I’m back with the second battle report from the opening weekend of the Fate of Konor campaign. This was a friendly game vs Dan and his T’au. Last time we played I crushed him at the end of 7th Ed with a similar list, so there was a little bit extra spice for this game. Sorry it took ages to publish this post, stuff at work piled up a little, then I was away for a couple days on holiday- the memories might be a little hazy.
We chose one of the missions from the main rule book; Secure and control (?), and ended up with Hammer and Anvil deployment. Dan’s list contained roughly the following in a Outrider detachment (4 CP);
Commander with Missile pods, Advance target lock
3 Crisis suits with Plasma rifles and Drone controller
3 Crisis suits with Plasma rifles and Drone controller
2 Broadsides with Heavy Rail rifles
Unit of Markerlight drones
3 Stealth suits
6 Gun drones (to go with a Suit squad)
6 Gun drones (to go with a Suit squad)
2 Missile drones (to go with a Broadside)
2 Missile drones (to go with a Broadside)
Unit of Kroot
Unit of Pathfinders
My list contained the following in a Battlion detachment (6 CP) and Ally Super-heavy detachment;
Captain with Thunder Hammer Storm Shield
Lieutenant with Combi-flamer and Power-fist
5 marines with a flamer and combi-flamer
5 marines with a flamer and combi-flamer
5 marines with meltagun and combi-melta
5 Terminators (stock)
Ironclad dreadnought with 2 Heavy flamers
Land Speeder with 2 Multi-meltas
Rhino
Imperial Knight Warden
Actually this battle was somewhat special for a couple more reasons; it was the first game of 40k on Dan’s fold-up table (so useful in Tokyo), and I had Serena (my GF) come along as she had nothing else to do and would control the Imperial Knight. Also my list was restricted to painted models to honour the new table! It did add nicely to the visual spectacle.
We played the modified ITC rules for seize the initiative, which will now be in Chapter Approved or something, but I still went first as I had so few drops. Now, in turn 1 I secured first blood by wiping out the markerlight unit, but I failed to secure another point by underestimating the stealth suits- much tougher than they look. But it was a decent start. Dan dropped his suits in behind me to delete two of the 3 Tact squads. Fortunately for me, Dan parked them away for a few turns, allowing me back into the game.
I got pretty shafted for 2 turns on cards, whereas Dan raced ahead into a lead of about 5-6 points as he was gifted cards he could easily achieve. To make matters worse the cards I did get eventually forced me to stay in the middle of the board rather than close down the space between the enemy force. But, I was making in-roads into killing T’au; the Land Speeder managed to snipe a Broadside, the Pathfinders had taken a beating, the Kroot ended up roasted by a couple flamers and small arms fire.
So as the game progressed it was a case of the Marines hunting down T’au, and them running away in order to survive. The Suits had a go at damaging the Knight but managed to do only 3 wounds. Dan’s army wasn’t really geared up to dealing with a Knight so I wasn’t surprised it waded through a lot of firepower.
The final turn of the game was really tense, I was up 9 points to 8 roughly, with Dan needing just to make a long charge with his drones to steal an objective from me that the Rhino was trying to deny. With that, and another simple card, Dan made the score 10-9 in favour of the T’au. Another agonising defeat to the fishmen was really annoying in what felt like cruel circumstances, but it was still a lot of fun. Dan is a really great guy and in some ways he got justice for the tabling he received from me last time.
Overall the luck was balanced, Dan was unlucky with some massed firepower, but got lucky on clutch saves or advance rolls. Serena, controlling the Knight, consistently rolled below average; falling a 4″ charge (1 CP used to make up for that), always hitting at 50% across all weapons. Over the course of the game it added up significantly.
Reviewing my tactics, I felt the game did come down to a clutch couple of moments. My mistake not killing the Stealth suits meant I was drawing 1 less card for several turns, which could have given me more points from cards that were easier to obtain over the course of the game. Furthermore, this could have balanced out the 4 cards or so I did get that forced me to stay in the middle of the board. Second, the Imperial Knight, whilst tough, I forgot several rules (and below average dice) meant that the Commander managed to survive when he definitely should not of, denying me 2 points (Slay the Warlord and Kingslayer).
Now I have played against T’au in 4 games of 8th ed, I am getting familiar in how to play vs them- I look forward to the next game!
Finally, sorry it took longer to get this post up, and the fluidity of the report is definitely lacking due to the time that has past since. I’ll be back soon with some WIP from the paintstation.
Floorhammer 40K! 