2000pt batrep vs tau (GKSS heavy list)

So I've started doing 2000 point games in preparation for the NOVA OPEN and in order to actually use each unit in the codex to determine their effectiveness.

This one was vs tau.

ME:
Draigo
Libby -3 skulls, shrouding, sanctuary, might of titan, quicksilver, warp flamer, summoning
Callidus assassin
10 paladins - 4 psycannons, 2 hammers, 2 halberds, 2 swords ( wound allocated goodness!) psybolts
10 strike squad, DHammer, 2 psycannons, psybolts
10 strike squad, DHammer, 2 psycannons, psybolts
10 strike squad, DHammer, 2 psycannons, psybolts

the plan is to have superb and resilient shooting force with some solid achors and extreme flexibiity in deployment ( turn 2 2+ all deep strike, some outflank/scount, all normal, etc), with the assassin taking out long fangs and the like that i can't quite get to.

He took
Commander -Plasma/missles/2drones positional relay
2x Crisis plasma/missiles
3x crisis plasma/missile 2 drones
3x crisis Plasma/melta
6x fire warriors
6x fire warriors
15x kroot
17x kroot
5x pathfinders+devilfish
5x pathfinders+devilfish
2x melta pirahnas
3x Broadsides, plasma, multi trackers 2 drones
3x broadsides, plasma, multi trackers 2 drones

Standard tau stuff, castle and bubblewrap with pirahans blocking/contesting, min FW and devilfish reserved and coming in late to claim, etc


large dais piece in middle, just tall enough to block los to infantry but sloped for easy climbing and no cover once on top. forest in opposite corners, los blocking wall in opposite corners, random hedges/ hills in the middle of deployment zones and left and right of center, just about exactly 1/4 the board.

we rolled pitched battle and annhilation, but since we were both testing things and thought annihilation would be unfair, i agreed to let him switch it, and we rolled 5 objectives. The were placed in a + sign, dead center, front mid of my and his deployment, and 12" from the middle of either short board edge. I won the roll to go first, and gave it to him.

I rolled 3 units for Grand Strat and made the pally's and 2 Strike Squads reroll ones to wound. I placed servo skills just on my side of the middle of the board on either far left or right objective, and one in between the obj on the front of my deployment and the nearby forest (to stop infiltrating kroot)

He castled middle of his deployment, helios (plasma/melta) deep striking and one devilfish and two fire warrior squads in reserve (one stayed out to give the helios a reroll on deepstrikes, since the positional relay can bring in one unit/turn on a 2+(but no other unit can come in) he could deep strike the ap1/2 squad whenever he wanted accurately and delay the other squads while doing so.

I deployed Draigo behind LOS blocking terrain. and everything else deep struck. While i made sure he was aware the units could do this, i think it suprised him to think it was actually being done.

1st turn -
he said "WTF?" he liked his position so just zoomed the pirhanas to destroy two servo skulls.
I stayed still
2nd turn
He said WTF again, and stayed still except to move the pirahnas twoard (but not quite get) the other skull. His first devilfish came on and filled out his deployment zone so i really couldn't safely deepstrike in there.
I revved up the GM to give myself +2 or -2 to each reserve roll. I considered keeping everything off the board and cheesing out a late win by virtue of he wouldn't have enough time to shoot all my stuff, but decided to make a game out of it, for testing purposes if nothing else, and got everything in. I callidused some Broadsides down to just two suits left, one with a wound, but the passed morale. I deep struck the giant squad of paladins just behind the middle peice so only 2 squads of his could actually see me, and i had cover. I put one squad on the mostly empty left, and one mid right and one full right. the mid right one scattered a bit into the open, but what can you to. I whiffed on the pirahnas with some psycannons, killed the only pathfinder squad that could see the left side (paladins+strike squad) ensuring my 3+ cover, and put a few wounds on some suits. Draigo moved up towards the middle piece. then I hunkered for the storm. BIG MISTAKE THIS TURN: I was telling my buddies before the game all about how i was going to combat squad everything i had, but i got into the old rhythm and deployed them all before i realized i hadn't combat squadded. PS: I really wish you could warp quake when you come in.........
3rd turn
The helios come in and with pathfinder help the DEVISTATED the rightmost squad, doing 7ap1/2wounds. the other squad on the same side is whittled down to 3 guys by kroot, broadsides, and the fireknives (missile/plasma suits). poor shooting and making 3 invuls on the assassin mean his bunched up suits are about to each asssassin......
And they do. The assassin polishes off the squad of 2 +adjoined commander (thanks, instant death!), and retreats to cover to go to ground if needed the left advances to shoot psycannons (relentless psycannons are HOT). the right hides behind cover and the other right assaults the suits, using no powers in order to try and tie combat an not be shot, but wins by two, chases them down, and is left in the open.

