Westside RTT Battle Report

Hey everyone! Reed here with my report on my first 10th Edition RTT! Sorry for the delay... but Baldur's Gate 3 may or may not have been a distraction.

Overall I finished 2nd with a record of 2-1. All of the games utilized the open war mission from the core rule book (no secondary objectives, just the primary).

My list for the tournament:

Shadowsun – Warlord

Ethereal

Firesight Marksmen

1x Strike Team

2x Ghostkeels with cyclic ion and flamer

1x Piranha with fusion blaster

1x Stealth Suit Team

2x Stormsurges with Pulse Driver Cannons and Flamers

1x Tetra team

2x Vespid squad

Game 1 vs. Imperial Knights

Opponent's List:

1x Canis Rex

1x Knight Crusader – Warlord

1x Knight Paladin

2x Armiger Warglaive

1x Armiger Helverin

1x Vindicare Assassin

2x Inquisitorial Henchmen

Tau Defender

Imperial Knights Attacker (Went First)

Objective Placement: The Mission Rules state that each player place two objectives 6 inches away from the board edge and 9 inches away from another objective. We both place our objectives in our own deployment zone after combing through the rules and finding no limitation for this mission about the number of objectives you can place in your own deployment zone.

Deployment: Both squads of vespids started in deepstrike, Firesight Team placed on top of a ruin in the center of my deployment zone, both stormsurges sitting on an objective with shadowsun in the middle, fire warriors and ethereal strung along between the two objectives all behind a ruin, piranha and tetras hiding behind ruins in the left corner, ghostkeels sitting out in the open flanking the stormsurges, stealth suits behind ruins on the right side of the board edge.

Opponent: 1 inquisitorial henchmen squad on each objective in his deployment zone, one behind his central ruin and 1 behind the ruin on the right of the board. Knight Crusader on his center objective with the henchmen, Knight paladin on his left flank with 2 warglaives next to him, 1 helverin sitting next to the Crusader, Vindicare assassin on the right objective with the henchmen, Canis Rex in reserve.

Knights Turn 1:

Movement: He advanced both his warglaives up the board not thinking his weapons would be in range, the paladin runs right up the board and gets in the center, the helverin and crusader remains stationary.

Shooting. All shooting from the paladin, crusader, and helverin went into the stormsurge on the right and bring it down to 10 wounds remaining. No charges were made.

Tau Turn 1:

Movement: The Center Tau line remained stationary, the piranha moved up the left side of the board to block the movement of the warglaives and the tetras moved backwards towards the edge along with the ghostkeel to keep their distance from the encroaching paladin.

Shooting: Both stormsurges, both ghostkeels, and fire warriors fired everything into the paladin and he rotated ion shields for several amazing saves as well as the reroll of a single failed save leaving the paladin on 2 wounds remaining. The Piranha fired into the warglaive in front of it and whiffed all its shots. No charges were made.

Knights Turn 2:

2 points of primary for Knights

Paladin fails his battle shock test.

Movement: The warglaive on the left moves within 2 inches of the piranha, the other warglaive moves around a building to get closer to the gun line, the paladin moves in and I declare overwatch with the stormsurge killing the paladin. The crusader, helverin, henchmen, and assassin remain stationary. Canis Rex comes out of reserve on the right side of the board near the stealth suits.

Shooting: It takes the combined firepower of the crusader, helverin, and warglaive to bring down the wounded stormsurge. The second warglaive on the board edge destroys the piranha, Canis Rex kills the stealth suits and does 8 damage to the remaining stormsurge on the right. The assassin doesn’t do any damage to the stormsurge.

Tau Turn 2:

2 points of primary for Tau

Movement: The ghostkeel. Fire warriors, and tetras move closer onto the left objective. Everyone else remains stationary.

Shooting: The stormsurge fires into Canis rex and does 8 damage on him after feel no pains. The two ghostkeels, tetras, firesight marksmen, strike team, shadowsun all fire into the closest warglaive and do just 6 wounds.

Knights Turn 3:

2 points of primary for Knights

Movement: The warglaive moves onto the objective contesting it, the second warglaive rounds the corner of the left ruin and draws a bead on the tetras, the helverin moves into the center of the board to try and get a sightline on shadowsun, the crusader moves towards the right side of the back ruin to see the remaining stormsurge, the henchmen and assassin remain stationary. Canis Rex moves closer to the stormsurge and I declare overwatch. I roll two 6’s on the pulse blast cannon and score four hits thanks to kauyon, I wound him four times and he fails three of his saves doing 36 damage killing him. His pilot manages to scramble from the wreckage.

