Am I assaulting completely wrong?

[Darkjediben]

So I am a college student home for the summer, and unfortunately for me, my only current opponent in my area is a Tau player. I play codex space marine. We are pretty evenly matched, so that's good, but something is just bugging the heck out of me about Assaulting with Jump Infantry. I would love to take more Assault Squads, but they seem pretty much worthless after the first attack. They usually take 2-4 losses getting to the enemy (although lately i've been DSing them, gives them less time to get shot at), and then dominate in CC against the Tau, as pretty much anything does. The problem comes right after that...Once the tau are wiped out or sweeping advanced, we get a consolidation move...but can't consolidate into combat. So...that pretty much means that no matter where i strike, directly afterwards, my ASM squad will be sitting there, out in the open, while the whatever tau squads are around lay into them at rapid fire range. So my questions:

 

1) Am I doing assaulting wrong?

 

2) If that is indeed the way to assault, with only a D6 consolidation move after combat into a non-combat situation, how the heck am i meant to keep my marines alive? Any advice yall have would be appreciated.

 

3) If there's no real answer to the first two, does this mean that the only way to really effectively assault a Tau army is to assault everything they have on the same turn?

 

Thanks for your help!

[Grey Mage]

The thing your missing is that your not doing anything wrong- you are in fact doing too well. This is not particularly unexpected. There are therefore two things you can do about this:

 

1) Support them better- bring in some scouts in a landspeeder storm or some bikers or even a rhino mounted tac squad to be there at the same time to keep your opponent from focusing to much firepower on them.

 

2) Drop two members off the squad, see if you dont hit quite so hard as you did- Tau have fairly good leadership, so if you can cut down the wounds you do by 2-3 you should certainly win combat but have him stay... wich lets you attack him during his turn, taking the rest of the squad out and finishing him off.

 

2a) You could also try to assault two units at once- wich shouldnt seriously hurt your chances when your facing fire warriors but will give you two chances for them to stay and at the very least means your enemy will have fewer things to shoot with afterwords.

[Giga]

I concur with Gray Mage.

 

Another option could be to just get a ton of assault stuff + a bunch of fast melta + mechanized front-moving tacticals, and just try to attack & sweep as many of his units as possible in a single turn of righteous xenocide. Basically, overload his shooting so that he's forced to ignore certain elements of your army.

 

Also, keep in mind that, since Tau suck in assault, tactical marines can stomp them in close combat just as well as assault marines can.

[Brother-Captain Isaac]

+1 on multiple assaults. Your Assault Marines could also bust tanks!

[TyrionTheImp]

Despite going against Tau Doctrines of supposedly "Not needlessly sacrificing troops" winning assaults on the charge is a great way to get marines into the sights of what ever evil killy weapon I might have. Being a Tau player is tough, you have to be able to play your strengths and your weaknesses to do well against even a moderately good opponent with a stronger codex. As a Tau player myself, I haven't exactly mastered that though. ;)

 

My suggestion would be, don't even bring your assault squad, yes it completely OBLITERATES tau in CC (Bar charging kroot perhaps, with hounds), but it's not like tacticals can't do better than them as well. Just bring lots of rhinos with tacticals in them, and drop pods with sternguard (AP 4 or cover ignoring ammo for pillbox kroot) if you have them. However, if you insist on (or are forced to) bring assault marines, the best thing to do is keep them supported, DSing or charging ahead of the army without support means a dead unit, with few exceptions perhaps.

[Frosty the Pyro]

multi assaults, or try to time it so all your assaults hit a the same time. As frankly he cant shoot your people who pop out of assault, if the people who would do the shooting are also locked in combat. Other than that its exactly as GM said, you need to try and find the sweet spot were you dont wipe them in one round, but instead kill them on the second (aka kill them on their turn, AFTER their shooting phase), this can be done by either reducing your body count, choosing not to shoot beforhand, or stringing your unit out so they cant all get engaged in the first round. Its the same as against guard (who die even quicker vs assault marines than firewariors), dont let them use ablative squads.

