Well, the fickle winds of Fate allowed Dobbsy to get in one more game of EPIC while he's up here, but this time I decided to turn the table on him:  I would field a Tau army and he could field any other army he liked.

He wound up picking Biel-Tan Eldar... and a fight broke out!  

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Rules Used

Epic Update 2008
NetEA Recommendations
Tau v6.2

Scenario

Tournament Scenario

Armies Used

Biel-Tan “Get off my lawn!â€Â

cough* Game 4....

Yeah, I've already asked CS to change that as I don't have admin here...  

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Stealth edited!  

_________________
https://www.cybershadow.ninja - A brief look into my twisted world, including wargames and beyond.
https://www.net-armageddon.org - The official NetEA (Epic Armageddon) site and resource.

Battlefield:

4x6

Biel-Tan chose long table edge.


Deployment:

Biel-Tan kept Aspect Warhost 2 and Windriders Troupe 2 in reserve in the Webway.

Biel-Tan garrisoned the Ranger Troupe on overwatch.

Tau garrisoned both Recon formations on overwatch.

Remaining deployment as shown:

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Turn 1

No teleports.

Strategy Roll: TAU!

Utilizing co-ordinated fire Recon Group 1 calls on the help of Skysweep 1.  Recon 1 doubles forward to mark a good portion of the Biel-Tan army, firing on Sword of Vaul Green for a Blast marker.  The Skysweep formation advances and also lets loose on Swords of Vaul Green and drops one of the pesky long-ranged Fire Prisms.



Retaining the initiative, Skysweep 2 advances to fire on the marked Revenant Titans and manages to score an astounding four hits which wind up doing 1DC damage to each of the lithe Titans!

Seeking revenge, the Fire Prisms fail their activation and regroup, clearing all Blast markers.

Recon 2 exploits this blunder by advancing and lobbing a few missiles at the Revenants for another Blast marker.

Swords of Vaul Yellow advances, popping up to fire on Recon 1… and manages to take out 2 Tetras.

The Guardian Warhost follows up by sustaining fire on Recon 1, taking out a Tetra and breaking the formation.

Crisis Team 2 advances and fires at the Ranger Troupe at extreme range… and takes two units out!

The Revenants get in the game by doubling on a hit-and-run to just get a bead on Skysweep 1… dropping a single grav-tank and breaking the Tau.

Crisis 3 doubles forward into cover, but has no targets.

Windriders 1 double forward, popping up to hit Skysweep 2… drop a tank, and also break the formation.

Crisis 5 doubles on Windrider 1 and puts a Blast marker on them.

Aspect Warhost 1 doubles down the road to fire on Crisis 5… for a Blast marker.

Crisis 4 doubles forward and puts a Blast marker on the Revenants.

The Ranger Troupe marshals, moving back and clearing all Blast markers.

Crisis 1 doubles on Aspect 1 and puts another Blast marker on them.

Windriders try *really* hard to come out of the Wraithgate, and even the Autarch can’t sort things out as they sputter onto the battlefield with a Blast marker.

Crisis 6 doubles on the Revenents… and puts a Blast marker on them…

Crisis HQ attempts a coup de grace, also doubling on the Revenants… and breaks them…


End of Turn

No broken formations rally… and many Blast markers remain.

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Turn 2

No teleports.

Strategy Roll: Biel-Tan

Aspect Warhost 1 zips forward to engage Crisis 5… they lose a Striking Scorpion and strike down a single Crisis suit, but their aggression completely eliminates the elite Tau warriors.



The Aspect reposition to support…



Windriders 1 then engage Crisis 1, positioning themselves amongst Aspect Warhost 1.  The Tau seem ready for this as they knock three Jetbikes from the air, suffering no initial losses. Support fire accounts for two Crisis suits, but the Tau win and a single Vyper speeds away.



The Fire Prisms double up to fire on Crisis 1, doing no damage, but forcing the formation back in disarray.

Recon 2 doubles up to mark several formations and fires on the Fire Prisms for a Blast marker.

Crisis 3 then advances on the now marked Aspect Warhost 1 and lays waste, taking out two Wave Serpents, 2 Dire Avengers, and both the Autarch’s and Exarch’s units, easily breaking them in the process.

The Rangers double on Crisis 6 and put a Blast marker on them.

The Falcons, shaken by the loss of the Autarch, fail to advance and only move forward.

Crisis 2 doubles on the Rangers and drops one of them.

The Guardians advance on Crisis 4 and take out one team.

Windriders 2 then engage Crisis 4 and wipe them out.



Crisis 6 sustains fire on the Rangers, killing two and breaking them.

Crisis HQ doubles to put a Blast marker on the Fire Prisms.

Aspect Warhost 2 marches out of the Gate to ready for the next turn…



End of Turn

Again the Revenants fail to rally.

Skysweep 1 also fails to rally.

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Turn 3

THE AVATAR APPEARS!!!



Strategy Roll: Biel-Tan

The Warp Spiders engage Crisis 2, shredding two Crisis suits and losing a Swooping Hawk from support fire.  The Tau are wiped out by the fury of the Eldar.



The Falcon Troupe then engages Crisis 6!  One Falcon goes down, but 2 Crisis are taken out, and, again, the Tau are wiped out!



