I thought I'd start a game log for my tau. I'm not a great player I play to few games, about one game every month and don't go to many tournaments (there's just one regular tournament in sweden). I find tau to be fun to play but a lot more challenging then my other two armies (orks and necrons).

Played a game last tuesday. A battlereport will follow in the next post.

A few of my earlier games are posted here by fredmans and myself. I will not repost them, but below are links to them:

November against steel legion

January, against tyrnaids

June against steel legion

cheers

This was my game tuesday 12:th of june.

I hadn't received my new tau yet so had to play with the miniatures I own which meant my old list.



I don't have the ork list, but it included

a Gargant (with warboss)
Big warband.
2 x small speed freeks.
big blits with 2 x soopas
big gunz, 2x soopas +nob
Stompas, with a few dreads.
Stormboyz
6 x Fightabommaz

We rolled for picking sides since we both had the same SR of 3. I won and chose that we should play corner to corner, judging that my mech inf could more easily relocate.
I fogrot to take pictures of our deployment. but this is with only one or two activations played;



I'm afraid have no pictures of my Tau's deployment;

The roll for strategy went to the Orks. The first action of the game saw the big warband assault my kroot.



Tau wanted revenge and sent in a firewarior formation which shoot at units out of cover in the warband. (apparently I wrote in the first ork activaton on this picture as well ) After some lucky to hit rolls and a lot of failed saves, the warband broke.



Next mister gargant doubled up and put some MW hurt on the FW. Only one FW unit killed IIRC.



Next comes a picture that shows several activations, things became more intense so I forgot to take pictures of each activation. After the titan activated we had

Tau 2. Coordinate recon + broadsides.
Orks 3. Big guns saw 1 recon unit and interrupted with overwatch fire. Recon broke, so no markerlights
for broadsides.
O4. Stompas double.
T3. Fusion gun Hammer heads doubles (not on picture). Fires at stompas.
O5. See earlier picture.
T4. Barracudas hit stompas (Barracudas just out of picture).
O6. Blitz advance.
T5. Railgun Hammer Heads.



O7. Fighta bommaz intercept Barracudas, 4 hits. 1 barracuda survives. No picture.

After this my inability to make activation rolls showed it's ugly face again.



O?. Speed freaks on road speed 120cm next to broadsides to threaten assault in turn 2.

O?. Storm boyz stay double and stay put.

END PHASE.
Tau had 3 broken formations. Fusion HH's, recon and kroot. Orks 1 the big warband. No formations rally in the end phase, which leaves tau at an activation disadvantage.


TURN 2

Stealth suits teleport in next to big gunz to lessen the activation disadvantage. No BM.

Strategy roll is won by the tau.

T1. Broadsides sustains on markerlit speed freeks. Hero buggies saved 4/5 hits! (the picture text below is wrong the casualties should be reversed).
T2. HH retains and advance.



O1. Speed freaks assaults.



O2. Gargant retain and advance.



T3. FW doubles.
T4. Stealths retain. Assault with support from parts of the FW formation.



The rest of turn 2 I forgot to take notes so I don't now if this is the correct order of activations.
O? Stompas assault railgun HH's. Only three HH die but the rest are wiped from assault resolution.



T? Crisis suits advance and destroys the broken big gunz formation
O? Fighta-Bommaz attack broken FW formation and kills 3 AV and 2 inf.
T? Barracudas stand down.
O? Storm boyz doubles towards stealth suits.

END PHASE TURN 2.

All broken ork formations rally. Kroot and stealth suits rally

TURN 3. (Going into the turn we knew it would be the last turn due to time constraints)

I knew my BTS FW formation was in a bad spot if I didn't win the strategy roll so I was really hoping I'd take it.
Alas, my opponent won the roll.

Orks began by assaulting with gargant (O1.).
O2. Speed freaks assaults (see second picture).
T1. Stealth advance.
T2. Crisis try to doulbe, fail even after reroll.



O3. Bitz brigade doubles.



T3 broadsides try to sustain, fail activation.



O4. Storm boyz assault stealth suits.



T5. Kroot march to contest objective.



I was in a bit of a hurry at the end so didn't take any more pictures after the last.

O5. Fighta Bommaz ground attacks broken FW BTS formation. All AV are destroyed and the inf are scattered due to BM effects. Giving orks 1 objective.

T6. Barracudas fail to activate.

After this I had no more activations so it was up to my opponent to try and squeeze in another victory condition. He could march his stompas to take my "east most" objective for T&H goal if he also broke my kroot. He then had three formations left, stompas, rallied warband and rallied speed freaks. Both fast formations moved and shot at my kroot which had 5 units remaining and 2 BM's. If they inflicted a kill that would have broken my kroot for T&H with marching stompas. But there were no kills on the kroot so they stayed at 4 BM's
Instead of marching the stompas they moved to try and shoot my crisis to try and break them (achievable with a bit of luck). If successful then would have gotten TSNP, but the stompas didn't break the crisis suits.
We ended at turn 3 with a 1 - 0 victory for my opponent.

It was a very enjoyable game! And a lot of fun to meet some new epic gamers!
I still feel that my list is lacking. I need something to hit RA stuff better. I got a note-of-delivery yesterday, so I will collect my AX-1-0 on monday and am looking forward to trying my Tau again. Will probably not have any time to play until august though

Thanks for reeding.

Very nice battle reports, have you considered trying out the changed 6.5 Tau list which is currently developmental but which will become the next official version of the list when the compendium gets updated next year assuming of course no problems are found.

Personally when I use Tau at 3000pts I like to get at least 12 activations but the 6.5 list gives a few points breaks for beefing up formations which could help out your list (even if only a little - you save 75pts and gain an extra drone).

Yes I had been planning to use the 6.5 list when I saw that it was out, but to be honest I had forgotten about it. Which is a shame as I've played two games now in june. I will use 6.5 in my next game.

I could probably make some nice changes to my list with those extra points. Might try and squeze in another recon formation. I also think I'll buy the skysweep formation instead of add on skyrays as that would give me one more activation and 50 extra pts compaired to my current list.

Nicely done !!! I like how you used the plastic roofs and old styrofoam buildings !!! Wish I would have thought of that !!!

_________________
Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

I can take no credit for that. Those belonged to the guy I played against. I thought the same thing though. A good use for those buildings. They had also used some parts of the epic 40k ruins sections on the flat side of the styrofoam building which was quite nice.

He had a Good idea !!!

_________________
Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Would you mind showing me an example list of what your 12 activations lists look like?

cheers

I hope you don't mind if I offer some constructive criticism of your list.

1) I'm not sure about skyrays in HH formations you are wasting their ML's. Skyrays are almost always better of in FW formations. They are not much easier to suppress than in HH formations as devilfish also have guided missiles with a 90cm range.
2) I'm not convinced on stealth formations I still can't see what they add to the tau list. You are normally better off with cheaper ML formations.
3) Pathfinders are a bit too expensive to be used as an upgrade IMHO they are better off used as independent formations. I you take 2 formations the are also very good at deterring a turn 1 marine air assault.
4) I possibly wouldn't take upgrades in a crisis formation. Personal preference really. I don't think most Tau formation upgrades are worth taking. You are better off trying for another activation. (Exceptions Shas'O, Skyray, Fusion Heads in FW formations, Drones in the TS formation, and occasionally a bonded team)

I hope you find some of my advice and observations helpful in developing your future Tau lists. Have fun and welcome to the Cadre.

Fire Warrior Cadre, Pts = 325
6 Fire Warrior units, 3 Devilfish Troop Carriers, 1 Skyray Air Defence Gunship.

Fire Warrior Cadre, Pts = 325
6 Fire Warrior units, 3 Devilfish Troop Carriers, 1 Skyray Air Defence Gunship.

Fire Warrior Cadre, Pts = 325
6 Fire Warrior units, 3 Devilfish Troop Carriers, 1 Skyray Air Defence Gunship.

Fire Warrior Cadre, Pts = 300
8 Fire Warrior units, 4 Gun Drone units.

Battlesuit Cadre, Pts = 400
1 XV8 Crisis Battlesuit unit (Shas’o), 4 XV8 Crisis Battlesuit units.

