Tau vs Guard 1500 League Rematch

P.S.  This is the BOMB!

Farsight Drops
the Bomb!

Tonight I had the opportunity to replay one of my 2 1500 pt league matches after a rules snafu by my opponent had invalidated the original result.  We both ran the same lists per the league rules, and convienantly, we rolled the same mission (the relic) and deployment (Vanguard Strike) as we had played in the first game.

IGWarlord won the rolloff to deploy terrain first (per league rules, all terrain is placed, then there is a roll off to choose sides/deploy first, at which time fortifications can be placed).  The terrain was laid out with me ensuring that no corner of the board had total LOS blocking terrain in it for him to hide his two Colossus Artillery tanks in.  Once the terrain was placed, we rolled off and I won the chance to deploy/choose sides first.  Given that one corner had almost no terrain in it, I did the obligatory douchebag thing and stuck him with that corner, and I took the other (hey, he was the one that put the two pieces of lousy terrain in that corner in the first place..)  We also rolled for night fighting on turn one.

I deployed my troops, consisting of the following:

Total Roster Cost: 1496

HQ: Commander Shas'o (3#, 218 pts)
   1 Commander Shas'o, 188 pts = (base cost 75 + Airbursting Fragmentation Projector 20 + Cyclic Ion Blaster 15 + Ejection System 15 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Iridium Armour 20 + Stimulant Injector 10 + Shield Generator 20)
      1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
      1 Shield Drone, 15 pts

HQ: Commander Farsight (10#, 661 pts)
   1 Commander Farsight, 170 pts
      1 Crisis Bodyguard, 59 pts = (base cost 35 + Burst Cannon 8 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Twin Linked Flamer 6)
         1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
         1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
      1 Crisis Bodyguard, 75 pts = (base cost 35 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Missile Pod 12 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster 18)
      1 Crisis Bodyguard, 59 pts = (base cost 35 + Burst Cannon 8 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Twin Linked Flamer 6)
      1 Crisis Bodyguard, 75 pts = (base cost 35 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Missile Pod 12 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster 18)
      1 Crisis Bodyguard, 59 pts = (base cost 35 + Burst Cannon 8 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Twin Linked Flamer 6)
      1 Crisis Bodyguard, 59 pts = (base cost 35 + Burst Cannon 8 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Twin Linked Flamer 6)
      1 Crisis Bodyguard, 75 pts = (base cost 35 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Missile Pod 12 + Twin Linked Fusion Blaster 18)

Fast Attack: Pathfinder (7#, 143 pts)
   4 Pathfinder, 48 pts = 4 * 12
      1 Devilfish, 95 pts = (base cost 80 + Disruption Pod 5 + Multi-Tracker 10)

Troops: Fire Warrior (9#, 155 pts)
   6 Fire Warrior, 60 pts = 6 * 10
      1 Devilfish, 95 pts = (base cost 80 + Disruption Pod 5 + Multi-Tracker 10)

Troops: Fire Warrior (6#, 60 pts)
   6 Fire Warrior, 60 pts = 6 * 10

Elite: Crisis Shas'vre (1#, 71 pts)
   1 Crisis Shas'vre, 71 pts = (base cost 25 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Twin Linked Missile Pod 18 + Positional Relay 15 + Team Leader 5 + Shas'vre Upgrade 5)

Heavy Support: Broadside Battlesuit (3#, 188 pts)
   1 Broadside Battlesuit, 93 pts = (base cost 70 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Targeting Array 10 + Team Leader 5)
      1 Broadside Battlesuit, 80 pts = (base cost 70 + Targeting Array 10)
      1 Shield Drone, 15 pts

IG Warlord mid deployment.

I placed the 2 devilfish, a firewarrior team, the broadsides, and the monat crisis suit on the board as pictured (the crisis suit was in the building under the broadsides).  I reserved the pathfinders, firewarriors, and attached the shas'o to Farsights team deepstriking.

