Took the 1.6 Squat list for a run against Atensions Tau a couple days ago.
Lets see how that went...
Squats
Warriors + Extra Troops + Warlord + Grand Warlord 375
Thunderers +2 Thunderfires 300
Berserkers +3 Robots 325
Bikes 225
Gyrocopters 200
Gyrocopters 200
Overlord +AA Pintel 275
Overlord +AA Pintel 275
Goliaths 300
Land Train +Mortar Car +3 Berserker Cars +AA Pintel 525
3000

Vior’la Tau 1.8a
Fire Warrior Cadre 250
- 8 Firewarrior, Cadre Fireblade
Fire Warrior Cadre 350
- 8 Firewarrior, Cadre Fireblade, 3 pathfinder
Fire Warrior Cadre 325
- 6 Firewarrior, 3 Devilfish, Shas’o
KX139 Supremacy Suit 225
Recon Group 150
- 3 Tetra, 2 Piranha
Recon Group 150
- 3 Tetra, 2 Piranha
Broadside Battle Group 300
Armour Group 250
- 5 Fusionheads
Tigershark AX-1-0 175
Manta Dropship 625
Spacecraft 200

Tau with SR3 decided to pick corner deployment.
Tau SC to come on Turn 1, with Manta and 2 Firewarrior Cadres
Both sides garrison Scouts (+Broadsides) and rest of the deployment as shown.
The industrial terrain was played as ruins, and blocked LoS.

Squat deployment bottom right, Tau at top left.

Turn 1 – Tau win Initiative
Tau SpaceCraft – 2 pinpoint ground attack – Miss Overlord (1BM) One DC against Goliaths (2BM, which suppresses one of the Goliaths). Manta drops as shown and deploys Firewarrior Cadres 1 & 2.


Tau retain with Firewarriors 1 – Assault Squat Warriors and declare Overlord Intermingled (Oops).
Gyrocopters 2 Overwatches, kills 2 FireWarriors (3BM). Squat Warriors countercharge and get a rhino in base contact with Firewarriors 1 (but also in Overwatch range of 2 Broadsides which kill it +2BM to Warriors). Massed support fire from Manta and Firewarriors 2 do lots of damage, (and crit the Overlord out of the sky) but poor resolution roll for the Tau means we tie and go to a second round of combat. The Squats only chance is to eliminate the last 3 Firewarriors 1 so the Manta doesn’t get to support again, but they can only eliminate two of them... Squat Warriors are wiped from the board (including the Grand Warlord). One remaining Firewarrior 1 is broken and retreats behind the ruins.

Squats Land Train Sustains on Manta with 4BP MW and covers FireWarriors 2 formation as well. 1DC damage to Manta (+2BM), 6 Firewarriors killed (and Broken, retreating to cover)

Tau Recon 1 – Doubles to shoot at Gyrocopters 1 and markerlight them. (Atension forgot that the Gyros were on Overwatch) Gyros shoot first and kill 2 Recon, breaking them. Recon flee back behind a hill.

Squat Goliaths Sustain against Firewarriors/Devilfish with 3BP. Kill 2 devilfish, 1 FW, (4BM)

Tau Tigershark Ground-attack Overlord (fail to activate but pass with re-roll). AA from Overlord miss (1BM on TigerShark). TigerShark doesn’t make the same mistake – TK3 kills Overlord.


AX-1-0 about to TK Overlord in the distance.

Squat Berserkers Double to middle of board and shoot Recon 2 (1BM)

Tau Supremacy Suit Sustain on Thunderers – kill 2 thunderers and 1 warrior (4 BM)

Squat Thunderers Marshal – Fail, so Hold and regroup – remove all BMs

Tau Firewarriors + Devilfish Marshal – Fail, so Hold and regroup – remove all BMs

Squat Bikes – Double to hide in ruins and take out the last Firewarrior 1. A Bike, trike and Guild Master all fail dangerous terrain test, Firewarrior 1 takes BM and dies.

Tau Recon 2 Doubles and shoots (and Markerlights) Land Train. (1BM).

Tau Hammerheads Double, shoot Land Train – strip 3 Void Shields (+1BM, now 2BM)

Tau Manta Advance, shoot at Land Train – Strip remaining Void Shield, +3DC, 1 crit kills the back Car. Land Train broken.

Rally Phase:
Recon1 fail, Firewarriors2 fail, everything else rallies.

Turn 2 – Tau win Initiative

Tau Manta Sustain on Land Train – strip Void Shield, +2DC damage. Land Train broken with only 1DC remaining, retreats behind hill to try hide from everything else.

Squat Land Train with 1DC remaining would hide for the rest of the game..

Tau Hammerheads retain, Double and shoot at Goliaths. Destroy one, 1DC remaining on second Goliath. Goliaths broken.

