Battlereport: Black Templars vs Tau – 500 points

[Eisenhardt]

Battlereport: Black Templars vs Tau – 500 points

Hey all,

After my last annoying games with Grey Knights versus Eldar (http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/296426-battlereport-gk-vs-eldar-2000-pointswhat-a-mess/    and    http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/topic/297913-battlereport-gk-vs-eldar-2000-pointsthey-did-it-again/) I tried to field again my Black Templars. The amount of points was low, but I experienced that such small games can also be fun.

So let´s start with the army list:

 

Black Templars

HQ: Captain with Artificer Armor, Shield Eternal and Power fist

Elites: 5 Veterans with 1 Melter and Sergeant with Power Fist and Grav-Bolter in Drop Pod

Standard: 5 Scouts with Sniper Rifle

Standard: 5 Scouts with CC weapons

Total: 500 points

 

500 Points is really low and with elite Armies such as Space Marines it is difficult to field a powerful army and also sticking to the FOC. My idea was to put the Captain and the Veterans in the Drop Pod and drop them right in front of the large Tau Suit I expected to face. The Sniper Scouts should camp on a Mission objective and the CC Scouts should come from reserves later.

 

TAU

I do not have the exact list with each weapon details, but here is what I can remember:

HQ: Commander Farsight

Standard: 6 Fire Warriors

Standard: 6 Fire Warriors

Storm: 5 Pathfinders with drone

Elites: 4 XV25 Stealth Team

 

GAME PREPARATION

We played the 6^th of the old missions, so we had 1 central mission goal (3 VP). We placed the terrain as normal and TAU won the dice throw for beginning the game.

As Warlord Trait I had number 4 on the “fighter table” in RB. Thus the War Lord added +1” to the “running” and attack move. Nice for BT.

TAU placed the usual gun line to fire everything on the mission goal in the middle. The XV 25 were held in reserve.

I place only the 5 Sniper scouts on the table and could not seize the initiative, so TAU began the game.

 

TURN 1:

TAU:

 

Movement:

Of course nothing.

 

Shooting:

The pathfinders put some markers on the Sniper Scouts, but the both Fire Warrior Teams could only kill 3 of the Scouts…that was close to losing the game in Turn 1!

 

Victory Points:

None

 

BT:

Movement:

The Drop Pod enters the table and I placed it between the Mission Goal and the Tau gun line. The Captain and the 5 Veterans disembarked so that they were in range of 12” to one fire warrior team.

 

Shooting:

The Veterans killed 5 of 6 Fire Warrios with their Bolters and the 1 Melter Shot.

 

Victory Points:

None

 

TURN 2:

VP: BT 0 – 0 TAU

TAU:

Movement:

The remaining complete Fire Warrior Team moved forward. The XV 25 came from reserve and landed near to the path finders (due to the drone) in approx. 12 “ distance to the captain and veterans.

 

Shooting:

Ouch…this was very tough shooting. The pathfinders marked the Captain/Veterans. Thus the XV 25 could release their 16 S5 shots with BF5! They achieved 11 wounds! Only with “Watch out sir!” I managed to keep the Captain alive, but he lost 2 hitpoints. Furthermore 3 Veterans died.

 

Victory Points:

None

 

BT:

Movement:

The CC Scouts did not come from reserves. So after this hard shooting it was time to retreat…I, know, as BT we never do that, but it was my only chance. So I splitted the Captain from the Veterans and moved as far as possible back. The 2 Veterans moved to the mission goal.

 

Shooting:

Horaaay…the drop pod storm bolter killed the last fire warrior and had 1^st blood! The Veterans did not kill anything. The Captain was running behind a large ruin and could not be seen by any Tau.

 

Victory Points:

First blood (by the drop pod! Yeah!)

 

TURN 3:

VP: BT 1 – 0 TAU

TAU:

Movement:

TAU needed to move forward to grab the mission goal. The fire warriors did hardly move because the “difficult terrain” of the Drop Pod handicapped them. The XV 25 moved forward, also Commander Farsight.

 

Shooting:

The XV 25 killed the remaining Veterans. The fire warriors killed one Sniper Scout.

 

Victory Points:

none

 

BT:

Movement:

Ok…this was an important decision. The Captian was placed to attack later the XV 25 or Commander Farsight. Killing the Warlord would grant 1 VP, but I would have never reached the mission goal again because it was a total opposite direction. Attacking the XV 25 was risky due to the high amount of Snap Shots and I had only 1 hitpoint left…but I could win the CC, I still had the chance to reach the mission goal. So I decided to take the risk to attack the VX 25 and moved towards them. By the Way, the CC Scouts entered from reserve and moved as far as possible towards the center.

 

Shooting:

Again the Drop Pod saved the day! The storm bolter managed to wound two times the XV 25…and one of them died! The CC scouts were running further to the center.

 

Close Combat:

Here came the point were not really sure about the rules. The TAU can have some kind of supporting fire: As the Tau Commander was within of 6” of the XV 25, he could also perform Snap Shots on my attacking Captain. But he could not see me at the beginning of my attack move, only 1” before I reached the XV 25. So the question is, if the Commander was allowed to make Snap Shots because he could see me at the beginning of my movement. We could not find it in the rules, may be somebody of you knows the answers. We decided that he can make snap shots…but I was lucky and survived the 12 XV 25 Shots and the 2 Plasma Shots from the Commander (I only needed to make 2 armor saves). The XV 25 could strike first, but did not kill the Captain. I hit back and performed 4 wounds with the power fist…wipe out! I performed a consolidation move and could hide again behind the ruin.  

