Post by sholto on Feb 1, 2009 11:49:58 GMT
First up, thanks to Insane Psycopath for a great game at the club yesterday. You can see his Iron Hands log here. There's plenty of pics of his excellent dreadnoughts (Penitent Engine legs and arms - really cool) and some more pics of the battle to follow.
I told him I was going to post this batrep win or lose, so stick around and see which it was
My list was one I had made up the day before - not optimised for anyone. Facing Space Marines I usually take more than one plasma rifle, for example! So it was hybrid Tau against my first all drop-podding Space Marines.
Tau Cadre
HQ
Shas'el w/ Cyclic Ion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Targeting Array, HWMulti Tracker, 2 Shield Drones
ELITE
Crisis Suit with TL Missile Pod and Flamer
TROOPS
12 Firewarriors in Devilfish w/ Gun drones, disruption pod, multitracker
12 Firewarriors in Devilfish w/ Gun drones, disruption pod, multitracker
12 Firewarriors (inc 'ui w/ bonding knife)
15 Kroot plus Shaper and 2 Hounds
15 Kroot plus 2 Hounds
FAST ATTACK
2 x Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, 2 gun drones, disruption pod, flechette discharger and targeting array
HEAVY SUPPORT
XV88 Team Ldr w/ SMS, Targeting Array, 2 Shield Drones
Railhead w/ burst cannon, targeting array, multitracker and disruption pod
This was under 1500 - I dropped a Crisis suit to match my opponent's points.
My opponent showed me his army list before the game - this is what I can remember:-
Iron Hands Space Marines
HQ
Master of the Forge with twin plasma pistols, power weapon and servo arms (counts as powerfist)
ELITES
2 x Dreadnoughts with TL lascannons
TROOPS
2 x 10 man Tactical squads with meltas and missile launchers and veteran sergeants w/ power weapons. In drop-pods.
HEAVY SUPPORT
3 x Dreadnoughts in drop-pods, 2 with plasma cannons and heavy flamers, and one with TL lascannons.
This list was fluffy - I love that it includes a Master of The Forge. It was also a dangerous looking list, and one I was worried about facing. Tau don't seem to do so well when the enemy can get in about them, especially with Heavy Flamers. I have read plenty of Chaos Daemon batreps, and my first thought was, "spread out, and don't go first."
Okay, my first two thoughts. Who's counting?
My next thought was, "only two Troop units." Not optimal for 5th ed, perhaps, and a risky choice. Was he was counting on wiping me out?
We rolled for Capture and Control (2 objectives) and Spearhead deployment (table quarters). The board had two large hills in the middle, forming a canyon with a ruin at the bottom. Forests and other ancient ruins lay around the hills.
I won the roll to go first and gave first turn to my opponent. He deployed his two Elite dreadnoughts behind some ruins in his table quarter and that was him done. I deployed my army, leaving the two units of mobile Fire Warriors in Fishes in reserve. I would usually leave Kroot in reserve to outflank, but if they came in on the wrong side they would be wasted. So I spread my forces out around my objective - a Kroot and skimmer shield to push his drop-pods back as far as possible and give him as far to walk as possible.
Turn 1
In the distance Commander Longsun could see the morbid walking coffins the gue'la called dreadnoughts, honourable warriors forced from a well-earned rest to once again do battle for the monolithic Imperium. They had taken up position behind some more ancient ruins, and their arrival meant only one thing.
He glanced back at his forces arrayed around the lone sensor tower in the ruins. The gue'la's Battle Barge had dropped into low orbit so fast it had lit up in the night sky like a comet. The first assault wave would already be on its way, and they would stop at nothing to seize the remarkable transmissions this lowly drone tower had intercepted.
His trusted Shas'ui, MorningEye, held position to his left, ahead of the Kroot. It did the mercenaries good to see their commanders - their employers - out ahead of them. He did not trust them, but he knew he could count on them. Behind the massed ranks of the Kroot warband was Longsun's favoured troop of Fire Warriors and in the ruins beside them, standing solemn watch over the priceless drone tower, was his old friend FrostWind, impassive in his mighty Broadside battlesuit. The Piranhas of Lone Runner squadron and the deadly Hammerhead completed his forces, although more troops were being rushed to his position. Intel reported that the source of the strange transmission came from the ruins the two dreadnoughts had moved to protect - Aun'el Mon'arla had commanded its capture.
