Hello everyone! Yep, I'm back with a Battle Report. Pictures included! It's been a way-to-long time since I last wrote one of these, and I'm probably not going to go back for all of the ones I missed in 6th edition. But, I can try to be a little better at posting these in 7th edition! At the moment I have played 6 games of 7th edition, which means these will be coming fast and furious for the next week or so! So, here comes my first game. I played this in the ATC format, against a very good local Tau player who is dealing with the loss of Eldar allies. So, let it begin!
The Mission:
The ATC missions are pretty simple. 6 missions possible, two each of the various deployment types. Then, 3 Primary objectives, each worth 8 points or 4 for a draw. Kill Points, Emperors Will, and Capture and Control. Each secondary objective is 2 points, for a maximum of 30 available.
We roll on the chart, and the game will be played as Hammer and Anvil, where Heavy Support are worth two Kill Points for Purge the Alien.
My army list:
Flyrant, Devourers, Electroshock Grubs
Flyrant, Devourers, Electroshock Grubs
10 gants
3 Rippers, Deep Strike
3 Rippers, Deep Strike
Venomthrope
Zoanthrope
Crone, Cluster Spines
Crone, Cluster Spines
2 Biovores
2 Biovores
Exocrine
Bastion, 3 Defense Lines
Allied Detachment: Come the Apocalypse:
Imperial Knight Errant
Tau army list:
Ethereal
Buffmander
8 Fire Warriors
8 Fire Warriors
6 Pathfinders
Riptide
Riptide
3 Broadsides with HYMP and SMS
Sunshark bomber
Skyray
Imperial Bastion
Desperate Allies: Blood Angels
Captain, power Sword
5 Death Company, Power Axe
Sormraven
Death Company Dreadnaught, Power Fists
Warlord Traits were non influential for both of us. I got Night Fight first turn and re-rolled for the same one again.
Psychic Powers:
Flyrant 1: Paroxysm Onslaught
Flyrant 2: The Horror, Paroxysm
Zoanthrope: Catalyst
Pre-Game: This is a big test for me because I'm not only using a new edition, but running my army in a different way. The allied Imperial Knight is going to be interesting (for the record, I borrowed it from my LGS). But Tyranids have changed a lot in 7th so I must adapt to both the good and the bad. My opponent is very skilled, but I am not convinced by his use of Blood Angel allies... I prefer Space Marines personally.
Deployment Tau: My opponent wins the roll off and elects to deploy first. He places his bastion centrally with Ethereal/Commander/Broadsides inside. One Fire Warrior squad is on top, one behind. The Pathfinders are to the far right and in a ruin. His Riptides are both to the right of the Bastion, and his Skyray is to the left and back.
Deployment Tyranids: I deploy clustered around my Bastion as seen below. Knight is off the right opposite his Riptides. I reserve the gants and one Ripper Brood.
Tyranids Turn 1: My opponent elects to go second (man I hate that rule already!). I fly all 4 FMCs up and advance the Knight. Shooting kills 5 Pathfinders with the Biovores and wounds a Riptide with the Knight but is ultimately not great. I do kill a few Fire Warriors here and there.
Tau turn 1: Movement is minimal, and he unloads his Skyray fully into my Warlord flyrant, followed by the rest of his entire army. I survive with one wound left thanks to the Ruin I'm in, and the fact that he only hit with one markerlight from the Skyray.
Tyranid turn 2: I start my movement, and then remember that I never took a grounding check on my Warlord. I tell my opponent, roll the test, and naturally fail, losing both my Warlord and First Blood, and a Killpoint! Ouch! Honesty hurts. The rest of my turn proceeds and I wipe out both fire warrior units with a tirade of Flamer and blast weapons. The Knight gets closer, running around a forest and wounding both Riptides with a lucky scatter. I fail my assault sadly.
KP Counter: Tau: 1 Tyranids: 2
Tau turn 2: Both flyers come in, and target my Knight. Actually, just about everything goes after my Knight. I lose an incidental wound or two on my Flyrant, and my Knight is down to three Hull Points as I fail all my Ion shield saves.
