This weekend the mighty forces of the Rat Tau will join with the last remains of an Imperial Guard scout fleet and renegade group of Goblins that have equipped themselves for battle and smashed their way into the mercenary trade.
In other words, I am entering a tournament in which I will team up with two Imperial Guard armies to play through a series of games over two days including one Apocalypse game featuring Derikari and myself with Micros lads (those left alive after a Cities of Death game) as strategic reserves. Overall it should be an entertaining and educational tournament but enough of that, onto the details.
Under the instruction of Imperial Star Commander Deri Ka-Ri I will be fielding no less than five tank hulls within my 1'750 point list. As an overview my list for the tournament will consist of;
Many Crisis Suits
Mech Infantry
Hammerheads
Broadsides
A simple list reminiscent of a simpler time. I have, over the past weeks experimented with pathfinders and piranhas, drone teams and stealth suits. I even had a brief affair with the beautiful and deadly Commander Shadowsun but none of these could fulfil me the way that railguns and a torrent of S5 AP5 fire can. Plasma and fusion be damned! When the final skimmer has come crashing to the dirt and the last crisis has fallen to its knees I will stand tall and say that I did it my way with not an ethereal to be seen... That said I have still taken two plasma rifles in the list.
The plan is simple. Move and shoot. The broadsides will remain generally static though for an army to attack them directly they will have to run the gauntlet first. As always, I will be vulnerable to outflanking and possibly to deep striking TeQs though I have faced both and found that dealing with them was was a pinch so long as you are ready for it and the crisis suits stay within range to support the broadsides up until they are definitely lost.
What I have learned:
It's difficult to rate Broadsides highly enough. They may not last the whole game but then, they may not need to.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Monday, January 4, 2010
Sorry looking maggots...
Through this, my first month or so as Imperial Battle Lord, Commander of the Winds and Prince of the LaserRat I have enjoyed and endured battles both hard fought and hard won. However, it has only been within the last two weeks of so that I have felt like my plans in a game have actually come together. Previously I had been winning but how I won wasn't how I had planned to win and it seemed that I had simply stood my fearless rat-warriors in one spot, fired the guns and watched everything disappear (both mine and theirs depending on the game). Recently however, with many thanks to the likes of Micro and Deri "Would you like some army with your Kroot" Kari, I have felt that through the Tao of the Mech Tau and the "M-m-m-m-m-mobility!!!" doctrine I have been able to put together a plan with a specific outcome in mind and actually realise that outcome. I'm even brave enough now to take on Terminator Squads without running away and hiding in the bathrooms. Then I ran into Mega Armoured Nobz but that's another story.
Furthermore, I have finished my Broadside and Farsight conversions. When I can get some decent, non-blurry photos of them I will share with all haste.
What I have learned:
Be the wind, not the tree.
Furthermore, I have finished my Broadside and Farsight conversions. When I can get some decent, non-blurry photos of them I will share with all haste.
What I have learned:
Be the wind, not the tree.
Saturday, December 12, 2009
Blood Angels and Tau fight as one... Wait, what?
As I have pressed on with only a few minor changes to my army list and no increase in size yet I am at a crossroads of sorts. I don't particularly feel like doing the conversions required to field Kroot and I am converting a Farsight character at the moment which leads me to the conclusion that I may want to take a 'renegade' army.
The drawbacks to fielding such an army are many since the Kroot obviously bring a significant power to the army that the Tau otherwise lacks. Farsight does of course bring his own set of benefits with him but in a much more predictable way than our primitive friends.
The benefit of course to taking a "Farsighty" list is that in 'doubles' tournaments where I play with another army I am able to provide arguably unmatched ultra long range tank killing as well as the power of Farsights ability to decimate armor in close combat while relying on the other army to deal with infantry and sitting on objectives. In a solo game however I would still be a victim of the typical Tau problem of being unable to match the objective capturing ability of other armies.
Next week I will hopefully get the opportunity to test this very theory in a game against the unstoppable Goblin Guard (Imperial Guard 2.0) when I ally with Trashman and ravenous (and as yet headless) Blood Angels. Our last meeting was brief and murderous however this time, if the universe wills it and I don't tell Trashman to place his entire army in reserve I feel that we may be able to make something happen. With any luck, that something will be a field of dead Imperial Goblins.
