Golden Throne GT battle reports part 2:

This is part 2 of my Golden Throne GT tournament battle reports. This post will cover my 5th game against a very good Tau player/army.



As a general recap, anyone interested in my previous 4 games or tournament overview, can go here.

My list:
2000 points Eldar/Tau: 1999

Eldar Primary: 1226

HQ: 170
-Farseer: 100
-Spiritseer: 70

Troops: 447
-Wraithguard:210
32(base)*5=160+50(5xD-Scythes)=210
-Wave Serpent:110(base)+5(Scatter Laser)+15(Holofields)=135

-Windrider Jetbike Squadron: 51
17(base)*3=51

-Windrider Jetbike Squadron: 51
17(base)*3=51

Fast Attack: 152
-Warp Spiders:152
19(base)*8=152

Heavy Support: 457
-Dark Reapers:250
30(base)*5=150+32(4X Star Shot)+10(Exarch)+10(Eldar Missile Launcher)+10(Fast Shot)=212
-Wave Serpent:110(base)+5(Scatter Laser)=120

-Night Spinner: 125
115(base)+10(Spirit Stones)

Fortification: 85
-Aegis:85
50(base)+35(Icarus Lascannon)=85

Tau Allies: 688
-Commander: 214
85(base)+20(multi sensor suite)+15(puretide engram neruochip)+25(heavy Iridium)+5(vectored retro-thrusters)+20(velocity tracker)+5(early warning override)+15(Plasma)+24(2x Shield Drones)=214

-Riptide:210
180(base)+0(Fusion)+5(Ion Accelerator)+5(early warning override)+20(Velocity Tracker)=210

-Kroot:60
6(base)*10=60

-Broadsides:204
65(base)*2=130+10(Shas'vre)+40(2x Velocity Tracker)=180
-Missile Drones:24
12(base)*2=24

Game 5:

This game my opponent brought the following:

HQ:
-Commander Shadowsun
-Commander w/ Drone Controller, Fusion Gun, Plasma Rifle, Target Lock, Puretide Engram Neuro Chip, Heavy Iridium Armor

Elites:
-2x Battle Suits w/ dual Plasma Rifles
-2x Battle Suits w/ dual Fusion Guns
-2x Battle Suits w/ Fusion Gun/Plasma Rifle
-3x Battle Suits; 1 w/ Multi Sensor Suite, Vectored Retro Thrusters and 2 Marker Drones; 2x w/ -Plasma, Fusion, Target Lock and 2 Marker Drones.
-Riptide w/ Interceptor, Skyfire, Ion Accelerator, Fusion

Troops:
-10 Kroot w/ Hound
-10 Kroot w/ Hound
-6 Fire Warriors
-6 Fire Warriors
-6 Fire Warriors
-6 Fire Warriors

Fast Attack:
-3x Tetras

Heavy Support:
Skyray
-2 Broadsides w/ High Yield/SMS and 3 Missile Drones
-2 Broadsides w/ High Yield/SMS and 3 Missile Drones

Set-up:

Opponent's deployment

My deployment

Opponent's Scouts+Shadowsun's Infiltration

My opponent won the roll to go first and got the Warlord trait where he can re-roll shooting or something like that. I set my Aegis up on an extreme right and my opponent deployed accordingly setting up his Broadsides directly across from the Aegis and the rest of his army centrally. My opponent reserved his Kroot, Fire Warriors and all of the 2 man Battle Suit units. He then infiltrated Shadowsun and did his Scout moves with the Tetras

To counter my opponent's deployment, I set up most everything to the extreme left, out of range of his Broadsides except for a Serpent filled with Wraithguard and my Riptide which were virtually out of LOS of his Broadsides so I figured they would be safe from first turn shooting. I kept my Spiders, Night Spinner, Kroot and Jetbikes in reserves. I got the no scatter if Deepstriking within 6" of my warlord trait and the powers I generated were Prescience, Guide, Forewarning, Conceal, Protect/Jinx. All in all, a very solid set of powers as Forewarning helps mitigate his cover ignoring shots and Protect/Jinx can help reduce the 2+ save on his Warlord so my Reapers can make easy work of his unit...

Turn 1:

Sorry, forgot picture for this turn so let's
all pretend this is what happened =).