Tyranid turn 3: I Vector Strike with the Hive Tyrant and kill his last Pathfinder. The Tyrant and Crone both fire at the Stormraven and fail to achieve any damage. I vector Strike his Sunshark with my other Crone, and he loses two Hullpoints but jinks the Missile I tried to finish him off with. The Imperial Knight and the Exocrine combine to take out the Riptide who had been wounded and on top of the Bastion. I fail my charge however. Gants walk on the board in my backfield.Kill Point Counter: Tau: 1 Tyranids: 4
Tau turn 3: His Stormraven flies right next to my Bastion and kills one Biovore from each squad with PotMS. His Sunshark flies behind my Imperial Knight but I am left with two Hull Points left. Other shooting is again not highly effective.
Tyranid turn 4: One Crone and the Flyrant chase down and finish off the Sunshark. The other Crone Vector Strikes the Skyray and uses a missile, taking it down to one Hull Point. 3 Rippers proxied as Warriors DS into the middle ruin for a nice cover save. The Imperial Knight lines up right near the Bastion after shooting the Riptide.
And I charge it, destroying it through Hull Points. Note that I thought the Bastion was a Kill Point, it is not.
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 1 Tyranids: 5
Tau turn 4: He lands the Storm Raven, immobilizing it. The Captain and Death Company disembark, as does the Dreadnaught. Shooting takes the Flyrant down to one wound remaining and kills the Imperial Knight. His explosion does not kill anything sadly. The Death Company kill my bubble wrapping gants, and his Dread charges my Exocrine. I deal a Hull Point, only for him to hit and wound 5 times! Naturally, I fail all 5 Feel no Pain rolls as well... Being a Heavy, he is worth 2 Kill Points. Below picture shows positions before disembarking.
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 5 Tyranids: 5
Tyranid turn 5: I land both of my Crones, dropping two Blast and two Templates on the Broadside squad, but fail to deal a wound. I am contesting two different objectives. I then shoot his Death Company to little affect, but kill the Power Axe. I then charge him with 3 Rippers and 2 Biovores and the Venomthrope, killing a few but more importantly the consolidation draws his scoring Captain off of my Emperors Will Objective. My last Flyrant also kills his Dreadnaught through rear armor shots.
Kill Point Counter: Tau:5 Tyranids: 6
Tau turn 5: He shoots one of my Crones to death with his annoying Broadside squadron. Riptide jumps around adding fire. In CC he kills off one Biovore unit. His Skyray shoots down the Rippers after a few turns of SMS.
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 9 Tyranids: 6
Tyranid turn 6: To my dismay, the game continues. My Flyrant jumps over the Storm Raven, grabbing my Emperors Will Objective. He then shoots it down with his Devourers, getting 2 glances as it had lost a Hull Point while Immobilizing itself. In Close Combat I fail to do much more than tie down his Death Company, losing my second Biovore unit. I try to finish off my opponents Skyray who grabbed an objective, but roll a 1 to hit with my Warp Lance from the Zoanthrope.
Kill Point Count: Tau: 11 Tyranids: 7
Tau turn 6: He finishes off my last Crone who was again ineffective, and grabs his own Emperors Will. His Riptide uses its Jump move to grab a Crusade objective, as does the Skyray. CC is uneventful.
Kill Point Counter: Tau: 12 Tyranids: 7
The game ends here. I tie my opponent on Emperors Will, losing out on Crusade and Kill Points. My opponent also achieved all three Secondary objectives to my 0. In short, that did not go well!
Crushing Tau Victory 26-4!
Post Game Thoughts: What the heck went wrong there? Frankly I thought I started out really well. I think my game fell apart when that Storm Raven went for my backfield. He accrued 6 Kill Points with his Blood Angels and successfully drew my Flyrant back to my side. This meant that I didn't have enough units to contest for multiple turns in his backfield. Having to land first REALLY sucks for contesting, because those Broadsides were deleting a Crone a turn towards the end and tanking all the wounds they wanted to. In hindsight, I should have trusted my backfield and just landed all my FMCs near his Broadsides and assaulted en masse. I possibly lose one, but he is tied up in CC and contest two objectives at least. If I win combat, I score Warlord and a ton of Kill Points as well... I panicked when his Stormraven got to my backfield, and made a really stupid decision. I am also thinking that the Blood Angel allies aren't nearly as bad of a choice as I thought before! I'll be back for another game soon, and I will definitely amend my list...
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