The drawbacks to fielding such an army are many since the Kroot obviously bring a significant power to the army that the Tau otherwise lacks. Farsight does of course bring his own set of benefits with him but in a much more predictable way than our primitive friends.
The benefit of course to taking a "Farsighty" list is that in 'doubles' tournaments where I play with another army I am able to provide arguably unmatched ultra long range tank killing as well as the power of Farsights ability to decimate armor in close combat while relying on the other army to deal with infantry and sitting on objectives. In a solo game however I would still be a victim of the typical Tau problem of being unable to match the objective capturing ability of other armies.
Next week I will hopefully get the opportunity to test this very theory in a game against the unstoppable Goblin Guard (Imperial Guard 2.0) when I ally with Trashman and ravenous (and as yet headless) Blood Angels. Our last meeting was brief and murderous however this time, if the universe wills it and I don't tell Trashman to place his entire army in reserve I feel that we may be able to make something happen. With any luck, that something will be a field of dead Imperial Goblins.
Monday, December 7, 2009
Needs More Fire Warrior
You really cannot have too many Fire Warriors from what I've seen so far.
During this weeks games I amended my list in order to both make use of the very powerful Airburst Frag Projector and try to make better use of my Fire Warriors whos Str 5 AP 5 weapons I had hitherto failed to truly appreciate.
Over the course of two evenings play I only drew one win out of six games though I did manage a clutch of draws one of which should have been a definite win and one of which really should have been a loss had it not been for unbelievable luck.
Fortunately throughout these games I had the opportunity to face a number of Imperial Guard armies which was a welcome change from the Marines however it did highlight the flaws in my low shot number, low AP plasma rifle fetish that I had acquired the previous week. The large number of battlesuits that I brought carrying missile pods were largely unable to effectively move the massed Imperial Guard off an objective particularly when they were both in cover and under the effect of the 'Incoming!' order.
In light of this, the primary lesson for this week was with respect to markerlights and the realisation of just how powerful (read necessary) they are for a Tau army to play aggressively which, after seeing how effective battlesuits within 18 inches in a strategy that I will try to follow more closely. In the low point games that I am playing at the moment however I feel that I do not have the room for a relatively expensive Pathfinder team which makes this heavy use of markerlights possible however the presence of one of these plus a target lock within a Fire Warrior team adds a significant level of flexibility when things start to take an unexpected turn such as a Hellhound approaching your precious scoring units and refusing to die.
In other news there is a conversion competition coming up at my local GW so, provided I improve my photo taking ability I should have some more shots of my entry up in the next couple of weeks. As for the regular army conversions the Fire Warriors are still progressing slowly, oh so slowly.
During this weeks games I amended my list in order to both make use of the very powerful Airburst Frag Projector and try to make better use of my Fire Warriors whos Str 5 AP 5 weapons I had hitherto failed to truly appreciate.
Over the course of two evenings play I only drew one win out of six games though I did manage a clutch of draws one of which should have been a definite win and one of which really should have been a loss had it not been for unbelievable luck.
Fortunately throughout these games I had the opportunity to face a number of Imperial Guard armies which was a welcome change from the Marines however it did highlight the flaws in my low shot number, low AP plasma rifle fetish that I had acquired the previous week. The large number of battlesuits that I brought carrying missile pods were largely unable to effectively move the massed Imperial Guard off an objective particularly when they were both in cover and under the effect of the 'Incoming!' order.
In light of this, the primary lesson for this week was with respect to markerlights and the realisation of just how powerful (read necessary) they are for a Tau army to play aggressively which, after seeing how effective battlesuits within 18 inches in a strategy that I will try to follow more closely. In the low point games that I am playing at the moment however I feel that I do not have the room for a relatively expensive Pathfinder team which makes this heavy use of markerlights possible however the presence of one of these plus a target lock within a Fire Warrior team adds a significant level of flexibility when things start to take an unexpected turn such as a Hellhound approaching your precious scoring units and refusing to die.
