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I normally don't play 2k lists, but my tau friend wants to test out a 2k list of his so I said why not.

Without further ado:

HQ
----
Farseer w/ Singing spear, spirit stones, jetbike, fortune, guide
Farseer w/ Singing spear, spirit stones, jetbike, fortune, guide
316 Points

Troops
----------
3x Guardian Jetbikes and 1x warlock with jetbike, embolden, singing spear
3x Guardian Jetbikes and 1x warlock with jetbike, embolden, singing spear
3x Guardian Jetbikes and 1x warlock with jetbike, embolden, singing spear
3x Guardian Jetbikes and 1x warlock with jetbike, embolden, singing spear
476 Points

Fast Attack
---------------
10x Warp Spiders w/one is exarch with an additional death spinner
09x Warp Spiders w/one is exarch with an additional death spinner
09x Warp Spiders w/one is exarch with an additional death spinner
667 Points

Heavy Support
--------------------
3x War Walkers with 2x scatter lasers each
3x War Walkers with 2x scatter lasers each
3x War Walkers with 2x scatter lasers each
540 Points

Total Points: 1999

Overall tactics:
If I go second, everything will be held in reserves followed by what I plan if I go first.

If I go first, Warp Spiders deep strike, Guardian jetbikes and run anti-tank with the singing spears (6 total) while 2 will be fortuned . War Walkers walk up the board and shoot up troops/suits while guided. The warp Spiders Will be taking care of whatever my base army is out of range to take care of (most likely things like broadsides, etc).

I had originally had intended my anti-tank to be made up of 2 squads of guardians with bright lances in wave serpents with bright lances, but that put me at 2001 points. The 4 jetbike squads seemed to be the best alternative for anti-tank in troops.
Questions/Comments/Suggestions?

One would think 14 Singing Spears can handle 5 odd tanks, if he is fielding 3 Railheads and a couple Devilfish.

Oops, miscount. Not 14. only 5

Any ideas on how his list is composed?

I play both armies and this ought to be able to close in for the h2h that is tau's weakness.

This looks like it can handle almost any Tau list. The general problem with Tau in 5th is that once you reach 2k points the Tau are maxing out so many parts of the FOC that they become ineffective compared to the newer codices who have shinier toys. Your friend should like games of 1500 points or so where Tau can still compete reliably. I think the Singing Spears are where it is at in this list against Tau tbh.

Thing is, I'm not trying to tool a list vs. tau (which I play as well). Which kinda leaves out shining spears, which are less effective in the current way of things...(I've been meaning to try em a little more, but alas, they do die fast...) Also, he favors farsight based lists, with normally 1 team of sides and 2 hh. maybe 1 or 2 min. teams of paths, and 3-4 teams of med. sized fws with fishes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

OverwatchCNC wrote:TYour friend should like games of 1500 points or so where Tau can still compete reliably.

Both of us know this, but just because it can't be done as well, doesn't mean it can't be done

the weasel king wrote:Thing is, I'm not trying to tool a list vs. tau (which I play as well). Which kinda leaves out shining spears, which are less effective in the current way of things...(I've been meaning to try em a little more, but alas, they do die fast...) Also, he favors farsight based lists, with normally 1 team of sides and 2 hh. maybe 1 or 2 min. teams of paths, and 3-4 teams of med. sized fws with fishes.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

OverwatchCNC wrote:TYour friend should like games of 1500 points or so where Tau can still compete reliably.

Both of us know this, but just because it can't be done as well, doesn't mean it can't be done

Ha, true, I wasn't trying to imply you couldn't win at 2k(although after re-reading my OP it does sound that way ) Anyways, I haven't played Tau since 4th and I don't think anyone at our FLGS or any tournaments I have played in over a year have had Tau. Brothererekose is a veteran Tau player who has a lot of experience and knows what he is doing with them. (trust me we play each other in the real world not Vassal). Perhaps he can help out against a farsight list.

