So, I Just played my first game over five hundred points today. I had quite a lot of fun, and am fully convinced that I'm not going to regret taking up Warhammer as a hobby. In honor of the occasion, a battle report.

Tau V Chaos Daemons 760 points

Spoiler: Tau
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HQ
Cadre Fireblade

Troops
12x Strikers
6x Strikers

Fast Attack
8 Pathfinders
3 Pirahna with Fusion

Heavy
Broadside with Counterfire Defense and Missle Pods
Broadside with Counterfire Defense and Missle Pods

Elite
Crisis Team with Dual Plasma and Thrusters



Spoiler: Chaos Demons
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HQ
Bloodthirster (of Insensate Rage?)
Something on a dog with scout (Anybody know what this is, I can't remember the name)

Troops
3x Nurglings
3x Nurglings

Fast
4 Flesh Hounds of Khorne (One of them had a dude on the back)



Spoiler: Deployment
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We roll for game type and end up playing Relic. Not great for me, but I've never played it before so I pass on the offer to re-roll. We end up playing lengthwise on the table and I chose the side with slightly more cover. I also win the right to go first and chose to do so. I get Night attack on the strategic table and re-roll into the one that gives me +1 to reserve rolls. He ends up with hatred on all his guys and It Will Not Die on his Bloodthirster.

I deploy my troops nine inches away from my table edge, Pathfinders in the middle on an elevated piece of terrain (It was a really cool custom piece a guy in my shop made and painted, giant skulls everywhere) with a broadside on both sides. My fireblade and the twelve man squad of Strikers deploy together near the rightmost broadside (and with two models six inches from the pathfinders ) along with the Piranha squad. The other team of fire warriors starts to the left. The Crisis Team heads to reserve.

He sets up his bloodthirster on the right, his Flesh Hounds and the other HQ on the left, and the Nurglings infiltrate behind the ruin containing the relic. The flesh hounds scout up to get closer. He fails the roll to seize and I start off.


Spoiler: Turn 1
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I have my drones detach from the Piranhas and move them right by my massive fire warrior squad, then the Piranhas zoom up around some cover, eighteen inches away from the bloodthirster. The leftmost team of Strikers moves up just a smidge to get into rapid fire range, about three inches all told. That's it for movement, so I head to shooting.

My Pathfinders light up the flesh hounds immediately, putting three marker light counters on the unit. Fortunately for me, and rather unfortunately for my opponent the Flesh Hounds were still within thirty inches of my Cadre Fireblade and his friends. They used two markerlights to increase their BS to five and smashed them with 24 pulse rifle shots, killing two hounds and putting a wound on another. The Fireblade put another markerlight hit on the unit, which my leftmost broadside used to Increase his BS to five before hitting them with a pile of missiles. He put three more wounds on the hounds but failed to kill any of them, and the HQ still had all four of his until my six man team of strikers plinked one off of him with their unaugmented shooting. The rest of my shooting was extremely unexciting, the drones failed to even deal one wound to the nurglings, and the other broadside only dealt one (I forgot his weapons were twin-linked, so this should have been better). My Piranhas managed to put a wound on the Bloodthirster, which I thought was nice, but I really deployed them poorly, and they were surrounded by ruins that I didn't want to try to move over.

That was the end of my turn, and I passed to my opponent. He rolled a twelve for warp storm and Deep Struck eleven plaguebearers right in front of my Fire Warrior blob. He also managed to increase his hound's invul save to a 3+ His guys all moved up, and the Nurglings grabbed the relic. Then the Bloodthirster charged my Piranhas, failed to take any wounds from the drone's overwatch, and smashed them to pieces for First Blood. He rolled a six for consolidate and headed toward my Fireblade. At the last minute he remembered his HQ had It Will Not Die and rolled a five to remove the one wound the Piranhas dealt.


Spoiler: Turn 2
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I rolled for reserves and succeeded. Crisis Suit time! I placed the original model in a big empty space nine inches from the edge of my board and rolled for scatter. Eight inches straight toward the bloodthirster, who was...eight inches away. Crap. I roll mishap. One. Double Crap. My most expensive unit manages to delete itself from the board before it can fire a shot. In my annoyance I completely forgot to move and just started shooting. They put five counters on the Bloodthirsters, and I cheered a little. One of the members of my twelve man striker team was sixteen inches away, but the rest were in rapid fire range and had not moved this turn. 35 BS 5 strength five shots away! After it was all said and done the Bloodthirster only took three wounds from the volley, but I still had other units to fire, like the fireblade herself. I had her aim the markerlight at the flesh hounds, which were about an inch from my other Striker team. Unfortunately she can't manage a hit this time. The broadside on the right has better luck, dealing another wound to the bloodthirster even as my drones fail to achieve anything at all. On the left side of the table my fire warriors and broadside managed to put all the models in the Flesh Hound squad to exactly one wound. Unfortunately that's all the shooting I've got, and I pass the turn back to my opponent.