In other news there is a conversion competition coming up at my local GW so, provided I improve my photo taking ability I should have some more shots of my entry up in the next couple of weeks. As for the regular army conversions the Fire Warriors are still progressing slowly, oh so slowly.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Square One
Last Friday night I finally got to playing my first 40k games ever starting off with four good games that yielded two draws, a win and a loss. My army list for the four 750 point games was as follows;
HQ
Shas’el CS (122) – Cyclic Ion Blaster, Missile Pod, Targeting array
HW Drone Controler, HW Multi tracker
2x Shield Drones
Troops
5x Shas’la + 1x Shas’ui FW (80) 6 x Pulse Rifle, 1 x Markerlight
5x Shas’la FW + 1x Shal'ui FW (70) 6 x Pulse Rifle
Elite
3x Shas’ui CS (201) – 3 x Plasma Rifle, 3x Missile Pod, 3x Multi-tracker
2x Shas’ui CS (110) – 2 x Burst Cannon, 2x Missile Pod, 2x Multi-tracker
Heavy Support
Hammerhead (165) – Railgun, Disruption Pods, Smart Missiles, Landing Gear, Targeting Array
Total = 748
Throughout the night I collected draws against Micros Imperial Goblin Guard (which probably warrant a blog of their own) and a Tau player where is both instances I simply setup and dug in around my objective wiping the floor with anyone who dared to get too close. At this stage I was a little unsure of what else I should be doing since, for some reason I was terribly afraid of losing battle suits even though, as I now know, battle suits exist to be lost in Capture and Control battles.
Following the pair of draws I fought an annihilation battle against a Daniels Space Marines where I managed to skilfully snatch defeat from the jaws of almost certain victory by forgetting that I was playing for kill points and sending my two squads of Fire Warriors to their death for no good reason despite previously decimating over half of his forces with the loss of only one suit. A worthy lesson was learned though that the stat line of Fire Warriors can not truly communicate just how incredibly bad they are in close combat.
With that brain-fart out of the way I moved on to another Space Marine player named Adam for whom nothing could seemingly go right. In the first two games I had well learned that the combination of plasma rifles and being aggressive with battle suits was a very powerful union. This tactic, despite rolling a 1 to hit for my Hammerhead in two successive turns, ensured that by the end of turn three Adams army amounted to one very lucky Dreadnought, one very lonely squad of Assault Marines and half a squad of very lost Scouts. The suits ensured that the Assault Marines didn't remain lonely for long and with the objective cleared I was able to claim my first ever win in Warhammer 40k. Go me.
Since tyhe learning process never really ends I include a 'What I Learned' section after my battle reports.
What I Learned:
The Rules
Plasma Rifles are, in fact, the best rifles
Don't forget to jump in the assault phase
Don't forget to run in the shooting phase
Don't forget that your Fire Warrior teams exist and leave them hiding behind a wall for most of the game
HQ
Shas’el CS (122) – Cyclic Ion Blaster, Missile Pod, Targeting array
HW Drone Controler, HW Multi tracker
2x Shield Drones
Troops
5x Shas’la + 1x Shas’ui FW (80) 6 x Pulse Rifle, 1 x Markerlight
5x Shas’la FW + 1x Shal'ui FW (70) 6 x Pulse Rifle
Elite
3x Shas’ui CS (201) – 3 x Plasma Rifle, 3x Missile Pod, 3x Multi-tracker
2x Shas’ui CS (110) – 2 x Burst Cannon, 2x Missile Pod, 2x Multi-tracker
Heavy Support
Hammerhead (165) – Railgun, Disruption Pods, Smart Missiles, Landing Gear, Targeting Array
Total = 748
Throughout the night I collected draws against Micros Imperial Goblin Guard (which probably warrant a blog of their own) and a Tau player where is both instances I simply setup and dug in around my objective wiping the floor with anyone who dared to get too close. At this stage I was a little unsure of what else I should be doing since, for some reason I was terribly afraid of losing battle suits even though, as I now know, battle suits exist to be lost in Capture and Control battles.
Following the pair of draws I fought an annihilation battle against a Daniels Space Marines where I managed to skilfully snatch defeat from the jaws of almost certain victory by forgetting that I was playing for kill points and sending my two squads of Fire Warriors to their death for no good reason despite previously decimating over half of his forces with the loss of only one suit. A worthy lesson was learned though that the stat line of Fire Warriors can not truly communicate just how incredibly bad they are in close combat.
