Centurion - SneakyDan's Turn

So I should put up my results as well, and how I think I did. Overall, I came 4th, which is great, but that's not what really matters.(and no, its not that Kirby drinks like a skirt, or that Archnomad is the worst excuse at drinking for a Scotsman I've ever met!)

I came in the top 6 players, of a 31 player Win/Loss tournament. Am I happy with that? Sort of. It boils down to me miffing target selection a bit in my third game, and some shady rules knowledge as well. More explained below.
My list was as follows.
2 x Shas'el, Fireknife, TL MP/HW Tracker, with bodyguard, fireknife, TA/HW tracker
3 x 2 Fireknives, 1 Teamleader in each
6 Firewarriors
2 x 10 Kroot
2 x Single Pirahnas, TA/Fusion
8x Pathfinders, Dumbfish
2 x Railheads, Burst Cannons/Dpod/Multitracker
2x Broadsides, Team Leader
Mostly my own list, props to VT2 for the idea of the 5x2 rather than 3x3 + 1 suit make up. Loved it, think its perfect for Tau.

Game 1 - Daemonhunters (Andrew F. - Gladstone Player)

Andrew (Frosty from this point on) is a top bloke, and self admitted casual player. He plays more for his own enjoyment than to be competitive, and his list selection proves this. However, I want to point out here that he has an absolutely beautiful GK Army, exceptionally painted, and its a joy to face across the table.

His list was GK's only, + an assassin.
GK Hero, 4 Termi retinue
Callidus Assassin (this terrified me, I dont know why)
3 x 8 man GK squads
1 Purgation Squad, double incinerators
Inq Lord with Termi Armour, Mystics, sage, MM Servitor, psycannon
Land Raider Crusader

Spearhead mission, Quarters primary, Kp's secondary.

This did not go well for Frosty. He set up across the board, and reserved his raider, as I had chosen it as a killpoint. Assassin didnt drop until turn 3, smushed 2 squads of suits, then got torrented to deal by fire warriors (of all things....). I sat across the table, and shot him to death, I think I lost the 2 suit squads, and 1 squad of kroot. Great bloke, great game, but not a competitive list.

Game 2 - Rawrtime's Hybrid Wolves
Dawn of War, Killpoints, Objectives/quarters


In short - friggin' epic. Seriously. Ben's list was as follows from memory


Runepriest, Lightning/Hurricane, Chooser
2 x Rhinos with HK's / Flamer GH Squads
3 x Plazor Squads with meltaguns
3 TWC with a TH/SS guy
2 x 2 Tornadro squadrons, MM/HF
3 x 5 Missilefangs

Pretty much helped him write this list, in the chatbox, over the last 3 months or so, and I KNEW this was going to be tough. Thing that saved me was his selection of KP's - He took my2 piranha's, my pathfinders, and my 2 x command squads (this turned out to be his undoing.) I took his 3 razors + 2 Rhinos.

We rolled on the board, and basically, it started well for me. I gave him first  turn, and I rolled double 1 for my broadsides Slow and purposeful. Poof. Excellent start. After he munched my kroot wall along his board edge (I gambled on passing tank shock leadership checks, and didnt, was trying to force his TWC and fangs etc to deploy as far away from me as possible - didnt work, LD7 probably wasnt a good bet.) His opening salvo on turn 2 absolutely crippled me. Im talking 1 railhead immob/stunned, 1 destroyed, pathfinders vaporised, suit squad gone... yeah, didn't go well. The thing that saved me, was some -serious- hide and go seek by my suits for the next 3 turns, and my piranha of invulnerability. I got REALLY lucky, and popped a 3+ cover save wearing rhino on turn 5, and then the second one straight after, giving me a total win of 4 Kp's to 2. On the last turn.

Lesson from this kids - never give up. There is never an excuse for conceding, play things till the bitter end, sometimes, you can pull it off.

Full props to Ben, well written army (thanks Dan!) and well played.

Game 3 - Rob Logan (BOHICABob from Chat) MC Nids

This was what I feared - Tervigon inclusive armies, on an objective mission. Pitched battle, objectives as primary. Rob is one of the top local players (others being myself, eathos, and fester when he ISN'T retarded with his orks). List was-

Tervi, HQ
Nid Prime, Sword/Whip
3 x 3 hiveguard
2 x 8 stealers, 1 x 17 stealers, toxin sacks
Dakkafex - Devourers
Tyrannofex

Some odd choices in here - Rob is not a netlist player, he goes with what he likes, and plays them hard. I chose his 3 x Stealer units, Prime, and Tervi (prime as a shit choice.)
I shot the living shit out of his hive guard turn 1, leaving only 1, 1, and 3 left on the board. Also wounded his fex star, and killed some stealers. Started really well, and he advanced across towards me.

