Pensacola Battle Report - The Greater Good

The Battle Brothers were fighting on multiple fronts this past weekend. Three of the crew were slugging it out in Biloxi at the Wayward Kraken while the Shas'o took his forces east to the former pirate stronghold of Pensacola.

TBS Comics Pensacola hosted its monthly ITC event and saw 12 players duke it out over the Champions Missions. The event was a Battle Points tournament which served me well as we'll discuss later in the article.

The List

First things first, here's the list I was running. It's a variation on my ATC list that attempts to diversify my heavy hitters.

++ Brigade Detachment +12CP (T'au Empire) [106 PL, 2000pts] ++

T'au Empire Sept Choice: T'au Sept

+ HQ +

Cadre Fireblade [2 PL, 42pts]: Markerlight, Puretide engram neurochip

Commander in XV86 Coldstar Battlesuit [8 PL, 161pts]: 2. Through Unity, Devastation, 3x Fusion blaster, Shield generator, Warlord

Longstrike [10 PL, 212pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, 2x Seeker missile

+ Troops +

Breacher Team [2 PL, 39pts]

. 4x Fire Warrior

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse blaster, Pulse pistol

Breacher Team [2 PL, 39pts]

. 4x Fire Warrior

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse blaster, Pulse pistol

Strike Team [4 PL, 45pts]

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse rifle

. 5x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

Strike Team [2 PL, 38pts]

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse rifle

. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

Strike Team [2 PL, 38pts]

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse rifle

. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

Strike Team [2 PL, 38pts]

. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Markerlight, Pulse rifle

. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

+ Elites +

XV104 Riptide Battlesuit [14 PL, 272pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Counterfire defence system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock

XV104 Riptide Battlesuit [14 PL, 272pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Counterfire defence system, Heavy burst cannon, Target lock

XV25 Stealth Battlesuits [6 PL, 84pts]

. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon

. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon

. Stealth Shas'vre: Burst cannon

XV25 Stealth Battlesuits [6 PL, 84pts]

. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon

. Stealth Shas'ui w/ Burst Cannon: Burst cannon

. Stealth Shas'vre: Burst cannon

+ Fast Attack +

Tactical Drones [2 PL, 40pts]: 4x MV4 Shield Drone

Tactical Drones [2 PL, 40pts]: 4x MV4 Shield Drone

Tactical Drones [2 PL, 40pts]: 4x MV4 Shield Drone

+ Heavy Support +

TX7 Hammerhead Gunship [9 PL, 175pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, 2x Seeker missile

TX7 Hammerhead Gunship [9 PL, 175pts]: 2x Smart missile system, Ion cannon, 2x Seeker missile

TX78 Sky Ray Gunship [8 PL, 166pts]: 2x Smart missile system, 2x Markerlight, 6x Seeker missile

The Games

Round 1

Opponent: Lindin Spragg

Army: Grey Knights

 I drew Lindin and his Grey Knights in round 1. It was his first time playing the ITC Champions Missions so we took some time at the beginning to go through how they played and what secondaries were ideal to take. I've got to say, his list actually did an excellent job of denying secondary objectives so I decided to go with Recon, Old School and Headhunter as those were really the only objectives I could max out. His army consisted of a fully armed Stormraven, a Grandmaster Nemesis Dreadknight, 3 Strike Squads, a unit of Paladins, Draigo, Voldus, and a couple extra characters. We were playing Mission 1 so there were six objectives on the board. He won the +1 to go first easily, but then I won the roll, which he then seized initiative. So it all worked out how it should have!

His first turn he moved the Stormraven up to the middle of the board and used Astral Aim to shoot through walls. It was able to remove a few squads of Fire Warriors as well as some shield drones who sacrificed themselves for the Riptides. My first turn didn't have much in line of sight apart from the Stormraven so I applied markerlights liberally and the Sky Ray was able to down it with a single volley of seeker missiles. He deep struck his Paladins and character in on my left flank on turn 2 and was able to remove a Hammerhead off the drop. I returned fire and was able to clear off the Dreadknight and Paladins. At that point, it was largely clean up as I used Smart Missiles to clear the remaining Strike Squads out leaving just a couple of characters. We were around the time limit at that point and he conceded.

