League Game #1 - vs. T'au

This is not the paradise promised. 

But you will conquer it. 

- Dawn of War II

Hello and welcome back to The Art of Caesura!

I'm sending lots of positivity to you, especially if you need it today. 

Today is a special post on the blog, we're going to look at my first league game (which was also my first 2000 point game)! For some of the details on this league, as well as the list that I'm running and my thoughts behind it, check out this post. 

So, my first league game was against T'au, Retaliation Cadre. I have only played against T'au once, but this was an extremely different list and playstyle. I was excited to hear that Retaliation Cadre focuses on Battle Suits and mid-range firepower (I felt my templars would have more of a chance of getting into them than if they were more focused on long range firepower. My opponent, Rogan, also has an Imperial Fists army (from which Black Templars are a successor chapter), so he knew his Space Marines. For those interested (and with Rogan's permission), I will post his list at the bottom of this page.

We were using Chapter Approved Mission Cards and got Linchpin and Dawn of War deployment. 

Linchpin meant that it was absolutely vital to hold your home objective because it would make any other objectives you held worth almost twice as much! 

With the goal of protecting my home objective, I deployed overly cautiously. Rogan's potent T'au weaponry (mostly melta, plasma or rail) had me terrified, so I hid my two big tanks (RepEx and Land Raider Crusader (LRC) on the board edges. This also left my major threats (the Sword Brethren units (one with Helbrecht and one with Marshal / Castellan) woefully out of the fight. The photo below is not from the very beginning of the game, but it gives a general idea of where things started. 

Having my good units baited into bad positions - Rogan did this masterfully - was an ongoing theme in this game. He scared me into sending my Sword Brethren squads into corners of the board one to take out his uppy-downy Crisis Suits (they could fly off the board at any time and come back down almost anywhere - which could have spelt disaster for trying to hold my home objective if they came down to contest it) and the other to clean up a Broadside and Stealth Suit unit. 

I must say, anything my big threats got into, they blended; but again it was always on the periphery of the action. 

Grimaldus' Crusader Squad did admirably in the middle of the board holding that objective (killing a Ghostkeel and staring down a Riptide) and then consolidating over to the Eastern objective scoring me big points.

In the image below, you can see the result of my Land Raider Crusader crawling up the eastern flank, moments before being blown to bits in one round of shooting from the Piranha and Broadside! 

The unit inside (Sword Brethren with Marshal and Castellan) headed to the northern corner to seek vengeance for the loss of such a chapter relic - once again bringing them way out of the action. 

The Impulsor met a similar fate...

...and Helbrecht and friends leaped out of the smouldering wreckage to charge off into the lower right corner of the board to take out the mobile Crisis Suits. 

And then (below) we have the other flank of the board, moments before my other big tank (Repulsor Executioner) got blown off the board too!

With my RepEx exploded, the unit inside (Emperor's Champion and Assault Intercessors) charged into Commander Farsight's unit. 

This was the moment that I had been waiting for! The Emperor's champion is a melee monster, especially into Characters! I use all the strategem combos this turn (I was in Assault Doctrine - which gave Advance and Charge, I used the strategem "Honour the Chapter" which gives a unit Lance (if bearer charged this turn add 1 to wound roll (additive with army rule) if in Assault Doctrine also improve AP by 1) AND The Emperor's Champion also had the enhancement "The Honour Vehement" which gave him +2 Attacks and +2 Strength) and I STILL WIFFED!!! Admittedly, it was totally user error. I got super greedy and assumed with all these benefits I could Sweep with his Black Sword, instead of Strike, and overkill into his unit. Boy was I wrong! 12 Attacks at Strength 8 AP -3 still didn't kill anything!!!! All because they were only 1 damage each. If I had only Struck instead, I would have had 8 Attacks at Strength 10 AP-4 Damage 3, with Anti-Character 5+ and improving wound roll by 2!!

Anyway, I learned my lesson.

That one moment really taught me the difference between weight of attacks (number of Attacks) vs. quality of attacks (damage value). So, unsurprisingly the filthy xenos hit back, killing loads of my guys and then ended up falling back towards my home objective, still held by the beleaguered regular Intercessors.

Above and below you can see the state of the other flank at the end of the game with each Sword Brethren unit in their various corners of the board. Tactical genius on my part. 

We had to finish at the end of Turn 3 (it was about half an hour after the The Guild Hall was meant to close) so we only had a bit of time to talk through the end of the game. We were both battered and bloodied but in the end, my early lead with claiming primary objectives saw me hold the lead at the end of the game! My first league victory!

I had a great time and I hope Rogan did as well. We each had big moments when our units got to "do their thing". At the end of each of his Shooting Phases, I wondered how I could recover and I think he felt the same after each of my Fight Phases! I learned a lot and had a blast - what more do you want in a Warhammer game?

