Wargames Gallery: Tau Assault the Big Guns that Never Tire

Truly, the big guns never tired in this game between the Death Korps of Krieg and Tau in our Goodbye to 7th Tournament a few weeks ago!

Battle Report: Alpha Legion vs. Tau (1500pts)

Going in to this match from my victory over the Salamanders in a 30k match-up, I wasn't so sure that I could do well here. The Tau have a (rightly) fearsome reputation for firepower. That said, I was confident that I could at least pull off one charge by turn 2 with my assault marines and hopefully put them on the back foot for a turn or two. That was at least the plan. The battle would be fought over the beach table with two objectives to secure.

My forces remained unchanged from the previous matchup:

Alpha Legion List: 

HQs: Autilon Skorr (Pride of the Legion Rite of War), Master of Signals

Elites: Contemptor Mortis Dreadnought (Kheres)

Troops: Assault Squad (plasma pitols, serg with thunder hammer); Terminator Squad (Axes, plasma blaster, thunder hammer); Veteran Squad (two melta guns)

Fast Attack: Storm Eagle (las cannons)

Heavy Support: Heavy support squad (missile launchers)

Meanwhile, the Tau had plenty of firepower to call upon:

Tau Army List:

HQs: XV86 Coldstar with shield generator and stimulant injector 

Elites: XV104 Riptides (early warnings, earth caste pilot array, ion accelerator, plasma rifle, velocity tracker)

Troops: Strike Team (missile pod support, marker light, Devilfish transport); XV8 battle suits (2xShas'ui, 1xShas'vre); XV8 battle suits (2xShas'ui)

Fast Attack: 2 Pathfinder teams (marker lights) 

Heavy Support: XV88 Broadside (drone controller, seeker missile, high yield missiles, smart missiles).

Early Turns.

The set up is pictured below. And as a general health warning -- I took too many pictures for this one!

Off screen to the right are a bunch of suits that I'm aiming to charge at early in the game with my assault squad. My heavy support are holed up in the Eldar ruins on the left and I have my contemptor with my veterans near the top left who are foot-slogging along. 

Luckily, I manage to get the first turn. 

Not much happens, but the drones and the marker lights start lighting up everything that causes me to start to worry a whole lot. I distract myself by taking some cool pictures :)

Things start to get much more interesting in turn 2 as my assault squad enters close combat. Sadly, I completely forgot about the insane over watch that the Tau are capable of pulling off. All the surrounding squads take pot shots at my poor charging marines and whittle them right down before they can get truly stuck in to the enemy. 

Much pain ensues.

Middle Turns.

The combat with the battle suits pictured above will go on for another few rounds as I fail to kill them on my charging turn.

Meanwhile, the footsloggers are making good progress and are being supported by an incredibly lucky shooting contemptor who is really whittling the wounds off the enemy. (And I think this shot looks awesome as well, so I had to include it in this report). 

Despite lots of casualties on both sides by this point, the fun really starts when my storm eagle arrives and disgorges the terminators plus Skorr in to the melee. It is only at this stage that I recall the mission is to control the objectives (one in each deployment zone), so I make sure that the terminators can not only charge, but get back again to reach the objective nearby. In this game, they are classed as troops for scoring purposes due to the rite of war I'm running.

Late Turns.

The terminators try to finish off the enemy HQ, but do not succeed, and take casualties in exchange. For their troubles, the Tau HQ flies away in a hit and run effort to survive and shoot again next turn.

All of my assault squad are dead now following the melee. They took plenty with them though. 

The above picture shows the game position at turn 4. Much carnage has occurred, and more blood and fuel are yet to be spilt across this beach landing paradise board. This comes in the form of the remaining Tau shooting my Storm Eagle out of the skies. It narrowly avoids anything on the way down, but otherwise is wrecked.

Critically, the terminators are able to slog it to the objective marker nearby, whilst finishing off the remaining Tau troops. The veterans have meanwhile perished due to incoming fire. The contemptor has only one Kheres left. The Tau make a run for it to try to claim the opposite objective. But I manage to kill most of them along the way. Sadly not enough.