Broadside Group, Pts = 300
6 XV88 Broadside Battlesuits.

Pathfinder Group, Pts = 200
4 Pathfinder units, 2 Devilfish Troop Carriers.

Recon Support Group, Pts = 175
1 Tetra Light Skimmer, 5 Piranha Light Skimmers.

Recon Support Group, Pts = 175
1 Tetra Light Skimmer, 5 Piranha Light Skimmers.

Recon Support Group, Pts = 175
3 Tetra Light Skimmer, 3 Piranha Light Skimmers.

Barracuda Squadron, Pts = 150
2 Barracuda Fighters.

Orca Dropship, Pts = 150
1 Orca Dropship.

I use lists quite similar to this usually, sometimes I drop the 300pts unmechanised Fire Warriors Cadre for another Broadsides Group. Other times the Pathfinders can be dropped for some Hammerheads - but mostly variations on the above.

Note: this is a 6.4 list, with the changes in 6.5 I change to adding 2 Drone 25pts upgrades to the Crisis and Air drop fire warriors and use the 25pts left over to add a bonded team to a formation.

Not at all! Thanks for the input!

1) I have to agree on the railgun HH's, but I've found it useful on the fusion gun HH's.

2) Yeah after using them now for 4 or 5 games, I have to agree. Their teleporting is nice and I like them because to me they're kind of an iconic unit for tau, but their not good enough and like I wrote in the batrep I going to drop them.

3) I like them of course for the ML's but I also like that they make the FW formations a bit bigger and therefore harder to break. It also makes the pathfinders a lot harder to break which makes their ML's harder to break for the opponent. A skyray in each unit would of course give ML's as well, but for the next game I've decided to try and put the skyrays in a skysweep formation instead. That will save me 50pts (in the 6.5 list) and increase my activation count by one.



I've bought a pair of AX-1-0's and this is the list that I'm thinking about using the next time:


That would give som punch against RA units and also increase my activations to 11. I could possibly go to 12 activations if I take away the 2 extra hammerheads and the upgrads for the cirsis (other than Shas'O)

thanks

Hi again!

I played another game two days ago. Played with the updates to 6.5, which was nice could I could squeeze in another formation even though I was using the expensive AX-1-0 formation. I used the list from my previous post. My opponent had chosen to play BT with a landing craft. I'm afraid I don't have his exact list, but he had.



Probably some upgrades that i didn't mention.

My opponent chose to play corner to corner. Below is a picture of our deployment. We played on a 6 x 5 table so had extra deep deployment zones along the long edge. Off board are Barracudas + Tiger Sharks, landing craft + Cr.LR. + Sword brethren and Terminators.



Initiative furst turn actually suprisingly went to my Tau, which started by activating









My opponent then decided it was time for his landing craft to come down. He landed out of the skysweep formations range and assaulted my big hammer head formation (HH1). With a bit of luck I killed 2 sword brethren but of course got totally annihilated. My opponent here did a big mistake, he consolidated both transported formations back into the landing craft.

The Black templars were know out of activations, since the terminators hadn't teleported in, so it was all Tau. So I sent in my Tiger sharks AX-1-0's (T6) to ground strike the landing craft. I got lucky and both hit, which multiplied into 5 Titan killer hits. One Land raider from each formation got killed + 1 sword brethren and one tactical.
I'm afraid I didn't take any picture of the above two actions or any later turn 1 actions since it was all me moving. Some of them show in the next picture taken after the first action of turn 2 though. my FW 1 doubled or marched? up to the forest towards the middle(rightish).


Misstake in above picture I think HH2 actually killed 1 rhino.





I had some problems after this with the editor on photobucket and couldn't save the text on the pictures.

Anyways after this Crusaders with Land raiders assaulted my HH2. They got 4 hits but Tau saved all 4. Tau got 1 hit back which resulted in 1 killed tactical. Tau was up +2 or 3 in resolution but marines being tuff dudes scared the hammer heads away and shot one down as it turned to flee. They consolidated back into ruins even the tank.


Tau eager for some payback sent FW2 into more forward ruins (doubled). They shoot at the Cr.LR. which were now M.lighted thanks to pathfinders. 1 Tactical unit went down, + 1 BM for disrupt.