With that brain-fart out of the way I moved on to another Space Marine player named Adam for whom nothing could seemingly go right. In the first two games I had well learned that the combination of plasma rifles and being aggressive with battle suits was a very powerful union. This tactic, despite rolling a 1 to hit for my Hammerhead in two successive turns, ensured that by the end of turn three Adams army amounted to one very lucky Dreadnought, one very lonely squad of Assault Marines and half a squad of very lost Scouts. The suits ensured that the Assault Marines didn't remain lonely for long and with the objective cleared I was able to claim my first ever win in Warhammer 40k. Go me.
Since tyhe learning process never really ends I include a 'What I Learned' section after my battle reports.
What I Learned:
The Rules
Plasma Rifles are, in fact, the best rifles
Don't forget to jump in the assault phase
Don't forget to run in the shooting phase
Don't forget that your Fire Warrior teams exist and leave them hiding behind a wall for most of the game
Thursday, November 19, 2009
Fire Warriors?
More like Fire Doom-rat-warrior-lords amirite?
Yeah, I'm right.
I've finally finished my first group of Fire Warriors and their accompanying Devilfish transport. On the Devilfish I installed 5 LEDs on the underside of the body to represent "anti-grav pads" or whatever it is that makes hovertanks hover. For the Fire Warriors I used some of the (now) old school Clan Rat heads, legs and tails combined with the regular FW bodies, weapons and sundry components.
The LED work in the Devilfish is far from perfect the first time around but I feel that it still gives the effect that I was after.
The next project will be the pathfinders, suits, sniper drones and FWs that I need for the rest of my first 750 point list. How very exciting!
Yeah, I'm right.
I've finally finished my first group of Fire Warriors and their accompanying Devilfish transport. On the Devilfish I installed 5 LEDs on the underside of the body to represent "anti-grav pads" or whatever it is that makes hovertanks hover. For the Fire Warriors I used some of the (now) old school Clan Rat heads, legs and tails combined with the regular FW bodies, weapons and sundry components.
The LED work in the Devilfish is far from perfect the first time around but I feel that it still gives the effect that I was after.
The next project will be the pathfinders, suits, sniper drones and FWs that I need for the rest of my first 750 point list. How very exciting!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
The Rise of The Skaven Tau Part 2
Year 1545: As the vehicle makes its way to an unknown destination through the darkness of space the new nest, unimpeded by the squabbling of the mob, makes technological breakthroughs that they have never previously dreamed of. Engineers of Clan Skryre, through investigation and scavenging of the vehicles components learned how the humans were able to produce such tremendous power without the severe limitations of Warpstone, the Moulders moved away from their ad-hoc surgical methods and began working with tissue on a cellular level and Eshin agents turned their attention towards accessing the vast stores of information that the humans kept.
Year 1562: For thirty years the Skaven nest aboard the vehicle had remained undiscovered by the humans though it was not until an experiment with using human technology to stabilise Warpstone went wrong causing a massive explosion that the stowaways realised that there appeared to be no humans onboard at all. Discovering this, the Skaven set about taking some measure of control of the vehicle by trying to establish where they were and where they were travelling to.
Year 1563: Having thoroughly investigated the vehicle it was established that there were once humans on the ship however, in an apparent attempt to prolong their lifespan they had reduced their own body temperatures. While in this state one of the many experiments that were carried out by the Skaven had caused their temperatures to rise without the proper procedure and as such none of the thousands of humans onboard survived the process.
Year 1830: After hundreds of years aboard the vessel the Skaven had gained a full understanding of the human technology to the level where they were continuing the human’s cultivation of plants for both oxygen and food, maintaining the power systems built by the humans and had completely mapped out the computer systems present on the ship. Strict breeding controls were in effect aboard the ship to ensure that overcrowding was kept in check and the clan system had faded into a distant memory. The nest was ruled over by a meritocracy with each potential leader being tasked with inventing a device of some kind, the most impressive device as voted every two years by all (male) Skaven was declared the winner.