Opponent's turn:
So sadly, I did not seize the initiative, which would have been awesome as I would have had my Wraithguard and Riptide at the feet of my opponent's Broadsides...oh well. Instead, my opponent moved Shadowsun up to take some pot shots at my Serpent that had my Dark Reapers in it and his other Battle Suits with the Commander along with the Tetras move up to light my Dark Reapers/Wave Serpent up with Marker Light goodness. After all the smoke cleared, I only took a wound or so on my Tau Commander, my Dark Reaper serpent only took a HP of damage and I lost a Broadside so on that side of the board, nothing gave up First Blood miraculously...Until his Broadsides moved and shot at the Serpent with my Wraithguard. He rolled pretty well and I failed all of my saves so the Serpent goes down to give up First Blood and make the Wraithguard walk. Not too bad since the Wraithguard were by an objective and so only losing a Wave Serpent to all of that shooting was pretty good all things considered. On an aside, Shadowsun jetpack jumps by the larger Battle suit squad right behind a rock to avoid being shot while the other Battlesuits jump near her so that she can join up next turn.

My turn:
On this turn I cast Prescience, Forewarning, Conceal and Protect for good measure on the Dark Reapers so they are essentially a 2+ Armor, 2+ Cover and 4+ Invul save unit of doom... I move them up into the Ruins, join the Tau Commander to them and shuffle some things around. After all is said and done, I manage to take out his Skyray with my Dark Reapers, the Tetras with my Serpent/Broadsides and I think I actually take out a Broadside with my Riptide since the closest model was a Broadside model. I failed my Nova test (I was going to go 4d6 in assault towards his Broadsides) though I manage to get pretty close anyway. I was planning on focusing down his Commander unit with my shooting next turn and hopefully charging his Broadsides with my Riptide as well. Sofar my opponent has 1 Objective, First Blood while I have 2 objectives and a Heavy Support point (skyray).

Turn 2:

Opponent's turn:
This turn he gets a unit of Kroot, Fire Warriors and a Fusion/Plasma Suit squad. The Kroot and Fire Warriors come on where my Riptide is while the Suits try to land near my Riptide but scatter out of range. With his Broadsides, Kroot and Fire Warriors, he takes down my Riptide easily-I failed 1/3 of my 2+ saves =(. The rest of his shooting takes out my remaining Broadsides and puts a wound on my Tau Commander.

My turn:

I don't think I did much of anything as my Spiritseer is not in LOS or range to cast Jinx on the Commander unit so instead I buff my Reapers up with Forewarning/Conceal/Protect/Prescience and I also got none of my reserves in this turn. Reapers unload on the Commander's unit but he passes most all of his saves at best I do a few wounds =(. I have a Wraithguard move to man the Icarus and take a shot at the Battlesuit squad that deepstruck nearby and kill a Suit. All in all, an uneventful turn and my opponent is still controlling an objective, got First Blood and a Heavy for a total of  5 points while I have 2 objectives and a Heavy kill for 7 points.

Turn 3:

Opponent's turn:

He gets 3 more Fire Warrior units in along with his last Kroot squad but the other two Battlesuit units remain off the board. He moves a Kroot unit up behind my Dark Reapers but I pass all of my saves while his Fire Warriors cautiously advance in positions where they can try to get some objectives later. His Broadsides kill the Wraithguard manning the Icarus while he picks off a Dark Reaper with the rest of his shooting. Ultimately, Forewarning and my Tau Commander tanking did pretty good for the unit. (Opponent gave Ignores Cover+BS6 to Riptide who killed the Reaper on a higher level while the Commander tanked the rest of his shooting).

My turn:

I get my Bikes (boo) and Warp Spiders in but not my Night Spinner. I Deepstrike the Spiders 6" from my Farseer (Warlord) and don't scatter thank's to the Trait. I then cast Guide on Spiders, Prescience on Reapers, Conceal/Forewarning on Reapers and manage to Jinx the Battle Suit squad with Commander so the Iridium Commander has a 3+ save and the rest of the guys have a 4+. Carnage ensues as I manage to take out Shadowsun, the Commander and a bunch of Marker Drones. My Spiders/Bikes on the left take out the Kroot and my Serpent contributes to wounding a Battle Suit but gets immobilized on terrain. Incidentally, the Spiders survived the Riptide's Interceptor S8 Ap2 Blast which scattered onto the Kroot and took a HP off of my Serpent. This turn I got Slay the Warlord so I am now at 8 points while my opponent is at 5.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot to mention that my Kroot also came in but his Broadsides shot them to heck and they all died...I shouldn't have outflanked as I rolled and got the side where the Broadsides were. If I came in from regular reserves, I could have just walked up behind the LOS blocking building and stayed relatively safe to be able to claim an objective later, oh well!

