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Against a Tau player. He's probably going to use Broadsides, Riptides, at least 24 Fire Warriors, Devilfish, some Crisis suits, and Pathfinders and Piranhas. So is this a competent list? (Bearing in mind I will have a Wall of Martyrs defence network to use as well.)

HQ- Pask in Punisher with lascannon and multimelta sponsons, Leman Russ Executioner with multimelta sponsons = 425

Troops- Infantry Platoon
Platoon Command Squad with 2x plasma guns and lascannon = 80
Infantry Squad with autocannon = 60
Infantry Squad with autocannon = 60
Infantry Squad with autocannon = 60
Infantry Squad with autocannon = 60
(Attatched Commissar = 25)

Veteran Squad with missile launcher, plasma gun, meltagun, plasma pistol, heavy flamer, Demolitions doctrine, 2x shotguns = 155

Veteran Squad with lascannon, 3x meltaguns, Demolitions doctrine and Chimera = 205

Elites - Tempestus Militarum Scions with 2x meltaguns = 90
Tempestus Militarum Scions with 2x plasma guns = 100

Fast Attack - Valkyrie Gunship = 125

Heavy Support - 2x Wyverns = 130
2x Basilisks = 250
Deathstrike Missile Launcher with camo netting = 175

Thoughts?

Give pask a lascannon on the hull and multi melta sponsons.

Done. Any other comments on the list?

Being a keen foot/arty guard player this looks like a fun list to me.

The only things that jump out are no ADL and the Deathstrike. I guess all the Tau ignore cover shooting is why you dont want the adl?

As for the deathstrike I never ran one, are they worthwhile?

If you ignore his riptides and focus on his troops/transports I think you should do well.

I have a Wall of Martyrs to attempt to keep the Deathstrike safe, using 25% obscured. If my Wyverns and other units take out the markerlights, and Basilisks kill off units outside of transports, it should go as planned.
What are the thoughts on the Veterans in Chimera? Good, bad? What about the Deathstrike?

I guess the idea of one Chimera is mainly for objectives?

Deathstrike will certainly make him spread out or try kill it. Its just I never used or seen one in action. Does it work well these days? Certainly nobody really wants to take an apocalyctic blast with ignore cover.

As you say take out the markerlights, then troops and transports you should be in good shape, especially if you get first turn.

Okay, so this list seems all in good order. Assuming both forces are deployed with about 24" inches between eachother, with Wall of Martyrs on the edge of each force's deployment, there would be minimal terrain between the two trenches, probably craters and stuff, and a dilapidated bastion some distance behind each trench line. How should I place objectives in this situation, and how to attack? I was thinking to leave my ordnance behind the WoM, the Wyverns and Basilisks covering the Deathstrike from all facings to deny any meltacide. My 40-man blob would stay in the trench and shoot at guys in the opposing trench. The chimera vets could move ahead to secure an objective in "no man's land", or move ahead to breach Tau lines. The Leman Russ could advance with it and tear any Tau threats such as Broadsides or Riptides to shreds. The Valkyrie gets my vets to a necessary location to do the most damage with their Demo charge and melta bombs. My Wyverns shell Pathfinders or Fire Warriors, and the Basilisks fire at Crisis suits, Pathfinders and Fire Warriors respectively. The Deathstrike just shoots at the largest concentration of Tau possible to repay it's cost. The Scions can DS to eliminate threats to my tanks or secure objectives. So, how does my plan sound?

With objectives it kinda depends on who places first. I tend to mirror what my opponent does to ensure its balanced if I get stuck placing second. Usually I put objectives in a line in exact 24" middle of table so my jump units can rush as needed. Last thing anyone wants is all the objectives on one side of table so one guy gets easy VP's.
As for the tactics well its so hard to plan, they never seem to work out how ya plan. You have the right idea tho I will be interested to hear how the battle pans out. Some serious firepower on both sides.

Nitpick: A veteran sergeant cannot have 2 plasma pistols. While the it says he may take weapons from the ranged weapon list, the option in the ranged weapon list requires you to replace your laspistol, which can only be done once.

Concerning the list itself, I'd say your biggest vulnerability is flyers and morale problems. None of your guys have skyfire, and you don't have a way of giving your heavy weapons twin-linked or anything of the sort. For your particular case, I would recommend dropping the Multiple Rocket Pods from your Valkyrie and taking the Hellstrike missiles. Sure they are ordnance, and will force your other weapons to snap-fire, but as ordnance, at least you get to roll 2 dice and take the highest for armor penetration. And they have a reasonable range. Concerning morale, without a Senior Officer, you do not have access to "Get Back in the Fight!". You also do not have commisars or ministorum priests, so once morale breaks, your guys have nowhere to go but off the table.

I don't like upgrading my pcs. I keep them as an order giving unit and a small squad to hold a back field objective. They die to easily to be worth giving upgrades. Also with how much ignores tau has I'm not sure if it's worth the camo nets. Ur call though.

Your vets seem to be heavily upgraded. I assume they are going in the valk. They will most likely drop down. Kill something and then get blown off the board. So hopefully your planning on them being a suicide unit also. But I'm against that because tau also has a a lot of sky fire and interceptor that your flyer won't make it close enough to drop the guys in a threat range.

If you don't have a commissar or priest and ur blobbing the infantry squads up I promise the tau will do enough wounds make them run off the board.

madric, thanks for pointing that out with the Vet Sergeant, saved points there!
My goal is to eliminate Ignore Cover threats early to save my ordnance. AA will be another high priority.
I intend to keep the PCS in good cover as well.

