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I need help vs my friends Blood Angels because he regularly beats me and my friends without the use of almost any tactics. All he does is deep strike death company and drop pod his dreadnaught to take out my hammerhead(every game). From what I can remember, he has:

Mephiston
Lemartus w/ 10 death company
2 devastator squads
2 tactical squads (he puts the tactical squads in the devastator squads)
1 furioso dreadnaught w/ melta
drop pod w/ death wing missle launcher

This is what I have to work with:
1 hammerhead
1 devilfish
1 pirahna
12 fire warriors
12 kroot
3 stealth suits
1 battlesuit commander
1 sheild drone
6 gun drones
1 marker drone

All advice is appreciated and i'm not set on one particular list.
If I can't beat him with this list, then any suggestions as to what products I could buy would be greatly appreciated.

Blah, thought the list was what you were using, not what you had.

I can't see any way to fight that using those models.

Nerivant wrote:Blah, thought the list was what you were using, not what you had.

I can't see any way to fight that using those models.

Thank you but is there anything that you could suggest to improve the list?

Well you should field the space pope, lol more battle suits!

Aun'va is a must have in any Tau army.

He's having a rough enough time without the Space Pope lending a hand

Iggyrocksall wrote:Well you should field the space pope, lol more battle suits!

Aun'va can defeat an entire Blood Angels army with his words alone! For the Greater Good!

Ignoring his Spaceholiness, more XV8 suits is the best advice. They're, in my opinion, the best unit in Codex: Tau next to XV88s.

coolyo294 wrote:Aun'va is a must have in any Tau army.

Gee, thanks for the advice! I'm gonna go to GW and pick him up right now!

Hineswardrocks wrote:

coolyo294 wrote:Aun'va is a must have in any Tau army.

Gee, thanks for the advice! I'm gonna go to GW and pick him up right now!

Can't tell if serious.

Nerivant wrote:

Hineswardrocks wrote:

coolyo294 wrote:Aun'va is a must have in any Tau army.

Gee, thanks for the advice! I'm gonna go to GW and pick him up right now!

Can't tell if serious.

naw man, i'm completley serious!

Hineswardrocks wrote:

Nerivant wrote:

Hineswardrocks wrote:

coolyo294 wrote:Aun'va is a must have in any Tau army.

Gee, thanks for the advice! I'm gonna go to GW and pick him up right now!

Can't tell if serious.

naw man, i'm completley serious!

Aun'va is terrible. Please, never, ever, ever use him.

i think hes being sarcastic, just a guess

With what you have, here's what I'd do:

Shas'el - Plasma, Fusion, Targeting Array, HWDC, HWMT, Failsafe, Shield Drone

3x Stealthsuits - one Team Leader with Fusion, HWDC, Marker Drone

12 Firewarriors - Shas'ui w/ Bonding Knife, Devilfish with Disruption Pod
12 Kroot

6 Gun Drones
Piranha - Fusion, Disruption Pod, Flachette, Targeting Array

Hammerhead - MT, Targetting Array, Disruption Pod

Just try and be as evasive as possible and delay combat as long as possible. Use annoying screener units like Gun Drones (from the 'fish too) and Kroot if he gets too close to give you one more turn to shoot at them. You can put Flachettes on all the vehicles if you have the points... they're probably all going to eventually get assaulted (especially the HH). But first order of business should be a team of Crisis Suits with Fusion Blasters and Plasma Rifles. Those guys just chew through Space Marines and Death Company. Vespid can do wonders too, you just have to be VERY careful with them (as they hold up to small arms fire like a wet tissue) and hide them until he's closing on your lines... then they pop out and chew through some power armor. Also... more markerlights! I know they're expensive but they are worth it. Pathfinders really help out, and you can use their devilfish to ferry firewarriors around.

I use a similar list to this against our Blood Angels players, and I have mixed results. I use a Skyray instead of a HH, have 6 Vespid, Pathfinders, a full Fusion/Plasma team, a full TL Missile pod team, and a second unit of Firewarriors. Sometimes I bust out a Broadside too. I typically have 8-10 Markerlights, 8-10 Seeker Missiles, and around 7-8 Battlesuits. Kill point games are a little rough, but objective games I usually draw or win.

