Battlesuit Down

[Sen Starfire]

We at the club have had the misfortune of getting a very Cheesy and beardy Tau player. He has two Battlesuit HQ, three battlesuit Elites (all single models), two broadsides w/2 shield drones each, two hammerheads (1 ion cannon, 1 Railgun), and for troops, 2 10 man FW squads with Devilfish Transports. (1500 pts) His tactic is to jump out of cover, shoot, and jump back behind it, while taking out your tanks with the broadsides and hammerhead. He desperately needs to be beaten, as no-one wants to play him any more because of his cheesy tactics (not to mention poor sportsmanship). I have Space Marines, so if you could construct me a force to beat him, that would be great. The only limits are: no bikes, 1 land speeder, 10 Assault Marines. Thanks!

[Wildfire]

Drop pods make baby Aun'Va cry.

[Sen Starfire]

Now here's the cheese; he acts like this: "Well, if you don't have the models, I don't see why you should be allowed to play them." I do not have enough money to waste on one drop pod, let alone the three I would need. Any other ideas?

[Godspear]

You don't need drop pod models. Grab some coke cans, wrap them in duct tape and write "DROPPIN' IT LIKE IT'S HAWT, SUCKA!" across the sides. Call them Redneck variant drop pods, as they've been jerry rigged out of spare parts around the Battle Barge and glued together with bubblegum and the caramelized contents of several spittoons, and intone the Litany of Beard Busting as soon as he starts whining. It goes like this: "Suck it up, cupcake."

 

Then, after you've beaten him, tell him not to come back.

 

I mean, really, all you're using is the deep strike rule, which is perfectly legal. The game doesn't require a drop pod model and getting one from FW is 90 bucks, or somewhere in that vicinity. Why does your club even tolerate his presence? Xenos filth.

[MasterHQ]

Item 1- he busts tanks, don't do tanks.

Item 2- tau suck in melee, so use assault squads to take out his units; break them quickly.

Item 3- heavy bolters will make Tau cry. Low saves on normal units means HBs will eat them for breakfast.

Item 4- Plasma Cannon will shred his Broadsides.

Item 5- I might reccomend a las-plas squad, as that will kill his devilfish and any FW they encounter.

Item 6- Assault Cannon would be good too. Think terminators, as they provide more targets for his heavy guys and have invuln save.

 

I will construct a 1500 anti tau list later on today and post it to you. Anything AP 2 should cause pain; drop pods (open topped! yay!) with tactical marines armed with ccweps (or true grit with bolters). maybe try a whirlwind and just hide it and use your guess range to lob missiles at him.

 

Remind me about the army. I will probably forget. College does that to you.

[iamnothere]

How about termy command squad with libby and fear =350pts. Al those single suits have to check morale.

 

Add in a couple of Las Plas, deinatley include the assault squad with a chappie.

 

I'd try and get 3 Predator annialators in too.

[Vaaish]

I don't know what you are taking against him so I'll have to be generic: his list doesn't seem too cheesy to me. I was expecting quite a few more suits. Do you know what his loadout is for the suits? Are they tooled for AV or AI? What list are you using now? Honestly, unless you are playing with little to no terrain, he only has a single decent tank killer: the railhead. It can only fire once per turn too. The broadsides will probably be tooled to sit in one spot the whole game so just be aware of their fire lanes and ignore them.

 

The part that is going to hurt the most is the other HH since it negates your armor save and is tough to take out so try to keep to cover if it is near. Shake or stun both and move on.

 

If he likes JsJ his suits are tied to cover. Use that against him. pincer them, deep strike and they soon won't have anywhere to go. You are probably looking at the equivalent in saves of three two man marine squads and possibly two four man squads, so fourteen marines. Use what you would normally to take them down. (be careful of CC with the HQ's they can be decent)

 

Firewarriors are probably going to be more of a nuisance than a kill unit, target them if nothing else is in range.

 

As has already been mentioned, Tau hate assault and DS is a good way of getting there.

Since you have an assault squad, I would take it. it's going to be a priority target for him since he's gonna be scared it'll get into combat with his suits or warriors. ~250

Given what he seems to have I'll say overwhelm him with PA. 4 ten man troop squads 2 tooled with HB and plasma and two with lascannon and plasma (bear with me here) ~680

3 pred annihilators with HB sponsons and extra armor. 405

that should leave about 170 for whatever HQ/additional marine squad/speeder you want.

 

EDIT: forgot to explain the squad loadouts: lascannons to pop any suits the ASM flush out and plasma for up close, HB to make the guy much more wary about popping out a FW squad for a pot shot and plasma again in case you get a shot on the fish or crisis. Preds to again to keep the FW bottled up in the fish and peg any HH/crisis that shows themselves with the lascannons. Honestly I'd skip the chaplain since you will probably never need him as most of the stuff you are taking on will all be single crisis suits and he would be overkill. Much better to take a Master and have the LD 10 across the board and still have about a hundred points for a few more marines and another weapon or two or perhaps a rhino/razorback or two.

