CHAOS SPACE MARINES versus Tau

Game: Warhammer 40,000 4th edition
Opponent: Wayne
Mission: Cleanse
Level: Gamma
1st turn: Chaos Space Marines
Points: 1000
Location: Sarawak, The Halasus Marches
Background: 999.M41 The Third Sphere Colonists of Kauyon Vral invade Sarawak to create a bridgehead for an attack on Manil. They establish a landing zone by beating off one Exigator attack but must endure another as they attempt to capture strategic population centres and turn the Imperial citizens to their cause.

Chaos Space Marines

• Chaos Lord Ferocitor - Mark of Chaos Undivided, Daemonic Stature, Daemonic Speed, Daemonic Strength, Daemonic Visage, Dark Blade, Close combat weapon
• 2 Obliterators
• Squad Infractis – 6 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Infiltrate, Bolt pistols and Close combat weapons, Aspiring Champion with Power fist
• Squad Profuge - 5 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Infiltrate, Bolt guns, Plasma gun, Lascannon
• Squad Abraxar - 5 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Infiltrate, Bolt guns, Plasma gun, Missile Launcher
• Squad Krall - 5 Chaos Marines, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Bolt guns, Plasma gun, Lascannon
• 8 Furies
• Squad Imber - 6 Havocs, Mark of Chaos Undivided, Infiltrate, Bolt guns, 4 Heavy Bolters

Tau

• Ethereal Aun El Porva
• Shasui Myen Thorn, XV8 crisis suit, Plasma, twin missile pod, Team leader, Hard wired multi tracker, Hard wired drone cont + 1 gun drone
• Team Sa'cea, 3 XV8 crisis suits, 2 x twin linked plasmas, 2 x drone controllers + 2 gun drones, Team Leader Shasui Sacea Mesme Strider, Plasma, twin missile pod, Hard wired multi tracker
• Team J'Karra, 3 XV 15 stealth suits
• 10 Fire Warriors, Shasui Tau Montyr
• 8 Fire Warriors
• 11 Kroot Mercenaries, Flak armour/leadership upgrade, Shaper Elexo Khan
• Hammerhead Gunship, Railgun, multi tracker, Decoy launchers, Burst cannons
• Shasui Sacea Montka, XV88 Broadside, Team Leader, Twin Plasmas, Multi Tracker, Hardwired drone cont + 1 gun drone
  

Terrain and Deployment
This game was a follow up to my last game against Wayne's Tau. I had complained incessantly at the end of that game, blaming my defeat on my early bad dice rolls; I lost the dice-off for choice of table edge, the dice-off for placing infiltrators and the roll for first turn. Wayne's Tau subsequently slaughtered my Exigators.

Wayne promised me a rematch and to allow me to automatically win all those rolls I had previously lost. I showed up with a tweaked list and felt I should win comfortably with all my advantages.

I chose the quarter with a large ruined building and a wood on my left, giving Wayne's Tau two small woods to deploy in and around. Further to my left there was a stone circle we classified as area 2 terrain, but otherwise the table was fairly bare, as we were trying to emulate the Warhammer World tables.

I placed Squad Krall and Squad Abraxar in the building with Ferocitor behind it. Squad Imber infiltrated off to my left while Squad Profuge hid on the right. I put Squad Infractis in the woods on my left. The Obliterators and Furies would arrive later.

Wayne had his Crisis suits and Fire Warriors in and around the woods, his Stealth team harrying my right flank and his Kroot infiltrated into the stone circle. The Hammerhead started centrally along with the Broadside, out in the open.

The game
It was immediately apparent that this was going to be an odd game. I killed virtually nothing in my first turn, largely due to the immense distances between our armies. My heavy bolters were out of range of the Fire Warriors and even my lascannons and missile launchers came up short.

I brought Squad Infractis up through the woods and they ended up in a sprawling combat with the Kroot. My plan was to rush Ferocitor up to finish off the giant birds but a fistful of bad terrain rolls meant it took him three turns to reach combat (I was rolling three dice with a re-roll and didn't get higher than a three on two turns running). By that time Squad Infractis had been wiped out.

Wayne brought his lone Crisis, Thorn, up behind along with the Hammerhead. Squad Imber finished off the suit but failed a targeting check and fired at the front of the Hammerhead. With no more Tau advances and the Squad too far from a table quarter to rush in and claim they were effectively out of the game.

On the right, I was losing the shoot out between Squad Profuge and the Stealth team and Crisis suits, which meant I had lost that table quarter. On turn four I finally managed to drop the Broadside with Krall's lascannon, but all that did was leave our armies a mile apart.

When the Furies and Obliterators finally arrived I had some tough choices to make. I threw caution to the wind and flew the Daemons out into the teeth of the Tau guns. Even if a couple made it I could cause Wayne some consternation in an assault. They contacted the 8 Fire Warriors that Wayne had swung out to my left but were massacred when they emerged from the combat.

I teleported the Obliterators down to my left, targeting the Hammerhead. I figured I could gain a heap of points and secure that table quarter, while protecting the Oblits from any return fire. My other option was to drop them in Wayne's starting quarter and duke it out with the Crisis suits. I thought this was more risky due to the plasma rifles the suits had, the proximity of the table edge and the fact it would be impossible to take the table quarter even if I killed the suits, because there were other squads in the zone.

In the event my Obliterators and Ferocitor combined failed to pull the 'Head out of the sky, while it dropped the Obliterators down below half strength and routed Squad Imber off the table!

Wayne won the game with a superior points total.

Result: Loss

Commendations

• None
  

Learning points

• Well, I had all the advantages and still lost the game. That should stop me whinging so much after a game. Why did I lose? I fumbled my deployment, yet again. Because I had the choice of starting quarter I immediately picked the building, with it's 4+ save, as I had been denied cover in all my previous games. This wasn't a smart choice, though, as it was pretty deep in my starting quarter. Wayne set up deep in his own quarter and it left our two forces stranded, almost 60" apart. My small unit sizes meant Wayne could chip away at my squads, while my assault elements were largely wasted. Ferocitor was a huge points sink in particular and will need to be modified before the tournament.