Fighting Tau

[patchestheclown]

So my friends and i play fairly regularly and recently i have been on a tremendous (by our standards) win record against necrons, orks, and tau. So my friend wants to proxy lots of units and play a 3000 point game with his Tau vs. my Space Wolves. I can't back down from a challenge so its going down but i got a little nervous about his preposed army list...

 

He is planning on bringing 3 squads of 3 broadsides each and 3 squads of 3(i think) crisis suits each, with as much plasma as he can fit in. Along with those he is throwing in 3 squads of fire warriors and 3 pathfinder squads. Now that is a pretty impressive firing line!

 

My basic thought process right now is to try and get into close combat as quickly as possible because he wont stand a chance there (i know duh right)... My question more is what method should i use to close with him. Pack in some landraiders and cruise towards him using cover and smoke as best i can, should i pod into him, or should i combine the two? Use some pods coming in first turn to block line of sight while the main army roles up unscathed. Also wolf scouts seem like this is their dream come true are they worth it?

 

The list i am thinking currently includes a runepriest podding in to hopefully get a long line of broadsides in JOTWW :P any suggestions? all of those marker lights from the pathfinders could mean some serious hurt and those crisis suits seem well suited to dancing outside my charge range while pummeling me with plasma...

 

thanks in advance!

[TiguriusX]

Well...if you are custom tailoring a list for TAU and using proxies then unleash the fury of the wolf codex.

 

Why drop a single RP with Jaws when you can drop 4!!

 

Mix up the combination of powers so it is legal but I'm sure he won't enjoy it when they land. If you have at least 5 pods drop 3 jaws ASAP and keep 1 in reserve to drop as needed.

[crlsson]

Scouts could be pretty golden, throw in a melta, maybe a plasma pistol and a WG with PW/PF and you should be able to do some effective tank hunting or they'll tie up broadsides or crisis suits. I'd definitely say Pods, I think with all those Broadsides he'd chomp on any tanks you have

[Wolf Guard Dan]

2 Units of Scouts each with a WGPL attached toting a Powerfist. And melta and plasmaguns, as many as you can take.

And I love the idea of 4 Rune Priests Deepstriking with pods. It is LOL. Have them run with packs of Grey Hunters with plasmaguns and WGPL with combiplasmas.

Some TWC to run at those crisis suits. Maybe some Fen WOlves too, they'll close in really quick.

[Arraken]

He is making a gun line with Tau against a marine army, a SPACE WOLVES one at that?

 

Sheez. You'd have to make some horrendous errors/rolls to lose that one.

 

If he went mobile, then you've got a toughy on your hands.

 

I would go the mix of pods and raiders. You need to present with him a choice of priorities on any given turn, not just one or two. He needs to focus fire to be effective. Pods dropping Grey Hunters the same turn a, say, Crusader loaded with Bloodclaws drives right at him is a start. You want to field as many models as possible.

[gojira316]

Wolf Scouts should be money against a Tau gun line. I'd take two units of eight or so with a Meltagun. Once they infiltrate behind them go after whatever choice targets you can and watch the gun line fall apart. Drop Pods will be effective at getting next to those Broadsides he'll have to either ignore the Marines, and lose them in the next assault phase, or attempt to kill enough causing a fallback. Either way you take a turn of shooting away from the remainder of your army.

[BigDunc]

I play Tau weekly.

 

He's actually handicapping himself by making it a 3k game. Crisis Suits and Broadsides, take these units out quickly and there shouldn't be much resistance left.

 

A well balanced list will do you well. It would seem intuitive to field heavier armor (ie LRCs) against Railguns, but this is the wrong thing to do. LR/Cs are the exact reason why Tau take Broadsides. Instead, go Light Mech and field more targets. Approximately 250pts of Broadsides taking out a Rhino is just overkill and works out in your favor as everything else charges towards him. Like Arraken said, you should try to provide him lots of targets and multiple LRCs eat up too many points to allow you to do this. Taking a well rounded, dynamic force will also, hopefully, overwhelm his mental capacity for deciding target priority.

 

The way to overwhelm him is to field infiltrators, lots of advancing light armor, quickly advancing Fast Attack, and cover it all with Heavy Support.

