Got a game in this weekend against the dreaded IG mechanized division of Stygies VIII forgeworld. 4000 points, on a still working but decaying forgeworld.
TAU WIP v4.2.8
550 FW Cad, 2 Ion-head, 2 crisis, 1 shas'o
575 AMHC, 2 Rail-heads, 1 Skyray
500 Rail Head Contingent, 2 swordfish upg, 1 Ion & 1 Rail-head upgrade, 1 skyray
550 Stingray contingent, 2 stingray upg, 1 skyray upg, 4 piranha upg
300 broadsides
275 Stealthsuits
600 Rail-cannon morays
150 A-X-10, light railcannon variant Tiger Shark
[edit: should be 175 - I cheated my opponent by 25 points - sorry Andy!]
150 Hero
100 Orca
250 Barracuda Superriority Fighter
SL IG - from memory
Tank co + 3 griffons + hydra
Shadowsword SHT Co + hydra + 3 leman russ MBT
Mech Inf Co + 4 support w/2 chimeras + hydra
3 Manticores
3 Manticores
3 Hydra flak
2 Deathstrikes
4 Vultures
4 Valkyries + 8 Storm Troopers
8 Roughriders**
4 Sentinels**
We realized before deployment that he had too many non-company formations, but it was intentional as we upped the points from 3500 to 4000 at the last minute and I agreed to the slightly skewed roster vs. waiting for him to recalculate everything.
I'll skip the full battle report as I don't have all the info down. We weren't really playtesting as much as just getting a last game in at my old place before I packed up the gaming room 1) for holidays and 2) for the move as I'm moving the family across town right after christmas.
The Tau player is marginally a better Epic player GW gaming strategist historically speaking and is typically thought of as the guy to beat. However, the Imperial player is probably in the top 4 epic players out of 15 or so in the area and in the top 3 40K players out of 100 or so, therefore, he's not a bad opponent by any stretch.
Table size 4' x 8'.
The IG set the table up, and Tau took the side that allowed more LOS blocking terrain both in deployment, and midfield on the tau table side. The IG player may have made that side tempting as his side had plenty of lines and offered all the infantry to get quite dug in while the tanks were all - even the superheavies - were all deployed in cover. Both manticores were deployed out of LOS on either corner of the IG deployment. The roughriders, valkyeries, vultures, and sentinels all dug into a forward position around the IG left most objective (from tau perspective) and out of LOS behind a large L shaped manufactory ruin that completely hid the formations from LOF from anywhere in the tau deployment.
The Shadowsword was immediately left of center, infantry co was center, and tank co was immediately right of center. They were all surrounding the deathstrikes in back and center. All of this is from the Tau perspective of the field.
The Tau deployment was interesting.
Hero - turn 1
? Morays - on hero (turn 1 planetfall)
Orca - off table flier
? Broadsides - on Orca
Tiger Shark - off table flier
Barracuda - off table fliers
Stealth - off table teleporters (and they were never used)
So I deployed the AMHC to the left out of LOS in deep trenches. The FW Cadre was left of center out of LOS behind a large mounded up ruin. The Stingrays were right behind the mound next to the FW. The HH Contingent was on the extreme right of the field in another LOS blocking deep trenchline. So from deployment - there was no tau to be seen from the IG lines!
Significant events:
Tau went first in turns 1, 3, and 4. This was due to pure rolls.
On turn 2, the IG player couldn't roll better than a 2 for strategy, and I rolled a 1 - so he did finally get to go first in that turn at least!
Going first in the majority of the game wasn't all it was cracked up to be. On turn 1, Tau started off by rolling a 1, then rolling another 1 for SC when trying to advance the FW and mark up the forward scout position of the IG. Once the IG had successfully activated, I proceded to roll another 1 on my next activation attempt in turn 1. SO in the end, it was kind of like he (IG) went first turns 1 and 2 and I (Tau) went first on turns 3 and 4.
I forgot to use my stealth all 4 turns of the game. At 275 points, that's a lot of 'ooops' over 4 turns.
Barracudas and FW activations were failed on turn 1...
AMHC ?would take a beating by the rapidly approaching vultures and the right up close and personal valkeryies and storm troopers... that sucked.. the AMHC didn't lose too much due to being in cover, but the manticore disrupt accumulated BM like it was nothing on the AMHC and the FW Cadre! I had to marshal with 2 BM away from exploding the AMHC, and I failed the roll to activate - adding another BM... so we held and regrouped - still leaving 2 BM.
Broadsides would land on the far right of the field next to the basically abandoned manticores and would kill all 3 with ease, however, the orca and the broadsides now dug into cover, would await the counter of the tank co making a double to get into range and around some LOF blocking terrain that the broadsides were cowering behined.. The tanks only singled which suprised me and then fired on the broadsides with everything but the hydras and griffons which were out of range, They scored 10 shots got 4 hits due to firing into cover. They killed one putting two blast markers on the 3 man formation. The orca would leave the battlefield with 1 blast marker and no damage.
