Taking Back Damocles - Anti-Tau Tactica

[CoffeeGrunt]

This thread will be a collection of small tactical ploys, advice and recommendations for fighting and beating off the Tau. I've personally been playing this army solely for the last year, against several different armies and many different players. The focus of this article will not be in a hyper-competitive setting, as that is an arena seemingly dominated by Deathstars, which Tau cannot access to any major degree.

 

How Do The Tau Fight?

 

The Tau, much like the Guard, are oriented very much around Shooting. However, their Shooting to Melee ratio is thrown all the way up to the Shooting end, and even a lowly Guardsmen can tear a Fire Warrior a new one in combat. This is often considered the best place to catch them, and many players will throw units into combat in the hope of killing and Sweeping a Tau unit, only to take a hefty fine from their Overwatch and Supporting Fire abilities. 

 

The Tau currently lack Psychic support to any real degree, with the Farsight supplement only offering a Talisman that gives allows the Bearer and units within 12" to Deny offensive spells on a 4+. Buff spells such as the ever-excellent Prescience will go off mostly without a hitch against Tau, though some will still splice in Eldar to buff this up. It's worth noting that TauDar has fallen by the wayside since 7th dropped, as the Eldar can no longer replace Tau's fragile support elements with their essential Pyschic buffing.

 

This means that you're more likely now to see pure Tau, often with a Buff Commander, plenty of Markerlights, and Riptides. Fire Warriors and/or Kroot will fill the Troops, with the opponent likely to take Broadsides, Crisis Suits and possibly Hammerheads in support of these. 

 

Lights Out

 

First thing to do when playing against a Tau player, is understand the role of everything in their list. While Imperial armies can add Meltas, Flamers, Plasma Guns, etc to their squads to diversify roles, the Tau are sent in equipped to do a single job excellently if they receive the proper support. The first thing you have to identify is the Markerlights.

 

Markerlights have the range of a Heavy Bolter, and thus can reach across a table fairly comfortably to tag units. They also only need to Hit, never roll to Wound, and thus you will get no Saves of any kind against them. The Markerlight Tokens generated can then buff the BS of another unit firing at that target by 1 for each token spent. They may also spend 2 to completely Ignore Cover. These are what make Tau function, and they are essential to the army being able to cut down oncoming Assaulters in order to stay on the table after turn 3.

 

Markerlights are Heavy, and so Infantry units carrying them often will lose a lot of effectiveness if they move. Pinning is also worth using against lighter Markerlight carriers, and forcing the opponent to Go to Ground or risk losing a squad also works well to effectively negate that squad.

 

Markerlights are typically deployed in a handful of flavours:

 

• Pathfinders: These guys have the stats of a standard Guardsman except CC stats where they are worse. Same Strength, Toughness, Armour, Ballistic Skill and Leadership. They cost over twice as many points as one for a simple reason: they carry a Markerlight. Despite this, they only have a token amount of firepower to fend off Assaulters, and will only be deployed in squads of 4-8 on average, rarely 10 as this causes a slight surplus of Markerlights on a target. Treat them as you would any other backfield, cover-camping, T3/5+ unit, Flamers will end the squad on a few decent rolls, Fire On My Target gives them a taste of their own medicine.
• Marker Drones: Marker Drones will always be accompanied by a Commander, they are simply worthless without him. He turns them from an Ork Ballistic Skill all the way up to a Chapter Master's. This unit is mobile, able to move and fire at full BS thanks to Relentless. They can Jetpack 2D6 in the Assault Phase, allowing them to, "Jump, Shoot, Jump," and generally be an elusive pain in the neck. A favourite of most players, they're efficient, fast, and incredibly annoying to an opponent. The Commander will often be up front tanking for the squad.
• Tetras: Forge World Only, ignore this if you're averse to them. Not that you need to be. Granted, they're cheap, highly mobile with Fast Skimmer status, and have a two-shot, Twin-Linked Markerlight. You'll see these in swarms, taken for their reliability, speed and cheapness. However, they are effectively Land Speeders in terms of durability. Autocannons will tear them apart, or force them to Jink and ruin their low-volume, high-accuracy Markerlight appeal.
• Sniper Teams: Very rarely of concern to a Guard army, these Teams are capable of taking 3 BS5 Markerlights to supplement the Sniper Drones with. Durable thanks to Stealth and majority T4, these will often have an Ethereal attached to provide a safe haven for a Gunline, buff the Sniper Drones, and provide 5 BS5 Markerlights from a safe haven. This should be a high priority, as killing the squad will remove a potent Markerlight threat, and killing the Ethereal grants a Victory Point. Two if he's a Warlord, (though no sensible Tau player would do that.)

