Scout tactics

[greatcrusade08]

[center; background-image:url(http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/hq2.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 8px 2px; padding: 12px 8px 12px 8px; border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-left: 0 auto; text-align: left; color: #fff; text-indent:50px; font-size:130%; width:50%;">Scout tactics: Part 3 Tau.[/center]

This is part three of the series of articles, created with the purpose of maximising the effectiveness of an all scout army, this article will focus on Tau.

http://www.bolterandchainsword.com/hq2.gif); background-repeat: no-repeat; background-position: 8px 2px; padding: 12px 8px 12px 8px; border: 1px solid #DDD; margin-left: 0 auto; text-align: left; color: #fff; text-indent:50px; font-size:130%; width:50%;">Army selection

Almost anything goes when facing a Tau army and is personally my favourite opponent for a quick friendly battle.
Due to the fact that Tau are an extremely capable ranged army with S5 basic weaponry, choosing more than a unit or two of snipers could be a mistake, but if taken to deal with certain enemy units (battlesuits etc) then its worth while investing in some camo cloaks to keep them safe from incoming fire.
The priority when dealing with Tau armies has to be getting to close combat as quickly as possible in order to tie them down and prevent them from using their strengths (shooting), taking a couple of units of cheap CCW scouts is always a good idea.
Whether or not to take shotgunners is a personal preference against Tau, as their low Initiative and poor combat skills means you can do just as well without them, the assault nature of shotguns is very useful though and hard hitting LSS teams would be of some benefit.
Combi-weapons are a necessity when facing Tau, flamers are golden when dealing with hidden kroot and combi-meltas are helpful at destroying enemy vehicles, its also a good idea to take meltabombs for anti-tank and the occasional power weapon to deal with any crisis suits that cross your path.

Telion

Against a Tau army Telion really comes into his element, hidden in cover with a small sniper unit and camo cloaks (or bolstered ruins for 2+ save), this unit could be the most valuable out of your whole army.
The Tau have a knack for surrounding important units or character with shield drones to absorb incoming fire, Telions eye of vengeance ability means these drones will be useless against his two rending shots.
Killing a Tau ethereal in the early turns in the game will cause every Tau unit to take a morale check at their leadership of 7 or 8, over the half dozen or so units in your opponents army at least two or three may fail and be useless for a turn.
Tau firewarriors and crisis suits are similar to scout armies in that the sergeants/Shasui are the focal points to the units, fiewarrior sergeants can have markerlights and drone controllers as well as a bonding knife, which allows the unit to regroup if bellow half strength. By removing this squad leader with Telions special ability you effectively remove all these special items from the squad and all attached drones will also be removed as casualties, in the case of gun drones you have drastically reduced the units number of firing attacks, just by killing one model.
Br removing squad leaders you can also increase the effectiveness of your pinning weapons by reducing their leadership, in the case of vespid units their leadership drops from 9 to 6 by removing the single model.

Vehicles

A decent Tau army will include a couple of large hammerhead tanks aswell as fast moving piranhas, these can be dealt with like any other vehicle except that they have access to some interesting upgrades which can make your standard tactics difficult to pull off.

Disruption pod: This upgrade allows the Tau vehicles to be obscured from any firing over 12” away, this would normally deter sniper and ML fire from targeting sides and rear armour, but by far the best way for scouts to deal with enemy tanks is the combi-melta/meltabomb combo as outlined in the 10th company tactica. This means getting in close which can lead to other problems.

Fleschette discharger: This upgrade allows the Tau vehicle to wound any model attacking the vehicle on a 4+ before they attack, potentially we have a 25% chance of losing each model in the unit that tries to down these tanks, this can be more worrying if they manage to kill of the sergeant with meltabombs, leaving the rest of the squad to rely on krak grenades to do the job, which is unreliable at best.

Hammerhead gunship: These Tau vehicles can really hurt scout armies, the railguns can throw out large templates at S6 AP4 and if guided by markerlights can be devestating, always check the weapons and upgrades on these tanks and if necessary make them your priority targets for 'suicide' squads (combi-melta/meltabombs combo), another tactic is to use outflanking bike squads to target thier rear armour with rapid fire grenades.

Before the game its adviseable to check the wargear of your opponents tanks to determine what upgrades he has taken, any vehicles without disruption pods can be targeted with long range weapons, any with pods but without fleschette dischargers will have to be taken out at close range using melta/meltabomb combo.
Any vehicles with both upgrades will require either massed fire to overcome cover saves, or be taken down at close range without entering CC and endangering our own troops.
For this purpose a unit of outflanking or infiltrating bikes with grenade launchers would be the best option, rapid firing S6 grenades at close range should be enough to counter side or rear armour.

