Taking a Good, Hard Look, part II
A couple of weeks ago 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. I have already written the first part of the analysis, and you can find it here.

During the Game

Choice of First Turn
I chose to give Matt the first turn, because my units were pretty well hidden and I wanted to see what he could do. Given the way the game went, was it the right decision? If I had gone first, I would have had two turns of shooting before the Daemonettes showed up. That would have probably canceled the Havocs, but they didn’t make much difference to the game anyway. On the other hand, it just might have meant that I damaged or wiped out the Bikers, which would have totally changed the game. It could have gone either way. It is usually better to go second against armies that use Deep Strike or Summoning for a large part of their forces. If you are facing such armies and you go first, your first AND second turns are wasted since the opponent isn’t even there, then you get to fight them on turns 3 through 6 and they get to fight you on turns 2 through 6. That’s a whole extra turn of effectiveness for them. Ouchies! That is only true for armies that have the bulk of their forces using one of those two methods. While I think I might have been able to make a difference in this particular game by going first, I’m not sure I would have been able to pull it off. Damaging the bikers during those first two turns would have been difficult. I may be better off continuing to give armies that Deep Strike or Summon the chance to go first so that I can fight them earlier, but I think that it’s something I need to consider on a game-by-game basis.

Turn 1
Matt’s Bikes zoomed behind the big tree and were mostly hidden. I decided to concentrate on the Havocs, as I could easily target them and did a fair amount of damage. If, instead, I had moved around to challenge the bikes, I probably wouldn’t have done as much damage, but even 1 or 2 dead bikes at this stage would have made a big difference later. The reason I decided against concentrating on the bikes was that it would leave my Crisis suits in the open against the Havocs and that it would leave my Crisis Suits too close to the Bikes and they’d likely get charged in the next turn. The problem with that decision is that it’s not really based on a correct analysis of the situation. Yes, my Crisis Suits would have been in the open against the Havocs. I could have mitigated this by making the big Crisis team and the Commanders be the obvious targets, with the Commanders using their Independent Character status to stay safe while the big Crisis team relied on its resilience and drones. The independent Crisis Suits could have stayed mostly to the tree side of the combat and probably escaped damage.

The second part of my analysis, that moving in that way would leave me vulnerable to a bike charge was correct, but also a bit flawed. With an 18” move + charge range, almost anything that I had would be in range anyway. If I had merely placed them carefully more than 6” away from other units, I could have allowed his unit to charge one or two of mine, then end up in the open after killing them off. That sacrifice would have allowed me to concentrate fire on his Bikes and Lord and might have resulted in their early demise. It certainly would have limited the damage significantly, even with both Daemonette packs coming out on turn 2.

Another possibility would have been to form my attempted skimmer wall differently. With the 24” movement, they can’t deploy their Gun Drones. I probably could have used the 12” movement of my Piranhas and deployed their Gun Drones to form a wall between the Tree and the ruined chapel that was my firebase. Moving the rest of my units in front of that wall would probably have kept them safer from the bikes, even though they’d be closer to the Daemonettes. If the bikes and Lord had stuck together and just assaulted one Piranha (like they did in the game) that would have left the other Piranha and its drones to shoot the bikes on my next turn, along with most of my Crisis Suits.

Ultimately, I think I should have focused on the bikes. Even minor damage to them this early in the game would have made a difference, and the possibility of wiping them out would have completely changed the game in my favor. I’ll have to keep that in mind in my next game. Try to identify the truly dangerous units ahead of time, then make a concerted effort to damage them early on. Fast Assaulters are definitely in the truly dangerous category against my army.

Turn 2
Given the situation at the time, I think my call to focus on the Daemonettes was probably the right one. The Bikers were safe in close combat with the Gun Drones from my destroyed Piranha, so I couldn’t do anything about them except to put a sacrificial unit in the way. The full-strength Daemonette packs could have done a number on my Crisis suits (I know how much damage Genestealers can do, and this would be comparable.) Leaving 1 in each pack was a little risky, but if he had failed their instability check, it would have left me with fewer worries. On the other hand, I probably should have kept the Gun Drones around to act as a sacrificial unit instead of charging them in and hoping for a kill. Ultimately, I should have spaced my units more and provided some sacrificial units for the next turn. (While they could have potentially gone around such units, I might have been able to make it so hard to get around that they would be forced to charge the sacrifice unit.) With small sacrifice units (such as a pair of Gun Drones or a single Crisis Battlesuit) they would have blown through them on their turn, and if I spaced my units properly, been unable to consolidate into another unit, leaving them in the open on my turn.

