Help a Tau friend out with his list

[cadianshock]

Hi

I have written a two part series about a friend and his Tau force plus our latest battle report. Tau players please help!

Part 1 contains the lists - http://cadianshock.com/tau-list-building-help-tau-brother/

Part 2 is a battle report of our most recent 1,500 game, Tau vs Astra Militarum http://cadianshock.com/astra-militarum-vs-tau-debrief/

Any input and help would be really appreciated as I seem to be racking up win after win against his Tau.

List builds involving his models are preferred rather than "buy 2 more Riptides".

Thanks!

PS any thoughts on my Guard list are of course welcome too :-)

[Da Gargoyle]

I read your battle report and am not sure why the Tau only had one VP. They had destroyed a unit which also gave them first blood. They also got a transport and a Veteran unit. It also sounded like Shadowsun was in linebreaker from deep strike even if she was in combat, could be wrong about that. Also it didn't seem like you had killed more than two units, a devil fish and piranha sqdn, so where did your VP come from.

For mine, the Tau should deep strike behind your armour and shoot into their rear. Broadsides should concentrate on the light armour bailing out the passengers and assaulting them if they are close enough. The lite vehicles use cover until they can get line breaker and maybe an objective, or contest one. Swap out a pathfinder unit for a fire warrior unit for long range shooting and that new little auto launcher system.

And remind him that if an S6 weapon wounds his broadside or battle suits they are dead because of that T3, so use cover as much as possible. Toughness 3 makes even expensive models vulnerable because it requires a relatively light weapon like Auto Cannon or Plasma guns to cause Instant Death.

From your point of view, I would have concentrated on his suits first with your tanks. Used your infantry on his piranhas as anything with S4 can cause grief to an open top unit and they are only 2 hull points if I recall correctly. I don't know so much about the Tetra's but they didn't seem to get much of a mention in the battle. In setting up, I would concede first turn to him so that I could set my tanks to target his suits. Then try and steal initiative. And remember, marker lights can only be used if the unit firing them has line of sight.

[cadianshock]

It was a Maelstrom of war mission so objectives were not kill based only. Tau perhaps got First Blood, but Shadowsun died I am sure. 1 point, 2 points either way - Tau lost badly.

[Djbz]

Sugestions I'd give
-The Pathfinders without rail-rifles don't really need a devilfish, they should be set up with a commanding veiw of the battlefield and markerlight stuff up.
- To avoid being locked in combat with the short range battlesuit units they need at least 1 drone (kind doesn't matterit's there to improve the chances of disengaging) and a battlesuit with vectored retro thrusters.
-And battle cannon Leman russes (or anything else with strength 8+ blasts ) are a top kill priority when using battlesuits as each shot can remove an entire squad via instant death (I don't know why Da Gargoyle thinks battlesuits are T 3 when they're T 4)
-Remember flamers can be used in overwatch (I assume he forgot this as I see no other way you got a Company command squad into close combat with those battlesuits without another unit suicide charging them)

[cadianshock]

Sugestions I'd give
-The Pathfinders without rail-rifles don't really need a devilfish, they should be set up with a commanding veiw of the battlefield and markerlight stuff up.
- To avoid being locked in combat with the short range battlesuit units they need at least 1 drone (kind doesn't matterit's there to improve the chances of disengaging) and a battlesuit with vectored retro thrusters.
-And battle cannon Leman russes (or anything else with strength 8+ blasts ) are a top kill priority when using battlesuits as each shot can remove an entire squad via instant death (I don't know why Da Gargoyle thinks battlesuits are T 3 when they're T 4)
-Remember flamers can be used in overwatch (I assume he forgot this as I see no other way you got a Company command squad into close combat with those battlesuits without another unit suicide charging them)

Thanks for the input Djbz!

[Da Gargoyle]

(I don't know why Da Gargoyle thinks battlesuits are T 3 when they're T 4) I stand corrected, Mea Culpa. For some reason I got it into my head that it was a battlesuit based on Tau toughness with the advantage coming from the armour saves.

[Denzark]

Tau have no friends.

[Mr. Monty]

Marker lights are what make my tau army effective. Get rid of those pathfinders and take markerlight drones. Also take regular strike teams. And ya it was unbound but as long as your ok with it thats fine. I use shadowsun as well but keep her in cover making her and her unit impossible to kill sometimes. Deep striking isnt as good for tau as it is for armys better equipped for assaults. Supporting fire is the reason you keep tau together, not deepstrike them in alone. Also drones are relentless and can move and fire the marker lights making it easier to stay out of CC.