Other forms exist, including Skyrays, Sunsharks, and Cadre Fireblades. These are too low-volume and expensive to build a strategy around, however. Skyrays are noteworthy due to their Skyfire ability, allowing them to assist other Tau in bringing down a Flier. Sunsharks are easy to bring down, a Hydra will scare it into Jinking or bring it down in short order, especially on the Side and Rear armour. Fireblades will be hiding in the backfield with Fire Warriors, and their single BS5 Markerlight can Split Fire, making it a helpful nuisance more than a threat.

 

Unit Tactica and Counter-Tactica

 

This section will discuss the units available to the Tau, and offer advice on Weaknesses and Counters to each. Some will be relatively simple to beat, others will be very varied and multi-functional in their roles.

 

HQ

 

Commander Farsight

 

Farsight is the only true Close Combat unit in the Tau Codex. Others are surprisingly capable against the right targets, but Farsight is universally useful with above-Astartes Initiative, Strength and Weapon Skill, along with the Dawn Blade being AP2 and Armourbane without Unwieldy. At S5 AP2, his attacks really hurt...if you cared about any AP below 4. Against Guard, he'll be ignoring your Infantry and gunning for the tanks. His no-scatter-on-Deep-Strike ability really helps him get in position, but sadly he has to wait a turn to charge, and being a Marine with 4 Wounds and a 4++, you'll have plenty of S8 AP3 or better weapons that can cut him down in short order.

 

He won't be alone, though. There is the Farsight Bomb, pretty much the only Deathstar available to the Tau. It consists of 7 additional Bodyguards armed with two weapons and a Target Lock. Farsight's precision Deep Strike capabilities means that this blob o' fishmen can land wherever they please, escorted by up to 14 ablative Drones, and individually pick ideal targets to wreck your day. This is designed to cripple your army in one, swift strike. A true Mont'ka setup. It will be the vast majority of their army's power landing in one fell swoop. The trick is to bubble wrap your tanks with Guardsmen to prevent them getting that essential 9" Melta range on their Fusion Blasters. Saving your tanks will allow you to blast them to kingdom-come. Even a standard Battle Cannon plate will erase any Crisis Suits underneath it, as granting them an Invuln is expensive. Definitely a one-trick pony, this setup, and thus is relatively unpopular since it leaves a very fragile force waiting on the table for it to arrive.

 

Commander Shadowsun

 

Shadowsun is an interesting one, though rarely deployed, she's a personal favourite of mine. Excellent at sniping Characters out of squads, buffs the Cover Saves of her unit by 3 with Stealth/Shrouded, and gets a Warlord Trait granting a 3D6 Jetpack move, she's the ultimate Kau'yon fighter, a slippery force that appears, decimates the opposition, then vanishes. However, she's also hilariously squishy, and is useless unless attached to Stealth Suits or Crisis Suits. For both of these, AP3 or better weaponry with Fire On My Target will do the job effortlessly. Using Missile Launchers or Lascannons will easily see the job done.

 

She may sometimes appear in the Farsight Bomb to grant the unit a bit of extra speed and durability. However, Fire On My Target will help you with the Cover Save buffing, while her mobility is only a slight advantage given that the Bomb as a whole will be aiming to stay fairly close to your forces. Jumping into Terrain risks a lot of Dangerous Terrain tests, and can be pretty dangerous for a blob that size.

 

Aun'shi / Aun'va

 

Two HQs I have personally never played, never seen in a list on any Tau forum, and have never seen played or even painted in a blog. Aun'va has a peculiar durability with his Paradox of Duality. He basically gets an extra Feel No Pain-esque save after all others, (including an amazing 5+ Armour Save.) With no Eternal Warrior and no ability to join other units to hide in, you can very realistically kill him and his retinue with a single Multilaser, as it will double out their Toughness, and only grant them a 5+/6+ in the open. 

