Battle Report

[Smurfalypse]

Played a game yesterday against Tau+Orks.

 

MY LIST

 

Lord

Bike+Sigil of Corruption+GoM+Black Mace+Melta Bombs

 

Sorcerer

Terminator Armor+The Brand+ML 3+Sigil of Corruption+Spell Familiar (Had some extra points so took Sigil when I probably wouldn't normally).

 

CSM x10

Champ+Power Maul+Melta Bombs

x2 Meltaguns+VotLW+x9CCW

Rhino

 

CSM x10

Champ+Power Maul+Melta Bombs

x2 Meltaguns+VotLW+x9CCW

Rhino

 

Cultists x25

x24 autoguns

 

Cultists x25

x24 autoguns

 

Terminators x10

x4 Power Maul+x4 Power Axe+x2 Power Fist+x6 Combi-Plasma+x2 Reaper Autocannons

 

Bikers x10

Champ+Power Maul+Melta Bombs

x2 Meltaguns

 

Obliterator x3

 

 

HIS LIST

 

I do not have his list on hand so again I am running off of memory.

 

HQ (Dont rememeber their names) in a Crisis suit with a 2+ armor sv and two drones

x2 body guards in suits. This unit had plasma and missile pods.

 

Crisis x3

Flamers+missile pods

 

Crisis x3

Twin linked missile pods

 

Fire Warriors

There were quiet a few units of these, not sure if 10 or 12 strong. Had about 4 or 5 total units of these on foot.

 

Broadsides x3

Three separate units each with x2 shield drones.

 

Kroot x20

Large unit of Kroot that infiltrated.

 

Vespid x5

These guys turned out to be surprisingly annoying. . .

 

Warboss

x20-30 boyz. Not sure of the exact number, but it was a fairly large blob.

 

Aegis Defense Line

Quad-gun

 

Cant think of anything else, but there may have been something that has slipped my muddled mind this AM.

This was an army list he brought to the NOVA Open and managed to do well with (Not surprising, it was a very good list and had an answer for Necron Flyers). He said he had went 5-1 there.

 

Mission: Big Guns Never Tire

Deployment: Dawn of War

Night Fight first turn.

 

Warlord Trait: Master of Deception

Psychic Powers: Puppet Master, Dominate, and Invisibility.

 

 

I deployed everything except my Obiterators and x2 CSM squads in Rhinos. Oblits were for Deep Strike and CSM were outflanking thanks to Master of Deception. Bikers to my far left behind a hill, though a few could still be seen, Terms directly in the middle behind some ruins though they certainly could be seen, my two cultist units were to my right sitting on an objective. He deployed everything in a fairly standard gunline, multiple units behind the defense line and the large ork blob to my far right side. The Kroot infiltrated 18" in front of my Bikers to act as a bubble wrap for the crisis suits. The Crisis suit units and the HQ were all deployed on my left side along with one broadside, the two other broadsides were spread out across his line (one in the middle and one on the right), the defense line was direct center in his deployment zone, most of the fire warriors were deployed behind it or around it.

 

TURN ONE

 

He had the first turn and layed into the unit of bikers killed 4, shot the terms a fair amount as well but I saved on all, some of the fire warriors opened up on the cultists as none of the other goodies were within range. He also moved forward with a few of the fire warriors to get more models in range. The Orks moved forward with a unit of fire warriors behind them. All in all his first turn was decent, killed nearly half of my bikers was a massive blow to me, even if the rest of my army was pretty much untouched.

 

My first turn was simple as well, my Bikers moved forward into assault range of the Kroot (they did not fire as I was hoping to stick in combat for his turn as well, also did not want to push the assault range out further and get caught completely in the open with x3 units of crisis suits floating around). The Terms moved forward and to my left toward the crisis suits/kroot (This is the side I wanted to win, gambling that at least one of my CSM squads would be able to come in on the other side and support as needed). The Sorcerer cast Invis on bikers (not surprising, I need to stop rolling this up because it is going to become a crutch it is so good) and he cast Dominate on a fire warrior unit barely within range. Cultists moved their entire units into some trees and a hill that were on that side of the board so he could no longer focus fire the ones outside of it.

 

Terms shot at a unit of crisis suits killing both shield drones, the brand did not wound this turn even though I had hit 4. Cultists opened up on the Orks, though many were out of range and only manged to kill a couple. This was the end of my shooting and it was severely lackluster ;)

Bikers assaulted the Kroot, he rolled very well for his overwatch and forced me to take 5 saves, I failed one.

