Preferred Enemy: Riptide Battlesuit

[Boomkapow]

Hello all, 

 

like many of you (I assume), I have a buddy that just started tau. I feel like I can deal with his entire army except that damned riptide. I feel like every 2 turns (luck?) he has the capability to kill an entire marine squad. It's happened multiple times to me. Last game I played I got him down to 1 wound, but that was focus fire for 2.5 turns. So I was wondering...How do you all take these jerks down. Thanks,

 

-Boomkapow

[Theredknight]

Iv not played against my friend with a new tau army yet, but he has one..

Best way off the top off my head would be sternguard podded with a Tac squad and priest up his quester, those rapid firing wounding on 2+ might help.. Plus then another squads bolter line, give the vets a few combi meltas and the Tac squad a melta gun / multi melta and boom, bye bye riptide.. And hello strong threatening flanking force to deal with!

[CitadelArmyGuy]

Dark Angel Lascannons. Either in Tacs, Devs, and/or Razorbacks. That would be my suggestion-- Lascannons have helped in my own battles against the Riptide in my local meta. That and spreading out-- use hollow box formations. If a Large Blast hits more than 3 models then you are spaced incorrectly.

[ianj253]

Dark Angel Lascannons. Either in Tacs, Devs, and/or Razorbacks. That would be my suggestion-- Lascannons have helped in my own battles against the Riptide in my local meta. That and spreading out-- use hollow box formations. If a Large Blast hits more than 3 models then you are spaced incorrectly.

 

Is the hollow box better than the spear tip? Last time I played riptides I ran a spear tip formation and was only getting hit with 3 by a blast. 

 

As far as killing them, Mephiston could take him down with a force weapon or Multi Melta attack bikes could do the job.

 

Problem with using podded sterguard is the riptide can use interceptor with his AP 2 large blast weapon and kill the contents of your pod. 

[Cmdr Shepard]

Dark Angel Lascannons. Either in Tacs, Devs, and/or Razorbacks. That would be my suggestion-- Lascannons have helped in my own battles against the Riptide in my local meta. That and spreading out-- use hollow box formations. If a Large Blast hits more than 3 models then you are spaced incorrectly.

 

Consider Riptide can get a 3+ invul and can be accompanied by drones with 4+ invul. The problem is the firepower required to bring him down can exceed the Riptide value and that means while you are trying to kill him the rest of the army devastate yours. Keep it in mind and don't follow the bait... if he is used in such way ;)

[Theredknight]

What's it like in combat? That's a nasty blast weapon..and 3+inv save? No overly hard units here lol

[Ushtarador]

If the riptide ever gets locked in cc, he usually stays there for a long time. I feel like that's the best option to deal with him :) the S8 DS2 template with interceptor makes it very dangerous to deepstrike within his LOS though. Pods are ok because you can spread out before it can shoot, but regular deepstriking is suicidal.

[Theredknight]

2x combat squad assault marines? A melta in each, maybe stick a priest in one and give him and the sgt a fist each? Pricey I know, but at least he can only blast one half..

Also maybe supported by something else ?

 

How about a raven? Tl mm or typhoon, tl las cannons and hurricanes? He can't intercept because of blast weapon. Then they are free to do something else.

[Memento Of Prospero]

Trying to shoot it down will take too big of an investment for so little return.

 

Things that will take it out in one round:

 

A libby dreadnought with a force axe.

Death Company with power Axes/Fists.

Sanguinary Guard

Any Flavour of Terminators.

 

What you need to do however, is be able to deliver these units into close combat with it. Obviously Death Company, Sanguinary Guard and the Libby dreadnought can deliver themselves thanks to jump packs - the terminators will need a delivery system to catch up with it. Either a Landraider or a Storm Raven will do the trick.

[Ushtarador]

Also, keep in mind that the riptide usually isn't the dangerous thing about a Tau army - it's the firewarriors hitting you with 10000 S5 shots at BS4/5 that will kill you. If you waste too much resources on bringing down that suit, you won't recover. It doesn't give you any points (except in one mission), and it can't score.

 

Killing 2-3 marines per turn won't bring your army down, almost everything else deals more damage per points than a riptide. The riptide is awesome to discourage deepstriking and it looks very dangerous compared to those firewarriors, but I feel that its psychological impact is a lot stronger than the guns it carries.

[Boomkapow]

I've got no issues with the fire warriors. The fragioso and short range bolter fire takes care of that. Love the other insight.

[Zynk Kaladin]

Idk the riptide exact rules, but I've faced more than my fair share of IG russes in the past. Box or spearhead formations are a marvelous counter to large blast templates, essentially allowing you to disregard the potency of their heavy weapons so you can worry about objectives and your opponent's troops. I think CAG still has pictures of such formations in his account.

 

I prefer box formation because you remain in coherency after losses (unless spear tip is different than what I'm thinking?)

 

Other than that, once you've gotten into CC range against Tau you're gonna have a fun time.

[Ushtarador]

I've got no issues with the fire warriors. The fragioso and short range bolter fire takes care of that. Love the other insight.

