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[BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
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Author:  Chroma [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:41 am ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Got in a second game of Black Legion vs Tau and this fight was quite unusual... cuz the Black Legion was coming down from space!
Author:  Chroma [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:43 am ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Rules Used

Black Legion 3.7
Tau 4.3.3

Armies

Death from Above - 2000 points

Aregan's Ravagers
Black Legion Retinue (Khorne)
8 Chaos Marines
Chaos Warlord
Chaos Champion
Daemonic Pact
Icon Bearer
Dreadclaws

Fists of Fury
Black Legion Chosen Space Marines (Khorne)
Chaos Lord
6 Chosen
3 Dreadnaughts
Dreadclaws

The Bloody Remnants
Forlorn Hope (Khorne)
4 Chaos Marines
Daemonic Pact
Dreadclaws

Deathburners
Helltalon Fighter-bomber (Khorne)

Bringer of Woe
Devastation Class Cruiser (Khorne)

Daemon Pool
1 Greater Daemon
14 Lesser Daemons

Tau Investigation Force - 2000 points

Cal'Au'Ka
Armoured Cadre
4 Railguns
2 Ion Cannons
Hammerheard Upgrade
Networked Drones

Kayon'La'Shi
Battlesuit Cadre
Crisis Upgrade
Shas'O

Shas'Or'Saal
Fire Warrior Cadre
8 Fire Warriors
4 Devilfish

Al'Kayon'Ka
Hammerhead Contingent
3 Railguns
1 Ion Cannon

Mont're'Naga
Tetra Contingent

Da'Vash'Mont
Piranha Contingent

We Who Hunt
Kroot Kindred
Krootox Upgrade
Author:  Chroma [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:54 am ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Setup

4'x4' Table

Objectives and Garrisons

Black Legion had nothing to deploy on the table.



Deployment



I knew the planetfall was either going to be inside the "triangle" of the Tau side objectives, or edgeward of the hill with the Black Rock, so I gambled.

Afterward, I realized the obvious thing I missed. ?I should have deployed inside the "triangle", with a double ring of my scouting formations and my other units forming a blanket of ZOC that would prevent landing within it. ?That's what I get for never playing against drop armies. ?(There was another obvious thing I missed, but I'll wait until the first turn to share that one.)
Author:  Chroma [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:33 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Turn 1

When I saw the grin on my opponents face as we prepared for Turn 1, I knew I had gambled and lost, I thought all hope might be lost as well, until?

Strategy Roll: Tau

Uncertain as to what to do on a battlefield with no enemies, the Fire Warriors of Shas'Or'Saal hesitate, and then zip across the battlefield, marching to the Black Legion Blitzkrieg and debussing into the nearby ruins.

The Shas'O orders his Crisis Cadre to do the same, but the Tau are confused by his urgency as the sensor drones detect no nearby danger, and they only make a single leap forward over the hill with the Black Rock. ?(Here's where I made my second big mistake, I blame the lack of targets. ?I should have had the Shas'O call a co-ordinated fire attack with two other units and just doubled them all out of the potential kill zone, that would've been a single 1+ activation and would've saved a lot of Tau, in addition to allowing me to potentially save a fourth unit? live and learn!)

The Bringer of Woe arrives? and rains death. ?The Orbital Bombardment is targeted slightly off the Black Rock catching the Hammerhead Contingent and the Piranhas in its deadly embrace. ?Three Piranhas are felled, but the grav-tanks weather the initial storm. ?The Dreadclaws carrying the Fists of Fury land within the "triangle", near the lurking Kroot, but not near enough to hit them with fire. ?The Chaos Warlords retinue lands directly on the Black Rock and their Dreadclaws knock out one Hammerhead from Al'Kayon'Ka while spraying fire at the Hammerhead Cadre. ?The Bloody Remnants also land nearby and manage to knock out two more Hammerheads from the, one from each tank formation!

The Chaos Warlord keeps attacking, first calling up five Bloodletters and then attempting to engage the Shas'O. ?The Crisis suits jump back near the Tetras. ?The ravening daemons can't reach the Tau who pick them off with Fusion Blasters and support fire and, incredibly, drive the Chaos Marines back!

The Tetras advance towards the Forlorn Hope and tear them into more bloody remnants leaving only one broken squad still standing.

The Fists of Fury maintain their excellent tactical position and sustain fire into the backsides of the Kroot. ?The Reaper autocannons live up to their names as five Kroot, two Krootox, and the Master Shaper are all cut down. (So much for my attempt to try out Kroot!)

