The annual Partick Crucible 1000pt 40k tournament is coming up, probably in April, although the exact date has yet to be decided.

Here is my report from the last one.

Last year I took Tau, and this year I will most likely do the same. There is a chance a new Tau codex will appear between now and then, but if I didn’t have that kind of eternal optimism what kind of Tau player would I be?

Taking my love of Crisis Suits to an obvious and extreme conclusion makes this year’s list a fairly easy one:-
• HQ: Shas’el with Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster and Multitracker
• Bodyguard of 2 Crisis Suits with TL Missile Pods and Targeting Arrays
• HQ: Shas’el with Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster and Multitracker
• Bodyguard of 2 Crisis Suits with TL Missile Pods and Targeting Arrays
• Elites: 2 Crisis Suits. One is a Team Leader with Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster and Targeting Array, with a HW Multitracker and the other has TL Missile Pods and a Targeting Array
• Elites: 2 Crisis Suits with TL Missile Pods and a Targeting Array
• Elites: 2 Crisis Suits with TL Missile Pods and a Targeting Array
• Troops: 6 Firewarriors
• Troops: 10 Kroot
• Heavy Support: 1 Broadside Team Leader with a Targeting Array, Smart Missile System, a Gun Drone and a Black Sun Filter

It has a theme – that theme is Crisis Suits. An elite Strike Force of them, backed up by a few ground-pounders and with some lumbering heavy support in the back.

It makes for 12 Crisis Suits in all, which is not bad for 1000pts! I split the Crisis Suits with Plasma Rifle/ Fusion Blaster up among three different squads. I don’t usually mix and match armaments like that, but it does make it much harder for the enemy to wipe out the most deadly weapons, and make it more likely those suits will be around on later Turns – which is when suitable targets are most likely going to be in range.

Everything is hitting on a 3+, with all the Missile Pods as well as the Railgun also being Twin Linked. That gives me 18 S7 shots across five units, which should take care of MCs and transports. Mathhammer tells us 16 of those shots will hit a Turn

I only have one Railgun. If they shoot it, there’s a chance it will run away to a dead drone, but I usually only need it on Turn 1 anyway. It will be useless in Dawn of War as it cannot move on and shoot, but I would rather give it a 3+ to hit. There is a fair chance I can deploy it where only a few lascannons/ dark lances can shoot at it, rather than a whole army’s-worth. Need to see what the mission pack looks like.

The weak link is Troops, of course. Best I can do is keep them in reserve and try not to get them killed. Come on, go to ground, and try and wipe out the opponent with shooting.

And it’s not about writing or any of the games I play!  No, I have just agreed terms for the sale of a board game I invented

I can’t really tell you much more at the moment, but I am very excited about this!

In other news, there is a 750/800pt 40k mini-tournament coming up. Not sure what to take. I can rule out Deathwing at those points, so Tau? Ravenwing? Chaos?

Haven’t played Chaos at a tournament ever, but OTOH I have just finished assembling 600pts of Ravenwing.

Lastly, if you haven’t heard already, the 40k rumour grapevine is abuzz with word of a new Tau codex Q1 next year, with Chaos to follow. Could be an expensive year!  I really hope the Tau get some fun new stuff to play with.  What would the Tau equivalent of flying Land Raiders be?

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:

Yup – two terrain pieces in one week.  Why, I am pretty fantastic, thank you!

Since I wasn’t going to complete my Deathwing for the tournament today (I took Tau instead), I decided I might as well finish off the last major terrain piece in my collection.  This one has been haunting my Man Cave like the Ghost of Xmas Past for ages.  I wanted a large, line-of-sight blocking, intact piece.  This one used up most of two Bastions, some Cities of Death and a Shrine of The Aquila.  Getting the last set to match up with the bastion pieces took some doing, but I think it worked well in the end.

The steps at the front are made from a single chunk of pink foam, carved to shape and sanded.  The windows are made out of translucent blue plastic sheets.

Part of the roof is just foamcore, for speed.

And here it is in play at Partick Crucible, along with the other piece I completed this week.  That’s my Tau, lining up for a very close game with Dave McMillan’s Tau:-

I bought this model in February 2009, along with another one of the same, and three Knarloc Riders, all from Forgeworld.  Next time you’re berating yourself for being a slow painter, just think about that.  Two years for one model, and I still haven’t finished!

I tried to get this one finished in time for my 3,350pt game with Jamie, but didn’t manage it.  I was so used to painting Malifaux figures that I was used to thinking a model like a Warpig was big, but 40k does ‘big’ on a whole ‘nother scale

You can just see the Warpig in the background, behind the Knarloc’s foot.

Past experience suggests my optimism is misplaced, but I hope to have this model (and his twin) completed fairly soon.

I have a 40k tournament coming up at the end of May that I am really looking forward to.  1000pts and 4 games with players rolling for each mission, which makes it very different to the tournaments I am used to playing in.  I am also supplying some terrain for this tournament, but since it is all made, I don’t need to worry about that.

I was going to expand my 400pt ork army to 1000pts, but lack of funds and time got in the way.  I wanted to do a Grot-themed force, and that meant Grot Tanks, either scratchbuilt or from Forgeworld, a Grot Battlewagon and a Gort-crewed Deff Dred.  Ah, well – another time

So I have a choice; which of my current armies will I take?  Tau are my go-to army of choice.  I know them well (enough), and they are fun to play.  Tau suffer if they cannot bring all their toys, however, so can I make their army function at only 1000pts?  Next up is Deathwing.  These guys really suffer at low points levels.  I could do 3 Terminator squads and two Landspeeder Typhoons for fire support.  Need to buy the Typhoons, though.  Alternatively, I could replace the Typhoons with a Dreadnought, which I have three of.  Then there is Chaos.  Chaos have quite a few options at 1000pts, and I generally have the models to do pretty much whatever I want at that points level.

So, here is a sample Tau list for 1000pts:

HQ:
Shas’el with missile pod, plasma rifle, multi-tracker, HW drone controller, bonding knife and two gun drones

Elite:
2 x Crisis Suits with missile pod, plasma rifle and multi-tracker.
3 x Crisis Suits with TL missile pod and drone controller with one gun drone apiece
3 x Crisis Suits with TL missile pod and drone controller with one gun drone apiece

Troops:
6 x Fire Warriors
10 x Kroot

Fast Attack:
4 x Pathfinder with a Devilfish with gun drones and a disruption pod
1 x Piranha with fusion blaster, targeting array and disruption pod

Heavy Support
1 x Broadside Team Leader with smart missile systems, targeting array and two gun drones

I have plenty of high-strength shooting in the Crisis Suits and HQ.  I have blocking in the Piranha and shielding in the vehicle gun drones, pathfinders and Kroot (and the Devilfish if need be).  I have AT options in the missile pods, railgun and fusion blaster.  I lack troops and I lack redundancy in Heavy Support.  To protect the Fire Warriors, they go in reserve, and walk on into the Devilfish.  To protect the Broadside, I have ablative gun drones and I can attach the commander on Turn 1 to boost his Ld.  If I think the Kroot screen is going to be shot at, I can attach the Commander to them instead.  On Turn 2, the commander will join the XV8 squad with the same weapon loadout as him.  They will be vulnerable until then, as they have no ablative gun drones, so I need to hide them on Turn 1.

Given that we will be rolling for missions, it is likely that one or even two will be Dawn of War.  That will make my Broadside useless on Turn 1, when I really need him.  Might go with ASS instead of his targeting array.  Can I squeeze in a BSF for him, too?  Do I really need the Pathfinders?  A single Marker Drone might actually do a job here (yeah, I know! Marker Drones – I have six of the things, and they never get used).  My Crisis Suits are all TL’d, as is the Broadside, and the Piranha has a targeting array.  The only unit that needs Markerlights is the MP/PR one.  Is that a good enough reason to bring markerlights?

Any thoughts?

EDIT:  Been thinking about a Deathwing list:

HQ:
Belial

Troops:
1 x 5 Deathwing Terminators with Apothecary (for FNP) and all TH/SS, plus one Chainfist
2 x 5 Deathwing Terminators all with Power Fist, Storm Bolter and one with a Cyclone Missile Launcher

Fast Attack:
2 x Ravenwing Land Speeder Typhoons with HB/ Cyclone Missile Launcher

Very low on models, but that’s Deathwing!  Beliel would go with the TH/SS squad, and charge forward to wreck stuff.  The other two Terminator squads would position themselves in cover and shoot.  The Typhoons would do the same.  I would like to squeeze in a cheesy squad of Stormtroopers from the Witchhunters Codex – 50pt scoring unit kept in reserve, but I would lose shooting to get them.

It’s been a while since I updated here, but I have not been idle   I will do a post soon with all the things I have been working on, but in the meantime here is a photo batrep to get your 40k juices flowing.

Jamie and I had been planning a Tau v Space Wolves MegaBattle for a while now, and the chance finally came on Saturday.  3350 points of fully painted (or, in my case, almost fully) plastic wardudes duking it out in a non-Apocalypse battle.  We agreed on 2 FOCs each and Jamie agreed to let me bring some Forgeworld, although I opted not to bring Flyers, as they just break the game.

Here are the army lists:

Space Wolves:-

• HQ
• Logan
• Rune Priest
• Wolf Guard Battle Leader
• Elites
• 1 lascannon Dread
• 1 plasma Dread
• 2 x Lone Wolves
• Troops
• 5 Squads of Terminators
• 3 x Grey Hunters (5) in Razorbacks
• 1 x Grey Hunter (8) in Rhino
• Fast Attack
• 2 x Landspeeders with MM/HF
• Heavy Support
• 2 x Long Fangs (5) with Missile Launchers

The Tau brought:-

• HQ
• Shadowsun
• Ethereal with 1 gun drone
• Shas’el TL MP, DC & 2 Gun Drones and HW BSF
• Troops                                                                                                                                              
• 10 Kroot and 7 Hounds
• 10 Kroot and 7 Hounds
• 10 Kroot
• 12 Fire Warriors
• 12 Fire Warriors inc Devilfish w/ Disruption Pod
• 12 Fire Warriors
• 12 Fire Warriors
• Heavy Support                                                                                                                                  
• 2 x Great Knarlocs w/ Kroot Bolt Throwers w/ explosive bolts
• 4 x Drone Sentry Turrets w/ missile pods and two disruption pods
• 3 x Broadsides with SMS and targeting arrays (Team Leader w/ HWTL, 2 Shield Drones, BSF)
• 2 x Broadsides with SMS and targeting arrays (Team Leader w/ HWTL)
• 3 x Broadsides with SMS and targeting arrays (Team Leader w/ HWTL)
• Elite                                                                                                                                                  
• 3 x Deathrain (1 with BSF and 2 with Drone Controller and 1 Gun Drone each)
• 3 x Deathrain (1 with BSF and 2 with Drone Controller and 1 Gun Drone each)
• 3 x Deathrain (1 with BSF and 2 with Drone Controller and 1 Gun Drone each)
• Fast Attack                                                                                                                                        
• 3 x Piranha TX-42 with TL fusion blasters, and disruption pods
• 2 x Tetra Scout Speeders
• 4 x Pathfinders with markerlights, Devilfish w/ disruption pod
• 4 x Pathfinders with markerlights, Devilfish w/ disruption pod

Jamie was bringing his two 1500 pt lists, along with a 350pt top-up.  I wanted to throw some interesting Forgeworld units on the table that I rarely get to use, as well as see how a re-rollable Ld10 firebase with 48 Fire Warriors and mucho Broadsides works out.  Yup, re-rollable Ld10 – the joys of combining Shadowsun and the Ethereal (no, not that kind of combining – get your mind out of the gutter, sir!).

I had to avoid the Ethereal being killed, so I put him with the Broadsides that had the shield drones, and attached the Shas’el and his gun drones for good measure.  The Long Fangs and lascannons could shoot at the squad all game long and would probably never scratch the Ethereal – he would be vulnerable to assault only.  And if the Space Wolves did focus fire, well there was another Broadside squad or two he could join

We rolled and got Capture and Control, with Pitched Battle deployment.

Jamie won the roll, and opted to go first, wanting to get some movement in and smoke popped before I opened up on him.  Fair enough, although it would give me last Turn.

Jamie deployed, mostly keeping his two armies apart on the table.  The Logan Wing terminators went on his left(behind the trees and across from my objective), and the mech Space Wolves deployed behind the large terrain piece shielding his own objective.  One squad of Termies joined them.  The Long Fangs went in cover in the middle.  Interesting note – I didn’t fire a single shot all game at the Long Fangs!

Although I was going for a firebase, I didn’t want to get pinned back into a corner, so I opted for the middle.  I could see my objective, which was just as good as being at it, for the Tau   I put most of my suits and all my skimmers over on the right, where they would be best placed to take out armour and block the advancing transports.  It also meant I could move on the enemy objective come Turn 4+.

I put the two large Kroot squads into reserve, knowing that whichever side they came on they would be on one objective or the other.

Onto the game (best to press the Pause button and manually scroll through the slides):-

Post-Game Round-Up

I think a draw was a very fair result.  Although I would have won if the game had ended on Turn 5, it was much more appropriate for an epic game to go the full 7 Turns.  The fact that it all turned on that one FNP save (4+) for the Lone Wolf with the very last of my missile pod shooting made it even better.

How did the units get on?

In the HQ slot, Shadowsun got some Turn 1 shooting in, and was generally making a nuisance of herself all game long.  She sacrificed herself to the assault to allow my crisis suits to get in and contest on Turn 7.  However, she lost her Command and Control drone very early to a dangerous terrain test, meaning her 12″ Bubble of Awesome Ld 10 didn’t play much of a part. 7/10.

The Ethereal did heehaw, although I did make use of his leadership rerolls once or twice.  He drew no fire at all – maybe he was too well protected to tempt shots! 5/10.

The Shas’el fired every Turn with his missile pod, and on Turn 6 he joined up with a depleted Crisis Suit squad to keep them in the game. 7/10.

In the Elite section, the Crisis Suits were brilliant.  The missile pods were unerring, and were constantly forcing saves and causing wounds or damage rolls.  The gun drones ensured they lasted the whole game, and I only lost one elite suit. 9/10.

Troops.  I rarely go Troop-heavy, so this was a new experience for me.  48 Fire Warriors all with cover saves and boosted Ld can plink away all game long and whittle anything down, even Termie squads.  They just need the blocking units to play keep-away so they get to fire all game long.  One squad ran away to shooting (this was after I had lost Shadowsun’s C&C drone), and another rapid fired several Termies to death before being assaulted and wiped out.  They done well. 7/10.

The Kroot were a mixed bag.  The reserve squads didn’t do much, although one came in with few viable options and were clearly on a suicide run.  The other was just there as backup to hold the home objective, and they wound up running away to a single Terminator (not the first time that has happened to my Kroot!)  The stars of the show, however, were my squad of 10 orange Kroot who started on the table, and made it all the way to contest the enemy objective – on foot.  Good going, lads.  They even managed to win a couple of fights on the way!  They would have got top marks, but on average the Kroot score 7/10.

In Fast Attack, the Piranha TX-42s were deadly.  Hitting 3s with a re-roll means they are going to penetrate whatever they shoot at.  They were just nasty.  Shame I immobilised one on Turn 2!  They also provided the Turn 5 contest move, so 8/10 for these guys.

The Tetras did little and then died, but I was not trying to keep them alive.  They were mobile terrain, and worth the 110pts (although, as it turned out, my shooting on Turn 1 was enough to stop all the transports, anyway). 5/10.

The Pathfinders stayed alive and on the table the whole game.  I only lost two to shooting, and they consistently put markerlights on enemy units all game long.  7/10.

In the Heavy Support slot, the Broadsides did their usual.  By “their usual” I mean they hit frequently, but every time I rolled to wound there was always, and I mean always, a one in there somewhere!  Still, I had enough shots with them that it didn’t really matter. 8/10.

Great Knarlocs.  Hmm.  I just wanted to get these into a fight, and I did, although I failed to charge.  They did nothing, really, other than to give Logan something to charge, but the looked awesome on the table!  3/10.

Drone Sentry Turrets.  A reliable source of missile pod hits all game long, as they hit better than Crisis Suits.  They fact they don’t move is great, as I love fielding what is essentially shooty terrain, and as vehicle blockers they are ideal as the forward line of the firebase. They disappear pretty quickly once someone with a power fist turns up, though. 6/10.

And that’s it!  Thanks for reading this far, and I hope you enjoyed the report.  Jamie is a great opponent who knows how to just kick back and enjoy his games, and I hope to get another game of 40k in soon

“It is better to practice a little than talk a lot.”

Muso Kokushi

Of course, I doubt he had Warhammer 40k in mind, but the principle is sound.  Going into this tournament I had five games with my Farsight list under my belt (and it can get a bit sweaty under there, I don’t mind telling you) and I felt I was starting to get a feel for how the list played.  I had also narrowed down one or two vulnerabilities.

When I decided to create a themed Farsight list, I knew that the theme of “Crisis Suits, on a bed of caramelised Crisis Suits, drizzled in a Crisis Suit jus” would cause me a few problems.  I had dropped Piranhas to make way for more Crisis Suits, and Farsight could not take Kroot at all, so I was lacking my usual blocking units to slow the enemy movement or push back deep-strikers.  Coupled with only three railguns in the list, some kinds of enemy heavy armour lists would pose me a serious problem.

Like, say, tri-raider lists.

Game 1

“Life is like stepping onto a boat that is about to sail out to sea and sink.”

Shunryu Suzuki

Hey, look!  A tri-raider list!

• Librarian with Blood Lance and Preferred Enemy power
• 5 TH/SS Termies in a LR Redeemer
• 10 Tacs in a LR
• 10 Assault Marines in a LR Redeemer
• 5 Scouts
• Baal Predator with Flame Cannon
• Landspeeder

Blood Angels, too.  The mission was 5 objectives Seize Ground, with objectives in your own table half worth 100 VP to you and 200VP to your opponent, and the central objective worth 300VP.  Deployment was Dawn of War and, just to make things even worse, my opponent (the very nice Kevin Gibb) won initiative and deployed a Land Raider with assault marines right in the middle of the table.

I knew this wasn’t going to go well, and that I was likely to get a complete drubbing, but I knew this scenario could happen.  I was time to get all zen about stuff, realise I was probably going to sink no matter how much bailing I did and just enjoy the game for itself.

I won’t do a Turn by Turn, but I will give you some highlights.

• On Turn 1 I walked on in a corner and managed to kill a landspeeder.  Only in retrospect was this a highlight…
• Blood Angel shooting was targeted, smart and pretty lucky, and wiped out my Fusion Blaster squad on Turn 1.
• The TH/SS termies immobilised their raider on a shrub and got out to walk.  I shot them down, since I had nothing else to shoot at with my Crisis Suits.  There was one left and Farsight charged him and failed to kill him.  Farsight held, however, which kept his huge squad safe from all those nasty Flamestorm cannons.
• The enemy closed me down quickly, boxing me in while taking both his own objectives and the central objective.
• Farsight’s squad ate two hits from an AP3 Flamestorm cannon. 11 AP3 wounds on a squad with only 3 inv saves.  With wound allocation, and much to Kevin’s surprise, I lost three gun drones!
• My reserves came on in a Devilfish to take an objective all the way at the other end of the table.  The only thing fast enough to reach them was the Baal, but it had the wrong weapons for the job.
• Two gun drones from that Devilfish advanced on the Scouts, shot them once, pinned them and then jumped over their heads on Turn 5 to contest their objective.  Sometimes, vehicle gun drones are sugar-coated awesome.
• It came down to shooting on Turn 5, and I just couldn’t get the squad on the central objective to fall back.

Result:  The Blood Angels held two objectives (100VP for the objective in their own table half and 300VP for the one in the centre) while I held one objective (100VP) and contested two others.  A defeat for the Tau.

Those assault marines in the middle just would not break.

Commentary:  I can’t complain about the result.  Although I would have got the draw had the five-man assault squad holding that central objective broken and ran, I only had Farsight, 2 gun drones and a shaken Devilfish with 6 Fire Warriors in it left.  Against that,  my opponent had lost a Libby and 5 TH/SS terminators!  Farsight was well beaten, but I hadn’t been tabled, which I was sure was going to happen.

I did make one stupid mistake, and that was deciding to assault the wrong Land Raider.  I discussed my plans aloud, mentioning that I should hit this one, since it had moved <6”, and then proceeded to have Farsight smack the other one, which had moved 12”.  The stupid!  It burns!

Other mistakes were not keeping the Fusion suits in reserve.  Being on the table made them priority targets, and against TL lascannons and assault cannons that means dead.  The other mistake was not being aggressive enough with Farsight – he should have been midtable threatening Blood Angel troops, not hemmed into a corner.  I learned both lessons for the next game.

At this point a tidal wave of free pizza broke over the assembled gamers, and there was much appreciative om-nom-ing, and then we all posed our wee army men and voted on best army.  Some superb contenders this year, and the winner was this awesome Necron army, that was actually counts as Chaos Space Marines.  The conversions and painting were top notch, but I think it was the overall concept and coherency that carried it on the day.  Never seen anything like it before.  Second place went to Jamie’s Space Wolves, and I took some shots of two excellent Nid armies (one I had seen before at Counter Attack in August) and a fantastic Ad Mech army (counts as Nids).  There must be no better feeling than spending months planning, constructing and painting your army, and seeing dozens of appreciative gamers standing around oh-ing and ah-ing at it.  While carrying fistfuls of greasy pizza and spraying chunks of pomodoro sauce as they talk…

Game 2

“The torch of doubt and chaos, this is what the sage steers by.”

Chuang-tzu

Emboldened by my non-tabling in Game 1 (yes – that is what passes for a morale-booster in Farsight’s enclave) I resolved to be more adventurous in Game 2.  This was to be Capture and Control (aka Auto-draw) with every Turn being Night Fight.  Spearhead deployment.  The only thing saving this from being a stunningly boring game where two armies camp diagonally opposite from one another and fail to spot each other all game long (which I will christen Nonhammer) was that your objective had to be placed more than 6” outside your deployment zone.

Actually, this is ideal for the Tau.  By placing the objective away from your firebase, you force your enemy to choose; either (i) send everyone to the objective and hope they can weather the storm of shooting, or (ii) split up and go for the Tau firebase as well as my objective.  There is no right answer, which is the sort of choice I love giving opponents!

Scott Robertson joined me for Game 2, bringing his Deathwing to the same table I had played Game 1 on.  I hate not moving tables between games.  I moved my guys round to the other side, for a bit of variety.  Hey, it’s almost like a different table!

I play Deathwing, so this army held no surprises for me.

• Belial
• 6 units of Deathwing Terminators, with four mixed squads, one with all chainfists and one with all lightning claws.  Not the way I prefer to do it, for reasons that will become apparent.
• 2 Vindicators.

Scott won the roll, and passed first Turn to me.  I picked a quarter which was open and which had a large open space in the quarter right next to it.  I placed my objective in that open space.  Good line of sight from my deployment zone, and easily in range for my two troops to walk on and claim it late game.  Expecting a Deathwing Assault, I deployed in a castle formation near the back of my quarter, although since I had a lot of models all spread out, my forward lines were quite close to the 12” limit, giving me the option to redeploy in either direction.

Scott deployed three of his six squads on the table, much to my surprise.  I guess the night-fight made him feel a bit safer, which was true enough.  He had reckoned without knowing the awesome power of my fully operational black sun filters, bwah-hahahahahaha!

Highlights of this game were:-

• My broadsides continued to be rubbish at killing enemy vehicles, continually rolling 1s and 2s for armour penetration. Meh – it happens.  They are still the mutt’s nuts.
• My suicide Fusion suits dropped in perfectly behind a Vindicator (although they needed that reroll from the Pathfinder’s Fish) and immobilised it out of harm’s way.  They also made Belial and his squad turn around and kill them, which slowed that squad down by a Turn. Since controlling enemy movement and when they reach your lines is all part of playing Tau, I considered the Fusion boys’ job done.
• Chaos and Doubt.  Time to play boldly and go for the win.  My entire army moved left, towards my objective, while Farsight moved across the table, clearly heading for the enemy objective.  With no long-range shooting to worry about, he could focus fire on the terminators a squad at a time.  As plans go, it almost worked perfectly.
• My opponent wound up with a lone unit of lightning claw terminators on my objective, standing around in zero cover.  I could have tank shocked them all over the place (no power fists, which is why I mix my squads up), but I figured my entire army bar Farsight shooting at them ought to do something.  It did something – it killed one Terminator   I was hoping to kill them all and send my Devilfish over to help Farsight contest the enemy objective, but had to keep them around.  As a Devilfish finished the game 1″ away from contesting that objective, this Turn of awesome armour and invulnerable saves by the lightning claw Terminators really made a big difference.  I wiped them out on Turn 6.

• I got to use the Failsafe Detonator, but it didn’t kill anyone.  Except the guy carrying it
• My Pathfinders didn’t see anything all game.  The immobilised Vindicator stopped them from moving forward until Turn 6, so they really didn’t do anything.
• Farsight and his team did incredibly well.  They took on Belial and two other squads of Terminators by themselves, did some good shooting and then and lasted multiple rounds of combat.  Unfortunately, they broke on Turn 7 and fell back out of contesting distance.  The last squad had four chainfist Terminators in it, and my last Turn of shooting got them down to just two models, but I couldn’t kill them all, and the game ended.

Result: Draw (surprise!).  I held my objective and my opponent held his.

Commentary:  Deathwing are such an unusual army, as being Fearless and scoring to the last man means you literally have to kill them all to stop situations like this.  The only units I had lost were a unit of Fire Warriors and the suicide Fusion suits, whereas Scott only had two models left on the table!

Desperately unlucky rolling by the Broadsides and woeful Night Fight spotting checks by the Pathfinders didn’t help, but luck goes both ways – Scott lost an entire Deathwing Terminator squad when they landed on my Pathfinders.  A great game, Scott was really buzzed to play Tau for the first time and we both enjoyed it.

Game 3

“Though the bamboo forest is dense, water flows through it freely”

Basho 

Exactly none of you (alright, probably Jamie) will remember that at last year’s Rapid Fire I faced Graham Duffy’s Blood Angels in Game 3 in a Kill Points mission.  We tried to line up another game since, but it never happened (see: “Saturday Gaming, Cancellation Of”).  As luck would have it when the draw for Game 3 was announced I got – Scott Robertson.  Hey – we just played each other last game!  A quick confab lined me up with – Graham Duffy   I managed to get a new table out of it as well, since the tourney organisers were trying to get me to play on table 11 for the third time.  I dug in my heels, pouted like a girl guide faced with a complete refusal to purchase her delicious cookies and got table 12.  Yeah, I can be badass when I need to be.

Game 3 was Pitched Battle deployment with modified Kill Points.  HQs were worth 3KP, Troops were worth 1KP and everyone else was worth 2KP.  Wipe out every unit in Elite, Fast Attack or Heavy Support FOC and you got an extra KP.  Suddenly, my 1KP Fire Warriors became perfect blocking units, although I would have to play “hide the gun drones”.

Graham’s brain had chosen the following:-

• Mephiston;
• Sanguinor;
• 1 Dread in a pod, with Heavy Flamer and Multi Melta (nice conversion, too);
• 2 units of jump pack Assault Marines, with Priests tucked away in there for FNP goodness;
• 1 unit of Tactical Marines with lascannon and melta; and
• Baal Predator, with all the flamey goodness the codex has to offer.

I won the roll and decided to go first.  Graham had plenty of deployment options.  He could deepstrike up to four of his units and the Baal could outflank.  I had to guard against that Dread (and anything else) getting into my lines, so I picked the right hand side of the table – the part with the least terrain – stuck the Broadsides in the corner and deployed everything else around them in classic castle formation, with Fire Warriors and Pathfinders strung out to push back the drop pod.  My two Devilfish went on my left, near the centre of the table.  A tempting melta target, so it was likely the Dread would come down near them.  I kept only the suicide Crisis Suits in reserve, to deep strike.  Their targets were the Baal or the Dread.

Graham deployed his tacs opposite me in some ruins, and his Assault marines, Mephiston and the Baal deployed way at the other end of the table.  He had refused flanked me – but he had the assaulty army and I had the shooty one!  Isn’t it meant to be the other way around for a refused flank?  I was expecting him – if he didn’t deepstrike – to set up opposite me, and I would move the Devilfish forward to screen and redeploy off to my left behind them.  Interesting.  It turned out he was very concerned about the lack of cover opposite my deployment (which is why I had chosen it).

Highlights:-

• I shot up the Tactical squad, killing them all on Turn 2.  I had no-one else in range!  Even the Broadsides shot them.
• The Dread went for my Devilfish but scattered back and away.  The Baal zipped up to join it in some woods and my suicide suits dropped and scattered very close to the Baal.  Being in woods it hadn’t popped smoke, but my two suits could see it just fine.  This looked promising!  Two twin-linked fusion blasters, however, failed to even hit the damned thing   C’est la vie.  The Dread ate the suits, which slowed it down for a Turn, and the Dread wound up doing nothing else for the rest of the game.
• My broadsides continued their epic quest to force me to drop them from the list.  They failed to kill the Baal until after it had flamed my Fire Warriors, despite trying for 2 previous Turns with the aid of markerlight support.  They also failed to kill a drop-pod.
• I wiped out one of the Assault marines squads before it reached my lines.  I offered up my missile pod suits to Mephy and the Sanguinor as charge targets, but it turned out I had left a gap which let Mephy charge my Fireknives as well.  I lost both units, but the Sanguinor spent too long preening and strutting after his victory, and failed to consolidate into cover.  He got wasted and then Mephy charged Farsight.  Despite losing combat by four, Farsight held and the game ended.

Result:  I had killed the Tactical squad, an Assault squad with an Elite Priest in it, the Baal and the Sanguinor, netting me 10KP.  Graham had killed a unit of Fire Warriors and all my Elite crisis suit squads, netting him 8KP.  Victory to the Tau.

Commentary:  I am very glad the game ended when it did, as I had very little to shoot down the second incoming Assault marine squad, and Mephy would have forced Farsight to flee eventually, costing me 3KP.  Lone models with jump packs are almost impossible to screen against.  The assault marines would have done for the last unit of Fire Warriors.  I might have got lucky and killed the Dread and the Drop Pod with the Broadsides, but I doubt it.

Why I deepstruck a 2KP unit to kill another 2KP unit I really don’t know.  Better to let the 2KP unit (the Baal) flame my 1KP unit (the Fire Warriors) and then jump forward and melta it.  No matter how hard the stupid burns, I keep on sticking my head in a big flaming bowl of it!  Tastes like buffalo wings, and bleach.

What did work was some pretty neat redeployment, as my forces flowed like water through a bamboo forest.  My lines looked a lot closer to the advancing assault troops than they actually were, as they were coming from the side where my Devilfish were.  Once the deep-strike threat was over I jumped the Fire Warriors into their transports and headed across the table, instantly disappearing that part of my lines, and letting my crisis suits move across the table behind them.  It gave the Blood Angels a very long walk to reach my suits, which is what let me shoot them up so much.

Another very good game against Graham.

Looks like next year Rapid Fire might have a two day format.  I don’t know if I prefer that, but I’ll see what they decide.

Here are all the photos from the day – excuse the blurry ones:

KillKrumpa

My Ork Combat Patrol force got another outing last night, and the six Killa Kans, Big Mek with KFF and unit of 10 Gretchin completely owned a mixed Tau force, reducing them to only two models left when the game ended on Turn 5.  Boss Dredgob was pleased to note that he had only lost one of his beloved Kans to the Tau shooting, with another immobilised and down both weapons systems, but otherwise repairable back at his workshop.  He was also pleased to note the devastating effect on Tau troops of Grotzookas.

Sadly, I was playing the Tau

Well done to my wee brother, Ed, who played the Orks and all but tabled me   Ouch!  When are you going back to Australia, Ed?

Farsight - he fights harder when one of his retinue is wearing high explosives!

I haven’t been along to the Stirling Wargamers Club since they stopped running their all-day events on Saturdays, but I managed to make it along the other evening for a game with Jamie, the man who can paint an entire Blood Angels army in the time it takes me to wash my brushes (approx a week, if you’re wondering – I like clean brushes).

We are both going to the upcoming Rapid Fire! tournament that the SWG are running on the 23^rd October and we decided to get a game in, using one of the special tournament missions.  What better way to jinx fate, we thought, and ensure that in the tournament itself we wind up playing one another on this exact mission   You know it’s going to happen, now.

I breezed into town towing my revised Farsight army, and Jamie rocked up with his Space Wolves.  Let’s see what we brought, and then you can start the betting:

Tau

• I hear that Farsight is one bad mutha-
• Retinue of 5 Crisis Suits, 5 Gun Drones and 2 Shield Drones, all kitted out for wound allocation: four plasma rifles, four missile pods, one AFP, one fusion blaster, two target locks, three black sun filters and a failsafe detonator.
• 3 Crisis Suits with missile pods and plasma rifles
• 3 Crisis Suits with twin-linked missile pods and flamers
• 2 Crisis Suits with twin-linked fusion blasters, one with a flamer and one with a target lock
• 6 Fire Warriors in a Devilfish
• 6 Fire Warriors
• 6 Pathfinders in a Devilfish
• 3 Broadsides with SMS and ASS, including a team leader with a target lock, two shield drones and a black sun filter

The BSFs were an addition made for this tournament, because of the all-night-fight Mission 2.

Space Wolves

• Rune Priest Dilios Gunnar
  Rune Priest, Runic Weapon, Bolt Pistol, Frag & Krak Grenades, Chooser of Slain, Wolf-tooth necklace, Runic Armour – 140
  Psychic power: Living Lighting, Jaws of the World Wolf
• Rothgar the Skald
  Dreadnought, Dreadnought close combat weapon w/Storm Bolter, Smoke Launcher, Searchlight, Twin Linked Lascannon, Extra Armour, Wolf-tooth necklace – 160
• Odin
  Dreadnought, Dreadnought close combat weapon w/Storm Bolter, Smoke Launcher, Searchlight, Plasma Cannon, Extra Armour, Wolf-tooth necklace – 140
• Wolf Guards:
  Sevn, Frag & Krak Grenades, Power Fist, Combi Melta – 43
  Edgtho, Frag & Krak Grenades, Power Fist, Combi Melta – 43
  Rethel, Frag & Krak Grenades, Power Fist, Combi Melta – 43
  Haltaf, Frag & Krak Grenades, Combi Melta – 23
• Grey Hunter Unit – Trovald
  5 Grey Hunter, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, close combat weapon, Frag & Krak Grenades, Power Weapon, Melta Gun, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard – 120
  Razorback, Searchlight, Smoke Launcher, Extra armour, Twin Linked Lascannon, Dozer Blade 5 – 95
• Grey Hunter Unit – Gnyrll
  5 Grey Hunter, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, close combat weapon, Frag & Krak Grenades, Power Weapon, Melta Gun, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard – 120
  Razorback, Searchlight, Smoke Launcher, Extra armour, Twin Linked Lascannon, Dozer Blade 5 – 95
• Grey Hunter Unit – Ranek
  8 Grey Hunter, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, close combat weapon, Frag & krak Grenades, Power Weapon, Melta Gun, Mark of the Wulfen, Wolf Standard – 165
  Rhino, Smoke Launcher, Searchlight, Storm Bolter, Extra Armour, Dozer Blade – 55
• Grey Hunter unit – Freyr
  5 Grey Hunter, Bolter, Bolt Pistol, close combat weapon, Frag & Krak Grenades, Melta Gun – 80
  Razorback 40, Searchlight, Smoke Launcher, Extra Armour 15, Twin Linked Heavy Bolter – 55
• Land Speeder unit – Storm Wolves
  2 Land Speeder, 2 Multi Melta, 2 Heavy Flamer – 140
• Long Fang unit – Wulfric
  5 Long Fangs, Close Combat weapon, Frag & Krak Grenades, 4 Launcher – 115
• Long Fang unit – Ulfar
  5 Long Fangs, Close Combat weapon, Frag & Krak Grenades, 4 Launcher – 115

All that from memory!  (Not really)

Jamie had set up a table with some serious Cities of Death terrain, and it reminded me just how good the Stirling Wargamers Club’s terrain collection is.  Seriously impressive, and some custom Mordheim pieces – including a stunning quay with full sailing ship and water – that would be perfect for Malifaux.

I rolled for mission and – you guessed it – Mission 2.  All night fight, all the time!  See those black sun filters?  See preparation?

In addition to being set entirely at night, Mission 2 is Spearhead Capture and Control.  Objectives must be placed outside your own table quarter, and cannot be within 6″ of a table edge or your own table quarter.

Jamie won the roll to go first and passed it to me.  I knew that I wanted to place my own objective in some open space away from my firebase, to tempt the Space Wolves forward and out of cover, so for my deployment zone I picked a quarter adjacent to the most open one.  I then placed my objective in the fairly open quarter, 6″ from my long table edge and as far from LOS-blocking cover as possible.

Speaking of LOS-blocking cover, there was loads of it.  I deployed my Crisis Suits behind buildings, but still close to the centre of the table, and my Broadsides on top of an intact bastion, way in back.  My Pathfinders were the sacrifice in this mission.  I needed them to get Turn 1 hits on something so my Broadsides and other units could auto-pass their night-fight.  Wipe out the Space Wolf transports, and I would shut down their mobility, so I deployed the Pathfinders as close to the centre of the table as possible, in the open.  I Scout moved them forward and slightly to the side to get clear LOS after Jamie had set up.

Jamie deployed in a castle formation, with his Long Fangs set up, like my Broadsides, on top of an intact building.  In his case, though, this was a mistake.  Mine had a black sun filter and a unit of Pathfinders to ensure they could see far enough to hit, and I also knew the enemy would come to me, shortening the range every Turn.  All the Long Fangs had was acute senses, a wonderful view of the night sky and a sneaking suspicion they weren’t going to hit anything all game long

I went first.  For most of Turns 1 to 4, I played the same way.  Jump out, shoot and jump back.  With night fight and LOS-blocking terrain, I was safe provided I could shut down mobility.

On Turn 1 I wrecked one Razorback  and exploded another.  Go, Pathfinders!

I should mention that Jamie really gets into the spirit of his Wolf Brothers, and recites a Space Wolf mantra before rolling saves every now and then.  There should be more of this in 40k, I reckon.  It didn’t really help Jamie much either way, but it was fun!

On Turn 2 I got to see Jamie’s plan.  Most of his force were heading for my objective (worth 300VP to him) and a lone Razorback (Grey Hunter unit Freyr) was heading for his own objective (worth 100VP to him).  That was fine – I was set up to pile fire on either one, and with both my Troops in reserve, I could come on and head for whichever I was most likely to claim, and contest the other.  However, try as I might, I just could not kill that lone Razorback heading for his own objective!

It took until Turn 5 before I hit it, knocking a gun off, but by then it was tight in some ruins and within 3″ of his objective.  It ultimately immobilised itself trying to tank shock my Crisis Suits, but that’s for later.

On Turn 2 I brought my Fusion Crisis Suits in right between Jamie’s Dreadnoughts and the Rhino with his Rune Priest in it, but even with the re-roll from the Devilfish they scattered into the enemy and died.  I did manage to immobilise the lone Rhino heading for my objective, leaving all his troops on that side of the table foot-slogging it.  Perfect!

I just had those two Landspeeders to worry about in terms of mobility, but I decided that even with a 12″ move next Turn they were still out of heavy flamer range of my Pathfinders.  Turned out I was right, and they choose to go flat out instead, ending up right on my objective.  Since I use Piranhas a lot, I made a note to tell Jamie he should keep his Fast Skimmers back and contest last Turn, but he mentioned it himself around Turn 3 or 4 anyway!

On Turn 3 I brought in my Fire Warriors in their Devilfish, behind my lines, but heading at 12″ per Turn for the Space Wolf objective.  I fired everything into the squadron of two Speeders – and killed one!  Oh, well.  I did take a weapon off the other, and chose the heavy flamer.  My Crisis Suits were seriously bunched up behind terrain, and I didn’t want to eat one of those – could have put eight or nine wounds on my Farsight squad easily.  The Space Wolves ran closer.

Their shooting did little due to night fight, although the Rune Priest did manage to Living Lightning the Pathfinders down to two models.  They stuck around, though.  The Speeder tried to multi-melta the Pathfinder’s Devilfish, but rolled a one to hit.

On Turn 4 I brought in the last unit of Fire Warriors, and ran them into the Pathfinder’s Devilfish.  Farsight and his Armoured Super Pals popped out and did some damage.  The AFP scattered off squad Ranek into Trovald, killed a Wolf Guard and Pinned the squad!  The fusion blaster fired at the last speeder, wrecking it and the rest of the squad put their fire on Grey Hunter unit Ranek, knocking them down to three models.  My team leader Broadside managed to hit and kill Dreadnought Odin.  The rest of my Crisis Suits either tried to kill that damned Razorback heading to claim the Space Wolf objective (fail):

or shot at the Pinned squad Trovald, killing all but two.  Both injured Space Wolf squads promptly failed Morale and fell back quite a distance.

They rallied, and the remains of Ranek wiped out my Pathfinders and consolidated into the woods near my objective.  Trovald hid in some buildings.

On Turn 5 Farsight wiped out the remains of Grey Hunter unit Ranek, and then moved forward to invite the charge from Grey Hunter unit Gnyrll.  Who doesn’t want to charge Tau, I reckoned?  I did warn Jamie about the failsafe detonator, though   I also moved my two Devilfishes up to their respective objectives (try saying that fast ten times) and moved up my other two Crisis squads towards the Space Wolf objective and that pesky Razorback.  Well, that pesky Razorback disgorged Grey Hunter unit Freyr who melta’d my Devilfish and assaulted the xenos contents, jumping up and down on the sweet blue meat inside, before consolidating back onto their own objective.  Drat!  Somehow I always forget that a wall is just difficult terrain, not impassable.  I’m an idiot, but as Mrs Sholto will tell you, that is not news.  Grey Hunter unit Gnyrll assaulted into Farsight.

I used the Defender’s React move to get models within 3″ of my own objective (sneaky!), and then Farsight went to town, killing three Grey Hunters before they could get a hit in.  I won combat by two, losing only a single shield drone, and killed the squad down to a lone Wolf Guard with a combi-melta.  He ran away, and Farsight consolidated on the objective.  The lone Wolf Guard then rallied and tried to melta my Devilfish, but only shook it.  The Long Fangs finally got range on me, and killed one of my twin missile pod Crisis Suits!

The game went to a Turn 6.

Farsight lined up an assault on the last Dreadnought, Rothgar the Skald.  It would have been huge, it would have been epic – but I play Tau, so I never pass up a chance to shoot, and I melta’d Rothgar to a wreck.  Over on the Space Wolf objective I killed half of squad Freyr with shooting (I got to use my flamers!!!), they passed Morale and both Crisis Suit units failed to charge sufficient distance into the ruins.

Oh, poo!  Freyr had no power weapons or power fists, and I was sure I could have taken them in assault.  Over on my objective, the last remaining member of squad Torvald, the Wolf Guard, charged Farsight and was killed by the Dawn Blade before he could turn his power fist on.  The rune priest Gunnar was just out of charge range.

We ended the game there on account of time.

Result: Draw.  We both had Troops units claiming our own objectives, and Mission 2 has no other victory conditions.

Thoughts:  The Tau did well, yet again, against a strong 5^th edition codex army.  However, before Tau players everywhere start turning cartwheels and buying Farsight models (Note: do not buy the Farsight model), let’s look closer.  Jamie did play with 230pts of Long Fangs effectively neutered for the entire 6 Turns, and the lack of long-range heavy support really hurts assault armies when the opponent can fire at you without fear of reply.  In truth, I did well in this mission largely due to the fact that my older codex can cope with Night Fight much better than the Space Wolves can, and Spearhead deployment is sauce for the Tau.  A lot of factors were in my favour here, and all I could do was draw.  Although I could have pulled the win on Turn 6 if I had got into assault, every gamer knows luck can and does go either way over the course of a game.

However, as I haven’t played 40k since the ELG tournament in August, this was a very useful refresher for this army, and it should stand me in good stead for Rapid Fire! next weekend.

For Jamie’s part, he commented that he had learned from our previous game to rush Tau, and not hang back.  He tried that this game, but I shut down three out of four transports almost immediately, so that’s not a fault in his tactics.  He will probably deploy his Long Fangs further forward when he plays Mission 2 for real, and either hold his Land Speeders in reserve, or keep them alive to contest objectives.  As much as I love Dreadnoughts, they don’t do anything for his Space Wolves in the games we have had.  Don’t know about his other games.  Jamie has already dropped Bjorn from his list – I wonder if Odin and Rothgar the Skald are updating their CVs

Thanks to Jamie for another excellent game.  Jamie really knows his rules and his army, comes prepared (his army list has a fluff section!) and is just the all-round gamer and fun to play against.  I hope we will fight at Rapid Fire! – three tournaments so far, and we’ve never crossed swords yet…