EpicA: Lost and the Damned vs Tau (engl, pics)

[Hena]

Taas on saatu epicciä pelattua. Tällä kertaa otin esille omat aloitetut kirotut. Vastaan tuli sitten aika erilainen Tau. Kyseessä siis Tau listan pelitestausta. Englanniksi kirjoitettu kun se on ulkomaiseen foorumiin tarkoitettu.

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Rules used

NetERC Mods
Tau 5.1

Lost and the Damned

Coven 1, Khorne
- 7 Cultists, Chaos Marine Aspiring Champion
+ 4 Big Mutants
+ 4 Traitor Fire Support
Coven 2, Tzeench
- Demagogue, 11 Cultists
+ 3 Chimera, 3 Land Transports
+ 2 Hydra
+ Demonic Pact
Coven 3, Tzeench BTS
- Demagogue, 8 Cultists
+ 3 Big Mutants
+ Chaos Altar
+ Demonic Pact
Coven 4, Khorne
- Demagogue, 11 Mutants
+ 6 Land Transports
+ Hydra
+ Demonic Pact

Khorne: Lord of Battles
Khorne: Demonic Assault Engines
Tzeench: Silver Towers
Traitor Navy: Thunderbolts

Demonic Pool: 1 Greater Demon, 7 Lesser Demons




Tau Light Popcorn

3 * Firewarrior Cadre
- 8 Firewarriors
+ Skyray
Firewarrior Cadre BTS
- 8 Firewarriors
+ 4 Firewarriors
+ Skyray
Battlesuit Cadre
- 4 Crisis suit
+ Supreme Commander
4 * Recon Support Group
- 6 Tetras
4 * Recon Support Group
- 5 Piranha, 1 Tetra
Scorpionfish Support Group

[Hena]

Deployment

LatD blitz is a bit west of the Coven 4. Second objective is in far east on a hill just in the edge of picture.

Tau garrisoned 8 formations of which two Firewarrior Cadres (4 and 5) were on overwatch. Coven 1 was garrisoned on overwatch by LatD.

[Hena]

Turn 1

Initiative: Tau

After some thinking on whether to use Coordinated fire or not. In the end it's just Firewarriors who are ordered to sustain. However the transmission is jammed and they manage to hold instead. They still choose to fire on the Coven 1 which takes a single hit and a Big Mutant unit goes down.

LatD thinks for a while on how to proceed and decide to put the Khorne Engines to test. They are ordered to double, but orders don't seem to go through here either. However Arch Heretic personally sees that the orders go through and the heavy machines rumble forwards stopping south of the hill in centre. They fire on the Firewarrior Cadre 4 on overwatch killing one unit. This prompts Tau to send the Crisis cadre forwards on double. They fire on the Engines, but fail to hit.

LatD decides to send the Coven 3 forwards next. They advance to take up positions on the two forests around rounds and Altar fires off couple of rounds at Firewarriors failing to hit anything.

Firewarrior Cadre 1 goes next. They decide to do engage targeting the Khorne Assault Engines. The living machines counter charge in hopes of second round and close combat. This won't happen though. They manage to cut down one enemy unit, but in return fire lose 3 of their own (4 hits and saved 1). The last surviving machine falls backwards to take cover behind a forest. Enraged by the losses of his minions the Lord of Battle goes next. It doubles to take position on the road near where the Assault Engines were beaten and fires on the Firewarrior Cadre 4 dropping 2 more units and breaking the formation. It falls back towards east to a forest there.

Taus response is calling coordinated fire between Tetra 2 and Scorpionfish. However communication problems still are evident and the order fails. Tetra 2 holds instead and elects to move west on the other side of the forest. This causes Coven 2 to double to hill and swamp. 4 units take difficult terrain test and one Cultist unit is lost in swamp. 2 Chimeras and Hydra are in position to fire on hilltop and they shoot at the Tetra 1 and drop two. Piranha 4 is informed that suitable targets are now lit and sustain causing missiles to arc over the board and wrecking 2 Chimera.

Cultists try to get as much hitting power to centre as they can and Coven 4 doubles to the centre in forest. They fire at the Firewarrior cadre 3 in front of them giving a single BM.

In east the Tau continues to pound the Coven on the hill. Now that there are a lot of infantry targets out in open the Piranha 1 advances moving next to them. They open fire and 3 Cultist units, 2 Land Transports and Hydra is destroyed [I failed all saves, again].

The Silver Towers go next and they double out to centre and target the Tetra 2. Several shots later 4 of the Tetras are wrecked and the last two flee northeast broken.

Tetra 1 then marshals. They fire giving a BM to Coven 2 breaking it. The Coven moves backwards to south east taking cover in ruins while Tetra 1 remove all BMs.

