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On Tuesday/Wednesday, I'm going to be up against Tau for the first time, and I have NO idea what to do :S

How can I combat them effectively? I include my list of units below so I'm not being advised to use models I don't own

...Get into CC. Shocking, I know, but Tau are even worse the Necrons at the Close Combat fightings. That Tomb Stalker should be able to tear them to shreds assaulting one group after another with devastating efficiency.

Azure wrote:...Get into CC. Shocking, I know, but Tau are even worse the Necrons at the Close Combat fightings. That Tomb Stalker should be able to tear them to shreds assaulting one group after another with devastating efficiency.

I figured that I thought about pincering his Fire Warriors between Flayed Ones and Tommy Tomb Stalker and rip them into little bits of beef.

I'm thinking just try to get that ST into CC as fast as possible, whilst also attempting to pop transports with some heavy fire from the back, so the Stalker has something to rip to tiny pieces when he gets there. Maybe have the 3 Heavy D's in the back blowing junk up.

Also, point limit on this?

I'll probably play him in both a 1k point game and a 1.5k.

I know he has 2 Hammerheads, a devilfish, 1 Broadside and some Crisis suits. Aside from that, I'm unsure.

Try this:

Nightringer- 360

2xWarriosx10- 360

Tomb Stalker- 195

Heavy Destroyer- 65

20 left over points that could be spent on another Warrior...but this list seems almost to CC heavy, so I'ma try another here.

Necron Lord- 170
L> Body
L> Scyhe
L> Invul. Save

2xWarriorsx10- 360

Tomb Stalker- 195

At this point you can get a 'Lith in, but I'd recomend taking 1 Squad of 1 Heavy D and 1 Squad of 2. That way they can fire at a variety of targets still. And here you've got 80 points left over to spend on a TS allowing the Heavy D squads to spread out quite abit more then...buff up the warriors squads I guess. Maybe toss an Orb on that Lord.

What about this sort of list, then, for 1500 points?




And for 1000:



EDIT: The reason there are 10 Flayed Ones in the 1500 point list when I previously stated I only have 6 is because I'm really tempted to go to GW tomorrow and buy 2 more packs so I have the potential for a full squad

Oh I would advise spamming those scarabs.

Rocket forwards for a 2+ cover save, assault the Fire Warriors the next turn. Hilarity ensues. Same deal with all of your Fast Units. Deep strike the Monolith so that it'll be in the thick of things once you've disabled those Rail Cannons.

Easy peasy.

As long as you're using those Destroyers to...destroy transports, this looks pretty solid.

Hey boy, it's Dan.

Yeah, thats right, I made an account with the soul intial purpose of replying to this. Similarily, I need to find out how to play Tau, I currently have little clue (that being: "Shoot boy, shoot!").
Anyway, the purpose of this comment: Can't wait to play, I'm going to get owned.. or own, i never know which.

Also, No Devilfish, 2 broadsides.. thought I would clear that up =].

For the Greater Good.

Well, you've pretty much got the Tau combat doctrine figured out.

How about a battle report so we can see what happens?

You could try taking a Nightmare shroud. It's not much use against Marines, but Tau don't have utterly stellar Ld...

Yeah, planning to make a myriad of battle reports: we are going to have a ton of games, have two other guys playing games with us for two days.. will give me some interesting things to post.

Just take some necrons and shoot.

1500pt list

210 Lord w/res orb/destroyer body/phase shifter/warscythe

360 2x10 warriors

500 2x5 destroyers

As many immortals as you can fit in. Should be 15.

Honestly, flayed ones grief tau like crazy. Outflanking is Tau's bane since a lot of tau players turtle some of their rail guns in the back corners

If I can go ahead and disagree with most of the stuff in here.....

Destroyers aren't going to outshoot Tau.

OP: If you have the models, I would take nine wraiths, a destroyer lord, 20 warriors, and a monolith. If you have points, add another Monolith. If you have points, add a third. =D Reserve your warriors to walk onto the table edge, and start your wraiths and destroyer lord on the table - reserve your monolith too.

Run your wraiths up the table with the destroyer lord as escort, using his rez orb for WBB rolls; they'll be in combat by turn two and pretty much safe from there - aim them at the broadsides since those are the biggest threat to the incoming monolith. When the monolith deep-strikes, you've got flux arcs for everything within 12", and can use the portal to jump wraiths out of combat on your turn to keep getting the charge bonus in time and again.

Dashofpepper wrote:If I can go ahead and disagree with most of the stuff in here.....

Destroyers aren't going to outshoot Tau.

