Revenge match

So I finally got my revenge match against Tau, and ugh...it was much closer than the last game, admittedly, but I still lost. Ouch.

Okay, let's first start with the list. I made sure to remember what my opponent brought. It was a Battalion Detachment and a Vanguard Detachment. 3 squads of 5 Fire Warriors, 2 squads of 10 Pathfinders, Farsight with 2 plasma rifles, 2 Commanders with 4 fusion blasters each (yeah, I didn't know they could do that), 3 Crisis suits with 3 plasma rifles each, 3 Crisis suits with cyclic ion blasters, another 3 Crisis suits with plasma rifles (I think), a whole bunch of gun drones and shield drones, and 1 Stormsurge with shield generator, stimulant injector, target lock or automatic targeting array, and a bunch of upgrades.

This time I brought 3 Onager Dunecrawlers with Icarus Array, with a Tech-priest Dominus to babysit them. Accompanying them are three Imperial Knights, a Knight Errant with Stormspear rocket pod, a Knight Warden with twin Icarus autocannon, and a Knight Paladin with Stormspear rocket pod.

The mission was the comet one, and we drew an Acid Rain card, which meant everyone had -1 to their hit rolls. Oh boy, that was really bad.

My opponent and I rolled off to see who would go first, and he won. I, unfortunately, failed to seize the initiative. Not that it would matter. Anyway, all the Crisis Suits, drones, Commanders and Farsight were placed in Deep Strike.

Turn 1

Thanks to the -1 to hits because of Acid Rain, it was an uneventful turn. My opponent was wary of the -1 to hits, so he did not Deep Strike his Crisis Suits, Commanders and Drones. He fired a few stuff, didn't hit much with his markerlights. I think his Stormsurge put 2 wounds on one Onager Dunecrawler, but that was about it.

My Knights went up the board, and I fired whatever I could with my Icarus arrays. However, thanks to the -1 to hit, my Onager Dunecrawlers were hitting on 5+ and I didn't do much damage. I only wiped out one Pathfinder squad (first blood!), 2 or 3 Fire Warriors and put a few wounds (4) on the Stormsurge.

Turn 2

My opponent rolled and the Acid Rain stopped! WOOHOO! Uh, no. Not good. Not good at all.

Basically, he Deep Striked Farsight and 3 Crisis suits with plasma rifles right behind my Tech-priest Dominus, then the remaining Crisis Suits, the 2 Commanders with fusion blasters right in front of my Onager Dunecrawlers and Knight. I can't remember much, but I think he managed to wound one of my Onager Dunecrawlers to 4 wounds or something, I can't remember. What I do remember is that he killed my Tech-priest Dominus with Farsight and the plasma rifle Crisis suits. Ouch. And I think he put a couple of wounds on my Knight Paladin.

I advanced my Knights, continued firing and killed a few more Pathfinders, and I took a few potshots at the Crisis Suits. I think I managed to kill one cyclic ion blaster Crisis suit and a whole bunch of drones. Not so bad, especially with one Onager Dunecrawler half-dead. Ugh.

Turn 3

My opponent continued pummeling the remaining Onager Dunecrawlers, and he killed two of them, including the wounded one. I don't think his Stormsurge wounded my Knights, and he ended up charging Farsight and the Crisis suits into my Onager Dunecrawler, but they failed to kill him in combat. Heh! I can't remember if it was in this turn that my opponent killed my Knight Paladin or in the next turn.

My Knights continued advancing up the table, and I reduced the Pathfinders to just 3 with my Knight Warden's shooting. I also wiped out the cyclic ion blaster Crisis suit squad, finally. I charged the Stormsurge and managed to stomp him to 4 wounds. I left my Onager Dunecrawler in combat, and he somehow survived!

Turn 4

So the Stormsurge fell back, as did the Crisis suits and Farsight, and they blew up my Onager Dunecrawler. Finally. I think we rolled for the comet because we forgot the comet last turn, and it was in the center of the table. Whoops. Well, anyway, I lost my Onager Dunecrawler and then they went and attacked my Knight Paladin and also destroyed him. I think. Or I lost him in the previous turn. I can't remember.

I killed the plasma rifle Crisis suits and the remaining drones, leaving just the 2 Commanders with fusion blasters behind, and then had my Knight Warden charge into the Crisis suits and my Knight Errant into the Stormsurge, and I killed the Stormsurge in combat. Yay! On the other hand, 1 Crisis suit survived melee with 1 wound, I think. Or maybe he didn't take any wounds. I think that was it.

Turn 5

I don't know what happened next, but basically the Commanders and Farsight killed my Knight Warden with their shooting and...BOOM! Every one of them took a mortal wound, and I think all the drones died. The Commanders took about 3 and 5 each, and somehow survived, the lone Crisis suit with the plasma rifle took 1 or 2 mortal wounds, and Farsight only took 2 mortal wounds. Oh wow. One Commander had gone down to snatch the objective with the plasma rifle Crisis suit.

My Knight Errant then moved on and fired. He erased the 3 Pathfinders with his heavy stubbers, and then using his Stormspear rocket pod did 2 wounds to the Crisis Commander with 3 wounds who had flown down to capture the objective, reducing him to just one wound. UGH. The thermal cannon vaporized the Crisis suit with the plasma rifles, so there was that.

And then my opponent won because he had the comet. Ugh. If I had roll a 3 or more with the D6 damage of the  Stormspear rocket pod, I would have forced it to a drew because neither of us would have anything on the objective. As it was, my opponent just barely scraped a victory. I still had one single Knight Errant standing, I killed his Stormsurge, Pathfinders and wiped out his Crisis suit teams, and he only had Fire Warriors, Farsight and 2 Commanders left. Oh well. It was a much closer game than last week, at least. I did succeed in killing his Stormsurge, so that felt good.

I wonder what I should have done to win the game. Maybe change up my units and not rely on my Knights so much? Hmm...