Battlesuit Down

[happybounce]

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.

 

That's how I'd deal with it (but then again, I played Orks for years). I don't know the vanilla SM points, just the Dark Angels ones, but I'm pretty sure you could do something like this:

 

x10 Veterans, Infiltrate, boltpistol/chainsword, x2 plasma guns, x3 plasma pistols

 

x10 Scouts, vet sarge, close combat weapons, powerfist

 

x10 Scouts, VS, CCW, power weapon

 

x10 Marines, VS, plasma pistol, plasma gun

 

x10 Marines, VS, plasma pistol, plasma gun

 

x10 Marines, VS, plasma pistol, plasma gun

 

x10 Marines, VS, plasma pistol, plasma gun

 

x10 Assult Marines, VS, powerfist, x3 plasma pistols

 

Company Master, power weapon, plasma pistol

 

x1 Whirlwind

 

The points/configuration might not be 100% right, but you get the idea. Right from the get-go you have 4 units- that's 40 marines- either infiltrating or rocketing across the board. He immediatley has to deal with that half of your army, giving you time to bring forward the 40 tactical marines, taking potshots where you can. By the time he's dealt with the first half of the army, you should be getting within assult range with your Tac marines- and even without close combat upgrades or power weapons, tac marines on the charge are nothing to laugh at!

 

The company master gives you 10 Ld all around, and makes sure he'll have to try and kill every single damn marine- with "They shall know no fear", your boys will keep rallying, meaning that you'll have leftover marines here and there harrying his army (or he wastes his time killing all of them, letting you get the other half of the army there unharrassed).

 

The Whirlwind is in the list for a much more subtle reason. You say he keeps jumping in and out of cover? I've dealt with this, and I've had to deal with the crazy antics they try and pull with LOS with reguard to their models. Well, I guarantee that he'll try and go for your Whirlwind early on, claiming he can "see" it with some model that can just barely see the tip of the missile launchers. Get him to agree on the line of sight rules for the game- which he'll (temporarily) think are to his advantage- then smile as he destroys your Whirlwind. Proceed to remind him what a mistake poor sportsmanship is for the rest of the game by using "his" rules to zap crisis suits that you can just barely see the tip of. I don't normally condone these tactics, but against players like him- well, you're just using his selfishness and desire to win at all costs against him. Nothing wrong with that!

 

If this doesn't work, smile and wait patiently for 5th edition.

 

Anyways, good luck!

[AkiraCho]

yeah dude its really easy to knock down battlesuit tau lists. drop pods.

meltas, plasmas

 

all you need right there.

[Guardian of the Rage]

contrary to what most of the posts in this topic will tell you, battlesuits are not easy to destroy. Simply dropping you marines next to it will NOT guarentee victory. One post has eluded to the best method of tackling them however: trapping them by outmanouveuring them. They rely on cover to survive, and thus if you trap them so that they must move through open ground for even one turn to escape, they will be in serious trouble.

 

You need to use units to 'pen' them in, and then systematically destroy them by careful preparation of the rest of your forces to wipe them out. They should be chased down by the fastest units you have and forced to flee. Whne they do, let them have it.

 

I posted a comprehensive guide to beating Tau here in this thread on page 2. I hope it helps.

 

I will repost it here if requested to.

 

GotR

[Brother_Dan'l]

I can't believe no one mentioned this one yet. Castellan Mines! He may love his JSJ, but let's see him try it when his cover explodes every time he comes near. So what if they're AP-. It's still a S6 attack against every (chance of anyway) enemy model that moves in/on/thru the field. It's really very effective against JSJ. Plus if you get first turn you can drop it on his Hammerheads. He's going to have to move to get LoS to your guys and when he does..click, kaBOOM! against his rear armor. :lol:

[Commander Gitsnik]

I'm joining this a little late but here is my can opening list (the elements that count anyway):

 

Vindicare Assassin (XV88 Commanders with Shield Drones don't have a 4+ invulnerable save - target them and the shield drones die when they do)

4 x Lascannon Devastator Squad

4 x Missile Launcher Devastator Squad

1 x Librarian (Storm of the Emperors Wrath, Fear of the Dark) with Command Squad (as many Plasma Pistols as I can stick in here - the exact number has escaped me) in a Drop Pod.

