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Not enough time to write fluff for this battle. And well behind getting it to Mark before he finished the gaem report. Here are my thoughts: pre-battle, tactics on the day, post event reflection. OK, just a little fluff. Wanted to test lots of Orcas, and thought:
The Imperial Guard had been routed in to the two previous encounters and the Tau forces were finding it difficult to catch them. So swap to a more air-mobile mode of operation. Lots of Imperial heavy tanks had been knocked out in the previous encounters so hopefully more of an infantry mop-up operation.
Unfortunately the Ethereal’s combat group (Mech FWs and two Tetra/Piranha Groups) ran smack into an ARMOURED Space Marine Battlegroup. And needed to be rescued.
Pre-Battle Planning Ideas
Do I need Skyray cover and/or a Shas’o supreme commander??
Some AA cover, re-roll on table, Shas’o in Devilfish (with a FW unit).
Maybe Shas’o to air-land (and use own re-roll) then plan planet fall with others.
[some opinion from TacCom suggested could use re-roll for transporting aircraft.
In the end we agreed that this was not within the standard rules.]
Put supreme commander on spacecraft to use a re-roll for that activation.
[Agreed that this was also not permitted under the rules.]
Thinking about planetfalling a Crisis Suit formation for Init 1+, coord fire and then move suits back into an Orca with a jet-pack move.
Place T&H objectives far from the enemy blitz and then take (one or both) with the Ethereal and his fearless Cadre to hold that.
Overwhelming assault on one flank. Later Reposition with Orcas. [Never managed this due to a lack of terrain to hide in on the flanks. Also Marine screening formations up close and personal right across the board from the start. Also maybe forgot,]
Sit back and snipe against a Castle deployment. [not relevant in this game].
Planet fall if facing serious AA and/or fighter cover. [not considered necessary].
Orcas to land and provide a more durable AA bubble. Use this to extend coverage for the Skyray. Also to provide anchors from which to secure crossfire.
Might deploy formations designed for air-landing on the ground. [actually did this!!]
Assault into B-to-B if armour. Especially with Orcas and Gun Drones. [Rammed a Warhound, and won!!]
Lack of AT firepower to be partly covered by assaulting. Cadre Fireblades for FF4+.
Use attached Gun Drones for extra reach on air-landing to ensure/establish crossfires.
Use length of Orca to stretch the landing formation as well.
Clip formations with 15 cm range for carbine Disrupt shooting and stretch range with rifles and Orca missiles.
Use attached pathfinders (Scout) to disperse formations on the ground.
Mech FW (with Ethereal and hence Fearless) to act as blitz guard and lure enemy into a killing ground. [These lured in the Marine Warhounds and we couldn’t kill them, oooops.] Provide fire support (Guided missiles) to target AA. [too much enemy armour to achieve that.]
Recon units to target AA and draw enemy overwatch fire. [not so relevant against an aggressive Marine army].
Stealth Suits to be used with caution: teleport in at 35 cm and try a clipping attack. Try First-Strike clipping assaults with the Stealth Groups. [Mark clearly thought that was a poor option. But then with no AT fire sometimes there is little else to be done?]. Try to get Stealth Suits to shoot and then board an Orca with the jetpack move. [completely forgot to try this? Poor positioning too.]
Orcas land to contest objectives. A well engrained tactic by now.
Place an objective for the Ethereal’s fearless formation to sit on.
Planetfall and then overwatch vs Necrons [not relevant here!!]
Reflections on Tau Tactics in Game
I deployed a strung out pathfinder formation (3 Tetras, 2 Piranhas) off the blitz, then realized that it would be intermingled with the only place, with cover, I could deploy the Ethereal’s mechanized Fire Warrior Cadre. To avoid the formation being clipped by Landspeeders and whatever else (and hence the BTS being broken in the first activation) I also garrisoned a FW with pathfinder upgrade formation to screen them (on overwatch). This worked ok but why put pressure on yourself like this? Place the screen to shoot out the enemy garrisons (FWs on overwatch are impressive if they get attacked) but leave the Recon Skimmer Group clear of later deploying formations. But within 15 cm to allow coordinated fire!!
