Game 1: VIOR'LA TAU vs ORK GARGANTS
This is battle report 1 of 3 from last weekend's Epic tournament. With TO approval I took the developmental Vior'la Tau; this is the new list that incorporates units from the new 40K book.
(The new Riptide models were painted by Onyx just in time and can be seen on the centre left and right)
[] 4 XV8 Crisis Battlesuit + Gun Drones x4
[] 12 Vior'la Firewarrior Cadre Fireblade (Firewarriors gain FF 4+) + 3 Pathfinders + Ethereal + Supreme Commander
[] 6 XV88 Broadside Battlesuits
[] 4 Tetra Skimmers (Scout) + 1 Pihrana
[] 4 Tetra Skimmers (Scout) + 1 Pihrana
[] 4 Hammerhead Skimmers
[] 4 Hammerhead Skimmers + 1 Skyray Air Defence Gunship
[] 2 XV104 Riptide War Engine (DC2) (Tau Deflector field. Reinforced Armour) + 2 Shielded Missile Drones
[] Orca Dropship - Aircraft
[] Sun Shark Bomber - Bomber - Pulse Bomb Generator 3BP Fixed Forward Arc
[] 2 Tiger Shark AX-1-0 - Aircraft - Bomber - Twin Railcannon Titan Killer
Jason's Ork Gargants
[] GREAT GARGANT [900] Damage Capacity 12 - Reinforced Armour - 6+D6 shields
Mekboy Big Boss, (Kustom) Supa Zzap Gun, (Kustom) Supa Zzap Gun
[] GARGANT [700] Damage Capacity 8 - Reinforced Armour - 3+D3 shields
(Kustom) Supa Zzap Gun, (Kustom) Supa Zzap Gun
[] 2 Supa Stompas, 2 No Big Kustom Upgrade, (Kustom) Megalobba, (Kustom) Supa Zzap Gun
[] 1 Supa Stompa, (Kustom) Megalobba, (Kustom) Megalobba
[] Lootaz - 6 Boyz, 2 Grotz, No Kustom Upgrade, Oddboy, 2 Big Gunz, (Big Kustom) Grot Guided Mega Missiles (Death Strike)
[] 3 Fighta-Bommers
Set up:
I placed my blitz in the far left corner, but all other objectives were placed on the far right, near the Ork blitz. For me, this means I could consider my Blitz fairly safe (Jason's army is very slow) and try to use units to take multiple objectives late in the game. For Jason, it meant it was hardly worth even trying to go for my blitz, but that the battle would be extremely concentrated in one area, which suits his slow moving Gargants and Stompas.
I set up a scout formation of Tetras out of sight, and everything else outside of the Ork double move and shoot range. The challenge is teh range advantage is extremely small as most of the best Tau weapons are 75cm, and these Orks have 60cm guns so powerful they destroy models immediately (titan killers) or break formations without even needing to roll to do damage (massive barrages).
The Orks random rolls for powerfields were very generous, giving the Gargant 6 shields and the Greater Gargant an amazing 11. Despite it being the source of rerolls and the Break the Spirit Objective, I wrote the Greater Gargant off as a viable target; it would take more than the length of 1 game to get through 11 shields and 12 Reinforced Armour damage points. IMHO attempting to kill it would lose me the game.
Tau get Initiative - I sent Tetra scouts screaming forward to markerlight the Lootas. The Lootas are cheap infantry, but armed with a 1 shot Deathstrike missile. With the markerlights on them, Jason guessed (correctly) a Sunshark bomber was soon to follow to target the deathstrike from behind, and so decided it was "use it or lose it time". Firing overwatch, the lootas hit the light skimmers with their nuke.
Three were instantly destroyed and the formation broken, but this was an excellent start for Tau. Sacrifices must be made for the Greater Good.
The Sunshark bomber targets the Stompas and removes the shields from one of them.
Jason moved his Gargant forward and took some shots a the Broadsides, suppressing some. After that, the Tiger Shark AX-10s screamed in to fire titan killing weapons at the Stompas - they hit on a 3+ and penetrate all armour, but they both missed.
Jason's Fightbombas intercepted and put a blast marker on one, but were unable to destroy it.
The Greater Gargant did a double move, rounding the giant builting to get into contesting range of objectives. It casually destroyed tetras near a small fort as it went.
Crisis Suits air-drop from an Orca, opening up on Lootas far behind enemy lines.
Distant Stompas fire 9 barrage points at 4 hammerheads, breaking them instantly.
The other hammerhead formation does a pop up attack to strip shields in preparation for the AX-10s to come in again.
Fightabombas strafe the Broadsides, killing one and suppressing them.
By turn 2 it was obvious the Orks weren't going to manage to take the distant blitz. Since defending it is unlikely to score points, I sent the Orca in to pick up the Firewarrior formation guarding it.
Last flight out of Saigon:
At the start of turn 3, the objectives are very much in Ork hands. They hold their Blitz, 3 other objectives and are in the Tau half, while I have a small unit in their half holding one objective. The lower activation count is taking its toll however, as every unit lost hurts the Orks a lot more.
A stopma strides forward, captures an objective and breaks the Hammerheads with its Barrage Weapon again.
The Tigershark AX-10s are not amused by this, and vapourise it with titan killing weapons. And to think I almost dropped them from the army.
A shoot out with Riptides leaves the Greater Gargant with only 1 shield (and 12 Damage capacity), but it manages to get between 2 objectives and on my side of the board. The Crisis Suits contest the objective however, and spread out to capture another.
With the Riptides on another objective, all that remains is to take the opponent's Blitz. The Orca drops in from high altitude and delivers the Firewarriors who open up with Pulse rifles to drive the Lootas away broken.
The most rare of sights - not only is there a Tau Ethereal in the game, but he's made it to the enemy Blitz
With the nearby Gargant already broken, this means the objective is secure and the game is a 2-0 win to Tau. Well played by Jason, he has an extremely characterful and powerful army. It felt like attacking elephants with a swarm of mosquitos; he told me after the match that his Greater Gargant has never died and I'm not surprised.
I'm lucky that staying away from it and focussing on snatching objectives instead paid off.
Next up, the Tau face Spiv and his endless swarms of planet-devouring Tyrannids.
