Battle Report: Tau vs Salamanders & Eldar

Tau Dal'yth Sept

vs

Salamander Space Marines & Eldar

___________________________________

As the third phase of the Tau Empire's expansion reaches out from the Eastern fringe, a single Dal'yth Sept Hunter Cadre launches an exploration force to the planet of Ostrius IV in Segmentum Ultima: Ostrius System. Along with Water Caste negotiators the Tau endeavour to welcome the citizens of Ostrius IV into the Tau Empire. Unknown to the Tau, a company of the Salamander Space Marine and Eldar allies are not so willing to except the Tau's offer of peace and battle quickly ensues!

OK, so I have had some friends give me good feedback from my first Battle Report. So I will continue to keep reporting. Let the game commence!

The Armies

Tau Empire: Dal'yth Sept - 1497pts (Dale)

Battlesuit Commander Shas'o with Shield Drones (Warlord)

2 Body Guards

Battlesuit Commander Shas'o with Shield Drones

1 Body Guard

3 man Stealth team with Fusion Blaster

6 man Fire Warrior team

Devilfish Transport

6 man Fire Warrior team

12 Kroot

Piranha with Fusion Blaster

Hammerhead Gunship with Railgun

Fortification: Imperial Bastion with Quad-gun

Salamanders & Eldar Allies - 1500pts (Andy)
Vulkan He'stan
5 Assault Terminators with Thunder Hammers & Storm Shields
10 man Tactical Squad with Multi-melts & Flamer
10 man Tactical Squad with Multi-melta & Meltagun
5 man Assault Squad
Stormtalon
Farseer with Runes of Warding & Witnessing, Spirit Stones, Guide, Doom
5 Dark Reapers
5 Eldar Pathfinders

The Mission & Battlefield Set Up

I won the roll off and rolled for the The Relic mission and Vanguard Strike Deployment. We set up terrain for a cinematic feel. The Relic Objective was placed in the centre of the board on top of the Shrine of Aquila.

My Warlord Trait was Personal Traits - Master of Offence and Andy also rolled Personal Traits - Immovable Object. Night fighting was in effect for the 1st turn.

Deployment

I won the roll off again and chose to go second. Andy infiltrated his pathfinders to my left flank inside a ruin, my Kroot infiltrated behind them near a hill and my Stealth Team infiltrated right behind the Shrine of Aquila.

Salamander & Eldar Deployment

Tau Deployment

Turn I

Salamanders & Eldar: I did not choose to seize the initiative so the Salamanders & Eldar went first. Andy moved 1 Tactical Squad, Valkan and the Assault Terminators towards the relic, the Second Tactical Squad took the left flank into the woods.
The Assault marines on his right flank left the building to pick a fight with some Kroot.
The Eldar Farseer cast Guide on his Dark Reapers and Doom on my 2nd Commander.
The Salamanders ran in the shooting phase while the Eldar gave covering fire, The Dark Reapers taking out 2 Shield Drones and 3 wounds off on my 2nd Commander.
The Assault Marines failed to assault the Kroot, probably down to their bad smell.

Tau: My warlord pushed forward as well as my 2nd Commander, the Stealth team jumped right and lit up the Dark Reapers with a markerlight, their shooting only took down 1 Reaper but the Seeker missile they launched struck home unfortunately clipped the ruin resulting in no wounds.

The 2nd Commander took out another Dark Reaper.

The Hammerhead missed (the normal 1 on the die). My Warlord I think took out 3 Tactical Marines and the Kroot killed 1 Pathfinder.

In all a very bad round of shooting! The jump moves in the Assault phase were appalling, each unit could only move 5" leaving me very exposed.

Turn II

Salamanders & Eldar: The Stormtalon came on from reserve flying directly behind the Shrine of Aquila so the Fire Warrior Team could not shoot the Quad-gun at it. It then shot at my Warlord not doing much.

The Tactical Squad, Valkan and the Assault Terminators pushed forward again.
The Farseer cast Guide on the Dark Reapers again and Doom on my Warlord.
The Assault marines getting over the bad smell lined up for another assault attempt.
Dark Reapers took out my Warlords 2 Shield Drones and he took a wound himself.
The Stealth Team soaked up a lot of fire and survived.
The Assault Marines annihilated the kroot (1st Blood) and consolidated toward the main fighting.

