Crucible Game 2: vs. Tau/Space Wolves

*Disclaimer on Batreps! I played 6 games this weekend. It's entirely possible I forgot some details, but I'll do what I can to make it as accurate as possible. I may confuse if I blew up a chimera on turn 2 or 3, etc. If you were my opponent in any of these reports, please speak up and correct any errors I made. Also, opponents will be identified by first name only. If anyone would like even that removed, just let me know and it'll disappear.*

Also, for players who turned their list in early, they are rewarded with ONE mulligan dice. It's a special, unique, tiny and sparkly orange dice that can reroll ONE roll in the tournament. It must be specifically a roll of yours, not a "general" roll like end of game, night fight, or initiative.

The first mission:

Primary: 7- 6 objectives, random points (1,2,2,3,3,4) FA score
Secondary: 5- Kill Points: Troops and Fast Attack only
Tertiary: 2-Kill opponents most expensive unit
Bonus: 2 each-rulebook secondary objectives

Maximum points of 20 per round, standings are done on a pure BP score, WLD has no effect.

My list:

Flyrant: 2x Devourers, Old Adversary
Flyrant: 2x Devourers, Hive Commander (Warlord)
5 Ymgarls
5 Ymgarls
Doom in a SPod
10 gants
10 gants
20 gants
Tervigon (Toxin/Adrenal, 3 powers)
Tervigon (Toxin/Adrenal, 3 powers)
Tervigon (Toxin/Adrenal, 3 powers)
2 Biovores
My Opponent: Joseph

Commander Ral'eigh: A FW unit, he has many nifty guns, and rules, and is tough
9 Fire Warriors
9 Fire Warriors
9 Fire Warriors
Tetra
Tetra
Hammerhead (FW turret, Strength 7 Ap 3, Heavy 4 Twinlinked)
Hammerhead (FW turret, Strength 7 Ap 3, Heavy 4 Twinlinked)
3 Broadsides (Most expensive unit) 2 Drones
3 crisis Suits, Plasma/SMS
2 Crisis Suits, Plasma Melta
Aegis Line, Lascannon

Wolf Priest (Jaws, Living Lightning)
6 Grey Hunters, flamer
4 Long Fangs, 3 Missiles

 

I don't remember my trait, it wasn't too good. His warlord (The FW suit) gets -1 to my reserves though :'(

 

Psychic Powers:

 

Tyrant 1: Iron Arm, Warp Speed

Tyrant 2: Life Leech, Smite

Tervigon 1: Iron Arm, Enfeeble, Warp Speed

Tervigon 2: Iron Arm, Enfeeble, Life Leech

Tervigon 3: Iron Arm, Endurance, Warp Speed

The Doom: Psychic Shriek

 

I get the 1,2,and a 3 point objective, he has the 2, 3, and 4 on his side. Damn!

 

Deployment:

 

Initiatvie: Tau

 

My opponent has two FW squads and the Broadsides in the ruin to the right of his arm below, the two tanks inbetwen, as well as the Hrey Hunters/priest. Crisis Suits and Fangs behind the Aegis on the right. A tetra on each side, and his special suit HQ is to the far left. He has 2 suits Deepstriking in.

 

 I have the Ymgarls and Doom in reserve, plus 10 gants outflanking. Also, I have both Flyrants together just to the right of the far right Tervigon in the below pic. 

 

 

Pre game Matchup: This is an infuriatingly bad matchup! Tau can outshoot me, but with that damn priest in the center I can't advance my Tervigons :( I fortunately have absolutely amazing powers. Once I kill the priest I can flood the board with gants and advance the Tervigons. The Flyrants will just have to kill the priest ASAP so I can get to work. The Doom should also be a big factor, if I get reserves turn 2 I can really hammer his weak troops I hope, and take objectives for a minor win.

 

Turn 1 Tau: He starts off with Tetras, getting  6 hits out of 8 shots on my Iron Arm Flyrant and a Tervigon. Annoyingly above average there... They're BS 3. He then open up with the Hammerheads. I have 2+ cover thanks to Night Fight. Wait, he has Blacksun filters! One Hammerhead and the Broadsides kill a Tervigon and some gants around her despite 5+ cover... The Long Fangs then target my Iron Arm Flyrant. At least here I  get my 2+ cover! Just kidding, I roll snake eyes. The other Hammerhead finishes it off.

 

Tyranids turn 1: HOLY BLEEP! I failed my first 9 cover saves from all his various shooting,

 in ruins and with Night Fight! That hurt, a lot! I do get Iron Arm off on both Tervigons at least. At Toughness 9,they wont die easy. He advanced his priest last turn. I'm going to have to nail him, then my Tervigons will live a while. I spawn with both, getting 18 and 15 gants, only one doubles. Boo ya! I hurl both gant blobs, plus the original 20 man, at the oncoming Hunters. I also move my Flyrant up into range to shoot. I know he'll die next turn, but he will soak up a lot of Firepower and I REALLY need that priest dead! After  Biovores, a metric ton of gant shots, and the Flyrants firepower, I whipe out the whole unit minus one guy. Of course, that one guy is the wounded priest... Oh crap...