The game ends in a tie on the major objective: 1 objective secured each.

The game ends up being decided by secondaries. I have just one more than my opponent (in terms of line breaker), hence I win. But only just.

This was a very tough slog to say the least. I was very happy with the photos that the game produced, but tactically, it could have gone either way. I thought I was going to lose when the storm eagle got taken out and the Tau jetted away for the opposite objective. The terminators and the heavy support squad held on though and a draw ensued. 

Wargames Gallery: Beach Landing

++ Deploy, brothers!++

++Resistance encountered. Some kind of Xenos advanced weaponry. Caution advised.++

++Deal with them quickly. They bleed well enough. Power axes drawn and good hunting.++

Warhammer World: Tau vs Imperium diorama

This is one of the most impressive dioramas that I've seen constructed. Not the biggest, to be clear, but one of the best. The Tau here are defending one of their bases from an assault by the Imperium, including Mechanicum and Titans to boot.

I think I'll just let the pictures do the talking and leave it here!

BAO Tournament: First round, Dark Eldar vs. Grey Knights and Tau

Hi all, Eldrad Vect here, it's been a while and I've had a busy year so far but I'm back and blogging about our gaming groups latest tournament campaign thing. Its based off the Bay Area Open rules pack with a funky points handicap system that grants extra points to list comped weak by the other players. I'll be blogging my games from the campaign with some 'narrative forging' to give comprehensive battle reports on the carnage caused by my Dark Heart Kabal. I shall also be posting the standings for each round of the tournament too.

"It was cold, colder than usual upon the planet, Kazarai Dodechius. Mist hung in the morning air and thin rimes of frost clung to the Paladin's Terminator Armour as they marched behind their Grand Master. Faint rays of light began to creep along the horizon and the only sound that could be heard was the thump of boots and quite hum of Tau battlesuits. "Are you sure their were Daemons here Fireblade?" questioned the Grand Master, but before the Tau leader could respond great beams of darklight tore through the trees.
"Worse than Deamons," responded the Fireblade "denizens of the Dark City"...

Ok, the army lists.

Dark Eldar 1850 pts (with extra 50 pts)
HQ
Lelith Hesperax   175 pts
Baroness Katteryna (Baron Sathonyx)   105 pts
TROOPS
10x Wyches with Raider   250 pts
12x Hellions  237 pts
10x Kabalite Warriors with Raider  190 pts
7x Kabalite Warriors  63 pts
ELITES
4x Grotesques with Raider   260 pts
5x Hekatrix Bloodbrides with Venom   150 pts
HEAVY SUPPORT
1x Ravager  130 pts
1x Cronos Parasite Engine  110 pts
1x Voidraven Bomber   230 pts
 TOTAL: 1900 Points

Grey Knights with Tau Allies 1850 pts
HQ
Grand Master Draigo   270 pts 
Tau Fireblade 84 pts
TROOPS
10x Paladins    735 pts
5x Terminators   235 pts
12x Fire Warriors  142 pts
ELITES
1x Dreadnought  135 pts
HEAVY SUPPORT
3x Broadside Battlesuits   243 pts
TOTAL: 1849 Points

First Round, Deployment: Dawn of War, Missions: Emperor's Will and Crusade (three objectives for Crusade placed within three inches of the centre line).

Deployment Phase:
The Grey Knights had the advantage of setting up first, having already been on the planet and prepared for combat. Only one squad benefited from Draigo's Grand Strategy special rule and scouted forwards. The Dark Heart Kabal deployed as far away from the big guns of the Dreadnought and Broadsides could reach and the benefits of Night Fighting as well as the Dark Eldar vehicles Night Shields meant that in the position they were in nothing could touch them. Fire Warriors deployed entrenched is ruins whilst Terminators and Paladins deployed out in the open with all the hubris of the Grey Knights they were. Kabalites and Hellions cowered behind tall ruins. the only adventurous deployment by my Dark Eldar came with the Bloodbrides and their Venom deploying behind a large piece of terrain and thus out of sight from the Broadsides.