BT then felt this called for some payback of their own and sent in their Sword brethren, but only managed 2 hits which were both saved. Tau returning fire got 4 hits, which saw 1 brethren unit bite the dust. The nearby crusaders lent in their supporting fire and killed a FW unit. This gave Tau +2 through being more than double the marines. Alas again my Tau broke in front of the stern humans. Another unit of FW were to late getting away and got hacked down by the vengeful humans.


Tau now decided to stall a bit and sent their Tiger Sharks in ground striking the M-lighted terminators hoping to brake them. Alas one of the hit dice turned up a 1. Two units remained at 3 BM.


BT then Marshalled with his Supreme commander Crusaders. back in the ruins, removing all BM's. You can see their position two pictures back. They might have moved up a bit.

It was now all Tau and I sent my barracudas after his broken Cr.H formation (M-lighted by FW1) killing 1 tactical which got the crew on hunter to flee the field (BM effects).


Skyrays wanted to move away from the terminators but failed their action and regrouped instead being 1 BM from breaking. Recon2 then tried to move away as well but they also failed and shoot at terminators putting a BM on them which also broke them. Terminators withdraw towards Tau blitz, hiding in a house for cover.

Recon1 doubled towards right flanks to be ready to take objectives next turn. They also shoot their 3 Guided missiles at M-lighted Cr.H. killing the last vehicle, which promptly made a unit a tactical decide it was time to withdraw. that ended turn 2.


End phase turn 2.
The lonely tactical squad from Cr.H. and the bikes did not rally. All other formations did.

The broken FW and HH2 did not rally. The last surviving Crisis suit unit did however.

Turn 3 saw the initiative go to the Black Templars.

the marines started by doubling the terminators back to claim blitz
Recon 2 went after them shooting at them getting them to 3 BM, 1 from breaking.


BT the activated Cr.LR, but they were a bit away from the action so had to double. They also put a BM on my FW.

Tau then got to go and tried to get BTS. They doubled into the ruins in front of the remaining BT formations They managed to kill 1 sword brethren of the two remaining. They also managed to break the formation thanks to disrupt effects. The surviving brethren unit and the land raider then tried to flee back into the ruins closest to the BT dployment zone. The tank however broke down in the difficult ground and had to be abandoned, leaving only a single brethren unit alive in the BTS.

The BT supreme commander then decided he wanted some action as well and led his brothers in a glorious charge on the FW. Tau lost 1 unit of FW while the marines didn't lose any units. Tau broke and another unit was killed on the escape.


But that was also the last activation the BT's had and after this it was up to the Tau to fufill as many objectives as possible. The skyrays tried to double to contest both defensive objectives but faild initiative and moved to claim the closest one.

After this the surviving Crisis doubled and claimed the right-most defensive objective for Tau..

Recon 1 tried to doubled to spread out and claim both blitz plus the rightmost T&H objective. They failed moved but couldn't reach both objectives so settled for blitz.


Tiger Sharks went after the last sword brethren and managed a hit, which killed the formation getting me BTS.

Lastly I sent the lone Barracuda at the terminators. The plane managed 2 hits but the terminator armor was to much. The terminators however now got to 4 BM so they broke and they didn't manage to rally in the end phase which gave Tau a 4-0 win. BTS, Blitz, DtF and TSNP.


End game picture


cheers.

Hi people I brought out my Tau again tuesday this week. This time I phased a Lost and the Damned force. 3000 pts , standard scenario. I used the same list as above again. I know I have to redo it as it stands now BTS and supreme commander is the same formation. Just didn't have the time to try and come up with a new list. Will have to look into it before my next game.

Anyways my opponent had the following formations, I can't remember the exact upgrades but there were a total of four hydras. A bunch of big mutants, here and there.



I have tried to number all actions so that you know better were you are in the report. LatD (1.6) would mean LatD 6th activation turn 1.

Below is deployment. My opponent chose to "teleport" in one of his Zombie infestation formations in front of my Crisis suits. The formation got 10 units and no blast markers(!). Tau blitz is in the lower right corner out of the picture.


