Battle Report - Weds 24 Feb 2010

GREETINGS.

Here's a summary of Wednesday's game at Great Escapes Games:
IG vs Tau at 1500
Pitched Battle/Annihilation (AGAIN!!!)

Tau won the initiative but yielded it to IG with the idea of being
able to see how the IG would set up and be able to score the
last KP of the game.

Here's the deployment:

and from the other end of the table:

As you can see, the Tau should work more on deployment...
Which would prove to be their bane for the game.

Turn one saw moderate weapons fire and the Infiltrated
Stealth Team began to work on the Guard holed up in the
pillbox (The "newer" looking bit at the North West corner) in
classic Jump Shoot Jump style.

Turn Two brought in both the second Stealth Team and the
Monat TLFB/SG Crisis suit (called the Arbiter).  Concentrated
fire then brought down the Hellhound.  The IG began to bomb
the board in earnest.

Turns Three and Four were straight attrition as both sides
worked the dice.  Tau rolled a 14 for Armor Pen!

However cool that was...it's still a cocked die and had to be
rerolled for a stellar null effect on the Russ.

By the top of the Fifth Turn, both Stealth Teams, the Arbiter, a Devilfish, a
6 man Firewarrior Team and 2 man Broadside Team decided
they'd had enough and left courtesy of the IG.  The Commander had been playing prairie dog with the Vets via the hanger which has no fire points.  The Vets got bored and booted out.

Closing of the Fifth: Tau 1, IG 6

Here are some more photos of the well painted IG and WIP Tau:

Battle Report: IG vs. Tau 1500 points

originally posted by me on the Great Escapes Games forum...go check it out!



BatRep: 05-02-2010: Friday Night 40K League

Opponents: Chris (Tau) and Chris M (IG) at 1500


This was a great game with lots to learn from.

Our game started off with a stellar roll: Annihilation, Dawn of War. The Tau won the initiative; the IG attempted to seize and did not.
Turn one saw every unit enter the board except the Pathfinders and Stealth Team. Tau took to the center of the board with HQ and Broadsides. To either side of the table were a team of Firewarriors in Develfish. The IG set up fairly evenly…I’ll try to recall all the units: two Russes, a Demolisher and two Chimeras at center with a Vendetta at either end and the HQ with a Combined Squad camped out in area cover and behind hills. By the end of turn one, it was very clear that the Demolisher would be the bane of the Tau.

Mid Game: the IG was well ahead having taken out both Firewarrior Teams' Devilfish and a Firewarrior team. The Tau HQ lost all its Drones as did the accompanying Broadside. The second Broadside did well against the Vendettas, downing both and forcing the IG out; however, once on the ground, the North end squad (forced out of the downed Vendetta) pacified the disembarked Firewarriors from a previous Destroyed Devilfish. Near the end, the Stealth Team finally “materialized” and attacked the North end squad, eliminating them. While the Broadsides worked feverishly to wreck a few more armor, the IG hung back and relied on its cover to last the day. By game’s close, it was Tau 3, IG 5.

This Commander’s Retrospect:

After my deployment, I made several key mistakes: most notorious was attempting to press inwards with the Fish/Warriors and Pathfinders instead of falling back to the hills and staying out of LOS. Disruption Pods do wonders at keeping 4 shots, that don’t need line of sight, on the table…if you make the rolls. I didn’t need to gamble that as there was no need for the Fish/Warriors to be active in this fight. The Pathfinders would have had plenty of room in the area cover that I had. The other mistake was keeping the Stealthteam in reserve. They did their points worth once in and could have done more if brought in on turn one. Aside from the Devilfish (which failed their Obscured rolls epically) , they were my most mobile and hard to hit unit.

The Tau doesn’t do attrition, assault or armor very well (they really can’t “surf”). What they do well is bend the rules of the game with Jet Packs, Smart Missiles and Markerlights...essentially; they hide and sap their opponents until either the force in ineffectual to the mission or charging into a kill zone. Each time I've tested a tactic counter to this, it ends very badly. The key will be to minimize my army's footprint and cover its tracks.

Chris M took the photos. We agreed that set up, mid game and closing would be enough with alternate vantage points.