Painted reavers and a converted old school broadside

I finally got round to undercoating some of my dark eldar models and carried along by my sudden painting enthusiasm I painted the reavers to completion.

I also found time to rescue some experimentally converted battlesuits Xenos and Proud gave me resulting in an old school broadside and a fireknife.

While I like certain aspects of the new broadside kit, I'm really glad I was able to convert an old style one so the squad maintains a similar aesthetic.

I'm aiming to get some more pictures of my dark eldar up over the next few days including some different angle shots of the reavers.

Tau'va
Ko'vash

Battle Brothers January 2014: Game 3

Mission: Crusade, five objectives

Deployment: Vanguard strike

Terrain: A big ruin on left (objective) and right of our table edge, a ruin in the top right corner (objective), big hill in the centre from realm of battle, two forests on the other side, top left and top centre (objective). Wreckage middle left (objective) and wreckage central right (objective)

Warlord trait Tau: Exemplar of the Selfless Cause

Warlord trait Tau and orks: Not sure

Night fight: no

Psychic powers

Eldar: guide, perfect timing, presience

Opponents:

Tau and Orks

Fireblade, shield drone

3 squads of firewarriors

2 railgun hammerheads with submunitions

Boss, 2+ save and 5++, power klaw

10 Nobs, 5++, feel no pain, a few power claws

Dakkajet

20 boyz, Nob, power klaw

Deployment

We deployed first, hiding the fire warriors behind the hill claiming an objective. The Bikes parked up next to them on their left. The farseer and riptide joined together, and stood next to the skyray in the centre of our board edge, with the hammerhead cowering behind some ruins which the pathfinders were ready to scout into.

They deployed the nobs facing the pathfinder ruin with the boyz to the left and the fire blade and a unit of fire warriors left of them. Two fire warrior squads took up residence in the big ruin in their deployment zone, with a hammerhead hiding behind each corner of that building. The dakkajet was in reserves.

They failed to seize.

We kicked off with the riptide leaping forward to take on the fire warriors with the hammerhead in tow. The skyray swivelled to have a go at the nobs. The jetbikes moved up to blast the fire warriors. Several fire warriors were downed but not enough to wipe the squad. A big chunk of boyz were submunitioned into Mork’s (or possibly Gork’s) embrace. Some of the nobz took wounds.

The warboss and co advanced on the poor pathfinders. The hammerheads moved up. There was the characteristic whip crack of railguns but they either failed to find their mark or were negated by cover saves. The boyz and nobz ran forwards and the fire warriors killed a couple of jetbikes.

The pathfinders scampered further up the ruins to avoid being assaulted as the hammerhead lined up to pie plate the fire warrior team. The riptide rolled around the corner to gun down some of the nobz or the fire warriors depending. Our fire warriors moved up to secure the forest objective as the bikes closed in for the kill. The first of our crisis suits arrived ready to try and blow holes in a hammerhead. Through various large blasts and shuriken blades the fire warriors were slain but the fireblade survived (first blood). The crisis suit tried to silence the hammerhead but was denied by jink. The riptide put wounds on some of the nobz but most were denied by the boss’s 2+ save and feel no pain.

The dakkajet failed to show up. The nobz couldn’t decide whether to assault the pathfinders or not so stayed put. The boys moved up to put the hurt on the bikes as the hammerheads and fire warriors prepared to hit my deep striking crisis suit. Most of the shooting was ineffective with the crisis suit losing a drone and a wound. The jetbikes were shot down to three models. The hammerhead took a glancing hit.

The crimson hunter swooped in and promptly failed to hurt a hammerhead at all. The other crisis suit landed and with his friend, they were able to stun the other hammerhead which was bearing down on them. Our hammerhead submunitioned a bunch of boyz catching the fireblade in the blast and instant deathing him for good measure (slay the warlord). The blue jetbikes shot across the field to hide in the ruin in our deployment zone, and the fire warriors moved into the trees. The riptide finally downed the painboy and swiftly removed most of the other nobz bar one and the warboss on two wounds.

The dakkajet soared on, a waaagh was declared, and the orks rushed forwards, the warboss gunning for the hammerhead. The fire warriors lined up on my suits and the dakkajet aimed at our backfield squad of fire warriors with the fireblade attached. Despite an insane number of shots, the dakkajet was denied its kill by the fire warriors diving for cover, leaving only two dead. The boss charged and made short work of the hammerhead, but the fire warriors couldn’t remove the crisis suits. In the assault phase, the dakkajet attempted to ram the crimson hunter (we weren’t convinced you could do this in normal 40k, but gave it to them as it was in the death from the skies rules) but failed its toughness test.

The crisis suits gave up on the hammerhead and went for the fire warriors who are troops after all. The skyray prepared to be smashed into tiny pieces by the warboss. The skyray fired missiles at the dakkajet, successfully velocity locking it, but it jinked any other damage. The riptide and jetbikes removed the last of the orks from the central objective. The fire warriors killed the last nob but couldn’t stop the warboss.

The dakkajet flew across the field. The warboss smashed the skyray to bits, and the fire warriors mercilessly gunned down my battlesuits. The opposition hammerheads tried to shoot down my fireblade’s unit but where unsuccessful. The dakkajet assaulted the crimson hunter and downed the flier.

Everything shot the warboss. The guy was rolling like a champ with his 2+ save but the forest fire warriors eventually downed the roaring xeno. The riptide and bikes advanced on the central objective, claiming it for the Taudar Empire.

