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I actually remembered to take a few pictures of a few of my games this week, and thought I'd put the short notes up for your perusal. To keep this simple, and legible, I will just put the really short notes in compared to my other batreps, hoping you find this a quicker read. My lists were the same in both of these games: Prot's Deathwatch: A little more 'serious' take on the Black Spear: Watchmaster (Angelis) 205 Aquila 1: 140 5 Vets (inc.Srg) 1 Biker (for jink, ignore dangerous, etc) Aquila 2: 190 5 Vets (inc.Srg) Storm Shield/Pwr Maul Vanguard vet: Hvy Hammer Watch Company: WC HQ: Artemis: 145 WC Aquila 1: 280 5 Vets (inc.Srgnt) 2 Frag Cannons Librarian Rhino (This squad gets 'Beaconed' across table T1) WC Aquila 2: 215 5 Vets (inc. Srg) 4 Stalkers, 1 Infernus Hvy Bolter Terminator w/Cyclone (friendly zone objective holder) WC Aquila 3: 330 5 Vets (inc Srg) 2 Frag Cannons , Storm Shield Terminator Librarian ML 2 Tome of Ectoclades Drop Pod (Watch master goes here usually for Beacon time) WC Aquila 4: 205 5 Vets (inc Srg) 1 Frag Cannnon Terminator Assault Cannon, Melta Fist Ancient: 145 Dreadnaught, Assault cannon Drop Pod GAME 1: Maelstrom Vs. The Heinous Tau. Early Game: + I win first turn, set up appropriately, but draw mediocre cards. I do manage to get first blood, as he failed to seize. + His deployment is smart, but his list is certainly not maximized. He has units spread very well along his back lines: Hammerhead tank thing with Longstrike on one edge with Marker light pathfinders. On the opposite edge he had his Warlord HQ with jump pack, and a few squads of jet pack dudes with Plasma, melta. In the middle he had a transport full of fish. A Riptide, some more pathfiinders, and the Commander with jet pack (monstrous Creature).. flying fish dude. Moving more towards the Hammer tank, he had a full Ghost Kheel Stealth Cadre with 2 stealth suit squads, and the Kheel with drones. Backing them up as more Pathfinders. So he had the full Battle Cadre (whatever they call it) so he can share marker lights with multiple squads, and the auxiliary was his Stealth Cadre. +The target priority was difficult and I've learned the alpha strike is essentially what we have. Deathwatch came in hard T1, and although I knew it was risky I put a pod on his back edge between his riptide + Pathfinders, and his HQ Jet pack with Stealth teams. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/063473CC-9E87-4735-A733-7675EE44C0A2.jpg + Here it all came down, heavy and hard, Deathwatch style. Fish were floppin' for cover. + + The tuna are flamed and skewered pretty good here, but I could not get all wounds off of the Riptide. I used the flamers on the one squad to hit his pathfinder squad, netting me First Blood. + Primary Squad w/Watchmaster from Pod stayed focused on the Warlord with suits (off picture) and they are multi flamered, and poisoned and literally the HQ tanked enough shots to make all wound necessary to remove the squad. + He retaliates by retreating the Riptide up higher (surprise), overcharging weapons and his deviation kind of saves a bit of me, as I play Super Friends to keep some remnants alive... oh well. You live hard, you die hard. + As is typical my squads quickly diminish after the alpha. He was not too confident but I warned him the army struggles after the Alpha and we would see that in play here. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/EE439118-2FFF-40F1-9733-F72FFEAAFE53.jpg + Here the Riptide tried to hide, but to my surprise my Stalker Bolter squad would get the kill from a distance.+ + The Riptide goes down after failing his last wound to stalkers. They would see VERY little action this game as mid table terrain and the Tau deployment took them out of most of the action, plus they sat on an objective most of the game. + I go up a few more points and then he has a great turn here and nets a few points. + I get another squad in via deep strike. Here's the funny thing... Really stupid actually. I put a BIKE in the squad JUST to take away the Dangerous Terrain tests and jink into CC if I had to.... so I deep strike the squad intentionally on debris right in front of a Stealth Squad. Then my opponent says, "that's a dangerous test isn't it?" I totally forgot, I fail one test, I randomize the model... and kill the bike. D'oh! Didn't realize what I had done until the game was over. lol + I am WAY out of the game now because he's shifting away with his Tau and I'm slow as heck. I get one remnant squad back into a Rhino, but leave one vanilla squad behind for objectives. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/6CCB53AA-CCE6-4719-A38E-D601E4DF08B6.jpg + After the switcharoo psychic power I am now ready to assault. The Dreadnaught couldn't get a good enough shot on the transport, and I felt the Marker lights would be worse, so I shot up these Pathfinders, got lucky and they all died. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/74D05C21-A006-4D24-9367-4EDB4BD24F1A.jpg + I pull the old 'switch-a-roo' to get an assault off on this Ghost Keel. + + My Drop Pod dread comes in, and I see the Stealth Cadre which means instant death for my Dreadnaught and know I have to tie him up. + My Libby had pulled the power to switch spots with a friendly squad. So a squad which just deep striked here, switched spots with my tiny Librarian squad with Artemis, thus allowing me to assault. + The assault ensues, but I can't kill anything, and he kills one guy. In his turn the assault continued and I tried Artemis' D-Bomb (again) and failed to hit, but my opponent rolled a 1 for the D result. LOL man does my Artemis suck... I think he's literally about 0-15 on that D bomb. + His Flying commander shot up some deep strikers pretty good. His Longstrike effectively wiped out some more of my stuff and i was feeling the very typicaly 'uh oh' here we go.... even with 6 squads the army felt small. + I cannot beat the Ghost Keel in close combat so I do the 'switcharoo' again and he fails to deny it. This time I swap out Art and Libby for a squad with the Fist Termie. It would take the fist termie to beat down the Ghost Keel and Drones... finally. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/7485C315-3C5D-44ED-997B-A2673E52E23B.jpg + Operation Chowder is completed... the Deathwatch run for cover as the Longstrike/Hammerhead is taking aim. Above the Dread managed to blow up the transport fish bowl. The contents are unfortunately not pinned though. + I get sick of the flying commander pelting stuff so I take a long shot of my own. Using my Mission tactics to re-roll 1's, I state the Stalker Bolter squad is going to shoot what they have left (about 3 guys and the Terminator) at his flying commander. The arrogant flying fish refuses to Jink because it's a long shot. The Cyclone hits on a re-rolled 1 !!! I get the wound, and it insta kills his arrogant fish!!! + My Vanguard Aquila comes in with heavy hammer. There isn't a good target for the hammer but I do have 2 shotguns lined up at a stealth team that take out the squad denying their 2+ cover save... very handy. However the Hammerhead wipes the squad in one shot. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/35B3DAEC-2EC2-47B6-BCAA-195688516D81.jpg + Everything I have left that has been walking through a shooty hell catches up to the contents of the fishbowl. The fish die quickly and without doing any damage. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/FEDB0D9A-0BAA-41A4-95EB-8210688852E7.jpg + I pull the switcharoo power one more time to face down his annoying Hammerhead to the right. I can't do anything more than a single hull point to it with my Fragcannons. + + The game ends in turn 6. I have a fairly significant victory on paper but I have very little left on the table. But he's literally down to 3-4 rallied Pathfinders and his one tank. A fairly convincing win, against a non-optimized Tau list. It shows that the Tau put out so much damage that even someone who isn't quite sure what he's doing can give me big problems though. BATREP 2: The Shortest Incursion with Daemons that will never be recorded: + I face off against Daemons. He's using the INFERNAL TETRAD: He gets a lot of good powers in his psychic roll offs, but so many are rolled for, I don't think it's ever an issue for this list. I get to go first, but my deploy as usual is very light. I park some Stalkers on busted Bridge, and hide my Rhino for the Angelis Alpha. + His deployment looks little like this: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/B9F58770-EACE-4699-8D28-94F8F4ABACED.jpg + What do you call 5 DP's with a plethora of powers that steals the initiative? A: A short game. + He steals the initiative. This means the game is over for me. He buffs the army with the longest segment of his turn, the psychic phase. Everything seemingly has Iron Arm, and he's re-rolling a ton of stuff, and summons a squad in. His attacks aren't great though as he can only target my stalker squad right now, and they manage to hold on to about 3 models. He largely advances his army. + In my turn I know I have to have on amazing alpha strike. The problem is his best close combat dude (the green Daemon Prince) is the only 'easy' target. + I come down hard, and Angelis in the Rhino squad: http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/3B2E7FFA-CE08-499D-99E8-D0F90AD55B95.jpg + I do the Angelis Alpha, and starting with the Stalkers, I take down the Green Daemon prince. + The Green Daemon Prince was Nurgle based. Most of these are close combat dudes so only the one Tzeentch model with the book thingy is flying (off screen). + After