Last week I went into the Games-Workshop store in Tacoma and I got in another game with my Tau. I played against Brenden's Space Marines. I told him I had about a thousand points of Tau. Brenden said he could chop a few hundred points off of his 1300pt list, but I told him to go ahead and use the whole thing, I'd try to tack some other stuff onto my force. I ended up with about 1100pts of Tau, so we put together a game.

Game: Alpha Cleanse. 1300pts

Lists

My Best guess at Brenden’s List…

135 Space Marine Commander: Artificer Armor, Iron Halo, Storm Bolter, Powerfist.

105 Dreadnaught: Assault Cannon and Dreadnaught CCW

196 Tactical Squad: Sgt w/Term. Honors, Powerfist, Pistol; Missile Launcher, Flamer, 7xBolter
196 Tactical Squad: Sgt w/Term. Honors, Powerfist, Pistol; Missile Launcher, Flamer, 7xBolter

140 Assault Marines: Sgt w/Term. Honors, Powerfist, Pistol, 4xPistol and CCW

165 Devastator Squad: Sgt plus Lascannon, Plasma Cannon, Missile Launcher and another weapon (Heavy Bolter?)
130 Predator: Twin Lascannon Turret w/ Heavy Bolter Sponsons.

1067pts (Note: Brenden did say that he had 1300pts, so I expect there were a number of things I missed because they didn't come up in the game. For example, his Predator might have had Extra Armor and Smoke Launchers and the like, but they didn't come into play.)

Tau List:

100 Shas’El Commander w/CIB, Plasma Rifle, Target Array, HWMT
97 Shas’El Commander w/Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, Target Array, HWMT

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
199 Crisis Team: 2xShas’Ui w/PR, BC, MT. Team Leader w/PR, BC, TA, HWMT, Bonding Knife

78 6xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles and EMP Grenades.
78 6xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles and EMP Grenades.

70 Piranha: Fusion Blaster, Target Array
70 Piranha: Fusion Blaster, Target Array
70 Piranha: Fusion Blaster, Target Array

100 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization, Tm Ldr, HWDC +1 Shield Drone.
100 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization, Tm Ldr, HWDC +1 Shield Drone.

1108pts

I had told Brenden that I had 1200pts, but when I put it all together, it only came to 1108. I could have added on a few more things, but I felt pretty confident with this list, so I just left it at that.

Setup

I placed my Broadsides in the far ends of my deployment zone so they'd be out of range of most weaponry when they unmasked from behind the terrain. I placed one unit of FireWarriors near Broadside 1 poised to move into an adjacent quarter and set to fire at very long range as well. The other unit was placed directly behind the Woods near the center. The Crisis Battlesuits were all placed behind that Wooded area as well. Finally, the Piranhas were placed around the edges, ready to interpose between any assault units that might approach or to aggressively move out and take on targets of opportunity.

Turn 1

Space Marines: Dreadnaught and Assault Marines move up toward my center. The two Tactical squads move up behind them in support. The Devastators move to a better position, as does the Predator. The Dreadnaught kills 1 FireWarrior from FireWarrior team 1.

Tau: Just about everything moves up to get a bead on something in the Space Marine force. The 2 Broadsides move so that they can take a bead on the Predator (one of them can also hit the Dreadnaught.) The Helios Commander and Piranha 1 move up so their Fusion Blasters are within 6" of the Dreadnaught. (Redundancy is a really wonderful thing!) Both vehicles blow up and everything else concentrates on the Assault squad, wiping them out. Broadside 2, since it didn't get to shoot at the Predator, takes a pot shot at the Devastators and kills one.

Now, this was an Alpha Cleanse game, so we didn't total up Victory Points (and they didn't count for anything) but I still like to keep track of how my forces do and VPs are pretty much the best way of doing that.

Tau: 375VP
Space Marines: 0VP

Turn 2

Space Marines: Both Tactical squads move up and the Devastator Squad kills Piranha 3.

Tau: Unfortunately I couldn't get the Big Crisis Team to have Line of Sight to a target, so they simply adjusted for next turn. The rest of the Crisis suits, coupled with a Piranha managed to kill 3 Space Marines from the lead squad. (Black in the picture above) Meanwhile Broadside 2 kills a second Devastator.

Tau: 375VP
Space Marines: 70VP

Turn 3

Space Marines: The lead Tactical squad moves forward and kills the Gun Drones from Piranha 3. (They may have had Line of Sight to my Shas 'El Commander, but he is an Independent Character and the Gun Drones were closer.) The Devastator squad managed to kill Monat Shas 'Ui 2 (The second single Crisis Suit in my list above.)

Tau: The Broadsides and Piranha 1 kill off 2 of the remaining 3 Devastators, while Gun Drones from Piranha 1 charge in and tie up the last one. The rest of my army kills off 7 Tactical Space Marines and put 2 Wounds on the Commander.

Tau: 720VP
Space Marines: 143VP

Turn 4

Space Marines: The Tactical Squad in the forest moves up but doesn't do any damage. The Commander also fires but does no damage. The Devastator finally takes out the Gun Drone that's been holding him up, but is too late to shoot at anything.

Tau: At this point, the 2 remaining Piranhas surround the Devastator to make sure he goes down, the Shas 'El Helios Commander (the one with the Fusion Blaster) takes down the Space Marine Commander while the rest of the army shreds the final Tactical Squad.

Tau: 1300?VP
Space Marines: 143VP

Final Score: 4 quarters to none. Tau Victory.

Lessons Learned
Mostly the lessons that I learned from this game simply reinforced what I already knew: Jump Shoot Jump is a very powerful game mechanic. However, I did a couple of things this game that I've been wanting to do for a while. My Broadsides used their long range advantage to snipe from outside of the enemy's range, keeping themselves safe. I used my FireWarriors similarly, putting them in cover and using the 30" range of their weaponry to reach out and touch enemies from a safe distance. I also managed to use the Independent Character rule to keep my Crisis Commander safe. finally, I also carefully used terrain to keep 2 of my Piranhas safe until they could get in a good shot. That emphasis on safety kept 2 of the 3 alive through the whole game.

Suggestions
Brenden had a pretty hard time against my army. There were a few things that he could have done to make this a much harder game. If his Tactical squads had Rhinos, they could have threatened my main line much sooner which would have put a lot more pressure on me. Similarly, if his Commander had a Jump Pack and joined the Assault Marines, it would have been much harder to take them all out on turn 1, and he probably would have been in my lines on turn 2 with the Commander. Without changes to his army list, putting his Predator behind terrain on turn 1 would have helped somewhat (as it would have gotten at least one shot off.) That by itself wouldn't have made a huge difference, but it could have certainly helped.

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