Their last turn consisted of them trying to remove the jetbikes from the objective, but bolstered by the farseer joining the unit they held.

Final score: Taudar 15 (four objectives, slay the warlord, line breaker, first blood) Tau Orks 3 (one objective)

After game thoughts

This was an odd game. We had some difficulty with luck at times but then again so did our opponents. I think our deployment was quite poor, we deployed too heavily on the right, and got ourselves trapped in a corner because of it. In the end we pulled through though.

Unit of the match: jetbikes. Jumping around, picking off units, claiming objectives and even a threat to light tanks, jetbikes are awesome. 

Battle Brothers January 2014: Game 2

Mission: Big guns with four objectives

Deployment: Hammer and anvil

Terrain: Big ruin in each deployment zone (ours on our left, theirs on their right) a forest across from each ruin, a big hill in the centre and another forest on our left in the centre.

Warlord trait Tau: Through Unity, Devastation

Warlord trait Marines: No idea

Psychic powers

Eldar: guide, fortune, presience

Night fight: yes

Opponents:

Space marines and guard

Chaplain

Two tactical squads

Two devastator squads

Thunderfire cannon

Rhino

Company command squad

Massive blob squad (50 guys)

Marbo

Leman russ demolisher squadron (two tanks)

They won the roll for first turn and opted to place the thunderfire cannon behind their big ruin, with the devastators in the ruin, one tactical squad hidden behind the rhino, with the chaplain and other tactical squad in the rhino.

The guardsmen deployed in the forests, with the russes anchoring their left flank. Marbo was hidden in reserves.

We set up a fire warrior unit in the ruin, and the fireblade and other fire warriors in the trees. The pathfinders were on the higher floors of the ruin, the skyray cowering behind the hammerhead in the centre. The bikes anchored our left flank facing off against the devastators, with the riptide next to them. The plan being to force the marine flank with the bikes 48” turbo-boost, taking out the thunderfire turn two and forcing the marines to fight us on two fronts. As usual, the suits and hunter were in reserve.

We failed to seize the initiative.

The imperium ordered a general advance, rushing forwards to engage the filthy xeno. The searchlight from the rhino lit up the hammerhead. The devastators seized this opportunity and blasted the grav tank to tiny pieces (first blood).

The tau retaliation was swift and deadly. The skyray missile barraged the rhino into oblivion. The marines charged out, only to be met by a farseer guided riptide and his nova-charged weapons which gunned them down, leaving few survivors. The bikes soared down our left flank, pressuring the devastators and the thunderfire.

The chaplain and marines dashed forwards, hoping to do some damage to the riptide. The guard advanced but ran again due to being out of range. Guardsman Marbo materialised in the ruin’s, but fell under the ever watchful eye of the riptide and was shot down in a hail of burst cannon fire. The demolishers attempted to raze the forest containing the warlord. With a sharp cry, Oi’nan’shi ordered her warriors to take cover, the tau diving behind the trees to avoid the explosive munitions. The devastators and thunderfire cannon unleashed hell on the bikes, tearing down four of one squad and one from the other, but the elves’ nerve held.

The riptide advanced, plasma guns ready for the devastators, as the crimson hunter swooped in, lances locking onto the space marine leader with the farseer moving in to help. A crisis suit gracefully touched down beside the jetbikes, as the bikes prepared to kill the thunderfire and the devastators. The skyray swung round, ready to unleash smart missiles on the advancing blob squad. The riptide failed to harm the devastators, the crisis suit killed a couple with the jetbikes adding to the tally. The two man jetbikes bladestormed the thunderfire techmarine down, silencing the artillery piece. The crimson hunter and farseer removed the tactical squad from the board in a brilliant display of lance fire and shurikens (slay the warlord).

The imperials responded by bringing the second tactical squad to bear on the riptide, but the plasma gun failed to cause any wounds. The blob squad put a couple of wounds on the riptide with various orders. The devastators failed to kill the jetbikes and hunter. Again the demolishers futilely pounded the forest with siege shells, though they did successfully destroy the skyray.

The crimson hunter banked right but fluffed its rolls against the leman russ squadron. Thankfully, the second crisis suit had just arrived and reduced one of the lumbering behemoths to molten slag with its fusion blaster. The riptide nova charged, and ignored the juicy guard heavy weapons teams and instead destroyed the second tactical squad with help from the first crisis suit, the farseer and the jetbikes. Having finished its work, the riptide jetpacked after the blob squad…

The remaining russ powered forwards away from the crisis suit. The suit was slain by rocket fire from the company command squad, even as they ordered the men to slay the riptide. After many orders had been cast, las cannons fired and grenade launchers shot. The smoke cleared. Leaving the riptide still standing. The devastators charged down the building, rushing into combat with the farseer, but neither could cause any damage leaving combat a draw.

The crimson hunter finally sorted its targeting profiles blasting the second russ apart as the jetbikes took out the command squad. The riptide sprinted forward, charging into the guardsman blob to drag them off the objective. Despite numerous overwatch shots and bayonets, the riptide crushed several unlucky heroes of the imperium, running them down as they fled from the monster battlesuit.

With little left to do, the remaining guardsmen prepared to sell their lives dearly as the riptide bore down on them, their shots just bouncing off its impermeable armour.

The bikes moved to claim all the objectives, as the farseer finally slew the devastator squad in combat. The riptide survived yet more overwatch to charge the last bastion of the imperial guard, scattering the puny gue’la, and claiming this sector for the Tau Empire.