The strategy roll went to LatD and the first activation of the game was the zombies assaulting (LatD 1.1) my cirsis suits. No hits were scored however by the zombies. Crisis suits and supporting fire from nearby FW2 resulted in 5 dead zombie units. A big win from resolution to Tau, the zombies being fearless stayed put.


The initiative went over to Tau and the crisis formation sustained (T 1.1) on the Marker-lit (from pathfinders) zombies, which were all wiped out. Question to the forum. Should I have been able to do this? Or should I have been forced to try and get out of ZoC of the Zombies. I mean take an assault action (or alternatively use FW to kill the zombies)?

LatD (1.2) the sent Doomwings on CAP and Tau (1.2) responded by putting the Barracudas on CAP as well.

Latd (1.3) Chimera covenant doubled into central ruins, could not shoot anything.

Tau responded by activating Recon 2 which doubled (T1.3) and M-lit/shot chimera covenant. 1 guided missile hit, but it was saved. Tau then retained with HH2 (railguns) and doubled/pop up shot (T1.4) the same target. (They were to far appart for a combined fire order.) The hammerheads managed 4 hits which amounted to 3 dead chimeras (5 BMs)


LatD responded by advancing their Plague Towers (LatD 1.4) which shoot their barrage at recon 1, 2 tetras and 1 piranha died and the formation consequently broke. withdrawing back behind a big house.


After this Tau decided that FW 1 (T1.5) had to move up and be the shield for the rest of the army. Since the plague Towers had already moved I wasn't afraid of the the big barrage and moved close to get all attacks in, relaying on their 5 + save instead of going into the nearby ruins for cover. I was a bit disappointed with them only killing 1 cultist.


LatD then got to go and activated the Hellfire cannons. I was under the misconception that they fired less than 75 cm, so hadn't factored them in. They sustained (LatD 1.5) on FW 1, killing a FW unit and a devilfish.


The skysweep formation in the Tau team then advanced (T1.6) and fired their guided missiles on the chimeras getting 4 hits for 2 destroyed chimeras.

LatD responded by advancing with the LordoB (LatD 1.6) which also shot the FW 1 getting 2 hits killing 1 unit of FWs.


Tau tried to move up the big hammer head formation (T1.7), alas I failed my activation roll. They decided to stay put and shot guided missiles at m-lit chimera covenant. They managed to take out the last chimera. Bringing the formation down to 13 units. They then had 12 BMs.

LatD decided to activate the covenant in the back towards the LatD blitz, they were put on overwatch (LatD 1.7)

Next up were broadsides who chose to march (T1. to be ready for next turn. This was another stupid mistake. I had forgot that you can put BMs on formations by shooting at them even tough you can't actually hurt the formation (AP/AT). I should have doubled them instead and shot at the chimera(less) covenant, since that would have broken them.


Tau them got to go again. I decided now was the time to bring in the Tiger sharks (T1.9). They went to shoot at the LordOfB. I was careful to stay within skysweep formations range. My opponent decided to send in his doomwings anyway (CAP) I countered with calling in my CAP'ed barracudas. 1 doomwing survived the ground AA, defensive tiger shark AA and the intercepting Barracudas. The doomwing hit and I failed my save so 1 Tiger shark died

The bomber then proceeded and missed it's shot, so no damage on the LordoB. The plane was shot down by a hydras AA attack in the end phase. This was very bad since Tau had now lost their only real threat against the total of 18 hit points worth of reinforced armor, invulnerable save WE's.

The last formation of the turn to activate was FW 2 (T1.10) which failed their initiative test so had to take a hold action. They chose to move closer to the action (staying in their transports).


End phase
Recon 1 were the only broken formation and they didn't rally. FW 1 critically didn't rally either. Chimera(less) covenant however managed to rally.

Turn 2
Zombies 2 teleported i, in front of the central ruin containing the chimera covenant, getting 1 BM.


The strategy roll went to Tau, who started by marshalling FW 1 (T2.1) needing the SC reroll. They shot at zombies. A lot of units were supressed due to the failed rally roll, but being Tau they still managed to take out 5 zombies breaking the formation. A bit disapointingly they only managed to remove 3 BM.