Lord challenged and he accepted, Lord won and I rolled up Hatred (my GoM was +1T, so the Lord has two useful things so far Hoozah!). The Mace then went off and killed a few more Kroot. The units then fought each other and I lost a couple and he lost about 8, I won combat by far more than I wanted and he broke, I chased and ran him down. This left me very much in the open where I did not want to be.

 

TURN TWO

 

He moved into position with the Crisis suits, moved the Orks up, moved some of the fire warriors so they could reach out and touch the Bikers or Terms. Vespids moved into close proximity to the terms and were going to harass me until I did something about it (which wasnt anytime soon :( )

 

His shooting went very well, the crisis suits went to town on the bikers though I did own a 2+ cover save from invis, two more went down (I got a bit hot on my saves with them this turn). This was a bit more of luck on my part as I was forced to take about 25 saves (about 10 or so of these were from the flamer crisis suits and so I could not use my 2+ cover and had to rely on my armor). More fire into the cultists and I lose a few more from the same unit. Broadsides shot my terms and I lost two this round. Vespids shot at my terms as well forcing me to take quiet a few armor saves, but I passed them all. Bikers were down to a few dudes plue my lord. Sad times. His assault phase he jumped away as best he could with his crisis suits but his leader rolled a 1 for his and ended up being way way to close for his comfort. The other two units had decent jumps and managed to get a bit further away.

 

My turn I rolled for reserves and one unit of CSMs+Obliterators both came on. I rolled the CSM first to see which side and then would decide on where to place my Oblits. The CSMs decided the left side where all the action was, was where they would show. This is the side I was hoping for but I knew that time was ticking until that ork blob hit my cultist line and I would lose that objective for good. I however did not think I had the muscle to completely break his lines this turn without the oblits and CSMs both there, so I deep stiked in front of his Broadside on that side of the board, behind the Crisis suits. I scattered a good amount, but was still in great position to shot a unit and bypass the drones that were in front of each of them.

 

Moved my lord+bikers toward his HQ, the CSM squad stayed in their rhino but like the oblits was positioned to pop out of hatch and use two melta on the opposite side of where the drones were, cultists did not move, terms moved forward and to my left some more to get into better flamer range.

 

Bikers opened up with some bolter fire, hoping to kill off the gun drones...They were unsuccessful :P

Terms went to town on a crisis unit more toward the center of the table, killed both drones and one crisis suit. The CSMs that came on hit with both of their melta and killed two of the crisis suits from the flamer unit. Cultists shot at orks and did not much of anything, they were getting very scared as with a WAAAAAGH! he would certainly be able to make CC on his next turn. The oblits used assault cannons and chewed through a crisis unit killing one (squad leader who also managed to pass along a few of the wounds to drones) and both drones.

 

Bikers assaulted his HQ and I lost one to overwatch fire. Challenged with my Lord, he accepted knowing he had a 2+ save and I was only AP4. My lord got one wound through on his HQ, he passed his T test and then lost a crisis suit to the black mace's proc. His HQ attacked back doing nothing needing 5s to hit and 6s to wound my Lord at this point, rest of the unit actually managed to kill one bike but he also lost a drone from my bikers as well. He failed his leadership and managed to out pace me so again I was stuck in the open :)

 

TURN THREE

 

I had cut off the flamer crisis unit and he moved it away from my Rhino with the CSMs inside, he was deep in my deployment zone at this point with that one guy+drone left. The vespids hung around the terms, taunting them with their annoyance. Orks issued a WAAAGH! and moved into assault position of my cultists. His HQ rallied and consolidated. Warriors moved into position to fire on my bikers. At this point in the game it looked like a game up in the air, he controlled most of the objectives (2) and I controlled one (cultists) but that was going to be lost to the Orks who were about to go all kung fu on some traitorous ass!

 

His shooting was not all that great this turn. He killed the rhino (hull points), CSMs passed their pinning check. One oblit was killed to a rail gun. With his HQ only able to snap fire this turn I only lost one biker, leaving me with the Lord + 1 dude left. The vesbids unloaded on the terms, killing two. . .I hate those things, I didn't want to waste time with them, but they just harassed the heck out of me. But now they had forced me to take a leadership test, and I promptly failed :P

 

Orks assaulted my cultists and I had a decent round of overwatch killing 5 or 6 before they charged. They did make it in however and completely wiped the unit with ease. They didnt roll well for their consolidation and only managed to get a few onto a hill for some cover from the inevitable incoming fire.