[Ultio]

Whirlwind behind size 3 cover can kill a battlesuit, sure they get their save, but they fail eventually.

 

I would hug cover and advance with jumpers. But then I play Blood Angels and that is what I always do.

 

Just make drop pods out of PVC, my 3 came out to about $7 each. I bought 4 inch external diameter pieces (2 pieces per pod). Just put effort into making them pretty, if he still complains then don't play with him.

 

My pods are currently Satin spray painted giant bullet looking things. My friends seem to like them, I am still figuring out how to better decorate them.

 

A friend told me something about drop pods needing to be no larger than the large blast template.

[Wildfire]

You don't need drop pod models. Grab some coke cans, wrap them in duct tape and write "DROPPIN' IT LIKE IT'S HAWT, SUCKA!" across the sides. Call them Redneck variant drop pods, as they've been jerry rigged out of spare parts around the Battle Barge and glued together with bubblegum and the caramelized contents of several spittoons, and intone the Litany of Beard Busting as soon as he starts whining. It goes like this: "Suck it up, cupcake."

 

Then, after you've beaten him, tell him not to come back.

 

This post introduced me to the pleasures of snorting spagetti sauce out of my nose.

 

I mean, really, all you're using is the deep strike rule, which is perfectly legal. The game doesn't require a drop pod model and getting one from FW is 90 bucks, or somewhere in that vicinity. Why does your club even tolerate his presence? Xenos filth.

 

But this is incorrect. It's not deep strike, it's a vehicle that deep strikes. You do require a model for it, although since there isn't an official GW model you can create something out of a plastic cup and cardboard and call it a drop pod and it's perfectly legal.

[Brother_Raphael]

You don't need drop pod models. Grab some coke cans, wrap them in duct tape and write "DROPPIN' IT LIKE IT'S HAWT, SUCKA!" across the sides. Call them Redneck variant drop pods, as they've been jerry rigged out of spare parts around the Battle Barge and glued together with bubblegum and the caramelized contents of several spittoons, and intone the Litany of Beard Busting as soon as he starts whining. It goes like this: "Suck it up, cupcake."

 

Then, after you've beaten him, tell him not to come back.

 

I mean, really, all you're using is the deep strike rule, which is perfectly legal. The game doesn't require a drop pod model and getting one from FW is 90 bucks, or somewhere in that vicinity. Why does your club even tolerate his presence? Xenos filth.

 

Yeah, I laughed out loud at that one too. Good stuff. "Cupcake" he says...*chuckle*

[Godspear]

But this is incorrect. It's not deep strike, it's a vehicle that deep strikes. You do require a model for it, although since there isn't an official GW model you can create something out of a plastic cup and cardboard and call it a drop pod and it's perfectly legal.

 

My bad. I'm a slogger, I haven't looked at the drop pod rules since the last time I played against Eldar, which was months ago.

[Brother Nihm]

Well the point still stands.

Grab some soda cans, paint (+convert?) them up and presto - instant podding kebab, coming at him.

 

Personally speaking, I find that bikes works, as well as deepstriking terminators behind his Suits and Fish(es).

[Sen Starfire]

Thanks! As for what his suits are equipped with, it is the usual plasma gun/rocket launcher, with a target lock (+1 BS if I am right), and multi-tracker (shoot with 2 weapons) (I might not have gotten those right, but the abilities are what he has.) Also, I think that is his entire list (haven't added up the points), but there might be more I am forgetting. But I will be drop-podding; I have given up deepstriking after the move-out-of-the-way-and-instant-cover niceness of drop pods. A memorable moment: we were playing a 500pt 2 on 2, and the opponent had a tooled-out chaos lord in termie armor. He deep striked it. Scattered into the back right tread of an IG LR. The owner painted a little splattered corpse on the tread, and glued a chaos arm to the side. SPLAT goes the chaos lord... :lol:

[Brother_Raphael]

Thanks! As for what his suits are equipped with, it is the usual plasma gun/rocket launcher, with a target lock (+1 BS if I am right), and multi-tracker (shoot with 2 weapons) (I might not have gotten those right, but the abilities are what he has.)

 

For what it's worth, Target Lock allows the Crisis Suit to target a different squad from the rest of the Shas'vre in its own squad. (Not +1 BS, that's Targeting Array, which is only for vehicles, and maybe the XV88 Broadsides...) Multi-tracker does allow him to shoot two weapons a turn with his Suits. Good luck! :D

[Master Of Malfeasance X]

If you have even a decent number of Devastators, he probably won't ever go near them. 2 ten man dev squads with good fire lanes can dominate a battlefield If you advance your guys under their fire or even block the suits with rhinos, you should be okay.