I do apologise for the terrible quality of the pic, but I have since then upgraded my phone with a better camera... I'm on the left and my opponent on the right, when I make references to placement of things it'll be from my perspective on the left. Emperor's Will objectives are where the Fire Warriors are and at the big piece of terrain at the top of the board where my vehicles are.

Turn 1:
Grey Knights turn.
The Grey Knights strode up the field with little regard for the enemy, the Paladins moved on an angle matching the trees and the Terminators moved into the craters with an amazing move through cover roll of 6 and then a run roll of 6 too, aiming to hold the right Crusade objective. Everyone else stayed more or less in the same spot. In the shooting phase the Broadsides took aim at the Cronos, being the only thing in range, but due to some ridiculous cover save rolls the Cronos only took a single wound.

Dark Eldar turn.
Engines screeched as the Raiders moved and with the aid of Enhanced Aethersails they covered most of the board in a single move, entering the enemy deployment zone and planning to creep up the flanks. The Cronos rolled and abysmal 4 when moving through cover and a 2 when it attempted to run. The Ravager opened fire on the Paladins but poor luck on the Ravagers part and divine intervention of the dice gods on the part of the Grey Knights meant that only a single wound was taken. The Venom had similar luck as it only managed to kill a single Shield Drone from the Broadside squad. Also the Hellions and Baroness took and held the left Crusade objective which resulted in an early lead for the Dark Eldar.

End of Turn 1. Once again, sorry it's really blurry, but the basic shapes and positions are still there...

Turn 2:
Grey Knights turn.
This was a good turn for the Knights, the Paladins moved behind cover to avoid being a target for the Ravager and the Terminators continued to march towards the objective. As you'd expect all the Tau and the Psyfleman Dread stood still the get off there maximum shooting potential. The Fire Warriors and Dreadnought torn through the Cronos with a torrent of firepower, after the terrible shooting of the Dread it was the Fire Warriors who delivered the death blow to the foul creature. The Broadsides claimed their first victim of the game by blowing up the Wych squad's Raider, luckily the resultant explosion only killed a handful of Wyches. But the most horrifying thing this turn was the Paladins and Terminators decimation of the Bloodbrides and their Venom, wiping them from the board with a hail of bolts.

Dark Eldar turn.
After the considerable losses inflicted by some great shooting from the Grey Knights and Tau, the Dark Eldar had to do something considerably epic, hence the action taken by Lelith Hesperax's personally Raider which was to penetrate the opponent's back line as fast as possible and that is just what she and her squad did. With brilliant positioning, the Ravager traced a clear line of sight to the Paladins whilst being completely hidden from the Broadsides and Dreadnought, it managed to inflict 2 wounds killing the Paladin it had failed to last turn. The remaining Wyches moved inconspicuously toward the central-most objective through cover. The Kabalite Raider followed slowly behind Lelith's laying down firepower as the Splinter Cannon wielding Kabalite slew a Fire Warrior at range. The Voidraven failed to come on this turn as well adding even more desperation to the Dark Eldar efforts.

End of Turn 2. This pic is a little clearer and boy did Lelith's raider move far...

 Turn 3:
Grey Knights turn.
Frantic, the Fire Warriors, Dreadnought and Broadsides turned all their guns on Lelith's raider. As the Paladins and Terminators continued, undeterred, up the field towards the Dark Eldar deployment zone and to get greater cover from the horrendous guns of the Ravager. The Broadsides made short work of the Raider, blowing it up and injuring one Grotesque in the resultant explosion. But it wasn't over yet for the Grotesques as the Fire Warriors and Dreadnought unloaded into them. Thanks to the Fireblade's Special Rule Volley Fire, the Fire Warrior let off an ungodly 30 shots into the Grotesque, but because of there incredible resilience only two Grotesques were slain. The Dreadnought however was not as lucky, failing three of it's to hit rolls, even with the re-rolls for Twin-Linked and the one shot that did hit home was saved by the Abberation's Feel No Pain.

I can see where this is going...

