Battle report, 1750 Tau versus Eldar
No pictures yet because I haven't remembered to take them at the time, but I had a good 1750 point game of 40k this weekend with my Tau against a new opponent's Eldar. Lists on both sides might have been sub-optimal as most of mine had Eldar allies and most of his had Tau allies, and we wanted to avoid having the same faction on both sides.
Both lists had a little bit of everything. Mine had 2 squads of 10 fire warriors, 2 squads of 12 kroot, a commander with Slow and Purposeful and defensive upgrades attached to a full squad of pathfinders, a squad of plasma-rifle broadsides, one skyray, one squad of 3 plasma rifle / missile pod crisis suits, 5 bare-bones stealth suits, and 2 souped up smart-missile devilfish. All 3 vehicles had disruption pods for the super-duper cover save, and flechette launchers to defend against assault.
My opponent (I'm not naming him because I didn't ask permission first) had, roughly, a variety of mechanized cavalry, anchored by Eldrad Uthwen attached to a squad of expensive (but damnably effective) pathfinders in the biggest, tallest building available. There was also a small squad of wraithguard in one of the transports, a squad of fire dragons in another, dire avengers in a third, and a fire prism. An HQ and a Troop choice of jetbikes, a viper, and one wraithlord rounded out the army.
The mission was one objective in each deployment zone, pitched battle, and night fighting on the first turn. I lost the roll for first turn, which isn't always a bad thing in an objective mission. Night fighting cover saves prevented either side from doing much damage in the first turn, although I was able to claim first blood when one of my kroot squads finished off a wave serpent in assault and one of my devilfish was slowly winning a duel with the viper. Through much of the game, the two pathfinder squads were dueling with each other, his getting fairly poor rolls, and mine using markerlights to reduce the impossible cover save on his for one of my other units to fire at them. Eventually, Eldrad died to massed fire from most of my army, and all but one of the pathfinders also died, but the one remaining was sitting on the objective. Late in the game the fire prism, which had been mercifully ineffective earlier, finished off my fire warriors who had been sitting on my objective. The kroot had also been nearby, but they eventually died off in melee with the fire dragons that had killed off all but one of the broadsides. This left me without an objective, but at least my opponent didn't have it... until the troop jetbikes swooped in out of nowhere (Eldar jetbikes do that) to claim it! What forces I had left (mostly the skyray, the stealth suits, and the one remaining broadside who had finally broken out of combat with the fire dragons) turned to fire at the jetbikes, but we called that combat mostly irrelevant since a pathfinder was still standing on the other objective. My one remaining smart missile system, which was the only weapon that had any chance of killing the pathfinder who was out of LOS of all my units, was unable to do so.
Assuming that my forces would have been able to kill his remaining jetbikes on the objective on my side, which they probably could have, my opponent would have had one objective and Linebreaker, while I would have First Blood and Slay The Warlord but no objectives for a total score of Eldar 4, Tau 2.
Things I learned (or confirmed):
All in all a very enjoyable game. I lost, but the Eldar had to earn their victory. Considering how rusty my 40k is these days, I'm completely OK with that showing!
Both lists had a little bit of everything. Mine had 2 squads of 10 fire warriors, 2 squads of 12 kroot, a commander with Slow and Purposeful and defensive upgrades attached to a full squad of pathfinders, a squad of plasma-rifle broadsides, one skyray, one squad of 3 plasma rifle / missile pod crisis suits, 5 bare-bones stealth suits, and 2 souped up smart-missile devilfish. All 3 vehicles had disruption pods for the super-duper cover save, and flechette launchers to defend against assault.
My opponent (I'm not naming him because I didn't ask permission first) had, roughly, a variety of mechanized cavalry, anchored by Eldrad Uthwen attached to a squad of expensive (but damnably effective) pathfinders in the biggest, tallest building available. There was also a small squad of wraithguard in one of the transports, a squad of fire dragons in another, dire avengers in a third, and a fire prism. An HQ and a Troop choice of jetbikes, a viper, and one wraithlord rounded out the army.
The mission was one objective in each deployment zone, pitched battle, and night fighting on the first turn. I lost the roll for first turn, which isn't always a bad thing in an objective mission. Night fighting cover saves prevented either side from doing much damage in the first turn, although I was able to claim first blood when one of my kroot squads finished off a wave serpent in assault and one of my devilfish was slowly winning a duel with the viper. Through much of the game, the two pathfinder squads were dueling with each other, his getting fairly poor rolls, and mine using markerlights to reduce the impossible cover save on his for one of my other units to fire at them. Eventually, Eldrad died to massed fire from most of my army, and all but one of the pathfinders also died, but the one remaining was sitting on the objective. Late in the game the fire prism, which had been mercifully ineffective earlier, finished off my fire warriors who had been sitting on my objective. The kroot had also been nearby, but they eventually died off in melee with the fire dragons that had killed off all but one of the broadsides. This left me without an objective, but at least my opponent didn't have it... until the troop jetbikes swooped in out of nowhere (Eldar jetbikes do that) to claim it! What forces I had left (mostly the skyray, the stealth suits, and the one remaining broadside who had finally broken out of combat with the fire dragons) turned to fire at the jetbikes, but we called that combat mostly irrelevant since a pathfinder was still standing on the other objective. My one remaining smart missile system, which was the only weapon that had any chance of killing the pathfinder who was out of LOS of all my units, was unable to do so.
Assuming that my forces would have been able to kill his remaining jetbikes on the objective on my side, which they probably could have, my opponent would have had one objective and Linebreaker, while I would have First Blood and Slay The Warlord but no objectives for a total score of Eldar 4, Tau 2.
Things I learned (or confirmed):
- Tau are still terribly hampered by their lack of psychic powers or psychic defense. In one shooting phase, Eldrad forced both my crisis team and my pathfinders to fall back, taking them both out of the battle.
- Tau leadership is still a problem. While there are a couple of ways to boost it (Ethereal or Shadowsun), neither one is points-effective.
- It's extremely hard to dig a unit with an incredible cover save out of a fortified position. Pathfinders and markerlight cover save reductions help, and I almost pulled it off, but it took basically my entire force.
- The Tau have less to fear from a Wraithlord than most. Pulse fire can wound it, and seeker missiles or broadsides can fairly easily kill it. The one in this game almost died, but my opponent was wise enough to hide it for the first round or two until some of my heavy support had been weakened.
- Finally, even with the changes to stealth fields in 6th edition, I don't like the Tau stealth suits. I think I will replace them with something else: like a crisis team with an airbursting frag projector for those blasted cover saves!
All in all a very enjoyable game. I lost, but the Eldar had to earn their victory. Considering how rusty my 40k is these days, I'm completely OK with that showing!
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