 

I would start off by fielding Heavy Support. Predators and Long Fangs would cover your advance well. Does your opponent use Shield Drones? If not, this'll makes your job easier. Without Shield Drones or cover saves, Missile Launcher will tear through Crisis Suits and Lascannons will tear through Broadsides. Tau have small unit sizes, so forcing a morale test is easy. They also have unremarkable LD. The goal is to cause morale checks as soon as possible and watch his Broadsides and Crisis Suits to walk off the table. First Turn Firepower is the best way to do that. Heavy Support will be the last on his target priority list after Fast Attack and Rhinos are hurtling toward him, and Drop Pods are hitting his line. Infiltrated Wolf Scouts would be do well too, but don't rely solely on them to be your counter-Broadsides or Suits fire support.

 

Next, you need Fast Attack. Landspeeders or Bikes would do well. These are mainly to attract fire as you advance with everything else. Multi-meltas can pick away at suits, but Bikes can also get into close combat quickly, which he cannot allow. Drop Pods fall into the distraction category as well. Anything you drop will be destroyed, so don't drop your Ace units. You'll do some damage when you drop, but nothing stellar. Remember, he's taking lots of Plasma weaponry and now you're dropping into his range without the ability to assault. Not good. That doesn't mean "don't take Drop Pods". You should take them because it makes your force that much more dynamic. Just don't put your game winners in the pods. Behind the Fast Attack would be Rhinos and/or Razorbacks filled with Space Wolf close combat goodness.

 

Despite mentioning Heavy Support first, you should never try to get into a shooting match with Tau. All of the above is designed for you to do this:

...get into close combat as quickly as possible because he wont stand a chance there...

[Wispy]

- Outflanking Wolf Scouts will destroy his gun line pretty quickly.

- Saturate the field with targets.

- Bikes will get into his face very quickly and give him a bad day.

[Spacefrisian]

And Jaws.. Tau have low Inniative.

[Natanael]

TWC. At 3000p you can have 2 full units and a unit of Fen WOlves as screen. He will have to shoot them or die. Fen WOlves work the same way, if you take them as troops =D

[Stormshrug]

I have a fair amount of experience, against Tau, too, and my advice would be pretty similar to that offered by others. Field at least one Squad of Wolf Scouts (personally, I'd use two) - they absolutely cut Tau apart, and they put the player in a terrible position - stay stationary and get stabbed in the back or advance, giving up valuable ground. Make sure to toss a close-combat oriented Wolf Guard in each Squad. Power Weapons are a boon against Tau, since they have decent saves despite their lackluster combat abilities. Even though they won't beat your Scouts, you can get mired fighting even Fire Warriors for a few turns.

 

Rhinos are the way to go for your troops - if he's smart, he'll put Ion Cannons on his Hammerheads (3k points, he's fielding some tanks, right?), since they are amazingly effective against Space Marines, so you'll want some protection against those, to say nothing of his Crisis Suits. Personally, I *strongly* dislike Drop Pods against Tau, at least for my initial contact with the enemy force (these days, I've dropped them from the match entirely). I find that, although you can drop right onto his gunline, that also leaves your troops totally exposed to said gunline for a turn before they can charge, and even more concerningly, within the effective rapid-fire range of his weapons. If you drop far enough away for this not to be a problem, then you probably could use a Rhino to better effect. Since your pods will probably arrive over a few turns, you end up delivering bite-sized portions of your army each turn instead of ever having enough of a force to get into close combat. If you're lucky, your troops *might* survive the first half of his Fire Warrior rapid-fire salvo.

 

That said, a mop-up squad or two in Pods could be effective. You just have to hope that they arrive AFTER you've entangled his most dangerous elements in combat.

 

So, in summary: rush up the field with Rhinos and some Bikers. Since it's 3k points, you could even use some Thunderwolf Cavalry. Use the Bikers, TWC (and any Scouts, if they arrive early) to tie down his dangerous shooty units, covering your advance. When your main force arrives, beat the tar out of his guys.

 

Now, if *I* was building three thousand points of Tau, I'd run O'Shovah. And as many Crisis Suits as I could fit into the army (9 Elites + 2 HQs + 7 Bodyguards = 18 giant robots). It'd be practically incapable of holding objectives, but man would it be hard to catch.