Final score: Taudar 18 (4 objectives, 4 heavy support kills, slay the warlord, linebreaker) Imperial marines 2 (1 heavy support kill, first blood)

After game thoughts

This game was immensely enjoyable. Our opponents were a great laugh, and although the score was very one sided, the game was not. When the hammerhead got killed first turn, and the bikes charge began taking casualties, we began to get worried. But ultimately the risk paid off and we were able to execute a pincer manoeuvre. However, it was a hard fought match right until the finish.

Unit of the match: riptide, for generally making a nuisance of itself

Battle Brothers January 2014: Game 1

Mission: relic

Deployment: dawn of war

Terrain: forest in the centre of each deployment zone, ruin in the left of each deployment zone and a big ruin in the centre of the table

Warlord trait Tau: Predator of the skies (one use skyfire)

Warlord trait Iron hands: Not sure, might have been librarian got blessing of the omnissiah

Psychic powers

Eldar: guide, misfortune, presience

Iron hands: endurance

Night fight: yes

Opponents:

Iron hands

Librarian, terminator armour, storm shield, force axe (warlord)

10 tactical marines, meltagun, combi melta, melta bombs, multimelta, drop pod

8 tactical marines, meltagun, combi melta, melta bombs, drop pod

Storm talon, skyhammer missiles, assault cannon

Storm talon, skyhammer missiles, assault cannon

Space sharks allies

Tiberius the red wake

5 lightning claw terminators

Land raider redeemer, multimelta

Storm talon, skyhammer missiles, assault cannon

Deployment

They deployed only the land raider (containing the terminators) which sat in the centre of their deployment zone beside a forest.

We placed the hunter, and suits in reserve. The hammerhead on our left with the pathfinders ready to scout into the ruin on our left, both firewarriors and fireblade in the forest in our deployment zone, riptide in the centre. Skyray behind the firewarriors, and a unit of jetbikes on either side of the skyray to protect against drop pods. The farseer joined the jetbikes nearest the riptide.

With a spot of good fortune, we seized the initiative.

The farseer guided and presienced a whole load of stuff, and the riptide charged up his gattling gun, advancing on the land raider. The hammerhead swung round to the left using the pathfinder’s markerlights to destroy the land raider with a clean penetrating hit (first blood). The terminators pile out, only to be blasted apart by riptide fire. I believe three died and Tiberius lost a wound.

The marine’s retaliation involved a mad dash from the terminators and a drop pod landing behind the hammerhead. The marines piled out, only to be cut down by rending interceptor fire from the riptide. Crucially however, the melta sergeant and multimelta survived blasting away at the hammerhead, knocking off a hull point and the smart missiles.

The hunter arrived, soaring onto the battlefield but with a lack of targets it hid behind a ruin. A crisis suit deepstruck to mess up the terminators and the hammerhead ran away from the space marines which were being chased by a swarm of angry jetbikes and a farseer. The other jetbikes began a play for the relic. The hammerhead failed to kill the drop pod, a few marines were bladestormed by the bikes and Tiberius’ guard were shot down by the crisis suit. Diverting full power to shields, the riptide charged Tiberius. Bringing a massive metal hoof down on the chapter master the giant battlesuit smashed the life from the space marine, before he could lash out with his chainfists, stalking on to stand defiant in front of the relic.

With the scream of jet engines, the three storm talons roared into battle, blasting apart the crimson hunter in a shower of debris and skyhammer missiles, the elegant crafts jinking turns no match for the blessed missiles. The others tore into the riptide, but the suit’s armour withstood the battering.

The space marines on foot again tried to silence the hammerhead but their grenades could only bounce off the hull.

The crisis suit wasted no time in blasting apart the remaining tactical marines, even as his strike partner touched down on the other side of the table, and failed to snap shot at a storm talon, though the drones stole a hull point. The skyray blasted another’s assault cannon off in a barrage of missiles. The fire warriors skyfired up and put a glancing hit on one the already limping storm talon, knocking it out of the sky. The riptide failed to hurt the third, being out of range of guide.

The librarian and friends turned up, going for the fireblades unit. The iron hands storm talon regenerated a hull point. Both fliers flew over to kill the fire warriors and the skyray, but did little to no damage.

The tau and eldar mobilised to hunt down the warlord and marines. Several marines fell, but not enough. The hammerhead missed the drop pod, the jetbikes grabbed the relic, and the skyray shot it’s last missiles, ripping the missiles off the regenerating storm talon, leaving it with no guns.

The skyray’s victory was short lived as the space sharks flyer went into hover mode and tore it apart with rending. The marines charged into the warlords unit, the fireblade accepting a challenge from the librarian. However, everyone fluffed their attacks and combat was a stalemate.

The hammerhead finally did something, blasting the space shark flyer out of the sky.the tau converged on the combat, the farseer and bikes charging in. The farseer heroically shoved the fireblade out of the challenger. Again combat was drawn.

With a snarl, the space marine librarian finally landed a wound on the eldar psyker in combat, activating his force weapon, banishing the xeno to the warp. Bolstered by this heroism, the marines slew several fire warriors, running them down (slay the warlord).

We rolled for turn six (we needed this to charge the riptide in and claim slay the warlord) but we rolled a one.

Final score: Tau 5 (relic, first blood, linebreaker) Marines 2 (linebreaker, slay the warlord)

After game thoughts

We played a reasonably solid game, though we got very lucky with that first turn alpha strike. The marines were hampered by being unable to focus their forces on a particular section of the army allowing us to take them apart piecemeal. The fire warriors could have had more of an impact, but overall the units all played the part.