My opponent deployed his forces consisting of something like:

1500 Pts - Imperial Guard Roster - IG 1500 1750?

Total Roster Cost: 1765

HQ: Company Command Squad (5#, 210 pts)
   2 Company Command Squad, 64 pts = 2 * 6 (base cost 6) + Camo Cloak 20 + Carapace Armour 20 + Flamer x1 5 + Grenade Launcher x1 5 + w/Lascannon 32
      1 Veteran Heavy Weapon Team, 30 pts = (base cost 10 + Lascannon 20)
      1 Lord Castellan Creed, 116 pts

HQ: Company Command Squad (6#, 165 pts)
   4 Company Command Squad, 84 pts = 4 * 6 (base cost 6) + Plasma gun x4 60
      1 Company Commander, 26 pts
      1 Chimera, 55 pts

Troops: Infantry Platoon (36#, 260 pts)
   1 Infantry Platoon, 0 pts
      2 Platoon Command Squad, 14 pts = 2 * 6 (base cost 6) + w/Missile Launcher 27
         1 Heavy Weapons Team, 25 pts = (base cost 10 + Missile Launcher 15)
         1 Platoon Commander, 6 pts
      7 Infantry Squad, 35 pts = 7 * 5
         1 Heavy Weapons Team, 20 pts = (base cost 10 + Autocannon 10)
         1 Commissar, 35 pts
         1 Sergeant, 5 pts
      7 Infantry Squad, 35 pts = 7 * 5
         1 Heavy Weapons Team, 20 pts = (base cost 10 + Autocannon 10)
         1 Sergeant, 5 pts
      7 Infantry Squad, 35 pts = 7 * 5
         1 Heavy Weapons Team, 20 pts = (base cost 10 + Autocannon 10)
         1 Sergeant, 5 pts

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 120 pts)
   9 Veteran Squad, 113 pts = 9 * 7 (base cost 7) + Meltagun x2 20 + Grenadiers 30
      1 Veteran Sergeant, 7 pts

Troops: Veteran Squad (10#, 120 pts)
   9 Veteran Squad, 113 pts = 9 * 7 (base cost 7) + Meltagun x2 20 + Grenadiers 30
      1 Veteran Sergeant, 7 pts

Heavy Support: Leman Russ Squadron (1#, 220 pts)
   1 Leman Russ Squadron, 0 pts
      1 Leman Russ Exterminator, 170 pts = (base cost 150 + Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2 20)
         1 Knight Commander Pask, 50 pts

Heavy Support: Ordnance Battery (1#, 140 pts)
   1 Ordnance Battery, 0 pts
      1 Colossus, 140 pts

Heavy Support: Ordnance Battery (1#, 140 pts)
   1 Ordnance Battery, 0 pts
      1 Colossus, 140 pts

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 pts)
   1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron, 0 pts
      1 Vendetta, 140 pts = (base cost 130) + Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2 10

Fast Attack: Vendetta Gunship Squadron (1#, 140 pts)
   1 Vendetta Gunship Squadron, 0 pts
      1 Vendetta, 140 pts = (base cost 130) + Heavy Bolter Sponsons x2 10

: Imperial Bastion (2#, 110 pts)
   1 Imperial Bastion, 75 pts
      1 Gun Emplacement, 35 pts = (base cost 0 + Icarus Lascannon 35)


Looking back at the pictures, I'm pretty sure that his list included all of the above at least (Edit 1: any reference to a mystery squad later is because I hadn't realized I could add an extra squad to the guard in army builder, I went back and added them into this list so hey are there now, but weren't when I did the write up.  Edit 2: I also recalled his commenting he'd forgot his vetrans had carapace which is a 30pt times 2 squad upgrade bumping the points overrun up further).. I'm not sure how that's possible as the list above is 200+ points over the 1500 limit, and I may have skipped some special wpns/wargear even then..  I'll see if I can get him to comment with his actual list..  But assigning the units above to the units in the picture, I'm a bit confused.

So army lists aside, he failed to seize the initiative so I went first.

IGwarlord moving bottom turn 1

Turn 1:  I moved my devilfish around, my broadsides split fire on the bastion and a colassus.  Failed to pen the bastion, exploded the collassus (first blood to me)



He moved his blob squad, and the mystery squad that isn't listed above toward the ruin that was just outside his deployment zone.  He then ordered the blob to "move move move" and they did, his weapons fire was inefective due to night fighting giving my devilfish 2+ cover saves.


