New Codex Hurray!

So my digital codex finally downloaded early hours of the morning Saturday. I had gotten excited as it technically became available around 9pm CST on Friday night but technical difficulties with the iTunes store prevented it from downloading. This was probably for the best as my wife wasn't thrilled with my staying up and reading the Tau codex the night it downloaded early.

So I had already scheduled a game with a good friend and very tough opponent. So it was a prefect chance to run the new codex. Well perfect chance probably would have required a good opponent for him, but he got what he got. I had fun building the new list. I really didn't take any of the new toys other than the new auspex (which didn't get used) and a grav pistol. What the new codex does allow you to do is take allot more troops, not a whole lot but a good deal more for the cost of an old codex. I also saved some points by taking standard sergeants instead of vets. I didn't see an issue with the leadership checks, and with a master crafted CC weapon the reroll to hit seemed to balance out the missing second attack. 

My force was Vulkan, riding with 5 CC terminators in a LR Redeemer,  Chaplain with 8 Assault Marines in a Drop pod (dump Patrick was dumb), three tactical squads, one with a rhino.  My shiny new converted Dark Talon which I think I will call the Drake Talon, and a thunder fire for giggles.

My Opponent, had a spirit seer, a far seer, 5 wraith guard in a wave serpent, a 10 man avenger squad in a serpent, a 5 man squad in a serpent, crimson hunter, wraith knight, 3 man bike squad and a squad of dark reapers in the back with an aegis line.

We played mission one, crusade aka VP all the way, and deployment 2, short edge to short edge.  My tau would have loved that deployment.   I originally won the first turn but it was stolen by my opponent.  That steal hurt, but was tempered by night fighting first turn.

First turn seemed to be a lot of maneuvering by the Eldar, the swooped into my back line first turn with two of the serpents and he put his third right where he wanted it luring me in.  The Dark Reapers took some pock shots at the marine squad on the far right thinning them out with their reaper launchers.

I took the bait and dropped out the terminators and Vulkan to assault the far left wave serpent, utterly wrecking it with a flurry of thunder hammers.   Only down side is what got out.   I thought Dan had switched back to d-canons on his wraith guard....nope I hadn't payed attention, it was D-Scythes. Mistake number one.  I did get a barrage off with my thunder fire.  The new rules are kinda cool, I really like that if I can hit that first round, i will get a much better grouping of shots from the old days.

When did Custer join the marines?

Start of turn two, the avengers get out there in the middle ready to assault my center squad, i've got hull points on the land raider from the wraith knight, but whats going to hurt the most is the d-scythes that wipe out the terminators to a man., and leave Vulkan alone with one wound. The avengers assault in to tie up the middle squad and the unseen serpent in the back corner wipes out my hidden thunderfire.

Turn two also saw the cheesest moment of the game, one that made my oppoent feel dirty doing it.   My fighter arrived and within seconds of being on the board burst into flames and crashed to the ground.  See sitting in the back was the dark reaper exarct standing next to an icarus AA weapon.  I honestly think he yawned before flipping the switch.   So this particular character with a combination of skills, BS, and Interceptor fires two Str 9 shots at BS 5 hitting and pinning my poor armor 11 bird.  Ohh and he takes away my jink save.  Boom.....well at least it looked good on the table while it was there.

Killing Wave Serpent Good, Wraith guard with D-Scythes Bad

So after a horrible turn, my opponent started to go to work on my right most squad causing the three remaining marines to break.  They finally kill Vulkan in close combat and his bikes and jet arrive.  My third turn I whip the LR around and proceed to demonstrate that I have unit killing template weapons too.  That and a really upset tactical squad in a rhino following along behind the land raider.  Between the two big flamers on the land raider, and a full barrage from the tactical squad nothing is left standing but the spirit seer.

Before

The next Eldar turn just turned brutal, the avengers had a field day killing of the remaining three marines on the far left side, and with the help of the running spirit seer killed everyone but the sgt in the center squad.  He deciding that regrouping was a better option chose to fail his roll and run.  So side note here, Salamanders now get ATSKNF + Chapter tactics HURRAY!!!!!

I tried to get one more round of flame in with the land raider but it was soon wiped out by the Crimson Hunter and his lance weapons.  My lone Sgt the next marine turn did avenge his squad by a last great act of defiance, by wiping out a wave serpent with his power fist.
Big problem was that was the last thing he ever did. 

After

As everyone was very interested in what he was doing.  My left most squad after a great round of shooting spent most of its time pinned down from lots and lots of multilaser and serpent shield fire.  It was amusing that I would fail the pin but make the moral test.  Thus I still have no good data on if the higher LD score for the vet sgt is worth the 10 points.

My greatest fiasco of the day was my drop pod assault.  For some reason in my addled brain I thought drop pods had assault ramps.  So I put an assault squad with a chaplain in a pod and dropped it right ontop of the dark reapers in the back.  They landed fired off a bunch of pistols and then were wiped out to a man from the dark reaper guns and the bikes who had been hanging around out back.

All in all it was a fun game, with the new codex.  I still love my Salamanders and will drag them out from time to time.  In the hands of a better player I think the new Marine codex will be quite competitive.