Tactics

Its worth briefly mentioning the tactics I have heard used against Tau, by taking Shrike as HQ and filling all six troops places with CCW scouts you can get a devastating first turn charge off against your opponent, overwhelming and crushing his entire army by turns two or three. Whilst this is effective io wouldn’t recommend it for two reasons, firstly scout armies should be fun and that list will lead to boring games and you wont make many friends, secondly its risky incase you don’t get first turn, if this happens and you set up close, the tau are going to wash you away with rapid fire S5 weapons, in my opinion a balanced army of snipers, bikes and CCW troops is needed to be successful against the Tau.

Tau armies allow scouts to shine in some ways, their basic set up/compostion and strengths and weaknesses allows us to make the best use of our own special abilities.

Set-up: With Tau armies playing defensively and relying mainly on shooting, we can use our infiltrate and scout moves to be within 12” of their forces, this is important if we get first turn as our own shooting can be extremely devastating in the first turn. Bolters will get rapid fire, LSS teams and bikes getting first turn charges and Telion and sniper teams pinning trouble units we can effectively overwhelm them in the first turn and as long as we retain the momentum a victory should be simple. This of course doesn’t work if we lose first turn in which case we are required to play a little smarter, by utilising area terrain for our CC units and or outflanking we should be able to catch the enemy between the anvil of the sniper and bolter units and the hammer of the bike and CCW troops.

Heavy weapons: Its far better to use Missile launchers than heavy bolters, this is of course personal preference, but the ML can cause instant kills on crisis suits and have a high enough AP to negate their armour, also Tau are notorious for using a variety of tanks and transports, as soon as the mobile devilfish are brought down the firewarriors inside can be brought to the Emperors light with your assault troops.

LSS: Despite being weaker than a standard space marine, scouts are more than capable of destroying Tau fire warriors in close combat, even shotgunners or bolter scouts with fewer attacks should be able to hold their own, for this reason I would suggest taking at least a single LSS team, although it is vulnerable to all Tau ranged weapons, used carefully and within the first turn or two it can deliver a squad of scouts into CC with an enemy unit, and if combat is won the -2 Ld modifier may cause the enemy unit to run and because of low intiative amongst the enemy army they should be caught and destroyed.
An LSS armed with a heavy flamer can be very effective against both firewarriors and kroot, wounding on 2’s and negating any armour and cover saves.
Because of their fragility I would strongly suggest keeping them in reserve or in cover until they can be used, if you manage to get first turn, then use scout move to get a strong first strike in, especially if its possible to remove a unit of troublesome kroot from wooded terrain (3+ cover save and S4 rapid fire weapons is quite troubling for 7 points a model), if the LSS is then taken down the scouts can use the woods for cover until they can bring their shotguns to bear on the enemy.
Another advantage to taking LSS' is they can hamper your opponents plans to deepstrike thier crisis suits anywhere within 6" of them, this effectively gives you a 12" circle that is free from surprise attacks.

Crisis Suits: These are the Tau's strongest units, with S5 they are capable of squashing a few scouts in CC, to counter this add a couple of fists to the larger CCW squads for instant kills, using pistols and shotguns to clear any shield drones on the way into combat, this tactic should be very effective.

Bikes: Bikes can guarantee first turn charges with infiltrate and scout move, because of their higher toughness they are even more likely to succeed against Tau and can do so with fewer numbers, for this reason it would be beneficial to combat squad your units which gives you the opportunity to pull off double first turn charges.
By taking two full units of bikes you can effectively tie up four of the Tau’s firing units in the first turn, and the sergeants combat squads can be upgraded with meltabombs for downing enemy tanks with auto hits.
This can give you the time and distraction to pull up CCW units for second turn strikes against secondary targets.
Combined with Telion and snipers neutering trouble units and the LSS team negating Kroot tactics, you should be able to maintain the initiative and go on to win the game.

Example list

MOTF with conversion beamer.....120
10 bikes with 3 grenade launcher, power fist and meltabombs.....260
10 bikes with 3 grenade launcher, power fist and meltabombs.....260
10 snipers with Telion, ML.....200
10 snipers(or bolters) with ML.....150
LSS with heavy flamer.....60
5 shotgunners combi-flamer, power weapon.....100
10 CCW scouts, power fist.....160
10 CCW scouts, power fist.....160

This is just an example list, and its possible to create far more capable lists, this list highlights the co-operative nature of the individual units, using the tactics I have highlighted. The Snipers and or bolters provide the Anvil, the stationary troops using cover to good effect (MOTF can bolster ruins for 2+ cover save) and keeping the enemy pinned and or destroying transports.
The bikes will get first charges followed by CCW troops.

