[templarmagnus]

well, this past weekend was my first tournamet and it was a blast. A great learning experience, both tactically and practically. It was 2000 pts and i've never even fielded that much at once; here's what my list looked like:

HQ

1. Shas'O, shield gen, tl mp, command and control, hw drone w/ 2 markers hw target lock
2. Ethereal, honor squad of 6 shas'la w/ photon grenades and pulse carbines

Troops

1. Fire warrior squad of 11 shas'la w/ shas'ui, bonded, hw marker drone
2. Identical to first squad

Elites
1. 6 man stealth team, bonded, hw gun drone x2
2. Crisis team: shas'ui fireknife multi-trac, shas'ui bc, flamer, multi-trac, shas'vre tl bc, plasma, bonded, hw multi-trac, hw drone w/ 2 gun drones
3. Crisis team, shas'ui fireknife, mt x2, shas'vre fireknife, shield, hw mt

Heavy support
1. Broadside team shas'ui, sms, ass, shas'vre ass, tl plasma, bonded, hw drone w/ 2 markers
2. Hammerhead railgun, bc x2, disruption pod, multi-trac

Fast Attack
1. Pathfinder team shas'la x7, shas'ui, bonded, devilfish, smart missle sysytem, seeker missle x 1, multi-trac
2. Gun drone squad w/ 6 frones

So i went into this tournament expecting to lose. I play MAYBE once a month with my best friend who plays a drop pod dark angels army, and thats it. I've played before against necrons, and chaos of all sorts, orks once, smurfs, and guard once. Thats it. Not only that, but i've never field tested this army or played at this pts level, OR in a tournament at all. All games were gamma w/ 2hour time limits.
So my first game is take and hold versus a godzilla nids list. Terrain was medium on a forest board. He's got 4 fexs, 2 tyrants, 2 squads warriors w/ 1 flying, and 60 hormagaunts. Turn 1 shooting phase my stealths burn his flying warriors. I think that won me the game. I went 4 turns without losing a model. he reached my crisis team with bc in cc on turn 5 and none of his monterous creatures ever got more than half-way across the board. Game called on time. He had two scoring units within 12" of the center, and 1 squad engaged with my suits on the left flank. I had lost 5 models. Victorious slaughter.
Second game was against grey knights, another army i'd never played against, on a desert table with light terrain. This guy was so smug and confident i wanted to puke. He had 37 models to my 79. 3 dreads, inq squad, 3 squads knights w/ 1 teleporting, 1 squad termies, 1 grand master w/ termy bodyguard and an assasin that he was SO proud of. We roll up cleanse. only the dreads, inquisitor squad and 2 knight squads on table; everything else deep strikes. I really wasn't worried because of all the games i played against my best friend. His emperor's tarot backfires, i get first turn, and we're blasting away. Turn 2 his assasin shows up and he tries to mind-war both my fw squad and my broadsides. Ok cool, but he then wants to assault my broadsides after only getting 1 model from that squad and 5 fw because of the way he aims the template. I show him the book where it says a flamer template has to cover the most models possible. He calls over the tournament leader, who was obviously on his side but couldn't argue with the rules. I give him the option to either re-place the template covering 1 broadside and a drone, or 4 fw. He goes with the heavies because he doesn't want them shooting at his dreads. i lose the drone to his attack. He charged. Two turns later his assassin is bludgeoned to death. By turn 3 all his dreads are gone, deep strinking occurs and i wipe his hq and half his termies in my shooting turn 4. Turn 5 saw his knights scatter off table due to lack of teleport homers. I killed his last unit with my deep striking gun drones. 3 table quarters me, 0 him. His mighty 37 models killed, i lost half a fw squad and 2 suits. Victorious slaughter. My vc was 3000 pts.
Game 3 was tough. Looking at the table i knew i was going to lose or draw. VERY heavy industrial terrain. Half the board was just terrain. With a big honking piece of building right off center. I draw nids again. Ugh. Loot counters. Double ugh. I'd have to move to claim them AND not get chewed up. this guy was good. Looking back this was my favorite game because i was at a VERY heavy disadvantage and my opponent was a great guy. He ran a full unit of genestealers, 2 full squads of termagants, hive tyrant with full tyrant guard, carnifex, 2 zoanthropes, 2 lictors, 2 squads raveners, 2 squads wariors. Turn 1 i hit a regenerating fex with 2 railguns and it hides behind that building the rest of the game trying to get those wounds back. Turns 2 and 3 we both took minor losses to shooting trying to get through terrain. Turn 3 his lictors show up and charge my fireknife squad of suits. I drop my drones and kill 1 warrior and they get charged by raveners. Dead. My stealths have been playing hide and seek with a zoanthrope around that stupid building in the center and i finally get tired of it and charge. I figured 6 stealths, 1 zoanthrope, i'll finish him and consolidate out. Zoey lives with 1 wound, i lose a suit, and he countercharges next turn with his depleted squad of wariors. I lose all my suits, he consolidates right back behind the building. Ugh. Turn 5 he moves across the board finally and i rapid fire his gants dead and waste the last tyrant guard, honor squad moves up and FINALLY gets an angle around the building to kill the warriors hiding, crisis suits kill his lictors. He moves his fex to a marker, assaults my fw squad with 1 freaking 'gant i haven't killed, and assaults my braodsides with his tyrant. Game called on time. He gets a solid victory because of 1 marker. Yep, you guessed it, the one marker in the big stupid building right in the center of the board.
I end up with best general on points, all because of my 3000 points grey knights massacre in game 2. Conclusions:
1. honor squad rocks. I was able to use ethereal leadership many times to steady my line, and equiping them with carbines let them stay mobile.
2. Fireknifes rock. I wasted an entire deep-striking hq squad in 1 turn with them and rapidfiring fw.
3. Pulse rifles rapid-firing kill nids. Both games i played them i took out whole squads in 1 turn.
4. Equiping my shas'o with command and control and keeping him in the center of my line allowed my fw to pick and choose targets, and let them markerlight almost every single turn that they weren't firing. His target lock was also very useful allowing him to fire on a unit and his drones to mark another unit whenever he didn't move.
5. I used my devilfish pre-game move to manoever to cover and then every single game didn't let my pathfinders out till turn 3 or 4 The sudden appearance of 7 markerlights and 1 railrifle was enough to shock my opponent, ensure that turns shooting was decisive, and force him to re-think his movement and shooting the next turn. And the whole time i was dropping smart missles from cover.