We both forget the warp table, and he starts to move models. The nurglings start trying to run away with the relic, but don't get far. Everything else angles into charge range. In the assault phase he starts out by charging my leftmost broadside with his flesh hounds. The six man team supporting fire's, but between them and the broadside only one of the flesh hounds died, leaving my poor broadside to die horribly in the ensuing combat. At this point I'm not feeling great about my chances, I've got three units down and two units ready to assault my poor fire warriors while the nurglings run off with the relic. Then the plauge bearers charge, and I'm forced to use my command squad's overwatch to kill four or five of them before they can close. I also deploy my photon grenades to have a chance in hell in the melee. Before we start to resolve combat the Bloodthirster charges as well, trying to hit my poor Fire Warriors in the back. I declare supporting fire and shoot at it with my markerlights. 8 shots, 8 misses. Whelp. I'm probably boned. I try my luck with the gun drones, not expecting much in the way of actually success. I'm wildly suprised as they actually manage to take a wound off the bloodthirster. One left, and my remaining broadside is my last hope. He fires. He hits. Two wounds, versus a two up armor save. Her rolls them one at a time. Five.

One. The bloodthirster dies and I get Slay the Warlord. We move onto combat, where the plaugebearers don't spank my Fire Warriors anywhere as badly as I thought they would. I lose by one but pass leaderhip. We remain locked.


Spoiler: Turn 3
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The drone squad moves up toward the plaugebearers. I think that I might be able to trap them between my fire warriors and the drones if I can get lucky. To facilitate that I have my unengaged team of fire warriors move up six inches and turn around to shoot at the flesh hounds, utterly failing to do anything through the three up invul save. I sigh and have my pathfinders try their luck. They do slightly better, managing to leave the HQ as the last man standing. Both the drones and the broadside fire at the nurglings and manage to remove a model while putting two wounds on another. Then it's back to assault, after I pass demon's odd leadership check at the beginning of assualt, where my Cadre Fireblade works a miracle. She kills two of the plaugebearers with her melee attacks and my fire warriors manage to only have one of them die, letting me win combat by one. The plaugebearers fail a leadership check and another model leaves the table. My drones jump elven inches forward and away from the nurglings.

Not far enough away though, as the wounded nurgling squad leaves the relic on the table and move toward the drones. The unwounded one picks it up. The HQ guy (whose invul save is now a 6+) moves up to pursue my other fire warriors, and then both he and the nurglings charge. He dies in overwatch, but the nurglings manage their five inch charge and only take one wound from my drones. My drones lose combat by one, after inflicting no wounds with their headbutts, but make both leadership saves and remain locked.

The Warp remained quiet this turn.


Spoiler: Turn 4
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I have my six strikers move closer to the nurglings, being very careful to stay out of charge range, and my pathfinders move up to get a better angle. Then my broadside fires at the last unengaged enemy unit and deals three wounds to them. The firewarriors run closer. Then assault begins. Both of my squads make their leadership checks against fear and start combat. I kill one more plaugebearer, losing one fire warrior in return for a tied combat by my table edge. Notably there are only three plaugebearers left at this point against my fireblade and six Fire Warriors. The drones, however, lose another member of their squad and run away, moving eight inches back toward my table edge.

He rolls on the warp table and manages to have his invul save reduced by one before he moves his nurglings around in cover a little, while the ones that had been in combat with my drones line up another charge. Then assault begins again. My drones manage finish off one of the nurglings in overwatch, and regroup, then tie combat with the other nurgling. Amazing. My Fireblade kills another plaugebearer, and my firewarriors even manage to help out, killing another. One more of the firewarriors die, but I win combat. Unfortunately the last plaugebearer makes his leadership check. We remain locked.


Spoiler: Turn 5
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The six man striker squad continues to follow the plan, moving around the edge of the building to get the angle on the nurglings. Now that the pathfinders have repossitioned the shoot at the squad with their marker-lights, getting four hits. I use them to ignore's cover on the broadside, who inflicts six wounds on the nurgling squad before the fire warriors finish them off. My fireblade finishes off the last plaguebearer in assault, while my drones manage to remain locked with the last nurgling model.

The warp does nothing relevent, and combat begins. The nurglings win combat against my drone squad by two, and my last drone fails leadership and runs toward my board edge. He tries to consolidate toward the relic, but rolls a one.

We roll to see if the game ends and it does.

I have 1 VP from Slay the Warlord.
He has 1 VP from First Blood.
No one has line breaker, no one has the relic.

1-1, Draw.

If the game had lasted one more turn I would have tabled him, but oh well. It was a good game, and I really thought I was going to lose during turn two.


Spoiler: Turn 6
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Game is over.


Spoiler: Turn 7
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Game is over.


All in all that was alot of fun. Let me know if you enjoyed reading that, and I'll try to give another the next time I play.