Monday, September 14, 2009

Battle Report - 1000pt Blood Angels vs Tau

So this is my first battle report on here and it was between my Blood Angel successor chapter (yet to be named or built... haha) vs my friend Dak's Tau themed around the Soviet Union. The battle as 1000pt as I couldn't proxy enough Rhino hulls, as my 1500pt list has 3 Rhinos and 2 Baal Preds but I only have 3 actual Rhino models. So, my forces were:
  • Lord Dante
  • Carbulo in Rhino with 3 DC
  • 2x 5-man ASM in Rhinos
    • Sargents had PW and Melta Bombs
  • 10-man Tac Squad with Las-cannon
  • 2x Landspeeders with MM
Tau forces where:
  • 2x HQ Suits (Plasma/Missile)
  • 1x Elite Suit (Plasma/Missile)
  • 2x Firewarrior Squads with Devilfish transports
  • Hammerhead with Rail Cannon
  • Hammerhead with Ion Cannon
Deployment and mission were spearhead/annihilation, he won roll off and went first and chose his quadrant. He deployed everything near the center and I deployed my las-cannon team near the center as well, everything else of mine is in reserve. The center of the board is my bunker from earlier posts, so it's up for grabs. One DF runs up and unloads his troops near the door and the rest circle around the bunker to get LOS on my unit which brings his other DF and HH near my table edge. The squad take shots like a champ surviving the round of shooting. They didn't have a shot at the end of the turn so they move to cover for the incoming plasma shots next turn.

Top of 2, he pours more shots into them reducing them to just the lascannon, but the final failed save was from a pinning shot, which I of course fail so he can't shoot next turn. I roll for reserves and one Landspeeder, Dante, and a normal Rhino come on. The speeder rolls on behind his DF, penning his rear armor for an immobilize. Dante arrived behind his HH, penning rear armor with his melta-pistol, wrecking it, and the Rhino just moves up 12" but forgets to pop smoke. The key here was the Tau not knowing I can come in on the whole table edge and the skimmers were both near 12" of my edge so were in range of getting 2d6 pen rolls on rear armor. On his turn, I think a suit missile'd the side armor of my Rhino and it got wrecked, failing an area cover save. My ASM pile out into this cover to get saves vs any plasma or Ion cannons. Their mission is now to melta the downed DF to get the KP.

Top of 3, one of his HQs goes to rapid fire plasma and missiles into my lone lascannon who promptly sticks the cannon into the ground and hides behind it, as the HQ rolls 4 1s missing all shots! The HQ is forced to charge or he will open fire next turn, and he is finally cut down. The ASM squad on foot takes some wounds from the Ion cannon but live on. His other units maneuver around but not much else. My second 'speeder comes on and moves up 12" to get in MM range of the second DF which hits on side armor and immob that one as well. My DC Rhino comes on and moves up and pops smoke. The speeder that immob the 1st DF moves around to fire on the HQ with his MM, but fails to hit. Dante jumps forward and pops a suit with his pistol.

Top of 4, his HQ suit proceeds to score a weapon destroyed and an immob on my 1st speeder, but doesn't give up its KP. His two downed DF launch their 2 gun drones each to bring the fight to me. His suit and some FW in the bunker fire at Dante scoring 1 wound, but Carbulo was close enough to heal it. I can't remember how, but my 2nd speeder was destroyed by fire, probably the Ion cannon. My ASM go to meet his one squad of gun drones and shoot them from the sky on their way to the downed DF. Dante jumps past the other downed DF where a suit was hiding and preceded to kill him in CC, leaving just one suit left, which was an HQ. The DC rhino moves up to stay within range of Dante to give him a saved wound for the next shooting phase.

Top of 5, he turns everything around and labels Dante the threat. The FW in the bunker come out so all can rapid fire into him, the other FW in the immob DF pile out and move to get into RF as well, the last suit comes around the bunker and the Ion HH take aim. Both squads of FW fail to wound, as Carbulo heals the only one they inflict. The suit inflicts one wound, and finally 2 Ion blasts aren't saved so he is knocked out. This allows my ASM squad to stroll over to the other DF and melta it and wreck it. My 3 DC unload and hop the nearby wall and charge his closest FW squad, winning combat but they only fall back a few inches, which sets me up to charge them on turn 6 and sweep them. Speaking of turn 6 my last rhino that came in on turn 5 rolls up and shoots the other gun drone squad from the air with help from bolt pistols inside. The other FW squad ran back in the bunker but couldn't shoot much. The game ends there as a win for me 7 to 4.