Cirronimbus wrote:With what you have, here's what I'd do:

Shas'el - Plasma, Fusion, Targeting Array, HWDC, HWMT, Failsafe, Shield Drone

3x Stealthsuits - one Team Leader with Fusion, HWDC, Marker Drone

12 Firewarriors - Shas'ui w/ Bonding Knife, Devilfish with Disruption Pod
12 Kroot

6 Gun Drones
Piranha - Fusion, Disruption Pod, Flachette, Targeting Array

Hammerhead - MT, Targetting Array, Disruption Pod

Just try and be as evasive as possible and delay combat as long as possible. Use annoying screener units like Gun Drones (from the 'fish too) and Kroot if he gets too close to give you one more turn to shoot at them. You can put Flachettes on all the vehicles if you have the points... they're probably all going to eventually get assaulted (especially the HH). But first order of business should be a team of Crisis Suits with Fusion Blasters and Plasma Rifles. Those guys just chew through Space Marines and Death Company. Vespid can do wonders too, you just have to be VERY careful with them (as they hold up to small arms fire like a wet tissue) and hide them until he's closing on your lines... then they pop out and chew through some power armor. Also... more markerlights! I know they're expensive but they are worth it. Pathfinders really help out, and you can use their devilfish to ferry firewarriors around.

I use a similar list to this against our Blood Angels players, and I have mixed results. I use a Skyray instead of a HH, have 6 Vespid, Pathfinders, a full Fusion/Plasma team, a full TL Missile pod team, and a second unit of Firewarriors. Sometimes I bust out a Broadside too. I typically have 8-10 Markerlights, 8-10 Seeker Missiles, and around 7-8 Battlesuits. Kill point games are a little rough, but objective games I usually draw or win.

Thank you, that's really good advice (I don't know much because i'm a noobie). My only question is, what do I do to survive his deep strike/drop podding attacks?

Wait, real quick, how does he put the tactical squad in the devastator squad?

Main problem is that he has an army with a concept and you just a random selection of models.
Even with a good concept, tau always struggle against an assault army, being bad at close combat. With just one box of each possible unit, not a chance.

One strategy might be suit heavy: All Crisis suits with a.o. flamers, 3 broadsides with missiles, many shield drones, Kroot around the HammerheadS or Broadsides.

Use fire warriors, broadsides with shield drones.

A hamerhead or two will bust open the transports.

i play Blood Angels, it is my 2nd army right now. I regularly play against IG and CSM. My 1st option for you is at least 3 full fire warrior units. All thos str5 shots make him take lotsa saves. My buddy puts down alot of IG units with flash lights and he can devestate any of my BA units that get to close. Lots of wounds vs str 5 is easier then str 3 but with making them take a bunch o' saves, they will fall, trust me I'm on the recieving end of that quit frequently.

Happy Gaming!!

Don't take three full fire warrior units. Use those points to take more Crisis Suits with more plasma, it's much better. S5 doesn't matter when you have Feel No Pain, I'd rather give them no save than a 3+ followed by a 4+.

Yup what Justus said

terranarc wrote:Wait, real quick, how does he put the tactical squad in the devastator squad?

I think he means that he puts guys with boltguns into the devastators to act as bullet shield/someone not important to remove.

Avoid close combat like the plague is your best strategy. I played a tau player recently who ruined my tactic of stormraven'ing up to his lines to pop his tanks and drop plasma templates on his forces by blowing up my stormraven. Unfortunately he left a squad a tad too close to one of my squads, and things went south for him after that. Combat, win, consolidate towards next combat, leapfrogging an assault squad and a tactical squad through his lines. Basically work with damage control in mind, if you have 2 hammerheads deploy them well away from eachother, keep your squads apart and if one ends up tied into combat move the others away to buy time for tanks to soften up the enemy. Drop pods can make life difficult for you, but remember that once the pod touches down it isn't worth wasting shots on. Transports are your number one priority to at the very least immobilize!

Ineed2bucks wrote:

terranarc wrote:Wait, real quick, how does he put the tactical squad in the devastator squad?

I think he means that he puts guys with boltguns into the devastators to act as bullet shield/someone not important to remove.

You would no, mysterious person who happens to know exatllay why he puts tac marines in the squad hmmmm?

Iggyrocksall wrote:

Ineed2bucks wrote:

terranarc wrote:Wait, real quick, how does he put the tactical squad in the devastator squad?

I think he means that he puts guys with boltguns into the devastators to act as bullet shield/someone not important to remove.

You would no, mysterious person who happens to know exatllay why he puts tac marines in the squad hmmmm?

Well ya, I also add boltgun guys to my devastators when I field them so I don't need to remove the actual heavy weapons if they get shot. There's no real other reason behind doing so and the way he says "putting tactical marines into devastators" can't mean much else