1 x Land Raider FireMagnet - yes he does exactly what his name says

 

With these 5 units (the Vindicare has only seen battle twice now, both times to great success) I have maintained a 8 out of 9 win ratio against my Tau battle suit opponent. The time I lost was some bad scatters and dice rolls on my behalf.

 

A lot of people suggest various tactics on the idea. My own consists of drop podding the Librarian in around turn 3 or so (if I'm lucky) and assaulting the HQ units I can get to - especially an Ethereal if you are playing against one. The Vindicare has one mission and one mission only - to assassinate the leader of the XV88 Broadside teams - one assassination is a success for me, if he assassinates all three leaders I usually do a war dance. The psychological affect of this sniper on my opponent is enormous and I'm really feeling that he was money well spent. The Lascannon's and the Missile Launchers are there for some general suit death. Having the AP 2 on the lascannons is useful as it gives the opponent one less dice roll to make, but even the AP 3 on the Krak missiles is good against the suits as they will fail an armour save at some point. Personally I prioritise my targets, aiming for HQ and then Heavy Support, Elites, Troops, and Fast Attack - in that order.

 

The rest of my army consists mainly of Tactical Squads with one special weapon (a plasma gun or a melta gun) - I don't give these guys Heavy Weapons as they never stand still long enough to be useful when I play, and whatever Elite's I have on hand to send at the enemy. I actually only own a 5 man assault squad, so have never really had a chance to get near the enemy (he see's a Jump Pack squad and remembers horror stories from the internet - they never make it past turn two) - giving me a different perspective on killing these technological xenos scum.

[Tantum]

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.

 

 

wahahaha...i choked on my drink after reading this....anywayz its been a while...im wondering...did anybody beat the Beardy fellow.....and high five on the Beard Busting Litany....

[the vampirehunter]

the best way to defeat the tau is simple tatics a full scout squad with a teleport homer and a souped up terminator librian with fear of the darkness and command squad with assault cannon and cyclone missle launcher infiltrate the scout squad in cover then deepstrike the termys and let them squish the little blue smurfies and use there old power can openers on any cans of hammerhead they cross

[obsidian_k3]

Battlesuits HATE plasma, they get no save, wound on a 2+, and if you are using cannons the template can hit an entire squad :) let rip

[Brother Drakk]

I'm having a little trouble on how this works. How exactly are you meant to be using plasma weapons/missile launchers/lascannons to full effect if you can't see them unless you're close and personal? Crisis battlesuits are designed to deny you LOS, so having a devastator squad with 4 missiles won't help either. Whirlwinds are ineffective: pie plates only cause one wound per model, so even if you hit, you only get one dice to wound, and for him to fail his save. And then you have to do that twice. For a vehicle that can only fire 5 times every game, it's not going to work. Mines won't work well either. There's no guarantee that it's going to a) hit where you want exactly :P cover the entire block of terrain the suits are using to deny LOS.

 

As for me, i'd advise you to:

 

1. Don't take vehicles of any kind (except drop pods). Even landraiders can't last long against 3 str 10 ap1 shots (two of which are twinlinked).

 

2. Ignore the broad sides. They're REALLY hard to kill, both by shooting or assault. You're better off spending more time killing off suits or fire warriors. And they can only kill 12 marines (max) per game.

 

3. If you DO take heavy weapons (missile launcher/las cannons) aim for the hammer heads/fishes (i'd say fishes first). The aim is not to destroy them (although if they do blow up, don't complain) but to stun/shake them. The first few turns are going to be harder, since all hits become glancing, but if you manage to shake/shun (whichever one stops them from moving, can't remember which) make sure you take a few more hits on it.

 

4. Terminators are not advised. 12 marine deaths from rail guns might not sound too bad, but imagine 12 terminators going down! But if you're confident that you can keep them out of LOS, why not? Deep strike and assault cannons work well against tau

 

5. Pincer is your best strategy here. Hammer and anvil works well, but it's based on holding his lines with your assault troops, something that's almost impossible until the last few turns against fast tau. Pincer works on the principal of giving him nowhere to go.

 

6. Don't send your guys in with a long battle line. It means your opponent won't find many of his weapons out of range most of the game. Try concentrating most forces on one specific point. You can send off a few fast squads on the other end to give him something to worry about and limit his movement.

