Eldar Vs Tau 1500: Blood Stained Woods

On the World of ker’vo the Tau expansion threatens an important planet to the Craft world Dem-Kirath. The Eldar must face the Tau in open warfare to preserve this world. This game is a 1500 point game of crusade (3 objectives) and vanguard strike deployment.

The Armies

With council of war coming soon I thought I would test out a list I might use for it.

Eldar 1492

Farseer – 160 (Warlord: Feel no pain next to an objective)

Jetbike, mantle of the laughing god, singing spear [Dominate, psychic shriek, hallucination]

10 Storm Guardians – 110

2x fusion gun

Wave serpent – 145

Twin-linked scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holo field

10 Guardian defenders – 110

Bright lance

Wave serpent – 145

Twin-linked scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holo field

10 Guardian defenders – 110

Bright lance

Wave serpent – 145

Twin-linked scatter laser, shuriken cannon, holo field

3 Jetbikes – 61

Shuriken cannon

8 Warp spiders – 154

2 War walkers – 140

Bright lance

Wraith knight – 240

Tau 1500

Commander (warlord: get up from g2g with in 12 inches, 1 use only) w/ body guard

Iridium armour, puretide chip, cyclic ion blaster

Body guard

Twin-linked plasma rifle, fusion gun

Ethereal w/ fire warriors

Honour blade

12 Fire warriors

12 Fire warriors

12 Fire warriors

5 Path finders

5 Path finders

Firebase support cadre dataslate

Riptide

Stim injector, ion accelerator

3 Broad sides

High yield missiles, 2x shield drone

3 Broad sides

High yield missiles, 2x shied drone

The Mission

Rolling for mission we get crusade with 3 objectives. Deployment was vanguard strike. The 3 objectives were placed down 1 in the middle and 1 in each deployment zone.

The Tau got to pick the deployment zone and then won the roll for first turn. The 3 fire warriors units go at the front of his deployment zone, the one in the middle hides in the woods and the ethereal joins them. Behind them the commander and bodyguard hide behind them.  Both broadsides units go on each flank on his deployment and the riptide goes in the middle of them. To finish off a unit of pathfinders goes on each flank.

My deployment had the wraithknight at the very front, with the spiders to its right. All 3 wave serpents go behind the wave serpent with the storm guardians in the unpainted one.  On my left I place the farseer next to the objective to gain feel no pain turn 1 and then further left the war walkers.

Night Fight: Turn 5

Steal the initiative: No

The Battle

Tau turn 1

The riptide novacharges its gun successfully, and the fire warriors on the right move towards the objective. Invoking his power, the ethereal gives feel no pain to units within 12 inches.

Shooting starts with the left pathfinders marking the wraithknight but only 1 hit. The left broadsides use that 1 mark to get +1 BS and targets the knight, but they fail to do any wounds to it. Adding their shots, the fire warriors on the left shoot at the knight as well, but fail to do anything thanks to its high toughness. A long range shot from the riptide on the war walkers causes 1 to explode and stuns the other.

Assault phase and the commander moves closer to the ethereal.

Eldar turn 1

I move all of the wave serpents to the right and the wraithknight jumps straight forwards, putting pressure on the tau. Warp jumping the warp spiders move up 11 inches behind the structure in the centre. The farseer moves up the left.

A rather unlikely shot from the stunned war walker hits the broadsides but rolls a 1 to wound. Again in a rather long shot the wraithknight shoots at the riptide hoping to instant kill it, but fails to hit the monster. I redeploy the wave serpents and they all go flat out to the right. The farseer boosts behind the wraithknight so he can cast powers next turn.

Tau turn 2

Seeing the possible chance of losing a broadside the drones move to be the first in line of fire. The commander and bodyguard move towards the wave serpents and the ethereal keeps up the 6+ feel no pain then moves further into cover. The rest of the force stays still.

Pathfinders on the left mark the farseer as I miscalculated he would be perfectly visible between the knights legs (stupid move by me). 2 marker lights hit. The other pathfinders target the storm guardian’s wave serpent and hits 4 times. The left broadsides target the seer and use the marker lights to ignore cover, the sheer number of shots manages to kill the farseer by making him fail his 3+ save (first blood and slay the warlord). Firing a blast the riptide shoots at the wave serpents but the shot scatters into nowhere. The broadsides on the right target the unpainted serpent and get +2 BS and ignore cover, it gets wrecked with ease forcing out the guardians but they pass their pinning test. Some put shots from the fire warriors target the wraithknight and manage to strip 2 wounds off it! Another unit of fire warriors target the spiders and kill 2. Shooting plasma and melta into the lead wave serpent, the commander tries to stop the tank but fails to do anything even with tank hunter.

Assault phase and the commander moves back.

Eldar turn 2

Rolling for reserve sand the bikes stay off. I measure the distance from the wraithknight and the left broadsides, it’s a very achievable charge so he moves straight towards them. The warp spiders jump towards the left fire warriors. Now disembarked the storm guardians move through the wreckage behind the centre building taking cover. Both of the remaining wave serpents move right ready to target fire warriors.

