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Today, I battled my friend George's Tau army.

My army:

Archon w/ shadowfield, agonizer

3 Haemonculi w/ venom blade, liquifer gun

8 Incubi w/ Raider

2x 10 Warriors w/ blaster, splinter cannon, Raider

2x 10 Wracks w/ liquifier guns, Raider

2x 8 Wyches w/ agonizers, Raider

6 Hellions

1 Ravager w/ dark lances

2 Ravagers w/ disintegrators


Tau: (roughly)

Commander
3x3 Crisis w/ drones
10 Fire Warriors
2x 10 Fire Warriors w/ devilfishes
Pathfinders w/ devilfish
2x2 Battlesuits
1 Hammerhead


Mission: cleanse, 3 objectives, one in the centre, one in each depolyment zone, opposite to each other.
Table: There was a large piece of terrain in the centre.

I got first turn and deployed everything forward, one Warrior unit held the objective in my deployment zone, the other started disembarked to occupy the objective in the centre by foot.

In first turn, all my units moved forward, Incubi and Lord disembarked and entered the centre piece. Wych Raiders moved side by side 24'' along a flank. The disintegrators killed two Crisis units. In return, Tau took down the closest Wych Raider, but all but one survived thanks to FNP. The Incubi were also targeted but were too resilient with FNP.

In turn two, Hellions (down to 3) charged one FW unit killing it in the enemy's turn. Wyches charged another FW unit finishing it. Incubi moved forward but couldn't reach the enemy and so gut stuck in the open. One Wrack unit also embarked close to one FW unit liquifying some of them. One Battlesuit unit got destroyed by Ravager.
Tau unloaded their guns and all but 2 Incubi plus Lord fell into the dust.

In turn three, the 2nd Wych unit charged Battlesuits killing them. The situation got grim for Tau.

After turn 4, Tau had just 3 Devilfishes and the Hammerhead(immobilized) left. They moved into the objectives contesting them while DE troops were trying to hold them all.

In turn 5, the Hammerhead got destroyed in cc by furiously charging Incubi and Wyches. The DE army was largely intact, lost just two Raiders in toto.


Summary: DE units with FNP are hard to take down. On the hand, DE appears to have a hard time taking down tanks since they lack AP 1 weapons.

Summary: DE units with FNP are hard to take down. On the hand, DE appears to have a hard time taking down tanks since they lack AP 1 weapons.

Wouldn't the Dark Eldar have an easier time taking down tanks because they have so many Dark Lances? AP1 doesn't really make much of a difference if the enemy is always AV12 or less.

grayspark wrote:

Summary: DE units with FNP are hard to take down. On the hand, DE appears to have a hard time taking down tanks since they lack AP 1 weapons.

Wouldn't the Dark Eldar have an easier time taking down tanks because they have so many Dark Lances? AP1 doesn't really make much of a difference if the enemy is always AV12 or less.

If you do the math, the odds are not that good.

I don't think it was helped by the lack of terrain (Tau out of cover are sitting ducks) but i'm left wondering why none of your units faced submunitions. At AV10, anything the Tau bring can have a crack at your vehicles, so his lack of submunitioning (especially those Wyches) troubles me; even moreso when it would've bypassed your FNP.

Had there been more terrain (since as it stands, the terrain set-up heavily favoured you) I think Tau would've had a better chance, similarly if he had prioritised his targets.

Maybe my math is off, but adding up the DE list comes up to like 2400 points. That's assuming the 2x means 2 units just as listed, including transport.

dark lances are similar to krak msls vs av 12 (3,5+,5-6) Just to wreck or explode. yea remember anythinv dbl your toughness negatea fnp as well as ap1-2, and generally you need much more terrain. although if tau had gone first it wouldve been the opposite result

Without Kroot and Piranhas/Drones to block movement and absorb some assaults Tau will have a very hard time against this kind of DE list. Even if only a couple of DE from a unit make it to assault they can still beat the Tau in combat.

The lack of AP1 keep Dark Lances from being overpowered, you have to take a decent number of them to be effective (as well as having some other anti tank options ideally). The DE list is probably a tad light on AT actually, it has disintegrators, splinter cannons and plenty of assault units to deal with infantry but only 12 Darklight weapons in the entire list.

