10th Company vs. Tau

[Cerrik]

Alright, so my 11 year old wants to get into 40K and this was the second game I ran him through to learn him the rules. I set up a 750 list for each army. My son liked the look of the Tau so that is his army. I'm slowly building it up for him and so am hindered by what we have available. Lists are as follows:

 

Tau

Shas'el Command, Plasma, Missile Pod, Multitracker, HW Drone Controller with 1 Shield Drone

2x Body Guard, Plasma, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, HW Multitracker

 

Crisis Team 3x Team Leader, 3x Missile Pod, 3x TL Flamer, HW Drone Controller w/ 2 Shield Drones

 

Fire Warriors x6

Fire Warriors x6

Fire Warriors x6

Fire Warriors x6

 

Piranha, Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Disruption Pod

 

10th Company-

Shrike

5 Scouts BP/CCW, PF, Combi-melta

5 Scouts BP/CCW, PF, Combi-melta

10 Scouts BP/CCW, PF, Combi-Flamer

2x LSS w/ Multi-Melta

 

Scenario: Seize Ground, 4 Objectives

Deployment: Pitched

 

He won roll off for objective placement, and they ended up being in a kind of trapazoid shape in the middle of the board. The board is set up fairly simplistically with a large set of steppes in the middle, 2 sets of trees cati-corner on each right side, a crater on each left side and a single rubble pile about 8" to the Right side of the middle terrain piece.

 

My son also won roll for 1st. He set up on the far side of the table. (Very inexperienced) Everything out in a mish-mashed gunline. He was only about 6" from 2 of the objectives.

 

I deployed my LSS teams as far forward as possible and about 6" to either side of the midline. My large scout squads Combat squaded and infiltrated. the first one with teh Sgt about 3" away from the forward trees that had an objective inside. The other squad on the right flank near the rubble pile with SHrike nearby.

 

Here is where I screwed the pooch... Scout moved everything. This put my lefft flank scouts in the bushes (Good). Put my right flank scouts stairing down his Missile Pod Suits (Bad). And my LSS jetted up to stair his commander suits and 3 squads of FWs down (Ugly).

 

Failed to seize and waited for him to blow my guys off the map.

 

Turn 1

He moved a little bit, mostly crossed his squad lines. I gave him tons of slack and helped him out a bit as this was only his second game. He proceeded to wreck one Storm, and blow up the other. His missiles took out 1 of my scouts.

 

On my turn, realizing how stupid I had been, decided to see if I could get the game to last past turn 3. The right flank moved up, Shrike Jumped up to group with them. The wrecked speeder scouts moved back towards my table edge and to claim the objective on the left edge of the main terrain piece. The blown up speeder scouts moved back towards the right side objective and tried to keep heads down. My coverd scouts moved through the brush and flamed his fire warriors killing only one out of hist and wounds to the whole squad. Then they rushed the smoking survivors and managed to kill them all through combat and sweeps. Shirike and squad rushed the Battle suits on the right and proceeded to kill all but 1 suit.

 

Turn 2

He shuffled around some more, mostly to bring all his guns to bear on the offending scouts who wiped his FWs. He succeeded in killing them all and turned a squad of Fire Warriors on my withdrawing scouts. The Speeder scouts on the right of midline took a load or two of Pulse Rifle Fire and managed to begin a retreat which put them just past the Objective but still claiming it. In his assault phase, Shrike ended his Missile Pods suits once and for all and consolidated up towards his FWs on the right.

 

My turn saw less shooting and lots of moving. The Speeder scouts on the Left of middle managed to make it to claim that objective and tried hunkering down for cover saves. The Right Speeder Scouts regrouped and held on to their objective and Shrike managed to move up with his squad to close the gap for another charge and held up in the rubble for cover.

 

Turn 3

He shuffled some more, focusing on the 2 scouts to right of middle and the full scout @ left of middle. He drove his Piranha right up into the terrain into melta range for 1 shot with his Fusion Blaster, killing a scout. More Fire warriors managed to hit one of the Right scouts and kill him, leaving the Sgt alone. The FWs on the right, moved towards Shirke, through dangerous terrain and lost a man; they fired @ Shrike, killing a scout. The Suits fired @ Shrike and co, killing 1 scout, all others saved. The lone scout, saved his morale, bolstered to be so close to one as Shrike.

 

My turn witnessed me moving scouts for better cover but remaining in Melta range, and moving the lone Sgt into melta range of the Piranha's side. I took that shot and wrecked it in the rubble, glad I made sure to have 2 shots if need be. Shirke and scout moved up to prep for assault into the crater. Both made the assault, no deaths, no worries. I wiped the squad and managed to consolidate out of the crater.

 

At this point, all I have left is a squad of 5 CC scouts, a single PF sgt, Shrike and a lone CC Scout. He has a squad of 6 FWs, and HIs commander with both Bodyguards and a Sheild Drone.

 

Turn 4

He moves even less than before and shoots the crap out of Shrike and Squad. Kills only the Scout, Shrike shrugs off everything else.

 

I move Shrike up and assault his last squad of Fire Warriors. I manage to kill 4, and they flee. Moving back 9", which puts them at about 10" from the edge.

 

Turn 5

He mows down Shrike with his suits and the Fire Warriors continue to run.

 

Seeing this as the last turn, I Make sure to move my remaining 2 squads to secure their objectives. (Hindsight, I could have probably stretched the full squad to claim a 3rd objective but by this time, I had 2, he had none)

 

Roll for end game comes up 1. Game over, Victory to the 10th Company!

 

I got shot up a lot. I chose my list to take it easy on my son. So I was using my 10th company which is always a challenge. I was way too aggressive without having 1st turn and it could have cost me the game by turn 3. However, I wised up fast and snapped victory from the jaws of defeat by cooling my head and making more level-headed decissions. I know I need more practice against different opponents as well. The game was fun. I'm sure it was a real confidence boost for him to practically table me by turn 3.

 

He just doesn't have a great grasp of the game, rules, or what his units do yet. That will come with time. If he had been really aggressive with his Command suits (being a bit dangerous), or his Fire Warriors he would have knocked me off the table by turn 2, turn 3 at most. But again, he hasn't grasped the game yet. He did very well though.

[Hellios]

That list could cause problems for the Tau... it has the ability to catch their fast units quickly (battle suits) and scouts should be able to pound fire warriors in combat once they have gotten close enough... in a KP game that might not be a huge issue for the tau but footslogging fire warriors are not great for capturing objectives.

 

I would suggest a Devilfish should be high up on your lists of things to get and also consider kroot... Many people knock kroot but as someone who has an army of nothing but kroot (which is a weak army with lots of flaws!) I can tell you that a single unit of kroot within an army of Tau can be very useful if used correctly.

 

I also suggest those because they will no doubt be useful to some degree when the new Tau codex comes out (Which shouldn't be far away in the grand scheme of things!), on that note I would also suggest pinning or magnetizing weapon options on the battle suits and vehicles so that you can swop them around as you never know what you might want to try and what might be worth taking in the next codex.

[Cerrik]

Yeah, I've picked up a battle box and other mixed units. Plan is to mount all the FW in Devil Fish. I'm trying to work him into the game and there is only a lone DF for now, I was thinking that once I've picked up a second, that I will introduce him to vehicles more fully. So far, I've got the battle suits magnetized, much like my Predators and the like, to give him flexability with suit builds and also to await the new dex.