Turn 2:  All my reserves came on.  Firewarriors embarked in the pathfinder fish, pathfinders hid in the far corner behind a ruil, farsight bomb missed the initial deepstrike roll, but re-rolling due to the pathfinder fish they scattered 2" into an ideal landing zone.  I moved the devil fish around a bit, then went on to shooting.  Farsight's team split fire with 4 twin linked flamers causing 19 hits/17 wounds plus a couple more from burst cannons on the blob squad reducing it too 1 model remaining, Farsight and a twin linked fusion/MP suit took 2 hull points off the Leman Russ and imobilized it.  A fusion suit target the bastion and destroyed a gun emplacement.  Shas'O dropped a barrage shot onto the battlements killing the lascannon team, 1 guardsman and put 1 wound on the Warlord.  The other Fusion suit exploded the remaining Colossus.

The Bomb.

After the bomb.

He got 1 out of 2 vendetta out of reserves on his turn 2.  He managed to imobilize his second HQ's chimera and further shifted part of mystery squad into the ruins second floor.  The vendetta killed a shield drone and 1 broadside but the remaining one made it's moral.  Warlords squad killed a drone and a suit that controlled 2 other drones, causing a moral check which I passed.

Turn 3:   I moved up 2 dfish to the Relic (my ethereal), one went flat out, the other went 6 and deployed 6 firewarriors into contact with the relic.  Monat suit moved up towards center board, and farsight's team spread out a bit to fire at the single guardsman, the tank, the bastion the chimera, and the platoon command squad in the green ruin.  The tank died, the icarus and a heavy bolter were destroyed in the bastion, the chimera lived, but the missle team and 2 other models died in the green ruin from the Shas'o's AFP+Cyclic Ion shots.

His other vendetta came on, and he dropped off a vet squad near the broadside.  He also moved is warlords remaing squad inside the bastion.  His vendetta exploded the flat-out DFish killing 2 guys inside, and one from the team with the relic. but not much else happend.

Turn 4:  I circled around the bastion to put shots into it, the chimera and the remaining guys in the green ruin area.  I moved my firewarriors into the ruin and the other team onto the ruins base.  The DFish I moved back to get a rear arc shot on a vendetta, but instead chose to flat out, and imobilized myself on a piece of terrain.  I destroyed the Bunker, killing everyone inside (after another rules snafu where my opponent read the book and declared that it said one thing, but a bystander later in the turn read the same section to discover it said something entirely different and that you take 2d6 str 6 wounds, not each model takes a 2D6 str wound when you get a 6 on the chart.  Big diff when you only have 2 models remaining).  I missed the dudes by the green ruin again.

He moved a vendetta over to attack Farsight, moved the other over the ruins my firewarriors were in and dropped more veterans..  He moved his first vets over to fire on the remaining devil fish.  He killed two TLFL/BC suits with one vendetta, and his vets killed 3 out of 4 firewarriors in one squad and 1 inside the ruin from a flamer hit.

Mid 4th turn move.

End of top of 5 shooting.

Turn 5:  I moved farsights team around, moved the firewarrirs out with the relic to shoot at the guardsmen, detached the drones from my fish and advanced towards his deployment zone.  Farsights team got a lucky hit with a fusion blaster and exploded a vendetta, the Shas'O dropped his AFP shot on the vets and along with firewarrior shooting they were reduced to 4 models and failed their moral falling back.

Alas, I forgot to take pictures after this.  Bottom of Turn 5 movement phase.

Bottom of turn 5 he put his remaining vendetta into hover and moved over to fire on my firewarriors.  Somehow his 4 vets, regrouped and managed to move 6 inches (or far enough to get past the base of the ruin, and they, the other vets,  and the vendetta killed all but 2 firewarrios in the squad with the relic.  They then assaulted and wiped out the firewarriors consolidating onto the relic.  The mystery squad killed my two drones, and the 3 models in the vicinity of the green ruin shot ineffectually at Farsights team.

We rolled for turn 6 but the game ended.  I had scored first blood, slay the warlord, and had linebreaker.  He was a couple inches from linebreaker with the vets that dropped near the broadside, but in the end had no secondary points.  As he did not get into base with the relic in the move phase, he could not claim it and so I won 3 points to none.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post, I try to get a game in weekly if not 2.. I'm trying to be better about making reports and keeping the blog lively, so check back often.

After a brief Hiatus from gaming, I have recently gotten back into playing 40K and have been working on painting my army again. I've even joined a local escalation league at the midway point (1250), and have thus far been relatively successful.

For my two league games at the 1250 level (both ringer games as my opponents already had their league games in) I first played Aaron and his Ultra Marines. We rolled the Relic, and Hammer and anvil.

