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 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.