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.

Tau V Dark Angels 2000pt game loss 13-7

My army ready to begin shelling the Dark Angels. The Swordfish ready to start its first battle

 Turn 1

 I won the roll off and opted to deploy first and go first. There was no night fight and my opponent failed take the initiative. I moved my squadron of piranhas up the left flank to manoeuvre into position behind the vehicles. The hammerheads started moving towards my left flank but remained behind the ruined building to maximize cover and to get a better arc of firing on the enemy tanks behind the ruined building. Both riptides nova charged their primary weapons. The pathfinders in the ruined building on my left flank lit up the scouts hiding in the adjacent building and reduced their cover saves and increased the broadsides bs. The missileside in the unit kills 1 scout and the railsides blast 2 more to pieces. The other squad lit up a tank and increased the hammerheads bs which knocked a hull point off a rhino. Longstrike stuns a razorback behind a ruin on my right flank. The Swordfish hits a rhino but fails to damage it. The burst-tide kills 1 marine in cover and the iontide fires a nova blast but it scatters. Riptides move up.

 The Hammerhead's take up position behind a ruin to begin trading blows with the Dark Angels armour.

 Dark Angels turn 1

 Drop pod comes in on my left flank. A razor back comes up my right flank and the damaged rhino comes up the centre. Psyker roles presience and gets perils and suffers a wound, razorback shoots at the ion tide who gets his invul save. 3 missiles from the devestator squad in the ruins hit the ion tide and it takes 1 wound. Pathfinders loose 1 guy to bolter fire and another is saved from cover. The ion tide takes 1 wound and a lot are saved. On my left flank I loose 2 firewarriors, piranhas are ok after bolter fire. The iontide survives sniper fire. I loose 1 piranha to bolter fire and 1 plasma marine dies, the burst tide is hit by the land raider's lascannons but gets the invul.

The vets arrive in the drop pod into what will a hotly contested corner.

 Tau turn 2

 Shadowsun and friends walk on to reinforce my left flank and to avenge the 2 warriors who had been killed. Both riptides nova charge their primary weapons, tanks move around a bit, pathfinders strip the save from the scouts the missileside kills the remaining scout and the broadsides blow up the damaged rhino. Longstrike fails to damage a tank. The burst tide kills a tank with its primary gun, the swordfish fails to do any damage and the ion tide kills 3 marines with the ion accelerator, shadowsun and friends kill 2 marines with fusion and plasma blasts. They then move into cover using their jump packs.

 Dark Angels turn 2

The terminators deep strike in my left flank, perils kill the other warlord giving me slay the warlord and a victory point. The burst tide interceptors the stormtalon with its heavy burst cannon and stuns it. Intercepting broadsides kill 1 terminator with plasma fire, pathfinders die and 1 unit of fire warriors takes a beating, pathfinders die. Tau 3 I decide to nova charge both riptides and both guns are charged, tanks shuffle a bit more to respond to my opponents movements. The burst tide kills the stormtalon and terminators die to fire from shadowsun and the broadside, swordfish damages a tank, hammerheads fail to do anything, the burst tide jumps up towards the ruin to engage the marines in combat. Shadowsun and her bodyguard reinforce my left flank and begin killing the terminators.

Dark Angels turn 3

 Tanks move up, vets fail to come in.

 Tau turn 4
Swordfish blows up a razorback, the explosion kills a marine. Broadside kills 2 terminators, shadowsun kills a tank. The burst tide becomes locked in combat with the marines on the ruined building. Swordfish has the razorback lined up, ready to deliver the killer blow and receive its fist tank kill.

Dark Angels turn 4

 Vets deep strike and a blast from the Ion tide kills 3 meltas marines, I risked the blast scattering back onto the Iontide who was only 3 inches away. Swordfish takes a beating from various units but gets away and only took 1 glancing hit. Tau 5 Kill 1 marine from pulse fire, 4 marines die to commander and a crisis suit. After my 5th turn I my phone died so I was unable to take down more notes. It was a good game.

1850 Tau V Dark Angels win

The set up prior to the game.

Dark Angels turn 1

Razorback moves up on my right flank into the sights of an Ion-accelerator armed Riptide and the piranhas. The rhinos and the land raider move up the centre and another rhino empties its load on my left flank after moving up. A rhino shoots at the pathfinders in the centre and hits 1 who gets a cover save. A razorback shoots a Las shot at the piranha and misses. 3 missiles blow up 1 piranha and damage a 2nd. Land raider kills 2 pathfinders and fails to damage the hammerhead which will retaliate.

Tau turn 1

 Nova charges fail and split fire from the broadsides blow up a rhino. The land raider, with an increased BS from the surviving pathfinders is blown up by the Hammerhead. Where's the land raider gone?

Dark Angels turn 2

 The Deathwing terminators, lead by Belial deep strike behind a hill on my right flank and his razorback pushes up to cut them off. Scout snipers kill 2 fire warriors and the storm bolters kills 1 fire warrior on my left flank. The tactical squad kills 4 fire warriors in the centre. The 2nd piranha is blown up and wounds 1 fw who is ok. The terminators kill 1 broadside with a assault cannon and wound another. The Terminators, lead by Belial arrive. My Broadsides better watch out. The pathfinders on the hill get slaughtered by the assault marines in the next turn.

 Tau turn 2

 Longstrike kills a tank in my flank after the hammerheads move up and the fire warriors in the centre kill 1 tactical marine. Shadowsun and friends didn't come in and the commander mishaped.

Dark Angel turn  3

Tactical squad in the kill 6 fws in the centre. Assault marines kill 2 pathfinders with a flamer. The terminators on my flank fail the charge and loose 2 in the process.

Tau turn 3

The railside kills 1 terminator after killing 2 in the over watch phase. The missileside kills 1 assault marine. The burst tide nova charges and kills 1 scout and takes a wound.

Dark Angels turn 4

 Dreadnought mishaps on the way in but the other pod comes in and I overwatch with the riptides, the one with the ion weapon kills 2 marines. The burst tide kills nothing. The tactical squad in the centre move up. Veteran squad kills the commanders body guard with a melta after wounding it with a plasma gun. The tactical squad kills a fw in the centre and the Ion tide takes a wound. Hammerhead takes 3 missiles and is fine. The Ion tide takes a wound but saves it.

Tau turn 4

The commander avenged his body guard and killed 3 vets with plasma and the ion weapon. Split fire from the railside killed a terminator, the missile side killed 1 ravenwing and split fire from shadowsun and her body guard killed 2 more ravenwing and 2 assault marines. The Ion tide intercepted a drop pod and knocked a hull point off a dreadnought. A Las shot hit and wounded rippy junior who survived and is on 1 wound. The hammerhead took another missile and it bounced off. Termies split fire at shadowsun and cause no wounds the assault cannon kills the missile side and wounds the railside. Looking back at this game pushing up was a bad idea as it left my backfield exposed. In saying that i thought my opponent would deep strike into that open area and I was able to move units around to get shots off to kill some of his units.

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.