Bad advice?

Unfortunately due to work commitments, I haven't have much time for anything hobby related recently. I did manage to get a re-match against my mate for the last game of escalation and managed to have a relatively decisive victory, although the scenario was in my favour from the start so kudos to Ginge for agreeing to a rematch (we will have a slightly more balanced game next time :-P).

Which brings me onto the topic for this post. While I was down that way I popped into the local gamesworkshop to pick a few bits up,  naturally the guy working there started talking to me, asking what armies I collected etc. When I mentioned I play Tau, he started asking me what I thought of them. I responded saying that they can be quite good with a few tricks but could do with a new codex.

Saying I mainly played a battlesuit army with as many suits as I have, small squads of firewarriors, pathfinders and hammerheads. I was told that this was my problem, at this point I wasn't even aware I had a problem, I was advised that I should really take less crisis suits and broadsides, and more firewarriors and drone squadrons. Stating that one of the regulars at their shop filled up on stealth suits with firewarrior support.

At this point I wondered if the local Tau players had ever won any games, or were just considered the baby seals of the store. Is this the advice that employees are giving out to people who they think are struggling to win games?

I don't considered myself a WAAC player in the slightest, slightly competitive in so much as I play to win, or stop the other guy from winning if my dice fail me :-P. But I have enjoyed some measure of success using my standard army list against most of the newer codexes. I've beaten, and lost to, Guard, tabled Blood Angels a couple of times. Given I rarely get the opportunity to play I think my win/draw/lose ratio has been pretty favourable. However were I struggling and getting frustrated at the 'poor' performance of my Tau would his advice of helped at all?

No, firewarriors are one of the weakest units in the Tau codex, drones are on the same footing. Better advice could be found at places like 3++ is the new black or many other sources of solid tactical advice on playing the game. Stacking up on the weaker units of an army is a sure way to lose, sure you can get more feet on the ground, but they are more likely to be running away at the first sign of trouble instead of inflicting damage on the opponent.

In a Tau army, crisis suits and broadsides are the heavy hitters, missile pods, plasma guns and railguns the tools of their trade. Cram as many of these in as you can and always remember the dead can't claim objectives. That would be my advice at any rate :-P

Book Review: The First Heretic

The First Heretic is the latest novel in the long running Horus Heresy series of books written by Aaron Dembski-Bowden. The book explores the history of the Word Bearers legion, starting with the Emperors castigation of them for worshipping him as a god and ending with them preparing to assault the Ultramarines at Calth. 

Over the course of the book the information about the origin of the Primarchs and the events leading to their dispersal throughout the galaxy is explained in more detail. There is a lot more background information on the nature of chaos and the enmity between the Word Bearers and the Ultramarines. 

The book describes the fall of Lorgar from the Emperor and his turn to chaos. As he seeks to find something to worship, you get to see the fallibility of the primarch as the ultimate architects of his, and the legions, downfall is revealed. 

Overall, this book is fantastic and certainly one of the better books of the Horus Heresy series so far. 

5/5 - Awesome must read for fans of the series. 

Black Library

Black Library have just started to offer free Ebooks. Which I think is absolutely brilliant. There are current 3 for free click here for the ebooks.
If you go to the amazon site, you can download a free e-reader software PC software here. All you need to do is download the .mobi version of the ebooks from the black library website and open them from your download file.

Thanks to Black Library for providing this content. Remember to check the site every friday for another free ebook.

Escalation 2010 Armies

I managed to get a few photos of the armies present at escalation this year. so thought I'd put up a few photos of them.

An actual chaos army!

Chaos wolves!

Orkies with a rather nice trike mounted warboss

Space wolves!

 

Zombie horde army. (My round 1 opponent)

Tyranids

Although I think one of the best armies present was the Eldar army, shown below. Looks awesome, the judges must have thought likewise as well as it won best painted.

Escalation 2010

I took my Tau to escalation 2010. Their first competitive outing. I didn't do quite as well as I hoped, but not as bad as I feared. coming 11th out of 24th with 1 win, 2 draws and a 1 loss in four games. Some of the missions were a little odd. With strange deployments and/or reserve units, certainly wasn't friendly for armies relying on firepower.

Game 1:

This was fought using the night fighting mission from the battle missions book. With the table split into four triangles diagonally across the table. Rolling for random deployment of units within the triangles. Mission was objectives with three objectives positioned towards the center of the battlefield, night fighting rules all the time.

My opponent for this mission was using a plague zombie army, I watched as horror as he positioned 83 zombies around the objectives in the middle of the table. For those that don't know, the zombies are toughness 3 feel no pain, S4 and fearless. So they can take a beating and not go anywhere. 

