Tau V Imperial Guard (Astra Militarum) 2k Win

This was my first game against the new Imperial Guard and I really enjoyed it. i'd seen my opponent in the past playing with IG and was a bit unsure of what he'd bring (was hoping he didn't bring loads of Leman Russ'), thankfully he only brought 2 Russ', a baslisk and a hellhound. We rolled for game and got the scouring and I placed 2 in my deployment zone and I opted to role first. I spread my forces to some extent but had overlapping lines of fire and potentially had the chance of over watch.

Tau turn 1

I moved my piranha up the right flank, taking full advantage of cover to get into a good position to shoot at his Russ' approaching me. I Nova charged the riptides and opted to super charge the ion accelerator and heavy burst cannon. The burst-cannon aka "Rippy" annihilated a hellhound which had used its scout move to come up my left flank, the pathfinders got 2 hits on the hellhound and I stripped its cover save. Longstrike and the other hammerhead failed to do any serious damage and my opponent was rolling well with the cover saves. I quickly lost one squad of pathfinders from my opponents battle orders for stripping cover and pinning my units. I lost the missile broadside to heavy fire from lascannons. I did my jump moves with the two riptides, moving them up my left flank to get better line of sight on the blob of troops and to take out the basilisk which was next in Rippy's cross hairs. I nova charged the two riptides and took the weapons again, the piranha kept manouvering into position on the right flank to try get shots off on the side and rear armour on the tanks. Rippy nova charged burst cannon shredded the basilisk but only wrecked it. Longstrike obliterated a Leman Russ which exploded and killed one trooper.

AM turn 2 was frightening to some extent his mortars were deadly accurate and killed 8 fire warriors who only killed one trooper in the previous volley, this unit failed leadership and retreated off the board. One of his deep striking stormtroopers were obliterated by rippy's intercepting smart missiles and burst cannon. Shadowsun and friends had joined the fight and killed enough storm troopers to make them fall back. The final leman russ exposed its rear armour to a piranha which failed to wreck it in the previous turn thanks to line of sight. The tank faced down Shadowsun who rolled 2 penetrating hits on the front armour, removing the last two hull points and wrecking it, after Longstrike had shot at the side armour. Rippy the riptide finally failed a nova charge and with 2 wounds left killed my opponents HQ winning the game 8-2 (I had first blood, slay the warlord, line breaker and owned 1 objective and contested 2). Above Longstrike eyes up the next kill Shadowsun eyes up the final Leman Russ and prepares to blow it sky high

Tau V Tyranids 1500 kill points 11-2 win

He had line breaker and killed the piranha squadron This was my first game against the 6th edition Tyranids and after my last game against the tyranids I knew I had to go first and quickly weaken or kill off the synapse creatures which would cause his army to implode. We rolled for deployment, game objective and for first turn. We rolled for Dawn of war deployment and kill points, my opponent won the role for deployment and opted to go first. He deployed mid table and I deployed in the right corner and had a riptide and hammerhead in the middle of my deployment. I kept my 2 crisis suit teams in reserve for when the hordes get too close. I failed too cease the initiative and we rolled for night fight.

Tyranids turn 1

 In turn 1 the tyranids moved up and ran at my lines because only 1 of their creatures were in range who missed the target.

Tau turn 1

I moved my units around to keep the slower fire warriors out of assault range and the faster vehicles into more open areas with clearer fields of fire. I nova charged the riptide's heavy burst cannon which combined with longstrikes' sub munition round and the heavy burst cannon armed hammerhead killed 7 out of 8 gaunts and 8 out of 9 genestealers leaving one stealer and a broodlord left. The broadsides only knocked off one wound from the hive tyrant. I moved the piranha's up the right flank past the gargoyles. My plan was too get the piranha's in behind the monstrous creatures to soften them up for the other units.

 Tyranids turn 2

My opponent tried to deep strike the trygon in my lines but thankfully it failed to come in and stayed in reserves. The hive tyrant shot at the fire warriors on the hill and killed one. The ripper swarms had moved up to this unit and survived a huge amount of fire from over watch. The surviving genestealer and broodlord got into close combat and failed to wound the riptide in close combat who failed its

 Tau turn 2.

My deep striking units failed to come in. The piranha's moved up and shot everything at the hive tyrant and failed to wound it. The missile broadside shot its smart missiles and high yield missiles at the gargolyes and killed 6 of 10. Longstrike fired the solid shot round at the hive tyrant and wounded it and the other two broadsides also shot their heavy rail rifles at the tyrant bringing it too 1 wound. The heavy burst cannon hammerhead killed 7 gaunts. The riptide won combat by killing the genestealer and the two remained in combat, the riptide failed hit and run. On the hill the fire warriors killed all the remaining rippers and only lost 2.