OP: If you have the models, I would take nine wraiths, a destroyer lord, 20 warriors, and a monolith. If you have points, add another Monolith. If you have points, add a third. =D Reserve your warriors to walk onto the table edge, and start your wraiths and destroyer lord on the table - reserve your monolith too.

Run your wraiths up the table with the destroyer lord as escort, using his rez orb for WBB rolls; they'll be in combat by turn two and pretty much safe from there - aim them at the broadsides since those are the biggest threat to the incoming monolith. When the monolith deep-strikes, you've got flux arcs for everything within 12", and can use the portal to jump wraiths out of combat on your turn to keep getting the charge bonus in time and again.

They're playing 1000 points, and he listed the models he has in the OP. He could use the tactic you described with Scarabs, more or less.

OP wrote:Foot Lord, Destroyer Lord, Nightbringer, 4 Pariahs, 6 Flayed Ones, 44 Warriors, 6 Destroyers, 17 Scarab Swarms, 1 Tomb Spyder, 3 Heavy Destroyers, 2 Monoliths and a Tomb Stalker.

Oh gak, I just noticed the Tomb Stalker. Deep Strike that thing!

Oh, I didn't see his models. =p

Scarabs bud.

Scarabs are awesome.

Most under-rated models in the dex for what they can do if the dice gods smile

Ascalam wrote:Scarabs are awesome.

Most under-rated models in the dex for what they can do if the dice gods smile

I had a unit of 10 scarabs along with a Lord with a Lightning Field once get assaulted by a unit of terminators. My Lightning field caused 17 wounds to the terminators (of which 3 failed) before my Lord and surviving scarabs fled the scene.

I typically run 30 scarabs in my FA slots.

People ignore them and shoot the Monolith/s and so on.

They've been singlehandedly responsible for the death of squadrons of Leman Russes before this, and in one game brought the pain on an all transport DE army, which became a no-transport DE army with half as many troops by turn 3.

Gtranted, that's when the gods of dice are smiling. They've also been in games where they have done jack...

I play lower point values with one of my tau playing friends quite often, and I have noticed that my wraiths cut down his troops without fail.

_Kyran_ wrote:I play lower point values with one of my tau playing friends quite often, and I have noticed that my wraiths cut down his troops without fail.

Welcome to dakkadakka.

As I stated in my OP, I don't have a Wraith (Or plan on buying any, I hate how the models look and I can't seem them being effective without 9). However, Flayed Ones and Tomb Spyders can serve effectively the same role, just slower.

When we played the afore-mentioned games, we never actually got round to Tau vs Necrons 1v1 :( We played an IG vs Necrons, a DE vs Tau, a DE vs Necrons and a 2v2 of IG and SM vs Necrons and Tyranids. I have photos to BR the first 3, and I'll BR the 2v2 without photos at some point in the week.

Back when i played crons i would play my friend who had tau quite a bit... i would always end up with one basic tactic and it worked pretty well... I would use 1-2 monoliths and sort of corral him in a corner, advancing my warriors/flayed ones through the portal to get close... the goal being to use the distance to get into close combat... of course this could alo be accomplished by using veil of darkness that works fairly well too. Best of luck and look forward to reading some battle reports in the future.

Flayed Ones will be too slow. 6" with no fleet is highly unlikely to actually catch anything unless the opponent screws up and gives you a great infiltrate deploy.

The Grog wrote:Flayed Ones will be too slow. 6" with no fleet is highly unlikely to actually catch anything unless the opponent screws up and gives you a great infiltrate deploy.

Were I to use them, I'd probably either deep strike them or outflank them, as infiltrate would just put them in range

The way I got beaten was 2 block of 20 warriors each, res orb lord in the middle, monolith and a c'tan as back-up; shove the c'tan points somewhere else (second monolith, scarabs, anything) and watch as every single warrior gets back up and the Tau kill about 13 in total as you slowly force them into a corner -.-

Tau have trouble with crons no plasma much and can be cut down by gauss flayers

The Ravening Jaw wrote:Back when i played crons i would play my friend who had tau quite a bit... i would always end up with one basic tactic and it worked pretty well... I would use 1-2 monoliths and sort of corral him in a corner, advancing my warriors/flayed ones through the portal to get close... the goal being to use the distance to get into close combat... of course this could alo be accomplished by using veil of darkness that works fairly well too. Best of luck and look forward to reading some battle reports in the future.

And that seemed to get you alot of ties, at best.



But really, though, I am that Tau player and the Necron tactic above was the one thing that I feared. I had to work just to get a tie.