My list was composed as follows:

1250 Pts - Tau Empire Roster - 1250 League v6

HQ: Commander Shas'el (2#, 97 pts)
1 Commander Shas'el, 97 pts
1 Shield Drone (Automatic Unit Type; Shield Generator)

Troops: Fire Warrior (12#, 255 pts)
10 Fire Warrior,
1 Shas'ui (Markerlight target lock)
1 Devilfish (warfish)

Troops: Fire Warrior (12#, 255 pts)
10 Fire Warrior,
1 Shas'ui (Markerlight target lock)
1 Devilfish (warfish)


Fast Attack: Pathfinder (9#, 216 pts)
8 Pathfinder,
1 Devilfish (Warfish)

Heavy Support: Broadside Battlesuit (3#, 178 pts)
1 Broadside Battlesuit (Team Leader, SMS, HWMT, HWTL, HWDC, BSF)
1 Broadside Battlesuit (SMS, MT)
1 Shield Drone (Automatic Unit Type; Shield Generator)

Heavy Support: Broadside Battlesuit (3#, 178 pts)
1 Broadside Battlesuit (Team Leader, SMS, HWMT, HWTL, HWDC, BSF)
1 Broadside Battlesuit (SMS, MT)
1 Shield Drone (Automatic Unit Type; Shield Generator)

Heavy Support: Hammerhead Gunship (1#, 190 pts)
1 Hammerhead Gunship, (Railgun, + all options)


Aarons Ultra marines were something to this effect (I'm missing some wargear options as this doesn't add up to 1250):

Captain in artificer armor (Warlord) with plasma pistol and ? attached to 10 sternguard with a combi melta and two plasma guns in a drop pod
2 5 man tac squads in rhinos
1 devastator squad with 2 las, 2 missile, and like 5 or 6 extra models with bolters to absorb shots (there was some character or something attached I think, that may account for the missing points)
Scout squad with cloaks of 5 including tellion
1 Vindicator

Since I didn't take any pictures, I'll just summarize the game. Aaron won the roll-off and chose to go first. He scored first blood top of turn one, after deepstriking the HQ and sternguard in behind my hammerhead and glancing it to death (I think it's BS that I don't get a Jink on my skimmers if I haven't taken a turn yet to move them, it's not like they've been sitting there immobilized prior to this battle starting). This also set him up to score line breaker later as he had 1 sternguard left at the end of the game that I just couldn't kill. In return, I eventually killed his Warlord with massed fire, and managed to snag the relic at the bottom of turn 7 by jumping my 2nd firewarrior team out of a devil fish I'd been using to block his tac squads from getting near it. Amusingly I had a second devil fish there to aid in the denial, which was eventually imobilized, but with some luck DPod rolls it managed to survive till the end of the game.

Final score, Tau 4, Ultra marines 2.



My 2nd match was against Josh's Imperial Guard. I ran the same list as it was a league, and you had to run the same list for both games at a given point level. We rolled vanguard strike and the relic (2nd game in a row). Josh ran something like:

Lord Commisar
Platoon command squad
Large Blob squad with HQ attached
Aegis Defense Line with Quad Gun (fired by Commisar)
Leman Russ x 2 with standard battle cannon
Manticore (buried in a ruin in the back corner with no LOS in or out)
Vetsquad with 10 men and 2 plasmaguns in
Vendetta x 2

Again I failed to take any pictures, mostly because my phone service is off so I haven't been carrying it around.. Josh won the roll off and went first. We rolled and got night fighting for turn one He illuminated a devilfish with a leman russ's spotlight, then since it was "illuminated", could target it with his Manticore which was outside of 36" which is the cut off for targeting when nightfight is active. I realize the rules can't account for every circumstance, but how is it that a vehicle with no line of site to a target, can then shoot at it beyond the targeting range just because there is a spotlight on it? No idea, but suffice it to say that his Str 10 ap 1 large blast exploded one devilfish, and immobilized the one next to it while also killing 4 firewarriors and a pathfinder that were nearby, giving him first blood, and severely limiting my tactical options as far as getting near the relic. I deepstruck my Shas'el in behind the manticore on turn 2, hoping to neutralize it even though I expected it would cost me a vp for slay the warlord.. Of course he scattered out from behind the Ruin and only had a shot at a Leman russ that my broadsides had taken a hull point off from. He glanced that to death, then managed to jump back into the ruin on his thrust move. He never did kill the damn manticore, but wittled down a good chunk of the command blob squad and scored me Line breaker at the end of the game. I did manage to shoot down a zooming vendetta with my broadsides, killing 8 of 10 guys inside. This would have left them in position to get linebreaker, but I eventually killed one and the other was falling back at the end of the game. The final tally left us with no one in possession of the relic, Josh had first blood, and I had line breaker.

