Hi everyone, Michael here with a review of my second game of a recent team event. The GSC take on the Tau in a beat down brawl. For more reviews and analyses, check out the Tactics Corner.
Game 2- Genestealer Cults vs Tau
The second round saw me paired against the new hotness on the scene, the Tau. I had yet to play the new codex, but had heard the horror stories. I was matched against Jamie’s Tau on the assumption I would lose the game, but had the potential to score high due to my secondaries, and could possible keep his score low due to the movement tricks to steal the primary points from him. NOTE- This game was played before the balance update, so had the full force of Mont’ka and indirect fire.
Jamie’s list consisted of:
Battalion Detachment (Tau Sept)
Commander in Coldstar Battlesuit- Precision of the Hunter, High-output Burst Cannon, Onager Gauntlet, 2 Plasma Rifles, Tau Flamer, Thermoneutronic Projectors, 2 Shield Drones
Ethereal- Sense of Stone, Exemplar of the Mont’ka, Wisdom of the Guides, Hover Drone, The Humble Stave, 2 Marker Drones
Longstrike- Railgun, 2 Smart Missile Systems
10 Breachers
10 Breachers
10 Kroot
10 Strike Team
5 Crisis Bodyguards- 2 Airbursting Fragmentation Projectors and Target Lock each, Shield Drone
4 Stealth Suits- Burst Cannons, Marker Drone, Shield Drone
4 Kroot Hounds
4 Kroot Hounds
10 Pathfinders
6 Vespid Stingwings
3 Broadside Battlesuits- Heavy Rail Rifles, Twin Smart Missile Systems, Velocity Tracker, 3 Shield Drones
Devilfish- 2 Gun Drones
Devilfish- 2 Gun Drones
Supreme Command Detachment
Command Shadowsun- WARLORD, 2 High-energy Fusion Blasters
This was going to be a tough one! A lot of firepower, and a lot of firepower that didn’t require line of sight. This could shred my vulnerable units that were hiding behind ruins to hold objectives or score secondaries.
The mission for game 2 was Data Scry Salvage. This could work out quite well for me, if I was able to hold the objectives in my command phase with obsec troops, I could keep holding it, even if they were shot off the board.
For secondaries, I chose Retrieve Nachmund Data, Engage on all Fronts and Psychic Interrogation. Jamie chose Retrieve Nachmund Data, No Prisoners and Assassinate. I would normally take Teleport Homers for more points, but with the corner deployment zone and so many units to screen, it would be really difficult to score this.
Jamie deployed his Kroot to screen in front of his army, with a big squad of Crisis Suits, the Broadsides, Shadowsun, Ethereal and Commander behind them. The Kroot Hounds went on each flank, while he used a Crisis Squad to screen out his backfield. The Devilfish went on the left flank, while the Stealth Suits and Vespid went in reserve.
I deployed my usual units in the blips and reserve.
Jamie won the first turn, which was not good for me! He used the Scout move on the two Kroot Hound units to move them onto the two objectives in no mans land in each flank. I scout moved the Atalan Jackals behind cover, to threaten the army in the following turns.
In his first turn, the Devilfish moved up on the two nearby objectives. The rest of the army stayed in place. One squad did the mission action, while another did RND.
I deployed my army. I put the Patriarch and Magus forward with the Genestealers, out of line of sight, protected by some Neophytes. I needed the psykers forward to start scoring me psychic interrogation. I put the Nexos in my backfield, protected by another unit of Neophytes. The Goliath Trucks were both hidden behind the ruins.
With most of my army out of LoS, Jamie only had SMS and Fragmentation projectors to depend on. I used the stratagem to make the Genestealers untargetable to shooting unless they were the closest unit. The firepower managed to kill 3 Bikers in one squad and four of the Neophytes. Annoyingly, this would hinder me getting Engage with one of the squads of Bikers. At the end of his turn, Jamie scored 3 pts for the primary action.
