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Pickin' Up Games
The other day I had a chance to stop by the GW store in Tacoma and asked around about getting in a game. There was a kid there by the name of Donovan (hi there) who said he wanted to play, but all he had was 604pts of Space Marines. I told him that was okay, I only had a maximum of 1200pts of Tau, so 604 would be fine. I took my standard 500 point list and added an extra Bladestorm Crisis Suit to it. (Okay, that only brought me to 555 points, but I didn't really have enough points for anything else, and I preferred the extra Crisis Suit over a Piranha or anything else. I figured that having a 59 point disadvantage would be okay, since Donovan didn't seem really familiar with his rules.
Game: Capture the Oasis. 604pts
Lists
My Best guess at Donovan’s List…
? Librarian: Artificer Armor. This guy really didn't do much during the game, so I have no idea how he was equipped, but if the points add up, he must have been worth something approaching 200pts, which would indicate that he was armed with everything including the kitchen sink!
115pts Dreadnaught with Multimelta and DCCW w/Storm Bolter
196?pts 10x Space Marines: 1 w/Missile Launcher, 1 w/Flamer. Probably a Sergeant with Terminator Honors and a Powerfist/Bolt Pistol.
95pts 5x Scouts: 4xSniper Rifles, 1xMissile Launcher
604pts
Tau List:
100 Shas’El Commander w/CIB, Plasma Rifle, Target Array, HWMT
73 Shas’Ui Team Leader w/Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Target Array, HWMT
131 Crisis Team 1: 2xShas’Ui w/PR, BC, MT. Team Leader w/PR, BC, TA, HWMT
131 Crisis Team 2: 2xShas’Ui w/PR, BC, MT. Team Leader w/PR, BC, TA, HWMT
60 6xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles.
60 6xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles.
555pts
I was counting on the Jump-Shoot-Jump goodness of my Crisis Suits to handle pretty much any threat, since they have a great deal of flexibility and mobility.
Here you can see my tight castle of a setup. Just out of the picture on the upper right is the rock formation where his Tactical squad and Librarian are.
Setup
I set my FireWarrior teams up behind a large rock formation in my deployment zone on my far right. Donovan placed his Tactical squad and the Librarian roughly opposite in the cover of some standing stones. While he then placed the Dreadnaught out to the far side of his Deployment zone, I decided to concentrate on his Tactical squad first. My plan was to neutralize them with my JSJ Crisis Suits, then move out to capture the objective and take on the rest of his army. To achieve this, I placed all of my units very close together behind that rock formation. He then Infiltrated his Scouts up onto a rock in the opposite end of my Deployment zone. Even with the advantage of height (being able to see over the terrain) I decided that they weren't really close enough to be a threat.
Here you can see my little Cadre scattering in reaction to the sniper fire.
Turn 1: I won the roll to go first, but I let him take the first turn. Not only does that tend to make shooty armies move a bit out of cover, it also gives me the _last_ turn, which in an objective game is very important. Since my army tends to start out fairly well-hidden from enemy fire, I usually feel that I can afford not to get the first turn.
Space Marines: The Scouts are just in range with their Sniper Rifles and manage to kill a team member (not the leader) from Crisis Team 1. The Dreadnaught moved toward the cluster of my units, but was still masked by the large chunk of terrain in the middle.
Tau: Well, all of my Tau are out of range of shooting the Scouts. I had originally planned to focus on the Tactical squad, but the fact that the Scouts could hit me without retaliation really got to me. I moved my Commander, the single Crisis Suit and the remaining Team Leader from the team that had been hit by the Scouts. They all moved toward the Scouts, but shifted a little toward the Tactical squad, hoping to get in range of the Tactical squad. Sadly, they were all out of range. The Crisis team that stayed on the opposite side of the rock formation (Crisis Team 2, for reference) didn't get into range, but they moved slightly closer to the Tactical Squad, staying behind the rock formation.
Tau: 0VP
Space Marines: 0VP
Draw
The Dreadnaught makes it's appearance a little sooner than I expected.
Turn 2:
Space Marines: The Scouts kill 2 FireWarriors, and the rest of the team promptly runs off the board. The Dreadnaught lumbers through the crater wall in the center and fires into the Crisis Suits, instakilling the remaining Team leader from Team 1.
Tau: The single Crisis Suit and the Shas 'El both fire at the oncoming Dreadnaught, and the 'El manages to knock out it's Multimelta with a well-aimed blast from his Plasma Rifle. Crisis Team 2 moves out from cover and shoots at the Tactical squad, but they are saved by the rock formation they are hiding in.
Tau: 0VP
Space Marines: 191 VP
Solid Victory Space Marines
The FireWarriors move away from the Dreadnaught and Crisis Team 2 closes on the Tactical squad.
Turn 3:
Space Marines: The Dreadnaught runs forward and slaughters my Shas 'El in close combat while the Scouts take out the single Crisis Suit.
Tau: Crisis Team 2 jets closer to the Tactical squad and manages to actually kill one, they remain out of cover due to their trust in their armor (or because I forgot to move them back after such a disappointing turn.)
Tau: 0VP
Space Marines: 364 VP
Crushing Victory Space Marines
Some damage is evident on the Tactical squad, but it is too little, too late.
Turn 4:
Space Marines: The Scouts kill a few FireWarriors, but not enough to take them out of range of the Dreadnaught, which continues it's rampage, mashing through rest of the FireWarriors. The Tactical squad moves out of cover to Rapid-Fire their Bolters into Crisis Team 2, but don't take them down.
Tau: Hoping desperately to avoid the Dreadnaught and make a play for the Oasis in the center, Crisis Team 2 moves across in front of the Tactical squad, killing 2 with their fire.
Tau: 0VP
Space Marines: 424 VP
Crushing Victory Space Marines
Turn 5: There is no picture from the end of this turn, but one isn't really needed.
Space Marines: The Tactical squad fires into Crisis Team 2 with everything including the Missile Launcher this time. Time has run out for Crisis Team 2 and their shattered suits crash to the ground.
Tau: 0VP
Space Marines: 555 VP
Victorious Slaughter Space Marines, for a loss of only 3 Space Marines and no Victory Points.
Lessons Learned
I'm planning on doing some Armchair General-type analysis of this battle and our forces, but I'll have to save that for next week, I think.
If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know
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