I notice that the pathfinders are in range of one of the wave serpents, firing both its scatter laser and shuriken cannon 4 of the path finder’s die, leaving 1 left. The other wave serpent targets the right fire warriors, killing 2. Before getting ready to assault, the warp spiders shoot at the fire warriors in front of them and down 4 of them.

Charges and the wraithknight charges into the broadsides, the wall of over watch fire from the broadsides and fire warriors fails to do anything. But he knights hammer of wrath kills a drone and then he manages to instant kill 2 battle suits and the other drone. At the end of that combat the lone broadside attempts to run but the wraithknight picks him up and tears him apart. Elsewhere the warp spiders charge the unit of fire warriors in front of them and lose 3 to over watch, leaving 2 left. They make it into combat and take a knife to the eye. They both die and fail to do anything to the tau.

Tau turn 3

Inspiring the troops, the ethereal gives the fire warriors an extra shot when in rapid fire range. The fire warriors and commander encircle the wraithknight. Again the riptide nova charge its gun.

Hoping it will help the pathfinders mark the knight twice, allowing the commander +2 BS and all of their shots hit, and the torrent of plasma and melta takes the last 4 wounds off the knight. Taking advantage of its serpent shield being down, the remaining broadsides shoot at the serpent and wreck it. The riptide targets the other wave serpent but its shield holds strong and it just takes a glancing hit.

Eldar turn 3

In from reserve the bikes come in on the right towards the broadsides and the remaining serpent moves a little to get its jink save.

A stray shot from the war walkers shoots at the larger pathfinders and kills 1, even after going to ground. The shuriken cannon from the bikes target the broadsides and kill a drone. The wave serpent targets them as well and kills off the last drone. The bright lance from the guardians now has a chance to take out a battle suit but the lance misses its mark.

Tau turn 4

This turn the riptide novacharges its smart missile systems to increase its damage output then moves out of cover. The commander carries on his tank hunting missile and goes after the last wave serpent. The left fire warriors move out trying to get a better shot on the storm guardians.

Marking the storm guardians, the pathfinders effectively sentence them to death as the fire warriors fire within rapid fire range at +1 BS and manage to kill every storm guardian. Attempting to overcharge its weapon the riptide injures itself as it overheats but its smart missile systems are enough to kill 3 of the guardians and their heavy weapon. The commander is in range of the final wave serpent and he and friends shoot it, managing to get enough glances though to wreck it forcing the guardians out. This is all the encouragement the broadsides need as they target the newly disembarked unit and kill 6 guardians and the heavy weapon. On the right the fire warriors attempt to kill the bikes but fail to do any damage.

Assault phase and the riptide and commander both jump again to safety.

Eldar turn 4

With not much left the bikes move to the left to hopefully wound the commander. The lone and forgotten war walker is able to move into a position to target the bodyguards, and the guardians move into the wrecks for cover.

Shooting from the guardians and bikes is enough to kill the commanders shield drones allowing the war walker to kill a body guard with its bright lance. This is all too much for the commander, losing his best friend, and he runs 9 inches.

Assault phase and the bikes move and hide again.

Night Falls

Tau turn 5

The commander rallies, infuriated by the loss, wanting to seek revenge. The fire warriors move out towards the objectives hoping it’s not too late to claim them. Again the riptide novacharge sits smart missiles.

Both path finder units mark the war walker allowing the fire warriors to shoot with +2 BS at it, which gives them enough shots to wreck it with ease. Shooting from the ethereal’s fire warriors targets the guardians closest to the objective, they get 15 wounds but they go to ground and only 5 models die. The right fire warriors then target the other guardians and get 13 wounds on them, they have to go to ground and only lose 3! The broadsides target the bikes and kill 2, and the last is finished off rather rudely by the riptide.

Eldar turn 5

Not much I can do, the guardians shoot at the fire warriors on the objective but do nothing.

We roll to see if the game continues…

Tau: 5 (First blood, slay the warlord, 1 objective) – Eldar: 0

Post Battle

That could have gone better I must admit. I made a few mistakes which ended up being quite costly. Some things were unlucky but I don’t think luck played much part in this game. My biggest mistake was with my farseer, allowing him to be seen and killed so easily could possibly have cost me the game. If he had been able to prevent a unit of shooting, killed a few more tau or charged a unit of pathfinders the game might have gone very different. I haven’t used the mantle seer much but against Tau, who can ignore your cover save, well that’s just asking for trouble. I should have known.

Not shooting turn 1, could that have made much of a difference? I’m not sure. But pushing the serpents down the right flank instead of supporting the wraithknight on the left, THAT was a mistake. If they had been there is would have put the commander and his anti-tank weapons in a predicament, which unit do I go for? And it would have allowed the guardians to get out and possibly kill some fire warriors.

Testing out the storm guardians was rather inconclusive as I didn’t do anything with them. I will try them again in the future and see what happens, but I don’t expect much. Jumping out and killing a tank before getting murdered is what I expect. But they have the ability to charge the unit inside (if it’s a transport) which could be handy.

Anyway that’s enough for this battle report. Hope you enjoyed it.