Hi,Well it's been a busy week, so this will be a quick recap (rather than full battle reports) of the rest of the games I got in last week.
Tau vs Nurgle Daemons
First up I played one of the staff members at my local GW. he was playing nugle daemons. We rolled up 3 objectives with a pitched battle deployment. His list was (roughly):
Great Daemon of Nurgle
2 Winged Daemon Princes
1 Daemon Prince on Foot
3 units of 7 Plague Bearers
2 units of Horrors
5 Beasts of Nurgle
I placed one objective 12" from one side of the board along the centre line. My opponent placed his objective his another objective along the centre line of the 12" further in from the other board edge. I placed the last objective slightly outside what turn out to be the daemon "deployment zone" on the other flank of the board.
I won the roll for table edge, and in a moment of experimentation I decided to let my opponent have choice of board edge and first turn.
What I should have done is set up camped on the flank that had two objectives. The two kroot would then be able to infiltrate and form two long lines in front of my army (they would also be on the two objectives). I could then have use the first turn before the daemons arrived to run my whole army forwards, leaving my main firepower sitting on the objectives with the kroot forming two lines of defensive. If done well they daemons would have no space to drop within within my army and would be forced to drop in front of the kroot.
Unfortunately what I decided to was give 1st turn to my opponent, and to was to keep my whole army in reserve. The idea was that by the time I came on the board the majority of the daemon army would be on the board allowing me to come on in force in one area and use my greater mobility to pick the nurgle army apart bit by bit.
The plan worked perfectly, the vast majority of the daemons were on the board (all apart from one squad of horrors and one squad of plague bearers) before I came on. Unfortunately they had focussed on the side with the two objectives, and a deamon prince and the beasts were close to my board edge opposite the objectives making it to risky to come on straight in front of the two objectives that were near each other. Another deamon prince and the greater daemon were positioned centrally meaning the best place to come on was far from all the objectives.
The Tau took a fearful toll on the nurgle deamons, but one squad of plague bearers were on all three objectives by turn 5, and the although the winged daemon princes, greatr daemon, and beasts died by the end they had stopped by army moving forwards to get the plasma rifles in range of the troops holding the objectives.
The Tau had lost 1 unit of kroot. The Nurgle daemons had lost:
both winged daemon princes
the greater daemon
both units of horrors
the beasts
I managed to contest the objective out on it's own with 2 hammerheads, but the other two were held by plague bearers (who would only go to ground for the rest of the battle).
My move to claim objectives was not helped by the pathfinder devilfish immobolising itself when it came on the board, meaning the 6 fire warriors had no ride. As I only have one devilfish I must learn to be more careful with. It would have been better for the pathfinders to be in a slightly less better position and still have a mobile troop choice.
After the game finished we played one more turn to see if a kroot unit that has come on late on the flank near the 2 objectives would survive a charge from a plague bearer unit. It was here that I realised how poor plague bearers are in combat; WS3, only 1 attack each. The 6 remaining plague bearers faced 34 attacks before they struck losing 4 to the kroots 1 or 2, and they lost another to being fearless in combat. However even if the game continued there was still another unit of plague bearers and the last daemon prince who had decided to turn back rather than face the same fate of anything approaching the main Tau lines.
Playing Nurgle was a great showcase for the plasma rifles I had added to the list, and they didn't disappoint.
Basic things I learnt is that I should have played the game how I wrote at the start of this recap, and nurgle plague bearers aren't as hot in combat as they seem (they're just very good at absorbing firepower than doesn't ignore feel no pain). With feel no pain making an appearance in the blood angels codex I think it's another point to say the plasma rifles should stay.
Tau vs Nurgle Marines
Another game down my local GW was against Nurgle Marines (honest I wasn't choosing nurgle to make the plasma rifles look good).
My opponent had (roughly):
Choas Lord on a Beast of Nurgle
6 Plague Marines
in a Landraider
Nurgle Daemon Prince
3 units of 7 Plague Bearers (2 units had 2 flamers each, and the last unit had 2 meltaguns)
in Rhinos with Havoc Launchers
7 Daemons
There were also champions with powerfists in the squad, and icons. So a pretty straight forward in your face list with no long range firepower apart from the landraider (which would be moving the lord into combat rather than staying still to fire).
We rolled up kill points, my opponent had 1st turn so he spread his army over the middle 4ft of hist deployment, as far forward as possible. The lord and landraider were on my right flank.
I thought I'd trust in my broadside unit and deployed my broadsides, commander and both units of plasma/missile suits in the right corner. Protected by a line of troops just inside my deployment zone, careful to ensure 9 out of the 17 models were in cover. The pathfinders deployed behind the suits on the right flank.
In the middle I deployed as a distraction the 2nd unit of kroot in cover with the missile/burst suits behind them.
On the left I had the two hammerheads, and slightly further in a had the pathfinder's devilfish. The fire warriors stayed in reserve.
I didn't steal the initiative, and the nurgle army sped forwards, the landraider reaching mid table opposite my crisis/broadside firebase. The rhinos were forced to clump together going round terrain and they popped smoke.
My pathfinders lit up the landraider, removing the cover of the smoke launchers and giving the broadsides +1 BS allowing them to kill it. Some plasma rifles into the unit and they were half dead (mainly due to the lord taking lots of shots on his 4+ inv)
With my firebase corner safe. The kroot could move back turn 2 meaning there was nothing the lord could charge, allowing the plasma/missile suits to lend their help to killing rhinos turn 2, before moving back to killing the lord and plague marines near them.
The chaoas daemons came down to early on turn 2, so my opponent just hid them at the back in a ruin. My centre kroot were eventually overrun, but the last of the missile/burst crisis suits managed to pass his break test and run away towards the hammerheads to save a kill point.
The pathfinders bravely sacrificed themselves (by staying within charge range of the daemon prince, to put one last volley into plague marines allowing more plasma/missile to take remenants of squads out.
This game was a bit of a walk after the turn 1 landraider kill and a rhino going down turn 2. Once the plague marines were on foor the crisis suits with missile/plasma could move into rapid fire and jump back out of assault range.
Tau vs Imperial Guard
Last game I played was a practice for the Small Matter of Honour tournament which has 2 1250 pt games. My list is in part one.
I'm not going to go through the battle, but instead focus on one point my friend raised. My leadership dice are ledendary to them. They say I always lose because of poor leadership tests, and one even suggested putting in an etheral to help.
Now I'd strongly against the etheral idea. He has to be in LOS of the unit he helping (so he can't help if he's safe in a devilfish, and as I keep saying the chance of my failing each test is not that high. In this battle it was one test (admitable the first test I took) that I failed on ld8 (less than a 1 in 3 chance of failing) that saw two full crisis suits break never to return.
However I'm interested in what you think. Do you ever use an etheral ? Is he the piece of w**k I think he is ? Can he be useful in a heavy fire warrior list ?
Well I've got to get some rest, lots of work confernce calls, and more importantly I have to send in my lists for the Small Matter of Honour tournament by the end of tomorrow. See my next post for my current thinking.
Rathstar
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