Turn 3
In my turn, I was devastated as the Bikers and Lord swept into my rear and shredded the FireWarriors and a Crisis Suit. (I was pleased, however, that I remembered to take the FireWarrior casualties out of base contact, meaning the Aspiring Champion could not strike with his Powerfist! Careful casualty removal is important for any army, and Tau need all the help they can get in the assault phase!) I chose to eradicate the Havocs, partially to score some points, and partially to leave that area of the board empty so that I could move my mobile units there. (And partially because the Bikers and Lord were tied up in close combat so I couldn’t shoot them.) I did have one thought, however. I considered trying to charge ALL of my Crisis Suits and my remaining Broadside into the combat in a desperate attempt to kill off the Bikes and Lord in Close Combat.

With poor weapon skill, it doesn’t seem like a good idea, but each of those Battlesuits are Strength 5 and have 2 attacks base. I’d hit on 4’s and Wound on 4’s and they’d save 2/3 of the time. That works out to 1 attack in 12 causing a casualty. That in turn means that each Battlesuit in the combat is roughly ¼ of a casualty. With 7 or 8 Battlesuits that could reach the combat, that would be 2 dead bikers. Unfortunately, with both the Aspiring Champion with his Powerfist and the Lord with his high number of power weapon attacks, that would not be a good combat, but I could limit their damage on the first turn by making sure that the big Crisis team and any Commanders were not in contact with the Powerfist, and that only single-suit units (Broadside, Independent Crisis Suit, Commanders) were in contact with the Lord. Since they cannot split their attacks between units, that would mean they could only kill one Battlesuit. It still would be an uphill battle, but suddenly it starts looking a _lot_ better.

If I had killed the two standard bikers in the first turn of combat, and lost 2 Crisis Suits (let’s say I lost a Commander and my remaining Independent Crisis Suit) then I’d have the Lord and the Aspiring Champion winning the combat (more Wounds caused) but I wouldn’t be outnumbered, so I’d just have a -1 to my Leadership from the Lord’s Daemonic Visage. On the next phase of combat, I’d try to keep the Big Crisis team away from the Lord, but that’d be difficult. I’d probably lose another Crisis Suit before I got to strike, then I’d probably take out the Aspiring Champion. After that, I don’t know that I could reliably do enough damage to the Lord to keep him from slowly finishing off my Battlesuits, but the idea was definitely interesting. I’m glad to have done the math now, to see what might have been. If it had been the bikers on their own, it probably would have been a good tactic. For that matter, with just the Lord on his own, it might not have been too bad, but it would still have been more dangerous. With both together, I think it wouldn’t be a fight I could win. (Just as well that I chose not to do it, eh?)

Turn 4
First off, I should have moved the CIB Commander and the Big Crisis Squad further away. If I had, the Lord wouldn’t have been able to tag them. If they had been just slightly further apart, he wouldn’t have been able to tag them both. Areas like this are where I’ll really have to improve as a Tau Commander. I need to look a turn ahead and plot where the enemy units are going to be able to go. Also note here that the Helios Commander attempted to help out against the Bikers but caused no Wounds. I’m pretty sure that he missed twice there, and I’m also pretty sure I was rolling on BS4 instead of the BS5 that he should have had due to his Target Array. If he had caused a single Wound, it would have made a difference, and 2 Wounds would have finished off the Bike squad! Arrgh. I _must_ remember to use all my gear!

Turn 5
This turn it actually looks like I knew what I was doing! :) The choices I made this turn worked out well. The Broadside moving into cover cost the Bike squad one of its members, and the Helios suit was positioned just far enough away that it couldn’t be swept into by a Massacre move from the Lord, but close enough to make sure it’d get a Fusion Blaster shot as well as Rapid-Fired Plasma. I have to admit, I’m not sure that was all planning, but I’m pretty sure I had some of it in mind (at least, the distancing on the Helios Commander.)

Turn 6
Only the inevitable happened here, so there wasn’t much in the way of choices to be made. It’s possible that if I’d adjusted the movement of my Helios Commander in the previous turn to be further toward Matt’s board edge but still in Fusion/Rapid-Fire Plasma range of the Lord, he might have been able to jump far enough away that the Aspiring Champion couldn’t reach him, but I’m not totally sure about that.

