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I am a pretty good Tau player, but I always get swept off the table by Space Wolf players. Can anyone please help me. I have a 1850 tourney next week and the SW player will be there. I want to surprise him with some new tactics and hopefully beat him.

What's are the lists? "Tau vs Space Wolves" is pretty vague; there are a bunch of possible builds from the Wolf codex and they all play differently.

bdix wrote:I am a pretty good Tau player, but I always get swept off the table by Space Wolf players. Can anyone please help me. I have a 1850 tourney next week and the SW player will be there. I want to surprise him with some new tactics and hopefully beat him.

Lots, and lots of Markerlights. That's really what I see most players lacking, and what they need more of.

No matter who you are facing Tau play pretty much the same tbh, the general idea being to shoot the enemy to pieces while avoiding assaults.

I would be taking as many Missile Pod Crises Suits as you can fit into a list, a bunch of Broadsides for S10 goodness, 1-2 Fire Warrior units in Devilfish (to hide and act as your scoring units) and then use Piranhas, Drones and Kroot to block movement and absorb assaults. Basically you want to maxmise the time you have to shoot people down so force them to eat your less powerful units (or try and move around them) to slow them down and keep you suits up and running as long as possible.

Ok sorry I wasnt very specific...The list I'm playing agaisnt is like 2-3 units of those horseback guys, 2-3 rhinos, a pack of like 30 of those wolves with his HQ (the guy on horseback also + his entourage), and then some long range plasma stuff. The problem I face is I either try and take out that unit of small wolves or take out those 2-3 units of riders. Either way, something is going to be eating me by turn 2-3 because its pretty hard to take out either really. What can I do to counter this? I try making a kroot wall last time and it bought me some time, but that was about it.

Also, where can I fit more markerlights? I run 2 units of PFs (5-6 a peice)

2 unit's of PFs - what does the rest of your list look like then?

I would take some suicide crisis teams to snipe his Long Fangs. Use pirhanas and kroot to block off assaults. Focus fire on the thunderwolves and shoot out his transports before they can close the distance. I would load out on markerlights and seeker missiles.

Well, the basic playstyle with tau against any opponent revolve around pretty much one thing.

Stop him from getting into combat with your important units.

This is the most important thing to remember when playing tau.

If hes in combat with your suits, theyre not shooting. If theyre not shooting, youve lost. This is where kroot come in. Take 12-16 kroot. Line them around you whole army. Join a battlesuit commander to them. Take an ethereal. Oh look, to get to your suits he has to assault the kroot. He cant shoot them away, they have rerollable ld 9. This is the basic priciple of what is called "bubblewrapping" ie. wrapping your army in an expendable unit who dies horribly in order to give you an extra turn of shooting. All for the greater good of course.

Arm the crisis suits with TL missile pods+plasma. That way they bust open transports, and are great marine killers too. Kill heavy vehicles with broadsides first, let the crisis suits deal with transports. Ignore terminators and other such close combat nonsense, as they will get stalled by the kroot, then take loads of plasma to the face. Destroy transports first always. No transports=slower movement, slower movement=more time for you to shoot them.

Usually playing with tau involves killing enough of the enemy before you end up in combat, if you can do that youve probably won, if not then youve probably lost.

Maybe post up a 1850 list so that other dakkaites can help you refine it?

Anyhow, good luck with your games! =)

HQ

Commander Shas'el
Twin-Linked Missile Pod
Plasma Rifle
Targetting Array
Hard-wired Multi-Tracker

ELITE

3 XV8 Battlesuit
3 Twin-Linked Missile Pod
3 Plasma Rifle
3 Multitracker

3 XV8 Battlesuit
3 Twin-Linked Missile Pod
3 Plasma Rifle
3 Multitracker

3 XV8 Battlesuit
3 Twin-Linked Missile Pod
3 Targetting Array

TROOP

10 Kroot
5 Kroot Hound

10 Kroot
5 Kroot Hound

6 Shas'La Fire Warriors

6 Shas'La Fire Warriors
Devilfish Transport
Gun Drones
Multi-Tracker

FAST

Piranha Skimmer
Fusion Blaster
Targetting Array
Disruption Pod

7 Pathfinders
Devilfish Transport
Gun Drones
Disruption Pod


HEAVY

1 XV88 Shas'Ui Team Leader
1 Advanced Stabilisation System
1 Hard-wired Drone Controller
2 Shield Drone
1 XV88 Broadside Battlesuit
1 Advanced Stabilisation System

