Tau V4.2 Playtest V Beil Tan Eldar
Second game, this time against the Eldar. Same opponent as last time. Technically we were picking lists not knowing what we were facing. Same as last time it was 2700 points in a standard GT game.
Based on experience last time I made some changes to my list. I dropped the Barracudas for another RC Moray, dropped the extra Stingrays to split the Piranhas into two formations and changed the Drones in the Crisis Cadre for two extra XV8s.
Terrain
If you imagine the board divided into 9 equal sections (like Os & Xs), with the Tau at the ?top?, then the top left had woods, the top middle, some buildings, the top right a small hill, the middle left had a large wooded area, the middle had a several buildings, the middle right a large hill, the bottom left some ruins, the bottom middle a small hill and the bottom right a road leading to the centre ?town? area.
Something like:
--Woods?Buildings?Hill A?
--Forrest?Town?Large Hill B?
-- Ruin?Hill C?Road--
Forces
Tau
Fire Warrior Cadre - 8 Fire Warriors, 4 Devilfish - 300
+2 Pathfinders, +1 Devilfish - 100
Armoured Cadre - 6 Hammerheads - 375
+1 Skyray - 75
Piranha Contingen1t - 6 Piranhas - 150
Piranha Contingent2 - 6 Piranhas - 150
Crisis Cadre - 4 XV8 - 250
+3 XV15, +2 XV8, +1 Shas'o - 375
Stingray Contingent- 4 Stingrays , 1 Skyray - 325
Assault Ship Squadron1 -1 RC Moray - 300
Assault Ship Squadron2 -1 RC Moray - 300
Beil Tan Eldar
Aspect Warhost1 - 4 Dire Avengers 4 Striking Scorpions - 300
Vampire Raider - 200
Aspect Warhost2 - 4 Dire Avengers 4 Striking Scorpions + Autarch - 400
+4 Wave Serpents - 200
Jet Bike Troope - 5 Jet Bikes 1 Vyper - 200
EoV ? Scorpion1 - 250
EoV ? Scorpion2 - 250
Fire Prism Troope - 3 Fire Prisms - 250
Aspect Warhost3- 8 Shining Spears - 300
Guardian Warhost-1 Farseer 7 Guardians 4 Wave Serpents - 350
Objectives
Tau Blitz ? behind the Buildings. T&H in front of Woods and in front of Hill A.
Eldar Blitz ? behind Hill C, T&H lower left and right of Town.
Deployment
Tau ? all fairly close together for support, Fire Warriors on left side and Crisis on right. Piranhas and Stingrays in the middle behind Buildings. Hammerheads slightly right of centre, next to Crisis. Morays roughly in middle.
Eldar ? Jet Bikes and Guardians on left, Scorpions, Fire Prisms and Aspect Wahost2 in the centre and Aspect Warhost3 on the right.
Turn 1 ? Eldar Win Initiative
The Eldar start by activating the two scorpions (Retain), both double forward to shoot at Moray2. The first misses, but the second does 2 points of damage, which breaks the Moray. It retreats to the right, near Hill A.
The other Moray responds by sustain firing at a Scorpion, both Railcannons hit and the Scorpion is destroyed (4 Damage).
Doubling to the right the Fire Prisms fire at the broken Moray, finishing it off.
The Hammerhead Cadre popped-up to fire on the remaining Scorpion, doing two points of damage (5 hits).
Aspect Warhost2 failed to activate (despite SC reroll), and advance next to the Scorpion.
No wanting to break formation the Tau place the 1st Piranha Contingent on over-watch.
The Jet Bikes fail to activate and advance down the left side of the board.
The 2nd Piranha Contingent fails to go on over-watch.
The Guardian Warhost marches past the Jet Bikes onto the left Tau objective.
The Fire Warrior Cadre double and shoot at the Guardian Warhost two Guardians are killed.
Aspect Warhost3 march to the Tau right objective.
The Stingrays go on over-watch.
The final move of the first turn is the Crisis advancing and firing on the 3rd Aspect Host, killing 3 Shining Spears.
Rally Phase ? Everything rallies.
Turn 2 ? Eldar win Initiative (Avatar summoned by Guardian Warhost)
The Jet Bikes double forward to shoot at the Fire Warriors (and to get into FF range), the 1st Piranha Contingent fires on over-watch, killing two Jet Bikes. Retaining initiative the 3rd Aspect Host assaults the Crisis Cadre (Crisis jump back to allow Hammerheads to FF), the assault fails with just one XV8 destroyed and the remaining aspects were killed in the resolution. Retaining again the Avatar leads the Guardians into an assault on the Fire Warriors. Before the assault could hit though, the Stingrays fired on over-watch against the Guardians. Missiles rained in and all the Guardians were killed, leaving the Wave Serpent transports broken (retreat to top left, behind woods). Nevertheless the Avatar is close enough to reach CC and kills 4 Fire Warriors for no loss (bikes FF did no damage), the Fire Warriors broke and retreated.
The Tau then activated the Moray, which blasted the remaining Scorpion into lots of very small pieces (1 DC left, 5 damage from Railcannons). Retaining the Tau placed the 2nd Piranhas on over-watch.
The 2nd Aspect Host doubles forward and the Wave Serpents fire on the Crisis Cadre, killing 1 XV8 and 1 XV15. The 2nd Piranhas had fired on over-watch but scored no hits.
Using the SC reroll the Eldar retain and the Vampire flies in to assault the Crisis Cadre. The skyrays AA missiles fire and miss. The assault has FF support from the 2nd Aspects and the Hammerheads. The Striking Scorpions reach CC with 4 XV8s; the XV15s were placed behind the XV8s. The Eldar win the assault but only killed 4 battlesuits (2 by resolution), the 1st Aspects lost 3 units. The Crisis retreat behind hill A.
