Crimson Fists vs Tau – First Battle in 8 years…

So after a 7-8 year hiatus of playing Warhammer 40,000 I finally managed to get into my Local Games Workshop Store at Castle Hill to have a game so I could “refresh” myself on the rules for 5th edition since the last time I played would have been with 3rd edition.

As I’m still in the process of painting and developing my list I used what I had and came up with a 1500 point list with what I had.

I wasn’t 100% happy with it as I was playing with a static Gun Line as I only had the 1 devilfish at that time.

I was facing a Crimson Fist Marine force which comprised of Pedro 3 drop pods as well as Deep Striking Terminators and 2 Vindicators.

We were playing Pitch Battle with the Marines going first.

Here’s my list:

Tau Army List
Total points: 1497
Total model count: 56

++++ [HQ] ++++

XV8 Shas’o — [CIB, Plasma rifle, Vect. r-thrusters, Stimulant inj., HW Multi-tracker, 2x Shield Drone]
2x XV8 Shas’vre BG — [Missile pod, Plasma rifle, Multi-tracker]
Unit cost: 309

++++ [Elites] ++++

Stealthsuit ‘vre — [Burst cannon, Markerlight, Marker Drone]
4x Stealthsuit ‘ui — [Burst cannon]
Unit cost: 200

XV8 Shas’vre — [TL Missile pod, Targeting array, HW Target lock, Bonding knife]
XV8 Shas’ui — [TL Missile pod, Targeting array]
Unit cost: 126

XV8 Shas’vre — [TL Flamer, Missile pod, HW Target lock, Bonding knife]
2x XV8 Shas’ui — [TL Flamer, Missile pod]
Unit cost: 149

++++ [Troops] ++++

Fire Warrior ‘ui — [Pulse rifle, Bonding knife]
9x Fire Warrior ‘la — [Pulse rifle]
Unit cost: 115

Fire Warrior ‘ui — [Pulse rifle, Bonding knife]
5x Fire Warrior ‘la — [Pulse rifle]
Unit cost: 75

Fire Warrior ‘ui — [Pulse rifle, Bonding knife]
5x Fire Warrior ‘la — [Pulse rifle]
Unit cost: 75

12x Kroot — [Kroot rifle]
Unit cost: 84

++++ [Fast Attack] ++++

Pathfinder ‘ui — [Pulse C./ Marker]
6x Pathfinder ‘la — [Pulse C./ Marker]
Devilfish — [Burst cannon, 2x Gun Drone, Landing gear, Disruption pod, Flechette disch.]
Unit cost: 189

++++ [Heavy Support] ++++

Hammerhead — [Railgun, SMS, Landing gear, Targeting array, Disruption pod, Flechette disch.]
Unit cost: 175

I’m not going to go through a turn by turn report here but here are some of the highlights:

• Twin Linked Flamers took out Pedro’s entire bodyguard on the turn they arrived
• Deathrains managed to take out one of the Vindicator’s Cannons by blowing the rear armour
• Reserving Kroot to have them charge 2 Marine Squads leaves a red smear where the marines were

And for some of the lowlights:

• My Hammerhead was killed before it could get a shot off due to Marines in a drop pod
• 2 Fire Warrior squads ran off the board after the first turn of shooting from a Land Speeder
• And 1 scout refused to die after taking 3 Plasma, 2 Missile Pods, 1 CIB shot, 1 Kroot Rifle Rapid Fire and 3 Burst Canons

It ended up being that I contested 1 objective and lost the other but overall it was a great game.

Since then I’ve been playing around with my list by adding a Broadside and another devilfish as well as dropping the infantry Ninja’O build so I can get through some marine armour as well as dropping the Stealth team so I can add another Deathrain.

Any thoughts or comments on the list can be posted in the comments.