the Nurgle Prince dies it all goes down hill.... I can't do anything to any squads. The Frag Cannons are best as flamers, but here they won't do anything, so I use single shots, but wounding is still hard with Frag because Iron Arm everywhere. + Of course Poison rounds help, but here's the thing.... he's got a 2+ invuln, and re-rolls 1's. and then I think there's Feel No Pain.... So yea, we've seen this before, it's nearly impossible once the powers are up. I think at one point I counted 17 wounds, but I don't think more than 1 stuck. + To my opponent's credit he played ITC rules so his 2+ failed to a re-roll of a 4+ AND then Feel no Pain. Something like that. Regardless my entire remaining army poured into that guy, and couldn't touch him. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/C9FBCDFB-F695-4345-9204-651F68B7D7B9.jpg + In his turn, he moves in for the kill.... + I can't deny any psychic powers with his 17+ dice. His warp storm gets him a free squad, he summons another, which miss haps and I place on the far side of the table. + he gets off Psychic Shriek on my Stalker Bolter squad, I take 6 un saveable wounds on the Squad. The termie fails the first save, squad dies. + He gets to summon a Tzeentch Chariot, I can't block it.... it flames most of a squad killing them without saves. + He comes in for close combat.... http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/8ED9E15D-AB6B-4774-AABC-D3B1A15EF251.jpg + Hmmm... something's missing from this picture... + So I can't wound anything because of toughness. All of his attacks are instant death because of high Strength, and AP2. SO.... I am powerless to defend his psychic stuff, can't wound him, can't save most of this.... + The Watchmaster steps up to take the first of the 1,491 wounds I have to take. He goes to block the first attack: Misses the block. Goes to make his 4+ Iron Halo... misses, instant death. The Librarian fails his 5+ invuln, instant death. The rest of the squad is wiped. It's over kill but I have nothing left. + Second close combat only has one Daemon prince but it's more of the same... I can't wound, he's insta-killing, All die but 3. At the end of his second turn, I start my second turn with 3 small squads in reserves. On the table I have 4 models. He has his full army minus the Nurgle DP, and he has summoned 3 more in total. So there is not chance, I will come in peace meal now, and full deviate, and his army is growing faster than I can die. So I concede. http://i2.photobucket.com/albums/y6/Protilious/Prots%20Deathwatch%2040K/Prot-%20DW%20Paint%20Chllg%20Kill%20Team1b.jpg + Back to the Choppa! Back to the Choppa! + Game ends and it's about as bad as a tau game I had earlier this week. Sorry I did not take pictures of any other games I had this week. But normally I batrep one a week so... bonus this week! Hope you enjoyed reading ths.

Hey guys, I hope this one can be done a little more briefly than some of my longer reads as I have little time to do this.... I wanted to do a Battle Report on this game because it features an army that smoked me in T1/2 the last time I used Deathwatch against it. (Actually most ITC style lists have). And I knew I was up for a crazy test again. Once again, please be aware I don't know who my opponents are going to be beforehand. (no list tailoring) The Game: Maelstrom 1850pts My List: Basic CAD: Termie Captain Libbie lvl1 10 Vets/Frag/meltaguns/Shotguns/Pod 10 Vets/Frag/gravguns/Shotguns/Pod 5 Vets/Frag/Shotgun/stormshield/Pod 1 Terminator Assault cannon 1 Terminator Cyclone. Allies: Ultramarines Skyhammer: 5 Devs, 4 Grav cannon Pod 5 Devs, 4 Multimeltas, Pod 5 Assault Marines flamer 5 Assault Marines flamer/Eviscerator Smelly Fish: Drone'mander (Warlord) w/lots of drones Pathfinders + Some dude that has 3 wounds and lets all units within 12" get extra shots. Breacher squad (I can't believe I don't see more of these) in a Fish tank (can't remember the transport name) Stormsurge , fully loaded Riptide Wing : 2 Riptides Kroot infiltrating Stealth Cadre: Ghostkeel + 2 Units of Stealth teams with Fusion/Plasma. Game Type: Precious Cargo: + You can't discard "secure Objective X". Your opponent can steal any "secure Objective X" card from you. ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Deployment + Opening Turns: + Looking at my opponent I roll on Telepathy simply for Psychic Shriek and on the outside hope that I get Invisibility. (ITC variant) I do not get Invis, and it was the regroup power. :/ So I pitch it and just stick with Shriek on my ML1 Libby. + Unfortunately he wins the roll for first turn. I decide to play the deny game, and hold back my entire army except for two solo Terminators who are completely hidden. + He infiltrates Kroot (which are a cheap throwaway for Objectives) right in the center of the table to slow me down. + Tau Turn 1: He is doing the ol' castle maneuver. Kroot are forced to lay down their lives for a shiny objective in the center. Off to the Eastern back fringe he has his entire Stealth Cadre + Early Turns: + He takes the early lead, but without me having anything he can see he simply charges his junk up with Invulns, etc. And earns an easy objective point but no First Blood yet.... + I declare Skyhammer coming in T1. He drew an objective that would force him to zoom a Stealth Team out from their hiding spot on the Eastern Flank towards a grey building. + I decide I must Steal this objective from him, and this is my first mistake..... I drop in one 5 man assault squad and I scatter off the objective a ton. So I am forced to dump a second Assault squad into this bad idea and they stick on the objective facing off against one Stealth suit who just finished short of the objective even after his Jet Pack Move. I fail to kill them with pistols/flamers, and fail to get the charge range. Note the amount of fail used in that turn. But at least I'm on the board with a Stolen objective. + Here's where all the fail took place. Again, sorry for all the proxies. These are assault marines. They don't assault, and they're hardly marines, but there you go. + + Meanwhile, at the same time in the Tau deployment zone, my Deathwatch HQ and 2 Pods come in along with the rest of Skyhammer: + Oh I love the taste of Interceptor in the morning. + +++ I apologize for all the proxies I'm still re-assembling my army +++ + The grey marines are supposed to be Grav Cannons. The Blue Marines are MultiMelta. In the middle my Captain, and Libbie strategically place around the pod, (*We are playing official FAQ Pod Rules). + This is a pretty big moment. I roll 5 dice on Psychic Shriek of course targeting the Storm Surge. This guy rolls high and he takes 3-4 wounds from Shriek. Even after FnP rolls. Wow. + But now it's time for everyone's favorite game: Interceptor! + A picture form the Tau edge of the table: Note the Interceptor annihilates most of Skyhammer before it gets to fire. Back to the Black Fortress for more anti-xenos tech??? While your there, somebody hand me that Ork Warboss lucky stick. I could use it right about now. + + So Grav Cannon squad takes an amazing amount of firepower. The pods to obscure some Riptides/etc from getting some primary targets, but the Wipe out of the Grav Cannon squad (his number 1 target priority of course) nets him FIRST BLOOD! + Nothing like relinquishing First Blood to your opponent on your own turn! So he knew the Grav Cannons were going to probably finish off the Stormsurge and once they were gone he picked off a few Deathwatch, but then focused REALLY hard on the Deathwatch HQ squad. + The Deathwatch HQ squad gets a few cover saves but not many. The squad is wiped until we get to the Libby. He takes one failed save, then Look out Sir's 6 remaining wounds onto the Termie Captain. Thank you Librarian. Middle management really is useless sometimes. The Head honcho takes 5 saves, before losing a wound. Not bad. He's still breathing. + Finally I get to shoot in my own turn! + The 10 man Deathwatch split into combat squads and hammer away at top targets starting with the Stormsurge. I keep using 12" Impact Frag Shots and lucky poison hits (basically NONE), but after 8 or so Frag Cannon/Melta/Multimelta shots, the Stormsurge goes down! Wow. + With what little I have left I take poison rounds at a Riptide, but 2+ then FnP is immensely hard for me to get through. I maybe put one or two wounds on a Riptide with the rest of my army. + The termies roll up on objectives, and I score 2 points and we're tied. Tau T2: + He takes some pot shots at my HQ, and isn't too worried about them, and tries to dilute my Frag Cannon count. Which he does. + He is trying to reinforce his Stealth cadre at Eastern / Mid, but has trouble killing all of my one squad there so my Assault Squad rushes him and loses Close Combat to a SINGLE STEALTH SUIT. This shall not be recorded back at the Black Fortress!!! + I drew an objective on his side last turn, and he steals it. He kills a squad off getting another point. For some reason his Riptide assaults my remaining Multi Melta team. I believe he was afraid of me assaulting his Drone Comander, which I would have tried, but probably died to the gobs of Overwatch. + His Riptides shot me up pretty badly and his Pathfinder squad with HQ had an amazing amount of shots. I knew they'd have to be widdled down. + Riptide assaults? Deathwatch T2: + He drew a card on my side of the table which I stole... + The Kroot are fried by Frag Cannons. Chicken for supper. + Another bolter squad concentrates heavily on the Pathfindes and kills half. + My libby takes another shot at Shriek. He almost denies it, but fails. I get 2-3 wounds on a Riptide, but none