In all honesty, I'm not worried in the least about the list I'm gona be fighting(Don't tell em I said that ). I 99% of the time help my friend out with minor tweaks on his lists to make them as competitive as possible, and as such, pretty much know his tactics/faults. Honestly, what I was looking for is if this seemed to be a decent Eldar list as I just started them recently and still have a few problems with them on occasion lol.

the weasel king wrote:In all honesty, I'm not worried in the least about the list I'm gona be fighting(Don't tell em I said that ). I 99% of the time help my friend out with minor tweaks on his lists to make them as competitive as possible, and as such, pretty much know his tactics/faults. Honestly, what I was looking for is if this seemed to be a decent Eldar list as I just started them recently and still have a few problems with them on occasion lol.

Ah, well in that case. I think the min bike squads are going to cause you major head aches with Objective missions. I would consider getting some Dire Avengers to help out with objective holding.

OverwatchCNC wrote: I think the min bike squads are going to cause you major head aches with Objective missions. I would consider getting some Dire Avengers to help out with objective holding.

I thought about that, but seeing as the bikers are my only form of anti-tank, if I switched it out for even 2 DA with WS w/ bright lance, I'd be cutting my anti-tank in half...And with the current fetish for tanks that's going around, that seems like a bad idea imo. Am I wrong in that somewhere?

the weasel king wrote:

OverwatchCNC wrote: I think the min bike squads are going to cause you major head aches with Objective missions. I would consider getting some Dire Avengers to help out with objective holding.

I thought about that, but seeing as the bikers are my only form of anti-tank, if I switched it out for even 2 DA with WS w/ bright lance, I'd be cutting my anti-tank in half...And with the current fetish for tanks that's going around, that seems like a bad idea imo. Am I wrong in that somewhere?

I am not entirely sure tbh. The bright lance on the Serpent gives you some decent AT as well as a transport for that scoring unit. I think the trade off is fair but if it doesn't sit well with you then it probably won't work. I find being comfortable with a list will provide more wins than playing with a "good" list you hate or are uncomfortable with.

OverwatchCNC wrote: Brothererekose is a veteran Tau player who has a lot of experience and knows what he is doing with them. (trust me we play each other in the real world not Vassal). Perhaps he can help out against a farsight list.

Thanks for the props, Overwatch. And seeing as this weekend's tourney is 2k, my little anime jumpers will be staying at home ... unless I take the implication that via aren't viable at 2k as a challenge ...


@theweaselking; as a list in general? The units are too small, already sliced into bite sizes for other codexes.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

Brothererekose wrote:One would think 14 Singing Spears can handle 5 odd tanks, if he is fielding 3 Railheads and a couple Devilfish.
Oops, miscount. Not 14. only 5
Any ideas on how his list is composed?
I play both armies and this ought to be able to close in for the h2h that is tau's weakness.

Okay, I mis-read the Singing Spear count and I now think ... hmm, given a Farsight list? I dunno. I haven't the experience with Siam-Hann. So, despite Overwatch's endorsement, the jetbikes are outside my experience.

Well, the way my friend has been playing farsight lately, he is kinda running a ninja tau like list with 3 squads of elite crisis suits, and a farsight with 3 or 4 bodyguards max. All deep striking. The whole point of the jetbikes was to get as many warlocks with singing spears as possible and turbo boost with fortune on as many as possible and just attack his 4 or 5 tanks (normally something like 2 hh and 2 or 3 fishes) on turn 2 or 3. The likely hood of being able to hit back armor with them is pretty good imo when you have 6 of em. My goal is no mater what the objective is to table the guy, making objectives null and void.

I dont like the list, although it is interesting.

3 Squads of warp spiders I dont agree with at all. You dont have an autarch so they wont come in reliably. They also wont do much. They come in, and assuming they dont scatter or even die they get 1 turn of shooting before everything in the TAU army shoots at them and kills them.

As far as your four little jetbike squadrons they wont do a whole lot. Your basically saying "I have 4 jetbike squadrons look at me". 4 Squads of like 4-5 wont do anything. You also need Shuriken Cannons on the Bikes.

I think this list needs a maxed seer council on bikes.

As far as your 9 Warwalkers, yea thats a fine choice. They will be carrying the list and will get shot up with an armor of 10. If the TAU army is competant at all, you will loose 4+ walkers the first turn the TAU can shoot at them. IMO WarWalkers have nothing to support them, and will get shot up as the obvious target.

