This past weekend it was Into the Fray, 3+’s annual wargaming tournament featuring all sorts of different gaming systems and with it being the 10th anniversary edition some great prizes were on offer for the winners (a paid for flight down to Cape Town for the winner of the X-Wing tournament definitely being the biggest)
With the latest Tau codex coming out recently I decided I’d try my hand at building a hunter contingent playing around with some of the new toys we’ve been given. So with new codex and Ghostkeel purchased, old stealth suit models procured and many test games out of the way I arrived with the following list ready to do my best.
Hunter Contingent
Hunter Cadre
200 – Commander: MSSS,CnC,PEN,Iridium,SG,SI
45 – Strike Team (5)
45 – Strike Team (5)
45 – Breacher Team (5)
66 – Pathfinder Team (6)
171 – Crisis Team: 3x Plasma, 3x Cyclic Ion, 3x EWO (3)
195 – Longstrike: Disruption Pod, Sensor Spiner, Submunition Round
Firebase Support Cadre
190 – Riptide: Ion Accelerator, EWO
94 – Broadside: EWO, HRR, 2x Missile Drones
94 – Broadside: EWO, HRR, 2x Missile Drones
Optimized Stealth Cadre
95 – Stealth Team: (3)
95 – Stealth Team: (3)
165 – Ghostkeel: Twin-linked Fusion, EWO, VT
During testing I found that spreading out some special rules to use in co-ordinated firepower was useful, never mind if the TO had gone with the more conservative readings of the rules having more Tank Hunter and Monster hunter would be useful. Fortunately Pete read the rule and actually went with the strongest interpretation, which to my surprise none of my opponents raised any concerns with, maybe we’re all a bit cynical of the power creep going through 40K at the moment.
The tournament had 3 missions that were based on Maelstrom of war missions and 2 eternal war like missions, but each had their own spin on things.
Game 1
Game 1 : Tau vs Ultramarines
My first opponent was an Ultramarine player with far, far, too many transports (oh Gladius strikeforce how I hate your free units) and doctrines at the start of the game. The mission was a redux of the relic mission with two extra objectives in our deployment zones. Our opponent’s objective was worth 3 points while our own was worth 1 and the relic gave its regular 4 points.
He picked a side with better cover but I had clear lanes of fire onto the objective and pushed my Riptide and Ghostkeel up to as close to the relic as the first of 4 diagonal deployments I rolled for the weekend allowed. I left my Commander and a broadside unit sitting on my objective weary of his outflanking tactical squad.
Getting first turn I pushed up and started the very typical tau process of popping razorbacks left right and centre making sure to rid the field of as many grav cannons as I could for my large suits to get to where they needed. His return fire was less than effective only wounding some stealth suits that had pushed up to try get the wall of mirrors on transports. Turn 2 my Ghostkeel picked the relic up and began their flight back into my lines with the Riptide providing a good blocker to his bikes and marines who might have tried charging it down. My crisis team dropped in by his objective and set to work on popping the whirlwinds setup there.
Having to get rid of the Riptide my opponent was unable to stop the Ghostkeel’s hasty escape and soon it was safely wrapped in fire warriors and making best use of its great cover save. The suits provided enough back line disruption but with the relic getting away my opponent could not get enough units back there.
Turn 4, the last due to time, saw me consolidate my position on his objective and take out his warlord to get myself as good a tally as I could as his outflanking unit of tactical marines came on near my objective and took it with their objective secured.
Result: Win to me
MVP: Ghostkeel superior stealth and movement.
Game 2
Game 2: Tau Vs Mechanicus
Hey I had managed to win well enough to find myself on top table vs yet another free points list in a Mechanicus list using that silly formation where the canticles apply across the board and all their upgrades are free, joy. Game 2 was a maelstrom game where we would draw 6 cards each turn for both players to score. With neither of us having objective secured units and very resilient and very shooty armies it was going to be a tough game.