Turn 4:

Opponent's turn:
My opponent gets the rest of his Suits in but they land in poor locations, one scattering a bit out of range of my Reapers while the other mishaps and gets placed back into Reserves. My opponent moves his Firewarriors/kroot on the right up towards that rock formation on their side of the board hoping to make it to the Wraithguard's objective while the Broadsides start moving down to get within 6" of other units to enjoy some Overwatch overlapping goodness. His Commander's suits move away from the Reapers and the Riptide moves up and they shoot at the Reapers but I pass all my saves.

My turn:
My Night Spinner comes in and the Riptide does a HP of damage but nothing else. I cast Guide on the Reapers, Forewarning/Prescience on the Spiders and Conceal on the Reapers while the Riptide deny's the Witch my Jinx...I proceed to finish off the Commander's Battlesuit unit along with the other unit of Suits that scattered out of range with the Serpent/Reapers. My Bikes continued to dance around cover staying out of LOS. My Wraithguard charge the Kroot in a way that only a few Kroot are in range to get swings in and not much can overwatch, I think I lose a few to Overwatch and kill a Kroot but he holds in combat, huzzah. I still have 2 objectives, a Heavy Support kill and Slay the Warlord for 8 points while my opponent still only has 1 objective, First Blood and a Heavy kill for 5.

Turn 5:

Opponent's turn:
This turn my opponent got in his last Suit unit, moved some Fire Warriors up to make a dash for objectives and managed to get a Warrior squad on one of the central/left objectives while the central one remained unclaimed. He shot at my Reapers some more with the Suits that deepstruck and his Riptide but my Commander took only a single wound (he was now at 1 wound remaining). The Wriathguard killed the remaining Kroot (he failed his Ld5 test this time) and they got ran down.

My turn:
I cast Forewarning/prescience on the Spiders, Guide/Conceal on the Reapers and try to Jinx the Riptide again but it Denies again! Wraithguard flame down his Fire Warrior unit on the right side of the board while my Serpent/Night Spinner kill the Warrior unit that was claiming the objective on the left. My Commander joined the Warp Spiders to give them Monster Hunter and they shot up the Riptide who made a ton of saves, they then charged him and did a single wound but took one in return for a drawn combat.

Seeing as how we only have 5 minutes left in the round, I thought my opponent and I came to an understanding prior to starting this turn that this was going to be the last turn so I played as if it was, however, I guess we just miscommunicated and ended up playing another turn really fast which ended up in a draw, so since it was single elimination we had to continue playing turns until one player won =( .

So yeah, I move my Bikes to the central objective and left most objective so I now have 3 Objectives, 1 Heavy kill, Slay the Warlord for 11 points while my opponent only has a single Objective, 1 Heavy kill, Line Breaker and First Blood for 7 points so I thought I had the game right here but apparently the game was not over...we rolled to see if game would go on and it did! Doh.

Turn 6-end:

This turn Night Fight kicks in but it doesn't matter to my opponent because he is Tau. This turn also basically saw my opponent destroy my Jetbike/Wraithguard units and move a Firewarrior unit up to the central objective and a Broadside unit spread out to reach the right-most objective on my side of the board, so he just gained 2 objectives while I lost 2, ouch! To make a come back, I moved my Night Spinner onto an objective and moved flat-out to gain a good cover save while destroying his Central Fire Warrior unit and moving Spiders onto his side of the board out of LOS and finished off his Riptide with my Reapers so at the end of this turn, we each had 2 objectives, we each had Line Breaker and a heavy kill and I had Slay the Warlord while my opponent had First Blood-a perfect tie so we have to play another turn.