Below, you can find Rogan's list (mine is in my post from a couple weeks ago)

+ FACTION KEYWORD: Xenos - T'au Empire

+ DETACHMENT: Retaliation Cadre

+ TOTAL ARMY POINTS: 2000pts

+

+ WARLORD: Char1: Commander Farsight

+ ENHANCEMENT: Starflare Ignition System (on Char1: Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit)

& Internal Grenade Racks (on Char2: Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit)

+ NUMBER OF UNITS: 18

+ SECONDARY: - Bring It Down: (10x2) + (3x4) - Assassination: 4 Characters

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Char1: 1x Commander Farsight (95 pts): Warlord, Dawn Blade, High-intensity plasma rifle

Char2: 1x Darkstrider (60 pts): Close combat weapon, Shade

Char3: 1x Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit (115 pts): 2x Shield Drone, Cyclic ion blaster, 3x Plasma rifle, Battlesuit fists

Enhancement: Starflare Ignition System (+20 pts)

Char4: 1x Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit (115 pts): 2x Shield Drone, Cyclic ion blaster, 3x Fusion blaster, Battlesuit fists

Enhancement: Internal Grenade Racks (+20 pts)

10x Pathfinder Team (90 pts)

• 9x Pathfinders

    6 with Pathfinder Team, Close combat weapon, Pulse carbine, Pulse pistol

    3 with Pathfinder Team, Close combat weapon, Ion rifle, Pulse pistol

• 1x Pathfinder Shas'ui: Marker Drone, Recon drone, Drone burst cannon, Close combat weapon, Pulse carbine, Pulse pistol, Semi-automatic grenade launcher, Twin pulse carbine, Drone burst cannon

3x Stealth Battlesuits (80 pts)

• 1x Stealth Shas'vre: Battlesuit support system, Homing beacon, Marker Drone, Battlesuit fists, Fusion blaster, Twin pulse carbine

• 2x Stealth Shas'ui: 2 with Battlesuit fists, Burst cannon

3x Stealth Battlesuits (80 pts)

• 1x Stealth Shas'vre: Battlesuit support system, Homing beacon, Marker Drone, Battlesuit fists, Fusion blaster, Twin pulse carbine

• 2x Stealth Shas'ui: 2 with Battlesuit fists, Burst cannon

3x Stealth Battlesuits (80 pts)

• 1x Stealth Shas'vre: Battlesuit support system, Homing beacon, Marker Drone, Battlesuit fists, Fusion blaster, Twin pulse carbine

• 2x Stealth Shas'ui: 2 with Battlesuit fists, Burst cannon

1x Broadside Battlesuits (90 pts): Weapon support system, Crushing bulk, 2x Missile pod, Heavy rail rifle, Seeker missile

1x Broadside Battlesuits (90 pts): Weapon support system, Crushing bulk, 2x Missile pod, Heavy rail rifle, Seeker missile

3x Crisis Fireknife Battlesuits (130 pts)

• 1x Crisis Fireknife Shas’vre: Shield Drone, 2x Plasma rifle, Battlesuit fists, Twin pulse carbine

• 2x Crisis Fireknife Shas’ui: 2 with Shield Drone, Battlesuit fists, 2x Plasma rifle, Twin pulse carbine

3x Crisis Starscythe Battlesuits (110 pts)

• 1x Crisis Starscythe Shas’vre: Shield Drone, 2x T'au flamer, Battlesuit fists, Twin pulse carbine

• 2x Crisis Starscythe Shas’ui: 2 with Shield Drone, 2x T'au flamer, Battlesuit fists, Twin pulse carbine

3x Crisis Sunforge Battlesuits (150 pts)

• 1x Crisis Sunforge Shas’vre: Shield Drone, 2x Fusion blaster, Battlesuit fists, Twin pulse carbine

• 2x Crisis Sunforge Shas’ui: 2 with Shield Drone, Battlesuit fists, 2x Fusion blaster, Twin pulse carbine

1x Ghostkeel Battlesuit (160 pts): Battlesuit support system, Ghostkeel fists, Cyclic ion raker, Twin fusion blaster

1x Ghostkeel Battlesuit (160 pts): Battlesuit support system, Ghostkeel fists, Fusion collider, Twin fusion blaster

1x Hammerhead Gunship (145 pts): Armoured hull, Railgun, 2x Seeker missile, 2x Smart missile system

1x Piranha (60 pts): Armoured hull, 2x Twin pulse carbine, Piranha fusion blaster, 2x Seeker missile

1x Riptide Battlesuit (190 pts): Riptide fists, Ion accelerator, 2x Missile pod, Twin plasma rifle

Thanks for tuning in, and I'll see you next week for more on The Art of Caesura!

Watching: Traitors: Ireland

Reading: Kane and Abel - Jeffrey Archer

Next Week:

Game two...