Basically it came down to my mistakes, and him cunningly taking advantage of them. I foolishly deployed my kroot wall in range of his stealer assault, with a good fleet roll on his part, allowing that big squad of 17 into my bubble wall turn 2. I also, at this point, did not know that casualties from shooting do not have to keep your squad coherency - just that you must move back into it in the following turn. That hurt me as well, as I couldn't finish his stealers off, allowing them to keep chewing on tasty pathfinders and other goodies.
My biggest mistake was not punishing that tervigon from the get go. Those friggin things are SO good for objective games, and I had never played vs one till now.

My brain was too fried to recall any more except the last turn, which took it from a draw, Rob winning on secondaries, to a loss by 2 objectives. Rob managed to roll a 6" consolidate(with stealers, to capture one), and a 6" run move (with his bloody tyrannofex no less) to contest my objective, netting him the game.

Game 4 - Vinsanity's BA Jumpers

Quarters, Spearhead. You all know Vince's army, this was going to be a massacre one way or another.

Fortunately, it was my way. Vince, having not played much Tau, deployed 90% of his army on turn 2 from reserves, but spread them out around my castle, allowing me to isolate and destroy parts of his army in rapid succession. My use of pirahnas/drones and railheads/dfish also meant that he couldn't actually jump 12" into my lines, without coming within 1" of a model, forcing him to chew through my wrapping to get to the suits.
Did not go well for Vincey. Most of his melta squads were out of range to vape anything on the drop, and his Vannyvets only got one charge off into kroot, which promptly ran from shooting before they could get there. I then smashed both vanvets squads next turn, and 1 priest squad. His honor guard also dropped, turn 3, and they got a railhead, before being blow apart.

As kirbys already described, if your going to play jumpers, against a good castle, strike as hard as you can at one portion of the army, and get inside their lines. Use your vanvets as a shield wall (they bring their own invuln) and make sure your stuff has a clear line for the NEXT turn, by using your vets.

FYI - Vince's army was way sexier in person. I would have stolen it, but he looked a little scary. Like a rabid Chihuahua. (I love you Vincey :) )

Game 5 - Nurgle_49's Chaos Space Marines

Last game was objectives/spearhead, vs Dave. His list was a very soft and fluffy half lash jobby, as follows

Prince, wings/lash
Kharne
8 Zerkers, Raider
14 Noise marines
Greater Daemon
2 x 3 oblits
1 x Chosen Squad, no upgrades

Like I said, super soft. Dave is a no-nonsense dude, good player, and great to play against. I'll roll dice with the old man again any days :)

The game didn't go well for Dave, because his  first choice was to reserve -everything- and just deploy his big squad of noise marines in cover on an objective. I then rolled up in LOS of them with railheads, castled up, and templated them down to 4 guys after turn 2. His reserve rolls were good, and he got his raider +khorne guys second turn, 1 squad of oblits, and his daemon prince. I also tank shocked his chosen squad that were hiding, to try and greater daemon me, and the broke, and ran, getting obliterated by burst/railgun fire the next turn.

I piranha blocked his raider, and did the same with his prince, prince lashed kroot, then pathfinders, and ate some. Oblits did... bugger all. First squad came down turn 2, second one turn 3, and I killed all but 1 of the first squad, and all of the second squad. Game rolled on, I started picking off his units, and ignored kharne/berzerkers and fed them piranha drones to keep them quite in the corner. I scooted up with my dfish full of fire warriors, and had kroot hiding behind my other deployment objective. Things only got a little tense when his greater daemon looked like it could contest my objective, and eat kroot, but 5 x 2 crisis suits worth of plasma soon sorted that out.

Only thing that worried me really was the prince, because assault troops rolling on from the opposite side of my gunline really is something that Tau needn't worry about, without fire support.


Overall for the tourney - I did reasonably well. I have far less games under my belt than either of the top two players, with my Tau, although I cannot fault Arch for his skill playing festers orks - he did exceptionally well.
I made very few mistakes, and capitalised on my opponents errors. How do I feel about my Tau? Well, to be honest, they are probably going to get shelved. For the moment. I enjoy the army, but I've been playing gunline for over 18 months now, and its getting wearing. I also find I really struggle with objective games, and I'd like to play something with some more resilient scoring units. I'm halfway through my biker army, which is a good start, and I've just obtained 40 odd jump pack marines....

But I'm gonna do GK's. And thanks to the fluff nazi, who gave me the idea to use GK's as thousand sons, my all time favourite legion to fall from the emperors favour. They will be red, with silver trim, and I'm going to use a little something I got from Rawrtime which is going to make fluffdaddys cry - The Khornate Bloodslaughter is going to get its chaotic marks removed, a much glossier gladiator faceplate, and a psycannon. I'm going to stand it on a scenic base to improve its height (and not be a cheesy douchebag) and its going to be one of 3 DreadKnights in my army, ala the 1k Sons psykers that control Mechanicus droids in the novel. GK's on foot will be my covens, and paladins my Corvidae.

Photos soon :) and to the fluff Nazi's - more tears please, it lubricates my laugh function.

SneakyDan