Got in another Tau playtest, this time with a more 'balanced' force.

Fought against the Steel Legion... with a Titan providing them backup!

Not sure I'll get the report posted tonight... but, here are the army lists!

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Rules Used

Epic Update 2008
NetEA Recommendations
Tau v5.0

Armies Used

Steel Legion Expeditionary Force – 3000 points

Mechanized HQ Company
1 Supreme Commander
1 Commissar
12 Imperial Guardsmen
7 Chimeras
1 Hydra

Superheavy Tank Company
2 Shadowswords
1 Commissar
1 Baneblade

Infantry Company
1 Commander
12 Imperial Guardsmen
1 Commissar
2 Snipers

Flak Battery
3 Hydras
1 Commissar

Artillery Battery 1
3 Manitcores
1 Commissar

Artillery Battery 2
3 Manitcores
1 Commissar

Deathstrike Battery
2 Deathstrike Missile Launchers

Thunderbolt Squadron
2 Thunderbolt Fighters

Reaver Titan - BTS Goal
1 Reaver Titan


Vior’la Sept Counter-Insurgency Force – 2975 points

Fire Warrior Cadre - BTS Goal
8 Fire Warriors
1 Ethereal
4 Devilfish
1 Skyray

Battlesuit Cadre HQ
4 Battlesuits
Shas'O

Battlesuit Cadre Alpha
4 Battlesuits
Shas'El
2 Battlesuits

Armoured Support 1
4 Hammerheads (Railguns)
Networked Drones
1 Skyray

Armoured Support 2
4 Hammerheads (Railguns)
Networked Drones
1 Skyray

Steathsuit Support
6 Steathsuits

Scorpionfish
1 Scorpionfish

Recon Skimmer Support
2 Tetra
4 Piranha
3 Piranha

Barracuda Squadron
2 Barracuda

Hero Orbital Support

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Battlefield:

4x6; Tau chose edge deployment

Deployment:

Tau indicates that their spacecraft is scheduled to arrive Turn 2.

Tau keep the Stealthsuits in reserve.

Tau have no garrisons.

Steel Legion garrison the Infantry far forward and on overwatch.

Remaining deployment as shown:

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Turn 1

The Stealth teams reveal themselves right in the heart of the enemy… and take a single Blast marker doing it.



Strategy Roll: Roll… it’s a tie… re-roll… both get a ‘6’… advantage: Tau.

“You want us to do what!?â€Â

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Turn 2

Nothing to teleport.

Strategy Roll: Imperial

The Super-heavy Company sustains fire on Tau Armour 2, knocking them all to the ground.

The Reaver then advances on the Fire Warriors, taking out 2 Devilfish, the Skyray, and 2 Fire Warriors, easily breaking the survivors.

Tau Armour 1 doubles on the Reaver, narrowly marking it, and strips away 2 Void shields.

The Shas’O then draws Recon Support into a co-ordinated fire action… the Recon units sustain fire on the Reaver, dropping 2 more Void shields and doing 1DC damage to the Titan.  The Crisis HQ then doubles on the Reaver, doing another DC damage and a crit, before jumping back to cover.

The last Manticore left nearly breaks while trying to sustain fire, but the Imperial Supreme sets them straight, and they fire on Tau Armour 1… placing 3 Blast markers.

The Deathstrike Missile Launchers then sustain fire to release their last missile… at the Fire Warriors!  They only kill 1 Fire Warrior. (I said: “Uh… they’re *all* fearless with the Ethereal.â€Â

Turn 3

Nothing to teleport.

Strategy Roll: Tau

The Recon Cadre advances on the Mech HQ and nails 3 Chimera and 3 Guardsmen.



Crisis Alpha doubles towards the Imperial Blitz, but can’t reach it, but do manage to take out the Deathstrike Launchers.

The Hydras advance into Tau territory, rotate their turrets and blaze away at the Tau Recon units, catching them in a crossfire that takes out 1 Tetra and *4* Piranhas!  The Tau break.