Well, I guess I should be somewhat impressed. I mean, sure I made a bunch of mistakes, but I still ended up pulling off a draw! Had I made a few less mistakes, this could’ve been a win. Okay, let’s classify some of these mistakes and then we can look at how to recognize them and avoid them in the future.

Rookie Mistakes
These are mistakes that I made because I am not as familiar with Tau as I’d like to be. This heading covers things like not recognizing the Bike squad and Lord as priority threats. I’ll also include my poorly thought-out setup and thus the misuse of my Broadsides. As I become more familiar with Tau, these sorts of things will go away by themselves. On the other hand, if I pay attention now, I can learn more quickly. I need to recognize how different Tau are from Tyranids, and I need to recognize the habits that I have picked up from playing Tyranids for so long. (Things like the Refused Flank, for example. It’s so much an ingrained habit for me, that I don’t even notice that I’m doing it.) Another rookie mistake would be not using sacrifice units. Very few of my units in this army were more than a single model. Using them as sacrifice units is easy. You just put the model where the enemy will almost certainly have to charge it, and put everything else as far away as possible, planning on the model or unit dying right away. Most of these mistakes stem from the fact that I’m used to playing an assault army, and I’ve got much more firepower and maneuver available, but almost no assault capability. Switching gears is going to take a concerted effort, but if I can keep it in mind, I should do much better.

Look, A Monkey! Mistakes
These are the mistakes I made just because I wasn’t paying enough attention. This category covers things like firing my Commanders at BS4 instead of BS5. I’ll also chalk up the bit that I didn’t recognize how much assault played into this army list. Simply looking at the points Matt spent on his units, more than half of them are spent on Assault units. (Lord, Bikes, Daemonettes.) If I had realized that, I would have looked at his army differently. I’ll have to be on the watch for that more in the future. Perhaps (assuming that I can look at the army list) I can make a quick assessment of how many points are spent on assault units rather than shooty ones. If I can’t get a look at the army list, I’ll have to simply keep an eye out for units with special movement modes, such as Bikes, Jump Packs and Cavalry/Beasts. Most such units can be and often are tooled up to do major damage in an assault. Infantry in transports can also be dangerous, but (due to vehicle rules such as not being able to assault out of closed-top transports) generally aren’t as much of a priority as models with special movement modes. Assault infantry units that don’t move fast aren’t nearly as much of a threat, since I will have more time to deal with them and most of my units can easily outrun them. This category is a little harder to improve on, as simply not being focused tends to be more of an effect of lack of sleep, tension, time constraints or distractions. On the other hand, having made these errors, I will hopefully now be more aware of the possibility for them. Forewarned is forearmed and all that, eh?

Tactical Errors
These are the mistakes that I made that involve not seeing a turn into the future. This category covers things like not planning where the Bikes and Lord might go next and covering those contingencies. I’m not sure if letting Matt go first was a tactical error or not, but I’m leaning toward it being one. With only 4 models (the Lord and Bikes) initially on the table as part of the assault element, I had the opportunity to wipe them out or at least severely damage them on the first and second turns before they could summon the Daemonettes. If I had killed them then, I would have had a much easier time. Heck, if I had even just killed off the Bike Squadron, it would have made a massive difference in the game. If I had gone first, I would have had two turns to do my damage. By going second, I only had 1 turn to do the damage. (Choosing to focus on damaging the Havocs on the first turn is still classified as a Rookie Mistake, however.) Not separating my units enough to prevent them from being consolidated or Massacred into would be another tactical error. Especially since I use such small units, I need to deploy them under the assumption that if they are assaulted, they will be dead in one turn, and thus they should be further apart to keep from being serially assaulted. One way to help avoid these problems is to look at the enemy force and imagine circles of effect around each unit. The circle of effect of a shooty unit encompasses the range of its weaponry and the limits of Line of Sight. The circle of effect of an assault unit is a circle with the range of its movement. (ie: The bikes can have an effect 18” in any direction from where they are now, with slight adjustments for terrain.) In addition, trying to analyze where the enemy will generally move or what they will try to do is a good way to figure out their plans. It is also a good way to get an idea of how your movements will affect the enemy army.

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