It take Tau to tango (BA vs Tau Batrep)

[Karhedron]

I played my friend Peter at my local club last night. In spite of intensive theory-crafting, this was only my second outing with Blood Angels in 8th so I am still on the learning curve. This mission was Resupply Drop (from Chapter Approved) played using the Hammer and Anvil deployment. This mission starts with 6 objectives but at the start of turn 3, all but 2 are randomly discarded meaning board control is important. My army consisted of 2 Battalions and a Vanguard which gave me 10 CPs although I did spend 2 pre-battle on an extra Relic and DVOS for Captain Smashypants.

HQ Captain Smash (Warlord) with TH, Bolt pistol, Death Visions and Artisan of War Angel's Wing jump pack
HQ Mephiston (Smite, Wings, Quickening, Unleash rage)

Troop 5 Intercessors with bolt rifles
Troop 5 Tactical Marines with Lascannon
Troop 5 Tactical Marines with Lascannon

Fast 3 Inceptors with assault bolters

HQ Lemartes
HQ Sanguinary Priest with Jump Pack and Power Sword

Troop 5 Scouts with BP/CCW
Troop 5 Scouts and Serg with Power fist
Troop 5 Intercessors with bolt rifles

HQ Lieutenant with storm bolter and power sword

Elite 10 Death Company with bolters and Jump Packs, 5xCS, 2xPF, 3xPS
Elite 5 Company Veterans with Jump Packs, PF, 3 PS
Elite Company Ancient with Jump Pack, Power Sword and Standard of Sacrifice

Flyer Stormtalon with assault cannons and Typhoon Launcher
Flyer Stormtalon with assault cannons and Typhoon Launcher

The Tau army roughly consisted of the following

Commander in Coldstar suit (standard loadout).
Commander in Crisis suit with 3 fusion guns

3 x 10 units of Fire warriors

Longstrike
Darkstrider
2 x units of Pathfinders
10 Breachers

3 Crisis suits, each with dual plasma and flamer
Ghostkeel
10 kroot
6 Vespids
Plenty of extra drones

I set up my Intercessors and Tactical squads in my deployment zone, either on objectives or in cover ready to advance on objectives in no-mans-land. My Scouts were deployed forward in cover to screen me from drops and also to move up on objectives. Mephiston deployed in the ruins on my right flank with the Intercessors, the Lieutenant with the Intercessors in the craters on my left flank. The Stormtalons were deployed behind my lines (and behind some handy LOS blocking ruins) to prevent Reserves coming into play behind me. Everyone with jump packs started in reserve.

My opponent concentrated his forces on his right flank with all his Fire Warriors, the Coldstar Commander and Longstrike deploying in and around a large batch of ruins. His centre was held by a mix of Breachers, Kroot and Pathfinders supported by Darkstrider and the Ghostkeel. His left flank (which was a long way from any objectives) was lightly held by a squad of Pathfinders, presumably to keep my Reserves back.

I finished deploying first and won the roll-off for first turn. Before Turn 1, Peter moved his Kroot forward into the cover of some craters to take an objective.

BA Turn 1

The Scouts, Intercessors and Mephiston moved up to claim a selction of objectives while my forward-most Scout unit lined for for a tussle with the Kroot. The Stormtalons headed towards the Tau left flank where the Fire Warriors were concentrated. Captain Smash landed in front of the Ghostkeel while the Inceptors, Sanguinary Priest and Ancient landed a little way behind him aiming at the Tau left flank.

Mephiston cast Wings of Sanguinius and leapt across the battlefield towards the Scouts. He then cast Unleash rage on the scouts.

The firing phase was a bit less than I was hoping for. The Inceptors made a good start by clearing out the first unit of Pathfinders but the Stormtalons only killed a handful of Fire Warriors while their krak missiles either missed Longstrike or bounced off harmlessly, as did a lascannon shot. My Troop units were operating at the edge of their range (or out of it a couple of cases) so only managed to kill a few infantry models.

In the CC phase, Captain Smash charged the Ghostkeel using Descent of Angels while the Scouts charged the Kroot. Captain Smash triggered Red Rampage and managed to score a whopping 7 hits on the Ghostkeel. It was at this point I discovered I had misunderstood how the Drones' "Saviour Protocols" worked. I had assumed they worked liked Company Veterans, instead you allocate wounds to Drones before resolving damage. This meant each Drone could soak up a complete Thunderhammer hit (and all 4 wounds) rather than just sucking 1 wound at a time off the Ghostkeel. This was pretty galling as there were enough drones around to soak up all 7 hits leaving the Ghostkeel unscratched and my Captain in a lot of trouble. On a slightly brighter note, the Scouts butchered half the Kroot for no losses in return. Gotta love Red Thirst.

