The Greater Grope: T'au vs Slaanesh Daemons and Chaos Space Marines

Kas still has a battlefield in his kitchen, so it seems rude not to use it! The joys of lockdown and being single!

Pushed back in the Rylstone and very much on the defensive, the T'pau Sept now find their holdings assaulted from two sides. Crypt Saints from one direction and now their villainous counterparts from the other - it's the depraved Crypt Fallen and their Slaaneshi allies!

T'Pauer Armour

Having been beating up rather badly last time I took the T'au, I thought I'd try and make amends. However (and because I'm a dope), I'm taking a weird list full of things that don't usually get a look in. In fairness, I painted them years ago and feel bad for them sitting on Kas's shelves all this time! 

So a pair of Piranhas, the fast and light skimmers, who can nip about and harass or grab spare objectives. Then the statutory trio of small Fire Warrior squads to pad out the Battalion, with a Crisis Commander to lead, and all their obligatory drone swarms. 

An Ethereal, about whom I hear good things as a support character, plus a pair of Broadside suits with mixed arms. The Remoras impressed me last time, so three of them, and a hulking R'Varna suit to provide heavy firepower with its twin pulse submunition cannons. 

And then the really daft bit - Tidewall fortifications! Originally I went with the full trio of forts, but that's probably a bit too silly for a 1500 point game. So just the Shieldwall (to carry Fire Warriors) and the Droneport (with a Firesight Marksman, the Marker Drones this carries can hit on 2+). These are essentially slow transport vehicles these days, open-topped to allow for passengers to fire out, but they're fairly durable and should give me a decent base of operations to not get chopped to bits by Daemonettes from. 

To be fair, I think it is only the fortifications and the piranhas that are having their first deployment.

T'au Battalion Detachment - 1309 Points, 11 CP overall

Custom Sept - Hardened Warheads (missiles get -1 ap) and Stabilisation Systems (Battlesuits can ignore move and fire penalties)

• HQ - XV8 Crisis Commander, Warlord with Through Boldness, Victory, 2 x Burst Cannon, Missile Pod, Onager Gauntlet relic, Shield Generator, 2 Shield Drones
• HQ - Ethereal
• Troops - 6 x Fire Warriors with pulse rifles and pulse pistols, Gun Drone and Shield Drone
• Troops - 6 x Fire Warriors with pulse rifles and pulse pistols, Gun Drone and Shield Drone
• Troops - 6 x Fire Warriors with pulse rifles and pulse pistols, Gun Drone and Shield Drone
• Elites - Firesight Marksman
• Fast Attack - TX4 Piranha with Burst Cannon and 2 Gun Drones
• Fast Attack - TX4 Piranha with Burst Cannon and 2 Gun Drones
• Fast Attack - XV107 R'varna Battlesuit, 2 Shielded Missile Drones
• Heavy Support - 2 x XV88 Broadside Battlesuits, one with HYMP and 2 plasma rifles, one with HRR and 2 plasma rifles
• Flyers - 3 DX-6 Remora Stealth Drones with Markerlights, twin long-barrelled burst cannons and twin Remora seeker missiles

Fortification Network Detachment - 190 points

• Tidewall Droneport with 4 x Marker Drones
• Tidewall Shieldline

All the Fangs of the Fair

Although I have had other 9th games that have not had a write up; it seemed I had been a bit marine heavy on here. Some of that was using them whilst they were in Drawbridge, one was a random roll using one of Kraken's armies, and the others were using marines as they arrived (after indomitus, after armies split, after atvs arrived, after indomitus came back from Drawbridge)... tl;dr: I need to not play primaris marine Crypt Saints today.

I opted for mixed army, but mono god list. So everything was Slaaneshi, but drawn from the Crypt Fallen and then the Daemons. Two patrols, and an extra relic would mean only 9CP, but that was okay.

I wanted more HQ (specifically daemon) but could not afford the troops (and with only one troop choice open to me: was running out of models); so I moved the DP to the CSM detachment, and then was sneaky and only spent 1445 points, leaving 55 points to summon an extra Slaaneshi Herald. At power level 3, I could not fail, but might cause some wounds if unlucky. 

The daemons were hopefully going to shred, but needed to get into combat against a notoriously shooty army. Going Slaanesh, I obviously added some Oblits, and trying to be as daemony as possible took the Warp Talons (plus they had the nice denial of overwatch on the turn they arrive from the warp). I threw some havocs in to deal with the inevitable battle suits, and a terminator sorcerer.

