2000 pts Vs Tau - tactics and strategy advice sought

[Shaezus]

Greets folks. I've a game this weekend in the local league, against a Tau army. As this is my first game against Tau in 8th, I'd like to ask for any advice from my fellow BA stalwarts.

 

The mission is supply drop. So at turn three, we find out which two of the objectives are left on the table. This brings a tactical choice to be made: keep my SG off the table until the objectives are known, or try to take down his riptides from the start? He might be using a different list but so far his riptides have caused carnage in the previous rounds.

 

Should I try an armoured rush, gunning down as many drones as possible before using the razbacks and Angel's Wing to soak up and block overwatch? The sicarans and scouts should be able to deal with stealth suits and ghost keel, razbacks shoting up drones so the Deimos Vindicators can put wounds on his riptides.

 

Any insights would be greatly appreciated.

 

My list and his likely list can be seen on the thread of the same name over on the army lists page.

[Dont-Be-Haten]

First thing to do is invest in whirlwinds if you have them available. This does 2 things, it allows you to target their pathfinders while hiding behind LoS blocking terrain. And 2 it helps whittle down the fire warrior infantry blobs hiding in cover w/o needing to have a crucial charge fail.

 

Pathfinders should be target 1. Then marker light drones. Dont waste 2 CP on prepared positions because tau easily ignore cover. All it takes is one cadre to hit a ML on a 2+ followed by 1CP to gain D3 additional counters.

 

Investing in rhinos is also something I would suggest, and when you push for your assault you multi charge with the rhino first to soak up overwatch and then congaline into the infantry fortress. Check your measurements because FtGG can overwatch even though you are charging a unit already locked in combat. So you want to rely on your T7 bulwark to tank the first overwatches so you aren't annihilated before getting into combat.

 

Here's how OW will look. PFs or ML drones shoot first. Tau Cept means 5+ to hit, once one does, 1CP for D3 extra counters, now everything else hits on 5s rerolling 1s and ignoring cover. Cadre giving volley shot means a 10 man squad is over watching 30 shots hitting on 5s rerolling 1s, multiply that by 2-3 for 1 charge.

 

This isn't even getting to the Robots yet. Which you do need lascannons to help deal with them. This is part of the reason I'm taking more tactical marines over scouts additional lascannon shots are almost a requirement for marines now.

 

Removing the ML farms does put a dent in the gun line. But for 2 hand flamers Fire warrior sergeants can also take ML. But its 1 shot rather than 5+

[Shaezus]

That's some sound advice there. If I recall, a unit activating FtGG can only fire overwatch once that turn, which makes it not so daunting. I'd happily trade a razback for getting the sanguinary guard and a couple of scout squads into the fray unscathed, thus hopefully routing a few squads, consolidating and maybe using Honour the Chapter.

 

With that in mind, are drones classed as a separate unit even if they come attached to a commander or other unit?

 

As for lascannons, some things just never change. For me they've just never done the one thing they're there to do, so I'm hoping a couple of Deimos Vindicators will bring some reliable damage output

[Dont-Be-Haten]

That's some sound advice there. If I recall, a unit activating FtGG can only fire overwatch once that turn, which makes it not so daunting. I'd happily trade a razback for getting the sanguinary guard and a couple of scout squads into the fray unscathed, thus hopefully routing a few squads, consolidating and maybe using Honour the Chapter.

 

With that in mind, are drones classed as a separate unit even if they come attached to a commander or other unit?

 

As for lascannons, some things just never change. For me they've just never done the one thing they're there to do, so I'm hoping a couple of Deimos Vindicators will bring some reliable damage output

Well FtGG does only work once, but you use the tank to multi assault so they can't assist overwatch for the unit you want to charge with first. I.e. a razorback locks 2 units from regular overwatch, reducing 2 units of FtGG overwatch. Make sure you pre measure so you only take 3 squads of overwatch rather than 5.

 

Drones become their own unit once they set up on the board. Let us know how it goes.

[Panzer]

I honestly wouldn't take Whirlwinds. Pathfinder die against literally everything with their T3 Sv5+ and their Markerlights are Heavy so they aren't that mobile with their BS4+ despite their M7. No need to waste points on such an underperforming unit as Whirlwinds. If you need something that can't be shot at before it can shoot at the Pathfinders better invest in some reserves unit with Storm Bolter or Bolter Inceptors and such.

The main source of Markerlights usually are Cadre Fireblades and Firesight Marksmen which you can't shoot at without Sniper anyway due them being W<10 characters.

 

Firewarriors aren't much tougher with Sv4+ but shouldn't be your first target priority against T'au anyway. Sure, Bork'an with a Pulse accelerator drone can push their range to 42" so they each get 3 shots at 21" with a Cadre Fireblade nearby, T'au can use them in tandem with their +1 to-wound Stratagem and Vior'la has a neat double shooting Stratagem at the nearest enemy (tho Breacher are way more dangerous there) but the targets you actually want to get rid of are Riptides, Commanders, Broadsides, Hammerheads and the Markerlight sources.

 

Investing in Rhinos or even Razorbacks to soak up Overwatch is a good idea. T'au (especially with the T'au Sept tenet) are one of the armies where Overwatch actually matters if positioned correctly. Be aware if your opponent expects lots of charges to happen and he goes the gimmicky route and gives T'au Sept Battlesuits the Counterfire Defense System they can re-roll Overwatch shots on top of hitting on 5+ which lets them hit in Overwatch better than with their regular BS4+ shooting without Markerlight support lol

 

Also a note on their For the Greater Good ability (the overlapping Overwatch), the T'au player has to announce all units that are going to join in with the Overwatch of the actual target of the charge before starting to shoot. This is extremely important since after using For the Greater Good a T'au unit isn't allowed to Overwatch or use For the Greater Good again for the rest of the phase even if it didn't get to shoot due overkill from another unit.

