Fighting Tau, need help making a list

[brother_contagion]

What are some units that would work well against the Tau? I have yet to fight a Tau force and would like some pointers.

[Trevak Dal]

Okay, to fight an enemy, it's best to know that enemy.  Let's talk about Tau.

 

Tau are a Shooting army-beyond that of even other "shooting" armies, their poor Weapon Skill and initiative means that they can get rolled over in combat.

 

However, they have some of the best quality shooting in the game.  Their troops (Firewarrior's) base weapons have a 30" range, 15" rapid fire range, and are strength 5 ap5, so that means they wound marines on a 3+.

 

"Oh, but I run plague marines and Mark of Nurgle Bikers,"

 

Tau probably won't care very much, because they are very similar to the new Forgeworld Legion armies-your basic troops don't have any specials in them, with the special weapons being relegated to the elites and Heavy support.

 

And tau got pretty awesome Elites and Heavy support.

 

A good tau player will know the Crutch God's mark and have taken steps.

 

Fusion blasters-18" melta guns, yes that's a 9" melta distance, plasma rifles, -1 strength plasma guns with no gets hot, and the veritable Missile pod, an assault Autocannon...and they can have any combination of these, or two of the same on a Crisis suit.  Noob Tau players will have different weapon load outs within a single unit, but experienced ones will have dedicated units of double plasma rifles, double fusion blasters-and the ubiquitous double Missile pods.  3 Rifleman dreds that can pop out and wreck a tank.

And that's the normal Crisis suits.  The beat-excuse me, Riptides can have a heavy burst cannon, with is assault cannon strength and ap, but can "over charge" and get 8 shots-but most people take the Ion Accelerator because it's s7 ap3 heavy 3.

 

Oh and can over charge to Large Blast s8 ap2 gets hot.  Or nova charge to s9 ap2 Ordinance large blast.  They can take three of these-and they're monstrous creatures.

 

Then you got Broadsides and Railheads.  Railheads are actually called hammerheads, but are the last bastion of "real Rail guns" or the old fashioned s10 ap1 6 foot range anti SOB weapon.  I played Old Codex against this tool who uses a Trancendent C'Tan and in 1 round of shooting, wiped it out with my 9 broadsides with Twinlinked Real Rail Guns, but I digress.

 

There's a list where they can take Crisis suits as troops.

 

They also got access to Ethereals and Fireblades who make their guys better at shooting, like how Chaplins make marines better in combat.

 

Okay-that's "The Bad".  One ray of sunshine is that they're BS3 mostly.

Except Markerlights can be used to make each unit's BS better, and even ignore cover.

Here's how to shut them down.


1.  You are going to take losses.  Taking an "Elite army" against the Tau isn't a great idea, running Chosen Wing is probably going to leave you a little sad in the face.  Take more guys-cheaper guys.  And everybody in Rhinos, preferably with dirge casters.  Tau can demech you in one turn-but that's a turn that you didn't have your guys get killed.

 

Deathstars aren't really great to take against tau, unless you have so many wounds they can't stop you with their entire army shooting at you (2-3 Juggerlords or Nurgle Biker Lords in a mass spawn/Nurgle/Khorne Biker blob).  You want fast stuff to draw the fire off your troops and transports.

 

Daemon Princes are a bit too expensive, for what they do and will likely get punked before putting too much work in-but should they connect with something, they will snap the Welding Goggles on and bend whatever they hit over a railing-though that's pretty much anything in our codex against the Tau in close combat.

 

If he's playing the camping bitch style-you want to overwhelm him with the entirety of your army running right down his throat at a single point-you're going to have your guys hopping out of their rhinos like it's the beach assault scene from Troy-and punch those alien bastards in the face.

 

When it comes to assault-multi charge against any Firewarrior or Pathfinder unit, because they have defensive grenades by default and you won't get your charging bonuses anyways, so you may as well tie up as many as possible.

 

"But I'll eat a ton of overwatch"  Not if you took dirge casters on everything that can take dirge casters.  Rhinos for me are 40 points base, 35 point rhinos are the province of Loyalists and Historical Gamers (Legion lists), it's saved my boys several times, and is well worth investing.  Six inches near them creates a bubble of "Nope".

 

Helbrutes can be very useful against Tau-particularly the deepstriking helbrute formation.  It makes the campers very nervous, and can throw a wrench in a Mechanized or suit heavy Tau player's plans.  No upgrades-except maybe a Heavy Flamer for the Powerfist in case you get close to a hutch of Kroot or Firewarriors.

Tau have no psychic defense-except a piece of wargear in the Farsight Enclaves supplement, but I'm not sure if that's been updated yet, so you can really abuse them in the psychic phase.

[brother_contagion]

Ok cool. Hmm... How would this work? (I think my friend and I will be play around 2000 points)

 

 

Crimson Slaughter Main Detachment

 

HQ

 

Sorcerer 1: ML3, Force Ax, Terminator Armor, Sigil, Balestar. 185pts

 

Sorcerer 2: ML3, Force Ax, Sigil, Spell Familiar. 150pts

 

Troops

 

Chaos Space Marine Squads 1-2: 4 Marines & 1 Champion w/ 1 Flamer, 1 Power Maul, Rhino w/ Dozer Blades, Dirge Caster. 140pts (each)

 

Chaos Space Marine Squads 3-4: 4 Marines & 1 Champion w/ 1 Meltagun, 1 Power Sword, Rhino w/ Dozer Blades, Dirge Caster. 145pts (each)

 

Fast Attack

 

Chaos Biker Squads 1-2: 3 Bikers & 1 Champion w/ 2 Meltaguns, 1 Power Fist, 1 Combi-Melta. 145pts (each)

 

Heavy Support

 

Obliterator Squad: 3 Obliterators w/ Mark of Nurgle. 228pts

 

Chaos Space Marine Allied Detachment

 

HQ

 

Sorcerer: ML3, Force Sword, Sigil, Spell Familiar. 150pts

 

Troops

 

Chaos Cultists: 9 Cultists & 1 Champion. 50pts

 

FORMATION

 

Mayhem Pack: 3 Helbrutes w/ Heavy Flamers and Plasma Cannons. 375pts

 

Total Points: 1998

 

 

My idea with this is putting the Sorcerers in each Flamer Rhino and use them to cast Psychic Shriek and maledictions as they advance (too bad you can't Invis while embarked), their squads would focus on the light units, the Meltagun Rhinos would go after Battle Suits or vehicles, the Bikers would go after the Riptide (I'm pretty certain he has one already), the Mayhem Pack will lay down lots of Plasma and Flame when they arrive (I've usually rolled at least one of them getting the double tap with their Plasma Cannon), and the TDA Sorcerer would DS with the Obliterators and hopefully give them ignore cover and then re-rolls with their Plasma Cannons/Assault Cannons as they arrive, and finally the Cultists will just sit on an objective.

 

Does this look feasible?