Glints in the sky registered in the peripheral vision nodes of his suit. Here they came.
Space Marines
Tau Deployment, with the first two drop-pods arriving. You can see the dreadnoughts already deployed - the Space Marine objective is in the ruins in front of them. They moved up this round, but did nothing else.
All three drop pods down. Two dreadnoughts emerge along with the Master of the Forge and a squad of Iron Hands.
The dreadnoughts open up on the Hammerhead, but fail to damage. The marines and the storm bolters in the drop pods rake the Kroot with fire, dropping many of them. The Shaper ensures the unarmoured mercenaries from Pech hold their ground.
Tau
Both Piranha advance to get their fusion guns in range, and drop their drones. The Kroot squad with the shaper advances on the marines, ready to charge. The second Kroot squad starts to move around, but stays strung out to dissuade further drop-pods. Commander LongSun jumps down from the hill, to get a better look at his enemy.
The Hammerhead, the XV88, the XV8 and both Piranha open up on the two dreadnoughts, managing to destroy the nearest and take the plasma cannon off the one furthest away. LongSun's shooting takes out a couple of marines, and he jumps back up onto the hill where he started.
The Kroot assault, losing both Hounds but taking no more casualties from the Iron Hands. For all their attacks, however, they are unable to penetrate the Marine's legendary armour. Then the Master of the Forge crushes two of them with his servo arm and they fall back in disarray. The marines rapidly wipe them out and advance towards LongSun.
Turn 2
Space Marines
The last dreadnought comes on, and lands to the north of the Tau position. The Master of the Forge and his Iron Hands scorn the gun drones and advance towards Commander LongSun, but fail to charge him due to the difficult terrain. The dreadnought that lost the plasma cannon advances through difficult terrain and then runs to get behind the Master of the Forge's drop pod.
In the distance, the other two dreadnoughts continued their advance towards the canyon. It was at this point I realised that with only one troop unit left to come on, my opponent was going to have to choose between securing his own objective and reinforcing his assault on mine. I decided there and then where my two Devilfish were going to go.
Shooting sees LongSun lose a single drone and 1 Wound, and two of the Fire Warriors fall. The newly arrived dreadnought gets a hit with its plasma cannon and puts one wound on MorningEye.
Tau
This Master of the Forge had definitely saved all the best armour for himself and his men! He couldn't stop rolling 3s and above for his armour saves. Still, Commander LongSun's cyclic ion blaster couldn't stop rolling 6s to Wound, either, so it was all balancing out!
I rolled for reserves and both Devilfish came on. I placed them at the far end of my deployment zone, and it was immediately obvious where they were headed. Other than 2 lascannon equipped dreadnoughts, my opponent had nothing to stop them.
One piranha advanced to get a close-range shot on the dreadnought with the missing plasma cannon, while the other went flat out through the canyon. I wanted to move these two units towards the enemy objective asap.
The Kroot advanced towards the Master of the Forge once again, still very strung out. Nothing else moved.
MorningEye, FrostWind and the Hammerhead blasted the newly arrived plasma cannon dreadnought with everything they had, and in the end the ancient machine's motive units were charred and twisted ruins. The gun still worked, but it was no longer an assault threat. The Kroot and LongSun fired at the Master of the Forge and his escort, killing another few, but still not enough. The piranha failed to hit the wounded dreadnought behind the drop pod.
LongSun and MorningEye jump into the ranks of Kroot, noting that they are paying for this cover save, so they might as well use it!
Another view of the end of Turn 2.
Turn 3
Space Marines
This is where it all started looking very bad for the Tau.
The last drop-pod arrived from the battle-barge (one of the Space Marines forgot Snuggles and had to run back). My opponent took a big risk placing it in front of my Fire Warriors - very near the table edge. It scattered - 5 inches - but only just stayed on. DAMN YOU, DICE GODS!
Out they came - 10 very shooty Marines, who had not neglected to bring the stabby. They opened fire on the Fire Warriors, who opted to go to ground when making their six armour saves. With a 3+ cover save, they made four of them, but there would be no shooting from them this Turn. The storm bolters on the drop pods took out a couple more.
The plasma cannon dreadnought fired once again at the Crisis Suit of MorningEye, but the shot scattered, killing a single Kroot.