So thats it, my first tournament was a HUGE success. I learned alot, had fun, and i won.

Questions, comment, pats on the back: All welcome.

[Crisis 541]

OK I think that the Marker Drones already have a TL so the HWTL on the Shas'o is a waste of points. Also I would go fireknife on your Shas'o because the BS 5 on the 'o makes the TL of the TL Missile Pod almost a waste. You already rarely missed with BS 5 so with TL it never misses, and the extra S 6 AP 2 shot helps to take out some heavies.

[Long Island Gamer]

Congratulations on your wins!! Your battle reports were well written and fun to read. Ok, I admit it, I especially liked the report about the Grey Knights ;D

[DireStrike]

1. Shas'O, shield gen, tl mp, command and control, hw drone w/ 2 markers hw target lock

This is not legal, you have used 4 hard points. Shield gen, 2 missiles, command and control node. Fail one invulnerable save against a lascannon and you lose a lot of points... =/ Also with so many markerlights AND this guy having a twinlinked weapon as well, it makes me wonder if he couldn't have been a Shas'El instead.

2. Crisis team: shas'ui fireknife multi-trac, shas'ui bc, flamer, multi-trac, shas'vre tl bc, plasma, bonded, hw multi-trac, hw drone w/ 2 gun drones

IMO this squad needs to make up its mind. It's trying to do way too many things, and why on earth would you take a shas'vre instead of a team leader?

3. Crisis team, shas'ui fireknife, mt x2, shas'vre fireknife, shield, hw mt

Again the vre vs. team leader issue. Also I think a shield drone with HWDC is a better buy than a shield gen, it's 5 points cheaper and when it fails against a lascannon or something you don't instantly lose a battlesuit.

1. Broadside team shas'ui, sms, ass, shas'vre ass, tl plasma, bonded, hw drone w/ 2 markers

Interesting, but I hope you didn't try to move and fire the marker drones. Only the broadsides can use the ASS for that.

Hammerhead

No decoy launchers?! Heresy! :P

1. Pathfinder team shas'la x7, shas'ui, bonded, devilfish, smart missle sysytem, seeker missle x 1, multi-trac

Interesting choice, I want to try this as well, though I would give the fish a targetting array if you're giving it SMS. Or even if you're not! And decoy launchers as well.


The battles. Looks like the first two matchups were in your favor. I would say the godzilla list should have had an easy time... IF it was a full length game. Short games usually favor Tau. > GK is a great matchup for Tau allowing out shots to take out INCREDIBLE amounts of points with our powerful guns. Killing a smug near-cheater is always fun. Third battle... I would be very scared to play this one. As you say, most everything was against you and the nid player had a good list to take on Tau with.

2. Fireknifes rock. I wasted an entire deep-striking hq squad in 1 turn with them and rapidfiring fw.

Must have been a small squad! They were terminators, weren't they? Were they marked for?

Anyway, it was good to hear about this. I've been wanting to go back to a line/hybrid Tau list after I finish my mechanized, glad to hear it's viable. I hadn't thought of the impact pathfinders have when they get out... what does the fish do mostly, hide?

[Shas El Ukos]

Originally Posted by templarmagnus

D'yi, shas'vre D'yi,

This may sound stupid, but what's D'yi?

[Knight Actual]

Good job, what kind of store was this? Were there alot of players? Locals?

Grey Knight armies should always be VERY afraid when facing Tau army~..... that guy obviously don't know Tau at all. (GKs are for almost intents and purposes the same as normal marines when fighting Tau... T4Sv3+.... but costs almost twice as much. I should know, I have enough of them)

At any rate, boastful players are generally easy meat.. it's the easygoing one with he golden daemon quality models you should be afraid of especially if he takes one look at your collected models and say "oh"...and nothing else

still, way to go! For the greater good.

I WOULD reconsider the commander loadout.... you're doing good taking advantage of his ld10, but TL mpod is kinda wasting his BS5... and the mklights would benefit more in the FW squads.

D'yi is what the Bot puts in when you spell Arse the american way

[Knight Actual]

i guess the british way is banned too...

it's where the sun doesn't shine.

[Mavfreak]

Great job in the tourny! I really enjoyed reading this. It one of the best done reports I've ever read (definatly the best without pics!) Keep 'em coming!

[OShovah]

I enjoyed your report, it was easy to follow, and well documented good job, and keep up the good work!

great job, it reminds me of my tourney...accept that when i played it was 1000 points and i only got to play against nids once (and the game didnt even count :P) but oh well. now when i read the 'Nids reports i just kind of thought how i owuld have one the first one. only 60 guants? the guy has o be kidding,i would have fit in like 100 of them just for laughs. and then i would get serious aka a nice list with 2 HS carnis and a good HQ, but oh well. otherwise all aorund well played by almost everyone (im glad you completely obliterated that GK punk)