Houndpack Lance Win a RTT - October RTT Tournament Report - Game 3

After almost no break between Games 2 and 3, I was definitely starting to feel the pace of the day!

Still, coming off two strong wins, confidence was high — my goal now was to push for a big score and secure a strong finish.

Opponent’s List – Tau (Kroot Hunting Pack)

Kroot Leader on Dinosaur

Commander Farsight (in 3 Melta Battlesuits)

Krootshaper (with 20 Kroot)

1×5 Hounds

2×6 Kroot Rampagers

1×3 Kroot Rampagers

3×3 Krootox

1×3 Stealth Suits

1×10 Vespid

3× Skyrays

1× Piranha

Mission: Linchpin – Crucible of Battle

Deployment

My opponent made an early mistake — Farsight and his Fusion Battlesuits went into reserve, along with one unit of 3 Rampagers.

That left his biggest anti-tank threat off the board early.

The rest of the T’au force staged centrally.

I kept to my usual deployment pattern:

Executioner on my left flank

Stalkers ready to scout forward across the front line

3 Huntsmen and both Brigands deployed centrally

2 Huntsmen in reserve

And for the third time that day, I won the roll-off for first turn.

Early Game

My Stalkers scouted up, and to my surprise, my opponent moved his scouting units forward too — staying mostly out of sight but not pulling back, except for one unit of Rampagers positioned for Lone Operative protection later.

I was tired, and I knew if I played a cautious trading game, fatigue might make me sloppy.

So I decided to go all in — strike hard while Farsight was still off the board.

I surged forward aggressively:

Stalkers pushed up across the line

Huntsmen advanced

Brigands and Executioner followed to apply maximum pressure

Turn 1 shooting was devastating:

All three Krootox units destroyed

Piranha dead

Havocs killed about 10 of the 20 Kroot

A huge opening blow.

The T’au response was swift — the Rampagers counter-charged and the Skyrays exposed themselves to fire.

Shooting took down one Stalker and heavily damaged another, which was then finished off in combat. Another War Dog was dragged down from full by Rampagers.

The pressure was still on both sides.

Mid Game

With the Skyrays and Rampagers now within range, I refused to let the momentum slip. Every War Dog moved up to get angles and force trades.

Turn 2 was another punishing round of fire and steel:

A Skyray, the Hounds, and almost two full Rampager units were wiped out.

The 20 Kroot took more losses from Havoc fire.

Stealth Suits were reduced to just one or two models.

My opponent looked a bit stunned by how much he’d lost so quickly.

He brought down Farsight and the Battlesuits to stabilize a flank — but it didn’t go to plan.

I made 3 out of 4 invuln saves on a War Dog, forcing him to commit a Skyray to finish it off. That left two Huntsmen alive on my right flank.

Centrally, Vespid picked off a damaged War Dog while Kroot fell back for Area Denial, but the damage output just wasn’t enough.

Late Game – Turn 3 & Wrap-Up

With the counterattack blunted, we were nearly at the “talk it out” stage — but I kept the pressure on to close decisively.

I advanced hard:

Took my opponent’s home objective

Wiped the Vespid and the Kroot Leader on Dinosaur

Got into charge range of Farsight with two War Dogs (surviving overwatch!)

Cleared the center of Kroot

Killed the last Stealth Suits and another Skyray

Combat left Farsight on a single wound, who struck back to kill a damaged War Dog — but I kept another tagging both him and a Skyray on the right flank.

The center and left were completely cleared.

My opponent spent 2CP to respawn the 20 Kroot, trying to hang on.

They shot and failed a charge onto my expansion, doing minimal damage.

The Rampagers from reserve also failed their charge to retake his home objective.

Meanwhile, Farsight and the Skyrays couldn’t bring down the War Dog tying them up — and that War Dog killed Farsight in combat.

At that point, we called it.

I had War Dogs on every objective, guns covering the board, and a clear path to clean up the last remaining Kroot and Rampagers.

Result: 96–23 WIN!

Post-Game Thoughts

A huge win in Round 3 — and with that, the tournament victory was sealed.

As the results came in, the player in third lost on the pair-down, and others with two wins had closer scores. That clinched it — my first RTT win with Houndpack Lance!

I couldn’t be happier.

As for the game itself — everything just clicked. Going ultra-aggressive from the start was absolutely the right call. The pressure never stopped, and even when fatigue was setting in, the War Dogs kept the momentum rolling.

The Plaguebearers once again earned their keep, moving into the center late game to help clean up the Kroot and secure more primary points.

With that, the event wrapped up in spectacular fashion.

I’ll be posting a full tournament debrief and analysis later this week, breaking down list performance, key takeaways, and thoughts on the meta going forward.