I'm very glad we took the skyray, it's a really cool looking model and it provides good anti-air defence. It's rules are nice, good, but not so good that it can be used without a bit of thought.

Unit of the match: riptide, proved to be a good all-rounder, and conjured up some great imagery charging Tiberius

Battle Brothers 2014 List and Pre-tournament thoughts

Two weekends ago, Xenos and Proud and I attended the Warhammer 40k Battle Brothers tournament, at Warhammer world in Nottingham. Despite the daunting prospect of a seven and a half hour car journey, we were both very excited and looking forward to playing doubles 40k again, something we haven’t done in about four years.

The format for Battle Brothers is fairly simple. You pick an army of 1500 points, and the two of you play five rounds over two days with this army. It can be structured in any way that follows force organisation.

The interesting twist of battle brothers, is that you win the tournament by amassing victory points, not battle points for winning games. This is quite an interesting mechanic with its own pros and cons. On the positives, it forces people to really play a high risk, high reward game. You can’t roll Emperor’s Will (the two objective one) sit on your own objective and win through first blood like you might normally, you have to claim the other one to maximise your victory points. This makes the games exciting, tense matches, which are usually close until the last turn or two. It also means both sides can gain a benefit, even if they lose. However, it can lead to very one sided scores, where people are left feeling like they’ve been tabled when they actually fought a really close game. It also means you focus less on winning the game, and instead winning points to win the tournament, which can leave you losing sight of just playing the game and enjoying the battle being fought.

The reports that follow this introductory post will aim to give an idea of how the games went, I don’t remember enough to make it a blow by blow account, which would probably come out quite dull anyway.

The list

We knew from the start we’d be taking Tau and Eldar, given that that’s what we took all those years ago, they’re our favourite armies, and XandP’s other army is Tyranids.

We initially tried to come up with a super competitive list, but quickly realised we had no idea what we’d face, especially now forgeworld was in play. We contemplated dipping into my student loan to by a revenant titan, but then decided we ought to just take a whole bunch of units we liked the look of, hadn’t used before, or just enjoyed gaming with. Here is our result:

Cadre Fireblade Shas’nel Oi’nan’shi (warlord)

12 fire warriors, rifles, shas’ui, markerlight, target lock

11 fire warriors, rifles (fireblade lives here)

Riptide, heavy burst cannon, twin linked plasma rifles, early warning override, stimulant injector

Crisis suit, plasma rifle, fusion blaster, 2 gun drones

Crisis suit, plasma rifle, fusion blaster, 2 gun drones

5 pathfinders

Hammerhead, railgun, submunitions, disruption pod, blacksun filter, smart missile system

Skyray, blacksun filter, smart missile system

Farseer, jetbike

6 jetbikes, two shuriken cannons

6 jetbikes, two shuriken cannons

Crimson hunter

The list has a good mix of ways to handle the various threats (flyers, hordes, etc) and has few spammed units in it. The crisis suits are a particular favourite of mine as they always bought an element of randomness to the game. Every game, we deepstruck them in on a crazy suicide mission behind enemy lines.

I'd played a skyray once before the tournament so I was keen to have another go and see if it was better flyer defence than the riptide. The hammerhead is a favourite model of mine and has been since I started the game. I felt the tau portion of the list reflected a mobile gunline, anchored by fire warriors, with suits and vehicles mobilised around it, an idea I'm growing more and more fond of. The riptide was armed with a burst cannon for the cool factor and ridiculous number of shots, despite the ion accelerator seeming the superior weapon. Also, people complain less when you intercept with it rather than a strength eight, ap two large blast. When I explained this to someone, I actually found myself being complemented on the sporting way I was fielding a riptide. I'm expecting the first flight of pigs tomorrow...

The eldar half came from Xenos and Proud's favourite models. Given a few more points, we'd have thrown in a fire prism as it is to him as hammerheads are to me. 

Game 1 to follow.

Ko'vash

School's League Tournament Report

The school's league is an inter-schools competition run by GW in the UK. Each year there are regional heats, followed by a regional final, culminating in a national final held in warhammer world in Nottingham. My team won our regional final in Glasgow so we were heading off, resplendent in kilts, to represent Scotland and our school in the UK final.

The school league is a team tournament with four players per side, each with a 600 point army. The total score for the team is added together at the end (four points for a win, two for a draw, nothing for a loss plus points for fully painted, having your dice, tape measure, etc) and the highest scoring team wins.

I brought Tau, my friends brought grey knights, imperial guard, and Eldar.

My Tau list:

Ethereal: he provides solid leadership which is really handy at low points and gives good buffs to my fire base.

Riptide with burst cannon, plasma rifles and interceptor: the heavy hitter, guns down hordes or meq. My only anti flyer through volume of shots. Is also a mega bullet magnet

2x eight fire warriors: scoring units, more survivable than kroot, solid firebase

Four pathfinders: markerlights
Piranha, fusion blaster, blacksun filter: a harassing unit, hunts the odd heavy tank, drones useful for clearing small units, it's also a distraction

Hammerhead, with ion cannon, smart missile system and blacksun filter. Slaughters light tanks and meq. Smart missiles are just the best out of the secondaries.

General strategy: fire warriors and pathfinders for a firebase/crossfire supported by the ethereal. The riptide plays hyper aggressive, charging around drawing fire and shooting, potentially even getting into combat with tanks, contesting objectives, etc. The hammerhead is support as is the piranha.

