Tuesday 26 January 2010

Monday 25 January 2010

Battle report: Deathguard

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El’Savon watched as his forces deployed around the ruined building, O’Kunas had advised of a small Chaos detachment heading this way and had ordered El’savon to intercept and destroy them. The Starships scans had detected a Landraider leading the Chaos forces, with this behemoth of a Gue’la vehicle on the way El’Savon positioned the Hammerheads and XV88 under his command in a position to get a shot of it before it had chance to disgorge its passengers amongst his forces. The pathfinders attached to his Cadre also took up positions in the building to mark targets for destruction. With His forces prepared. El’Savon awaited the enemy.

Mission: Objectives. (5 objectives nominated as the building on the board one in each quarter and one in the middle)
Deployment: Spearhead.

The photograph shows how the forces were set-up. With the broadside plus shield drones in the building along with a squad of firewarriors and two squads of pathfinders. The hammerheads were deployed to the side of the building. With the battlesuits hidden behind them. The other two squads of firewarriors were deployed with the devilfish with the intention of boarding them to claim objectives.

Turn 1:

Tau: I probably should have elected to take the second turn in this mission. However I was hoping that by taking the first turn I could disable the landraider and force the plague marines to come at me on foot. So I could cut them down with plasma guns on my crisis suits. However, no plan survives contact with the enemy, or in this case my rolling.
I embarked the firewarriors onto the devilfish and started to move them up to the unoccupied table quarter building to claim this objective.  The Hammerheads moved apart to allow my suits to target whatever fell out of the landraider. With That I opened up with my shooting. The 2 pathfinder squads got 3 markerlight hits on the landraider. The Broadside hit, Penetrated then rolled a 1. Due to being possessed, this was ignored. One hammerhead missed, the other hit but didn’t do anything. With the landraider still intact, the crisis suits rained missiles on the plaguemarines hiding in the far building, causing no casualties (Damn Feel no pain).
So with no casualties caused I ended my turn.

Plague Marines: The Landraider and Rhino moved forward, Rhino popped its smoke launchers. Short turn.

Turn 2:

Tau: The Hammerheads Space themselves apart to provide 2 targets for the Plague marines. The Crisis suits separate, one going for the rhino. The other hoping that I could crack the landraider and target the enclosed terminators. The Devilfish moved in front of the other building. The Pathfinders targeted the landraider again, getting a total of 2 hits (out of 8). The broadside hit and did nothing, hammerhead 1, hit, penetrated and rolled a 1. The second hammerhead missed. The crisis suits fired on the rhino with twinlinked missiles. Scoring 2 penetrating hits, which stunned it.

Plague marines: The 3 obliterators turned up and slagged my first hammerhead. The Landraider moved up for the terminators to assault next turn. The plague marine squad in the rhino stepped out into the central objective.

Turn 3:

Tau: The Fireknife suits and the Shas’el moved into position to rapid fire at the Obliterators, killing 1 and causing a wound on another. The Firewarriors in the building opened up on them as well, but all armour saves were passed. The surviving crisis suits opened fire on the rhino scoring 3 penetrating hits. Immobilising it, blowing the bolter off it and shaking it

Plague Marines: Typhus and terminator friends stepped out of the Landraider.. Typhus separated from the terminators in the movement phase to charge my fireknifes. Killing them and my commander but taking a wound. Terminators heavy flamed my firewarrior squad in the building them finished off the rest in combat. Lost one of their number in the fight though. (Thankgod for the bonding knife :oP, must have pierced one of their armour as they stomped them into the ground).

  
Turn 4:

Tau: The pathfinders fired their pulse carbines at the terminators doing nothing. The rail rifles fired at the Rhino doing nothing. The broadside targeted Typhus hitting with his railgun and two plasma gun shots, rolled a 1 for wounding with the railgun, and double 2 for plasma guns (this is why I never collected a shooting army previously). The firewarriors disembarked to run into the building, they made it 1 inch before getting hopelessly confused. The burst cannons and drones on the fish opened fire on the plague marines. Doing nothing (I’m sensing a theme here) The missile pods from the crisis suits finished off the rhino.

Plague Marines: Typhus charged the broadside killing it. The terminators flamed the lower of the 2 pathfinder squads leaving 1 alive, which they subsequently forgot to charge. The landraider stunned my remaining hammerhead. The plaguemarines in the central objective moved forward and fired their melta guns unsuccessfully at the devilfish. The obliterators fired lascannons at the devilfish but didn’t have any effect.

