BLACK RAGE!!!! For the greater good!

For the first time in a LONG time, I played against an army I was unfamiliar with as an opponent: The Tau.  Despite all the trash talk and negative comments I hear about them, I have to tip my hat off to them.  They're pretty devastating at ranged, which out-ranged my IG.

It was a 2v2 game that was destined to be dragged out.  Mechanized Blood Angels and Tau vs. Assault Blood Angels and the 757th.

The list I was playing was an idea I got from the DakkaDakka forums that made a lot of sense as well as explained a lot of functions that I don't (or forget to) utilize in my usual play so I was pretty excited to give it a go.  It was a first, but I actually felt like I had a really good clue as to what I needed to do.

The List: 

HQ 

Company Command Squad x 2 Meltas
- Colonel Straken
- 2.x Bodyguards
- Astropath
- Officer of the Fleet
- (Not so) Master of Ordinance 

Elite
2 x 5-man Storm Trooper Squads
- 2 x Meltas
Guardsman Marbo 

Troops
3 x Veteran Squads
- Lascannon heavy weapon team
1 x Infantry Platoon
Command Squad x 2 meltas
- Captain Al'rahim (sp?)
- 2 Infantry Squads x 1 meltas 

Heavy
3 x Leman Russ Battle Tanks w/ H. Flamer Sponsons

This list itself isn't exactly my cup of tea being that I'm a firm believer that IG should abuse tanks and artillery, but why not try something different for a change, right?  The game was an objectives mission.

The mission was doomed from the start. "Team Drink Blood - From Across the Map" won the first turn and immediately began picking off the heavy's. The first shots of the game from the Tau wrecked, immobilized, and destroyed the main cannon off my 3 Leman Russ' in THAT order leaving me with a mobile las-flamer tank and a stationary turret with no real FOV to anything on the field as I was trying to avoid this very thing by hiding them behind buildings since we lost the first move.   Unfortunately, I had no previous briefing ahead of time to have any clue exactly how pimp Tau Railguns really were.  (I shall not underestimate them again.)  Following this was a hail of sniper fire using a marker light / sniper combo which promptly wiped an entire veteran squad off an objective from out of cover.

Because of this amazing start from "Team Edward - Keep Your Distance", the 757th Catachans didn't have much of a response to the opening onslaught.  The two remaining HWTs stunned 2 Autocannon Predators and the immobilized Leman Russ took a potshot at a Tau Hammerhead missing due to the 4+ cover from their holo-field (or whatever it's called).  My teammate's Blood Angels trudged forward to begin their long and boring close combat session that is Space Marines v. Space Marines. (I'm pretty sure it's like the duel scene in a movie rendition of Shakespeare's Hamlet I saw in high school.... with more chainsaw sound effects.  RRRrrr Donk!!! DONK-Donk.. RRRRrrr DONK!!................ow?) With that, my partner was pretty much out of the game except to roll dice and pull men off the board.

While my veterans were getting picked off due to being out ranged and my tanks were getting finished off, Marbo showed up with a dud demopack and killed one of 12 Tau Crisis suits by smacking him in the head with it, meanwhile my infantry platoon with Al'rahim was off smoking pot and decided they weren't needed until the bottom of turn 4 despite the beck and call of the Master of the Fleet.  My storm trooper squads did their job, for which I'm proud.  From deep-strike, they immobilized the Blood Angel Vindicator and popped one of the Predators before immediately getting reduced to red paste.

From then on, it was a blood bath.

Lesson of the game: From now on.. Manticores, Manticores, Manticores..... unless I'm playing my IG Air Force.


Record (since blog start): 0 - 1