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
madric, thanks for pointing that out with the Vet Sergeant, saved points there!
My goal is to eliminate Ignore Cover threats early to save my ordnance. AA will be another high priority.
I intend to keep the PCS in good cover as well.

Your army does fantastically well at eliminating enemies in cover, but unfortunately that causes it to fall short in both AA which you already mentioned, but also is vulnerable to suffer catastrophic losses when it starts taking fire. Tau are powerful at range, and no matter how good your cover, your troops WILL take heavy losses. There needs to be, however, some contingency to deal with this. What do you do when the 40 man blob takes 10 casualties and morale busts? Or for the vets, they only need to take 3 casualties to force a morale check.

As good as Tank Commanders are, my personal opinion is that you end up sacrificing a lot too. No more Senior Officer, which means no more "Get Back in the Fight!" to recover broken morale units, and no more "Fire on my Target!" which helps you ignore cover. These are things the tank cannot compensate for. However, your tanks seem to be dedicated to the role of combating heavy infantry (2+ armor save or high toughness), and they provide good cover for infantry, so if they were to be changed, something else would have to pick up that role.

One option would be to drop Pask and instead pick up a Company Command Squad. Another option would be to drop plasma guns from units that will not move much, like your PCS, and use those points to get a commissar or two.

Commissar taken. He should keep the rabble in line!

So, is this list ready to go, or is more tweaking needed?

 Sgt_Smudge wrote:
So, is this list ready to go, or is more tweaking needed?

Incase a walker or monstrous creature gets close to your blob I would suggest getting krak grenades or even better melta bombs.

I prefer a priest over a commissar on my blobs. Automatically passing morale tests and the buff in cc makes them more formidable.

Also never, ever get rid of Pask. He's the best thing that ever happened to the IG since they took Marbo from us

A priest is indeed better that a Commissar, he costs the same too, has more wounds and an invul.

Also, I think that the Vets without the Chimera have too many different weapons. If you are going for suicide mission, 3 Plasmaguns/Meltaguns are your best bet. I would skip the HWT, since they are meant to be dropped down, so only hitting on 6s is not very effective.

Incase a walker or monstrous creature gets close to your blob I would suggest getting krak grenades or even better melta bombs.

All guardsmen have Krak grenades by default, so no problem there, unless you specifically need Melta bombs.

Finally I think you need a primaris psyker, since you could roll Divi and prescience the Deathstrike for a much lower chance to miss, or general buffs.

since they took Marbo from us

Marbo was not taken, he decided to leave.

fokospatharios wrote:
A priest is indeed better that a Commissar, he costs the same too, has more wounds and an invul.

Also, I think that the Vets without the Chimera have too many different weapons. If you are going for suicide mission, 3 Plasmaguns/Meltaguns are your best bet. I would skip the HWT, since they are meant to be dropped down, so only hitting on 6s is not very effective.

Incase a walker or monstrous creature gets close to your blob I would suggest getting krak grenades or even better melta bombs.

All guardsmen have Krak grenades by default, so no problem there, unless you specifically need Melta bombs.

Finally I think you need a primaris psyker, since you could roll Divi and prescience the Deathstrike for a much lower chance to miss, or general buffs.

since they took Marbo from us

Marbo was not taken, he decided to leave.

All guardsmen have krak grendes? I think you've mistaken krak with frag because all guardsmen have frag which does nothin to monstrous creatures in combat and just allows you to strike at initiative if assaultin into terrain. Only units that come with stock krak nades is scions. Vets got cheaper because krak nades have been taken away from them, check ur codex. So as I was saying I would strongly recommend putting krak nades or melta bombs so your opponent does tie up your shooting to have a cheap walker or monstrous creature get to you.

Also on the topic of a priest. The priest and the commissar are situation. Priest is better if you have a blob rushing up because you probably won't be going to ground and trying to get close with the enemy and possibly charging them and in that way the priest is always better. But if you have a blob sitting behind a line or in cover the going to ground to save more guy is better and you can only do that with a commissar because a fearless unit isn't allowed to go to ground so the commissar is better for a sit and shoot blob. You then use a ccs to order the gone to ground blob to get back in the fight and they will be back to full shooting strength.

You're taking a risk every time you go to ground though, because if you don't make a successful order the following turn you've lost all of those weapons. Personally I would rather be immune to pinning/morale/etc as well as having a better defense against being assaulted. The whole reason combined squads exist is to provide bodies to protect the HWT in the squad. For me going to ground isn't necessary because I have so many bodies I can lose before the squad loses any kind of offensive power.

XCaligulaX wrote:
You're taking a risk every time you go to ground though, because if you don't make a successful order the following turn you've lost all of those weapons. Personally I would rather be immune to pinning/morale/etc as well as having a better defense against being assaulted. The whole reason combined squads exist is to provide bodies to protect the HWT in the squad. For me going to ground isn't necessary because I have so many bodies I can lose before the squad loses any kind of offensive power.

Or you spend 10pts between the ccs and the blob and now you reroll your order to get get back up. Also the commissar grants ld9 making it rather hard to fail the order but if your still uncomfotable a vox with reroll means you will almost never fail an order. Also if you go to ground you also improve the number of guys living making your opponent fight an even longer battle of attrition.

Well, much as I'd like to include a plasma-toting CCS, I can't really find anything to drop unless you guys can suggest anything...??