Batrep: Astra Militarum vs Tau Empire

Battle for supplies: The Relic

1850 points battle

184th Cadian

First game with the Armoured Company list:

HQ

Company Command Squad, vox caster, Company Standard

Leman Russ Punisher, Knight Commander Pask, Sponson Heavy Bolters
Leman Russ Punisher, Sponson Heavy Bolters

Primaris Psyker
Primaris Psyker

Troops

Platoon command squad
Infantry squad (Lascannon, vox)
Infantry squad (Lascannon)
Infantry squad (Lascannon)
Conscripts (20)

Platoon command squad
Infantry squad (Lascannon, vox)
Infantry squad (Lascannon)
Infantry squad (Lascannon)

Heavy Support

Leman Russ Exterminator, Sponson Multimeltas
Leman Russ Exterminator, Sponson Multimeltas

Leman Russ Battle Tank
Leman Russ Battle Tank

Wyvern
Wyvern

Sam's Tau Empire

HQ

Commander Farsight

XV8 Crisis Farsight Bodyguard Team 

        Crisis Bodyguard, Cmd and Ctrl Node, Drone controller, Multi-spectrum SS

        Crisis Bodyguard, 2x Fusion blaster, Target lock

        Crisis Bodyguard, 2x Fusion blaster, Target lock

        Crisis Bodyguard, 2x Fusion blaster, Target lock

        Crisis Bodyguard, 2x Plasma rifle

        5x Gun Drone, 5x Twin-linked pulse carbine

Elites

XV104 Riptide, Counterfire defence system, Early warning override, Ion accelerato, T-L fusion blaster

XV104 Riptide, Counterfire defence system, Early warning override, Ion accelerato, T-L fusion blaster

Troops

Fire Warrior Team, 6x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle, Photon grenades

Fire Warrior Team, 6x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle, Photon grenades

Fire Warrior Team, 6x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle, Photon grenades

Fire Warrior Team, 6x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle, Photon grenades

Kroot Carnivore Squad, Kroot Hound (Acute Senses), Sniper rounds, 15x Kroot

Kroot Carnivore Squad, Kroot Hound (Acute Senses), Sniper rounds, 15x Kroot

Fast Attack

Pathfinder Team, 5x Pathfinder Shas'la, 5x Pulse carbine with Markerlight

Pathfinder Team, 5x Pathfinder Shas'la, 5x Pulse carbine with Markerlight

Heavy Support

Sky Ray Missile Defense Gunship, 2x Networked markerlight, 6x Seeker missile, Twin-linked smart missile system, Velocity tracker

XV88 Broadside Team 

        Broadside Shas'ui, Early warning override, T-L high-yield missile pod, T-L smart missile system

        Broadside Shas'ui, Early warning override, T-L high-yield missile pod, T-L smart missile system

        Broadside Shas'vre, Early warning override, T-L high-yield missile pod, T-L smart missile system

Mission and Deployment

Mission: The Relic
Deployment: Dawn of War
We rolled and my opponent won the roll off and deployed first
Night fighting was not in effect for turn 1.

The table

The battle will be fought inside a ruined fortified city. The walls are blocking the line of sight, because the game would be much more interesting for two armies that rely so heavily on long range shooting. Main exception is the road that goes across the city and nearby the relic: even if narrow, it allows a pretty clear line of fire for both armies. Craters are difficult terrain that provide 5+ cover for the models inside, tank traps are also impassable for tanks and barbed wire is dangerous terrain for infantry. Trenches provide 5+ cover for who's inside and the bunker is just an opened building: basically, a 4+ ruin with a roof to keep things simple.

My opponent picked the bottom half and deployed forward, with three fire warriors in the middle, to man the comms relay and probably grab the relic as soon as possible. One riptide for each flank, supported by a pathfinder team. The Sky Ray gunship deployed on the road, and the broadsides on the left, covered by the small bunker. Kroots are outflanking, one FW squad and Farsight and friends in reserve

I immediately thought that if I diluted my firepower along the line to match his deployment evenly it would have been very hard for me to focus my forces and remove units consistently: with my three tank squadrons with different fire ranges (very long with the Battle Tanks, medium-long with the Exterminators and short with the Punishers) I decided to define a "death zone" between my center and the relic, to obliterate every contender and covering the advance of my meatshi... ehm, conscripts. The lascannon squads are on the flanks, to fire at the Riptides and broadsides, and generally covering the flanks. Wyverns placed on a safe place with easy access to the whole enemy deployment, ready to annihilate enemy scoring units.

Scout moves brings pathfinders forward to the Aegis on the right and inside the trenches on the left flank, ready to pin their markerlights on my units.

I roll to seize, and roll a SIX. The emperor protects, I rev up my engines and roll forward, seizing the initiative, surprising the opponent!

The battle

Turn 1 - 184th Cadian

Tau empire's main strength is the markerlight. Cutting off my enemy's markerlight sources was paramount to prevent the complete destruction of my force. Riptides, without markerlight support, are much less scary and much less strong for their cost. Sure, they're not weak units at all, but they wouldn't be BS5 ignoring cover monsters with S9AP2 large blasts and twinlinked fusion blasters.

Another consideration is that my opponent doesn't have a lot of long range firepower. Broadsides and Sky Ray Gunship will be on my priority list, even if they won't be able to really damage my tanks, because they can really put a dent on my infantry forces with poor retaliation from my fire base.

