The Tao of Tau

Or is it the Tau of Tao? I can never remember. Back again, a day later, with another 40K battle report versus Troy's Nids. Not to worry, I did get in a half game of Malifaux to chat about as well, with my Leveticus taking on Pandora. I didn't get a picture of that, not exactly sure why. I had the phone out and either my phone or myself shorted, resulting in no picture. Ah, well, on to the games.

It basically went down like this. I had today off, but with the Bronco's in the AFC Championship, driving to Longmont for a game was rather a waste, so I hit up Troy for a game or two today, while waiting to go pick up my kids. I had hoped to play Malifaux, but with Troy on some sort of prep for Genghiscon with my new Nids kick, I got roped into playing with my Tau. If you were looking for a strategy guide on how to play Tau and the ins and outs, this isn't likely it. Go play O'Vessa star, wrecks some hobbies, there, you have been learned. My list was a Farsight bomb with buff commander, two missile broadside units with interceptor(useless this game), two marker drone squads, two fire warrior squads, two kroot squads with hounds. This game went exactly how my Tau games have gone for the last 5+ years, and reminded me why I don't play them any more. Turn one I brought the hurt. I had first turn, so I wanted to make his flyers pay, but could only really reach the Harpy and maybe one of the Tyrants, but not the warlord. I removed the Harpy and one of the Exocrines. We were playing the Con's Big Guns variant, so that was a point and First Blood. He flew forward and put the hurt on Farsight's bodyguard, dropping it to a man, but leaving Farsight and the caddy unharmed. They jumped into a Broadside squad, while the last suit moved off. I then pumped almost my entire army into the wounded non-warlord Hive Tyrant and couldn't finish him off. He then went into a little more wrecking. I followed with weaker shooting, finishing the Hive Tyrant's last wound, but not much else. Basically it all came down to doing super damage early and if its enough, I win, but if not, my opponent gets into me, and I die. I didn't do enough damage. I probably should have ignored the Hive Tyrant after I failed to Markerlight him on turn two and gone after the more assured Exocrines. In hindsight they would likely have gone down much easier, given me a point for Big Guns and not been such a thorn later with their no gets hot plasma shots. I guess it is all about learning and improving.

After some quick lunch, we dove into a Malifaux game. He took Pandora, and I brought the recently and soon to be revamped Leveticus crew. We promptly forgot to score Reconoiter, I was down to one Waif on turn three when we called it and Leveticus was buried. Ashes and Dust, using Oathkeeper, had dropped to markers for Protect Territory and likely made a bad jump to board center. Rusty had failed Terrifying against Pandora and spent turn two staring at her boots. The new Hodgepodge gave me a stone when I killed the Poltergeist on turn two, but had died to Pandora on turn three. I had managed to create two Abominations, would have been three, but I got my suits mixed up when I killed the Poltergeist, missing the trigger, but being primed for an Unnatural Wasting. I don't believe the game was written by any means, but I was on the back foot. The Waif had to only survive one or two(can't remember range, I say one, Troy says two) Df 14 duels to survive and bring back Leveticus. I had turn two Recon and probably turn three. After that, well, it never happened. Entourage depended on the Waif surviving and then Leveticus afterwards. Ashes and Dust had Protect Territory locked down, so I wasn't worried there. Troy's crew was Pandora, Candy, and Barbaros by this point, so it was still tight. If the Waif died, I would have to go into serious denial mode, but I could have used my numbers to pull it off, possibly. A really interesting game, and one I really wish we could have finished. As it is, we will never know...