Tyranids turn 3

the hordes were getting a bit closer and the trygon arrived and shot its bio electric weapon at the fire warriors on the hill killing 2. The hive tyrant shot at the piranha's which jinked the blast. But the tyrant got its revenge by charging at the vehicles, blowing one too pieces and the other was immobilised.

Tau turn 3

Shadowsun and her plasma & fusion team arrived behind the carnifexes that were starting to get too close for comfort. This team is armed with 2 twin linked fusion blaster crisis suits with a burst cannon and 1 twin linked plasma rifle crisis suit. This unit put 3 wounds on the fexes. I dropped this team back towards my opponents deployment zone to get out of assault range and to get line breaker.

Tyranids turn 4

 In turn 4 The hive tyrant shot at the piranha blowing it up, the fexes charged at Shadowsun's team who killed the wounded fex which had failed its charge. The riptide was assaulted by the warriors and gaunts.

Tau turn 4

Hit and run finally paid off and in my turn the riptide nova charged and obliterated 2 warriors with rending shots. The riptide assaulted the unit and killed 3 more gaunts. In the rest of my turn I obliterated the hive tyrant with missiles from the broadside and the other two put two wounds on the trygon which was finished off by fire from longstrike and the bursthead. The remaining fex was annihilated by 9 wounds of plasma, fusion and burst cannon fire.

Tau V Ultramarines

After playing Hannah she wanted another game, but this time play as the Imperium so she choose my Shadowsword with a tank and elite heavy space marine list. Her list was the Shadowsword, Land Raider, Land Raider crusader, Rhino, Predator with auto cannon & sponson lascannons, Dreadnought with a plasma cannon and a dreadnought with twin-linked lascannons and missiles, 2 CC terminator squads 5 hammers and shields and 5 with claws, Sternguard and Sicarius. My Tau list was a heavy burst cannon riptide, 2 12 man squads of fire warriors 1 with ethereal and 1 with a fire blade, 1 squad of crisis suits, crisis commander with a body guard, 1 railhead, 1 bursthead, 2x2 broadside teams with railguns and a 3rd team with 2 railguns and 1 missile side. She went first by moving the land raiders up and opened fire and lucky all the shots missed or failed to pen I was quiet happy that the shadowsword's volcano cannon missed otherwise I'd most likely have lost a tank. I moved my rail around to get a better shot on the shadowsword and moved the bursthead flat out behind the blue box to create a cross fire for anything coming through the valley. I fire all of the rail weapons at the shadowsword and managed to knock a few hull points off it but failed to blow it up (it could have killed a huge amount of units). In turn 2 she kept moving up and the predator started firing at the two broadsides on the tower I saved one with the cover save. The majority of her units were out of range so the rest of them moved flat out or ran. The volcano cannon hit the exposed railhead but it jinked the shot. My suicide crisis team deep struck behind the dreadnoughts and rhino to take advantage of the weaker armour, before being blown apart in the following turn. However, I forgot to take a target lock to give me split fire but was able to wreck the shadowsword with the fusion weapons. I figured this was the most dangerous unit and had to go because of its 120" volcano cannon and 48" lascannons. I tried to jump the suit into cover but got a horrible roll of 3" so they were left exposed. In turn 3 she kept up the advance but left the two dreadnoughts to take on the crisis team before they killed another vehicle (really wish I had taken target lock, may be one of the dreadnoughts would have been killed). The plasma-dread shot at the suits and unsurprisingly killed one. The other two died from a krak missile and lascannon fire. The suicide still have their 100% record of deep striking, killing a big unit then getting mauled off the table. The predator was able to put 2 glances on the railhead and nothing else took a hit. In my turn 3 I shot the railhead's main gun at a dreadnought and blew it sky high, the predator in the middle took a pounding and was able to shrug off a number of hits but finally fell a barrage of missiles. The riptide had nova charged its shield and had started moving up the table because I remembered the termies in the 2 land raiders which I hadn't shot at, yet. The commander and his body guard moved up to support the bursthead which had failed to inflict any damage on the troops (I had thought she was going to run them up with the rhino to swamp me with troops). In her turn 4 the land raiders moved up and the terminators jumped out. I lost a few fire warriors from the heavy bolters but they passed their leadership. A lascannon shot killed a broadside after I rolled a 1 on cover save. In my turn 5 my fire warriors killed 3 terminators and the other 2 were killed from the bursthead. I knocked the land raider down to 1 hull point but charged the riptide at it and blew it up with smash (the explosion also hurt the riptide). In her turn 5 she killed the riptide (she had been dying to all game) and the other land raider blew up the bursthead with a multi-melta. This explosion knocked a wound off the commander but I rolled a look out sir and passed it to another suit. Didn't want to risk any easy victory points.

