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[BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
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Author:  Chroma [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:57 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Well, we were supposed to play D&D this weekend, but the plan fell through, so we would up playing a *lot* of EPIC instead.  We had four 2000 point games of Tau vs various enemies and I was able to log and photograpgh the fights (mostly).

So, here's the first battle: vs Catachans!
Author:  Chroma [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 4:58 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Rules Used

All experimental rules
Tau 4.4
Catachan 2.1
-allowed Catachans 1d6 of Commisars

Armies

Tau Exploratory Force - 2000 points

Battlesuit Cadre
Shas'O

Armoured Mobile Hunter Cadre - (BTS goal)
6 Ionheads

Pathfinder Contingent 1
2 Devilfish

Pathfinder Contingent 2
2 Devilfish

Stingray Contingent 1

Stingray Contingent 2

Barracuda Squadron

Kroot Kindred


Catachan Insurgency - 2000 points

Catachan Regimental HQ
Ogryns
Snipers
Commisar

Catachan Air Cavalry Company - (BTS goal)
Commisar

Catachan Infantry Company
Mortar Team
Commisar

Catachan Veterans
Valkyries
Commisar

Sentinal Squadron 1

Sentinal Squadron 2

Thunderbolt Squadron
Author:  Chroma [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:51 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Setup

4x4 table
Tau chose corner deployment.

Garrisons and Deployment

Tau garrisoned both Pathfinder Contingents and the Kroot Kindred

Catachans garrisoned both Sentinel Squadrons, the Veterans and the Infantry Company.

Tau deployed remaining formations in a tight "V" deep in their corner.

Catachans deployed remaining units packed together on their right flank.
Author:  Chroma [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 5:53 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Turn 1

Strategy roll: Tau

Stingray Contingent 1 receives garbled orders, asks for confirmation, receives no response and decides to pop-up and fire on the Catachan Infantry Company, killing 3 Guardsmen.

The Veteran Platoon mounts up on the Valkyries and doubles forward, unleashing four rocket pods on the Kroot Kindred and Pathfinder Contingent 2 and manages to kill 4 Kroot, and break a hole in the various scouting units' zones of control.

Inspired by this show of bravado, and to the strains of Faulkner, the Air Cavalry Company doubles forward through the gap to unleash hell on the Armoured Hunter Cadre.  A whopping 13 rocket pods are fired, along with a hail of multilasers and autocannons? and as the smoke clears, not a single Hammerhead has been harmed... though five blast markers have been placed.

Stingray Contingent 2 sustains fire on the now marked Air Cavalry and kills 6 Guardsman.

The Crisis Cadre prepares to advance on the Air Cavalry, but they are still laughing at the ineffectiveness of the Gue's firepower and only manage to snap off a shot that places a single blastmarker.

Aiming for the smoke plume, the Thunderbolts race in to ground attack the battered Hammerheads.  An ion bolt obliterates one of the Imperial planes, but the other lays another blast marker, breaking the Armoured Cadre.

Sentinel Squadron 1 advances on Pathfinder Contingent 1 and their flamethrowers crisp all 4 Pathfinders.  The remain Devilfish flee.

Hungry for new blood, the Kroot Kindred engages the nearby Infantry Company.  The dug-in Guardsmen turn out to be tenacious fighters, losing 2 Mortar Teams and 1 Guardsman, but completely wiping out the Kroot!

Sentinel Squadron 2 doubles on the other Pathfinders, putting them in a crossfire.  Two Pathfinders are killed, and the formation breaks, fleeing towards the Tau corner.

The Barracudas come roaring in to strafe the Air Cavalry, killing 2 more Guardsman.

The Company HQ makes a lateral march, securing the Catachan Blitz and Objective 2.

Rallies: Only the Tau Crisis Cadre rallies, while all the Catachan's rally, with a cheer!  (My opponent was ready to concede at this point, but I encouraged him to play on? as well, I forgot to take a picture of the End-of-turn positions.)
Author:  Chroma [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 6:31 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Turn 2

Strategy roll: Tau

Stingray Contingent 2 advances on the Air Cavalry Company, showering them with missiles. ?Many strike home as 4 Guardsmen and 2 Valkyries are eliminated.

