Hi,

had another 1000pts battle yesterday: Tau CPF vs Chaos, cruiser clash setup.

This was not the game against Elkerlyc (this is coming friday) but against someone who played his last BFG game 1 1/2 year ago. He was rusty in rules and fleet selection (as he discovered in turn 2). During the game he got more back into the rules and such and is in for more matches. Yay.

So the fleet lists:

Tau CPF (me) Forgeworld Rules
3x Protector (Ld 8,9,8)
1x Emissary (Ld7)
5x Castellan (Ld6 - they only failed one reload in the last turn!)

Chaos (him)
1x Devastation + Lord (Ld8)
3x Murder (Ld 9,7,6)
3x Infidel (Ld
3x Infidel (Ld 7)

Battle summary:
Being rusty he didn't play his fleet to well. He split his devastation of to the right side of an asteroid field, pushing two Murders and an Infidel squadron up the middle and the last Murder plus escorts on the left flank behind gas clouds (both AAF).
I moved a Protector + Emissary towards the Devastation and pushed the rest of the fleet through the middle, with 2 Protectors turned left to harass the Infidels and Murder. Then I launched the ordnance wing of doom, the moment he realized 1 devastation wasn't enough.

The alpha strike hitted him hard in the ordnance phase. In his next turns ordnance my ordnance in play hurted him again. After two turns of playing I destroyed all his Infidels and inflicted damage on all Murders. In return I lost 1 Castellan.

In the third turn 1 Missiles salve from my Protector inflicted 4 hits on the Devastation after he failed BFI. In later turns he BFI successfully on about 8 hits on his last damage point.

I crippled another Murder while I was lucky on him rolling some bad to hit dice against me.

In the end I earned 522,5 vps against 32,5vps to him for crippling my Emissary.

Tau CPF summary:
* Alpha Strike is all important. Keep on heading towards the enemy prow and lay down a barrage of missile fire and Manta's. This should be succesfull and harass the opponent enough to go in dissaray.
* Once you passed his line and need to turn the fleet is weak and vulnerable. The Chaos ship with their broadsides having great advantages.
* Castellans are much needed in this fleet due their weapon batteries and good turning rate. They can keep the enemy under pressure when the lines crossed.

_________________
Light at the Horizon.

Warp Rift
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Hey!
    One of my sons has Tau.  Maybe I can get him to read this and spark a re-ignition of interest.  He lives in another city far enough away that we seldom visit, much less play.  But he has at least two groups in his city that do play.  Shame to have all his Tau just sit.  Never know, might work.
    From what I gather, Chaos would have had it tough if they stayed together.  They should have picked more ordinance capable ship(s).  Probably would have left the escorts at home, myself.  3 or 4 cruisers/battlecrusers might have soaked up the intitial attack better, with ordinance of their own leading the way.
    Tsk.  I normally play against Chaos, and here I am giving them pointers!  So on that note I'll bail!
G.F.