Prot Batrep: A Bizzarre Tale of Ultra's vs Tau (Maelstrom)

[Prot]

This game was so bizarre I had to batrep it in a... less serious tone so forgive me in advance for the goofiness that ensues.

First the Teaser Pic:

+++ Will Instantus Gibbons FINALLY kill something of note? Will Tigurius and LibCon truly annihilate the Xenos with their combined might and the assistance of Cataphractii? One of these things will happen, one will not. You be the judge. +++

The Game:

- We played Maelstrom - Escalation where each turn you draw an additional card starting with 1 in turn 1, 2 in turn 2, etc.

- I brought out an old favorite low key list. Nothing crazy but this time with a twist using Cataphractii Captain and squad (proxied) and LibCon with 1st Co Demi Co Gladius.

- Tau brought a different list as well. Hunter Cadre! Which included Buffmander, and lots of crisis suits, a few piles of marker fish, and Breachers in aquariums and a Riptide with some other extras.

- Crazy pre-game moment: I have Tiggy (3 WCs), and 2 Libbies at WC 2 which means my Warp Mastery level is 7. PLUS Tigurius can re-roll his picks. So number one for me was survivability vs. Tau. Therefore I picked Libarius first, rolling the powers one at a time with Tigurius. My goal was to get Veil of Time to re-roll the Cataphractii Captain and his squad's saves.

I would not be until my 10th dice roll, on the last Librarian that I would get Veil of Time.... wow. I wish I could say that's the first time that's happened.. this month, but no. So I have a shwack of duplicate powers, and most of them are anti-Psyker against Tau! YAY!

- I win first roll off, and set up. Since we are playing short table edge deployment, everything I can keep in reserves is held back, so only 2 Rhino's come out to play. I draw a card that I cannot complete.

- Ultradeployment:

And with that, the Ultramarines make it rain pods and fish blood...... Turn 1:

+++ Turn 1 I go for LibCon tied to Sternguard, and a Combat Squaded Tactical squad. +++

- The Tau fail to seize. The squads come in, with targets in mind, I decide to keep Instantus Gibbons in the upper Sternguard squad.

- Of course before I can fire or get off the Psychic Phase, Tau Interceptor comes into play.... Almost ALL of the Sternguard are dead except Gibbons and a headless Sternguard srg! Also out of the picture, above the Pod, is a couple of Crisis Suits (2 plus saves?) and a Ghostkeel Stealth Cadre Formation.

Whatever has Interceptor goes after Tigurius' Sternguard and Tiggy has a wound on him one and again the Sternguard are left depleted.

- With depleted squads, Tigurius gets off Veil of Time for re-rolls and plops the Emperor's Wrath (S5 AP3 blast) on the Suits in the ruins above the picture.... they make all their saves of course.

- Shooting time...The Tacticals NEED to get the Breacher squad out of the Transport. It's gross when those guys are out and they are one of the best anti-pod units that I just don't see players take generally..... The Melta-rips through the Vehicle, pen 7 (he doesn't jink because FAQ says snap fire only if you jink!). The squad is mostly okay... which sets me up for a big problem next turn.

- The 5 man combat squad goes after some marker drones. As usual I find them the most resilient part of the Tau army, only taking 2 casualties.

- Finally... it's GIBBONS TURN! I should back up a second and set this up. So far, in 3 games, the biggest thing Gibbons has bagged with his Instagib gun is... a Veteran Astra dude with a plasma gun.

- So Tigurius makes the call, and directs Istantus Gibbons to the Riptide hiding in the ruins... the shot hits home, and the Riptide tries to cower, but fails his cove save!!! It's dead.... it's dead! Gibbons is cheering, and now he's a man possessed. Ready to take the Imperium back one Insta-gib shot at a time.

+++ The Breacher squad is exposed now. But will the Ultra's live long enough to gloat? +++

Tau Turn 1:

- They're in trouble. I only got the first blood point, but the kills were strong with Instantus Gibbons hitting home on that Riptide.

- The Tau pull a very doable card. This squad (above) is shot to death by the Breacher squad... going to ground saves no one.

- The north ruins shoot like crazy but the double saving LibCon/Sternguard hold true.

- In another bizarre twist, he jumps 2 suits from his Stealth Cadre through ruins taking two wounds.... one fatality causes him to take a leadership from dangerous terrain... he fails and runs very far.... nice moral in Tuna land.

Turn 2:

+++ The Grav Cannon Dev squad come in via Pod but what happened to them? The Cataphractii come in close, and Tigurius joins them and abandons Instantus Gibbons and the headless Sternguard to fend for themselves. +++

++ Gibbons can't stop gloating, and the Tau take advantage of it. +++

- The 5 man Grav Cannon squad comes in, and thanks to Interceptor all but one die. However that Grav cannon would punch through the 2+ saves of the 2 suits on the ruins. But the Tau make their cover saves!