Of the two dreadnoughts nearer the Space Marine objective, one turned back, sensing the threat posed by the Devilfish. It fired a shot at the front armour, taking out the burst cannon. The other dreadnought fired at the racing Piranha nearest them, as did the storm bolter in the drop pod, but they all failed to find the mark.
The Master of the Forge sneered at the ragged Kroot band trying to encircle him. Such barbarian creatures were as far from the machine perfection of the Sons of Ferrus as it was possible to be. Not for them the strange perfection of death by bolter - they would be shown the failures of the flesh at first hand. The Marines charged, killing four Kroot and losing one Marine. The Kroot failed their morale check and, for the second time that day, the Iron Hands ran down the Kroot and slaughtered them. They moved ever closer to the Tau objective.
The dreadnought without its plasma cannon (the one behind the Master's drop pod) charged the Piranha, but failed to roll any 6s to hit.
Tau
35 Kroot and hounds all gone, and my only Troops unit protecting my home objective all but lost. It was not going well. Even worse, with the forces they had, it looked like the Iron Hands might just claim my objective but contest their own.
I moved my Devilfish forward, keeping the front armour towards that lascannon.
My lead piranha moved around to get a shot into the side armour of the dreadnought facing it, while the other piranha moved up the canyon, stopping next to the ruin.
Commander LongSun jumped towards the pinned Fire Warriors, and he, MorningEye and the Broadside opened fire on the Master of the Forge, finally succeeding in killing his retinue of Iron Hands and taking one wound off the Master himself.
The Hammerhead dropped a submunitions round on the newly-arrived squad of Astartes, and managed to kill two of them. These new Marines did not seem to have the same armour as the Master of the Forge and his crew!
Shas'ui MorningEye jumped into the ruins next to the Tau objective and LongSun jumped behind the pinned Fire Warriors. They were about to sacrifice themselves for the Greater Good, and it would be up to the crisis suits and the Hammerhead to deny the Gue'la.
Turn 4
Space Marines
The Master of the Forge advanced on the Fire Warriors, as did the squad of Marines. Both fired pistols and then charged, wiping out the Fire Warriors before they got a chance to strike back. Consolidation left the Marines in the open, but the Master got into the ruins.
At the other end of the table, one dreadnought made it back onto the Space Marine's objective. Its lascannon found the mark on my lead piranha, and the skimmer exploded.
In the middle of the table the only other mobile dreadnought charged the rear of the second piranha, but once again failed to roll any sixes to hit.
Tau
I decided the Marines had to go - scoring Troops units were much more dangerous than the Master of the Forge. But even I could not have anticipated the capricious nature of the dice gods - they play sport with men's hopes!
Commander LongSun jumped into the ruins (I didn't roll a single 1 for dangeroud terrain all day!) and next to the XV88, forming a unit.
The Crisis Suit XV8 jumped out of the ruins and within 1" of the Marines. Time to use the flamer that conventional wisdom says never gets used! The Broadside fired its SMS, the flamer gouted burning death, and then Commander LongSun spun up his cyclic ion blaster and let fly. Plenty of hits, plenty of wounds - here come the armour saves. I haven't seen so many 1s since I got my GCSE results
With only one marine left standing(!), I decided to charge with my XV8. He avoided the marine's attacks skillfully, and then, 3 S5 attacks later, crushed him to the ground. He consolidated back into the ruins, feeling very pleased with himself.
The Hammerhead decided to shoot the railgun point-blank at the Master of the Forge. A worthy attempt, but the shot missed.
At the other end of the table the Devilfish moved closer and dropped off their drones, while the last remaining piranha jumped out of the canyon and onto the hill. There was no way the dreadnought was following him up there!
Turn 5
Space Marines
This was it. Could the lone dreadnought hold out and could the Master of the Forge contest the Tau's objective?
The Master of the Forge, who had killed so many of my noble Kroot and Tau, fired his flamer and the immobilised dreadnought fired its plasma cannon, resulting in the loss of both of the Broadside's shield drones. The Master then assaulted Shas'ui MorningEye, killing the brave warrior easily. He consolidated a few inches deeper into the ruins. He was contesting the objective.
At the other end of the table, the Dreadnought tried to kill the last of the fusion blaster-armed Piranha, but failed to hurt the tiny skimmer.
Tau
The Devilfish moved up on either side of the ruins, while the Piranha moved to target the dreadnought's side armour. The gun drones jumped forward as well, while the Fire Warriors in the Devilfish to the rear of the ruins disembarked.
