Ard Boyz, Round 1, Battle 2

Battle 2, "Urban Warfare"
This was against Andrew and his Tau. He's a decent player that does decently at small events, but isn't quite top caliber.
His list was:
1 Crisis Commander w Plasmagun & Cyclic Ion Cannon
1 Crisis Commander w Fusiongun & Flamer
3 Crisis Suits w Plasmaguns
3 Crisis Suits w Missile Pods
6 Stealth Suits
2x 14 Kroot w 6 Hounds
1x 8 or so Fire Warriors in Devilfish w Flechette, Disruption Pods & SMS
2x 12 Fire Warriros on foot
2x 8 Pathfinders in Devilfish w Flechette, Disruption Pods & SMS
2x Pirahna w Fusionguns
2x Hammerheads w Railguns
2x Broadsides w Multi-trackers

I'll confess that I mentally licked my chops looking at his list. I had been concerned about this mission as my specialist army had 28 possible KP, but his was running a tasty 36! The table was a City Fight board with 6" roads and lots of 2-3 story ruined buildings. Andrew won the roll for first turn and chose to start things off. I think he was hoping to get as much fire into me as possible... He started his two foot FWs on the field while Eldrad and the Wraithguard went out alone against them. With Dawn of War pushing us off-table, it was going to be a test of my mobility and resiliency against his massed guns.

That wall of guys doesn't even include his 2x Outflanking Kroot squads and second Pathfinders! (I forgot to add them and wasn't going to reset everything just for that...)

The first turn saw us mostly moving onto the board. He moved on a bit cautiously, trying to cover lanes of fire without over commiting himself. He did a neat encirclement of the Wraithguard and threw a bunch of fire into them, but only got 2 thanks to their Toughness and Cover.
For my turn I didn't fire a single shot. Eldrad Fortuned his group up and then everything moved Fast, Turbo-Boost or Ran. The Wraithguard did spread back a little so the Spiritseer could cover two of the Wraithlords from Wraithsight.


Turn 2 saw his Pirahnas bop left to try and pop the left Dragon Serpent, but failing. Some Markerlight fire also lit up the left for the Railguns, but also failed. Serpent Shields are great! Then Markerlight fire and the entire rest of his army opened up on the Wraithguard... and killed three. T6 and 3+ Fortune, baby. He also had a Kroot squad Outflank to my right. Rather than tarpitting the Wraithlord like they should have, instead they charged the Wave Serpent in hopes of cutting my mobility... Good idea, but it didn't pan out.
When I saw how much of my army was still alive and ready to jump down his throat, I knew it was over but for the fat lady. It was just a question of how long it would take Andrew to realize.
So Eldrad and the Wraithguard charged; being closer than they appear in the prior pic. Between them they dropped a Devilfish, killing all but 3 guys on board and Pinning the squad, and wiped an entire 12-man FW squad. Yum, yum. Dragons jumped ship and dropped Piranhas and a Hammerhead while Spiders dropped a Devilfish and Pathfinders. But the worst was to the Kroot. My Serpent flew away and Mr. Wraithlord walked in with fuel sputtering from his flamers... 39 hits made for 27 wounds and they all went away. The only items that went poorly this turn were the Jetbikes failing to do much to the Stealth Suits and my Spiders jumping into terrain and killing half their squad in the process.


Turn 3 saw Andrew trying his best to recoup something. His other Kroot squad must have seen the slaughter of their kin and did not arrive this turn. He then turned enough fire into the weak Spider squad to destroy it. He also dropped half the Dragons on the left, so they got back in their tank and hid. The Pathfinder/Jetbike fight continued with another press. He also focussed two units of Crisis Suits and his Fusion Gun Crisis on the Wraithguard, but failed to kill a single one...
My turn saw the upstart Tau really put down. Two the Wraithlords passed Wraithsight and decided to kill tanks while they were at it. The third passed Wraithsight too but was left with no LOS to anything. Spiders then smashed some suits, Wraithguard smashed more on the charge, and my Banshees decided they didn't need out of the tank anyways and went looking for new targets.
This was the end of Turn 3:


This was the point that Andrew realized it was done. We still had 45 minutes left in the round, but there was no way I'd be getting anything less than a Massacre. KP were at 25 to 2.
Final result: 24 Battle Points to 0.

Andrew learned a few good things during this game... One bit of advice I gave him was to consider a sacrifice squad next time he plays Dawn of War. Something that goes way out on the front line to push the enemy back. It would have seriously slowed down my Wraithguard to have started farther back.

(Whew, almost there! Next time I'm bringing my camera as setting these up in Vassal takes almost as long as the actual game... :-p )