Fighting Tau...

[Simiel]

How did his crisis teams pickup the relic? I thought only troop models could engage the relic at the end of there movement phase.

 

EDIT- found the page number.

 

    page 131 of the BRB:  "A model in a scoring unit can seize the relic by moving into base contact during the movement phase..."

    His crisis teams are not a scoring unit.

 

Doh! You are of course quite right, this must have been overlooked in the heat of battle, however I'm 90% I would have lost, as he had a relatively unmolested squad of Fire warriors not to far from the relic, and I only had 2.5 combat squads left at that point, also he had First Blood and Line breaker.

 

Hopefully my Greenwing reinforcements will have better luck next game!

[elphilo]

So I played another game versus Tau and I am at a total loss at what to do. The amount of firepower they can put out is unprecedented. They still crumbled in melee, but it was an uphill battle to get into melee because of all that overwatch they can do.

 

I guess one is going to have to try and concentrate fire on firewarrior squads and such, but at that point you're trying to outgun Tau. And thats just not in the cards.

[Azrael Turnbull]

Vs Tau checklist:

[] 1 Whirlwind.

[] 6 unupgraded Tactical squads, especially ones who enjoy using the treadmill.

[] something fast/outflanky.

[] other cheap and random crap to fill the rest of the list.

[] NO expensive units (Pathfinders will be their friends).

[] an undying hunger to currently be playing as Orks or Tyranids.

 

That's all I've got so far; but as soon as I'v developed and tested and much more impressive anti-Tau strategy, I'll let you know.

[Brother Amarel]

I've been facing Tau a bit recently, too. It's been horrifically uphill in every game and the chance of winning has been low to none, thus far. However, for the sake of pooling knowledge here's what's worked:

 

Whirlwind (it's not done much, but for it's cost it's been okay)

Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher (just a pain for them as they have to dedicate something more than Fire Warriors to it)

Ven. Dread (again it's a pain to deal with). Either with Autocannon and Heavy Flamer in the Drop Pod or with Lascannon and M/L in the backfield

Deep Striking Assault Marines with Double Flamer (although I'm not 100% convinced that the cost and risk is worth it).

ADL with Quad Gun (but it's expensive for the return you get for it for DA, imo)

 

And what hasn't worked:

 

Deep Striking or walking Terminators (just too expensive and die to volume of fire)

Bikes (again, expensive and die too easily)

Predator (possibly bad luck, but it just doesn't survive)

Not having enough Marines

 

I'll be playing them again soon and will be taking more Tacs and trying out a Redeemer to distract them with. If I get one-side tabled again, though, I might just give in - most of the time it just doesn't feel like a fair fight (far better shooting, far better tanks, far better big critters, weak in combat (but you just can't get there through all the overwatch)), it's much more fun facing Necrons.

[Brother-Sergeant Bohemond]

from what it seems is you need to remove those pathfinders however possible and then they die fast to everything else. How to go about that, I would recommend Whirlwinds and Landspeeders with twin heavy flamers, just don't deepstrike if they have interceptor!

[Azrael Turnbull]

from what it seems is you need to remove those pathfinders however possible and then they die fast to everything else. How to go about that, I would recommend Whirlwinds and Landspeeders with twin heavy flamers, just don't deepstrike if they have interceptor!

 

Landspeeders are my usual 'go to' heavy weapon unit, but I do not consider taking them against Tau. It would have to concentrate on never being within 30" of any Pulse Rifle.

 

 

I've been facing Tau a bit recently, too. It's been horrifically uphill in every game and the chance of winning has been low to none, thus far. However, for the sake of pooling knowledge here's what's worked:

 

Whirlwind (it's not done much, but for it's cost it's been okay)

Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher (just a pain for them as they have to dedicate something more than Fire Warriors to it)

Ven. Dread (again it's a pain to deal with). Either with Autocannon and Heavy Flamer in the Drop Pod or with Lascannon and M/L in the backfield

Deep Striking Assault Marines with Double Flamer (although I'm not 100% convinced that the cost and risk is worth it).

ADL with Quad Gun (but it's expensive for the return you get for it for DA, imo)

 

And what hasn't worked:

 

Deep Striking or walking Terminators (just too expensive and die to volume of fire)

Bikes (again, expensive and die too easily)

Predator (possibly bad luck, but it just doesn't survive)

Not having enough Marines

 

I'll be playing them again soon and will be taking more Tacs and trying out a Redeemer to distract them with. If I get one-side tabled again, though, I might just give in - most of the time it just doesn't feel like a fair fight (far better shooting, far better tanks, far better big critters, weak in combat (but you just can't get there through all the overwatch)), it's much more fun facing Necrons.

 

Seconded, excep for the bikes and Assualt Marines. Bikes can be precarious whilst in range of everything, but if you turbo boost them up the correct side of the table, they'll weather the fire and cause havoc, even if only two bikes survive.

 

Assault Marines shouldn't deep strike. It comes with too many risks, and if they end up under a pie template, they will not buy back their points cost.

 

However, I'm sure we have all suffered from those games where we fail to make a single 3+ saving throw, and this is a horrible thing to happen to Bikers.