Shooting: The Crusader and Helverin manage to bring down the stormsurge and this is when disaster strikes, I roll a 6 on his deadly demise roll and end up killing the firesight marksmen, shadowsun, half of the fire warriors and bringing the right ghostkeel down to 1 wound remaining. A devastating blow for the tau. His warglaives kill the unit of tetras.

Charge/fight: One of his warglaives is able to make the charge into the left ghostkeel and through the use of both stealth drones absorbing two hits is able to live into the next turn and continue holding the objective with help of the remaining fire warriors.

Tau Turn 3:

2 points of primary

Everyone passes battle shock

Movement: The remaining fire warriors and ethereal consolidate onto the contested objective, the ghostkeel falls back so everyone can shoot into the warglaive without penalty. The vespid come down in the back right of the opponent’s deployment zone near the right objective and on the edge of the right side of no-mans-land.

Shooting: The vespid in the back right kill the henchmen squad, the vespid on the right board edge are unable to shoot the Canis Rex pilot due to dropping them outside of 12 by mistake not realizing he has lone operative. The ghostkeels and fire warriors shoot into the warglaive but fail to bring it down, as it lives with 2 wounds remaining.

Charge/fight: The vespid make the 9-inch charge into the assassin but fail to do any wounds in combat and neither does the assassin. The point is captured for the tau.

Knights Turn 4:

1 point of primary for the Knights

Everyone passes battle shock

Movement: The second warglaive moves onto the point and captures the objective. The Helverin moves towards the squad of vespid on the objective and the assassin falls back.

Shooting: The Crusader kills both squads of vespid, the warglaives kill the ghostkeel and the fire warriors on the objective. The helverin was unable to shoot due to being outside of 12 inches of the remaining ghostkeel, Sir Canis Rex did no damage.

Charge/Fight: The warglaives charge into the ethereal and splatter him into blue and red goop

Tau Turn 4:

1 point of primary for the Tau

Movement: The ghostkeel remains stationary on the objective.

Shooting: He kills Sir Canis Rex as revenge.

Knights Turn 5:

3 points of primary for the Knights

Movement: His helverin and warglaive move in on the ghostkeel.

Shooting: The helverin kills the ghostkeel.

FINAL SCORE: 8 to 5 Imperial Knights Victory

Game 2 vs. Astra Militarum

Opponent's List:

1x Lord Solar Leontus - Warlord

1x Ursula Creed

1x 20-man Cadian Shock Troops

1x 20-man Death Korps of Krieg

1x 3 vehicle squad of Armored Sentinels

1x 5-man Attilan rough Riders

1x Basilisk

2x Field Ordnance Battery

1x Rogal Dorn Battle Tank

1x Stormsword

1x Culexus Assassin

Tau Defender (Went First)

Astra Militarum Attacker

I place both of my objectives in my deployment zone, one on the right and one on the left, he places one objective on the right of his deployment zone and his second on the left in no-mans-land.

Deployment: I deployed the tau more spaced out than the first game, the first stormsurge on an objective on the right side of my deployment zone. The second stormsurge 10 inches away and shadowsun in the middle of the two. The firesight marksmen on top of a ruins on the left, Tetras, strike team and ethereal behind the ruins on the left sitting on the objective. Stealth suits infiltrated on the left mid-board behind a small tower, piranha on the right behind a ruin with both ghostkeels deploying in the corners of my deployment zone and vespid in deep strike.

Opponent: the guard deployed in one long gun line, field ordinance batteries (FOBs) in the corners of his deployment zone behind ruins, basilisk on the right next to the ordinance battery behind ruins, Cadians on his right objective with Creed, the lord solar (LS) on the left side attached to his Death Korps of Krieg (DKOK), the rough riders sitting next to the lord solar, his Dorn and stormsword plopped in the middle of his gun line, and his armored sentinels in between the stormsword and cadians. His Culexus assassin in deep strike

Tau Turn 1:

Movement: The piranha’s scout move followed by a normal move put him 9 inches away from the right FOB, the stealth suits and tetras poked out a little bit in order to guide, everyone else remained stationary.

Shooting: Both stormsurges destroy the stormsword right off the bat, the piranha and right ghostkeel kill 1 artillery piece and leave the last one on 3 wounds. Stealth suits and left ghostkeel kill 4 out of 5 rough riders. Pot shots from the cluster rockets on the stormsurges kill 8 out of 20 DKOK. Firesight marksmen puts 2 damage on the lord solar.

