Tau vs New Necrons

[Panxer]

Does anyone have any positive experience regarding Tau Tactica against Necrons of the new order?

The only things that I can think of as being an advantage is bubble wrapping vehix, Flechettes on vehix, template weapons for days, black sun filters, and lots and lots of suits with flamers and TL missile pods + drones to soak up everything you can (because necrons are SOOO super shooty now.

Thoughts?

[blackarmchair]

For Tau I would think the shooting match should end up being a pretty interesting fight - either side could win.

I would think you'd be in decent shape using the standard Tau toolkit (Broadsides, Pathfinders, MANY suits). Remember markerlights can remove night fighting from units which are hit by them (suck it stormlord!).

Not saying it's an easy win but I think as shooting armies go the two are evenly matched. Tau tend to have lower AP weapons than Necrons but Necrons have a greater volume of fire and the survivability of We'll Be Back (I will never call them Reconstruction Protocols, old name was waaaaay cooler).

[Subexarch]

Well, I would think that if your going to out shoot Necrons you'll need to do it at long range. They can field a LOT of really shooty stuff and 12" or less is going to be a very unfriendly place. Thusly, I am confused about why you would use flamers on your Crisis suits. If your close enough to use those then your getting rapid fired in the Necron turn.
I think the old Plasma rifle+Missle pod combo would work well.(and even inst-gak those pesky Scarabs.) Heck, burst cannons could be of good use too for laying down a serious volume of fire outside charge range. Considering how tough the necron army is, (almost everything except the warriors and immortals are T5) a large volume of S5+ weapons is going to be needed.
You might even want to consider fielding more Firewarriors just for the longer range S5. Plus the warriors and immortals guns are only AP5.
Markerlights are going to be very helpful, but what self respecting Shas'O doesn't run them already.

Hmmm..I need to revise my ownTau me thinks.

[Panxer]

Well, I would think that if your going to out shoot Necrons you'll need to do it at long range. They can field a LOT of really shooty stuff and 12" or less is going to be a very unfriendly place. Thusly, I am confused about why you would use flamers on your Crisis suits. If your close enough to use those then your getting rapid fired in the Necron turn.

The reason I would load up on flamers is that they're cheap, ignore cover, are ap5 and kill scarabs by the score. There's a lot of tactics with scarabs and tomb spiders now that get them across the board and into assault during their first turn, so being far away isn't really an option with scarabs anymore if you're fighting a skilled opponent. Also keep in mind that they can get a 2+ cover save if they go to ground in cover.

Otherwise, I'd agree with you. I've had success with the Missile Pod + Burst cannon + multi tracker load out so far. I like the amount of shots put out with a Sqd of 3 + an HQ. I've killed whole squads of deathmarks using that tactic.

I'd like to see how flechettes work on vehicle attacking scarabs. I also want to see how the Blacksun filter works against the storm lord.

Markerlights are always awesome, agreed there too. Greatest tool the Tau have, second only to the S10 rail stick (which in my summation isn't that great now on a broadside, but rather better on a hammerhead for the submunition).

I am eager to see how my fishy friends can handle the new Necron threat.

[Tynskel]

The Railguns rock against necron vehicles.

Open-Topped. AP1. = +2 on a pen. Iiiiiiiiiiiifffff for some reason you Pen and don't destroy the vehicle, the quantum shields are gone, and you auto-glance the next time you shoot.

[Subexarch]

The reason I would load up on flamers is that they're cheap, ignore cover, are ap5 and kill scarabs by the score.
I can see the "ignore cover" part but I just can't get my head around "kills scarabs by the score". If the necron player is bunching them up badly then I can see lots of wounds, but if he spaces them like he should then you're not going to get many. Missle pods and plasma rifles on the other hand inflict instant death on the annoying little blighters and you don't have to be within thier considerable assault rage to use them.

As for flechette launchers, they're going to be marginal at best. One hit per base with the scarabs still getting thier save is not going to stop them.

The acute senses on the suits is going to come in MIGHTY handy againt the Stormlord. The blacksun filter is going to be a must take on hammerheads if you think you'll be facing him.