On turn 1, I did manage to hold out long enough for him to have to manouver all that AA cover around a bit before attempting a death or glory on the deathstrikes. My spaceship was going to land the moray on turn 1, and I had to clear a path... the SHT and the deathstrikes hadn't activated yet... I was running out of activations. My tiger would zing in only being fired on by 2 hydras from its best flight path... the IG player hits on 5s and rolls 5,5,6, and something else for the hits! I have 4+ save. I manage to make 2 of the 3 saves, take a couple blast markers and my point of damage. He rolls the dice for critical... I kid you not, it was skidding across the table on a 6 - it was like slow motion... and then fell off the table! I Roared with excitement! His mouth just hung open! He rolled again and got something that was not a 6.
~ So the Tiger proceeded to wreck the deathstrikes! The tiger would not live to exit the field, so the triumph was bitter sweet. The path for the morays had been cleared.
Later in the turn, I flew in the hero - it targetted the yet to activate superheavies and blasted one apart and put 2 hits on another. I roll a critical and nothing! 6 blast markers 10 hits left on the formation...
The morrays dropped in and managed to stay together. the DZ was 50cm onto the table and 70cm to the left, then 15cm toward the SHT co. The first scattered 6 cm but the second got a hit (with box cars rolled for distance mind you!) So we retained with no SC in the pocket and attempted to sustain fire on the SHT co.... again, I roll a 1!!! Oh that's frustrating. So instead of sustaining - we hold. We also take a blast marker.
The moray railcannons come to bare. They are firing a tanks which are literrally in the ruin, so going from 3's to 4's. The target isn't marked either so the tracers have no chance of hitting. The massive guns of the Moray score two MW/TK hits... but, it doesn't matter as the closest two targets are leman russ - so two of those tanks die.
(I was really wishing I had taken the ion-phalanx guns instead of the railcannons at this point)
However, that's 3 more blast markers now... and the formation just went from 10 hits remaining to 8 hits remaining (2 SHT 1 LRMBT and 1 Hydra) and it just went from 6 BM to 9 BM... so - bam, it breaks! WHoohoo!
The IG infantry co proceed to move once and deploy, then dump an increadible amount of fire into the Morays. They do 1 point of damage to one, and they do two points of damage to the other. Plus it came under fire, plus it already had one blast marker on it... so that was 5 hits... the damn sentinels moved over and shot at the morays to make them break... LOL... that was pathetic! So morrays route to the left flank.
The HH Contingent on the right side of the Tau field doubled up to a bridge and popped up to fire on the broken SHT co that was hiding in the IG side of the middle of the field, but forward a bit behind a bunker like structure. We managed to finish off that formation as we got a critical and coming under fire when broken plus some damage wiped out the formation. Thank you for the critical - or the formaiton would have stayed around to deliver more pain.
Moving this formation forward when broke was easily the IG players only mistake. He thought he was safe, but forgot about the dug in HH upgraded contingent on the right side of the field. Just an oops. This cost him a very important formation as there's no way my formation would have done that kind of damage had they not been broke, furthermore, he had the opportunity to back them up when the broke and put them behind a large ruin... so... 'training excersize'.
That's basically how turn 1 ended.
Turn 2:
Everything on the right side of the IG field picked on the broken moray until it died. (vultures, sentinels, infantry, 2 point bp manticore) It was just a matter of time... all that little crap fire would eventually take downt he broken moray on turn 3.
The AMHC would move up and wipe out the hydras on the left, clearing a path for the barricudas
The barracudas would fly in and kill one manticore on the other left corner, causing the 3 tank formation to break.
The stingrays and FW cadre would work on the IG infantry in center field, they would return the favor.
The HH contingent on the right side would put more punishment on the LRMBT before it could wipe out the broadsides and make them think about marshal or sustain firing, they would attempt to marshal, fail, and force to regroup with no shooting!
The broadsides would put more fire on the LRMBT co. The orca would fly in and pick up the broadsides on the right.
Turn 3:
Like I said, the moray took more fire on turn two, wouldn't rally (again) and thus would eventually die this turn. (I hate that... once the morays are on the field, they never seem to rally once broken... so I would give up the break their spirit victory condition on this turn - again, to tiny little bitty pee shooter fire!
However, we would force a turn 4 even though we held no victory conditions.
The sting rays had to move up and contest the IG's objective that the infantry were holding while taking out the valkyries and setting up a cross fire position on the infantry. The FW and AMCH would finish off the rallied manticores and sentinels.
The Orca would move in and drop off broadsides mid field holding an objective, and again, they would dump 2 stands of (1 still had a blast marker on it when they deployed) into the LRMBT co and again placed more blast markers on the formation killing 1 or two tanks again. The HH Contingent on the bridge went to overwatch... just in case the LRMBT co got brave... and they did.
The LRMBT co would double up to a position where it could fire on the HH contingent in the open with no LOF blocked. However, that was a second mistake. Pow - the HH contingent would break the LRMBT co and kill 3 or so tanks with a great amount of hits (finally I broke that formation!!! Blah!)
The barracudas died on the end of this turn, but I don't remember how exactly...
IG still had 1 (BtS) and Tau had none.