Tau V Salamanders, purge the alien 1500 win

I wanted to test some of my methods and tactics so I picked a smaller force than my opponent. Since it was a friendly game I was happy enough to know that I could loose very easily if I messed up at all. I rolled and opted to go first. I castled all my units in the right hand corner and used Shadowsun and friends with the riptides to force my opponent into a cross fire. Straight away Longstrike blew a demolisher tank away and the path finders started killing troops in the open. I moved the riptides up into the middle of the table so I could move them to counter my opponent when necessary. My opponent's HQ arrived in a drop pod (which was glanced to death on arrival) but the unit was incredibly unlucky when it targeted Longstirke with the orbital bombardment and it scattered 12 inches back, to the HQ, 5 were killed out right and one survived thanks to eternal warrior. In my turn 2 Shadowsun and friends deep struck but ended up on my riptide and my opponent placed the unit at the far side of my deployment zone, he forgot the 3D6 movement for her and I was able to get back in the fight next turn when they killed 3 bikes. Longstrike blew another tank off the board and the nova charged iontide annihilated 7 space marines that were out in the open, the other 2 were killed from plasma fire. I got a bit worried when his deep striking assault marines killed most of my fire warriors so I moved the ion tide towards them (and into cover because his grav guns had killed the other riptide and the plasma cannon was slowly knocking off the wounds). Combined fire from the iontide and remaining path finders finished off the 2 assault marines that were wreaking havoc in my lines. Longstrike took aim again and obliterated the dreadnought. At this point the game was over, he only had a few marines scattered throughout the terrain and his warlord failed a charge and was killed by overwatch from shadowsun and friends. Long strike was by far the unit of the game by blowing up 3 vehicles with just 3 shots. I enjoyed having to be very tactful but if the orbital bombardment hadn't scattered and killed most of his HQ unit, it more than likely would have destroyed Longstrike, from this the riptide would have been killed from the dreadnought and razorback.

Tau V Eldar 2k kill points win

Yeay!!! first win against Eldar, my opponent from the previous game was eager for a re-match as was I because the previous game came down to two models. This time my opponent had 24 wraiths including a deep striking wraith knight which is terrifying when it starts on the board. I got to go first and quickly moved towards his lines (strange for Tau) but having my units very close together I took full advantage of support fire and cover saves for my fire warriors. My rolling was very hot, the path finders in cover lit up and shot the wraiths close to them. I learnt from the previous game that I should focus on killing the wraiths very quickly and began using the solid str 10 AP 1 shot from the hammerheads. The concentrated AP 1 & 2 fire from a variety of units killed a vast amount of the wraiths in turn 1 and 2. It got worse for my opponent when shadowsun and friends arrived without scattering within 12 inches of the wraiths, killing 3 wraiths and his HQ which gave his units cover saves. His Wraith Knight arrived (uh-oh) but interceptor from the 2 riptides (1 HBC and 1 ion accelerator)knocked a wound off it. Thankfully it couldn't assault when it arrived and my cover & jink saves were very helpful and probably saved the game for me. Shadowsun & friends were in turn killed when the Wraith Knight got sick of his little buddies getting slaughtered. Thankfully I had killed the bulk of his forces and was able to blast the Wraith Knight to pieces the HBC riptide nova charged its fusion guns and took 2 wounds off it, longstrike got it down to 1 wound and the iontide killed it with a blast from its weapons. The wraith knight's wounds were being chipped away at slowly, but I couldn't afford to concentrate on anything else and had to rely on a str 5 to kill off some of his units.

Tau V Eldar 2k the scouring loss

This was my first time playing Eldar and all I really knew about them is that they are very mobile and have tonne of psychic powers than can really screw with an army. I lost my Riptide from some psychic power that caused it to hurt itself. My opponent used a wraith army which had a majority of toughness 6 and all bar 1 model had a 3+ save. Once I killed off the HQ I was able to rip the wraiths apart with my AP 1 & 2 heavy army. I didn't really take note of who killed who and what moved where. It was looking at a very close win after I killed off his 20 wraiths but a unit of striking scorpions were camping in some terrain and took a huge amount of fire to kill them off but 2 remained and my opponent won, barely. I made a few tactical mistakes but if I hadn't taken them I may have lost an objective.

