Warhammer 40k Space Marine Blood Angels: Blood Angels vs Tau

Today I played a sick Tau army. Sorry no pics today.
Enemy army:
3 Hammerhead tanks with Rail Guns and Smart Missles.
1 stealth suit team with 8 or 10 guys
2 12 man Fire Warrior squads in Transports with burst cannon and gun drones
2 2 man Crisis suit teams with Plasma Rifles and Missle Pods
2 HQ in Crisis Suits
2 seperate Piranha each with gun drones

Blood Angels:
Dante
Corbulo
5 man Honor Guard decked as listed in my list
5 man Troops Assault Squad with Power Weapon
5 man troops assault squad with Rhino (Corbulo attaches to this and rides in the rhino)
5 man Veteran Assault with 3 powers
5 man Death Company with jump packs
Furioso with Flamer in Drop Pod
Baal Predator with heavy bolter sponsons
Vindicator
Devastator Squad with 10 men, 2 plasma cannons, 1 las cannon, 1 heavy bolter

My opponent insisted on wizzywig terrain and got choice of side of map, so he sellected the by far superrior deployment for his tanks. He had his stuff divided, with his 3 tanks, 2 troop transports, stealth suits and a team of crisis suits with a commander on the left side of the board, with another commander, a team of suits and 2 piranha on the right. I deployed all of my guys on the right with my DC on the left behind cover. The mission was Take and Hold Gamma.

Round 1:
Opponent wins roll and takes first turn. He fires all that he can, and explodes my Rhino, and kills 2 marines. He chose to take the template gun on his hammerheads and gave me saves rather then use the solid shot. My marines were exposed with the destroyed rhino and he would have taken out at least 3 with the solids... Opponent shooting done with 2 marines and my rhino dead.

On my turn my DC jumped up behind cover again, and in range to assault next turn. Curbolo stayed with the entangled squad that was in the rhino. The rest of the guys,who were using the rhino as cover, jumped behind the cover to the right flank. I moved up the assault squad, and the honor guard behind big cover, where they stayed the rest of the game. The Ball rolled a 1 when I reved its engines, and stalled. The vindicator moved out to the right flank, close to the right edge, and fired at but missed the piranhas. The Devs fired at a hammer head and stunned it.

End round 1.

Round 2:

Opponent moves in for the kill on the squad entangled in the middle. But after fireing a lot of shots at them and the devastator squad, only managed to kill a few. He had poor luck with his rail guns and shooting in general. He moved his piranhas up and deployed the drones. His drones actually tried to assault my Devs, but the devs killed them in the opening of the assault. His round ended with little killing.

On my turn, My drop pod Furioso came in. I dropped it right in frong of his tanks, blocking their line of sight and deployed him with the pod between him and the tanks. I jumped my death company into range to assault a Hammer head or Troop carrier if I so chose. I moved my HG and AS into better cover, where they also had shots at the Piranhas. I dumbly moved my Vet Assalut Squad out into the open where they would be in range to assault the suits next turn...I didnt want to take a chance jumping into cover and rolling 1s..I would pay for this. The DC shot at a tank while the Furioso took cover. My assault squad on foot with Corbulo moved towards the center and took cover. My squads in cover fired at the piranhas and took em both out with pistol fire. The vindicator missed again. On assault, my DC charged a hammer head, rended it, glanced it, then rolled a 6 for the glance.. POP!

Turn 3:
Tau deployed his two squads of fire warriors with rapid fire range on the DC. He placed the transport between my Furioso and the squad. He unleashed no less then 85 shots at that DC after his 2 squads of warriors, a crisis team, and the stealth team all shot. He killed 3. He then asaulted with the crisis suits.. but it was a draw combat. His other suits jumped into range and shot up my veteran squad, and killed them all. :( He fired more shots at the Devs and killed a couple more, but nothing too bad.

On my shooting I cleaned up the rest of his drones on the right side with pistol fire, the vindicator took revenge and fired at the crisis commander on the right side, but the shot scattered and landed on the suit team that was hiding behind cover...killing them both. The Furioso unleashed his guns on the transport..the Melta missed, but the flamer was able to wash over all but 3 of the fire warriors... The last 3 made their leadership test. For the rest of the game the Furioso would try to take out the transport by fireing its melta, then assaulting. It was unsuccessful. Damn skimmer. On assault I had to roll a 6 to hit, and he kept making me reroll my glances... Oh well, he did earn his points by taking control of the left flank. The assault was a draw again. Dante detached from his squad and went tank hunting. Every one else took cover. My Ball moved out and fired all its guns, but failed to kill any thing.

Round 4:
My opponent attempted to knock out my Vindicator with a hammer head, but missed. He also took a shot at my Furioso who had hull down and lived. He would kill a couple more Devs with smart missle fire, but most of his firepower was nulified. He moved his surviving fire warriors into assault against the last DC who was up against 2 suits. Bad move. The DC went first and killed all 3 of the Fire Warriors. This made the suits lose combat! Luckily they made their leadership test. The game had turned to my favor. I had a squad in scoring position, and 2 more in range, but safe behind cover.

On my turn, The vindicator knocked the gun off the hammer head. The devs drew a bead and fired at one of the commanders who left himself exposed... missed. Dante fired at the hammer head that the Vindi shot at but missed. That was pretty much it..

Round 5:
My opponent tried to knock out my Baal, but only popped its turret and stunned it. He moved his other fire warrior squad into position to pop out and kill my Furioso. He completely destroyed my squad holding the middle, despite Corbulo's best efforts to save them. I think he realised his tactical error. He did not have enough units in range to score the objective. So he went for total victory points.

On my turn, Dante ran down one of the suits and assaulted it...causing 2 wounds but not killing it. It lost combat but made its check. The vindicator fired at the hammer head again and stunend it. The last remaining Dev, the lascannon, fired at the last Hammer head and missed. There wasnt much left!

Round 6: My opponent moved his last hammerhead into score. He popped the furioso and killed the last DC. At the end of his shooting, he had 1 hammer head in scoring range but nothing else. Dante finished off the suit on this assault then massacred close to a tank.

I moved my Assault Squad and my Honor Guard into scoring range. I also moved my Baal which my opponent ignored. That gave me 3 units in the middle. Dante moved to pop the last tank but missed..again. The vindicator also missed..lucky tank. It came down to Victory Points, which I ended up winning because I got a bonus 410 from having 3 units in scoring range.

The army was fast moving, hard hitting and he was a smart player. But My Blood Angels won the fight through tactics and luck. Let it be noted that the list I played last week in the tournament would have been SLAUGHTERED by this force. My list as it stands now is a vastly superior force. I give MVP to the Devs for eating up a lot of shots while taking control of the middle of the battle field with good lines of fire. Also the Dread and DC probably won the fight. It turned his whole left flank, which was freely shooting at me, into a big mess. While my blood angels did not do very well in assault.. they still won the game. Big changes, big results.

I am playing one more game tomorrow night before Gamesday, then time to go play! I will have pics tomorrow of that fight at the club.