 

Aun'shi is an Ethereal designed for close combat, and costs double an Ethereal with Honour Blade's cost. People don't take Honour Blades for a reason. He's pretty cool, with a 4++ that he can choose to re-roll when in a challenge, and with above-Astartes offensive close combat abilities as well as Haywire Grenades he's not terrible. However he's still a T3 Ethereal, and like all other Ethereals, both these candidates give an extra Victory Point for dying and thus should be ignored.

 

Darkstrider

 

Much like Farsight, Darkstrider seems to manifest in a single tactical ploy. His is Outflanking with a squad of either Fire Warriors or Special Weapon Pathfinders, using his abilities to reduce the Toughness of their target by 1. Nasty, but when your army's T3 you don't really care, Pulse Weaponry wounds you on 2s, and Rail Rifles/Ion Rifles doubled you out as-is. He may see some use in attempts to wrest a flank from you if it's already crumbling, but he's never going to be the Warlord, and since he's most commonly deployed with a T3/5+ unit, he's not going to be too hard to kill either.

 

Ethereal

 

Once the king of the Tau Gunline, these have been mostly relegated due to the proliferation of Barrage weaponry combined with most people actually using some real Line of Sight Blocking Terrain against Tau. These guys can really buff Fire Warriors and Sniper Teams to beautiful levels, and with a few Markerlights will chew right through blobs at close range. If he's hiding at the back, drop the sky on him. He has no Armour Save at all, and thus a failed Look Out, Sir will see him drop instantly against S6+ Barrage, of which we have plenty. You also get a free Victory Point for killing him, and he hands out a 12" circle of Ld10 buffing, which will really hurt the Tau when it collapses.

 

Cadre Fireblade

 

Often used as a side HQ option alongside the bigger names, the Fireblade is cheap and offers a couple of nice buffs. Firstly he grants Fire Warriors an extra shot at any range if they don't move, effectively working like a static FRFSRF. He also can split-fire with a BS5 Markerlight to help another squad out. Overall, a useful unit in cheaper games or allied detachments, but rarely seen outside of Gunlines as there's simply better options to take for raw firepower and mobility.

 

The Shas'O Commander

 

Saving the best 'til last, the Shas'O Commander. This guy is customisable to a beautiful degree, and a tactica could be written alone on the different permutations and how best to use and defeat them. For the sake of sanity and conciseness, I'll go over the popular options, some of which are hybridised or crossed-over with one-another:

 

• The O'Mortal: This normally includes Iridium Armour, Stim Injectors and Shield Generators to make a pretty tough fishman. With T5, 2+/4++/5+FNP, this gets eats lead for breakfast, and can still mount two weapons at BS5 to spit it back out. The popular tactic is to give them Autocannon-equivalents and have them tanking for a squad, laughing at your feeble Lascannons. The only thing they really fear is Demolisher Cannons. This negates their FNP and Armour, risks Instant Death, and leaves them on a 4++. A good hit on the squad should have him trying to pass off several Look Out, Sir rolls to his compatriots, reversing his role and slaughtering the squad to save his Warlord VP. Feel free to be a bit smug when you drop the plate on him.
• The Disc'O: Typically taking the Tau's Autocannon equivalents and accompanying Marker Drones, this guy will be a cheap but functional setup. Two Missile Pods for 36" Autocannon fire at BS5, a Target Lock to fire at something his Marker Drones aren't firing at, and a Drone Controller to buff them to BS5, he's an extremely common and quite effective build. Able to mount the Puretide Chip though not the most efficient use of it, he'll wreck light armour with relative ease while marking your squads up for other units. Drop pie plates on him, whither him under AP3 fire, or torrents of Lasfire. He'll likely be tanking for the Drones, but few pay for the 2+ Armour and definitely not the 4++ on him, so he'll start killing them off to live soon enough. The Drones are utterly worthless without him anyway.
• The Flakk'O: Only really a problem if you're running Fliers, the Flakk'O is typically rolling with two Missile Pods, Interceptor and Skyfire. One of the few things in the Codex able to reliably bring down a Flier before it even gets to shoot, he's a niche unit and rarely taken, but he still might appear and ruin your day. Like the Disc'O, unlikely to be the Warlord, but possible in smaller games.
• Buff'O The Cover Slayer: You probably know him, you definitely hate him. Gone are the days of this guy floating beside big brother Riptide, he now has to aid lesser units. Not often seen with Broadsides as they're already Twin-Linked, this unit has gone out of fashion as his setup requires the sacrifice of 2 BS5 weapons, and costs slightly more than those weapons would. On most units, he simply isn't as effective as a simple Tau Commander with two guns would be. His inability to Battle Brother ally with any non-Tau means his buffing is strictly in-Codex now. However, expect to see him leading some units here and there, mainly Crisis Suits and potentially Broadsides to let them Ignore Cover and get Tank Hunters.

