I had to bring my army up to 2000 points, so I added 2 koptas and 4 Lootas (splitting up into 2 units of 7 and 1 of 8) and swapped the Shoota Boyz' big shootas for rokkit launchaz (boardin' planks went bye-bye).
My opponent is a newbie to 40k after playing Fantasy for, like, ever. He had just picked up his Tau army last week (it's pretty much exactly the Tau army I've been questing after, but alas I have too many projects and not enough money!) . I'm fuzzy on all the details, but here's the basics.
Shas'O w/ Airbursting Frag, Missile Pod, Multi-Tracker, HW drone controller, 2 gun drones
2 Bodyguards w/ twin-linked burst cannons, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece
3 Crisis suits w/ twin-linked fusion guns, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece
3 Crisis suits w/ twin-linked missile pods, drone controllers, 2 gun drones apiece
2x 10 Fire Warriors w/ 1 Devilfish
10 Kroot
4 Piranhas w/ burst cannons
8 Pathfinders w/ Devilfish (FW jacked this one)
8 Gun Drones
2 Railheads w/ gun drones
3 Broadsides
We rolled up Capture and Control with Spearhead deployment. From my perspective, 3 objectives were placed on the midline from left to right, with 1 top left and the last bottom left.
Terrain was pretty consistent, a couple big LoS blockers (one big rock in the middle of the board, 1 on the bottom right, 1 at top center), hills, forests. It was a bit light on my right side of the board. He won deployment and picked the top right half (the basically empty one-terrain place-fail!).
Going into it, I knew how Tau can fuck up Orks, especially mech Orks. His build was far from optimal, but 5 Railguns had me very worried.
Tau Deployment:
He put both Railheads on a hill at the very top left with a commanding view of the field. Broadsides toward the far left near the midline with a big blind spot behind the central rock. Pathfinders deployed as far up as possible in some ruins, with the Shas'O and Fusion suits behind them. Missile suits deployed towards the middle, closer to his edge. Piranhas started on his board edge as far right as possible. FW and their Fishes, Blue and Gray set up between the Pathfinders and Piranhas/Broadsides respectively. Gun Drones Deep Str-eye-cked.
Ork Deployment:
I deployed the Battlewagons as far forward as possible in the center, closer to his board edge. I set them up so AV14 was facing every side, using the central rock formation to block or limit LoS from the Broadsides. KFF and Meganobs deployed centrally, Shootas to the left and Sluggas+Boss to the right. Trukks deployed outside of the BW formation, still in range of the KFF just in case. Lootas took the 3 big hills in my deployment zone at top left, bottom left and bottom right, so between all of them they had a good view of the battlefield. Grot screen stretched to cover them all. Koptaz outflunk. I wanted to minimize any potential damage from the Broadsides, so I blocked LoS as best I could, set up for a turn 2 charge, huddled around my KFF and hoped for the best.
Kroot infiltrated to the top left of the board, in plain sight of one of my Loota units (>,<) and the Scouts didn't move. I failed to seize and we were off.
Turn 1:
Gray Fish headed to the bottom right rock formation, Blue Fish didn't move. Shas'O and his buddies moved into the open for a clear shot on the Trukk. Missile suits headed towards the center, lining up on another Trukk. Fusion suits sat back. Piranhas headed towards the Kroot. Nothing else moved. Shooting blew off the top Trukk's big shoota and the bottom Trukk Kareen'd 4" forward and killed 2 boyz inside. 3 Lootas got gunned down (morale holds), Railguns bounced off of the KFF. Shas'O jumps back behind Pathfinders, Missile suits jump back, hiding behind the big rock.
The recently vacated Trukk mob leaps from the wreckage and does the stupid dance, waltzing up in open terrain to the Tau army. Lolz. Top Trukk wraps around the rock formation, headed towards the Piranhas and Missile Suits. BW reconsider their positions and move round behind the big rock, blocking off the Broadsides completely. Now if I can do this all game I win right? Fuck, sucks to have my shitty vehicles. Lootas account for 4 kroot, 2 Piranhas and 1 burst cannon, and 1 wound each to the Shas'O and his buddy (drones made all their saves, lol).
Turn 2:
Drones show up, get too close to the foot boyz, mishap and bounce back into space. Maybe next turn fellas! FW hop out of gray fish, ready to shoot next turn. Missile suits move out, Shas'O and Co. move out again, Fusion suits decide to head towards my car park. Kroot move towards the big rock, a-hankering for some 'shrooms! Piranhas move back. Shooting does a fat lot of nothing, lol KFF. Foot mob gets reduced to 4 but morale holds. Suits move back.
