TMI: TauMachine

Another great Saturday of gaming. Sadly, no Malifaux to be had. I also failed to get pictures of my Warmachine game against Ed.

I showed up early to work on the cavern board, but I had left the wrench for my dremmel at home. This meant that I would be routing out the river and the bit would turn into a drill and shoot into the board. Super awesome! So, with that fiasco going on, it was relatively easy to put that up and begin a game against Ed. We played Warmachine, since all he had with him was Warmachine and Fantasy, and I, surprisingly, didn't have my fantasy. We played 25 points, as that is the new league size, and Ed was kind enough to let me get my game in. We played mission eight, which was two zones and a pillar to destroy. Neither of us went for the opponent's zone, though we both tried to destroy the opponent's pillar. It started out fairly blandly, both of us manoeuvring, waiting to see what the other would do. On turn two I moved my caster into my zone, scoring the first point. On his turn three, he moved his into his zone, starting a ticking of points, with me ahead by one. On his fourth turn, he dropped a node from his colossus, contesting my zone. This brought us to a 3-3 tie. He also brought my pillar to one wound. On my turn I killed both his pillar and his node, which gave me a point, and then at the end of the turn we both scored zone points again, ending the game with a 5-4 win for me. A good game, down to the wire. I, of course, did almost no killing, but took heavy damage.


Game two was versus Troy with his 'Nids. I took my new Tau list, but with a squad of Fireknives(Plasma Missile) and a squad of Helios(Plasma Fusion) suits. I think the Helios squads are better in this edition, but I wanted to put them on the table to see for sure. I also took the targeting arrays that gave me precision shot. I will list the final army at the bottom for those that are curious. This game went pretty rough. He swooped in and killed an Ionhead, and it went down from there. I probably took my most heavy losses turns one and two, not good for Tau. The army still has the killing potential early, but things move in faster in this edition, making it rough to hang on as long. I made the same mistake I am trying to correct with my Eldar versus Troy, in that I target the Tyrants and try and take them out instead of his scoring capability. They are just so scary, though.

After a couple of turns of whittling a rock I came to my senses and focused on his troops. I killed a tervigon and most of his gaunts. He was still spawning with the other, but they were so far over hunting me down, they were mostly out of the game. At the end of five I screwed up and moved my hammer head to far, not giving me scoring on a big guns objective. This wouldn't have mattered, as I killed enough of his gaunts to have pushed him off the objective, had Nabors not intervened and suggested Troy move his gaunts to secure the objective. Had it gone down that way, I would have drawn Emperor's Will for secondary and tied on objectives, but him killing two of my heavies to his none, meaning I would have suffered a minor loss. The likely new point spread would have given me 8 tournament points to his 14. Not a bad showing, personally, and would have put me on mid tables where I like to be.


Game three was another 40k game versus Paul's Eldar using my Tau again. This time I switched the Fireknives to Helios, meaning I had two squads running plasma fusion. I originally assumed that having played Eldar so much I would be able to pick his priority targets easily and take them out with my superior fire power. Jetbikes and Eldar Tanks are very different creatures. Also, I didn't seem to have the superior firepower. He had first turn, he linked a pair of Fire Prisms and did... nothing. The other Fire Prism, however, killed a Hammer Head right out of the gate. Hit, pen, 6 to explode. This was kinda a theme of the game. Three Fire Prisms, two did almost nothing, the other ran rampant. It tallied two hammerheads and plenty of Kroot and Firewarriors. He also put his Seer Council in the center of my line, to which I proceeded to smile evilly, fire everything, and do nothing. Oh, right, Fortune Councils are a pain to kill. I sure hope they fix that in the new book, they are super broken. I didn't say that! Please don't break my Eldar, I am begging on my knees!
Ahem... Sorry about that. Um... Back to the game. After firing feebly, I charged with a unit of Helios Suits. Yeah, that's what I said. I needed to tie him up, or the return Desctructors would mulch my army. And then burn it down. And make smores. So, I sacrificed a squad. They almost failed, and died turn one, but they managed to hold on. Turn two, he killed a Devilfish. The same stupid Fire Prism. Another explosion. Fire warriors come out fine, but pinned. All of my reserves come in. My stealths weren't able to destroy a tank, they scattered so only the fusion was useful. My Kroot outflanked, one squad plinking a Fire Prism, the other, with help, deleting the Shining Spear squad. I also believe this is where my first Helios squad died.
On his turn, his free Council moves off to kill me Commander's drones and himself. He also knocks out another Hammerhead, though this one is just a wreck. I do some more shooting, but just can't seal the deal anywhere. He charges into my Commander and finishes off the drones and leaves him at one wound remaining. Then my Commander continues to fight in the same combat for several turns with just one wound remaining.
Yeah, the challenge mechanic is stupid. His Farseer gets one attack, hits one threes, wounds on twos, I save on threes. My Commander gets four attacks(What?), hits on fours, wounds on threes, and he gets a three up rerollable. Drawn combat after drawn combat, but I will take it.

He does finally kill the Commander and then targets in on my Warlord. Its the same thing, I challenge, and then lock him up turn after turn. My Kroot have an objective on the side, my Firewarriors have one in the middle, has has one in his zone, but I'm widdling his Dire Avengers down and his guardians are still in their tank and out of position. Turn five I win. Of course it goes on to six. He breaks my first commander, I make bad placement on my Fire Warriors and my Warlord, just begging for some Destructor. He obliges. One Kroot squad is removed, with a lone Kroot fleeing, but the one on the objective is fine. It is looking like a draw if it ends on six. Of course not. Turn seven, he wipes the other squad of Kroot, the lone Kroot doesn't rally, I have no troops. He unloads his Guardians on the objective, no way I can shake them, but I try anyway. I think he even managed to wound my Warlord in combat, and he got ran down. They may not have happened. Doesn't matter, turn seven is a complete loss.
The Tau played for me as they always have, I worked super hard, had the win, only for it to slip through my fingers. Both games saw me taking heavy losses, but keeping my troops intact. If they had just ended I could have been happy with the result. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy my games. I am saying that watching victory slip away after putting so much into a game is why I had to shelve them before. Even though I had my best performance in a tournament with Tau, I'm not sure if I will be playing them competitively. Having said that, I am looking to go to the Westminster tournament at the end of next month, and since it is 2000 points, I will likely be taking Tau. I doubt I will have my Eldar up to that points level.

And of course my 1750 list:
HQ
Commander: Fusion Blaster, Target Lock, Drone Controller, Velocity Tracker, Marker Drone
Commander: Fusion Blaster, Target Lock, Drone Controller, Velocity Tracker, Marker Drone
Troops
Fire Warriors: 6
Devilfish: Disruption Pod, SMS
Fire Warriors: 6
Devilfish: Disruption Pod, SMS
Kroot: 10, Sniper Rounds
Kroot: 10, Sniper Rounds
Elites
Stealth Suits: 3, Shas'Vre, Fusion Blaster(On leader), Markerlight Crisis Suits: 3, Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Advanced Targeting Array
Crisis Suits: 3, Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Advanced Targeting Array
Fast
Drone Squad: 4 Marker Drones
Drone Squad: 4 Marker Drones
Heavy Support
Hammerhead: Ion Cannon, Disruption Pod
Hammerhead: Ion Cannon, Disruption Pod
Hammerhead: Ion Cannon, Disruption Pod