The Terra Cup is still very much on, and my newest game was last night. This game was scheduled to be “The Football”, a custom version of the Relic that essentially meant the relic could be passed 12″ between troops (with an initiative test), and scored. If you get it to the opponent’s board edge (or within 3″), you can score 6 Vp for it. Helluva reward! However, most of the times this has been playing in the league the football has been mostly ignored in favour of lovely Forge World gubbins.
Henyway, my next opponent was Rockitbug. I didn’t know what army he was playing (though I could guess Tau by his profile Avatar), so I tried to build an all-comers list. I also proxied in my Shadowsword for a Fellblade, which I let Rockitbug know before hand (to see if he was OK with it). He said it was fine, so it was on to list building!
The Football, 1750 points, Hammer and Anvil. Opponent: Rockitbug Location: The Old Duke, Bristol, via Bristol Vanguard.
IRON DEVOURERS
- Chaplain in Terminator Armour with the Primarch’s Wrath
- 5 man Tactical Squad with Plasma Gun in a Rhino
- 5 man Tactical Squad with Melta Gun in a Rhino
- 5 man Scout Squad with Camo Cloaks (no snipers, for once!)
- 5 man Terminators 2 Chain Fists and an Assault Cannon
- 5 man Devastator Squad with 3 Plasma Cannons
- Land Raider Redeemer
- Storm Talon Gunship with Twin-Linked Lascannons
- Land Speeder with 2 Heavy Flamers
- Fellblade with sponson Quad Lascannons and Heavy Flamers.
A fairly standard list, with the obvious exception being the Fellblade. I’ve never used (or fought!) a super heavy before, so I was looking forward to seeing how much devastation a 560 point Tank can dish out!
TAU EMPIRE
- Commander R’alai
- 2x Backlight Marker Drone
- 2x Blacksun filter, 2x Markerlight
- XV8 ‘Hazard’ battlesuit
- ‘Eclipse’ shield generator, Drone controller, Experimental pulse submunitions rifle
- Riptide
- Early warning override, Ion accelerator, Riptide battlesuit, Riptide Shield Generator, Twin-linked fusion blaster, Velocity tracker
- Riptide
- Early warning override, Ion accelerator, Riptide battlesuit, Riptide Shield Generator, Twin-linked fusion blaster, Velocity tracker
- 6 Man Fire Warrior Team
- Devilfish
- Burst cannon, Disruption pod, Sensor spines, Two Gun Drones
- Devilfish
- 6 Man Fire Warrior Team
- Devilfish
- Burst cannon, Disruption pod, Sensor spines, Two Gun Drones
- Devilfish
- 2 Pirahnas
- Disruption pod, Fusion blaster, Two Gun Drones
- 2 Pirahnas
- Disruption pod, Fusion blaster, Two Gun Drones
- Tetra Scout Speeder
- Disruption pod, High Intensity markerlight, Homing beacon, Twin-linked pulse rifles
- XV107 R’varna Battlesuit
- Integrated shield generator, Nova Reactor – R’varna class, 2x Pulse submunitions cannon (Cluster Fire), XV107 battlesuit
- XV107 R’varna Battlesuit
- Integrated shield generator, Nova Reactor – R’varna class, 2x Pulse submunitions cannon (Cluster Fire), XV107 battlesuit
A list with a lot of unknowns. I’d only played Tau as an Allied detachment, and they were not as bad as I had thought. However, with so much forge world on the table I didn’t know what to expect! If only I’d known…
If you could sum up your list in 3 words, what would they be?
Rockitbug: I’m that player.
What do you think is going to be your Man Of The Match?
I think that would be the R’varna Battlersuit twins.
What would you have taken with another 250 points?
With another 250points I think I would have taken another 4 Piranhas. 260 Point gets you 4 Piranhas with 8 drones and 4 fusion blasters that can zip 30” around the board with a 3+ Jink save. Generally worrying tanks and blocking you opponent’s movement, giving the double R’varna’s and Riptide’s time lay waste to the table.
If you could sum up your list in 3 words, what would they be?
Super Heavy Fun.
What do you think is going to be your Man Of The Match?
I’m reckoning it’s going to be the Fellblade. With a Twin Linked Huge Cannon, a Demolisher Cannon, 2 Quad Lascannons, Heavy Bolters and Heavy Flamers, he can unleash a lot of pain!
What would you have taken with another 250 points?
Probably some faster assault units, like assault marines. Maybe MARNEUS CALGAR, because he’s always great. I also would have filled my Tactical Squads with a few more bodies.
On to the battle!
Ian won both rolls, and decided to go first. I was a little anxious of the first turn, as I thought that facing that much Tau in such an arrangement would be hard. Here we are deployed:
I was unable to steal the initiative, and it was on to Ian’s first turn.
Turn 1 TAU: So, turn on Tau. Ian begun by Nova-charging his 2 Riptides successfully, giving them the 3++ save. He told me he never overcharges his R’Varna suits, but he was feeling lucky, so he rolled for it and managed to succeed! That was 4 nova-charged monstrous creature battlesuits. Ulp. The R’Varnas only have the option of upgrading their weapons, so their Pulse Submunition Cannons now did double the amount of hits on their targets.
