Tenacious Tau!
Last night at my club I played against a Tau player. It was Sieze ground, spearhead deployment. My army was entirely in reserve, as I wanted to try something different. Two vendettas, a valkyrie, a couple of outflanking penal legion, Harker leading a squad of vets round the flank, marbo appearing... whereever he damn well pleases, and storm troopers deep striking in for the fun of it. I was struggling to make up the points without putting something on the table (and with only that to fire at for the first turn I figured anything I put down would DIE) so ended up chucking yarrick into my straken command. Sure it's pverkill, but it finished off my points...
The game was really close, though a few things annoyed me. I don't know whether to blame my rolling or the disruption pods, but you'd think that over the course of 5 turns shooting a total of 9 twin linked lascannon shots at a hammerhead I'd do more than shake it once. At the end of turn 5 I wasn't in position (my army had turned up in 2 halves, despite the +1 to reserves the astropath gives) and Rich was winning one nil. Turn 6 comes, and I'm poised to sieze the draw. All I need is for my veteran squad to beat up one tau and consolidate onto the objective for the draw. They wound him four times... he passes all four armour saves. Drawn combat. We roll for the turn - it's over, Rich wins. Gah!
We played a turn seven out of idle curiosity and the veterans did eventually finish off the tau to claim the objective, and yarrick managed to get in and contest another one, giving me a one nil victory if there'd been a seventh turn. But bloody irritating that I have to chalk that one up as a loss cos he managed to pass FOUR 4+ armour saves. I suppose it calls for equipping sergeants with power swords, but to do that across the army would be a bit of a waste to me for how rarely combat matters to guard.
I could have perhaps helped myself if I'd learned the rules for Harker properly. It was only turn 6 I realised he gave his squad stealth, so they would have been +1 cover for half the game. And it was only as I was putting the models away I realised he gave them move through cover. Given that I moved on 6, then tried to move into the building on a 1 + 2 three turns in a row, knowing that ability sooner may have been useful for getting to the objective. Or, I'd have rolled 1 + 1 + 2. Who knows.
Anyway, a good close game, but irritating to chalk it up as a loss when I feel I should have got a turn 6 draw turn 7 victory.
The game was really close, though a few things annoyed me. I don't know whether to blame my rolling or the disruption pods, but you'd think that over the course of 5 turns shooting a total of 9 twin linked lascannon shots at a hammerhead I'd do more than shake it once. At the end of turn 5 I wasn't in position (my army had turned up in 2 halves, despite the +1 to reserves the astropath gives) and Rich was winning one nil. Turn 6 comes, and I'm poised to sieze the draw. All I need is for my veteran squad to beat up one tau and consolidate onto the objective for the draw. They wound him four times... he passes all four armour saves. Drawn combat. We roll for the turn - it's over, Rich wins. Gah!
We played a turn seven out of idle curiosity and the veterans did eventually finish off the tau to claim the objective, and yarrick managed to get in and contest another one, giving me a one nil victory if there'd been a seventh turn. But bloody irritating that I have to chalk that one up as a loss cos he managed to pass FOUR 4+ armour saves. I suppose it calls for equipping sergeants with power swords, but to do that across the army would be a bit of a waste to me for how rarely combat matters to guard.
I could have perhaps helped myself if I'd learned the rules for Harker properly. It was only turn 6 I realised he gave his squad stealth, so they would have been +1 cover for half the game. And it was only as I was putting the models away I realised he gave them move through cover. Given that I moved on 6, then tried to move into the building on a 1 + 2 three turns in a row, knowing that ability sooner may have been useful for getting to the objective. Or, I'd have rolled 1 + 1 + 2. Who knows.
Anyway, a good close game, but irritating to chalk it up as a loss when I feel I should have got a turn 6 draw turn 7 victory.
It was good game and was fun to play against a very different army but at the same time very familiar in that it was guard who specialise in being average at most things. In hindsight if I hadnt won on turn 6 I would have played my last turn very differently, probably would have chucked some shots at the guys in the building rather than strakens unit in the hopes they run and I def would have blocked yarrik with the devilfish meaning he probably would not have been able to contest that and harker wouldnt have been able to clear the remains of both those units in one turn. so stil may have been 1 - 0 me or a draw but i think i could have kept you from the win. would have helped if the bloody valk had died too, you cant really complain about the lascannons when your valk took 6 railgun shots and was still there to contest at the end of the game.
ReplyDeleteTrue the valkyrie did balance things out a little...
ReplyDeleteThough saying you might have played things differently is all very well, but given you seemed surprised when I pointed out I'd won on turn 7 had you even realised the position I was in? You could have chucked some shots at the vets in the building but they'd have gone to ground for a 3+ cover. And if you had successfully killed the valkyrie then Straken could probably have got into position to contest, instead of the tactically pointless exercise of beating up (HA! Missing four out of five attacks and losing the combat) your commander.
Harker could have got one squad if the other devilfish was distracted by yarrick, and if you had managed to block my movement to contest, he still could potentially have killed your dude with his storm bolter/bale eye. Ok, in cover you've got a good chance of surviving... but you never know.
Anyway, if you agree to play an extra turn to see "What if" then you play it AS IF it counted. There's no point in playing the extra what if turn, moving off the objectives and throwing the game away then turning round to say "I only did that cos I'd already won" That doesn't give a true reflection to your opponents "what if we had a seventh turn" question.
I think its karma evening things up from when we drew on turn 5, with the majority of my tau intact and your remaining 4 nobz legging it towards the table edge.
ReplyDeleteDamned objectives and random game length :-P
the random game length defo gives you something to think about now though. shame the battle missions arent that good or i would be up for playing them more but they just dont seem to make sense for the armies they are intended for
ReplyDelete