MARGARET RIVER GAME 3:
Vior'la Tau vs Black Templars
COLM's BLACK TEMPLARS vs VOIR'LA TAU
An interesting note from this game was it showed up (again) the limitations of the Tau Protector class space ship. Unlike a number of ships, it doesn't have a secondary or alternate attack, so if it is used vs an opponent with no warengines on the table its Titan Killing pinpoint attacks are wasted, and it simply leaves at the end of the turn. Experiences vary, but armies without any WE are fairly common in WA.
A comparatively weak optional attack might make it seem less a waste of points in these situations, so that might be something worth considering.
The game began with Firewarriors take position in an ruined Imperial Base. Unfortunately the artillery battery was non-functional.
Riptides in a central position, ready to seize objectives.
The Black Templars rush forward in rhinos, aggressively moving towards an objective while staying out of direct sight of the Tau guns.
Sunshark bombers scream in to hit a templar formation.
In return a thunderhawk would do a ground attack mission from the same corner, but stay off the ground so that the Protector ship would be wasted. The Marines own spacecraft was timed to arrive on turn 2.
Death Valley - this small valley between two ice cliffs contained both a vital objective, and the most direct path between the two armies' blitzkrieg objectives. As the templars moved to secure it, tau skimmers rushed forward, tetras placing markerlights on them while Piranhas opened fire with guided missiles.
Templar return fire proved too much for the scouts, who broke and fled, but as they did the real threat was revealed: hammerhead skimmer tanks treating the valley as a target range.
The Marines took a number of hits but were unbroken thanks to their 'They Shall Know No Fear' rule, so a riptide formation rushed forward to finish the job.
An interesting note from this game was it showed up (again) the limitations of the Tau Protector class space ship. Unlike a number of ships, it doesn't have a secondary or alternate attack, so if it is used vs an opponent with no warengines on the table its Titan Killing pinpoint attacks are wasted, and it simply leaves at the end of the turn. Experiences vary, but armies without any WE are fairly common in WA.
A comparatively weak optional attack might make it seem less a waste of points in these situations, so that might be something worth considering.
TURN 2
Even as the Tau congratulated themselves on destroying the enemy's rhinos and neutralising the threat temporarily, Terminators teleported in. Launching an assault on the riptides, they ripped the heart out of the formation.
There would be a price to pay however, as an Orca delivered crisis suits. 'Are you engaging or shooting', asked the Marine general optimistically before they opened fire.
Two terminator units survived, and even more men were poured into the area around this valley as a Thunderhawk filled with Devastators and Dreadnoughts arrived. They destroyed the Hammerheads, but were caught in crossfire and lost several of their number soon afterwards. The grounded Thunderhawk was destroyed by AX-10 titan killing aircraft.
Another marine infantry formation charged forward, firing on crisis suits. In turn 3, the crisis suits with air support inflicted heavy casualties on this formation.
In a final gamble, the Marines threw a thunderhawk with 2 formations of assault marines into combat with the BTS riptides.
The assaulted formation was partially covered by a scout screen (not completely but enough to make an assaulting unit have less freedom of placement). We had a discussion after the game about
In this photo Tau tetras (diamond shape in bottom left corner) make a semi circle around the riptides (the other 4 tetras don't show up in the photo)
The Thunderhawk has landed in the narrow gap between scout Zones of Control.
A closer view shows the assault marines and TH, several of which are in CC, a few in FF, and all have avoided the scout's zone of control. Avoiding the ZOC is the reason for their unusual funnel shape; they'd all prefer to be in base to base.
The Marines won that assault by a large margin, although after-game discussion led to the fact that the TH could have gone straight in, and dropped them into the riptides regardless of also entering the scout ZOC, in which case they'd have won by an even bigger margin.
However, by now the Black Templars had spent their best troops and machines, and a close game turned in to a win for Tau as they seized objectives at the end of turn 3.
For the Greater Good!