The Veterans again mount up, and double to attack the broken Hammerhead Cadre and the nearby broken Stingrays. ?Firing their remaining four rocket pods, they destroy 3 Hammerheads and a single Stingray.

The Crisis Cadre bound forward in an advance and fire on the Veterans killing 3 Guardsman and the Commissar unit.

Despite being badly shaken, the single Thunderbolt takes to the skies to ground attack the broken Hammerheads, taking out another of the Tau grav-tanks.

The Catachan Infantry Company then sustains fire, hitting Stingray Contingent 2 and Pathfinder Contingent 2 with mortars, taking out 2 Stingrays and a Devilfish.

The Barracudas prepare for another ground attack, but the humidity has done something to their engines and they don't get off the ground, despite the imprecations of the Shas'O.

Sentinel Squadron 2 gets bogged down and is only able to move forward slowly.

Sentinel Squadron 1 doubles on broken Stingray Contingent 2 and takes out another Stingray.
Rallies: ?For the Tau, only the Hammerhead Cadre rallies, with 1 BM remaining, and for the Catachans, only the Veteran Platoon rallies.
Author:  Tactica [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:08 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Quote (Chroma @ 03 April 2006 (10:58))
Rules Used

All experimental rules
Tau 4.4
Catachan 2.1
-allowed Catachans 1d6 of Commisars

Armies

Tau Exploratory Force - 2000 points

Battlesuit Cadre
Shas'O

Armoured Mobile Hunter Cadre - (BTS goal)
6 Ionheads

Pathfinder Contingent 1
2 Devilfish

Pathfinder Contingent 2
2 Devilfish

Stingray Contingent 1

Stingray Contingent 2

Barracuda Squadron

Kroot Kindred

v4.4 rules of the tau, is that really v4.3.3 with the v4.4. proposed changes in the CS thread?

Did you use anything that was impacted by v4.4 changes or was this basically v4.3.3?

Heh - btw: I thought there was some kind of 40K rule about catachans and commissars. The Commissars appearently don't like to get stationed with them because the catachans are a bit rogue and tend to 'eliminate' the commissarial presence. LOL - guess that's why they only received 1d6 instead of 2d6 commissars..

LOL, sorry - old IG buff, just found the 1d6 thing humorus from old fluff. :)

BTW: I didn't even think anyone was playing the catachan list. I thought that was basically a fan list that got into the vault by a 'who you know' kind of situation. :/

Glad to see a report with it - even if experimental / fan based... or whatever it is!

Cheers,
Author:  Chroma [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:09 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Turn 3

Strategy roll: Catachan

The Veteran Platoon sustains fire on the two remaining grav-tanks of the Armoured Cadre, doing no damage, but breaking the formation.

Sentinel Squadron 1 advances on Pathfinder Contingent 2, barbequing a Pathfinder and breaking the unit.

Seeking revenge, the Crisis Cadre sustains fire on the Veterans, trashing 4 Valkyries and killing a Guardsman, breaking the unit.

The Infantry Company tries to advance, but fails, and only moves to secure Catachan Objective 1.

The Barracudas manage to get airborne again, and hammer the broken Air Cavalry unit. ?When the smoke clears, a single Valkyrie is spotted limping away from the kill zone.

The lone Thunderbolt makes another appears, firing on the broken Armoured Cadre, causing a Hammerhead to crash.

Rushing forward on a double, Sentinel Squadron 2 washes the remaining Hammerhead with flame causing the crew to bail out, eliminating the formation.

End of Turn: Catachan 3 (BTS, Defend the Flag, TSNP) vs Tau 0 (none)
Author:  Tactica [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 7:17 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Quote (Chroma @ 03 April 2006 (13:09))
Turn 3

Strategy roll: Catachan



End of Turn: Catachan 3 (BTS, Defend the Flag, TSNP) vs Tau 0 (none)

Wow, Tau clensing ala Catachan... :/

So this battle looks like it took a major flip flop! Didn't I read that your catachan player almost conceded in turn 1?

