Bugeater GT 2011 coverage: Game 1 VS Tau

My first game at the Bugeater Gt 2011 was against Alex Farrell. Alex was playing Tau. I have a tough time with Tau because I have trouble getting across the board. This stems from my split personality army, which I will explain in a later article.

Here is the break down of my list;

Codex Space Marines

Pedro Kantor
Librarian- null, and force dome
3 Honor Guard- razorback

5 assault termie- 2 th/ss
10 sternguard- 2x melta, 3x combimelta, 2x combi plasma, lightning claw sarg, razorback
Ironclad Dreadnought

10 Tactical Marines- melta, missile, powerfist, razorback
5 Tactical Marines- power sword, razorback

3x Predators- ac/ las sponsons

Alex's List
Tau Empire

Shas'O- Ion blaster, missile pod, 2x shield drones
2x Bodyguards- 1 w/ twin linked missile pods, 1 w/ twin linked plasma, 4 shield drones

12 Firewarriors
12 Firewarriors
12 Firewarriors- emp grenades

8 Pathfinders- devilfish, 2x marker drones

3 Battle suits- 3x twin linked missile pods
5 Stealth Suits- fusion blaster

3 Broadsides- 6x shield drones

Mission one was Dawn of War.
The primary mission was Table Quarters. Highest VP in quarter wins it.
The Secondary was objectives (5). One in the middle, one in the middle of each quarter.
The Tertiary mission was Kill points, win by 3.The board had a large pyramid in the middle that we agreed was difficult terrain. The rest of the terrain we played as impassible los blocking.

I won the roll for deployment and set up my 5 man tactical in a razorback towards the middle by the pyramid. Alex deployed his HQ in the middle by the edge and a firewarrior squad on his left flank by an objective.

I rushed my razorback forward and popped smoke. I drove 2 of my predators onto the board on my left. I drove the other predator onto the board on my right. My honor guard with Pedro and the Librarian drove up the middle with a combat squaded sternguard in razorback. I also drove the combat squaded tactical marines in a razorback up the middle. My walking 5 sternguard, termies, and ironclad came in just off to the right. The 5 walking tactical marines walked and ran on the board on the left side by the predators.

His turn one saw him eliminate my smoke with marker lights and kill the lead razorback. He also popped one of my predators on my left, and killed 3 termies. I rolled really bad.

Turn 2 I rushed the razorbacks forward and popped smoke on the lead ones. My 5 man tactical moved into the predator crater. My termies and ironclad ran up the right of the pyramid. Shooting only saw him taking saves on shield drones.

His turn 2, his stealth suits came on by my predator. They shook it and took off the turret.



More bad termie saves! They go down in two or three rounds.

His fire warriors drove up and jumped out. They shot up the terminators and I failed more saves. I still had my dread forward and I thought I could still get to him. He managed to pop the combat squaded razorback killing 3. He also wrecked my honor guards razorback. Key point here is I disembarked into the pyramid for cover. I would keep them there until the last turn. I had decided to stop pushing for the assault and play the middle and quarter dance my squads.

I stopped taking pictures so I could concentrate on my positioning. I wiped out the firewarriors that advanced and my dread consolidated back towards the pyramid. In turns 3 and 4 he managed to immobilize my dread by the pyramid. My 5 man tactical squad on foot managed to wipe out the stealth suits in hand to hand. He popped my last predator on the left. I rushed my predator on the right up to get over mid board on turn 5. I also moved Pedro and his squad over the middle into the front right board. I still had a 5 man sternguard squad in my bottom right quarter.

Turn 5 saw him shoot my tactical marines in my lower left quarter to death and my lone Sargent kill off his fire warriors on the objective on my upper left.



Game ended at 5 since there was not enough time left. The sternguard in the middle fell into the lower left quarter, giving me the 2 on my side and one on his. Pedro plus honor guard cost alot, plus the ironclad and predator gave me the quarter.

So 14 points to me for the primary. We tied on the secondary 1 to 1, and I lost the tertiary kill points by alot ( 4 points to Alex).

It was a sloppy win with me only killing 4 units, and nearly getting tabled. If he would have moved at all he would have won. He literally stayed on the back line the whole game. So I move on, but I'm low seeded, so I will be facing a top seed.

Rank so far 1-0 with 14 BP.