I went into the Games Workshop in Tacoma for another game this week. I had just added another Broadside and I wanted to try it out. I asked around for a game and someone said their army was in the car. He said he had 900 points of Space Marines, so I said I'd knock 100 points off my 1000pt list of Tau and we could get our game on. He returned shortly and we went about setting up the table. When we introduced ourselves, he said his name was Al. (If you're reading this, Hi Al!) We then talked about what sort of game we wanted to play and he was very insistent that we play 5 turns, since he really didn't like 3-turn games. I'm with him there. Very few armies can do much during the first three turns, and almost no assault armies will be able to do anything. Most of the games that I play are 6 turns, so I'd never heard of a 5-turn game before, but that sounded like his standard, so I went with it.

Game: Last Man Standing-5 turns. 900pts

Lists

My Best guess at Al’s List…

121 Space Marine Commander: Iron Halo, Bolt Pistol, Powerweapon, Jump Pack.

240 Terminator Squad: 3x Storm Bolter, 2xAssault Cannon
115 Dreadnaught: Multimelta and Stormbolter and 2xDreadnaught CCW(?) I don't find this option in the rulebook, but I think he referred to the weapon as a Melta, so he may have a Furioso Dreadnaught (I know Blood Angels used to be able to have them, but I'm not sure if they can now, or if regular Space Marines can get them.)

145 Tactical Squad: Missile Launcher, 8xBolter
135 Tactical Squad: 9xBolt Pistol and CCW
162 Scout Squad: 9xSniper Rifle
105 Tactical Squad: 7xBolter

1023?pts. Al said that he had 900pts, but I'm coming up with 1023. I may, however, have some of the points or the squad numbers wrong. (I know there were 9 Snipers and 9 in the squad with the Missile Launcher, but I'm not positive about the 7 in the regular Tactical Squad or the 9 in the Bolt Pistol/CCW squad.

Tau List:

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
131 Crisis Team: 2xShas'Ui w/Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, MT. Tm Ldr has Target Array, HWMT
131 Crisis Team: 2xShas'Ui w/Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, MT. Tm Ldr has Target Array, HWMT

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

80 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization
80 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization
80 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization

828pts

I had whipped up a list earlier in the day for 1000pts, and when Al said he had 900pts, I just pulled the Centurion Commander off of the list, making it 100pts lighter. Just now as I was writing up my list for this battle report, I noticed that I had written down the points for a Piranha, but I didn't actually take it during the battle. Oops. That's what happens when you don't read your own lists carefully!

Here is the picture of our setup, or at least part of it. I managed to only get most of the board in the pictures here. In the foreground, you can see the cluster of my strong flank, and across from them are the Force Commander, both long-range Tactical Squads and the Dreadnaught. On their opposite flank, you can see the assaulty Tactical Squad behind the terrain while the Sniper Scouts have Infiltrated into the terrain. Out of the picture are my second FireWarrior team across from the Sniper Scouts, the third Broadside slightly closer this way but all the way against the back of the board, and just that side of center is my single Crisis Suit.

Setup

Al started just placing units on the board, so I figured that I should do the same instead of following the usual method of alternating placing one unit at a time. I put my FireWarrior teams in cover on opposite sides of my deployment zone, with a Broadside nearby on one side and both the remaining Broadsides right next to the FireWarriors on the other. Aside from the single Crisis Suit, the rest of my units were all placed to overload one side. I didn't give it a lot of thought during the setup, but I basically started out aiming for a Split Deployment, but then I overloaded one flank, making it essentially a refused flank. I started the FireWarriors out in cover, thinking I'd make use of their longer range weaponry from the start of the game. This was a mistake as it turned out later.

Turn 1

I won the roll to go first, but I felt my position was good and I wanted to see what Al would do, so I chose to go second.

Space Marines: The Dreadnaught and Force Commander move closer but stay in cover. The Assaulty Tactical squad also moves slowly through difficult terrain (roughly toward my "refused flank" FireWarrior team. The Sniper Scouts draw a bead on the afore-mentioned FireWarriors and kill 2 of them, pinning the Team.

Tau: 2 of the Broadsides shoot at the Dreadnaught. One of them hits it and immobilizes it. Most of my Crisis Suits move forward, but only manage to cause one wound on one of the Tactical squads.

Tau: 57.5VP
Space Marines: 0VP

Turn 2

Space Marines: The Terminators Deep Strike directly behind my strong flank, gunning down one Crisis Team immediately. The Force Commander jets forward out of the woods toward my strong flank as well, ending up a little beyond charge range. On the opposite side of the board, the Assaulty Tactical squad continues maneuvering forward through the terrain while the Sniper Scouts kill another 2 FireWarriors. The FireWarriors pass their pinning test this time, but then simply break and run away. The long-ranged Tactical squads fire into the strong flank FireWarrior team, killing 4 and breaking them as well.