No Koptaz. Trukk mob zooms up to the missile suits, boyz hop out, and the party starts. BW move up behind them, finally facing off against the Broadsides for real. I can't sit back and wait, it's time for action. Hopefully I can get past this rock quickly with something intact and Waagh! to reach assault. Another Piranha bites it, 2 more kroot get nailed, drones make all their saves from the Lootas, fuckers. Boyz jump in, fuck up the Crisis suits, spread out 4".
Turn 3:
Yes, Drones! They show up by the uppermost Lootas, who are nice and exposed. They just barely made it too, 1.5" out. Fusion suits head towards the wagons, out of range. Piranhas deploy drones, shuffle about. Kroot move to assault the recently successful boyz. Blue fish moves in between central rock and Pathfinder ruins, Fire Warriors hop out to hose down the hurt Trukk mob. Fish and Hammerheads launch Drones too! Drones everywhere! Drone party, whoo! I fucking love frisbees! Fusion Guns out of range, Railguns do jack shit... again. Seriously, this is when I figured out my opponent was cursed. 3 Broadsides hit with 2 shots, Pathfinders reduced the BW cover save to 6+, he rolled 1 penetrating hit and proceeded to roll weapon destroyed. It's a goddamn 3+ to DESTROY! Hurting Trukk mob gets pasted, lose a Grot. 6/7 Lootas get shot up by gun drones, so the remaining Ork passes his pinning test and promptly bails. Kroot charge in, whiff spectacularly and get splattered.
1 unit of Koptaz show up, yes! I was planning on using them to help silence the railguns. Guess which side they come in on? Fuckers. They move towards the recently arrived drones to avenge their klepto brethren. Boyz on foot move to the Piranhas' drones and the objective they're guarding. Meganob BW and Slugga BW move up, hop out to go after the fusion suits and blue fish FW respectively. Shoota BW moves 6", prepares to open up. Shootas and Lootas manage to kill off 1 bodyguard and a bunch of drones in addition to 1 fusion suit and 3 drones. Koptaz nail a drone. Morale holds. Meganobs multi-charge the Pathfinders and Fusion suits, wipe them, consolidate 4" to spread out and get close to the Shas'O. Sluggas and Boss charge the FW, paste them, and roll a 1 for consolidation. Group hug! Trukk mob charges Piranha Drones, totally pwns them. Koptaz draw with Gun Drones (yes, they charged and have a buzzsaw; no, I don't want to talk about it).
Turn 4:
Piranhas flee, nobody else moves. Meganobs are in the open (sorta, KFF is there) against the Shas'O and his unit, 3 Broadsides, 2 Railheads, 2 Devilfish and 10 FW. FW kill one, nobody else does anything. I made like 20 2+ saves or 5+ cover saves in a row. It was great. 1 submunition round obliterated my Boss's unit, killed like 10. Devilfish KO'd a Grot. Gun Drones pasted by Koptaz!
Last unit of Koptaz show. Wrong board edge again. Koptaz zoom to catch the mop up. Trukk mob secures its objective, Grots spread out to grab 3(!). Meganobs clank up to the Hammerheads, Boss and Co. head towards the FW. Shoota BW moves up 6". WAAAAAAGH!!! Lootas account for an immobile Bluefish and 2 dead FW. Boss and Co. run 6". Meganobs open fire on the Hammerheads with their kombi-skorchas, catching the Drones blocking their path. Shootas nail 2 drones and finish the Shas'O's bodyguard. Boss and Co. paste the FW, Meganobs super-explode the Hammerhead.
Once his last scoring unit is gone, we called it.
I know you're all thinking it, yes my opponent played poorly and got ridiculously unlucky and crucial moments. I can't believe I managed as well as I did. I went out to minimize the effect of the Broadsides by hiding out of sight and using their movement to draw focus away from the objectives while sneaking my Grots on to 3 of them. If his list were set up better and he ran it well (i. e. not getting close to Orks, fucking me up with his vehicles I can't kill and using Kroot to absorb/blunt charges).
This should have been a totally one-sided shooting gallery. Now I want to play Tau even more to convince the locals that they are a force to be reckoned with it. That's right, they think Tau suck and Orks are the shit. Epic facepalm.
I ended up talking with my opponent for a bit afterwards between nerdgasming over the new Skaven stuff (we're both of the ratty persuasion). I advised him on setting up his suits to be more flexible with plasma rifles, missile pods and multi-trackers so they can nail 2+ saves and vehicles from far away; on putting his Pathfinders further back and making the most of markerlights instead of having to twin-link his suits' weapons; on using Kroot and Piranhas to block/blunt assaults while pouring more fire into them; using tanks aggressively to clump my units up and block movement; and giving his Broadsides ASS so they don't end up being completely useless if they can't see the entire board. And of course, I told him to throw those horrid little cubes of his out (I'm almost positive they only have 1's 2's and 3's imprinted on them).
Hopefully I can help him improve his game and army so he can table me by turn 2 like he's supposed to :P
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