Fighting Tau on Thursday, seeking advice ...

[Helias_Tancred]

A former student and I are playing a 2250 bound match on Thursday. He is fielding his Tau army and said something about being mobile and surrounding me? I know he has a few crisis suits, and two hammerhead gunship looking things?

 

Ok ...

 

1.) I'm going to field two devastator squads. I was going to run my lascannon squad, and for my second squad which would probably do better against Tau, my heavy bolter squad or my plasma cannon squad? Each squad has 4 each, 1 sergeant, and 2 bullet sponges/ammo monkeys.

 

2.) For my fourth elite slot: 5 man terminator squad (4 storm bolters, 2 powerfists, 2 chainfists, power sword, heavy flamer) I was planning to deep strike with my scouts and teleport homer ... or 10 man death company armed with bolters, powerfist x2, and infernus pistol x1 most likely delivered via the Stormraven?

 

 

 

Other stuff I was set on running:

 

Tac squad, 10 (melta, and multi-melta, sgt w/combi melta)-- Rhino

Tac squad, 10 (flamer, and heavy flamer, sgt w/plasma pistol)-- Rhino

Tac squad, 5 (hand flamer, heavy flamer)-- Razorback with TL LC

 

10 sanguinary guard

 

Dante

 

Rafen's Death Company, 5 (jp DC, counts as troop, from Deathstorm set)

Cassor the Damned, DC Dread (counts as troop, from Deathstorm set)

 

Command/Honor squad (stormbolter vet sgt, meltagun, company champ, sanguinary initiate, standard with bearer, etc)-- Razorback HB

Captain

 

Captain Karlaen (warlord choice)

 

Assault terminator squad, 5 (thunder hammers and storm shields)

 

Assault squad, 10 (jp, combi melta, meltagun x2)

Assault squad, 10 (jp, gunslinger sgt with dual infernus pistols, meltagun x2)

 

Scout squad, 6 (snipers, missile launcher x1, teleport homer, melta bomb)

 

Land raider crusader

Stormraven

3 drop pods

 

 

I haven't sat down and added up the points yet so the above list is just a ballpark figure right now.

 

 

 

 

Sitting out:

 

Furioso Dreadnought w/frag

Dreadnought w/TL LC

4 heavy weapon Dev squad (either plasma or HB)

Either my 10 man bolter DC or my 5 man terminator squad

 

 

Thanks.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Helias_Tancred]

I also have a JP Chaplain, Librarian in terminator armor, Captain Tycho, and the Sanguinor that are all sitting out at the moment.

[Captain Caine 24th]

Well, if your set on devs, the Lascannons can instant kill the crisis suits. So that's good. Though, their skimmer tanks might have a decent jink save, favoring higher volume anti-tank weapons. 

 

He will likely have decent anti-armor capability in the form of railguns on the hammerheads (long range anti-tank)or fusion blasters (like a melta) on the (likely deep striking) crisis suits. Crossing the table in a landraider may be problematic. The same may be true for the rhinos and razorbacks. Though, Tau are really weak in hand to hand--you don't need many marines left once you're actually in assault.

 

I'd use the drop pods to try to break up some of the synergy of his units and perhaps confuse target priority, affording assault elements the chance to cross the table. Eliminating pathfinders for instance will reduce his capability to put marker lights (which can buff BS or reduce cover save) on you. Likewise, if you know what units of his have interceptor and skyfire you may be able to concentrate those pods on killing those units before the stormraven gets shot up. 

 

If he is deep striking a lot, I think he'll be scattering the full 2d6 barring something special. So, I'd deploy to force hard choices on his part, risking mishaps or presenting sub-optimal targets. 

 

The terminators may struggle to keep up with jet packs running around the table. 

 

If it's a maelstrom mission, you've got fast and durable units capable of deepstrike. So I think you can do really well here with a number of the units you've listed here. 

 

Good luck out there.

[Frater Cornelius]

You really want to consider Grav Bikes. They eat Crisis and Riptides for breakfast. His model-count will be rather low so losses will hurt him a lot.

[LOSSbennet]

From an ex-tau perspective drop podding to get rid of marker lights from turn one ruined my day. So drop pod flamer squads and frag furioso. If he is being mobile he might either do couple skyrays(if so melta drop instead) for markers, a commander with marker drones, tetras if FW or rarely stealth markers team. Drop pods avoids any jump and mark tactics and all go down easily to templates then their left with good guns that don't hit often.

 

He will likely have riptides but they go down very easy to grav or power fists (on av riptides will only get one hit in close combat so swamp them).

 

I might lower the amount +2 save troops as tau can and will fill up on loads ap2 weapons so they will go quickly. The death company with bolters could be better as fnp will work more often, only one weapon is ap3.

[Jolemai]

From an ex-tau perspective drop podding to get rid of marker lights from turn one ruined my day. So drop pod flamer squads and frag furioso. If he is being mobile he might either do couple skyrays(if so melta drop instead) for markers, a commander with marker drones, tetras if FW or rarely stealth markers team. Drop pods avoids any jump and mark tactics and all go down easily to templates then their left with good guns that don't hit often.

 

He will likely have riptides but they go down very easy to grav or power fists (on av riptides will only get one hit in close combat so swamp them).

 

I might lower the amount +2 save troops as tau can and will fill up on loads ap2 weapons so they will go quickly. The death company with bolters could be better as fnp will work more often, only one weapon is ap3.

 

Welcome to Bolter and Chainsword! :)

[jeremy1391]

Against tau you need to

 

1. Kill his marker lights.

2. Close the distance and kill his threat units.

3. Destroy everything you can in assault.

[Helias_Tancred]

I tabled him on my second turn! Blood Angels victory! 

 

 

He had a ton of stuff in deep strike. On the table he had a hammerhead, 3 broadside battlesuits, two groups of pathfinders, and two separate groups of stealth teams that were deployed right up against my lines. He was going for a mobile deep strike strategy hoping his deep strike units would come in on his turn 2. It never happened ;)

 

I focused more on a combination of armored rush and a decent drop pod attack. Highlight of my first turn was my lascannon devs taking out all three of his broadsides in the shooting phase! It was glorious! I drop podded a terminator squad w/heavy flamer, and a 10 man assault squad with 2 meltaguns and a gunslinger infernus pistol sergeant. On the second turn I rolled a successful reserve roll and my last pod came in with my furioso dreadnought w/frag cannon. They killed his hammerhead, and his two pathfinder squadrons.

 

My tactical squads and my command squad killed his two stealth teams that were covered atop two towers overlooking my lines. Gotta love flamers and heavy flamers denial of cover ;)  ....

 

So yeah by the end of my second turn I had tabled him. Killed every unit he had on the table. It was a good night.

 

I had no death company in my list, and my land raider and stormraven sat out. I figured against the Tau you want fast mobility (tac squads and rhinos), a decent assault (3 pods with terminators, furioso, and assault marines), and some long range gunnery (my lascannon dev squad and heavy bolter dev squad).

 

He had some nasty stuff in deep strike reserve- 2 Piranha, a couple riptides, and some more crisis battle suits, along with a squad of fire warriors. But the Sons of Sanguinius were fast on the assault and hit hard. The Tau didn't stand a chance :)

[Helias_Tancred]

... and marines. I went for more marines over hardware because the Tau are excellent at killing our hardware and armor. I wanted only fast armor that could get my guys into his lines fast!