Battle Report: Tournament

Last week I posted up this list and said I was taking it to a tournament. I wanted to experiment with using a Farsight bomb and this list (imperfect as it may be) gave me a strong fire base to work with. My plan was simple, dig in deep until Farsight came in using the Hammerhead and Piranhas to keep my opponents’ at bay, then trap them between Farsight and a wall of S5 fire power.

It seemed like a good idea… let’s see how I did. The tournament consisted of three rounds with a winner being calculated first by win/loss, then by victory points.

Round 1: Dark Angels with IG allies - Lost
Round 2: Orks  - Won
Round 3: Tyranids - Won

Round 1: Emperor’s Will, Vanguard deployment. Tau lose roll off and go second.
The Dark Angels player took Aegis line with a banner that let him do lots of shooting, I took a gun line as well (plus Farsight) and we both ended up hiding behind our Aegis lines and staring each other down. He also had an IG blob that he paired with a Dark Angel HQ that gave the entire blob fearless and a 4++ save. Farsight tried to take down the blob while trying to knock them off their objective, but the blob finally caught him and ground him down. The interesting thing was that Farsight did surprisingly well in CC. My opponent only won by a single point caused by slaying my warlord. It was a close game, and I made a lot of mistakes, plus there was some confusion about what my wargear actually did... all in all it left me a little mentally shaken.

Round 2: Relic, Hammer and Anvil deployment. Tau lose roll off and go second. This was a match against my friend and we’ve played this battle out before; good news is I know his army and tactics well, bad news is he know mine just as well.

 I foolishly placed my gun line within double tap range of the relic thinking it would let me wipe the speed freaks out quickly. What it also meant was that ‘da boyz’ were in CC by turn 2! Luckily Farsight came in round two and with some lucky shooting was able to draw heat off my gun line... almost too much heat since he ended up getting assaulted by 3 koptas and 10 boyz. Once again, Big Red was able to slash his way out! (3 flamers in overwatch helped a lot) Farsight challenged and slew the nob in the first round and in the second was able to use his high initiative to put the hurt on the boyz the second round and sweeping advanced them! I’m sad I had to face down my friend but it helped me put my head back on straight after the first round.

Round 3: Purge the Alien, Dawn of War deployment. Tau lose roll off but rolls a 6 and steals the initiative.

Since I had an Aegis I had to put it down before we deployed. I put it in the far back right corner fully intending to make my stand against the inevitable tide of fangs and claws. My opponent seemed to like this idea and packed everything into a dense ball of biomass on the same side hoping to run me down and spam more bugs than I could shoot. When I saw how far to one side of the board he deployed I decided to change my plans and deployed all of my forces on the LEFT side! Sure it meant I lost the Aegis, but it forced him to now have to walk almost the entire board length to get to me.

I decided not to deep strike Farsight and instead used him, my piranhas, and my hammer head to punish him from long range and jump-shoot-jumping in and out of LOS. Had the guy decided to deepstrike his Trygon along with the Zoanthrope and Doom and brought them in at the same time it might have been a little different story, but since they were all on the board nearly 6 feet away, it turned into just a giant shooting gallery. One Tervigon did try to charge Farsight and friends, but he died to overwatch shooting. (Yes I really did kill a MC in overwatch... it was pretty amazing.)

All in all it was a good time for me, I met some great guys, saw a lot of new lists and tactics, and I think I learned a lot about my own army and how to use the Farsight bomb better.
Here are a few of my thoughts:

1. Flamers on the Farsight squad were immensely helpful. We all like to believe we will keep our units at optimal range but there are times against a skilled opponent where we are going to take a charge and these can be life savers.
2. The Aegis line “head-fake” was an extremely, if unintentional tactic. Falsely telegraphing your deployment can allow you to control how your opponent sets up when they are deploying first.
3. At I5 Farsight is surprisingly effective in CC. Now he will still go down to mobs or more significant CC characters, but in a pinch he can reliable take down a nob with a powa klaw or a Sargent with a power fist.
4. When faced with a blob of guardsmen with a 4++ or a squad of marines it’s more effective to use the bomb agains the marines. While it’s easier to generate wounds on the guardsmen, the marines will not be taking any saving rolls. I smacked my forehead when I realized this after my first game… I blame it on first tournament jitters.
5. Speaking of jitters, there is a very real mental component to this game, be it your mental condition going into a game versus a new opponent or army and it pays to prepare before going to a big match by taking on smaller local tournaments.