Silver bullet

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**QuietOrkmi**

I was thinking about trying Ninja Tau again and thought about using a strategy used in Magic the Gathering... It is called the Silver Bullet.

The Idea was that you have a few options that would wreck the meta but thanks to its narrowness it was not very strong against much else. In order to use those options reliably you would run cards that allowed you to grab those cards from your deck and place them in your hand, so you can play them this or next turn...

Looking at the positional relay again made me think of the Silver Bullet.

What are some general threats on the battlefield and some Tau responses? Here is what I could come up with at the moment.

Problem: Landraiders (IE: Av 14)
Solution: Hammerhead w/Railguns

Problem: Swarms and Hordes
Solution: 6 man Stealth Team with targeting arrays

Problem: Transport Spam
Solution: Deathrain Team

Problem: TEQ
Solution: Helios Team

What else do you guys think?

**Grey Templar**

are you saying take one of each?

that might work, but you would have the problem of things not arriving when you need them.

i haven't seen Ninja t'au used effectively, either by me or other players, but i could see it working if you are very careful with your actions.

**Honersstodnt**

the problem is, if you tailor your list to the meta, your going to be blindsided by a list not within it. Thats why i'm building a biker marine army... the meta in my area is very mechanized. So, most people take plenty of anti-vehicle... so I decided to make a list that can counter that, with no vehicles at all.

**QuietOrkmi**

The idea is that every unit can deal an dis-proportionate amount of damage to the right list... the positional relay ensures that they show up...

**KingCracker**

Honersstodnt wrote:the problem is, if you tailor your list to the meta, your going to be blindsided by a list not within it. Thats why i'm building a biker marine army... the meta in my area is very mechanized. So, most people take plenty of anti-vehicle... so I decided to make a list that can counter that, with no vehicles at all.

This reminds me of a battle rep I read once. A guy was taking his Orks to a local tourny that was allowing titans. He gambled that most armies wouldnt have titans, and would be geared towards blowing UP the titans. So he took a solid horde Orks force. Basically he had nothing to deal with AV14 stuff, but he would easily soak up shots, and munch through everything else.

He ended winning because he got lucky and fought no titans, so he just overwhelmed his opponents.

**Inquisitor_Syphonious**

Broadsides would be better against AV 14.

**MekanobSamael**

Inquisitor_Syphonious wrote:Broadsides would be better against AV 14.

+1

3 BS 3 TL shots > 1 BS 4 shot

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Still,the "silver bullet" list has its issues. You're probably going to have trouble against any list dedicated to a single attack form, seeing as you don't have the volume to counter it. Still looks like an effective tactic, though.

**QuietOrkmi**

Why not run both... I just like hammerhead first in a list because it has more utility....

Giving those broadsides plasmaguns and targeting arrays or a.s.s may help out quite a bit...

**QuietOrkmi**

So trying this again...

Common threats are:

TMC Spam (T6 3+ save)
LR Spam (AV 14)
Transport Spam (AV 10-12)
Horde
Deepstriking MEQS (T4 3+ save)

Is there anything that I am forgetting?

Common Answers are...
(TMC And LR) Helios
(Transports and TMC) Death Rain, Broadsides, Ionheads, Seeker Missiles
(Horde) Stealth Suits, Hammerheads
(Deepstriking) Holding things in reserve and distance everything apart...

What do you guys think?

**Regwon**

Isnt this what ninja tau already does? Bring in answers it needs to counter threats?

The trouble with comparing 40k to magic is that magic has a very structured resource curve. Under most circumstances you can play a single land a turn and so that limits what other spells you can play. Traditionally things that break this curve are very powerful as you can play game winners easily.

In 40k there is no resource curve. You get all of your opponents strength all at once (unless you're playing againt demons

). In magic terms this is like you opponent playing all his threats on turn 1. Unless you can do something similar you'll lose pretty quickly. But where it really falls appart for this stratergy is that most good army builds use a lot of redundacy in their lists. One landraider is good, but two is better, because if one gets blown up you can still use tactics involving landraiders. This is why you dont see tournament winning armies with one-offs in their list.

So if your opponent is playig MCs, for example, theyre going to have more than one. If you bring in something that can kill MCs, you get one turn to do damage before the rest of the army is looking at that unit. You wont be able to do enough damage to seriously hurt your opponent. Add to this that most armies dont use a single type of unit. A 'nid playing will have MCs, hordes of gants, zoanthropes and maybe even DoM, which is very hard for you to deal with with only a single unit a turn.

**QuietOrkmi**

What do you think of the following configurations for my 4 teams of suits in the same list...

Commander (Fireknife): 3 Missile Pod + 3 Plasma Rifle, 3 Targeting array, 3 HW Multi tracker, 3 HW Drone Controller, 4 Shield Drones, Bonding Knife

Commander (Helios): 3 Plasma Rifle + 3 Fusion Blaster, 3 Targeting array, 3 HW Multi tracker, 3 HW Drone Controller, 4 Shield Drones, Bonding Knife

Crisis Suits (Deathrain): 3 Twinlinked Missile Pod, 2 Flamers, Shas've with Positional Relay, HW Drone Controller, 2 Shield Drones, Bonding Knife

Crisis Suits (Fireforge): 3 Missile Pod + 3 Fusion Blaster, 3 Targeting Array, Team Leader with HW Drone Controller, 2 Shield Drones, Bonding Knife

The last elite choice is occupied by a squad of 6 stealth suits with targeting arrays.

**Slick**

I don't think it would work as effectively as the idea in Magic, based on the idea that fishing out 1 in 60 with a tutor effect doesnt really put you on a disadvantage on the curve.
Keeping all those units in reserve and only having a small fraction of your force on the board otherwise would justend up with whatever you bring in being plowed by the full force of your opponents army.

**QuietOrkmi**

Given the large reach of each unit (36" for missiles, 24" for plasma, 18" for burst cannons) and reliable deepstriking. Do you think I can hit my opponent from a place where either none or a small portion of his army can fire back?

Nevermind on the burstcannon as 18" is kinda short... but with a 6" JSJ you can hit them next turn...

In kill point games, the idea is to kill one more thing then they kill...
Objective games can be won by deepstriking people within contesting while only claiming one objective...