[Stolid Fox]

This video might have some hints for you: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tE0wUHcoSXA

[Wildfire]

Try combat squadding as well.

[thade]

Wildfire has a good suggestion with combat squads; five assault marines could very easily crush a fire warrior team. The idea with Tau is to charge when you can, because you WILL win. They go down so fast it's embarrassing.

 

In general with Assault Marines, they really should be called "Counter-assault Marines" but I guess it was too much of a mouthful. If they are out on their own they will kill one thing and then die, fast, almost every time. I keep my assault squads behind my tank/gun line, or base, then leap them in front and charge whatever is about to charge or has just charged my front line. On the charge they do a healthy number of hits.

 

Now, Tau will never charge you (if he is charging you, he's got a lot of Kroot and/or is crazy) or even get close enough to do so. In fact, he's likely going to try and stay away from you (if he doesn't, he'll learn to) so in this case it's going to be extremely tempting to jump as fast as possible to them and punch them. One ten man squad broken into two five man squads will crush two units. Two units of fire warriors can easily cost over 400 points. One unit of assault marines is just over half of that. Win. <3

[Wildfire]

Now, Tau will never charge you (if he is charging you, he's got a lot of Kroot and/or is crazy) or even get close enough to do so.

 

The only exception is a Farsight Council, which is actually pretty good in CC (for non-CC specialists, anyways). Though probably not so good in 5th.

[TyrionTheImp]

The only unit any sensible Tau player should be charging with is Kroot, and that's with a lot of them + Kroot hounds. I've stopped playing my Tau though since Blood Angels came out, it's just no contest now, but this is a power armor forum, best not attract the attention of the Inquisition with speak of Xenos!

 

I actually had a funny thing happen today similar to this, but instead I charged a guardian squad with Tacticals...Only 3 marines were actually assaulting, but I killed 3, lost none, he failed Ld test, sweeping advanced and got Dark Reapered to death the following turn. I was actually TRYING not to kill them all, but alas...things do not go such a way. In the end it's all up to dice.

[Grey Mage]

I have seen a TH+SS Wulfen go down to a 4 strong pathfinder unit.... after climbing up a ladder to get them.

 

God that was a bad day.

[Meatman]

Kroot, don't underestimate them. My poor scouts ;)

[ArcticFox]

I have seen a TH+SS Wulfen go down to a 4 strong pathfinder unit.... after climbing up a ladder to get them.

 

God that was a bad day.

 

Not as bad as the day my Bretonnians charged and got 4 hits and rolled 4 '1's for damage...

 

But I digress.

 

My assault marines (Black Templars) typically pick off isolated units and vehicles by jumping across the field, staying in cover, then popping out on targets of opportunity. It's only a 5 man squad but give them meltabombs and suddenly your opponent will start clumping his tanks all together in the most adorable huddle...

[thade]

I have seen a TH+SS Wulfen go down to a 4 strong pathfinder unit.... after climbing up a ladder to get them.

 

God that was a bad day.

 

I hate to say it, GM...but perhaps your Wulfen had a bit too much ale before that deployment? :) Or maybe...not enough?

[DarkGuard]

I played Tau just today, and in true Tau style they did well in combat, drawing against my Tact squad with power weapon in the first round of combat and beating my Captain in one combat (both units died the next turn though), and the Shas'O stomped my poor bike (before being hit the face by a Dread).

 

However, the point if in combat you want to either consolidate into cover (or behind it), or stay in combat with them until it's your turn so you aren't in the open. Sometimes it happens and sometimes it does. My Captain killed only one Tau Fire Warrior, fought he'd be safe from the Broadside for a turn but then they ran and he chased them down, so I was stuck. But the Tact squad killed off their unit in the second turn. No matter how much you plan the dice can still change things.