Third game of the FLGS casual league, my opponent was Tyler and his nothing-but-suits Tau list. Crisis suits, Crisis suits everywhere. And a few Riptides, in the Riptide Wing formation.
Me and Byrahn had learned from the past two league games, and this time we'd brought the list that fought Ike's CSM/Orks. I expected great things from them, or even mediocre (mediocre would have been welcome at the previous two games that I got steamrolled).
XV86 Coldstar Commander/high-output burst cannon, shield generator, stimulant injector
4x XV8 Crisis suits w/2x burst cannon, multi-tracker
3x XV8 Crisis suits w/2x burst cannon, multi-tracker
3x XV8 Crisis suits w/2x burst cannon, multi-tracker
4x XV8 Crisis suits w/2x missile pod, multi-tracker
4x XV8 Crisis suits w/2x plasma rifle, multi-tracker
3x XV8 Crisis suits w/2x plasma rifle, multi-tracker
Riptide Wing
3x XV104 Riptide suits w/ion accelerator, TL smart missile system, multi-tracker (all separate units in 1 formation)
Mission was Maelstrom #3, Tactical Escalation–tactical objectives equal to turn number. Deployment was Hammer & Anvil. We placed objectives as shown below, and I won the deployment roll.
Since Tyler could deep-strike his entire army if he wanted, I set up in a loose formation to have as much lines of fire as I could, and put my Praetorians, Lychguard, and Ghost Ark at the front, so as to rush out and capture objectives. The Heavy Destroyers squatted on Objective 5. I held the Tomb Blades, Destroyer Lord, and two Destroyer squads in reserve.
Tyler set up his Riptides in his back line, taking advantages of that 72" range, put a couple squads of suits behind the buildings (out of my LOS and range), and put his special Coldstar-Commander-who-flew-like-a-flying-MC-but-wasn't-an-MC to the right side of his deployment zone. He failed to steal the initiative, and the game went ahead.
GAME TURN 1
Turn 1 - Me
I got #64 for my first Objective, Assassinate, which seem incredibly unlikely, as I had no Skyfire and his only character acted like a Flying MC. I moved my army up, keeping the Destroyers and Heavy Destroyers by Objectives 4 and 5.
Turn 1 - Tyler
Tyler got #35, Secure Objective 5, for his first Objective. He had his Crisis suits pop out to take shots at my guys. The Riptides sat still so they could, in Shooting, use their Riptide Hailfire ability to fire twice in Shooting. The Riptides, in all, shooting their weapons 4 times each, killed a grand total of 4 Immortals, 1 Lychgaurd, 1 Destroyer and 1 Heavy Destroyer. It was a harbinger of what would come in future turns. The Riptides fired at the Ghost Ark too, but it successfully jinked the shots. The Crisis suits killed 2 Praetorians, and then jet-pack-moved back into cover.
GAME TURN 2
Turn 2 - Me
I still had #64, and rolled #34 (secure Objective 4). One squad of Destroyers arrived from reserves. I plopped them down near Objective 3. Byrahn used the Veil of Darkness, and boldly deep-struck into the heart of the Tau army. The newly arrived Destroyers killed 1 Crisis suit and wounded another. That was it for shooting, except for my Heavy Destroyers (gone to ground because of the Riptides) taking a few idle shots at the Coldstar Commander. With two snap-shots, they got a six to hit, and then wounded him. He failed his invuln save, and the S9 AP2 heavy gauss cannon instakilled him.
I felt proud of my Heavy Destroyers and guilty that I'd killed Tyler's warlord with a, and I directly quote, "random-ass lucky potshot". He deserved a better death than that.
I achieved #34, as I was camping on Objective 4 with my Destroyers, and got Assassinate from the insane snap-shot warlord kill.
Turn 2 - Tyler
Tyler had #35, and rolled the Tau "Patient Hunter" objective (kill enemy unit in his deployment zone). He got two three-suit squads in, one with burst cannons, one with plasma. The burst-cannon suits went down by the Lychguard, the plasma suits by the Destroyers near Objective 3. The suits shuffled around a bit and opened fire. The Riptides overcharged and fired at the Ark, and Tyler's dice continued to rebel: one Riptide got too hot and took a wound, the second whiffed on the scatter roll, and the third hit but whiffed on armor penetration. Basically ALL the Crisis suits fired at the Lychguard, and a total of 3 missile suits, 4 plasma suits, and 7 burst-cannon suits (56 shots from them alone) killed 4 Lychguard. The plasma suits by Objective 3 killed 1 Destroyer. Tyler's dice cut him a raw deal, he was 1 Lychguard short of achieving Patient Hunter.