Tau V Tyranids Apoc game win

This game was played over a few days I used my Tau army and my girlfriend who took an interest last year used my Tau army. I deployed my Tau army as far back as possible using the bastion and aegis defence line as blocking terrain to hopefully slow down the tyranid horde. My opponent deployed as far up the board as possible. I got first turn and moved the fire warriors up to the defence lines. The swarms were not in range of my pulse rifles and smart missiles so began hammering in the monstrous creatures with my rail guns. I knocked a few wounds of the hierodule and tyranofex. Killing the hierodule was a number 1 priority. In her turn 1 she moved up and fired some long range weapons but the cover saves saved the fire warriors. Turn 2 I moved up my burst cannon hammerhead which excelled in this game and killed off the huge amount of gaunts and genestealers that were getting very close to my lines. I nova charged the riptide and it hammered into a tervigon knocking it down to 1 wound. There was a second line of gaunts behind the monstrous creatures which I had to kill quickly. At the start of her turn 2 her trygon and mawloc arrived close to my lines but failed to hurt my units but I had to target these creatures. On my left flank she had moved up a group of 3 carnifexes that I had neglected until they started shooting at my broadsides. In turn 3 I moved my units a bit to get line of sight on bigger threats. My crisis suits moved up and incinerated the warriors and finished them off with burst cannons. I used the 2 quad guns to hammer into the hierodule which was just behind the defence line. The riptide shredded the harpy with the nova charged burst cannon. Longstrike and the other railhead put 2 wounds on the swarmlord which was her warlord. My 3 broadside teams dealt a huge amount of damage, the high yield missiles finished off the tervigon. The heavy rail guns killed the hierodule. In her third turn she charged moved and ran everything her genestealers got into close combat with my bursthead and blew it up 5 genestealers were killed in the explosion. In my turn 4 I regrouped, pulling my fire warriors back and closer to the tanks and suits to use over watch and support fire. I left the fireblade with the quad gun furthest from the army to kill the swarmlord which he did. The carnifexes that were pushing down my left flank failed a charge and faced a huge amount of fire power from the broadsides and riptide they were finished off from a barrage from the pulse rifles and carbines. The plasma and melta suits killed the tyranofex and jumped up the board to get linebreaker. In the bottom of 4 she charged everything and got a number of gaunts and a tervigon into close combat the rest of the army was killed off in over watch and support fire. The game ended because she only had a few units left that would have been killed off in the next shooting phase. I learned that deploying close together and moving forward helps screw up deep striking units and that falling back while firing against hordes keeps them at bay and by the time they get into cc they have little chance of killing everything.

Tau V Imperial Guard Win 1850

After the last game ended so quickly me and my opponent played a second game where we deployed across from each other. He quickly picked off 1 of my path finder teams but the other survived. He moved a hellhound down my right flank which came into my broadsides' view and was quickly blown up. A second hellhound was destroyed by longstirke who gets preferred enemy and re-rolls everything not that he needed in this game as he swiftly took revenge on the leman russ vanquisher which had been a pain in the previous game. My piranhas and shadownsun & friends pushed up the right flank destroying vehicles and applying pressure while other units kept firing and glancing/blowing up tanks. On the left flank the riptides pushed up and smashed a chimera which didn't blow up and the survivors assaulted the riptide but were killed in CC, at this point the game was well won in my favour but I broke combat using hit & run with the riptide and ended up in my enemies deployment zone blocking in his surviving troops and confirming that I'd have line breaker. Using the riptides & crisis suits aggressively I caught the enemy in a pincer and he couldn't move anywhere. Picking a unit of the game is difficult because each unit earned its points back. I think Shadowsun & friends should get it for wrecking 3 tanks in a single turn.

Tau V Imperial Guard 1850 loss

My opponent deployed first but I ceased and thought I would be able to do huge damage but his aegis defence line kept giving him huge saves and undoubtedly saved a number of his tanks on numerous occasions. My piranhas went up the flank and very quickly killed a tank. He returned fire with beast hunter shells that killed a riptide. Shadowsun with the 2 twin linked fusion blaster and plasma crisis suits arrived behind his tanks and started popping vehicles but it was too little too late. Didn't learn whole lot from this game, my opponent has been playing for over 10 years versus my 6 months and did everything right he was impressed and surprised at my tactics with the piranhas and shadowsun.