 

Standard Commanders are an extremely common extra loadout, with varied potential. Mounting two of the Fusion Blaster, Plasma Rifles, Missile Pods or occasionally Burst Cannons. You'll never see him with Flamers, as it's a waste of his excellent BS. The one-per-detachment weapons are also rarely used, as they don't synergise well with other options, and they won't mount mixed weapon setups as those are pretty inefficient. These are typically taken cheap and sent out to lead units with the same weapons they carry. Not much to say about them, and few surprises to be had. They may take Vectored Retro Thrusters to gain Hit and Run, which makes them slippery but only on Initiative 3 without Drones. They still have to survive that combat, and Power Weapons make that a bit unlikely. The Tau player is also pretty unlikely to declare a challenge.

 

That's it for now from me. Next I think I'll do Troops unless anyone has specific questions or things they want tips on. Hopefully we can make this a useful resource on how to kill blue people!

[WarriorFish]

Very well written Coffee, I think you should add a bit later on our units such as good ones to take as counters etc. Even if that's just lots of artillery :P

[Frater Cornelius]

In my experience, the best way to remove Pathfinders turn 1 and thus crippling their shooting is either Hellhound with an effective range of 40"-42" turn 1 when playing Dawn of War deployment(12" deployment, 12" movement, Torrent + Template), Eradicator or Wyvern. All of them ignore cover, are in range turn 1 and either ignore armour or drown them in wounds. That is the big disadvantage of Tau Pathfinders, Markerlights are 'Heavy 1', thus he need to set them up with line of sight and range turn 1 to fully use them. This is where our tanks do their job ;)

[CoffeeGrunt]

Eradicators, Flamers, Hellhounds, all of these things make nice and short work of Pathfinders, (and the AP4 ones do a number on Fire Warriors, too!)

 

Once I get to the other units, I'll add further tips for weapons to counter them. Typically, Lascannons are a safe bet. Lascannons will insta-kill Crisis and Broadside suits easily. They're also really useful for hammering Riptides into submission en masse.

[Frater Cornelius]

Aside from trippletide, the single scariest thing to any IG list with any armour is definitely Longstrike. He is tricky to deal with because he is well armoured. With the new edition you can force him to jink and thus make snap shots next turn (which will remain snap shots if you took out all the markers). Still, his range makes him a very nasty piece of fish :S

[CoffeeGrunt]

Longstrike has never been that great for me. Sure, against Guard he's all but guaranteed to Hit. However, S10 with no special rules isn't the most reliable way to punch through AV14, even with re-rolls. Then he needs a 5+ on the Damage Table to really pay for himself. :/

 

You'll see most Anti Tank in the form of Fusion Blasters, now, and most likely mounted on Riptides and Crisis Suits.

[WarriorFish]

Plus he gets a single shot right? Guard should have the numbers to weather that, especially if he's not guaranteed to blow a tank up so he could easily be a red herring.

 

Ignores cover is priceless, no army should leave home without some. With how easy it is for Guard there are no excuses, don't forget the trusty Eradicator is an excellent dedicated infantry killer. I've lost count of the number of times it has vaporised entire squads to let my infantry leisurely take an objective - and that was before the significant price drop in the new codex! :D

 

I look forward to reading the next instalment Coffee :)

[CoffeeGrunt]

Yeah, Longstrike can at absolute best kill a single tank a turn, but that's highly unlikely. Blowing off a gun isn't too scary for Guard, as you normally have 4 per tank. Returning the favour has a 50/50 chance of making Longstrike utterly useless, though.

