Tau vs Eldar, then Tau vs IG

This is an Edit to my original post.  After checking my armylist, I accidentally ran 3 piranha in both games, when there is only one in this list.  Stupid Army builders printed list said "Piranha 3" and I didn't read further to see that that was the model count including gun drones..  Either way, some interesting shots and interesting results from individual units.  Sorry to Eric and Josh for the mistake.

I got in 2 games Friday at Big Kidz Games.  I don't have time for a proper battle report for them as I also forgot to take pictures during a few turns of both games.  So I'll make a brief summation then just dump some photos to show some of the action.

First game Tau Vs. Eldar 1500pt

This was a close game vs Eric's Eldar.  We rolled pitched battle, with Seize Ground and Annihilation as objectives.  Eric won the roll and chose to go first, I failed to seize the initiative.  He was running his standard list as far as I could tell,  I had a Shadowsun list I'd made as a possible list for the team battle.  Notable unit choices in it were the 3 Sniper Drone Teams, 2 10 man firewarrior teams, and of course Commander Shadowsun herself.  I have to apologize to Eric, I assumed everyone was familiar with the Tau Sniper Drones so I didn't bother pointing out there Str 6 AP3 shooting..  As a result, he parked a squad of jetbikes directly in front of them and ended up losing a fair number of them on one of my turns.  The game ended with out a roll to continue as it was after 11pm and he had to work the next day.. as such, I squeaked out a victory by snagging one objective and contesting the one he was sitting on by running my broadsides over to within 3" on my final turn, thus securing the Primary Objective.  I also won on kill points by 1 or 2.. 

Either way, it was a good game, and I learned that despite the internet wisdom that sniper drones suck (and they do have their weaknesses) having 9 models with 36" Str 6 AP3 shots with pinning doesn't suck, and due to their stealth fields, they make a great bait unit, as you have to get close to even target them, and you really can't ignore that sort of firepower.  This was the second time I'd ever fielded them, and I also learned that putting them in cover is a must, and really adds significantly to their durability as you might expect.  Without further ado, here are the pics for game one:

Game Two was vs Josh's Imperial guard using the same list I ran against Eric.
We rolled pitched battle, capture and control, and annihilation as objectives.

I won the roll off and chose to go first. Josh deployed part of his force's, and held some in reserve.  This may have been his downfall as it allowed me to focus fire on the few units on the board destroying his Leman Russ on my turn one, pinning a squad of troops, and killing part of a command squad.  The pictures I remembered to shoot will tell the tale up too where I forgot to take anymore..  The highlite of the game for me was after assaulting a chimera that came on at his board edge, he in turn tank shocked my crisis suits, and to his chagrin into Commander Shadowsun who stood her ground, death or gloried him and exploded his empty chirmera.. The crisis suit team made their leadership due to Shadowsun's drone, but fell back after his shooting caused them to lose a model (thank god as they would have been assaulted and wiped out by his veteran squad.  His best unit was probably his Leman Russ Executioner with its plasma blasts.  Also at the end game he killed a crisis suit out of a team of 2 (the ones he'd tank shocked) that were camping on his marker, forcing a leadership roll which I failed allowing him to control his objective.  I forced his storm troopers to fall back from near mine after unleashing 12 smart missles, 6 sniper drones, and 8 firewarriors at them.. He still had two models left in the unit after all that..

The game also had to end after 5 turns due too time.  Who knows what would have happened if it had continued.  As it was, we tied on the primary, as is always the case with both of us controlling our own objective.  I managed a slight win on kill points assuming all the vehicles in a squadron just count as one KP.. if not then it would have been a slighter win by 1..  As is usually the case, his transports gave me a lot of free kill points.

I didn't get many shots of this game, and I'm not 100% sure these are in order, I'm not really fond of Blogspots editor when it comes to placing photos.