My opponent manages to get first turn and I fail to seize. He begins his march to the objectives and draws well to score good point on the first turn all while inflicting reasonable casualties as he goes. My Riptide and Ghostkeel avoid most fire by sitting back, Longstrike is not as lucky, and his melee units close in on my Firewarriors. In my turn I make the mistake of killing the melee units instead of sacrificing some cheap fire warriors for the greater good and trying to concentrate on his grav units. To compound this mistake my Ghostkeel flubs its rolls and doesn’t manage to take out the grav squad approaching on its flank.
Turn 2 my Ghostkeel dies to concentrated fire and my opponent gains more points but I’m still in it with my tankier units holding on deep in my lines. My Riptide moves up and wastes one grav squad but I miss move and without a 3+ invul he pays for this next turn as his grav squad turns their sights on him at the start of turn 4. It’s been a really bloody fight so far and we’re running on only a few squads each at this stage. Unfortunately for me this includes his Imperial Knight. Time is called and I get my last chance on turn 4 to do anything but I am unable to claw anywhere close to enough points to catch up but I at least get myself something for towards the overall tournament score.
Result: Loss
LVP: My incorrect target priority against an army that I’m building at the moment.
So I’ve lost a game which isn’t great in a 5 round tournament for winning, but I’ve managed to pull my way back from there before to win so I know I just need to keep winning, and well from here on out.
Game 3
Game 3: Tau Vs Psychic Powers
Hey another Space Marine player, I can deal with this. He’s not using a gladius but rather a more 6th ed looking list with a Thundefire cannon, Tigerius for some telepathy and reserves manipulation and some Space Marine flyers. The mission is maelstrom again, where we draw up to 3 cards a turn discarding cards that can’t ever be scored. The twist in this game is that at turn 3 it becomes night fighting and our independent characters become vampires with a rather impressive statline jump. I win the roll for first turn and get into place to give myself the best fire lines so that he can’t evade the nastier elements of my list, my warlord rolls me the trait for an extra card at the start of the game.
He sets up his cannon in cover and attaches Tigerius there while spreading out to take objectives and combat squading a las cannon wielding Devastator squad. He doesn’t manage to steal the initiative and I set about destroying the Thunderfire cannon ASAP (As any xenos player will tell you, those things hurt so bad). With it out of the way I move my forces up and make sure that I can get to Tigerius the next turn.
His turn does not go well as one of his drop pods mishaps back into reserve and the occupants of the second die to massed interceptor. My Ghostkeel passes the terrify sent its way and my army in general holds firm.
Turn two my Ghostkeel moves in close combines with some other units for BS5 and melts Tigerius in his cover with its fusion gun. The rest of my army scores well outside of a big game hunter card that I need to wait for his flyers to arrive to get hold of (or at least that’s what I told myself at the time forgetting his drop pod). His turn two does not go well as the Ghostkeel continues to show its worth by intercepting his one flyer that does arrive and taking it out in a single unjinked shot. His 3rd drop pod fails to come in and the formerly misshaped one’s occupants suffer under interceptor fire.
Things are going tremendously well for my army and turn 3 sees me remember I can kill a pod for big game hunter. I move units in close (too close it would turn out) and score maximum points. My opponent once again only gets one reserve in and it suffers interceptor fire. The silver lining for him is that his scout squad takes out my crisis team in close combat but that won’t get him points at least.
Turn 4 and 5 go quickly as I continue to score points and my opponent manages to hold on with two models when time is called to avoid being tabled. With a good haul of points I head home confident I’m back on the course to doing well.
Result: Win
MVP: The Ghostkeel seems to have amazing powers against marines. I think I need some helmets for its base.
Game 4
Game 4: Tau vs Dark Eldar
The next morning I get drawn against Fish, who had tabled me with the exact same lists just last Wednesday. It’s a kill point game where one unit is forced to start in reserve and is worth 2 extra points when it dies. I pick his Archon and he picks my Commander. I attach my crisis team to my Commander and he takes a raider with his Archon to deepstrike later.
