Tau V Dark Eldar 2k win 13-3

So for this battle report I thought that I would do something a little bit different and add a slight story line to the game. Intro During the Third Sphere of Expansion the Tau captured numerous planets and left garrison's on each planet to maintain supply and trade in the region. Some of these were also used as staging area's for skirmishes into the gulf. In the aftermath of the Battle of Mu'gulath Bay Tau were preparing to move onto nearby worlds. In the build up to this the Tau Ethereal and Planet Governor met on the outskirts of a ruined hive. The Imperial governor's lander gently touched down, recently settled dust from the fighting created a cloud that even the Tau's blacksun filter's struggles to see through. As the pneumatic rams lowered the ramp, crushing a cracked Cadian helmet the Governor and his retinue of storm troopers were immediately met by an Ethereal who was flanked by two crisis suits. A few meter's behind them a slightly smaller individual moved around the ruins and disappear behind a shattered citadel. The body guard's from both unit's set up a defensive perimeter while the two leader's discussed trade negotiations between the Tau and Imperial Guard. In previous meetings on different planets the outcome of these meetings proved to be positive for both parties. Shadowsun and her crisis suit bodyguards crept around the ruins, relaying recon information from the path finders around the perimeter, keeping watch on for anything that jeopardise the negotiations. Hours passed and the sun set behind a ruined manufactorium to the east. As darkness fell contact was lost with the scouts. Shadowsun sensing that the perimeter had been penetrated immediately ordered her broadsides units to scan the horizon. Due to the nature of the terrain and the closing days of the battle no hammerhead or skyray grav-tanks were at her disposal. Shadowsun had numerous xv-88 broadsides, xv-104 riptides, piranhas and numerous Barracuda air superiority aircraft she quickly ordered them into defensive positions. The broadsides took up positions on upper levels of the ruined buildings, with fire warriors covering the streets. The Barracuda's flew defensive patterns, their sensors showed no enemy units in any direction. Shadowsun and her elite crisis team used their jet packs and got on top of a ruined shrine, giving them a full view of the battlefield. The negotiations were adjourned and with the cover of darkness. The Governor and his retinue left the ruined city under an escort of Barracuda fighters. A single Tau Orca transport prepared to leave with the Ethereal and return him to the Kir'la class carrier in orbit. As all of this was happening a 3 man broadside team on the roof spotted fast moving vehicles quickly approaching from the east. Hundreds of feet above Shadowsun detected the Dark Eldar raiders and venoms moving swiftly and silently around the outer ruins. Shadowsun reployed her units and prepared to defend their position. So for this game I decided to change things up a little bit in my list and decided to bring a more infantry and slow moving army that is dug in. I've had great success in the past against the Dark Eldar and wanted a new challenge so I dropped the tanks from my list and decided to use broadside battle suits in my heavy support. I usually take 2 railsides and a missile side in the 1 unit, this time I kept them in the list and added 2 more 3 man teams. Apart from this my list was fairly unchanged I took 3 squads of fire warriors, fireblade, 2 riptides, a barracuda, a squadron of piranha's, shadowsun with bodyguards and another commander and a bodyguard. I removed my path finders to fit in with the fluff above. Deployment We rolled off and I opted to deploy and go first with night fight. I put the majority of my units on my right flank with a small group in my centre field. The broadsides on top of the building can see the majority of the field. My opponent deployed in corner on the opposite side of the field to me which suited me well. I knew he was going to deep strike a lot of his units so I was hesitant on deploying my army over a large area and kept my units within range of of each other to get the best out of supporting fire. The dark eldar approach from my left flank and come within range of the broadsides and the riptide on the ruined building. Tau turn 1

 My opponent failed to seize the initiative. My opponent' tactics for turn 1 was to minimize my shooting by taking cover behind the ruins and by trying to move up with the cover of darkness from night fight. From playing the DE before I knew that their biggest threat to my army were poison and their very maneuverable transports. I moved a railside towards my left flank and moved the riptide onto the ruined building in the centre to get a clear line of fire on the reaver jet bikes and a ravager. I Nova charged the riptide in the centre and used ripple fire on the twin linked smart missile system to shoot at a ravager in cover, destroying it. The broadsides shoot their railguns at the reavers but miss. Everything else stayed put as I was aware that my opponent was going to deep strike and I didn't want to leave units exposed.