Dark Eldar Turn.
After surviving Tau firepower, Lelith and her Grotesques were keen to spill blood. The Kabalite Raider continued to creep up the flanks and the Wyches speed towards the central objective under the cover of large rocks. This was a most devastating turn for the Grey Knights as the Voidraven Bomber came in from reserve. It flew over the Paladins, dropping it's Void Mine in it's wake, vanquishing three Paladins in its blast. Not only did it slaughter Paladins, but it abolished the Broadsides with a flurry of incredibly accurate Implosion Missiles leaving only a single Broadside and a Drone standing. The bloodbath wasn't over yet, the Kabalite Raider fired its Dark Lance and with a lucky shot blew it up, that wasn't all however the blast radius of the explosion hit all but one member of the Fire Warrior squad and slew some drones and Fire Warriors. Lelith threw a Plasma Grenade into the unprotected Tau killing five of them and the Liquifer Gun wielded by a Grotesque rolled an AP of 3 with resulted in a further four Fire Warriors destroyed. Not content with crippling Lelith and her squad moved in for the kill, assaulting the remaining drones and Fireblade. Lelith ravaged the Fireblade in a challenge as did the Grotesques as they smashed drones, by the end of the turn nothing was left of them.

Lelith and Fireblade locked in a brutal (and rather one-sided) Melee.

End of Turn 3... 

Turn 4, 5 and 6.
Grey Knights turns.
Predominantly, for the next three turns the Paladins pretty much U-turned to try and get to the enemies at the other end of the board, this left them pretty much useless for a few rounds doing nothing but locking the Voidraven's velocity with Psycannon shots they also in Turn 6 finally destroyed the Ravager which had been foolishly moved too close to the Paladins. Only the Grey Knights themselves were still standing at the end. Draigo also called Lelith out for single combat which was more for fun than actual strategic advantage since I was holding two of the Crusade objectives and at the end of turn 6, both Emperor's Will ones. This combat last two rounds until of course Draigo Instant Deathed my poor Lelith Hesperax.

Lelith and Draigo's epic combat...

Dark Eldar turns.
Purely moving towards objectives and futilely trying to kill Grey Knights. The Kabalite managed to bring Draigo to one wound in a single round of shooting after he had slain Lelith and the Voidraven and Grotesque crushed the remaining Broadside and co. in turn 4. Probably the most exciting thing that happened was the objective the Hellions had been holding since Turn 1, which was also sabotaged, blew up and killed a Hellion.

Overview
All up it was a really fun game that could have really gone either way at many points of the game. I could have been a bit more brazen with the Bloodbride but lesson for next time. and my Cronos' placement was horrible too. Also my Voidraven actually did something for once, not scattering a single missile blast template and it was really effective against the Paladins, most definitely the Unit of the Match, at least on my side that is.

Tournament Standings after Round 1 (still need to find out the names of each army):
1st: Dark Heart Kabal (Dark Eldar)
2nd: Reavers (Ultramarine CT)
3rd: Tyranid
4th: Salamanders
Joint 5th: Blood Ravens (Raven Guard CT), Necrons, Grey Knights and Orks.

End of Turn 4

End of Turn 5

End of Turn 6

Infinity Urban Ruins Bases

Infinity is not a game that I've played much of. Regardless, I have picked up some of the resin bases that are specifically designed for the game. In the image is a 40mm urban ruins resin-cast base - one of a set that I own but have not yet painted up.

The first thing that stands out about these bases is the flavour. The hexagonal tiles are moderately uncommon and will certainly give a "zing" to any miniature mounted on it. Painted well - probably with white, or off-white marble for the hexagons to contrast a darker colour in the grittier regions - these bases boast a great level of detail. This particular piece features a rifle that has been left on the ground, plus spent ammunition rounds and a small pouch. Coupled with a post-apocalyptic feel for the damage appearing on the surface, these bases make a great impact in warhammer 40k (especially Tau or anti-Tau themed armies), or other sci-fi games / roleplaying of a similar ilk.  The quality of casting is high and I can honestly recommend these bases to anyone looking for something a little bit more left-field than the regular bases.

[Disclaimer: I'm not affiliated in any way with Infinity or the resin bases that have been produced to couple with said system. I was not given these bases as a gift - I bought them in a store on a whim as a regular customer!]