Heres how I picture a game.

Your jetbikes will literally do nothing. Including the Warlocks and Farseers. Warlocks and Farseers are not viable as an Eldar armys main tank killers. Your Warp Spiders will do some damage but will die or take SEVERE losses the turn after they come in. The Warp Spiders have nothing supporting them. Atleast one of your WS squads will have a warp accident. The War Walkers wont really do alot because the TAU will either have cover saves, toughness, or units in transports. Not alot of targets that str6 can do anything against TAU especially when its not AP3. Your Walkers will all die very quickly.

GL with the list but I dont think it will work without a SeerCouncil and more reliable units.

Smitty0305 wrote:I dont like the list, although it is interesting.

3 Squads of warp spiders I dont agree with at all. You dont have an autarch so they wont come in reliably. They also wont do much. They come in, and assuming they dont scatter or even die they get 1 turn of shooting before everything in the TAU army shoots at them and kills them.

As far as your four little jetbike squadrons they wont do a whole lot. Your basically saying "I have 4 jetbike squadrons look at me". 4 Squads of like 4-5 wont do anything. You also need Shuriken Cannons on the Bikes.

I think this list needs a maxed seer council on bikes.

As far as your 9 Warwalkers, yea thats a fine choice. They will be carrying the list and will get shot up with an armor of 10. If the TAU army is competant at all, you will loose 4+ walkers the first turn the TAU can shoot at them. IMO WarWalkers have nothing to support them, and will get shot up as the obvious target.

Heres how I picture a game.

Your jetbikes will literally do nothing. Including the Warlocks and Farseers. Warlocks and Farseers are not viable as an Eldar armys main tank killers. Your Warp Spiders will do some damage but will die or take SEVERE losses the turn after they come in. The Warp Spiders have nothing supporting them. Atleast one of your WS squads will have a warp accident. The War Walkers wont really do alot because the TAU will either have cover saves, toughness, or units in transports. Not alot of targets that str6 can do anything against TAU especially when its not AP3. Your Walkers will all die very quickly.

GL with the list but I dont think it will work without a SeerCouncil and more reliable units.

Alright, let me see if I have this right. You think my list is crap and the only list that should be used vs. farsight is a double jetlock list?

Wow, last week I used a similar list against tau. I used wraithlords instead of warwalkers, but I think that the warwalkers will fair better. I had the three warp spider squads, but instead of farseers I had autarchs so I could get most if not everything in on turn 2. I pretty much ruined his day. It was a 2k game as well and he only had a squad of fire warriors and his commander remaining after turn 4. I'm sure you can pull the same kind of victory.

It's a cool looking list on the table, fun list to play with, and can really put down the hurt on most armies with 130+ S6 shots coming in all at once from reserve.

Lt. Coldfire wrote:It's a cool looking list on the table, fun list to play with, and can really put down the hurt on most armies with 130+ S6 shots coming in all at once from reserve.

Which is kinda my goal, although I know this guy loves his deepstriking (often ninja tau so only one squad a turn) which makes it even easier

I'd definitely swap one Farseer for an Autarch with a fusion gun and powersword. Stick him with your 10-man Spider squad. As far as anti-tank goes, a BS6 melta-gun on a jump infantry squad is a much more reliable anti-tank than a singing spear. And that +1 to reserve rolls is almost a necessity in a list like yours.

To be honest, I'd even swap the other Farseer for a jetbike Autarch. But do take the Spider one. It'll give your army much more tactical finesse than a second Farseer does.

As far as War walkers, I wouldn't count on them being destroyed at all, by the end of the game. Reserve them. Outflank them. When they come, shoot the rear armor of Tau vehicles, pick off his squads with Warp Spiders and Jetbikes, just surround his army and don't let it shoot. You have almost 140 S6 shots each turn. That is brainstopping amount of shots. Also remember that Warp Spiders with the Autarch and Exarch with powerblades are competent in close combat. And that is also their way of hiding from shooting. With hit-and-run, they never miss a turn of shooting and never get shot at.

I think your friend doesn't stand a lot of chance against your list, tbh...especially with some tweaking.