One would think the catachans (soft target, no armor, still IG so engagement isn't their cup of tea...) would be a primary if not perfect target for the TAU to go pick on.

Expecially with the PFs and Stingrays. I really guessed this battle to come out the other way.

So what was the after battle BS session like.

What were the major follies and lessons learned here?

I take noticet that in:


Turn 1

Stingray Contingent 1 - generates BM for failing orders...

The Veteran Platoon mounts up on the Valkyries and doubles forward, unleashing four rocket pods on the Kroot Kindred and Pathfinder Contingent 2 and manages to kill 4 Kroot, and break a hole in the various scouting units' zones of control.

Bad start for Tau and good start for IG...

Inspired by this show of bravado, and to the strains of Faulkner, the Air Cavalry Company doubles forward through the gap to unleash hell on the Armoured Hunter Cadre. ?A whopping 13 rocket pods are fired, along with a hail of multilasers and autocannons? and as the smoke clears, not a single Hammerhead has been harmed... though five blast markers have been placed.

OK, this is impressive dice on both sides. The IG are on fire though, they are doubling like crazy and rolling some good dice. Well done on the HH part for amazingly not losing the entire formation here ... 50% failure was darn near guaranteed! I'm glad to see the Tau dice get a bit hot as the IG were on fire with the doubles though!

Stingray Contingent 2 sustains fire on the now marked Air Cavalry and kills 6 Guardsman.
Expected if not a little low. The stingrays should ruin the guardsmen - especially on sustain fire with no armor on those poor chaps!

The Crisis Cadre prepares to advance on the Air Cavalry, but they are still laughing at the ineffectiveness of the Gue's firepower and only manage to snap off a shot that places a single blastmarker.
Second formation to fail to activate on the Tau side?

Aiming for the smoke plume, the Thunderbolts race in to ground attack the battered Hammerheads. ?An ion bolt obliterates one of the Imperial planes, but the other lays another blast marker, breaking the Armoured Cadre.

Seems like the HH broke before ever getting to activate - that hurts - especially at 2K level. Luckily the tau were facing mass infantry, so the HH role was not as important as it could have been against another enemy. This particular army had a lot of AP shots elsewhere - all be it shorter ranged AP shots from the infantry though.

Sentinel Squadron 1 advances on Pathfinder Contingent 1 and their flamethrowers crisp all 4 Pathfinders. ?The remain Devilfish flee.
Seen it happen more than once. The PF have to get so close that enemy flamers even get to deal their toll to them.

Hungry for new blood, the Kroot Kindred engages the nearby Infantry Company. ?The dug-in Guardsmen turn out to be tenacious fighters, losing 2 Mortar Teams and 1 Guardsman, but completely wiping out the Kroot!
Yay... our combat elite... :/ ? That's just sad - and the reason I only take them when I'm testing them.

Sentinel Squadron 2 doubles on the other Pathfinders, putting them in a crossfire. ?Two Pathfinders are killed, and the formation breaks, fleeing towards the Tau corner.
LOL, catachan IG sentinels are breaking our elite PF's... goes to show you how fragile they are.

The Barracudas come roaring in to strafe the Air Cavalry, killing 2 more Guardsman.
Seems low for the investement. Perhaps no better targets.

Rallies: Only the Tau Crisis Cadre rallies, while all the Catachan's rally, with a cheer! ?(My opponent was ready to concede at this point, but I encouraged him to play on? as well, I forgot to take a picture of the End-of-turn positions.)

Wow - that hurts. So, The HH were out in turn 2 as well. I absolutely hate when that happens. That's huge if there are only 3 turns (this case). 66% of the time out of battle means almost a waste of points. I've been there though. Good to see that the crisis init 1 paid off for the Tau but good grief, nothing else rallied.

Definitely a game turning even at 2K points being played IMHO.


Turn 2



Rallies: ?For the Tau, only the Hammerhead Cadre rallies, with 1 BM remaining, and for the Catachans, only the Veteran Platoon rallies.
So the HH formation does come alive for turn three, but with 2 BM no doubt. Ouch... so you'll get to use them for 1 of 3 turns.

