Badelaire: Well,
it was close, but although things were looking good for me mid-game, the rapid
loss of my Fire Warrior squads in the second half
of the game spelled the end of my lead. Considering how things went, I
probably should have placed my objective marker further back, but to be
honest, I don't really like the whole "marker in the corner" tactic
of cramming it in the furthest possible spot away from the enemy. It
would have helped me, no doubt, as I would have probably set up my fire
warrior reserve squad further back and perhaps, I would have been able to deny
a charge a little longer (I hope) and since Darkwing was only able to get at
me with relatively few 'gaunts and 'gants, it could have saved me the
objective, seeing as the game ended on the fifth turn.
As for the rest? I was pretty happy with my right flank performance--the
Devilfish with Fire Warriors and my Stealth/Drone "super unit" did
great - the FWs and transport survived almost intact, and the Stealths/Drones
did their job quite well - despite all the fire I took and the attack of the
Lictor, I only lost drones, no Stealth Suits. I don't think I would have
been able to take the Nid objective by the 7th turn, and that was my fault
entirely - but I could have probably cut down all the gants guarding the
objective.
With regards to my crisis suits, I'm ambivalent. I wanted a unit that
was good at close range combat and took the flamer/fusion gun suits, but sadly
they got charged and were ultimately good only for holding up a couple of
depleted gaunt/gant units. This wasn't a complete waste, but this unit
had a lot of potential that was lost. Part of the problem is the 6"
movement coupled with short range weapons - against leaping & fleet
gaunts, if I'm close enough to move 6" and flame, then I'm close enough
that the nids could charge the round before. I'm definitely going to
remember that the next time I play Tau against nids (whenever that might
be). As for the other Crisis team, I think they did all right.
While they didn't cause tremendous casualties, the were able to hold the
center of my line, and were able to provide fire support to both my left and
right flanks. I am especially happy with the HQ's airbursting
fragmentation projector - I think although strength 4 isn't exceptional, the
decent AP coupled with the negation of cover saves makes this weapon
especially useful in 5th edition.
All in all, this was a good game, and while I think I could have played
better, seeing as it was my second battle playing Tau, and my first battle
using their new codex coupled with the 5E rules, I feel I did all right.
A good game all around, fun and exciting right up to the end.
Darkwing:
That was close! In
the opening half of the battle I thought I was going to get my butt kicked.
I had some highlights, like my Lictor killing the Hammerhead, but then
losing all three Lictors in rapid succession had me sulking.
I wasn’t rolling poorly, but I wasn’t getting any breaks, either
(although, arguably, completely destroying the Hammerhead was a ‘break’,
so I suppose I shouldn’t complain.
As soon
as I saw Badelaire’s lone Devilfish on his flank, I knew that if I took that
out early, I would completely thwart any possibility of his claiming my
objective. I was determined to
take it out, then focus on claiming the Tau objective.
When my early attempts failed and the huge Stealth Suit Team appeared
(a novel unit if there ever was one), I realized that my right flank assault
broods were on their own. When my
assault on the Tau objective appeared to be petering out with the loss of my
hormagaunt brood and my Rending Claws Warriors brood, I thought that my
attempts to take the Tau objective were doomed.
But fortunately my gaunts held up the Tau long enough in close combat
for the rest of my units to arrive and finish the job.
So what
were my mistakes? My one Lictor
arriving alone did what he could, and I was really lucky to take out the
Hammerhead with him. The other two
lictors…could have been handled better.
I saw the Fire Warriors in the Devilfish and the Stealth Suit Team as
major threats, and I felt that I had to trust luck and try to take out both.
I was hoping for a ‘break’, but didn’t get it, and it cost me
both lictors. I believe that I
should have focused on the objectives and used them both to go after the
Devilfish.
On the
other hand, I think I was smart to tie up two units when my Hormagaunts
charged on the right flank. I lost
one unit completely (against Fire Warrior Team 1), but the other unit charged
the very deadly Crisis Suit Team, armed with flamers.
Had I not tied them up when I did, I think they would have dished out a
lot of hurt to the rest of my gaunts, and perhaps costing me the objective.
Badelaire
is right in that if you spread out your models too much, they become
vulnerable to scattering blast weapons, but packing them tightly means that
one lucky hit can wipe out a squad, which is exactly what happened in at least
one case during this game. I think
my blast weapons worked well—they frequently scattered wildly, but they got
enough direct hits to make up for it, I think.
[Arcadia Prime][Introduction][Turn 1][Turn 2][Turn 3][Turn 4][Turn 5][Debriefing]