First game against the new Tau!

So like the topic title suggests, last night I had my first ever game against the new Tau. My friend who I play against regularly, and who usually plays nids picked up some of the new tau, enough to make 1100 points. This was a problem for me as I usually run semi draigo wing in landraiders. So I wrote a quick list which was all MEQ troops, an entirely new concept to me. It comes to just over 1100 because we were actually playing 1112 or something like that, can't quite remember but my friend wanted to try out all his new models.

HQ

Inquisitor, TDA, psycannon, psyker (prescience) , 3 servo skulls

Elites

Techmarine, orbital strike relay

Troops

Strike squad, psybolt, psycannon, razorback with TLLC
Strike squad, psycannon

Fast attack

10 interceptors, 2 incinerators, hammer, psybolt

Heavy

Psyfledredd

Fortifications

Aegis defence line

I'd never taken an orbital strike relay before but thought I'd try one out as I thought they might be good against tau with the S6 ap 4 D3 large blast. Razorback was to try and pop broadsides, and dredd for devilish (he hasn't got a hammerhead yet). The tau list was something like this...

HQ
Fire blade

Elites
Stealth suits x 5, 1 fusion blaster, marker drone and missile drone
Pathfinders, devilish, recon drone, 3 rail rifles

Troops
Fire warriors x 10
Fire warriors x 10

Heavy support
Broadside, shield done and missile drone
Sniper drone team

I think I've remembered everything there. Anyway, he won deployment and deployed with the devilish (pathfinders) in the middle, with a fire warrior team on each side. His fire blade went in the one on his left flank, and the broadside and sniper drone team his extreme right flank, broadside on top of a hill.

I deployed my aegis defence line on a straight line across the front of my deployment zone, a servo skull was at each end with one about 8 inches in front of it in the centre. The razorback went behind the left of the ADL, the dredd behind the right of it. The techmarine went between the 2, using the razorback to block line of sight from the broadside. The inquisitor and other strike squad went into deep strike reserves, and the interceptors combat squadded, one taking both incinerators and deploying behind the dredd, the other the hammer and deploying behind the razorback. I failed to seize the initiative and so the first turn commenced:

Tau turn 1
Devilish advances 12" , stealth suits deploy in a crater on my left flank, just outside the servo skull range.
Shooting, stealth suits fire at the razorback, glancing once. Broadside fires at the razorback, penetrating and destroying the lascannon (fml). Devilish shoots at dredd, but fails to do any damage. Everything else out of range.

Grey knights turn one
Interceptors with incinerators shunt to right infront of the fire warrior team with the fireblade, 1" away. Other interceptors move from behind the razorback to the left to get LoS to the stealth suits. Strike squad disembarks to the left.
Soothing. Dredd shoots at devilish, glancing once and penetrating once (crew shaken). Interceptors incinerate fire warriors, 16 incinerator hits! 13 wounds altogether, fire warriors reduced to 2 guys and a gun drone, netting me slay the warlord and first blood, they run. Other interceptors on left flank and strike squad shoot at stealth team, but standing ankle deep in a crater nets them a 2+ cover save and they pass them all. OSR targets second fire warrior team, but scatters off.


Tau turn 2
The 2 fire warriors rally. Other fire warrior moves towards them and the incinerators. Devilfish moves forward and turns to face dredd, pathfinders disembark to the left infront of the razorback and the interceptors on the left.
Shooting. Warriors shoot at interceptors, killing 2 but both incinerators are still alive. Broadside shoots at incinerators, precision shotting incinerator but rolls 1 to wound! Sniper drones shoot at razorback doing nothing. Stealth suits shoot at the interceptors killing 3, hammer remains, pathfinders focus fire strike squad poking out behind ADL, killing the three of them.

Grey knights turn 2
Strike squad and inquisitor deep strike between the heavy support and the stealth team. Incinerators jump towards the fire warrior team, intending to incinerate as many as they can before they get shot to pieces.interceptors at bottom left move to within assault range of stealth team, remaining 2 strike squad members reembark the razorback.
Shooting. Incinerators and inquisitors strike squad (which casts prescience) shoot at fire warrior team, which kill all but one who flees off the board, dredd shoots and destroys devilfish. Techmarine fires barrage at pathfinders, killing all but 3 and a drone, and the stealth teams marker light drone, they pass their morale check.
Assault. Interceptors charge stealth team and are killed by overwatch.

Tau turn 3
Pathfinders move towards inquisitor, ending up next to stealth team.
Shooting, 2 fire warriors and their gun drone and the broadside shoot at the remaining interceptors, killing both incinerators. stealth suits shoot at inquisitors squad, killing the psycannon and wounding the inquisitor once. Pathfinders do the same, killing another grey knight. Snipers do the same but all saves passed.

Grey knights turn 3
Inquisitors squad move towards stealth team. Interceptor moves towards he 2 fire warriors in the top right.
Shooting. Dredd shoots at the pathfinders, killing them all. Interceptor shoots fire warriors, killing one. Inquisitors squad shoots stealth team but all cover saves passed. Techmarine attempts to repair lascannon but fails even with reroll.
Assault. Inquisitor assaults stealth team, one grey knight dies to overwatch, and the remaining grey knight, along with the inquisitor kill 2 in combat the stealth suits do nothing back and flee the combat (sad times,I wanted to stay locked in combat). The interceptor misses with both attacks on the fire warrior, as does the fire warrior.