Just curious, maybe you shot dark lances at the 2 crisis units too? did you roll really well or was there just no terrain? With cover and drones seems like 2 ravagers should only kill 2 or 3 suites after a volley not 2 full teams.

IG88 wrote:Just curious, maybe you shot dark lances at the 2 crisis units too? did you roll really well or was there just no terrain? With cover and drones seems like 2 ravagers should only kill 2 or 3 suites after a volley not 2 full teams.

This is true as well. A 3 man crisis team with just two drones has 8 wounds.

Also can anyone else look at the points for this DE list. I am working on a DE army myself but the points seem way high for what he listed.

Nope the list comes in at 2002 pts. In a friendly game a couple points over shouldn't mean too much.

I'm just not sold on x3 Dissie ravagers. Can't think of many situations (outside of big units of termies) that I wouldn't rather have 3 lances.

Isn't 7 Lances and 2 Blaster actually really low for 2k points? If the enemy shoots your DL Ravager (does it even have upgrades?) your lance count is cut by 1/3.

Well he's got 10 in theory (7 raiders + ravager). But yes, I can't imagine that holding up well against a mech list that can put out any volume of s5+ firepower.

IG88 wrote:Just curious, maybe you shot dark lances at the 2 crisis units too? did you roll really well or was there just no terrain? With cover and drones seems like 2 ravagers should only kill 2 or 3 suites after a volley not 2 full teams.

The only terrain mentioned was a large centre-piece, and since DE got first turn and are more mobile than Tau, they could easily push towards the only piece of terrain, guard it, and hit at all the cover-less Tau.

The lists might have been fair, but the terrain mentioned was poorly set-up, and heavily favoured DE. I would've pushed for more terrain on that board; a lot more.

Well DE really do seem to foll down "Strike first, Strike hard", good summary btw, didn't realise that tau could get so outnumbered!!!

nice report, but some pics would be nice next time.

I thought DE didnt have FNP until they got a pain token?

Some automatically start with tokens.

Homonculi confer a pain token to the unit they are with at the start of the game. It's a good way to get some quick pain tokens on units you want to protect.

And I agree the scenery sounded crap. When I set up scenery I try to make it as symmetrical as possible (3 buildings/hills in my deployment zone = 3 hills/buildings of as close to equal size in his). Anything less is and akin to cheating in my mind. No offence to anyone of course that's just how I see it.

Balanced terrain is good but does get boring. A large central terrain piece make the game short-ranged with a premium on indirect fire. Railguns and dark lances less important than blasters and fusion guns. To me Tau like billiard balls more than jungles or city-scapes.
I am impressed with the ablity to overwhelm even Tau in focused fire though.

What was the downfall of the Tau was the fact that all the Crisis Suits and Broadsides were the targets of Lances and Disintegrators that blew through whatever armour saves they had and shredded them.

In the first turn, two Crisis units (assuming this wasn't a mistake and was meant to be 'models') were ripped apart. That is something Tau cannot to afford to have happening, but the fact that there was no terrain to deploy in or hide behind meant that losing large numbers of your most valuable units early on was almost guaranteed.

Balanced terrain might be boring for some people, but for others it's the line between playing a fun game and being taken to the cleaners.

that had to be some ungodly good rolling. 18 Dissie shots is 12 hits, 8 wounds on crisis before cover/drone saves. He would have had to do 12 wounds after saves to wipe out 2 units of crisis. Even if the DL ravager was aiming at them, that's only 2 dead (ID), before saves. I suppose all 3 ravagers, and the opponent having no saves/failing all saves would kill exactly 2 units.

Would like tO see a rematch with lots more terrain. I think the Tau would fare better then. Still an interesting batrep.

Powerguy wrote:Without Kroot and Piranhas/Drones to block movement and absorb some assaults Tau will have a very hard time against this kind of DE list. Even if only a couple of DE from a unit make it to assault they can still beat the Tau in combat.

Damn straight.

Poor Tau list is poor.