I had a terrific match with my Tau against a Guard army for the third round of our 1000 pt level of the escalation league. That was probably a run on sentence... oh well. Anyways. It was a really close game, but ultimately my opponent won the game in the last tense turns of the game. It was one of the best games of 40k I've played so far. I always find the close ones tend to be the best ones, no matter who takes it.
I played the 1000 pts league list posted a good while ago (of course).
My opponent ran two guard squads on foot, some officers, a pair of Russ, a pair of Hydra flak tanks, and a Chimera withe melta vets.
Spearhead Deployment, Capture and Control. While I had greater mobility, the location+number of objectives took away some of that advantage. While I had better guns, he simply had more of them, meaning I couldn't sit back and outshoot him either. In the end I chose to put pressure on his scoring units, ignoring his Russ tanks for the duration of the game.
Deployment:
I chose to go first after winning a roll-off. I held my Kroot to outflank, deployed my Pathfinders in some ruins for cover, and used their scout move to get them to a window overlooking most of the field. My devilfish deployed so as to move up either side of a central ruin and harass his infantry out in the open, and the hammerhead deployed centre table, to redeploy quickly where needed. The suits were the hard choice. Ultimately I placed them centre, when I should have anchored a flank to give them a bit more cover to work with. My lone deathrain suit covered my weaker flank.
My opponent deployed fairly centre due to the danger of outflanking Kroot, and placed his tanks on his flanks.
Turn 1
My opponent forgot to seize the initative, I had already made my moves for my movement phase when he remembered. From now on I'll sportsmanlike remind my opponent. Turn 1's shooting was lacklustre on both sides. My Deathrain penetrated the Chimera sneaking up the flank, but I rolled a 1 on the table. The hammerhead and 'fish caused a few casualties on foot guard with markerlight support, but scatter reduced the potential of the railgun submunition. My opponents retaliation was better - his flak tanks got 4 penetrating hits on my Phirana, and the cover only saved 2 of them. One devilfish was immobilized It was wrecked. My opponent moved up my flank with his Chimera
The Kroot showed up and moved into some ruins near my opponent's objective. I dismounted the fire warriors from the immobilized fish and moved them into some ruins. My other fish and Hammerhead moved into better firing positions and cleared one guard squad out with markerlight support. My Fireknife squad barraged the Hydra squadron, destroying one and stunning the other, while taking cover in ruins. My opponents sentinels arrived from reserves on my flanks and took out my deathrain, but did little else. My Fireknife squad held their ground in their ruins despite battlecannon shots, and a Marbo satchel charge, but my dismounted firewarriors broke from concentrated fire and ran.
The Kroot continued their advance through the ruins, the wrecked Pirahna's drones stunned a sentinel, while my suits and tanks pounded foot guard, killing most of another squad, but failing to make them break. My fireknife squad began taking casualties, but stayed in the fight.
The pressure on my opponent's flank continued, my Kroot moved too far into the open and got pounded by mortars and artillery, causing them to break. My suits continued hammering his infantry, killing another bunch, while the hammerhead moved back a bit to deal with the incoming Chimera vets.
At the bottom of Turn 5 the battlefield looked pretty sparse. Burning hulls, scores of dead infantry, battlesuits thinned out, Kroot running off the table. It was great! All that was left to threaten was a Firewarrior squad mounted in a 'fish on my opponent's objective, being contested by a Hydra, while my opponent still had his Chimera vets. Dramatically, I had failed to destroy his Chimera with a railgun slug, rolling a 1, remarkably, his Chimera got stuck trying to drive through the crater left by a destroyed devilfish. Nailbiting! It was Turn 5, a draw thus far, but the roll was made and the game continued! The Hammerhead fired once more, killing many guard, but failing to make them break, they advanced onto the objective. The hammerhead was hit by a battlecannon in the side, failed it's disruption pod save, and was wrecked! With nothing left near enough to contest, it was the end of a game.
Overall - terrific game as you've gathered by now. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. It looked like I had it in hand for a good part of the game (at least from my point of view :D). I made some mistakes in the last few turns that cost me though! I should have recognized the danger of the Chimera sooner and moved units to support it sooner, likewise, I could have used drones and my Devilfish hull in a way to prevent having the objective I held from getting contested. Still, it was anyones game up to the very end, which makes for good Warhammer.
A few pictures!
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