Some questions that came up, that I pose to anyone that plays and is reading this are: Can foot infantry go thru walls that are tall enough to cover a rhino and are gun drone squads that disembark from a Devilfish count as a squad that create a KP? For the first, I figured it was just a difficult terrain test, like they blow a hole thru the wall with explosives. We just played it as 1d6 difficult terrain, instead of 2d6 picking the highest. And for the second, I counted the drones as KP as they have an entry in the codex as an actual fast attack choice with a unit stat line, they just happened to start on the DF. My opponent said they shouldn't as they are more like a wargear choice for the DF. Lemme know what you think of this post as well, if it was too long or what. It was long as I don't have a way to recording it and making it like a 5-7 min post on YouTube like Jawaballs and the other bloggers. Thoughts?

12 comments:

John Stiening said...

good questions. I am not sure about going through walls, but I think the drones count as separate kill points once they leave the fish.

brent said...

You need photos. It lets everyone see the terrain and the models. I didn't really read the report because I need to see pics. I think adding in more of your attack plan or thoughts are more valuable than a simple retelling of what happened IMO.

brent said...

http://pitchedbattle.blogspot.com/2009/07/game-2-black-temlar-vs-angels-sanguine.html
Here's an example of what I like.
http://warhammer-tau-army.blogspot.com/2009/07/tau-vs-space-marines-battle-report.html
These are two bloggers that I find most interesting.

Sholto said...

Take a look at Pg14 of the rulebook:-

"Note that as part of their move through difficult terrain, models may move through walls, closed doors and windows, and all sort of similarly solid obstacles, unless the players have agreed that a certain wall or obstacle is impassable. This represents the warriors bashing their way past locked doors and windows, using explosives or their weapons to create breaches in light walls, climbing over low obstacles and so on"

As for Gun Drones, they are a KP as soon as they detach since they are a unit as soon as they detach. If you are a unit, you are a KP - pg91.

SynnerG said...

Brent: Thanks for the input. I did feel like photos would help, just no camera besides my cell phone one. :-\ My overall strategy was pretty much to get him near my table edge and pop his threats, which worked well. After that, it was just moving my Rhinos to get close to suits or other vehicles. Either way my squads were equipped to take either on. I'll see what I can do about pictures tho, as I can just illustrate what's different between each and cut down the narrative.

Sholto: Thanks for pointing out that page. I distinctly remember that part about bashing thru walls in the book, but for the life of me couldn't find it. And that's how I see it about the drones as well. They can be fielded as units, they have stat lines, can shoot, charge, etc like any other unit. When I get home from work I'll look over the Tau codex a bit myself for more info on gun drones.

brent said...

You could ask your opponent to take pictures and send you them too. ^^

SynnerG said...

Per the Tau codex (p.30), gun drones may dismount from a vehicle just like infantry from a transport, but may not rejoin it. They form an independent unit, functioning as a Drone Squadron. Doesn't really clarify it one way or the other, but that's the information in the codex so far.

Feldmarshal Goehring said...

Sounds like you had great fun and gained some good experience with your army as well.

I have a question about something you said concerning your tactics: Did you deploy your tactical squad with the purpose of drawing your opponents units closer to your table edge?

Btw, I just realized that I did not have you on my blog roll. I corrected that mistake and added you.

Keep up the great work.

pitchedbattle.blogspot.com

SynnerG said...

w00t thanks for the add. It was at first to get into that bunker, lol, but then realized too late that his skimmer would just ride up and drop the FW out at the door. :-\ So, next best thing was drawing him around the blocking terrain to try and get shots in on it, since nothing else of mine was on the table. The problem here is if he went the other way and not near my edge, it would play differently. I'd have to spend a turn boosting my speeders and jumping Dante around cover to get in range.

I'll have to play with that in mind next time as he has learned his lesson about table edges. ;-)

Tim said...

The question of whether vehicle-drones count as a kill-point or not comes up all the time. Most people agree that yes, they do count as a kill-point but I've heard otherwise as well. Of course, GW's FAQ was not helpful in this regard. A look at the rules as written concludes that they do count as kill-points. This is a double-edged sword however, as they can be very useful on other missions when 2 free drones move out to contest an objective in the last turn of the game. In annihilation, it does mean that one unit choice, firewarriors in Devilfish are together 3 kill-points.

SynnerG said...

Hm, wait, when a Tau skimmer is "wrecked" or "destroyed" do you automatically get a KP for the drones, being a unit? Or do they get to follow infantry procedures and do a disembark? I would guess they get the disembark, but just making sure. Which brings up another point, do you take off drones for weapon destroyed results? Or are they just like units firing from fire-points and you can't single them out? I'm surprised I never thought of all these questions before since I play against Tau all the time, lol.

Tim said...

Wrecked or destroyed, they count as passengers so take the normal tests (pinning or s3 hit then pinning).
No, you can't detroy them with a weapon destroyed result. They count as passengers.
Note: if you're playing against a piranha squadron, if one piranha is destroyed, all of the drone have to disembark and form a unit, then take a pinning check.
This is just reminding me that GW has to clarify a lot of the tau rules better.

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