Markerlights

Most Tau armies rely on markerlights to bolster thier shooting or deny you cover saves, if left to thier own devices these 'weapons' can be devestating to your army.
Whilst ive already highlighted the benefits of taking Telion to remove markerlights from firewarrior squads, you must always be wary of pathfinder units.
Prioritize these units whenever possible, they are the same as normal Tau so are relatively weak in CC, if necessary infiltrate a combat squad as close to them as possible and deny your opponent his shooting bonuses.

Overview

I have outlined some specific tactics which should work well against Tau armies, but as a guide there are some following important points to remember to be successful against them:

• Rely on your strengths and special abilites
  Deny the Tau their strengths (shooting) wherever possible
  Most Tau lists have poor CC abilities, use this to your advantage
  Watch out for upgrades, know your enemy, check his lists and understand what each upgrade and weapon is i.e fusion blaster is a meltagun
  Use this knowledge of the enemy when deciding target priority, Vespid are easier to pin than crisis suits, kroot in trees get 3+ cover save.
  

Hope this helps

GC08

[greatcrusade08]

Hey guys this is still WIP, please add if you have anything constructive...

 

GC08

[Jackelope King]

You missed the most important part of the Land Speeder Storm against Tau: every single battlesuit (other than Broadsides) can Deep Strike. Deploying your Land Speeder Storm strategically will allow you to have s very, very strong deterrent against their battlesuits.

 

Every Tau tank worth its salt (and most Tau Devilfish transports) will be upgraded with disruption pods, as it is far and away the single best vehicle upgrade in their codex. All of their vehicles are notoriously expensive, and with changes to skimmer rules, fragile to boot. They need that 4+ cover save to keep their tanks tough enough.

 

And speaking of tanks, with a lack of vehicles on the scout side of the board (other than our LSS, which all of their basic shooting can drop easily), the Hammerhead is free to lob Submunition Shots into Scouts. With a S6 and AP4 in a large blast, that spells serious trouble for Scouts. Scouts don't have the volume of Antitank needed to deal with a player running two Hammerheads (our missile launchers are only going to glance or pierce 1/6 of the time (respectively), and then factoring in Disruption Pods, our odds of Piercing Front Armor 13 drop to 1/12), so you must play strategically if you're going to beat the Hammerheads. Block line of sight whenever possible, and grope for cover whenever possible. And to that end: kill the Pathfinders. Kill them with fire and then scatter the ashes and then burn the ashes, or they'll rip away that precious cover save with their Markerlights and then your Scouts are just screwed.

 

The only other piece of advice I can offer is that at least Scouts are well-suited to play Ninja Tau's game. When playing Ninja Tau, you'll frequently see the Tau player deploy only a tiny fraction of his units on the table (often just the commander battlesuit and one or two other units), with the rest of the army in reserve, then using a piece of wargear called the Positional Relay to call in a single unit on turns 2 and 3 before bringing the entire army onto the table all at once on turn 4. This army really utilizes outflanking and Deep Strike to bring units in from odd angles and hit at your objectives or weakspots during kill point missions. But Scouts can play this game too and outflank with the whole army. A Ninja Tau will still have the advantage of being able to control the reserves better than Scouts can, but the ability to Outflank with a squad in a Land Speeder Storm or of Scout Bikers can leave a Positional Relay Commander, upon whom much of the strategy pivots, sweating bullets.

[greatcrusade08]

You missed the most important part of the Land Speeder Storm against Tau: every single battlesuit (other than Broadsides) can Deep Strike. Deploying your Land Speeder Storm strategically will allow you to have s very, very strong deterrent against their battlesuits.

Yup your right, ill add that....

 

Every Tau tank worth its salt (and most Tau Devilfish transports) will be upgraded with disruption pods, as it is far and away the single best vehicle upgrade in their codex. All of their vehicles are notoriously expensive, and with changes to skimmer rules, fragile to boot. They need that 4+ cover save to keep their tanks tough enough.

I always add them to my Tau army, but i have seen them used without.