- The Cataphractii have nothing better to do... so they shoot the same pair of suits with Combi Bolters! The Suits fail 2 saves on a 2+! One dies, the other fails moral and runs! Nice!

- The fish hiding in the top of the building make all cover saves.

- My attack bike cruises to assault a Stealth Suit from the Stealth Cadre. I shoot at the Ghostkeel but he fires up a flare so I can only snap fire.....

- The Tau turn is so-so. Buffmander doesn't come on, and neither does another squad. But what does come on is 2 squads of suits, and a pile of Kroot infiltrating right into my second Sternguard squad....

+++ Tau Reserves come into my zone and it isn't pretty (fish rarely are.) +++

- The Suits come in and one suit team is successful at blowing up a Rhino with plasma in it. Most of these shots do not allow me to take saves... so with plasma and fusion(melta) flying at me I try to hit the ground, but most of my stuff dies. The flipped Rhino is lost from the firepower in the ruins and the GravCannon squad is Pinned as a result! D'oh. It's looking ugly at home base, however the Suit squad above whiffs horribly and I still have Sternguard alive above.

- The good news is the Tau Suit by the bridge would do a Jetpack jump move of only a couple of inches.... looks like it's payback time.

+++ It's another sad scene for Marvin and Plasmagun +++

- Plasma does nothing, and the entire Tau suit squad takes one bloody wound. In return this squad would die outright. The Attack bike shown earlier punches through the Stealth suits, and would assault these Crisis suits and kill them like a boss.

- The Sternguard would kill one suit beside the Kroot.... and the Tau rolled an 11 again for moral! Insane.... he runs like a chicken tuna casserole on fire.

- Instantus GIbbons and the ONE remaining headless Sternguard would fire at the Breacher squad and miss. Next turn he would fire at the Crisis Suits running (fleeing) towards him,,, and miss. It appears Gibbons is cocky now, and can't hit a barn again. Back to the same old for Gibbons, but he is out for glory. And we all know how Glory Seeking ends....

- Gibbons and Sternguard dude go wandering the middle of the table... something is going to die, but it isn't Tau.... the Ruins are loaded with cowering Tau and a pile of Kroot start unloading on Gibbons and his buddy....

+++ Gibbons wants revenge but will he have it? Can he hit more than once per game? Ask Tigurius, he knows everything...except how to select powers!+++

- The game is going badly for Tau. They are running everywhere. We are some how tied in points. The Tau Commander comes in, and I shoot for the heck of it with Cataphractii which are too slow to catch anything.... and guess what? The Combi-Bolters rip through the Tau Commander's Drone, and he has to take leadership... and rolls an 11 !!! Seriously... he runs off the table scoring me Warlord.

- The Kroot that snuck up on the Sternguard are scoring, and I forgot... that's my bad and it gets the Tau a point. the Sternguard assault the Kroot for their ignorance and actually I needed 'challenge' something for a card so I get it, and he whiffs horribly.

- My attack bike rolls up into 2 more Crisis Suits, and assaults them (he's been a boss all game.)

- FINALLY the Cataphractii find their way towards the hiding GhostKeel and rip it apart. The Cataphractii + LibCon was incredibly expensive for what they did this game, but hey Tigrurius is the boss.... finally the unfortunate news of Gibbons' demise hits the back lines via Vox cast....

+++ Tigurius gets word that Gibbbons is down. They rush off to collect... his stuff. Meanwhile Sergent Impatientus Maximus wants to end it all. +++

- END GAME:

- The Tau are forced to concede in T4, as they have almost nothing left. The amount they ran off the table was insane. Perhaps the luckiest thing that happened to me all game was the insta shot on the Riptide. Gibbons would never hit anything again all game.

- It was a tie until T3, and I slowly pulled away but it took a massive 6 point turn in top of 4 to do it.

- The LibCon was horrible this game. And the Cataphractii just couldn't get anwyhere against a jetpack army. I'm just VERY lucky his reserves were so-so and his Moral checks were so high.

I hope you enjoyed this. Thanks for reading the adventures of: LibCon and Instatnus Gibbons of the Ultramarines!

[True Blue Marine]

Excellent battle Prot. I really enjoy the color commentating. Tau is the one army i haven't really had a lot of experience playing. I mostly play against Tyranids and Orks. I've been rolling through Tyranids lately and want to play against Tau. I read pretty much read all your batreps and take notes against other armies. Great game

[Slothysaur]

This has to be my favorite bat rep yet! Gratz on the riptide instagib

[Kasper_Hawser]

LOL, fantastic bat rep. Your special snowflake Gibbons was hilarious. At least he managed to take down 150 points plus of monstrous creature. (Can't recall exact cost of a riptide, excuse my estimate).