My Top 5 Favourite Special Characters

Hi Everyone, Eldrad Vect here giving you an insight to some of my personal favourite special characters in 40k and some of the tactics I use with them some, may just surprise you.

Number 5
Dark Angels: Grand Master Azrael

Counting downwards from number 5 to my all time favourite, we have Azrael. Az gets stuff done, with the ability to take both Ravenwing Attack Squadrons and Deathwing Terminator Squads as Troops, his wicked weapons and abilities like choosing his Warlord Traits and giving any unit he is with a 4++. I use him constantly in my Dark Angels force, he is either carving a path through the foe's troops or standing with my Tactical Squad or Devestator Squad. I do this because unlike other armies, Dark Angels do not have a lot of effective anti-flyer, instead of trying to take down flyers, I simply ignore them and this is why Azrael is placed with my troops, to give them a save against those pesky Helldrakes. Hes is an all-round great character.

Number 4
Eldar: Illic Nightspear

In number 4 is Illic Nightspear, I've always wanted a Ranger HQ and now its here, he looks really good, with his rifle and if you can see closely, his Power Sword is at his belt. I tend to use Illic as support for Striking Scorpions, yes you read right, Striking Scorpions, why? well simply because he and the Scorpions can Infiltrate anywhere they like ignoring the range restrictions, he also gives them Shrouded, combined with the Scorpions Stealth rule the unit gains a +3 bonus to any Cover Save they have. Illic himself has a Power Sword meaning hes is quite good in close combat.
I also use him to create immovable Dark Reaper Squads, cause Dark Reapers with Shrouded is a dangerous combination or I use him to Outflank short range units like Guardians and Fire Dragons.


Number 3
Tau: Commander Farsight

Since the old days, I've loved Farsight, a lovable renegade seeking to slay Orks. His new model is amazing and its a true testament to him that I bought the model before I even knew his rules. Apart from the obvious Mega Bodyguard Deathstar that I love using, I use Farsight and a single Bodyguard with XV8-05 Crisis 'Iridium' Armour this means that any small arm fire is palmed of to the Bodyguard and any AP2 is taken on Farsight's Invul. also since the Iridium Armour increases toughness by 1, Farsight and his Bodyguard have a majority toughness of 5 making them even harder to kill and leave a lot of points not spent on Bodyguards to put into things like Pathfinders and Riptides.

Number 2
Eldar: Eldrad Ulthran

My name says it all, this guy is BOSS! Since I started using him 3 years ago he has slain Thunderwolf cavalry, exploded the head of a Dreadknight pilot using Mind War slain countless Necrons and Space Marines and pried open a Dreadnought with his Witchblade. He is a legend, his psychic mastery means I use him for everything from buffing troops, cursing enemies and slain foes with Witchfires. I mainly run him with a unit of Dire Avengers or if I have Allies, an Archon, though I do place him in any unit where he is most effective.

Number 1
Dark Eldar: Lelith Hesperax

My all time favourite character, Lelith Hesperax, I loved her since the 2nd edition codex and when the 5th edition codex came out in 2010, on the day it came out, I bought Lelith and the codex, she was also my first Finecast model and I have 3 of her, and some conversion I've used her in, like my Female Commissar. Since 2010 I've played Lelith in almost every Dark Eldar army list. She has slain countless hundreds of models in this time, from whole Chaos Space Marine Squads to a Hive Tyrant, my devotion is quite silly though, there are some really good HQs in the Dark Eldar Codex that benefit the army in general, but I still like her and in 6th her BS of 9 is awesome... when throwing Plasma Grenades.
I typically give her a retinue of Grotesques, their Toughness, mass of Wounds and a free Pain Token make them great wound absorbers so that Lelith gets to combat unscathed, but other units like Incubi or Bloodbrides work well and I use them too. I also like sticking Lelith behind an Aegis Defence Line or on a Bastion with Icarus Lascannon, since we can't waste her BS9 now can we?