The Fire Prisms then attempt to sustain fire… and fail, moving into a better position.

Recon 2 double to mark and shoot at Aspect Warhost 1 to no effect.

The Avatar doubles to fire on the Crisis HQ, placing a Blast marker.

Windriders 2 fail to capitalize on this, moving instead of engaging.

Skysweep 2 advances to fire on the Falcons for a single Blast marker.

The Rangers attempt to march, but fail and break.

Recon 1 advances to protect the Tau Blitz and fire on the Falcons for one Blast marker.

Aspect Warhost 1 doubles on Recon 2 and drops a Piranha.

Crisis HQ doubles on the Warp Spiders, bakes three of them, and forces them to flee.

The lone Vyper of Windrider 1 marches forward.

Crisis 3 doubles on the Falcons to break them.

The Guardians march to get onto the Tau half of the battlefield.

Crisis 1 goes after the lone Vyper and breaks it…



End of Turn

Again the Revenants finally rally!

Crisis 1 fails to rally, even with a re-roll!


Score:

Biel-Tan 0 (none) vs Tau 0 (none) – Go to Turn 4!

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Turn 4

No teleports.

Strategy Roll: Tau

Crisis 3 sustains fire on the Guardians, taking out three Weapon Platforms and a Guardian unit to break them.

Crisis HQ doubles to grab Tau Objective 2.

The Revenants double to fire on Crisis HQ and take out two Teams, breaking them.

Recon 2 advances to mark the Revenants and manages to do 1DC of damage!

Windriders 2 try to double… and fail!

Skysweep 2 sustain fire on the Revenants… and break them!

Skysweep 1 double on the lone Vyper… and take it out!

The Fire Prisms double on Skysweep 1 and wipe them out in return!

Recon 2 doubles onto the Biel-Tan Blitz…

But the remnants of Aspect Warhost 1 double in pursuit and put a Blast marker on them…



End of Turn

Lots of failed rallying.


Score:

Biel-Tan 0 (none) vs Tau 0 (none) – Game ends!



Tie-breaker

Biel-Tan  1625 vs Tau 1275 – Narrow Biel-Tan Victory!!!

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

I'll make some more comments later, and hope that Dobbsy does the same!

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?

Chroma/Dobbsy,

Thanx very much for the excellent battle. It looks like all the crisis in this game performed well, but were balanced by their fragility. It also looks like if the Revenants hadn't of skipped out on most of the game that they would have caused some real problems for the Tau.

Thanx for testing this out.

_________________
Honda

"Remember Taros? We do"

- 23rd Elysian Drop Regiment

Post game thoughts:

This was an enlightnening game. I've never used Eldar before so it was very different to use an engagement army compared to a stand and shoot army.

As I mentioned elsewhere this game would have been different if my dice had not sucked and I had played the Eldar list more.   The Revenants broken-ness really did effect this game as the crisis suits wouldn't have been able to stand up to their firepower and I essentially played 650 points down for half the game.

Things that I found (and had confirmed) in this game (and the others vs Chroma, in fact) were:

First and foremost - the Crisis suit army of Spam, even with recon and Skyrays inserted for MLs and scout block and AA didn't perform so uber. For starters, it lacks an enormous amount of long range shooting. Crisis need to get to 45cm range to shoot with at least 1 weapon type - and that one hits on 5AP/6AT if they don't double.... The Seeker missiles help with AT but AP fire is somewhat short in the list.

Small Tau formations (even if heavily armoured with 3+ saves) don't last. Planned and properly set-up engagements hurt them. On the flipside of this in the game where Chroma took his Nids, the larger FW formations held up well and gave quite a bit of hurt to the nids.

4-5 Crisis suit formations really didn't smash my forces with shooting as I would have thought. They were more "annoying". I was a bit unsure how the Eldar saves would go but IIRC, at the end of the game the Tau had  destroyed a single formation?  You can still win games this way of course. I think the fact that the crisis aren't fast like the Mech forces available, hampers this list's "Tau-ness" to get around the table.

cool report!

Got the feeling that, even where the Tau put the hurt on Eldar, they were never able to fully capitalise on that due to how easily the Crysis teams were broken or destroyed in engagements. Was this played with Crysis at 1+ int?

also wondering why more firepower wasn't thrown at the Revenants later in the game, as they're fairly fragile. Given the effort that went into breaking them and stripping off a few DC, I expected to read that they were brought down, but never did. Was that due to lack of opportunity or tactics?

_________________
numquam culum es

The game was played with all Crisis formations having 1+ initiative; at 2+, it would've been a nightmare for the Tau, as little would have rallied from any savaged Crisis Cadres and many activations would've failed.

The game was still fun though, with a learning curve for both Dobbsy and myself.  Even with the tendancy towards a "mono-type" army with all the Crisis Cadres, the army still felt very Tau; nimble and shooty, but unable to withstand a frontal assault.



Well, after they got broken, Dobbsy parked them deep in the Eldar deployment zone hidden behind cover, and then *guarded* by other Eldar formations; couldn't get anything with markerlights close enough to allow missile shots, and any Crisis Cadres sent in would've been on suicide missions.  It *might* have been possible to do, but it probably would've cost me my army.

_________________
"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

Now living in Boston... any EPIC players want to meet up?