Turn 4
The tank co didn't rally - whoohoo... unfortunately, I couldn't capitalize and get the BtS as the RA was just tough, and he withdrew them to cover so made my shots hard to stack up anyway.. oh well, at least they weren't pounding me.
My first activation was to take advantage of the risky crossfire I set up on the infantry. It was a bit ball-zee as I was gambling that I would go first on turn 4... if I hadn't, I would have surely gotten charged by the infantry co from their cover position. However, the crossfire set up paid off. The stingrays within 15cm of the enemy and piranhas to support - 8 strong instead of 10 and 1 blast marker on the formation - blasted away with ignore cover, now in postion for a sustained fire crossfire. That did the trick, SC died and the formation would break. Midfield was ours and ripe for the taking!
4-tank vulture squad would be broken and the remaining two valkyries with 2 storm troopers would also perish to the last man/tank. So nothing held the tau left side of the field - except the FW cadre, the AMHC, and the Stingray formation now - even though all were pretty beat up!
Since the LRMBT didn't rally, the HH contingent and the wounded broadsides held that side.
So we gained two objectives on the IG side, had to abaindon our own blitz objective, but did hold the two objectives at center line on our side - which meant nothing... so that put us at 1 and 1... LOL...
At this point, I had already used the SC for turn 4... so I activated the orca and landed at the opponent's blitz objective. Successful... and since everything around it was broken, the Tau got the blitz objective via landed flier. ?
2:1 Tau!!! Whoo-hoo.
OK, well - that got a whole lot longer than I originally anticipated, so maybe it was closer to a battle report than I originally anticipated.
Noteworthy findings.
The skyray with 3 shots was a better value, but still heavily dependant upon the ML to be effective at either ground or air targets. Unfortunately, my markerlight equipped formations were not always in the right place at the right time, so their presence didn't matter in the game really.
The piranha and stingray formation did OK, but unless that formation gets close, it just doesn't work for me. However, once it could sustain with crossfire against IG that had no armor - well, that was sick then! This is a very fragile and situational formation as a result.
The Morays ... I should have taken the ion-phalanxs...
I brought the morays via ship on turn 1 too. I usually have to wait until turn 2 as my opponnent has a ship and usually has a higher strategy and usually has their ship on turn 1... so perhaps this has been a blessing in disguise. By turn 2, lots of damage has been caused on turn 1, and some amount of activation and turn 2 damage is already underway. Having the morays dropped on turn 1 only added to their eventual demise. Always being seen by all the enemy guns is brutal!
The worse thing though was not being able to rally them two turns in a row. It was further dissapointing that sentinels broke them but whatcha gonna do... coming under fire is a bummer. I really wish the moray and manta were init 1 like the imperial titans. Instead of a broken moray with enemy nearby needing a 5+ to rally, a 4+ would at least put it rallying over two turns on average. People seem to love to race up to my broken morays just to loiter! ?
It would be nice maybe to have a Moray commander... err... leader. 
The stealths... well, I've used them with teleport before, but this game, I just forgot to grab them each turn because the action was so intense and I was pre-occupied... LOL, or at least that's my excuse. They would have been a welcomed edition as they had markerlights I needed to get into the hot zone. Oh well...
The tiger shark with light railcannons was pleasing. Primarily due to its heroic sacrifice. The guns still feel like they are working just right. 45cm meant I had to get in close. I had to wait to use the model until I could get the enemy to draw out a little bit. I couldn't chance flying in the face of 3 hydras, but 2 ended up being doable. The bomber seemed a bit fragile, but I flew through 3 hydras in the end, and those things are nasty... and he rolled good. SO, can't really complain. I took them on a dangerous mission and was rewarded, even if only momentarily.
I will continue to play them in games where I can afford them.Commander ala crisis upgrade into FW. Well, the infantry crisis again worked out fine in the FW cadre. That was cheapest way to get the shas'o. This really nerf's the crisis value as a jumping fast moving unit as the FW slow you down, but coupled with the ion-heads, the formation was a fun formation that was kinda - jack of all trades, master of none. It served its purpose. It would have been better to have some devilfish to gain the speed back, but I ran out of points... more importantly, I forgot to buy them. ?
The orca with the broadside tactic was fun. I noticed I couldn't give drones to the broadsides and put them on the orca though... that really didn't feel right at all! A guy in our group has an orca, and that thing holds a lot of models. It seems like the broadsides plus drones should have fit on the orca. It makes the broadside formation uber fragile to put them in an orca and go hunting. This is something that really didn't feel right.
Outside of that, BM management was a pain - again. I spent so much time marshaling and firing at -1. The BM managmenet just isn't there so in order to keep from breaking and rallying on a 5 when the enemy was close by (due to our not so good initiative) I was scrambling to marshal some formation every turn. In addition, I was going into every turn with several formations with at least 1 blast marker on them. I used my SC reroll every turn of the game. My opponent didn't have to. That stunk. I look forward to the day when we have a handle on the BM management issue.
This for me is the biggest issue in the list right now.
All in all, my opponent and I had a lot of laughs. This game was super tight and down to the wire. I definitely look forward to a rematch!
Given what you said about everything moving towards them to fire at them you could use this to your advantage to draw the enemy into a beaten zone! 
