Well you shall see why I named this battle Termie Termination soon. This was against my arch nemesis at my local hobby
shop a daemonhunter player. The mission was secure and control, gamma level. The board was actually really densly terrained,
with easily 45 or 50% of the board covered in terrain it looked more like a ruined city district. The terrain didnt have much
importance in this game though surprisingly. Ok the army lists were as follows:
Daemonhunters:
Grand Master, Thunder Hammer
x5 Grey Knight Terminators, psycannon
x10 Grey Knights, psycannon,
justicar
x10 Storm Troopers, Sergeant, Thunder Hammer, x2 meltas, rhino
x10 Storm Troopers, Sergeant, Thunder Hammer,
x2 plasma guns, rhino
Tau:
Shas'O, Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Shield Gennerator, Hard Wired Multi Tracker
Shas'vre, Burst Cannon,
Missil Pod, Multi Tracker
Shas'ui, Burst Cannon, Missil Pod, Multi Tracker
Shas'ui, Burst Cannon, Missil Pod, Multi
Tracker
x12 Firewarriors, bonded, shas'ui
x12 Firewarriors, bonded, shas'ui
x10 Firewarriors, bonded, shas'ui, x2
Carbines, Devilfish with the usual
Hammerhead Gunship, Railgun, SMS, Multi, Decoy, pair of gun drones
Hammerhead Gunship,
Railgun, Burst Cannons, Multi, Decoy
Alright I deployed on the side with most of the buildings though on the side with only one tall building... *shrug* it
had better fire lanes. One FW squad went in a tall building on the far right, another in a small building in the middle, and
the transport one behind a building in between the two, the crisis suits went behind the building in the middle of my line,
my SMS armed Railhead went behind the building on the far right of my line the other, near the far left and behind a bunker
like structure.
The Grey Knights, the actual grey knights were in reserve to deep strike. One rhino squad went behind a building on his
far right flank, the other on the far left... thats it, the Grand Master was attatched to the Termie squad.
Turn 1:
Daemonhunters, not surprising.
Rhinos shift around to stay out of line of sight, the one on the left flank
sends out its troops to secure a loot counter, I already have two loot counters in my control, cheap but it didnt end up mattering.
Tau
Mobile Firewarrior squad moved into center building to fully secure my second loot counter, very little shooting
this turn, one imperial guardsman killed or something like that, no LOS to anything yet, tanks adjust around, crisis suite
wing splits, shas'ui and shas'vre staying put, shas'o and other shas'ui with the HH drones moving behind center FW building.
Turn 2:
Daemonhunters
Reserves do not arrive, left IG squad moves further into terrain, right IG squad charges
out in the open to sieze a loot counter.
Tau
Now I got to shoot at some stuff, blasted away at the right rhino but it survived, managed to shoot down 7 of
the 10 IG in the right squad, got a few more in the left squad, army continued to reposition.
Turn 3:
Daemonhunters
Alright, now the Grey Knights come in, both squads. Termies show up right next to the right
IG that had run forward the 2 meltas popping out the top to shoot at me some. Just off to the left the termies fired and killed
a few Firewarriors. Grey Knights showed up just behind and to the left of my lefternmost FW squad. They shot and killed a
few of my men, but they passed their moral and were staying. Burst Cannon armed Hammerhead loses its railgun.
Tau
1, 2, 3, 4, 5... all 5 termies go down to the shots of my Shas'O all my crisis suits and massed Firewarrior shooting
leaving just the grand master and I charge the two devilfish drones into him to tie him up as much as possible. Shooting at
the other grey knights kill only 2 sadly. Both Hammerheads and the Devilfish had joined their fire on the knights.
Turn 4:
Daemonhunters
Right IG still in rhino shift in front of the grand master, effectively blocking LOS to him
from my entire army, left squad tries to run up some and destroys the Devilfish. Grey Knights forget to move to charge.
Tau
Bang, bang, bang, I only remove the storm bolter from the rhino but somehow I whittle down the Grey Knights to
three men with railgun submunitions and massed small arms fire, crisis suits lend aid.
Turn 5:
Daemonhunters
Grey Knights charge the Firewarriors but somehow... inflict no wounds... I know it seems
impossible but he rolled all 1s and 2s. We both stood there staring at the dice for several long seconds mouthing disbelief.
Left IG continue forward, right swing around and manage to down the damaged Hammerhead.
Tau
Remaining Hammerhead laughs and keeps the submunitions going by blowing away 6 of the 7 remaining IG in the left
squad. Tau small arms bring down the Grand Master, right IG squad remains though. Firewarriors lose more to the Grey Knights.
Turn 6:
Daemonhunters:
Ok finally the Grey Knights kill my firewarriors but they fail to get out of the terrain
and behind to block LOS. Right IG fail to kill anything.
Tau:
Scratch Grey Knights, scratch right IG, all thats left is the left rhino. Game ends, victory for the Tau.
Results
Tau lose:
16 Firewarriors, entire FW squad beta, 4 of the 10 Irregulars
Hammerhead with burst cannons
Devilfish
& x2 Gun Drones
x2 Gun Drones from SMS Hammerhead.
Daemonhunters lose:
20 Imperial Guard Storm Troopers
1 Rhino
10 Grey Knights
5 Grey Knight Terminators
1
Grand Master
Well all in all Im happy with the performance of my Hammerheads, this is the first large battle Ive fought with two Railheads
and their submunitions really cleared out those IG incredibly fast and did some serious damage to everything else, aswell
as drawing a lot of fire. Firewarrior squad alpha over in its corner did not get shot at once, neither did the SMS Hammerhead
though the enemy certainly tried. Im just glad my opponent divided up his forces so much, I have my rail heads to thank for
that, he was really trying to hide them. My Shas'O also did his job with the Termies he dropped two of them personally and
the Grand Master fell in the end to I believe fire from the Irregulars though it might have been from squad alpha.
Tacticly this was a new list... again, this guy just seems to have a dislike for playing me twice with the same list...
Im using almost exclusively the same list... well, it works. He has tied me once, th rest were Tau victories.
As far as the campaign goes I am now in possession of a second space port. The battle from last week, even though I lost
didnt hamper my progress because it was really chaos and my Tau, who are normally ignoring each other shouting "your in my
space, DIE!" But it didnt stop my momentum so...
Im one battle away from striking at one of two inquisitional fortresses, in one fight I will punch forward right up to
its doorstep if I win and then my second fight will be to take it and no doubt both will be against the Daemonhunters fighting
hard to hold their lines.
Its dissapointing though as the IG are making slow progress and the other Tau players have dropped out entirely. I guess
they got sick of losing. *shrug* All in all things are going well though Ill need to start looking for a new place to go,
not GW as the battles are too small, there should be another hobby store nearby, Ive heard a lot about it and have even been
invited to participate in their next campaign, if my army is finished by then, I think I will. Time to step up to a bigger
league I think.