In my turn, the Bikers moved to target the Kroot Hounds, the squad on the left flank supported by a Goliath Truck. The Purestrain Genestealers automatically advanced 6″ to move up on the Kroot. It was probably a waste going after them, but if I could tag the Crisis Suits, I could shut down their firepower for another turn. I brought in the 5-man Acolytes, hiding them behind some cover and using them to get RND. The Neophytes on my backfield objective did the primary mission action. The Magus cast psychic interrogation on Shadowsun for an easy 3 pts.
In the shooting phase, one squad of Bikers managed to kill the Kroot with a demo charge. The other lone Atalan Jackal fired his demo charge, but only killed one of the Kroot Hounds. The Goliath Truck failed to kill the other, but luckily I charged in the lone Jackal to finish it off. The Purestrains easily managed to kill the Kroot and consolidated into the Crisis Team, losing one of their number in the attacks back.
At the start of his second turn, Jamie scored no primary points (this was hold 2, hold 3, hold more). The Crisis Suits fell back from combat. The Coldstar Commander moved over to seize one of the objectives in No Man’s Land. He popped the strat to allow the squads in the Devilfish to disembark after moving. One Devilfish moved up towards my home objective, the squad inside deploying to target the Patriarch, Magus and Neophytes, stealing my home objective from me. The other Devilfish moved up to grab another objective, while the squad inside moved to grab a third objective. Longstrike moved round to target by Goliath Truck on a bottom objective. Jamie had moved to grab all the objectives, and started the Primary action on one of them. The Vespid arrived in my table quarter to do RND.
At the start of the shooting phase, I used the stratagem to stop much of his army from firing at the Neophytes shielding my Patriarch and Magus. If he could kill the squad, his Breachers would be in prime position to wipe out my two characters.
Longstrike fired at the Goliath Truck, easily killing it. The Breachers and Devilfish targeted the Genestealers that piled out, killing the squad. The Coldstar Commander killed the last of the Jackals on the objective. In my deployment zone, the Devilfish fired at the Neophytes, but failed to finish off the squad. The Breacher squad fired and finished off the Neophytes, but left my Patriarch and Magus unharmed.
At the end of his turn, Jamie scored the 3 pts for the Primary action and got his second RND. At the moment, the game was very close.
At the start of my second turn, I scored no primary points and could not do the primary action on any objectives, as there were Tau units on all of them. I needed a good turn to not fall behind far in the points.
The Patriarch advanced towards the crisis suits, the Nexos putting his crossfire token on the squad to shut down their overwatch. The Neophytes moved up to target the Breachers on my home objective, while the Magus moved back to hide behind them. The Acolyte Hybrids in the surviving Truck moved up to target the Coldstar Commander.
At the end of my turn, I brought in some reserves. The Kelpermorph moved onto the far left objective, to target the Commander. The final unit of Purestrain Genestealers arrived next to the Devilfish and Longstrike. The large unit of Acolyte Hybrids moved to target the Breachers on an objective. One of the 5-man units landed just over 3″ from a Breacher squad to steal the objective, while the shooting Neophytes emerged from the ruins beside them. The Primus joined the big squad of Neophytes.
In the psychic phase, the Patriarch used psychic interrogation for another 3 points. The Magus cast Smite, killing a few Breachers. In the shooting phase, the Hand Flamer Acolytes and Neophytes shot at the Breachers on the objective, killing the squad. In my deployment zone, the Acolytes with Hand Flamers fired at the other unit of Breachers, wiping them out. The Kelermorph fired at the Coldstar Commander, taking him down to 3 wounds.
In the charge phase, the Acolyte Hybrids charged the Coldstar Commander. The Purestrain Genestealers managed to roll an 11 on their charge, which allowed them to move far enough to consolidate into Longstrike. The Patriarch charged the Crisis Suits, shutting down their overwatch with a stratagem. The Acolytes managed to charge the Vespids. The Goliath Truck also managed to charge a Devilfish.
In the fight phase, the Purestrains destroyed a Devilfish and consolidated into Longstrike. The Patriarch only managed to kill a couple of Drones, but suffered no damage in reply. The Acolyte Hybrids killed the Coldstar Commander, while the other squad killed all but one of the Vespids.
At the end of my turn, I scored engage for 2 pts and got my second RND. At the end of turn 2, we were sitting on 10pts for the Tau (without No Prisoners added) and 18 pts for the GSC. At the moment, I was in the lead, but there was a lot of firepower still left.
