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.