Slaanesh Daemons Patrol Detachment - 550 points, 9 CP overall

• HQ - Herald of Slaanesh, Delightful Agonies, Ravaging Claws, Smite
• HQ - Exalted Keeper of Secrets, Warlord, Celerity of Slaanesh, Hysterical Frenzy, Pavane of Slaanesh, Silverstrike, Sinistrous Hand, Smite, Witstealer Sword and Snapping Claws
• Troops - 24 Daemonettes with Instrument of Chaos
• Troops - 11 Daemonettes with Instrument of Chaos

Red Corsairs Patrol Detachment - 895 points

Gifts of Chaos Strat for one extra relic

• HQ - Daemon Prince with Wings, Mark of Slaanesh, Diabolic Strength and Smite, Hellforged Sword, Intoxicating Elixir relic, Malefic Talons
• HQ - Sorcerer in Terminator Armour, Combi-melta, Force Axe, Mark of Slaanesh, Prescience, Smite, Warptime
• Troops - 10 x Chaos Cultists with Mark of Slaanesh
• Troops - 10 x Chaos Cultists
• Fast Attack - 5 x Warp Talons with Mark of Slaanesh
• Heavy Support - 5 x Havocs - Mark of Slaanesh, Champion with Astartes Chainsword and Flamer, 2 Heavy Bolters, Lascannon and Reaper Chaincannon
• Heavy Support - 2 x Obliterators, Mark of Slaanesh

Mission

It's mission 33 from the Grand Tournament pack, Priority Target. 

Four objectives in a square, but we get to drag them about a bit before we deploy, and standard Primary objectives for scoring. Here are our secondaries:

T'Pau:

• Priority Targets - The mission specific one, this is 3 VPs if you hold the objective designated as Priority in your own deployment zone, and 5 if you hold both such. Scored at the end of your own turn.
• Thin Their Ranks - Because they've dared to outnumber us, they must pay!
• Abhor the Witch - It might be magic, Debbie, but we don't like it. 5 VPs for every Psychic Character I knock off, of which there are several. 

Slaaneshi Pals:

• Priority Targets - as above
• While We Stand We Fight - 5 VPs for the Obliterators, Daemon Prince and Keeper of Secrets
• Pierce the Veil - A tricky psychic action one. Get to within 6" of the enemy's backline and peer into their inner workings with your mind's eye. 8 VP if you can do it twice, 15 for four peeks.

Terrain and Deployment

It's a return to the fields of Rylstone, a battlefield you might recognise from previous battle reports. Lots of big ruins to cower inside around the middle, surrounded by more ruins to shoot from. 

Big diagonal deployment zones, going from the middle of the board to the corners. For my part, the bulk of my forces set up in their Tidewall fort half-way down, with the big suit and the fast strikers holding my Priority objective to the north. A single squad of Fire Warriors sit in the ruins alongside them, watching for targets. 

Havocs grab the tower, and cultists claim the priority objective (with a second set of cultists hiding in the building to jump out once the first set are killed). The Oblits, talons, and small unit of daemonettes are in the warp (-1CP). I drop the DP and Sorceror behind the obsuring gas towers, and the large blob with herald next to them.

Rolling off, Kas gets first turn.

For once, I am not sure if I was happy about that. Not only had I recently commented on the first turn advantage, but I had an army which wanted to be in close, and now would have to move in to get shot rather than having things come to me, and according to metawatch Slaaneshi armies and previous games: they are the only army to win more going second. 

Slaanesh Turn 1

The Keeper runs and ducks behind the large building in the centre enjoying his minimum 18inch advance. The DP mirrors with the other ruin, and sorceror creep round the gas cylinders staying out of sight. The rest of the purple tide trots forward and prepares to be shot at. Psychic powers are pointless at this point, and might upset the warp, what shooting I have is limited.

T'pau Turn 1

Having weathered that first turn pretty successfully, I'm very ready to start shooting! As such, the castle slowly shifts south, with the Shieldline leading the way round the rubble. The Remoras, Piranhas and R'varna swoop across the northern battlefield, squaring up to the Daemonette pack.

(I was a bit confused about how drones work from the Droneport, and took them out for no good reason, but we fiddled them back in later on. Luckily they didn't actually achieve anything at this point, or indeed until I'd put them back in their box!)

Fearing the worst, the DP prays (-2cp) and the androgynous god blesses the murderous horde with additive protection (+1++).

The Remoras split their firing modes, with two of them dropping Markerlights on the daemon host. A quick CP for Networked Markerlights gives me the full five in total, so the remaining Remora starts firing. Along with the Piranhas, I'm already making good headway, then the R'varna (who is sporting his Nova Shield at the moment) lights them up. There are only nine left after this, which is great - until reality blinks and another five pop back into existence. Daemons! 

