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A few weeks ago I found out there was a new GW location nearby. I decided to get over there and see if I could find some targets for my Tau to shoot at. When I got there, the manager had just begun a megabattle with several players. Even though they'd just started, one of the players had to leave, and there weren't any other opponents around. The manager invited me to jump in, so I did. Note: I am only reporting the things done by and to the Tau, as it was way too much work to keep up with what everyone else did.

Game: Wanted Dead or Alive Megabattle. 750pts

I arrived at the end of turn 2, I think. I setup an armylist quickly and jumped in where the Store Manager told me to.

My List

100 Shas’El: PR, CIB, TA HWMT
97 Shas’El: PR, FB, TA, HWMT

73 Shas’Ui: Tm Ldr, PR, BC, TA, HWMT
73 Shas’Ui: Tm Ldr, PR, BC, TA, HWMT
73 Shas’Ui: Tm Ldr, PR, BC, TA, HWMT

80 6xFW: Tm Ldr w/Markerlight
80 6xFW: Tm Ldr w/Markerlight

70 Piranha: FB, TA
70 Piranha: FB, TA

716pts

Terrain and enemy positions

There was a huge building more or less central to the table. It had a tall part that actually went up three stories, with a larger area on top of the first story that had some cover and a large area to shoot from. Each corner had a bit of terrain in the way of ruined buildings or other citified terrain, with another long building dividing the center of the left side into two separate lanes. There were a good mix of open areas and blocked sight lines. The bulk of the Orks were in a huge mass on top of the first level of the big tower, with the Warboss on the corner nearest mine (lower left in the picture.) There were a couple of Zzap gunz up in the higher stories with good Line of Sight to just about everything on the board. When I entered, there were some Orks being mopped up by the ultramarines in their corner (upper left as you look at this drawing,) and some Orks being mopped up by the Chaos Marines in their corner (upper right here,) plus a Killer Kan and a Mega-Armored Nob that had been playing with the guy who had to pack up and leave early (The last corner, this becomes important slightly later.)

Turn 1-2: I'm not sure exactly what happened before I'd arrived, but I know the Orks blew up one Ultramarine Dreadnaught and were tangling with the Chaos Marines and whatever the guy who left had.

Turn 3

The Tau walk on and their volley of fire merely manages to stun a Rokkit Buggy between them and the Chaos Corner. I put my FireWarriors far back in the corner, hoping to take advantage of their long range and keep them out of harm's way. My Crisis Suits and Piranhas bunched up on the other side of the building that was in my corner, planning on leaping forward to engage the Orks. Basically, I was relying on the tactical mobility of my Battlesuits and the firepower and speed of my Piranhas to keep the main part of my force intact.

Turn 4

The Crisis Battlesuits pop out and shoot a few Orks dead. In turn, they are ambushed from the left flank by the Killa Kan and the Rokkit Nob in Mega Armour. The Helios Shas‘El is instakilled by a rokkit due to my inattention. (I told you that it would be important!)

Turn 5

Piranha 1 blasts the Killa Kan, exacting vengeance for the recently departed Shas'El. (Boom! A Penetrating 6 result!) A Shas’Ui kills the Mega Armoured Nob with his Plasma Rifle. A few more assorted Orks die to the rest of my Crisis Battlesuits. The FireWarriors kill a Rokkit Buggy.

Turn 6

Suddenly realizing the danger in letting them live, the Tau wipe out both Zzap Gunz, while Piranha 2 kills Warboss Grishnak (AKA: The Target) At this point, I didn’t realize that his body could be moved, I thought you had to stand near it. Since Tau don’t do well standing still, I ignored the body and concentrated on killing more Orks. I figured that I would do my Jump Shoot Jump thing and wipe out enemies near the body, then zip in on the last turn to scoop it up.

Turn 7

The Chaos remnant left from tangling with the Orks (6 CSM plus the Lord) sees an opportunity and kills a bunch of Orks and seizes the body. This unit suddenly becomes the highest Tau targeting priority. All Tau sweep the unit with fire, leaving only the Lord standing. Piranha 2 closes in and kills the Lord.