Completely failed to pick up any formations from the board with my Orcas during the battle. Tau Jet Packs would allow formations to shoot and then board transports for another go. Could also usefully have picked up clumped Fire Warriors before they got minced by Whirlwind fire. Did aggressively land Orcas so it ought to have been possible.
Mark thought my Stealth Suit assault was optimistic. With reinforced armour 5+ and First Strike it ought to be possible to pull such things off. I have in the past but perhaps not against a supreme commander 475 point formation!! However with a dearth of AT in the army the only way to damage armoured formations was with assaults. Despite it not being the “Epic” Tau Way.
The orbital support from the spacecraft managed to do three points of damage to two Warhounds. Really should have just shot at one and tried to make sure of it. Live and learn. The Fire Warrior assault at the end of the game might have killed the Warhound, just needed to do one damage. But it was really an "after midnight, turn four move", . . .
Still not managed to make Crisis Suits work. Well, aside from in conjunction with a Manta. The playtest version of the standard Tau list now has added an AT6+ on the twin plasma rifles. This would give each unit two AT6+ attacks in addition to the MW4+. Will this transpose to the Vior’la list?
Did not manage to see a way to launch a coordinated fire mission of (maybe AT) pin-prick attacks to ensure that I actually broke a Warhound. Also did not manage to concentrate enough on one Warhound to ensure that its shields went down. Think that Mark kept them away from me until after they had activated, and I felt I needed to focus on other formations.
Think I forgot to use the +1 to hit for an intercept action when my Razorshark Strike Figthers jumped the Thunderbolts. Six AA6+ turn into six AA5+ shots. Must try to remember that next time, or roll better dice!!
Perhaps might have done better at keeping a battle line running, to avoid getting crossfired!! Especially from Whirlwind formations. The lack of AT in the Tau army meant that Mark was even using Whirlwinds as front line armoured formations!!
With so much air landing it was probably not sensible to also have THREE stealth formations waiting to teleport on in Turn Two. Which leads to my other army choice error. A deplorable lack of AT (or MW or TK) capability.
Only four of the ten ground formations eventually on the table had any AT firepower at all. All of it was AT6+ except for the five, 15 cm range, MW4+ shots with the Crisis Suits. The Orca force represented the main AT capability with each dropship having 2 AT6+ attacks, provided there were markerlights on the target. The remainder of the antitank roster was: three AT5+ attacks from the Razorshark Strike Fighters, two AT6+ with the 4BP on the Sun Shark Bombers and the one turn only pair of pin-point attacks from the spacecraft.
Think that is the first time I’ve ever gone to Four turns, . . . .
Thoughts for next time
Next time I think I’ll try to pick up small broken formations with an Orca. Help them to recover off table, by being more than 30 cm from the enemy. Then, if they do recover, the next turn be able to land and claim an objective with ground troops.
Use six strong Pathfinder formations in an air-landing role, probably with attached Gun Drones (for jet pack goodness). Cheaper than Fire Warriors plus Pathfinders. Have their own markerlights. Have sniper, at 30 cm, to reduce enemy armour saves which would combine well with crossfire. With Scout could seriously disperse on a subsequent move.
Inject some more anti-tank capability into the force. Unfortunately I have no Riptide Suits and only one Hammerhead model. The force is entirely scratch build or heavily modified so solving this by placing an OTC order with Onslaught is not in keeping with the “fluff” of my Colonial Tau. Medium term order to Earth Caste, build some more Hammerhead Gunships (magnetized optional turrets).
Broadside Groups have been the core of my previous AT forces. Also blessed with good Ignore Cover AP fire they are good at handling mechanized infantry formations with infantry hiding behind their vehicles. Increasing my complement of Recon Skimmer Groups, towards the more usual four or five, would also increase pop-gun AT on the table. Further down the list, and for heavier hitting, we have Morays, Mantas and AX-1-0s. The latter two would cut into the Orca heavy theme of my list (and I've used them previously already), so a Moray or two it will be.
What does a Moray look like? A fan-created unit, DC3 Support Craft with two “Light Rail Guns” so basically a small Manta. Now my newly finished AX-1-0s [kindly pictured by Mark above] look rather exactly like such machines. AND they come in the support formation section of the list, rather than in the Air Caste section; great.
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So Riptides might be ok, though yes good to keep the Hammerheads consistent with the pre-Onslaught style.