Tau V Minotaurs 1850 4-3 loss

We had night fight and he moved up and his drop pod arrived and jaws killed 2 suits. Tau 1 killed a rhino with path finders and fire warriors, R'Varna put 1 glance on a land raider out of 12 and fire warriors killed more marines, riptide killed 5 marines with plasma and ion. Turn 2 he moved up to the high ground to capture the points, land raider killed 7 fire warriors with flame and assault cannon, marines killed another path finder, melta killed a drone, krak missiles killed a drone and hurt the riptide. Turn 2 Tau R'Varna killed the landraider, fire warriors killed off more marines. Turn 3 riptide died, shadowsun arrived and killed 4 marines, broadside killed the last landspeeder, fire warriors with fireblade killed the marines turn 4 killed 3 marines with longstrike and broadside, shadowsun and plasma suit killed 2 marines and captured a point and got like breaker, varna hurt a terminator. Turn 5 marine blew himself up and shadowsun took fire. Varna died in cc, turn 6 game ended 4-3 loss I had line breaker 1st blood and slay the warlord. He had line breaker and 1 point another was contested.

Tau V Dark Angels 1850 kill everything10 -7 win

He got first blood by killing infiltrating path finders, everything else failed to wound. Tau turn 1 rippy kills scouts, longstrike killed a dreadnought, broadsides killed 4 bikes, bursthead killed 3 marines and a nova charged ion weapon killed 5 in cover. Turn 2 lost nothing killed more bikes, rippy killed a scout, bursthead moved up to go for line breaker. Focus fire killed a termie squad and a few marines. rippy and rippy junior died from plasma, Las and bolter fire. My opponent conceded at the end of turn 2 because I had killed his units that could have hurt me. The core of this list (2 riptides, crisis team, longstirke and broadsides) are the units I am going to use from now on as it is very manoeuvrable and has a lot of AP2 and AP3 weapons. Depending on the army I am facing I will sub in more broadsides or the R'Varna. The two deployment zones, the broadsides were in a really good position to cover all approaches, longstrike was cover my left flank and aiming between two cliffs. The iontide (rippy junior) was doing the same from the right flank. Just a bit of moving around not too much shooting. The bursthead is moving up the right flank, getting line breaker and flushing his troops out. Rippy junior is dead in the middle of the board. Longstrike moves up to finish off a squad of marines. Longstrike points at his next kill

Tau V Dark Angels 1850 emperors will 7-5 win

In the first turn I killed a few marines which weakened key units units. A nova charged riptide killed 4 terminators setting the tone of the game. He hurt the broadsides and killed a drone. Turn 2 killed a few more terminators, dreadnought and a landspeeder, rippy deep struck and killed a few guys. My opponent replied with his missiles, killed a broadside and more path finders died from bolt fire. Crisis suits killed some marines, rippy killed more termies and longstrike finished them off. Turn 3 killed bikes and landspeeder from fire warriors, riptide killed a few scouts, crisis suits killed marines with plasma. Turn 4 Crisis suits killed the marines moved up and killed dev squad and got line breaker, turn 5 longstrike killed the warlord with a railgun the crisis suits killed a few more marines with plasma and melta. Moving the riptides and crisis suits up very aggressively helped this game and I had tailored my list to deal with power and terminator armour. There is more of this to come because I added two more crisis suits armed with twin linked fusion blasters and a third with a twin linked plasma rifle these three all have burst cannons and the plasma rifle suit has a target lock, this team is used a lot with Shadowsun. This deployment was very similar to the last game. Rippy junior (armed with the ion accelerator) pushes up the board. The other riptide arrives in his deployment zone, shoots the burst cannon and then jumps back.