 Dark Eldar 1

The reavers moved up into cover in the ruined building on my left flank with a ravager escort. A raider behind cover attempts to move out and immobilized itself in a ruined building that faced away from my units. The ravager snap fired its disintigrater cannons at the broadsides that had moved out in my turn 1 and killed 1 of them. The surviving members of the team pass their leadership test. The reaver bikes shot at the riptide and put 1 wound on it. Tau turn 2 My crisis suit commander with his bodyguard walk on from reserves and the Barracuda flies on from my right flank and heads straight for the raiding party. The broadsides take revenge on their falling teammate and fire everything at the ravager which passes all of its jink saves. The commander and his bodyguard shoot their weapons at the bikes in the building and kill one of them with hail of plasma and pulse rounds. The other riptide shoots its ion accelerator into the bike unit and takes out another one. More bikes were killed by the barracuda's auto-targeting burst cannon which ignored the bikes cover and jink saves leaving two bikes left. The crisis commander and his bodyguard jump towards my lines.

 Shadowsun's Barracuda escort arrives and prepares to fire on the raiding party. The crisis suit commander and his bodyguard walk on in my deployment zone and prepare to obliterate the bikes in cover. The Dark Eldar Scourges, raider and Archon arrive through the webway portal. The left flank and centre of the table are about to become a hotly contested area. Dark Eldar 2

 The dark eldar reserves arrive through the webway. I thought my opponent would arrive in this area of the table to try to overwhelm as many of my units as quickly as possible to limit my shooting capabilities. The riptide fires its heavy burst cannon at the newly arrived scourages killing three instantly. The venom that immobilized itself shoots at the riptide which saves 9 poisoned wounds. The newly arrived raider obliterates the crisis commander in a hail of 22 shots. Another broadside is killed by a lance from another ravager. The riptide saves another 6 wounds and passes a leadership test from a phantasm grenade. The surviving reaver jet bikes charge at the body guard crisis suits who slaughters one bike in a hail of pulse rounds from the burst cannon in overwatch. The surviving bike makes it into combat with the suit who survives the hammer of wrath attacks. The crisis suit kills the bike in combat and moves towards the ruins near the archon. Tau turn 3 My 6 man fire warrior squad walks onto the table and capture the objective marker in the recently vacated ruin on my left flank. The bodyguard suit moves up onto the ruins above the archon. The Barracuda moves another 18 inches and prepares to fire again. Knowing that my opponent only had one raider that was still in reserve I moved my piranha squadron up my right flank to take on a venom that was taking cover in a ruin and that was contesting an objective. The Barracuda's burst cannons and smart missiles obliterates the ravager that killed the broadside. The broadsides on the building shoot at the venom in the ruined building immobilizing it. The firewarriors, crisis bodyguard, broadsides and riptide fire at the archon and his command unit leaving one body guard left. The piranha's move flat out to deliver the killing blow on the venom. Dark Eldar turn 3

 The talos pain engine and the cronos arrive in the ruined building in the centre of my deployment zone. A raider fails to come in and mishaps on its way in and is destroyed, killing the 10 man unit of kalabite warriors in it. The scourges move up and the archon splits from his unit of body guards. The iontide intercepts at the pain engine knocking 2 wounds off it with its ion accelerator. The pain engine fires its flamer and hits four fire warriors, a broadside and a the burst cannon riptide but fails to kill any of them. My opponent obliterates the remaining broadside with a heat lance from the archon.

