TAU versus Space Marines

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Kevin
Mission: Cleanse
1st turn: Marines
Points: 1300

Tau

• Shas’O’Tau’Ko’Vash’Ch’ien’ShiShas’O - plasma rifle, fusion blaster, shield generator
• Shas’Ui’Tau’Ho’Lu’Demlock - 2 Crisis battlesuits, bonded, Shas’ui with plasma rifle, missile pod and multitracker, Shas’ui with plasma rifle, missile pod, multitracker
• Shas’Ui’Tau’Ho’Lu’Hemlock - Crisis battle suit, Shas’ui with plasma rifle, missile pod and multitracker
• Shas’Ui’Tau’Kais’Mal’Coar - 5 stealthsuits
• Shas’La’Tau’Han’Dan - 8 Fire warriors, all with pulse rifles, bonded, Shas’Ui with markerlight, Devilfish with decoy launchers and two seeker missiles
• Shas’La’Tau’Mont’Yr - 6 Fire warriors, all with pulse rifles, Shas’ui with markerlight, Devilfish with decoy launchers and sensor spines
• Shas’La’Tau’Mull’Kin’Tyr - 8 Fire warriors, all with pulserifles, Shas’ui with markerlight
• Murabla - 12 Kroot
• Shas’La’Tau’Or’Es’Mont’Ka - Hammerhead with Railgun, smart missile system, multitracker, decoy launchers, seeker missile
• Krootox
  

Space Marines

• Chaplain and 8 man tactical squad in rhino
• 8 man tactical squad
  
• 5 man scout squad
• Devastator squad (2x missile launchers, heavy bolter)
• Land speeder with heavy bolter
• 5 man terminator squad with heavy flamer and assault cannon
• 5 man assault squad
• Predator annihilator with heavy bolters

Terrain and deployment
I had a large army on a small board with lots of scenery and I felt the Marines had the upper hand.

The game
The Marines went first; land speeder and rhino to my right, predator and terminators down the centre, scouts to the left. Squad Han’dan dismounted from the devilfish on the right as bait with all the battle suits nearby.

The tactical squad on foot were shot at from all sides and halved in strength. The hammerhead faced off against the annihilator and missed, while the stealth team moved to intercept the scouts.

Squad Han’dan were wiped out by the chaplain and squad assaulting from the rhino and were themselves reduced to below half strength by the battlesuits in return. They moved back into the rhino which was then promptly immobilized.

Squad Kin’tyr used a markerlight to burn a seeker missile which destroyed the predator. They were then decimated in the shooting phase by the terminators. The hammerhead had its rail gun blown off by a shot from the devastators.

The kroot charged the tactical squad on foot and wiped them out but were killed by the terminators. The stealth team performed badly and were routed by the scouts who were reduced to two models.

On the right the battlesuits did for the land speeder and assault squad, killing them all. Two suits were killed by shots from the terminators, and the surviving suits killed three terminators, reducing them to below 50%.

Squad Mont’yr, who did nothing for the whole game except float around in the devilfish claimed my starting quarter, while the Hammerhead claimed another. Only the devastator squad were over half strength and could claim a quarter for the marines.

Result: Win

Learning points

• Difficult to move largish army around on small table with lots of terrain. Suits are easier to deploy than devilfish.
• Hard to use fire warriors in devilfish, markerlights especially. Deploy them on foot as a firebase. (Although one ‘fish might be advisable to capture table quarters. Switch out the marker light for a couple of carbines and some gun drones).
• Need more than one railgun!
• Suits rocked in this game. They killed 4 tactical marines, 5 assault marines, 3 terminators, a land speeder, and immobilized a rhino.