Tau V Tyranids 1850 relic 6-0 win

I got first 1st blood by lighting up a tyrant which died from a barrage of fire. The varna hurt the hive tyrant and killed a gargolye, the piranhas killed more gargoyles, rippy killed the remaining gargoyles in another unit, split fire from the broadsides hurt a hive tyrant and killed more gargoyles, longstrike hurt the hive tyrant bringing it 2 1 wound left. Fire blade and his unit killed 3 rippers. The varna nova charged hurt itself and failed rippy didnt nids moved up and spawned a few gaunts. Gargoyles killed a pathfinder. Turn 2 piranhas killed hive tyrant and broadsides killed off the tervigon. Fire warriors killed gaunts rippy and varna nova charged failed but got feel no pain. Rippy killed more gaunts. Suicide squad hurt a biovore. Nids turn2 mawloc popped up and killed a piranha. Trygon popped up and so did more nids. Turn 3 lost a broadside hurt the trygon and mawloc, crisis team hurt the biovores killing 1 other team killed more gaunts. Varna died and rippy got down to 1 wound, longstrike killed the doom after it finished off the broadsides, mawloc popped up but scattered away from the crisis suits which had come over from killing the biovores with overwatch. These suits killed off the gargoyles and a few gaunts. 2 other suits killed loads of gaunts before they got killed by a trygon the fireblade and his squad killed gaunts as they ran for the relic but were killed in cc, ethereal and his unit slaughtered a gargoyle and the rippers in cc. My opponent started his hive tyrant, tervigon and 2 units of gargoyles on the board. The majority of these died very quickly. He did say he planned on pushing the tervigon up to the relic and keep spawning gaunts but unfortunately for him I got first turn and flattened a huge amount of his vanguard. As you can see from the summary there was a lot of killing, I did get worried when my opponents mawloc, trygon and gaunts popped up in my deployment zone. I had kept my flamer crisis teams in reserve and they came on and slaughtered 16 gaunts in one torrent of flame. This was a turning point of the game otherwise I would have had a huge up hill struggle as the tyranids came in all around me. It was a little closer than I would have liked (I know the score doesn't represent that) but the Doom caused a huge amount of chaos until it came into the open and got blown apart by longstirke who killed/wounded a unit in every turn.I didn't get to use the R'Varna as much as I would have liked (I wanted to pie plate massive hordes just to see the hordes disintegrate infront of us). In the end I had the relic and a few units scattered around the board. 1 crisis team that had deep struck to kill the biovores came across the board killing a unit every turn which was a huge key to winning. The deployment, view from the Tau lines. The pathfinders infiltrated into the ruins and behind the wall. The relic is on the hill in the middle. End of Tau shooting phase the majority of the gargoyles were killed and the hive tyrant took a beating. There are biovores hiding in the ruins, these were killed by the crisis suits. Feel like I was being over run, the hormagaunts in the foreground behind the trygon were killed by the deep striking flamer suits, this one move more or less won the game. The trygon focused on these suits instead of the R'Varna. The riptide also killed a number of these troops. The gaunts in front of the R'Varna pushed my fire warriors and fire blade closer to the relic and eventually were ran down and killed. The crisis team has killed the hormagaunts and haven't been attacked by the trygon just yet. The photo looks less chaotic after a planned shooting phase. I didn't use the R'Varna on the gaunts on the off chance the shots scattered onto the fire warriors or back onto the R'Varna itself.

Tau V Ravenwing 1850 Big guns 11-0 win

I had first turn and reployed slightly to give me better line of sight and over lapping lines of fire. The R'Varna and rippy nova charged and ripped a unit of bikes apart which were finished off by a broadside team. Rippy died in the following volley. Crisis suits and the broadsides started blowing the landspeeders to bits. R'Varna killed off a few more bikes. In the final stages the R'Varna, crisis suits, broadsides and fire warriors killed charging bikes with overwatch and support fire. His HQ died from plasma, melta and burst cannon fire from 2 remaining crisis suits. R'Varna smashed a few bikes which broke combat, retreated and got blown up. Longstrikes hammerhead had two hull points left until fire from plasma guns wrecked it but didn't blow it up, it did manage to kill a few bikes and jink a few other shots. Since it didn't blow up it gave my fire warriors with the ethereal a bit of cover and blocked line of sight. After the first charge the R'Varna broke off and started firing at the bikes but the shot scattered and killed the remaining 2 fire warriors and drone from the ethereals squad. I have started to deploy the crisis suits and riptides on the board and use them as a unit to screen the softer fire warriors and vulnerable tanks. Doing this is also proving to be very effective on units who can only shoot or move. They act as a huge target and distract heavy weapons from other units e.g. Broadsides and fire warriors. My opponent had 30 bikes and 6-7 land speeders and Sammael. Instead of prioritising certain units I had prioritise the bikes that could cause serious damage, the plasma bikes. I castled with a lot of heavy fire power facing the bikes, I figured that my opponent had to come from that direction because his other corner was cluttered and could cause issues for his army. The R'Varna's nova charged weapons (with AP3) caused havoc. A lot of his speeders came straight at me and were ripped apart by the broadsides and crisis suits. My opponents deployment, his bikes came straight into my gunlines, the pathfinders in the ruins were killed my turn 3 but used their markerlights and rail rifles to great success. I face being over run by the bikes, the destroyed hammerhead was a blessing in disguise because it gave the fire warriors cover and blocked line of sight and the fire warriors could shoot at the bikes out in the open. I wasn't sure if I should use both the crisis suits and broadside to kill Sammael. The lone pathfinder glanced the nearest landspeeder which was finished off by the two rail-side suits, the other landspeeder was hit 5 times by a mix of smart missiles and high yield missiles the majority of these penned. The crisis suits unleashed everything into Sammael and killed him, after he had killed the other suit in their team.

