[Vash113]

And They Shall Know No Fear for they are already dead. Today was my first back at the hobby shop in 3 weeks. Today I fought two battles against whata ya know, space marines. The first was a DIY chapter whos name I cant remmember and the second was a manilla army painted superbly as dark angels.

First up the DIY army which was using Take the Fight to the Enemy and whatever trait gives furious charge. Never made a difference though, heres the lists and why:

Space Marines:
Librarian plasma pistol
Chaplain plasma pistol
6 Tactical Marines with bolt pistols and close combat weapons, veteran sergeant with plasma pistol and power sword
6 Tactical Marines with bolters, veteran sergeant with plasma pistol and power sword, melta gun
5 Scouts
1 Dreadnaught, venerable, twin linked lascannon, dread close combat weapon
3 Drop Pods with something launcher

Tau:
Shas'O, Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Shield Gennerator, Hard wired multi tracker
Shas'ui, Burst Cannon, Missil Pod, Multi Tracker
Firewarrior Team Irregulars (10), shas'ui, bonded, x2 Pulse Carbines, Devilfish APC
-Decoy launcher, multi tracker, targeting array
Firewarrior Team Alpha (10), shas'ui, bonded, Devilfish APC
-Decoy launcher, multi tracker, targeting array
Hammerhead Gunship, railgun, SMS, multi tracker, decoy launchers
Hammerhead Gunship, railgun, SMS, multi tracker, decoy launchers

(Note: All observations on location are done from my perspective)

Deployment:
The Space Marine scouts went into a building on the far right of their deployment. There was some scafolding like building at the center of the board and the rest of the terrain is pretty much pointless as it never came into play. My Tanks kept their rears to the board edge the 2 Devilfish on the left and the Hammerheads at center. The suits between the two groups.

Turn 1:
Space Marines
Nothing, they did absolutely nothing, oh well their loss.

Tau
Submunitioned 4 of the scouts unto death. Hammerheads skimmed along the right, Devilfish moved up the left all rear armor toward the edge the battlesuits stayed along with the transports.

Turn 2:
Marines
Again nothing.

Tau
Killed the last scout, tanks continued moving the same way they were in the last turn, HHs to the right, transports up the left with the suits.

Turn 3:
Space Marines
All 3 Drop Pods arrive, the Dread comes down infront of the HHs just out front of the building the scouts had occupied. Chaplain with the close combat marines drops in just above my transports, librarian and other marines below my transports. Shooting say no results at all save a stunned Hammerhead.

Tau
Un Stunned HH skimmed up some more and stunned the Dread. One transport skimmed to the right and dumped troops out the back the other skimmed down and did the same, battlesuits moved some down. I was trying to do this so I would not be cought in assault and tear up one drop pod group before the other. Firewarriors and transports whiped out the tacticals, Shas'O killed the Librarian.

Turn 4:
Space Marines
Chaplain led the tacticals down towards my troops, drop pods missed. Shooting shook a fish. I lost one Firewarrior to bolt pistols.

Tau
Lower Firewarrior team mounted up and fish skimmed forward and to the right, the other transport skimmed forward alongside its sister ship to form a wall, un mounted team walked forward and dumped fire into the marines killing 3. Battlesuits stunned the closer drop pod. Railguns stunned the dread again.

Turn 5:
Space Marines
Chaplain and marines tried charging the transports but did nothing.

Tau
Killed off remaining tacticals, Shas'O took a wound off the chaplain and the rest of the army took off the rest. 20 Firewarriors tend to do that. I had unloaded the second squad. Dread finally blew up.

Turn 6:
Space Marines
All remaining guns went wiff.

Tau
Destroyed one drop pod, immobilized another, wonderful.

Results

Space Marine Cassualties
Librarian
Chaplain
12 Tactical Marines
5 Scouts
Venerable Dread
Drop Pod

Tau Cassaulties:
1 Firewarrior

Results: Victorious Slaughter... far too easy

Now the second battles lists:

Space Marines (Dark Angels)
Captain, terminator armour, power sword, storm bolter
Dreadnaught, DCCW, assasult cannon
10 Tactical marines, veteran sergeant, terminator honours, heavy bolter, plasma gun
9 Tactical Marines, veteran sergeant, terminator honours, plasma gun
Land Raider, hunter killer missil, storm bolter

Tau
Shas'O, FB, PR, SG, HW MT
Shas'ui, BC, MP, MT
Firewarriors (10), bonded, shas'ui, x2 Pulse Carbines, Devilfish APC
-Decoy Launchers, targeting array, multi tracker
Firewarriors (10), bonded, shas'ui, Devilfish APC
-Decoy launcheres, targeting array, multi tracker
Hammerhead Gunship, railgun, SMS, multi tracker, decoy launchers
Hammerhead Gunship, railgun, SMS, multi tracker, decoy launchers

Deployment:
Alright this time I actually had a mission, I was the attacker in a blitz senario. The enemy had a large bunker on the right, a smaller one on the left and some scattered buildings and razer wire. I deployed my Devilfish behind a building with one Hammerhead on the left and the other on the right with the battlesuits between the right HH and the DFs. Secret deployment was in play but the dread went behind the smaller bunker on the left, the 10 man squad in the right bunker, the Land Raider with the captain and remaining marines inside went behind the right bunker.