Elsewhere, there is nothing at all to shoot. Either my range is short or the ruins block lines of sight, so I make do with blowing a hole clean through the Havoc's champion with a Railgun shot from the Broadsides. Turn!

Slaanesh Turn 2

Maybe I should have dropped them via deepstrike as that was perhaps inevitable. That said, I am going to be able to charge this turn, my DP advances as close to Remoras as possible. As both flyers, he is best placed to tear from the sky. The daemonettes move up to make a charge on one of the pirahnas easy. 

I realise my mistake too late, as I have blocked my KOS path, but he has a long move and can advance and charge, so goes the long way round, snaking through the middle of the building between ruins, and leaving himself 9" from the R'Varna. I surprise Kraken for not going for the castle, but my plan is to wipe the North (and his priority target) with majority of army, and then swing back.

It worked! I was surprised.

As movement ends, I drop some daemonettes (claiming the central objective now the KoS has run off) and the Talons on the NW. They have a 9" charge to either the pirahna or the remora and can charge whatever is left after their fleshmetal brethren have shot, who have neatly arrived behind them.

I try to move and then warptime the termie, but he fails and remains in the open. This is a recurring theme for the rest of the psychic phase as spells fail. It seems that the T'au's disbelief is having a damping effect. The only spell to kick in is the Prince's additional combat prowess.

In shooting the Havocs split fire between remora and pirahna and find them more resistant that expect, and it takes double shots from the oblits to take them off; this also has scratched some chips in a remora.

In charging the talons go first (in hope to tie up overwatch) but they fail; I do consider reroll, but save for KoS (perhaps I should have rolled her first). DP makes it in to murder two remora, but proceeds to leave one alive. The daemonettes manage to make it in and their rending claws rip the pirahna to pieces. The KoS whiffs her charge, even with reroll and gets two wounds for the effort.

T'pau Turn 2

Well, I dodged a bullet with those charges overall, even if it cost me most of my fast elements.

As it is, the last Remora runs to the other side of the board as the R'varna and surviving tac drones pull back to my home objective. To the south, everything holds still as the Crisis Commander declares Mont'ka, giving the whole lot of them rerolls to hit. He then foregoes his own shooting by using a strat to give the Broadsides rerolls to wound as well, on account of the whacking great bull crab hanging about in the open there. 

Sure enough, once markerlit by the Droneport, there is enough shooting from the southern forts to wipe the Keeper of Secrets out handily (although it's a pretty near-run thing). The R'varna, who has healed up and then Nova charged the big guns, let rip on the Daemonettes again, joined by the nearby squads. The warp doesn't feel like saving them this time, and there's just three left after morale. 

This is all good news! But I'm going to have to get a wiggle on to grab some more Primaries, or at least scour the enemy off one or two, I'm dropping behind in points.

Slaanesh Turn 3 

The central daemonettes hold the central objective and delay, waiting for their Termie friend to catch up.

The oblits jump on to the objective vacated by the talons, who head towards the R'Varna (but try to hide behind the bulkhead, with a Herald for company). 

The three remaining daemonettes move up ready to charge drones, and the prince jumps behind the R'Varna ready to charge there. 

Psychic is damp squib again. In shooting I pop some drones, including those up north and some of the R'Varna's ablative wounds, but fail to drop the incoming Remora. 

The daemonettes manage to kill the last of the drones, and the DP crashes in the R'Varna; hurting it, but failing to fell the mech monster.

I got lucky with saves and rerolls here, and barely took a wound at all! 

T'pau Turn 3

Without many targets for the southern castle, they all advance towards the centre. The Remora swishes away towards the Cultists and starts mowing them down, the R'varna falls back and sets a Nova Charge on its close range defence field, which will slap d3 mortal wounds on any enemies within 6" at the start of the fight phase on a 4+. So he might not be shooting, but he's still a threat to those nearby daemons.

Pretty much the only targets I have are the Warp Talons, who get the Markerlight treatment and vanish in a blaze of pulse weaponry. The last three Daemonettes go the same way, and then the Daemon Prince gets a bad tummy from the R'Varna's deep sonic wavelengths as a few extra cultists cut and run to the south. 

This is all starting to look promising, but I could still really use another objective in the near future...

Slaanesh Turn 4

I no longer need to hold objectives to score, just for denial; so it is time for the daemonettes to attack and they jump from the building ready to hit the shieldline. As they do the terminator calls to their shared patron who sends down a new Herald to lead the assault (at the cost of a wound). He then warptimes himself to join the party. They manage to tear through the shield wall, and an escaping fire warrior, but can't consolidate into they fleeing men.

