Taking a Good, Hard Look
Last week I got in quite a Nail-Biter of a game against Matt’s Chaos forces and I wrote up a Battle Report about it. If you haven’t read it, please go here, I’ll wait. You may also want to use this link as a reference while you read the analysis below.

As I wrote up the Battle Report, I noticed a number of mistakes that I made during the game and I started to question a lot of my decisions as well. I decided the game could use an Armchair General-style analysis. Hopefully this will help me do better in future games, and perhaps it could give you some insight into your own tactics and selections.

Due to the length of this analysis, I will be breaking it up into two phases: Before the Game and During the Game. In Before the Game (this week) I will cover Unit analysis of our forces (what did the damage and what didn’t pull it’s own weight) and Setup analysis. Next week I’ll cover what happened in the game itself, with a turn-by-turn breakdown to keep things organized.

More Numbers
Again, I (after the game) kept track of our point totals from turn to turn, and also counted up the points that each unit earned, where possible. This isn't terribly difficult to do, and it allows me to better evaluate my force. This time I also took a look at how my opponent's force broke down, to see where the worst threats to my Tau are. In the future, I think I will try to keep a closer track of each unit on a turn-by turn basis. Simply writing down the results next to each unit ought to take care of it and will help me make more sense of my battle report notes.

Unit Analysis of The Slaaneshi forces: What did the damage and what didn’t pull it’s own weight?

222 6xChaos Space Marine Havocs: Mark of Slaanesh, 4xBlastmaster, 2xSonic Blaster?
222 6xChaos Space Marine Havocs: Mark of Slaanesh, 4xBlastmaster, 2xSonic Blaster?

Okay, I know the above doesn’t actually add up to 444pts, but based on what Matt told me, I’m pretty sure that’s what these guys cost. In any case, they certainly did _not_ live up to their cost. They killed 3 FireWarriors (not enough to take the unit below half, and the extra FireWarriors wouldn’t have made a difference in the unit’s eventual death by close combat. They also managed to put a single Wound on my Helios Shas’ El, which allowed them to earn a whopping 48.5pts.

90 6xDaemonettes
90 6xDaemonettes

Daemonettes are usually pretty cheap and cheerful. They don’t cost much and they are terribly effective in close combat. Unfortunately for Matt, they didn’t pay off this time. The girls tore the Fusion Blaster off of a Piranha (earning 35pts) and killed the two free gundrones. They then managed to get mostly slaughtered by my fire and end themselves against Crisis Suits without doing a single Wound. They are generally a good buy, but they certainly weren’t worthwhile here.

155 Chaos Lord Mark of Slaanesh, Bike, Daemonic Visage, Combat Drugs, Spiky Bitz, Powerweapon

Yowza! This guy tore through my lines and shredded my units right and left. He started off by downing a Piranha for 70pts. He then nailed one of my independent Crisis suits for another 73pts and consolidated into the remains of a FireWarrior squad (damaged but not brought below half by the Biker squad) and ripped them apart for another 80pts. He then shredded the other independent Crisis suit (73 more points) and my Centurion Commander (100pts) before becoming molten slag at the hands of my Helios Commander. His grand total? 396pts for His Nibs.

154 3xChaos Space Marine Biker: Furious Charge, Mark of Slaanesh, Aspiring Champion with Powerfist

Yowza, part 2! These guys took care of almost everything that the Lord did not. They didn’t actually earn any points themselves until their third combat, where they took out FireWarrior Team 2 (80pts) and Broadside 1(80pts). They then killed off the big Crisis team (161pts) and nailed Broadside 2(80pts) and to wrap it all up, the Aspiring Champion killed off the Helios Commander (48.5pts). That gives them 449.5pts, a very worthwhile return on their investment. Not only did they earn more points than the lord, while costing a similar amount, but with one member surviving, they only gave up half as many points.

So, ultimately it was the Fast assaulters that did the damage in this list (845.5pts earned between the bikers and the Lord, which were only 300-400pts.) Based on this analysis, Matt’s force would be better off including more units like these. (Admittedly, this is based on a single game and a single kind of opponent, but it can still be a useful measure.)

Unit Analysis of Tau forces: What did the damage and what didn’t pull it’s own weight.

The Crisis suits in general are a little tough to analyze, since I didn’t take careful enough notes about each one, I sort of lumped their results together. I’m going to try to be better about that in the next game. I’ll split credit for the units that I didn’t specifically mark out, and give specific credit for those I did.

Combined Credit:
Half a Havoc Squad (111pts)
2 Half Daemonette squads (90pts total)

Specific Credit:
100 Shas’El Commander w/CIB, Plasma Rifle, Target Array, HWMT
Half a Havoc Squad (111pts) Half a Daemonette Squad (45pts)
156pts isn’t too shabby, but it’s not outstanding.

97 Shas’El Commander w/Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, Target Array, HWMT
Slaaneshi Lord (154pts)
Again, not a stellar performance in terms of raw points, but not too bad, and he’s the one that managed to actually bring down the Slaaneshi Lord.

73 Shas’Ui Team Leader w/Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Target Array, HWMT
73 Shas’Ui Team Leader w/Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Target Array, HWMT
These guys contributed, but didn’t do a whole lot by themselves. They merely added a bit of damage here and there, so it's hard to say how well each one of them did.