Squat Gyrocopters 2 Engage, fail to activate and Hold – shoot at Recon 2. Great shooting and poor saving throws, all 5 Recon 2 killed (Squat Gyrocpoters +1BM)

Tau Supremacy Suit Sustain on Berserkers. Fail to activate, but succeed with SC reroll. Kill 3 Bezerkers, 2 rhinos (6BMs)

Squat Bikes – Advance and shoot at Hammerheads – Kill 2 with Multimeltas. Hammerheads broken and withdraw to safety.

Tau Broadsides Double and shoot at Berserkers – 1 fails Dangerous Terrain (including reroll for Walker) – Kill 1 robot and 1 rhino. Beserkers broken.

Squat Gyrocopter1 Double and shoot at Firewarrior + Devilfish. (1BM)

Tau Firewarrior + Devilfish Advance – fail and Hold (+1BM), shoot Gyrocopters 1 (+1BM)

Squat Thunderers double and shoot at Manta – (1BM) but mostly moving to get AA coverage for the LandTrain.

Tau AX-1-0 – not wanting to brave the Thunderfires, Ground Attacks the Gyrocopter 1 on the left flank. Kill 1, (+2BM). Gyrocopters broken and withdraw back to safety.

Gyrocopters contesting the left flank until the AX-1-0 shows up.

Rally Phase – Every broken formation on the board on both sides fails to rally. Turn 3 will be short with only 3 Squat activations and 5 Tau.

Turn 3 – Tau win Initiative

Tau Manta Advance and shoot at Thunderers – kill 2 rhinos, 1 thunderer, 1 warrior (+5BM)

Squat Thunderer Marshal, move thunderfires back behind remaining Rhinos, and remove 2BM (3BM remaining)

Tau Supremacy suit Sustain on Bikes – kill 3 bikes, 1 trike. Remaining 1 bike broken , retreat towards Blitz

Squat Gyrocopter2, double and shoot Broadsides – 1BM

Tau Broadsides double, fail activation, fail SC reroll. Hold - remove BMs

Tau AX-1-0 – Ground Attack Land Train but Misses.

Tau Firewarriors + Devil Fish, Marshal – move towards Tau Blitz, remove all BMs.

End of turn – AX-1-0 disengages and takes AA from 2 thunderfires which miss (1BM)

This time everything rallies except Gyrocopter 1 and Hammerheads.
The Land train (still hiding behind a hill) gains another crucial Void Shield – now at 2 Void Shields.
Score is 0 - 0. On to Turn 4.

Turn 4 – Squats win Initiative

Squat Gyrocopter2 Advance, shoot broadsides – 1BM, (now at 3BMS)

Squat Goliath retains Sustain on Firewarriors + Devilfish – Kill 2 Firewarriors, and Supreme Commander. Firewarriors are Broken, but hold in place beside the Tau Blitz

Tau Broadsides Double and shoot Gyrocopters2 – 1BM

Squat Thunderers Double, Fail and hold – regroup remove all BMs

Tau Supremacy Suit Sustain – Fail and hold – regroup to remove BMs

Squat Bikes – March to take cover behind ruins, and control Squat Blitz

Tau Firewarriors2 – Double and shoot at Gyrocopters 2 - +1BM (2 BMS total)

Squat Berserkers March to control Objective and make sure a second formation in enemy half.

Tau Manta cant see anything useful (Land Train) so marches to control Squat objective.

Land Train – marches to contest same objective

Tau Recon Double towards Landtrain – Fail and hold

Tau AX-1-0 Ground attack Land Train – miss, 1BM

End of Turn, Tau AX10 takes a BM from Thunderfires.

Everything rallied except Tau Fusionheads.
Score is still 0-0. Countback victory points – Tau 1600 v Squats 862.

Thoughts on the game:

Firstly, I was lucky to get away with a 0-0 draw. A couple failed Tau activations and poor shooting by the AX-1-0 robbed Atension of a sure win.

His Planetfalling Manta landed in the perfect position to smash me and kept me on the back foot from then on.

Atension did a great job targeting the Overlords, Goliaths and Land Train. Without them, the Squat Infantry is pretty rubbish (though numerous enough that they are difficult to completely eradicate). I tried running fewer activations to boost the capabilities of the core Brotherhoods and that bit me by being out activated every turn.

I’m sure we’ll continue the discussion regarding the 1.6 list over on the Squat threads.
Well, if you made it this far then thanks for reading..

enjoyable report, thank you.

always enjoy the 'thoughts on the game' eq to get some perspective on the author's/player's insights and experiences.

Always great to see a Manta planet-falling onto the battlefield.
Sounds like a very touch and go opening engagement - a near run thing.


Failed activations are the sad lot of a Tau Commander. The joys of an Init 2+ army.
The performance of the AX-1-0 also sounds familiar. Two misses at targets in the open is a little against the odds.
But it activated in all four turns (OK, one with a SC re-roll), including two times whilst carrying a BM, so perhaps,
better than average there. And it seemed to survive three rounds of AA fire.