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I played a game against Jstr19 (Ryan) this evening, and have some thoughts on how the list played.
Rules used:
- Official Core Rules & Errata
- Steel Legion (1 Commissar per 500pts, and upgunned Baneblade, I will have been 25pts over if the Warhound should be 275pts)
- Tau Proposal version E1.03
My list, Steel Legion:
- Reg HQ Company, with Hydra - 550
- Mech Inf. Company - 400
- Leman Russ Tank Company, with Hydra - 700 (BTS)
- Basilisk Platoon - 250
- Sentinel Squadron - 100
- Storm Trooper Platoon - 200
- Baneblade - 200
- Shadowsword - 200
- Warhound Titan - 250
- Thunderbolt Fighters - 150
10 activations
3000 (or 3025) points
Ryan's list was something like:
Mech. Fire Warrior Cadre with Bonded Team and Skyray - 350pts
Mech. Fire Warrior Cadre with Bonded Team and Skyray - 350pts
Crisis Battlesuit Cadre with 2 extra Crisis Suits & Supreme Commander - 450
Stealth Group - 275
Broadside Group - 300
Recon Group (6 Tetras) - 150
Recon Group (6 Piranhas) - 150
Hammerhead Group (All with Railguns) with Skyray - 475 (BTS)
Barracuda Squadon - 150
AX-1-0 Squadron - 350
10 activations
3000 points
Notable events:
I deployed my Warhound Titan badly (In direct LOF to a garisoned Broadside formation, and within single-move range of a Hammerhead formation), and paid the price for it; Ryan Teleported a Stealth formation nearby, lighting up the Warhound, and for his first activation moved the Hammerheads up and slagged the Warhound with 6 hits (2 shields gone, and I only made a single save of the remaining 4 hits).
I engaged his Stealth formation with a Baneblade (inflicting no kills, but losing two points of damage on the Baneblade) where I should have Sustained Fire instead. Baneblade scuttles off broken and the Stealths shrug off all the Baneblade hits and the hits from Supporting Fire and emerges without any BM's. This formation was ultimately to win the game for Ryan.
After a terrible turn 1 and 2, I started to turn things around, and in turn 3 managed to force a turn 4. At the end of turn 4, I had three objectives in my half, and no unbroken enemies in my half. Ryan had no objectives at all (Although my Russ company was down to a single remaining broken tank at that point!).
His lone remaining Stealth unit rallied (A Leman Russ strike had killed most of the rest on turn 2), denying me one of my two points, and so we went to victory points, with Ryan winning by a margin of 900pts.
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Initial thoughts:
The list proposal is too strong currently. Not unbeatably strong, but too strong nonetheless. I estimate about 10 unit stats in the army list would need changing, in order to reduce the Tau Firepower a bit (but still leaving most of the army superior in shooting to what they had before, as long as the target is Markerlit of course!).
Ryan, who has been refusing to play the ERC list for months (I'm sure he can and will give a good account as to why this is so himself), is interested in playing the list regularly from now on.
For my own part, it felt like I was playing against a Tau army. The way the formations interacted, supporting each other whilst manoeuvring together in inter-dependent groups felt unique, and tactically complex.
My Brother Barney remarked that Ryan's list even looked more Tau-like than his lists under the ERC rules used to, as he'd taken more than a single Fearless formation of Fire Warriors for one thing!
I'm sure Ryan will be along at some point to relate his own thoughts.
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