The Tau retaliate with the Hammerheads sustained firing at the 2nd Aspects. The results are devastating with 4 Dire Avengers, 2 Striking Scorpions and 2 Wave Serpents being destroyed (Hammerheads scored 11AP and 4AT hits!). The 2nd Aspect Host breaks and retreats.
In return the Fire Prisms advance back towards the Eldar objectives, popping up to destroy a Hammerhead.
Rally Phase ? Once again everything rallies.
Turn 3 ? Tau win initiative.
The Stingrays sustain fire at the 1st Aspect Host, 4 are killed and they break, retreating to the right Tau objective. Retaining the Fire Warriors advance and shoot at the Jet Bikes, killing one.
The Guardian Wave Serpents assaulted (FF) the Fire Warriors with help from the Jet Bikes, 2 Fire Warriors are killed and the rest of the formation is wiped out in resolution.
Retaining the Eldar Vampire streaked across the battle field easily avoiding the (rather feeble with my rolls) Tau AA, its pulse lasers ripped into the Hammerheads, destroying 3 Hammerheads and breaking the formation, which retreated.
The Moray doubles across the board (I had to get something into the Eldar half) and shot at the Fire Prisms, but its aim was off and no shots hit..
The Jet Bikes dashed forward and assaulted the 1st Piranhas (FF), again the Jet Bikes won and sent the Piranhas packing. One Jet Bike and 3 Piranhas were destroyed in the process.
The Crisis advance and pour fire into the remaining 1st Aspect Host, wiping out the remaining warriors.
The Fire Prisms advance to cover Eldar objectives and fire at the Moray, scoring 1 point of damage.
The 2nd Piranhas double forward, next to the Moray, and fire at the 2nd Aspects, destroying 1 Wave Serpent.
The 2nd Aspects marshal and move next to the Tau right objective.
Rally Phase ? everything rallies, except the Hammerheads (still broken) and the Fire Prisms (1BM)
Victory Conditions ? Eldar have Take and Hold (1-0), so on to turn 4.
Turn 4 ? Eldar win initiative
(Eldar don?t have much left at this stage so some desperate measures were attempted)
The remaining Jet Bikes try to drive the Stingrays off the Tau Blitz objective, they kill one Stingray but are destroyed in the process.
Retaining the 2nd Aspect Warhost attempts to FF the Crisis Cadre, but again the assault fails and the Aspects are killed.
The 1st Piranha Contingent reinforced the Tau Blitz and fired on the Guardian Warhost, killing 1 Wave Serpent.
The Eldar Vampire fails to activate (BMs had added up from AA, though I never scored a hit in the game).
The Moray swings round and its Railcannons make short work of the remaining Wave Serpents of the Guardian Warhost.
The Fire Prisms sustain fire at the Moray, scoring 2 damage and breaking it.
The Crisis Cadre doubles forward and destroys the Fire Prisms.
With all the Eldar destroyed, it remained for the 2nd Piranhas to take the Eldar Blitz.
Result ? Tau Win 4-0 (BTS, Blitz, T&H and Defend the Flag)
Thoughts
The Crisis passed many saves thanks to their 3+ armour, which soaked up a lot of the Eldar attacks, I liked the 6 XV8 formation, it was a rock which anchored one end of my line. Next time I think I will try the Ethereal in the Fire Warriors to anchor the other end.
The Morays really out-classed the Scorpions, which made it easy to force the Eldar to come to me. I still have serious doubts regards the 2x Railcannons. It just seems like they out-gun everything else in their points bracket.
Eldar infantry are heavily punished by Tau AP fire, the Wave Serpents were usually the last things to survive. A combination of low numbers and low armour made this quite deadly. The Jet Bikes proved useful and it should be noted that the Eldar?s failed activation rolls on turn 1 meant that they didn?t get all their formations in to position for the turn 2 blitz.
The extra two formations on the ground gave me the activation advantage that the IG enjoyed over me in the first game, this made it much easier to stay in control of the battle.
Its hard to tell if the Piranhas are ok as a contingent choice, they have been useful but haven?t done anything that seems over the top, but at 150 points expectations are not high. On over-watch the potential number of AT shots seems high, but never actually did much damage.
In this game I don?t think it would have made any difference if the Crisis were LV or Infantry, so I can?t add much to that debate.
Conclusions
Stingrays ? definitely worth 250 points.
Crisis ? big fan of these now, would use them as Infantry or as LV.
Hammerhead Cadre ? getting my armour without using a contingent choice is fairly useful.
Piranhas ? didn?t seem unbalancing, but are useful as a GM source and as a fast formation for objective grabbing.
Morays ? With two of these on the board I would be confident of taking on any but the largest WE. And compared to the Eldar EoVs the deflector shield makes them that much more difficult to kill.
Pleased feel free to critise, both myself and my opponent know we made mistakes and dont mind being told. As before I apologise that I dont have the time and talent to make the report easier to read, I hope it makes sense.
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That's not to say you weren't rolling, but out of all those hits back and fourth, I wonder if any were rolled since none were reported.
Also , maybe I missed it, but did your opponent made any moves to get to a Combned assault ? As it is written he just picked some formations that were just in Range. He often exposed his Elite Aspects. But , hey , his playing Style. Eldar are very challenging if played with all their toys, and against your List should have won if employed and used different, but I wasn?t there, and after all it?s all hypothetical, and you had fun.
?Even my ?bare bones? report took hours to prepare.