24" and the ravagers laying into the Fire Warriors escorting Ryan. I judiciously went to ground to keep the squad from being wiped out.

My Heatwaves DS in behind the Dracon's Raider, scattered but the Marker Beacon Re-Roll set them right.
I chose to ignore the Archon this turn as he cannot multicharge so is limited to only munching a single squad next turn. I made sure this would not be my pinned fire warriors by surrounding them with Devilfish + Drones

The Pathfinders lit up the Dracon's ride, two broadsides later they were huddled in smoking crater.

The Kroot lined up a charge on the survivors, but not before the Heatwaves + remaining fire warriors chipped out 3 warriors, 2 Incubi and a wound on Drazhar and the Dracon.

The Fireknife Suits stunned a Ravager while the Hammerhead wrecked a troop raider.

The Kroot charged through cover and took five casualties to Drazhar and one more from the Dracon. With three wounds between them I had to wipe them out to win. Andrew's dice deserted him and I D6'd it back into the ruins.

More Dark Eldar arrived to search the landing pad objective. The other ravager chipped the Kroot down and they decided that they had done enough this game, fleeing off the board.
Andrew boosts the Wych Raider forward 24" to pounce on my line next turn.
The Archon picked on two Fireknife suit and shocker! Killed Tau in combat!:-)

Both Ravagers fall to Railguns, while the Heatwaves roast a warrior squad. The pathfinders help the other Fireknife squad to immobilize the Wych Raider.
This in turn wrecks it and pins the Wyches.
The Naga then arrive and charge the archon. 45 attacks inflict 14 wounds. Rolling one at a time, Andrew manages 11 before his shadow field gives out.

The lazy Talos remembers to arrive and really is too late+slow to affect the battle.
A raider squad gaps it to check the leftmost obj. No luck. It’s looking pretty dire for the Dark Eldar, the Wyches are shot to ribbons next turn and the last of the warriors expire.



Andrew took it really well, we had a chat afterwards and discussed how putting everything in reserve allowed me to deal with his army piecemeal.

Result: Tau Victory - 20pts

[Face]

Round 3
Mission: - Choose your opponent's two objectives. [Kill points, hold home obj, capture enemy’s home obj, capture small obj + break the enemy]
Deployment: Spearhead
Opponent: Daniel Galanis
List: Orks

Mek - Kustom Forcefield + Burna
Mek - Shokk Attack Gun

8 Tankbustas
12 Lootas

20 Boys + Nob w. Klaw
20 Boys + Nob w. Klaw
12 Boyz + Nob w. Klaw in a Trukk
Deff Dread
Deff Dread

Battlewagon w. 5 Big Shoots
3 Kannons
3 Lobbas

I asked Daniel to capture my home obj as his primary obj and break my army as his secondary. This was a mistake in retrospect.
He had me capture his home obj and capture more small objectives than him.

I won first turn and deployed, I decided not to try for his home obj as it was deep in his quarter. But instead capture small objectives. The kroot+naga infiltrated in the adjacent quarters.
My shooting was a mixed bag due to Nightfight, The broadsides aced a Deff Dread and that was it.
I swung out into the shorter table edge with the Dfish and crisis suits to support the Kroot.

Daniels deployment was pretty standard, Battlewagon in the centre and everyone huddled around the KFF. The Trukk boys were in reserve.
In the Ork turn, they moved up and ran. Daniel mentioned that while Tankbustas are in a transport they do not have to shoot the closest vehicle. News to both me and the Fireknife suits in the open that took two rokkits to the face. :-)

The broadsides + pathfinders teamed up to kill the nearest dread. They reduced the cover save to 6+, but of course Daniel made the same!
The Shas'el then got stupid lucky and penetrated a dread, skipped the Coversave and wrecked it.
Suicide Piranha missed his melta shot on the battlewagon. The Hammerhead didn't and inflicted an immobilize result.

