Another Sunday means another game at Kyle’s. I’ve been sweating over my list for the last seven days, ultimately making a few minor adjustments. The big difference is I’ve pulled the unit of broadsides and piranha in exchange for a unit of Fireknife suits and a coldstar commander. I’m hoping the mobility will help me react to my opponents a bit better, and I just really am still not sold on broadsides as a whole.

Kyle has decided to put Renegade Raiders on the table. It’s a more a fun list, and I’m secretly grateful that there is something for my anti-tank to actually be effective against. He’s got three land raiders, chosen with Abaddon, rubric marines, and legionaries. It’s a lot of beefy units and tanky transports to get them to the point, and I know if I ever let Kyle gain a foothold he’s going to absolutely run wild over me.

We’re playing Scorched Earth with table corner deployments. I love this mission and feel really confident on it. Kyle deploys very aggressively, with his land raiders well hidden but still basically on the line. I know I have a limited window to act before I am experiencing the power of chaos via a chainsword.

Turn One

Fortunately, I go first.

I scout move a piranha, and then jet it across the map to block out the land raider threatening my expansion. My plan here is to make him take an extra turn before vomiting legionaries onto the circle, but I decide to try and chip the land raider down a bit with my piranha. I use an infiltrated stealth suit to spot for it, and then pop a strategem for lethal and sustained hits.

The piranha spikes, and then the land raider vaporizes. Kyle and I just stand there in silence for a moment. Kyle moves the remaining land raiders up, knocking a couple wounds off a Riptide. The Piranha dies a heroes death, but that is a trade I’ll take any day of the week.

Turn Two

I pull area denial and establish locus on turn two, which is a big problem considering there’s a land raider full of chosen camped on the point. I take the gamble and keep them both. I have to go in the tank for a while to figure out exactly how to crack this. However, there is no problem that can’t be solved with an overabundance of firepower. I collapse on the center, and then put everything into the tank and then the squad, leaving just Abaddon alive. He sits there, taunting me with five wounds left. I still manage to score both secondaries.

Kyle pulls assassinate and bring it down and proceeds to mulch my crisis suits. It’s a brutal crackback, and I immediately feel the game tighten up. I know I still have a lot of units on the table, with plenty of firepower to back it up, but watching my crisis suits turn into paste is a little demoralizing.

Turn Three

I start sizing up the board for turn 3. I pull marked for death and sabotage. Sabotage is easy thanks to my vespid, and Kyle elects his remaining land raider for marked for death. My skyrays don’t put the work in they need, but a stealth suit manages to deal 8 damage to the tank, letting my remaining riptide put some work into the rubrics. Legionaries get cleaned up by breachers, and I’m able to confidently move into the midboard.

Kyle pulls no prisoners and establish locus, but he’s rapidly running out of units. He does pick up some guys, but you can see his guys running out steam.

Turn Four

I pull recover assets and behind enemy lines, letting my vespid do some work. It’s a bit of a misplay- I should move them to Kyle’s home and knock his cultists off, but I opt to recover instead. I do a little bit more killing, and then start moving to take no mans land and start burning objectives.

Kyle is basically gassed. And though I’ve got him all but tabled, he manages to get a few more points of secondaries.

Turn Five

We basically call it here. I’ve got him effectively tabled, with a little over a third of my army still in fighting shape and ready to scrap. I take the win 90-69, and we both leave with a newfound respect for piranhas.

Recap

This was a really fun game. I appreciate not running up against Kyle’s Fellhammer list, which is about as close to a hard counter as T’au get. I’m feeling a bit higher on the detachment as a whole, and while I miss my krootox rampagers there’s something truly special about watching a piranha punch up that hard. I do think that there is an issue with CP generation, but it’s a weakness that I think I just need to live with. I’m looking forward to trying this against other armies, but I think this might be a winner.

Battle Recap - Experimental Cadre vs Renegade Raiders