So forcing the opponent to potentially waste his units Overwatch capability even when it didn't get charged directly is a huge deal.

 

 

As for the Battlesuits, Plasma and Lascannons are your friends. HOWEVER if there are Drones nearby be prepared to waste your big guns. So shooting at Battlesuits with something that isn't all-in is actually a good idea. So something like Autocannons which have a good chance at damaging Battlesuits but where it doesn't hurt too much if it just kills a Drone are ideal. Armigers would be your best option there but that's obviously not a Blood Angels unit. ^^

 

Be aware of Stealth Suits and the Ghostkeel. They aren't harmless but they look a lot scarier than they are.

Especially the Ghostkeel is worth its points thanks to its durability, not thanks to its damage output. Aka he is a big fat distraction carnifex. Of course you don't want to ignore him completely since 6 S7/8 AP-1 D1/1d3 shots plus 2 Melta shots at BS4+ aren't nothing to sniff at but it depending on the terrain it often doesn't get as much Markerlight support as it would like and with BS4+ and AP-1 (or AP-2 if the T'au player takes an Advanced Targeting System on its second slot) it often does less damage as expected. On the other hand it is a W10 model so if you can get past the -2 to-hit against shooting it will quickly become much worse at shooting.

Which brings me to the next point. The -2 to-hit sounds like bad news but it's not THAT good if you look at it closer. They aren't Craftworld Eldar after all. The Ghostkeels own rule gives it -1 to-hit against shooting from opponents that are more than 6" away and the other -1 to-hit comes from its two Stealth Drones without any min range but still only against shooting. So if you get rid of the Drones first or get within 6" or even get it in melee the Ghostkeel becomes a lot more squishy than previously thought.

The Stealth Suits are a bit sneakier there. They aren't as big and imposing as the Ghostkeel and don't carry such a scary looking gun, however they have T4 W2 Sv3+ (so 2+ in cover) and get -1 to-hit against any kind of attack (even melee). On top of that each of them can take a support system and there are basically only two choices ... AP-1 for their Burst cannons or a 4++. This makes them a really nasty unit to get rid of and T'au player often use that to bind targets in melee themselves.

I myself regularly deploy Stealth Suits and Ghostkeel together which is a nice big blob in front of the enemies lines so it automatically draws lots of attention and because the Ghostkeel looks like way more of a threat than the Stealth Suits the first 1-2 units often shoot at the Ghostkeel (which I usually give a 4++ as well) before my opponent switches to the Stealth Suits as target. This is of course exactly what I wanted so the rest of my army is much more likely to survive any alpha strikes and often my Stealth elements survive this as well so I can still use them to bind targets by charging them. ^^

 

 

So to summarize a tl;dr

• First target priority: Markerlight sources. Don't invest in overpriced Whirlwinds since Pathfinder and Markerlight Drones aren't hard to kill at all and they can't shoot at the actual important ML sources like Cadre Fireblades anyway.
• Next target priorities are the actual damaging units like Riptides, Broadsides, Hammerheads and Commander. Firewarriors can do some damage and aren't unimportant but shouldn't be this high on your target priority list. Breacher in a Devilfish are the exception here since if they get to where they want they can do a lot of damage for a round before they die.
• Only shoot the big guns (Lascannons) at Battlesuits when there aren't any Drones nearby or you don't have better targets for it. Autocannons and Plasma are great for shooting at Battlesuits with Drones nearby due the higher rate of fire and moderately high chance to deal damage to the suit thanks to their high strength and high AP/multi-damage. Make him "waste" his Drones.
• Don't fall into the Stealth trap. Ghostkeel and Stealth Suits aren't unimportant targets but they soak up a lot of damage you normally want to aim at actual threatening targets. Especially if you have melee units at hand to deal with them. Deploying Scouts defensively so he can't deploy his Stealth units aggressively helps a lot there if you manage to win the roll-off for deploying yours first!

[Shaezus]

Thanks so much for taking the time to write that, Panzer. That's some great Intel there.

 

It looks like my Sicarans will have a lot to do, as they will avoid any hit modifiers on the stealth suits and ghostkeel thanks to those targets having FLY keyword, but they are also well suited to taking down battlesuits.

 

I was concerned about playing Tau, but now I see there is a way to take down those riptides and control the battlefield too.

[Shaezus]

Happy to report a solid win for BA today. Oppo conceded at the start of his third turn. He only had a commander, ghostkeel and two fire warrior models on the board at this point.

 

Two assault scout squads combined with a razback rolled up three of his strike teams. Captain smash FF'd gloriously then rolled a 4 on the charge, needing 5. The reroll got a 3. Despite this he somehow survived and he and the SG brought down one riptide in T2. The other riptide went down to two shots from one of the vindicators, with the SG clipping of the last 2 wounds in shooting. The sicarans made easy work of his stealth suits and warlord. All for the loss of one sicaran, one razback and 9 scout models. Oh and captain smash, who used Only in Death to exchange mutual death with Shadowsun.

 

Great to see the advised tactics coming together in a pure BA onslaught!

[Aothaine]

Great job Shaezus!

 

Also, sfPanzer always provides solid advice. Even if I disagree with him about certain units. He plays T'au, Blood Angels and Emperor's Children from what I've seen him post about. But he always has solid advice!