The Piranha fired - and missed. If the game ended now, both objectives would be contested.
I realised my Fire Warriors could hurt the dreadnoughts rear armour, but only 1 Fire Warrior had line of sight. He hit, but failed to penetrate the armour.
I prepared to unload everything I had on the Master of the Forge, expecting his cover save to keep him alive when his 2+ armour save would not. What I did not expect was to kill him with the SMS from the Broadside! Here was a great opportunity for both Commanders to go head to head, and the SMS kills him. A bit anti-climactic, but I wasn't complaining.
The Hammerhead, with nothing left to shoot at, hit the dreadnought and wiped out its plasma cannon.
We rolled, and a Turn 6 was played.
Turn 6
Space Marines
Not much to do. The dreadnought shot at the Piranha and blew it to pieces.
Tau
The Hammerhead moved forward, to try and get in line of sight of the dreadnought protecting the Space Marine objective, but could not draw a bead on target. Instead it shot at the dreadnought nearby, taking its powerfist and heavy flamer off.
With only Fire Warriors left, I rapid fired into the rear of the dreadnought, and this time got the hits I needed. The dreadnought exploded, and the objective was mine!
With no Turn 7 the game was over with the Tau winners
Post Game Chat: my opponent and I had a good chat about the game afterwards. He is putting the drop pod army together (as you can see from his blog) and this was only his second game with it. He said he made fewer mistakes than in his previous game, but that I had made it hard for him with my spread-out deployment. His complete army will have another two drop pods in it, thus getting his other two dreadnoughts into the action much more effectively. Quite how I would have fared if those heavy flamers had got into action I do not know, but it would not have gone well.
I don't think I did much wrong, and quite a lot went my way. My reserves came on in time to make it to the objective and to fight for it. My early shooting disabled his dreadnoughts as they came in, and my last-ditch fight for the home objective went far better than I expected.
Thanks to Jamie, who provided a great game and was a pleasure to play with.
Man of the Match: It might have been the Kroot, but I am going to give this to the Broadside. Operating in old-codex immobile fashion, he stood tall and killed two dreadnoughts and a Master of the Forge. The shield drones, plus an attachable commander with shield drones of his own, ensured his survival when the going got tough.
Thanks for reading - I hope you enjoyed it!
Sholto
I told him I was going to post this batrep win or lose, so stick around and see which it was
My list was one I had made up the day before - not optimised for anyone. Facing Space Marines I usually take more than one plasma rifle, for example! So it was hybrid Tau against my first all drop-podding Space Marines.
Tau Cadre
HQ
Shas'el w/ Cyclic Ion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Targeting Array, HWMulti Tracker, 2 Shield Drones
ELITE
Crisis Suit with TL Missile Pod and Flamer
TROOPS
12 Firewarriors in Devilfish w/ Gun drones, disruption pod, multitracker
12 Firewarriors in Devilfish w/ Gun drones, disruption pod, multitracker
12 Firewarriors (inc 'ui w/ bonding knife)
15 Kroot plus Shaper and 2 Hounds
15 Kroot plus 2 Hounds
FAST ATTACK
2 x Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, 2 gun drones, disruption pod, flechette discharger and targeting array
HEAVY SUPPORT
XV88 Team Ldr w/ SMS, Targeting Array, 2 Shield Drones
Railhead w/ burst cannon, targeting array, multitracker and disruption pod
This was under 1500 - I dropped a Crisis suit to match my opponent's points.
My opponent showed me his army list before the game - this is what I can remember:-
Iron Hands Space Marines
HQ
Master of the Forge with twin plasma pistols, power weapon and servo arms (counts as powerfist)
ELITES
2 x Dreadnoughts with TL lascannons
TROOPS
2 x 10 man Tactical squads with meltas and missile launchers and veteran sergeants w/ power weapons. In drop-pods.
HEAVY SUPPORT
3 x Dreadnoughts in drop-pods, 2 with plasma cannons and heavy flamers, and one with TL lascannons.
This list was fluffy - I love that it includes a Master of The Forge. It was also a dangerous looking list, and one I was worried about facing. Tau don't seem to do so well when the enemy can get in about them, especially with Heavy Flamers. I have read plenty of Chaos Daemon batreps, and my first thought was, "spread out, and don't go first."
Okay, my first two thoughts. Who's counting?
