First, here's a link to my other Battle Reports. You'll find a big list of them at the top, and if you scroll down, I have the reports listed by which list I played. Cool.
Second, I want you to know: next weekly report will have a different army. In fact, I won't likely be playing this Wolfstar list much longer. Which army? I'm sure some of you know, lol. I'll let you wait til next week to see though.
Alright! So, moving on. Here's his list (as best as I can get it from memory):
Shas'o w/ Plasma gun, Cyclic Ion Blaster, 2 Shield Drones, Reserves Controller thing
Shas'el w/ Plasma gun, Large Blast S4 shot, 2 Shield Drones, +1 BS wargear
12x Kroot w/ 8x Hounds
12x Kroot w/ 8x Hounds
12x Fire Warriors
6x Fire Warriors
2x Crisis Suits w/ Twin- Linked Auto Cannons (I know they aren't auto-cannons, but they're the same profile, essentially)
8x Pathfinders w/ Marker Lights, Devilfish
8x Pathfinders w/ Marker Lights, Devilfish
3x Broadsides w/ 3x Plasma Guns, Sgt. can shoot at a different target wargear
3x Broadsides w/ Sgt. can shoot at a different target wargear
Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon
Here's my list:
Wolf Lord w/ Saga of the Bear, Thunderwolf Mount, Thunder Hammer, Storm Shield, Wolftooth Necklace, Wolftail Talisman, Runic Armor
Wolf Lord w/ Saga of Majesty, Thunderwolf Mount, Wolf Claw, Storm Shield, Runic Armor
Rune Priest w/ Living Lightning and Jaws
3x Wolf Guard w/ Combi-melta, Fist (go with Grey Hunters)
9x Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino
9x Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino
8x Grey Hunters w/ Melta, Wolf Standard, Rhino (Rune Priest goes here)
4x Thunderwolf Cavalry w/ 2x Storm Shield, 1x Thunder Hammer (one model with both SS and TH)
6x Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
6x Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
6x Longfangs w/ 5x Missile Launchers
We rolled for mission, and got spearhead with kill points. Usually against Tau I'm happy with Kill Points, since lots of things about Tau screw them when it comes to kill points. However, this game I'm not as happy, since he has like 12 kill points, all of which are tough to kill, and... I have to approach him via spearhead. Still, good to play games that aren't perfect for you to start with :)
He won the roll to go first, and took it.
Here's a picture of our deployment. He kept his Kroot in reserve, as well as a devilfish, and 6-man fire warriors. I basically got my cavalry as close as they could to him, and my rhinos behind them for cover saves.
I never try to seize the initiative in a game, since I like to practice dealing with adversity against armies like this going second. So, I didn't try. Heh.
Tau Turn 1:
He basically shot at me. I think he did a total of 7 wounds to my Wolfstar, and I failed 2, one insta-death on my Bear Lord, and a random one on another guy. Oh, he stunned my Rune Priest rhino.
Here's a better picture of his deployment, after his turn 1. Figured that's what you wanted to see, rather than my army standing where they were last picture :)
Wolves Turn 1:
I advanced. Not much to talk about, really. I got a 6" fleet for my Wolfstar, but it still wouldn't be close enough to his guys to charge.
Shooting really did nothing much. I even got my Rune Priest out of his ride to try and Jaws his leader, but was more than 24". Big turn of fail, if you ask me. Still, next turn, I'd be into him.
Oh, if you didn't notice, I left one squad of Grey Hunters in reserve. I was hoping they'd come on after his Kroot did, so I could go hunt them. One rhino popped smoke.
Tau Turn 2:
He shot at me lots again, and I took a few more wounds on the star. Still no deaths, though I was failing my 2+ saves like crazy, it seemed. His devilfish would have come in on a 2+, but he rolled a 1. Lol, so much for the Kroot coming in before my Hunters.
See, my Majesty Lord has taken 1, and the Bear Lord took 2 so far, and a smattering of others as well. Nobody really moved from last turn.
I moved my Wolfstar up again, and advanced my Grey Hunters, getting ready to use my Rune Priest to hit his leader Broadside, to kill his drones off.
In shooting, my Rune Priest passed his check, but Eric passed his I2 check (needed a 1 or 2 to stay alive). My missile launchers targeted his broadside team, and ended up killing the leader, and the attached commander guy. So, no shields for him any more.
In combat, I charged (barely, after having rolled a 1 for fleet, heh) and killed all of his pathfinders in my way. I spread out, hoping to hold on for one more turn. I was confident a few of my wolves would survive the next round. I was in for a big surprise.
Kill Point Count:
Wolves: 2
Tau: 0
Not much to show. My wolves are spread out, braced for impact.
He disembarked his Fire Warriors, and got ready to rapid fire. No real movement, heh.
And then... his fire warriors shot, and I failed just about every save.
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| Here's the guys 12 fire warriors killed. 2 of them were entirely unwounded before the barrage. Also, my Majesy Lord took one here too. |
...and then he shot and killed the other 2 lords. Terrible round of rolling for me, but that's what I get when I play a deathstar unit like this. It's one of the reasons I'm about to stop playing it.
Also, he killed my un-immobilized rhino.
Kill Point Count:
Wolves: 2
Tau: 4
Heh, poor wolfstar.