No charges are declared.

Guard Turn 1:

3 DKOK revived, orders given all around from Creed and Lord Solar, DKOK and lone rough rider fail battle shock test.

Movement: The artillery remained stationary. The rough rider, Lord Solar with DKOK, and the Dorn all move towards the objective in the middle with the riders touching it and capturing the objective. The cadians and armored sentinels move forwards to the mid board.

Shooting: The left FOB fires into the stealth suits killing 2, the DKOK and LS can no longer see the remaining stealth suit and cannot fire. The right FOB fires and does 4 damage to the piranha, the Cadians shoot everything into the piranha and destroy it, but 1 plasma gun overheats killing a cadian. The basilisk fires into the stormsurge but does no damage, the scout sentinel fire into the right stormsurge and chip away 7 damage from hunter killer missiles. The Dorn fires everything into the left stormsurge but clutch saves prevent any damage.

No charges declared.

Tau Turn 2:

Stealth suit passes battle shock

2 points of primary for the tau.

Movement: The stealth suit moves out from behind cover, the ghostkeel moves up on the left to get sight on the Dorn and the fire warriors move to the left to see the DKOK, the rest of the army remains stationary.

Shooting: The stealth suit kills the remaining rough rider, my opponent spends 2 CP to bring that unit back in reserves but clears the center objective. The left stormsurge fires into the Dorn, but the Dorn ability to turn 1 wound to damage zero saves it with 3 wounds left. The left ghostkeel pops the Dorn with 9 damage to it. The right ghostkeel fires into the damaged FOB and kills it. The right stormsurge shoots into the armored sentinels and the cadians and kills 2 of the 3 sentinels and 9 cadians. The fire warriors and tetras pick up another 8 DKOK, and the firesight marksmen fails to damage the LS.

No charges are declared

Guard Turn 2:

Cadians fail battle shock, everyone else passes.

1 point of primary for the Guard

Orders are given from Creed and LS, 2 more DKOK are revived

Movement: LS and DKOK move onto the center objective, the cadians and remaining sentinel get closer to the stormsurge, the Rough Riders come out of reserve 9 inches away from the right ghostkeel and I declare overwatch from the right stormsurge and kill 2 of the 5 riders. The remaining artillery remain stationary.

Shooting: The DKOK kill the stealth suit, the sentinel, basilisk, and cadians shoot into the right stormsurge and do another 6 damage. The rough riders shoot into the ghostkeel and no wounds are scored. The FOB tries to hit the tetras but are unable to wound them.

Charges/combat: the rough riders make their charge into the ghostkeel but through the use of the stealth drones only takes 4 damage, the ghostkeel kills 1 rider in return combat.

Tau Turn 3:

Everyone passes battle shock

2 points of primary for the Tau.

Movement: The left ghostkeel moves onto the center objective, the right ghostkeel falls back from the rough riders towards the center of the board. The vespids come down now, 1 on the left board edge 9 inches away from the remaining FOB, and the other 10 inches away from the cadians and basilisk on the right.

Shooting: The right stormsurge shoots the basilisk and kills it, and kills 5 more cadians. The left stormsurge shoots into the FOB killing it. My opponent spends 2 more CP to bring that unit back into reserves. Shadowsun shoots the remaining sentinel killing it. The fire warriors and Tetras kill the remaining DKOK and the ghostkeel on the objective kills the lord solar. The right ghostkeel kills the remaining rough riders and the vespid on the right only kill 2 cadians.

No charges are declared.

Guard Turn 3:

Cadians pass battle shock

1 point of primary for the Guard.

Creed gives her orders to the cadians.

Movement: The cadians move towards the vespids now and the FOB comes out of reserves onto his back objective. The assassin comes out of deep strike 9 inches away from the stormsurge on the right and gets vaporized by its overwatch.

Shooting: the cadians kill the vespid squad and the FOB fails to wound the stormsurge.

My opponent concedes and we talk out how he will continue to hold the back objective thanks to the cadian sticky objective ability as I cannot get troops there by the end of the game.

FINAL SCORE 10-4 Tau Victory

Game 3 vs. Thousand Sons

Opponent's List:

1x Magnus the Red - Warlord

1x Ahriman on Disk of Tzeentch

2x Thousand Sons Sorcerer

1x Thousand Sons Sorcerer in Terminator Armor

2x 10-man Rubric Marines

1x 5-man Rubric Marines

1x Mutalith Vortex Beast

1x 10-man Scarab Occult Terminators

1x 10-man Thousand Sons Cultists

1x Tzaangor Enlightened

Tau Defender (Went First)

TSons Attacker

Objectives: I place both of my objectives in the middle of my deployment zones 9 inches away. My opponent places his behind small ruins in each corner of his deployment zone.