Anyway, I do hope you enjoyed my first attempt at a blog and hope to hear what you think :)  

Tau Codex Impressions

The Tau codex has now been available for a few days and I've been trying to think how to best exploit it from a chaos point of view.

In terms of chaos space marines, having the Tau as allies gives a little bit of flexibility for cheaper troops to get in there as auxiliaries.  I feel the Tau would make great back field allies -- creating a wall of firepower to cover the advance of chaos space marine troops and elites.  Indeed: letting the elites and chaos troops go forth and do what they need to do.  I'd probably still be looking at keeping elements like the heldrake, but mixing in there perhaps a riptide with some tau fire warriors.  And perhaps if I'm feeling a little bit more fluffy, taking some Kroot along the way as well for laughs.

For chaos daemons, I think the complementarity is high.  Let the daemons deep strike and close to close range for some melee, whilst the fire warriors hold the rear (and perhaps an objective) at the back, using marker lights as a deterrent for incoming charges. Indeed, the possibilities for having a somewhat static gun line at the back and a forward component of (say) Slaanesh is very appealing as it combines together all the right ingredients for a balanced, yet powerful army.  Let the dark gods corrupt the Tau: she who thirsts will be pleased...

Wargames Gallery: Tau Overrun

The Tau attempted a turn 1 victory against daemons by using a huge amount of firepower to cleanse the board of the daemons' preferred first wave. Despite a near perfect set-up, the firepower of the Tau was unable to overcome the string of (frankly) amazing invulnerable saves made by the daemons.  The remaining bloodcrushers raced to overrun the Tau positions as the second wave comes down to support the ground assault.

Scenery: Tau Game Board

Snapped in Melbourne, this Games Workshop table features several Tau inspired pieces of scenery that I found inspiring and wanted to share.

In particular, the walls of the fortifications in the foreground are made out of wood (or mdf at least) and have simply been etched to create the clean lines all the way around.  I'm not sure where the landing pad, the gun sentry or the communications device come from, but they're also very cool looking!



Note to Self: Daemons against Tau

Tau vehicles can have flechette devices attached.  This means that daemons who want to charge them can get wounded by doing so.  

Right, now that I've noted that to myself, I'll hopefully stop having squads of screamers of Tzeentch all die in close combat with Tau vehicles (yes it happened: an entire squad of screamers were dead on arrival!).

Wargames Gallery: Soul Grinder Line of Sight

My Soul Grinder seems to enjoy clambering on top of wrecked vehicles to obtain a better line of sight to further targets. Here, the Tau are being beaten back by the tide of daemons -- the Great Unclean One (background) did the wrecking job on the tank and is setting off to contest an objective, whilst the bloodletters lurk menacingly to the right (and off picture) to mop up the remaining units.

Battle Summary: Death Guard vs. Tau (1500 points)

On an outing with my Death Guard, I had the (relatively rare) opportunity to play against a Tau army. Here's the battle report.

Mission: Capture and Control (i.e. 2 objectives).
Deployment: Pitched Battle (i.e. long table edges).
Board: rectangular 6' x 4'.
Terrain: A forested moon... basically lots of area terrain consisting of 4+ cover saves that is also considered as difficult terrain.

Usual Caveat: I might not have got the report 100% accurate and I've skipped over some bits. And yes, it lacks pictures.

Pre-emptive Confession and Caveats: Truthfully, I don't get to play against Tau all that often. As a result, I'm not very familiar at all with Tau army lists, or how they play. I do know I hate those marker lights and I do know the sheer amount of high strength shots they're capable of pumping out though. So, if you've any advice or criticisms about this battle report, then let me know! My opponent was really nice though and did spend a bit of time explaining to me / reminding me about a few of the mechanics. In return, I explained in detail about feel no pain, blight grenades and so forth (similarly he had had little experience against Death Guard marines).