Initiative then went over to LatD who also went on to marshall the chimera(less) covenant (LatD 2.1), removing all remaining BMs.


Tau tried to activate recon 2 (T 2.2), but a failed test saw them regroup instead.

The Plague Towers went next and advanced (LatD 2.2) and shot at the broasides in the forest. 4 hits for 2 dead broadsides. The formation broke due to disrupt. The templates also hit the Skysweep formation who were nearby. 1 vehicle went down and the formation broke.


The big Hammer head formation, HH1, tried to activate (T2.3) and failed for the second turn in a row. The elected to move forwards.


Hellfire cannons the sustained (LatD 2.3) on the poor FW 1. They got 3 kills which made the formation break and withdraw.

HH2 activated and doubled? (T2.4) they shot at the LordoB putting a BM on it.

LordoB responded by adv (LatD 2.4) and shooting at the pesky hammer heads getting 3 hits, but all saves were made.


The crisis suits who were stranded back in Tau deployment due to the the zombies, elected to march (T2.5) into woods close to the upper LatD defend the flag objective (se pic after T2.7).

LatD tried to activate the doomwings and my opponent had his only failed activation (LatD 2.5) of the whole game.

Barracudas flew in (T2.6) and put a BM on the LordoB.

Tau then put som more preasure on the LatD left flank by marching (T2.7) close to the garisoning covenant.


That ended the second turn.

All borken Tau formations rallied.

Turn 3
Initiative again went to Tau, who marshalled (T3.1) the broadsides they wanted some revenge and put a BM on the Plague Towers.

Tau retained the initiative and made a coordinated fire order with FW (T3.2) and the Crisis suits. The FW started by doubleing sort behind the forest to minimise the amount of OW fire they would have to take and no Tau vehicles were destroyed so the infantry could disembark.

The Crisis suits also doubled (T3.3) but more to the front of the covenant. The two Tau formations together managed to break the covenant which elected to stay put in the forest and not withdraw. Se pic after LatD 3.1 to for placement.

My opponent saw an opportunity to take out my BTS, knowing that his Towers had no MW weapons I felt secure with my crisis suits 3+ Save. I should not have relied on that. The Pl. Towers sustained (LatD 3.1) and managed to reach 1 of my units which ment all were under barrage templates. A lot of hits later and some subpar saves saw all units (including SC) except one die. The surviving crisis unit withdrew to the forest.


LatD then retained with the lone surviving doomwing and Blastmarkered the last crisis suit of the field.

The rallied Recon 1 advanced (T3.4) and M-lit the LordoB ans also putting a BM on it.

Tau tried to retain with HH2 but failed (T3.5) the 3 unsupressed hammerheads elected to shoot at the LordoB getting 3 hits of which 2 saves were failed. This got the LordoB to 5BMs, 1 from breaking. In addition 1 of the hits managed a critical which sent the WE staggering into the Plague Towers, who being WE counted as impossible terrain for the LordoB, this got an additional damage point on the LordoB and a 6th BM breaking the beast.


Chimera(less) covenant doubled (LatD 3.2) towards FW 2 putting a BM on the firewarriors.


HH1 retained and actually advanced (T3.5) instead of failing for a 3 turn. They moved behind a building to which the LordoB had withdrawingly advanced and pop upped on him. They got 6 hits in on the m-lit war engine, but all saves were made.


Hellfire cannons then doubled (LatD 3.3) and shot at recon formation but got no hits.


Skysweep had 1 BM and wanted to marshall (T3.6) but failed and broke instead.


The garrison covenant to the tau left decided to quit overwatch and instead doubled (LatD 3.4) closer to Tau and shot at recon 1, 1 piranah went down and the formation broke.


Recon 2 advanced and shot at M-lit LordoB getting 0 hits.

FW1 tried to marshall but failed and regrouped, removing all blastmarkers.


That ended turn 3, I thought my opponent had only BTS. But FW 2 were 17 cm away from the rightmost LatD defensive objective, this gave LatD defend the flag gaol as well. Giving my opponent a 2-0 victory. That should teach me to measure thouroughly.

cheers

That might be the Forge World BFG cruiser you're looking at, standing in as Tiger Shark.