Counter Offensive 4: The X(eno) Files  by Patrick Eibel
This year, I focused on three of my armies: my new Tau, an Eldar list I wanted to try out, and my Tyranids.  All of my lists were 1,500 points, as that was what the players agreed upon before the weekend started. The smaller armies did allow for playing more than just two games in a day, which meant that you could really face a variety of opponents.  Since I wanted to focus on playing, I didn’t take a lot of notes, so no detailed battle reports will follow.  However, I will present my army lists and general comments on how the army fared over the weekend.

Army 1: The Tau
The Tau are the new kids on the block among my armies, as I started them this past March.  I have built them up to about 2,000 points strong and was itching to try them out on some quality competition.  My 1,500 point list included:

• Tau Commander w/ missile pod, plama rifle, hard-wired multitracker
• Crisis Suit Team of three Battlesuits: two w/ missile pod, burst cannon, and multitracker; team leader w/ cyclic ion blaster, missile pod and multi-tracker
• Five 12-man Fire Warrior Teams w/ pulse rifles; leaders had bonding knives
• Two Broadsides w/ rail guns and smart missile systems; leader had two shield drones
• Two Sniper Drone Teams
• Hammerhead w/  railgun, smart missile drones, disruption pod, target lock, and multi-tracker

On Saturday, the Tau faced some Ultramarines in an Alpha-level “Cleanse” mission.  Although it took half of the army to take out a unit of Terminators (and they never did get the Chaplain), the game was called a draw because each side held one quarter.  It was a very close one, as the Tau had difficulty actually killing those pesky Marines.  The next day would prove to be much worse.

Sunday, the Tau got in two more battles. The first was against Robert Gutkowski and his very cool Ork army.  Robert had quite a variety of trukks, looted Rhinos, and Battlewagons for his boyz to ride around in, but they were no match for the Tau weapons.  When every guy on the board has at least a Strength 5 gun, you know it is going to be a long day for the greenskins.  I am pretty sure the ladz are still trying to forget the fashion tips delivered by the Turquoise Fire Warrior Team (real armies don’t wear teal!!!!).

I also faced Mike Sommerville and his evil Chaos army, sporting two Defilers, three units of Thousand sons each led by a psyker, a Daemon Prince, and a Predator.  Even though I was able to knock out the Predator on the first round, I could not touch the possessed Defilers, or kill enough Thousand Sons (stupid two-wound Troops choice), to come close to winning.  It didn’t help that I became obsessed with taking out the Defilers and neglected to wipe out the Daemon Prince before he reached close combat.  A very frustrating army to play against.  Hopefully, the revised Chaos Codex will address some of my issues with the army.  Tau may not be the most fearsome army on the planet, but they should be able to kill more than ten Chaos Marines after four rounds of shooting. 

Army 2: The Eldar
I recently did a Jungle Juice article suggesting a hunting party theme for Eldar.  Following the guidelines presented in the article, I put together a 1,500 point force that was light on vehicles and heavy on footspeed.  I brought the following:

• Farseer w/ Runes of Warding, Spirit Stones, Ghosthelm, Witchblade, Rune Armor, and Doom and Guide psychic powers. Accompanied by four  Warlocks w/ Enhance psychic power
• Avatar
• Ten Harlequins, including Troupe Leader, Shadowseer, and five w/ Harlequin Kisses
• Nine Dire Avengers + Exarch w/ power weapon, shimmershield and Bladestorm
• Two squads each of 14 Guardians w/ star cannon teams
• Ten Rangers
• Two War Walkers, each w/ brightlance, missile launcher, and spirit stones

The other battle the Eldar got in was a huge megabattle Saturday night at my house. Each side had 4,500 points of stuff, with Eldar on one side and a combined Imperial Force on the other.  For my part, I brought the list above, but without the expensive Farseer and Warlock squad and plus Eldrad; two units of eight Warp Spiders, including an Exarch with powerblades and Withdraw; a unit of 12 Guardians with a Brightlance (the other Guardian units were taken to 12 as well); four Dark Reapers plus an Exarch with Crack Shot, and a unit of two D-Cannons. 

Bryan Layton made up the other half of the Eldar side and brought a lot of the same units, but also had some vehicle support with a Falcon and a Wraithlord.  Our opponents were one-third Blood Angels, one-third Imperial Guard, and one-third Daemonhunters.  As with most mega-battles, the game lasted into the wee hours of morning, with the Eldar declared the winner when time was called and we headed off to bed.  More impressive than the number of figures on the board was the number of beer bottles in my recycling bin the next morning.  Overall, the game was a lot of fun, but I still shudder to think about trying to blow Rob’s flyers out of the sky.

Army 3: The Tyranids
I have been steadily working on my Tyranid force for the last couple years, and was looking forward to fielding some new units at Counter Offensive.  Thanks to eBay, I recently had put together a brood of six Raveners and made a Hive Tyrant with wings.  My list looked like this:

• Winged Hive Tyrant w/ enhanced senses, toxin sacs, extended carapace
• Two broods of 24 Hormagaunts each, w/ toxin sacs
• Brood of 24 Termagants w/ fleshborers
• Brood of six Raveners w/ rending claws and scything talons
• Brood of six Warriors w/ rending claws and scything talons
• Carnifex w/ adrenal glands (+1 Weapon Skill and Initiative), reinforced chitin, bonded exoskeleton and two sets of scything talons

I used the list above on Sunday against Jennifer Burdoo’s stalwart Guardsmen in a straight up “Cleanse.”  During deployment, Jen made one strategic error in using Infiltration to get closer to the Tyranids.  This allowed the two units of Hormagaunts to get into close combat on the first turn.  Still, the Guardsmen almost eked out a victory by targeting the Synapse creatures, but there were just too many choppy-killy things to deal with, and the ‘nids once again had the field. With their weekend record of 2-0, I declare them my Most Valuable Players for CO4.

Conclusion
I certainly had a blast over the weekend and am looking forward to the fun to be had next year.  I am, however, glad that this event is only once a year, as at my advanced age, I need that time to recover from the sleep deprivation and drinking.  Thanks to Rob, Robert, Bryan, Brian, Brian (man, we need some different names here), Jennifer, Matt, and Kenton for the great games and putting up with my crankiness as the weekend wore down.  See y’all next year!

Related Pages 
Other Counter Offensives

Posted September 2007
 

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