Tau Supporting Fire

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**SonicPara**

wowsmash wrote:
I've already seen it used to great effect. The mini wargaming guys did a vid last week. Dave took 100 cultist and made them one big squad with the fearless and mob rule on them. Matt kill all of them before they even got into combat. He had 2 full fire warrior squads and an ethereal. Was brutal. Not sure how to play my orks against tau now. I've just been grabing my local tau player for team games and be his meat shield. Seems to work but I would like to be able to play against him on occasion.

You have to either time your assault properly when he doesn't have such an intricate net of Supporting Fire chances lined up OR you charge two units with the first one being a throwaway unit used simply to bait the over-use of Overwatch and Supporting Fire. If the Tau player doesn't take the bait then oh well, you still have Orks in close combat with Tau which means an automatic won combat.

**washout77**

MarkyMark wrote:
One question on supporting fire, say if I charge a throw away unit at a squad which has units that can supporting fire, and they make it in. If I charge another unit at the unit already engaged, could that unit be overwatched?

I can see a way around the whole "throw-away sacrifice unit" thing if it's legal.

The tau player gets charged by a throw away unit to absorb overwatch. The unit being charged overwatches, BUT chooses not to have Supporting Fire. Then the unit is charged by a dedicated assault unit.

Here is the legal question. Could supporting overwatch still be fired, as technically the units haven't shot overwatch yet?

**chrisrawr**

lol, Orks against Tau, just bring 6 mobs of shoota boys with rokkits and space them out well. Enjoy his butthurt tears.

**SonicPara**

washout77 wrote:
Here is the legal question. Could supporting overwatch still be fired, as technically the units haven't shot overwatch yet?

Of course.

The check for "Supporting Fire" happens every single time a Tau unit gets charged. If no friendly units within 6" that have models with the "Supporting Fire" rule have fired Overwatch then they are allowed to open fire.

Just because the unit being charged has already fired Overwatch it does not disallow Overwatch through "Supporting Fire" for other units. While this makes the Tau specific rule fairly flexible remember, you can only fire Overwatch once per turn unless stated otherwise. As far as I know, the only unit in the Tau codex that can fire Overwatch multiple times in one turn is Longstrike in his Hammerhead.

**Lobokai**

Amaraxis wrote:
OK, the issue is that the wording seems ambiguous.

SO:

Actual Wording: When an enemy charges, all friendly models with this special rule in units within 6" of the unit being charged can choose to fire overwatch.

To break it apart:

When an enemy charges
all friendly models with this special rule
in units within 6" of the unit being charged
can choose to fire overwatch.

So - The qualifying is:
Is the enemy Charging? Yes ->continue
Does the Friendly model have the Supporting Fire special rule? Yes -> continue
Is the unit the model is in within the charge target? Yes ->
Then -> They may fire overwatch

If you try to make it say:
When an enemy charges
all friendly models with this special rule within 6" of the unit being charged
can choose to fire overwatch.

You are completely missing the unit reference

This, got a little buried, but if this comes up, I'll be pulling this up for the other player

**rems01**

washout77 wrote:
MarkyMark wrote:
One question on supporting fire, say if I charge a throw away unit at a squad which has units that can supporting fire, and they make it in. If I charge another unit at the unit already engaged, could that unit be overwatched?

I can see a way around the whole "throw-away sacrifice unit" thing if it's legal.

The tau player gets charged by a throw away unit to absorb overwatch. The unit being charged overwatches, BUT chooses not to have Supporting Fire. Then the unit is charged by a dedicated assault unit.

Here is the legal question. Could supporting overwatch still be fired, as technically the units haven't shot overwatch yet?

No because the unit being charged has missed its chance to overwatch. It's already engage by the first charging unit, it can't then declare overwatch on the second. This exact scenario is covered in the rulebook.

**Archonate**

rems01 wrote:
washout77 wrote:
MarkyMark wrote:
One question on supporting fire, say if I charge a throw away unit at a squad which has units that can supporting fire, and they make it in. If I charge another unit at the unit already engaged, could that unit be overwatched?

I can see a way around the whole "throw-away sacrifice unit" thing if it's legal.

The tau player gets charged by a throw away unit to absorb overwatch. The unit being charged overwatches, BUT chooses not to have Supporting Fire. Then the unit is charged by a dedicated assault unit.

Here is the legal question. Could supporting overwatch still be fired, as technically the units haven't shot overwatch yet?

No because the unit being charged has missed its chance to overwatch. It's already engage by the first charging unit, it can't then declare overwatch on the second. This exact scenario is covered in the rulebook.

The unit being charged didn't miss it's chance to overwatch, it already fired overwatch at the first charging unit. The surrounding units with Supporting Fire have not yet fired overwatch, so if the engaged unit gets charged by a second unit, then those units within 6" with Supporting Fire may indeed fire overwatch at the second charging unit.