This turn my opponent takes some more shots at my Night Spinner with his Missile Drones but I get lucky and pass my cover saves while he continues to move his Broadsides towards the objective on my side of the board. On my turn, I shoot up a Broadside unit with my Reapers (Commander came back to join them for some Night Vision goodness) but his Broadsides pass their ld and are good. I wonder why I wasn't shooting at these guys more often at least taking out the Drones via Focus Fire... Note to self, Drones make easy kills, especially when in the open and force easy ld tests which Tau don't like. On a side note, my Warp Spiders make a jump for the middle and will eventually try to make it to deny his objective on his side of the board.

Game still ends with the same points as before so we play another turn!

This ends up finally being the final turn...My opponent gets some lucky shots on my Night Spinner again and he gets a Penetrating hit, ahhh! If he blows it up, he wins the game but thankfully he only manages to Immobilize it so it lives with 1HP left, huzzah. His other Broadside unit moves to hide behind the LOS blocking ruins so I can't touch them with anything. On my turn I get some good rolls for my Spiders and get far enough to contest his objective on his side of the board and for good measure, I kill his last remaining Crisis Suit.

Game ends with me claiming 2 Objectives, Line Breaker, Slay the Warlord, 1 Heavy kill for a total of 9 points while my opponent has 1 Objective, Line Breaker, First Blood, 1 Heavy kill for a total of 6 points.

Eldar wins and I go on to the Final table.

Note: It has since been pointed out to me that my Night Spinner was ineligible for claiming an objective since it was immobilized which means my opponent and I would actually have been tied... 

So unless my Warp Spiders and other shooting could have dislodged/killed my opponent's Broadside unit on his side of the board, we would have had to continue playing additional turns which would have potentially lead to a stalemate or forced me to send my Tau Commander to try and deal with his Broadsides, oh well...There really were too many factors to determine how the game would have ended up so if you guys want to have fun and roll things out for yourselves to see how the game would/could have ended for you, feel free...There were basically 2-3 Dark Reaper shots, a Night Spinner shot and 2 Warp Spiders to shoot/charge a Broadside and 2 Drones in a Ruins which would have been the deciding set of events in the "final" turn.

So this game ended up being really close and came down to a few lucky rolls in the end. Ultimately, I wonder what would have happened if my Spider unit shot at and charged the Broadsides as I had a good chance to force a test and possibly break them in combat (I had more than the 1 Spider you see in the picture above lol). Had he actually blown up my Night Spinner, I would have had to try this last ditch effort to kill his broadsides but I'm glad I didn't need to go to such lengths.

It was kind of a bummer about the miscommunication regarding playing another turn as I totally would have kept my Bikes back and simply gone for objectives the next turn-that would have been the last turn for sure due to timing issues and a guaranteed win for me. All in all, a solid game and opponent as we really beat each other up.

Things to note:

 I made it a point to try and kill his marker Lights ASAP (killed Tetras/Skyray first turn for me) and then tried to kill his troops as much as possible. I definitely think it was a smart move to send my Wraithguard out there to take out his Kroot and Fire Warriors and such, after all, how long could wraithguard last being pelted by the S5 LOS ignoring SMS all game...

Speaking of Wraithguard, I think I really should have deployed them on the left with the Reapers so that I could have sent them after my opponent's Commander unit and generally wrecked havoc on the left side of the board. Not sure how they could have been better used this game as there really wasn't a good place to get them as Tau had so much shooting and my saves were not too hot on anything other than my Reapers.

The Spiders were definitely awesome as they did so much damage to the Commander's Suit unit, Riptide and ultimately won me the game with their super mobility.

Jetbikes make for amazing late game objective grabbers. Hide them then send them off towards the end of the game. I threw them away this game but if I played better and realized we had another turn to play they would have really really won me the game, lol.

Reapers were definitely MVPs with the Farseer/Spiritseer support. It was great getting Jinx to basically erase that Commander's unit. They basically killed something important a turn or did a lot of damage at least. being a Heavy this mission was a bonus as they claimed an objective for me.

Night Spinner was lame...I wish my friend with 5 Warp Hunters would have lent me one =(. I simply got this thing because I thought it was a good idea though I thought wrong.

All in all, Eldar can definitely compete against Tau as they have some solid resilience and once you take away their Marker Lights Tau are nothing special =).

Stay tuned for my final game against Reece Robins and his Space Marines, some of the "best men."