Game 1

Orks

War boss, power claw, heavy armour, cybork body
Nobs, heavy armour
Looted wagon, all the shootas

15 boyz, heavy armour
battle wagon, all of the shootas, rokkit launcher

Crusade, vanguard

Warlord: did nothing (I got sky fire)

He gets first turn.

Table has two big ruins on the line in my zone, another big one bottom centre with two forests right next to it. A couple of forests in his zone.

We get 4 objectives, 3 end up in my zone, 1 in his. He deploys nobs in looted wagon on my right and the boys in battle wagon on my left behind the forest ruin. I deploy piranha on the left then fire warriors, pathfinders, and ethereal in the left ruin, riptide in the middle, fire warriors on the right, hammerhead behind the right most building. Both fire warrior squads are on objectives.

My plan is to draw him into a killzone, block the battle wagon with the piranha, first blood from the looted wagon then shoot down the boys when they get out. I'm a tad worried about taking out the battle wagon, but I figure I can side hit it or fusion gun it.

I can't remember turn by turn so I'll chronologically recount the important parts. He rushes towards me with everything, and I fail to kill his vehicles. I fired the riptide, fire warriors, and the ionhead at the looted wagon, and only stunned it and left it on 1 hull point. He gets first blood from my piranha, the nobs disembark and then fail an 12" charge to my hammerhead despite there being juicy fire warriors closer, albeit in cover. The hammerhead uses the pathfinders to go to bs6 for the gets hot reroll and wipes the nobs from the table as it causes instant death. The riptide and fire warriors kill the warboss for slay the warlord.
The most important and luckiest part of the whole tournament happens turn 3 when his battle wagon immobilises itself in a forest, even with the reroll from his deff rolla. This effectively saves my fire warriors, though the boys aren't down and out yet. The last few turns, I relocate to get two objectives further from the boys, blow up the looted wagon, claim line breaker with the riptide and kill his battle wagon turn 6

Unit of the match: ionhead, versatile, high damage output, mobile, I would highly recommend one at low points levels.

Units that performed well: the riptide. Solid damage output, high mobility

That forest that immobilised the battle wagon: without it I would have had a really tough time of things.

Nothing performed underpar.

Game 2 necrons

Schools League Game two: Shas'el Kau'uit vs the Giant Bugs from Outer Space

So onto game two with a win under my belt (game one here). I was still miffed at the size of table (2'x4') but such is life. Then I realised I was playing horde nids, with a tervigon, loads of termagants, a prime, a biovore and two zoanthropes and all my acceptance fled for the door. Spearhead and three objectives was made slightly better as we agreed to have the objectives 6" on from table edges. Och well, as we say up here, lets see what we can do.

I won the roll for first turn (thank God) and stuck both objectives 6" on, 12" apart. The kroot again decided they'll outflank. All the battlesuits play hide and seek in some ruins in my deployment zone and the piranha hides behind them.
He deploys in Nid Carpet Formation™ the prime inside the carpet (snug as a bug in a rug) the tervigon and zoanthropes behind, the Biovore in the backfield.

Leaping out of cover the battlesuits target the nasty looking giant bug knocking the Tervigon down to three wounds. The piranha leaves them covered in dust as it races round the side of the board. In hindsight I should've flown it across the way rather than forwards (mistake number one).

The carpet rolls forwards tripping over itself, the Zoans annihilate the piranha.

The Return of School's League: Round 2

Okay, the first in a series of battle reports from the second round of the school’s League is here. All games 600 points, standard force org except 0-1 elites and 0-1 heavy support or fast attack, games lasted fourty-five minutes. The first was two objectives, Dawn of War. Due to GW administrative errors, all games were played on 2’x4’ boards. I arrived expecting 4'x4' boards at least (I was hoping for 6'x4' like last time) which I was already a little anxious about giving my tau's preference for running away. Seeing the tiny boards my pessimism took over, but I resolved to give it my best go. Anyhoo, let the games begin!

In the red corner: The Communist, all loving Greyskins (Cheer, clap) *

In the blue corner: The evil totalitarian Imperial Guard (boo, hiss)

High command had decided to send the recon wing of the Vior’la 5^th airbourne comprising of:

Shas’el Kau’uit (fireknife)

Shas’el Elro (fireknife)

3 deathrain shas’ui with flamers

6 shas’la, shas’ui

10 kroot

10 kroot

Piranha, fusion blaster, targeting array, disruption pod

The enemy:

Primaris psyker

2 units of veterans with meltaguns in chimera

Sly Rambo Marbo

Leman Russ with battle cannon

First Contact

Seizing the first turn, the Imperium decides to set up a chimera on a hill overlooking the field of battle, camping quite nicely on the disembowelled bits of guardsman. Seeing this, Elro decides she’ll take up position in the central ruins of the battlefield, hopefully all the games of hide and seek with the cadre’s stealth team will pay off.

The Imperium rolls it’s metal boxes on and they blunder about in the darkness, Elro’s strategy of ‘duck behind the wall’ keeps her alive.

Seeing this pathetic effort the cadre charges on, the piranha pilot deciding to take a look at the left flank, the battlesuits running for cover.

Elro spots a chance to one up the tanks abysmal shooting and leaping out of cover, explodes a chimera killing five very surprised veterans. The psyker's shouting however, keeps them on the board.