Year 2878: It had been over one thousand years now and hundreds of generations of Skaven had lived and died aboard the vehicle that the humans had called Icarus III. Stories of Skavendom were vague now but generally they told of the horrors of life underground and how evil, selfish rats had ruled over clans fighting petty wars over the ownership of dark, worthless tunnels. Young Skaven were uncared for and each Skaven was left to fend for themselves without the rigid support structures and discipline of New Icarus.
Year 2891: 1359 years after they left Skavendom forever the new nest continued to maintain and control Icarus III however the time had come when the powerplant seemed unlikely to be able to continue operating for much longer. The Skaven had done what they could to keep it running but they had run out of Warpstone hundreds of years ago and without it the repairs were only temporary. The currently acting leader of New Icarus, Brighteyes Kritkin, made the decision to leave space and attempt a landing on one of the planets orbiting a nearby star.
Year 2892: Using the sensors constructed by the humans the Skaven located a planet not unlike the planet that their ancestors had left behind when they first boarded Icarus III. From information left behind by the humans and his own understanding of the vessel Kritkin was able to land the massive vessel without loss of life though on inspection of the crafts engines after landing it was clear that the damage was significant and the decision to land had saved New Icarus.
Year 2893: After his performance in the landing of the craft along with a recent brilliant invention it was decided that Kritkin would remain leader of Skaven for his entire life and that elections would be held immediately upon his death. Exercising caution on behalf of New Icarus Kritkin declared that most Skaven would remain on board Icarus III for another two years while specially chosen teams investigated the planet.
Year 1562: For thirty years the Skaven nest aboard the vehicle had remained undiscovered by the humans though it was not until an experiment with using human technology to stabilise Warpstone went wrong causing a massive explosion that the stowaways realised that there appeared to be no humans onboard at all. Discovering this, the Skaven set about taking some measure of control of the vehicle by trying to establish where they were and where they were travelling to.
Year 1563: Having thoroughly investigated the vehicle it was established that there were once humans on the ship however, in an apparent attempt to prolong their lifespan they had reduced their own body temperatures. While in this state one of the many experiments that were carried out by the Skaven had caused their temperatures to rise without the proper procedure and as such none of the thousands of humans onboard survived the process.
Year 1830: After hundreds of years aboard the vessel the Skaven had gained a full understanding of the human technology to the level where they were continuing the human’s cultivation of plants for both oxygen and food, maintaining the power systems built by the humans and had completely mapped out the computer systems present on the ship. Strict breeding controls were in effect aboard the ship to ensure that overcrowding was kept in check and the clan system had faded into a distant memory. The nest was ruled over by a meritocracy with each potential leader being tasked with inventing a device of some kind, the most impressive device as voted every two years by all (male) Skaven was declared the winner.
Year 2878: It had been over one thousand years now and hundreds of generations of Skaven had lived and died aboard the vehicle that the humans had called Icarus III. Stories of Skavendom were vague now but generally they told of the horrors of life underground and how evil, selfish rats had ruled over clans fighting petty wars over the ownership of dark, worthless tunnels. Young Skaven were uncared for and each Skaven was left to fend for themselves without the rigid support structures and discipline of New Icarus.
Year 2891: 1359 years after they left Skavendom forever the new nest continued to maintain and control Icarus III however the time had come when the powerplant seemed unlikely to be able to continue operating for much longer. The Skaven had done what they could to keep it running but they had run out of Warpstone hundreds of years ago and without it the repairs were only temporary. The currently acting leader of New Icarus, Brighteyes Kritkin, made the decision to leave space and attempt a landing on one of the planets orbiting a nearby star.
Year 2892: Using the sensors constructed by the humans the Skaven located a planet not unlike the planet that their ancestors had left behind when they first boarded Icarus III. From information left behind by the humans and his own understanding of the vessel Kritkin was able to land the massive vessel without loss of life though on inspection of the crafts engines after landing it was clear that the damage was significant and the decision to land had saved New Icarus.
Year 2893: After his performance in the landing of the craft along with a recent brilliant invention it was decided that Kritkin would remain leader of Skaven for his entire life and that elections would be held immediately upon his death. Exercising caution on behalf of New Icarus Kritkin declared that most Skaven would remain on board Icarus III for another two years while specially chosen teams investigated the planet.
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