Partick Crucible: Tournament Report

I took my Tau to the Partick Crucible 2010 and had a great time.  The format was 4 games at 1000pt each, with preset missions drawn from the rulebook:

• Spearhead, Capture & Control;
• Dawn of War, Seize Ground;
• Pitched Battle, Annihilation; and
• Pitched Battle, Annihilation.

I took these guys:-

• HQ: Shas’el with TL Missile Pods and Black Sun Filter
• Elites: 2 Crisis Suits with TL Missile Pods and Black Sun Filter
• Elites: 2 Crisis Suits with TL Missile Pods and Drone Controllers with 1 Gun Drone
• Elites: 2 Crisis Suits with TL Missile Pods and Drone Controllers with 1 Gun Drone
• Troops: 6 Firewarriors in a Devilfish with Disruption Pod
• Troops: 6 Firewarriors in a Devilfish with Disruption Pod
• Fast Attack: 1 Piranha with Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array and Disruption Pod
• Fast Attack: 1 Piranha with Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array and Disruption Pod
• Heavy Support: 2 Broadsides with Advanced Stabilisation Systems and SMS.  The Team Leader had a Target Lock, a Gun Drone and a Black Sun Filter

There is a lot of duplication in the list, obviously, meaning that if I lose one squad I have at least one more than can do the same thing.  The exception is the Broadsides.  I kept them as a single unit because I could attach my HQ to them, boosting the Ld of both Broadsides and making the unit as a whole more resilient to fire.  The Target Lock lets me shoot at two different targets, of course.

The Black Sun Filters are there to keep points low, and the Gun Drones are there for ablative wounds.

Game 1

Space Marines!

I faced a Space Marine army with a couple of Predators, a Thunderfire Cannon, a Librarian, an Ironclad Dread in a Pod, a squad in a Rhino and a few Tactical squads.  I knew I had to await his Pod and his Gating Libby, deal with them and then try and press forward to contest or claim his objective.

It went generally to plan until I went a bit mad, and disembarked my Fire Warriors for no real reason.  I got confused about a damage result on the Devilfish and they all got out.  Still don’t know what I was thinking.  My firepower took care of his Libby and Dread at my end of the table, and his Rhino and Preds at the other, but his Thunderfire Cannon wiped out the Fire Warriors.

My other Devilfish was half-way to his Objective, and Immobilised, so I got the Fire Warriors out that and ran them into the first Devilfish.  We finished Turn 4, and had no time for Turn 5 etc, so my own Objective was not claimed as my Fire Warriors in the Fish were too far away.  Poo.  The Space Marines claimed their own objective so it was a Loss to the Tau.

If the game had gone to a Turn 5 I would have got the draw, and if it had gone to Turn 6+ I might have got his Tac squads to fall back, as he had nothing but them left.

Game 2

Tau!

I played against Dave McMillan’s Tau – on my own terrain, no less.  He had three Hammerheads, a couple of units of Fire Warriors in Devilfish and a unit of Stealth Suits that outflanked.  His HQ deep-struck.

We had four objectives in this game.  I knew I should leave my Devilfish in reserve, but didn’t.  I know.  I am such a bad player   Basically, I Immobilised or Destroyed all his vehicles bar one Devilfish.  He focused his fire on the Devilfish I should have left in reserve, eventually blowing them both up and then hammering the Fire Warrior squads with large pie plates.  My own fault, really.

I did get very unlucky with Leadership rolls at one point, with my whole left flank and my gun drones that were contesting falling back, failing to rally and running off, but playing Tau in a game of chance – that sort of thing is going to happen!

My Piranhas were a menace, leaping around his skimmers and causing havoc.  My Broadsides lived up to their Tournament history and, for Turns 2 to 4, failed to score a single hit!

The end result was very close, but it ended with me claiming no objectives and Dave claiming one, for another Loss for the Tau (my Tau!).

Game 3

Necrons!

Monolith, Lord with Orb, 2 units of Necron Warriors and 5 (or 6) Destroyers.

The Necrons seized the initiative, and all their firepower killed 2 drones.  I shot back, with some above average rolling, and one-shotted the Monolith and wiped out all the Destroyers, so they would not get their WBB rolls.

Game pretty much over on Turn 1!

The Lord chased a Piranha about for three Turns.  It kept instakilling him and he kept getting up!  Eventually my Railguns and Missile Pods did for enough of the Necron Warriors, who stayed back in cover, and they Phased Out on Turn 4.

Win for the Tau!

Game 4

More Tau!  Hmm.  Mirror matches are never great.

This Tau army had a huge Kroot and Hounds squad that set up in an equally huge forest, Fire Warriors in a Fish, a couple of Hammerheads, an HQ with bodyguard and a squad of Crisis Suits with Missile Pods.

Again, I should have kept my Devilfish off the table, and my Piranha, as they were prime targets for his railguns in a KP game.  Instead, I played this game like I play all the others (ie. stupidly!) and raced my Piranhas forward.  I outranged him, as he only had two missile pods and two railguns to my seven missile pods and two railguns.  My railguns were arguably better protected than his, so should have won in a straight shooting match.

I dunno.  I know what I should do, but it just doesn’t feel right.  Maybe tournaments aren’t my thing

Anyway, both Piranhas died to Railguns and Missile Pods, and failed to do anything.  My Devilfish were trying to tempt the Kroot out of the forest and, when they failed to budge, I moved up and decided to tankshock.  Snake eyes – both Devilfish immobilised on the edge of the forest   It all went downhill from there, and I lost convincingly 5KP to 1KP.

The Tournament result was 3 Losses and 1 Win, but I didn’t have a bad time.  Two of the losses were very close, and I think it is not the list that failed to perform, but me.

If I was going to make any list changes, I would try and fit a third Broadside in at the expense of some Missile Pods.

In all, it was really fun tournament, well run and well attended (sticky-fingered kids aside) and I will be back next year for sure.

Here are some photos: