“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:

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…

It’s been a busy few weeks, and my Man Cave has been missing me.

I got some paint on some models, but other things have risen in priority and I haven’t done any painting or modelling for a while.  Instead, I have been writing – oh, have I been writing!  I’ve sold another story to Wyrd, am in the process of writing another, and am pitching them on various other stories I have rattling around in my brainbox (I need to get some Battlefoam in there to stop the ideas getting scratched).  So, plenty of creative activity, lots of productive busy-ness but nothing I can stick up here and show you guys.   Hence the picture of the kitten.

Very pleased with the story I wrote last week – a 7000 word short story set in the Malifaux world.  Started it on Monday and finished it on Friday, which is pretty good going.  It was one of those stories that just writes itself, where once I had the basic plot outline (character is faced with something from their past that comes back to – literally – haunt them, and they go back and finish the job, getting some closure), I just raided my ideas bitzbox (every writer should have one!) and threw all sorts of stuff into the brew.

Seamus has a cameo, and I tried to capture the comic-book grotesquerie of his character while also letting his actual serial-killer nature show through.  He should make us laugh, but nervously, like waking up to find a tiger juggling in your bedroom in the middle of the night.

I knew it was trending to the Pratchett when I named the reanimated eyeball Mrs Choke, but anything that treads a line between black humour and horror in a fantasy setting is going to feel a little Pratchett anyway.  Ya hear that, Pratchett – I’m gunnin’ for yer crown!

What else have I been reanimating?  My PS3 for one.  Mini Sholto #1 attempted to load the bluray slot with two dvds instead of the more customary one, and the drive died a grindy, stuttering death.  £90 repair bill, the internet told me.  Oh, poo, I thought.  Then corrupted data started showing up on the hard drive – about 28Gb of it – so I did a format and reset and, wouldn’t you know, the bluray drive started working perfectly!  I won’t ask why, because the universe has a way of looking askance at you when you question serendipity, as if to say, “well, now you mention it, that probably shouldn’t have happened.  I’ll see what I can do…” and then jumps up and down on your serendipity while laughing like a toddler on crack.  Or sugar, as it’s known in this house.

The back-from-the-dead PS3 afforded me and Mrs Sholto the opportunity to watch a dvd for a change.  “I Love You Man” was amiable fun and then I watched “Shutter Island”.  I avoided all reviews and discussions of this film, because I knew there was a twist in it.  I don’t know if it’s because as a writer I need to deconstruct plots in order to see how they work and how to put them back together in a different way, or whether the twist was just very poorly done, but it was obvious from just about the opening scene.  Ah, well.  The atmosphere of the piece was excellent (Dante Ferretti is a superb production designer) and it occurred to me that if you didn’t know what was actually going on, the whole sturm-und-drang might seem a little overbaked.  When you know what’s going on, all the visual and audible exclamation marks make! Much! More! Sense!

The emotional core of the film is the heartbreaking scene towards the end, and that one really got me.  It was difficult to watch, although not at all gratuitous.

Anyway, back on track.  I’ve got a game of Dark Age lined up for next week, and another game with my 1750 Farsight list coming up ahead of the Rapid Fire! tournament on the 23^rd October.  Playing against Jamie’s Space Wolves which he has been playing for a while now.  They are different (and better than) the Space Wolf list I drew against with my Shadowsun army, and I am expecting a decent work-out.  Pics if I can find a working camera!

Not really, but I whipped this up in GIMP and thought I would share:

Like it says on the tin; pics of Farsight, painted.

He is, as you probably already know, a conversion of the Forgeworld Shas’o R’myr model, with a scratchbuilt sword styled on the Eldar Wraithlord sword.

I had to rush the paint job a little, so the small finishing touches are few and far between.  I might redo the sword, as it should be brighter.  And the wear on his armour needs some metallic glints in a few places and he generally needs some dirtying up here and there, but given the time I had left I am amazed I got him done at all.

Any thoughts on what he needs to finish him off?

EDIT:  Some info on the base.  It is a normal Dreadnought base, and making it is was very easy.  I took some play bark (cleaned and dried) and hotglued it onto the base.  Then I did the usual PVA + sand for the bits of the base you could still see.  About 10 mins for that.  After it dried I primed it black (2 mins).  After that dried I painted it in a very sloppy and haphazard fashion   I put on a thin base layer of Scorched Brown, then painted on some watered down Snakebite Leather.  Before that had dried I went in with various other earthy tones (Tanned Flesh etc) and put in strips of colour along the ‘strata’ of the bark.  Since the Snakebite Leather was still wet, the colours blended naturally.  That took about 5 mins.  Once it was dry I drybrushed Bleached Bone quite heavily, and a final, light drybrush of a Bleached Bone/ White mix.  Say 2 mins.  After that I varnished it (2 coats gloss and one coat matt), added the grass and reeds and drilled the hole for the brass rod.  I drybrushed the grass with Dead Flesh and Bleached Bone, although since I have grass tufts (made by Noch) I could do this before I applied it rather than after.  Everyone who saw the model assumed the base was a resin cast, whereas it was actually very cheap, simple and easy to do.

Game 1 vs Mech Eldar is here, and Game 2 vs Tyranids is here. 

Something weird happened to my camera between Games 2 and 3 – banding appears in all the photos   It’s not so noticeable in the reduced-size pics, but it looks like it’s time for a new camera.  One with exposure control would be nice.  Any recommendations? 

Game 3 

I was on Table 3, which I had to let sink in a bit.  Table 3?  So this is what not losing feels like?  

I was drawn against Chris Murfitt and his all-foot Sisters of Battle.  It is a little disconcerting to see what, at first glance, looks like an army made up of 60 identical models!  No offense to Chris, who did a great job painting them, but they were lined up in such perfect ranks they might have been a box of chocolates.  I prayed they were all soft centres, and we headed off to sample the delights of Game 3. 

Mission: Seize Ground (5 objectives), Spearhead. 

Chris’ army was (from memory):- 

• 1 x Canoness w/ Eviscerators, Litanies of Faith and Book of St Lucius with a Celestian retinue , including a Veteran Superior with Eviscerator, one Heavy Flamer and one Melta;
• 1 x Canoness w/ Blessed Weapon, Litanies of Faith and Book of St Lucius with a Celestian retinue , including a Veteran Superior with Eviscerator, one Heavy Flamer and one Melta;
• 2 x squads of 10 Sisters of Battle including a Veteran Superior with Eviscerator, one Heavy Flamer and one Melta;
• 4 x squads of 10 Sisters of Battle including a Veteran Superior with Eviscerator, one Flamer and one Melta;
• 1 squad of 6 Seraphim, including Veteran Superior with Eviscerator.

That’s a lot of power armour.  He’s also got six Troops choices to my two, and there are five objectives in this game!  How the heck am I going to win this? 

Fortunately, I had thought about that before coming to the tournament.  I would try and claim two, and contest the third, hoping the game ended on Turn 5.  Not much of a plan, and it gives me a draw, not a win, but with only two Troops it was the best I could hope for. 

This game also had some special rules.  For each piece of area terrain (and ours was all area terrain again) randomly determine if the terrain is on fire, or just a smoking ruin.  Terrain on fire counts as dangerous, while smoking terrain adds +1 to your cover save.  Both types of terrain completely block line of sight as per old 4^th edition area terrain rules. 

Jump, shoot, jump is back again, baby!  

Cotton wool marks smoking terrain.  All other terrain is on fire. 

Chris won the roll and elected to let me go first – sensible move.  We alternate placing the objectives – ending up with four in a line from one corner to the other, and the fifth just off that central axis. 

I pick a corner with all flaming terrain (to discourage assaults on me – I don’t really need the +1 to cover save, as my opponent has literally no ranged firepower beyond 12″) and deploy everything bar the Fire Warriors and the fusion suits.  I don’t have any specific targets for the Fusion suits, but I reckon I can find a use for them. 

Tau deployment. Objectives in the shot are shown with a red square

Devilfish are kept well back so that my Fire Warriors can embark into them when they come on.  I will need that mobility and protection if I am to get anything out of this. 

Chris deploys everything, leaving only the Seraphim in reserve.  I assume they have some kind of melta-threat, but I forget now.  It doesn’t matter, as you’ll see later. 

Sisters deployment. Objectives in the shot are shown with a red square. Memorise their location - there will be a quiz later

Turn 1 

Tau 

The Broadsides move back a bit to get better line of sight. 

The Pathfinders light up the nearest unit of normal Sisters, and the Farsight squad unloads on them.  They take more than 50% casualties and fall back, leaving the table on Turn 2 or 3.  Good start. 

The other two Crisis Squads (twin linked missile pods and missile pod/ plasma rifles) jump out and lay into another unit, causing a few casualties. 

The suits jump back behind terrain, out of line of sight.  Not that the Sisters have any weapons that could reach them on this Turn   I should have stayed forward. 

Sisters 

The falling back unit cannot rally and runs away some more.  One squad stays back on the Sister’s ‘home’ objective – they won’t move all game.  The other six squads(!) head out, moving and then running to close the distance.  They split up around the tree-lined pool (which has an objective in it), three going to my left and two going to my right.  The sixth doesn’t go far. 

No shooting. 

Turn 2 

Tau 

I bring on my Fusion suits using the Positional Relay, but without any armour to knock out I decide to keep them close to home.  I deep strike them on the opposite side of the table, so they can threaten the advancing squads and perhaps draw one of them away.  They scatter, but not much. 

I jump out again and do some more shooting, wiping out another squad of battle sisters.  I hit the Celestian unit in cover, but they trigger some pesky auto-Faith power and get their invulnerable saves off.  I kill three, but they make their morale check. 

My suits don’t jump back very far, hoping to get off some rapid-firing next Turn. 

Sisters 

The Seraphim decline to appear, citing unspecified nail-painting activities.  Their Sisters understand. 

The squads continue their advance.  There are two squads sitting at home, two moving for the objective just the other side of the blazing terrain feature my Broadsides are behind (one Celestian and one normal squad) and two moving around the tree-lined pool (again, one Celestian and one normal squad). 

Shooting?  No.  Running?  Yes. 

Turn 3 

Tau 

I bring on some Fire Warriors and run them into the waiting Fish.  Sit tight, little dudes, and try not to die. 

I move my Pathfinders and vehicle Gun Drones to screen the Broadsides. 

I shoot up the Canoness/ Celestian squad, as well as the Sisters sheltered beside that lovely, tree-lined pool.  It looked much nicer in the holiday brochure, that pool, before it was set on fire. 

Here is where I go a little mad.  Not much, but definitely enough to qualify for some care in the community.  Regular tournament players won’t comprehend this, but casual players might.  Satisfied with my results in Games 1 and 2, I decide to forgo jumping out, shooting and jumping back again (boring), and decide to throw caution to the wind and charge the Farsight squad and my Fireknives into combat.  Against a Celestian squad  

How did I fare?  Epically well – Farsight hit with all his attacks and slaughtered five Celestians himself, before… 

No. 

As little Jimmy Osmond (or was it Abraham Lincoln?  I get them mixed up) said – “I cannot tell a lie.”  It did not go well  

(It was Abraham Lincoln, wasn’t it?  I got an E for English at school, but I can always remember a Charles Dickens character.  He was the one who asked for more porridge, I think, but I digress.) 

The Celestian squad got off its automatic invulnerable faith power, but failed to get the S8 power.  Farsight failed to kill anyone, although with the mass of other attacks I did kill everyone bar the Canoness and the Veteran Superior and won combat.  The Eviscerators hurt, but that is what drones are for.  The Sisters were about to run screaming, but then the Canoness stopped to read from the good Book of St Lucius and they all reconsidered.  What book could possibly be so fascinating that the Sisters would stick around?  Must be something by Gok Wan.  I am not one for burning books, but I might make an exception in this case. 

And for anything by Dan Brown. 

Sisters 

The Seraphim are waving their fingernails frantically, but they just won’t dry in time, and they sit out this Turn as well.  Phew! 

The other Celestian/ Canoness squad hears the cries of their Sisters (more like laughter than cries, really) and plunge into the Farsight combat.  So does the unit of Sisters sheltering behind the tree-lined pool. 

Farsight loses combat by 4, fails Ld on a 6 and is destroyed by Sweeping Advance.  This is where that Failsafe Detonator would have come in very handy! 

Anyway, I got what I wanted – I charged Commander Farsight and did not (immediately) die   Good game. 

What, there’s more?  Two Turns more?  Oh, alright, then. 

That is pretty much game, and I am expecting to get pegged back to a single objective now, but that’s not quite what happens. 

The Fireknives were wiped out, too, also by Sweeping Advance.  Should probably mention that. 

The Canoness/ Celestian squad that charged in are largely unharmed, but of the squad Farsight charged only the wounded Canoness remains.  They both consolidate 1″, clearly laughing too hard to move any further.  The other Sisters squad consolidates back into cover – almost. 

Elsewhere in this Turn, the Sisters squad moves around the terrain piece to threaten my Broadsides.  I realise that, incredibly, my opponent is now short on squads and if I can pull them into an assault, I might get them away from that tall, Tau objective on Turn 5, leaving it unclaimed. 

Hmm. 

Turn 4 

Tau 

The second squad of Fire Warriors come on and run into the other Devilfish.  I now have two mobile scoring units, and two objectives close at hand.  I move one to within 3″ (keeping out of terrain), and move the other 6″ towards the second objective. 

My missile pod and suicide fusion crisis suits advance on the tree-lined pool, blasting away.

They kill the lone Canoness and make their assault moves forward.  I am not particularly hopeful of contesting this objective, as Chris has another Sisters squad sitting deeper in his deployment zone, and he will undoubtedly move them up to assist the wounded one already on it. 

That means I only have one other objective where I can make a difference – the one near the Broadsides.  I move the two pathfinders and the gun drones up to block them.

Sisters 

The Seraphim arrive! 

And mishap! 

And I get to place them! 

In the furthest corner of the table! 

Nice nails, girls. 

The two Sisters squads in the middle of the table throng about the tree-lined pool.  I am not getting that objective.  They shoot at the fusion suits, and kill one.  The other one fails morale and runs 10″ towards my long table edge. 

The Canoness/ Celestian squad makes mincemeat of my Pathfinders and consolidates towards the nearest Devilfish.

The Sisters squad nearest my Broadsides heavy flamers my Pathfinders and Gun Drones, killing two of the former and one of the latter.  The Pathfinders run away, but the Gun Drone sticks it out.  

Turn 5 

Tau 

The fusion suit fails to rally and runs right off the table. 

I move the Devilfish to within 3″ of the second objective, again able to keep out of terrain thanks to objective placement. 

My missile pod suits shoot up the Sisters By The Pool and try and assault, but fall short.  The other vehicle gun drones make it into assault, but due to assaulting into terrain they go at I1 and are killed before getting to strike.  The Sisters By The Pool consolidate back to claim their objective (although the other squad was already claiming it). 

I assault the Sisters squad nearest my Broadside with a single Gun Drone.  It does nothing to the Sisters, but it does pull them away from the objective.  Predictably, they kill it with their attacks back, and- 

Actually, they don’t   I make four 4+ armour saves and the plucky Drone lives!  The Veteran Superior with the Eviscerator was lingering beside the objective and even with her Defenders React move, could not get engaged with the drone.  Combat is drawn.  The Sisters make a pile in move, getting even further from that objective. 

Sisters 

The Canoness/ Celestian squad move up and melta the Devilfish nearest them.  It explodes.  I take four casualties, but pass my pinning check.  Since I get to place my models anywhere the destroyed vehicle was, I place them within 3″ of the objective. 

Since my two Fire Warriors are now in difficult terrain (check the rulebook) my opponent has to assault them through cover, and he only gets 3″ on 2D6, failing to reach them!  He is also more than 3″ away from the objective. 

The other combat resolves with the Gun Drone dying heroically, and the Sisters get a measly 2″ consolidation. 

Chris rolls, and the game ends on a 2. 

Result: I claim two objectives, and Chris claims two, with the fifth one being unclaimed by either side.  Draw.  I lose quite a lot of VP, though. 

Commentary:  I had set myself up to lose this game when I decided to have some fun and charge Farsight in, so getting away with a draw felt like a win in the circumstances.  Chris was another amazingly sporting and generous opponent, knowledgeable about his army and always willing to explain things, and I hope the game was as much fun for him as it was for me.

I got a game at G3 last night against Kevin, who sportingly agreed to play my own Tau against my new Deathwing.  Kevin has played Tau before, but didn’t have an army with him at the club, so he used mine.

Kevin’s Farsight list was the same one I played at [elg] Counter Attack, as I had a copy of the army list with me.  We shrunk the Pathfinders down to one squad of eight, and gave their Devilfish to one of the units of Fire Warriors.

Yes, that’s a lot of plasma

I quickly wrote up a 1750 list:-

• Master of the Deathwing, Belial (170)
• Interrogator Chaplain Imamiah in Terminator Armour (145)
• Squad Agares (5 Deathwing Terminators w/ 5 Paired Lightning Claws, Deathwing Banner and a Cyclone Launcher) (260)
• Squad Butator (5 Deathwing Terminators w/ 5 Paired Lightning Claws) (215)
• Squad Carnivean (5 Deathwing Terminators w/ Assault Cannon and Sergeant with power sword) (245)
• Squad Dominus (5 Deathwing Terminators w/ Heavy Flamer and Sergeant with power sword (220)
• Venerable Dreadnought Zekiel, Extra Armour, Assault Cannon (160)
• Venerable Dreadnought Kaelen, Extra Armour, Multi Melta (160)
• Venerable Dreadnought Torquaret, Extra Armour, Multi Melta (160)

Total: 1735pts

Could probably upgrade Imamiah with a combi-weapon, and then take something else for 10 points, but I left it at that.

This isn’t a full batrep at all, just some thoughts on the armies, but here is a photo:-

The Three Dreadnoughts are at the left of the picture, just ahead of my objective. The Chaplain and Squad Butator have just deep struck towards the top of the picture, and Belial with Squad Agares have just arrived towards the bottom.

The game ended on Turn 5 with me all but wiping out the Tau (one empty Devilfish left).  I only had one squad of Terminators left, along with Belial and the Chaplain on one wound apiece and all three Dreadnoughts, although one of them was immobilised.

I had expected to lose badly given the amount of plasma the Tau had (which is how the last time I played vs the Deathwing went), but this game showed a few things:-

1. Sometimes the dice do odd things.  Kevin’s rolls all game were just poor, and I made an ungodly number of 5+ invulnerable saves on the Chaplain Squad in Turn 1.  Kevin is actually an excellent player, and beats me in Malifaux easily.  Bad luck was a big factor, here.
2. Screening and castling are vitally important.  Here, I would have used the Pathfinders and the empty Devilfish to push the initial deep strikes back, castling up behind them.  After that, I would have picked a side and moved in that direction, taking on only one of the deepstriking units at a time and leaving the other to footslog, probably through terrain.  I would have screened with the Pathfinders, Gun Drones and with the missile pod suits and Broadsides if necessary.  The Dreadnoughts were not serious threats until Turn 4, and I would have focused fire on the one guarding my home objective to try and wreck it.  The Fire Warriors would have loaded up in the Devilfish and moved to a flank from where they could threaten either objective, while the suits fell back from my home objective and shot anything that got near it (or them).  I would also have started with my fusion suits on the table, since you know the enemy is coming to you on Turn 1.
3. A single Chaplain on the charge can kill the entire Farsight squad.  Farsight lost by 2 wounds and ran off the table   Lesson: keep Farsight away from table edges (I do this anyway) and give him a Failsafe Detonator.  The point of the FD is not to kill the enemy, but to automatically avoid sweeping advance.
4. Wound allocation on my squads needs to be improved.  I have bought some plastic chain fists, so every squad will get one.  That will help.  Running all-lightning claw units looks cool, but they are too mono-purpose, and need variety.  1 x dual lightning claw, 1 x dual lightning claw with a Deathwing banner, 1 x dual lightning claw with a Cyclone missile launcher, 1 x powerfist and storm bolter and 1 x chainfist and storm bolter should do the job.  Plus either Belial or the Chaplain.
5. Deathwing tread a very fine line between success and failure.  I could have taken fewer Dreadnoughts, but I love them, so I only had four Troops units.  I had a plan to deepstrike the last one to come in, Squad Dominus, on my home objective, but changed my mind since the Turn before they arrived, I only had a single Troop model left on the table (the asscannon bearer from Squad Carnivean).  There was no point trying to assault the enemy objective with one model, so I tried to hussle his asscannon back to my deployment zone.  I thought I would be cute and assault into the fusion suits and consolidate off them to get an extra D6″, but Kevin is no fool. He allocated all his attacks to that one model, killing him.  I wound up with no Troops left, and so had to throw Squad Dominus at the enemy, leaving my home objective unclaimed and potentially at risk.
6. It is not pure Deathwing, but I can see how some Inquisitorial Stormtroopers would be handy to have.  An Inquisitor or Grey Knight Hero with a homer could be handy as well, to bring the other squads in without scatter.  A Hood and a Null Rod would be nice for anti-psyker defence.  I need to decide if I want to do pure Deathwing or not.
7. Dangerous Terrain tests are a price worth paying to deepstrike close enough to the enemy to assault next Turn.
8. Hitting on a 3+ makes a massive difference when you are used to a 4+.  Space Marines really have it easy
9. Venerable plus Extra Armour is huge.  Add that to old-style Smoke Launchers and these Dreadnoughts will most likely just be Shaken, no matter what is hitting them at range.  Also, I forgot about their storm bolters, as well as the Chaplain’s.

I didn’t expect to win and given Kevin’s very poor rolling won’t read too much into the fact I did, but it did offer me a very useful perspective on my Farsight list.  Lots to think about.

Farsight fends off the ravening hordes of the Hive Mind

Game 1 is here, along with details of my list, but you’re not here for boring old Game 1 (although it wasn’t boring in the least)!  You want Game 2 – the one where I killed Deathleaper three times

Game 2

I have played new codex Tyranids exactly once, and that was in a Battle Missions scenario with a Shadowsun list.  This was a full 1750 points of new Nids, but I felt good about this game.

Why?

Because of the Special Rule “War Without End”, which lets you place any destroyed, non-vehicle unit back into reserve.   This screws over mech forces, of course, who lose their tanks and transports, while the soft contents have to walk back on the table.  I have only two vehicles (the Devilfish) and my nifty piece of Tau wargear that lets me bring in any one unit in reserve on a 2+.  Lose the Broadsides?  Never mind – they’ll be back next Turn!

Of course, the only army I would fear to face in this mission would be one loaded with Monstrous Creatures.   Like, say, a Tyranid army.

Eek!

Tim’s army was:-

• Tyranid Prime with shooty weapon
• 24 Termagants w/ Spinefists
• 4 Warriors with shooty weapons, inc one venom cannon
• 5 Genestealers
• 3 Zoanthropes
• 2 Hive Guard
• Deathleaper
• 6 Ravenors
• 10 Gargoyles
• Old One Eye
• Trygon Prime

Tim's Tyranids.

 Fortunately for me, only a couple of MCs that would recycle.

Mission:  Annihilation, Dawn of War

We chatted about the terrain, agreeing it was all area terrain with a 4+ cover save.  Oddly enough, this was the only table I played on today where my army was not perfectly camouflaged by the prevailing colour scheme.  That means – nothing, really, but there it is.  We rolled and Tim won the roll-off, choosing to go first.  Now I think about it, I didn’t win the roll for first Turn all day.  That, too, means exactly nothing.

Tim deployed the unit of Termagants, the Warriors and the Tyranid Prime, all on the 24″ line.  He keeps the Trygon, Genestealers, Deathleaper, Ravenors and Gargoyles in reserve, opting to deep strike with them all except for the Genestealers, who will outflank.

The warriors are just behind those pipes.

There they are. That's all area terrain, by the way.

I deployed nothing, since all I would do is give him something to shoot at and an area of my deployment zone to aim his advance towards.  As in Game 1, I kept the two units of Fire Warriors and the Fusion suits in reserve, opting to deepstrike the latter.

Deathleaper reduces Farsight’s Ld by 1, to 9.

Turn 1

Tyranids

The Gants and Warriors advance into my half of the table.  The Hive Guard, Zoanthropes and Old One Eye walk on and run.

Nothing to shoot at.

Tau

Old One Eye is in the middle, but the Hive Guard are out on the left and the Zoanthropes are on the right.  Do I fear 4 S8 24″ range shots that ignore cover more than I fear 3 S10 18″ range shots?  I decide that fewer shots at lesser range is the best one to face, and opt to deploy on the right, with the option to swing left if I need to.  It means if I do swing left I will abandon the Broadsides, but they are a good lure, only a single KP and I get them back anyway!

I decide to deploy the two Devilfish in the middle of the table, to guard my left flank.  I need them to block the Gants, and their flechette dischargers just happen to come up in conversation!

Everything of mine not in reserve walks on, everyone makes their Night Fight tests and blasts away at the Warrior/ Prime squad, killing them all.

Assault and running moves ensure that the Broadsides are camped in a corner with the Pathfinders in front of them, and that Farsight is surrounded by the two other Crisis Suit squads.

Turn 2

Tyranids

Only Deathleaper and the Trygon turn up from reserves.  Deathleaper pops up in the area terrain just ahead of me, while the Trygon aims for my right flank and scatters almost to the short edge of the table.

This is great for me, as he has taken the lure of the Broadsides.  His tunnel will be at the extreme right of the table, meaning I can now move left, away from his reserves.  He will be chasing me along my long table edge, so my own reserves can come on and shoot immediately.

The Gants make their Ld check and move then run towards my two Devilfish.

The Trygon shoots at the Broadsides and Deathleaper shoots at Farsight, both doing nothing.

The Zoanthropes move up and take a shot at my Farsight unit, but do no damage/ I lose a single gun drone – cannot recall exactly.

Tau

I bring the Fusion suits in, opting to place them near the Trygon to help kill it.  Sadly, despite the Devilfish’s reroll, they scatter into the Trygon and mishap.  Tim places them on his long table edge.

I tank shock with both Devilfish, pushing the Gants 12″ backwards, and blocking them between two pieces of area terrain.  They are now in range of synapse, so no morale check.

The gun drones detach to form blocking units, although given this is a KP mission I should have kept them safe.

Shooting (and markerlights) are focused on the Trygon and wipes it out.  Then I take out Deathleaper.

In assault moves, I shift left, but nowhere near as much as I had intended to.  Not sure why.  I certainly didn’t fear Old One Eye, as I was confident I could take him out whenever he became a threat.

Turn 3

Tyranids

Tyranid reserve rolls are poor.  The Tyranid Prime and his Warriors come on, opting to use the Trygon’s tunnel (although now I think about it, only one unit per Turn can use the tunnel).

Deathleaper pops back up in the same piece of terrain.  Is there no killing this guy?  Yes, yes there is   (We later agreed that based on the scenario rules, Deathleaper should have walked on rather than deep striking, but no matter)

Old One Eye moves up.

The Zoanthropes move up and wreck the Devilfish on the right.

The Warrior/ Prime unit wipes out my missile pod suits with shooting.

Tau

I bring my missile pod suits back on 2+ with the positional relay.  My Fire Warriors remain safe in reserve.

I shuffle left, keeping within rapid fire range of the warriors, although leaving my Broadsides and Pathfinders to their fate.  I let fly.  I do a lot of wounds, but the dice are agin me this Turn and I leave the Prime and two warriors alive, although on 1 or 2 wounds each.

I decide not to spend all my shooting on them, and kill Deathleaper again

Assault moves see all my crisis suits moving left with gun drones and the non-Farsight crisis suits screening Farsight.

Turn 4

Tyranids

The ground trembles and the Trygon Prime’s twin brother appears out of the same hole his dead sibling left.  The Genestealers also come on, outflanking on my right, although they have to pass behind the Trygon.

The Gants move into the terrain to the left of the Devilfish.

The Raveners deepstrike, scattering into the wrecked Devilfish.  Dangerous terrain takes one wound off one of them.

Having discussed the mission-specific War Without End rule, Deathleaper walks on, and then promptly uses his special rule to jump back into reserve, allowing him to deepstrike on Turn 5.

Yes, the Hive Guard have done nothing yet.  Not sure why, as Tim has been moving them up and they have been in range for two Turns.

In shooting, it turns out the Raveners have guns!  Ouch.  They don’t do much, though.

The Trygon shoots at my Broadsides, killing a shield drone. The Zoanthropes shoot up the other Devilfish, and it explodes.  The blast only goes 1″, killing a single Gant.  Boo!  The Warriors and Genestealers line up assaults on the Pathfinders.

The Warriors and Genestealers charge the Pathfinders, but the Trygon cannot get past to reach the Broadsides – the rulebook reminding us that “Defenders React” moves are made after all charge moves have been made.  If you run screening units in your army, this rule is golden!

Incredibly, two Pathfinders survive and make morale checks on a 4!  Now, if you don’t play Tau, you will think this is good.  If you do play Tau, you will know that the Pathfinder’s job was to die, so that I could shoot at the assaulting units in my Turn.  Farsight clearly instils too great a sense of epic heroism in his men

Tau

I opt not to use the Positional Relay, and get both units of Fire Warriors on.  I move them up 6″ to the left of all my crisis suits, forming a line ahead of the Gants.  Yes – another assault screen!

I move left, behind the screen, keeping my missile pod suits as a screen to my right for when the genestealers and warriors are done with my brave Pathfinders.

In shooting, I take out Old One Eye, who was getting too close for comfort.  The Trygon is no longer a threat, other than to my Broadsides, who are dead anyway.

Farsight’s unit lets fly on the Gants, although their cover saves keep them from dying.  I won’t get that KP without another full Turn of shooting.  They do wind up pinned, though.

Assault moves see me go left, again.  The Pathfinders fall and the Genestealers and Warriors consolidate in my general direction.

Turn 5

The clock is ticking, and we agree that we can only fit in a Turn 5 and then the game will be up.  It could still go either way at this point.

Tyranids

Old One Eye pops out of the Trygon’s magic tunnel, the Gargoyles deepstrike way off to the left, past my lefthandmost unit of Fire Warriors.

Deathleaper pops up yet again in that same damned piece of terrain!

It’s great playing Tau, I remark at this point, as all the action ends up happening on the Tau side of the table.  I never have to get off my lazy arse and walk round to the other side!

The Hive Guard and Zoanthropes move up.

The Ravenors move down off the wrecked Devilfish (taking another wound in the process).

They shoot into my Fire Warriors and then assault them and a unit of gun drones, wiping both out.  They consolidate back into the wrecked Devilfish.

The Gargoyles shoot up my other squad of Fire Warriors, but only one fails his save.

Deathleaper yet again fails to do anything.  He knows what’s coming.  The weight of his doom settles on his insectile mind…

The Genestealers assault into my missile pod suits, killing two.

The remaining suit holds, protecting the KP.  The warriors and Trygon shoot and assault into the Broadsides, killing them.

Tau

I cannot remember when, but either the Zoanthropes or the Hive Guard killed my fusion team.  I get them back, along with the Broadsides, Pathfinders and Fire Warriors.  The gun drones do not recycle, according to the mission rules, as they were part of a vehicle at deployment.

I go for the easy KPs, knowing that the game is ending here.  I kill the wounded Warriors and the Prime again, and I make a concerted effort to kill Deathleaper again, blasting him to dust and ashes for the third time   I nearly claim the Hive Guard, but poor dice rolls let one of them live on.

The game ends, and we are both grinning like idiots!

Result: 9KP each, although I had double his VP.  Draw.

Commentary:  With the War Without End rule, this mission was an absolute hoot.  Neither of us cared much about losing units since we just got them back.  Sure, this distracted me from the KP mission but when you’re having this much fun it’s excusable.  What’s that Mr Farsight?  It’s not excusable?  Right.  Sorry.  Of course.

Other than not protecting my weakest KPs (gun drones, pathfinders and Fire Warriors), I didn’t make any real mistakes here.  Deployment and target priority were sound.  If I had let Farsight get assaulted in Turn 5 by the Ravenors, he would almost certainly have run off the table and come right back on to shoot again, saving me at least one KP.  Running a legal list(!) with only 1 Pathfinder unit would also have saved me a KP!  See, kids, cheats don’t prosper

After this game it was a short break and then straight into Game 3.  60+ power armoured models – a horde Sisters army packed with meltas, flamers and faith points.  Coming right up

Just got back from the Counter Attack tournament in Edinburgh.  My most successful tournament so far, in that I didn’t lose a single game.  Didn’t win one either

Short version:  Three great games against great, smart and very sporting opponents.  Farsight got to charge into glorious combat and slap some Sisters of Battle around with his impressive Dawn Blade – and didn’t immediately die.

Long Version:  yeah, it’s long.

The Event

1750 points, 3 games and some special rules to liven up the competition.

I was at this event last year with a different list, and you can see my batreps here and here.

My Army

I took my Farsight list.  Why Farsight?  Well, I have done a regular Tau army and a Shadowsun army and I wanted to try the only other Independant Character in the Tau codex.  What’s that?  Aun’va?  I can’t hear you. Aun who? La, la, la, I can’t hear you.

It gave me a great opportunity to model and paint Farsight himself, and I was pretty pleased with the result (even though it meant staying up to 1.30am on a work night to get him finished).  My philosophy in making the list was to make it as competitive as I could, while keeping it true to the Farsight ideal of Crisis Suits in a Crisis Suit sauce with a side helping of Crisis Suits.

Just to be clear, I know this is not the best list Tau can field, but that is not my aim as a gamer today.  I just wanted the best Farsight list.

The full list is here (Word doc), and the simple version is:-

• Farsight, with a 5 Crisis Suit retinue, 4 plasma rifles, 4 missile pods, fusion blaster, AFP, 5 gun drones, 2 shield drones, a couple of target locks and a positional relay.
• Squad of 3 Fireknives (plasma and missile pods)
• Squad of 3 Deathrains (twin linked missile pods and flamers)
• Squad of 2 Sunforges (twin linked fusion blasters)
• 2 x squads of 6 Fire Warriors
• 2 x squads of 4 Pathfinders with Devilfish, disruption pods and flechette dischargers
• 3 x Broadsides with stabilisation systems and 2 shield drones

Commentary: too many suits, not enough Troops or screening units, no Piranhas and not enough rail guns.  Everything was sacrificed for more crisis suits

I also made some changes for the missions.  I will discuss those as the missions come up.  The positional relay is there to keep my Fire Warriors in reserve and out of harm’s way, and also to allow me to manipulate when my deep striking fusion blaster teams comes in – I can bring them in on Turns 2-4, my choice, and always on a 2+.

There were around 14 other players there, and I will stick up a post with photos of all their armies.

The only soft score was 5 points for a painted army, and nil for an army with any unpainted models.  You couldn’t get anything in between – it was all or nothing, so it didn’t affect the overall results if you didn’t let it (ie. if you bothered to paint your army).  Good mechanic.

Game 1

Mission:  Capture and Control, Pitched Battle

I was drawn against James and his Eldar.  His list was:-

• Farseer withSpear, Runes, Doom and Fortune;
• 2 x Dire Avengers w/ Exarch, Defend and Bladestorm;
• 1 x Dire Avengers w/ Exarch, Defend and Bladestorm in a Wave Serpent;
• Banshees w/ Exarch, War Shout in a Wave Serpent;
• Fire Dragons w/ Exarch in a Wave Serpent
• Fire Dragons w/ Exarch
• Falcon w/ Engines, Holo Fields and Shuriken Cannon

We discussed terrain and each other’s lists, and he won the roll, letting me go first. I placed my objective behind a building to my right (mistake #1) and James put his in a building in the centre of his deployment.

I deployed everything bar the deep striking fusion suits and the Fire Warriors.

Farsight deploys his forces, squaring off against the deadly Eldar Dice Avengers. Sorry - Dire Avengers.

James deployed his two foot units of Dire Avengers behind the building with his objective in, and out of line of sight.  Everything else stayed in reserve.

The Eldar, hiding.

I scouted my Pathfinders forward into some marshy terrain, giving them some cover.

Turn 1

Tau

I stayed where I was.

Eldar

He stayed where he was.  Exciting, huh?

Turn 2

Tau

I used the positional relay to bring in a unit of Fire Warriors, who walked on and moved behind a building near my objective.  I should have put them in a Devilfish, which was the plan.  Mistake #2.

Eldar

Nothing came on!  He stayed where he was.

Turn 3

Tau

I used the positional relay to bring the second unit of Fire Warriors on, as this let me keep the deep striking fusion unit in reserve for when the Eldar skimmers turned up.  They joined the other Fire Warriors near my objective, although I did remember to run them to put them in the Devilfish.

My crisis suits moved up to the centre of the table, with one of Farsight’s retinue taking a wound from jumping into terrain.  This is where my mistake with objective placement became obvious, as moving up in this way meant that there was lots of cover on my right flank that anyone approaching my objective could use to hide in.  If the objective had been in the middle of my deployment at the back, the Eldar would have had no cover and a longer way to go to reach it.

Eldar

Only one reserve unit came on(!), the Falcon with the Fire Dragons in it.  It zoomed 36″ straight across the table, hiding near my objective behind the buildings.

Turn 4

Tau

I used the pos relay to bring the crisis suit fusion squad down behind the Falcon, although I had to use the Devilfish’s ability to re-roll their deep strike – handy.  With no Holo Fields at the rear of Eldar vehicles I hit twice and penetrated twice, immobilising and stunning the Falcon.

Crisis missile team on the left. One squad of Fire Warriors on foot, and the other inside that Devilfish.

Then my missile pod suits jumped out, shot the pulse laser off, and jumped back into hiding.

The Devilfish on the left moves up 12″.  Why I didn’t put a squad of Fire Warriors in it I don’t know – opening game jitters probably.

That Devilfish on the left should have some Fire Warriors in it.

Eldar

All the remaining reserves come on, zooming up after the crippled Falcon.

The Fire Dragons disembark the Falcon and kill the fusion crisis squad (as expected).

Turn 5

Tau

The Devilfish advances on the enemy objective.  A squad of vehicle gun drones and my Fireknives also advance on the Dire Avengers hiding in the back.

"Shas'la! Pay no attention to the giant Eldar Finger of Doom!"

Time to see what I can do to these Eldar skimmers!

Farsight’s squad shuffles around, getting plasma and missile pods near the skimmers on my right, and advancing the AFP-wielder towards the Eldar objective.  He drops his large template on both squads, causing several casualties.  Farsight takes a wound leaving difficult terrain.

The broadsides start moving over to my objective.

Shooting is pretty good.  Despite the tricksy Eldar wargear (Energy Field) reducing my railguns to S8, I explode the Wave Serpents with the Dire Avengers and with the Farseer/ Howling Banshees in them, then shoot at the remnants, causing more casualties.  In fact, the Dire Avengers are reduce to four, and all the Banshees bar the Exarch are wiped out.  No-one fails morale or is pinned, though, but you can see why the Eldar stayed off table for so long!

KA-BOOOM! The Dire Avengers and the Farseer/ Banshee Exarch are left in the ruins of their transports. Eldar wargear? I've heard it can be pretty good

And that is without Pathfinders (they couldn’t get line of sight), although James couldn’t make a cover save for trying.

The Fire Warriors on foot shoot at the Fire Dragons, killing one.

A shot from the Eldar side of the table. You can see a lone crisis suit from Farsight's retinue has got too close to those Dire Avengers at the left. The Devilfish, gun drones and Fireknives should be blocking the assault.

Eldar

The Farseer Dooms Farsight and Fortunes the Banshees.

The last remaining Wave Serpent jumps up on top of the building near my objective and the Fire Dragons pile out.

The Farseer and Exarch are just hiding behind that building on the right. You can just see a bit of banshee poking out. Here comes the shooting...

They explode my Devilfish, killing four of the Fire Warriors inside.

The Dire Avengers from the exploded Wave Serpent scale a building and bladestorm my missile pod Crisis Suits, but fail to kill any.

The Farseer and Banshees round the other building and assault into my squad of Fire Warriors that just shot up the Fire Dragons.  All the Fire Warriors die and the Farseer and Banshees consolidate back out of line of sight.

The Fire Dragons from the immobilised Falcon advance and shoot up the Broadsides, killing a drone.   You can see how valuable drones on Broadside squads are – five meltas and a supa-melta from the Autarch, and afterwards there is no reduction in firepower for the Broadside squad

At the other side of the table, the large squad of Dire Avengers bladestorms the Doomed Farsight squad, killing the AFP suit and a few drones.

Here come the Dire Avengers.

They assault.  Doom works its magic and despite Farsight killing two of the Eldar, he loses combat by two and fails his Leadership roll.  The sweeping advance cuts him and his squad down, and the Dire Avengers consolidate a few inches back towards their objective.

All gone. 638 points, just like that! Lesson learned.

Not a very glorious first blooding for Farsight, but at least he took a couple of them with him!  In all seriousness, although Dire Avengers are not a specialist close combat squad, the combination of Doom, Bladestorm, Defend and a mass charge did tip the balance.  I should have protected Farsight from assault with the drones and Fireknives – a lesson I remembered for Game 2.

We roll, and the game continues.

Turn 6

Tau

The Pathfinders finally have a target and they light up the last remaining Wave Serpent.  Why?  Because the entire squad of disembarked Fire Dragons is within 1″ of the hull   The Broadsides hit with all three shots and explode it, killing a few of the Fire Dragons, although not many.

Stupidly, I ignore the four Dire Avengers, forgetting that they are the only enemy Troops near my objective!  For some reason, I had thought Banshees and Fire Dragons were Troops   Mistake #301.

The missile pod suits fire at the other Fire Dragon squad (the one on the ground) and try to assault, but fall short.

The gun drones behind the building assault the Dire Avengers, and kill one before dying themselves.  This turns out to be a critical move on my part – only three DAs left.

Only two Fire Warriors left, but the Fire Dragons are contesting. You can see the Dire Avengers hiding behind the building on the left, pulled back by the Gun Drones' assault. Hey - where did that Wave Serpent on top of the other building go?

At the other end of the table, the Devilfish scoots up onto the building with the Eldar objective in it – I am now contesting.  The Fish makes its dangerous terrain roll.  My gun drones jump up next to the objective, and I lose one to a dangerous terrain roll – Farsight needs to reprogram their AI!  My Fireknives shoot up the Dire Avengers who killed Farsight, forcing them to fall back.  They fall back 9″, but remain within assault range.  For some reason I assault them.  I cannot remember why, as I am sure they were below half strength, and would have run off the table.  Stupid.  I win, but the DAs hold.  Mistake # bazillion-ty one.

See that lone gun drone? He's tough, that one.

Eldar

The Dire Avengers move up into the building near my objective, while the Fire Dragons in the same building move forward.  The Fire Dragons on the ground move up.

Everything shoots at either my missile pod suits or my last two Fire Warriors, killing the latter and forcing the former to fail morale and run off the table in one go.  I was hoping they would ignore my broadsides, since if anyone is tough enough to hold the objective, it is them, and they are within 3″ of it to contest.

Watch those three Dire Avengers closely. I am about to make them disappear, too. With large rods of superdense metal propelled at a fraction of light speed. To the head.

At the Eldar objective, the last Dire Avenger squad charges into the ongoing combat, also multicharging the gun drone in the building.  I take some wounds and do some back, and although I lose by two, both squads make their morale checks and hold.  The gun drone survives the charge!

Told you he was tough!

We get a Turn 7.

Turn 7

Tau

It is at this point my  opponent demonstrates true sportsmanship.  He points out that his three Dire Avengers are the only Troops near my objective.  What a gent!   Both squads of Pathfinders light up the Dire Avengers, stripping their cover save and boosting the Broadside’s BS.  I go for railguns – three shots and I need three kills.  I roll, and don’t roll any ones, and the three DAs are vaporised (along with a large chunk of the building, I imagine).

Man, I love Broadsides

At the enemy objective the Devilfish tries to move around to get its rear end away from the DA weapons (should they win the combat), but fails its dangerous terrain roll and is immobilised.  It is no longer contesting…  My squads hold in combat, taking more wounds on the crisis suits, but staying in there and slowly whittling the DAs down.  The gun drone makes all its saves, and even kills a DA!

Eldar

The action at my objective is moot now, as no-one can claim it.  Everything shoots at the Broadsides.  The Farseer and building Fire Dragons try to assault, but fail.  The Banshee Exarch and foot Dragons assault, but the Broadsides hold.

At the Eldar objective the combat continues, but ends in a draw.  My heroic gun drone survives yet again (did I shout “For The Greater Good!”?  Of course I did ), and the game ends.

Result: As neither side claimed any objectives,  the game was a draw.  The Eldar won 1500 VPs and I took 950.

My mistakes should have cost me the game, but some lucky rolls and some decent moves towards the end helped.  James’ very sporting reminder that only DAs were Troops also made a massive difference.

Commentary:  Here’s what I should have done.  The objective placement wasn’t bad – if I had known what to do with it – as it tempted the Eldar to overwhelm it with their own forces.  I remember reading one of Old Shatter Hands’ batreps where he does exactly this, and I found myself – around Turn 4 – wishing I had remembered it earlier.  If I had kept my Fire Warriors mobile and nearer the centre of the table, I could have waited for the Eldar assault, destroyed their mobility and their lone DA squad, stopping them claiming my home objective while I scooted up the table and claimed the lightly defended Eldar objective.  I should also have protected Farsight’s squad from assault.

Opening game jitters always make me make mistakes.  I doubt regular players get them, but I don’t play anywhere near enough 40k to get comfortable with what I need to do, and it is usually only by Game 2 that I am up and running.

Batreps for Games 2 & 3 later today, along with some thoughts on ther tournament itself.

Apologies for the shoddy cameraphone image, although you can click to embiggenate. You can see the Eldar Striking Scorpions and the remnants of the Swooping Hawks in the lower left hand corner. They assaulted into the pinned Deathrain unit and wiped it out - I had forgotten about the outflanking Scorpions; rookie mistake.

Eldar Turn 3 of my test game with my tweaked Farsight army.  We didn’t get to finish the game, but it wasn’t looking good for the Eldar.

This is the list I plan to run with at the [ELG] tournament on the something-th of August.  It is not competitive, but I have tried to make the best of a bad lot, as well as make it themed around battlesuits.

The main reason it is not competitive is Farsight who, as my HQ, stops me taking Kroot, or more than one of Piranhas, Hammerheads or Broadsides.  Oh, look – I just named four of the five good units in the Tau Codex

So I am left with beaucoup battlesuits (the fifth good unit, in case you were wondering) as an only option and thus as a theme.

Farsight is my Deathstar unit/ distraction force and will always start on the table.  With six battlesuits and seven drones in a single unit, it will be pretty big on the table, pump out massive firepower (which can be split), take on literally anything in the game and leverage the most benefit from markerlight hits.

It will thus be the focus of my opponents’ fire and they will be falling over themselves to lock it in combat and stop it shooting at them.  I want them to shoot at it, since I can take 15 unsaved wounds before I lose a single battlesuit, and every shot at Farsight is one less shot at my Troops, but I don’t want to get locked in assault.

I need screening and, without Kroot, that job falls to two Devilfish. I give them flechette dischargers to make opponents think twice before assaulting them (Dark Gods of the Dice, please send me some incurious ork players who don’t ask about wargear…) but they are unlikely to last too long.  Fair enough – if I cannot shoot the assaulters to death or uselessness by Turn 2/3 I am done for anyway.

Shooting starts with the pathfinders, who light up the most important target – probably a transport.  Then the broadsides shoot it.

More shooting is provided by three units of Crisis Suits.  The plasma/ missile unit is second only to the Farsight one in terms of firepower, and can make short work of anything.  The twin-linked missile unit is there to put down transports and MCs, with flamers there simply as the cheapest compulsory third choice (I don’t expect to use them).  The third unit is a two-man deepstriking unit.  With only three railguns on the table, if someone brings landraiders I am toast.  Crispy, Tau toast.  Close-range melta guns are my only other option.  I can get that with a Piranha, which is also good for blocking enemy advances, but I am going with battlesuits as a theme.  That sound is the sound of my inner fluff-bunny clapping with delight  That means fusion blasters on crisis suits, which these two guys have, twin-linked since they will get one shot before they both die and I want them to hit what they aim at.  Using the positional relay in the Farsight squad I can keep these two guys in reserve and bring them in on a 2+ on Turn 2.  Of course, I will roll a 1, but let’s pretend I don’t. The pathfinder’s Devilfish (if it is still around) grants me a re-roll on their deepstrike, helping put them both in the right place.  The target lock lets the two-man unit fire at two separate targets if need be, and hopefully I can blow me up some heavy armour on Turn 2.

Lastly, I have some Fire Warriors.  The positional relay lets me keep them safe in reserve, bringing one in on Turn 3 on a 2+ and the other in on Turn 4 on a 2+.  Hopefully by Turn 3 I have eliminated anything that might scare my Fire Warriors too badly.  If I am really lucky, they will be running onto the board and straight into waiting Devilfish.

And that’s it.  If it goes well, it might just work, but there are many ways in which I can be completely overrun on Turn 2 and wiped off the table.  It’s fun being Tau

Any thoughts?

Farsight Army 1750pts

HQ

Farsight (170)

Bodyguard:

Crisis Suit (35), Plasma Rifle (20), Missile Pod (12), HW Multi Tracker (5), Black Sun Filter (3), HWDC (0), 1 Gun Drone (10),Positional Relay (15)

Crisis Suit (35), Plasma Rifle (20), Missile Pod (12), Multi Tracker (5), HWDC (0), 1 Gun Drone (10)

Crisis Suit (35), Airbursting Fragmentation Projector (20), Missile Pod (12), Multi Tracker (5), HWDC (0), 1 Shield Drone (15), 1 Gun Drone (10), Target Lock (5)

Crisis Suit (35), Plasma Rifle (20), Missile Pod (12), Multi Tracker (5), HWDC (0), 1 Shield Drone (15), 1 Gun Drone (10)

Crisis Suit (35), Plasma Rifle (20), Fusion Blaster (12), Multi Tracker (5), HWDC (0), 1 Gun Drone (10), Target Lock (5)

Total: 638

ELITES

3 Crisis Suits (25), TL Missile Pods (18), Flamer (4)

   Total: 141

3 Crisis Suits (25), Plasma Rifle (20), Missile Pods (12), Multitracker (5)

   Total: 186

2 Crisis Suits (25)

TL Fusion Blasters (18), Flamer (4)

TL Fusion Blasters (18), Target Lock (5)

   Total: 95

TROOPS
6 Fire Warriors (10)

   Total: 60

6 Fire Warriors (10)

Devilfish (80), Disruption Pod (5), Flechette Dischargers (10)

   Total: 155

FAST ATTACK

8 Pathfinders (12)

Devilfish (80), Disruption Pod (5), Flechette Dischargers (10)

   Total: 191

HEAVY SUPPORT

3 Broadsides (70) w/ Advanced Stabilisation Systems (10)

Team Leader (5), with HW Drone Controller (0), 2 Shield Drones (30) and HW Target Lock (5) and HW Black Sun Filter (3)

   Total: 283

Total: 1749pts

In the game vs Eldar, (Seize Ground, 3 Objectives, Dawn of War), I won the roll and went second, deploying nothing.  With the aid of the BS Filters and Acute Senses, I walked on and managed to kill the Avatar on Turn 1.  After that the units performed as I expected them to, reacting to the enemy’s offensive in Turn 2 (deepstriking and outflanking units came on, and I shot them up) and then going on the offensive myself in Turn 3, with Farsight leading the way.

The deepstriking Fusion Squad (you can see them in the photo above, taken just before I started my Turn 3) came in, scattered safely and wiped out two Vypers with their fusion guns.  I can see me needing these for the third [ELG] mission, where area terrain completely blocks LOS.  Indirect fire vehicles hiding behind these will the primary target for the Fusion squad, and rushing Land Raiders or backfield armour will be the target in other missions.

ASS on the Broadsides came in very useful, as against the Eldar list their Smart Missile Systems were more effective than their Railguns, and I had to move to close the range.

I need to finish painting Farsight as well as his bodyguard.  I will do Farsight in his traditional red, with highlights of my main army colours (Vallejo Charred Brown, Earth and White).  I will do his bodyguards in my main army colours, but with strong highlights of the Farsight red, to tie them in.  I will also give them names on their bases, and then add those names to the bases of their drones.  This ensures that if I lose a battlesuit, I can remove the correct drone(s) from the unit.  Plus, it’s cool