 

Whirlwinds are too hit or miss. If you are lucky, you might kill 2 suits the whole game with your whirlwind. You're far better popping his fish and using it on his firewarriors.

 

As for the broadsides, the railguns are horrible, but if you use terrain and deep strike properly, you should be able to get the drop on them. Again, the rhino rush here is excellent as is using crashed land speeders to block line of sight to recently deep struck terminators.

[highpriestkraken]

Hmm.. Infiltrate with scouts, chase him down with assault squads, then bring in some terminators and rip him apart. You'll have to take plenty of bodies to soak the firepower he puts out though.

 

I don't know if it could be possible but if it is.... you could ally with Demonhunters codex and take an orbital strike or three and hammer him out of his cover.

 

If you don't have any scouts, make some of your marines vets and give them infiltrate.. 18" away with LOS add heavy weapon of your choice and a plasma gun... and see him cry cheese... and for the extra cheese.. vet sarg with auspex make your rolls BEFORE the start of GAME if you make 18" or better you have a free round of shooting with that unit

[Ultio]

Using Daemonhunter Allies allows 0-1 of each choice except Heavy Support. For some reason we can't call in orbital strikes even though they are technically Space Marine ships firing them. *shrug*

[Interrogator-Chaplain Ash]

A nice way to get rid of lots of suits is missles.

Str 8 AP 3 goodness of death. One shot and BLAMO! The suit goes down.

[ultramarine001]

I agree with the Missiles point. When I fight our local Suit heavy army, 5 man Tac Squads with Missiles tend to have him hiding after my first firing phase. Then it's Deep Strike FTW.

[Bloodworthy]

I would suggest using dev squads with four missile launchers. I would max these out so you have plenty of guys to suck up wounds. Take two rhinos place them at the front of your deployment zone and hide your assualters behind them. Move the rhinos 12, pop smoke, and then have the assaulters take cover behind them. By the next turn you should be able to engage his suits and broadsides in close combat. Even if he gets first turn he must decide to shoot at the rhinos that will be mobile cover for your assulters or at the dev squads that will rip appart his forces. Other than that perhaps some land speeder tornadoes with heavy bolter and assualt cannon or attack bikes with multi meltas to blitz out and take out those nasty units. Essentialy you want to have a 1,2,3 punch forcing him to decide which units to concentrate on and thus allow the others to take him out. If you use this tactic pay attention to what he fires at first. This will show you his priorities and now you can use that to influence his future decisions.

[Hashulaman]

My brother plays battlesuit tau, he only has one unit of kroot and 1 unit of firewarriors. Everything else is battlesuits, plus a damned Hammerhead. Thatfully, I don't field alot of armour. Which makes his big railgun all but useless as i can take the submunition. I don't know how slogging it will fare with you. It just keeps popping in my mind that against tau, rhinos=coffins. I love using termis to deepstrike. Give them combi meltas and have them teleport in as close to his hammerheads as possible, and watch it cook. I play chaos, so i don't know if your jump infantry can deep strike. My raptors can, so I try to get them behind enemy lines via deep strike also. Once behind you can do all kinds of nasty things and he has no choice but to split his forces to deal with the threat behind him. Marines (chaos and loyalist) by themselves with high WS and S will chew up tau firewarriors. I like giving my raptors and termies lightning claws though. Tau armour is thankfully weak,(well in my expierience) even if they are skimmers and therfore harder to hit. Ive had field days using my havocs to rip apart tau transports and hammerheads.

[Lynnean]

ok, simple, go and play blood angels^^ with the assault marines as troops, rhinos with overcharged engines, and the death company, they are easy in combat. battlesuits cannot fight very good in combat. so.... they're very fast down. the hammer can be outtaked with death company dreads or predators. for the fire warriors with devilfish, take a BAAL predator^^ you'll be the hero of the tournament when you kick his ass very hard :lol: :P

[Y'he Sha'is]

I play Black Templars, and I play a very similar Tau list to the one you described at 1500 pts. My biggest problem isn't drop podding or deep striking, as the tau can deep strike their crisis, too; and games with escalation can really help a tau commander. Typcially, a tau commander can hug the table edges, and really cause you issues and tough choices when you deep-strike. You'll definately cause damage, but it is heavily metigated by careful tau placement. I've actually been enjoying when my opponent deep-strikes/DPs because their army comes in across 2 turns typically, which is usually enough for me to shoot them up pretty good before the rest arrive.

 

In the games that I've drop podded with my BTs, the Tau guy usually split the army to the opposite table edges, and forced me to select a segment to destroy, leaving me at long range (his effective range). This is ok, but careful placement of drop pods, and always remembering the mission goals, means that I can usually hide my guys and destroy 1/2 of his army. This doesn't always work, but it does about 2/3 of the time. I find castling tau harder to deal will on the initial drop.

