Tau'ch! (ouch) that hurt....

     Last night I played a game against Jeremy and his Tau army with Eldar support.  We played a Purge the Alien game with Dawn of War setup.  Needless to say, I did not purge enough aliens....

My List:
HQ:
Sammael: Jetbike
Librarian: Bike, Auspex
Command: Apothecary, Standard of Devastation, Grenade
Troop:
RWASx6: 2 Melta, Typhoon
RWASx6: 2 Melta, Typhoon
RWASx6: 2 Plasma, Typhoon
RWASx6: 2 Plasma, Typhoon
RWASx6: 2 Plasma, Landspeeder w/ MM
Fast:
White Knightsx5

His List: (due to the campaign, he got an extra 150 points to spend on this army, not that it made too much difference....)

HQ:
Commander Shas'o: Missle, Plasma, Shield, Multi-tracker
Bodyguard: Frag, Plasma, Shield
Bodyguard: Missle, Plasma, Shield
Farseer: Warding, Witnessing, Spirit Stones


Troop:
Firewarriorx12: 3x Carbine, Bonding Knife
Firewarriorx12: 3x Carbine, Bonding Knife
Dire Avengers: Bladestorm, Defend, Diresword

Elite:
Crisis Suit: Fustion, Missle
Stealth Suits: 2x,Burst Cannon, Fusion
Wraithguardx6: Warlock, Wave Serpent w/ TL Starcannon



Heavy:
Hammerhead: 2x Burst Cannon, Disruption Pod, Blacksun Filter
Hammerhead: Smart Missle, Disruption Pod, Blacksun Filter
Broadside: Smart Missle, Shield Drone
Wraithlord: Catapult, Wraithblade

Defense Line w/ Quad Gun

     So the combination of me being an idiot, plus him playing a good game resulted in me getting wiped off the table after 6 turns.  I was obviously too concerned with my Command Squad dying to S10 Railgun shots that I mis-used almost my entire army.  It started with the deployment:

    I deployed and used my scout move to get the Command Squad to hide behind the forward stack of containers.  You can see the giant blob of bikes on the near side of them.  I also forgot to deploy my two HQ unit where they were supposed to go, and I made myself live with it, not asking for any favors so I could put them in the right spot.  Well, I finally learned that Hammerheads have a secondary shot that is a large blast.  I learned this while getting hit 10 times from each shot.  The front row had to re-roll their successful armor saves due to Misfortune from the Farseer, too.  I surely would have never made this mistake with my old 'nilla White Scars list.  The Standard of Devastation is good, but you have to have your bikes ALIVE to use it.  After his first round of shooting, I believe I had a pile of about 13 dead bikes.  He made a great move with his Wave serpent to block the only open path to his front line, too. 

     After that beating, I was already hurting, and for the remainder of the game I feel I rolled at or below average.  I know that 3 turns of shooting all 4 Landspeeders at his Hammerheads (and a couple shots at the Wraithlord) resulted in just one glancing hit.  As I moved everyone forward, there was not a lot I could do.  I know I killed a few Dire Avengers, causing them to flee off the board.  The Broadside fell back, too, but was still on the board.  I did manage to kill his Wraithlord, who was coming right at me.  The melta squad and Knights moved up the right flank to get closer, hugging those containers for cover and line of sight blocking. 
     On the second turn, all of his remaining suits came in from reserve and deepstruck behind my lines.  I would have to choose between continuing toward his line and back-tracking to counter them.  Also the Wraithguard got out of their transport and shot me up.  I learned to spread out more, but I lost my Librarian and some more bikes.  The Apothecary and Champion died as well. 
     On my turn, there was little to do.  My Multi-melta Speeder did not arrive due to his warlord trait.  I ignored the Stealth team and used one plasma squad to go after his Shas'o and bodyguard.   I hit his Wraithguard with a Rad Grenade, but still needed 5's to wound them.  Even with the Standard, 20 shots was not near enough to wear them down.  They got charged and I believe we tied combat.  Sam'E Khan charged the lone suit, and wounded himself moving in, but killed the sucker.  I put a wound on his HQ but we still were stuck in combat. 
     Turn 3 saw me lose Sam'E and somemore bikes from everywhere.  More of the same...  Oh, and I failed all 3 of my Hit 'n Run rolls, so no shooting then charging...
     I finally got the flanking melta squad into combat with Firewarriors and a farseer in his lines.  I won combat but they held tight.  I hit his Broadside with 7 AP2 wounds from the Knights and killed it.  Lost the final bike fighting his HQ.   Not too much to report here either. 

     The rest of the match was him mopping up what was left.  I finally got my speeder from reserve on turn 4 and shot a Hammerhead in the rear.  Still didn' kill it with AP1!!!!  I had terrible generalship and bad luck, but I don't want to take away from how well he played against me.  He made some great moves to take me out.  I can't wait to play him again so I can take what I learned and put it to practice.  Now, I'm looking for that Ice Pack.....