The Russ decides it has had enough of Elro’s antics and gives her a nice concussion with a well-aimed battle cannon shell. The chimera mills about. Sly Rambo Marbo stays hidden in the Chimera’s weapons locker. Things aren’t looking too good for everyone’s favourite interstellar dictatorship.

Jolly Toys Game 1

The first game of jolly toys is up, sadly a major loss for the Tau. The game felt closer than the score suggests, and luck was all over the place but ultimately it's the result that counts. Anyway, onto the game.
Dawn of war, kill points (win by three) primary, quarters secondary, objectives tertiary and kill points as a tie breaker. I ended up against a really nice Eldar playing running:

Eldrad
Maughan Ra
2 units of 5 avengers with exarch, double catapults and blade storm in wave serpents (one had lances, the other missiles)
5 harlequins with 2 fusion pistos and death jester
10 dire avengers on foot with exarch, double catapults, bladestorm
5 pathfinders
6 jetbikes with a warlock
3 units of three war walkers with scatter lasers with two having a missile launcher each.

I was running my standard 2000.

Deployment
I took first turn and deployed nothing, he deployed his rangers in a ruin in the centre of his deployment zone.

Turn 1 Tau:
Everything bar my devilfish walked on. Two hammerheads and a deathrain team on the right, two deathrain teams and a hammerhead on the left with the fireknives in the middle. Everything that could see unloads into the pathfinders killing two. Suits jump about to get best positions.

Eldar turn 1:
Maugan and harlies run on.Shooting wounds one of the fireknife commanders.

Tau turn 2:
Two devilfish arrive and with the hammerheads block for outflanking warwalkers. Everything shoots the pathfinders, missiles, plasma, railguns. The smoke clears and one blasted pathfinder is still alive. Great.

Eldar turn 2:
Everything kicks off this turn. Eldrad and his missile serpent show up on my right flank along with, all of the warwalkers! At this point, I'm getting kinda worried. They're within 12" of my hammerhead which I stupidly left facing in so they're getting side shots. He fires into various units killing a crisis suit and a drone from the deathrains and shaking the hammerhead. The crisis suits fail the leadership and run, unable to rally. Grrrr.

Tau turn 3:
The other devilfish comes on on my left. Suits mill about hoping to curb the warwalker threat. The far left hammerhead immobilises Eldrad's ride. The crisis suits and other hammerhead do little damage to his warwalkers.

Eldar turn 3:
All of his reserves stay hiding. His forces move about whittling down and wiping out one of the fireknife teams and shaking another hammerhead. I'm getting infuriated at the pesky warwalkers at this point, their cover saves and my poor rolling taking it's toll on the game. I'm just hanging on, hoping to do some more damage next turn.

Tau turn 4:
In short, I delay the inevitable. The crisis suits finally kill that Pathfinder and the hammerhead's burst cannons slay two warwalkers. I've dealt some damage but I really needed those walkers dead and there's still four of them running around thanks to terrible suit shooting.

Eldar turn 4:
Everything but the jetbikes arrive. His shooting phase sees another crisis team run off the table, morale was beginning to become a defining feature of my army. Maugan Ra pins a crisis team, another hammerhead is stunned and other shooting is terrible.

Tau turn 5:
I desperately try to claw something back though I know it's all gone. Once again, the dice let me down and I fail to really do anything.

The next few turns sees him take apart the rest of my army, finally finishing on turn 7. My thoughts on the game were mirrored by my opponent: There was a lot of luck involved. This by no means means my opponent was bad, he was a terrific player and there were certainly things I could have done better but I don't think I was able to give a good account of myself. I was looking positively towards game two though.
Ko'vash

More Jolly Toys prep

There's now less than six weeks to go until the tournament (list here) so my paintings been on overdrive lately. My Cadre is still lacking the last hammerhead and two deathrains but they're on the painting table clamouring for my attention.
I completed the final fireknife bodyguard recently, which was a lot of fun to paint:

Preparation for Jolly Toys

I am attending the Jolly Toys tournament this February alongside Luckless Xenos of Xenos and Proud. It's a two thousand point tournament run Nova style, a points level and style of play I'm very unused to. Looking at my Tau list I realised the best thing would be to just run an up scaled version of my fifteen-hundred force. So without further ado:

2x Fireknife shas'els with fireknife bodyguards with targetting arrays (multitracker is hard wired) and one has a hard wired drone controller and two gun drones
3x 3 man Deathrain teams with flamers, a team leader with a hard wired drone controller and 2 gun drones
3x 6 man fire warrior teams, devilfish, disruption pod
3x railhead, burst cannons, disruption pod, multitracker, flechette dischargers
Total = 2000

Conceding games: The honourable way out?

I remember a phrase from the 4th edition rulebook regarding conceding a game. I believe it said something like: "Conceding a game counts as a victorious slaughter though you and your opponent are free to negotiate more balanced terms of surrender". I've played many a game of 40k and not being the best general I've lost many times more than I've won (many times more than I'd like but that's another story). This is most clearly represented in my recent losing streak to Luckless Xenos which before I beat his Nids last week was longer than the range of a deathstrike missile.

My "wooden spoon" prize for finally beating Luckless Xenos. The lettering reads 'Ukos' which is Tau for spoon.

I have always struggled to beat him and will admit I've occasionally conceded games when all hope seemed lost but recently I realised that it wasn't as fun for either of us if I did. So now if I know I'm going to lose, I simply carry on playing, making outrageous tactical decisions that are my only hope of winning even if minutely slim (I have beaten off a hive guard in assault with fire warriors, it can be done) and ultimately enjoying myself. There is a certain calm madness that descends when you know the end is nigh. I haven't conceded a game in a long time and feel much better for it. Anyway that's my stance on conceding from a loser's point of view.

