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My general tactics that I focus on are high mobility, and my 1st turn being almost a deterrant with my Broadsides covering as much area as possible. Then I move each of my Devilfishes up to try to secure whatever cover that will grant me LOS on people. Then I wait for my suits to get in and use guerilla warfare on whatever units I can.

My tactics tend to work on lighter armored people well, especially dark eldar because they can't get into an assault as fast as I have seen them (had a game where he moved 28 inches on the first turn, I died a little inside that day). However with heavy armored infantry it is drastically reduced on efficiency.

Any advice?  This is the most I remember of my list:

Shas'o (132 points)
Plasma Rifle
Missile Pod
Shield Generator
HW Multi-tracker

2 Shas'vre bodygaurds (164)
Plasma Rifle
Missile Pod
Targetting Array (+1 bs)
HW Multi-tracker

2 Shas'ui Crisis suits (144)
Plasma Rifle
Missile Pod
Targetting Array
HW Multi-Tracker

2 Shas'ui Crisis suits (144)
Plasma Rifle
Missile Pod
Targetting Array
HW Multi-Tracker

12 Fire Warriors (220)
8 Pulse Rifles
4 Pulse Carbines
Devilfish Transport
-Smart Missile System

12 Fire Warriors (220)
8 Pulse Rifles
4 Pulse Carbines
Devilfish Transport
-Smart Missile System

12 Fire Warriors (220)
8 Pulse Rifles
4 Pulse Carbines
Devilfish Transport
-Smart Missile System

2 Shas'ui Broadsides (160)
Railguns
Smart Missile System
Stabil System (slow and purposeful I think is the rule)

1 Hammerhead Gunship (170)
Railgun (have to take this, can't represent Ion Cannon)
Smart Missile System
Multi-Tracker

This is where I have some room, I have 1574 of 1850 points. I don't have much remaining for representation, so I will go ahead and list what I remember:

24 Fire Warriors

12 Kroot Carnivors
-2 Hounds
-1 Shaper

2 Sniper drone teams

About 6 Shield drones

About 14 Gun drones (not sure on number, just know I have spare)

1 Ethereal

5 Stealth Battlesuits (old models, so no Fusion Blasters)

5 Pathfinders
-3 more with Rail Rifles

That is all that I can remember having; so if anyone has any help with tactics or what else I should include in my list, it would be greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure I see the problem. You've got quite a few S6AP2 weapons out there...

You might consider adding another HQ, perhaps splitting the bodyguard between the two HQ, so you have HQ with on bodyguard, times two.

Bottom line, nothing in the Tau list is better at killing Marines than the Plasma Rifle. S6AP2 is perfectly tailored for the job. If your fear is killing MEqs, then you need to field more Plasma Rifles. Cut one of your Fish and Fire Warriors, and use the points to add even more Fireknife suits?

In my Elites slots I like to go with 3 suit squads. Granted it's an odd number, but with two suits you only have to lose one, and now you're All On Your Own, which blows.

You can still kill MEqs with fire volume too. S5AP5 isn't too deadly for Marines, but the S5 means lots of saves, and they're going to fail a third of them.

I run a squad of Deathrain (T-L Missile pods) suits, and while they're simply not as good as Fireknives, they do have range, which makes it easy to do the move-shoot-move dance from almost anywhere on the table. When you're running a lot of suits, there's only so many places to hide. A Deathrain that has a place to hide is much better than a Fireknife that doesn't. The Deathrains are great for light armor, and they almost always wound a Marine, so they can force their share of saves.

People have told me that before, but the key part of this was the tactics that I should use. I like to use the base strategy that I put at the beginning, but with my crisis suits they tend to not do as well as I would hope. It could be my luck, but I tend to get them in 1 at a time, which just lines them up to get shot. Should I keep the suits for deep striking, or should I start with them on the field?

Also, with the last 250 or so points, what should I field out of what I have left?

The key with Crisis suits is to keep them out of sight, and don't get assaulted. Don't get assault includes not having a unit Massacre some Fire Warriors and go D6 inches into you. BS3 Fireknife suits that get a shot at Marines within 12" will kill 1.11 (without cover), with BS being the limiting factor.

The key to remember with your suits, is that you can set it up so that if he doesn't come to you, he loses. If he wants to sit back in a building and shoot it out, sure, he's getting cover saves, but you can move-shoot-move so he's not getting shots at you, period.