The oblits stomp forward, but keep a toe on the objective, just in case it's important. 

The daemon prince hides behind the building and thinks about the psychic test, but then remembers (actually at the end of the turn) that he can't do this, and so instead pulls off the diabolic strength. Then charges the R'Varna only weathering the firestrike shots. He makes it in, and hurts the big suit, but it's still standing.

Two wounds remain now after the Oblits put in some good work too.

The cultist backup shuffle to help and all 13 plus havocs fail to pull down the remora. 

T'pau Turn 4

Suddenly I'm under pressure again. Luckily I still have quite a lot of my army intact, so as the R'varna hobbles away (healing up and reactivating its defence field), I can finally launch the Marker Drones from the port and send them to protect it. 

The Remora has to keep moving, but can still shoot up cultists from the gantries. The southern castle all tramp towards the Daemonettes, surrounding them at close range and getting their Ethereal to call Firestorm (so they all reroll ones to hit). I'm short on Markerlights now, so that's going to be handy. 

The Daemonettes to the south don't stand up well to short-range pulse weapons, it seems - they all drop in the crossfire. The Daemon Prince shrugs everything that I can throw at him off, sadly, so it's down to the R'varna's rumble box to finish it. Which it nearly does, yet another mortal wound on the big flapper! 

To the south, the unthinkable happens - the T'au charge into combat. Two tactical drones tie up the Terminator Sorcerer, then the Crisis Commander leaps onto the Daemonette, forgetting in his frenzy that Daemonettes always go first. Luckily, his armour shrugs the damage, then he drops his Onager Gauntlet on the Herald, flattening her in a single smack. Score!

Slaanesh Turn 5

This is very close. I decide my best course is to deny objectives, but then remembering the change in final turn, that the central objective could be regrabbed. So my goal has to be on the north. 

The DP and herald move forward, but are out of the range of the r'varna blast and hope to smite the big boy. Psychic powers manage to hurt it.

The oblits do shoot though, and take out all the drones (both r'varna and central). Then fire again and finish off the R'Varna. With that threat removed the DP and Herald can tag team and murder the strike team. Priority objective stolen.

T'pau Turn 5

Everyone piles out of the Droneport and legs it in various directions to grab objectives. Luckily, I roll well for the advances I need, and grab both of them, central and home, maxing out my secondary points for the mission and getting a much-needed boost on primaries at the end of the last turn. 

So we're neck and neck here, both with points still to come! I can't do much about the Daemon Prince, sadly, but the Terminator Sorcerer is standing right at the business end of a pair of Broadsides. There's enough to turn him into a number of smoking craters and still put another round into the Havocs so that they know I didn't forget about them. 

And that's it - it's been a hard-fought and close game, but who has won?

Result: Victory to Chaos! 70-65

T'Pau: 30 on Primaries, 15 on Priority Target, 5 on Thin Their Ranks and 15 on Abhor the Witch

Daemons: 45 on Primaries, 10 on While We Stand We Fight, 15 on Priority Target, 0 on Pierce the Veil

Locker Room

Oh, so close! If I'd just popped that Daemon Prince, I'd have taken it. Good job he knew when to hide! 

Wow. Close game indeed. Pierce the Veil was definitely a bad choice; I was so keen to try a psychic one given the abundance in the army, but a unusable secondary may have been costly. 

Now, given that this list was taken from choices that don't see a lot of play, I really enjoyed it. The open-topped Tidewall stuff gives your Fire Warriors a great base of fire as they roll forward, and gives them a bit of protection against counterfire. Even if I'd managed to get close enough for them to shoot me, I couldn't see the Havocs wanting to aim a chaingun at that bouncy shield. 

Absolutely, they performed well, and the BS2 markerlights were a very good idea. 

Piranhas make for a nippy distraction that drops drones off when dead, I remain firmly in love with Remora drones and the R'varna is pretty beastly! Even the Ethereal proved useful. Just a single turn on another objective could also have swung this match for me, so the slowness of the Tidewall was rather a mixed blessing. But I'd happily use any of these options again, I think there's some under-appreciated gems in there. 

I had misunderstood Piranha and detached drones,  that's not the case... interesting... I could see more of a use for the very reason you used. They were annoying and fast. 

Agreed, I loved the Remora pre changes for one reason, and love them now for a completely different reason. The R'varna is very nice against big units: 18 shots even without the nova charge thanks to blast: scary.

I think I would have spent points to have the horde in the warp, and drop that. It might have been a 9inch charge (well 8 with the banner) but I would not have been 9 down (which also neutered their attack number).

Great game, it's always good when they're so close! Cheers, Kas!

Thank you - good one.