Catch a Tiger by the Tau—Part 2
The Tigers and the Tau/IG Alliance had traded punches for two turns, but Pat and I were about to run into an enemy that could beat us both: time.

Turn 3
Looking at the clock, I saw that there was about an hour left to play, and I realized with considerable dismay that this would be my last turn. I moved the Whirlwinds of the Suppression Force next to an objective in my deployment zone, flooded Tactical Marines onto an objective in Pat’s zone, and swung more Marines and a Tornado towards an objective in no-man’s-land. I had already been holding one objective with my heavy-bolter Dev Squad, but I had no hope of getting the other two objectives, one of which was in no-man’s-land on the other side of the table from my forces, the other right in front of the Warhound.

My Shooting Phase was nowhere near as good as the previous one. My Attack Bikes killed three Fire Warriors, and shooting from Tactical Marines and my remaining Tornadoes finished off Pat’s Sentinels. Once again, I had stupidly forgotten to move a key figure: this time, it was Librarian Chandramatie Bahl, who was still futilely taking swings at the back of the Baneblade. Nevertheless, she attempted “Fear of the Darkness,” but re-rolls provided by Pat’s Ethereal kept the Tau on the table.

My Assault Phase didn’t begin well, but it got better. One of my Attack Bikes charged a Fire Warrior Squad, whiffed, got wounded, and fell back 9". My Assault Squad continued to hammer the back of the Baneblade, knocking out two Structure Points, shaking the co-axial autocannon, destroying the lascannons and the Baneblade cannon. I didn’t know if I was going to win, but that big, bad Baneblade wasn’t going to taking many more potshots at my Marines.

The rest of Pat’s reserves came on the board, the Crisis Suits Deep Striking behind my dual-Whirlwind Suppression Force, and dismounted Fire Warriors coming onto the board behind some of my Tornadoes. 

In the Shooting Phase, the Crisis Suits stunned and immobilized one of my Whirlwinds and destroyed the Tornado that had been the “spotter” for the Suppression Force. I lost 10 Tactical Marines from four squads to potshots from various Tau/Guard units. More fire destroyed a Tornado, shook another, and knocked the assault cannons off two more. The Fighting Tiger Black Ops lost two more members to smart missiles, and the lone survivor (Veteran Sergeant Janhavi) began to fall back. Shooting killed two Devastator Marines from the squad with missile launchers and wounded one of my Attack Bikes.

Far worse, however, was that Pat cannily noticed that, over in my deployment zone, my other Devastators were standing on an objective. He trained the Warhound’s turbo laser on them and—FRZZAP! FRZZAP!—just like, killed ALL of them, with no need to roll for wounds, and no recourse for me to make cover saves (“Destroyer” weapons, like the turbo laser, wound automatically and do not allow armor saves or cover saves). 

At the end of my turn, I had held four objectives: by the end of Pat’s turn, I had two. Pat could also claim two—the one right in front of his Titan, and the one that my Suppression Force had tried to hold (he had 381 points’ worth of Crisis Suits near it). Two other objectives, including the one that my heavy-bolter Devastators had been holding before his Warhound had sent them to the Emperor’s Light, were not held. As 4:00 came and time was called, we had a tie.
 

Posted March 2008
 

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