If he does come after you, try to kite him around the table, staying out of LOS, and kill off units where you can get localized fire superiority. Don't get too greedy though, if you have to keep outside of 12" range to stay safe, do it, it's better than getting assaulted, where your expensive suits are really pretty worthless.



Pretty much always start them on the field. Unless you have a very good reason, that's the best option.



I'd suggest that you take the Stealthsuits, though you'd rather have 6 in a squad. Five will cost 150 (if memory serves). You can give them some Gun Drones as well.

Spend the rest on Kroot. They're a good counter-charge unit, they can hide in cover and get a very good save, they shoot reasonably well, and they're cheap.

Posted By rabid on 02/08/2007 7:09 PM
People have told me that before, but the key part of this was the tactics that I should use. I like to use the base strategy that I put at the beginning, but with my crisis suits they tend to not do as well as I would hope. It could be my luck, but I tend to get them in 1 at a time, which just lines them up to get shot. Should I keep the suits for deep striking, or should I start with them on the field?

Also, with the last 250 or so points, what should I field out of what I have left?

yes start them on the field. this is a classic tau tactic-crisis suits jump out, shoot then jump back behind cover in the assault phase denying return fire.

 

the only time i could see you wanting to DS them is if it is a suicide tank hunting suit

 

personally i also would bulk up your fireknife squads if your going crisis suit heavy-hard wired drone controller+2 shield drones gives the entire squad a 3+/4+ give them all a multitracker standard then along with the drone controller on the upgraded squad leader hit him with some other usefull wargear-targeting array, & target lock.  that way you have squads that can split fire, have an invul save and the team leader hits on 3's , i prefer the same setup on broadsides as well

 

also bond all your squads so they can still regroup if they are below half instead of running off the table,

 

 

PS -decoy launchers on your fish/hammerhead is a must minimum upgrade if you do nothing else.

personally i like vehicles so i kit them out with the target lock, targetting array and fletchette launchers as well, but i tend to run tank heavy in my list.

 

 

Plasma+Missile is a nice, solid configuration, so you're good to go there, though if you're into experimentation, there are a few other, more specialized variants (Plasma+Burst, Missile+Burst, Twin Missile, and Plasma+Fusion). If you're looking to kill more Marines, Plasma+CIB is a good Commander layout. Overall, I'd stick with Fireknife in the majority, though.

I agree; if you're having trouble keeping your suits alive, a pair of Shield Drones on the team leader help a good bit, and bonding is also a good idea. I find the Drones just about essential on Broadsides, but your mileage may vary. Battlesuits also generally benefit from a few Kroot to run interference for them. Personally, with the Fire Warriors, I'd go with all rifles or all carbines, with the former being preferred.

Looking down your list of models, aside from the already-mentioned Shield Drones and Kroot, I don't think you need more Fire Warriors, and Sniper Drones are pretty nice, but tend to get pushed aside as points go higher because you'll likely need the railguns. If your group allows it, and you're into the whole Forge World thing, maybe consider proxying a Tetra or two to see if you like them. They work great alongside Fire Warriors, can boost the accuracy of your suits, and are fast enough to claim objectives in missions where necessary.

Just had a game last weekend against Black Templers (I think thats what they are called, the reverse fall back guys). I did really well now that I walked the Suits on, so thank you whoever said that. The only thing that I had trouble with was his chaplain. It had artificer armor and a jump pack. Any ideas on how to keep him out of an assault (he took out 600 points of guys in a 1500 point game).

Best option is probably to let him eat a unit (preferable something relatively cheap, like FCW or Kroot) while setting him up to be hit with a couple of Railguns. He?s got a 50/50 chance of saving a Railgun wound, so it?s better to nail him with 2 or 3.

He had that stupid mantle that doesn't let him be instantly killed. Yah, I found that out after I nailed him with one. That kinda sucked. What do you mean by FCW though?

FCW stands for Fire Caste Warriors, aka Fire Warriors.

Didn't feel like making a new topic, so I am going to revive this one for a bit.