The rest of the game is all so homogenous I'll just describe it in one go. the psycannon squads on the left slowly advance to exact midfield, just far enough to be seen and shoot one squad at a time. the right squad hides well enough and theres enough pressure on the left he can't go hunting them, and draigo charges up the middle, bullets bouncing off of his termie armor and storm shield till he hits some contesting crisis suits. I whittle him down pretty far, on turn 5 he contests all my objectives with vehicles and i blow him back off of them, and it's game.

Lessons learned - We have FANTASTIC torrent of offensive firepower, especially if used as an all deepstrike alpha strike, I outshot a tau army. and if i had combat squadded like i meant to it almost would have been unfair, the MSU power i could bring and making him waste shots on small, wound allocated squads. on the flip side we are SUPER weak out in the open, so always go for cover, even if you need dangerous checks. and deep striking ap1/2 hurts! consider starting something on the board but out of the way in order to warp quake and protect yourself. Also, don't be afraid to get those paladins out in the open - while i had them as a huge brick that would never be pushed off of objectives, it was kinda a waste. If i had combat squadded so they didn't need to hold an obj and a 5 man strike squad could have instead, the pallys would have made it to the enemy lines easily despite all his firepower, and that would have been game as well. callidus does some damage when he comes in, but the low S means he only really does alot versus tightly packed stuff. take out one wound models that rely on cover like long fangs/dev squads ( or squads without chumps to take wounds, like oblits, wouldn't be bad) and use him to soak some firepower, cuz you're lucky if they let you charge.

Lack of ap1/2/3 really hurt. I had epicly bad luck against vehicles and rending, so while i statistically should have killed a lot of things, some rounds of 1/2/3's mean that i didn't. and we counted over 30 wounds on one broadside squad before they failed a 2+. still, those dice do come up sometimes, but against melta/plasa/missiles you would have killed it even with the kinda low dice. same against vehicles

Nice report and grats on the win. By the looks of it, DS'ing might be the way to go against against Tau as this really messes up their backline and quickly takes away their long-range advantage.

Very cool, glad to see all the deepstrikes paid off!! How did you get the +2 with the Grand Communion or whatever? I thought its just +1 or -1; or did you have someone besides Draigo doing it?

Nausaden wrote:Very cool, glad to see all the deepstrikes paid off!! How did you get the +2 with the Grand Communion or whatever? I thought its just +1 or -1; or did you have someone besides Draigo doing it?

I was wondering the same thing

Draigo has mastery level two. You cast psychic communion twice, and it specifically says it stacks with multiple uses.

People sometimes assume you can't cast the same power twice, but check the rulebook on psychic powers - the only powers you can't cast more than once are shooting powers (unless, of course, a power specifically says it).

FAQ/erratta may/may not change it, but until then it's definitely kosher. I specifically spent the whole game not using summoning or warp quake the turn i came in, and not stacking hammerhand, because they are contentious rules and there isn't a good answer for them. This one is RAW, you can do it.

Got it. So for my libby, if I use Shrouding or Summoning and fail the first time, I can try and use it immediately a second time? That's good to know

i asked the staff at GWS about summoning cause i thought i could give a libby lvl 3 then summon 2 LR and a squad but they said its only used once a turn but could it be used like rivan said

Very epic Brother MJS! Huzzah, deepstrike lists are more and more viable > Teleport the Knights.

rogueuk wrote:i asked the staff at GWS about summoning cause i thought i could give a libby lvl 3 then summon 2 LR and a squad but they said its only used once a turn but could it be used like rivan said

A) staff at a GW store has no better rules knowledge or authority than any random person you find on the street. Theres no training program, and they don't share special rules knowledge with them, it's just what they think as a random person
B) GW has a laughable reputation for word of mouth and phone responses. You can go to another store or call in and you'll never get the same answer all the time on any question. It's a running joke.
C) So they said that you can only use it once a turn, but you can use it multiple times per turn? god i love dumb store employees.

yes all good and unfortinatly true points

Thoroughly enjoyed reading this, congratulations on the win mate.

Thanks for the support all - i'll keep posting battle reports every so often.

And if you guys play a game, dont forget to post yours! I'd like to learn what combos and tactics are working for others that I didn't think of, so I can try them out myself.