Over the course of 6 turns I managed to drop about 50 of the zombies without losing a single model. However he held two of the objectives with his larger remaining horde of zombies. On turn 6 with a well positioned charge into his larger group of zombies I managed to drag them off the objective ending the game in a draw. 

My opponent in this round was the same opponent I faced in the first round of the winds of war tournament earlier on in the year. This was an enjoyable game against a great opponent. However I didn't lose a single model in this round which was nice.

Game 2:

This was a spearhead deployment, kill point mission. My army was designed for fighting marines. So I was delighted to be fighting a space marine army. 

This mission went quiet well for me, I made a few mistakes which cost me my Shas'O to a melta gun totting biker. The game ended on turn 7 with me wiping out the last remaining marines on my opponents side. 

This game ended in a victory and 1000 VPs for the Tau. My opponent was a little new to his army and could probably have done with being a little more forceful in approaching my army. However he was a great person to play against.

Game 3: 

Spearhead deployment again. with a slight twist, you are only allowed to deploy fast attack choices. Leaving me with a squad of pathfinders and their devilfish. When I found out my assigned table I noticed it was largely open. Which I thought would be nice, until I realised I drew an imperial guard player. uh uh. The game was 3 objectives, one in the center of the table and 1 in the center of the unoccupied table quarters.

My opponent deployed a vendetta against my pathfinders. With the rest of my army held in reserve and the guard player having the -1 to my reserves roll, I didn't hold much hope of winning or evening drawing this mission. The game went quite quickly, with most of my reserves turning up then being taken out by the guard player, or failing a morale check and running off the table. Worst of all, I took a wound on each of my broadsides and managed to failed 2 of 3 armour saves and both invulnerable saves on my shield drones. Leaving most of my army at the mercy of the guard battle tanks. My remaining railguns failed to penetrate any of the guard armour, although I managed to cripple enough of his chimeras to prevent him reaching the center objective, and had four firewarriors hiding on mine.

Game resulted in a draw, but I was grateful the game ended on turn 6. 

Game 4:

I ended up playing against Ginge in this game, on the same table I played on game 3. It was a kill point mission against orks. A nice open battlefield and a good deployment for me.

Unfortunately I messed up on some of the tactics of this game, a few small changes could have won me this game. moving my firewarriors up towards his bikes to restrict his movement and get off a round of rapid fire at his bikes. I also could have moved around a little more effectively to keep out of the orks reach. Unfortunately I was tripping over my own deployment. Strung out across the back of the battlefield with limited space to move around. The dice also abandoned me on this game as well, Making up for the good luck in games 1 and 2 with bad luck in 3 and 4. With 3 penetrating hits on his battle wagons with railguns (open topped) I consecutively rolled 3 ones. Ginge had some quite good luck with his lootas as well, destroying 2 of my tanks in short order. However, not one to blame luck, Ginge played well and deserved the win in this round.

Result, Loss. 10 kill points to 9.

Things I would change:

Most of the missions are assault army friendly rather then firepower friendly. Be nice to have a better mix. Some of the deployment types were awful. In Ginges first game, his opponent conceded after Ginge won the roll to seize the initiative. He had deployed his boyz, literally surrounding his opponents rhinos and his opponent thought that there was no point playing beyond this point.

I would have changed my tactics in the last game, I should have won that one, and am now spoiling for a rematch :-P. 

I would have made slight changes to my army list. A piranha squadron or 2 would have been quite useful.

All in all an entertaining day playing warhammer though. Thanks to the people at Bracknell Forest Gamers for an entertaining day though.

Escalation 2010: Army list

Next month I shall be attending escalation at Braknell Forest Gamers. This one day tournament has four games with a twist compared to a normal tournament. Basically the first game is combat patrol, 500 points. The combat patrol rules prevent anything with more then two wounds, anything with a 2+ save or anything with a combined armour value greater then 33. After the first round each subsequent round adds 500 points to your army. Although these points can only be used to buy new units not add to existing ones.
My proposed army list is the following:
Round 1
-3x fireknife crisis suits. Team leader, bonded, hard wired black sun filter, 2x gun drones.
-3x firestorm crisis suits. Team leader, bonded, HWBSF, 2x gun drones.
-8 firewarriors. Team leader bonded. EMP grenade on leader.

