My first choice was what army to take. I had painted up a handful of Tau for a kill team (which shall feature in an upcoming battle report), and it took the tiniest of nudges for me to commit to expanding to at least 1000 points of the Greater Good.
My second choice was significantly more difficult. The players pack is fantastic, and has been specifically designed to diversify the forces attending the tournament. I have to take a single Combined Arms Detachment, but instead of a HQ and two Troops being the only obligatory choices, I had to also include at least one Elite, Fast and Heavy Support slot. This is cleverly designed to avoid such shenanigans as "Min-Maxxing' and Death Stars. However, once we tick the boxes for our six obligatory units, we can spend any remaining points on whatever we choose. This left me with a set of difficult choices. After flicking through the Tau Empire codex, I realised that I had no idea where to even start! So many brilliant choices.
Do I run a gun line?
Do i mechanize everything?
How many Riptides is too many?
After changing my list a multitude of times, and purchasing models that would eventually not make the cut, i settled on a list that contained a healthy mix of everything. In the spirit of people having more than enough time to plan my crushing defeat, I thought i would publish my list for your thoughts and critiques.
Fireblade (Warlord)
11 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles and a DX8 Turret
8 Breachers in a Devilfish equipped with a Blacksun Filter and Disruption Pods
Riptide with an Ion Accelerator
3 Crisis Suits with 6 Burst Cannons
3 Crisis Suits with 6 Plasma Rifles
5 Pathfinders
Broadside with High-Yield Missile Pods
Tide Wall Shieldline
So there it is. A neat little bundle of half blind, trigger-happy xenos. It took me a while to find the balance, but here's how it all fell into place. The Fireblade (being cheap) complimented the big unit of Fire Warriors (being a cheap and bountiful source of mid-strength shooting). The Breachers mounted in their Fish was an easy choice, as no one can really ignore this unit. Not only is the Devilfish Objective Secured thanks to being a Dedicated Transport for Troops, but the Breachers can really deliver the knockout punch, thanks to their lethal shotguns.
The Pathfinders and Missile Broadside were both easy choices, as they add a lot to my shooting phase, as well as being both pretty cheap points-wise. With these two purchases, I had the freedom to spend my remaining points however I chose. Being new to Tau, I simply couldn't resist the lure of Battlesuits. My initial instinct was to get my hands on a Ghostkeel, which I did, before changing my mind and picking two three-man Crisis teams, one sporting double Plasma Rifles for any pesky Terminators I might come across, while the other team was decked out with two Burst Cannons each, capable of dishing out a whopping 24 S5 shots from only three models. Terrifying. These two purchases gives me two aces up my sleeve, as I plan on leaving them in reserves and Deep Striking them wherever they can most effectively bring their considerable firepower to the conflict.
The last choice, and one I would not typically be inclined toward (being a reckless, impulsive Ork player at heart), was a Shieldline. Not only is this piece of floating architecture incredibly practical, and conveniently big enough to house my Fire Warriors, Fireblade and Pathfinders, it looks fantastic and makes for a focal centre piece for display, and a tactical anchor for my xenos force. The one thing I didn't want was to play a bland, boring gun-line where my movement phase consisted of taking one step closer to the shooting phase, and i think i have successfully avoided that. While I do have a fire base of sorts, this list is quite mobile and quite reactive, and I hope it has the answers to deal with most threats I may come across in this tournament.
So how does this army actually perform on the table? Well, I've played two games with it so far, once against Eldar, and once against White Scars. While I actually fielded a second Broadside in both of these games, having not purchased a Shield Line yet, the results were brutal.
My game against Eldar was predictably challenging, as my opponent and his superior mobility kept me on the back foot for the majority of the game, eventually beating me after five bloody and violent turns.
The second game against White Scars was rife with errors on my part. Not only did I forget to use my Riptide's Nova Reactor and Assault Phase jump, resulting in an untimely death, but I simply didn't play to the army's strengths; They absolutely do have strengths, there's no denying that. The book is disgustingly efficient. My skills, however, require some fine tuning.
I'm hoping to get several more games in before the Tournament on Feb 7th, as I still don't feel like I've settled into the army yet, but time shall see if I can bring my A-game on the day!
So, what is your project for 2016? A new army, or perhaps expanding on an old one?
I'll be continuing the series on my impressions of the Horus Heresy Crusade list next week, tackling the Troops slot. In all honesty, that was intended to be tonight's post, but I'm so focused on madly painting Tau at present, it was hard not to dedicate this evening's entry to the xenos.
But, as it is getting quite late, and I must be up before the sun, i must leave you here, my good friend. 2016 is going to be a big year for the Rune Axe, and I look forward to sharing my big plans with you in coming weeks! Oh, what plans!
As always, Thanks for reading and for the support that you have all shown me on this humble blog. I hope that you'll continue following the Rune Axe as our little community grows.
Gabe
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