I visited Andrew yesterday for one last game of epic together before I leave NZ. I borrowed his Tau army and wanted to playtest the developmental version of the list, selecting a decent army featuring many of the changed units. I chose to leave out air support this time and have a couple of tough garrisoned fire warrior formations with broadsides and skyrays, with armour in support. I selected a few things I normally wouldn't rate or use - Krootoxes, Fusionheads and a large Crisis formation - to try them out with the changes and see how they were in practice.
8 Fire Warriors, Gun Drones, Broadsides, Skyray, Ethereal, Bonded - 575 (BTS)
8 Fire Warriors, Broadsides, Gun Drones, Skyray - 500
8 Crisis Suits, Shasel, Gun Drones - 475
4 Crisis Suits, Gun Drones, Shas'O - 350
4 Rail Hammerheads - 225
4 Fusion Hammerheads - 200
6 Ion Hammerheads, Skyray - 375
6 Ion Hammerheads - 275
Stealth, Gun Drones - 250
Kroot, Krootoxes - 225
Protector - 200
Recon - 175
Recon - 175
12(13) activations, 4k
4000 vs Glyn with Tau
Avatar + Court of the Young King
50 Wraithgate
400 6 Warp Spiders + Autarch + Exarch, 2 Swooping Hawks
550 2 Striking Scorpions, 4 Dire Avengers, 2 Dark Reapers + 2 Exarchs, 4 Wave Serpents
350 Farseer, 6 Guardians, Hvy Weapon, 4 Wave Serpents
350 Farseer, 6 Guardians, Hvy Weapon, 4 Wave Serpents
250 3 Falcons, 2 Fire Storms
250 3 Falcons, 2 Fire Storms
250 3 Falcons, 2 Fire Storms
200 5 Jet Bikes, Vyper
200 5 Jet Bikes, Vyper
250 Void Spinner
250 Void Spinner
175 3 Night Spinners
175 3 Night Spinners
100 4 Rangers
100 4 Rangers
100 4 Rangers
16(17) activations, 4k
This is the are we were fighting over at the start, an agricultural area known as Tennysonia threatened by Eldar aggression:
I had the two fire warrior formations garrisoned in the woods and buildings in the middle.
There was a bit of counts as going on - smaller light skimmers being used as Ionheads in particular.
Large Fire Warrior formation garrisoning in the buildings:
Eldar bunched up in the corner:
Our first camera ran out of battery soon, so there are few photos for a time (and those taken with the camera on a Macbook).
Turn 1Stealthsuits chose to teleport in turn 1 and sacrifice themselves for the greater good. My spacecraft was flying over this turn, so I expected Andrew might use the Void Spinners first before they got attacked or destroyed and so they might have a chance of getting to attack and wipe out some Jetbikes. They were also doing the annoying scout thing of being within 10cm of 3 formations. They rolled a single 1 for teleporting but got to re-roll it and pass with their new special rule.
Eldar win strategy and the mid-table Void Spinner sustains at the Stealthsuits, hitting 5, killing 2 and breaking them. They flee back over the river:
They don't retain and the Protector passes overhead targetting both Void Spinners. Sadly with the cover only the middle one (that's already shot) is hit and then only for 1 damage.
Falcons on the left single, popping up temporarily over the woods, shoot the Recon formation, killing 4 and breaking them.
Ionheads on the left single (overwatched by Rangers placing a BM) and gun down 3 of the Rangers in the woods, breaking them.
Rangers in the middle sustain at Recon formation, place BM.
The Kroot on the far right by the Blitz fail to activate, being distracted having dinner.
Mid Night Spinners sustain at Fire Warriors in middle, the template hitting 5 (iuncluding the Ethereal due to poor placement on my part) and killing 2.
Crisis with Shas'O on the far right double near the city towers and put BM on Rangers on right.
Jetbikes assault broken Stealths, one unit countercharges over the river to get in range, but midjudges the distances in his panic and sinks under the water. No kills on either side but the Tau are wiped out in resolution.
Railheads single at Mid Night Spinners, place BM.
Right Rangers sustain at BTS Fire Warriors, place BM
Mid Recon go on overwatch.
Night Spinners on left sustain at left Fire Warriors, kill a FW and Broadside.
Fusionheads double and kill 2 Rangers.
Void Spinner on far left fails, clears BMs.
Mid Ionheads double forwards, just outside the crop fields. They can't get close enough to markerlight their preffered target of the mid Night Spinners, so they attack Rangers instead. 3 hits but two save, though that's still enough to break them.
Falcons on right pop-up and sustained fire at them - despite causes 5 hits all are saved.
The 8 strong Crisis formation double into the two small woods on the left as they have no targets in range.
Mounted Guardians on left fail and move forward behind the wood and hill, remaining inside their Wave Serpents, which would be good targets to take out as a result.
The remaining Tau formations elect to stay on overwatch into next turn.
Falcons single, hit 5 Fusionheads and kill 3, breaking them.
Mounted Guardians single into the wood near the webway portal. They are overwatched by the Recon formation, placing a BM, then they kill 2 of the Recon formation.
Warp Spiders emerge from the webway and assault the Ionheads in the middle. 1 HH and the Skyray die and I luckily kill 2 in return, but the Ionheads are still wiped out in resolution.
Aspect Warriors double, dropping 2 Dark Reapers off temporarily after the first move, t shoot the Fire Warriors on the left. The Broadside saves the hit and they get back in the Wave Serpents and move back.
In the end phase the Recon on the right fail to rally (despite the SC using his re-roll on them), as do the Rangers at the back and on the left. Everything else rallies.
Turn 2It's looking a bit challenging for the Tau, with 9 activations versus 13, but they put their faith in overwatch and shooting.