 

I run him because Railgun Hammerheads are cool, and because I tend to run more casual lists when playing at the LGS. My recent one has a swarm of Piranha backed by a Razorshark, because those are just good enough now to take, but also very far from an auto-include.

[Captain Juan Juarez]

That was an absolute waste of my time..

 

 

I'm at work so that isn't a bad thing! :D Never really known anything about the blue Gundam-loving Fish-men other than "GUNZ!!! MOOOOAAAAR GUNZ!!!!!" so that was an interesting read and will be intrigued to see more.

[Ulrock]

What is the best way to deal with multiple riptides at 1850? They are murdering my armour, simply charging into combat and destroying them.

[Ulrock]

Since the riptides are jet pack monstrous creatures does that mean that we CAN NOT twin link lascannons against them? Since they have jet pack in front of monstrous creatures?

[WarriorFish]

Monstrous Creature is the unit type, jet or not so anyone trying to say otherwise deserves the Dreadsock. If they complain, tell them it only counts as a sock for unit type purposes...

[Frater Cornelius]

Killing Riptides?

Well, you can just tarpit them in a blob of 30 guardmen. He is only going to kill 1-2 a turn and he does not have hit-and-run. If you have a melta bomb on a sarge or crack grenades (lol) on GM, you will win this fight by attrition.

Naturally, catching a Riptide in melee isn't easy, so alternatively send every available unit with plasmas and/or meltas in his general direction. Also las/plasma cannons. If all else fails, pask punisher and his wingman should remove 1 riptide a turn if they get within 24 inches (at least with my setup, but he usually removes everything within the same postal code, so it ain't suprising).

 

Psychic Shriek also destroys Riptides (even more so with it's new and improved 18" range) as long as there isn't a ToAM nearby, which should happen more often now.

 

Monstrous Creature is the unit type, jet or not so anyone trying to say otherwise deserves the Dreadsock. If they complain, tell them it only counts as a sock for unit type purposes...

I lol'd.

[CoffeeGrunt]

Lascannons are a reliable way of bringing down a Tide. Given the nerf to Smash, you'll likely not see them charging your Armour so much now. Concentrating fire on a Tide at a time will help deal out the pain. As Guard, I'd target the ones carrying Heavy Burst Cannons first, as they will be unlikely to have Shields charged, and are outfitted to cut down Guardsmen but can also charge up to do a number on Armour if needed. They're also potent Anti-Air.

 

IonTides aren't too much of a concern, they're okay Anti-Armour but not the best. To turn the Ion accelerator into a tank hunter or fire the Fusion Blasters twice, they'll need to forgo shielding. Hammering them with AP2 at a time like this is an easy way to bring one down in short order. Alternatively, Conscipts and a Priest can make a cheap tarpit that'll hold it all game long. The Priest can go for Smash to try and put Wounds on the Tide fairly reliably.

 

Remember that most people running Triptide are trying to use it to cover weaknesses and will use the 'Tides to do everything in the army as a simple point-and-shoot weapon. Losing one hurts them, losing most of them kills them.

 

Another trick is to leave them on one Wound, as they'll never risk the Nova Charge while it's in such a fragile state.

[WarriorFish]

Good advice Coffee, when are you planning the next update on the tactica? Not that I want to rush you... :P

[CoffeeGrunt]

And onto the next section, Tau Troops!

 

Tau Troops are probably their weakest slot, and generally aren't the point-efficient facebeaters that the rest of the Codex can be, (except the Fliers and Vespid, but more on that later.) They are good, and I personally enjoy fielding all the options. However, the Tau playerbase is typically divided between taking minimal Troops to save points for the real firepower, or take decently-sized squads to maximise their limited output.

 

Fire Warriors:

 

Ah, the fiery, little Shas'la. Equipped with arguably the most powerful standard Infantry weapon in the game, Fire Warriors are the bane of Guardsmen due to their Pulse Rifles. Effectively a Bolter with +1S and +6" range, they can put a Guardsmen down in the open on a 2+ if they hit, though hitting is the hard part. Like almost every outside the HQ slot for Tau, Fire Warriors have a piddly Ballistic Skill of 3, which means that without Markerlight support their firepower output is relatively limited. Especially if you have Guardsmen in cover, they will struggle to put down a worthy amount for their cost.