My next thought was, "only two Troop units." Not optimal for 5th ed, perhaps, and a risky choice. Was he was counting on wiping me out?
We rolled for Capture and Control (2 objectives) and Spearhead deployment (table quarters). The board had two large hills in the middle, forming a canyon with a ruin at the bottom. Forests and other ancient ruins lay around the hills.
I won the roll to go first and gave first turn to my opponent. He deployed his two Elite dreadnoughts behind some ruins in his table quarter and that was him done. I deployed my army, leaving the two units of mobile Fire Warriors in Fishes in reserve. I would usually leave Kroot in reserve to outflank, but if they came in on the wrong side they would be wasted. So I spread my forces out around my objective - a Kroot and skimmer shield to push his drop-pods back as far as possible and give him as far to walk as possible.
Turn 1
In the distance Commander Longsun could see the morbid walking coffins the gue'la called dreadnoughts, honourable warriors forced from a well-earned rest to once again do battle for the monolithic Imperium. They had taken up position behind some more ancient ruins, and their arrival meant only one thing.
He glanced back at his forces arrayed around the lone sensor tower in the ruins. The gue'la's Battle Barge had dropped into low orbit so fast it had lit up in the night sky like a comet. The first assault wave would already be on its way, and they would stop at nothing to seize the remarkable transmissions this lowly drone tower had intercepted.
His trusted Shas'ui, MorningEye, held position to his left, ahead of the Kroot. It did the mercenaries good to see their commanders - their employers - out ahead of them. He did not trust them, but he knew he could count on them. Behind the massed ranks of the Kroot warband was Longsun's favoured troop of Fire Warriors and in the ruins beside them, standing solemn watch over the priceless drone tower, was his old friend FrostWind, impassive in his mighty Broadside battlesuit. The Piranhas of Lone Runner squadron and the deadly Hammerhead completed his forces, although more troops were being rushed to his position. Intel reported that the source of the strange transmission came from the ruins the two dreadnoughts had moved to protect - Aun'el Mon'arla had commanded its capture.
Glints in the sky registered in the peripheral vision nodes of his suit. Here they came.
Space Marines
Tau Deployment, with the first two drop-pods arriving. You can see the dreadnoughts already deployed - the Space Marine objective is in the ruins in front of them. They moved up this round, but did nothing else.
All three drop pods down. Two dreadnoughts emerge along with the Master of the Forge and a squad of Iron Hands.
The dreadnoughts open up on the Hammerhead, but fail to damage. The marines and the storm bolters in the drop pods rake the Kroot with fire, dropping many of them. The Shaper ensures the unarmoured mercenaries from Pech hold their ground.
Tau
Both Piranha advance to get their fusion guns in range, and drop their drones. The Kroot squad with the shaper advances on the marines, ready to charge. The second Kroot squad starts to move around, but stays strung out to dissuade further drop-pods. Commander LongSun jumps down from the hill, to get a better look at his enemy.
The Hammerhead, the XV88, the XV8 and both Piranha open up on the two dreadnoughts, managing to destroy the nearest and take the plasma cannon off the one furthest away. LongSun's shooting takes out a couple of marines, and he jumps back up onto the hill where he started.
The Kroot assault, losing both Hounds but taking no more casualties from the Iron Hands. For all their attacks, however, they are unable to penetrate the Marine's legendary armour. Then the Master of the Forge crushes two of them with his servo arm and they fall back in disarray. The marines rapidly wipe them out and advance towards LongSun.
Turn 2
Space Marines
The last dreadnought comes on, and lands to the north of the Tau position. The Master of the Forge and his Iron Hands scorn the gun drones and advance towards Commander LongSun, but fail to charge him due to the difficult terrain. The dreadnought that lost the plasma cannon advances through difficult terrain and then runs to get behind the Master of the Forge's drop pod.
In the distance, the other two dreadnoughts continued their advance towards the canyon. It was at this point I realised that with only one troop unit left to come on, my opponent was going to have to choose between securing his own objective and reinforcing his assault on mine. I decided there and then where my two Devilfish were going to go.
Shooting sees LongSun lose a single drone and 1 Wound, and two of the Fire Warriors fall. The newly arrived dreadnought gets a hit with its plasma cannon and puts one wound on MorningEye.
Tau
This Master of the Forge had definitely saved all the best armour for himself and his men! He couldn't stop rolling 3s and above for his armour saves. Still, Commander LongSun's cyclic ion blaster couldn't stop rolling 6s to Wound, either, so it was all balancing out!