Tau Turn 1

With the Blood Angels already in his deployment zone, Peter opted to follow standard Tau practice and withdraw from combat while shooting. He also dropped his Crisis team and Commander near the Inceptors and HQs. Lastly his Vespids landed in my deployment zone near one of my home objectives.

Despite a firing squad of Breachers, Pathfinders, drones and Ghostkeel all lighting him up, the Captain managed to hang on with 1 wound remaining until the Crisis commander leveled his fusion guns and finally vapourised him (how I wish I had spared enough points for a Stormshield). The Crisis suits fired off their plasma guns and managed to kill 2 Inceptors and wound the third thanks to appalling saves on my part, even with the Standard of Sacrifice.

On the Tau right flank, their entire firebase opened up on the Stormtalons, destroying one and damaging the other. A handful also fired at the Scouts who had just finished hacking the Kroot and gunned down 3 of them but the survivors held firm. The Vespids fired at the tactical squad on my home objective but thanks to cover, only managed to kill 2.

BA Turn 2

The Sanguinary Priest and Ancient moved up to face the Crisis team, hoping to put their power swords to good use. The Intercessors on my left flank backpedalled to face the Vespids. The rest of my Troops hunkered down on the Objectives. The surviving Stormtalon zoomed up close to the Crisis commander. Although this move left my facing towards the board edge (meaning I would have to drop into hover mode next turn) I figured it would be worth it if I could take him out before he brought those fusion guns to bear again.

Still sporting a pair of glowing wings Mephiston bounded across the battlefield towards the centre of the Tau lines. The Death Company and Lemartes descended on the Tau right flank in a blaze of jump pack engines to face the massed horde of fire warriors. Lastly, the Sanguinary Priest healed the surviving Inceptor.

In the Psychic phase, Mephiston once again cast Wings of Sanguinius on himself and landed in front of the Ghostkeel (which was down to just 2 drones). He then cast Quickening on himself.

In the shooting phase, the Death Company opened up with their bolters and slaughtered the remaining Kroot, saving the last 2 Scouts the effort and leaving the Objective in the crater in my control. My surviving Stormtalon unleashed everything at the Crisis commander but in a staggering display of bad rolls on my part and good saves on Peter's, I only caused a single wound. The Inceptor, Ancient and Priest fired at the Crisis team but only managed to plink off 1 wound. I consoled myself that the melee would be much more satisfying. In my own deployment zone, the Intercessors and Tactical squads wiped out the Vespids in a hail of bolter fire. One lascannon hit Longstrike but failed to wound while the other missed the Crisis team completely. My heavy weapons were letting me down badly.

In the Assault phase, Mephiston charged the Ghostkeel and Pathfinder squad while the Death Company thundered into the Fire Warriors. I used Descent of Angels but even so, I only just managed to roll a 9 for them. Fortunatey Lemartes managed to roll a 12 so he got to join in the party. It was at this point I discovered just how nasty Tau overwatch is. All units within 6 of the target unit can also fire overwatch and although the Tau still need 6s to hit, once the Markerlight hits start piling up, they can generate a lot of wounds. The Death Company lost half their number to overwatch but even the depleted survivors were enough to kill half the Fire warriors facing them. Lemartes joined in the carnage and killed another 4 but in an outbreak of 6s, the Tau passed all their Moral checks thanks to their bonding knives.

Mephiston also suffered a couple of wounds to Overwatch but completed his charge and managed to catch both the Pathfinders and Ghostkeel in close combat. Unleashing the Red Rampage, Mephiston swatted aside the remaining drones before cleaving the huge Battlesuit in half with the Sanguine Sword. On the Tau left flank, things didn't go quite according to plan. The Priest, Ancient and Inceptor charged the Crisis team but even with the Power Swords, Blood Chalice and Red Thirst, I failed to cause a single wound to the tough suits. This was bad as it meant that far from cutting them down, I would be facing their full firepower once again in the following turn.

Tau Turn 2

This was really the make-or-break turn of the battle. My charges last turn had done a lot of damage but not enough to break the back of the Tau army. They still had lots of guns and a few tricks left. Everything would depend on how much damage they could do to the Blood Angels in this turn and which objectives turned out to be valid at the start of Turn 3. With this in mind, Peter withdrew everything from combat once more and set out trying to wipe out everything that was getting in his face. If he could finish off the Death Company, Mephiston and the Priest/Ancient/Inceptor, he would be free to finally get out of his deployment zone and start shooting at my Troops who had secured 5 of the 6 Objectives (he still held Objective 6 with the Breachers in his deployment zone).

