Another game versus the hated Tau Empire! This one was a decisive loss, but why, exactly? Let's try to deconstruct what went wrong, because I believe the forces I brought were a pretty solid and balanced mix, and a good use of the 750 points available, constrained as I am by what I own and have table ready.
First up, the mission. Games can be won and lost in deployment, is something you often hear. Well it turns out they can be won or lost before that, even! I think it was in my misunderstanding of the mission where I went wrong, first.
We were playing the Secure and Control mission from the 8th edition core book, minus the First Blood method of gaining victory points. I'm not sure if this was omitted on purpose, or if it was just an oversight, but the mission was tweaked somewhat from the book version. It was also dictated that we play using Search and Destroy deployment style, that is with the board quartered and with a circle in the center in which no one can deploy. One player chooses one quarter in which to deploy, and the other gets the quarter opposite. There are objectives in the center of each deployment zone, but no others.
At this point is where I'll point out that I assumed I should be holding my objective and taking the enemy one. However, for this mission, there is no scoring done during the game. It is only at the very end of the game that control of objectives matters at all. This is my first error, a conceptual and foundational one that would be compounded upon by every action to come after.
At the end of the game, each objective you control is worth 3 points. You can also score 5 points if you able to raze the enemy objective, which you can do if you control it at the end of two consecutive turns. You can also get Slay the Warlord and Linebreaker.
So the first issue was the misunderstanding of the mission, and that's a big one. The second, which I'll take a little blame for, is there could have been more line-of-sight blocking terrain on the table. I set the table up, so I'm OK owning that. There were probably too many and too wide of fire lanes. Not just considering that marines and Tau are both ranged-heavy armies, but in general. I'm pretty new to constructing tables, but that's one lesson I'll take away from this game. There should probably be more to hide behind (or on, as the cover rules work) in each deployment zone, and more obstacles to shooting from one deployment zone to another.
Third, and maybe this doesn't count, but this Tau force was just a tough list to go up against. I would say it was well optimized, even for competitive play, in all likelihood. My list is, as I mentioned, as optimized as I could make it within constraints. These are not constraints that applied to this Tau list. But you go to war with the army you have, right?
So, on to the battle itself. Below you can see my army after my first turn. I took the first turn, so where I deployed was not of the utmost importance, but the Vindicator tank was behind the tall rock, together with the small intercessor squad, out of sight. The large intercessor squad were on the terrain piece behind them, taking cover. They advanced forward, but only a total of 7 inches. The smaller intercessor squad also advanced, 9 inches if I recall, and the Vindicator did a normal movement up of 10 inches.
My Librarian, out of range for offensive spells, cast Ride the Winds and Storm-Wreathed on the large unit of intercessors he is advancing with.
From here, the Vindicator shot at a Commander only to have its hits all taken by drones and ignored by Feel No Pain rolls. The small squad of intercessors shot, with their auto bolt rifles, as did my unit of suppressors with autocannons, and the tactical squad's missile launcher. A couple of breachers and a couple of drones were removed.
You can see the Tau's deployment below. This was just before their first movement.
Now he is about to begin his shooting phase. Notice my intercessor squad is already down a man. This is because of a charge attempt at the breacher squad dead ahead of them. They killed one in overwatch, and then the charge roll was a bust, so my guys stayed put.
I ran out of CP by the end of the second battle round, if I recall. I had used Ride Hard, Ride Fast on my large group of intercessors, to make them -1 to hit after having advanced, since they didn't make it to the cover ahead of them, and wouldn't be able to charge. I used Fierce Rivalries to affect a 3D6 charge for the small group of intercessors above, but still couldn't get the 10 I needed to get into combat. I used Transhuman Physiology on that same squad during his shooting phase, to make him use everything to remove them. Finally, I used a single CP re-roll when my Vindicator rolled a 1 on the big gun. The re-roll netted a 6, which was nice.
Note my intercessors and chaplain have been removed by this point. The chaplain was my warlord, and was sporting a 3++ invulnerable save. He was taken out by a Tau commander with four cyclonic ion blasters, I think it was. I think it was 9 hits, of which 2 wounds got through, for D3 damage each, which both ended up being 3s. This was from one of the three commanders on the board. Which were all hitting on 2s, rerolling 1s to hit and to wound in some cases, at least.
Now we're back on my turn, and a lot has happened since the last pic. My Storm-Wreathed intercessors were able to charge, free of overwatch, into his one commander that was his warlord and take them out in melee combat (only one round!), doing a couple of mortal wounds on the way in, also as a part of the psyker-power.
They and the librarian have then consolidated into a single shield drone that was the closest thing to them after that combat. My Vindicator has also charged into a breacher team, though it took 4 wounds from the overwatch of the commander beside them, for the "greater good". I put it into combat to try to minimize how much shooting he could do to it, since with the breachers at least, he would have to fall back. It got one swing with it's tracks, but missed in fighting.
Right about here is where I start to realize I've wasted some potential with my tactical squad and suppressors, who have been sitting on the objective the whole time for no real reason. The suppressors are one thing, since they take a penalty to firing if they move, but the tac squad definitely should have been in the fight!
Also, the intercessors and vindicator there are now surrounded and about to suffer catastrophic losses when the Tau shoot again.
Now the rearguard are pretty much all that's left, and so I decide to throw them into combat with another commander. If I had any CP left, I could have used that one stratagem for when a jump pack unit charges into an enemy, for more mortal wounds. This was as much to practice moving the suppressors for that reason as anything. Unfortunately all my tactical squad hits were mitigated, and only one of those from the suppressors got through, doing 2 damage to the commander, thanks to Devastating Charge, since it's now Assault Doctrine.
The commander I assaulted there just boosted away when it was his turn again, and then they finished off my force in shooting.
So, lessons learned:
Pay close attention to the mission brief! Know going into the game all of the various info about when points are awarded, for what, etc.
Having a large unit of intercessors was really advantageous in a number of ways. I got more chances at mortal wounds when charging storm-wreathed, I got way more attacks in combat and was able to kill the commander before he could fight back, and they were much harder to kill off. I think I might prefer full size squads going forward, where I can afford them. The only thing is, most of my units are minimum size! I'll need to collect and paint a lot more models.
My poor Chaplain got blasted before he could do much this game, but he had successfully gotten off two litanies which could have been incredibly helpful if a couple of dice rolls had gone another way. Teaming a Master of Sanctity and Chief Librarian up as HQs seems to me like a nearly unbeatable combo in terms of added utility for the points, even accounting for the CP cost of the promotions. The buffs my Librarian put on the intercessors were instrumental in the one successful push I had in this game, as well. Storm-Wreathed (deny overwatch, and the unit inflicts mortal wounds when completing a charge), is a must have.
I'm expanding the list with an eye toward more overwatch denial, as well. I have the librarian and the suppressors here, but reivers have their shock grenades, as well. That ability is really nice to have with an army like mine that wants to be charging as much as possible.
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