On monday,  I played our club's resident space wolf player. I took my standard 1500 of: 

Shas'el Retha'la, fireknife with fireknife command team and 2 gun drones

Shas'el Li'sun'yi, fireknife with fireknife command team and 2 gun drones

2x deathrain team with flamers and 1 gun drone

2x 6 fire warriors in devilfish with disruption pod

2x railhead with burst cannons, disruption pod, multitracker and blacksun filter

Total = 1500 (It must be said, I like symmetrical lists)

The Monday Post

Okay, school's league is fast approaching. The shirts are embroidered, the kilts packed, armies ready (ish) and gaming tools ready. My only problem is which army to take. Stick with my beloved space communists or try and take the Emperor's light to the farthest reaches of space? My Drake Lords (salamanders second founding) feel more competitive but my heart lies with Tau.
Here's the marine list anyway, what do you think?

Librarian = 100
Tactical squad (10 men), multimelta, flamer = 170
Scout squad (5 men), missile launcher, melta bombs = 90
Scout squad (5 men), missile launcher, melta bombs = 90
Devastator squad (5 men), 4 missile launchers = 150
Total = 600

I'll probably toss a coin on the day to decide but either way I'm sure I'll have fun. Until then, "Unto the Anvil Brothers" and "For the Greater Good"!
Ko'vash

The Monday Post

The school league international final isn't until July which gives me around three months to look at my list and think about tactics. In discussion recently is whether it would be worth taking a different army. I'm inclined on the one hand to take my Tau. They were my first army and the one I'm focusing on at the moment. But on the other hand it would be interesting to try out an Eldar army. Specifically a mech eldar army. Something like this:

Farseer, warding, guide, witnessing = 100
5 fire dragons, serpent, twin-linked shruiken cannon = 180
5 dire avengers, serpent, twin-linked shruiken cannon = 160
5 dire avengers, serpent, twin-linked shruiken cannon = 160
Total = 600
The strength of this list obviously lies with its mobility. Objective placement will be key as will knowing when to boost and when to shoot. While I feel like I ought to take my Tau all the way the Eldar would sure be fun to play. Let me know what you think. Which should I take?
Ko'vash

Schools League: The Aftermath

First of all, I'm going to say we came joint second in our regional final, qualifying for the International final in June! That means we got what we came for, free school league t-shirt! Anyway, more importantly, the games were good. My list performed admirably, the MSU style Deathrain battle suits doing particularly well. My first game pitted me against Imperial Guard. My opponents list had a command squad with orbital bombardment, a platoon of two infantry squads and a platoon command, veterans with one meltagun in a chimera and a Leman Russ executioner with multimelta sponsons. I was mildly apprehensive before the game seeing the Leman Russ but reasoning I could take it out with my Piranhas and fire from cover, it wasn't bothering me a huge amount. The game was good, I pulled off a close draw. Had one more of his Russ' plasma shots missed on his last turn, my flamer Shas'el would have contested his objective and one me the game but such is life. Morale came into the game a lot on my opponents part, I think he lost three squads to it.

The second game had me facing a marines list. scouts with missile launcher, librarian, 10 tactical marines in a rhino, 6 tactical marines and a dreadnaught with assault cannon. My Deathrains were again the stars of the show, blasting vehicles and marines left right and center. My opponent didn't seem to know a huge amount about the rules but he was nice to play against. Infiltrate proved key in this game, letting me at a far flung objective with the kroot.

The third game was versus Space Wolves. Two grey hunter squads in rhinos and a Skyclaw pack with a Jump pack Wolf priest. I killed the Rhino's and Grey Hunters fairly quickly with massed fire power, netting me a fair few kill points. Unfortunately, this meant I'd neglected the Skyclaws who proceeded to kill everything but the Piranhas in three turns. Not good. Although I lost, the final game was by far the best of the day. My opponent was really good fun to play against, it was fairly close and there were some good moments so I wasn't hugely disappointed with the loss.

Having finished our games we were shepherded to the "briefing room" which was basically a half hour marketing talk from Games Workshop about how shiny and wonderful the new Grey Knights are before they'd tell us who won. There was a good point to the marketing talk, they told us to expect a Battle Sisters codex later in 2011, take that as you will. Overall, the day was a good one. Exciting games were fought, seeing the miniatures hall was cool and some of the scenery was amazing. Roll on the International final methinks.
Ko'vash

The Monday Post

 A school league update

Okay so school league is just over a week a way, I thought I'd give you a little update and what's been done and what still needs to be done. So far I've finalised my list, gathered all the models and painted most of them. The piranhas still need painting as do the four of the kroot. I'm feeling a lot more confident, not sure if that's a good thing, this time round. I've rethought some of my tactics and ironed out some kinks in my army. I'm starting to realise Tau do very well in small points games due to the high number of units you can fit in. It's amusing seeing how small some of my team mates armies are. Then again, Luckless Xenos' army gets bigger as the game goes on. Overall, I think this time I'll be better prepared and I'm certainly looking forward to it. I'll try and get another update in before I go and I'll definitely take some pictures when I'm in Nottingham.

