On an outing with my Death Guard, I had the (relatively rare) opportunity to play against a Tau army. Here's the battle report.
Mission: Capture and Control (i.e. 2 objectives).
Deployment: Pitched Battle (i.e. long table edges).
Board: rectangular 6' x 4'.
Terrain: A forested moon... basically lots of area terrain consisting of 4+ cover saves that is also considered as difficult terrain.
Usual Caveat: I might not have got the report 100% accurate and I've skipped over some bits. And yes, it lacks pictures.
Pre-emptive Confession and Caveats: Truthfully, I don't get to play against Tau all that often. As a result, I'm not very familiar at all with Tau army lists, or how they play. I do know I hate those marker lights and I do know the sheer amount of high strength shots they're capable of pumping out though. So, if you've any advice or criticisms about this battle report, then let me know! My opponent was really nice though and did spend a bit of time explaining to me / reminding me about a few of the mechanics. In return, I explained in detail about feel no pain, blight grenades and so forth (similarly he had had little experience against Death Guard marines).
Here's the army lists:
Death Guard Army List (me),
as per my list from a while ago:
HQ: Daemon Prince with mark of Nurgle, aura of decay and wings
Elites: Dreadnought with plasma cannon
Troops 1: 7 plague marines: 1 flamer, 1 melta, 1 plague champion with power fist, rhino with havoc launcher
Troops 2: 7 plague marines: 1 flamer, 1 melta, 1 plague champion with power fist, rhino with havoc launcher
Troops 3: 7 plague marines: 2 plasma guns, 1 plague champion with power fist, rhino with havoc launcher
Heavy Support 1: Vindicator with daemonic possession
Heavy Support 2: Vindicator with daemonic possession
Heavy Support 3: Predator with autocannon, heavy bolters, dozer blade and havoc launcher
Tau Army List:
(NB: this might not be 100 per cent accurate!)HQ: Shas'el with plasma rifle, missile pod, & multi-tracker(?)
Elites 1: XV8-Crisis Team (2 suits with missle pods and flamer)
Elites 2: XV8-Crisis Team (2 suits with missle pods and flamer)
Elites 3: 3 stealth suits
Troops 1: Firewarriors - 11 firewarriors, 1 shas'ui
Troops 2: Firewarriors - 11 firewarriors, 1 shas'ui
Troops 3: 10 Kroot
Troops 4: 10 Kroot
Fast Attack 1: 5 Pathfinders plus devilfish and disruption pods
Fast Attack 2: 5 Pathfinders plus devilfish and disruption pods
Fast Attack 3: Gun drone squadron consisting of 6 gun drones
Haevy Support 1: Hammerhead with railgun, gun drones and disruption pods
Heavy Support 2: Skyray with smart missile system, targeters and disruption pods
Heavy Support 3: 1 Broadside
Setup:
Gah, I've no idea what to do here! I figure my priority is probably to take down the fast moving things (devilfish, hammerhead, etc.) that could potentially swoop in at the last moment to contest my HQ. But, I also want to ensure my HQ objective is secure, with at least a rhino full of plague marines on top of it and a vindicator nearby. This is probably stupid of me, but I place my objective in the corner of the board!!! In turn, the Tau player locates his in the centre of some shrubbery near the diagonally opposite side of the board.
Next question: Do I reserve everything? I know those Kroot are going to be infiltrating at the very least. Hmmmm. Perhaps that's a bit of a plan! Okay - I'm going to reserve everything in the hopes that the Tau player will willingly spread out his forces across the board - thereby letting me concentrate my firepower on one small unit at a time. I'm also in luck - I force the Tau player to take the first turn. So far so good.
During the Tau player's actual setup, he does indeed spread the kroot far and wide. The rest of his army is deployed in his main deployment zone, but is also spread out along the long table edge. On top of his objective, he locates one of his firewarrior squads and the broadside. Given the density of the woodlands between him and me, there aren't going to be many table edge to table edge shots going off - the lines of sight will be clogged up if I deploy correctly.
Turn 1.Nothing of much significance happens for the Tau player. He moves the Kroot closer to my home objective. The rest of the army either stay put, or take a few strides forward from his deployment zone.
I've got everything in reserve still!
Turn 2.The Kroot come closer, as do a number of other Tau squads.
Finally its my turn to do something. I start rolling for reserves. I get a respectable number of squads coming in to the game: Troops number 2, and all of my Heavy Support choices.
As per the plan, I move Troops 2 and a vindicator on to the board near to my home objective in the corner. The second vindicator and the predator deploy a little way off from that location. I intend to slowly roll the vindicator forward (hopefully supported by another troops squad in later turns), but leave the predator pretty much stationary from now on as it has a reasonable line of sight. I move them all forward and am in range for a good number of shots on some Kroot.
