The Thousand Sons return, with some armour formations this time. Opposing is a very Kroot heavy Tau list. Both armies left the Supreme Commanders at home. I had 14 activations, the Tau 18.
My list.
Agyptus the Achey 4000 POINTS
Thousand Sons (6.0.2)
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RUBRIC FELLOWSHIP [370]
Sorcerer, 6 Thousand Sons Marines units., 2 Rhino, Land Raider
RUBRIC FELLOWSHIP [370]
Sorcerer, 6 Thousand Sons Marines units., 2 Rhino, Land Raider
RUBRIC FELLOWSHIP [350]
Sorcerer, 6 Thousand Sons Marines units., Deceiver
RUBRIC FELLOWSHIP [425]
Sorcerer, 6 Thousand Sons Marines units., 2 Deceiver
THOUSAND SONS ARMOR [250]
2 Predator, 2 Land Raider
THOUSAND SONS ARMOR [250]
2 Predator, 2 Land Raider
THOUSAND SONS ARMOR [200]
4 Predator
SEKHMET DISC RIDERS [325]
Sorcerer, 9 Disc Riders
SEKHMET DISC RIDERS [325]
Sorcerer, 9 Disc Riders
SEKHMET DISC RIDERS [325]
Sorcerer, 9 Disc Riders
SILVER TOWER COMPANY [360]
4 Silver Tower
DOOMWING FIGHTERS [150]
3 Doomwing Fighters
DOOMWING FIGHTERS [150]
3 Doomwing Fighters
DEVASTATION CLASS CRUISER [150]
The Tau force included a literal horde of Kroot - 56 of them! And with the Firewarriors a total of 64 units with Scout ability! Plus 4 ground assault air formations!
| 375 | FW Cadre, 8 Fire Warriers + Ethereal, Skyray |
| 225 | FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriers, 3 Devilfish |
| 225 | FW Cadre, 6 Fire Warriers, 3 Devilfish |
| |
| 325 | 4 Rail Hammerheads, Skyray |
| 325 | 4 Rail Hammerheads, Skyray |
| |
| 200 | Pathfinder Group, 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish |
| 200 | Pathfinder Group, 4 Pathfinders, 2 Devilfish |
| |
| 175 | Kroot Kindred, Shaper, 9 Warriors |
| 175 | Kroot Kindred, Shaper, 9 Warriors |
| 175 | Kroot Kindred, Shaper, 9 Warriors |
| 225 | Feloid Pride, Shaper, 9 Warriors, 3 Krootox |
| 225 | Feloid Pride, Shaper, 9 Warriors, 3 Krootox |
| |
| 175 | 2 Tiger Sharks |
| 100 | 6 Gun Drones |
| 175 | 2 Tiger Sharks |
| 100 | 6 Gun Drones |
| 150 | Orca |
| 150 | Orca |
| 150 | 2 Barracuda |
| 150 | 2 Barracuda |
Turn 1
Setup, the Tau have Kroot and Patherfinders garrisoning foward. I have two retinues garrisoned, one just ahead of my blitz, another in the town.
Left of the field.
The town situation looks grim, lots of Kroot and pathfinders, and just one small Retinue of mine here. Tau Take and Hold objectives here, mine are near the wood and hill to the left of this.
I win Strategy Roll and leave the town for the Kroot. Not fighting these cannibals in there where they will get 4+ armour saves!
My Orbital Barrage comes down right on top of the Tau "Break Their Spirit" Formation and some Pathfinders, but only kills one unit of each formation, and the pinpoint attack is wasted as there are no targets for that.
I start pushing up the left flank.
Takes a lot to break the Krootox and Kroot ahead of me... I don't have the speed to engage on the first turn which is sad. My Silver Towers also fail to activate and regroup. But both Tiger Shark formations also fail to activate so I don't feel too bad about that!
A Barracuda flight is intercepted and they abort and jink from hits but one plane shot down.
My Retinue with two Defilers doubles forward to press the left flank and add some air cover.
Kroot screen is routed at last.
Tau Orca lands and assaults and breaks my Retinue near my blitz. My Doomwings intercepted but only do a point of damage. My Disc Riders swoop in...
...and wipe out the Kroot formation for the loss of a single Disc Rider.
Tau Hammerheads double and kill my two Defilers. And then another air assault.
Kroot win this one, but my Fearless Retinue stays where it is.
Barracudas intercept my Doomwings but miss.
End of turn. Then most formations rally, except my Break Their Spirit formation in the woods in the centre.
Turn 2
I win Strategy Roll again, my Silver Towers move and destroy the Hammerhead formation.
And then I engage and destroy a Pathfinder formation on my left, except for a single unit of it.
Tiger Sharks drop drones and crossfires a Disc Rider Formation, killing six of them and breaking the formation.
The other Tiger Shark Formation does the same thing, without the crossfire, but only kills a single Disc Rider from the next formation.
I engage and break another Kroot formation, but the Kroot keep on coming. My Predators kill a couple of units from a Drone formation. Hammerheads kill some transports. My Tanks miss the Hammerheads.
My Disc Riders wipe out a drone formation and break the other one due to it being in support position and one blast marker off breaking. It runs away and is picked up by an Orca.
Kroot kill some more of my Break Their Spirit Retinue, but take casualites too and being fearless I just stay where I am again like a rock against the ocean...
Kroot rush towards my Blitz, taking advantage of the woods for cover.
I reinforce my centre with Disc riders to discourage further Kroot assaults on my Retinues here.
End of turn.
(Silver Towers are actually in formation - just wouldn't stand up on hill slope!)
Turn 3
Kroot win Strategy Roll, and engage and break my rallied Retinue near my blitz.
I respond with Silver Towers which single move to firefight support range of the Kroot, and shoot Pathfinders in the open - but kill nothing with their 16 shots!!
I engage and break a Kroot formation in the centre. Tau Hammerheads kill one of my tanks.
My Disc Riders engage the Tau. Combined assault occurs. I lose the combat, and most of the Disc Riders, but one of the Kroot formations also breaks from casualties.
My Break Their Spirit Retinue engages and kills all but one of the Pathfinder formation that the Silver Towers had missed.
A sequence of exchanges take place, as my blitz is contested. An Orca lands to block the way and I blow it up. It's up to my Disc Riders to try and hold the position against the last assaults this turn...
Uh-oh.
Game over, as the Disc Riders break and I'm out of activations. Tau win turn 3 with Take and Hold and Blitz.
Conclusion
An interesting game, where I was eventually overwhelmed by the numbers of leaping smashing Kroot. My Thousand Sons Marine Retinues did amazingly in resisting attacks, killing many Kroot for the each loss they suffered. But I couldn't hold my objectives in the end.
Two obvious mistakes I made here. First off army selection, aiming to take some ground AA I included Deceivers in two of the Retinues. However as soon as these formations took Blast Markers they were effectively suppressed and reduced in range to 15cm (the firefight range of the retinue), so that was a stupid idea. Secondly, I put my Blitz objective near a wood, which meant the Kroot had cover as they advanced on it. Would have been a much better idea to have it in the open, where the Kroots lack of armour and my superb Reinforced Armour would have been more telling. The difficulty in removing the scout screens also really caused problems. A game where having Thousand Sons teleporting units would have been more useful! Anyway cheers for looking.
