Battle 2:
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2700 point game
4x6 table
Heavy terrain (IG player set up terrain)
Same knowledgable IG/Epic vet player from Batrep 1
Results Summary:
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W - Tau WIP v4.2.3: BTS, defend the flag
L - SL IG: BTS
SL - IG
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750 reg HQ, +3 Demolishers + Hydra (24 models)
700 Tank Co, +hydra (11 models)
550 Shadowsword SHT Co + hydra (10 DC, 4 models)
300 Vultures (4 models)
250 Manticores (3 models)
150 Hydra (3 models)
Tau
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550 AMHC (6 RG-HH) + 2 HH + 2SwFish replacements (8 models)
475 HH Cont (4 RG-HH) + 2 IC-HH + 4 piranhas (10 models)
425 FW Cadre w/Dfish +2 HH (14 models)
600 Railcannon Moray (6DC, 2 models)
175 Light Railcannon Tiger Shark (2DC, 2 models)
475 4 crisis +SC +3stealths (7 models)
IG:
Total Damage Capacity: 55 damage
Total Models: 49 models
Tau:
Total Damage Capacity: 47 damage
Total Models: 43 models
Well, I don't have time to post a full batrep but wanted to give you the low down. In this game, I had something to answer the Shadowswords with.
Tau got to pick the side of the table that we wanted. IG set up the field. Good cover on both sides, plenty of LOF but plenty of LOF blocking areas too. Notable was a 12" x 8" forest just in the Tau's half of the table to one side of the field blocking a good portion of vision for the tau unless we popped up over it.
With higher strategy, tau had to place 1st in deployment. I waited for the last placement to place the morays to avoid those ####### shadowswords! I set them to the left, but not so far away that I'd have to double to engage, but a single move was probably inevitable. I was hoping, not counting on the first turn - and there was little to do to avoid the shadowswords. I could have positioned to probably make him move at least once, but he hits on 2+ and I can't get cover...so whether he moved 15cm or not was rather moot... I decided to hope for first turn and assume I would be shot by at least those - if not a single move of vultures and/or possibly the manticores which had range for a full 4x8 table corner to corner - and then some. The morays were just not in a good position to deal with those three threats, regardless of where I put them. I really kicked myself for taking the Tiger Shark over a space ship at this point! My morays were effectively toast I was sure of it!
My IG adversary was smart and kept them until his last deployment too because he knew what they meant to him if I was able to get his SHT co in my sites! So, he got to align his Sswords with my moray. THey were also deployed right into rubble affording him hulldown even if my morays get to fire - DOG! He also had vultures right in the middle of his deployment zone dug into debris so far that they were out ofof LOF to the majority of my army and in part due to gigantic forest that the IG player put on the field.
Tau rolled a 1 for first turn to start and recieved a net +1 to the roll! LOL... IG roll a 3!
IG commenced much cackling as he had been just showing me how he could roll up the shadowswords to do enough damage to take out the morays or he could use the vultures to possibly break the morays before I could do anything abou it... he was also gloating in truly unsportsmen like fashion about the power of the 90cm shadowswords 2+MW TK ... blah, blah, blah... LOL (it was all in jest and good fun as he was still coming off of a high of beating me in the previous game)... so, he then proceeded to roll the ol' epic double 1 for activation gotcha!! "WOOT!"
You can imagine my gesture and grin following that lil mishap! ?
The shadowswords would receive a blast token but would fire at the morays anyway from a hold action. (guess I should have positioned them further back afterall - but who knew?)
So he proceeds to roll 3 hits with the shadowswords (no suprise) ?
?but then a good bit of luck comes my way... the rolls for TK are 2, 2, 1... ?
?So total damage was 3. (IG player proceeds to chuck the dice in the trash can!)The Tau sense the high energy coil discharge and power up the deflector to full effect denying 2 of the three hits. And so, with only 2 blast markers (which could have been much, much, MUCH worse) The morays would indeed get to return fire!
The Tau must move to engage the shadowswords with the morays while they all can still fire as this is obviously some omen. We do so get no tracer hits, but do get 2 of 4 hits from the main Railcannons needing 4+ to hit due to him being literally in the rubble (not behind). But when I roll for break out, I get a 5 and 2 or a total of 4 hits - Pow! 1 shadowsword goes up, and 1 has a hit on it. I roll for critical on the one with a hit and no luck. The formation has 5 blast markers on it and only has 2 SHT and 1 hydra remaining though or 7 hits total to break... I had to break those SOB's one way or another, but that could wait.
