Tau vs Alpha Striking Salamanders - Tactical Advice?

[Syfro]

Hi everyone,

I find myself in a rather annoying situation. I'll be facing Salamanders on a regular basis nowadays, and those guys just love their drop pods. My initial thought on how to counter that was to take some super-cheap Ork allies to pad out the list and reserve the 50% that'll be Tau and come on later once I can bring superior mobility to bear.

Then I remembered this (http://1d4chan.org/wiki/File:Kroot_Trolling.jpg).

The Ork allies will be about as sturdy as a wet rag, and won't be able to secure much of an area for my reserves to arrive on. I fear that he'll be able to just drop pod along my deployment zone and stop my reserves from having anywhere to enter the table.

Is this still possible under 6th Edition? As far as I saw, the reserve rules make no mention of what happens if you don't have a place to come on, but they *do* imply that you get a normal move onto the board. Does that mean that my tanks (all skimmers, naturally) would be able to come onto the board over the heads of the trolling salamanders?

[Aegwymourn]

If you are moving on as a skimmer I don't see why his models being in the way would be important "skimmers can move over friendly and enemy models, but the cannot end their move on top of either" (pg 83). I haven't had the opportunity to play against drop pod space marines (of any flavor yet) so my advice might be as helpful. I would suggest however to stick to the objectives. Either he will want to drop close to you to maximize his drop advantage, or he'll have to drop close to objectives since once they land they are fairly slow. You might be able to use this to your advantage with proper spacing and using bait units. Especially things like broadsides and crisis suits. Things you know he will want to drop next to to melta/plasma/assault immediately out of the drop pods. This can let you set up some excellent fire lanes and far enough away from objectives that he never get to complete the mission. That or he has to ignore all your best stuff to land near objectives. Hope that helps!

[Syfro]

It does, actually... I hadn't considered using bait units, and it's an interesting idea - if only Tau bait wasn't so expensive >_<

[ElectricPaladin]

If he tries to pen you off the board with drop pods, he's in serious danger of having the pod scatter off the table. Pods still mishap when they scatter off the table - they're only protected from scattering onto impassable terrain and other models. I don't think you're likely to see that strategy used against you.

Alternately, you could base your force heavily on kroot, pathfinders, stealth suits, and tetras. They can all outflank or infiltrate. He's not using his deployment zone - you take it.

[DarkLink]

Ork allies? Take 2x30 Boyz, and spread them out. You can probably fill your entire deployment zone, and completely prevent him from dropping in. And now that Fearless is so awesome, 60 Orks is far from fragile.