In my previous combat patrol games, the missile pods were amazing, plenty of light armour to target. In order to balance this against armies that will consist of lots of infantry I have taken firestorm configured suits rather then deathrain. In further rounds, I will have pathfinders to compensate for the loss of twinlinked. The firewarriors make my one compulsory troops. The EMP grenades and filters are there mainly to fill up the points. Although given BFGs love of nightfighting (as shown at winds of war) they will probably come in handy.

Round 2.
For round 2 a standard force organisation chart has to be filled in and the combat patrol restrictions are dropped.
-10 firewarriors, leader with bonding knife.
-shas'el, fireknife, hard wired Target lock.
- 3x broadside. 1 SMS and target lock, 1 plasma and multitracker, leader with plasma multitracker 2 shield drones target lock BSF.

The broadsides help to give this list a lot of extra punch. I'm expecting quite a few marines players with rhino spam. So the target locks enable me to threaten three vehicles a turn. The shas'el can either join the firewarriors to help them hold or go with the other fireknifes. The target lock allowing full use of firepower in either scenario. The firewarriors are my second troop choice. Although they yet a lot of hate on the internets, I quite like firewarriors.

Round 3:
- railhead, burst cannons, dpod, multitracker, flechettes, target lock.
-2 x fireknife, leader bonded, 2 gun drones.
- 5 pathfinders, rail rifle, devilfish, dpod, flechettes.

Perhaps a little too much kit on the railhead, but once again, to fill up the points. A couple more fireknife suits mainly as an escort for my shas el. And pathfinders. If you only get once chance to hit the enemy, make sure it counts.

Round 4:
-railhead, as round 3
-pathfinders as round 3 devilfish, dpod SMS.
-6 x firewarriors devilfish dpod.
Railhead to fill up the last heavy slot. Another troops choice, just to have a fast(ish) moving unit with the potential to score one objective while contesting another.
More pathfinders just for fun.

Any thoughts on the list?

Battle Report: Tau Vs Blood Angels

Battle report: Tau Vs Blood angels (rematch)

Playing against the same Blood Angel army as my previous battles, I’m actually getting quite bored of playing this guy. I think nobody else really wants to play him, so by the time I get there everyone else already has games. Nothing personal, but a bit of variety in opponents would be nice.

BA List:

Dante

Sanguinor

5 Sanguinary Guard

5 Sanguinary Guard

1 Priest with jump pack.

10 deathcompany in a landraider

Librarian dreadnought

Baal Predator TLAC

My list:

Farsight 3x fireknife retinue

3 x Fireknifes

7 Firewarriors

7 Firewarriors

7 Firewarriors in devilfish

8 pathfinders in devilfish

3 XV9 with 2x Phased Ion Guns each

3 broadsides

Railhead

Mission was kill points (my 13 to his 9)

Set-up was pitched battle type.

The board was limited to a 4’ x 4’ as is normal for my local GW. However the middle of the board was bisected with a fortress of Redemption severely limiting my shooting into his deployment area and giving him a safe route to advance into my table half. There was another building in the centre of my deployment area and a little bit of cover in the far back right hand corner. Another building was along the left hand side of the battlefield in line with the fortress of Redemption limiting the width of the space left to just big enough to drive a land raider through.

I won the roll for table sides and first turn. I picked the side which the fortress was furthest from giving me a nice open killing field for any assault marines that decided to jump over the building. I choose to go first.

Looking at the terrain set-up his army would be pretty safe from my first shooting phase as the fortress blocked all line of sight. Once they were past the fortress I would have one shooting phase to cripple his army before they would be in combat. To this end I deployed my entire army as a shooting gallery at the back of my deployment area. Leaving me little manoeuvring capability but the chance to bring my maximum guns on my enemy on the second turn. From left to right my deployment was, Pathfinder fish, empty, XV9s behind, hammerhead hiding crisis suits, firewarriors in front of the center building, pathfinders in the top of the building, farsight and guard ready to go left or right, broadsides with a skirmish line of firewarriors to grant them a cover save, finally the other firewarriors loaded into their devilfish on the far right flank.

My opponent, as expected, deployed his landraider near the gap on the left (my left) his assault squads behind the fortress of redemption. With the librarian dread and predator on the far right, strangely enough out in the open in front of my broadsides, all of his units were as far forward as possible.

My opponent tried to seize the initiative and failed.

Turn 1

Tau:

I moved the devilfish on the left forward, ready to plug the hole the landraider was going to come through in turn 2. my suits on the left shuffled forward trying to get missile pod shots on dantes unit next to the landraider. Farsights squad shuffled forward to get in a position to rapid fire any assault marines that crossed the fortress and intercept the dread if need be.

