Upcoming Battle vs Tau

 

Pretty sure no-ones reading this yet but I'll press on none-the-less. So I didn't manage to get any pictures of my army up over the weekend because I was pretty busy making wedding invitations. Anyway, since I've got the house to myself over the bank holiday I decided to arrange a quick 1000pt game with my friend using my Tau army. He's new to the game and we're trying to get him hooked! Seems to be going well so far.

I'm using the battle as an excuse to try a couple of things out for both my Space Wolves and my Tau. As I mentioned before I've got a campaign coming up against another mate of mine and one of those battles involves me using my Tau (whilst the rest of the battles will be with SW). I'll post more details of the campaign soon but for now I'll just give the army lists we'll be using. 

Bear in mind our little gaming group plays 40k a little differently to a lot of people out there. We haven't, as yet, participated in any tournaments (though we plan to soon) so we try and focus on having interesting and varied army lists rather than pure stats armies. To that end we rarely take the same army twice. Therefore you'll probably disagree with some of my choices but as I say it's more about the fun. We like the idea of what seems like a crap unit exceeding expectations and doing something significant. Even so, I welcome any comments on either list.

1000 pts of Space Wolves

Rune Priest - Wolftooth Necklace, Chooser of the Slain, Plasma Pistol, Living Lightning & Jaws of the World Wolf

Wolf Priest - Plasma pistol

Dreadnought - Heavy flamer and Wolftooth necklace

Drop Pod

(2x) 9x Grey Hunters - Meltagun, Powerfist, Wolf Standard, Mark of the Wulfen

(2x) Rhino

Long Fangs Pack - Heavy bolter x2, Missile Launcher, Lascannon x2

I've only recently come over to the idea of putting my Grey Hunters in a Rhino but I think it'll be pretty essential against the Tau given that I really want to be in combat as soon as I can be because I'll certainly not win a straight gun fight. I've not really tried out the Wolf Standard before so I'll be interested to see how that performs. I don't imagine Tau will give me a thorough test since they aren't the best in CC though. My Rune Priest is pretty standard in my opinion. He probably doesn't need the necklace but it's more of a points filler than anything. 

I've always liked the idea of dropping a dreadnought in the middle of an enemy army so I'm giving it a try this time round. I figure the heavy flamer and assault cannon having AP4 should make mincemeat of his pathfinders pretty sharpish. The long fangs will just do what you'd expect. My only concern is that unless I can get my Grey Hunters in close I'll rely on the long fangs to take down the broadsides and hammerhead. I know a lot of tournament players like the 5x missile launcher Fangs pack but again I prefer a bit of variety. On to the Tau then:

1002 pts of Tau Empire

Shas'el - Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifle, Shield Generator, Hard-wired Multitracker

2x XV8 Crisis Suits - Twin-linked Missile Pod, Targeting Array

(3x) 8 Fire Warriors

10x Kroot

Pathfinders x7 with Devilfish

2x XV88 Broadsides - Targeting Array

Hammerhead - Railgun, Two Burst Cannons, Disruption Pod

Since my friend is new to the game I've picked the list for him. It's built around a solid core of Fire Warriors (who I think are pretty underestimated) who are supported by Pathfinders with those juicy markerlights. The kroot should hopefully provide a screen for the pathfinders to give them a bit more survivability. Though I'll leave that for Sam to decide. 

Broadsides and the Hammerhead should do well against the Wolves (if they survive very long). I considered giving him a Sky Ray for the Seeker Missiles but figured I'd try and keep markerlights simple for now. 

The two man Crisis team is there as a transport hunter and they should have little trouble dealing with my Rhinos or even have some shots at the dread. The commander is a bit of a risk since he'll need to get in close to make the most of his weaponry but it's amazing what Jump-Shoot-Jump can do for you.

Anyway, I'll post a full battle report on Sunday if all goes according to plan. Maybe by then I might have some readers - if anyone's out there feel free to comment!!