  
Turn 5:

Tau: Knowing that I had to contest his two objectives, I moved my devilfish up to them to and detached the drones. I didn’t expect them to survive but if there was a 6th turn I could get the fish close enough to contest. The remaining pathfinders scooted up the building hoping to draw typhus up there, the only real target of opportunity for the hammerhead was the landraider, which it blew one of the twinlinked lascannons off., and the lone pathfinder managed to kill one of the terminators that forgot to charge last turn. The other firewarriors disembarked from their devilfish and rapid fired at the nurgle marines on the central objective, along with the other remaining firewarrior squad killed two plague marines. The remaining crisis suits rained missiles on the obliterators, who made all their saves.

Plague Marines: The Terminators had their vengeance on the remaining pathfinder. Typhus attempted his psychic power against the other pathfinder squad, only to get injured by a daemon. So he charged the squad only to get injured by his deamon weapon., in return the pathfinders scored two wounds I watched as my opponent rolled the dice knowing that a single 1  would kill typhus, much to my dismay, he passed both of them though. They passed their morale check, but didn’t have a bright future. The plague marines on the central objective tried to shoot at the devilfish again doing nothing. The obliterators Fired plasma cannons at the disembarked fire warriors killing 3 of them.  His two Squads on the objectives finished off the drones with no problems.

Game ended,
Chaos 2 objectives
Tau 1 Objective.

Although to make it clearer how much I got killed. A quick compare of casualties
Tau; Hammerhead, Broadside +2 shield drones, 2 x Fireknife, Commander + 2 shield drones, 2 squads of pathfinders (5 man), 1 squad of fire warriors (7 man), 3 firewarriors from another squad, drones from both devilfish.
Chaos; 1 obliterator, 1 rhino, 2 terminators, 2 plague marines. (wow!)

I think my primary mistake in this game was my set-up, again, I should have deployed the hammerheads In front of where the devilfish where. This would have meant he would have to hide his rhino behind the landraider, meaning he would be further away from the central objective. He would have also have had to come further before being in combat. The Broadside should have been along the back edge of the building. The Firewarriors should have been outside the building to the back. Meaning they could move forward at the end of the game to claim/contest.

Thoughts?

Wednesday 20 January 2010

Battle Report.

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Tuesday night battle report.

Went to the local gamesworkshop this evening to try to get a little more practice in with my tau before the tournament at the end of this month. With my 1500 point army just about finalized. I arrived at the shop to find they have started a table booking system. Meaning I wouldn't be able to get a game till 8.

When I did finally get a game it was a 3000 point a side match up with two players a side. I ended up playing alongside a space marine army against a necron and chaos marine army. Here are the army lists from what I remember.
Chaos:
Daemon prince.
Dreadnought
10 man assault squad
5 terminators
Terminator lord
Tooled out chosen x 9
Two small chaos marine squads

Necrons:
Nightbringer
Necron lord
2 scarab swarms
3 heavy destroyers
At least 2 large squads of necrons (they were all piled together behind a building
Monolith

Marines (allied)
Landraider
Dreadnought
Ironclad
Sternguard
Terminators
Chapter master
Drop pod
Landspeeder typhoon
Razorback
2 squads of tactical marines.
(not even sure this list is legal)

Tau (me)
Shas'el
2 crisis suits PG + MP
3 Crisis suits F +TLMP
Drones for above.
3 squads of 7 firewarriors
2 squads of 5 pathfinders 1 rail rifle in each.
Devilfish x 2
Hammerhead x 2
1 broadside

Pitched battle game type anniliation.

Turn 1:
We won the roll for setup and opted to set up first. However they managed to steal thr initiative and get first turn.

C&N: The prince and chaos jumpackers shot forward. The mainstay of the necron army remained hidden behind the building. While the heavy destroyers started taking potshots at my devil fish.
The only shooting from the chaos marines killed one sternguard while the necrons blew the burst cannon off one of my devilfish. (I think its important to note here that i didnt make a single one of my 6 disruption pod saves in this game).

T&M: Massed fire from the marines and tau killed of the assualt marines. While the broadside and hammerhead failed to damage monolith the other hammerhead missed a heavy destroyer. Missile pods from one of the crisis teams manages to shake the dreadnought. While the only disembarked firewarior squad shot up 3 chaos marines from one of the smaller squads.

Turn2:
C&N:
The daemon prince moved in position to charge my deathrains and a tactical squad the ctan shot at and stunned a dreadnought. The heavy destroyers continued to shoot at my two devilfish with no effect. Other then that there was no shooting on the chaos or necron part.
The prince charged my deathrains which I foolishly forgot to pull back last turn, along with the marine tactical squad. Slaughtering 5 marines causing my suits to flee off the table. Not before they caused 2 wounds back though, got to love strength 5.

