Tau vs Eldar & Dark Eldar - 1500 Pts

This was the result of playing around with Battle Chronicler and seeing if I could make a decent battle report out of it! 

Set-up and Deployment

This was a 1500 Point game between my Tau and a combined Dark Eldar / Eldar force. The game type rolled was 'Purge the Aliens' with diagonal cross spawn deployment.

The Armies

The Tau army

The Tau army was based around a strong selection of troop units and a command squad built to support one of the Fire Warrior Squads.

HQs - Cadre Fireblade and a Commander equipped with a Command and Control Node, Counterfire defence system, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite and the XV8-02 Crisis 'Iridium' Battlesuit

Troops - 1 x Squad of 10 Firewarriors, 2 x Squads of 9 Firewarriors, 1 x 10 Kroot with sniper rifles, 1 x 10 Kroot & 5 Kroot Hounds

Elites - Riptide with the Early Warning Override, 1 x 6 Stealth Suits (1 with a Fusion Blaster)

Fast Attack - 8 x Pathfinders (3 x Rail rifles and a Pulse Accelerator Drone)

Heavy Support - 3 x Broadsides with Velocity Trackers, 1 Kroot Great Knarloc

This army was an attempt at a different approach for me. With next to no suits the army was intended to handle multiple objectives well. I hadn't exactly planned on how it would cope with a pure Victory Point race, but with so much firepower in the troop choices, I hoped it could carry the day anyway. The commander was pricey, but alongside the Cadre Fireblade can transform a fire warrior squad into a pretty impressive firing platform that potentially fires twice, ignores cover and re-rolls hits.

My hope was that the Riptide and the Great Knarloc could soak up a bit of the fire while the huge Firewall behind them wore down the other side.

I opted to leave the Stealth Suits in reserve in case I was in trouble later in the game.

The Combined Eldar forces

HQs - A Haemonculus with a 10 strong Incubi squad, an Eldar Farseer, and three Warlocks 

Troops - 1 x Squad of 5 Dire Avengers, 2 x Squads of 10 Dark Eldar Warriors, 1 x 5 Wyches

Dedicated Transports - 3 Raiders, a Wave Serpent, and a Venom

Heavy Support - Ravager, Fire Prism

Steven's army also had a lot of firepower, and a lot of mobility. Throw in the Eldar psychic powers and they had the potential to cause me a lot of problems. They were however also brittle, as can be the case with Dark Eldar, and all those transports would mean lots of extra victory points buzzing around the table.

Deployment

I won the roll and allowed Steven to deploy first and take the first turn. Deployment looked something like this. Almost all of Steven's Infantry were loaded up in their transports.

Dark Eldar / Eldar - Turn 1

The two Raiders and the Ravager came forward on the right flank and poured fire into the Riptide, as did the Fire Prism. The dice gods were with the Tau however and the Riptide ended the turn having lost just a single wound. The Raider on the left flank peppered the Fire Warrior unit on the left side of the Tau deployment, and they proceeded to fail their leadership test.

Tau - Turn 1

Having largely survived the first turn fire from the Eldar forces the Tau returned fire with a vengeance. The Ravager went down immediately from the Riptide, scoring first blood for the Tau. The Broadsides fired and took a hull point off of the Fire Prism. The main Tau firewall then turned their attention to the forces to the left, blowing up the Raider carrying the Incubi and the Venom with the wyches. Three of the five wyches perished in the explosion.  

The kroot and Great Knarloc on the right moved forward toward the Eldar forces.

End of Turn 1 - Eldar / Dark Eldar: 0 Tau: 4 

Dark Eldar / Eldar - Turn 2

The two Raiders, and the Fire Prism on the right, again chose to target the Riptide and took two more wounds off it, leaving it with only two wounds remaining. 

The Wave Serpent turned around and deployed the Dire Avengers to the middle, who fired and took a wound off of the Great Knarloc, while the wave serpent fired at the Kroot squad killing one. The wyches retreated to cover while the incubi tried to regroup for a push toward the Tau's left flank.

Tau - Turn 2

Having again survived a concentrated effort to take down the Riptide, the tau returned fire. Between the Riptide and the Fire Warrior Command Squad the closest Raider was blown apart (taking half the squad inside and four of the nearby Kroot hounds with it).

The second Fire Warrior team then fired from their cover in the ruins and blew up the second Raider, killing four of the warriors inside. The central unit of kroot then took down another two of the warriors with ranged fire.

The Great Knarloc moved forward up the middle toward the Eldar forces, eventually charging the Dire Avengers (and surviving their overwatch fire). The combat however failed to injure either party.

The broadsides tried in vain to take down the Fire Prism, as it made its saving throws with ease.

The Firewall on the left was more productive, and they whittled down the Incubi to just three warriors. More importantly, they managed to catch the Warlord Haemonculus exposed on the side of the unit, killing him and scoring the Warlord bonus victory point for the Tau.

End of Turn 2 - Eldar / Dark Eldar: 0 Tau: 8 

Dark Eldar / Eldar - Turn 3

The Razorwing arrived and tried to swing the tide of battle. Wary of the jet-fighter's potential for massive area damage against the huddled ranks of Fire warriors, the Riptide tried Interceptor snapshots, but failed to land a single blow. 

The jetfighter then, as feared, unleashed all four of its missiles into the main Tau firewall and nearby Kroot. The first missle hit, but the Tau were extremely lucky and made all five of their saving throws. The second scattered wide, while the third landed in the middle of the Kroot, taking out the middle three. The final missile hit back in the firewall and took out three of the second Fire Warrior team. Probably not the return that Steven had been hoping for.  

The Warrior teams fired on the central Kroot unit, whittling them down further. 

The Fire Prism and Wave Serpent again tried to take down the seemingly blessed Riptide, but again it survived, this time with a single wound.

Frustratingly for Steven, the Dire Avengers failed to land a single wound on the Great Knarloc in close combat, while the Farseer and Warlock made up some of the slack reducing the great beast down to two wounds.

Tau - Turn 3

The Tau then turned the screw on the remaining Eldar forces.

In the center both of the warrior teams were cut down by the Fire Warriors teams, and the arrival from reserve of the Stealth Suits. Having burnt its fire with interceptor in the previous turn the Riptide used its jetpack to boost behind cover in an attempt to both prevent it's demise and to grab Linebreaker.

The Broadsides put their velocity trackers to good use and took two hull points off of the Razorwing, which had to use evade to avoid death, but found itself velocity locked. That was but a brief respite however as the Pathfinder squad managed to take the final hull point away with some lucky snapshots.

The third Fire Warrior squad also rallied and returned to the firewall.

End of Turn 3 - Eldar / Dark Eldar: 0 Tau: 12 

Dark Eldar / Eldar - Turn 4

While we largely called the game at this point we let the start of turn three play out. The Farseer did zap the Riptide with a psychic attack, and finally bring down the massive battlesuit, and denying linebreaker to the Tau.

In the centre, the Great Knarloc finally fell in close combat, so at least there was some consolation for the combined Eldar forces as they scuttled from the battlefield ...

Final Score - Eldar / Dark Eldar: 2 Tau: 11