Tau V Chaos 1500 tournament draw

In this game we had to capture key objectives but uncontested and contested points were worth points. I got slay the warlord, 8 for holding a point and 4 for an uncontested point. The Varna did ok no wounds and once again killed a lot of units with the nova charged weapons. Broadside team and firewarriors with ethereal destroyed a biker squad which got slay the warlord. Suicide squad killed a single obliterator but tied up 3 squads for shooting. Rippy got killed in cqc and killed a few models including a hull point on the hell turkey which was finished off by a barrage of plasma, missiles and railguns from the broadsides. Final turn forced a draw after I blew up a transport and enemy troops captured a point but my remaining broadsides hammered into them with missiles and railguns, the railhead captained by longstrike killed 1 with the rail-submunition (I didn't have a clear line of sight to use the solid shot), the R'Varna killed 3 with the ramped up cannons the surviving guy was blown to bits by a seeker missile and failed the armour and feel no pains. Special rules were everything has a cover save and the board is all difficult terrain. I may reconsider deep striking Rippy, the only thing that can really hurt him is jaws, having him and the other riptide and broadsides gives me skyfire and interceptor. This was the end of my first tournament I finished mid-table which I was happy about considering I only played 2/5 games. Can't wait for the next one with my low AP list.

Tau V Dark Angels 1500pts kill points 18-6 win

In this game I got linebreaker, slay the warlord and a huge amount of kill points. The Varna (with the old rules) killed the command squad with another barrage from the nova charged weapon after it hurt itself in the previous turn. The riptide did a similar move after killing a number of bikes. The Piranha’s got line breaker after killing off a number of marines. Rippy pushed up into the opposing deployment zone, nova charged and killed off a few surviving marines. Longstrike in his hammerhead had an average game by only killing a few terminators but caused a dreadnought to blow up after being hit once. Rippy, the piranha’s and the crisis suits pushed up the left flank and centre while the Varna, hammerhead and fire warriors held back on the right. The only units lost in this game were the infiltrating scouts. My opponent had a troop heavy list which didn't allow longstike to be used to his full potential even though he killed 3 terminators and blew up a dreadnought with a penetrating hit. I knew my opponent was new at the game and was happy to let me play with the R'Varna after I told him what it can do. I decided to have some fun by playing very aggressively and push the riptide and crisis suits up the board dividing his troops into easy to kill units. This tactic has won me 2 big games since playing this game. His terminators arrived right behind Longstrike's hammerhead but failed to damage it with the missiles or storm bolters. A second squad arrived infront of the ruins and were quickly shot to pieces. Longstrike had moved in my turn (only an inch or so) to get a jink save and I was very lucky in my rolling. In my turn the terminators were killed by a lot of AP1 and AP2 weapons from the hammerhead and broadsides.

Tau V Space Wolves Big guns never tire draw

My broadsides captured a point and a single broadside remained after the rune priest unleashed the dreaded jaws attack. After the initial onslaught the Tau pushed back and reinforcments pushed the wolves back. The remaining missile broadside survived salvo after salvo of bolter rounds and continued to dish out the pain, killing a number of marines and blowing up another land speeder it even killed an assaulting marine sergeant with overwatch. Infiltrating scouts picked off marines with their rail rifles. Rippy the riptide deep struck and drew a lot of fire and managed to tie up some wolves and riders in combat after killing a few more units. The R’varna and the other riptide were the units of the game, the R’varna’s devastating first barrage killed a unit of space wolves in cover and also killed the warlord. In the next turn it wiped out a unit of missile launcher and plasma cannon marines. The nova charged volley fire is lethal. The crisis suits killed one landspeeder and blew up a rhino before being killed by a terminator. Two other crisis suits killed the remaining sergeant that had been harassed by the scouts. This was my first time using the R'Varna with the original rules where the weapons were AP3 not AP4. I know that this nerf will make it a little more balanced but nova charging the weapon now means you cant fire the weapons at all in the next turn. From now on I think I will be just nova charging the shield or to move it, depending on how the game is panning out. Using the ion accelerator on the riptide (the other one has a burst cannon) with a nova charged ripple fire is unreal when targeting marines in cover, the marker lights stripped the cover and the marines were slaughtered.