I aimed to move and fire on the vultures with a retain before they could deal their deathblow, so I activated the largest formation of HH I had on the flank and would need to single to get to them adequately and put all of my tanks in range... hah, the greater good giveth and taketh away... I was then cursed with the double 1s love... LOL... so, we popped up and fired with what was in range less 1 due to suppression. He did got 1 hit and saved it. ?
I would activate the tigershark to move in and deal one more damage to the shadowswords and bring them under fire to break them. not before that hydra popped my tigershark though! A crit roll would blow up the wounded shadowsword too as a result. That still left a shadowsword and a hydra though.
Now broken, the crisis would move in to cause a blast marker and deal 4 hits, 1 on the hydra and 3 on the shadowsword that remained... the coming under fire would put a hit on the shadowsword for free and the hydra would fail to save causing a further damage to the shadowsword. The shadowsword saved 2 of his 3 hits but extra damage while broke would cause them to Perish - hah, success!
BTW: the three vultures that were not supressed and the manticores would finish off the morays before the end of turn 1. blast marker double damage hurt the morays. AT fire too so the deflectors were next to useless. Vultures added insult to injury and finished them off.
The rest of the game was back and fourth, lots of exchanges that were great and good fun. This was so memorable that I had to post for your entertainment though.
As my IG player was in a hurry Saturday, we didn't have time to properly document batreps so this was all from memory. I think I got it all right, but you can imagine our shock from this turn of events on the IG.
BTW: he was so amazed that his Shadowswords went out after being in such a great position. I too was suprised. We rolled out several what-if's in the ABBS (a new acronymn I've learned) and the shadowswords typically do a mean number on the morays... this was just dumb luck. The shadowswords will usually get three hits but sometimes will only get 2 hits.
With three hits, they will typically get 6 MWTK wounds. The morays will usually save 3 of those on their 4+ Deflector. That means they will usually break if they take three hits from teh shadowswords. 50% of the time, there will be a crit caused on one of the morays and the deflector will ensure that it probably has at least 1 wound left.
On the other hand, Morays will almost always have to move to engage the shadowswords because no IG player in his right mind is going to just let you sustain fire with a shorter gun on him if he can avoid it. So the morays at best are going to be needing 3+ to hit them. My IG vet always puts those things into cover when he can. That means 4+ to hit them then.
In the best case scenerio, the moray moves once and the shadowswords are not in cover. Needing 3+, the morays should hit 3 out of 4 times. Rolling average breakout, the Morays should get 6 hits killing two of the three shadowswords and leaving one broken and off hiding somewhere.
So the observation was that the Tau 600 points should break and leave the 500 point shadowsword formation with a single tank cowering off somewhere if the Tau get the first go. On the other hand, the shadowswords will on average also kill one of the moray and leave the moray in the same boat - 1 3DC vessel remaining, but they do it with 100 points cheaper.
In addition, my opponnet said he always seeks cover for his shadowswords and he said that's the typical case for him - as was our game (granted he set up the terrain
) but nonetheless, he doesn't always set up the terrain, and in those cases - even if only some of the time, he can sometimes benefit from terrain where the moray never can. In those cases the moray scores two hits if the Tau go first and the average is 4 hits - disabling 1 shadowsword but leaving the foramtion to carry on with the other two. Not good.A very fun game and lots of after gaming bs.
The tau did pull this one off and it was a huge demoralizer on both sides to have our 'cool' formations taken out in turn 1.
My opponent said he only lost due to some bad rolls early on - as noted above. He's quite correct because later on in the game he had the manticores fail to activate on the double 1s again. He had some pretty bad rolls with his lemans (nothing terrible, but below average) Having to exhaust 3 formations on the morays instead of only 2 as he had planned also cramped his style. We both had to devote over a 1000 points to take out each other's choice targets in this game, but the Tau had to comit slightly more points to deal with the shadowswords than the IG had to devote to take out the morays. Also, had he rolled decent with the Sswords, he may have only had to commit two formations as he had hoped.
What pushed the game over for me was picking on his broken reg HQ - I beat it into submission at great costs, but was worth the losses I suffered to obtain the BTS objective from him as well.
In the end, The Tau would lose:
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morays
tiger shark
HH congingent
The crisis and fw and AMHC were all damaged but alive on turn 4
The IG would lose:
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Shadowswords
Reg HQ
Vultures
The Hydras and Manticores went unscathed (they were just hard to get too as my plane was taken out in turn 2 on approach)
The leman company lost 3 tanks but was alive on turn 4 as well.
Lessons learned - same that I already knew, planetfall the morays - their just too darn fragile! However, they do deliver a punch worth fielding now in the Railcannon variant.
PS - Tiger Shark is very fragile as a single plane vs. lots and lots of AT!
Cheers,