I rolled for reserves and both Devilfish came on. I placed them at the far end of my deployment zone, and it was immediately obvious where they were headed. Other than 2 lascannon equipped dreadnoughts, my opponent had nothing to stop them.
One piranha advanced to get a close-range shot on the dreadnought with the missing plasma cannon, while the other went flat out through the canyon. I wanted to move these two units towards the enemy objective asap.
The Kroot advanced towards the Master of the Forge once again, still very strung out. Nothing else moved.
MorningEye, FrostWind and the Hammerhead blasted the newly arrived plasma cannon dreadnought with everything they had, and in the end the ancient machine's motive units were charred and twisted ruins. The gun still worked, but it was no longer an assault threat. The Kroot and LongSun fired at the Master of the Forge and his escort, killing another few, but still not enough. The piranha failed to hit the wounded dreadnought behind the drop pod.
LongSun and MorningEye jump into the ranks of Kroot, noting that they are paying for this cover save, so they might as well use it!
Another view of the end of Turn 2.
Turn 3
Space Marines
This is where it all started looking very bad for the Tau.
The last drop-pod arrived from the battle-barge (one of the Space Marines forgot Snuggles and had to run back). My opponent took a big risk placing it in front of my Fire Warriors - very near the table edge. It scattered - 5 inches - but only just stayed on. DAMN YOU, DICE GODS!
Out they came - 10 very shooty Marines, who had not neglected to bring the stabby. They opened fire on the Fire Warriors, who opted to go to ground when making their six armour saves. With a 3+ cover save, they made four of them, but there would be no shooting from them this Turn. The storm bolters on the drop pods took out a couple more.
The plasma cannon dreadnought fired once again at the Crisis Suit of MorningEye, but the shot scattered, killing a single Kroot.
Of the two dreadnoughts nearer the Space Marine objective, one turned back, sensing the threat posed by the Devilfish. It fired a shot at the front armour, taking out the burst cannon. The other dreadnought fired at the racing Piranha nearest them, as did the storm bolter in the drop pod, but they all failed to find the mark.
The Master of the Forge sneered at the ragged Kroot band trying to encircle him. Such barbarian creatures were as far from the machine perfection of the Sons of Ferrus as it was possible to be. Not for them the strange perfection of death by bolter - they would be shown the failures of the flesh at first hand. The Marines charged, killing four Kroot and losing one Marine. The Kroot failed their morale check and, for the second time that day, the Iron Hands ran down the Kroot and slaughtered them. They moved ever closer to the Tau objective.
The dreadnought without its plasma cannon (the one behind the Master's drop pod) charged the Piranha, but failed to roll any 6s to hit.
Tau
35 Kroot and hounds all gone, and my only Troops unit protecting my home objective all but lost. It was not going well. Even worse, with the forces they had, it looked like the Iron Hands might just claim my objective but contest their own.
I moved my Devilfish forward, keeping the front armour towards that lascannon.
My lead piranha moved around to get a shot into the side armour of the dreadnought facing it, while the other piranha moved up the canyon, stopping next to the ruin.
Commander LongSun jumped towards the pinned Fire Warriors, and he, MorningEye and the Broadside opened fire on the Master of the Forge, finally succeeding in killing his retinue of Iron Hands and taking one wound off the Master himself.
The Hammerhead dropped a submunitions round on the newly-arrived squad of Astartes, and managed to kill two of them. These new Marines did not seem to have the same armour as the Master of the Forge and his crew!
Shas'ui MorningEye jumped into the ruins next to the Tau objective and LongSun jumped behind the pinned Fire Warriors. They were about to sacrifice themselves for the Greater Good, and it would be up to the crisis suits and the Hammerhead to deny the Gue'la.
Turn 4
Space Marines
The Master of the Forge advanced on the Fire Warriors, as did the squad of Marines. Both fired pistols and then charged, wiping out the Fire Warriors before they got a chance to strike back. Consolidation left the Marines in the open, but the Master got into the ruins.
At the other end of the table, one dreadnought made it back onto the Space Marine's objective. Its lascannon found the mark on my lead piranha, and the skimmer exploded.
In the middle of the table the only other mobile dreadnought charged the rear of the second piranha, but once again failed to roll any sixes to hit.