Tau V Space Wolves 1500 loss 16-14 tournament

This was my first tournament game and his deep striking rune priest with jaws killed off a few of the broadsides leaving my units at disadvantage. I have started flanking my fusion blaster piranha’s down one side to engage lightly armoured vehicles or elite troops e.g. terminators. Unfortunately they ran into landspeeders with multimeltas and were quickly blown up. Surprisingly my fire warriors held their own in combat against attacking units. Using the fireblade and ethereal to give plus 1 shot (placing the ethereal within range of both squads adds a huge amount of fire power). In doing this and using marker lights to strip cover and imrpove BS I was able to get 84 shots off and kill the majority of the wolves in cover. My opponent charged in and lost a few more to overwatch and support fire. The fire warriors won the combat through weight of numbers. Concentrated fire from two units and the jumping riptide & fusion + plasma suits wreaked havoc in the enemy lines killing a land raider and a squad of long fangs. I did well in my first tournament game and learned to be weary of jaws and a unit of plasma marines and deploy carefully and start the riptide on the board to hopefully blow the drop pod out of the sky otherwise I'll have a bad day. My opponent jokes that jaws is only good for one round but you throw a lot at it to kill the squad and rune priest or face loosing another handful of units. The drones and fire warriors hammered into the wolves in the adjacent cover, the long fangs are hiding in the cover in the background.

Tau V Dark Eldar (all wins)

I've played this opponent 4-5 times with a fairly standard list and won each game. I quickly popped his transports and other vehicles and then picked off the survivors. Some of the highlights from these games are the scourages would arrive, shoot a bit and then get shredded. The forgeworld hammerhead with the heavy burst cannons, missile drones and burst cannon devastates anything in the dark eldar army. A riptide held the HQ up in CC for a few turns and dying from one poke from a poison weapon. As a rule of thumb for playing Dark Eldar I deploy far away as possible with line of sight to his transports and blow them up using rail weapons. The lance weapons are a pain though and must be taken out ASAP because they reduce all armour on vehicles to 12. Using cover and jink saves has saved my vehicles on a number of times. My typical deployment which is a bit spread out but my opponent wasn't deep striking. I try to keep heavy weapons protecting my flanks depending on what can threaten my flank These suits would either deep strike and blow a vehicle up or rely on other units to pop the vehicle and mop up and survivors. Then they would drop back to avoid being attacked. A brave stand from the Ethereal and his fire warriors, they would shoot, fall back and shoot again hoping that the terrain would slow down the dark elder.

Tau V Space Marines Loss

Horrible loss, a game I want to forget I deployed to thinly and my opponent had an army of grav-cannon centurions which with night fight and him ceasing really hurt me. I had planned to use my railguns+fusion weapons to kill/wound a number of them off very quickly and try to finish them off with pulse shots. The centurions marched up the board and took out my hammerheads which was game over, I managed to kill 3 centurions and my opponent tabled me. I should have deployed much closer together and had lines of fire warriors screening my tanks from the on coming centurions. Doing this would have bought me time to re-deploy and shoot them up a bit more.

Tau V Crimson fists 1850

The deployment favored my ranged weapons as I sat back and waited for the fight to come to me while I outflanked with infiltrators and piranha’s. Not having any tanks wasn’t a problem as the broadsides shot up the space marines. Infiltrating scouts lit up scouts in cover and two piranha’s shot up more marines. Suicide crisis suits shot up devastator squads. Overwatch and supporting fire demolished the marines. The riptide failed to come in twice it landed on a scout and went back into reserve. The suicide crisis team used the jump shoot jump move to get a clear line of sight on some devestators and then jump back into cover. This game really favoured the Tau and I sat back with over-lapping lines of fire and when my opponent got into charge range over watch from the missile side and rail-sides did really well due to twin linking weapons. My opponent had a very troop heavy list with no tanks or dreadnoughts. He had 1 terminator squad, 3 devastator squads, 1 scout sniper squad and 3 (I think) tactical squads with Kantor in the middle. My list was slightly stronger with 2 fire warrior teams with a fireblade and an ethereal, 2 squads of path finders a fusion blaster armed squadron of piranhas and 3 broadside teams.