1 Hammerhead Gunship
1 Railgun
1 Burst Cannons
1 Multi-tracker
1 Disruption Pod

1 Hammerhead Gunship
1 Railgun
1 Burst Cannons
1 Multi-tracker
1 Disruption Pod




This is different from my normal list in that I take one less unit of PF. I think the point difference comes from adding the extra fireknife unit (I ussually take 2 deathrain units + 1 fireknife unit instead)

Feel free to make any suggestions...like I said, this isnt my ussual list so I have no clue how it would fair against anything. I can sub out any unit, as I have around 8k Tau.

I ussually use the one pirahna as a distraction in the back field, making him use something heavy to take it out, or waste several shots at it. I also ussually castle in with kroot, but this time I may try and make a wall around the middle of the field with them, as said earlier (putting HQ with them). How does a shas'el get to reroll leadership though? Ive never seen that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
opponents list will be a variation of this...this is the one he took to a tourney 4 months ago, seems to look really similar to the one he ussually plays with.

(1) Wolf Guard *3, 2*Combi-Melta, 1*Combi-Flamer (go to the GH squads)
(2) Iron Priest, Thunderwolf, 4* Cyber wolves

(2) GH*5, Melta, Rhino
(1) GH*5, Flamer, Rhino
(1) Fenrisian Wolves*15

(3) Thunderwolf Cav*5, PF, Bolter, Mark, Meltabombs

It seems to me that if you know you aren't facing a horde army, another team of broadsides in place of a railhead would be a smart move - they pretty much kill face if you aren't in danger of being swarmed.

If you're only talking about 2 Rhinos, are the TLMP suits really worth it, do you feel, over the MEQ killiness of FKs?

Those are the first two questions I would ask myself.

I'm assuming the TLMP/PR/MT suits are all just typos, as they are illegal.

ah, they are typos...both on here and in my database, that will give me some points back.

You make a good point with the deathrains, but I will also be playing anywhere from 2-3 other marine players and some orc. The nid player is MC so anything with SW will work with him too....

Based on that what do you think I should do? Ive gotten 2nd-3rd to the same SW player several times in a row now and want to beat him pretty bad, but i dont want to weaken myself against everyone else at the same time.

Hmmm... I checked your list and noticed that the crisis suits have 4 battle systems...

TL- Missile pods count as 2 systems and unless they were bodyguards they would not be able to take a HW markerlight.

A good website to start would be Tau tactica, but you should not end your research there.

As for avoiding assaults, it is tough against the thunderwolf calvary as they assault 12" move 6" and have fleet. +1 for the previously mentioned kroot to hinder your opponent's movement as well as the devil fishes.

The Ap 1 and 2 sometimes gets nixed by cover saves (solved through pathfinders) and 3+ invulnerable saves...

good luck.

I guess I didn't preface this- I am a good Tau player who has played for quite some time. I know basic Tau strategy. My only concern in this thread is Space Wolves and how to change my list to best defeat them. As mentioned before, that list has an error- TL MP should be just MP. I dont know what you mean by HW markerlights, as i didnt put any in HW markerlights.

It looks like his list is Illegal (unless you forgot to mention Canis as the HQ) due to the fact that you haven't got a HQ listed and if the HQ isn't Canis then he's got 4 fast attack choices (if there is canis then ones a troops so legal on both accounts). Jus t interested in if that was a mistake or not.

Pretty sure it's Canis as he mentioned it was a mounted HQ earlier in the thread. Should be easy to fit in another PF squad and keep your number of suits on the board. The devilfish is free in your list because you can just replace the FW devilfish you have already purchased. Min is 4 for a PF squad right? You could probably easily make that up by removing some of those targeting arrays and let the PF squads boost your BS instead.

