40K Griffons vs. Tau - This Time It's for the Greater Good

 

Last Thursday was my birthday so as is my wont, I set up a big game to celebrate. This year I wanted to have another outing with the Howling Griffons so I challenged Conscript Greg to a rematch against his Tau.

 

With 1500 points to play with you get to roll out with *most* of the toys although I still had to leave the Devastators and Terminator Squad (not to mention the Chaplain and Librarian) on the Battle Barge (I'm getting the feeling that my armies are becoming more and more suited to Apocalypse-size games?)

Finished up a standard for the converted Captain I picked up in the blister; he joins the command squad.

Everybody rides in this crew! The final list consisted of the Captain and command squad in a Razorback, three sections of 10 Marines each in Rhinos, a seven-man assault squad with jump packs, a Landspeeder and the Land Raider Armoured Proteus.

Greg rolled out with... a bunch of Tau ;-) Three squads of Firewarriors I think, two Devilfish APCs, two big (Broadside?) suits, several Crisis suits, a Pathfinder squad, Commander Shasta Cola-Beverage and a bunch of very annoying drones.

The game we set up was a straightforward objectives-hunt with three on the table: the comm tower at left on the hill, the missile silo at centre between the craters, and a Gothic ruin at right just out of shot. You can see my stuff rolling onto the table for my first turn. Greg has yet to deploy.

Here's another view. We had some more full landscape shots but Blogger refused to let me post them as landscapes, very annoying.

Anyway, I decided to go for the two objectives at centre and on my left and ignore the one on my far right. Greg went for the ones on his left and centre and ignored the one on his right. This resulted in the entire battle being waged for the centre objective, the only one we both wanted.

My Razorback was brewed up almost instantly so the command squad disembarked and unfurled the standard.

These guys deployed in a wood at the centre of the Tau line and were responsible for moderate mayhem, although Griffon bacon was saved for several turns by Greg's appalling die rolling. Whew!

These guys secured the uncontested objective on Greg's left flank. They added some long range sniping too - even the basic Tau guns are really good!

Another view of the big cheeses behind their destroyed transport.

The infanous missile silo can be seen at centre left. It's a cool little model from Armorcast - three pieces: silo top, a moveable hatch, and the missile warhead. As the turns went by we moved the hatch aside and the missile rose into firing position, ready to ruin everyone's day.

Missile approaching launch and a Griffons squad has disembarked preparatory to assaulting the objective. (Their Rhino blew up of course)
 

A highly annoying Devilfish wish no guns saw fit to interpose itself in the firing line of the Land Raider...

... duly obliterated! (note crater)

The command squad struggled up through the crater to assault some nearby suits (below). The Proteus acquitted itself very well in this game, redeeming the shame of the first-turn blowup of its first outing on the table. The Assault Squad and Landspeeder didn't fare so well, deep-striking in front of a Tau gunline and not surviving the ensuing shooting phase :-(

We left a section of Marines on the leftmost objective and brought the other section and Rhino over to help in the middle, which they did by driving off the Tau section in the crater (top left). They had problems surviving the concentrated fire of the suits though. In a fortunate turn Greg's commander got left out on his own, and was charged and killed by Marines. The damn Devilfish (above centre) wedged itself in between my Marines and the objective, denying me sole control.
 

My command group was *just* in range to assault the suits (thanks to the Warlord trait I'd rolled earlier) and eliminated them.

Winning the battle, but drawing the war... the game ended up a precise draw. We each controlled one objective (three VPs), Greg scored First Blood, I scored a leader kill, and we both got Linebreaker.

It was a pretty fun game and 6th edition represents a significant advance over 5th, but we found we really needed Conscript Dave V. there to provide his encyclopaedic rules knowledge. We had to spend too much time checking the rules to verify how Rapid Fire worked, etc. Anyway we had fun, a ton of guys showed up through the evening, and we drank beer, ate cake, and pushed around some really nice models. If that's all I get out of wargaming I'm pretty happy with that :-)

The Proteus Diet - 40k Battle Report

Land Raider Proteus makes a tabletop debut

To mark the visit of Conscript Sean M from parts out east we squeezed some extra gaming with a pair of 40k 6th Edition games.  My most recent experience playing 40k was typically horrible, but what the heck?  For a change of pace I rolled out with my Tau - a collection of figures I painted over 10 years ago.  Dallas brought out his Howling Griffons retro "beakie" Marines, and Dave V brought his Eldar.

Table just before deployment - the artifact is in the middle, by the crossroads

During our previous game, Dave V mentioned that the Tau were pretty vicious to deal with in the current edition of the rules.  I haven't played a game using the Tau for like....I'm not even sure - maybe eight years? If a 40k expert like Dave V is concerned about the Tau, then there absolutely must be something there, so I figured it would be fun to wheel them out for the current edition. He was right...

Fire Warriors prepare to take out pretty much anything with their high power weapons

We played 1000 point games on a 6' x 4' table.  Up first I played Dallas' Marines.  The scenario involved capturing an old relic from the centre of the table.  My force included six Crisis suits, two Broadside suits, a small unit of four drones, and two squads of twelve Fire Warriors.  Dallas had two squads in Rhinos, a squad of Terminators, and his brand spanking new Land Raider Proteus (click here for a post showing some excellent WIP shots on this outstanding project by Dallas).

Broadside suit goes hunting

The Proteus advances, not expecting what comes next...

The game involved a lot (a lot) of casualties for the Marines.  The Tau are...broken.  The firepower of their basic troopers is sufficient to knock out Rhinos.  They put out a volume of high-AP fire that decimates armoured troops like Marines or Terminators.  The Crisis suits can move, fire, then move again.  The Broadside suits' rail guns have strength of 10, and AP1, and that really wreck vehicles.

More Fire Warriors in a wadi on the flank

Gun drones irritate the opponents - note the flaming Rhinos...

Tau Commander with Crisis suits

Dallas' outstanding Land Raider model suffered from an acute case of the "first-game-for-a-new-model-curse".  My Broadsides fired on it on our first turn, and we rolled vegas.  The Land Raider was reduced to a crater without firing a shot...ouch....about the only consolation to offer Dallas on that one is to assure him that at least the "curse game" is over with.

This crater was the Land Raider Proteus the top of the second turn...

Marine vehicles burn while the cheesebag Crisis suits hop around and cause trouble...

On the plus side for Dallas, despite a stack of casualties, it was a tie game.  The victory conditions revolved entirely around seizing the artifact, which Dallas' Marines did on the second turn, and held until the game ended, even as the smoking boots piled up around them. A very "Marine" ending.  The Tau got points for "first blood", for killing the enemy warlord, and for "line breaking".  The Marines got three points for holding the artifact.  Three points each.

The Crisis Suits had a successful "deep strike"

The Terminators looked great, but struggled to take down the pesky Tau...

After Dallas and I played, Sean took my Tau army out for a spin against Dave's Eldar.  Although they lasted only a little longer than my Elysians did, Sean's rolling wasn't much better than it had been during the Spearhead game earlier in the week. Dave V took some photos, so I'm sure he will post a report on that game.

The Marines hold to the bitter end - successfully!

Fire Warriors - so close, but so far away from the artifact

It was great to see Sean M once again.   And it was interesting to play 40k and not get completely killed before the game even starts.  But the Tau are out of control in this new edition of the rules.  Of course they "suck" at close combat, but close combat is not much of an issue when you have guns that mow down everything in sight.  And as for the Land Raider Proteus, I know it will be back...