You'd think that in a game of Tau VS Space Wolves there'd be a clear winner, right? But throw Maelstrom's growing reputation for bizarre terrain layouts and anything could happen!Having played Tau for a few years, I was looking forward to facing a savvy Tau player and see what it's really like on the other side of the table.
Then I saw the table. It was a Tau Battlesuit's paradise and a mechanised force's nightmare. Joy!
Then I saw his list, which had a whole lot of plasma, a lot of troops and a fairly good dose of rail guns. Also, only 1 vehicle. Tau had also been exempt from the Blog Wars rules about a single Unique unit choice being compulsory, so no Farsight here.
1750pts Tau Army List
Batttlesuit Commander (plasma/missile)
Batttlesuit Bodyguard (plasma/missile)
3 Batttlesuits (plasma/missile), 2 Drones
3 Batttlesuits (plasma/missile), 2 Drones
3 Batttlesuits (plasma/missile), 2 Drones
10 Kroot, 10 Kroot Hounds
10 Kroot, 10 Kroot Hounds
6 Firewarriors
8 Pathfinders in a Devilfish
2 Broadside Battlesuits, 2 Drones
2 Broadside Battlesuits, 2 Drones
Here's my Space Wolves List for Blog Wars in case you missed it. And yes, Njal Stormcaller is rubbish. More on this later...
THE GAMEThe mission with Annihilation, the set up was Dawn Of War. We rolled off, he won the roll and made me go first.
That was fine with me, because it gave me a turn to get across the board before the shooting started.
On the flip side, he could deploy to counter my army. Which he did.
He also held his Troops in reserve, because he knew all my Space Wolves would go charging into his centre...which they did.
Meanwhile I wasted 2 valuable turns driving around the terrain in the centre which was impassable to tanks. All the while my Long Fangs struggled to get a target the whole game. As you can see, the scenery really wasn't in my favour.
But I did manage to get my Grey Hunters across the board, along with the Wolf Guard Terminators and start beating face!
The game ended on a very close draw with 5 Kill Points each.
CONCLUSIONThe conditions were perfect for the kind of army he'd created. Meanwhile I struggled with terrain which divided my forces, I then struggled with line of sight and I even struggled to fend off all of those Kroot in close combat!
With so much in his favour due to the terrain, he probably should have won it. But having played Tau myself for years, I knew that you had to get stuck in as quickly as possible and make every kill count.
Could I have played better?
Trying to out gun him at range would have been silly. Throwing everything down 1 flank would have been silly, because he could just fight me at range.
I did contemplate swarming the landing pad in the centre with infantry, but that would have turned the game into another shoot-out which the Tau would have won. Especially if they could focus their firepower on my Long Fangs.
So there wasn't anything else I could have really done.
Oh, and once again, Njal was a fat waste of points. More on how rubbish Njal Stormcaller is soon, lol.
In the meantime, stay tuned for game 3 of Blog Wars were the Space Wolves battle the mighty Marneus Calgar once again!
12 comments:
June 20, 2011 at 2:29 PM
I have been reading bat reps for a long time now. Most of them are from tournaments so it means competitive gaming. The lack of terrain in all these really surprised me. I dont get it why its so little terrain when the rulebook suggests that terrain can cover the one fourth of the table.
I see some hills, occasionally a ruin which i find it quiet "cheesy" and dishonest. 40k is not about shooting each other in open fields. It's also about fighting in ruined cities, dense woodlands and whatever else you can imagine. It's much more fun when you have a building to hide your troops.
Really all this competitive gaming with zero terrain is just disturbing. And i do play a mech list too (guess what i use dozer blades)
June 20, 2011 at 2:36 PM
Seconded - Not only does the rulebook state that around 25% of the table should be filled with terrain of various types (block LoS, Difficult - dangerous, ruins, buildings, fences) - GW themselves also recommend avoiding placing terrain on the edges of the table with the exact purpose of dividing forces and making a more challenging battlefield for close combat and ranged troops alike.
Hills and plains belong in WHFB. If you want the ultimate warhammer 40k experience go 60% terrain with buildings and ruins for that cleistophobic feel!
June 20, 2011 at 2:56 PM
And all that terrain should be Impassable should it?
June 20, 2011 at 3:04 PM
No, not impassable. Certainly not. But is most terrain in tournaments the 25% of the table? I don't think so.
I am not fond of impassable terrain but neither i am for open empty tables. I just dont see tables that actually have terrain on them.
June 20, 2011 at 3:04 PM
Not really, but assuming someone goes ahead and builds themed battlefields (which in my opinion is the way to go) it is very likely that there will be multiples of same types of terrain.
A forested landscape will have loads of forests while cityscapes tend to have a lot of intact buildings and ruins.
The scenery can definetely penalise one army and favour the other, but it is an integral part of the game very much like the mission being played and/or the type of deployment.
That being said one needs to take the variation of terrain into account before the battle begins. I find that this approach gives some much needed attention to models sinking in shelves all around the world.
Not intended to be a flame - sorry if it came out this way (or indeed if it still is :O)
June 20, 2011 at 3:19 PM
Maelstrom probably puts out the most terrain of any place I have been to, the problem with terrain is while the majority of it looks pretty it actually just causes you issues when placing models due to wobbly model syndrome.
Adam did the Kroot packs not consist of thirty each? I thought they were bigger than a 20 man(dog) unit
June 20, 2011 at 4:00 PM
The tourney scene is built on sparse battlefields. Hence the popularity of long fangs and guard. I've lost so many games where I thought that with a bit more terrain it would have been a different story. Especially with my Eldar.
My non-tourney games are always crammed with terrain. If anything it makes it feel like I'm fighting a battle in the 40k universe.
June 21, 2011 at 7:41 AM
I agree, terrain on the battlefield is the way to go.
We have around 4-5 boxes of terrain at home, ranging from Hills and Aztec type temples to 3 Cities of Death boxed sets.
We can cover a 10 x 8 board with terrain, so a 6 x 4 is easy, and it does make such a difference.
Alot of people poo-poo dozer blades cause you dont need em in most tournaments. But how much more fun would army building be if people had to think about the little things like that when building their army... not as a 'might be useful once a game' item but as a 'if I dont have this... I aint going far'
Gonna have to get to Maelstrom to see how their tables play me think.
June 21, 2011 at 11:52 AM
Where I play tournments if there isn't alot of terrian on one board we really don't want to play on it and you hear yells of dismay when we are randomed onto those open fields type of boards. It Warhammer 40k, we fight for cities and stuff like that, not open fields with nothing there.
June 21, 2011 at 3:04 PM
The problem with Maelstrom was that the scenery levels were all over the show.
One table was dense with ruins (awesome), another table was little like an empty field (bad for anyone buy Imperial Guard). Meanwhile one table had a single ENORMOUS piece of impassable terrain which took up 30% of the board.
It needs to be consistent, especially for tournaments.
June 21, 2011 at 3:41 PM
I prefer to just rearrange the scenery if it looks unfair. If necessary and as long as my opponent is happy I'll even remove scenery. I'm thinking of bringing some scenery along with me to my next tourney as I'm getting bored of whats on offer.
June 22, 2011 at 7:41 AM
Unless I'm much mistaken Maelstrom don't set the tables up for events at their gaff though so its up to tournament organisers not Maelstrom to get it right...
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