The Deathburners scream in on ground attack, skirting the maximum range of the Ion Cannons to eliminate the survivors of the Hammerhead contingent.

Trapped in the corner and sorely battered, Cal'Au'Ka tries to rally? and fails, breaking and fleeing up the flank.

Disgusted by his loss against the elusive Tau, the Warlord Retinue remains broken as do the remaining Hammerheads, remarkably, the Kroot rally!
Author:  Chroma [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:46 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Turn 2

Strategy Roll: Black Legion

The single Bloody Remnant left calls upon his dark god and receives 4 Bloodletters for his prayers, but even those blood red warriors are unable to reach up and swat down the nearby Tetras, who wipe out the last survivor of the unit.

The Shas'O advances on the Black Rock and fires on Aregan's Ravagers, killing three of the furious Chaos Marines.

The Chosen double towards the Kroot with the thunder of mechanized death, but are unable to hit the crafty creatures.

The Tetras perform a lateral advance to markerlight the Chosen, while firing on the broken Warlord's retinue, and manage to kill three more Marines. ?Only the half-insane Warlord is left standing, shaking his fist at the sky.

From their defensive position in the ruins and seeing the red flashing light of a marked target on their scopes, the Fire Warriors launch Seeker Missiles and the Dreadnaughts of the Chosen, but score no kills. (Boy, did *that* surprise my opponent!)

The Deathburners perform another long strafing run, attacking the broken Hammerhead Contingent and knock out two more tanks.

Without the direction of the Shaper, the Kroot are confused. ?They marshal, moving deeper into enemy territory.

All units, but the Hammerhead Cadre, rally.
Author:  Chroma [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 3:54 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Turn 3

Strategy Roll: Black Legion

The Chaos Warlord says a fervent prayer and is only rewarded with 5 daemons, but he engages the Tetras anyway. ?His fury is enough to scatter his enemies and the entire Tau unit is rendered combat ineffective.

The Fists of Fury advance on the Crisis suits and obliterate two teams of XV8s.

Seeing no one around, the Kroot march forward to claim an undefended enemy objective? and light it on fire!

The Helltalons race in one more time, bombarding the Shas'O's cadre with a ground attack, but the Tau armour withstands the onslaught.

Still sitting pretty, the Fire Warriors advance slightly nearer the enemy Blitzkrieg while their Devilfish pop up to launch missiles at the Chosen's Dreadnaught? and manage to take out two of the lumbering machines!

Things look really desperate, until both armies realize they're actually in each other's territory! ?(Since my opponent dropped into my side, and I was constantly trying to move onto his side, we kept standing at the "other" side of the table? was mildly confusing and we initially thought no one had any objective.  Then we realized... *laugh*)

End of Turn: Black Legion 0 (none) vs Tau 2 (Blitzkrieg, Take and Hold)

Oh how the Chaos Warlord howled about that!
Author:  clausewitz [ Wed Jan 11, 2006 5:17 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Sounds like a good fun battle.  Though with only 3 objective holding capable formations the BL would have needed to be really fortunate to win this one.  Especially slow moving formations.
Author:  Tactica [ Thu Jan 12, 2006 5:21 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Quote (Chroma @ 10 Jan. 2006 (22:43))

Been a while since I've read a BL report, this should be good. :)

Some pre-game comments:

Do I understand it correctly that there are only 3 formations capable of holding objectives in the BL army here?

No Barracudas in the tau army seems to be more common with recent battle reports than I personally like. That's just a general observation.

I'm happy to see folks playing all crisis formations, however, tactically I can't help but wonder if its not better to play crisis + stealths,
or
crisis + heavy drones

I wonder if this is not tactically more sound due to formation unit strength, and the insulation for the crisis. I'm just wondering on the value of 2 add'l crisis vs. 4 marker drones or 3 RA stealths. Hmm... ???

FW with Df only always concern me. I find that the formation is not flexible enough and ends up being religated to ML and smaller anti-personel operations at best. If 1 or 2 Df are dealt with early, it seems to put the infantry in a bad way with not much option but movement in many games. The lack of ranged AT if further upgrades are not taken is somewhat a questionable decision in my mind. Perhaps that's due to my playstyle not solely relying on ML and GM.

Stand alone tetra and piranha formations bring similar questions to mind.