 

And speaking of tanks, with a lack of vehicles on the scout side of the board (other than our LSS, which all of their basic shooting can drop easily), the Hammerhead is free to lob Submunition Shots into Scouts. With a S6 and AP4 in a large blast, that spells serious trouble for Scouts. Scouts don't have the volume of Antitank needed to deal with a player running two Hammerheads (our missile launchers are only going to glance or pierce 1/6 of the time (respectively), and then factoring in Disruption Pods, our odds of Piercing Front Armor 13 drop to 1/12), so you must play strategically if you're going to beat the Hammerheads. Block line of sight whenever possible, and grope for cover whenever possible. And to that end: kill the Pathfinders. Kill them with fire and then scatter the ashes and then burn the ashes, or they'll rip away that precious cover save with their Markerlights and then your Scouts are just screwed.

Ill add in some stuff about markerlights, i completely skimmed over that for some unknown reason, as for tanks, the 10th tactica (on which this is based) does list a couple of ways to nuke tanks quite easily.. the best being 'suicide' squads, disruption pods useless against point blank melta shots and meltabombs that auto hit.... hehe

 

The only other piece of advice I can offer is that at least Scouts are well-suited to play Ninja Tau's game. When playing Ninja Tau, you'll frequently see the Tau player deploy only a tiny fraction of his units on the table (often just the commander battlesuit and one or two other units), with the rest of the army in reserve, then using a piece of wargear called the Positional Relay to call in a single unit on turns 2 and 3 before bringing the entire army onto the table all at once on turn 4. This army really utilizes outflanking and Deep Strike to bring units in from odd angles and hit at your objectives or weakspots during kill point missions. But Scouts can play this game too and outflank with the whole army. A Ninja Tau will still have the advantage of being able to control the reserves better than Scouts can, but the ability to Outflank with a squad in a Land Speeder Storm or of Scout Bikers can leave a Positional Relay Commander, upon whom much of the strategy pivots, sweating bullets.

Ive never heard of Ninja Tau before, thats interesting...something to think about

 

Thanks JK

 

GC08

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Whether or not to take shotgunners is a personal preference against Tau, as their low Initiative and poor combat skills means you can do just as well without them, the assault nature of shotguns is very useful though and hard hitting LSS teams would be of some benefit.

 

I'd say do it. You won't last long in a shootout with just bolters/sniper rifles, and they all have 4+ or better armour (except Kroot/Vespid, but they've got really weak armour so weight of fire will still kill them). So, zoom up, unload shotgun into them then charge.

Combi-weapons are a necessity when facing Tau, flamers are golden when dealing with hidden kroot and combi-meltas are helpful at destroying enemy vehicles, its also a good idea to take meltabombs for anti-tank and the occasional power weapon to deal with any crisis suits that cross your path.

 

I'd be going for combi-flamer+Sarge powerfist on assault Scouts (ie with shotguns). Power weapon won't kill Crisis fast enough, they'll just pawn the wounds onto their shield drones and kick you to death with S5 attacks. Meltabombs won't work, because their vehicles are too fast.

Killing a Tau ethereal in the early turns in the game will cause every Tau unit to take a morale check at their leadership of 7 or 8, over the half dozen or so units in your opponents army at least two or three may fail and be useless for a turn.

 

No one takes the Ethereal, but yes, if there is one Telion will snipe him pretty quickly.

 

Hammerhead gunship: These Tau vehicles can really hurt scout armies, the railguns can throw out large templates at S6 AP4 and if guided by markerlights can be devestating, always check the weapons and upgrades on these tanks and if necessary make them your priority targets for 'suicide' squads (combi-melta/meltabombs combo), another tactic is to use outflanking bike squads to target thier rear armour with rapid fire grenades.

 

Outflanking bikes won't do jack. Railguns have such insane range he can park the Hammerheads on his backline and never expose their AV10 rear facing, and just pummel you with impunity. They're skimmers, so they can just float above any area terrain (good luck trying to deny LOS to them). He'll also be moving them 12" a turn if possible, so assaulting them isn't a good idea (you simply won't hit often enough, then he just drives it away and pummels you with the SMS/twin-BC's he's got as the secondary weapon system).

Before the game its adviseable to check the wargear of your opponents tanks to determine what upgrades he has taken, any vehicles without disruption pods can be targeted with long range weapons, any with pods but without fleschette dischargers will have to be taken out at close range using melta/meltabomb combo.

 

Disruption pods are standard issue man, no smart Tau player leaves home without them. You'll need meltaguns to kill his tanks, pure and simple.