 

I love the format too. Far better than drab drawings. 

[Bmseifer]

Great battle report! I really enjoy reading these.

 

Did you attach the Imp Space Marine to your Sternguard? Can he really replace a veteran?

[Prot]

Thank you very much for the kind words guys... Really appreciate you reading these. ;)

 

 

Great battle report! I really enjoy reading these.

 

Did you attach the Imp Space Marine to your Sternguard? Can he really replace a veteran?

 

The Imperial Space Marine can replace any space marine in your army! He's just that good. Maybe it was a waste to replace a higher end model with him, but I wanted him near LibCon for the opening volley of Interceptor which I was hoping could be mostly absorbed by LibCon.

[Bmseifer]

Oh OK. I was under the impression that he only could replace a model listed as 'Space Marine' under its data sheet (i.e devs, tacs and asm)

 

If he can replace any model, I need to rethink my use if him

[derLumpi]

Great batrep! I really enjoy your battle report and have said this before but this one is really funny. I lmao and got curious looks from my workmates. :D

 

"Can I have his stuff?" :D

 

Great job and as always the Marneus would be proud!

[Prot]

Thank you very much. Glad you gotta kick out of it. ;)

[Machine God]

Thank you very much for the kind words guys... Really appreciate you reading these.

Great battle report! I really enjoy reading these.

Did you attach the Imp Space Marine to your Sternguard? Can he really replace a veteran?

The Imperial Space Marine can replace any space marine in your army! He's just that good. Maybe it was a waste to replace a higher end model with him, but I wanted him near LibCon for the opening volley of Interceptor which I was hoping could be mostly absorbed by LibCon.

@Prot - Nice little BatRep there! Nice to see painted Space Marines versus only Yello Xenos. See below!

Oh OK. I was under the impression that he only could replace a model listed as 'Space Marine' under its data sheet (i.e devs, tacs and asm)

If he can replace any model, I need to rethink my use if him

@Bmseifer - Yes you're Correct and Prot's interpretation is Incorrect.

The ruling is: One Space Marine in your army can be replaced with the Imperial Space Marine at no additional cost.

Sternguard aren't listed as Space Marines in their entry they are Veterans.

[Prot]

Thank you very much for the kind words guys... Really appreciate you reading these.

Great battle report! I really enjoy reading these.

Did you attach the Imp Space Marine to your Sternguard? Can he really replace a veteran?

The Imperial Space Marine can replace any space marine in your army! He's just that good. Maybe it was a waste to replace a higher end model with him, but I wanted him near LibCon for the opening volley of Interceptor which I was hoping could be mostly absorbed by LibCon.

@Prot - Nice little BatRep there! Nice to see painted Space Marines versus only Yello Xenos. See below!

Oh OK. I was under the impression that he only could replace a model listed as 'Space Marine' under its data sheet (i.e devs, tacs and asm)

If he can replace any model, I need to rethink my use if him

@Bmseifer - Yes you're Correct and Prot's interpretation is Incorrect.

The ruling is: One Space Marine in your army can be replaced with the Imperial Space Marine at no additional cost.

Sternguard aren't listed as Space Marines in their entry they are Veterans.

Thanks for the correction.

It appears... ironically, that Sternguard are not space marines.

So while it was probably more detrimental of me to put him in a Sternguard unit, (wasting special ammo instead of a tactical dud ) I would just slot him in over there.

I honestly didn't know where to put him and just felt like thematically he belonged there, but since technically he can't go there, he's a fin tactical replacement.

That being said the best choice I think is in the Firespear Tactical (getting started with Marines box set).

[Xenith]

 

 

@Bmseifer - Yes you're Correct and Prot's interpretation is Incorrect.

 

The ruling is: One Space Marine in your army can be replaced with the Imperial Space Marine at no additional cost.

 

Sternguard aren't listed as Space Marines in their entry they are Veterans.

 

 

 

Thanks for the correction.

 

It appears... ironically, that Sternguard are not space marines.

 

Only in the same way that the 'apothecary' in a command squad is not a 'veteran', so cannot take extra gear. All are faction "Space Marines" but not all have a space marine profile.

 

Great report, I'm looking forward to painting up my ISM to see what he can do.

[crazyterran]

I'm using mine to replace one of the devastator squads bolter bitches in the Skyhammer.

 

If he somehow lives long enough, could always have the sergeant signum him, too! :p