[elphilo]

 

 

from what it seems is you need to remove those pathfinders however possible and then they die fast to everything else. How to go about that, I would recommend Whirlwinds and Landspeeders with twin heavy flamers, just don't deepstrike if they have interceptor!

 

Landspeeders are my usual 'go to' heavy weapon unit, but I do not consider taking them against Tau. It would have to concentrate on never being within 30" of any Pulse Rifle.

 

 

I agree. When playing against Tau the more annoying of the things they can do is the constant peppering of shots from Firewarriors. And it is nothing to sneeze at. Tau are going to make people take transports again.

[Brother Amarel]

 

from what it seems is you need to remove those pathfinders however possible and then they die fast to everything else. How to go about that, I would recommend Whirlwinds and Landspeeders with twin heavy flamers, just don't deepstrike if they have interceptor!

 

Landspeeders are my usual 'go to' heavy weapon unit, but I do not consider taking them against Tau. It would have to concentrate on never being within 30" of any Pulse Rifle.

 

 

>I've been facing Tau a bit recently, too. It's been horrifically uphill in every game and the chance of winning has been low to none, thus far. However, for the sake of pooling knowledge here's what's worked:

 

Whirlwind (it's not done much, but for it's cost it's been okay)

Drop Pod with Deathwind Launcher (just a pain for them as they have to dedicate something more than Fire Warriors to it)

Ven. Dread (again it's a pain to deal with). Either with Autocannon and Heavy Flamer in the Drop Pod or with Lascannon and M/L in the backfield

Deep Striking Assault Marines with Double Flamer (although I'm not 100% convinced that the cost and risk is worth it).

ADL with Quad Gun (but it's expensive for the return you get for it for DA, imo)

 

And what hasn't worked:

 

Deep Striking or walking Terminators (just too expensive and die to volume of fire)

Bikes (again, expensive and die too easily)

Predator (possibly bad luck, but it just doesn't survive)

Not having enough Marines

 

I'll be playing them again soon and will be taking more Tacs and trying out a Redeemer to distract them with. If I get one-side tabled again, though, I might just give in - most of the time it just doesn't feel like a fair fight (far better shooting, far better tanks, far better big critters, weak in combat (but you just can't get there through all the overwatch)), it's much more fun facing Necrons.

 

Seconded, excep for the bikes and Assualt Marines. Bikes can be precarious whilst in range of everything, but if you turbo boost them up the correct side of the table, they'll weather the fire and cause havoc, even if only two bikes survive.

 

Assault Marines shouldn't deep strike. It comes with too many risks, and if they end up under a pie template, they will not buy back their points cost.

 

However, I'm sure we have all suffered from those games where we fail to make a single 3+ saving throw, and this is a horrible thing to happen to Bikers.

 

 

I still take one unit of Bikes & Attack Bike, but I should have said 'more than one unit' (because the points sunk into them are hard to get back - R30", S5 with Marker Lights is hard for more than one unit to avoid).

 

Good point raised on the Deep Striking, but it's relatively easy for DA to avoid mishaps (with Bikes and Drop Pod Locators). The pie plate is still and issue, though (depends on whether you see them as a one hit wonders or expect them to do more, really). 

 

 

 

from what it seems is you need to remove those pathfinders however possible and then they die fast to everything else. How to go about that, I would recommend Whirlwinds and Landspeeders with twin heavy flamers, just don't deepstrike if they have interceptor!

 

Landspeeders are my usual 'go to' heavy weapon unit, but I do not consider taking them against Tau. It would have to concentrate on never being within 30" of any Pulse Rifle.

 

I agree. When playing against Tau the more annoying of the things they can do is the constant peppering of shots from Firewarriors. And it is nothing to sneeze at. Tau are going to make people take transports again.

 

I've considered that, but R30", S5, Rapid Fire weapons really put a halt on anything that isn't at least AV12 (which doesn't really help us).

[BigGumbo]

Tactics that seemed to work for me at the weekend (although both armies were take-all-comers rather than optimised):

 

1. Deny one flank. Focus on one side of the board or the other.

2. Set your focus early and don't get distracted. My Black Knights were tasked with taking out his Riptide and did so in two turns of shooting, for the loss of 3 Knights.

3. Box him in. I may have got lucky with my DSing and his deployment but I was able to ensure that whenever his suits were running away from my termies, they were also running towards my termies. I definitely wasn't all that lucky on DS as I only had two DWT squads and one of those was attached to Belial.

4. Make the most of your mobility. I suckered him by leaving the objective in my deployment zone entirely undefended at the beginning of the game. His two units of Kroot arrived by Outflank to hold the objective at the top of turn 3. By turn 5, five tactical marines and a single Landspeeder typhoon had wiped out both squads.

 

More thoughts to follow...

[BigGumbo]

OK, so, areas where I was fortunate:

 

1. My librarian had Puppet Master, meaning that I could use his firepower against him, which I did to great effect (both Hammerheads and his single Broadside died to "friendly" fire).

2. He deployed half his army on the left flank and half on the right. More concentrated and his shooting advantage would have been amplified.

3. He had no transports or fast vehicles, meaning that my bikes and Rhino-mounted Tac squad had a huge mobility advantage.