Warhammer 40,000 Battle Report #16 – Astra Militarum vs Tau Empire

The best-laid plans, indeed! Despite my desire to do daily posts this week, my sickness returned and ended with a three-day hospital stay. You can’t keep a good Ork down, though, and I’m back with another 40k battle report today.

This time, the guns of the Imperial Guard square off with the firepower of a Tau Hunter Cadre. With two shooting armies squaring off, we decided to go ahead and run with the Maelstrom of War mission, to see how it balances out when neither force is going for the throat in melee.

Give it a watch; the dice cause this one to swing back and forth throughout!

Cadia’s Finest

Astra Militarum – 2,000

HQ

Knight Commander Pask: WARLORD (Old Grudges); Leman Russ Punisher with Hull and         Sponson Heavy Bolters, 1x attached Leman Russ Executioner with Hull Lascannon and      Sponson Plasma Cannons

ELITES

Militarum Tempestus Scions: 2x Plasma Gun, Tempestor has Plasma Pistol

TROOPS

Veterans: 2x Plasma Gun, Heavy Flamer, Chimera transport with Multilaser and Heavy Bolter

Veterans: 2x Plasma Gun, Heavy Flamer, Chimera transport with Multilaser and Heavy Bolter

Veterans: 2x Meltagun, Heavy Flamer, Chimera transport with Multilaser and Heavy Bolter

Veterans: 2x Meltagun, Heavy Flamer, Chimera transport with Multilaser and Heavy Bolter

FAST ATTACK

Vendetta

2x Scout Sentinel: 2x Autocannon

2x Scout Sentinel: 2x Autocannon

HEAVY SUPPORT

2x Wyvern

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Leman Russ Battle Tank

Vior’la Tok’rhenna Shi

Tau Empire – 2,000

FORTIFICATION

Aegis Defense Line: Quad Gun

HQ

Commander: WARLORD ( ); XV8-02 Crisis “Iridium” Battlesuit, Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite, Command & Control Node, Puretide Engram Neurochip, Vectored Retro-Thruster

Ethereal

ELITES

XV8 Crisis Team: two additional Crisis Shas’ui; 6x Fusion Blaster, 2x Target Lock, 1x Vectored Retro-Thruster

TROOPS

Fire Warrior Team: four additional Fire Warriors; Devilfish transport has Twin Smart Missile         Systems, Sensor Spines, and Disruption Pod

Fire Warrior Team: four additional Fire Warriors; Devilfish transport has Twin Smart Missile         Systems, Sensor Spines, and Disruption Pod

Fire Warrior Team: four additional Fire Warriors; Devilfish transport has Twin Smart Missile         Systems, Sensor Spines, and Disruption Pod

FAST ATTACK

Piranhas: two additional Piranhas; 3x Fusion Blaster

Pathfinder Team: four additional Pathfinders

Pathfinder Team: four additional Pathfinders

HEAVY SUPPORT

XV88 Broadside Team: two additional Broadside Shas’ui; 3x Twin High-Yield Missile Pods, 3x Twin Smart Missile Systems, 3x Target Lock, 6x Missile Drones

Hammerhead: Railgun with Submunitions, Twin Smart Missile Systems, Disruption Pod, Sensor Spines, Blacksun Filter

Hammerhead: Railgun with Submunitions, Twin Smart Missile Systems, Disruption Pod, Sensor Spines, Blacksun Filter

After-Action Review

As I failed save after save and watched my firebase crumple, I had a comic moment of, Geez, is that what I’ve been doing to people with my Tau?!

Jokes aside, it was incredibly hard to stay mentally resilient to that damage early on, failing that many saves was not fun at all! He also had some extremely good luck early on by drawing the cards that he did, and his lead seemed unreachable.

This is where I learned something very important about Maelstrom of War missions; you absolutely have to keep your head and push on to the very end! My 3-9 struggle became a victory when I drew some good cards, and he drew some that he simply could not finish. That early luck came back around my way, and the objectives nearly balanced out perfectly. If the game had ended a turn sooner, we would have had a draw. My opponent was a champ in the sportsmanship department, though, and we went ahead through some fast dice to finish the deciding turn.

I’m enjoying the Tau list, but I think the Hammerheads are out. The gun looks so powerful on paper, but it simply never gets it done. It goes back to the lone die principle, and the fact that multi-shot weapons nearly always provide the results you need. I’m thinking a shift to Farsight Enclaves may be in order, long enough to experiment with a fully mobile Tau army that doesn’t seek to hold any ground. This will remove my reliance on the “death star” of the Broadside nest, and will diversify my ability to break heavy armor.

Leave your thoughts on the game in the comments below, and as always thanks for watching!