Tau
I decided the Marines had to go - scoring Troops units were much more dangerous than the Master of the Forge. But even I could not have anticipated the capricious nature of the dice gods - they play sport with men's hopes!
Commander LongSun jumped into the ruins (I didn't roll a single 1 for dangeroud terrain all day!) and next to the XV88, forming a unit.
The Crisis Suit XV8 jumped out of the ruins and within 1" of the Marines. Time to use the flamer that conventional wisdom says never gets used! The Broadside fired its SMS, the flamer gouted burning death, and then Commander LongSun spun up his cyclic ion blaster and let fly. Plenty of hits, plenty of wounds - here come the armour saves. I haven't seen so many 1s since I got my GCSE results
With only one marine left standing(!), I decided to charge with my XV8. He avoided the marine's attacks skillfully, and then, 3 S5 attacks later, crushed him to the ground. He consolidated back into the ruins, feeling very pleased with himself.
The Hammerhead decided to shoot the railgun point-blank at the Master of the Forge. A worthy attempt, but the shot missed.
At the other end of the table the Devilfish moved closer and dropped off their drones, while the last remaining piranha jumped out of the canyon and onto the hill. There was no way the dreadnought was following him up there!
Turn 5
Space Marines
This was it. Could the lone dreadnought hold out and could the Master of the Forge contest the Tau's objective?
The Master of the Forge, who had killed so many of my noble Kroot and Tau, fired his flamer and the immobilised dreadnought fired its plasma cannon, resulting in the loss of both of the Broadside's shield drones. The Master then assaulted Shas'ui MorningEye, killing the brave warrior easily. He consolidated a few inches deeper into the ruins. He was contesting the objective.
At the other end of the table, the Dreadnought tried to kill the last of the fusion blaster-armed Piranha, but failed to hurt the tiny skimmer.
Tau
The Devilfish moved up on either side of the ruins, while the Piranha moved to target the dreadnought's side armour. The gun drones jumped forward as well, while the Fire Warriors in the Devilfish to the rear of the ruins disembarked.
The Piranha fired - and missed. If the game ended now, both objectives would be contested.
I realised my Fire Warriors could hurt the dreadnoughts rear armour, but only 1 Fire Warrior had line of sight. He hit, but failed to penetrate the armour.
I prepared to unload everything I had on the Master of the Forge, expecting his cover save to keep him alive when his 2+ armour save would not. What I did not expect was to kill him with the SMS from the Broadside! Here was a great opportunity for both Commanders to go head to head, and the SMS kills him. A bit anti-climactic, but I wasn't complaining.
The Hammerhead, with nothing left to shoot at, hit the dreadnought and wiped out its plasma cannon.
We rolled, and a Turn 6 was played.
Turn 6
Space Marines
Not much to do. The dreadnought shot at the Piranha and blew it to pieces.
Tau
The Hammerhead moved forward, to try and get in line of sight of the dreadnought protecting the Space Marine objective, but could not draw a bead on target. Instead it shot at the dreadnought nearby, taking its powerfist and heavy flamer off.
With only Fire Warriors left, I rapid fired into the rear of the dreadnought, and this time got the hits I needed. The dreadnought exploded, and the objective was mine!
With no Turn 7 the game was over with the Tau winners
Post Game Chat: my opponent and I had a good chat about the game afterwards. He is putting the drop pod army together (as you can see from his blog) and this was only his second game with it. He said he made fewer mistakes than in his previous game, but that I had made it hard for him with my spread-out deployment. His complete army will have another two drop pods in it, thus getting his other two dreadnoughts into the action much more effectively. Quite how I would have fared if those heavy flamers had got into action I do not know, but it would not have gone well.
I don't think I did much wrong, and quite a lot went my way. My reserves came on in time to make it to the objective and to fight for it. My early shooting disabled his dreadnoughts as they came in, and my last-ditch fight for the home objective went far better than I expected.
Thanks to Jamie, who provided a great game and was a pleasure to play with.
Man of the Match: It might have been the Kroot, but I am going to give this to the Broadside. Operating in old-codex immobile fashion, he stood tall and killed two dreadnoughts and a Master of the Forge. The shield drones, plus an attachable commander with shield drones of his own, ensured his survival when the going got tough.
Thanks for reading - I hope you enjoyed it!
Sholto
the url's had " " round them which was throwing the links off, so i've removed them all for you 