Movement saw the unleashing of dozens of drones all over the place, as well as some Piranhas zipping forwards. On to shooting…
Now, the Submunition cannons are nasty. Here are their rules. Basically, they are Large Blast weapons that do more hits and have high damage depending on the size of the target. On a marine, it’s S:6 AP:4. Against vehicles it is S:8, and each ‘hit’ counts as 3 ‘hits’. Nova Charging means they score double the hits, and each suit has 2 of these weapons. That means (for the non mathematically minded) each suit has the potential of scoring 12 S:8 hits on a vehicle of any size.
So, with that in mind, Tau shooting started with a piranha sticking 2 markerlights on the Fellblade. The closer of the R’Varna suits then targeted it, scoring the full 12 hits. It’s hard to miss on a target that size! Anyway, the angle meant it was against side armour. I wasn’t too worried. Surely a super heavy can take a hefty amount of punishment!
Damage rolling saw 2 pens and 2 glances on the Fellblade. One of the pen rolled a 6, so an Explodes! result, followed by another 6, meaning a total of 6 HPs knocked off in one go! Ouch!
The second R’Varna did similar, wiping the last 3 HPs off easily. The Fellblade goes down! And it even takes a Plasma cannon with it in its explosion.
I was devastated. I was so excited to give this tank a go, having just bought it, and it was destroyed without even firing a shot. Totally gutted! I’ve since looked online, and people tend to agree the Experimental Rules for the R’Varna are far too powerful. Hey well, this is an anything goes tournament!
The rest of the shooting saw a stunned Rhino and a glanced Land Raider, but that was it. That was all that was needed!
Turn 1 SM: After wiping away the tears, I set about trying to reclaim some power. I wasn’t out yet! My Rhino and Tactical Marines zipped up the side, with my Land Raider containing Terminators and the Chaplain went straight up the centre. I popped a few shots at some drones, but nothing really serious.
Without much to shoot at, I charged the Terminators into some Piranhas and utterly destroyed them with Chainfists. Satisfying! The Scouts charged a nearby squad of Drones, hoping that melee will actually prolong their lives. 3/5 of them died to overwatch ( 😦 ), and another died in the combat itself. I killed a drone too, though, so at least I didn’t flee.
I realised I’d forgotten to fire with my Devastators, which was a shame. I said “they probably would have Got Hot! anyway, look!”, and rolled a dice to see, which came up a 1, followed by another 1 for his armour save. Thank goodness it was all theoretical!
Turn 2 TAU: Turn 2 saw the entirety of the Terminator squad fall, minus the Chaplain, to a hail of fire from all Directions. The Land Raider fell to Tau-Melta, but that was all!
Turn 2 SM: First things first, neither my Land Speeder or Storm Talon arrived from reserve, which sucked! One of those games! I tried to move up with what I had left, but managed to fail my charge with my Chaplain. My scout still survived, but didn’t hurt any drones.
Rest of the Battle: By the end of turn 3, my Chaplain was down, my mobile rhino was down, and I decided to call the game. There was simply no way I could survive what was bring thrown at me. The combination of the R’varnas and the scenario just meant I had no way of really doing anything without being utterly destroyed! It was an exercise in futility to continue, so I gave up while I still had dignity.
My opponent, who is a lovely chap, even apologised for his list, saying that “sorry about that, but that was a properly dirty list I played with, I don’t play like that normally”.
Because we’re playing a tournament, and an Anything Goes tournament, people are free to bring what they like. Maybe I should take this as a lesson! I don’t usually play to win, but there’s a difference between losing a hard-fought battle that was a lot of fun, and being totally and utterly outmatched. Not that I’m bitter! No, Ian was a good opponent, letting me know that he felt bad for this list before we even started playing.
- Nothing! Not even a little!
Total: 0
TAU EMPIRE
- Automatic victory!
Total: ∞
Result: TAU EMPIRE Victory!
Post game interview time!
Who was your flop of the match?
My flop of the match would be Commander R’alai. His weapon got hot and he got double 1’s when trying to vaporise a couple of scouts.
Anything you would have done differently?
I wouldn’t change anything in that match. That was one of those 1 in a 100 games.
Any closing thoughts?
The double R’varna Battlersuit with double Riptide list is dirty.
Who was your man of the match?
Well, not really much to choose from! Either my individual scout who survived and managed to kill a drone, or my Terminators who chain-fisted a skimmer. Maybe I’ll pick the Land Speeder as he was the only one clever enough to not turn up!
Who was your flop of the match?
I suppose the Fellblade. Not that he did anything wrong, it’s just he didn’t get a chance to shine.
Anything you would have done differently?
Well, I don’t know. I suppose I could have deployed differently, but would that have helped? If I’d turned to face one R’Varna, the other could have side-armoured me. I suppose I would have taken a very different list, one that is just full of bodies on the ground. 3 x 10 man Tactical Squads, 2 x 10 man Devastator Squads, 10 man Scouts. Just objective hogging meat in the room.
Any closing thoughts?
I still have a lot to learn, I think, when it comes to 40k. I need to learn more about the enemy units, specifically the Forge World ones!
I also managed to get a very quick 500 point game vs Orks while I waited for my Opponent to arrive. I’ll post that soon!
Budgethammer 
Wow. When I saw the third riptide being unpacked, I knew you were in for a rough game. But four riptides in one list is super harsh. And does sound like r’varnas are a brutal variant.
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