TAU versus Tyranids

Game: Warhammer 40,000 3rd edition
Opponent: Marc
Mission: Cleanse
Campaign: Winter War
1st turn: Tyranids
Points: 850

Tau

• Shas’O’Tau’Ko’Vash’Ch’ien’Shi Shas’O - plasma rifle, fusion blaster, shield generator
• Shas’Ui’Tau’Ho’Lu’Demlock - Crisis battle suit, Shas’ui with plasma rifle, missile pod and multitracker
• Shas’Ui’Tau’Ho’Lu’Hemlock - Crisis battle suit, Shas’ui with plasma rifle, missile pod and multitracker
• Shas’Ui’Tau’Ho’Lu’Vemlock - Crisis battle suit, Shas’ui with plasma rifle, missile pod and multitracker
• Shas’La’Tau’Han’Dan - 6 Fire warriors, 5 with pulse rifles, one with pulse carbine
• Shas’La’Tau’Mont’Yr - 6 Fire warriors, 5 with pulse rifles, one with pulse carbine
• Shas’La’Tau’Mull’Kin’Tyr - 6 Fire warriors, 5 with pulse rifles, one with pulse carbine
• Shas’La’Tau’Tan’Klyr - 6 Fire warriors, 5 with pulse rifles, one with pulse carbine
• Shas’La’Tau’Tam’La’Mo’Town - 6 Pathfinders, bonded, Shas’ui, photon grenades, Devilfish with decoy launchers and two seeker missiles
• Shas’Ui’Tau’Yu’Rang - Shas’ui Broadside with twin linked railguns, smart missile system and shield generator
  

Tyranids

• Hive Tyrant with venom Cannon
• Termagants
• Hormagaunts
• 3 Ravagers
• 3 Warriors (each a separate unit)
• 3 Zoanthropes (each a separate unit)

The game
On the left the Hormagaunts wiped out the Pathfinders in a first turn charge. They were halved in number in the sweeping assault but passed their Leadership check on a 4 and destroyed a Fire Warrior squad. None survived the subsequent sweeping advance.

Over on the right flank the Shas’o and the crisis suits took out the Tyranid Warriors. The Fire Warriors thinned out the Termagaunts who nevertheless contacted the Broadside. The combat was still raging at the end of the game.

The Zoanthropes wiped out two squads of Fire Warriors and advance line abreast, shielding the Hive Tyrant and Ravagers. The game ended on turn 3 as we ran out of time, and a draw seemed a fair call.

Result: Draw (ran out of time)

Learning points

• Pathfinders caught out again. Dropping them and taking a Hammerhead might work better.
• Don’t bunch up Fire Warriors against blast weapons.
• The Zoanthropes were tough to take down with their 2+ save. Needed more railguns.
• The ‘Nids used my trick of fielding single man units to split fire and frustrate the enemy!