Throwing Down at GW-Tacoma

Last Saturday I got the opportunity to head down to the Games Workshop store in Tacoma. I spent a little time observing a game between a Tau Player and an Ultramarine player. They had a few confusions about the rules and I helped them out a little bit. AFter they finished their game, I asked if one of them wanted to play, and the Ultramarine player agreed to a 1500pt game.

My opponent had good clean painting lines and had obviously put a lot of effort into his Librarian model. It looked so good, I just had to get a shot. Unfortunately, the shot wasn't as crisp as I'd like, but you can get the idea of how it was painted. Librarian

Game: Last Man Standing 1500pts

Lists

Space Marines

Terminator Librarian
Space Marine Commander w/Command squad: Variety of weapons, Landraider Crusader

Dreadnaught: Assault Cannon and Dread CCW
Dreadnaught: TL Lascannon and Missile Launcher

Tactical Squad: variety of weapons

Landspeeder (Typhoon? the one with Multimelta and the special Missile Launcher)
Assault Squad: 2xplasma Pistol, 3xBolt Pistol and CCW

Whirlwind
Predator: TL Lascannon w/HB Sponsons
Vindicator

Approximately 1500pts

In writing up the list, I noticed some mistakes. At first I thought the squad by the Dreadnaughts was a Devastator squad because it had so many Heavy weapons, but he had 3 other Heavy Support Choices. He also used the Landraider Crusader as a dedicated transport, so the other squad (with multiple heavy weapons) must have been a Command squad. That leaves no tactical squads. I got them impression that he's a fairly new player, and he seemed like a good guy, so it must be some confusion in understanding the codex. Pulling out a couple of Heavy Weapons from each squad and splitting the "command squad" in half (making one a 5-man Tac squad with a Heavy Weapon and an Assault weapon, and the other a Command squad) would fix all these issues, I think.

Tau List:

100 Shas'El Commander w/Cyclic Ion Blaster, Plasma, TA, HWMT
97 Shas’El Commander w/Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, Target Array, HWMT

201 3x Crisis Suit: Plasma, MP, MT. Tm Ldr w/HWMT and TA
201 3x Crisis Suit: Plasma, MP, MT. Tm Ldr w/HWMT and TA
139 2x Crisis Suit: Plasma, MP, MT. Tm Ldr w/HWMT and TA

80 6xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles, Tm Ldr also has Markerlight.
80 6xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles, Tm Ldr also has Markerlight.

70 Piranha Fusion Blaster, TA
70 Piranha Fusion Blaster, TA

80 Sniper Drone Team: Spotter w/Networked Markerlight + 3 Drones with RailRifles 180 2xBroadside, Advanced Stabilization. Tm Ldr w/HWDC and 1 Shield Drone
180 2xBroadside, Advanced Stabilization. Tm Ldr w/HWDC and 1 Shield Drone

1478pts

turn 1

Turn 1

Space Marines:The Librarian moved forward to get closer to my lines, the Whirlwind took it's toll on a squad of FireWarriors. The Predator managed to squeeze a shot off at my Centurion Commander through the fort, killing him instantly. (We were treating the fort as area terrain, and the Predator could draw a line through about 5" of the terrain. 1 more inch and he would have been out of sight.)

Tau: my goal was to kill the Landraider this turn. Although I didn't manage it, I did immobilize it and stun it. I also managed to Wound the Librarian that had moved out this turn. Unfortunately, beyond this point, my notes fail me, so you'll mostly have to go by the pictures.

turn 1

Turn 2

: The Landraider died this turn. 2 Twinlinked railguns means never having to say you're sorry. I I moved up Piranha 1 to get a shot at the Dreadnaught this turn, I believe it killed it but died to the other Dreadnaught.

turn 1

Turn 3

: The Whirlwind was taking it's toll on me, so it became the priority target this turn and died to my Railguns. The Landspeeder and Assault squad came in this turn on my left flank, so they were the priority for everything else. The Assault squad died to a man, but the Landspeeder survived this turn.

turn 1

Turn 4

: Now I was trying for the Vindicator, but only managed to stun it. The Landspeeder lost it's weapons and was stunned this turn, but not before it managed to kill off my Helios Commander with it's Multimelta.

turn 1

Turn 5

: Nailed the Vindicator. This is the turn the Command squad and Commander chose to move out of the bunker, so I began targeting them. I killed a couple and Wounded the Commander.

Turn 6

: No picture, sorry. Shredded the Command squad. (Down to 2 Marines and the Wounded Commander) with my remaining Crisis Battlesuits. And thus ended the game.

Remaining Forces

Space Marines: Wounded Librarian, Wounded Commander, 2 from the Command Squad, 1 from the Tactical Squad, Predator.

Tau: 4 Crisis Battlesuits, Piranha, All 4 Broadsides, Spotter and 2 Sniper Drones.

Sheer Stupidity
Sheer Stupidity lost me a number of things this game. Given that my opponent had two Ordnance template weapons, my Firewarriors weren't nearly spaced out enough. They were also too far forward. Although that did save my Helios Commander from a turn of firing, I didn't make use of that, so their sacrifice was wasted. For that matter, both my commanders were placed too far forward. I was positioning them aggressively, to make better use of their damage potential, but that potential was wasted when they were killed (each with a S8+ weapon that ignored their armor save.) To fix this issue, I need to deploy my Tau in a more defensive posture and remember that it's not how much of the enemy that I kill, it's the difference between the enemy dead and the friendly dead. While I still won this game by a comfortable margin, the sacrifices were too high for me to be complacent.

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