In the shooting phase, I hit the left hand Kroot squad with a direct vindicator cannon shot and a some shots from my rhino mounted squad. The cover saves help the Kroot out immensely, but I manage to reduce them to 3 survivors. They subsequently fail a morale check and are running away!
The other vindicator misses. I roll 6 for the scatter, which means the template goes 3 inches away from the intended target (daemonic possession gives BS=3 instead of the usual BS=4 for marines). It is still hitting most of the squad. Four Kroot perish. Another two die from the predator's autocannon. That'll suffice for one turn!
Turn 3:At this point, my opponent realizes that there's little his Kroot can do against my mechanized marine force. Moreover, there's few decent lines of sight. So, he moves most of his army to try to gain a better line of sight. The broadside and the firewarriors on his home objective stay still, but can't see much.
In the shooting phase, he has a good attempt at taking out my central vindicator (the one next to the predator). The incoming shots arrive from the Crisis suits and the hammerhead. One penetrates and one glances. Luckily for me, both result in crew stunned. Since the vindicator is possessed, it shrugs them both off! That was really lucky (considering the strength of the railgun!). Nothing of any further consequence occurs.
In my turn, my Deamon Prince and Troops 1 arrive from reserve.
I roll in troops 1 behind the shot-at vindicator and follow up closely behind. The daemon prince also deploys nearby. I move everything forward. It is now my intent that troops 3 (when they arrive on a subsequent turn) will claim my home objective. The dreadnought might be a problem in turn 5, though!
The stationary predator makes short work of the surviving Kroot. They're all dead. My opponent has now realized how good havoc launchers actually are.
Meanwhile, my vindicator completely misses the hammerhead, but scatters a long way on to some crisis suits! Splat. Two dead crisis suits. Ah well - happy accidents!
One the left hand side of the board, my rhino has gained a line of sight to the Shas'el. Havoc launchers away and its one wound on the HQ! Brilliant. The other vindicator misses everything. (I mean completely - the shot scattered off the board entirely!!!).
Turn 4.Things start to get messy for me. With the lines of sight that I've exposed to my own vehicles, the Tau let rip. One vindicator explodes, the other gets immobilized. The rhino on the left hand edge also explodes. Bye bye. The plague marines weather a subsequent storm of incoming fire, taking only 1 casualty.
In my turn, the immobile vindicator manages to wreck the hammerhead. Finally! The plague marines from the dead rhino run in to cover. The predator takes out a number of tau fire warriors.
At this stage in the game, I know I need to get one of my units over to the opposing objective pretty soon. I'm probably going to need turn 6 if its available. Conversely, my opponent seems to be gunning for a draw. He doesn't seem to want to advance on my objective. I think that's a mistake.
Turn 5.Blazing away, the Tau take down my immobile vindicator once and for all. They also blow up the autocannon on my predator. The rest of them seem obsessed with blazing away at the plague marines who are in cover. Fair enough, methinks! They're not doing much, so if they can take some of the heat off my other (intact) rhino and crew so much the better. Five die and I'm left with only the plague champion.
My last reserves come on to the board in my turn. I plonk troops 3 down over my objective and sit smugly. I then race rhino number 2 toward their lines and pop its smoke launchers. My predator also joins in with this merry race toward their lines, with my daemon prince following up behind them. I don't really kill anything much to be honest.
The game fails to end here -- if it had, it would have been a draw.
Turn 6.One devilfish moves to corner my tanks (ram me if you dare!). Predator explodes. Rhino also explodes from the broadside. Plague marines who were on board get wiped out to the man. Daemon prince is reduced down to 1 wound. Did I mention I hate marker lights? The other devilfish swoops in on my home objective, contesting it.
But their failure to finish off my daemon prince (or concentrate on reaching my objective) will be their undoing at their side of the board. With his mighty wings, the daemon prince leaps toward their objective. Letting off his stinky aura of decay, he kills 2 fire warriors. He then charges the firewarrior squad, getting in to contesting range of the objective. The prince slaughters a good number of the fire warriors and survives. The rest of the fire warriors fail their morale check and race backward ... off the board in fact.
The game ends here. I'm contesting my opponents home objective with my single wound daemon prince. Almost everything else of mine has gone up in smoke at this stage. My opponent has many more troops (and both devilfish) still intact, and is contesting my objective. Game Drawn.
Concluding thoughts.Death Guard struggle to pump out the firepower against Tau! I think I should have deep-striked my daemon prince in to his lines for a bit of
distraction and thought about my moves more carefully (but time was a factor and I don't like to hold things up!). I'm starting to think I need Chosen!
The Tau player messed up with the Kroot somewhat, but tore most of my force apart in the later turns regardless! Ouch.
