Sisters of Battle vs Tau

[Warsmith Aznable]

This weekend I moved from Sisters collector to Sisters player, facing off against my friend Jon's Tau force. I was using a brand new army, and he was bringing the Tau back out after a long period on the shelf. I will post some highlights and pictures here, but the full battle report (with 32 photos) is on my own website here.

 

To start out with, I had to proxy several units as I'm still collecting the basic army:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j91/montismo/sistersvtau-001-proxy-view.jpg

 

We had a Dawn of War deployment, though of course we both immediately forgot about anything to do with that except for the table halves. This is how we deployed:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j91/montismo/sistersvtau-010-battlefield-starting-setup.jpg

 

The Tau got to go first, which was unfortunate considering they live for blowing you up from a distance, but there were some fortunate die rolls, including a Shield of Faith save:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j91/montismo/sistersvtau-011-repentia-fleeting.jpg

 

The Repentia were the stars of the first half of the game, having rolled a 6 for the run, getting where they needed to be intact, and then proceeding to wreck everything in sight:

http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j91/montismo/sistersvtau-021-repentia-dont-care-bout-nuffin.jpg

 

The other awesomely performing unit was my short squad of Retributors. I put all my Acts of Faith on the Retributors and the Repentia, averaging about 3 Acts of Faiths to spend per round. Here is a squad of BSS sweeping over my own objective to rescue the lone surviving Retributor and share the Imperial Creed with the Tau in those Piranhas. Things did not end will for those Tau:http://i78.photobucket.com/albums/j91/montismo/sistersvtau-032-fukkenxenos1111111.jpg

 

The game went basically like this:

 

Opening Game

 

The Tau opened up with long range shots that failed to have any significant impact on the Sisters with the exception of wrecking the Rhino of one BSS squad. The suits that popped the Rhino failed to vacate the area, however, and were the first to taste the glory of Divinely Guided Heavy Bolters, being completely destroyed by the combined fire of the disembarked BSS squad and the Retributor squad.

 

The Repentia flipped their crazy switch and powered across the table to multi-charge some Fire Warriors and their transport. I forgot about their FNP at first, so I lost some Sisters that maybe I wouldn't have when the transport exploded. There is a lot of rules to remember with a new codex to a new army you've never played before...

 

The Seraphim didn't run quite as far and took some shots from the Hammer Head. St. Celestine and the Battle Conclave were chasing down the battlesuits that were holding the Tau center. The Penitent Engine was immobilized by a Rail Gun shot and spent the rest of the game doing nothing more useful than being really angry about it.

 

The BSS moved toward their targets, with one squad being blown out of their Rhino but assisting the Retributors in taking... retribution... for the act. The other BSS stayed safely inside their Rhino where they were forgotten about by the Tau commander.

 

The Immolator I spent hours preparing for the game got blown up in the first round without getting to do anything.

 

Middle Game

 

Saint Celestine just wouldn't die. She wrecked a battle suit squad and then chased down the Tau command group when they tried to run away from her. The Battle Conclave wasn't sure what it was doing for a while, attempting to take out the Hammer Head with Uriah's krak grenades having nothing else within range because Celestine was chasing everything off.

 

The Exorcist took some shots at the two Tau Piranhas would had come in to harass my objective campers. I was averaging 3 shots per round and 1 penetrating hit. The Retributors were whittled down to nothing by the Piranhas and the one surviving Retributor Sister had a moment where she lost her nerve and moved off before rallying herself. She spent the rest of the mid-game holding on for the BSS reinforcements working their way to her.

 

The Repentia and Seraphim were just having the times of their lives chewing through Fire Warriors on the enemy objective.

 

End Game

 

Celestine and the Tau commander were dueling it out, and the Living Saint was winning.

 

The Exorcist won an artillery duel with the Hammer Head.

 

The BSS relieving the lone Retributor swept through and beat down the two Piranhas with krak grenades, wrecking them.

 

The Seraphim and Repentia didn't make it, but the second group of BSS and the Battle Conclave avenged them without mercy or remorse. The enemy objective was captured, secured, and consecrated to the Immortal Master of Mankind.

 

The Tau, with their commander locked in combat with a living dead girl wrecking machine and only 1 wound left, and the only other unit left alive the turret-less Hammer Head, conceded the game and I ended my very first game with the Sisters as a win.

 

This game took forever, because we were both unfamiliar with our respective codices and units. I'm sure plenty of mistakes were made, as well. Probably not as many as when we first played CSM versus Tau all that time ago, but still probably a lot. I've grown so used to my Chaos Marines that I forgot what it was like to play a new army. But fun was had, so that's all that really matters. :yes:

[Dustoman]

awesome battle report. good luck on fleshing out your model collection. hopefully we get those plastic kits soon!

[Warsmith Aznable]

Hey, thanks! :o One of the biggest mistakes I realized I made was rolling for the Acts of Faith. I fell into rolling them as a Leadership test instead of the 5+ w/ modifiers. I may have even re-rolled some Heavy Bolter wounds instead of using the Rending USR...

 

It was a learning experience for both of us, though, and a good time was had. I've got a few more metal models since then, and the more I have the less concerned I am with new plastics. I'm still saving space for some if/when they happen, though, but I'm mostly happy with what I've got now that I've actually started playing with them.