The Tau opened up on Mephiston first. It was at this point I learned that Darkstrider allowed infantry units within 6" to withdraw and still shoot which meant Mephiston was going to be facing twice as much firepower as I had anticipated. My cunning plan of catching the Pathfinders in the same melee as the Ghostkeel wasn't going to do anything to reduce their firepower. In the end, the massed shooting was too much, even for Mephiston and he finally went down. Even spending a CP to reroll one of his failed 2+ saves was not enough to keep him alive.

On the Tau right flank, things went a little better. With the Fire Warrior squads now massively depleted, they only managed to cut down 2 more Death Company while the Coldstar Commander only managed to get 1 wound through Lemartes' Rosarius save. The Crisis commander leveled his multiple fusion blasters at the Stormtalon and promptly blew it out of the sky. The Crisis squad were forced to split their fire between the surviving Inceptor and the Ancient. The Standard of Sacrifice finally proved its worth and both models survived, bloodied but unbowed. The Priest was going to have his work cut out for him next turn.

In spite of the pounding my forces were taking, I was feeling good at this point. Although I had lost both my beatstick characters and my aircraft, I still had enough to work with. My Troops were virtually intact and controlled 5 of the 6 Objectives. My DC were mauled but could still do a lot of damage if they got another charge off. My Priest and Ancient were standing and I still had the Company Veterans to bring down next turn to support them while Peter was out of Reserves.

BA Turn 3

Before anything else, we rolled to see which Objectives contained the vital supplies we were fighting over. Luck was with me as the 2 Objectives turned out to the one my Tactical squad was holding in my Deployment zone and the one my Scouts had snatched from the Kroot. With that roll, Peter conceded. Although his army still had some fight left in it, he did not have enough left to fight for objectives outside his deployment zone. Only a few units like Longstrike and the Coldstar commander could get to the Objectives and they would be facing Troop units with ObjSec. Even if he killed one or two units, I had enough surviving Troops to simply swamp the objectives and keep those 2 units from contesting them.


Reflections

It was a fun game but in spite of the shootiness of the Tau and the soaring assault prowess of the BAs, it was my humble Troop units that won the day (although admittedly my Elites and HQs did a great job of keeping the Tau boxed up in their deployment zone despite heavy casualties. I did get lucky with the Objective rolls to some extent but Peter only had a 1-in-3 chance that the objective he controlled would actually turn out to be one of the scoring ones. His army did a lot of damage to the BAs but by putting so much pressure on his deployment zone, I was able to force him to react to my attacks (albeit quite successfully) rather than concentrating on the mission and going after the Objectives.

They say that you learn more from defeat than victory and the biggest lessons I learned are where I lost units for one reason or another. Starting with Captain smash, I think that a Storm Shield is probably worth the points, especially against a shooty army like Tau. I also made a serious mistake after attacking the Ghostkeel. Peter quite sensibly sacrificed his Drones to keep the big suit alive but he used up almost all of them. I should have used "Honour of the Chapter" on Turn 1 to attack again. Although it would have cost quite a few CPs, it would have finished off the Ghostkeel meaning that Captain Smash would not have died in vain. In fact, without the Ghostkeel contributing its considerable firepower, he might not even have died on the first Tau turn. Certainly Mephiston would have survived as he could have joined the attack on the Crisis suits on the Tau left flank. He certainly would not have bounced off them. The lesson here is that if you commit to an attack, follow it through.

The next lesson is target priority. I have only faced Tau a couple of times recently I totally underestimated the short-ranged firepower of the Breacher squad (it was terrifying). There were instrumental in killing both Captain Smash and Mephiston. If I had targeted them with the Inceptors rather than the Pathfinders, it would have made a bigger dent in the Tau's short-ranged anti-infantry shooting that cost me both characters. Lesson 2, know your enemy!

I didn't make good use of the Company Veterans. My plan was to hold them back until Turn 3 so that I would have another decent unit to make use of "Descent of Angels". In fact I burned all my CPs in the first 2 turns. I should have dropped them with the Priest, Ancient and Inceptors. As well as adding wound-passing shenanigans with the Standard of Sacrifice, they could have lent some serious muscle to the assault on the Crisis squad. Admittedly I didn't know they would arrive there from Reserve but it was a decent bet. Even bringing them in on Turn 2 would have been better. Lesson 3, he who hesitates is lost.

