Why You Should Play to the Mission

I got my first game against Tau using the new Chaos Space Marine codex at the weekend and it went mostly as I had expected. I allied in some Imperial Guard for objective holding and to provide fire support in the form of a Vendetta, Manticore, Veteran squad with 3 Flamers and a Lascannon and a Company Command Squad with 4 Melta’s and a Chimera. My opponent rolled for deployment and got Hammer and Anvil. I rolled for mission and got Crusade. There were 5 objectives and my opponent got first turn.

The problem for Chaos is that they are mainly an assault army and Tau are a shooty army. This makes it very hard to get assault Troops close enough due to Rhino's only having front armour 11 and foot slogging being suicide. There is also the issue of once a unit disembarks it cannot charge for another turn even if the transport does not move. This means that you’re looking at a turn 3 charge at the earliest and when you’re playing Tau that gives them even more time to shoot your assault troops off the board. There is always the Land Raider but it is hideously expensive considering Railgun's will glance it on a 4+ and most of the time destroy it with the first penetrating hit.

Then there is problem of the Tau's uberwatch. If you actually manage to get into assault range you have to put up with not only the unit that you are assaulting firing Overwatch but also other Tau units that are within 6" of the target. This can be mitigated somewhat putting a Dirge Caster on vehicles but I doubt that there will be any left by the time you've managed to get into assault range. In fact, at the weekend I actually hoped my Rhino’s would get destroyed so that I could get a turn 2 charge.

The other option is to try and out shoot the Tau which is highly unlikely to work.

I didn't expect to beat my opponent at the start and as the game progressed my army was cut to pieces. The most valuable unit was the Manticore, not a Chaos unit! The Vendetta got me Slay the Warlord and the Veteran squad held my objective until the end and ultimately won me the game 4-2. My opponent had got First Blood and Slay the Warlord. He would have also got Linebreaker but the Manticore shot his Outflanking Kroot and pinned them. The only Chaos unit that came out of the game with any credit was the Forgefiend. Even the Heldrake got shot down!

How did I win despite losing nearly all of my army? I used the Manticore and Forgefiend to remove my opponents scoring units and sent the Vendetta straight at his Warlord. Essentially, I played to the mission. That is what is most important in many games and why I have won similar games despite taking horrendous casualties. It is a piece of advice I give to many younger gamers who are often too focused on killing their opponent’s army. It is also something that more experienced gamers can often forget and should keep in mind, especially when playing against a superior foe.