 

My move was fairly simple and straight forward. I rolled for reserves and my second unit of CSMs came on, i rolled a 5 and chose to come in on the side with the Orks. I took an aggressive stance and ignored the ork squad and came in near one of his objectives in his deployment zone, the CSMs piled out of the rhino and sat within a few inches of the objective and rapid fire range of the fire warrior squad holding it. The Terminators regrouped, but were only able to snap fire, we looked up rules on casting psychic powers while only being able to snap fire but couldn't find anything on it so assumed you could. My sorcerer cast invis on the bikers again and cast dominate on his Ork squad. My CSMs on the other side moved into some trees and onto an objective that was there. They were mostly within 12" range of the Crisis suit flamer that was in my deployment zone, I felt this was going to be a tight match and didn't want to give up linebreaker if I didn't have to, though the Orks were fully in it, but I was hoping I could deal with them the next turn after my second unit of cultists were snackrificed to the hungry hungry warboss :P Bikers moved back in front of his HQ and prepped the charge again, this was about 3 inches from his board edge, so even if he ran it was going to be off of the board. Oblits moved into flamer range of the single broadside+x2 shield drones.

 

Shooting was fast and short. Oblits decided to twin link plasma gun the broadside, killing both drones. CSMs finished off that single flamer crisis suit in my deployment zone. Second CSM squad on nearly wiped the Fire Warrior squad hanging out on a now contested objective in his deployment zone, their rhino turbo boosted a little bit to block line of site as best it could on its parent unit. Cultists were all 12" within his ork squad and I focused the out of cover boyz (the vast majority) and managed to get off a great round of firing with them, they killed about a dozen, one of which was the Nob. Terms shot a few shots into the Orks as well, just some bolter fire into the vespids and managed to kill one ;)

 

Assaults went as planned. Oblits crushed the single broadside with some PF action and consolidated behind my lord. The Lord and his retinue of a single biker went back at his HQ, Lord challenged, he accepted, I inflicted two wounds this time, he other guys killed off my last biker but it took out a drone with him. His HQ broke and ran off of the board. I consolidated a few inches prepared to take some shooting to the face with the Lord.

 

TURN FOUR

 

He moved his last unit of crisis suits around (only two in the unit) and managed to get to the objective in the middle of the table, the orks moved into assault position of my last unit of cultists, fire warriors had to re-position themselves to deal with the CSM unit that was sitting on an objective in his deployment zone. There was mostly just shuffling around with everything.

 

He opened up on the Lord and I managed to make all of my saves except one. The stuff within range of my CSMs on the objective in his deployment all shot at it as best they could, they killed a few but the line of site there was tricky and not very much could see due to a hill (that a broadside was standing on) and the rhino blocking. The vespids opened up on my terms some more and i managed to save everything. All in all this was a very poor shooting phase, he only killed two CSMs and inflicted a wound on my lord. This was the turn.

 

His assault into my cultists went as planned. I got off a decent round of overwatch and managed to kill a couple more. My champ challenged his warboss and he obviously accepted as the warboss would not get to attack at all if he declined (nob was dead). My guys went first as he charged into cover and I managed to kill a couple more (chipping away). The warboss inflicted 47 wounds on my poor cultist leader and the rest of the boys killed 12 or so of my guys. I lost combat, fled like the bitch i am, but managed to out roll his initiative and got away scott free. He consolidated into cover as best he could and onto the objective there.

 

My movement was quick as we were both running out of models. Oblits moved more to the middle of the board, lord moved to assault the warrior unit manning the quad gun, CSM both moved onto objectives, and terms moved to the middle of the board a couple of inches away from the last two crisis suits sitting on it. Cultists rallied and consolidated three inches closes to the orks.

 

Cultists fired at the orks and only managed to kill one or two due to snap fire :*(

CSMs on the far left finished off the vespids with bolter fire.

CSMs on the right finished off the hurt unit of fire warriors near the objective they were camped on.

Terms shot and killed the last two crisis suits.

Obliterators were able to be within range of a couple of orks and dropped some plasma cannon love on them, killed 4 or 5 (the unit was now at about 6 dudes and below the 25% threshold).

 

The orks failed their leadership and broke, unable to rally they were no longer a threat.

Lord charged a unit of fire warriors and wiped them out.

 

TURN FIVE

 

He gave it one last try to see if he could pull something off but it was looking very bleak for him.

Warriors moved away from the lord but stayed within rapid fire range (he only had two units of these left).

Orks kept running.

He shot with everything he had hoping to kill the lord and was unable to do so.

 

We called the game at this point as it was done.

The victory points make this game out to be a blow out, but it was anything but. This was very contested and until that horrible round of shooting on turn four it could have swung either way. There were many things that went in my favor this game and many things that did not go his way.