T&M:
The space marines and tau arranged themselves to take full advantage of the chaos marines they could see. The terminator squad prepared to join the fray against the Deamon prince. Shooting.g wise the chapter masters orbital bombardment destroyed the monolith. (being as the heaviest ground based guns failed miserably last turn). The only real shooting was the two hammerhead failing to hit the heavy destroyers the broadside failing to hit the destroyers. The firewarriors failing to wound the destroyers, the missile pods on the other crisis squad doing the same. (although this want helped b the necron player saying they were T6 when I think the are 5, unintentional though I think) and the landspeeder typhoon took out the chaos dreadnought.
In the assault phase the terminators finished of the prince losing one of their number.

Turn 3:
C&N: The chaos chosen and terminators managed to turn up this turn. The chosen outflanked behind one of my firewarriors squads. The terminators deep striked near one of my devilfish. The heavy destroyers fired at my fish again taking the burst cannon of one and shaking the other. The newly arrived terminators unleashed hell from their combi bolters including melta gun at my pathfinders. Killing a total of one. :-P.
The chosen decimated the firewarriors shockingly enough. And consolidated towards my crisis suits.

T&M:
The marine army started to swing round to face the newly arrived chaos forces. While the crisis suits moved forward to rapid fire on the terminators. Feeling sneaky. I rotated the fish and tankshocked the chosen. To my delighted they broke. At this point I forgot about the trapped rule meaning that the chosen would have been destroyed. However as it was they spent the rest of the game running. The pathfinders opened fire marking the terminators for the plasma guns of the crisis suits which killed 3 of them. The commanders missile pod killing off another. After the space marines killed the final terminator and took a wound of the lord. The broadside opened fire killing the lord outright. The hammerhead fired submunitions at the Necrons that were visible. Knocking 5 off their feet (3 didn't get back up again) the other railhead missed the heavy destroyers again.

Turn4:
C&N: The necron player finally decided to start getting his hands dirty with the ctan destroying a razorback then the embarked squad in assault. The heavy destroyers finally cracked one of the fish. The resulting explosion. Wounding each of my 3 remaining suits.

Due to time constraints that was all we got to play. So despite an extra turn the C&M players could not pull anywhere near our kill points. Tau for the win.

Units of note.
Hammerheads for repeatedly missing.
Broadside for splatting the chaos lord
The devilfish that shocked the chosen.
The fireknifes for their kills.
The railrifles for their complete inability to hit anything.

Any thoughts?



Monday 18 January 2010

Tale of four gamers: Hammerhead WIP

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Picture of my Hammerhead in its current state. haven't had time to finish the camo tonight. Rented house inspection meant a lot of the night has been spent tidying. Ugh.

Tale of four gamers:Hammerhead No2

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So far this month progress on ToFG has been relatively slow. The pathfinders are largely assembled and are basecoated. The hammerhead is assembled with rotating turret and has received the second base coat last night. Hopefully i'll be able to finish off the camo scheme tonight.
Photos soon

Wednesday 13 January 2010

Titans!

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Decided to post something a little different to my tau today. So I thought I'd put up some pictures of  my Warhound Titan for your viewing pleasure. There are a few chips and scratches in the painting that will need to be re-painted This will have to wait till some point after ToFG though.

The Titan is painted in Legio Ignatum colours, although due to my main army being Black Templars the Warhound is on active deployment with them. To mark this one of the shin guards is painted in Black Templars insignia














There are two individually switched LEDs on the top to act as shield counters. There is a further red one in the cockpit.

Monday 11 January 2010

Angels and turrets

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As pretty much everyone who reads any blogs and/or subscribes to the Gamesworkshop newsletter knows by now, blood angels are on their way.

While the news of another marine chapter isn't remotely unexpected I would have hoped that it would be time for a Templar update. Admittedly there are far older codexes out there, it seems that the templars are reduced to a one trick pony.

From the email it seems that blood angels are set to be a deep striking army with a good smattering of furious charge. Basic assault marines as troop choices. Which would be handy for objective grabbing. I would also imagine some ability to charge on a deep strike ala vanguard veterans.

With all the latest releases for marines (chaos included) I'm hoping that they haven't exhausted their creativity for combat marine armies by the time they reach templars.

For my tofg this month I have so far been working on my hammerhead. I have been working on a way of making the turret able to rotate, detach and accept different weapons. This will see full use in my next vehicle the skyray-ion-rail-head.