Kroot - yay, somebody's trying the latest version of the kroot! :) This is a formation we need to get more playtest out of for sure. Glad to see somebody fielding them. I have high hopes for them against this foe. Typically, I've seen them as initial deturant, and one-hit-wonders. The complete lack of armor means they usually lose the combat they enter, but they can usually deal a bit of damage before they go. Should be interesting to see how they fare.

Cheers,
Author:  Tactica [ Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:17 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Quote (Chroma @ 11 Jan. 2006 (08:33))

Strategy Roll: Tau

Yay! Quite the impressive kick-off considering the relative differences in strategy!




The Shas'O orders his Crisis Cadre to do the same, but the Tau are confused by his urgency as the sensor drones detect no nearby danger, and they only make a single leap forward over the hill with the Black Rock.  (Here's where I made my second big mistake, I blame the lack of targets.  I should have had the Shas'O call a co-ordinated fire attack with two other units and just doubled them all out of the potential kill zone, that would've been a single 1+ activation and would've saved a lot of Tau, in addition to allowing me to potentially save a fourth unit? live and learn!)


Hmm... I'm wondering if you could actually have issued a CF if there was no target formation. Just speaking hypothetically in lieu of your situation you presented.

Perhaps I'll start a seperate thread on this one... interesting...

The Bringer of Woe arrives? and rains death.  The Orbital Bombardment is targeted slightly off the Black Rock catching the Hammerhead Contingent and the Piranhas in its deadly embrace.  Three Piranhas are felled, but the grav-tanks weather the initial storm.  The Dreadclaws carrying the Fists of Fury land within the "triangle", near the lurking Kroot, but not near enough to hit them with fire.  The Chaos Warlords retinue lands directly on the Black Rock and their Dreadclaws knock out one Hammerhead from Al'Kayon'Ka while spraying fire at the Hammerhead Cadre.  The Bloody Remnants also land nearby and manage to knock out two more Hammerheads from the, one from each tank formation!
Would this classify as an ouch yet? (d@mn drop armies!) :p


The Chaos Warlord keeps attacking, first calling up five Bloodletters and then attempting to engage the Shas'O.  The Crisis suits jump back near the Tetras.  The ravening daemons can't reach the Tau who pick them off with Fusion Blasters and support fire and, incredibly, drive the Chaos Marines back!

The Tetras advance towards the Forlorn Hope and tear them into more bloody remnants leaving only one broken squad still standing.

Must - absolutely must kill them dead... those chaos are just brutal if there's one summoning capble unit left! Marine push back is always a welcomed 1st turn event though!

The Fists of Fury maintain their excellent tactical position and sustain fire into the backsides of the Kroot.  The Reaper autocannons live up to their names as five Kroot, two Krootox, and the Master Shaper are all cut down. (So much for my attempt to try out Kroot!)

Well, that was disheartening. Unfortunately, with no armor, this happens all too often. Kroot have to be deployed into great - not just good cover to have a chance to impact that game. That typically means buildings and ruins or fortifications. When hits equate to kills, many drop/teleport, barrage, and aircraft formations just make short work of the kroot formation unfortunately.

Question: do you think you could have deployed them into better cover, or was there no hope of that due to field conditions.

I had hoped to see kroot in action here. Bummer.

The Deathburners scream in on ground attack, skirting the maximum range of the Ion Cannons to eliminate the survivors of the Hammerhead contingent.
Definitely the way to deal with the Tau AA cover. break em' and finish them off. Definitely a good example of using the enemy air against the Tau. Cudos to your BL enemy for putting that tactic together effectively.



Trapped in the corner and sorely battered, Cal'Au'Ka tries to rally? and fails, breaking and fleeing up the flank.

Disgusted by his loss against the elusive Tau, the Warlord Retinue remains broken as do the remaining Hammerheads, remarkably, the Kroot rally!

LOL - and thus begins the commedy! Maybe we'll see something out of those kroot yet!
Author:  Tactica [ Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:24 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Quote (Chroma @ 11 Jan. 2006 (08:46))


All units, but the Hammerhead Cadre, rally.

Turn 2 sounds like one heck of an exchange. The warlord still standing defiantly is never a good thing for the tau - especially if he rallies. I'm surprised the opponent summoned bloodletters instead of something like flamers. Our group found that the flamers were all around great deamons for combat. (that was some time ago as collector models and I haven't looked at the latest list much at all) Seems like he woudl have been better off to go into combat with skimmers using something that could shoot.

Seems like the Helltalons were really taking their toll on the Tau as well... now 4 HH lost to their raids, starting to really hurt!