Below. The Dark Eldar at the end of turn 3. Tau turn 4

 Shadowsun, sensing that the battle could be turning against her arrive with her crisis suits. The piranha's move up to get into melta range of the piranha and the riptides move around to get better arc's of fire and the pain engine and the cronos. The broadsides on the ruined building unload on the talos and don't hurt it at all. This scenario repeats itself around the battle field. The piranha's in range of the objective damage the venom with pulse fire from the drones and it is finished off by a fusion blast from the lead piranha. The Barracuda pivots towards the enemy taking cover in a ruined building and switches into hover mood and kills some kabalite warriors that were holding an objective. Shadowsun and her crisis team move into the ruins to get a 2+ cover save from the raider.

 Dark Eldar turn 4

The raider moved into the ruins where shadowsun was holding an objective and the warriors got out. The firewarriors in the ruined building loose a few members and fails it leadership test and run off the table. The dark eldar razorwing arrives automatically from reserve and I choose not to shoot at it with interceptor. My opponent accidentally knocked my Ion tide of the table and it broke into a few pieces (see the photo below). (I decided to keep on playing but was distracted and forgot to take down notes) from my memory the kronos, archon and talos charges the riptide and puts a few wounds on the riptide who jumps away using hit and run.

 The board at the end of turn 4
Tau turn 5

 The damaged riptide nova charged its ion accelerator and scored a direct hit on the dark eldar commander who failed its 2+ invul save and was killed instantly. The broadsides between the ruined building unload on the razorwing who jinks the rail shots but fails the barrage from the missiles. In total it took 3 glancing and 3 penetrating hits from smart and high yield missiles. The razorwing crashed straight into the ground and failed to damage anything in the crash zone. The hovering Barracuda killed the two remaining kabalite warriors on the objective. I jumped the riptide into the building to protect shadowsun from the kabalite warriors that were probably going to get out of the raider.

 Dark Eldar turn 5

 The kabalite warriors that got out of the raider shoot at shadowsun who makes 9 saves and takes 1 wound. The Iontide nova charges again and puts the kronos down to 1 wound. The scourges charge at the shadowsun who fails to kill them with overwatch but Shadowsun survives the hammer of wrath attacks and fails to wound with the regular attacks. Shadowsun fails to wound and they stay locked in combat. We roll to see if the game continues and it ends on a 1. I win the game 13-3 due to slay the warlord, first blood, line breaker and by scoring objective cards.

 MVP of the game is a tie between the two riptides and the Barracuda. Barracuda - killed 2 bikes, a unit of kabalite warriors and a ravager Burst cannon riptide - killed 2 vehicles and a few infantry. It also acted as a bullet magnet throughout the game and survived numerous poison shots. Ion accelerator riptide - Annihilated the warlord, killed a few of the bikes and some troops in different units. Conclusion I really enjoyed this game and enjoyed playing with the objective cards. Having the two castles with over lapping arc's of fire helped me put my heavy weapons on the biggest threats and other units to shoot at other units. This was my second time with this list (the first was against a space marine army and it was a little one sided due to 8 str 8 ap 2 shots per turn as well as plasma and fusion). In this game the line of sight and maneuverability of some units helped me dominate different area's of the board. From playing previous games against the Dark Eldar I knew I had to kill the vehicles quickly to remove their speed which were practically made of paper. I like the new webway portal rules for them it gives them a chance to get into combat quickly especially with the focus on shooting, if you go through previous batreps you'll see that once the vehicles were destroyed my opponent had a hard time getting into combat without taking a lot of fire. It also reflects the fluff that the dark eldar are very quick and mobile. If using this list again against a horde (nids/orks) or against an army with a lot of shield saves (eldar/dark eldar) I'd try to bring more smart and high yield missiles that ignore cover saves. This list is better against an army like space marines that have good armour saves, that won't have as many units and aren't as quick around the board. Overall this was a good game and the damaged riptide wasn't badly damaged and is ready to fight again. I know my opponent was really upset over the incident and there are no hard feelings. We'll be playing again.