Turn 8

Piranha 1 engages the Dreadnaught (only getting a Stunned result for it's efforts.) The Ultramarine Melta gunner from the squad moving up behind the Dreadaught fries Piranha 1. This is where the army goes into absolute textbook Tau Jump, Shoot, Jump mode. The second Ultramarine squad doesn’t quite have LOS to any Crisis Suits, so they move and thus cannot fire their Lascannon and their Bolters are out of range. The Crisis Suits converge and snipe off a few Ultramarines and move out of LOS. 1 Shas’Ui grabs the body of Warboss Grishnak and starts moving back. Piranha 2 moves up behind the big Ork building with an eye on the Dreadnaught.

Turn 9

Ultramarines again have no LOS, so they move up. Most of the Crisis Suits snipe several more Ultramarines including a range snipe of the Lascannon. Piranha 2 darts out and immobilizes the Dreadnaught. A Shas ‘Ui removes the Assault Cannon from the Dreadnaught as well, while the last Shas’Ui continues moving off with the Body. The FireWarriors move toward the Ultramarines to provide an additional screen to keep them away from the Shas ‘Ui with the objective. (I don't want to sacrifice the FireWarriors, but putting units between your objective-holder and the enemy makes sure you don't get any nasty surprises, such as a Jump Pack-equipped character zipping in to take it from you.)

Turn 10

Ultramarines again have no LOS and move forward. Ultramarine Melta Gunner claims another Piranha kill as Piranha 2 goes up in smoke. The bulk of my Crisis Suits reduce the nearer Ultramarine squad to the Sergeant with Powerfist who promptly falls back. My Shas'Ui with the Warboss' body continues moving into my corner.

Turn 11

One Shas’Ui guns down the Powerfist Sergeant and it is clear that the Shas'Ui with the Warboss' body is beyond reach from the remaining Ultramarines. Game callled.

Victory Tau!

Tau Losses: Helios Shas ‘El (97pts) 2xPiranha (140pts)
237pts lost out of 716.

Ultramarine remaining: Immobilized, Weapon Destroyed Dreadnaught (Dreadnaught CCW and Heavy Flamer left)
10 man squad: Plasma Cannon, Melta Gun, probably a powerfist sergeant.

Lessons Learned
Well, the first lesson would have to be paying attention to _all_ enemy forces. I had missed the Killa Kan and the Mega-armored Nob, and it cost me my Shas'El Helios (both the loss of the BS5 Fusion Blaster/Plasma Rifle combination and the loss of 97pts before it could really do much hurt.) Pay special attention to models that are very fast or are deployed/moved into an area that is different from the primary axis of attack. (IE: Infiltrators on your flanks instead of in front of you.) These types of unit can quickly change the game by virtue of their movement or direction of attack. They will be able to move around skirmish screens and can get behind the cover you are using, and they can hit more important targets that you would have been able to protect if the attack had come from the front.

The second lesson would have to be paying attention to or clarifying the mission objective or objectives. Had I known that the body could be moved, I could have scooped it up and made a run for my corner, likely leaving behind my slower enemies (Neither side had any model capable of moving more than 6 inches, plus a potential 6 more for a charge.)

Next up are a pair of mistakes that I have to chalk up to not being familiar with using light vehicles. If I had taken an extra turn with each one, I would have been less likely to lose it. That Meltagunner was way too close for me to jump in like that. The problem was that I focused on the Dreadnaught too much, and sort of overlooked the fact that he had a very strong squad behind them. If I had used my mobility to move further around the terrain, they would have probably been able to get partially behind a building before unleashing their fire on the Dreadnaught. If only one model in the enemy army can see you, shooting it gives you a much better chance at surviving.

Like the song says, you've got to know when to hold 'em and know when to fold 'em. Concentrating on an objective can be a great way to win a battle. There is such a thing as concentrating _too hard_ on something, however. In this game, I really tried to take down that Dreadnaught. While I did it a great deal of damage, it was still alive and kicking at the end of the megabattle, which is more than can be said for either of my Piranhas. That's 140pts of my army list that I took out of the battle. That's 140pts that I could have used for more shooting and effectiveness. My initial thought was that Dreadnaughts are generally pretty easy to pop and it would be easy points for me. A couple of less than stellar shots from the Fusion Blasters meant that I ended up eating hot microwave death, rather than the Dreadnaught doing so. While I generally believe that Dreadnaughts make great targets and are fairly easy points, I'll try not to keep throwing stuff at something that isn't really vital. (Since the Dreadnaught was on the other side of the big building from me, it couldn't do a whole lot of damage to me and wouldn't have been able to do so until at least turn 8 or 9. By that time, I could have had the objective nearly off the board and not even worried about the Dreadnaught.

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