In the third turn, Jamie scored no primary points. The Crisis suits fell back, while the Devilfish fell back towards the objective. Longstrike fell back, as did the Vespids. The Stealth Suits arrived on the top left corner and started doing RND.
In the shooting phase, the Tau targeted the weak GSC units, killing the large Acolyte squad, most of the Neophytes in the ruins and another 5-man Acolyte squad. The Kelermorph was targeted and killed. I used the 2CP strat to allow him to shoot on death. I was hoping to target the Stealth Suits. My theory was if I was able to kill a few of the squad, I could make him fail RND at the end of the turn, denying a few more points. Unfortunately, after some poor rolling the Kelermorph got no mortal wounds and managed to kill a single drone.
Jamie then turned his attention to the Patriarch. Shadowsun fired at him. One of the Fusion Blasters got through the invulnerable save. He rolled a 6 for damage, doing 8 wounds! I managed to make four out of 8 FNP rolls to keep him alive. The Broadsides then fired at the Patriarch with their Heavy Rail Rifles. Two of them hit, but he then failed to wound on 1’s and 2’s (thanks to Twisted Helix)! The Patriarch survived! That was a big swing for me, allowing me to get at least 3 more points on psychic interrogation.
In my third turn, I scored 13 primary points. The Nexos put his marker on the Broadsides. The Patriarch moved up to support the Genestealers, who moved up on the Broadsides. I was able to score RND with a unit of Acolytes in the bottom right corner, but would struggle to get them on my opponent’s table quarter. In the psychic phase, I got Psychic Interrogation once more.
My shooting was minimal at this point, but the Hand Flamer Acolytes were able to take out the lone Vespid. I was also able to deal with the Crisis Team on the left flank.
In the fight phase, the Patriarch and Genestealers charged the Broadsides. The combined attacks were able to wipe out the squad. I scored two more pts for engage and got the third RND. I also scored three more points on the primary objective with an action by the Neophytes holding my back line.
In his fourth turn, I was able to deny Jamie scoring any primary points again. He had no units to score his fourth RND in the table quarter required.
The Tau firepower then opened up. Longstrike was able to target the Patriarch, as I did not have enough consolidation on the Genestealers to screen him. He easily killed the Patriarch. The firepower was also able to kill the Primus to give him 7 points on Assassinate this turn. The firepower also dealt with the Genestealers and remaining Acolytes and Neophytes that were out on the open. The freed Crisis Suits were able to utilise their considerable firepower again this turn.
In my fourth turn, we only had a few minutes remaining in the round. I was able to score 12 primary points again, and got the bonus 3 points for the action. There was little left to do. I could not get my final RND, and my Magus was too far away to get Psychic Interrogation on any of the Tau characters.
The game ended on turn 4, with the final score being 70-43 for the Genestealer Cults. (GSC- 33 Primary, 8 for RND, 10 for engage, 9 for Psychic interrogation. Tau- 6 for Primary, 8 for RND, 9 for No Prisoners, 10 for Assassinate).
Had the game gone on to turn 5, I’m not sure it would have changed the result. Jamie couldn’t get his fourth RND and would struggle to kill my remaining characters for assassinate. Even scoring max on the primary and picking up some more No Prisoner points, he would have still struggled to match my total.
Overall, this was a brutal game that was very tough to play. I thought I was in real trouble with this one. However, by sacrificing units to deny primary points on the objectives, I was really able to restrict his scoring, and he scored no primary points on the objectives in this game, thanks to it being hold 2, hold 3, hold more.
Another great stroke of luck was being able to tie up the Crisis Suits for two turns to stop them shooting. This cut down on a ton of anti-infantry firepower against my army, and I think helped keep them in the game for longer. The Patriarch being able to survive the firepower of the Commander and Broadsides was incredible. A combination of Twisted Helix and the Invulnerable saves kept him going to take out the Broadsides and get me extra points for psychic interrogation.
A tough second game, despite what the final score said. This could have gone either way, with some lucky rolls for me keeping me in the game to deny the primary scoring for the Tau.
