I took my Tau to escalation 2010. Their first competitive outing. I didn't do quite as well as I hoped, but not as bad as I feared. coming 11th out of 24th with 1 win, 2 draws and a 1 loss in four games. Some of the missions were a little odd. With strange deployments and/or reserve units, certainly wasn't friendly for armies relying on firepower.
Game 1:
This was fought using the night fighting mission from the battle missions book. With the table split into four triangles diagonally across the table. Rolling for random deployment of units within the triangles. Mission was objectives with three objectives positioned towards the center of the battlefield, night fighting rules all the time.
My opponent for this mission was using a plague zombie army, I watched as horror as he positioned 83 zombies around the objectives in the middle of the table. For those that don't know, the zombies are toughness 3 feel no pain, S4 and fearless. So they can take a beating and not go anywhere.
Over the course of 6 turns I managed to drop about 50 of the zombies without losing a single model. However he held two of the objectives with his larger remaining horde of zombies. On turn 6 with a well positioned charge into his larger group of zombies I managed to drag them off the objective ending the game in a draw.
My opponent in this round was the same opponent I faced in the first round of the winds of war tournament earlier on in the year. This was an enjoyable game against a great opponent. However I didn't lose a single model in this round which was nice.
Game 2:
This was a spearhead deployment, kill point mission. My army was designed for fighting marines. So I was delighted to be fighting a space marine army.
This mission went quiet well for me, I made a few mistakes which cost me my Shas'O to a melta gun totting biker. The game ended on turn 7 with me wiping out the last remaining marines on my opponents side.
This game ended in a victory and 1000 VPs for the Tau. My opponent was a little new to his army and could probably have done with being a little more forceful in approaching my army. However he was a great person to play against.
Game 3:
Spearhead deployment again. with a slight twist, you are only allowed to deploy fast attack choices. Leaving me with a squad of pathfinders and their devilfish. When I found out my assigned table I noticed it was largely open. Which I thought would be nice, until I realised I drew an imperial guard player. uh uh. The game was 3 objectives, one in the center of the table and 1 in the center of the unoccupied table quarters.
My opponent deployed a vendetta against my pathfinders. With the rest of my army held in reserve and the guard player having the -1 to my reserves roll, I didn't hold much hope of winning or evening drawing this mission. The game went quite quickly, with most of my reserves turning up then being taken out by the guard player, or failing a morale check and running off the table. Worst of all, I took a wound on each of my broadsides and managed to failed 2 of 3 armour saves and both invulnerable saves on my shield drones. Leaving most of my army at the mercy of the guard battle tanks. My remaining railguns failed to penetrate any of the guard armour, although I managed to cripple enough of his chimeras to prevent him reaching the center objective, and had four firewarriors hiding on mine.
Game resulted in a draw, but I was grateful the game ended on turn 6.
Game 4:
I ended up playing against Ginge in this game, on the same table I played on game 3. It was a kill point mission against orks. A nice open battlefield and a good deployment for me.
Unfortunately I messed up on some of the tactics of this game, a few small changes could have won me this game. moving my firewarriors up towards his bikes to restrict his movement and get off a round of rapid fire at his bikes. I also could have moved around a little more effectively to keep out of the orks reach. Unfortunately I was tripping over my own deployment. Strung out across the back of the battlefield with limited space to move around. The dice also abandoned me on this game as well, Making up for the good luck in games 1 and 2 with bad luck in 3 and 4. With 3 penetrating hits on his battle wagons with railguns (open topped) I consecutively rolled 3 ones. Ginge had some quite good luck with his lootas as well, destroying 2 of my tanks in short order. However, not one to blame luck, Ginge played well and deserved the win in this round.
Result, Loss. 10 kill points to 9.
Things I would change:
Most of the missions are assault army friendly rather then firepower friendly. Be nice to have a better mix. Some of the deployment types were awful. In Ginges first game, his opponent conceded after Ginge won the roll to seize the initiative. He had deployed his boyz, literally surrounding his opponents rhinos and his opponent thought that there was no point playing beyond this point.
I would have changed my tactics in the last game, I should have won that one, and am now spoiling for a rematch :-P.
I would have made slight changes to my army list. A piranha squadron or 2 would have been quite useful.
All in all an entertaining day playing warhammer though. Thanks to the people at Bracknell Forest Gamers for an entertaining day though.
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