Funny list I tried

Missles!

Or at least that was the idea. I wanted to see how an all-missle Tau army would perform. Not too shabby actually!

Here's what I fielded:

3 Skyrays (with Smart missles systems of course)
2 squads of 2 Pirahnas (with 3 seekers each and fusion blasters)
Squad of 8 Pathfinders (Devilfish has 2 seekers)
2 6m squads of Firewarriors
3 Squads of Crisis Suits with Missle pods and Burst cannons. (TL had Targetting array and Plasma)
1 HQ with TL-Missle Pod and Plasma.

Ready? Set! MISSLES!

I played this against a necron army consisting of Immortals and 71 warriors with 2 lords with rez orbs. The game ended early because the store was closing and the technical score was a win for the Tau (1 objective for the Tau- contesting the Necrons objective- and no one on the third). We rolled and the game would've gone to turn 7, and I was 2 models from phasing him out :)

Gonna have to try this one another time. Definitely one of the more fun list I've played.

Painted Goodies!

'Bout time I finally got a moment's peace! Here is what I promised; what I have painted so far as well as a few pictures of my cadre. Take it with a grain of salt- I'm no where near finished! :P

Coming Soon!

Hey guys,

Just been a bit busy with college finals, but I will be working on getting pictures of my entire Tau army up soon. No laughing at some of my earlier models! :P

Today:

Kharne the Betrayer took out a Bloodthirster in close combat.

Hell. Yeah.Best feeling ever.

That is all :)

Tournament Results

Back from the tournament, and I gotta say- the list was fun. Though it didn't fare so well, it was still fun. Placed above another Tau player at least! It was pretty funny that my buddy Ryan needed an army so I let him scrap together some of my Chaos stuff and he fielded a 1750 all Thousand Sons list (and did better than me!). Anyways- my match ups:

1st round! Imperial Guard. They've been showing up at the tournaments alot lately. Can't blame them for having an awesome new codex though. I played Ben this round, and games between us are usually brutal and one-sided. The first time I played him last tourny, I almost table him, then we played a week ago and he almost tabled me, and this tournament, we drew (pitched battle, seize ground), but I had 8 killpoints to his 1.

Highlights.

-In the first round, I took out an Eradicator, Exterminator, and 2 Chimeras. The next turn I took out his Medusa.
-Only lost 1 squad of outflanking Kroot which prevented his forces from coming my way.
-As static Tau vs Static Guard you can guess how this went. I got the first volley and gimped him.
-Ben piled bodies on his objective and forced a draw.

Next I played Nic who ran Eldar. He had Eldrad (boo!) Yriel, and 2 10m squads of Harlies. Throw in a few other troops and you get his list. The game went downhill for me because Eldar super units tend to make an annoying amount of saves. Here's what happened:

-Dawn of War annihilation
-I couldn't kill his 1 fortuned Wave Serpent in the first turn
-Every turn for the rest of the game the unit just ate one of mine in assault
-Every time I shot at it, he wouldn't die. *shrug* Not much else I can do
-My suits and Firewarriors beat a Harlie squad in assault. Go FW!
-I lost by 4 KPs

After that I played Royce in what has probably been my most fun game in a few months. He and I are both ardent believers in comical trash talking, and there was plenty of fist shaking to be had on both sides of the table. Royce played Nidzilla, with a ton of big dudes. Highlight time!

-I deployed well, I believe. I had Kroot protecting my flank as he had outflanking Genestealers and it was Quarters/Multi-objective.
-Rascal stole the initiative! Then he put a few wounds on me and moved forward.
-My turn. I made a monstrous creature and a half disappear.
-Genestealers come in and wreck the Kroot
-Lackluster shooting by my Hammerhead and FW squad fails to kill the Genestealers.
-Genestealers run through FW, and into my Broadsides/Pathfinders.
-Broadsides and Pathfinders go 3 turns with Genestealers.
-I rolled snake eyes for insane heroism right when I need it!
-Ultimately lost too many units and couldn't kill anymore Carnifexes

Next tourny I'll most likely be running Chaos, but I have lots of play-testing to do before then!

I Puke Bullets

At that last tournament, Josh fielded a fun list (close to 160 Orcs!) that he wasn't taking competitively. and ended up having a lot of fun, and placing third. For the tournament this weekend, and just out of pure plain curiosity, I'm gonna do a fun run list. I'm not really expecting to do well, and I get floored a lot anyways, so I'm gonna give it a shot. Just an experiment, and just to see what happens :) Feel free to comment!

