ironclad vs. tau

[Fausto2071]

drop podding an iron clad into the midst of tau: tactics, ideas (if it is even a good one)

 

 

what say you?

[Lord Sinaris]

Rear Armour 10. Bunch of Strength 7 Weapons arround. NOT a good idea, really.

[Jackelope King]

Rear Armour 10. Bunch of Strength 7 Weapons arround. NOT a good idea, really.

Good luck shooting that tasty rear armor through a drop-pod.

 

An Ironclad spraying flaming death with a heavy flamer is likely to either cripple or break most non-battlesuit Tau infantry, and a meltagun is able to instant-kill all their battlesuits and is going to ignore the disruption pods on Tau tanks. It's a pricey suicide unit, but it will require a Tau player's immediate focus and anti-tank weaponry. If I were using this against a Tau player, I'd definitely plan on using turn 1 to rush my other vehicles straight down his throat, and ideally position the drop-pod in such a way that the Tau player would need to move his Hammerhead and Broadsides to fire their railguns at the Ironclad. Really, the goal would be to force the Tau to have to choose between dealing with this Dreadnought that just killed his tank or one of his infantry units and promises to kill more, or to kill that happy little Land Raider of yours that's rolling across the battlefield and is just dying to introduce the Tau to the wonderful world of Thunder Hammer Terminators.

[Lord Sinaris]

Rear Armour 10. Bunch of Strength 7 Weapons arround. NOT a good idea, really.

Good luck shooting that tasty rear armor through a drop-pod.

 

Sure, why not? He might not even get a cover-save, but even if he does - there are more then enough shots flying arround to make the Marine inside the Dread regret ever returning to battle. TLOS and opened Drop Pods really don't go that well together for cover purposes, if you ask me. Also, even considering that you are safe for the moment - I'd like to see a unit which is mostly CC-based try to stick with its back glued to a Drop Pod and still be efficient...

 

But still, I agree: The Dread can be a really difficult target for Tau, and it can threaten them enough to get the rest of your army up into combat against them. But there is really no point to deploy it in the middle of them. The value of the Ironclad is its high armour and terrific CC capacities. Just deploy it as a Hammer on the Flank of their army, advancing slowly. It might not ever see real combat, but it will sure as hell have the little buggers moving away - hopefully into the rest of your army.

 

Also, about grilling Tau infantry: I don't find heavy-flamering a unit of Fire Warriors to be really satisfying... and the rest of them isn't really impressed by the shooting of the Ironclad. Sure, the melter might grill one of them, but then again, so could half of your army. Durability isn't a Tau virtue, you see...