New Army

Our 750 point tourney had a nice finish, with a fairly explosive large scale 3 on 3 game, xenos vs imperials. More on that can be found at one of my friend's blogs at : http://irolld6s.wordpress.com/

I find myself too lazy/busy to comment myself on the happenings. Check it out though.

For our next tourney, my 1000 point list will look something like this:

HQ

XV8 Shas'el - Cyclic Ion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Targeting Array, Hard-wired Multi-Tracker, Hard wired Drone Controller, Shield Dronex2, Bonding Knife

Elites:

1x Deathrain - TL Missile pods, flamer

1x Deathrain - same as above

1x XV8 - Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Multi-Tracker (to attach to HQ)

Troops:

6x Firewarrior
1x Devilfish - Multitracker, Disruption pods

10x Kroot, 4x Kroot Hounds

6x firewarrior

Fast Attack:

5x pathfinder
1x devilfish - Multitracker, Disruption pods

1x Piranha - Fusion Blaster, Disruption pods, targetting array

Heavy Support:

1x Railhead /w Disruption pods+multitracker


From my previous list I've added some battlesuits, another devilfish and added multi-trackers to my vehicles to make them more mobile. The Deathrain Crisis suits should be adequate to take on AV12 and lower, freeing up my railgun and fusion blasters for the messy business of any heavy armour that might be on the table, or letting my Railhead lob submunitions the whole game. The second plasma wielding suit should be running around with my commander to take on those pesky space marines and terminators, though the odd game he may be tasked to deal with armour instead. The more I play, the more I feel that the Tau codex is lacking. While there are a great many good options in the list, all of the stuff that makes the army work is tied up on expensive models. That is to say, while many armies can do a lot more with their basic troops, be it to give them weapons to deal with armour or infantry, there is a massive amount of STR 5 guns on just about every Tau unit. While this normally wouldn't be a problem in most armies, the fact that the Tau just can't assault compounds the problem. I could probably keep going on about what I don't like about the army, but there is much more that I do like which keeps me playing it. The thing is that I *like* the challenge that playing the army presents. It takes a lot of finesse and planning to play them well. The army has a very small margin of error.

At any rate, I digress. What I wanted to talk about was that I've started a project on the side. The Tau are coming along nicely and all that's left to paint up for my planned 1750 list is a bunch of Crisis and broadside suits and a tank chassis. These shouldn't take too long to take care of. Short of a few models, I'm 85% ready for the 1000 point tourney - I just have 1 crisis suit and 4 Kroot hounds to paint up, while finishing some of my bases of my old list. My love for the hobby is such that I felt like building another army - Chaos Space Marines. Now while, I feel that the Space Marine Codex is superior, there are a few of these armies already running around in my group. On top of that I have a love for painting and modeling that matches that of playing, and the Chaos Marines are just dripping with detail and modeling options. At first I thought I could just grab a bunch of my loyalist marines that are already built, but realized that the excess of imperial eagles, purity seals and so on makes it a more difficult task than I had initially thought.

So here is what I did: I bought a Chaos battleforce. That gave me 15 Chaos marines, 8 Khorne Beserkers, a Rhino and 5 Possessed to play with. Since I don't plan on running possessed, these parts will be used to modify aspiring champs, build chaos lords etc. While I couldn't use all of my loyalist marines as I wanted, I can and did save some. I'm using extra bits from my Chaos Rhino to pimp out a razorback kit that I haven't put together (the turrets will probably end up being used in terrain, or saved for another project. I also have some spare lascannon bits, and a couple missile launcher marines that, with some conversion, have been made into some havocs.

At any rate, this puts me up to a total of - 18 chaos space marines, 8 beserkers, 2 rhinos, 1 lord. So far.
Tenatively I'll practice with this list:

HQ - Lord /w Daemon weapon and mark of slaneesh

Troops:
9x Marines /w 2x melta and aspiring champ (the lord will run with these boys)
- Rhino/tl bolter

9x Khorne Berserkers /w Skull Champ /w powerfist
- Rhino /w extra armour /combi bolter/flamer

Heavy Support:
Havocs x5 /w 2 missile launchers and icon of chaos glory

Not a very competitive list, but I can use what I have to make it. It shouldn't be too awful at any rate.

Clash! Sac'ea Tau vs Red Talon Space Marines (750 pts).

Had a heck of a game today, really close one too. I had a lot of anticipation going into this game, having wanted to play against this particular opponent for some time. The last turn came down to some lucky dice rolls. Here's a synopsis.