12x Firewarriors
Shas’ui
Bonding Knife
HW Target Lock
Markerlight

12x Firewarriors
Shas’ui
Bonding Knife
HW Target Lock
Markerlight

12x Firewarriors
Shas’ui
Bonding Knife
HW Target Lock
Markerlight

10x Kroot Carnivores 70

Shas’el 102
Plasma Rifle
Missile Pod
Hardwired Multitracker
Hardwired Drone Controller
Shield Drone

8 Pathfinders 96
Devilfish 95
Disruption Pod
Seeker Missle

3x Broadsides 280
Targeting Arrays
Team Leader
Hardwired Drone Controller
2x Shield Drones
Hard Wired Target Lock

Hammerhead 165
Railgun
Disruption Pod
Multitracker

3 Crisis Suits 226
Plasma Rifle
Missile Pod
Multitracker
Team leader
Hardwired Multitracker
Hardwired Drone Controller
Targeting Array
Marker Drone

3 Crisis Suits 190
Burst Cannon
Missile Pod
Multitracker
Team leader
Hardwired Multitracker
Hardwired Drone Controller
Targeting Array
Marker Drone

Piranha 75
Disruption Pod
Fusion Blaster
Targeting Array

Tournament Report!

This is a report of my first tournament I wrote for ATT almost a year ago. My lists and tactics have come quite a long way since then- but I am curious to see how I could play this list today...

My reworked list [summarized for convenience]

'El with BC and AFP
3x 12 man FW squads
1x 6 man Pathfinders
1x Devilfish with MT DPod
1x Railhead
2x Sniper Drone Teams
1x 2 man Crisis with Flamer and TL-Plasma
1x 2 man B.A.S.S.

Toss in a few seekers and extra markerlights and you get ~1350.

My Opponents:

1 Deathwing Assault- He played as expected. Ran 1 deepstriking Terminator squad and a bunch of Rhinos and Razorbacks with 5 man combat squads and 2 Dreads toting Lascannons. I played him in Pitched Battle/Annihilation

1 Super Mobile Eldar- A kid also doing his first tournament. Ran some Striking Scorpions, Swooping Hawks, Farseer, Dark Reapers, Dire Avengers, Rangers, a Fire Prism, and the bane to my existance- a Wave Serpent I played him in Dawn of War/Seize Ground.

1 Well-Balanced Eldar- None other then my best buddy who I was beating in points by 3. He fielded 2 Wave Serpents, Fire Dragons, Dark Reapers, Autarch, Warp Spiders, Striking Scorpions, Guardians, Dire Avengers, Farseer. I tend to have a fair bit of trouble against him because he seems to hit me on the front, side, and rear all at once. Predictably, it turned it into an exceptionally brutal match. At the end of turn 4, I had 15 Firewarriors left, a Devilfish, and my Crisis team. He had 3 Scorpions and a Wave Serpent. At the end we both got a draw giving me 3rd and him 4th. We played a Spearhead/Take and Hold (4 Objectives)

What went wrong:

Deathwing- My lesson to stay mobile was learned here. My opponent quickly crunched every static element in my army leaving me about 700 points down. I made a few mistakes of where and how to move Firewarriors to keep them from being assaulted. The rest of the game was an uphill struggle to even kill 1 squad.

Mobile Eldar- Fire Prisms hurt And I deployed like a moron giving him 2 turns of cover and movement before I could really start bringing the pain. On a wide open desert table, I should've given myself the best lines of fire, instead I obstructed almost all of my units.

Balanced Eldar- I let my B.A.S.S., a FW team, and 2 Sniper teams all get multi-assaulted by his Warp Spiders and Scorpions. I kept all my units too bunched together so he could easily steamroll through most of them in a single turn. I also let my Pathfinders get too much fresh air, and got blasted away by Dark Reapers that gave them no cover saves. They just don't understand how to duck, ya'know?

What I learned:

Deathwing- Stay mobile. Once I popped all 3 of his transports in 1 turn, it was VERY easy to stay out of arms reach. He couldn't even catch my B.A.S.S. when I forced him to run through difficult terrain to reach them. Also; railgunning Rhinos is fun! Pen on 2+ anyone? Yes please!

Mobile Eldar- Going first in Dawn of War now invokes the following thought process; "First turn? Woohoo! Free movement to put my guys anywhere I want to blow your guys into dust whenever I want!" Mobility really showed its power in this match. I was able to get Firewarriors across 2 long table edges and a short edge to take his objective. Multitrackers on my Devilfish also made itself useful. When I can spare the points, I'll definitely be bringing these along

Balanced Eldar- Tank Shocking is valuable tactic. Alone, it killed 2 units of enemies; Dark Reapers and Guardians. Seeker missles are also a god-send against Dark Reapers providing you can remove their cover. I became quite impressed with my Hammerhead this match as it blew 1 of his troops choices completely off the board in 1 turn, and Fire Dragons the next. A mounted FW squad zoomed around and gave me a 24" bubble of rapid-firing Pulse Rifles to work with- I can only imagine if I had 2... Spacing out my individual models was a huge help to me as well- it allowed only 5 Pathfinders to meet a Dark Reaper demise. This match also served as a reinforcement to the earlier notion that mobility was survivability.

