1000 points IG vs Tau

[Deleted]

So this was my first semi competitive game. A group of my friends and I have been playing a cooperative campaign in my basement. This was the first time that we got together to do some one v one.

I used the new codex rules. Please let me know any place that I screwed up, either ruleswise or tactics.

My list:
I started with a baseline from Trollface's 1500 point foot army.

HQ
CCS

Elite
Sly Marbo

Troops
PCS 1

Infantry Squad 1.1
Commisar
Power Weapon
Meltagun
Infantry Squad 1.2
Melta gun
Infantry Squad 1.3
Gernade Launcher

Veteran Squad 2
Lascannon
Sniper Rifles x3

Veteran Squad 3
Lascannon
Gernade Launcher x3

Fast Attack
Bane Wolf
Smoke Launcher

Heavy Support
Leman Russ Battle
Lascannon

Basilisk

His List was comprised of command team 3 battlesuits, he had a unit of 3 crisis suits and one of 2. He also had a unit of 2 broadside suits with shield drones. His troops were 3 units of fire warriors with size of 9,7 and 6. The group of 9 was in their transport.

Scenario:
My first mistake was that I told him he could setup the terrain and I would just get to pick the side. Well, he placed a few hills in the middle a couple on each side and a barricade that completely blocked line of sight on each side. There was no area terrain, just los blocking terrain. This worked very well in his favor as he could jump his suits out shoot and then jump them back to where I could not shoot them.

What do people normally do to create a fair and fun terrain setup?

We rolled Dawn of War and Seize the ground with 5 objectives. We placed one in the center and two on each side forming a basic square. I chose to go first (possibly my second mistake).

Continued in next post.

[Deleted]

Round 1
I had placed my two vet squads with the lascannon and the 3 guns on top of the hills and the rest behind, giving my unit cover. I also placed my HQ unit on the field towards the center forcing him away from it. He placed his transport on my left, his command squad on my right both towards the center. The command squad was behind a hill from both vet units. He also place his unit of 7 firewarriors back behind the barricade completely out of line of sight.

I brought my guys on the field. The troops in the middle moving forward with the pcs behind them. I brought the Leman Russ on the right to take out the transport. I brought the basilisk on the banewolf on the left to take out the command squad. I was able to light up the transport with searchlights and fired my battlecannon and lascannon and the lascannon and 3 sniper rifles from the vet squad at it. I shook the crew, a bit dissapointing. I totally screwed up the other side. My banewolf moved 12 tried to shoot and missed the command squad by half an inch. The basilisk tried to shoot the command squad and failed to see it by 1 inch. There was nowhere great to go with the basilisk, but I definitely should have put it in the center for a little better protection. So nothing happened.

His first turn, he brought the rest of his suits on the field, keeping almost everything out of los. He moved his transport next to my leman russ. He failed to see everything but the banewolf, which he stunned.

Second turn:
Sly failed to come in. He was my only saving grace as everything was staying hidden. I tried again to shoot the transport and only got a crew shaken and weapon destroyed result. My troops moved forward, the banewolf used its smoke launchers, the basilsk shot at the command squad and scattered into oblivion. The lascannon on the other vet squad (didn't have line of sight on transport) took out 1 firewarrior as he didn't have los on anything else.

He then moved his transport disembarked his guys and blew up my leman russ from the rear. Yep, fire warriors destroyed my leman russ. His other battle suits jumped out and blew up my basilisk and my banewolf despite the smoke. Fun stuff. Oh and everything jumped back out of los.

Third turn:
Sly failed to show up. I was able to move my troops up far enough to get shots on his fire warriors that werent hiding behind the barricade and not in the invincible transport. I shot them up and they ran. My vet squad, command squad shot into the fire warriors that destroyed my russ. They seem to suck at shooting and only killed 4 with no sniper rifle wounds. The fire warriors made their leadership check.