Tau 1, Imperial Guard 1 for a tie.


In preparation for the 1500 point level starting in a week, I thought I'd try something different and got in a practice game at Battlefront vs Jakes Imperial guard list Saturday. We initially rolled vanguard strike and the scouring, but we both hate that mission with the 6 random pt objectives, so we rerolled and got... THE RELIC!.. That was better than the scouring, so we went with it for the 3rd time in a row. I ran the following:

1500 Pts - Tau Empire Roster - Tau 1500 league V2

Total Roster Cost: 1499

HQ: Commander Shas'o (2#, 188 pts)
1 Commander Shas'o, 173 pts = (base cost 75 + Airbursting Fragmentation Projector 20 + Cyclic Ion Blaster 15 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Iridium Armour 20 + Stimulant Injector 10 + Shield Generator 20)
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts

Troops: Fire Warrior (7#, 216 pts)
5 Fire Warrior, 50 pts = 5 * 10
1 Shas'ui, 46 pts = (base cost 20 + Markerlight 10 + EMP Grenade 3 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5)
1 Devilfish, 120 pts = (base cost 80 + Disruption Pod 5 + Multi-Tracker 10 + Smart Missile System 20) + Targeting Array 5

Troops: Fire Warrior (10#, 136 pts)
9 Fire Warrior, 90 pts = 9 * 10
1 Shas'ui, 46 pts = (base cost 20 + Markerlight 10 + EMP Grenade 3 + Hard-wired Blacksun Filter 3 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5)

Fast Attack: Pathfinder (9#, 172 pts)
6 Pathfinder, 72 pts = 6 * 12
1 Devilfish, 100 pts = (base cost 80 + Disruption Pod 5 + Multi-Tracker 10) + Targeting Array 5

Heavy Support: Sky Ray Missile Defence Gunship (1#, 170 pts)
1 Sky Ray Missile Defence Gunship, 170 pts = (base cost 125 + Smart Missile System 20 + Disruption Pod 5 + Multi-Tracker 10) + Blacksun Filter 5 + Targeting Array 5

Heavy Support: Sky Ray Missile Defence Gunship (1#, 170 pts)
1 Sky Ray Missile Defence Gunship, 170 pts = (base cost 125 + Smart Missile System 20 + Disruption Pod 5 + Multi-Tracker 10) + Blacksun Filter 5 + Targeting Array 5

Heavy Support: Broadside Battlesuit (4#, 200 pts)
1 Broadside Battlesuit, 90 pts = (base cost 70 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Advanced Stabilisation System 10 + Team Leader 5)
1 Broadside Battlesuit, 80 pts = (base cost 70 + Advanced Stabilisation System 10)
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts
1 Shield Drone, 15 pts

Elite: Stealthsuits (3#, 152 pts)
1 Stealthsuits, 40 pts = (base cost 30 + Targeting Array 10)
1 Stealthsuits, 40 pts = (base cost 30 + Targeting Array 10)
1 Stealthsuit Shas'vre, 72 pts = (base cost 35 + Targeting Array 10 + Hard-wired Multi-tracker 5 + Hard-wired Target Lock 5 + Markerlight 10 + Shas'vre Upgrade 5) + Fusion Blaster 2

Fast Attack: Piranha Light Skimmer (3#, 95 pts)
1 Piranha Light Skimmer, 95 pts = (base cost 60 + Disruption Pod 5) + Fusion Blaster x1 5 + Seeker Missile x2 20 + Targeting Array x1 5



Jake ran something like:

Lord Commissar with small command squad in a chimera
30 man blob squad with some grenade launchers and a commisar?
Platoon command squad with heavy bolter and a standard of some sort
Vet squad in a chimera
heavy wpn team x 3 missle launchers
heavy wpn team x 3 lascannons
Basilisk
Leman Russ x 2 with standard battle cannon
Aegis defense line but no gun emplacement