 

As is their claim to fame, they are worthless in close combat. With a WS and Initiative of 2, Guardsmen will be hitting first and on 3s, and if en masse can and will tear the squad a new one. However, Fire Warriors are equipped with Photon Grenades, allowing them to trim away the extra attack normally given for the charge, which can take a lot of steam out of some charging Guardsmen. In addition, their weapons are potent on Overwatch, especially with Supporting Fire.

 

Supporting Fire allows any other Tau units within 6" to also fire Overwatch in support of the one being charged. This allows a well dug-in Tau force to have Crisis Teams, Pathfinders or other Fire Warriors to augment their Overwatch, presenting another barrier to that tasty close quarters kill. This will only be a problem with extremely dug-in Tau Gunlines, and the perfect antidote is Barrage weaponry with the Pinning order will tear through their lines in short order. It may be worth trying Mortar teams for this role, though Wyverns will certainly chew through Fire Warriors very quickly, the Ignores Cover means your opponent won't consider Going To Ground and removing their Overwatch ability.

 

Additionally, while Fire Warriors are brutal against anything with a 5+ save, the move to a 4+ save negates half their firepower. With absolutely no other weapon types to trade or upgrade to, Fire Warriors facing any better than a 5+ Armour Save suddenly become much less effective, even with Markerlight support. Veterans are well equipped as a hard counter as a result, they have Objective Secured to wrestle the point from them, and can bring Flamers and Heavy Flamers to evaporate the squad if needed. Hellhounds are also a good way to threaten Fire Warriors, if not the Heavy Flamers on a Chimera. Bear in mind that Tau are excellent at anti-light vehicle fire, so you'll have to saturate their dedicated units for this to work. Simply sending a single Hellhound up will net you a smoking wreck and some more Pulse Rounds cutting through your Guardsmen.

 

Devilfish:

 

Fire Warriors may also take Devilfish, which grants them a Super-Scoring AV12/11/10 transport for about 95pts with upgrades. Expensive and lacking in firepower, you'll likely not see this unit in play except when saturating your lines. Their party trick is their ability to Jink and, with Disruption Pods, gain a 3+ Cover Save. They are the only reliably way for Fire Warriors to push onto your lines and threaten your table half, and thus will be a segment of a more aggressive list, likely with Crisis Suits and Riptides for pressure application. Since their firepower is pitiful, the Tau player won't be scared to Jink, and thus it may be worth using Fire On My Target to bring one down with weapons team fire. Autocannons are more likely to strip the Hull Points needed, and then artillery is useful for removing the Fire Warriors that will disembark behind the wreck. Other than this, Devilfish have very few tricks or fancy rules, and will go down to S7 fire like any other light transport.

 

Kroot:

 

Kroot are Tau's bargain Troop unit, and the most versatile unit in their Codex as well as being one of the most versatile in the game. Kroot are cheap, running at 7pts with the pretty mandatory Sniper upgrade. They can come in squads of 10-20, and pack an AP6 Bolter with the option to becoming a Heavy 1 Sniper with the same range. They are fragile at T3/6+, but gain Stealth in Forests and can Infiltrate and Outflank. Kroot are a useful stop-gap unit, able to Infiltrate up to hold a building and slow your advance, Outflank into your lines to deliver 40 shots of S4 pain, and generally be a nuisance to your Troops. If needed, they can charge to deliver two attacks each at AP5 due to their bladed rifles. 

 

They can take Krootoxes to augment their firepower, but few do as three of them double's the squad's cost for not to much gain. They can also take Kroot Hounds for ablative Wounds and some close quarters help, but since the squad itself is practically ablative wounds, you'll only see them with one Hound at most, to confer Acute Senses for the Outflank re-roll. This makes them a very reliable unit to be where they're needed, and drown a squad in bullets.