Overall, I think Tau can beat them but your gonna have to play the heck out of your army!

[AbusePuppy]

The "good" Tau build isn't really changed at all by the presence of new Necrons. AV13 spam will be a pain to deal with, but at least you know the enemy isn't going to be assaulting you much, right? Remember that Markerlight tokens can be used to ignore Night Fighting- expect your Pathfinders to be murdered to death for this, as usual.

The Railhead went up in value a little, since the AP4 large blast has a better purpose now, and Missile Pods similarly look a little better (not that anyone was avoiding them before.) Acute Senses on all the battlesuits is also somewhat relevant, although I wouldn't bother taking Blacksun Filters except if I had a small number of points left and nothing else to do with them.

Kroot Walls won't be doing a lot against Necrons, but they can potentially go on the assault and thus act as an additional threat if the 'Crons get close, but you'll need to be careful to maintain cover, as Kroot are still absurdly fragile without it.

Necron mid-range torrent shooting is bad, but lack of S8 guns outside of Crypteks is good. You can do pretty much the same thing right back to them, forcing them to roll a bunch of saves and lose guys, but remember that Tau have crappy Ld, which will hurt you.

Piranhas will be useful for limiting their movement options and sucking up shots that would otherwise go elsewhere. They can't afford to ignore the Meltaguns, as they'll smash Quantum Shielding-reliant vehicles quite handily.

So yeah, if you're worried about Necrons, load up a bit more on Broadsides, Piranhas, and Deathrains (especially with Flamers and Drone Controllers) and skimp a bit on Kroot and Fireknives. Remember that most of your guns will ID Scarabs if necessary and keep your vehicles away from the damn things.

[Panxer]

The reason I would load up on flamers is that they're cheap, ignore cover, are ap5 and kill scarabs by the score.
I can see the "ignore cover" part but I just can't get my head around "kills scarabs by the score". If the necron player is bunching them up badly then I can see lots of wounds, but if he spaces them like he should then you're not going to get many. Missle pods and plasma rifles on the other hand inflict instant death on the annoying little blighters and you don't have to be within thier considerable assault rage to use them.

I am fearful of scarabs now (as I was before) that's why. Tau can (and I have thus far) been very effective against most of the other units that are out now, BUT scarabs have always been my bane; and now with entropic strike, they are just spiteful AND vicious. 3 wounds/base 4 attacks in CC and they take away armor, and in my experience, Plasma or missiles just aren't enough of a guarantee that you're going to thin them out sufficiently before they get to you (and with the tactics I've seen, can be in turn 1now). I like the flamer because it's cheap, causes two wounds for every hit, and if you've got an XV sqd you have a good chance of thinning them out, at least to the point where there aren't as big of a threat.

Best options in my perspective for dealing with bugs is a Squad of 4 xv8's (HQ attached) with an AFP, burst cannons (or flamers), missile pods and concentrate fire. Also keep in mind now that the railhead is now uber swank when it comes to anti infantry(bugs).

Lastly, Broadsides. I LOVE broadsides. Twin Linked smoking death doom to any and all comers! My only issue is that Kroot are useless largely now as bubble wrap against bugs are even basic infantry unless they are in the charge. I don't really use them anymore, but instead use a FW sqd (varying in number dependent upon points, but I'm always certain to equip the leader with a TL and a MKLT just to wrap and provide support.

Is this a better option for bubble wrap that kroot do you think?


As for flechette launchers, they're going to be marginal at best. One hit per base with the scarabs still getting thier save is not going to stop them.

I know it's not the best option (there is none) but I'll take something over nothing. Even if you take out 3 bases out of a sqd of 10, that's 28 attacks instead of 40. Not to mention that you need to move your vehix in every turn, even if it's an inch (though 6+ to 12" being optimal for that 6+ to hit)

I agree that the current Tau build is on much more level footing against the deathless tide, and I really think that there are just a few little tweaks that can be made in the current list that would make our fishy friends much more effective and durable.