 

Its worth briefly mentioning the tactics I have heard used against Tau, by taking Shrike as HQ and filling all six troops places with CCW scouts you can get a devastating first turn charge off against your opponent, overwhelming and crushing his entire army by turns two or three. Whilst this is effective io wouldn’t recommend it for two reasons, firstly scout armies should be fun and that list will lead to boring games and you wont make many friends, secondly its risky incase you don’t get first turn, if this happens and you set up close, the tau are going to wash you away with rapid fire S5 weapons, in my opinion a balanced army of snipers, bikes and CCW troops is needed to be successful against the Tau.

 

That Shrike tactic is a one-trick pony, and easily countered. All he needs to do is hold everything bar his Positional Relay HQ suit in Reserve and two Kroot squads. He then positions his Kroot squads so they block your Infiltration options (can't deploy within 18" of LOS, can't deploy within 12" hidden), and then brings on Hammerheads/Devilfish teams to blast your Scouts into oblivion.

You'll need as many combi-meltas as possible, preferably bike-mounted, and powerfists are a must for killing immobilised tanks or Crisis suits.

Set-up: With Tau armies playing defensively and relying mainly on shooting, we can use our infiltrate and scout moves to be within 12” of their forces, this is important if we get first turn as our own shooting can be extremely devastating in the first turn. Bolters will get rapid fire, LSS teams and bikes getting first turn charges and Telion and sniper teams pinning trouble units we can effectively overwhelm them in the first turn and as long as we retain the momentum a victory should be simple. This of course doesn’t work if we lose first turn in which case we are required to play a little smarter, by utilising area terrain for our CC units and or outflanking we should be able to catch the enemy between the anvil of the sniper and bolter units and the hammer of the bike and CCW troops.

 

Devilfish+Kroot screens make this very hard to pull off. Tau are a very mobile army if they want to be, you need bikes to catch them. Mass infiltrating into forward positions is just turning the battle into a turkey-shoot for the Tau player; he'll calmly let his Kroot screens die, then 'Fish of Fury' (ie move forward with Devilfish and unload the FW's into rapid-fire range of your Scouts). Crisis suits will be using missile pods and burst cannons to kill your Scout bikers, Hammerheads kill the backfield snipers.

Heavy weapons: Its far better to use Missile launchers than heavy bolters, this is of course personal preference, but the ML can cause instant kills on crisis suits and have a high enough AP to negate their armour, also Tau are notorious for using a variety of tanks and transports, as soon as the mobile devilfish are brought down the firewarriors inside can be brought to the Emperors light with your assault troops.

 

I disagree. Both his tanks and Crisis suits will be making 4+ cover saves against your krak rounds, and in the case of Crisis they can pawn the krak wounds onto their shield drones. Take the heavy bolter and rain Hellfire blasts into Crisis and Fire Warriors. For tank-killing you'll need combi-meltas on bikers and LSS teams.

 

LSS: Despite being weaker than a standard space marine, scouts are more than capable of destroying Tau fire warriors in close combat, even shotgunners or bolter scouts with fewer attacks should be able to hold their own, for this reason I would suggest taking at least a single LSS team, although it is vulnerable to all Tau ranged weapons, used carefully and within the first turn or two it can deliver a squad of scouts into CC with an enemy unit, and if combat is won the -2 Ld modifier may cause the enemy unit to run and because of low intiative amongst the enemy army they should be caught and destroyed.

 

I think you'll win combat comfortably anyway, but the Cerebreus launchers really settle the deal.

An LSS armed with a heavy flamer can be very effective against both firewarriors and kroot, wounding on 2’s and negating any armour and cover saves.

 

Heh yeah, very good for scouring them out. However, it is a fragile platform, so while you will wipe out one squad he'll simply use Crisis and other squads to shoot down the LSS once you've exposed it.

 

Because of their fragility I would strongly suggest keeping them in reserve or in cover until they can be used, if you manage to get first turn, then use scout move to get a strong first strike in, especially if its possible to remove a unit of troublesome kroot from wooded terrain (3+ cover save and S4 rapid fire weapons is quite troubling for 7 points a model), if the LSS is then taken down the scouts can use the woods for cover until they can bring their shotguns to bear on the enemy.

 

I would Outflank, personally. That way you don't have to run the gauntlet of Tau firepower (a Scout move just makes it easier for him to shoot it down) and you can unload your shotgun Scouts into his lines quickly (getting rid of Kroot/Fire Warriors quickly).

 

Another advantage to taking LSS' is they can hamper your opponents plans to deepstrike thier crisis suits anywhere within 6" of them, this effectively gives you a 12" circle that is free from surprise attacks.