I got a bit ahead of myself and tried for a more kills. Disembarking the firewarriors they killed a few boys, but were now very close to the rampaging orks. I had the Dfish out in front, but that didn’t help when the Kannons blew one sky-high.
This allowed a waaagh multicharge and bad news for T3 troops. The Klaw wrecked the other Dfish, but the Fire Warriors made some amazing armour saves and held.
My pathfinders were reduced to one model by the Lobbas, while the Kannons stunned the hammerhead.
The Shokk Attack Gun hit the broadsides but Dan rolled up strength 3, which failed to wound.
The Lootas rolled up 3 shots each and popped the commander's drones, with FNP the only thing keeping her on one wound. The Tankbustas then finished her off for a bonus point.
The Trukk boys arrived from reserve and suicide onto the Kroot in cover.

I took a breath and worked out how badly my aggression had cost me. I had thrown away a perfect opportunity to play the way I had for the first two games; trading space for time and forcing 1,500pts of Tau onto piecemeal bits of the enemy.
Working out that I was also being badly out shot by Orks, I turned my attention to bonus points. The General and the Most Expensive unit [lootas]

The squad in combat had the KFF Big Mek, who was Dan's general. So I threw the other squad of fire warriors, a pair of Fireknives and the remaining Kroot into the furball.
Over about 4 combat rounds they managed to chip down and kill the squad + Mek after the Fireknives were Power Klaw

The Heatwaves arrived next to the backfield position of the Lootas frying 4. Down to eight they passed their leadership 8 test.
Next Ork turn The Kannons kill a Suit and the other bolts off the board.

Meanwhile the other 20 Ork mob cleaned up the naga squad.


Both of our turns 5 + 6 + 7 go by really quick with only the Broadsides and Hammerhead remaining.

My 5, I kill three Lootas, Dan passes a LD 7 test.
Dan's 5 he tries to kill the broadsides. I pass a bunch of 2+ saves

My 6, I kill two Lootas, Dan passes a LD 7 test.
Dan's 6 he tries to kill the broadsides. I pass a bunch of 2+ saves

My 7, I kill one loota, Dan passes a LD 7 test. So 1 Loota survives and I miss out a bonus point! :cry:
Dan's 7 he tries to kill the broadsides. I pass a bunch of 2+ saves

Result: Tau Loss - 7pts

[Proximity]

Daniel mentioned that while Tankbustas are in a transport they do not have to shoot the closest vehicle. News to both me and the Fireknife suits in the open that took two rokkits to the face. :-)

lol....

[Wolverine_nz]

In the Ork turn, they moved up and ran. Daniel mentioned that while Tankbustas are in a transport they do not have to shoot the closest vehicle. News to both me and the Fireknife suits in the open that took two rokkits to the face. :-)

Did you even ask to see his codex to look for the orange crayon?

[Face]

Round 4
Mission: - Choose two objectives and place them in a sealed envelope [Kill points, hold home obj, Assassinate, capture enemy’s home obj, capture small obj + break the enemy]
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Opponent: Ian Hutchinson
List: Tyranids

Flying Tyrant
3 Zoanthropes
2 Lictors
10 Genestealers
10 Genestealers
20 Outflanking Hormogaunts
6 Deepstriking Ripper bases
20 Termigants w. Devourers
7 Ravenors

This was my first game versus the new Tyranids. I had read a little of the new codex, which seems to be a collection of two types of units; #### and Brilliant.
[Seriously - Pyrovores? "Ooh lets give them heavy flamers and Power Weapons. We will sell oodles of them!" - GW]

As far as I could see, Ian had the perfect nid army to bust up Tau. They Flyrant was not only scary and going to assault turn two, but gave the Hormogaunts outflank and +1 to reserve rolls.
The table had a huge piece of LOS blocking terrain, which forces me to deploy to the left side. Perfect for 2 units of outflanking genestealers + the hormogaunts. This combined with 2 deepstriking units and the speedy ravenors equalled; problem.
If Ian played it right, I would have a single shooting phase to kill every model in his army before he swamped my Tau.

I chose to make my primary objective Assassinate and secondary Break the Enemy. [I figured that; They were both bonus points, if Ian wanted to hide 220pts of flying MC he was more than welcome, I wanted to use my troops units aggressively and finally it was going to be a massacre either way.]