Thunderbolts are called in for Chaos, which have problems in getting targets outside of AA range. They settle for Firewarriors 4 and manage to knock out 3 Firewarrior units as Skyray saves it's hit.

Tetra 3 goes next and they double to the centre of the field now that Coven 2 broke. They fire at the broken Coven dropping a single Cultist unit and marking Towers in centre. Coven 1 elects to keep it's overwatch, so it's only Tau left. Scorpionfish then sustain fires with Tracer missiles hitting three of the Towers which none save and the lone surviving one moves towards southwest.

In west the Tetra 4 tries to advance, but are not sure about this and hold instead. They move once towards east. Firewarrior cadre 5 sustain fires dropping a single Land Transport from Coven 4. Lastly the Piranhas 2 and 3 coordinate fire at both sustain at the Lord of Battles for 2 damage.

End Phase

Thunderbolts take 1 BM for exiting from wrong edge.
Fail: Coven 2, Firewarriors 4 (with SC), Silver Tower, Tetra 2, Coven 4, Coven 1

[Hena]

Turn 2

Initiative: LatD

Roaring with delight the Mutants of Coven 4 set about to summon demons. 5 Bloodletter units respond and appear in front of the Coven. Then they all engage the Firewarrior Cadre 5. All Bloodletters get into close combat while Mutants try to get other places.

Tau counter charge enough to bring Devilfish into range. The battle is brutal but not as bad as expected for Tau, 3 of 5 hit in close combat! Total of 3 Bloodletters is lost while Tau lose 6 Firewarriors. The remaining two with Skyray flees northeast. Consolidation sees Mutants taking positions in the built up area.

Retaining the Lord of Battles also engages the nearby intermingled Firewarrior 1 and Crisis. Barging into forest with trees snapping it goes through the Firewarriors into Crisis and battles is out.

Again things don't go as well as expected (7 hits with 5 saved by Firewarriors against 4 hits and 2 saves by Lord of Battles). However Tau lose the combat and lose total of 7 Firewarriors with no Crisis units being harmed. Tau again withdraw northeast while Lord of Battles stays put wishing to avoid difficult terrain test and keep cover.

Tau replies to forward moving elements with coordinated fire from Tetra and Firewarrior cadre 5. Firewarriors 5 sustain first at the Coven 1, but score only one hit which is saved by Big Mutant. Then Tetras move around the Coven from left going around the nearby forest. This prompts the Coven to respond with overwatch fire, dropping two Tetras. The remaining Tetras then just fire.

Tau then give the turn to LatD and notice the mistake. The last Khorne Engine activate and sustain fires at the Tetra group 3 dropping a single vehicle. Tetra 3 then activates and advances towards Coven 3 to fire on Coven 2. They manage to destroy one Land Transport and BMs scatter additional 2 units of Cultist.

Then it's the traitor navy which makes another attack run outside of Tau air defence. After some consideration they decide to hit the Tetra 4 in west. They manage to drop one Tetra from the formation and the group breaks withdrawing to southwest corner.

Scorpionfish goes next and sustain fires. They fire submunition missiles targeting Coven 3 and blasting up 2 Cultist units while Big Mutant saves. Coven 3 is next and they decide to summon demons as well. This time it's the Lord of Change that responds and arrives to the battlefield. Then the cultists double towards the forest in northwest of them. Lord of Change and Chaos Altar moves into position to fire. Altar is suppressed so only Lord of Change fires, but one Tetra of group 3 breaking it.

Then there is only Piranhas left. In order to shift the Coven 4 the Piranha group 1 advances to create crossfire. 2 units of Mutants, 4 Land Transporters and Hydra is blown up by the Recon group. The Mutants are broken and they flee northwest taking some cover from forest. Group 4 tries to sustain but fails to get proper targeting and fires on hold. They target the lone Khornate Engine which breaks and moves towards northeast to disrupt Tau rallying.

Then group 2 and 3 sustain fire consecutively at the Lord of Battles causing it to break and do 1 damage leaving it with 1 point left. It chooses to stay in cover and hope to rally for next turn.

End Phase

Thunderbolts takes again a BM from exiting a bad direction.

Fail: Khorne DE, LoB (even with SC), Firewarriors 4, Tetra 4, Coven 1, Silver Tower
Rally: Crisis (with SC)

[Hena]

Turn 3

Initiative: Tau

Tau regain the initiative and go on offensive. In centre the Piranha 1 advances behind Coven 3 and fires a full spread. 3 hits from Seeker missiles and all are assigned to Lord of Change. That then promptly fails all saves and is destroyed! In addition a single Cultist unit is killed. Retaining the Piranha 2 tries to coordinate fire with Piranha 2. There is however problems with syncing their target package and even Shas'O stern words doesn't sort it out. Piranha 2 ends up holding and firing none the less on Lord of Battles but failing to do damage.