 

The best counters to Kroot are any kind of Ignores Cover weapon. They are insanely fragile at T3/6+. Wyverns, Flamers, or even Lasguns with Fire On My Target will reap a heavy toll on the squad. Given a paltry Leadership of 7, they will likely break, and the Shaper upgrade is too pricey for many to bother with. Keep your flanks covered with some expendable Guardsmen in anticipation of their arrival, weather the storm of fire they bring, and then repay it in kind. While they can receive Markerlight bonuses and do benefit massively from them, few will divert them to these units if they have Riptides and Crisis Suits on the field, especially if you've been putting the required pressure and pain onto these sources.

 

Crisis Suits:

 

Moved here because they are often taken as Troops as part of the Farsight Enclaves Supplement, either as the Primary or as an Allied Detachment. Crisis Suits are simply awesome, but that may be the gundam fan in me talking. As it stands, a list composed entirely of Crisis Suits will be an Elite army, the whole thing a collection of sharp razors designed to cut the essential arteries of your army and leave it floundering. Able to mount a devastating array of weaponry, the squads will typically be equipped all as one and tailored to a particular battlefield task. 

 

Burst Cannon or Flamer Crisis Suits are the cheapest of the bunch, and the only anti-Horde firepower that the Enclaves can muster. Enclaves lists struggle to deal the necessary quantity of fire to deal with Hordes, especially in a TAC list. Most equip the majority of their suits with Plasma, aiming to counter similarly Elite armies like Marines. With Guard, you have the numbers and the tanks to really steamroll such an army.

 

Burst Cannons can put out 8 shots of S5 AP5 Pulse goodness, but will demand Markerlights to really pay for themselves. Said Markerlights will still be attached to fragile, dedicated squads. "All Suits" lists will use Drones to supply Markerlights, and these can be annihilated with any AP4 Barrage weapon. Once the Markerlights are down, the army will struggle to apply any reliable firepower as it needs to do. This means that you can move up the field through Cover relatively unchallenged. Plasma, Battle Cannons, Missile Launchers and Lascannons are all born to kill Crisis Suits. Being a two Wound Marine with Jetpacks, Crisis Suits are too fragile to stand in the open, and need to Jetpack into hiding. A properly bubble-wrapped Baslisk battery will reap a terrible toll on them, but with the ability to mount Missile Pods to unleash torrents of S7 fire to bring such vehicles down from 36" away, a Russ will prove far more durable. 

 

The Fusion Blaster is such an army's only tool for opening hard AV14 armour. An 18" Melta and able to mount 2 per Suit, these weapons are typically dropped in a suicide solo Crisis Suit, so that any reprisals do not destroy too valuable a unit. The Crisis Suit's BS of 3 makes this unreliable without Markerlight support, especially as it cannot rely on simply Exploding the target so easily anymore. This means that a Russ squadron is very likely to exceed the capacity of a standard Farsight list's ability to kill AV14, especially if each is advancing up separate area of the board. Being able to apply universal and deadly pressure like this via Battle Cannon or Demolisher Russes will tighten the net around those slippery Crisis Suits, and allow you to cull them effectively the moment one botches its Jetpack roll.

 

In closing, the best way to deal with such an Elite army, as with any other Elite army, is to drown it in more bodies than it can ever hope to have shots to kill. Given that the upgrade for a 4++ denies the Crisis Suit its essential Support slot and doubles the base cost before Weapons, you will never see it on the rank and file, and rarely on Commanders and the like. They also only have a Leadership of 8, and thus are fairly prone to legging it when they lose a squad member. Enough S8 AP3 plates or shots will remove them from the map, and though they can get Objective Secured this way, they simply cannot stand the firepower necessary to hold a point against adverse firepower.

[Kilofix]

My overall strategy for IG vs Tau has been:

• Colossus or Wyvern - esp. against Markerlights early
• All 3 Hellhound variants against their infantry
• Plasma or Psyker Biomancy Smite - against their 2+ (instead of AC which is only AP4)
• Have numbers - and taking a cue from IK Viper over on the GK forum; use a large blob to multi-charge Drones and the Riptide; if lots of Drones die you could force the Riptide to Morale check and possibly Sweeping Advance
• Stay in cover

[WarriorFish]

Good write up again Coffee, though BS3 isn't that awful :P

[CoffeeGrunt]

When you can't get Tanks that put out 29 S5 shots for 160pts, they are!