For all their choppiness, I don't think the Death Company were the right unit for this fight. Sanguinary Guard are four times as tough as DC against small-arms fire and synergise far better with the Sanguinary Priest and Standard of Sacrifice. Alas, mine aren't finished yet. The Stormtalons also failed to impress and I think some plasma Inceptors would have made a much bigger impression in this game. Lesson 4, paint more models.

Blood Angels are pretty CP-hungry. Despite starting with 10, they were all gone by the end of turn 2. My Lieutenant didn't really contribute much to the battle as I lacked a specific firebase that I could buff. If I were playing competitively rather than just a friendly game, I would drop the Lt and roll my Elites into the Battalions. I would then use the 66 points saved to get an IG Vanguard detachment with a Miner and 3 Acolytes. This would supply on average an extra 5-6 CPs through the course of the game (provided I could keep it alive). Lesson 5, moar CPs!

[Brother Aether]

Fun battle report, thanks for sharing – internet high-five for the thread name, as well.

[Karhedron]

Thanks. I must remember to try and take some photos next time. A picture speaks a thousand words. ;)

[9x19 Parabellum]

Indeed, Great Batrep and thread name.

 

So, despite a couple people recently revisiting the topic, the games seem to be playing out that we are, indeed, very hungry for Command Points.

[brother_b]

Thanks for that report. I'd love to see a pic or two but understand not taking any. It's all motivation fodder for me !!

[Calistarius]

Awesome write up! I enjoyed reading that. I’ve realized all of my theory-crafting is worthless when I get into the game. Murphy’s Law and all.

 

I’m both nervous and excited to see this Tau codex. I’ve been looking for a reason to start a filthy xenos army. Plus, I’ve got a thing for their battle suits.

 

Edit: I say “nervous” because I remember the days of old, and how powerful Tau once were. I don’t miss those days.

Edited February 21, 2018 by Calistarius

[Panzer]

To be fair mid-late 7th T'au were only that powerful thanks to the Riptide formation and the Markerlight Commander (reliable Markerlights hitting on 2+). The rest of the Codex was not that broken.

Just try to ignore 90% of the T'au whining on the internet, it's been outdated for quite some time now and became more of meme these days. From what I've heard from the latest rumours T'au will still have a lot of troubles against armies with negative to-hit modificators with their Codex so I doubt they'll be a top tier army that soon again. Tho it does sound like the Riptide will become something to recon with again which is quite nice since despite the hate it's a great model.

 

What that means for us BA ... well depending on how efficient the Shield Drone bubble wrap will be after Codex release we could have some trouble and the easy access to a 4++ on big suits could be annoying for thunder hammer wielding marines. Plus there's the easy access to anti-reserve shooting, however that should only become an issue if the meta is saturated with reserve lists since it costs them a valuable equip slot on battlesuits.

Other than that I think BA will still have very good chances against T'au since we have the means to get into melee and even tho many things there have the FLY keyword T'au still don't like getting into melee with things that hurt. ;)

 

On the other hand, from a T'au perspective, if I know I'm facing BA I could write a very mean anti-list. Tho that has always been the case with T'au due all the options they have for their battlesuits. ^^

[Calistarius]

Oh I should have specified! I played against a lot of Tau in 3rd and 4th. I actually didn’t face them in 7th very often. Lucky me. They may not have been as good during the time I faced them, but I was considerably younger and my memory of them is not having an answer for all the rail guns with my 3rd and 4th edition army. That was before the Riptide was even a twinkle in GWs eye.

 

I didn’t mean to sound whiny about them. I like the army, and I don’t buy into internet complaints until I see it first hand.

 

I’m excited to see what sort of shenanigans they’ll be able to pull with their new codex! They’d be the xenos faction I flock to.

[Karhedron]

Tau are always a tricky prospect due to their variety. Peter has quite a force at his disposal, the last time I faced him it was Stealth Suit spam. Like Eldar they can have quite a variety of very different builds so you are never sure whether they are going to come out with rock, scissors or paper. In a pre-arranged match they can really load up on the tools they need to take down opponent X. In open play, the effectiveness of balanced armies with their new Codex will determine whether they make it into the top tier or not.

[Indefragable]

One trend I have noticed in a lot of battle reports lately is BA spreading their forces out. Granted I don’t have the full mental picture of your game, and you won based on the decision to keep your Troops on Obj, so take this as you will...

