1850 Tau Force for BAO - Help me ID weaknesses

[Zagumus]

1850 Tau Force for BAO - Help me ID weaknesses

Generally the majority of the units hang back and deal damage in the shooting phase while the two Devilfish move forward towards important objectives or large hordes of infantry. The gun drones go into deep strike reserves with the commander hopefully arriving within 6” of the Ethereal’s Devil Fish to avoid having to roll for deviation and to insure they get his buffs.
The only weakness that I can see in the list is playing against a lot of high armor targets. What do you think?

Main Force

1 Ethereal (Warlord) – Homing Beacon - 55
1 Commander – Burst Cannon, Flamer, Vectored Retro-Thrusters, Drone Controller, Neuroweb System Jammer, Onager Gauntlet, Puretide Engram Neurochip, 2 Gun Drones – 159
9 Fire Warriors w/ 1 Devilfish – Disruption Pod – 176
10 Fire Warriors w/ 1 Devilfish – 170
12 Gun Drones – 168
1 Riptide – Early Warning Override – 190
1 Sky Ray Missile Defense Gunship – Blacksun Filter – 116
1 Sky Ray Missile Defense Gunship – Blacksun Filter – 116
1 Aegis Defense Wall – Comms Relay – 70

Fire Base Data Slate

1 Riptide – Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker – 210
3 Broadsides – High Yield Missile Pods, Early Warning Override – 210
3 Broadsides – High Yield Missile Pods, Early Warning Override – 210

[DETHMOKIL]

Troops. You need more. I'm going to the BAO also, lots of objective scoring, and maelstrom missions mean objective secored is going to be important.

Fist thing I'd do is kill your devil fish, then gun down the fire warriors. You'd then be forced to use your only other mobile unit, your commander, to score, and I can't see him lasting long enough to last the whole game.

Maybe sniper kroot? but really, allying in some gnarly troops + a psyker would be my boring very predictable suggestion. Daemons if you feel cheeky :P

[WickedGood]

I think you need something to hold up the invisible deathstar. Especially the big block of screamers/seekers/fiends. With a belakor flying as a wingman he is going to get invisibility off more often than not. I know some on the net are saying this list doesn't make it but I have seen a very good player trashiung everyone he meets becuase he knows how to mitigate when he flubs the role.

[Zagumus]

Dethmokil I certainly agree that I am low on objective secured choices in the list and depending on what my opponent is playing that can cause serious issue. With my few practice games so far I have been able to make up the ground by focusing fire power on enemy units that are in position to score or contest my ability to do so. A bunch of daemons showing up in my opponents back field would be a great distraction, and thoughts on an HQ choice for something like that?

[Zagumus]

WickedGood that is a very good observation. Without an adequate tar pitting unit I am very weak to invisible units, the fast moving the worse for me. I don’t think there is much with the tau that could fill that role well.
Doing some numbers on shooting at a squad of invisible screamers assuming I can get the broadsides, fire warriors and drones to all in a place to fire at full power I can kill 5 invisible screamers. This leaves me with two skyrays and the riptides to hunt Belakor, certainly not a great match up but playable. I think I will try to get our daemon player to run a playtest game with me.
If my opponent brings an invisible Lord of War I think all I can is hunt Belakor or hope to out play them because of the high point investment.

[Zagumus]

Updated the list slightly. Add target lock and fusion guns to commander mostly.


1850 Tau Force
Main Force
1 Ethereal (Warlord) – Homing Beacon - 55
1 Commander – 2 Fusion Guns, Target Lock, Drone Controller, Puretide Engram Neurochip, 2 Gun Drones – 167
9 Fire Warriors w/ 1 Devilfish – Disruption Pod, Blacksun Filter – 177
9 Fire Warriors w/ 1 Devilfish – 161
12 Gun Drones – 168
1 Riptide – Early Warning Override – 190
1 Sky Ray Missile Defense Gunship – Blacksun Filter – 116
1 Sky Ray Missile Defense Gunship – Blacksun Filter – 116
1 Aegis Defense Wall – Comms Relay – 70

Fire Base Data Slate
1 Riptide – Early Warning Override, Velocity Tracker – 210
3 Broadsides – High Yield Missile Pods, Early Warning Override – 210
3 Broadsides – High Yield Missile Pods, Early Warning Override – 210

[WickedGood]

I have been using 20 kroot backed up by an Etheral (not in the unit just close by in a devilfish). With the etheral casting stubborn and using his leadership the kroot for 120 points do pretty well.

[Zagumus]

I really like that idea, the kroot are slower but the number of bodies and shots they can get is pretty high.
Being able to outflank them in near the devilfish is a good option as well.