 

Rolling up d3 infiltrate was a big deal. My rhinos CSMs would never have been within rapid fire range on turn two/three if they had started on the board. Broadsides would have forced me to footslog with them both.

I rolled up Invis. If I did not have that, the bikers would have died after that first assault...Though I would not have assaulted that first turn with them if I knew I didn't have it :P

The CSMs came on the exact side I wanted and needed at the exact perfect time. This could not have gone any better for me.

I never really had a "bad round" of rolling, I was fairly average the entire game, had a few ups and downs but nothing big.

He had one VERY bad round of shooting and that turned the game quickly.

 

I think the final VP score was 12-0. He exposed a few things in my list and gave me a few good pointers.

He suggested I add a second unit of bikers, certainly a great idea and something I will 100% try to do if I go to a tourny.

Also he said I should probably break down the Cultists into smaller units as then it is harder to focus fire them or destroy a whole bunch in one assault.

My worry with the above is the fact that they are leadership 8 and a tiny bit of fire could make them run. But it is something I am certainly going to try.

 

He said that at the NOVA Open he won vs 3 different pure Necron flyer lists, and I can see why.

His base shots on EVERYTHING can at least glance the 11 armor flyers they have, nothing in my army can do that, also with the defense line he gives himself another round of shooting that can drop one as it comes in. I would 100% get tabled by a pure flyer list with what I brought, so I am going to have to do a little bit of retweeking to try and give myself a chance if I face a pure flyer list (I am not worried about 3 or less flyers, I am talking about the 12-15 flyers Necrons can pump out).

 

Was a very fun and contested game and I hope to play the dude some more.

Thanks for reading.

[the jeske]

I have a few questions . First using invisibility . werent you worried that tau would just use market lights to drop your cover by a lot , if he had plasma suits or plasma/rocket suits the bikes may have died very fast .

 

second. how does waaggh work in a tau army . isnt it an orc army rule[or am I wrong here and its a rule that orc HQ have] and ally orc shouldnt be able to waghh . just like ally BA arent rolling for black rage

 

third question. 3 oblits . now against armies with no or 1 flyer it may work , but against pure flyer builds or hvy flyer IG you may have some realy problems . wouldnt it be better to run 8 bikers 8 termis maybe 1 less cultists unit and have a stronger fire base ?

[Smurfalypse]

I have a few questions . First using invisibility . werent you worried that tau would just use market lights to drop your cover by a lot , if he had plasma suits or plasma/rocket suits the bikes may have died very fast .

 

second. how does waaggh work in a tau army . isnt it an orc army rule[or am I wrong here and its a rule that orc HQ have] and ally orc shouldnt be able to waghh . just like ally BA arent rolling for black rage

 

third question. 3 oblits . now against armies with no or 1 flyer it may work , but against pure flyer builds or hvy flyer IG you may have some realy problems . wouldnt it be better to run 8 bikers 8 termis maybe 1 less cultists unit and have a stronger fire base ?

 

I didn't know what kind of army I was going to face until the game began. I rolled to get invisibility because I felt it would be better either way, I wanted terrify for the orks or dominate for some other things. Either way, there was handy stuff in there I wanted besides invisibility. I also positioned so that maybe 1/3rd of his army was within range of my bikers, they were literally on the far far left of the board, half could see it and most of the fire warriors were out of range. So while I knew I was going ot take fire, I felt safe enough to know I would kill his HQ before I died ;)

 

No idea how waaagh works. If you are asking me maybe you should go look it up in the FAQ? I assume it works like normal, nothing I have heard about it says otherwise.

 

Yeah, my list would get rocked by a pure flyer list. As I said a few times :) I have faced x3 valk flyer lists before and this type of list has done just fine. Though I think if I went to a tournament I would certainly tweek it to at least give myself a chance vs the all flyer Necron lists that flood these things.

[elphilo]

second. how does waaggh work in a tau army . isnt it an orc army rule[or am I wrong here and its a rule that orc HQ have] and ally orc shouldnt be able to waghh . just like ally BA arent rolling for black rage

 

Just curious because I can't find it, where does it say you can't do these things?

[Azekai]

In the allies rules of the BBRB. Tau and orks are allies of convenience, which means the tau treat the orks as enemy units.

Edit: sorry, I realized that me earlier statement was unclear- the orks are counted as enemy units, so their WAAAUGH can be used, but it does not affect the tau.

[librisrouge]

Waaagh! would work normally, for the Ork units who have that ability (all of them beside vehicles IIRC.) Them not getting it would be like allied Blood Angles not getting to roll to see if they're Fearless and get Furious Charge.

