September 24, 2009

New forgeworld tau battlesuit on the horizon

Look what's coming to us soon!



The new XV-9 battlesuit! I am absolutely amazed by this model. Again forgeworld is doing such a great job at designing  shiny tau battlesuits. Further pics here.

Have a look at the proposed rules here. I only say toughness 5... vectored retro thrusters.... and fast attack choice!
I have to place order....now!

September 14, 2009

Revised Tau Tournament List


Hey everybody,

I revised my Tau list that I am going to take to a tournament in november. I took the advices I got here into consideration and came up with this list now.

Tau 1650 points v2:

 1 Commander Shas'el (XV 84 Variant)
     Target Lock; Markerlight; Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array
     Bonding Knife; Hardwired multi-tracker; Stimulant Injector;
     Hard-wired drone controller
     1 Shield Drone
     1 Shield Drone
     1 Bodyguard Shas'vre
        Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array
        Hard-wired multi-tracker

1 Crisis Battlesuit Team Shas'vre
     Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Targeting Array
     Hard-wired multi-tracker
     Bonding Knife    
     Hard-wired drone controller
     1 Shield Drone
     1 Shield Drone
     1 Crisis Battlesuit
          Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Multi-Tracker
     1 Crisis Battlesuit
          Missile Pod; Plasma Rifle; Multi-Tracker

1 Crisis Battlesuit Team Leader
     Flamer; TL Missile Pod
     Hard-wired drone controller
     1 Shield Drone
     1 Crisis Battlesuit
          Flamer; TL Missile Pod

6 FireWarrior Team
     Pulse Rifle (x6)
     1 Devilfish         
          Smart Missile System
          Disruption Pod
          Targetting Array
          Multi-tracker
          Sensor Spines

6 FireWarrior Team
     Pulse Rifle (x6)
     1 Devilfish         
          Smart Missile System
          Disruption Pod
          Targetting Array
          Multi-tracker
          Sensor Spines

20 Kroot Carnivore Squad
     Kroot Rifle

1 Hammerhead Gunship
     Railgun; Smart Missile System
     #Targetting Array
     Disruption Pod
     Target Lock
     Multi-tracker

1 Hammerhead Gunship 
     Railgun; Smart Missile System
     #Targetting Array
     Disruption Pod
     Target Lock
     Multi-tracker


1 Hammerhead Gunship 
     Railgun; Smart Missile System
     #Targetting Array
     Disruption Pod
     Target Lock
     Multi-tracker

Models in army: 49
Points: 1649


So I kicked out the stealth team, stripped all tanks off the flechette dischargers and degraded the Shas'O to Shas'El and most important I added more fireknives to the list for better anti-MEQ capability. At the moment I run 3 railheads for I think I definitaly need them for anti-tank.
I had 2 games with this list last weekend. First game was against Trotzki's daemon list where we played annihilation. That ended as a draw. The railheads seemed to miss anything with their guns and Trotzki's soulgrinder moved around unharmed for a while and ate one flank for breakfast.  Everything else performed averagely. I think I would have won if the game lasted longer than 5 turns. It was a solid game and we both were rather content with our lists.

Next game was against my marines which proxied a Vulcan list with 2 land raiders (1 redeemer, 1 normal), 2 squads of TH/SS terminators, 2 tac-squads with multi-melta and melta in drop pod and a land speeder with HF/MM. Again annihilation and dawn of war deployment where we both kept everything in reserve. That game was disastrous. I rolled abysmally for about anything. The dearly needed fireknives showed up on turn 5 and missed pretty well. The hammerheads again weren't able to harm anything (even drop pods!!! *argh*) and I don't need to talk about the little crappy guys called firewarriors. Admittedly Clausewitz who played my marines rolled more than above average (for example 17 shots with bolters against 3 crisis suits, 17 hits, 14 wounds....you can imagine the rest). The game ended 6 to 3 killpoints in the marine's favour.

Ok, I won't complain about failing dice rolls. That happens, it's unnerving but it happens.

Conclusion: This list should work I think. Bad luck away, I should have won the second game or got at least a draw. 3 railheads should suffice to cope with the land raiders and the missile pods should crack the drop pods. And as long as I can stay out of 12" range of the meltas I should be fine. The fireknives are really needed for anti-MEQ firepower.
One thing I lack are markerlights. But at the moment I see no way in getting them into this list. The 3 railheads are definitely needed, so there sadly is no place for the skyray. And I do not own pathfinders and the time is too short to paint a few of them. So I think I have to live with that.
The kroot are great as always. The firewarriors suck but are kept at a minimum at the moment. Taking only one mounted squad would let me down in objective based missions, so I think I have to live with them for the time being.
One thing I am thinking about is to change the heavy support choices. The alternative would be dropping one hammerhead and taking 2 broadsides with ASS and 2 shield drones. That would grant me with one more railgun. But the downside with this would be the impaired mobility and I think I would need at least 10 kroot to screen them from turn 2 attacks. Tau aren't that mobile though and having this static element would further decrease the mobility so I am not so fond of that.
Speaking of mobility, the sensor spines saved me more than one time. Staying away from the enemy as far as possible is key and this wargear lets you fly around more freely. I will take these, but I am not sure where to put them. Either on the hammerheads to grant them more flexibility or on the fishes for grabbing objectives. That needs to be tested.