 

-Stormshrug

[Max_Dammit]

That said, a mop-up squad or two in Pods could be effective. You just have to hope that they arrive AFTER you've entangled his most dangerous elements in combat.

Half your pods always arrive in turn 1, so 2 pods aint gona cut it. and they wont be mopping up :)

[TiguriusX]

3k is a ton of points...just whipped up a concept list and I didn't know what to do with all the points (hence the emergency melta bombs on most units)

 

RP DP Task force...3 jaws on turn 1. Land in his midst and place your RP accordingly as he steps off the DP

150 7xGH Plasma + DP

105 RP#1 MB + MH + Jaws

48 WG TDA + PW/SS

 

150 7xGH Plasma + DP

115 RP#2 Saga of Beast + MB + Fury + Jaws

48 WG TDA + PW/SS

 

150 7xGH Plasma + DP

115 RP #3 MB + COTS + LL + Jaws

48 WG TDA + PW/SS

 

Response troops or objective claimers

195 2xGH 2xPlasma + DP

195 2xGH 2xPlasma + DP

 

Assault oriented scouts

160 7xScouts Melta + MOTW + 2xPW

46 WG SB + PF + MB

 

160 7xScouts Melta + MOTW + 2xPW

46 WG SB + PF + MB

 

 

Target saturation and long range support

90 LS-Typhoon TML + HB

90 LS-Typhoon TML + HB

90 LS-Typhoon TML + HB

 

 

Long range covering fire has 14xLC + 7xML and LL. Add in 6xML from LS

230 6xLF 5xML 1xLC + Razorback + TLLC

120 RP #4 COTS + MB + WTT + LL + MH

63 WG TDA + CML

 

290 6xLF 5xLC + Razorback + TLLC

 

290 6xLF 5xLC + Razorback + TLLC

 

2994 Total

 

 

Just a concept army on the ideas in the thread so far

[patchestheclown]

WOW thanks guys for all the great advice!! yeah my friend was all smug telling me how he was going to pummel me from far away and while i did get nervous when i actually sat down and made a list a felt pretty confident as i had a literal horde of an army that only needs really 1 or 2 squads to get into melee before i press the "i win" button

 

anyway thanks for the advice as tempting as those 4 rune priests look our unofficial "dont be a dick" rule probably rules them out ;) some great advice about the long fangs and using rhinos over landraiders. Im thinking maybe either using just 1 or maybe 2 pods to come down and force him to split fire, have a squad or two of scouts to make him sweat and then just the rest of my army rolling towards him with some skyclaws and TWC in their for good times.

 

ill post on here to let you guys know how it went

[HamHamLunchbox]

whats jaws and jotww?

 

despite of that:

 

as many scouts as possible,grey hunters in droppods plus runepriests.

 

should do it :D

[patchestheclown]

jaws and JOTWW both reference the Psychic Power Jaws of the World Wolf that rune priests can use

[Maccon]

A few further notes to add. I also agree with bigdunc, leave the raiders at home, with what you said thats 9 rail guns a turn...at that point you're just eating up points for heavy armor he'll pop.

I agree with the scouts and most of what others have said, but I'll throw in one or two more notes. Most should be sort of obvious but I'll include it anyway. Cover is your friend, it'll keep you safe from the suits (if he's kitted to all plasma its still only six shots per unit...it stinks but its not horrible, and he's gotta be within 12 inches for that.) Also try out MH on your rune priests or T'sW if he's thinking of deep striking the suits. MH is a good bet too, for shooting to be effective with his suits he'll have to get close enough for the power, and even if it doesn't cause any wounds, it'll slow him down and the suits move so much that the dangerous terrain tests should knock out a few of the suits. Also it helps that tau have NO defense against rune priests.

 

As for the scouts, I'd lock down the broadsides with them, engage them in close combat and even if you don't kill them all that fast, they won't be killing you much quicker. This should let you get the rest of your force to his gunline. I also play tau and I feel they live and die by their moblility...at least mine do, so I'm not a big fan of the gunline. Course that might make my suggestions a bit biased. But remember even if he savages your forces, once you're there just a mere handful of wolves will wreck a tau line. Good luck.