Coven 3 is stunned by loss of Lord of Change but decides to continue the plan as intended. They perform quick ritual to summon last two demons from the pool and engage the Firewarrior 5 into long range firefight. The Big Mutants and two Flamers manage to fight back enough that second round is taken which then brings in more cultists and Altar. This shifts the combat to chaos and Tau loses 6 units of Firewarriors and Skyray against 2 Flamers and Big Mutant. Tau fall back towards south east keeping a forest between them and Coven 1. Coven 3 tries to scramble into cover but one unit fails to make it while Altar consolidates to hold the objective.

Scorpionfish goes next. It's ordered to continue it's long range bombard on the Coven 4. Forest doesn't offer any protection against submunition missiles and 3 units of Mutants is lost. This breaks the Coven and they move to protect the blitz.

Coven 2 is ordered to engage the nearby Tetras. However they don't want to try to go after them and even shouting of the Arch Heretic fails to get them to moving. Instead they end up moving towards west on hold.

I don't have marked what happened here, but I'm fairly sure it's Firewarriors 5 who failed to activate and broke themselves. Thunderbolts also choose to stand down instead of attack something on board.

Crisis advance and fire on the Lord of Battles, but are unable to hit it due to trees. In west the Coven 1 resumes overwatch and continue to wait for the enemies to show up again. That was last action by LatD this turn.

First Tetra 2 marshall in the east. They move to get the objective and then remove all blast markers. Next goes Tetra 3 who move to centre and fire on Coven 3 killing one Cultist unit. Piranha 2 goes next and they advance to get into range of Coven 3. No hits is done, but Coven 3 breaks anyway. They huddle closer together and take cover as well as they can. Tetra group 1 advances next to surround Lord of Battles and fires Coven 3 failing to hit, but causing one Cultist unit to break and flee.

In centre the Firewarrior cadre 1 is ordered to advance, but they hesitate after being pushed out earlier. Instead they hold and remove blast markers. Firewarriors 1 however has no such problems and they advance firing seeker missiles on Lord of Battles, but fail to hit. Last to go is Piranha 4 and they try to advance, but hold instead and fire missiles on Coven 3 scattering a single unit of Big Mutants.

End Phase

Fail: Firewarriors 4, Khorne Demon Engines, Tetra 4 (southwest corner), Coven 4, Piranha 3, Coven 2, Tetra 3, Coven 3, Firewarriors 5

Conditions are 0 - 0 so we go to turn 4.

[Hena]

Turn 4

Initiative: Tau, LatD rolled 6 and gained 2 extra Lesser Demons

The turn starts with Crisis suits taking careful aims and blasting with all their as much as they can. Target is Lord of Battles which finally succumbs under the power of the fusion guns and crashes down into the forest. Retaining the Tetra 4 marshals. They fire on the Silver Tower breaking it again and remove the remaining blast markers.

Coven 2 sees that it can finally hurt the enemy. They perform rituals to gain 2 Flamers and then engage the intermingled Tetra 3 and Piranha 1 into firefight. Two hits by Tau are saved with Flamers while the demons blast the Tau with deadly efficiency. Piranha 1 is wiped out as they try to flee while Tetra 3 makes it out unharmed but broken and withdraws towards east.

Tetra 1 goes next and they advance to flank the Coven 3 and fire on it killing 2 Cultist and a single Big Mutant units.

Traitor Thunderbolts are ordered to preform a ground attack and this time they do as they are told. Coming in from west they attack the Piranha 4 while keeping just out of air defence range. Attack manages to knock out 3 Piranhas and break the formation. In west the Piranha 2 holding hill sustain fires on the Coven 3 but only manages to the last 2 Cultist units leaving only Chaos Altar alive. This prompts Coven 1 to get into active gear [Since I would lose the game if I let Tau keep all their own objectives, this move was forced upon me.]. They double out from the forest and into range of objective on hill. Fire is sporadic as they run but 2 Piranhas is still destroyed with the heavy weapons carried about.

Again it's only Tau actions left. Piranha 3 is ordered to double, but they don't want to go too near as units are dropping all around them. They hold instead and fire at Altar but failing to hit. Then in centre Firewarriors 1 marshall moving forwards and removing their blast markers as they don't have anything to do. Scorpionfish sustain fires at the Altar with tracer missiles, but only hit done is saved. Last to go is Firewarriors 3 who advances to fire on Coven 1, but misses.

End Phase

Thunderbolts are fired at by two pairs of missiles of which one hits and the brave pilot is unable to avoid it causing the aircraft to blow apart.

Fail: Piranha 4, Firewarriors 5, Firewarriors 4, Coven 3, Coven 4, Khorne Demon Engine

Conditions are still LatD 0 vs Tau 0, so off we go to count victory points. That comes as Latd 1250 vs Tau 2090, Tau took victory in the end.