As always, your comments are very welcome and helpful!

September 3, 2009

My first tournament ...


Hi folks,

as Managarm wrote in his last post we are taking part in a local tournament in the beginning of november. My first thought was playing my Eldar, but after taking a look at the participation list I decided to give my Chaos Daemons a try. I know they may be the harder army for competitive play, but there is only one additional Daemon player while there are a lot of Eldar and Marine player.

Coming to my list : I basically want to try my Slaanesh-Tzeentch list, with the addition of a Slaanesh Herold on Chariot and 4 fiends. Hopefully this, together with the few bolts on my Tzeentch stuff, gives my enough power to beat fast moving armies (which are really the bane on Daemon armies).
So here is my list :

1 Lord of Change (HQ)
Soul Devourer; Daemonic Gaze; Bolt of Tzeentch; Daemonic Flight

1 Chariot of Tzeentch (HQ)
Daemonic Gaze; Master of Sorcery; We Are Legion; Bolt of Tzeentch;
Jetbike; Furious Charge

1 Chariot of Slaanesh (HQ)
Rending Claws; Aura of Acquiescence; Unholy Might; Soporific Musk;
Cavalry; Furious Charge

3 Flamers of Tzeentch (Elites)
Breath of Chaos; Warpfire

4 Fiends of Slaanesh (Elites)
Soporific Musk; Rending Claws; Unholy Might

13 Daemonettes of Slaanesh (Troops)
Aura of Acquiescence; Rending Claws; Chaos Icon

13 Daemonettes of Slaanesh (Troops)
Aura of Acquiescence; Rending Claws; Chaos Icon

7 Pink Horrors of Tzeentch (Troops)
Warpfire; Bolt of Tzeentch; Chaos Icon
1 The Changeling

1 Soul Grinder of Chaos (Heavy Support)
Front Armour: 13; Side Armour: 13; Rear Armour: 11; Harvester; Mawcannon -
Phlegm, Vomit

1 Daemon Prince of Chaos (Heavy Support)
Daemonic Flight; Iron Hide; Unholy Might; Mark of Tzeentch

Models in Army: 46

I know that this loadout is really not able to take a lot of incoming firepower and lacks resilance. In the next weeks some playtesting has to take place to see what still needs to be tweaked to at least dampen this problem.

Hopfully there are some fellow Daemon players that have some comments suggestions on my list - I´d be thankful for any advice.

September 2, 2009

Taking the Tau to a tournament


Greetings,

as the title tells, Trotzki and me are going to participate in a local tournament and I will play with my Tau.

The tournament will be at the first weekend of november, so there is still pretty much time left, but I will need a bit time to finish the army and get everything painted in the first place and secondly I will have to practice a lot.

1650 points will be played with normal FOC, forge world stuff is allowed too and there will be some special rules which are still to be announced.

I have considered something like this list:


1650P Tau Army list:

Shas'O
XV84 suit, plasma rifle, missile pod, shield generator, hardwired multitracker, stimulant injector, hard wired drone controller with 2 shield drones
bodyguard with plasma rifle, missile pod, targetting array, hard wired multitracker

XV8 team (3) with TL missile pod, flamer, team leader with bonding knife

Stealth team (3), all with targetting array and burst cannon

(2x) 6 fire warriors
Devilfish, smart missile system, targetting array, multi tracker, disruption pod, flechette dischargers, sensor spines

20 kroot

(2x) Hammerhead with railgun, smart missile system, multi tracker, disruption pod, flechette dischargers, target lock, sensor spines

Sky ray with smart missile system, targetting array, multi tracker, disruption pod, flechette dischargers



These are my first thoughts, so there is a lot of space for changes. One thin is the sky ray, actually I am not sure if he is that valuable. The marker lights are nice though. But Another hammerhead could be nice too, be it a railhead or an ionhead.
I could kick all sensor spines out as well, thereby freeing 50 points.
And considering that more then half of all players seem to play MEQ, I think I will need a bit more punch against power armour.

My list needs me buying (and painting) at least 2 more crisis suits at the moment and if I take a third hammerhead I will have to paint the gun and turret. And the hammerhead with the green camo is at the painting table again to match it up with the rest of the army.

So tweaking of this list and of course painting more tau miniatures is on the schedule for the next weeks.

And of course I'd be glad, if someone leaves a comment on the list.