At the end of turn 3, one fire warrior and one interceptor remain in the top right, locked in combat. Broadside and sniper team remain in top left of map. Inquisitor with one remaining grey knight in the crater on the left of the board with the three remaining stealth suits fleeing. Razorback and techmarine at bottom left with one HP and remaining 2 grey knights. Dredd still going strong on bottom right.

Tau turn 4
Stealth team rally.
Shooting. Sniper drones shoot at grey knights, killing the GK and leaving the inquisitor alone. Broadside shoots razorback, destroying at and both grey knights are killed by the S3 hit! Stealth team shoots at inquisitor, wounding with the fusion blaster, he dives to ground in the crater but alas is slain. A fair few victory points for tau this phase
Assault. Stealths vector into the crater. Both interceptor and fire warrior fail to hit again.

Grey knights turn 4
Shooting. Dredd shoots broadside, but it passes its saves. Techmarine destroys sniper drone team with OSR.
Assault. Grey knight kills fire warrior.

Tau turn 5
Stealth team move towards the dreadnought.
Broadside shoots dredd but fails to glance. Stealth team shoots and kills interceptor while the character uses suit system to shoot at techmarine with fusion blaster, who goes to ground behind ADL but fails

Grey knights turn 5
Dredd moves away from the stealth team and shoots and kills broadside.

Turn 6
Tau miss dredd with fusion blaster and dredd hits 3 times, but only wounds once and save is passed.

Game ends with psyfledredd and 3 stealth suits left on the table. I think I remembered everything correctly, but overall it was a really close game with some really bad rolling on my part. Afterwards a few things struck me; stealth suits seem REALLY good, I should have squeezed in a landraider as they seem to lack anti-av14 firepower, pathfinders should not go in a devilfish, and incinerators work wonders and should have been utilised against the stealth suits.

How have you guys fared against the new tau? They certainly gave me a run for my money with my closest victory in this edition, with the final score being 9-8 victory points to me. Is there anything you've thought after playing them or during a game, any specific tactics for example?

SB

Sorry about all the weird spellings, I'm on my iPad and its a right farce trying to get the autocorrect to not change everything.

SB

That was a great read, thanks for sharing!

Have posted my thoughts on Tau in a different post.
As for the game well done.
Your friends list had one thing wrong, the day after the codex was out a F.A.Q came out from G.W. with one thing in it, Only Broardsides can now take Missile drones. If this was not done we would have seen every Tau unit stocking up on missile drones, you can never have enough S7 shooting.
The orbitial bombardment has never been seen as a good item but can have its uses in larger games, mainly due to the fact it must always scatter so if you are not against hordes then you will have a hard time hitting anything.

Thanks first strike, I'll be sure to let him know for next time :p
Regarding the OSR, I thought the same thing, but honestly I was just struggling making points up, as most of my models are paladins. I was quite lucky with the scatter really, and just took it as a bit of a gimmick. Our gaming board is fairly small so a couple of times it did actually scatter on to other units, I don't think I'd take it again though. It probably did the most damage after the incinerators and dredd.

SB

Thanks for the post. Can't wait for my first game against the new tau. Wondering what you thought was different gameplay wise with the tau?

I found it quite difficult to get into combat with them, and be prepared to lose a model or 2 to overwatch. I will definitely take at least one assault vehicle next time. They also don't seem to have much anti av14, so land raider is good, just watch out for the hammerhead and fusion blasters (meltagun with 18" range). I also struggled with stealthsuits, these were really annoying, but that's all I can think of really, the fire warriors didn't give me any bother as both units got wiped out by a good turns shooting or an incinerator or two, I only lost 1 or 2 guys I think to them. Hope it helps.

SB

Maybe next time you'll use your incinerators on the Stealth team since they ignore cover! I've tried OSR and I have to say it doesn't do as well as you ever hope. It always scatters no matter what so next time maybe try the conversion beamer? You even could try running an inquisitor with a conversion beamer with the techmarine so you can have prescience! But dang failing a 2+ cover save is harsh. Anyways great read and battle report! I haven't played against tau but I think they're the new army to beat (from watching recent battle reports). It's a good thing he didn't run Ion cannons (isn't that AP 3?) or any flyers.

Played against him again yesterday and he used a riptide with ion accelerator, which is S7 AP1 heavy 3 we had to stop playing on turn 4 but at the end of turn 4 it was 5-4 to him, as we both held 1 objective, had killed the others warlord but he got first blood. I had a shocking first 2 turns where I missed with every single thing I had except for an incinerator which obviously hits automatically, and lost a landraider, my warlord and interceptor squad due to really bad saving throws. But I think I could have pulled it back nearer the end cos my dreadknight had turned up and killed his warlord and the next turn would have moved to within incinerator range and assault range of 4 kroot which were all his remaining troop choices, on an objective in a woods.

SB