Best tatics to take down a SM + Tau army

[Tubbylove]

Hi everyone,

 

Looking for a little advice on how best to take on a SM army with Tau Allies. I am new to 40k and my army list is all i have at the moment.  I am hoping to put up a good fight, learn from it and then get more models to stregthen my army at a later date.

 

I don't have the full list of what i am up against yet but he has told me most of the units he will be using;

 

Riptide

hammerhead

fire warriors

Commander shae

Dreds & vindicators. 

Space marines

Termies

 

My army consists of

 

Ragnar + 10 x GH with MOTW, Standard & 2 plasma's  Using a LRC

Rune preist + 3 terminator WG, 1 assualt cannon, 2 Storm bolters, chain fist, power fist & thunder hammer - drop pod

 

10 x GH with MOTW, Standard + 2 plasmas

 

1 Termie WG with Storm sheild + 5 GH with MOTW + standard + Rhino

1 termie WG with Storm shield + 5 GH with MOTW + Standard - Foot slogging

 

1 set of scouts all with snipers

 

5 LF 3 with ML, 1 Plasma Cannon

5 LF 2 with LAscannon, 2 plasma cannon

 

 

Any advice on tatics etc  be most greatful

[d@n]

drop pods. that's how you beat tau

[ORKILL]

...and JoWW.

[Guest Drunk Guardian]

I've been playing a Tau with allied White Scars army recently and I have yet to actually win vs. that particular combo. Usually the lists are made up of some combo of:

 

Cadre Fireblade w/ item that lets them shoot extra shot if they stand still

12x Firewarriors

10x Firewarriors

Missile Suits w/ networked marker drones and shield drones, and one guy equipped with that choose a special rule, ignores cover thing

Sometimes Shadowsun (then suits get plasma / melta instead)

Sometimes Missilesides w/ missile drones & interceptor

Riptide w/ Interceptor

Pathfinders

Ionhead or Skyray

Captain w/ Burning Blade on Bike

6 Bikers w/ 2 grav guns

Tactical squad w/ plasma gun in drop pod

 

There's more that I can't think of off the top of my head.

 

Anyway, Rhinos are swiss cheese against an army like this. Worse, the Tau / White Scars combo does CQC better than Wolves do (at least from what I've seen so far).

 

I believe Drop Pods are the best way to get into the face of the opposing army immediately... but with that said, one Drop Pod won't be sufficient. They'll land, do whatever meager damage they're going to do, and then get torn to shreds by the combined arms of the other army.

 

I haven't tried it yet but I believe Drop Pod spam would be very viable in this case in order to completely overload their deployment zone and survive the inevitable round of shooting that comes after the drop.

[DanPesci]

Ive yet to play the new tau, but from everything ive read (and not to flog a certain dead horse..) but drop podding grey hunters, and jotww rune priests into their gun lines will work wonders.

 

 

Just one point - youve put that your list (which is actually quite a nice starting list by the way!), has a 5 man grey hunter pack with WGTDA and a rhino. Just so you know, terminators cant go in rhinos 

[Bloody Legionnaire]

LOL, I'm going to be facing a BAs/ Tau allies list soon, I guess SM/TAU are popular? Anywho, Have you run a lot of plasma with your LF's like that before? I've always been curious about running more plasma but it seems MLs are so popular, that everything but Lascannons gets over looked. 

I don't know how many drop pods you own, I would definitely try to drop a few more squads instead of keeping them in Rhinos. I'll running an all DP list myself, we'll see how it fares. 

[Oz of the North]

a great way of dealing with them is are you willing to take allies, especially imperial guard allies

[dropped my axe]

New inquisitor allies, you can spam flyers take an orden xenos inquistor with the plasma syphon add him to a drop podding unit and tell those tau to roll them 6s to hit

[dropped my axe]

Also, i know everyone says to max out GH packs but i have had way better results vs tau with 5 man packs staying close together to support each other this way he is forced to spread his shooting out a lot more so his two riptides cant wipe out half my army turn 1! yes its a disadvantage in kill point games but then again so are drop pods

 

this has also worked against a wraith guard spam list

[Tubbylove]

^{Thanks for the replies all.}

 

^{I totally missed that a Terminator can't ride rhino, ill look into it and down size him to PA and SS instead.}   

^{Ill also look at the drop pod option as well as I haven't brought the vehicle's yet, think ill try with rhinos and see how I go and then look to change.  I have also thought about converting the rhino's to razor backs for some  mobile support and then the rest of the squads using drop pods.} 

^{One other thing is that I am now thinking that ragnar is quite a point sink so may switch him out for a couple more WG or an additional rune priest.}    

[MalachiOfRuss]

Check out the video on this post, it shows some specific tips on how to use Rune Priest(s) with Jaws in Pods - along with a great tip on how to minimize the Interceptor fire.

 

http://www.frontlinegaming.org/2013/11/20/guest-video-from-anonymou5-tips-tactics-and-dirty-tricks-grey-hunters/

[d@n]

Legion of the damned are perfect for Tau killing

[dropped my axe]

Legion of the damned are perfect for Tau killing

explain.....???

[Oz of the North]

Legion of the damned are amazing at taking out tau, because flame weaponry is the bane of tau troops choices

[d@n]

Legion of the damned are amazing at taking out tau, because flame weaponry is the bane of tau troops choices

and the strength of tau is all there ap3 fire power, which lotd don't give a single f@*k about due to there inv save, plus gun lines hate anything that deapstrikes. not forgetting that they have ignore cover (tau don't have good armour saves) they cause fear (tau have very low ld)