First Blood

So, one of the reasons that I got back into this hobby is my son. He's at an age now where he realizes that my miniatures are not mere toy soldiers but are rather part of a larger hobby/game. He really became interested in the miniatures game after playing the Dawn of War video game. We bought the Black Reach set and I showed him how to paint the miniatures. While he was busy painting I read the rules which have changed quite a bit from the 2nd edition. After teaching him the basic concepts and mechanics we went to the local gaming club and he played his first game small game with the contents of the Black Reach set. He was hooked and began researching the different armies until he settled on the Tau, primarily because he liked the look.

This past weekend we once more set off to the local gaming club. This time out it would be father vs son with 600 points each of Tau (using proxies) and Eldar. To say he obliterated me would be an understatement. He wiped the floor with me! I laughed at the end of the game when he tells me, "You could have done better if your deployment was better." Some of the other highlights of the game were his Fire Warriors destroying my Guardians in his first turn of shooting - 12 shots, 8 kills - and his Kroot surviving bladestorm thanks to their +1 cover save - 16 hits, 2 kills. The point of the exercise was to learn the rules and become familiar with the army codices but we had great fun.

The end of turn 1 and I'm in a world of hurt. The guardians in the centre are all but gone, only the banshee Exarch survived a dash for the ruin and the avengers are facing a dozen Kroot in the woods.

The avengers made a good showing in the first round of HtH but are slowly but surely whittled down by the Kroot (as played by Ork Boyz).

The crew of a Devilfish (played by a Falcon) get a ring-side seat as the Farseer squares off against the Tau Shas'o.

GB