catalyst2 | Battle #23

Tonight was 2000 points against Ben's Tau with Pitched Battle deployment for an Annihilation mission. He got to deploy first and put everything over on my left wing with only his Hammerhead on the right. The board was a bit unusual with a large piece of terrain covering almost the entire centre of the board with just a scattering of craters and ruins elsewhere. I mention this because it would give almost everything in the centre a really good cover save and yet he deployed over to the left, denying most of his army the benefit of the save. I deployed with most of my stuff well covered but left my Whirlwind and Predator both a little exposed. On my right I put the stuff that was really going to do the damage - a ten-man assault squad and a 10 ten-man terminator squad with Terminator Librarian with Gate of Infinity.

Turn 1 and, for reasons I don't quite follow, he brought both of his stealth squads well forward, trying to get in range of my line. He fired but the cover denied him any joy. He poured an enormous volume of fire onto the sniper scouts but with their 2+ cover save (reinforced ruins and camo cloaks), he only killed two. Both stealth suit squads were reduced to just two after heavy bolters and snipers fired on them. The drop pod Dread did its usual thing and and blew up his Hammerhead. The Whirlwind wreaked havoc on some fire warriors and the Thunderfire exterminated his entire pulse carbine squad in one utterly devastating round.

Turn 2 and the drop pod Dread did the other thing I love it for - in his panic to kill it off, he used almost every marker light in the army and then shot the hell out of it. Amazingly, all he did was stun it twice. In the mean time, a dozen other juicy targets remained perfectly safe. The scouts did lose another two - more marker light there again. The stealth suits in the centre who could have taken out both the Whirlwind and the Predator missed everything, all the marker lights having gone to the Dread or the scouts. Things went slightly wrong for me now - the Librarian used Gate of Infinity and took the termies with him but because I had been in such haste to get the drop pod Dread really close to the Hammerhead, I had put it only just 30 inches out which meant that terminators got across safely but were way out on right wing with little to do. The assault squad shot across to get the stealth suits in the centre but fell an agonising inch short of being able to assault them. I felt sure that both assault squad and terminators were going to get cut up next turn. The Whirlwind, Thunderfire and Predator all caused further chaos with incredibly accurate firing taking out another fire warrior team (Whirlwind and Thunderfire) and half of another stealth suit squad on the left (accidental scatter from the Thunderfire!).

Turn 3 and things were in the balance. His Kroot came on and promptly attacked the sniper squad, killing all but two of them. The Dread really earned its money this turn with more fire pouring into it and it just got stunned again. This meant that the terminators and and assault squad were both left untouched by fire. The Librarian did Gate of Infinity again and this time the terminators were right in the thick of things. They killed his Commander with assault cannon fire (I had two in the squad) and then waited to move next turn. I expected to get shot up but the assault squad came hurtling over, this time making it into assault with two crisis suits, some stealth suits, and a sniper drone squad. They killed everything in their path, taking just one casualty. The Deathwind Missile launcher in the drop pod took out half of yet another fire warrior team.

Turn 4 and his strategy of bunkering up on the left came back to haunt him as many of his units now couldn't get clear lines of fire but my more extended line still could. He did kill two terminators and one assault marine however. His Kroot killed off the last remaining sniper scouts but not before losing a couple of hounds. The Predator took out both his broadsides and the Whirlwind dropped a perfectly accurate round right on top of the Kroot and promptly killed the entire lot - I love the incendiary castellan round with no cover save! I had learned my lesson though and this time, I didn't fire before I assaulted. This meant that terminators now got to grips with some fire warriors, sniper drones and a crisis suit. The assault marine also tangled with three squads, fire warriors, the only remaining stealth suits and his final unit of sniper drones. In a perfect round, they each killed everything but one fire warrior which meant that neither could be fired on as they were still locked in combat.

Turn 5 and he capitulated, his reasoning being that he couldn't shoot out any remaining unit but he knew that the terminators and the assault marines would each kill off their sole remaining opponent in his assault phase and then, in my turn, they would get to every remaining unit in his army, indeed if any survived the Whirlwind/Thunderfire/Predator combo that had been so lethal all game.

Final result was a win for me by total annihilation of his army.

What I learned this week:
1) The value of NOT shooting before assaulting - with both the terminators and the assault marines I managed to get to six squads rather than two which utterly broke his army.
2) The Whirwlind and Thunderfire are just sweet when they are on song, entire units falling beneath their fire. I know that I have been incredibly lucky with their accuracy but every time I think I must surely do some more poor shooting, direct hit after direct hit turns up.
3) My sniper scouts were annihilated for the first time ever - damn infiltrating Kroot with their umpteen attacks on the charge! The terrain forced their position on me but still, damn it!

My W-L-D record is now 18-5-0