First battle against new Tau

[Excretos]

Had the first chance to face the new Tau this week with my Daemons, and goodness me it was a gore/daemon ichor splattered affair. We were at 1500, Big Guns never tire, diagonal deployment with 5 objs, which was a good starting point for my opponent as he had more HS choices than me.

Listwise I used:

Thirster (2GR), HoT (Lv 3, +1 S to Psychic), HoS (Steed, Lv 2, 1 GR, Beguilement), Flamers (x3), Horrors, Bloodletters, Plaguebearers, Nurglings, Seekers, Hounds and a DPoK (2GR, Armour, Wings)

Firstly, I know the list isn't great, but I didn't have time to revise it - will cover some thoughts below.

By the end of his turn 2 (he stole initiative) I was in big trouble, as he had wiped out virtually everything I had; by the end of my turn 2 I was in bigger trouble as my HoT rolled dbl6 perils two times in a row and died; my Flamers failed to show; and my Bloodletters were destroyed in the warp... however, I managed to scrape a draw out by the end of turn 6, thanks partly to killing his Ethereal (which grants two Warlord VPs) with soul blaze.

Tau Thoughts:

• Man they've got a lot of firepower! I know that kind of goes without saying, but the sheer volume of dice they can roll really makes a difference. What made it even more impressive was that until turn 5 he hadn't managed to hit with a single markerlight shot - the sheer weight of fire was enough. Given the generally poor Toughness/Save combo that our gribblies encounter, this leads to a lot of dead daemons
• The supporting overwatch rule (any unit within 6" of a charged unit can fire overwatch) is fantastically fluffy, and very nasty. Combined charges, or charges with bait units, are going to be key against the Tau, particularly when they are bunched up.
• The Ethereal is now performing the way it should, providing useful buffs to Tau troops. My opponent primarily used the +1 to pulse weapons in RF range - this is a huge boon, and further increased their output. Likewise his Ld10 bubble meant that his fish didn't run away as much as I would have liked. He is worth a bonus VP if you kill him, and has no save, so is worth bumping off if you can.

Daemon Thoughts:

• Funnily enough, H-t-H is still brutal against Tau - who'dve thunk it. My BT single handledly (pawedly?) kept me in the game by munching through a Crisis Suit squad, Kroot horde and a set of Piranhas, coupled with contesting the key objective at the end of the game. When I hit combat (which due to the Gods cursing me only happened with my BT) it was particularly nasty - ensuring that you are not left exposed in the likely event of sweeping units in one turn is crucial
• Flamers against Tau normal troops are beautiful. My unit of 3 landed right where I wanted them and proceeded to gut two full units of Firewarriors. And guess what - the Tzeentchy shennanigans are not too bad against Tau (T3 means they've a good chance to fail, FNP on them is funny!) and Soul Blaze proceeded to kill the surviving Ethereal the following turn
• I had some very bad luck with my HoT due to Perils and my Horrors (rolled 3 shots both times they tried to shoot) which highlights their weaknesses. However, the S6 nature of shots and the fact they ignore most Tau armour is fantastic against both troops and vehicles - I would be tempted to get another unit for fighting against the Tau
• I run my troops units at min size mostly, because that is the number of models I happen to have. Needless to say that is rubbish - I def need to invest in bigger units to give them greater survivability
• Greater rewards, as we all know, are things of beauty - both my BT and DPoK got FNP 4+ which meant that it took his whole army to kill my DP in a round of shooting (we're talking hundreds of shots) and that my BT only lost one wound all game.
• Nurglings. Ah Nurglings, I love you, I really do. But sadly you are pointless. T3 with no EW means they pop like pus-filled grapes, while the fact that they can't contest, hold or gain Line breaker left them offering nothing. To be fair, I deployed them badly and lost the initiative, however I struggle to see their role in my force. Personally I think the only thing they need to gain is the ability to score line breaker - you could infiltrate them out of the way and force your opponent to choose whether to get to them. But sadly that is not the case.

So overall it was a great game and I really enjoyed facing the Tau - I think the new Codex gets their play style spot on, combining mobility, firepower and fragility. I am loving my Daemons, most fun army I've played in a long while - feel I need to up the Horrors for fighting Tau, change the kit on the underperforming HoS (Psychic doesn't seem worth it unless you get the Slaanesh overwatch power) and drop my beloved Nurglings.

How has everyone else been finding them?

[minigun762]

Nice battle report. Feels like you got unlucky more than anything else.

 

Do you think your 'Thirster would've survived had you not splurged on the rewards?

[Excretos]

The Thirster definitely benefited from the rewards - 4+ FNP makes him ridiculously tough, and the Blade of Blood meant that he could also rampage through squads single handedly (I'd rolled the Fleshbane/Armourbane reward but swapped it out).  I had set up an assault on my opponents gunline between the DPoK and BT flying in - the DPoK absorbed so much shooting in that one turn that he left the BT untouched, which definitely set him up nicely for the rest of the battle.

 

The luck was against me, but such is the whim of the Dark Gods I suppose.  It did show, however, that despite our fragility objectives are everything in a game of 6th Ed, so focussing on them allowed me to stay in touch.

 

One very pleasant change was in being able to run down squads (my normal opponent uses Space Marines who never run!) - at first glance this makes me think that DPoN would miss a trick due to slow and purposeful stopping them from overrunning.

[Smurfalypse]

Very nice battle report homie.

I play vs Tau in most of my games as they are insanely popular in my area, here are some things I picked up from playing so much against them.

 

Try your horrors in a max sized unit and take a Grimiore on the HoT, works wonders.

Flesh Hounds are also great vs Tau (and may other gunline type of armies).

Big units, if the unit is not planned to deepstrike onto an objective (Plaguebearers) than it needs to be a decently high number. Especially shows vs Tau.

 

All in all, considering he stole initiative and you had some bad luck (it sounds like), was very nice for you to pull out a draw man. Well done.

[Excretos]

Thanks mate, was an enjoyable game but I can see where the gaps are.  I use what I have so there have been at min squad size - definitely need to pick up more bodies.

 

I'm hoping to get another game against him, am planning to try the GUO/DPoN combo instead of the Khorne monsters to try out biomancy; and to run a bigger unit of Daemonettes DSing in with a Herald.

 

In terms of expanding my army, I think expanding my Horrors and Hounds will definitely be the first priority.