Overall I was extremely pleased with how I did, and I thank ATT for all the great ideas! They never saw 'em coming

Wargear of Choice: DF Multi-Tracker!
Cannon Fodder: Sniper Drones!
Weapon of Choice: Mounted FW team!
MVP: TL-Plasma Crisis team! They really pulled their weight. An estimated 200-300 points a match can be credited to these guys.


My opponents were actually: Chase (Ravenwing), Caleb (Eldar with Fire Prism), Stephen (Balanced Eldar).

Tenets of 5th Edition: LOS

This is my contribution to my local game group's tactica collection: The Tenets of 5th Edition. The first chapter was LoS, and I decided to add my two cents from a T'au perspective. Feel free to comment or read all the entries at Theassaultphase.com!


Line of Sight and Tau

5th ed. For Tau really brought us lots of new goodies to really amp up our army with. For starters, you can’t consolidate into other units after sweeping advance. Secondly, and most importantly- if you see a guy, you can shoot him! That’s a huge boon for Tau. This brief tactica will elaborate more on the points of how to use true LoS to your advantage.

Firstly- spotting. Every Tau army should have some form of force multiplier, which usually comes in the form of Markerlights. Pathfinders no longer have to worry about a Space Marine squad running behind forests to the lines and not being able to light them up for annihilation. Markerlights hit- no wounds- so no cover saves can be taken against a markerlight. If you can see a Space Marines foot, you can light him up, and deny him a cover save. Firewarriors can now blow the snot out of something regardless how far the squad may be inside area terrain. Perhaps an opponent deploys conservatively, and completely hides a unit? That is where Tau mobility comes in. LoS can be achieved by a wide variety of means. Accurate deepstriking, Crisis Suits, Stealth Suits, Devilfish, Hammerheads, Broadsides with Advanced Stabilization System just to name a few. In almost any case- a smart player will be able find a way to see an opponent’s models.

Any Tau player knows for a fact that his army is not invincible. Quite contrary, Tau take hits probably the worst of any army. Making cover saves against insta-gibbing weapons (damn lascannons!) can still be quite harrowing, and the preferred alternative is to completely hide a unit. On terrain-heavy maps, put your units that you are hiding behind a building or statue. If the enemy cannot see you- they cannot shoot you. Failing that, you can hide a unit in the open by using your vehicles. Devilfish and Hammerheads take up quite a bit of space, and they have armor values (Next best thing against anti-infantry fire!) My preferred tactic to provide protection to my troops is to use my two Devilfish and a Hammerhead to form a protective wall and jump my Crisis Suits from behind, to in front, to behind again. This strategy also works well when you are bearing down aggressively on an opponent’s objective- especially if you have scoured all the anti-tank from the area. They would just see a wall of tanks they are unable to kill rushing towards them with no ways to even hurt it. While completely hiding models may be the best way to prevent death, there are a number of situations where it is okay to place units in the open. Fast moving Piranha, Hammerheads with D-pods, and Stealth suits all have ways to ensure their protection while remaining completely visible. Use these safe-measures well!

First up!

Just some introduction: I'm Jacob- and this is a blog about 40k. I've been mainly playing Tau for over a year, but I'm branching off into other armies such as Chaos. I have a few guardsmen and Necrons floating around too, but I can't quite afford them yet. I'm still learning, and compared to most players in this game- I haven't been playing nearly as long. This is the place where I'll mainly post my Bat-reps and what I've been getting schooled in lately.

I mainly play up at Parker Banner Kent and Wayne in Cornelius, North Carolina. See -> http://www.pbkwcomics.com/. The owner, Matt, is super friendly and hospitable, and more than willing to play games with his customers. I mean, how many places can you play a game with the owner?

I also frequent Advanced Tau Tactica for various tips/hints/strategies. See -> http://advancedtautactica.com. Good read for anyone interested in Tau!

Our local game group also have a web forums set up and run by the resident Chaos Demons player DC. We are currently developing a "Tenets of 5th Edition" about the various aspects of the game. Check it out! See -> http://www.assaultphase.com/assaultphase/. We run all sorts of special events there as well, such as Zombie Bash, Buggy Races, Apocalypse games, and monthly tournaments with an average turnout of about 14-16 players. We're extremely competitive- but very friendly and fun. If you live close- try to come out and get a game in! Chances are- there is always someone ready for a game.