Fish gets the first turn and deploys his army behind his void shields. I manage to luckily get the first deployment of infiltrators and make it difficult for him to get his Shadowseer close to my Ghostkeel and then prevent his solitaire and death jester taking a good flanking position. His warlord gets the pinning check trait and pins my broadside but not my pathfinders (thankfully).
His first turn is quite uneventful as my units jink or cover save most of his shooting after his shadowseer fails to hit my Ghostkeel with her psychic shriek. My return fire is a bit more deadly and I wipe the Shadowseer out with an ignores cover fusion blaster. I remove some of his jet bikes that have moved out of the void shield and strip two shields off the generator.
Turn two is ugly for Fish unfortunately as his Archon tries to deepstrike inside his generators field to avoid any interceptor fire and mishaps, getting removed in the process and netting me 6 points in one roll. Later his solitaire fails a 5 inch charge and only 2 of his bikes make it into my Breacher squad after overwatch fire, his only success coming from killing my Ghostkeel even with it using its holo photon defences to make one raider snap fire. My turn two is decidedly better with me killing any remaining harlequins, taking all shields down and blowing up a raider.
The game continues to spiral out of control for Fish as I slowly but surely grind all his units out, his forces just never having the firepower to take out a unit in completion. I table him on turn 6 netting myself 19 points.
Result: Win
MVP: A decidedly poor showing from Fish’s dice. 6 points for one mistake is not going to do you any favours.
Game 5
Game 5: Multiplayer
Hey, back on top table again. This is interesting. It’s a doubles game for the final, top being matched with bottom against a similar pairing. My opponent is Steph playing Dark Angels, who is the reason my army has as many Early Warning Overrides as it does. He’s teaming up with a late entry Daemonkin army, an army I managed to play test against going into the tournament so I’m confident I can do something here. My ally is my opponent from game one and seeing as the game is a maelstrom game I’m glad to have that many objective secured units on my side.
We get first turn and our deployment zone is so cluttered that any worry of deepstriking units has left me. We get an extra maelstrom card again from my Commander and we set into taking the fight to the enemy. I destroy their Chaos Lord in shooting and the thirster that is summoned mishaps on the way in. My ally moves in and we manage to get all our objective cards on the first turn, slay the warlord, and first blood. This game is going very, very, well.
Steph’s army arrives but my build was expecting this and the attack is blunted into being almost pointless. The Thirster moves up and we luckily make sure it doesn’t have invisibility for the next turn with a good deny the witch roll (this really drives the nail in).
Turn 2 continues to be a bad one for our opponents as the clearly visible Thirster dies to grav weapons and more Dark Angels die to tau shooting. We score only one objective on our turn but at least it is a D3 one which we manage to roll a 3 for. Our opponents draw a good hand for their next turn and manage to score two D3 objectives from getting into our back lines with drop pods and making an enormous amount of charges.
Turn 3, which ended up being the final turn, saw us score another two points and manage to get ourselves into a good position across the board. Our opponents draw only one card that they can score and with 15 minutes to go before the end of the round we all agree that we’ll call the game at the top of the turn. Our opponents don’t manage to get the kill on our warlord and we end up winning by a good margin.
Result: Win
MVP: Getting a really good partner for the final mission and knowing what to meta against if I managed to get into this position.
And with that I manage to finish of 4 wins and 1 loss. I’m one of 4 players to do so, but in points during the games I knew that I needed to beat Steph in the last game by 11 points to overtake him, and with us only getting to turn 3 I knew there wasn’t a chance that was going to happen.
In the end the tournament has 3 bonus points that are given out to the best painted armies and two of the players in the 4-1 bracket managed to get these, those two players were not Steph or myself unfortunately. This left us in 3rd and 4th with a Mechanicus army taking first after winning 3 games and managing 2 draws and a Necron army coming in second.
Overall I had a great time at Into the Fray, with each of my opponents having a great attitude. I’m looking forward to the next one where I will definitely not have loaned units making my army look less than absolutely amazing so that I can take that first prize!
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