Here's the army lists:

Death Guard Army List (me), as per my list from a while ago:
HQ: Daemon Prince with mark of Nurgle, aura of decay and wings
Elites: Dreadnought with plasma cannon
Troops 1: 7 plague marines: 1 flamer, 1 melta, 1 plague champion with power fist, rhino with havoc launcher
Troops 2: 7 plague marines: 1 flamer, 1 melta, 1 plague champion with power fist, rhino with havoc launcher
Troops 3: 7 plague marines: 2 plasma guns, 1 plague champion with power fist, rhino with havoc launcher
Heavy Support 1: Vindicator with daemonic possession
Heavy Support 2: Vindicator with daemonic possession
Heavy Support 3: Predator with autocannon, heavy bolters, dozer blade and havoc launcher

Tau Army List:
(NB: this might not be 100 per cent accurate!)
HQ: Shas'el with plasma rifle, missile pod, & multi-tracker(?)
Elites 1: XV8-Crisis Team (2 suits with missle pods and flamer)
Elites 2: XV8-Crisis Team (2 suits with missle pods and flamer)
Elites 3: 3 stealth suits
Troops 1: Firewarriors - 11 firewarriors, 1 shas'ui
Troops 2: Firewarriors - 11 firewarriors, 1 shas'ui
Troops 3: 10 Kroot
Troops 4: 10 Kroot
Fast Attack 1: 5 Pathfinders plus devilfish and disruption pods
Fast Attack 2: 5 Pathfinders plus devilfish and disruption pods
Fast Attack 3: Gun drone squadron consisting of 6 gun drones
Haevy Support 1: Hammerhead with railgun, gun drones and disruption pods
Heavy Support 2: Skyray with smart missile system, targeters and disruption pods
Heavy Support 3: 1 Broadside

Setup:
Gah, I've no idea what to do here! I figure my priority is probably to take down the fast moving things (devilfish, hammerhead, etc.) that could potentially swoop in at the last moment to contest my HQ. But, I also want to ensure my HQ objective is secure, with at least a rhino full of plague marines on top of it and a vindicator nearby. This is probably stupid of me, but I place my objective in the corner of the board!!! In turn, the Tau player locates his in the centre of some shrubbery near the diagonally opposite side of the board.

Next question: Do I reserve everything? I know those Kroot are going to be infiltrating at the very least. Hmmmm. Perhaps that's a bit of a plan! Okay - I'm going to reserve everything in the hopes that the Tau player will willingly spread out his forces across the board - thereby letting me concentrate my firepower on one small unit at a time. I'm also in luck - I force the Tau player to take the first turn. So far so good.

During the Tau player's actual setup, he does indeed spread the kroot far and wide. The rest of his army is deployed in his main deployment zone, but is also spread out along the long table edge. On top of his objective, he locates one of his firewarrior squads and the broadside. Given the density of the woodlands between him and me, there aren't going to be many table edge to table edge shots going off - the lines of sight will be clogged up if I deploy correctly.

Turn 1.
Nothing of much significance happens for the Tau player. He moves the Kroot closer to my home objective. The rest of the army either stay put, or take a few strides forward from his deployment zone.

I've got everything in reserve still!

Turn 2.
The Kroot come closer, as do a number of other Tau squads.

Finally its my turn to do something. I start rolling for reserves. I get a respectable number of squads coming in to the game: Troops number 2, and all of my Heavy Support choices.

As per the plan, I move Troops 2 and a vindicator on to the board near to my home objective in the corner. The second vindicator and the predator deploy a little way off from that location. I intend to slowly roll the vindicator forward (hopefully supported by another troops squad in later turns), but leave the predator pretty much stationary from now on as it has a reasonable line of sight. I move them all forward and am in range for a good number of shots on some Kroot.

In the shooting phase, I hit the left hand Kroot squad with a direct vindicator cannon shot and a some shots from my rhino mounted squad. The cover saves help the Kroot out immensely, but I manage to reduce them to 3 survivors. They subsequently fail a morale check and are running away!

The other vindicator misses. I roll 6 for the scatter, which means the template goes 3 inches away from the intended target (daemonic possession gives BS=3 instead of the usual BS=4 for marines). It is still hitting most of the squad. Four Kroot perish. Another two die from the predator's autocannon. That'll suffice for one turn!