Friday 8 January 2010

ToFG: Month two (and a half :-P)

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So for my ToFG for december I did 1 broadside, 2 devilfish, 10 firewarriors and 3 Crisis suits. For other participants entry's check out the following links: Ginge - Orks Chris - Imperial Guard and Rich - Chaos Marines

Tau Broadside, From Forgeworld with plasma rifles


Tau Crisis Team 2



Tau Crisis Team 1







Tau Devilfish



Tau month 2 family photo




Game set-up

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Sent from my HTC

Thursday 7 January 2010

ToFG: Late, and late again!

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Well despite the two snow days, my tau army is still not going to have the last things added for the the December painting by the late date. By the end of this evening I expect to have the gun drones for the devilfish yet to do. As well as guns for the crisis suits and the basing to do. It has been an epic attempt over the past few days though to try and get it completed.

I think the mistake I have made is trying to do one devilfsh the same as my suits. I'll post pictures later and you'll get the idea. It has taken about 6 times as long to complete the main body of the devilfish this way. (the main colours on the first DF took my approx 45mins. By the time I had finished highlighting the second one it had taken nearly 6 hours!!)

On the plus side, the broadside looks amazing as do the crisis suits and firewarriors. I'll post pictures soon.

Monday 4 January 2010

Tale of Four Gamers: Games!

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As month 2 of ToFG included a bonus point for getting a game in at 1000 points, I decided it was time to introduce myself at the local GW for a Tuesday night session.

I used the same 1000Pts list for both games.

Shas’el: Plasma gun, TL missile pod, HW multitracker, HW Drone controller 2 shield drones, bonding knife

Crisis suits x 2, TL Missile pod and plasma gun

Crisis suits x 3, TL Missile pod and flamer, Team leader with HW DC 2 gun drones, Bonded.

8 x firewarriors, leader bonding knife
Devilfish, disruption pods flechettes

8 x firewarriors, leader bonding knife
Devilfish, disruption pods flechettes

Hammerhead, rail gun, burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pods, flechette discharges.

First Game:

The first game I played, (ever with my tau) was against a space wolves player.
From what I remember of his list:

3 x greyhunter squads (2 in rhinos 1 in drop pod)
Rune priest. (In with grey hunters)
Landspeeder tornado (MM + HF)
Wolf riders.

We played on a 4’x4’ table dominated by a fortress of redemption. (this would severely hamper my ability to add long distance support to my units) Dawn of war set-up he gets first turn. Capture and control.

My first mistake was keeping everything except my commander in reserve, I should have deployed nothing on the table to start with and brought it all on first turn. However as it was my army came on piecemeal and was taken apart in the same manner. I did do numerous things wrong in this game though. For instance, after the hammerhead blew up the first rhino, I should have retreated my battlesuits to the top of the building, admittedly a difficult terrain test, but would have prevented them getting charged and killed by the rune priest and friends.

If I had brought everything on in the first turn. Then I could have dealt with the squad that drop podded onto my objective straight away. Leaving me free to chase the rest of his army.

But hey ho, live and learn. Highlight for me had to be the flechette dischargers on the hammerhead wounding two of the wolf riders, then killing one on its death. Fun, although my opponent might disagree. Also the dinner plates of doom from the fish managed to successfully block the wolf riders advance for two turns. Died in the process. But still fun.

Game result: Space wolves 1 objective, 1 contested.


Second Game:

The second game I played was against an ork player.
From what I remember:

2 deff dreads.
2 Buggies (TL Missile)
Looted wagon, with Gazkull and nobs (7 total I think)
Small squad of grots
Shoota boy squad (15 IIRC)
Slugga boys (9+nob IIRC)

Table quarters deployment. Multi objective, I got first turn through seizing the initiative.

To start with we deployed at the same time (due to time constraints) which took away my primary advantage. So I attempted to seize the initiative with success. From 5 turns of raining TL missile pods into dreads, I successfully blew one of the arms off, and stunned it. (fantastic rolling eh!) The big fortress blocked most of my shooting and the hammer head scattering by an average of 6 inches a turn. Coupled with appalling rolls for armour penetration meant the ork lines reached mine without many casualties. (1 buggy, couple of grots, 9 boys killed with 5 turns of shooting). Crap eh?

Game ended in a draw though. I managed to keep enough models between my FW and gazkull to stop him reaching my objective. And we both contested a third objective.

Have to keep practicing.

Sunday 3 January 2010

December Painting

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Due to lots of distractions over then past few weeks, I have been unable to meet the deadline for this months tofg. I am attempting to achieve the late deadline however have 3 models and only 4 nights left. Main problem with this is that the 3 models in question are a battlesuit and 2 devilfish. I think I am unlikely to meet even the late deadline. But I will try my best.
Januarys painting hopefully won't be as much as a problem. With only 10 pathfinders and a hammerhead to paint.
(probably be late for that as well)