 

Anyway, no matter how you get to the table, my biggest problem when I play tau is when I am overloaded with a certain type of enemy and I just don't have enough firepower to take it down. That is why necrons are so tough for tau: typical tau lists just don't bring enough AP3 to deal with 50+ necrons. For instance, each of those Firknife4 crisis suits (those are team leader XV-8 suits w/Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targetting Array & Hard-Wired Multi-Tracker) cost 77 pts for a BS 4 platform. That's 5 marines. Taking 5 of those means that you can kill about 5-10 marines a turn at ranges from 36"-12", if you have open shooting and full targets, etc. That's nasty, for sure. However, what about when you have 80+ marines on the table? Can the crisis take care of this swamp of men, even with XV-88 and Hammerhead help? I can tell you the answer for the list above is no. You'll take casualties, for sure, but so will he. And once you get into CC, it gets easier.

 

Basically, what I strongly suggest is to pick an attack strategy and go for it, all-out. If you want to Drop Pod, then Drop everything... and get as many marines on the table as you can, all in his face early. Make your strategy to drop, use FoD & shoot him up, and then get into CC. Forget about vehicles. There is no way that he'll be able to respond quickly enough with the army to cause enough damage to prevent you from scoring the mission objective. If you mech rush, then get as many vehicles on the table as you can, and saturate his anti-tank fire (although I would strongly suggest not doing this, given his list).

 

When I see a "balanced" list of SM when I'm playing my tau, I know that most of the time (roughly 75%), I can win. It's when I see a BA all jump-pack army, or the BT horde of marines, or a librarian drop-pod army, that I get really, really nervous.

[Leethal]

That's a cheesey Tau list?

 

Pssh, come to my hood.

 

We get the Farsight Enclave from hell, and then another HQ with guard. And then 9 more Suits from the Elites. And 3 Broadsides. THIS is cheesey.

 

Your "buddy" is warmup.

 

I shall introduce to you to our "Anti-Farsight Tactica" at our hobby place.

 

As the name says. Farsight is meant for FAR ranged combat. Thats why you get in close. Not BA? Not RG? Not WE? Don't have that many Assault Marines? Fine.

 

Introducing, the turbo-ing bikes from hell. Deepstriking Terminators from hell. Devastators with ML's. Devastators with HB. The Marine Swarm. In 1500 points, you can "techincally" field a whole company of bare bones marines, but thats stupid and breaks FoC, so we'll go for something like. 67 Marines with AP2 weaponry and powerfists.

 

Wanna really stick it to him? Honor your wargear and See but Don't be SEen. 3 Elite Devvies with ML/Hb/PL with infiltrate. 3 Heavy Whirlwinds sitting back and raining a bunch of bad news on their dolphin heads.

 

Really want to stick it to him? Play Demonhunters. 3 Heavy selections, get all the orbital bombardments, find peice of terrain most likely he will use for JSJ rule. Bam. Str 10 Ap1 Orbital Bombardment. Bam. Swarm him with GKPA, espcially those that can DS. Leave the GKT at home, you don't need them.

 

Space Wolves? Swarm him with bloodclaws. Nothing short of an Ork Waaaagh can stop the Bloodclaw swarm.

 

Black Templar? Swarm him with the 25 man Crusader squads from hell. Nothing short of a Bloodclaw swarm or a Ork Waaagh can stop this.

 

Dark Angels? Deathwing Assault. Fearless Termies with CC weapons and Assault cannons combined! ON TURN ONE. smack him down like the female dog he is.

 

Blood Angels? Assault Marines. Need I say more?

 

Nurgle? Swarm of Plague Marines. You need NOTHING besides a Rhino for these bad boys, and plasma weapons. Maybe Nurgle Raptors, and if you just REALLY want to be mean, Nurgle Bikers. T(6) with turbo. Oooooh yeah.

 

Khorne? Swarms of Bezerkers. The moment ONE squad reaches Tau lines. It's over

 

Slanessh? hmm...No idea. Ask a EC player

 

Tzeentch? Swarms of Rubric marines. Watch the AP3 bolter goodnes cut down the Suits and FW in droves.

 

If all else fails. throw his mini's into the fire. :D Just kidding. But this option is always there :)

[Primarch]

Thread Necro at work here, here's what ya do.

 

 

 

 

1. Go to Army builder

2. Click on Warhammer 40k

3. Use the drop down till you get to Orks

4. Create that list

5 Somewhere in that process, put in 30 Lootas, 40 Stormboyz, a Warboss on a Bike, and here's the biggie, SNIKROT and 15 Kommandos.

 

 

 

Step 6-whatever,

 

 

beat him down over and over and over and over till he gets smart and switches to Orks.

 

 

 

Of course, thats mainly my advice on any question on how to deal with most armies!!! ;)

 

 

 

 

Clay