Batrep: Tourney Prep - Tyranids vs Tau

Got Pat out for a game. This is part of my Tourney Prep series as I gear up more games.

My list stays pretty much the same (WYSIWYG) while Pat brought a balanced Tau army which proved to be quite mobile. His army was also WYSIWYG.

Things to note:
Tau have a preponderence for anti cover saves, anti night fight and anti air. These were key things in my mind as I prepared for deployment.

Tyranids fully painted and ready to go! 

Tau with some minor repairs

We played a modified Maelstrom mission (Contact Lost) with Emperors' Will. All secondary objectives are in play. Night fight would be in play due to Commander ORLY.

My first error: I managed to roll up Infiltrate for Warlord and 3 units. I took it but didn't know how Infiltrate worked. I picked 3 other units and redeployed a section of my army. My Hormagants which were in the picture below was moved back because I misunderstood how Infiltrate worked. I should have kept them there to deny the Kroot that massive chapel on the left of the picture.

I had also brought out the two Monstrous Creatures from the Tyrannocytes and deployed them on the table, thinking I could use Infiltration to move them up field. All they gained was 3 inches since most of the Tau was already at the edge of their deployment. In all, I should not have used the bonuses granted by the Warlord.

The space between the Carnifex and Tervigon used to be filled with Hormagants but I moved them to the opposite flank

I managed to seize and took the First Turn

My Flyrants took to the sky while the other parts of the army rushed forward. Tervi jams! 

Probably my second error. I was too caught up with the Skyray thinking it would blast my Tyrants out of the skies so I hid my Warlord behind ruins out of LOS while the Butcher (Flyrant) flew up on the ruins. The downside is that I was out of range, losing 24 S6 shots in Turn 1.

My side of the table

3rd mistake: by putting two Flyrants together, I was aiming to take out that Skyray in Turn 1. I forgot not only about range but Synapse as well. Now, I was running the risk of losing 54 Termagants and Hormagants on my right most flank.

And Pat took his turn and eliminated the Hormagants without prejudice causing them to flee. All 24 of them

Turn 2

I concentrated on securing the Maelstrom mission objectives.

Securing this 

And through some lucky shooting took out the Devilfish

 Turn 2

The initial plan of moving up to engage the Battlesuit was a flaw. It was hard to shift

I managed to score a few good points though

Pat moved his Devilfish up to contest objective 4

These Firewarriors took out my Gants to capture it

Turn 3

Another mistake on my part, I did not manage to move my Tyrannocyte over to the objective by the red tower. This had the SkyFire mysterious objective.

I was going after the Skyray again but it limps on 1 HP

Another important thing to note. The Skyray's Skyfire ability is one use only. I should have really just ignored it in favour of taking out the Sniper Drones.

Secured this

I attempted another charge but failed again.

The Tau have a special rule allowing them to fire Overwatch on any units if they are within 6" of the target being charged. This withered them down and grew the charge range, forcing me to fail it 3 times.

Fex taking snipe shots

 Turn 4

My army was thinning really quickly. 

This was really the first time any player had brought my army down to this level. There was little left!

Turn 5

Pat brought his Battlesuits down behind my lines to try to out my Tervigon and failed. I charged him for his troubles

Kill kill

I was not aware that these suits were only WS2!! 

Turn 6

There was little left to do except attempt to secure the objectives for Emperor's Will

Secured these Objectives

This was pretty much the final turn

The irritating Skyfire

Pat secured this

And contested this

We did a quick tally and Patrick came out on top. He had more objectives (I think it was 8 while I only had 5). 

The lessons above are well learnt! Thanks Pat and let's play a few more! Tweaks coming to my list!