Catch a Tiger by the Tau—Part 1 Battle report by Kenton Kilgore
The Fighting Tigers went first in what would eventually be a three-turn game.

Turn 1
In the Movement Phase, roughly half of my Strategic Reserves—the squads in Rhinos and Drop Pods, one of the Assault Squads, three Tornadoes, and the Devastators with missile launchers—Flank Marched onto the board and hit the left side of Pat’s very impressive tank wedge. As the Rhinos rumbled forward and launched smoke grenades, the Drop Pods landed near one of the objectives and two Tactical Squads and the Fighting Tiger Black Ops bailed out, deploying behind the pods to shield themselves from fire. 

I had stupidly forgotten to move the Land Speeder Tornado attached to the Suppression Force, but it mattered little, as the scout vehicle could still see the Pathfinders. The Whirlwinds fired rockets into them, killing three and causing the rest to fall back. 

In the Assault Phase, my Tigers of Kali charged the Warhound, hoping to knock it out with meltabombs and powerfist blows. All they succeeded in doing was shaking the gun crew, which the Titan was able to negate by the fact that its weapons are Primary. Seemingly annoyed by this, the Warhound made a retributive stomp attack, killing three of my Assault Marines, who uncharacteristically lost their nerve and fell back 10".

Pat began his turn by maneuvering his tanks to face the oncoming Tiger attack and laying markerlights on prospective targets. The combined Tau/former Guard fire was ferocious, with tank-mounted cannons and defensive weapons killing several Marines of Tactical Squad 3, five Marines of Tactical Squad 6, three members of the Black Ops, destroying a Rhino (but not killing any passengers), and wiping out the Assault Squad. The last blow was courtesy of the Warhound, whose turbo laser was working just fine, thank you.

Turn 2
Well, the Tigers had tried to dance with the Tau/Guard alliance and had gotten punched right in their stripey noses. Okay, then, no more fancy stuff, just some balls-to-the-wall violence. I threw the rest of my army on the board, this time from behind Pat’s unscathed collection of tanks. In particular, I sent several Tornadoes after the Warhound, sicced Chandramatie Bahl and my other Assault Squad on the Baneblade, and zoomed my Attack Bikes in behind the more fragile Tau grav-tanks.

Turn 2 saw my Orbital Bombardment, one of the nifty Strategic Assets granted by taking a Battle Company, hit three of Pat’s tanks, blowing off the battlecannon on a Leman Russ and shaking the crew. I remembered to move the Speeder attached to the Suppression Force this time, and Whirlwind fire whacked two more Pathfinders. My Devastators fired their missile launchers into the Warhound, knocking out its void shields. Tornado fire immobilized and shook the crew of one of Pat’s Sentinels. 

What really knocked Pat on his heels, though, was the hurting I put on his tanks. Fire from the Attack Bikes and the Tornadoes destroyed all three Leman Russes, two Demolishers, and two Hammerheads (while stunning the crew of the last grav-tank). My Assault Squad immobilized the Baneblade, destroyed its Demolisher cannon, stunned the driver, shook a lascannon and shook the Baneblade cannon. The Warhound, however, fared just fine, thank you, with the buzzing Tornadoes unable to do anything against it.

The void shields on the Warhound came back online and Pat brought on his first set of Strategic Reserves, in the form of the Pathfinder’s Devilfish, some of them empty, some of them loaded with Fire Warriors. The Fire Warriors disembarked near the Attack Bikes and Tornadoes, ready to take cruel revenge for destroying most of Pat’s heavy tanks. 

The Tau and Guard shot down two Tornadoes, stunned two, and shook three. They killed four Attack Bikes bearing heavy bolters, and two bearing multi-meltas. They gunned down three Assault Marines and one Devastator Marine. All without breaking much of a sweat. 

Posted March 2008
 

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