Maybe drop the TA on the Commander and Piranha. Drop one hound from each kroot squad. Maybe change the TAs on the deathrains to TLs so they can split their fire if they need to, and buy the second PF squad. Markerlights will give you more utility and flexibility than all those TAs. I think that will make the list more versitile, allowing you to focus fire better.

interesting idea with the deathrains, i've actually never done that before. The TA idea isnt bad either, I tend to rely to hard on them and neglect MLs. Canis is indeed his HQ, I think I just forgot to paste it over at the top of the list. How would this list fair agaisnt MC nid? I think it would be pretty good agaisnt orc and generic SM just because it isnt much of a deviant from what I ussually play. I ussually load out my DF to deal some real pain, but with making them just bare bones, I wouldnt feel bad about throwing them + their drones as a road block. Should I replace a HH with another broadside unit? I could see that being extremely powerful, but at the same time in a 1850 list it's really limiting the amount of guns I can fire (because of the point sink- HH-165 BS-240)


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Commander Shas'el
Twin-Linked Missile Pod
Plasma Rifle
Hard-wired Multi-Tracker

ELITE

3 XV8 Battlesuit
3 Missile Pod
3 Plasma Rifle
3 Multi-Tracker

3 XV8 Battlesuit
3 Missile Pod
3 Plasma Rifle
3 Multi-Tracker

3 XV8 Battlesuit
3 Twin-Linked Missile Pod
3 Flamer

TROOPS

10 Kroot
2 Kroot Hound

10 Kroot
2 Kroot Hound

6 Shas'La Fire Warriors

6 Shas'La Fire Warriors

FAST

1 Piranha Skimmer
1 Fusion Blaster
1 Targetting Array
1 Disruption Pod

4 Pathfinders
Devilfish Transport
Gun Drones
Disruption Pod

4 Pathfinders
Devilfish Transport
Gun Drones
Disruption Pod

HEAVY

XV88 Shas'Ui Team Leader
Advanced Stabilisation System
Hard-wired Drone Controller
Shield Drone
1 XV88 Broadside Battlesuit
1 Advanced Stabilisation System

XV88 Shas'Ui Team Leader
Advanced Stabilisation System
Hard-wired Drone Controller
Shield Drone
2 XV88 Broadside Battlesuit
2 Advanced Stabilisation System

1 Hammerhead Gunship
1 Railgun
1 Burst Cannons
1 Multi-tracker
1 Disruption Pod



Here I was able to add THREE additional broadsides with pretty much no fire loss. I got rid of some of the kroot, all the TA, added some PFs, and got rid of one HH....I think this list looks pretty solid. I think I've always had a soft spot in my heart for my HQ, and made him too point heavy for what he is actually worth. Also, unless I'm playing another Tau player or guard, the kroot arent going to be doing anything except sitting on objectives and causing roadblocks, so why sink the points for the extra hounds? I take alot of heat for giving my deathrains flamers. I do this because its only 3 points a model(the lowest you can have) and truth be told, I have wiped low AP hordes off the board with flamer suits before, all for 12 points a unit.

What do you guys think of this list agaisnt SW?

I like that list a lot - only change I would make for all comers is putting an AFP on the commander in place of the PR - you get back a large blast you lost with a HH, and while not as good, will still be devasting vs the things you want to use a large blast for rather than solid shot.

Great idea... Is it legal to put your HQ in with a squad of kroot? Someone mentioned doing that earlier in the thread, but i thought i remembered reading that was illegal somewhere

bdix wrote:Great idea... Is it legal to put your HQ in with a squad of kroot? Someone mentioned doing that earlier in the thread, but i thought i remembered reading that was illegal somewhere

IC with a squad of Troops with no special rules against IC's joining? Yup.

thanks everyone, i'll post back on saturday after I play

as above, sacrifice gundrones, kroot, whatever, move them right up against the unit so all it can do is assault the 1" to the unit then consolidate, repeat until everything is dead.
Its hard to do against wolves, but it /is/ doable

Much better list IMO. I run my deathrains with flamers as well. I like how cheap they become and it does give them some punch if they get overrun by horde.

Played the list today. Tabled my first opponent (Blood Angels) and took it 20 to 3. My second opponent was the Space Wolf player, who happened to bring Blood Angels today. Doh. It was kill points and since drones on vehicles stupidly count as an additional kill point, he beat me 11 to 10. Tabled my third opponent 20 to 3 (Vanilla Marines with Vulkan).

All in all, this list absolutely rocked againt SM. I didnt draw a horde player so i cant speak on that.