 

EDIT: Noticed whythre's post. Do BA not get to roll? If so, then they shouldn't get ATSKNF either.

[Smurfalypse]

Just to clarify when he WAAAGH!'d the ONLY unit that benefited was the Ork unit. So sounds like he did it right :wallbash:

[elphilo]

Waaagh! would work normally, for the Ork units who have that ability (all of them beside vehicles IIRC.) Them not getting it would be like allied Blood Angles not getting to roll to see if they're Fearless and get Furious Charge.

 

EDIT: Noticed whythre's post. Do BA not get to roll? If so, then they shouldn't get ATSKNF either.

Yeah, the way I read what the jeske said is that BA as allies do NOT get that roll and Orcs as allies do NOT get their WAAAGH! Which seems weird to me. So I'm just trying to find out where it says they don't get these rules. Because they have it in their unit entry IIRC.

[CitadelArmyGuy]

Really detailed battle report, thanks for sharing! Even just one picture would greatly help out understand what's going on, just some friendly advice :cuss

 

Also, I assume its 2000pts level but you never do come out and say it, either in the title or the text.

 

But otherwise great report!

[Smurfalypse]

Really detailed battle report, thanks for sharing! Even just one picture would greatly help out understand what's going on, just some friendly advice :cuss

 

Also, I assume its 2000pts level but you never do come out and say it, either in the title or the text.

 

But otherwise great report!

 

If you look at my other reports, I usually do take pics but I do not know the guy before today so didn't wanna stop everything to take random pics. I agree, it does help very much.

[minigun762]

I'm surprised to see the mauls and melta bombs on those CSMs, you don't think they overlap too much?

 

That sorcerer is still doing awesome for you!

[Smurfalypse]

I'm surprised to see the mauls and melta bombs on those CSMs, you don't think they overlap too much?

 

That sorcerer is still doing awesome for you!

 

I like the Maul simply because I force a pile of saves vs MEQ and vs light armor I can swing away with it at 4A on the charge. I only use the melta bombs because I have been running into a lot of Land Raiders in 6th that have very hardcore units inside. So I will suicide them into the LR if need be just to pop it and then I can widdle down the unit inside as it has to walk around (maybe 5 of my 13 games so far).

 

The Sorcerer is an absolute monstrosity for people to deal with. Term armor + Brand + Powers makes him a threat on all levels of the game, no matter what powers I happen to roll up.

[Storm Dragons 3rd Company]

I'm confused about something. First, you said everything in his army can glance 11 AV. Kroot and Ork boyz (and maybe Fire Warriros) don't all have S6 weapons, so how do they glance an AV11 flyer? Otherwise, nice batrep!

 

Second,

 

Played a game yesterday against Tau+Orks.

 

MY LIST

 

HIS LIST

 

I do not have his list on hand so again I am running off of memory.

 

HQ (Dont rememeber their names) in a Crisis suit with a 2+ armor sv and two drones

x2 body guards in suits. This unit had plasma and missile pods.

 

Crisis x3

Flamers+missile pods

 

Crisis x3

Twin linked missile pods

 

Fire Warriors

There were quiet a few units of these, not sure if 10 or 12 strong. Had about 4 or 5 total units of these on foot.

 

Broadsides x3

Three separate units each with x2 shield drones.

 

Kroot x20

Large unit of Kroot that infiltrated.

 

Vespid x5

These guys turned out to be surprisingly annoying. . .

 

Warboss

x20-30 boyz. Not sure of the exact number, but it was a fairly large blob.

 

Aegis Defense Line

Quad-gun

 

He said that at the NOVA Open he won vs 3 different pure Necron flyer lists, and I can see why.

His base shots on EVERYTHING can at least glance the 11 armor flyers they have, nothing in my army can do that, also with the defense line he gives himself another round of shooting that can drop one as it comes in. I would 100% get tabled by a pure flyer list with what I brought, so I am going to have to do a little bit of retweeking to try and give myself a chance if I face a pure flyer list (I am not worried about 3 or less flyers, I am talking about the 12-15 flyers Necrons can pump out).

[spafe]

He was prob jsut exgarating a little, as orks arnt known for their shooting, and neither are kroot (both prob assigned to 'combat' services). Firewarriors have str5 guns, so can GLANCE av11 with a 6 (they dont need to be str6 to glance :s)

 

Quick edit:

Also if orks happened to have any big shootas in, I believe they are str 5 assult weps, so wouldnt slow orks down, and seeing as enemy army list is a bit rough, may well ahve been forgotten