The now-foot-slogging Fire Warriors double to spread out to protect the Tau Blitz and Objective 2.

Able to attack with impunity, the Thunderbolts still hesitate, and then hit the broken Tau Recon elements and wipe them out.

The Super-Heavy survivor tries to double down the road… fails, and takes a long ranged pot-shot at the broken Shas’O… taking out the entire Cadre!

The Mech HQ tries to march… but gets bogged down and only moves to barely secure Imperial Objective 2.

The Infantry Company tries to sustain fire on the nearby Fire Warriors… but fails and only regroups, clearing all Blast markers and holding on to Imperial Objective 1.

The lone Manticore decides to hold. (Opponent: “It’s just going to hold on the Blitz.â€Â

Turn 4

Nothing to teleport.

Strategy Roll: Tau

Feeling that things are becoming critical, the Shas’El takes Crisis Alpha doubling forward into cover to destroy the last Manticore and take the Imperial Blitz.

The last Shadowsword has to advance to rotate and reposition, fires on Crisis Alpha, taking out a single team.

Guarding their objectives, the Fire Warriors go on overwatch.

The Hydras advance on Crisis Alpha (Leaving Tau territory!) and pour fire on them… which only places a single Blast marker.

The Thunderbolts then attack Crisis Alpha… and place a single Blast marker…

Seeming somewhat obsessive, the Mech HQ pauses, then doubles on Crisis Alpha… and also places a Blast marker on them… enough to finally break them, and then back off a bit.

The Infantry Company Commander suddenly realizes the Tau have tricked them… and advances into Tau territory, staying out of overwatch range, and then hammers the Fire Warriors with Autocannon fire that kills two squads, breaking them…

End of Turn:

The Fire Warriors fail to rally, but Crisis Alpha does!  WOOT!

The Mech HQ fails to rally…

Score:

Steel Legion 0 (none) vs Tau 1 (BTS)

Roll-off: TIE!  Go to Turn 5!!!

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Turn 5

Nothing to teleport.

Strategy Roll: Tau

For the Greater Good… Crisis Alpha advances on the Mech HQ…



They fire all their normal weapons at infantry… killing 4 Guardsmen… and then all their  Macro-weapons fire goes onto tanks, melting down 1 Hydra and 2 Chimeras, easily breaking the Mech HQ!

The Shadowsword advances on the pesky Crisis Alpha, and takes out a Crisis Suit.

Then, the Hydras move to pursue the Crisis Cadre… and, finally get their targeting right, wiping out the entire Cadre in a hail of fire. (Gotta say, SV3+ is incredible at times!)

Ruling the skies, the Thunderbolts make another attempt on the Fire Warriors, and manage to gun down the Ethereal and his bodyguard. (So, if the formation “automatically breaksâ€Â

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Nice report Chroma. One question as you had a Shas'O your scorpionfish couldn't have a deflector field could it?

DOH!  I forgot about that and thought it was standard kit... it still got wiped out in a single shot before it could do anything...

Dang, it's even more fragile than I thought!

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Any single super heavy is vulnerable to deathstrike death. From the picture they look suspiciously close to being intermingled with the manticores the stealth's assaulted.

Yeah, I could've declared "intermingled", but then I had to worry about even one enemy unit surviving... which would've wiped out my Stealths with support fire... as it was, the Stealths were a real thorn in the side of the Guard... and the Manticores scared me far more than the Deathstrikes!  *laugh*

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Interesting report Chroma.

A question on the Barracudas.  Did the T-Bolts close into 15cms to shoot them down, or just 30cm?

The T-Bolts closed within 15cm of a single Barracuda, so that "all" the Imperial Weapons were in range while only a single AA6+ Burst Cannon was in range for the Tau... the old "range stretching" effect for the Imperials.

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"EPIC: Total War" Lead Developer

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Thanks Chroma, I am trying to keep an eye on how the new Air Caste units are fairing in games.