Turn 1:
Tau
I couldnt move so instead I just shot. Both Hammerheads dropped a submunition on the 10 man squad. 7 marines under each template, 12 of the 14 hit. 7 of those failed their armor saves. The marines rolled double 6s to fall back. I was standing there in shock and awe...

Space Marines
Land Raider rolled out and tried to shoot me down but failed both lascannon shots failed to damage anything.

Turn 2:
Tau
Everything moved up and I shot at the Land Raider to no avail.

Space Marines
Land raider stayed put but failed to damage anything.

Turn 3:
Tau
Railguns blew up the Land Raider and shot down 3 marines.

Space Marines
Dread walked out finally and blew off a railgun.

Turn 4:
Tau
Moved up and shot down all but the captain from the Land Raiders passenger squad.

Space Marines
Dread assaulted my rail-less-head but did nothing. Captain couldnt make it into assault range.

Turn 5:
My transports emptied and the dread fell to small arms fire on its rear armor, my forces took off two wounds from the captain and my Shas'O finished him off. Hammerhead smart missils and a submunition finished off the last 3 marines.

Results:

Space Marine cassualties
Terminator Captain
19 Tactical Marines
Dreadnaught
Land Raider

Tau cassualties
Hammerhead missing its Railgun

Again another victorious slaughter... two in a row.

Alright well the battles for today were um... melodramatic. They were far too easy, absolutely no challenge and ya know what writing up these reports and posting them has taken more effort than the actual playing of the battles and winning them... thats not right. Not much to learn from these exept that I am entirely sick of killing marines... or perhaps its not the marines fault but the simple lack of a challenge... Im winning yes, but its not that fun. Its too easy, I would rather be torn apart and have a challenge than just win like this again and again and again. I need to find some more competition.

Anyway I hope you enjoyed the reports, my commander now has a Terminator Captain and Librarian to add to his kill record aswell as another venerable dread (the last one was space wolf... *shrug*). The Or'es Shi has another two victories under its belt. Not bad, the Tau have finally stopped playing cards and gone out to kick some ***, the forces of the Tau'va have thrust forward into the jungle city. Pretty good for one days efforts.

[MechTau]

Hunter Cadre Invinceable needs a workout...

Great job owning those marines. Have you considerded going to a Gamesday/other serious tourny? I can play like that and build good lists, but keeping your head under pressure is what makes a Tau commander good/bad. You would be one of the best.

... I still forget my Crisis assault move.

[Earlydawn]

A mighty tribute to the power of a mech Tau list. Well done!

[Vash113]

Thanks for the praise. I have concidered tournies but procuring travel arrangements is another matter. Right now I dont even have my drivers liscense because I cant find time to practice until recently. There are a few other hobby stores nearby but they are almost entirely comprised of marines with even fewer xenos armies than the one I currently visit, though they play more often. Still if things work out I may well try and enter into the next major tournament.

[MechTau]

I hear ya. My most often opponents are Smurfs and Chaos Smurfs: The Evil Twin. It would get boring, but we three havn't managed to use every tactic yet! It could get boring in the future, and is rather formulaic currently...

[Vash113]

Challenge and Change, those are my two problems currently. There is very little challenge at the moment and almost no change. I have faced quite a few of the tactics space marines can send my way and the surprises are becoming increasingly few and far between. Plus my cadre has almost finished evolving. It started static, moved to hybrid and is now solidly as mech. The new codex should do very well to giving me some change and new things to test out. I was contemplating buying a squad of pathfinders today but didnt get around to doing it. Without any real change occuring with my own armies or the armies I face and with little challenge in the games it is rather dull at the moment.

So a new place/s I think, new people and hopefully new tactics. Some change and hopefully challenge to go with.

[DireStrike]

Wow. Victorious slaughters tend to be rare for the Tau. That first guy doesn't sound like he knew what he was doing, and the second had absolutely horrible luck. Still, an unskilled commander wouldn't have capitalized on the mistakes so well. Good job, and may you face better opponents in the future!

[crisis_vyper]

Hm.......nice one vash.

But I didn't know that a drop pod is a unit of sorts. :-\

[Vash113]

Originally Posted by crisis_vyper

Hm.......nice one vash.

But I didn't know that a drop pod is a unit of sorts. :-\

It is, its a transport and it can be upgraded with some sort of ordanance weapon whos name escapes me at the moment.

Yes victorious slaughters are a rare thing usually but the last few battles Ive faced have all been that or close to it. Neither commander really knew what he was doing. The first let his army be split too easily and fell for a simple lure and the second sent out one unit at a time and allowed me to focus my fire on them one at a time and destroy his army piece by piece. The sad thing is I didnt even notice this when playing I just acted, I only really thought out just why my enemies tactics were bad when explaining what happened to someone earlier today. Hind sight produces some interesting results.

[crisis_vyper]

I see. I always though they are something like deepstrike or something.....