GAME TURN 3
Turn 3 - Me
I rolled #33, #35, #31 (secure Objectives 1, 3, and 5). The rest of my reserves arrived. I deep-struck the Destroyer Lord down by Byrahn and his one Lychguard, I deep-struck the last Destroyers down by the bastion and Ark, and the Tomb Blades with their hot new trendy color scheme!!! cruised on waaaaay on the other side of the board, able to do absolutely nothing. The Ark unloaded the Warriors, who scrambled into the big ruins to claim Objective 1, and the Praetorians leaped out of the same ruins to head for Objective 3. Combined shooting killed 3 Crisis suits, and the Destroyer Lord hit the nearest Riptide and Blinded it with the Solar Staff. In assault, Byrahn charged the Riptide, and the Praetorians charged the plasma suits (the latter whiffing their charge and losing a model to overwatch). Combined overwatch killed the last Lychguard and one Praetorian. Byrahn took 1 wound from the Riptide, it flailed around and did nothing to him. I scored Objectives 1 and 5.
Turn 3 - Tyler
Tyler's dice continued their insurrection, his last squad of suits refused to arrive from reserve. His suits mostly stood their ground and fired, with one Riptide moving towards the Riptide-Byrahn combat. Massed fire killed the Destroyer Lord, and wounded the Destroyers near Objective 3 (the last one failed his morale test and ran). He jet-pack-moved his suits towards his left corner of the board, and the Riptide joined the fight with Byrahn. Byrahn turned his attention to it, wounded it once, and the Riptide failed its morale check and ran off the table. It was a painful sight made more painful by the retroactive realization that Byrahn had not made the necessary Fear checks, fighting MCs as he was. I failed to record what objectives Tyler got, I know he scored 3VP from them (at least 1 of those VP from Patient Hunter, I think.)
GAME TURN 4
Turn 4 - Me
I had #33, and rolled #23, #22, and #61 (Secure Objectives 3 and 2 and Kingslayer). Kingslayer was the important one, it gives d3 VP (I got 2VP) for having killed his warlord (it applies even if the enemy's warlord has been killed in a past turn). I belatedly moved my Immortals towards Objective 2, and got the Tomb Blades in range of some Crisis suits. Combined fire wounded a few suits and killed 2 for certain. The Praetorians re-assaulted, got in, and killed the last plasma suit, and consolidated towards Objective 3. The Riptide and Byrahn combat remained inconclusive. I achieved Kingslayer as stated above, but not the other two.
Turn 4 - Tyler
Tyler had #35, and got #66, #51, and #15 (Big Game Hunter, Overwhelming Firepower, and the Tau Feigned Withdrawal: kill 1 enemy unit that started within 9" of a friendly unit). The last squad of suits was forced to arrive by the rules, and came down by Objective 5. Still Tyler's dice would not cut him a break, and scattered them away from the objective. In shooting, Tyler wounded many of my models, but only killed for good my single retreating Destroyer. We finally remembered that Byrahn was supposed to be making Fear checks, rolled for it, and he not only failed the Fear check, but lost 2 of his 3 wounds, and the assault. We were both I2, we had an equal chance for a sweeping advance or not...Tyler rolled a 5, I got a 6. The dice be fickle. At least that one Riptide pilot can tell the tale of forcing a Necron Overlord to run like a wuss.
We called the game at the end of Turn 4. Tyler had 3VP from Tactical Objectives scored, 1VP from Line Breaker, and we agreed he got 1VP from Slay the Warlord (because Byrahn was falling back at the time the game ended), for a total of 5VP for Tyler. I had 6VP from Tactical Objectives scored, and 3VP from First Blood, Slay the Warlord, and Line Breaker, for a total of 9VP. Lahker victory!
Summary: the dice screwed Ty, the 'crons refused to die. I'm glad I won; I'm not glad I won not so much by my own skill as by Tyler's dice actively rebelling against him over the whole game. Hopefully a rematch can be arranged in the future, for a fully honorable duel when the dice aren't being so ornery.
Extra Pics:
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| Going to ground from Riptide fire. |
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| Unrelated Wraithknight on the next table. |
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| Byrahn realizes fighting two MCs just might be a bad idea. |
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| New Tomb Blade color scheme!...not that they did much this game... |
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