 

Victory Points:

none

 

 TURN 4:

VP: BT 1 – 0 TAU

TAU:

Movement:

The Commander moved towards the mission goal, as well as the fire warriors.

 

Shooting:

The fire warriors attacked my Captain, but he could again survive with passing 2 armor save.

 

CC:

The commander moved again and reached the mission goal, knowing that he now was in distance for my Captain to attack him in my turn. But he was sure that Commander Farsight would kill my Captain…pfff, cocky Xenos scum!

 

Victory Points:

Acutally 3 for holdig the mission goal.

 

BT:

Movement:

The captain of course moved towards the commander. Now the time has come to wipe out this blue guy! The CC scouts also moved towards the commander (there were only 4 left, one died in the shooting phase before).

 

Shooting:

The CC Scouts managed to wound the Commander with their Bolt pistols…and the lost one HP!

 

CC:

The CC Scouts attacked first and absorbed the Snap Shots. The Captain followed. Of course I challenged the Commander with my Captain. Again there was a rule problem at this point. It was not really clear if the CC Scouts could also attack the Commander, although he was in Challenge? According to the RB I think it is allowed because the Commander is alone in CC. Is this correct?

Nevertheless, Commander Farsight attacked first with Ini 5…but only managed to hit me 1 time. This hit did also not wound…and this Commander is best CC guy of the TAU?! The CC Scouts were next, but did not wound the Commander. So finally the Captain did what his purpose was and smashed the Commander to pieces (4 wounds and the Commander did not pass any invul. save!)

The Scouts took the mission goal and the Captain tried to consolidate back to the ruin, but did not reach it.

 

Victory Points:

1 VP for killing the Commander and 3 temporary for the Mission Goal.

 

TURN 5:

VP: BT 2(5) – 0 Tau

TAU:

We can make it short now. The Fire Warriors moved further towards the CC scouts killed them in shooting phase.

 

BT:

As the Mission Goals was “free” again, the Captain moved towards it. In shooting phase he ran back with the Mission Goal but could not reach the ruin again.

 

TURN 6:

VP: BT 2(5) – 0 Tau

TAU:

As the Captain was not in cover anymore, the Pathfinders marked him and the Fire Warriors killed him finally. 1 VP for the Tau.

 

BT:

Only the Sniper Scout and the Drop Pod were left. But they could not do anything. As the Fire Warriors were now close to the Mission Goal, my only chance was that the game ends now after turn 6, because otherwise the Tau could claim the Mission Goal in turn 7 and I could nothing do against it….but the dice gods were my friends this evening and the game ended!

 

Final Score:

BT 2 – 1 Tau

 

Coming to the summary of the game:

1. Small points games can be really fun! It was a close game which everybody of us could have won. In addition I feel the with the small amount of units you can more “dive into the fight” as each decision is more important and any failure is most certainly equal to losing the game.
2. Pathfinders and XV 25 are a bad ass combination…16 S5 shots at BF5 can hurt as hell.
3. My unit of the games was certainly the Drop Pod J Making the first kill and also killing a XV 25 was important to win the game.
4. Following rules need to be clarified:
   1. Can snapshots on an attacking unit be done even this unit cannot be seen at the beginning of the attack move?
   2. Can a solo Character be attacked in CC even it is locked in challenge?

Thank you for reading so far!

[Marshal Mattias]

Over-watch is performed when you declare a charge and before you roll for distance and move your unit - this is because any casualties you suffer could increase the distance you need to reach combat. This means if the commander can't see your unit when overwatch shooting should be performed, then he doesn't get to shoot.

 

Challenges are a bit confusing at times, but basically the challenge should take priority and excess combatants are dealt with after. So, you declare charges and both the scouts and the marshal reach the combat. The scouts went first and took te overwatch. The marshal declared a challenge which the Xeno couldn't decline. Now, the combat as a whole would play out in initiative order. The scouts have no unit to attack, so we must await the outcome of the challenge. If the enemy defeated your character, his excess wounds would spill into the unit of scouts. As your scouts have nothing to attack, they get to attack the warlord if he is still alive at the end of the phase. (They would also get to do this if they had defeated any remaining models in a unit that the enemy character was with).

At least I think this is right, I don't have my book handy!

[librisrouge]

Thanks for the Battle Report. I've been trying to convince my FLGS to hold a small point tournament for a while now but all of the other players don't want to leave their big bads at home.

[Sete]

Enjoyable read. Congrats on the victory.

[Eisenhardt]

Over-watch is performed when you declare a charge and before you roll for distance and move your unit - this is because any casualties you suffer could increase the distance you need to reach combat. This means if the commander can't see your unit when overwatch shooting should be performed, then he doesn't get to shoot.

 

Thank you for the answer...seems to be very clear!

 

 

Challenges are a bit confusing at times, but basically the challenge should take priority and excess combatants are dealt with after. So, you declare charges and both the scouts and the marshal reach the combat. The scouts went first and took te overwatch. The marshal declared a challenge which the Xeno couldn't decline. Now, the combat as a whole would play out in initiative order. The scouts have no unit to attack, so we must await the outcome of the challenge. If the enemy defeated your character, his excess wounds would spill into the unit of scouts. As your scouts have nothing to attack, they get to attack the warlord if he is still alive at the end of the phase. (They would also get to do this if they had defeated any remaining models in a unit that the enemy character was with).

At least I think this is right, I don't have my book handy!

 

Does anyone have another comment to this point? I still read the RB in this way the CC scouts could attack the Commander...confusing.

[Kontakt]

If you challenged the commander, I don't think the neophytes get to swing, at least not till the duel is over.

[Marshal Mattias]

Try taking these questions to the official rules forum and search there - might find more people who know the answers :)