Ko'vash

The Monday Post

My Tau are really gathering steam at the moment. I've put the marines aside for now so I can focus on winning games with my Tau and properly getting to know the army. One of the main things that started me on Tau was the Hammerhead gunship and it's still something that makes me really glad I chose the pioneering space communists. The thrill of destroying a battle tank with the railgun in one turn and obliterating a unit of infantry with it in the next is still a fundamental part of 40k for me.
One thing that always crops up when I'm discussing lists with people is the fact that I use two Hammerheads instead of units of Broadsides. I've found that although Broadsides win on sheer tank killing power, the versatility of the Hammerhead railgun is far more useful. I have won countless games with a well placed submunition blast taking an objective holding Troops choice out of the game. The mobility of the tank is another huge bonus. Equipping it with a multitracker allows you to "fly" it 12" and blast away with the main gun. This is perfect for getting side shots on Leman Russes and other such well armoured targets. I usually deploy my Hammerheads on the flanks. From here they get the above mentioned side shots, but also provide valuable mobile cover for my Deathrains. The Hammerhead is also less vulnerable to small arms fire with it's high front armour and good side armour. The one key thing to remember is that your main weapon is a turret weapon. It can swivel to point at your target. Always position the tank so it's front armour is facing the greatest threat. This can mean the difference between killing that nasty enemy vehicle, and having your prized tank a smoking wreck.
Ko'vash

Schools League Development

Okay I'm back from a blogging absence brought on by a combination of illness and schoolwork. I assure you normal service will now resume.

Schools League has been the hot topic at the moment. Refining lists, painting and acquiring models it's all getting into gear. I think I'm finally onto a list I like. While the broadsides were definitely good for tank killing, the majority of situations I faced required a counter unit, ready to contest objectives and tie up units. This line of thinking kept coming back to Piranhas. Being fast skimmers they'd happily contest an objective and with drones I could block or tie up enemy units for a turn or two. They quickly overtook the broadsides and landed themselves a spot on the list (no puns intended).

Shas'el, flamer, twin-linked missile pod = 72
Shas'el, blacksun filter, twin-linked missile pod = 71
2 Shas'ui battlesuits, twin-linked missile pods, flamers = 82
10 kroot = 70
10 kroot = 70
6 fire warriors = 60
2 Piranhas, fusion blasters, flechette dischargers = 150
Total = 575

That leaves 25 points. Give one Piranha a disruption pod, and distribute a pair of gun drones to the battlesuits and it's done. The basic plan is to form a fire base with the battlesuits and fire warriors. The kroot can then infiltrate, outflank or join the firebase depending on the mission. The Shas'els can either join units to bolster morale or fight MSU style. The Piranhas zoom about causing mischief.
Any ideas for improvement?
Ko'vash

The Monday Post

I played a big game against my friends on Saturday and it left me thinking about Tau Battlesuits

When we play these big games, one person is designated "evil overlord" and they make as many points as they can (usually about 4,000). The other two then combine their armies to equal this amount. 

Luckless Xenos was given overlord duty and so I set about making a 2,000 point list.

The first things I knew I wanted to include were my ten XV8 Battlesuits. Not Terminators, Battlesuits. And as the game progressed I quickly realised how good a choice that had been. Okay they didn't kill as much and a unit got wiped out by genestealers but it was a lot of fun moving and firing that many Crisis Suits. 

When I started Tau, I read the entry at the start of the codex, which says along the lines of "The main Tau appeal is Battlesuits". I read this at age twelve and thought "No way, it's all about the tanks and the Fire Warriors". Now, four years on it's all about the Battlesuits. I currently have nine in my 1500 point army with a spare Shas'O but I'm looking to add more. True Fire Warriors and tanks have their appeal but there's nothing quite like popping out of cover and blasting a light tank, marine squad, etc to pieces and then leaping back into cover, sitting back and watching the look of disbelief spread across you're opponent's face. When people see that I play Tau and say "How can you play Tau?", I just look at my Battlesuits and reply "How can you not?"

Ko'vash

Learnings of the Shas

Saim Hann Eldar 1: Killing the Space Elves
I don't have much experience playing against Eldar, possibly my least played against army apart from Imperial Guard. And further narrowing that down is the fact that I only play against Saim Hann Eldar so I'm afraid the next two tactics posts are going to be fairly focused on one type of Eldar.

Things you shouldn't do
A typical Saim Hann Eldar army has tons of Jetbikes and most often a fair few tanks and Vyper Jetbikes as well. This makes it very, very fast. The entire army can and sometimes will relocate completely in a single turn, using their 24" boost move. Consequently under no circumstances should you chase the Eldar back and forth across the table randomly. They'll just outmanoeuvre you, isolate your units and systematically take your army apart. It really is painful to see.  Always be aware of where the Eldar can be next turn, not what they can kill. It's all very well bringing up support units to rescue afar flung out squad, but does this mean those same scary jetbikes are now on your unprotected objective and stealing the game from you on turn 5. I'm going to talk about objectives in part 2.

Things you should do
Take away their mobility. Force them out of position and pounce on them with a combat unit if you can. Saim Hann Eldar are terrible in combat. Ws 3, strength 3, 1 attack. Okay, they have a 3+ save and toughness 4 but they struggle to hurt you back. Even battlesuits will hold them up but this should only be used as a last resort.
Aside from combat their main weakness is morale. Most armies will not have very big squads to increase versatility, especially in armies of less than 2000 points. Units are most often four strong. Kill one and you cause a morale test on leadership eight. Kill three and they're not rallying. I've seen enough Eldar losses to know morale is a big problem for jetbikes.