He starts to work on my vet squad. I screwed up here. His 5 fire warriors do 2 wounds and i took them from models behind the hill. This then gave them no cover from the battlesuits as more were on top of the hill than behind. This squad was obliterated. He then started working on my troop squad and my other vet squad with everything else.

Fourth Turn:
My troops are down to less than 10 and they haven't been able to reach any battle suits but are threatening to hold an objective, but it will be easily contested. My other vet squad is doing a good job of hanging out and drinking some beer (going to ground and jumping up with one lascannon shot). But hey sly shows up. I decide my only chance here is to kill his scoring units and hope for a draw. I drop sly in and he throws his demolitions and kills 5 warriors, both suits under the demo rolled a 1 to wound, sweet. His 2 warriors make their leadership check and stay. I shoot and then charge and kill his other squad of fire warriors with my hq unit. I am in position to contest much, his stupid transport is between two objectives to contest me and out of los from my other lascannon. He has too many suits still in play and can contest the rest of the objectives.

His turn. His 2 fire warriors obliterate sly. He continues to take out guys.

Turn 5
I hold 2 objectives but they will be contested easily. There was just too much open space between the hills that blocked los. If I tried to get to them behind their hills I would have been in open space and obliterated, if I stayed in the cover, I couldn't shoot them. It was a tough fight. Luckily on his turn five the game ended and his 2 fire warriors were 3.25 inches away from the objective.

It was a draw.

I was pretty frustrated with this battle. My tanks died without doing anything. I couldn't shoot anything. I feel like the only reason I was able to bring it to a draw was that he didn't have enough scoring points or just wasn't able to keep them alive. Any thoughts on the list or what I could have done differently?

Thanks.

[Julian Sharps]

Obviously, letting him set up terrain like that was a bad idea. Next time you do something like that, tell him that if he places terrain in that kind of slanted manner again, you get to move some of it around (but be fair about this. Don't remove any and all cover he gets in his deployment zone and move it into yours).

Lascannons might not be the best choice to bring against Tau (only one shot, and it's usually overkill anyway). I personally would have gone with autocannons with most of those (I would have outfitted the second veteran squad for assaults, personally. Maybe give them the Demolitions doctrine so you get a demo charge).

Speaking of, what were your infantry squads doing!? Unless they were holding objectives (which would be wise) they should have been positioning themselves for an assault (since fire warriors are notoriously bad at CC). Since none of his fire warrior squads numbered more than ten, you should be outnumbering him, in addition to kicking his ass in CC!

The only tank choice of yours that I have issues with is the Banewolf. Sure, it's a flamer template attack that wounds on 2s and ignores almost all armor saves, but against Tau it'll only be worthwhile against stealth suits, since all the other suits have more than one wound and it's a waste on fire warriors. I personally would have gone with a hellhound (same points cost and basic frame, so you could get away with proxying for one if you had to). Longer range, basically made to fry fire warriors and it can shoot around corners (awesome IG magic super flamer!).

Other than that, I think you did rather well, given the circumstances. Be sure to learn from your mistakes, and you should do fine in future games.

[Deleted]

The list isn't necessarily against Tau. I do agree Autocannons can be good against Tau, the lascannons aren't bad. They do insta-kill battlesuits (doing 2 wounds in one shot) on a 2+ to wound. They don't get an armor save. Where with the autocannon they do get their 3+ armor save and they have two wounds.

I definitely needed to be more aggressive with my infantry. They did have to start on the back table edge since it was Dawn of War. In retrospect, I could have kept one group of vets off the field and put the infantry up front.

I do agree that the banewolf will probably get changed. I am currently pondering making one vet squad grenadiers and outfitting them with some plasma guns and maybe a power weapon and putting them in a vendetta or valkyrie.

Thanks.

[Julian Sharps]

I was thinking a vet squad with 2 flamers and a heavy flamer led by Harker, and giving the rest of them shotguns and the demolitions upgrade, but whatever works...