Robert and I got our game in on Sunday morning. He used the new Nid Dex and I'll have to say there was a scary amount of bugs on the table at 500 pts. Those Gaunts cant move quite as far as they once could, as they used to be able to walk 6, run d6, then charge 12 with their fleet ability....There's more of them now, and they walk 6, leap 3d6 (select the highest number) then charge 6 (or take a diff. terrain test, depending on what they are charging into).
Even with the shorter threat range, Robert was able to charge my Fire Warriors on turn two....and having the initiative...afforded me only one turn of shooting...which I focused on the new VenomThrope (proxied in by an armless old metal ravener
). 11 str 5 ap 5 shots were too much for it, and it succumbed to its wounds. The fire warriors were summarily gobbled up by the gaunts...as the 9 I had remaining after being blasted by Zoanthropes failed many of the 17 or so armor saves they were required to take.
It was looking VERY bleak for team Tau with Roberts entire army (Minus one Venomthrope and a single gaunt which became a stain after a rail gun shot ended his existence) bearing down on the single remaining Tau figure on the board!
Turn two saw the arrival of my Shas 'el suit commander and a 2-man team of crisis suits armed with flamers and burst cannons. They jumped in on Robert's side of the table. My shooting was mostly ineffectual, and after redirecting the Hormagaunts at my lone Broadside on the hill, the Termagants with the attached Alpha-Warrior were free to turn around and deal with the new threat. I lost a suit to those gnashing razor sharp teeth and claws (scything talons now offer re-rolled 1s to hit ). My other crisis suit was so terrified, he proceeded to run away into the woods, but my Commander got lucky with saves and managed to hold off the termagants and alpha warrior long enough to see the arrival of my outflanking kroot! They managed to pull off a charge from the side of the table and saved the day by finishing off the rest of the Nids harassing my suits.
Meanwhile, back on the hill, my Broadside managed to save about 10 wounds from the Hormagaunts and responded with a single kill....and being out of synapse range, they fled back towards the middle of the table.
On turn 5, The suit in the woods rallied and shot the hormagaunts which had just fallen back from the Broadside...and the Zoanthropes managed to vaporize enough kroot to cause a panic check...which they failed and proceeded to run away from the secondary objective. If the game had ended there....it would have been a draw...with no-one claiming the secondary objective...but we rolled another turn. The Gaunts were finished off and Robert, bewildered as I was with the way the tide suddenly turned against the advanced scouting party for HiveFleet Chesebrough, struggled to hold onto the center of the table with his two remaining Zoantrhropes.
The Zoanthropes, with their new 3+ invuln saves, were formidable to say the least. It took the concentrated fire of my entire army for three turns and finally a close combat with the kroot to bring the beastly big brained bugs down.
The game ended up going 7 turns....which is the main reason the draw turned into a massacre. Luck played a major role in this game and without it, team Tau would just be another small addition to the Great Devourer's DNA pool!
So, in the end, the Tau killed the Nids to the last bug, and my last remaining troop choice was over 50% and sitting on the secondary objective when the last Zoanthrope went down.
Thanks for the gripping game Robert!
Dave B
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