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After some great games last year I was looking forward to my second Vapnartak 40k tournament. My list
which I had chopped and changed many times was geared for anti-light vehicles - lots of missile pods. In
2010 I took all-infantry and had a blast, so I was hoping this year would be the same with a more elite
army.

   

This was the 5 objective dawn of war scenario. Toms list was heavy on the chimeras, hydras and had a
vendetta in there for good measure. Obviously we had to hum Vagner every time it moved! The main
unknown in his list was the psyker battle squad, which I had never seen in a Guard army.

My early movements:

Toms early deployment, castled in one corner:

The story of this game was my failure to kill toms Vendetta, and his devastating use of the psyker unit.
Horrible rolling for me, at one point missing all my missile pod shots and missing with all the rerolls as
well! This meant the flyer got in close, delivering the meltagun unit of veterans.

Toms troops drop in:

The psykers reduced my suit LD to 2, meaning they fled systematically. 3d6 jetpack move guaranteed
they were off the board as well. My offensive capability was obliterated by this method by T4.

On my other flank my 2 scoring units were untouched, but I failed to move my devilfish into scoring
range by turn 5, and in the end a win for Tom was a fair result.
vroot claim 1 objective, fish driver goes to sleep:

rd
Toms guard capture 2 objectives, with a 3 in their sights:
Thoughts after game 1:

@p Ignorance is not bliss, especially where psykers are concerned

@p AV12 is more resilient to S7 spam than I thought
@p ½ith a bit more luck an undeserved draw was possible
@p Toms use of cricket lingo and appreciation of Pythonesque humour added to the fun

  
Young Jake had stepped in at short numbers and had painted his entire force the night before! ½e were
playing capture and control and (I think) pitched battle. I have a feeling Jake won the toss and let me go
first.

Deployment͙

It was around this point that a lack of railguns seemed like a bad idea, on balance. Recognizing the
threat of the LR, the vroot and suits retreated out of assault range, while the skyray missed its 2 seeker
missile shots. One of the CSM rhinos was popped by missile pods.
Jakes LR took out my skyray in his turn, and my dallying command unit got assaulted by the chaos lord
inside. Needless to say they were annihilated and the lord consolidated into the woods. Luckily the
nearby kroot finished him off next turn.

Not in assault range.. is he?!

I also popped the second rhino.. but the landraider was still there, and a squad of plague marines was
now sat on Jakes objective.
In jakes turn the kroot got tank shocked off my objective and fled the battle.

This sort of thing happens to kroot a lot

½ith nothing to lose, the devilfish and suits attempted to rush the CSM objective͙

But sadly plasma guns took their toll against devilfish side armour.. a humiliating tabling for the Tau!
Thoughts after game 2:

@p Tau paper meets Nurgle scissors

@p It͛s only a game, isn͛t it?
  

 
½ell it had to get better, didn͛t it?

Now before I describe game 3 I have to admit a major error on my part. The missions were numbered 1
to 4 and up until game 3 we had been playing them in the order they appeared in the missions book. So
I was sure we were playing annihilation, whereas we were actually supposed to be playing cleanse. This
totally changed the result so apologies to my opponent, it was a great game anyway.

Jamie and his ½olves

I think I won the roll to go first, and was certainly looking forward to dealing with Jamies AV11 vehicles.
However I was quite scared of his dreadnoughts range, the vindicator and also Mr. ½olfbourne who
was riding around in the background. Most of the early action was the successful popping of transports
by the crisis suits and Jamies desperately bad fleet and move through cover rolls.
However the wolves eventually assaulted and routed the kroot. Luckily for me all Mr ½olfbournes little
wolves were all killed in the combat. So my command team moved in and got him. Jamie had been out
by about a quarter of an inch with his attempted charge on the command team the previous turn. This
probably changed the game.

vroot in the firing line͙ again!

Suits say hello to woolfy
This next pic is a snapshot near the end. Jamie had destroyed the skyray with Dreadnought long range
firepower. But I had got all his AV11 vehicles. Dead kroot in foreground.
Suits overwhelm the brave space marines.

Victory for the Tau, but an unfair one as we played the wrong mission!

Thoughts

@p Read the instructions

@p Beat the army I was optimized for ʹ Quelle surprize
@p Jamie ʹ what a guy and what a beard!


 !
" # 
½ith humiliation almost averted, I played Gills Dread van Orks. He won the toss. This time we were
playing annihilation. No, really!

This picture sums up the game:

I sat back out of assault range and popped vans, just out of deffgun range. Gill got bored.. I don͛t blame
him. I get bored getting assaulted by Orks, Nids, Daemons (pretty much everyone actually). So I know his
pain.
Heres a pic of his dread, which was awesome.

Gills dread

Cool isn͛t it?!

Thoughts

@p Sorry Gill
@p Yaay 2 wins
@p I love playing at York racecourse
@p 26/42 not bad for a Tau, eh?