Surprisingly the Tau win the strategy roll. The 2 remaining rallied Recon on the left double to Markerlight units on the left. They place a BM on the Falcons behind the hill.
Ionheads on left retain and single up to edge of the woods and pop-up, attacking the Eldar aspect BTS, now markerlit. I score 9 infantry hits and a tank hit and kill 6 infantry, breaking them.
Rangers on the right fail to activate and clear BMs.
Single surviving Fusionhead doubles and also attacks the Falcons on the left. If it could kill one it would break them but sadly it only hit with it's guided missile and this was saved.
Tau retain yet again (I wanted to use as much as I could before things got taken out) and the Railheads double and attack the mounted Guardians in the wood by the Webway portal, with crossfire. A Railgun hit is scored but despite only having a single 6+ save now the pesky Wave Serpent saves. A Guardian is killed though, so at least they take the extra BM for the crossfire.
Void Spinner also fails to activate. The Autarch yells at it on his Psi-Phone though and it gets it's act together and sustains at the Tau BTS. 5 are hit (including the Ethereal again) but none are killed.
The large Crisis formation double and attack the mounted Guardians by the webway portal. 3 are killed, with crossfire to the Railheads, and they break. They flee past my Fire Warriors on overwatch, hoping to lure them into using their shooting but I resist.
Night Spinners on left fail to activate also.
The left Fire Warriors move up to support the Crisis suits and Ionheads, knowing its risky but it's for the Greater Good. They kill a Falcon and break them.
Void Spinner sustains at Ionheads on left, hitting 2, though both save.
My Shas'O doubles and shoots Rangers, 2 hits are scored but both save.
Mounted Guardians assault the Ionheads on the left. The Tau surprisingly score 4 hits, killing a Farseer and Guardian. 4 die from the Eldar fire however and they are wiped out in resolution. The BM for being in a position to support a lost assault breaks the Fusionhead and adds a BM to the Fire Warriors.
Kroot guarding the Blitz go on overwatch.
Warp Spiders assault the Fire Warriors on the left, plus a load of supportinmg fire. 7 Tau units are killed (towards the bottom in the photo), including both Broadsides and the formation is wiped out in resolution.
The Tau BTS stay on overwatch into another turn yet again.
Next rolling supported assault is the other Jetbikes in the Webway assaulting the big Crisis formation. The Crisis Suits get lucky and kill 3 in exchange for 2 Gun Drones and a Crisis. No side has the upper hand so the assault comes down to straight dice rolls, though sadly the Eldar roll a 5 to the Tau's 4.
Night Spinners then shoot them, scoring a hit on one and so killing 2 through BMs.
Falcons on right single, but I forget to right down their target or kills. I don't think it was anything major.
Jetbikes on right double, shooting mid-move, to put a 6th BM on my BTS (as with 5, Bonded and the Ethereal they can clear 5 in the end phase).
In the end phase my Tau BTS fail to rally annoyingly (despite me using my SC re-roll) as does a lone Pirahna. The Eldar mounted aspect BTS by their Blitz fails to rally, as does their Warp Spiders with Autarch. Everything else rallies.
Things are getting crowded in Tau Heaven:
Turn 3 Things have turned against the Tau but they will sell their lives dearly and defend their homes and farms as best they can.
Luckily Tau win the strategy roll and my Crisis Suits attack the Jetbikes on the right. I thought I'd only killed 2 (when I took the photo), not enough to break them, but I'd forgotten my Shas'O has a shooting attack and that killed one more and broke them.
Falcons attacked my BTS, kill 2 Gun Drones.
Void Spinner hits the same old place in my BTS formation, hitting 4, though luckily all save. This is enough to break the formation at last though.
I spread out so that barrages having to target the most would have to land on 3 Broadsides in the building.
Mid Jetbikes marshal and move, to capture the objective on the right.
I'd re-positioned the BTS to be safer from barrages but hadn't considered another danger - I'd left my Ethereal visible towards the back and the Rangers on the right singled and gunned him down with their sniper rifles. A great cry of terror and loss went through the formation and 5 more of them were gone. In general the Ethereal death special rule has been toned down from formation breaks to formation takes D3 blast markers, but here they were already broken so it was worse under the newer version as 3 more died. I still prefer the newer version despite this quirk though.
Night Spinners sustain and wipe out the last of the BTS.
Night Spinners double and kill one more Crisis unit.
Looking at objectives we realise there's a single Tau unit just in the enemy half - a Gun Drone attached to the SC's Crisis Suits (if I'd thought a little more ahead I should have got more of the formation there). Andrew doubled the last formation he had that could target them to a position where it was the closest target and attacked it but failed to kill it.
End of game photo below. By this point the only alive, unbroken Tau units were the SC's Crisis suits and the Krootox guarding the Blitz.
3-0 victory to Biel-Tann on turn 3 - BTS, Take and Hold and Defend the Flag.It was a very enjoyable game overall
In retrospect I should have made sure my early shooting was markerlit more and I forgot to make use of co-ordinated fire all game. I was hoping my spacecraft would destroy or break 1-2 Void Spinners and when it failed to I suffered under the 4 artillery units fire all game. The two upgraded Fire Warrior formations took a lot of fire and performed well I feel, even if they spent a lot of time on overwatch, keeping the Eldar at bay, rather than actually shooting.
In terms of the changes in the developmental list things seem good. The Hammehead changes in particular make me feel the 3 Hammerhead types are all viable now - 275 for 6 Ionheads is good value so long as you mostly go for infantry and even the Fusionheads can potentially be useful, if more risky and situational. The 8 strong Crisis formation was ok, though not amazing and I'll try a larger Crisis formation again sometime.
