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Small Tournament, part 3: Alternate army analysis
Different Strokes If you've been playing along at home, you know that I have several different kinds of army setups available for my Tau. The Combat Patrol force that I took to the tournament represents the Jump, Shoot, Jump style of force that I've mostly been using in my larger battles. I wanted to see some other options, so I tried to put something together based on the Mobile Infantry concept. Immediately I ran into some trouble, because 2+ saves aren't allowed in Combat Patrol, but the army is based around lots of Broadside Battlesuits. Instead, I decided to put together a force based around as many FireWarriors as I can currently field. While it did put out a lot of firepower and have solid resilience in the form of 24 FireWarriors, I decided I'd rather have the mobility of my Crisis Battlesuits. I also tried putting together a Combat patrol based around the Rain concept of Deathrain-style Battlesuits (Twin-linked Missile Pods and a Target Array add extremely long range to the high mobility platform of the Crisis Battlesuit.) I haven't had a chance to test out how well this concept works, so I decided to go with a known quantity under the pressure of a tournament. Here are the lists I came up with...
Scenario Analysis Now let's look at how they might have done in the various scenarios presented in the tournament.
Mobile Infantry With 24 FireWarriors, this army has the range and firepower to deal with the IG Combat Patrol here. The Guard list really didn't have the mobility to deal with an army that could outshoot it. Rain Although it doesn't have the raw firepower to stand up to this IG Combat patrol, it has plenty of mobility and range to pick away at them with very little return fire. Since the bulk of the force has extremely accurate 36" range weapons and can move in both the movement and assault phases, it can play keep away with just about anything. Orks (Scott) 2 huge mobz of Boyz, 30 each, including about 3 Big Shootas per mob, I think. Mobile Infantry Even against the extreme numbers of the Orks, the Mobile Infantry Combat Patrol has the withering firepower necessary to deal with it. With 30" range, I could start back from the edge of my deployment zone and just shoot, shoot, shoot. There wasn't really much terrain in the middle of the board, and this army would be able to take out an average of 11 Ork Boyz per turn, not including Rapid-firing. I expect that this would be a pretty easy matchup. Rain Despite the difference in numbers and the fact that the Deathrain configuration doesn't pack a lot of apparent firepower, it actually cranks out quite a bit of damage due to the accuracy of the Twinlinked Missile Pods. Coupled with the ability to jump, shoot, jump, this would be another easy matchup. Necrons (Don)large squad of Warriors, 5 Destroyers. Mobile Infantry While the Necron Warriors wouldn't do a huge amount of damage to the armor of my FireWarriors, the Destroyers would scythe through them like Wheat. In turn, the single-Wound destroyers would die pretty quickly, either to the plasmas of the Fireknife Battlesuits or to the massed fire of the FireWarriors. This would be a tougher match, but even if they got the first turn, I think the resilience of 24 FireWarriors in cover would give me the edge. Rain While all of my shooting would bounce off the Necron armor saves, my high mobility and the amount of accurate firepower this list puts out would stand me in good stead. As long as I was careful to take out the Destroyers quickly, I could play keep away from the Warriors all game. Space Marines (Jared) Mobile Infantry The Scouts and the Space Marine squad would be easy pickings for my FireWarriors, but the Assault squad could potentially roll up the whole line. If I was very careful to space my squads apart and watch my firelanes, I think I could take this list on, but if I screwed up my spacing, those Assault Marines would shred me. Rain I think my Rain list would have a better chance, simply because of the extreme range and mobility of their weapons. If the Assault squad chased down one pair, the other two pairs could move away in opposite directions and still rain missiles down on top of them from almost all the way across the board. Space Marines (Brandon) Mobile Infantry This list is based around heavy, mostly static firepower. As such, the Mobile Infantry list would do very well, since it wins the firepower battle handily. Rain The extreme range and mobility of the Rain list would give this army list fits. Even more than with my Jump, Shoot, Jump list, it'd play keep away and long-range tag with his slow-moving squads. Chaos Marines (Didn't catch the name) Noise Marines and Berzerkers Mobile Infantry While I didn't have the opportunity to take on this army, I've seen similar ideas before. It's downfall is the combination of expensive models (so every loss really hurts) and the lack of speed of the Berzerkers. Rain Again, the mobility and range of my Rain list would probably wreak havoc with the Noise Marines and Berzerkers. The Noise Marines would probably never get a chance to see my Deathrain Battlesuits, and even if the Berzerkers managed to catch up to one of the pairs of Shas'Ui, they'd never touch the others. I know there was one more, but I have no idea what it was, so I can't really analyze it.
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