161 Crisis Team: 2xShas’Ui w/PR, BC, MT. Team Leader w/PR, BC, TA, HWMT, HWDC+2Shield Drones
Half a Daemonette Squad (45pts) Havoc Squad (222pts) 267pts is a pretty good return for these guys. They also managed to soak up a fair amount of fire, which meant the independents suits could use the cover and the Commanders could (mostly) make good use of their Independent Character status.

That gives me approximately 778pts for an investment of 504pts. Not great but it’s nothing to sneeze at, either.

80 6xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles. Team Leader has Markerlight
80 6xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles, Team Leader has Markerlight
These guys really didn’t do a whole lot. They killed 2 Havocs and 2 Daemonettes, which isn’t a great return on 160pts.

70 Piranha: Fusion Blaster, Target Array
70 Piranha: Fusion Blaster, Target Array
These didn’t do much to the enemy directly, but they might have kept the bikers, Lord and possibly the Daemonettes out of my lines for one turn, which is worthwhile in and of itself.

80 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization
80 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization
They assisted a little in killing the Havocs, took care of a couple of Daemonettes and even managed to kill one of the bikers (2 if you count that difficult terrain test!). Not terribly effective for 160pts. (Note that I think I could have made much better use of them, but that doesn’t come into this part of the analysis.)

One final bit of list analysis: Crisis Suit Configuration. The more I play, the more I realize how good the standard Fireknife configuration is. Not for it’s high-strength weaponry, or it’s great armor-penetrating capability, but for it’s range. There is a big difference between 18” and 24”. One example would be that all Fast Assaulters have a range of at least 18”. Very few of them have a range of 24”, however. That extra six inches is a _huge_ margin of safety. If I had had an additional 6” of range with my Crisis Suits, I might have been out of charge range with them on turn three. That longer range also allows them to support each other and concentrate their firepower over a longer distance. Perhaps my Crisis Suits would have been further apart so it would’ve been harder for Matt to sweep from one to the next. I don’t know for a fact that Fireknives would have made a difference, but there’s a possibility that they would have. I’m not entirely sold yet, but I’m definitely considering getting some Missile Pods.

Based on the main list analysis, I should ditch the Broadsides and possibly the FireWarriors as well for more Crisis Suits, since those are the ones that seem to cause the damage. Even though the Piranhas didn’t score any points, even the possibility that they kept the fast assaulters out of my lines for a single turn is worth the points spent on them. Interestingly, this fits very well with the conclusions I’ve been drawing for my force over the games that I’ve played so far. While I haven’t gone so far as to redesign my forces, I am definitely leaning toward heavily using my Crisis Suits, moreso than I already am. I may even design a force entirely around them and their style of combat. We’ll see.

Tactical Decision Analysis

So that takes care of our list analysis, now let’s look at tactical decision making. Tactics is using what you have available to best achieve your goals. There are a number of places where I think I could have made much better decisions even before the game, so let’s look at them in order and see what I might have done better.

Setup
As I already mentioned in the battle report, with us both using such a heavily refused flank, I played right into Matt’s hands by giving up so much of the board. If you don’t have much range or mobility, refusing a flank is a great way to keep your army concentrated, and if your opponent doesn’t castle up opposite you, it will let you achieve a local superiority much more easily. On the other hand, I had great range and good or great mobility. One option would have been to place my static units (Broadsides and FireWarriors) in the middle and my Crisis Suits and Piranha on the flanks. I could then have allowed the flanks to evaporate (meaning my units suddenly leave the area), leaving any slow units of Matt’s with a long walk to the center while I concentrated on what was already there.

Another alternative, especially given my long-range capability, would be a split deployment. Placing a unit of FireWarriors and a Broadside in a small group on either side of my deployment zone and putting the Crisis Suits and Piranha in the middle would have forced Matt to make a choice: Go all out for one side, or split up and try to take on both? Either way would have given me an advantage. If he put everything on one side, my mobile units would have been able to be close enough to give support, and my other flank would have range to do the same, much like happened in the actual game. Once he closed with the lines, however, it would have been a different story. He would, of course, get to the lines, but then he’d be able to slaughter the unit of FireWarriors and the Broadside, and maybe catch some Crisis Suits, but the rest would be out of reach and still be able to shoot at him. That would leave him facing another turn or two of fire, instead of being able to consolidate or Massacre move into unit after unit.

On the other hand, if he chose to split up, it would play even more into my hands. This time, I would simply pick one side as the sacrifice side. That side and the mobile center would all concentrate on one half of his forces, allowing the other half of his forces to take down the sacrifice side in turn for annihilating everything on the other side. Once the sacrifice side was finished, the remainder of his army would still be looking at a couple of turns of moving with most of my army shooting at them.

Split deployment works well against Assault armies, which is what I seem to be having a hard time with. The next time I am up against an army that has more than a tiny assault capability, I need to recognize that and utilize a split deployment, I think. Against shooty armies, I think my force has already proved that it’s great mobility gives me a huge advantage, so I don’t need to do much there.

Tune in next week to see the In-Game portion of this analysis. When it's up, you'll be able to click this link, right here.

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