of my shooting can do anything else to it. The Termies try to help but no go. + Our 2 Turns of Close combat against the Riptide slowly kill off my Ultra Multi Melta's. + I take two more objectives. Turn 3 : + He realizes my Obsec has hurt him here. He hasn't killed me fast enough. The Stormsurge dying T1 is huge. But I threw everything at it. + The Ghost Keel moves out and my two assault squads are now down to one squad, and they kill the 1 dude he has left there. But it's a final 10 man Deathwatch Drop Pod that fries them with Frag Cannons (no 2+ Stealth for the Stealth Suits!) . + His Breacher squad steps into the Deathwatch that just killed his Kroot and he annhilates them with that High Strength /AP3 shooting. + I complete a few big objectives at this point and he's Rick Rolling my army to nothing at this point, but yet I scramble odd squads and try to maintain my army. + With the combination of Marker Drones, and Riptides he annihilates my Libby, Hq Termie and the squad they had just joined. + I am now forced to pick my next moves very carefully as my army is pretty beat up.... I grab another couple of objectives, while trying to find cover. + A remnant squad of Deathwatch have to kill a vehicle to net a point.... I destroy the Fish Tank, but the ensuing explosion kills two of my guys. OUCH. One is a frag Cannon. + Pointswise I take the lead in bottom of T3 with a 3 Point turn, but it is costly as I had to sacrifice a lot. Now to see if I can keep the lead and not get tabled at the same time... Turn 4: + Tau realize they have to be a bit bolder to 1) catch up in points, or 2) table me. + The Tau shooting is still devastating. He starts advancing a Riptide from deep in his lines, I still can't seem to kill these stupid things. They both have wounds but 2+/3++/5+ FnP is sick. I poison the crap out of one of them with my fragile line, but he still has one wound left. + Tau wipe out the Deathwatch squad that just killed a fish tank. Aside from Pods I have only 2 solo deathwatch marines left at mid table. + Tau wipe the rest of the assault squads which were largely doing nothing. Breachers wipe one out, the Ghost Keel wipes the other out. + By the end of his Turn 4, the table starts to look really bleak for me.... + Tau fire power has nearly eliminated anything I had in his zone. The Pods still block his passage though, and the pods have been plinking away at Pathfinders and drones. + Turn 5: + I lead the game, the Termies are being rushed by the Riptide still. +I manage to wipe the Pathfinders and their HQ for a point with Drop Pods and the Cyclone frag missile rounds. + For the sake of movement and in case we go to Turn 6 he starts shooting at Pods. He gets one down, the rest miraculously survive. He doesn't want to waste high volumes of shots at my solo guys running around. But he still manages to kill one with drones. now leaving me with ONE marine at mid. + I am retreating my last 4 marines on my side of the table with 2 Grav guns as I know his riptide is breaking for an important point which is being held by my Terminator! + Here the Riptide has one wound left! I throw poison at it with my last mid table marine. The Riptide destroys the Assault Cannon Terminator seen here protecting the edge of an Objective with is life on the line. + The Riptide ends up stealing this objective, but on the other side of this grey tower is 2 Grav guns and they destroy the Riptide, netting me a point. Turn 6: + The Tau destroy a pod, and my last mid table marine. But can only get a point, and I have 4 marines, and a Terminator left on the table. The destruction is immense on both sides but I'm hanging by a thread. + He finishes his top half of the turn and can only score one point. We add up the points to be certain and I have the lead 13-9 so he cannot come close to a tie at this point and he concedes to the Deathwatch. + Many fishsticks and rejoicing is had by the 5 surviving members of this game. Thanks for checking the batrep out!

I just played another Tau game, but it was against a 'fun list'. Tons of vehicles, lots of tanks so very few saves for me. I took so much damage from AP 3 or better it was insane. I lost my two biggest squads the turn after their arrival, but before I did I used the Beacon Angelis to flip a Chaplain and 5 Custodes across the table. My HQ being wiped and two fair sized pod squads was typically Tau, but I think the worst part was I could only cause 2 Tau vehicles to jink on arrival (they still lived even after being targeted with an Auspex each.) In his ensuing turn he moved tanks slightly (I couldn't get all his hammer heads in the picture below), but the Breacher squads are just so gross.... they are incredibly anti-drop pod , basically cleaning up anything that Interceptor couldn't. About halfway through my opponent's turn I realized I was