Friday 6 April 2018

Battle for Point Perada - Fandrel

Planet: Fandrel.
Region: Damocles Sector.

Death Guard vs Tau Empire.
2000 points.
Mission: Tactical Gambit.
Deployment: Search and Destroy.

Point Perada was a secondary concern for the Death Guard forces resisting the Tau incursion. The site was the command point for a smaller force that so far has not proven itself a threat. Even so, the Death Guard needed a victory so an assault was directed at the Tau emplacement. The battle was decisive for the Death Guard. The Tau fought valiantly but heavy losses and an early winter forced them to treat after several days.

This battle was against Adam and his Tau using the new Tau Empire codex. As always it is interesting to see how each new codex fares differently to it's Index counterpart. I had hopes that Adam's army would come out better than it's previous incarnation but at the same time I didn't want to be too battered by them either.

Our chosen mission was Tactical Gambit and we rolled Search and Destroy for the deployment. To be fair I don't think the deployment helped or hindered either of us which is good. Most of Adam's army started onboard his ship high above the battlefield so I had to deploy to counter that. I didn't want another game where the enemy deepstrikes caused me headaches. Adam also took two fortifications which I had not expected, although I think the shield wall fortification was probably not necessary against Death Guard but nice to see fortifications actually being played.

I was successful in having the first turn and I guessed that I could complete two of my four tactical objectives. Thankfully it was not difficult to achieve those two simply by advancing my forces up the side of the table away from the Tau lines of fire. My long range shooting did nothing as for myself and my opponent this game was dominated by the number of 1's we rolled.

Adam's first turn saw nothing move but a host of battlesuits and a ghostkeel drop from the skies around my deployment zone. His shooting managed to knock a couple wounds from the blight hauler and one wound from a deathshroud terminator but that was it. He tried a new stratagem that let his ship in orbit fire a sort of orbital strike but he failed hurt anything with it.

Turn two and I guessed just one card but again the cards were fully in my favour. I continued to consolidate the objectives that I needed. My shooting and smiting proved very effective and I was able to drop the ghostkeel finally. The deathshroud and daemon prince charged into the battle suit lines and decimated all but one. This was what gave me the game effectively as most of Adam's firepower was tied up in those units. Too short range meant that I was able to assault with two very assault based units.

Turn 3 and I did little in my turn. At the start of Adam's turn he conceded. I was sitting on 7 victory points and he had 3, but with little in the way of units that could grab him some objectives.

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After thoughts...

I feel Tau are really screwed. On one hand they should be fantastic in the shooting phase but understandably weak in assault. The problem is that their shooting ability does seem really weak compared to previous editions. I felt bad for Adam because his army just couldn't do anything and at the end I had lost a single plague marine and that was it, where as he had a small dead pile.

The mission was nice but I feel that I am saying that because the cards were really in my favour, and I had the resilience to absorb a lot of what the Tau could put out. Hopefully it is just a case of the new codex needs some time for Adam to work out what really works and how to play them now. Taking two fortifications was also probably not the way to go when more units could have been better.

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 + HQ +

Daemon Prince of Nurgle [8 PL, 156pts]: 3. Tainted Regeneration, 4. Blades of Putrefaction, Hellforged sword, Warlord

Malignant Plaguecaster [6 PL, 110pts]: 1. Miasma of Pestilence, 6. Curse of the Leper, The Pandemic Staff

+ Troops +

Plague Marines [13 PL, 212pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Great plague cleaver
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plasma gun

Plague Marines [13 PL, 210pts]: Icon of Despair
. Plague Champion: Plague knife, Plasma gun, Power fist
. 4x Plague Marine w/ boltgun
. Plague Marine w/ melee weapons: Flail of Corruption
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Blight launcher
. Plague Marine w/ Special Weapon: Plague Spewer

Poxwalkers [3 PL, 60pts]: 10x Poxwalker

+ Elites +

Deathshroud Terminators [11 PL, 180pts]
. Deathshroud Champion: Manreaper, Plaguespurt gauntlets
. 2x Deathshroud Terminator: 2x Manreaper, 2x Plaguespurt gauntlets

Hellforged Contemptor Dreadnought [10 PL, 181pts]: Havoc launcher
. Left Arm: Combi-bolter, Hellforged deathclaw
. Right Arm: Kheres assault cannon

+ Fast Attack +

Chaos Spawn [4 PL, 66pts]: Chaos Spawn, Chaos Spawn

Foetid Bloat-drone [8 PL, 158pts]: 2x Plaguespitters, Plague probe

Myphitic Blight-haulers [7 PL, 142pts]
. Myphitic Blight-hauler: Bile spurt, Missile launcher, Multi-melta

+ Heavy Support +

Chaos Land Raider [19 PL, 369pts]: Combi-bolter, Havoc launcher, Twin heavy bolter, 2x Twin lascannon

Plagueburst Crawler [8 PL, 152pts]: 2x Entropy cannon, Rothail volley gun

++ Total: [110 PL, 1996pts] ++

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The Death Guard march to war!

Tau forces drop from the skies!

Don't mess with the sons of Mortarion!

2 comments:

  1. Nice battle report.

    You list seems like a fun balanced list, so maybe share the Tau list to see if Tau players can give him some advice. Unfortunately crisis suits did not change in points (base cost or weapons) so they are still a bit bad, also ghostkeels are more about the stealth than raw damage, this combined to mean that nearly half the Tau army (in points) dropped and didn't too much and then died, tough to come back from that.

    Fire Warriors supported by Cadre Fireblades are good, Riptides and broadsides have got points drop to make them worthwhile, and commanders are still great. Plus there's a new XV8 Commander option so your opponent could use a couple of his crisis suits as commanders.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'll see if I can get it from him.

      He had made a small screw up which was noticed after the fact. he had taken Tau sept character when he was playing a Borkan sept list. Didn't really make a difference though but he'll pay attention next time.

      Delete

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