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Ledabot wrote:

aquilaenet wrote:I play Tau, and I can tell you that I throw mathhammer out the window. Their are too many variables to use it effectively. Like the other guys said, range is a big deal for the Tau. At 500 points I think Tau are almost overpowered. The Tau can bring things alot of armies simply cannot, and the cool things the other armies can bring can quickly be neutralized by Tau firepower. Absolutely bring plasma rifles. That is one of the most versitile guns in the game, especially considering how many you can bring at 500 points. You will freak some of the other armies out by bringing as many as you can. In fact, if your local rules allow it, bring a fully loaded Hammerhead. It is almost unstoppable at 500 points. I played in a 500 tourney recently and that fully loaded Hammerhead could have been the only thing I brought, and I still would have done well. (maybe not won, but done very well)

This guy has it down. If your expecting dark elder, its ok to take a hammerhead and fire warriors with maybe a suit or two in support. your firewarriors can take there tanks down but save then for the troops, let the hammerhead blow the things to bits! You have meq at the tornament? Your best off taking a fire knife and a blade storm since you have the anti tank covered with the hammerhead. Its hard to come across units that can put a good dent against 13AV in 500 pts.

Hammerhead too much total AV to be used in 500 pts. Broadsides legal though, and the best anti-tank unit in the game. Actually, tbh, this entire debate is moot, as broadsides>Crisis suits. XV88 is easily the best unit in the codex.

im2randomghgh, I misunderstood one of your previous posts to mean 200 point squad of crisis suits and assumed you meant in a 2000 point game at that point, instead of just 200 points of crisis suits period. Edited previous post to reflect 500 points. Sorry about that, mate.

Since when could you not take hammerheads in 500pts?

IIRC, that's only true in combat patrol. where the total sides of a vehicle (front, one side, and rear) have to equal less that 33( I think it's 33 anyways. )

Ledabot wrote:Since when could you not take hammerheads in 500pts?

In a points game this small, I assumed it would be combat patrol.

Either way, heavy tanks @500 is kinda a dick move.

Thats kinda how i felt when I had a ironclad dread stomping around my force in a 500pts game and I couldnt even dent it. The next game he tryed it again, and I took a hammerhead.

For this points total, I think fireknives are a little expensive. I would go with a 2 man unit of deathrains, your HQ a centurion, and maybe 1 or 2 bladestorms for him to run with.

and definitely get a hammerhead in there. They are IMO one of the best tanks in the game.

Any tau list that wants to win has a few XV88s

But this 500 points, Broadsides are way to pricey for that point limit. That take just under half your list and can be taken out much easyer than anything else you might bring, and are quite useless once there is big targets left on the table, which you won find much of in 500pts.

I don't like spending 75 points for a single model when every guy counts, plus I can only fire one shot with a broadside, and if they are charged (the table is only 4", with about 10" deployment) then I am dead. I need to be able to take out any kind of cc based threat FIRST, then focus on taking out anything else; this means that 1-3 shots from broadsides won't be too effective. I like the idea of a great many fire warriors, but there may be some rhino spamming and I want to be able to kill it with plenty of shots to spare (no depending on 6's). There are only the 3 standard missions that are pre-determined, so everything that is allowed in 40k is allowed in the tourney, although I want to keep my army in good taste. I don't like kroot screens, mainly because they have never worked for me; they die too easily from shooting (ex: 10 assault marines shoot at them, about 7 hit, 3 or 4 deaths, then they charge with 3 attacks each; I don't want to spend points on a screen that will only give killpoints to the opponent.) I typically take the firestorm battlesuits, as I have said, since it is the most versatile in my opinion.

im2randomghgh wrote:Any tau list that wants to win has a few XV88s

Except at 500 points, 70 point models are going to take up a lot of room. Plus the amount of armor you are going to see is going to be fairly minimal. Probably a few transports, at the most one main battle tank in a list. Really broadsides are overkill at this points cost. You might be better served putting a fusion blaster on a suit or two. For that one guy you decides to bring a leman russ.

