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ok...so, here is the deal...it's 11:21 pm when i started this, and i have roughly 12 hours (including sleep) to try and devise a battle strategy to take on my friend manticore's tyranids (it was them or space wolves.....i think i have a better shot against tyranids with tau than space puppies...) we are playing a 1k match, and i'm scared $#!Tless because of what i heard happened to captain killjoy and lazyork....he has a BUNCH of models at his disposle and i have only 2 heavy support: 1 hammerhead and 1 broadside model. to go more in depth, he has probably mutiples of every tyranid that has come out, and i have 24 fire warriors, 18 kroot, 4 hounds, 3 xv15 stealth suits, 1 crisis suit (my shas'o), O'shovah, Aun'shi (who can not be used due to the current codex) and 6 other gun drones...i'm trying to avoid cqc because it'd be suicide to send ANYTHING in against his rids, and i'm trying to think of a decent strategy...HELP PLEASE

You would prob. get more HELP!!! in the army list section and looking through tactics. Sorry dont know much about either but good luck.

Well, a Tau list without Devilfish for its FCW is a sad Tau list.

Trying to make the best of a bad situation, I recommend using one, maybe two deployed squads of FCW as targets and to lay down some early shooting. Deployed at one end of your deployment zone, with the rest of your army in reserve (or infiltrating, in the case of the kroot). This way your opponent is left with two choices- either focus his army on the squad/s of FCW on one side of the table, or spread out. If he focuses, you can bring the rest of your army on at the other end, and get more turns of long-range shooting. If he spreads out, you can reinforce the FCW and concentrate fire on that end.


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I am moving this to Tactics, BTW.

thanx mannahnin.....ummm....i forgot one crucial detail....i apoligize...this is going to be a straight annihilation match: no infiltrate, no deepstrike, and no reserves....its a no hold match....is it safe to say i might be screwed?


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oh yeah...does anyone know what ninja tau are?

Ninja are basically about reserves....don't know much else.
Don't really have much tactics other than good luck and HOLD FAST IN THE NAME OF THE EMPRAH!!!!!(or greater good, whatever you wanna do )

Yeah man against bugs your screwed I think. I dont know much about Tau but i would try to take gun drones with your Firewarriors so they can maybe soak up wounds. Be sure to have units that can take assaults so your big guns wont get assaulted. Thats all i can really say. Good luck

No reserves hurts you quite a bit - why aren't you playing a standard mission?

well....i got my ass handed to me....but not before i pissed off a carni....i'm proud of myself for that at least.....and i did wipe out 31 gaunts....i needed more big guns. that would have SERIOUSLY helped....my advice. don't take on tyranids without big guns. period. end of discussion. oh yeah. i officially hate carnifexes now. i hate them more than i could ever hate SM's, and i didn't think it possible. it's ammazing how 1 spinegaunt screwed me up. the little bastard tied up my shas'o with the template weapons for a whole turn.....

Please make some effort to squeeze a little bit of grammar into your posts. They are very hard to read.

And yeah well against a nidzilla list going in there with only 2 Railguns and 3 fusion blasters was always gonna be suicide.

ninja tau is an interesting concept. it involves a shaso with a positional relay, 3 min size squads of kroot, and multiple squads of crisis / stealth suits.

put just your commmander on the field, the rest in reserves.

turn 2... bring in a kroot squad.
turn 3... bring in a kroot squad
turn 4... bring in a kroot squad
turn 5... deep strike EVERYTHING and blow the crap out of as much as you can. works best if you go second. hopefully, the game ends right after this alpha strike, and your opponent never gets the chance to shoot you. just make sure you keep running the kroot/commander away from everything.

probably works best in killpoints missions, but could probably be adapted to work in objective missions with a few more squads of kroot to outflank/take objectives on turn 5.

If there was a lot of gaunts and only a few MC the gaunts are only there to hold you down until the big things come. Instead of shooting mainly at the big things, aim for Synapse creatures and fast creatures. The Carnifex needs to stay in Synapse range otherwise it has to take a test each time it moves, also when it's out of Synapse it can be killed with Instand Death attacks. The best Tyranid, in my oppinion, at the moment has to be the Winged Hive Tyrant with Twinlinked Devourers or Scything Talons. It has Synapse and basically ripped a fair bit of my army apart before it was dealt with by a 7 man Sternguard squad with the Captain (Hellfire rounds) attached. Most of the time a Carnifex would have a 3+ save and a Hive Tyrant will usually have a 2+ save (Unless they take another power instead), I just point a Vindicator at them most of the time.

The trick is to keep everything in a vehicle, drive into range (Always take the equipment that lets it shoot like a fast vehicle, forgot its name ) and shoot at the little things. Hammerhead should use the blast version of the Railgun at the Gaunts. Then once they're dealt with (unless they have Without Number, but only the weaker Gaunts can get that if I remember right) go for the bigger things. You're moving your vehicles right if they usually need a 6+ to hit them, add that with the equipment that lets the vehicles hit back (another name I forgot >_> ) and if they get to hit you, you at least hit back. Do not let the MCs or anything with rending get within 18" of any vehicle, that's as far as most of them can move to charge (Warriors can move up to 24". Kill the Warriors first, then about half of the small things (if a Gaunt Squad has without number I find that killing it down to about one Gaunt then avoiding it like the plauge for the rest of the game works well. Genesteallers should always be in this first half) then aim for the Hive Tyrant if it's there. Once that's done, take out the rest of the small things, then move on to the Carnifex. Remember, the Tyranids best anti-tank is usually the Carnifex and it's always funny to watch it chase a tank around the battlefield.

for not_u (the names you forgot)
1st:multi tracker
2nd: flechette discharger

for mad god...i apologize for the way my posts have been...i just figured out last night how to put this space in between all the words (and i responded your thingy this way to piss you off.....hehehe)....and i only had my hammerhead...my broadside put me about 100 points over....


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hehehe. i have another match comin up on wednesday, since its supposed to rain where i live. i'm going up against an ork 'ard army this time. hopefully i won't get chewed up this time like my necrons did when i fought them. wish me luck on wednesday! (I REALLY need more freakin' suits)

if you ever need advice just PM me and i can tell you some tau tactics that will work