Skyrays

Riptides

Special Riptides

         Off to CT to play with the New England group. They are about 25 strong. 11 are playing this weekend. I am the only one coming up from the PA group.

          I will be the testing monkey for the Tau. The Manta is a giant beast of a mini. It is rare and expensive toy to own. Manta sucks badly. The beast is hardly ever fielded. It is so bad, I won’t take it any more.
        Now I did try and make it work. To make something work. I played it for 2 months, including a weekend with the New England group and it went to the Fall In tourney.
        The 650 points never earns back its value. It is too slow for Tau. It suffers from a weapon system mismatch. Instead of having a defined role, it tries to be a jack of all trades. Long dong silver MW, x4 AA, mid range AT, short range AP. What range is it really deadly at? 90, 75, 45? It ain’t fucking 30, because your going to give away 1 point! BTS. The purposed change is to reduce points 575 and give it 2 MW+3 shot instead on the 1.

 Adjusted Fall In list

         All the international internet theory hammer bullshit going down lately had me shelf the Tau. I will be testing some of their great ideas. (remember, he who fucks with that which works is a stupid mofo) Armies and lists work differently for each person. Part of it is your idea of what the army should be capable of and mostly your style. You can copy someone’s championship list. You will do good, but you won’t get the results they did. The is YOU. With that in mind playing someone’s idea wish list, sucks if it is not your idea.

          So Thursday night I wanted to play something fun. Blood Angels have not seen the light of day in years. A stop off at storage and straight to 6 Feet under.

         I got beat so bad it was a crime scene. Kal sexually abused my sweet candy ass in turn one. I was back in the foam before turn two finished. Must units never got off the starting line.

        Last game I was short on tanks. Also noticed my Cudas didn’t match. 6 more Ion Heads completed. (no picture) And all the Cudas were painted to match. Some extra Recons. (no clue where the bases went to??) New Skyrays

I think its a ghost keel? Ripetide? whatever?

 Special dudes, get special bases. That and all the french bases are buried somewhere in one of two storage units. Round epic base flipped over. Some old copies of the FW roads were broken up, along with the GW ruins, and cork chunks tossed in.

 Everything was shot with a gray home depot primer.

 Next painted with foundry 76A

Everything wash with MIG.

         With the larger suits being available and I have a problem. I bought some. Then took another look at the list to see if, it was even worth putting them together. They come in about 10 pieces. And suck to put together.

        The Riptide suit is the one that looked good enough. You get 3 for 350, 6 AP+4 & 3 MW+3 at 45cm. I would like to see Reinforced armor Vs Thick rear armor. I think for their role thick rear armor is a no benefit. A waste.
         Also being a War Engine is a fuck job. It is not that big. It looks a Warhound in the nuts. The Supremacy is massive, it should be a War Engine.

        The Stormsurge with its 8 one shot missiles are hamstringed by needing a marker light. Thereby reducing it to a 250 point 2 shot MW+3. I don’t see the use. LOS would make it unusable quickly.

1         The Supremacy at 225 is interesting. Again needing a marker light for GLs, turns it into a one shot 3BP 4/5. Which sucks. Sucks cause Tau should not have an indirect and for 225 DC3. It should be a high enough BP to get an extra pie plate.

         Are Riptides Termies, hell no? 300 is a better price point than 350. No MW in assualt. No double blast markers. Only 3 of them not 4. 4++ Vs a 3+5+, 8 shots at 5+ Vs 9 at 4+/3+.
          I am going to take them for a spin. Maybe I get the raw data to support the armor and point change. For now I will be gluing them to my fingers. They are a total bitch, come in about 8 parts.

Ghost suits with more parts

I think they are another form of Riptides?????

        As usual I started off strong with the picture taking. Then quickly failed to continue. Only a few pictures from Turn 1.

We were at 6 feet under games again. Their gaming tables are very nice. Gaming mats cover the playing surface. Being made of mouse pad material, I must remember to bring a box to roll dice in.

My list;

I had some problems to start off with. All my Fire Warriors didn’t make it back into the case. They were out for repairs. I fixed and never put them back. So, the 8 FWs with two Ion heads became 6 FWs with Devilfish. (1 pathfinder subing in for a FW).

     *Kroot spilling out of an Ocra into assault is a crap shoot. Next time, they will be fielded as scouts. 
     *Skyrays will never be taken as a detachment again. Next time, they will be split up as 2 upgrades.  Too easy to break and its a marker light that does not get used.
     *FWs with 2 Ions heads as an upgrade stiffen that detachment up nicely.
     *Recons with the 75 point for 3 Piranhas needs further testing.