If I understand this correctly, in a 3 turn game - you rallied with 2 formations. Once in turn 1 and once in turn 2.

Was that due to, broke formations needing 4+, enemy being close giving you another negative, poor dice, all the above?

If Eldar think they have a BM management problem in post GT games, they should try their hand at Tau a few times!

Cheers for the report, looking forward to the pics. Aways enjoy the reports Chroma!



Author:  Chroma [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:24 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Did you use anything that was impacted by v4.4 changes or was this basically v4.3.3?


Nothing Tau had taken in the armylist was impacted by the change from v4.3.3 to v4.4, so I thought it should be okay to count as a "current" playtest... *laugh*

LOL, sorry - old IG buff, just found the 1d6 thing humorus from old fluff. :)

Yep, I got the idea for only 1d6 commissars from the Catachan Codex and I'm going to highly recommend that be added to the list to the army champion!
Author:  nealhunt [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:36 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Inspired by this show of bravado, and to the strains of Faulkner...


I think you mean Wagner rather than Faulkner.

Unless you had a southern novelist known for his renderings of colloquial speech reading passages over the loudspeakers, in which case color me embarassed. :blush:
Author:  Tactica [ Mon Apr 03, 2006 8:56 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Author:  Chroma [ Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:26 am ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Quote (nealhunt @ 03 April 2006 (20:36))
Inspired by this show of bravado, and to the strains of Faulkner...


I think you mean Wagner rather than Faulkner.

Unless you had a southern novelist known for his renderings of colloquial speech reading passages over the loudspeakers, in which case color me embarassed. :blush:

Ah yes, I guess they had the wrong CD in the player... that explains their miserable shooting... *sigh* *laugh*

:oops:
Author:  Chroma [ Tue Apr 04, 2006 1:35 am ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Quote (Tactica @ 03 April 2006 (19:17))
Wow, Tau clensing ala Catachan... :/

So this battle looks like it took a major flip flop! Didn't I read that your catachan player almost conceded in turn 1?

One would think the catachans (soft target, no armor, still IG so engagement isn't their cup of tea...) would be a primary if not perfect target for the TAU to go pick on.

Expecially with the PFs and Stingrays. I really guessed this battle to come out the other way.

So what was the after battle BS session like.

What were the major follies and lessons learned here?

Actually, *I* was the Catachan player, one of our guys is seriously contemplating Tau (he's a Marine player at the moment) and wanted to give it a go, so he was the Tau player for all the fights... it was he who was ready to throw in the tau'el after over half his army broke in Turn 1.  *sigh* *laugh*

From the after-battle bull session:

The main problem for him was facing so many disrupt barrages... the Air Cav unit was able to garrison, and then doulbe up 70cm and unleash up to 14BP at 30cm, all disrupt: that's a minimum four blast markers for any units touched by the three templates that barrage generates, and then there's more potential BMs for hits, plus all the other firepower the formation can dish out.  Tau definitely have trouble dealing with blast markers, both removing and the sheer loss of firepower each suppressed unit costs the unit.

As well, blowing your Supreme Commander re-roll on your first activation of the turn really sucks.

Kroot, on paper they look like they should be nasty, but the just can't seem to deliver.  We talked about trying beefed up Kroot Kindreds next time to see how they do.

Poor Pathfinders... they cook up real good....
Author:  The_Real_Chris [ Tue Apr 04, 2006 8:08 am ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
For catachans after a few trail games our concluesion was they were at least 100% overpowered, then again we maxed out on mortars.
Author:  Chroma [ Tue Apr 04, 2006 7:37 pm ]
Post subject:  [BatRep] Tau Battle Weekend - Game 1 - 2000 points
Quote (The_Real_Chris @ 04 April 2006 (08:08))
For catachans after a few trail games our concluesion was they were at least 100% overpowered, then again we maxed out on mortars.

Well, I only had the one Mortar upgrade, but I'm going to recommend to the Army Champion that they be setup like Autocannons in normal Guard units, that is 1BP per 2 stands.
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