Tau: My Warlord took out 1 Terminator and the Devilfish skimmed over behind the Shrine and killed 2 Tactical marines.
All my Gun Drones disengaged this turn.
The Stealth team jumped over the Shrine shooting at but failed to wound any Terminators.
My 2nd Commander and the Hammerhead finished off the Dark Reapers.
Not much Else happened this turn except very poor dice.
The Stealth Team however did manage to roll hight in the assault phase and jump to the top of the Shrine next to the Relic (the Relic we used was a Tau reporter I am working on with a mic, Tau pad 2 and Camera Drone)

Turn III

Salamanders & Eldar: The Multi-melta from the Tactical Squad in the woods shot at and penetrated the Hammerhead, resulting it it being unable to move or shoot.
The Stormtalon zoomed over taking off a second hull point.
Farseer cast Doom on the Stealth Team with the Pathfinders shooting at them, but they saved all wounds.
Vulkan also attempted to use his flamer on the Stealth team but they saved again.
The Assault Terminators piled into the Devilfish and it exploded under their Thunder Hammers killing 3 Fire Warriors inside.
The Assault Marines kept creeping up from the my left flank.

Tau: I managed to jump far enough to shoot at Vulkan with my Warlord leaving him with only 1 wound, but luckily the 3 remaining Fire Warriors finished him off (Slay the Warlord).
The Quad-gun shot at the Stormtalon making him evade scoring no damage to it.
Not much else happened, the Dice Gods were not with me this game.
I did however move my Stealth team in the Assault phase only about an inch mind you, but this triggered a dangerous terrain test that resulted in the death of one of my Stealth team! Foolish.

Turn IV

Salamanders & Eldar: The Stormtalon dropped down into Hover Strike enabling it to stay in the fight and not zoom off the board, it's snap shots due to evading the previous turn doing nothing.
The Pathfinders did nothing but the Farseer threw his spear at my Piranha destroying it in a wonderful explosion.
The Tactical Squad in the wood moved out towards the Relic.
The Squad in the Shrine could not roll a difficult terrain test high enough to get to the top level to get the Relic.
The Assault Marines killed a body Guard with a Plasma Pistol but unluckily failed their Assault range however the Assault Terminators pummelled my Warlord to death with his own arm (Slay the Warlord) in close combat. Running out of time this was going to be Andy's last turn but his Terminators scored (Line Breaker).

Tau: Fire Warrior killed 1 Terminator and the Hammerhead destroyed the Stormtalon.
The Gun Drones that disengaged from the Piranha managed to move into Andy's deployment zone scoring (Line Breaker). A very quick turn and that was game over due to time.

Battle Analysis

Salamander & Eldar Victory, 3 Victory Points to 2

(EDIT: Having read the Battle Report again and looking at the photos, Andy actually scored 1st Blood on turn II meaning he won the game. Congrats Andy, not sure how I missed that one)

Tau: (dale) " well that was an unexpected win, I honestly thought I was going to get slaughtered. If the game had gone another turn, Andy would have clearly won hands down, so not a great victory in the long run. If I had not have disengaged the Gun Drones to get Line Breaker we would have drawn. I really need to purchase more of the right models for my army, as what I currently have is not performing well. Again the most useless unit was the Piranha that managed to do nothing apart from deliver the Gun Drones. I cannot say I had a great unit in that game. Tactical re-think ahead".

Salamanders & Eldar: (Andy) "I think I should have moved to the Objective quicker  I sat far to long in the woods, but the Farseer's Guide and Doom along with the Dark Reapers were wonderful. They helped take out the shield Drones with great ease in the first couple of turns, so when the other attacked they had no invulnerable defence. Assault squad should have ignored the Kroot and headed into the centre of the game. The Terminators pretty much destroyed what ever they faced. Otherwise good game".

Another good game with Andy, now he knows a little more about the Tau game mechanics, he would defiantly flatten me next time. As I said, if we played just one extra game turn, he would have won!

Well I hope you have enjoyed reading the second Battle Report. I will launch another Page to collate all the reports together very soon. Please feel free to comment and give us your expert advise.

~ Only the Emperor can save you from Damnation ~