Brief Battle Reports - Ravenwing vs T'au

[Berzul]

Hey guys.

 

So, I wanted to test a list for an upcoming tournament at the end of march in my local community. My old T'au nemesis, who had been out the game for quite a few months, abliged to test my army against his own army. I just wanted to share the results.

 

We played 2 games, from the Maelstorm of War missions from the CA2018 book. We played Visions of VIctory first (the one where you draw two objectives and your opponent discards one, frces you to keep the other) and Strategic Gamble second (the one where you can trade in 2 objective cards for a new one, and the new one is wrth 2x points that turn).

 

Lists were at 1500 points, minimum of 1 batallion in each list.

 

The board itself was a densly packed urban scenario.

 

Hidden Content

 

I brought in a batallion, composed of:

 

Master in jump pack with chainsword and bolt pistol, brilliant strategist

Talonmaster with Heavenfall Blade

 

5 Scouts with bolters and a heavy bolter

5 Scouts with bolters and a heavy bolter

5 Scouts with sniper rifles and a missile launcher

 

6 Ravenwing Bikers with chainswords, 2 melta guns, and an Attack Bike with a multi melta

6 Ravenwing Bikers with chainswords, 2 melta guns, and an Attack Bike with a multi melta

6 Ravenwing Black Knights, with a power sword on the Huntmaster

Ravenwing Darkshroud with heavy bolter

 

Ravenwing Dark Talon

 

Hidden Content

 

My opponent brought two batallions and a vanguard, composed of:

 

Shadowsun

2 Cadre Fireblades

Darkstrider

Cold Star Commander with 4 fusion guns and retrothrusters

Ethereal with the relic that recycles command points

 

6 Firewarriors

6 Firewarriors

6 Firewarriors

6 Firewarriors

6 Firewarriors

6 Firewarriors

 

6 Sniper Drones

2 of the markerlight snipers (don't remember the name)

 

6 Shield Drones

5 Shield Drones

4 Shield Drones

 

3 Crisis Suits with missile pods and a drone controller, one of them in an iridium suit

1 Riptide

 

Hidden Content

 

So, in brief, how did things go?

 

FIRST BATTLE

 

I deployed first, and my opponent gave me first turn. We had Search and Destroy deployment.

 

On turn one, I moved my Black Knights forward, under the Darkshourd, with the Master and Talonmaster in tow. One squad of bikers went down the side, and the last one tried to maneuver for an outflanking maneuver. The Dark Talon went across the board to pick shots. The scouts infiltrated across the board.

 

I was only in range with 4 black knights, the Dark Talon, the Scouts, and one biker. I really maneuverd poorly. Managed to kill about 3 drones and 2 firewarriors, all in all.

 

The T'au then caled Kauyon and through the rerrolls and rapid fire boosts of the army, shot my dark talon away, all but two black knights, and about half the scouts.

 

On turn two, I managed t get in range with the rest of my bikers, and cleared the firewarriors (drones were out of reach so all I could kill were firewarriors). But then the T'au, in one volley, wiped out one of the two bike squads, while the Coldstar Commander positioned itself behind my Darkshroud to blow it up.

 

I had to call it on my opponent's favour by then. It was an absolute massacre. I was very disheartened.

 

SECOND BATTLE

 

I deployed second, in dawn of war deployment, and had first turn again.

 

I placed the black knights on one side of the board, out of LoS, and the rest of the army in a much more cohesive formation on the other side of the board. My opponent placed his sniper drones with his crisis suits on one side, then the entire castle of firewarrios, cadres, riptide and drones on the other side.

On turn one, this time, I managed tomove my army entirely within the -1 to be hit, and rerroll bubbles, to clash he T'au . My Dark Talon took out 2 Firewarriors squads. One bike squad took out another 2. The other bike squad took out almost the last 2. Only 3 firewarriors survived, to guard the characters as they started to retreat.

 

And retreat they did. The entire T'au force started to try and reposition to the side of the board the crisis suits were at. Forcing me to chase them all down. Luckly, he focused his fire on the Dark Talon, and with the -2 to be hit, even after all his rerrolls and marker lights, the Dark Talon survived with 2 wounds.

 

The Coldstar again breached my lines to take out the shroud, but failed to kill it.

 

On turn two, my melta bikes killed the coldstar, while the rest formed a line towards the riptide, still trying to take out the drones first and failing to do so. My Black Knights pressed on, but didn't do any damage at all.
 

On his turn, my opponent wiped out the black knights, but other than that, still failed to kill the Dark Talon and the Darkshroud, which was awesome. So on we went to turn three.

 

On turn three, his forces had fallen back deeply to one side of the board, but his characters were to slow to make it on foot, so I managed to breach his lines with the darktalon, killing the 3 firewarriors left with a stasis bomb, clearing a path for y bikes to kill shadowsun, darkstrider, and the fireblades; while my scouts managed to clear the sniper drones.

 

The riptide and the crisis suits fought back and took out one bike squad, which hurt a lot, though, but the score was getting very one sided and his forces were down to pretty much the crisis suits and the riptide, which was demoralizing... even though, lets be honest. Those two units alone could have wiped the board.

 

But, on turn four I pressed on, killing a couple of crisis suits under weight of fire, leaving the riptide pretty much on its own, up a bulding, shooting down, and failing to kill me. I had one squad left, so SotR was a no brainer, and that saved my life.

 

My opponent decided to call it after that, since he had no way of achieving objectives at that point, cornered as he was.

 

 

 

So, one horrible loss on battle 1, one very satisfying victory on battle 2. All in all, a good day of gaming.