Movement phase begins with Prescience going off successfully to twinlink Pask's squadron and the Leman Russ Battle Tanks on the far right of my deployment zone. The conscripts, Pask and Exterminators move forward, to force deepstrikes further away and to get near the relic.

Shooting phase I got some lucky rolls: With some lascannons I took 2 wounds off from the blue riptide, but also killed one broadside, which forced a morale test, which failed, and made them run off the board!

Wyverns also eradicated one of the two pathfinders squad, while the conscripts and Pask killed off the other one... Well, I was able to kill them at least three times over, with Pask's firepower alone. But better safe than sorry, and there's no kill as good as overkill, so be it! Eradicators killed 4 firewarriors and made the 2 left run for their lives off the board. Also, Pask used the new "Fire and Shroud" order, popping smoke after his attack. That's a mistake, because I was scared by Riptides' S9 blasts, but it would have been better to keep it for the next turn to protect from deepstrikers.

My opponent had some bad luck with his morale rolls, honestly, but my priority targets would have been reduced greatly anyway, so I'm ok with that.

Turn 1 - Tau Empire

I don't really know what my opponent strategy will develop at this point, but after the movement phase i presume he's trying to build pressure on my flanks, with the help of the kroot outflankers next turn, and waiting to farsight to drop in the middle to to a two or three pronged attack.

Shooting phase is lackluster, with only half a dozen guardsmen killed. The blue riptide damage itself with its unstable nova reactor, but the other one successfully powers up the 3++ shield

Turn 2 - 184th Cadian

Some minor shuffling to force the outflankers to show up further down the sides, and to grab the relic which i can't for a fraction of an inch. I should really had moved back with my Leman Russes, so i would have been outside of the melta range of any deepstriker. I thought that fusion blasters were like meltaguns in terms of range, and not 18". Well, one learns through mistakes.

Half of my army, Pask included, unloads on the 3++ Riptide, because it was the greatest threat at the time. I manage to remove only 4 wounds of it. I really thought i would kill it outright, but the 3++ shield and 2+ armor did a great job at absorbing firepower. Wyverns manage to obliterate the two remaining firewarriors squads, thanks to 8 twin linked barrage blasts that can reroll failed to wound rolls. Only 2 warriors survive the death barrage, but they flee (they will later fail to regroup and leave the table).

At this point, my opponent has no scoring units on the table. Sure, kroots will soon come from reserves, but I'm pretty confident in my Wyverns firepower. After all, they're just light infantry, the ideal target for the s4ap6 shred barrage.

Turn 2 - Tau Empire

Reserves time! Both kroot squads come on the table, one on each side. Farsight arrives with his friends, deepstriking in front of my conscripts and Punishers. Riptides keep moving forward. Incidentally, both lose another wound from their nova reactor or frying in their own gets hot! guns. I suppose that Tau Engineers will be executed for their incompetence!

The shooting phase see an Infantry Squad broken by kroot fire on the left flank, minor casualties on the combined squad on the right. the command squad obliterated by the Sky Ray missiles, conscript reduced by half from Farsight. I lost a Leman Russ Battle Tank from the black Riptide fusions, which also loses another wound due to gets hot! and a Punisher from crisis fusion blasters. One Punisher gets Immobilized, too.

The blue Riptide continues its bad luck streak and overheats its Nova reactor once again, and fails the charge range rolling a double 1.

I knew that Farsight drop would have hurt me, but it would have done a lot more damage with a little bit of luck. I can't complain, because my firepower is still strong and Pask is still alive.

Turn 3 - 184th Cadian

Very minor movements, basically just a reshuffling to properly welcome Farsight and his unit, grab the relic and bubblewrap my tanks as much as possible.

Wyverns completely remove the kroots on the left flank, while the Conscripts, Pask and Exterminators destroy the crisis suits down to a drone and half-wounded Farsight himself, which fails the morale test and runs away.

I now appreciate a lot the multimelta sponsons over the heavy bolters one... I'll probably have more of them in the future.

Turn 3 - Tau Empire

This turn is my opponent's last chance to turn the tide of the game. In a series of desperate moves, he sets up as many assaults as possible to try and destroy my lines once and for all.

He manages to destroy one combined squad on the left flank and the immobilized Exterminator. The remaining gun drone detached from Farsight to assault the conscript, while Farsight himself assaulted Pask, shaking the crew.

Turn 4 - 184th Cadian

The remaining forces of the Tau Empire gets slaughtered from the short range firepower of the 184th Cadian. My opponent surrenders!

Final considerations

MVP of the game: the Wyverns. a 130 points unit that killed around 550 points worth of enemy infantry. An absolute game changer, will definitely find a place in every list i'll play.

Second place goes to Pask and his friend: They removed 5 wounds from two Riptides, overkilled some pathfinders and badly damaged Farsight.

Honor mention to the Exterminators with Multimeltas.

Very bad performance for the Leman Russ Battle Tanks, which killed only 3 kroots during the whole game. I'll probably get another squadron of Exterminator with Multimeltas, because they cost the same and are awesome.

I had very bad luck with my lascannons, which almost always failed to hit altogether. I'll probably put one of the two Psykers to oversee on their aiming.