Vaaish wrote:
Thanks for the report! Was there any reason tau didn't air drop the Arty formations? I would have expected the assault and pinpoint attacks would have focused on them.
The artillery formations were located centrally, surrounded by other Skitarii formations, and either in cover or hiding behind the cover. I could not get a line of sight for the Hammerheads, even with skimmer pop-up, without doubling. At least dropping in behind cover drew flanking Ordinatus formations forward before the Hammerheads were destroyed. I could not get any tetras in to marker light the artillery (marching is not an option since you lose markerlight) early enough in turn one to allow guided missiles to fire and strip shields. The artillery positions were over 90 cm away so no sustain fire onto them with guided missiles.
Also unless the target Ordinatus formation has activated already they tend to Marshall on you and all the shields come back up. Retaining with a Tau spacecraft (Init 2+, +1 for retain) is a rather courageous move. So the Tetra coordinated fire with the Hammerheads targeting the one Ordinatus (Assault Pod) in the open with troops loaded. And despite that firepower did not destroy it. It marshalled forward and another round of fire was used to strip the shields (markerlights already in place and Guided Missiles in range for sustain).
The Air Assault Orca dropped Crisis Suits into a markerlight, crossfire, 15 cm MW firing position on a Minorus formation in the open. BM suppression reduced AA fire to two 6+ shots. Getting close enough to air assault the artillery formations would have put the Orca through 6 x 2 x AA6+ shots. Orcas are not that tough (Arm 4+). Also shooting Crisis Suits at a formation in cover, without crossfire reduces the expected damage to maybe one Ordinatus. As it was, the best shooting my Crisis Suits have ever had managed to destroy two out of the three target Ordinatus Minorii [see dice in picture at top of thread].
The other Orca load actually came in on Planetfall. Pre-plotted on the other flank. Displacement of that drop point could not get close enough to the principal artillery formation. Also that activation came after the Spacecraft pinpoint attacks so could not be used to strip shields. The displace and random component set them up in a markerlight, crossfire, sustain fire position on a blocking infantry formation (8 dead, 2 broken survivors). The start of Turn 2 saw them sustain fire on markerlight Minorii, who promptly Marshalled off almost all the damage.
Vaaish wrote:
the next update.
Carapace Landing Pad to 50 points
Quake Cannons +25 points to 100 points.
Support Missile +50 points to 100 points
Avengers gain +1 Lascannon per unit.
Ordinatus Golgotha (hellfire missiles) stats replaced with Orbital Bombardment, 4bp MW, Slow Firing, Indirect. Cost increases +50 points to 200 points.
This puts the 2QC+CLP combo at 600 points which we have been testing. A useful (can hide and fire), very tough, backfield titan costed formation. Some armies have the tools to deal with it. Frequently my armies don't have the obvious tools to deal with titans and I try to ignore/avoid them. Hard to ignore a 90 cm (plus with Advance) ignore LOF formation but at least you can spread out. Affects how you play, but ok.
The Support Missile option at 200 points to add a one shot weapon probably pushes it to too expensive for me. Limited to 0-2 for the army also restricts it. A hypothetical three for 650 points is rather less fearsome/attractive than the 2QC+CLP combo at 600 points. +100 points probably costs it off the table for me compared to other options.
I assume the 4BP, MW, Slow Firing, Indirect, Orbital Bombardment replaces all 6 of the single shot Hellfire missiles. Cost 550 points. For me reading that stat-line, I'd need to pre-plot the target points and would get 2 large templates each turn of fire. If that were not the intention it would need clarification - please.
NEXT GAME - NEXT WEEK. My turn with Skitarii.