I am making a new mech list.  Currently it is something like this:

1 Shas'el Suit: Plasma, Missile, hit on 2+

Two 3 man Crisis teams: Plasma, Missile, hit on 3+

Three 6 man Fire Warrior teams: Devilfish mount, Smart Missiles, 4 Rifles, 2 Carbines, bonded

3 man Stealth teams: Team leader, 2 Burst cannons, 1 Fusion blaster, hit on 3+

Hammerhead: Railgun, Smart Missiles

Hammerhead: Railgun, Smart Missiles

Hammerhead: Ion Cannon, Smart Missiles

 1849 points

All of the vehicles have Flechette Dischargers, Multi-Trackers, Decoy Launchers, and Targetting Arrays.  Is this a decent list, I tried to make it really good against heavy infantry/light tanks.  It still has the capability to take out heavy tanks.

I have read up on some tactica for some specific units, however am still unsure of overall strategy for the entire army.  I would really like to have some help by this weekend, and have a tourney that I plan to attend next weekend.

First off, dont mix and match weapons in firewarriors, waste of time. Pick one thing and do that. Rifles are best.
Drop the extra BS on stealth guys and give them another team member.
Flachette dischargers are OK at best. Only take them for points filler. But take the disruption pods first.

I do like mixing the weapons with the fire warriors. I fight a lot of Space marines, and in general guys who can fail their leadership. Pinning does wonders when it works. I took the BS on the stealth guys because I would rather them have a good chance at taking out a tank in one shot. I read some tactics on them before, and learned a new way to use them that should really help me. They said to not really do anything with them, and only move them up to take out one of the tanks in the back. The tactics also said that if they were very large, the opponent would look at them suspiciously.

I believe that I replaced the flechette, however I don't remember because I don't have the list with me currently. If I didn't would replacing them be really that key? I plan to move them enough to get the skimmer rule.

Without markerlights you only have a 1/9 chance of causing a pin test per carbine. That in and of itself is reason to consolidate the carbines into one squad if you really are going for pins.

Also, the two guns also have different advantages that get offset if taken together. Carbines are great fro defensive harrasing, because you can fall back and still shoot out beyond the 12" assault range of many units. Rifles are better at either the static shooting or FoF (30" range and rapid fire respectively). Both of the above advantages get negated when mixed, because the potency gets diluted.

Posted By winterman on 03/15/2007 11:29 AM
Without markerlights you only have a 1/9 chance of causing a pin test per carbine. That in and of itself is reason to consolidate the carbines into one squad if you really are going for pins.

Also, the two guns also have different advantages that get offset if taken together. Carbines are great fro defensive harrasing, because you can fall back and still shoot out beyond the 12" assault range of many units. Rifles are better at either the static shooting or FoF (30" range and rapid fire respectively). Both of the above advantages get negated when mixed, because the potency gets diluted.

Whilst everything you say in the seocond paragraph is true, the problem of combining carbines means you only get 1 chance to pin per turn. There is no bonus for scoring 2 or 3 wounds from the carbine volley when it comes to the pin check. If you can put up with disadvantages of mixed weapon range then spreading the carbines out gives you a higher average number of pin checks per turn of shooting, and the the chance of pinning multiple units.

Taking the list provided, combining the 6 carbines give 1 volley with 51% chance of causing a single pin check (v MEQ). Leaving them 2 per squad gives 3 seperate 21% chances per turn of shooting. Whilst the chance of failing to get any pin checks on a given turn is the same either way (49%), the split carbines will average ~0.64 pin checks per turn as opposed to 0.51 on the combined squad.

I'm not going to comment on how good a strategy it is or isn't, but if you are playing around with the idea of pin checks then really you do want to be seperating out the pin checks to up the number of them generated.

Heh, well turns out that I don't have as much money to spare now as I thought I did. This is my new list, it isn't too much different:

2 x Shas'el with 2+ to hit, and 2 bodygaurds with 3+ to hit. Plasma and Missile on all, HW multi tracker.

Suicide tank hunter Shas'ui with 3+ to hit. Missile and Fusion, HW multi tracker.

Stealth team, 3 Shas'ui with 3+ to hit. 1 Fusion and 2 Burst.

2 x Fire Warrior teams, 6 Shas'la. 4 Rifles and 2 Carbines.

Broadside team with 2 Shas'ui with S&P. 2 Plasma upgrades, 2 Shield drones, HW target lock on leader.

Railhead with SMS, target lock, multi tracker, decoy launchers, and disruption pod.

Ionhead with same upgrades as above.

I only have enough money to spare right now to buy the last hammerhead (was hoping to get 2). Go to my first post on this thread to see all of my units, because I am 222 points short of a full 1850 list right now. Any help on modifying this current list and what to add would be greatly appreciated.