He won the roll off to go first, and I failed to seize. My warlord got the ability to make it nightfighting turn 1, so I did so as every unit I had had Blacksun Filters. He failed to kill any units on turn one, and through significant use of markerlights, I managed to destroy his vets chimera with seeker missiles hitting from the side from my piranha which had moved flat out all the way to his board edge and from the front from the two skyrays, and put a hull point on the command chimera, first blood to me. After turn one, the Skyrays were really pretty worthless as far as the seaker missles were concerned. Strength 8 ap 3 is just not enough to reliably put glancing hits on av 13-14.. The sms systems on them helped by ignoring cover and taking out most of the missle launchers, but all things considered, they seemed to have wasted 2 heavy slots while performing no better than a warfish. I'd rather have had 2 Ionheads, or 2 2 man broadside teams in their place. The 3 man stealth team payed for themselves easily. They contributed a markerlight hit toward killing the chimera turn one, they wiped out the lascannon squad (all but one wound to which I donated a railgun shot in order to finish them off on turn 2). They drew fire from the basilisk turn 3 saving my firewarriors from getting pancaked. They wiped out most of his Warlords unit on turns 4 and 5 which let me finish off his warlord with a railgun shot on turn five. And they scored me line breaker as the game ended after 5. In the final tally, no one was on the relic, though I had 6 firewarriors an inch from it. I'd scored first blood, slay the warlord and linebreaker. Jake had no points.

Tau 3, IG 0 for a win.


So, in summary, out of the 3 games I've played most recently, I would have to say that the return of Target Locks to my infantry, and the improvements to Disruption Pods have really helped make the Tau feel somewhat competative. My vehicles and stealth suits are so much more survivable now it is just huge. Much as I want to like the Skyray, it just under performs dreadfully. If the seekers had some missle options, or weren't limited to 6 per vehicle, or if the skyray had skyfire as it should, it might be a different story, but as it is, they will be going back on the shelf till a tau codex or an errata comes out to fix them.

If you made it this far. Thank you very much for taking the time to read my post. I'll make sure to include some pictures from now on.

Tau Vs IG 1500

So another brief write up because it's late and I don't have time for a full write up, nor did I get pictures of every round yet again.

Josh and I played a 1500 pt battle at Big Kidz Games tonight. 

He ran something like 2 identical HQ's with camo cloaks, masters of ordanance, medics, autocanon team, and a generic guardsman, 3 chimeras with veteran squads, one stormtrooper squad, a Valkrie, an Executioner, and a leman russ proxied as a variant with an assault canon turret I don't know the name of.

I ran a farsight enclave list with Farsight and 7 bodyguards with 7 shield drones all with MP and twin linked flamer, a crisis suit shas'el with twin linked MP Pos Relay and shield drone, 3 Sniper Drone teams, 8 man pathfinder team DFish with DPod and drones, 2 broadsides with 2 shield drones, 2 6 man firewarrior teams.

The game was Dawn of war deployment with Capture and Control Primary and Annihilation Secondary.

Josh went first and deployed 2 chimeras with vets, and a command team.  I deployed nothing, but walked on everyone but the Farsight Bomb on my turn one.  This really sucked for me as it demonstrated one of the key weakness's of the Tau Codex.  On my turn 1 though I had 11 markerlights available, none of them could fire because they are all heavy wpns attached to non-relentless units.  This is why I hate markerlights.  It makes no sense to have a fast troop choice equiped with a primary equipment that they can't move and fire.  How is that a fast unit?

Moving on, Neither of us accomplished much on turn one obviously.  Turn two  both Josh's Leman Russ variants came on from reserve along with his stormtroopers and his second HQ walked on then ran into the cover of the ruins, he moved up and fired his two chimeras wiping out most of my pathfinders, shot at my shas'el attached to my broadsides with the exterminator and his stormtroopers and failed to get any kills but put a wound on my shas'el.

On my turn 2 Farsight bomb hit on a 2+ thanks to the Pos Relay, though they scattered from my intended position behind a chimera over closer to the command squad, I chose to go with it.  I could have rerolled due to the pathfinder DFish, but decided that the command team was a good target and that put me closer to his tanks anyway.  I fired 2 sniper drone teams at a chimera failing to glance, and the 3rd at the stormtroopers killing one model.  Shas'el fired misslepods at stormtroopers then assaulted.  One Broadside had LOS to the executioner but failed to even glance the 14 front armor.  The farsight bomb fired 14 MP shots at the executioner and managed one glancing hit immobilizing it.