 

Turn 2 Tau: His priest moves 6" and nicks the Tervigon with a 24" line... he then passes despite Shadows, and I make my deny the witch on a 5! A ha! Wait, the line touched a gant first... I failed. The Tervigon falls into the whole in the ground... cry...The rest of the army shoots into the Flyrant. Both Tetras miss, and I pass every grounding check, but I'm doomed when the Long Fangs roll three 6s to hit... I lose warlord here.

Turn 2 Nids: Things look very grim... My last Synapse spawns a lot, no doubles, and hides. Only one Ymgarl squad comes in... damn it! My Biovores at least nail some fire warriors in a ruin and pin them as well as kill a few. Gants kill the priest in vengeance. Ymgarls are in a far right ruin. I could hit the crisis suits or Long Fangs, but I decide to kill the Fire Warriors. Theyre the only scoring unit on that side of the board, where the four pointer is, and that's the only way I can win now is by milling his troops. On the charge, I roll snake eyes. After fleet, I roll 3". SONOFABITCH! I then throw my Mulligan dice for the tourney and get a 5". I know it's stupid to waste it this early, but if I let myself fail the charge, the Ymgarls die and I now have no way of getting to that FW unit, essentially forfeiting the primary objective. I roll a five, and make the charge and massacre them.

Turn 3 Tau: He murders the Ymgarls, and a few gants. My Tervigon is out of most LoS, and takes a single wound from the Long Fangs. I stop with pics here as I desperately need to get back in this game!

Turn 3 Nids: The Doom and Stealers come in, both by the left side ruin, as it has two Fire Warrior units in it and the Broadsides. The Doom hits all three, wounding a Broadside, and trashing one squad, He's at 10 wounds. Genestealers hit the full 9 man squad and murder them. Some of my gants run to lurk in various terrain so that I can go to ground on the objectives there. Biovores kill a few of the depleted Fire Warrior squad, they're finished by the Dooms psychic Shriek power.

Turn 4: His commander flies over to contest the three point objective. His Tetras each fly over to random objectives, and he shoots and kills some gants.  I tell him Tetras are vehicles so cant contest, and he tells me that they can score. TETRAS ARE FAST ATTCK!!!! My plan of killing his scoring units worked, except I forgot what was scoring! He now has the three and a 1, while my Tervigon just has a 3. Oh boy!

Turn 4 Nids: I pass instinctive behavior on my gants, YES! They get a full 6" run and claim the 4 point objective, for the win! I then outflank my last 10 gants on the left and contest his 1 pointer there. The Doom assaults his Warlord who is contesting the four pointer. His drones are forced to consolidate, taking him off the objective. Sadly, the Doom misses four times... Just as I start to gloat, my opponent tells me his lord has hit and run... Sweet Hive Mind, no! He can autokill his drones to automatically pass the test and does so. I tell my opponent hat if I'd known that, my Ymgarls would have assaulted too. He says that its fair, so I assault them, and again whiff tremendously... He contests the objective.
*A note on the H&R. I should have had a consolidate move, which would have put my Ymgarls back into his DZ for Linebreaker. My assault actually cost me two points! Sigh...*

Primary: Draw
Secondary: Tau
Tertiary: Tau
All three Bonus: Tau

CRUSHING DEFEAT 13-0

Post Game review: In all my pre game planning I never even imagined that combo, and I made a TON of mistakes.
1. Deploying Flyrants. With those in reserve, I keep my modifier and hit him with everything at once Turn 2, perhaps overwhelming him.
2. Tervigons should have hung WAY, WAY back.
3. Tetras are scoring... D'oh!
4. If I had known in advance about the Hit and Run, I would have moved and run the Ymgarls behind the suit so he couldn't hit and run there. As it was, at the moment we had actually already run out of time so I had no time to think when he told me about the  H&R on the Warlord.
5. I had some god awful dice early on, but really I was just supremely unprepared for this list. I really had no clue what it could do! The first turn punch absolutely shocked me, I thought ruins and Night fight for a total of a 1+ cover save (technically 2+, but better for reducing modifiers) would help me a lot. Failing to read my opponents rules and unfamiliarity with Tau hit me hard here... On the flip side, my opponents cousin and regular opponent was a Nids player and he knew my army backwards, forwards and sideways.

However, that being said, Joseph was perhaps my favorite opponent of the day. Despite my bad luck at times, we joked around a lot, and he was a great friendly guy overall. I hated the game, not the player! Even then it was interesting to be losing that early that fast, and my opponent actually congradulated me afterwards for making it as close as it was. It was technically a primary draw, but it really has to go down as a loss in my books. Suffice to say I've learned a lot, and next time I see this amy I just might win! Of course, getting first turn would help a lot...

However, not all is lost! If I win a few big games, I can advance a lot. A lot of players have been having very close matches, I could still end up highly ranked with luck.