 

If the Tau positions himself correctly, your Fragioso has a good chance of eating some melta shot to the face as soon as you disembark, I think that it will become very hard to pull this off once Tau players become experienced with their codex.

[CitadelArmyGuy]

Is the hollow box better than the spear tip? Last time I played riptides I ran a spear tip formation and was only getting hit with 3 by a blast.

Yes good call, any of the various formations that only allow 3 hits from a Large Blast will work. For models with 25mm bases and 2" coherency the minimum hits you can achieve is 3 from the 5" plate. If the Riptide is only killing 3 models per turn, then you can usually safely ignore it because as Cmdr Shepard pointed out, many times the resources required to put it down are greater in cost than the Ruptide itself.

 

That said, many of the ideas put forth in the thread are good thoughts. Any Str8 AP2 or better profile are the obvious answer, but a rather curious solution might a plain old standard Librarian with Force Axe. Save his warp charge for his Force check... could be hilarious. The ASM he is attached to have a good chance of killing off the drones (if shooting didn't already) and if there is a Priest nearby the Lib's Force Axe is Strength 6.

 

Also, even if Drones survive, if you make sure the ASM lock-up the Drones so that the Libby is basing the Riptide but no drones, the Libbys attacks must be allocated to the Riptide first.

 

Attacks hit on 3s, then wound on 4s, then 5++ which means each attack has an 11% chance to get through, and you'll have 4 attacks. Worth a shot.

[Demoulius]

Doesent the riptide have an 2+ armour save? (only browsed past it when the codex came out. no clue what it does )

At any rate, its a monstrous creature so will crunch marines in combat unless they have an invul save (or FnP) so im not to sure if attacking it in combat is such a good idea...

Then again tau are terrible in combat as a general rule so maybe this fellow follows that as well :D

[Memento Of Prospero]

Doesent the riptide have an 2+ armour save? (only browsed past it when the codex came out. no clue what it does )

At any rate, its a monstrous creature so will crunch marines in combat unless they have an invul save (or FnP) so im not to sure if attacking it in combat is such a good idea...

Then again tau are terrible in combat as a general rule so maybe this fellow follows that as well

It has poor combat stats.

[Demoulius]

Charge him in combat and tear him a new one!

[Xenith]

Erm, would the obvious answer be Mephiston?

 

AFAIK, Tau can't shut down his powers, short of allies, Mephs cares not for S8 AP2 blasts.

 

Present the opponent with Meph, a raven and some other armour (Drop pod dread?) to split the rail gun fire and you should be onto a winner.

[Memento Of Prospero]

Erm, would the obvious answer be Mephiston?

 

AFAIK, Tau can't shut down his powers, short of allies, Mephs cares not for S8 AP2 blasts.

 

Present the opponent with Meph, a raven and some other armour (Drop pod dread?) to split the rail gun fire and you should be onto a winner.

 

2+ save tanks mephiston all day. Not a good trade.

[Ushtarador]

Mephiston is quite ok, you rely on a failed 2+ save, but that shouldn't be too hard to achieve. However, I feel there might be more important targets for him to chop up. Regular assault marines without an axe will be whittled down though, the riptide still has 3 attacks hitting on 4+, wounding on 2+ and ignoring armor. They are ok for holding him up for a few turns, but expect to lose 1-2 per phase.

[ASSASSINAWOKEN]

What about a small precision strike Vanguard Squad with a PF or TH and or two special weapons? The Riptide blows in CC and the Vanguard Squad can assault when they arrive from deep strike. The special weapons might take a wound or two off and then the PF can help remove the rest. Maybe toss the special weapons for another PF or TH as you need to get past the T5 if it is T5.  A TH might be superior to a PF, because it can reduce him to I1 making sure you don't have to take extra casualties prior to the PF or TH striking.

[Ushtarador]

The Vanguard Vets arrive and get blasted to bits by the S8 DS2 interceptor template of the riptide :/

[Nexus25]

Death Company with Jump Packs, fists, PW Axes, Melta Bomb. Since you can throw a melta bomb at MCs.

[ASSASSINAWOKEN]

The Vanguard Vets arrive and get blasted to bits by the S8 DS2 interceptor template of the riptide :/

 

You mean it can shoot deep striking units before they land? The templates are useless or D3 in the case of a flamer when overwatch occurs. However I didn't think if the suit is surrounded by other tau units the mass overwatch firepower may be too great to assault anyway.

[Ushtarador]

Riptides are usually equipped with a module that gives them Interceptor, so at the end of its opponent's movement phase, it can shoot one weapon at something that arrived from reserves in that movement phase. So basically you put your VVs on the table in a nice DS clump, and then at the end of your movement phase the Tau player can shoot them with the big blast. The weapon is not allowed to shoot in the next regular shooting phase, but your VVs are still dead :/

The overwatch can get ridiculous as well, but then the Tau player has to bunch up, which in turn makes it easier to lock multiple units into cc, so it's a double-edged sword.