[hey you1]

Lately, I've noticed a lag in my furvorous opponent's record that I cannot fail to miss. In fact, beat him the last 5 times straight (not counting that time he had double the points I had). In an attempt to solve this, I have recorded our latest battle (just this evening) in hope that one (or more) of you would be able to give him some worthy advice (and maybe me too!).

To begin: Cleanse, Gamma, My opponet has first turn, 1000pts.



Let's first identify the units (cause if you can tell from up here, you are a sanctioned psyker). The top left unit in the blue is a unit of infiltrated Scout squad with Sniper Rifles. Top right is a unit of five Scouts w/ CC weapons and pistol. Unit behind (or in front of) the land raider thing is Scouts w/ CC weapons and pistol, while the farthest down is Scouts with Bolters. The IC you see hiding is a Librarian, Ademantle, Jetpack, Lighning bolts Assault 1 blast marker thing, Ray power that causes d3 hits on unit(s). Deep striking Assault squad and Drop Poddin' Dreadnought in the works.

Red top is Devilfish (9 man Fire Caste w/ Disiple of the Greater Good (currently a washer the same size as a base)), elbowing with a Crisis Squad w/ TL plasma rifles, Missle pod. Lower unit is Shas'el with FB, MP, PR, HW multiT, HW droneC, x2 Gun Drones which is attatched to a Gun Drone Squad (need to make more Gun drones). Yes, I later realized that the assault squad could have made mince of me if it had been in play at this time. Lowest red unit is infiltrated Commando Fanatics. 3 man Helios squad in the Deep Strike works.

Turn 1: Opponent lets loose with Scout's snipers, blowing two Drones. Librarian's psychic power to take out another Drone. Bolter Scouts rapid fire the Commando Fanatics, but a +3 cover save makes no casualties. Gue'vesa retaliation is fierce, with five Snipers dying, as well as three of the uppermost bolt pistol/hand weapon squad via the TL Plasma doom and a few to the Commando Fanatics.



Turn 2: Opponent fails both Deep Strike rolls, and attempts to rapid fire the Commando's with his Bolters again, but fails once more, taking casualties to knock it to 50%, while his newly fleed and recovered Scouts in the upper right shoot twice at the Crisis's, and fail to do anything. Fire warriors load up, while the TL Plasma with rapid fire goodness fails to take out either of the two threatening Scouts. The Shas'el's Missle Pod does the trick, however, and flanking movement begins. Snipers are safe behind Lv 3 terrain (though not a threat and at 50%). Helios's which deep struck had unloaded on Mr. Books and downed him to 1 wound with plasma.



Turn 3: Bolter Scouts and Librarian charge Helios (which took no casualties to Mr. Book's psychic blast marker, thank goodness for Sheild Generators). Managed to take out two crisis's, but the Shas'vere Team Leader landed that last wound on Mr. Books, taking him out, and even though his Assault Squad just landed (the blue) he forfieted.

Whew. Any questions? Any suggestions for future play (especially on my opponent's behalf)?

[BuG]

Very luxury terrain ^^

[hey you1]

Thanks. I wasn't holding back anything whith the Sun Maid Raisin towers and the fruit carpet on ceramic foor ground cover.

[Yriel of Iyanden]

Any suggestions for future play (especially on my opponent's behalf)?

Here's the main one for your opponent: FINISH THE GAME.

Yes he suffered a ton of casualties. Yes he lost his beloved book-stamper. But hadn't lost until the moment he threw in the towel. Not only is that not a good attitude to have in this game, you deny yourself a better chance of winning any further battles you have. What's the worst that could happen? You lose a game but you gain more EXPERIENCE. Any commander worth his salt will tell you that there's more to learn from losses than wins, and it's quite normal to go through losing streaks while trying to find that missing piece.

Okay, so enough with the preachy stuff...onto the detailed commentary:

- Themed scout army sounds like fun, and you might expect it to do pretty well here. Have a look at the deployment though. You're all over the board, no coherent strategy comes to my mind when I see that kind of deployment. The units are small, and ill-equipped for Tau (why take sniper rifles against Tau? Heavy bolters are the way to go.)

- Librarian is too much of the battle plan. The guy's got tons of wargear:

The IC you see hiding is a Librarian, Ademantle, Jetpack, Lighning bolts Assault 1 blast marker thing, Ray power that causes d3 hits on unit(s).

He's ill-equipped and overpriced and poorly deployed. Personally, I'd go with a cheap Captain with a powersword running with a beefy unit...perhaps an infiltrated HQ, a jump packing assault squad, even a drop pod...running an IC completely alone means all your opponent has to do is kill that measly 5 man scout team and he gets shots at an Independant Character- this is bad strategy.

Finally...I believe one of the main reasons your opponent quit is because he was relying on deepstriking units, and we all know that they never arrive when you want them to!

Deep striking Assault squad and Drop Poddin' Dreadnought in the works.

WOW! That's a lot of points relying on 4+ rolls for turn 2. With my luck...I wouldn't take that gamble. Run the librarian with the assault unit and use the Dreadnought for mobile dakka, just keep pressing the enemy and force him to deal with multiple threats. Waiting for 4+/3+/2+ is just bad news, and Tau can throw drones at the rear of your Deepstriking Dread...so be aware of that too.

[citizen_kodo]

Also, Assault Marines are fast enough to race along the board quite fine, always hiding behind some cover or downed vehicles for maximal protection. These would've made short work out of the Tau, under the condition they get there 1st of course.