Also, never make sweeping generalizations. They are very rarely true.

I play Tau around 500pts at the moment and I would not want to go without at least one plasma rifle. The Tau Empire lacks cheap, reliable AP3 weapons, like the missile launchers that IG, SM and Eldar can take three or more of at that point level. However, AP3 or better is really needed against many enemy Elite units, such as Wraithlords or FNP'ed Marines. That's why I keep a plasma rifle on my Shas'el - at least one weapon that says "I don't think so" to MEQs, TEQs, MCs and FNP units.

Ledabot wrote:But this 500 points, Broadsides are way to pricey for that point limit. That take just under half your list and can be taken out much easyer than anything else you might bring, and are quite useless once there is big targets left on the table, which you won find much of in 500pts.

take two for 140. And they really aren't useless, ever, with an assault 4 ignore NF, Ignore LOS cover Str5 AP5 weapon. That's eight shots for the unit.

Plus, excepting melta, EMP and tank shock, they are really the only anti-tank the tau have.

Witzkatz wrote:I play Tau around 500pts at the moment and I would not want to go without at least one plasma rifle. The Tau Empire lacks cheap, reliable AP3 weapons, like the missile launchers that IG, SM and Eldar can take three or more of at that point level. However, AP3 or better is really needed against many enemy Elite units, such as Wraithlords or FNP'ed Marines. That's why I keep a plasma rifle on my Shas'el - at least one weapon that says "I don't think so" to MEQs, TEQs, MCs and FNP units.

This.

im2randomghgh wrote:18" is NOT ideal for a crisis suit. Sure, they can dish slightly more damage. But they can also be hit by just about any weapon, and can be WAAAGH!'d, assault marine'd etc.

Doing more damage isn't necessarily worth losing your 200 point investment to retailiation.

Then why take a Rapid Fire weapon in the first place. If you're that scared of your suits getting killed and actually putting dents into enemy units, just use Missile Pods and shoot from a distance.

The major mistake people make playing FireKnives is playing them defensively.

KplKeegan wrote:

Witzkatz wrote:I play Tau around 500pts at the moment and I would not want to go without at least one plasma rifle. The Tau Empire lacks cheap, reliable AP3 weapons, like the missile launchers that IG, SM and Eldar can take three or more of at that point level. However, AP3 or better is really needed against many enemy Elite units, such as Wraithlords or FNP'ed Marines. That's why I keep a plasma rifle on my Shas'el - at least one weapon that says "I don't think so" to MEQs, TEQs, MCs and FNP units.

This.

im2randomghgh wrote:18" is NOT ideal for a crisis suit. Sure, they can dish slightly more damage. But they can also be hit by just about any weapon, and can be WAAAGH!'d, assault marine'd etc.

Doing more damage isn't necessarily worth losing your 200 point investment to retailiation.

Then why take a Rapid Fire weapon in the first place. If you're that scared of your suits getting killed and actually putting dents into enemy units, just use Missile Pods and shoot from a distance.

The major mistake people make playing FireKnives is playing them defensively.

Because it's our only plasma, that's why.

You don't need to play them defensively, but at the same time, they're absolutely not suicide units.

im2randomghgh wrote:Because it's our only plasma, that's why.

im2randomghgh wrote:You don't need to play them defensively, but at the same time, they're absolutely not suicide units.

If 18" is suicide for you, then just drop the plasma and just spam missiles all day, save the extra points for some extra Fire Warriors.

KplKeegan wrote:

im2randomghgh wrote:Because it's our only plasma, that's why.

im2randomghgh wrote:You don't need to play them defensively, but at the same time, they're absolutely not suicide units.

If 18" is suicide for you, then just drop the plasma and just spam missiles all day, save the extra points for some extra Fire Warriors.

If you like being so close to the enemy, why don't you just deepstrike with TL flamer? Or better yet, assault! Or, for more results than the other two, go give them a hug!