Tau vs Deepstrikers

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**QuietOrkmi**

I have been kick around the Idea of playing Ninja Tau and realized one glaring weakness... what happens when my opponent is deep strike their entire army...

Bugs can deep strike their entire army turn 2 or 3...
Blood angels can deep strike their army with amazing accuracy...

Another glaring weakness is what do you do when you are forced to go first and you are fighting the above armies?

**warboss**

if you're facing an army that does that, you go completely in reserve and focus on annhilating what arrived during the enemy's turn completely (don't leave stragglers.. 2-3 marines can kill a whole fire warrior squad in close combat). i wish i hadn't learned this the hard way.. :( without a plasma CANNON equivalent (something that is ap2 and small blast), the tau are screwed vs deepstrikers.

**QuietOrkmi**

So put everyone in reserve and do not rely on the positional relay?

**eNvY**

As a Space Marine Pod army player, the best thing you can do is take the second turn if you can get it. Deploy as little on the table as possible.

**warboss**

QuietOrkmi wrote:So put everyone in reserve and do not rely on the positional relay?

that's what i would do. you're going to need to focus almost all your reserves that come in on turn to to wipe out a squad of two of his completely. i've heard of the ninja tau that come in on turn 5 but i don't see that working well in 5th (albeit i've never actually tried it).

**Dashofpepper**

Ninja Tau have more than that glaring weakness.

The OTHER glaring weakness is that its a gimmick and unlikely to succeed against any half decent army. Between long range firepower and fast units, there's no reason the commander shouldn't be dead by turn 2 or 3.

**Backfire**

Dashofpepper wrote:Ninja Tau have more than that glaring weakness.

The OTHER glaring weakness is that its a gimmick and unlikely to succeed against any half decent army. Between long range firepower and fast units, there's no reason the commander shouldn't be dead by turn 2 or 3.

An experienced Ninja Tau player once explained that survival of the commander beyond Turn 2 is a bonus, not a prerequirement for the tactic.

**warboss**

Dashofpepper wrote:Tau have more than that glaring weakness.

i fixed your post, lol. what can you say about a shooty army that doesn't actually shoot very well but still sucks royally in close combat... :(

**Lorek**

There are ways to set up Deep Strike Defense with the Tau, but it works best if you have some infantry units to really take up space (Kroot, I'm looking at you). You can use spread-out units to deny key areas to your opponent, and your shooting is usually mobile enough that you can still have mutual fire support in the army.

Things to consider:

Drop Pods and Mycetic Spores have those auto-correction systems built in, so if a hole is big enough for a Drop Pod or Mycetic Spore, it simply won't scatter. A dirty, dirty trick (that often doesn't work, and it hard to pull off) is to leave a hole that's just a little bit bigger than the pod coming in. The pod will land, but the contents will have nowhere to go that's not within 1" of your models and will be destroyed.

The other consideration is that castling is a bad idea with the Tau. It's easy for an assault army to corral you and then just start munching units. Staying spread out keeps your mobility options open.

**QuietOrkmi**

So... keep my units within rapid fire range of eachother?

**Lorek**

Nope, that'd be castling. It will take a bit of practice to get the hang of, but by trying it out, you'll get the knack of it.

See if you can find a willing friend to help you practice this.

**QuietOrkmi**

Now, is it correct that you are saying I should place my guys 18" away from each other?

Or are you saying that I should just hold things in reserve?

**gurgle**

Deploy your men in area terrain.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
For cover and you might actually kill someone in assault

**Lorek**

There's really no set distance. Ideally, you'll want to satisfy the following conditions:

1. Be far enough apart to avoid being multicharged on subsequent rounds.

2. Cover enough ground to deny your opponent a good-sized portion of the board for deep striking.

3. Be able to have multiple possible targets for each unit, allowing you to effectively prioritize your shooting. For example, having an Ionhead as backup to kill a Rhino if your Deathrain squad doesn't, but if the Deathrain does kill the Rhino, then the IonHead can target the marines that bailed out.

**gurgle**

When people have kept all of their men in reserve against my daemons I just deep strike all of my men in their deployment zone (with less risk of landing on impassable terrain), kill anything that has been left on it's own in their half and then wait them out. You will get one turn to shoot at me and then you will be obliterated.

**warboss**

gurgle wrote: You will get one turn to shoot at me and then you will be obliterated.

that's the case with half the armies out there vs tau. the other half get two turns (foot sloggin' orks, etc). :(

**QuietOrkmi**

Couldn't the Tau player take advantage of daemons' lack of shooting and just deepstrike, ouflank, their forces away from you... thus turning your daemons army into another footsloggin force?