Turn 3:
At this point, my opponent realizes that there's little his Kroot can do against my mechanized marine force. Moreover, there's few decent lines of sight. So, he moves most of his army to try to gain a better line of sight. The broadside and the firewarriors on his home objective stay still, but can't see much.

In the shooting phase, he has a good attempt at taking out my central vindicator (the one next to the predator). The incoming shots arrive from the Crisis suits and the hammerhead. One penetrates and one glances. Luckily for me, both result in crew stunned. Since the vindicator is possessed, it shrugs them both off! That was really lucky (considering the strength of the railgun!). Nothing of any further consequence occurs.

In my turn, my Deamon Prince and Troops 1 arrive from reserve.
I roll in troops 1 behind the shot-at vindicator and follow up closely behind. The daemon prince also deploys nearby. I move everything forward. It is now my intent that troops 3 (when they arrive on a subsequent turn) will claim my home objective. The dreadnought might be a problem in turn 5, though!

The stationary predator makes short work of the surviving Kroot. They're all dead. My opponent has now realized how good havoc launchers actually are.

Meanwhile, my vindicator completely misses the hammerhead, but scatters a long way on to some crisis suits! Splat. Two dead crisis suits. Ah well - happy accidents!

One the left hand side of the board, my rhino has gained a line of sight to the Shas'el. Havoc launchers away and its one wound on the HQ! Brilliant. The other vindicator misses everything. (I mean completely - the shot scattered off the board entirely!!!).

Turn 4.
Things start to get messy for me. With the lines of sight that I've exposed to my own vehicles, the Tau let rip. One vindicator explodes, the other gets immobilized. The rhino on the left hand edge also explodes. Bye bye. The plague marines weather a subsequent storm of incoming fire, taking only 1 casualty.

In my turn, the immobile vindicator manages to wreck the hammerhead. Finally! The plague marines from the dead rhino run in to cover. The predator takes out a number of tau fire warriors.

At this stage in the game, I know I need to get one of my units over to the opposing objective pretty soon. I'm probably going to need turn 6 if its available. Conversely, my opponent seems to be gunning for a draw. He doesn't seem to want to advance on my objective. I think that's a mistake.

Turn 5.
Blazing away, the Tau take down my immobile vindicator once and for all. They also blow up the autocannon on my predator. The rest of them seem obsessed with blazing away at the plague marines who are in cover. Fair enough, methinks! They're not doing much, so if they can take some of the heat off my other (intact) rhino and crew so much the better. Five die and I'm left with only the plague champion.

My last reserves come on to the board in my turn. I plonk troops 3 down over my objective and sit smugly. I then race rhino number 2 toward their lines and pop its smoke launchers. My predator also joins in with this merry race toward their lines, with my daemon prince following up behind them. I don't really kill anything much to be honest.

The game fails to end here -- if it had, it would have been a draw.

Turn 6.
One devilfish moves to corner my tanks (ram me if you dare!). Predator explodes. Rhino also explodes from the broadside. Plague marines who were on board get wiped out to the man. Daemon prince is reduced down to 1 wound. Did I mention I hate marker lights? The other devilfish swoops in on my home objective, contesting it.

But their failure to finish off my daemon prince (or concentrate on reaching my objective) will be their undoing at their side of the board. With his mighty wings, the daemon prince leaps toward their objective. Letting off his stinky aura of decay, he kills 2 fire warriors. He then charges the firewarrior squad, getting in to contesting range of the objective. The prince slaughters a good number of the fire warriors and survives. The rest of the fire warriors fail their morale check and race backward ... off the board in fact.

The game ends here. I'm contesting my opponents home objective with my single wound daemon prince. Almost everything else of mine has gone up in smoke at this stage. My opponent has many more troops (and both devilfish) still intact, and is contesting my objective. Game Drawn.

Concluding thoughts.
Death Guard struggle to pump out the firepower against Tau! I think I should have deep-striked my daemon prince in to his lines for a bit of distraction and thought about my moves more carefully (but time was a factor and I don't like to hold things up!). I'm starting to think I need Chosen!

The Tau player messed up with the Kroot somewhat, but tore most of my force apart in the later turns regardless! Ouch.