The pathfinders on the building lit up the landraider with a staggering 6 markerlights. The hammerhead targeted the landraider using a markerlight and missed, the broadsides split their fire between the three vehicles, got to love target locks, I missed the baal predator, failed to penetrate the librarian dreadnought, however in an epic display of shooting prowess my third broadside used the remaining makerlights to up the BS by 2 and -3 from the raiders cover save, the heavy armour proved no match for the railgun and the tank exploded killing one of the embarked deathcompany.

Minor shuffling of suits in the assault phase in preparation for the make or break turn.

Blood Angels:

The dreadnought failed wings of sanguineous, so moved normally his assault marines jumped over the fortress and ran forward into my killing ground making sure they would be in assault range next turn. The deathcompany started the long march towards m left flank.

The baal predator shot at farsights squad putting a wound on one of my suits

Tau 1KP / BA 0

Turn 2

Tau: This would be it, make or break for my army, either I blasted his army to shreds or it would rip me apart next turn.

My suits positioned themselves into rapid fire range of his 2 sanguinary guard squads, Hopefully I could expose Dante to the tender mercy of my railheads railgun. The sanguinor would have to wait till the following turn. I markerlight dantes squad getting 4 hits. I applied 2 of these to the XV9s whose fire reduced the sanguinary guard to cinders (8 rending hits, ouch). The railhead took aim at Dante, missing him, but putting a wound on him with it’s burst cannons. My firewarrior squad in the building rapid fired their pulse rifles at him, stripping him of another wound. Using my last 2 markerlight hits I open fire with the fireknifes, getting 6 plasma wounds and 5 missile pod wounds on him. My opponent passed all his invulnerable saves yet failed two armour saves, killing Dante.

Towards the centre on the field farsight and friends opened fire on the remaining sanguinary guard squad, felling four of them with rapid fire plasma guns. The remaining guard and priest were killed by the devilfish and firewarriors in front of the broadsides.

The broadsides split their fire between the dread and the predator failing to damage either.

My fireknifes shuffled behind the XV9s who formed a line in front of them, to try and bait the sanguinor into charging them instead.

Blood Angels:

Everything (left) continued its advance forward the dread getting wings and landing next to Farsight the baal advance at combat speed trailing behind the dread. The sanguinor positioned to charge my XV9, as I wanted. The death company continued their advance towards my lines. Slowly.

Shooting consisted of the baal firing on the broadsides who lost two drones and narrowly passed their morale check.

The dread charged farsight, killing a shield drone, however farsight fluffed his attacks, failed his moral check and got run down for his trouble. The sanguinor charged the XV9s killing 2 shield drones but taking a wound, I passed my morale check and sacrificed the remaining drones to pass hit and run. Leaving the sanguinor on his own facing a wall of fire next turn.

Tau 5 KP / BA 1 KP

Turn3

Tau:

With a large portion of the dead, I concentrated on the remaining units, the firewarriors moved round the back of the dreadnought the hammerhead positioned to fire at whatever all units depending on what survived. The devilfish on the right moved to the side of baal predator.

I makerlighted the sanguinor giving 2 hits. The firewarriors in the centre fired on him causing no wounds, the fireknifes stripped him of two wounds and he was finished off by the XV9 suits, the Devilfish on the right fired at the predator causing no damage, the firewarriors on the right fired into the back of the dreadnought, wrecking it. With no other targets the broadsides wrecked the baal predator. The hammerhead fired submunitions at the deathcompany. Killing 2.

I forgo to move my devilfish on the left in this round virtually guaranteeing its destruction by the death company.

Blood angels:

The death company charged the devilfish losing one of their number to flechettes but wrecking the fish.

Tau 8 KP / BA 2

Tau:

Markerlighted the death company, killed them with rapid fire plasma guns.

Game.Set.Match

Tau 9 PK / BA 2 KP (tabled)

Thoughts: I don’t think I could have done much better in this game, I only made a few minor mistakes, forgetting to move the devilfish on turn 3, wound allocation on the broadsides would have prevented them having to take a moral check. Most of the mistakes were made by my opponent. Given the terrain set-up he could have spent the first turn moving right up to the fortress and then jumped over it in turn 2, this would have allowed him to fire his guns without needing to run. Or with the baal predator surviving the first turn, moved that flatout to create cover for the guard when they jumped over the building. Also his army list includes some of the hardest hitting units from the BA codex, but not many bodies. Plasma rifles kill Sanguinary Guard as readily as normal marines, making my weapons far more effective in kill / points ratio. A fact I took full advantage of.