Pre-Game.

The game was a Seize Ground with 4 objectives. We set up the table: A ruined chemical factory, surrounded by toxic waste, drums and the remnants of a bunker. Forest was beginning to creep back into the area. The Sac'ea Tau, having taken casualties from the Imperial Guard and Eldar were attempting to secure fuel to retreat the remnants of the cadre off-world when they encountered the Red Talon Marines, out to spill Xenos blood. Kallisto had become too costly for the Tau to continue the campaign any further, but if they wanted to escape this hell-hole, they had to take the fight to the Red Talons.

The Chemical Factory:

I rolled my secret objective - keep my commander alive. After deploying objectives, we rolled for the deployment type - Pitched Battle. We rolled off, my opponent won the roll and chose to allow me to go first. I chose the table quarter that was forested, forcing my opponent in the ruins and the crashed space craft seen on the right in the above photo. I deployed in a defensive formation, setting up to advance with my Devilfish, Piranha and suits. I opted to infiltrate my Kroot across the table on top of the objective in the forest. My opponent deployed his marines and rhinos in a standard set-up, ready to advance on my position. My opponent failed to sieze the initiative.
My defensive position, behind the ruined fence. Firewarrior team Alpha, supported by Pathfinder team Echo.



Kroot holding their forest.


My opponent's objective, held by a supporting Marine squad:



Turn 1
Scattered shooting from both sides. My first turn was quite successful - my Monat XV8's missile pods wrecked my opponent's Rhino that carried his HQ. The marine's return fire was ineffective. His HQ squad advanced while his other rhino advanced towards one of the objectives and popped smoke.
My XV8's advanced, Pathfinder team Echo's Devilfish picked up Firewarrior team Bravo and advanced with the Piranha towards the chemical factory.

Pirahna



Turn 2
My XV8's continued their advance, Commander Bold Spear began using the chemical factory as a position to leap out from to barrage the marines, while the Monat XV8 made similar use of an old chemical drum. The Devilfish advanced with the Pirahna, while the hammerhead continued bombarding the marines from afar. Few marines fell, however the XV8 Monat's missile pods struck again, causing the second Rhino to explode, despite its smokescreen. The explosion claimed one marine, while the others went to ground, pinned for my opponent's turn. My opponent's retaliatory fire caused my Piranha's crew to become shaken.

View from the end of turn 2




The advancing skimmers


The Hammerhead takes position to aim it's burst cannons towards the expected deep-striking terminators:


Menacing! The Railgun must be warped though, throughout the Kallisto campaign the gun proved ineffective. The Earth Caste will have to refit Hammerhead gunship "Prosper" once off-world. A veteran of three campaigns, "Prosper" needs extensive refit and maintenance.



Turn 3
In turn 3 I continued my aggressive push, the Devilfish and Piranha layed down fire on the marines, while my suits peppered the squads advancing on the objective in the open. Return from the marines caused no casualties.

Turn 4
The terminators finally arrived at the end of turn 4, killing half of Firewarrior team Alpha in their opening salvo. Ouch. I continued pressure on the second front, causing some more marine casualties.

Cue dramatic music



Turn 5
I advanced my Piranha and Devilfish, dropping off drones and troops to contest objectives, The terminators lived up to their reputation as they shrugged off fire from the Firewarrior and Pathfinder teams, the Kroot Auxillaries, Commander Bold Spear AND the Hammerhead while taking a single casualty. When assaulted, a Firewarrior somehow killed the Terminator Sergeant, while the rest eliminated the squad. Remarkably, the drone contesting my opponent's objective survived the assault against a space marine sergeant and captain. The other objective was contested by my Piranha's drones, while the Pirahna exploded from a marine rocket. The game ended at turn 5, with a win for me, holding a single objective. I also achieved my secret objective, since Commander Bold Spear survived. Until next tourney!

They came from.....behind!



Gone Fishin'



This Drone deserves a promotion

Tourney Update

Well, the 750 pt tourney is winding down and my last game is scheduled for this Sunday. A matchup against marines! It should be interesting, I only have one unit effective at breaching heavy armour and I have Terminators to face. I suppose I may have to throw some of my fusion blaster and railgun fire in that direction if no better target presents itself. Worst case scenario I'll try going for volume of fire!

I've got my 1000 pt list pretty much locked in. Barring some play-testing I have a really good feeling about my list. It suits my playstyle and adds some things that the 750 pt list was missing. Still wish I could add more, but I'll make do. I'll post it shortly! Along with some battle reports.