[Ullr Direfang]

Just as a quick input: if he is a good tau player he will expect the scouts and do what he can to make it so you wont get to his "better" ranged units. they are good at what they do but once they are expected, they can be countered really easily.

 

but it has been said: a good dynamic list will suit you well

[Stormshrug]

That said, a mop-up squad or two in Pods could be effective. You just have to hope that they arrive AFTER you've entangled his most dangerous elements in combat.

Half your pods always arrive in turn 1, so 2 pods aint gona cut it. and they wont be mopping up :)

 

 

I thought that was only if you did a full drop-pod list.

 

If that's the case, forgo them entirely, then, IMO.

 

 

Regarding "anticipating" scouts: if he moves his better units CLOSER to the bulk of your army, awesome. The point is to prevent him from being able to sit on the back few inches of the board, where he can take maximum advantage of his ridiculous range.

-Stormshrug

[Ullr Direfang]

Regarding "anticipating" scouts: if he moves his better units CLOSER to the bulk of your army, awesome. The point is to prevent him from being able to sit on the back few inches of the board, where he can take maximum advantage of his ridiculous range.

-Stormshrug

 

when i get gun lined by a local tau player all he does is defend the back edge. the further away from him i am the better he says. he doesn't have to move closer, if you can't move on the back edge and be more then 1 inch away from an enemy you can't come on in that spot, so effectively making it so our OBEL wont work the way it does best. a well made tau army can defend the whole back edge and make it so that if anything comes in the side, it may survive 1 more turn max.

[Stormshrug]

a well made tau army can defend the whole back edge and make it so that if anything comes in the side, it may survive 1 more turn max.

 

Really? He can both cover the back line AND prevent your Scouts from just using either side to get into CC on their first turn?

 

That seems impossible. Barring craptons of large, impassible terrain on the sides of the map such that you basically can't even use Outflank, how could he cover the ENTIRE back edge without having troops you can reach within 12 inches of either side?

 

Admittedly, he could protect some of his most important elements by putting them in the center, on the back line, but if you can engage close combat on either flank, you should be able to use that as cover to get the rest of your army into close combat.

 

-Stormshrug

[Arraken]

Just as a quick input: if he is a good tau player he will expect the scouts and do what he can to make it so you wont get to his "better" ranged units. they are good at what they do but once they are expected, they can be countered really easily.

 

but it has been said: a good dynamic list will suit you well

 

Yah, i regularly play against a good Tau player who uses kroot to this effect.

[jjfelber]

Come on Guys, It's only Tau...

 

Go as cheap as possible, I'd say over 2400 pts of Blood Claws in Drop Pods. Bring about 110 BCs in eleven Drop Pods. Drop 60 Wolves first Turn and 50 the next turn. Bring Rune Priests with JotWW and it will be over turn 3. There is no way he can pass enough saves even with a 2+.

 

What a Joke. 3000pts of Tau. The larger the battle the worse off Tau get. Smaller games Tau have an easier time of it.

[Ullr Direfang]

Just as a quick input: if he is a good tau player he will expect the scouts and do what he can to make it so you wont get to his "better" ranged units. they are good at what they do but once they are expected, they can be countered really easily.

 

but it has been said: a good dynamic list will suit you well

 

Yah, i regularly play against a good Tau player who uses kroot to this effect.

 

Yep, to units of kroot is what i usually see too. they tie them up for one turn, run away and then you are sitting in front of their gun line or at least par of it.

[Arraken]

Just as a quick input: if he is a good tau player he will expect the scouts and do what he can to make it so you wont get to his "better" ranged units. they are good at what they do but once they are expected, they can be countered really easily.

 

but it has been said: a good dynamic list will suit you well

 

Yah, i regularly play against a good Tau player who uses kroot to this effect.

 

Yep, to units of kroot is what i usually see too. they tie them up for one turn, run away and then you are sitting in front of their gun line or at least par of it.

 

Yah, they either lurk in cover near his other units or arrive from reserve. Never ever commits them by themselves, but uses them when his other units get charged by either screening or charging into the combat his turn. A unit of Kroot typically annihilates scouts easily and does not really effect his game plan, as they are usually still where they need to be.

 

Or, if you try hide the scouts, they get smart missile podded to death.