 

...but I find it’s usually better to not fight fair and gang up on enemies, especially in melee. “One enemy in the grave is worth two in the hospital.” I find myself thinking “oh, we have Red Thirst so x will easily clobber y...” ...when my SM friends don’t have that luxury so they commit what they KNOW will kill an enemy unit and then move on to the next one. I find that a lot of losses for BA (my own included) tend to come from overextending ourselves and making decisions based on the optimistic side of statistics rather than planning for the pessimistic side of dice and using those numbers to our favor.

[Panzer]

Oh I definitely agree!

Overwhelming a flank is often way more successfull than trying to threaten multiple important units across the board. Just make sure that you can continue with the pressure afterwards or the opponent will retaliate quickly ... and that'll be ugly. That goes for melee as well as for shooting.

[Indefragable]

Oh I definitely agree!

Overwhelming a flank is often way more successfull than trying to threaten multiple important units across the board. Just make sure that you can continue with the pressure afterwards or the opponent will retaliate quickly ... and that'll be ugly. That goes for melee as well as for shooting.

Right. I find that you need to either play for the objectives OR go for the throat and try to kill a critical mass of your opponent...it’s rare that you can successfully pull off both.

[Blackcadian]

Great batrep, thanks a lot for sharing! I havent played Tau yet but I kinda dread the first time. Also when they get their codex I expect them to become even more powerful but from what I hear so far theyre already bad enough :/

[Panzer]

Great batrep, thanks a lot for sharing! I havent played Tau yet but I kinda dread the first time. Also when they get their codex I expect them to become even more powerful but from what I hear so far theyre already bad enough :/

 

T'au are currently one of the weakest armies out there. Everything is overpriced except for their infantry, Gun Drones and Commander and they have a hard time to hit better than 4+ unlike it used to be thanks to the new Markerlight table. You shouldn't worry too much about playing against Index T'au unless it's a Commander/Gun Drone spam list. ^^

[Diagramdude]

Great batrep! Very detailed and I liked how you went phase by phase. Thanks for this post!

[Blackcadian]

 

 

Great batrep, thanks a lot for sharing! I havent played Tau yet but I kinda dread the first time. Also when they get their codex I expect them to become even more powerful but from what I hear so far theyre already bad enough :/

T'au are currently one of the weakest armies out there. Everything is overpriced except for their infantry, Gun Drones and Commander and they have a hard time to hit better than 4+ unlike it used to be thanks to the new Markerlight table. You shouldn't worry too much about playing against Index T'au unless it's a Commander/Gun Drone spam list. ^^

Well that’s good to know, cheers!

[Majkhel]

I've played against Tau Commanders+drones spam last week. Their overwatch synergy is scary. Especially if Marker drones manage to hit and start giving re-rolls to other overwatchers. And you have to literally kill every last drone before you are able to get to those commanders. Their FLY also means that whatever you are not able to kill in one turn, will shoot you after falling back from combat. My list was mostly assault-oriented unfortunately. Next time I'll be bringing more Heavy bolters + Dakka-razor.

Edit: Drones seems to currently be the best choice for Tau (pre-codex)

Edited February 22, 2018 by Majkhel

[Karhedron]

Yup, Drone abuse and overwatch are largely what keeps Tau competitive at all currently. You are forced to waste both shooting and melee attacks on cheap (but mobile chaff) while their heavy lifters have Fly to get out of combat and still shoot. I am curious (and nervous) to see what the new Codex brings them.

 

Heavy Bolters, Assault Cannons and bolter Inceptors are all good for Drone clearance. I am wondering if Terminators might have a use here. Drop them in T1 and use their storm bolters and AC to clear drones. After the Termies drop, there should be a lot fewer Drones about and you can even try an opportunistic charge if you are lucky. After that, the Tau player will need to decide what to do about them.

 

With 2W and 2+ saves, they are much more durable against pulse rifle fire than PA bods. Tau plasma rifle are only 1D and Missile pods are only AP-1 meaning Tau don't have such efficient Terminator-killing weapons as Imperial/Chaos armies. So they have the potential to hang around for a few turns unless the Tau turn their really big guns on them (which could take pressure off the rest of your army).

 

Food for thought perhaps.

Edited February 22, 2018 by Karhedronuk

[Panzer]

Terminators are way too expensive for Drones. You can easily get three Drones per Terminator and Stormbolter have to wound on 4+, get through the 4+ armor and in case of the Shield Drones through the 5+ FnP as well.

 

As for the Terminators Durability...well nobody plays Plasma with T'au anymore. Cyclic Ion Blaster have more shots, better strength, do multi-damage when overcharged and can get buffed to AP-2 via support system. Missile Pods can be buffed to AP-2 as well.