The Tau received their remaining reserves at the start of turn 3 in the form of the Commander and Crisis team. The movement phase was more a case of repositioning than moving.

In the tau shooting phase a heavy toll was taken by the Space Marine Command and his assault squad, killing 5 of their number, including the flamer.

The bike squad also fell to the combine fire power of the Tau right flank, although their toughness of 5 meant this required all the tau had to offer. This also gave the Tau player 1st blood and therefore 2 victory points.

The Ultramarines looking more like a divided force than a pincer movement. At this point in the game it was 2-1 to the Tau but I already felt beat. Determined not to get down cast I decided to advanced as fast I could towards the Tau’r right flank and try and overwhelm them with the what I had left on their weaker side (hoping the faster forces on the left flank wouldn’t be able to close the gap too quickly.  The Forward Tactical squad moved up to the cover of more ruins. The tactical squad deployed with the Quad gun moved up to the large ruined building in the centre of the board, where the scouts had been reduced to one man. The Scout Sargent took up position on the Quad gun. While the tactical squad from the Drop pod took up position behind the Agsis defence line with the devastators  The Land Speeder moved to 11″ from the Hammer head which was now down to 1 hull point thanks to the bike squads suicide attack. The Storm Raven chases the Rip tide into the Tau line. Having shoot most of the Broad side squad last turn 2 wasn’t going to waste all it’s fire power on a single broad side.

The Ultramarine shooting phase went fairly well. The Land speader blew up the Hamerhead in the 3″ cloud of melta and shrapnel. Most of the rest of my firepower made very little of a dent in the tau force. I was concentrating every thing with a heavy weapon on the larger Tau suits, tying up most of my fire power. The Storm Raven took 3 wounds off the Rip Tide.

The assault squad took a single drone away form the crisis team. And then promptly assaulted them. This turned out to be a big mistake. The combined Over watch of the Broad side, who where with in 6 inches of the Crisis team and the Crisis team itself, which was hitting on 5 due to some lovely Tau upgrade, cut down 3 more assault marines! To put the final nail in the coffin, I  then proceeded to roll a 4, instead of the 7 they needed for their charge range (having used their jump packs in movement phase to get make sure I wasn’t too far away that I wouldn’t fail my charge. This was not looking Good.

End of turn 3 Victory points Tau 2(inc 1st blood) Marines 2(inc line breaker).