750pt League game versus Space Wolves
I swung by the local GW store and got in a game for the league. Harrison (if you are reading this, Hi Harrison!) agreed to take me on in the 750pt category. Note that as long as I stay on the bottom tier of the league, I have to use the same army list. This is a list I came up with right at the beginning of fifth edition and was based primarily on the models I had completed at the time.

Game: Capture and Control. Spearhead (Corner deployment, with an objective in each of our deployment zones.)

Lists

Space Wolves

Commander, 2+ save, Frost Blade and something that allows a reroll (runic charm?)

An independent character (Wolf Guard maybe?)

Blood Claws squad with a Powerfist
Grey Hunter squad with Bolters

Long Fang squad with 3 Missile Launchers
Approximately 750pts

Tau List:

97 Shas’El Commander w/Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, Target Array, HWMT

139 2x Crisis Suit: Plasma, MP, MT. Tm Ldr w/HWMT and TA
139 2x Crisis Suit: Plasma, MP, MT. Tm Ldr w/HWMT and TA

100 8xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles, Tm Ldr also has Markerlight.
100 8xShas’La FireWarriors w/Pulse Rifles, Tm Ldr also has Markerlight.

80 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization.
80 Broadside, Advanced Stabilization.

735pts

Space Wolves are known for their close combat effectiveness and their resilience. I figured I'd have my work cut out for me trying to keep them out of my lines.

Setup

Tau: I won the roll to pick sides and go first. I decided on the side with solid terrain to hide in and around. I placed my objective roughly centered and a little back in my deployment zone. I tried to get good lines of sight and split my forces a little between the approach down the center and the lane down my left flank.

Space Wolves: Harrison placed his objective roughly centered in his deployment zone in a grove of trees. He guarded it with his Grey Hunters, while his Blood Claws set up on the center edge of his deployment zone, joined by the Commander and the (Wolf Guard) character. His Long Fangs set up a little behind the two squads with a fire lane down the middle.

Turn 1

Tau: Most of my units were out of range, at least of their primary weapons. I managed to knock down a couple of Grey Hunters with my Missile Pods, and that was about it.

Space Wolves: The Grey Hunters settled into their grove of trees, while the Blood Claws surged forward, running when they could. The Long Fangs manage to take down one of my Crisis Team members, but his team leader stayed on, ready to avenge him.

Turn 2

Tau: I take down a Long Fang with Missile launcher and kill a couple more Grey Hunters. While I'm concerned about the Blood Claws, they are too far away and mostly behind the center rock formation for me to shoot at them effectively.

Space Wolves: The Grey Hunters are content to sit on the objective, out of range and in cover. The Long Fangs take a shot at a Broadside, but it makes it's save. The Blood Claws continue to surge forward.

Turn 3

Tau: I maneuvered most of my army to target the Blood Claws, though most were out of range. I managed to take down the Character running in front of the squad (to give them a cover save) and a couple of Blood Claws.

Space Wolves: The Blood Claws continued forward and the Grey Hunters stood firm. A missile from a Long Fang streaks across the board to target one of my Crisis Suits, but it misses it's target.

Turn 4

Tau: With the lead character out of the way, I can really thin down the Blood Claws this turn, and I do pretty good damage, leaving only 5 plus the Commander.

Space Wolves: The Blood Claws move up and fire their Bolt Pistols to no effect. They are close enough to smell, and I know this could get real bad in a hurry.

Turn 5

Tau: There are 5 Blood Claws and the Commander still bearing down on my lines. If I don't take them all out this turn, something is going to make it into contact and that will be bad. I decided to be aggressive with FireWarrior Team 1. They move in for the rapid fire kill, hoping to bump the damage enough that nothing will get through. While the firepower is impressive and strips away the squad, it leaves the Commander ready to unleash pain.

Space Wolves: My aggressive maneuver with FireWarrior team 1, coupled with the swift disengagment of my Crisis teams ensured that the Commander would attack FireWarrior team 1, with rather predictable results.

Turn 6

Tau: After I kill off the Commander, I have two courses of action. First, I can kill the last Long Fang and start whittling down the Grey Hunters safely from range. Alternately, I can move forward aggressively, chancing some losses to improve my chances of killing off the Grey Hunters and keeping him from claiming an objective. I decide to concentrate on the Grey Hunters and move forward somewhat aggressively. (I still use the rock to block most line of sight, but I move as far forward as possible while still doing that.

Space Wolves: The Last Long Fang fires into my last FireWarrior team, killing two. The poor Shas'la break and run off the board. The die is cast and the game ends giving the Space Wolves the victory, 1 objective to zero. Note here that had we tied (as it looked like we would) we would have gone to Victory Points for the tie-breaker. (Can't have ties for this league.) Had that happened, Harrison would've had very few points and I would have won handily.

Lessons Learned

Well, there are two lessons here, and we'll see how well I learned them in the next battle. They are both related to my adjustment to fifth edition. The first one is Troops. While I typically make use of lots of troops in my armies, the Tau have been an exception. Since most of my army was designed to pop out, shoot, then pop back out of sight, any units (such as FireWarriors) that can't get back out of sight, gets hosed by the enemy. Given that, I decided to cut back on my FireWarriors to cut down on the losses. However, in Fifth edition, you need Troops units to hold objectives. I'm too used to the FireWarriors being relegated to being ineffective or sacrificing themselves to save a more effective unit. Now when I lose FireWarriors, I don't have anything else to hold objectives, as is evidenced by the above battle. While I realize this now, old habits are hard to break. Even worse, I'm stuck with this army list until I get on the next tier of the league. If I can break the habit of sacrificing my FireWarriors or treating them as second-rate units, I think I can get more use out of this list. Frankly, I'm going to have to!

The second lesson is one that I've been noticing for a while, but haven't really worked out the why and how, because it has several inter-related factors. I've noticed that my army has a surprising amount of firepower, considering that it was designed to only do a little damage because it would take almost none in return. I've also noticed that in a number of games, I'm really not being aggressive enough with my army and it's costing me games when I would have been able to kill more by moving up. Finally, I've noticed the changes in cover. While more things get cover saves, fewer things completely block line of sight anymore, which is what my old army hinged on. This has all come into focus for me as I was writing up this report. Since my army cannot effectively use it's movement to completely avoid being fired on, I need to use that movement to make sure I have cover saves and position my units for the best possible fire. Basically, I need to position more aggressively and plan on taking more damage while I give more damage. In this game, for example, I would have been better off starting my Crisis Teams in the trees in front of them. They would have been able to get more shots off immediately and do more damage over the long term. This is especially true in objective games. Instead of sacrificing my FireWarriors to save Crisis Teams, I should go the other way. I need to save my FireWarriors to make sure I can still claim an objective.

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