 

As Tau player I don't Deepstrike my Crisis (I prefer firing missile pods and burst cannons from as early as Turn 1), but this is a good point. Beware of Deepstriking Vespid or Gun Drones as well, as they can destroy your LSS's and small Scout teams.

Bikes: Bikes can guarantee first turn charges with infiltrate and scout move, because of their higher toughness they are even more likely to succeed against Tau and can do so with fewer numbers, for this reason it would be beneficial to combat squad your units which gives you the opportunity to pull off double first turn charges.

 

I'd recommend going for combi-melta/powerfist on your Sarges then, so you can shoot+assault his tanks/Crisis suits effectively. Combat Squadding will just make it easier for them to take out the powerfist Sarge, I'd recommend sticking together.

 

10 bikes with 3 grenade launcher, power sword and meltabombs.....260

10 bikes with 3 grenade launcher, power sword and meltabombs.....260

 

I'd drop one grenade launcher so you can upgrade to combi-melta+powerfist on the Sarge. Believe me, Tau tanks die to meltaguns much faster than any amount of krak missiles, and the powerfist is excellent for killing Crisis suits and punching through rear armour on his skimmers.

10 snipers with Telion, ML and camo cloaks.....230

10 snipers(or bolters) with ML.....150

 

Give them both a Hellfire heavy bolter dude, so they can kill Crisis and Fire Warriors faster. I'd go with sniper rifles on both teams as well, because with the few hits you do manage Rending is great for mauling Crisis and pinning Tau infantry.

 

LSS with heavy flamer.....60

5 shotgunners combi-flamer, power weapon.....100

 

Again, replace with powerfist+combi-melta. You already have the shotguns+higher Initative and frags, so flamers are largely unecessary (you already have the heavy flamer on the LSS for that purpose).

10 CCW scouts, power weapon, meltabombs.....160

10 CCW scouts, power weapon, meltabombs.....160

 

Again, powerfist+combi-melta. Tau suck in close-combat, so don't worry about going at I1. S8 will demolish Crisis and tanks, and in a drawn combat with Kroot or Crisis, the extra powerfist wounds ensure you'll win. I'd Outflank these teams.

[Mal]

I'd be going for combi-flamer+Sarge powerfist on assault Scouts (ie with shotguns). Power weapon won't kill Crisis fast enough, they'll just pawn the wounds onto their shield drones and kick you to death with S5 attacks. Meltabombs won't work, because their vehicles are too fast.

 

Shield drones are not as useful as they used to be, with wound allocation, shield drones now count as a member of the unit for allocating which wound goes where, so hit enough and he HAS to take wounds on the suit.... Also if the suit can 'kick them to death' with its S5 attacks, then the fist wont help as it'll strike last.

 

That being said, i'd still take the fist, one shot kill is all you need.

[Reclusiarch Darius]

Shield drones are not as useful as they used to be, with wound allocation, shield drones now count as a member of the unit for allocating which wound goes where, so hit enough and he HAS to take wounds on the suit.... Also if the suit can 'kick them to death' with its S5 attacks, then the fist wont help as it'll strike last.

 

Crisis suits have two wounds each, and can be equipped differently for abuse of wound allocation. A power weapon is scary, but not as scary as a fist.

Fist instant-deaths Crisis, thats why you take it. Hopefully you'll have shot/punched down the shield drones with the rest of the squad, before the Sarge wades in and crushes one of the suits with his fist. You will lose a few Scouts to the Crisis, because they don't die to S4 punches, they're too tough. With 2 x S5 attacks each expect to lose 1-2 Scouts. The bonus to having the fist is that you can decisively win combat and crush those pesky battlesuits in the same go. Power weapon is more fickle, if you roll poorly he could win (I've had this happen, it's hilarious) and run you down.

[greatcrusade08]

Hey guys thanks for all the comments...

 

@Darius: hellfire doesnt do jack against anyone but packed horde armies, ive used it alot and have never hit anything yet, its such a small template that moves a long way, at least ML can instakill crisis suits....im sure his shield drones wont last long against sniper fire anyway..

 

I completly agree that the list needs a few fists, it wasnt meant to be a overly competative list, just an example to show you have thought about how to use them...(tactics)

Ill add something about fists in the tactica though.... you get a gold star :)

 

Combi-meltas are best for anti-tank, but meltabombs on first turn auto-hit.

 

I'd drop one grenade launcher so you can upgrade to combi-melta+powerfist on the Sarge.

They cant have both....they can only have one

 

GC08