Deployment: I deploy my forces in the standard battle line that I have used for the previous games with ghostkeels flanking stormsurges, shadowsun, fire warriors, and firesight marksmen, piranha and tetras on the left flank and stealth suits on the right.

My Opponent places Magnus, the Vortex Beast and Tzaangors behind the large center ruin in his deployment zone. A 5-man squad of rubrics and a sorcerer go onto his left objective, a 10-man rubric squad with a sorcerer and a cultists squad go on his right objective. Ahriman with 10 rubrics are in deep strike along with the 10-man occult terminators with a sorcerer in terminator amour.

Tau Turn 1:

Movement: Piranha moves up the left side of the board, everything else remains stationary.

Shooting: Left stormsurge shoots and kills the vortex beast. Right stormsurge shoots into Magnus and leaves him with 3 wounds remaining. The ghostkeels fire in to the 10-man squad of rubrics on the right objective and kill 6 of them. Firesight Marksmen does 2 wounds on to the sorcerer on the right objective.

No charges were made.

TSons Turn 1:

Everyone passes battle shock

Movement: Magnus moves around on the right side of the ruin. All others remain stationary.

Shooting: The soul-reaper cannons on the rubrics failed to wound the stormsurge.

No charges were made

Tau Turn 2:

2 points of primary for the Tau.

Movement: the piranha moves from the board edge inwards to screen the left side of the board; the tetras move back just a smidge to close out the left corner of the deployment zone. Everyone else remains stationary and both squads of vespid come down in front of the gun line to screen from deep strikes.

Shooting: Both stormsurges split fire into Magnus and the rubrics marines on the objectives. They fail to damage Magnus (We find out after the game that his ability is rerolling 1 failed saving throw and not all of them. Magnus would have died during this turn had we played it right) but kill the rubrics on the right objective and kill 2 rubrics on the left objective. The ghostkeels also fail to damage Magnus for the same reason as before. The firesight marksmen kills the sorcerer on the right objective. Vespid fail to wound Magnus.

No charges were made

TSons Turn 2:

Magnus fails his battle shock and a CP is spent to auto pass.

2 points of primary for the T-Sons

Movement: Magnus moves forward towards the Tau, everyone else remains stationary on objectives. The Terminators come down in the center of the board as close as they can to the gun line but the vespid screening makes it a 12-inch charge into the gun line, Ahriman and his rubrics come down on the right board edge.

Shooting: The terminators turn all their bolters to psychic weapons and activate the T-Sons ability to make all psychic weapons devastating wounds. They do 12 damage to the Stormsurge. Ahriman and his rubrics erase the stealth suits and right vespid squad. Magnus does nothing to the stormsurge.

Charge/Fight: The terminators, unable to reach the gun line, charge into the vespid, but only 3 terminators can get within base to base contact and 3 vespid survive the engagement.

Tau Turn 3:

Stormsurge fails battle shock so I spent a CP to auto pass.

2 points of primary for the Tau.

Movement: the vespid fall back towards the T-Sons left objective and all 3 make it on the objective, the piranha escorts them and moves around the building to get sight of the remaining rubrics and sorcerer. Everyone else remains stationary.

Shooting: The left ghostkeel fires into the terminators and after being guided scores 10 hits, and then 10 wounds. 6 failed saves result in 6 dead terminators. The left stormsurge splits fire into the terminators and the rubrics on the left objective, picking up the 2 remaining rubrics and 3 terminators. The piranha fires into the lone sorcerer and wipes him out. The right stormsurge fires into Ahriman’s rubrics and wipes the squad. The right ghostkeel picks up Ahriman. The firesight marksmen kills 3 cultists. The tetras, fire warriors and shadowsun finish off the last terminator and the sorcerer.

No charges were made.

TSons Turn 3:

The opponent conceded.

FINAL SCORE 11-4 Tau Victory

Final Thoughts:

Everyone at the RTT was surprised that were playing the mission out of the core rule book so most of us who built lists for secondary objectives didn’t really get a feel for how they would play out in the leviathan mission deck. My strategy also turned into running a gun line and abuse the towering keyword and open windows to my advantage. I’d say it worked, but next RTT I’ll be bringing a much different list without towering to see how I can run Tau without abusing the stormsurges height.