Tau vs IG: Blood In The Sand

Tau vs 24th Fortunan
Mission: Annihilation
Deployment: Spearhead
Points: 2000

For this game I went for a slightly different set up, as I needed to field almost all of my models to get up to this point value. I dropped both squads of vets, Marbo and the stormtroopers in favor of two large infantry platoons. Clubs platoon would start on the board and play defense for the tanks and call in heavy weapons fire on the enemy while Hearts platoon would outflank and hopefully catch the wily grav-tanks by surprise. I also paid for three sentinels, two of them armored with camo netting and plasma cannons and one scout with a lascannon. Also, my lascannon Russ was upgraded to a Pask-enabled Vanquisher as I was curious about the tank.

The Tau got the first turn and readily opened fire. Submunition rounds from the Hammerhead slammed into my infantry while the Broadsides and Skyray attempted to crack the armor of my HB Russ and Stompy Jr. respectively. Fortunately the armor of the battle tank and the armored sentinel both withstood the assault without a scratch on them. Return fire from my heavy weapons teams was vicious- the mortars pinned one squad of pathfinders and broke another while the lascannons eliminated a broadside with style and panache. Characteristic of their performance all game the two Leman Russes failed to do squat thanks to poor shooting and disruption fields.

The second turn saw a squad of Stealth Suits drop from the sky and land in the middle of my back field while Kroot charged out of the woods towards my Lascannon teams. The former eliminated a mortar team causing it to flee the battle while the Kroot managed to take down a lascannon team. More shells pounded my infantry and tanks, though no significant damage was accrued. In retribution for my lost mortar team I sent my PCS out to douse the Kroot with the Emperor’s fiery justice, sweeping the lot of them from the board. My CCS meanwhile brought the Stealth Team down to 1 man with plasmafire which my remaining mortar squad finished off with lasgun fire.

More battlesuits fell from the sky, including Commander Shadowsun who unfortunately managed to incur a Deep Strike mishap by landing on one of my Chimeras, even with reroll. The other battlesuit team landed safely and burned my PCS to the ground. Only the medic managed to make his FNP saves… Elsewhere the battle was also not going well. My infantry platoon had been forced to seek shelter in a nearby rock outcropping, but even so they were slowly being whittled down to nothing. My reserves finally decided to grace me with their presence on the third turn; Al’Rahem and his demo charge SWS came in on my flank while the rest of my reserves came in on the other. This latter was perhaps a poor decision as the Tau tanks were out of range for my guys, though the scout sentinel managed to down the hammerhead with one lascannon shot. The demo charges eliminated the attacking battlesuits easily.

At this point the KP were very close, 6-5. He easily got another one with one volley of fire from his command battlesuit group which was equipped with a fragmentation airburst projector, basically a large blast mortar version of the flamer. With it he destroyed two combined squads of Guardsmen. Now tied, I had a problem; I had stupidly placed two easily obtainable kill points on his side of the board (My melta SWS squad and the scout walker), so I needed to get at least 2 to tie the game… or pray for an early conclusion. On turn 5 I downed the last broadside with lascannon fire and was leading 7-6. We rolled for turn 6 and it came up 4, so we played on.

The Tau focused all of their fire on the walker and the SWS. Miraculously 1 meltagunner managed to survive the onslaught by making 3 consecutive 6+ cover saves, denying him the KP. On my turn I opened fire on a wounded Devilfish, bringing it down with plasmagun and Vanquisher fire. The roll for turn 7 came up 2, so the game ended with me ahead by 1 KP, 8-7.

It was a really hard fought match that came down to blind luck in the end. Granted we both made some stupid decisions during the game, but it was still a very entertaining and thrilling battle. Things that I won’t do again include using the Pask/Vanquisher combo as it only managed to take down a single tank all game, and that on the very last turn by stripping it of all weapons and immobilizing it. If it only had AP 1 it would be a beast, but as it stands it’s not worth the points, especially with Pask.