So I decided to plan as best I could for the outflankers. The two DFish went empty and 7" away from the left edge. My turn two they were going to block about 14" of that edge and force the nids to come around.
Perhaps the stealers would rend one but 6's followed by 6's is not perfect.


Ian's deploying was a little strange, I had a chat later, he was one 3 or 4 games into using this army so made a few mistakes.

Chief of which was to place the Zoanthropes hanging out in the breeze directly across from my entire army. The genestealers choose to outflank and the Hormogaunts were deployed normally.

I won the roll and deployed the kroot in a conga line to ensure the 'stealers could not park in the central building.

My first turn was the kroot running directly away from the nids and the entire army blasting the Zoanthropes. It then occured to me to ask how many Synapse creatures there were? Just the Flyrant left. Brilliant

Ian's first turn was pretty tame, with the nids running forward to hide behind the central building.

The genestealers however were all bunched up in perfect pie formation. The Pathfinders came up trumps and gave the Hammerhead BS5 and removed their coversave. 9 'stealers dead.
The Shas'el targetted the Devourer gaunts, but the AFP scattered behind the building and roasted 9 hormogaunts.
My Naga become "operation: lizard shield." Stretched out in another conga line to prevent the Flyrant from charging anything juicy.


Everything else chipped out a few devourer gaunts.

The rippers arrived, scattering a massive 11" to the top of the central building.

The Flyrant had a bad day, losing a wound landing in terrain then another to perils of the warp. But butcher'd the kroot.

Stuck in no-mans' land with two wounds he ate two railguns.

With no synapse left it went badly for the rest of the nids. The Ravenors were forced to charge out of cover and into the swift moving piranha. Which then flitted away and 7 ravenors were lined up firing squad style.[url=http://www.dakkadakka.com/gallery/97957-.html]

[/url]
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The Kroot charged the rippers and hormogaunts. It is incredibly stupid Lictors can no longer charge. Ian's popped out of cover and shot a pathfinder. Wow.


So ended the game, Ian had 10 genestealers left. Problem was he came at me piecemeal which was a perfect way to lose a unit at a time to 1,500pts worth of shooting a turn.

Result: Tau Victory - 20pts

[kaos]

Daniel mentioned that while Tankbustas are in a transport they do not have to shoot the closest vehicle. News to both me and the Fireknife suits in the open that took two rokkits to the face. :-)

Seems I slipped one past you Dave.

Congrats on 1st.

[Face]

Seems I slipped one past you Dave.

Congrats on 1st.

Haha, no dramas. Honest mistake Dan.

Round 5
Mission: It's Getting Cold Out There - Two objectives along the centre line, both modify their worth at the end throughout the game.
Deployment: Pitched Battle
Opponent: Luke Houston
List: Imperial Guard

Creed in Command Squad w. Mortar + Master of Pie Plate

Platoon Command w. Heavy Flamer
Infantry Squad w. Meltagun
Infantry Squad w. Meltagun
Heavy Weapon Team - 3 Heavy Bolters
Heavy Weapon Team - 3 Missile Launchers
10 Veterans w. 3 Plasma Guns + Demolitions
+ Chimera
10 Veterans w. 3 Meltaguns
+ Chimera

8 Rough Riders w. 2 Meltaguns
Hellhound
Valkyrie

Demolisher w. Heavy Bolter.


The table had some really goofy pipe terrain, so resulted in almost no area terrain, but a good amount of LOS blocking stuff.
I won first turn and took it. Not keen on the Valkyrie alpha strike.


Deploying across the centre.


I had seen Luke's army on the interwebs and what thrilled to finally met him.
Every model is converted with clean, crisp paintjobs. And if anything I appreciate time expended more than anything in army creation.

Unfortunately, fluff has its price. I felt this was a really soft Guard army, so planned to get another 20pts.
With the objectives dead centre and a lack of coversaves, I could use my Skimmers for coversave, while my mobility would strip the guard of theirs.
After Luke set up, I was confident. Maybe arrogant, so of course Luke rolls a six and takes first turn.

