ICT IV - part 1

Last month I attended the most lavish 40k tournament in Greece, the Independent Club Tournament IV, competing against experienced player, well-painted armies, and among eye-catching terrain pieces. Rather inexperienced with Tau (and surely lacking combat tests), I fielded the following:

Shas'O (plasma rifle, Missile pod, multi tracker, 2 shiled drones, blacksun filter, stimulants)
3 XV8 (plasma rifle, Missile pod, multi tracker, 2 shiled drones, blacksun filter)
3 XV8 (plasma rifle, Missile pod, multi tracker, 2 shiled drones)
XV8 TwinLinked Flamer, Multitracker)
10 kroot+hound
10 FireWarriors ('ui, blacksun filter, gun drone, bonding knife)
6 FireWarriors
7 FireWarriors in Devilfish (Disruption Pods, Flechette Dischargers)
8 pathfinders ('ui, blacksun filter, gun drone)
Transport Devilfish Marker Beacon, Disruption Pod)
3 XV88 (TwinLinked PlasmaRifle, Multi Tracker, 2 shield Drones, blacksun filter, 'vre has Target Lock)
Hammerhead (Railgun, burst cannons, Target Lock, Flechette Dischargers, Disruption pod, Multi Tracker)

The list combines the fundamentals for me, and is interesting to play with. Transports for the vulnerable troop infantry, indestructible vehicles (due to the disruption pod), many Crisis Suits (the reason why we play Tau), the compulsory markerlights, lots of plasma, lots of Rails, plus some outflanking harassment.
Four games, 32 players, objective: to avoid the last places of the final rankings!

First game against a crusading company of Black Templars. A large squad of trainers and trainees accompanied the Emperor's Champion and the Chaplain, a squad of Termies, 2x5-man objective-holder marines, 2x3 LandSpeeders. Packed with Typhoon missiles (16 kraks per turn) they could spell doom to my Suits.
Two objectives per player, deployed at the edges of each deployment zone. Broadsides holding the centre, Crisis and troops controlled each of my objectives, pathfinders sheltered in a 2-story ruin searching for targets. Similarly, the small marine teams held the opposite objectives, the Speeder squadrons held the flanks, taking cover behind the treeline. The Terminators and the large Templar squad would advance to grab objectives.

Deployment and starting moves

My first turn saw 4 out of 6 Speeders downed, Finders negating their cover and missile pods and Rails doing the rest. I tried not to target the assaulting squads, as their frenzied doctrine would push them even closer with every casualty. The Templars rushed forward, their weapons mainly firing against my suits, stripping them of their Shield Drones.

Shas'O, the Templars are closing!

Against their aggressive move, a counter-aggressive thrust was commenced, mechanised Fire Warriors disembarked midfield to fire their powerful guns against the Astartes guarding the opposite objectives, while kroot mercenaries appeared on the back woods, finishing the Templar squad and threatening the enemy Objective.
Undaunted, the Templars kept firing, a Speeder unleashed a hail of frag missiles on the disembarked (and tightly packed) Fire Warriors, decimating the squad, while the pre-battle Litanies of Hate propelled the Astartes squad to commence a near-impossible assault (9 inches through rough terrain) and clear the building of an entrenched FW squad. That was a major breakthrough and a serious blow in the Tau defence lines and disorganized their main effort. Now the large squad was on our doorstep, rather unharmed, and thirsting for more Tau blood. It went on to kill the Broadside squad, turned on the other side's objective and destroyed a devilfish, a FW squad and the Pathfinders. At least the Shas'O managed to save his precious life!
The last stages of the battle saw the terminators dying, all but one Speeder destroyed and the small Astartes squad in the woods being pummelled heavily but surviving and securing the Objective.
Both had Line-Breaker, I had First Blood and the Templars controlled one Objective more ( 5-7 Defeat)

Second game against the Ruinous Powers, the Greater Evil!
Typhus with Terminator bodyguards, Slaanesh marines on Land Raider, traitor Marines on Rhino, Lascannon Predator, Lascannon Helbrute and a Zombie horde. Five Objectives.

Tau deployed, awaiting their rivals

 Transports were my first priority, they advanced up to the middle under the cover of darkness. Zombies crept to their objective, lingering in the ruined building, while the chaos anti-tank vehicles engaged the Hammerhead. Alerted by the Pathfinders' guiding markers, the Tau gunline tried but failed to stop the LR, which kept going and disembarked its passengers near the firing line. The overconfident Hammerhead was finally brought down, after failing miserably to harm its' enemies. Even the kroot, entering behind the Predator, were tank-shocked and routed, never to rally again. Combat on the other flank was going better, Fire Warriors pouring fire on the Zombies and the newly-arrived Typhous squad. Slaaneshi troops slaughtered the Pathfinders and advanced to assault the rear Crisis team. Competing to get first, pushing each other, they ultimately failed to reach the enemy. As a result, they were gunned down by the thankful XVs, praise the Aun'.. Now targeted by a multitude of weapons, the Nurgle terminators faltered, even Typhus himself was ripped apart by a powerful Rail hit. Having stabilised their lines, the Tau switched targets to the marine squad climbing the hill for the central objective. The enemies' numbers preserved them, and the few survivors claimed the hill objective.
Up to that point, I just had to order a squad to contest the Zombie-held objective, and the Tau would be winning by 6-3. But my "cunning and strategic" mind ordered the Fire Warrior squad to assault the Zombies and grab the objective. The 6 FW assaulted the 3 remaining zombies, lost 2 (ouch), did nothing and their brains were eaten... So a 6-3 became a 6-6 draw. There's always place for improvements!
Part 2 follows.