Battle Report: BA vs Tau 2k points

So, getting in some 2k point practice for BoLScon, I managed to get a game against a new guy at our club playing Tau. I warned him about my army, and told him to play a strong 2k list. He had a lot of fire power... Hammer head with rail gun, squad of 3 broadsides with TL railguns, a couple other suit squads with lots of guns, snipers, marker lights etc. His Strategy was to use marker lights to increase his BS and focus his fire power on any thing that got close... fairly good and suprisingly good tactic!

Deployment: DoW
Mission: 4 Loot Counters

He deployed first, and placed 2 Fire warrior squads near objectives, with a stealth suit commander close by. I deployed a 5 man combat squad with Lascannon on an objective, and Dante attached. The objectives were set up with a 12" triangle on his side of the board on my right, and one lone objective on my left, on his edge of the board. The only objective on my side was one of the points of the triangle, which I placed my squad on. Luckily blocking LoS from most of his stuff.

Turn 1:

I won the roll and gave him first turn. He came on with every thing! DoW saved me since nothing was able to get range. He lined up on his edge, keeping his long range stuff in the corners, with shorter range stuff in the middle.

On my turn, I brought in every thing on my right half of the board. I decided to ignore the lone objective to my left, since he put a lot of resources into holding it. Most of the stuff there would never make it over to the 3 objectives I planned on taking. Plus, I could shoot the FW off of it with heavy bolter fire if I needed to. I moved up a rhino into the open center, and jumped Dante over to it, using it as cover. This was to draw his fire. He had to deal with that rhino and Dante. I was hoping with cover saves it would last a while, soaking up most of his shots, and giving all of my late coming rhinos a chance to move fast and get into position. If he chose not to deal with the rhino and instead target my other tanks, he would be in trouble when they unload and get into his ranks, and Dante starts running around.

The rest of my stuff moved up as far from the edge a possible. My speeders moved 24 and hid forward, while my Lascannon combat squad would hunker down on an objective and hide. They would need to survive the entire game...

Turn 2:

On his turn, he decided that Dante had to die. First, he shot his commander at the rhino Dante was hiding behind... first shot... exploded it... This was not going to go well for me. The rest of his shots would take down the combat squad iside, and reduce Dante to 1 wound... but he lived! He even withstood 2 rail cannon shots! My turn two was going to be fun. They did their job. He fired no shots at my rhinos and tanks.

On my turn, I jumped Dante into range to assault his first victim... a FW squad holding an objective. The rest of my stuff moved up into position to support Dante and get into range for a turn 3 charge. My attack bikes moved into position to attack a suit squad supported by speeders. I fast moved my Death Company as far as I could, hoping to get them in to join Dante and keep him alive... but could not reach... Dante would have to hold for another turn.

Dante assaulted the fire warriors and of course slaughtered them all. They broke and he cut them down... leaving himself in the open... Perfect! Now my opponent would have to sink more fire power into Dante... My Baal Preds were forced to waste shots of their own. He had two pirhana that were trying to get into position to melt my tanks. Every turn I shot at them with my preds... and one of them actually lived the entire game! Those cheap SOBs earned their points in that alone...

Turn 3:

He had to kill Dante. He focused a lot of shots on him, but still could not do it! More lucky invulnerable saves for me! Then travesty... after all of his shooting... he had killed my Death Company rhino, but Dante still lived. He decided to assault him with Fire Warriors! I laughed, and cut into them... Dante rolled to hit... landing 5 hits. He then rolled all 1s and 2s! ACK. The fire warriors, with their rediculously pathetic attacks managed to hit and wound Dante 4 times... and of course, if you make me roll 4 dice, a 1 is guaranteed... Dante fell. To fire Warriors. Oh... for the emperors sake...

On my turn things would start to lean my way though. My Death Company got into range and assaulted the squad that killed Dante. The FW held, though. Tough lot! My attack bikes killed a squad of suits and I lost a speeder. My preds moved up, and fired on his pirhanas, and my troops moved into range to fast move to objectives turn 5. My lowlight? I assaulted 3 broadsides with 2 attack bikes. All they had to do was hold them up for a turn so my Death Company could get over there and finish the job... I failed to wound, and he did a single wound. My bikes broke and ran! Just not my luck.

Turn 4:

Things were starting to get ugly for the Tau and he knew it. He popped another of my rhinos, but I had more... My Death Co Dread moved up to try to get into range, and my preds wasted more shots on the Pirhana, keeping them stunned an destroying guns. But the good part was they were getting into range of his last troop squad holding an objective... Once I brought my guns to bear on them... they would die quick. I needed to kill 4 to force a break test... only killed 3. Drat. My DC killed his FW squad on his assault and moved into range to take down his broadsides. Looking for a weaker target, my remaining attack bike went after some sniper drones. I killed a few in shooting, and they broke and ran off the table. Muahaha! By the end of turn 4, the game was pretty much in my hands. I had reduced his right flank and he had nothing really left to try to contest my 3 objectives that I firmly held, or would hold by turn 5.

Turn 5:

It took a turn for the worse for him. He was trying now to keep his fire warriors alive to keep his only objective, and attempt to contest my objective with his last transport. My preds moved up and shot his FW some more, killing a couple, but not enough to force a break. He killed a pred, and knocked an arm off my Dread, who was charging him as fast as he could in the open! I knocked the last guns off his pirhanas, eliminating that threat, and stunned his transport. My marines moved into range to hold 3 objectives firmly, with a rhino blocking LoS.

I rolled the die to end the game, and it went on to turn 6...

Turn 6:

The game was still in question. But not much. He destroyed another pred and knocked the other arm off my dread. My speeder moved up to shoot up snipers and my death company chased around his transport, keeping it stunned. By my turn, all I had to do was kill 2 more fire warriors to force a break, which I did, they broke and ran off his objective. I held 3 he held 0. The game ended on the die roll.

I know, I did not write a lot of detail here, but I made video and will be posting it soon. The game turned into a runaway for me, but was actually really close until the very end. Until my final shots, he had a chance to deny me my objectives, and keep his own... but my fire power won the day in the end.

MVP for me? Dante and his heroic stand. He swallowed up a LOT of shots that would have left my rhinos a bunch of smoking hulks. I did not pop smoke that turn banking on him wasting shots on Dante. I got lucky.

MVP for him? His Pirhanas. They soaked up my shots all game. If not for them, I would have moved my preds into range and wasted his last fire warrior squad turn 3, pretty much ending the game. But instead I had to shot them every turn, and at one point, a single ship made 5 cover saves against a single pred.

He had a lot of shots, and played smart! If I see any Tau at BOLSCON, I bet they will be played like this guy. He knew exactlly what he was doing, and with a few key decisions going a different way, could have won the game.

Nice game Brian!

JB