The Valk zipped round, shot the crap out of the Naga, clipping the pathfinders.

The Chimeras helped out and both units fled off the board.
While the Hellhound roasted half a squad of Fire Warriors. I was stupid-happy when they stuck around on LD 7.

The Missile Launchers bounced off the Hammerhead and the Demolisher was out of range on the Broadsides.

On the backfoot, I was now in catchup mode. I had to down the Valkyrie, so of course the Hammerhead missed. The Broadsides were busy with the Hellhound managing to immobilise it.
The Fire warriors piled onto the Pathfinders' bus and zipped forward.

My Fireknive suits shot up the Valk, but only managed a single glance. The Shas'el got lucky and did the business with a pen.
I mentioned the Platoon command needed to take a test.

Luke thought this was hilarious.

"What's a Punning Test Mate?"

Smartass failed it too... Serves him right.


The Rough Riders arrived from Reserve, moving up with the Demolitions Veteran in their Chimera. The Demolisher moved forward and took a pop at my Broadsides, bt scattered off.
The Hellhound shot at the Dfish, clipping 8 kroot hiding behind pipes. Luckily they held. The Missile Launchers managed to stun the other Dfish.

My Heatwaves arrived to give me more much needed anti tank. The Chimeras had to go this round and the Demolisher was getting closer and closer to my Crisis suits in the mid-field.
The broadsides strafed sideways and got clean shot on the Tank, One round got through and blew the Demolisher it into small pieces.
My Hammerhead missed one chimera, while both the Heatwaves and Piranha failed mucho-spectacularrrr.

The Fireknives learnt from last shooting phase, ignoring AV12 tanks and busting up the missile launcher squad. Instant death really hurts outside cover.
The Kroot then charged the other infantry squad and destroyed them. They then picket lined it to protect the Crisis suits from assault.

Luke gunned forward the chimera, offloading the plas vets. The Demo charge and all 6 plas shots hit, wounded and decimated a fireknife unit.
The other chimera pulled a 180 after moving 12" The Melta vets managed to destroy the burst cannon and stun the Dfish.

The heavy bolters reduced the kroot to 6 models, which allowed the Rough Riders space to fleet within charge range of the Shas'el. The Drones perished, with the Shas'el taking two wounds. She fled but managed to outrun her oponents.


The second devilfish offloaded its firewarriors. They lined up the Veterans, killing about 5. The last 6 kroot charged, losing 4 of their number, but wiping out the last of the vets.
The last two desperately hid behind cover.
My Piranha finally hit something! Stunning the Plas Chimera. The Heatwaves jumped to an inch away from the Hellhound. Both hit and the oversized zippo became another crater.


The Shas'el rallied and was keen for revenge, the Rough Riders took AFP + Flamer kills and fled. The last of the Fireknives killed off the Heavy Bolter squad in one round.
While the other Firewarrior squad and the Hammerhead butchered the Melta vets, the Broadsides shot their Chimera in the ass.

Luke had very little left, he used the Platoon command to nab a bonus point, by running into my deployment zone. The second infantry squad ran up to claim the left objective.

My piranha and heatwaves killed the plas chimera. The Dfish tankshocked the infantry squad off the left objective, while the Fire Warriors took it.
The last two kroot, nipped into Luke's deployment zone.

Result: Tau Victory - 19pts

[Colostomyboy]

Luke thought this was hilarious.

"What's a Punning Test Mate?"

Smartass failed it too... Serves him right.

I had a real problem with this at one of my tourney's during 4th Edition - the NZ gent I was playing was blowing my Orks off the table with ranged fire, and then told me that he'd "pinned" my Looted Wagon. Bemused, I mentioned that this wasn't possible, as it had no Ld value. This went back and forth for a minute before the poor frustrated guy spelled out "p-e-nn'-e-d" for me (penetrated).

For at least a minute, I honestly couldn't understand how he though he could "Pin" a vehicle...

This post has been edited by Colostomyboy: Apr 26 2010, 04:50 PM