Wolves Turn 3:
Well, I wasn't about to give up yet. I had figured I'd get into him in combat next turn, and get a few kill points out of the deal, but I still had a few weapons. I advanced my Rune Priest's squad up, and the other grey hunters I also ran up. The broadside team again passed their Jaws I2 check. My missiles all targeted his fire warriors who were clustered up. They went to ground, and I killed like 7 of them. The Devilfish was also hurt, but not badly. No kills for me this turn, heh.
Kill Point Count:
Wolves: 2
Tau: 4
Well, the good news is he doesn't really have anything that's super awesome at killing gray hunters. Seems ironic to me.
Tau Turn 4:
He just sat and shot some more. Didn't kill anything this turn though except for a few random marines.
Wolves Turn 4:
Well, I advanced, and shot more. I got a bead on his commander, a broadside, and a drone with my Jaws. After he had failed his Broadside initiative check (finally!) we realized that his commander was jump infantry and immune to Jaws. Oops!
Other shooting finally saw the end of his final broadside, and I also immobilized his Devilfish. Also, I killed all of his fire warriors who had gone to ground that turn with missile fire.
Kill Point Count:
Wolves:4
Tau: 4
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| The cool line of guys I wanted to kill with Jaws. It wasn't to be, sadly. |
He shot what he could at my Grey Hunters. At this point, I've switched squads with my Rune Priest, so as to preserve the other as a kill point. One time earlier, I think he had immobilized my rhino back there, by the way.
As an aside, his Kroot came in where he wanted them, and he just sat them in the corner. He didn't bother actually putting them on the table, since it wouldn't have mattered. My grey hunters came in sometime on the corner so as to avoid his broadside shots, but he was still easily in range, lol.
Kill Point Count:
Wolves: 4
Tau: 4
Hooray for tau somehow not being good at killing power armor, lol.
Didn't do a whole lot- just shot everything into his devilfish, and used Living Lightning on his other pathfinders, which did nothing. The devilfish just sat there, getting shaken and stunned like 3 times from pens.
Kill Point Count:
Wolves:4
Tau: 4
Tau Turn 6:
So, we went into turn 6 at a draw. I needed to only lose one kill point, and kill his devilfish, and he needed to cause 2 kill points in order to secure the win.
His shooting was reasonable, and I failed every single cover save on my Rune Priest's squad, and they all died horribly. His last 3 shots (his broadsides) finished off my rhino. Sure wish the rune priest's squad had not failed so badly. Such is life.
Kill Point Count:
Wolves:4
Tau: 7
Wolves Turn 6:
I shot my missiles at his devilfish, and failed to hurt it again, despite multiple pens. Lots of fail for me this game.
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| Yay! The nightmare of the game is finally over! |
So, Eric beat me soundly. Quite a few bad dice rolls by my doesn't really excuse my amount of fail. Lots of bad movement choices for me, and an overdependence on my Wolfstar surviving 3 rounds of fire vs. Tau was my undoing.
It was a somewhat sad end to my wolfstar's glory days, but it's somewhat fitting. When next you see the Wolves, they'll look pretty different (same army, way different components). Wolf Scouts will help vs. Ninja Tau, as will even more grey hunters :-)
Thanks for reading, let me know what you think :)
6 comments:
FIRST of all i would like to say i like your wolf star models and the devilfish's paint sceme. Also what those fire warriors did to the wolfstar is what tau should be.
Heh, it's true man. I don't think what happened should necessarily have happened from a rules/statistical viewpoint, but hopefully when the new book comes out they'll be good enough to threaten deathstar units like the Wolfstar.
Funnily enough I started with a list very similar to yours, moved to a more shooty list, then to what I thought was more balanced and now I've gone back to a TWC Lord list.
The only thing is I've never rated the TWC that highly as their WS 4, Ld 8 and 3+ save are liabilities. I run with 2 Lords and spend the rest of the points on Fangs and Speeders.
Scouts are very hit-or-miss: go with 2 squads if you want them to achieve anything and ensure you *don't* tear out your hair when they show up in the wrong place. They do that. A lot. You can see some examples on my own blog.
Nice work btw.
Heh, I was planning on 2 squads- they're lots more reliable that way. Here's a link to the list I'm thinking of playing:
http://rumorsofheresy.blogspot.com/2010/10/wolves-getting-away-from-wolfstar.html
Nothing too crazy, basically an MSU sort of list.
I agree that the TWC aren't as amazing as they could be- I mostly have them in there for volume of attacks, and having a guy with a S10 hammer with 5 attacks is pretty crazy too :p I figure their strengths outweigh their weaknesses- when it comes to making a deathstar. :)
The mission definitely favored me this time even though I have 15 KPs to the Wolves' 13. Kill Points is the best mission for Tau. None of that silly advancing and trying to hold ground.
Comments on the game: I had two pretty poor rounds of shooting followed by a third round of excellent shooting. BS5 Fire Warriors will seriously hurt anything that isn't a vehicle. This game, like our last game, I had to pour a silly amount of shots into the Rhinos to kill them. I had to weapon destroy/immobilize one Rhino do death over three turns.
I've been experimenting with the 12 man unit and am liking it. It needs markerlight support, but I'm already including 16 Pathfinders in the list. It's a worthwhile 75 points to take a unit of 6 Fire Warriors that would normally hide in a Devilfish the entire game, and make it into a moderately resilient, and deadly offensive unit.
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