AMHC not rallying here on turn 2 doesn't seem like a good thing at all either. Guess the network drones are going to fix all problems, just help when the dice are workign for you. That's to be expected. Unfortunate though considering your situation. I'm a firm believer of Turn 2 significance to the Tau. BL taking the initiative and really seeming to have a decent turn despite the warlords retinue being wiped out seems to be slanting things to the favor of the drop army at present.
Author:  Tactica [ Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:39 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Quote (Chroma @ 11 Jan. 2006 (08:54))

Turn 3

Strategy Roll: Black Legion

No suprise there on the initiative, at least you had the first turn!


The Chaos Warlord says a fervent prayer and is only rewarded with 5 daemons, but he engages the Tetras anyway.  His fury is enough to scatter his enemies and the entire Tau unit is rendered combat ineffective.

See, that's what I'm talking about. Chaos have to be killed dead if deamons remain in the pool! 1 summoning chaos chap is as deadly as 10 of them! I still hate it that the entire formation can summon daemons.... [grumbles]

The Fists of Fury advance on the Crisis suits and obliterate two teams of XV8s.

Seeing no one around, the Kroot march forward to claim an undefended enemy objective? and light it on fire!

LMAO - poor crisis
OTOH - yay, go Kroot!

The Helltalons race in one more time, bombarding the Shas'O's cadre with a ground attack, but the Tau armour withstands the onslaught.

Those aircraft seem to have been a thorn in your side the whole game long. Seems like there was no real chance to deal with them. Was ignoring them OK basically in hindsight (regardless of the battle outcome)?

Still sitting pretty, the Fire Warriors advance slightly nearer the enemy Blitzkrieg while their Devilfish pop up to launch missiles at the Chosen's Dreadnaught? and manage to take out two of the lumbering machines!

Things look really desperate, until both armies realize they're actually in each other's territory!  (Since my opponent dropped into my side, and I was constantly trying to move onto his side, we kept standing at the "other" side of the table? was mildly confusing and we initially thought no one had any objective.  Then we realized... *laugh*)

End of Turn: Black Legion 0 (none) vs Tau 2 (Blitzkrieg, Take and Hold)

Oh how the Chaos Warlord howled about that!


Oh WOW!!! Bravo, I thought things were lost from the sounds of it!!! Well done! I guess ignoring the enemy aircraft did work out - LOL...

GO KROOT!  :alien:  :p
Author:  Tactica [ Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:42 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
So seriously, did the BL player forget about objectives or was the choice of only 3 ground formations too few?

Should have have lightened the load on the aircraft, space craft, upgrades, and daemon front in favor of more formations that could win the game?

I think Tau can get into this situation if they put too much faith into all aircraft. I think the enemy can focus on the ground formations and deal with the air only as necessary, and end up severely weakening the Tau's ground control capability. This feeling has throngs into the TS thread debate.

Just curious on your thoughts as it pertains to the BL loss of control of the field and the Tau victory.

PS - go kroot. ;)
Author:  Chroma [ Thu Jan 12, 2006 6:53 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Quote (Tactica @ 12 Jan. 2006 (17:42))
So seriously, did the BL player forget about objectives or was the choice of only 3 ground formations too few?

Well, if BL had dropped all his lads into or near the "triangle", I think I would've been hard-pressed to shift him. ?With only 3 AVs in the whole army, my Seeker Missiles were wasted. ?He should've formed up daemon shields and taken hits, while blasting with his aircraft. ?And if I *hadn't* gone first, the game would've probably have been over in the first turn!

I feel the only "big" error was on my part, in not thinking to deploy protective rings of scouts around my army and the objectives.  With all those Kroot I could've defended a large area and pushed his Dreadclaws "out" and only the Kroot (the poor Cads!) would've taken the initial hits of the drop and I would've had a lot more to dump on him.

In 2000 points, having only 3 ground-pounding units isn't that terrible, but I do feel the points spent on the Bloodthirster were wasted and would've been better spent on another Forlorn Hope or something.

I recommend you check out the other "vs Black Legion" batrep as well!
Author:  Tactica [ Thu Jan 12, 2006 7:55 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Black Legion vs Tau - 2000 points - Game2
Quote (Chroma @ 12 Jan. 2006 (11:53))


I recommend you check out the other "vs Black Legion" batrep as well!

I definitely will. (I need to get some real work done today too though!) LOL - definitely will check it out.

Cheers,
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