Tau: Everything on the strong flank maneuvers to get a shot at the Terminators. My Commander and both Broadsides move such that they can see both the Terminators and the Force Commander and thus shoot at either target. (They also move farther apart to make it harder to consolidate from one combat to another just in case they get caught!) The single Crisis Suit moves such that it can see both the Force Commander and the Assaulty Tactical squad. Basically, I tried to maximize my shooting potential, so that if one target got taken out early, I'd still have other things available to shoot. I also knew that the Terminators and the Force Commander were by far my highest priorities, since they could both easily slaughter my Tau in close combat the next turn. 2 Broadsides, my Commander and 2 Crisis Suits all fire into the Terminators, ripping them to pieces in the torrent of fire. The remaining Broadside kills the Force Commander while the single Crisis suit kills another Space Marine from the Assaulty Tactical squad.

Tau: 418.5VP
Space Marines: 287VP

Turn 3

Space Marines: The single Crisis suit takes a Wound from the 4 Sniper Scouts able to see him. The Assaulty Tactical squad is moving forward attempting to close with the Single Crisis Suit. The long-range Tactical squads manage to put one Wound on one of the Broadides with a volley of fire.

Tau: The Single Crisis suit, combined with the remaining 2-suit team and the Commander move up to fire into the Assaulty Tactical squad that is moving through the open. They take down a couple of them before moving back away. The Broadside in the center shifts a little to the right and destroys the Dreadnaught with a well-placed shot. The Wounded Broadside moves a little back to get out of range of most of the Tactical squad members.

Tau: 476VP
Space Marines: 287VP

Turn 4

Space Marines: While the Assaulty Tactical squad continues to move forward, Al acknowledges that there is no way they'll actually catch up. The long-range Tactical squads shift their fire to the other strong-flank Broadside, but all their firing is for naught as it's armor remains unbroken.

Tau: At this point I'm torn between damaging the enemy and keeping my units (and thus victory points) safe. I decide to err on the side of caution and manage to only kill a couple of the Assualty Tactical squad.

Tau: 476VP
Space Marines: 287VP

Turn 5

Space Marines: Again the Assaulty Tactical squad moves up and again the long-range Tactical squads fire into the Broadside. This time, however, they manage to cause a single Wound.

Tau: This time I know I don't need to be cautious as the game is about to end. On the other hand, I'm firing from long-range at Space Marines in the Woods, so I manage to kill only about 2 or 3, leaving the squad below half but not finished.

Tau: 543.5VP
Space Marines: 287VP

Solid Victory Tau.

Lessons Learned
Well, as I won this game, there are fewer lessons that really jump out at me. On the other hand, since I mis-handled my poor FireWarriors, that would be an important lesson. Hide them. Unless you _know_ that no one will have them in range, you are simply better off hiding them from view. Had I done this, I would have saved at least one Team, possibly both of them, which is more than 1/2 the points that I lost in this game. I couldn't really have helped the loss of the Crisis Team to the Terminators, though if they'd been _in_ cover, they might have just pulled through. On the other hand, if they'd been in cover, they'd have been targets for the long-range Tactical squads on the other side of the board. I think I'll just have to think of them as acceptable losses when it comes to dealing with Deep-Striking Terminators. One thing that I achieved with my Split Deployment was to effectively take the Assaulty Tactical squad out of the game. With the FireWarrior team gone and the Broadside against the board edge and the single Crisis suit jumping away from them, they really couldn't do anything except slog across the board.

Suggestions
Al had a tough time against my army, since it's based around shooting and not being shot, which is something few armies can deal with very well. A transport for his Assaulty Tactical squad might have helped, since it would be able to get them into the action more quickly. Sure, it would have been another target for my heavy antitank weaponry, but if it had been moving forward on turn 2 when the Terminators were deep-striking and the Force Commander was jumping forward, it might have over-taxed my firing abilities and something might have gotten through. (It was pretty close as it was, I only had one spare shot going elsewhere!) I know that he said he wasn't a treadhead, so maybe trading the Assaulty Tactical squad in for some Assault Marines with Jump Packs would be worthwhile. That would give the Force Commander some back-up when he comes flying in. Another thing that I noticed about his list was that he didn't have much in the way of heavy weapons. Against me that's not necessarily awful, as I didn't bring any vehicles, but against other armies, he'd only have the Dread's Melta or Multimelta and one Missile Launcher to handle any antivehicle work until the Terminators show up with those Assault Cannons. Dropping a couple of Space Marines would get him another Missile Launcher and a couple of special weapons which will also help out against heavily armored opponents like myself or other Space Marine armies. Perhaps he'll choose to add one or more of these in as he heads toward 1500pts. In any case, I had a good time and I look forward to playing against Al again sometime.

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