hardly rolling any dice. It came to me that most of what was targeting me doesn't allow me a save.... moments like these the game feels so anti-marine right now. At the end of the day he had a heck of a time trying to get rid of my Custodes.... again. + Tau 'fun' deployment: squads of Breachers, and a long tank line with a Drone Commander in the middle and lots of marker lights. + So here's me dropping in.... shockingly in this game there was no Interceptor!!! I was shocked.... however with 90% of his army in boxes, I couldn't kill anything. + - I'm picking up a lot of models and just putting them away with no saves.... but the Custodes did pop his throwaway squad of ObSec Kroot. - He is ramping up the score bigtime.... I have a squad in the background (see top picture) to continue the IHB (Infernus Heavy Bolter) experiment. They are in that Grey Rhino.... T1, even with dozer blades, I move the rhino 2 inches, I roll snake eyes and the thing is immoblized. o_0 - I give up Warlord, and two of my best Aquila squads, my Libby (dead) failed to kill anyhting with Psychic Shriek. - I now have 4 Custodes, an Aquila of 5 Stalker Bolters (never killed a thing, it's all in tanks) with a Cyclone Terminator (maybe he got a hullpoint off a vehicle all game? Caused some jinks mostly. - The IHB squad got out of their dead rhino. All game they maybe killed 3-4 Kroot caught in the open. He saw that they were only Infernus Heavy Bolters, so he flew his vehicles right into them, shocking them off of objectives, knowing I could not even glance the front armour of his transports. + Tau coasting to a win.... I am playing magic wound time with these Custodes..... and they're angry. + - Custodes play magic friends, get into CC smoke a squad. He's having trouble getting past my 2+ saves and 3++ shields. Custodes kill a tank, marker drones, Drone Commander, a full breacher squad, a Pathfinder squad (top of buliding), and a Hammerhead Tank.... THEN leave the runes near end game with 3 models left!!!! - My BSSF Ancient comes firing in automatically on T4 (he failed all reserve rolls) and I have to kill a vehicle with him... that's all he has to do. He lines up the back of a transport with his Assault cannon, misses 3 shots, fails to pen/glance on fourth shot. He is annihilated by Breachers in the next turn. - He was running away with this. He drew good cards, and while I had solvable cards, they were hard... kill this, grab that... nothing I was sitting on. - My IHB squad is so innefective he is just dancing around it knowing I can't damage anything in range. He gets out of his transport to grab a big point turn and quickly ramps up 13 points on me. - My Custodes take some serious tank shots but the Tau are used to me just putting models in the case... but not the Custodes. Everyone, including the Chaplain has a wound on them, but 3 models still live. I get out to mid field with the Custodes, they wipe up some remnant Kroot, and the Custodes smash into the Transport my Dreadnought could not hurt. - Custodes destroy the Transport, the IHB squad fails to do anything again. - The Stalker team which has literally done nothing (lack of soft targets, out ranged) decides they mush break from the building to get to mid table... they die a horrrendous death trying to get there. The Cyclone Termie fails his first save of the game (needed invuln from Hammer head), and the squad melts with him. - The game goes to T6 and I concede. Ironically I have 2 Custodes with the single Chaplain, 4 members of the IHB squad, and the Rhino JUST repaired itself... and then gets destroyed. Amazingly enough I manage 12 points to his 13. End Game Thoughts: - I tried hard to make it a game. I was thoroughly demoralized at the mass loss of troops and how much my army struggled against armour. Also having so few saves against Eldar and Tau gets pretty old, pretty fast. Add in Admech/Grav and it's enough to make someone go to Daemons or something where you're better off running around the battlefield with a loin cloth for protection. - This is the continuation of some heavy experimentation. Obviously this is not my idea of an optimized list but after some consideration I've made some final decisions on some units: - BSSF as a stand alone Detachment is terrible. - Watch Company is 'good', but too tax heavy - Dreadnoughts are still terrible in mildly competitive meta's, but even more so when it's nearly the only armour your opponent has to focus all his melta/plas/las/Stealth Cadre at. - Infernus Heavy Bolter. I'm not going to bother debating this any further. In my mind ,this is the worst weapon in the codex at a melta cheaper than a Frag. I won't say I'll never, ever field them again, because there's always a chance my wife will drive over all my Frag Cannon models and I'll have to proxy IHB's as Frag. Custodes save the day!