 

I apologize if i say something stupid in this post. It's late where i am, i'm a bit tired, and i can't be bothered proof reading

[obsidian_k3]

it can be tricky, but several thing, drop podding right behind the suits means they lose that chace, at that range plasma guns and pistols double tap (they only have 2 wounds) they dont get a save(so thats your 1 dixce gone) and the other is at 2+!, plus whatever the rest of the unit has :)

[Commander Gitsnik]

it can be tricky, but several thing, drop podding right behind the suits means they lose that chace, at that range plasma guns and pistols double tap (they only have 2 wounds) they dont get a save(so thats your 1 dixce gone) and the other is at 2+!, plus whatever the rest of the unit has :lol:

 

Indeed. Also, a full lazcannon tactical squad (for example) has 8 or so extraneous men in it, so even if you are standing in LOS of the suits they can't really destroy you that quickly (IIRC the suits can only fire solid-shot not submunitions so no template death). I'm not saying you won't lose a few men, and if the team-leader has the shield drones it will be a painful adventure (and thus am I adoring the Vindicare) but it's not meant to be easy!

[General Retreat]

My answer to Tau battlesuits has always been Assault Marines. I run 10 with 2 plasma pistols, and a seargent with a Thunder Hammer. My main opponent is Tau, so I've lost plenty to gain what tactical acumen I have, maybe it can help here.

 

JSJ relies on cover, and (assuming 4th ed rules) cover blocks LOS both ways. Say we have a 4"x 4" square of forest, and his suits always hide behind it. I just use the other side as screen for my jumping Assault Marines. I have to have other things distracting him, or every SMS system he has will pound on the jumpers, but even then, two or three volleys of SMS isn't enough to take them down. As long as I have a couple left, his suits are dead. Most of the time, I sweep in with Rhino mounted tactical squads to begin boxing in the suits, and to provide a welcome distraction. My Assaulters hang cautiously back until the right moment, then over the forest, through the trees, and into some squishy Tau face we go!

 

(don't know if this will look right after formatting, but I'm going to try for a visual here)

 

[Edit: My diagram is fail. Imagine a 4x4 square, with two suits on the north side, 10 assault marines on the south side, and a tac squad dismounted on the west side]

 

With the 18" charge range, even if he sees it coming at this point, there's nothing he can do. He can go back 12 inches total, but my assault marines are only 4-5" away on the other side of the forest, and can jump over it. If he jumps sideways to avoid the tacs and shoot the assault marines, I just cheer. They will survive, and will bring the Emperor's Justice to the cowardly xenos. If he runs flat backwards, you've got him in the open for shooting by tacs, and assaulting as well. The key to this is to NOT take the cover yourself. Be patient, and wait as close as you can while denying him that LOS. I call this "just desserts". Next tip: A smart Tau player will sacrifice one of his suits at this point, just to make sure that when it dies, your Assault Marines will be stuck in the open; ripe for shooting. Make sure you have screening elements (I prefer cheap and mobile tac squads) to assist when this happens. If you can leap-frog with your elements, walking the tacs back into the rhino and jetting the empty transport out in front of the assaulters as cover, you might find that this trick is something that can be repeated. However, if you miss a charge or leave your Assaulters open and exposed, expect to loose them right away.

 

Hope this helps,

General Retreat

[badger nine]

first of all, 5th edition will practily beat him for you. With only two troop choices in a 1500 point game, theirs 2 out of three missions that focus on troop choices. First, kill all his Firewarriors, and focus on his Ionhead. When his troop choices are dead, his chances of winning of rwo of the 3 game types are ruined. He can only tie you. (capture and control and other mission)

 

Then, get your squads into the objectives! Hold them tight, or tear them away from him. I also suggest Plasma Cannons, Heavy Bolters, and Whrilwinds. those are evil....I played a game with my Tau against marines, with three plasma cannons and a whirlwind. I had a 12 man firewarrior squad in a bunker. By turn three, it was reduced to two soilders.

 

So in point, take anything that use's blast templates, thats strength 6 or better. Deepstriking terminators into his lines is a bad idea. Espically when their near a vast ammount of units. My oppent DS a squad near four suits, 3 stealth suits, a Hammerhead with SMS, and two vengeful firewarriors. When the dust cleared, only one Termi was left.

 

Thats all I can think of right now.