Result: Victory. 36-10

Round 2

Opponent: Doug Kus

Army: Nurgle Chaos Soup

My second round was against my good buddy Doug who was rocking his Nurgle army (always beautifully painted) with the centerpiece being the Cyclops below. It was backed up by 3 Bloat Drones, a Daemon Prince, 3 units of Obliterators, and Abaddon. Low model count, but deadly and survivable.

I manage to get first turn and focus all of my firepower on the One Eyed Monster with bad intentions. Five Markerlights, 12 Seeker Missiles and the Ionheads were more than up to the task and managed to take him down top of Turn 1. I felt good with just the Bloat Drones and Daemon Prince on the board and began to move forward to the center of the three objectives. Unfortunately I was never able to take down the Bloat Drones to provide a fire lane to the Daemon Prince. 

Bottom of turn 2, Doug was able to take advantage of a hole in my screen and drop all 9 Obliterators and Abaddon on my right flank. They promptly began removing vehicles and slowly but surely began swinging the game into Doug's favor. The game was a meat grinder as the Riptides were left to deal with the Obliterators and the Bloat Drones in the middle. It was a close game but I was never able to regain the center objective after the second turn and the game slipped away due to the Disgusting Resilience of Nurgle.

Result: Defeat. 19-23

Round 3

Opponent: Carter Leach

Army: Harlequins/Dark Eldar

Forgot to take pictures this game, so here's one from Rd 2

As so often happens at TBS events, I finally ran into Mr. Carter Leach...the Man, the Myth, the Legend. Known at various times by such monikers as The Captain and Mr. 1%. It was the first time we had squared off in awhile and he was rocking a new Harlequin/Aeldari list that utilized 12 Skyweavers, 3 Ravagers and a handful of Eldar psykers. It was a fast moving, hard hitting list with widespread -1 to hit abilities. Suffice to say, -1 to hit armies cause me a lot of trouble and against an opponent like Carter I knew I'd have to try and capitalize quickly to gain the upper hand.

I again somehow went first (I can't remember the last time I actually had +1 to go first) and turned my guns downrange. My goal was to take out the one unit of Skyweavers on the board and down at least one Ravager. Well I goofed... I declared all my Sky Ray's shots against the Skyweavers with no markerlights on the unit, assuming I could get at least one and explode it for D3+1 with the stratagem. Well 2s and 3s to hit don't get the job done so I was essentially playing 7th Edition again and snapfiring. Still managed to get 2 hits but he saved the wounds. I was able to take out the Ravager but I'd left myself in very poor position for the counterpunch.

Carter responded by Dooming and Jinxing one of my Riptides before removing its drones and then pouring all of his firepower into it. I don't remember whether it died on turn 1 or not, but it was certainly dead by turn 2...depriving me of a huge source of firepower. As the game wore on, I was able to clear out the Dark Eldar vehicles but the Skyweavers dropping in from the webaway removed tanks with their Haywire Cannons. Failing to capitalize turn one really left me strung out and exposed, giving Carter an excellent opening to begin picking apart usually sturdy units. It turned into a solid game but I was only able to contest objectives for the first couple of turns before I was pushed back towards my own DZ.

Result: Defeat. 18-27

Results

Going 1-2 wasn't what I was hoping for in a tournament where I was prepping for a GT, but I was able to finish the event with a healthy 73 Battle Points which left me in 2nd Place overall! Carter ran away with the event, scoring over 100 points total, while Warren Watts and Doug were nipping on my heels to take 3rd and 4th, respectively. All in all, it was another great event at TBS and got the competitive juices flowing for Warzone Gigabytes the following weekend.

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