Turn 3, Josh's Valkarie failed to arrive again.  The chimeras wiped out a Sniper Drone Team both leman russ' and his command squad fired on my Farsight Bomb killing 6 out of 7 shield drones, and the storm troopers remained locked in assault with my Shas'el.

My Turn 3 I rolled for both firewarrior teams but only got one.  Farsights team moved up into position setting up to fire their twin linked flamers at the first HQ while also setting up a multi-assault later on into the HQ and one Leman Russ.  Here is where I bitch about FNP for a moment.  After hitting the HQ for 14 wounds, with my flamers, I failed to kill a single model due to FNP from the Medic.  Now they had Carapace armor on so they had a 4+ armor save.  but 5 models 14 wounds, all saved?  That is just ridiculous.  Anyway, my broadsides moved up on the hill and wrecked the executioner, I managed to immobilize a chimera and destroy both its guns, and in the later assault Farsight exploded the other Leman Russ while his body guards did nothing to the HQ on Init 1 due to assaulting into ruins.

Turn 4 Josh's Valarie still didn't come in but his last chimera did.  He moved it 12 and popped smoke.  He killed 2 sniper drones and all but 3 firewarriors in the first team.  Both units made their leadership.  I ended up winning both the ongoing assaults, catching his storm troopers and the HQ and wiping both out unfortunately for him as this allowed me to consolidate farsights team toward the second HQ.

My turn 4 I brought on the last of the firewarrior teams who shot up some veterans, destroyed a chimera with the broadsides, fired inefectively with everyone else other than farsights team who caused 21 wounds with flamers on the second HQ which due too FNP took 1 wound on the autocannon base..  again.   Ridiculous.  I then assaulted them but failed to do much in the way of wounds, the combat was a draw, or he lost one but made his leadership.










Turn 5, his Valkarie came on which he moved 24" and couldn't fire.  He got a vet squad out of their chimera and fired at my firewarrior team.  His other vets moved and fired at the other team.   I don't think he killed anything this turn.  Farsight and friends wiped out the other HQ and consolidated towards my objective.

My turn 5 we were in a rush at this point as it was after 11 and BKG closes at 11.  They kindly let us finish up.  I moved farsight towards my objective again.  I fired the broadsides into the immobilized weaponless Chimera assuming any result on the damage table would destroy it, I rolled a wreck anyway.  I unloaded 6 firewarriors and 4 sniper drones into one vet squad killing it.  I unloaded 14 misslepod shots from farsights team on the other vet squad, then finished it off with fire from the DFish.

We called the game at this point in part due to the time, and in part because Josh had 2 units left on the board and I was winning 8 kill points to 2 and there was just no way for him to catch up.

My thoughts on the game and our lists:  While the sniper drones were very effective last time against Erics jetbikes, the dawn of war deployment and Josh keeping his troops locked away in the chimeras pretty much neutralized them.  The pathfinders are still worthless in my opinion.  They added very little to my game considering the 181 pts they cost to field.  Tactically they just suck.  Farsight and his bodyguard.  The whole reason I brought the pathfinders was for the rerolled deepstrike, and because having a unit with 8 models 7 with missle pods meant I'd finally have a unit worth giving markerlight hits too.. Only they never really got to use them.  That said, they were very effective, wiping out 2 HQ's, a tank, and most of a unit of veterans.  I doubt they paid for themselves points wise.. but by tying up those HQ's in assault the whole game, I minimized the effectiveness of his Masters of Ordnance.  I really don't see why people say Farsight breaks the army.  There are enough options in the codex you don't need to bring more than one of any given unit anyway.  Though I do miss the kroot, vespid and ethereals in the farsight list.

I think Josh would have been better off bringing all his units on on turn 1 except the stormtroopers.  As it was he was simply denied the shooting from all those units for most of the game and allowed me to focus my fire on the units he did have on the board.  Deployment wise, he brought on his Second HQ in the corner behind the first, even though I had Farsight still in reserve and planning to deepstrike.  I think he should have brought them on on the far end of the board to limit the units farsight could get to given any particular deep-strike position.  I'm also less and less in favor of bottling up  troops in transports.  yes they are more maneuverable, but you are denied half your firepower and with capture and control being the primary objective, I'd have been inclined to mass all my fire to guard my objective in his position.  Either way it was a fun game.