Kal’s Eldar

          Kal had a rough go. He had me thinking I was going to be tabled in turn 2. Turn 1, my right flank was gone along with my Blitz. I was getting rolled up.
         Then his dice went stone cold. 3 engagements in turn 2 saw me rolling box cars. Every save he failed, the reroll failed. I made 80% of my saves and only failed 3 activations al game. (never remembered my SC’s reroll) All the critical hits I rolled for, popped his shit.

Objectives & Deployment;

The 3 detachments in the top left corner are off table. They will jump out of the Storm Serpents.

Garrisons

Tau
Kroot 2
Path Finders

Eldar
None

Off table support

Tau
Ocra
Cuda1
Cuda2
Stealth suits
Kroot1

Eldar
Avatar
Phoenix Bombers
Wraith Blades
Wraith Guard
Wraith Guard

Turn 1

(RF + right flank, FW = fire warriors, WB + Wraith Blades, WG = Wraith Guard, WL = WraithLord, KRT = kroot, C = center, LF = left flank
Tau win initiative.
T Skyray overwatch
E Phoenix bombers ground attack targets FW. 5KIA BROKEN
T Recon advances
E Storm Serpent RF doubles targets Recon. 1BM
Retain
E WB engages Recon. ELIMINATED
T Cuda1 ground attack targets WB. 1KIA 2BMs
E WG march into the city
T Cuda2 ground attack targets WB. 1KIA BROKEN
E WL RF march down RF
T KRT1 engages WB LF. 2KIA BROKEN
E WG LF doubles
T Pathfinders advance
E Storm Serpent doubles targets Pathfinders. 1KIA 2BMs
T Ion Heads double targets Storm Serpent RF. Critical Hit ELIMINATED
E WG C double targets Pathfinders. 2KIA BROKEN
T Suits double targets WG C. 1KIA 2BMs
E WL LF march
T enlarged Recon doubles targets WL LF. 1BM
T FW w/ Ions FAILED
T Ocra w/ KRT2 engage WG LF. 1KIA BROKEN. Taking Blitz

Rallies
FW remain broken. All Eldar rally

Turn 2

Teleport
Stealth suits land on Blitz, 0BMs
Avatar lands near Ion Heads

Eldar wins initiative
E Avatar engages targets Ion heads. Tau win, Tau win. Avatar dies!
Retain
E WG C engage targets Suits. Tau win, Tau win WG C BROKEN
Retain
E WG LF engage targets Stealth suits. Tau win, Tau win. WG LF BROKEN
T Suits advance targets WL C. 1 BM
E Phoenix bomber ground attack targets Ion heads. 1KIA BROKEN on disrupts
T Cuda1 ground attack targets WG RF. 2KIA 3BMS
E WG RF Marshalls
T Stealth Suits double targets WG LF. ELIMINATED secures Blitz
E WG C engage targets suits. 3KIA BROKEN
T Skyrays sustain targets WL C. 1KIA 2BMs
E Storm Serpent marches.
Retains – fails – fails SC Errol
T enlarged Recon sustains targets WL C. 2KIA
T Pathfinders FAIL
T Cuda2 ground attack targets BTS. 1KIA 2BMs
T Ocra ground attack targets BTS. 1BM
T FW w/ Ions double targets WG 2KIA BROKEN
T KRT2 Marshall

Rallies
FW remain broken, all others rally. WL and WG remain broken, others rally

Turn 3

Eldar win initiative
E Storm Serpent doubles targets Ions 1BM
Retain
E WG jump out of Storm Serpent. Engage FWs ELIMINATED secures Blitz
Retain
E Phoenix bombers ground attack targets Ions. 4KIA ELIMINATED
T Cuda1 FAILED
E WG RF double target KRT1. 1KIA, 2BMs
Retain
E BTS doubles into city
T Pathfinders FAILED
T KRT2 Doubles to sit on top of Blitz
T Stealth suits March for RF objective
T Cuda2 ground attack targets BTS. 1BM
T FW double targets WG. 1KIA, 2BMs
T Skyrays double targets Storm Serpent 2DC, 3BMs
T Ocra ground attack targets BTS. ELIMINATED

Tau 3 (Blitz, T&H, BTS)   Vs   Eldar 1 (Blitz)