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I'm facing a fellow tomorrow who uses tau, and I've already devised some generic tactics that apply to taking care of his powerful shooters (moving my fast vehicles...fast, getting across the map quickly, ignoring the kroot if he screens his forces with them, etc)

Any general weaknesses to exploit though? I have a feeling that so long as I get the charge on his forces and bring a little anti-tank I'm in the clear, but I've never faced these guys before so I'm a little hesitant (started out in December 2011)

Derp. Get into melee.

Tau work off synergy. Destroy anything with markerlights first.

Shoot any battlesuits with str 8 or higher.

Outflank, tau can't shoot you if you aren't there.

All of his vehicles will have cover if you are 12 inches away.

Shoot kroot screens with other units to open way for your assaulting models.

If your opponent is using an ethereal for his HQ, kill it quickly because his fire warriors and suits take a leadership when it dies. Also, a dreadnought drop podded in will do a lot of damage. Have a unit or two that has acute senses or night fighting because the stealth suits, sniper drones and any other suit with the stealth field generator support gear will make you target them using night fighting rules.

lol @ your signature Atlas.

We are currently unaware of what the Tau will be using, although I'm sure that there will be plenty of Kroot, Battlesuits and Hammerheads to go around. For the record, this is Atlas' list:

HQ
Librarian (Epistolary, The Sanguine Sword, Unleash Rage) - 150pts
Mephiston - 250pts

ELITES
Furioso Dreadnought (2x Blood Talons with Heavy Flamer and Meltagun, Drop Pod) - 170pts
Furioso Dreadnought (2x Blood Talons with Heavy Flamer and Meltagun, Drop Pod) - 170pts
3x Sanguinary Priests

TROOPS
10x Assault Marines (2x Plasma Guns, Sergeant with Plasma Pistol and Power Weapon, Rhino)
9x Assault Marines (1x Meltagun, Sergeant with Plasma Pistol and Power Weapon, Rhino)
9x Assault Marines (1x Meltagun, Sergeant with Plasma Pistol and Power Weapon, Drop Pod)
7x Death Company (7x Chainsword/7x Bolt Pistol, Drop Pod)

HEAVY SUPPORT
Stormraven Gunship (Hurricane Bolter Sponsons, Twin-Linked Heavy Bolters, Twin-Linked Plasma Cannon)

juraigamer wrote:Derp. Get into melee.

Tau work off synergy. Destroy anything with markerlights first.

Shoot any battlesuits with str 8 or higher.

Outflank, tau can't shoot you if you aren't there.

All of his vehicles will have cover if you are 12 inches away.

Shoot kroot screens with other units to open way for your assaulting models.

I didn't bother saying the assault, bud that was a given that I'll be going for


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and andilus, I have 7 death company, no power weapons

Shoot the kroot. They are only T3, and don't have saves. They fold like cards against bolter fire.

I wouldn't worry about the stealth suits and such like samus said, no one really uses those units.

Get in close with the vehicles. Those disruption pods make it really tough to kill them from >12".

Annihilate his crisis suits. They will deal the most damage, and are rather fragile.

Titan Atlas wrote:and andilus, I have 7 death company, no power weapons

Dammit, edited.

That's a pretty good list to beat taus face in. You may want to reconsider the plasma guns on your assault marines though. They are not awesome on units that you want to charge with.

Also if you are worried about your units kill the Tau too well (bear with me on this) try to multi-assault a vehicle with most of the squad and just hit the fire warriors with 1 or 2 of your marines, hopefully not enough to kill them in one turn. This causes you to be stuck in combat with them and thus they cannot shoot that squad on their next turn.

Thx guys, and be sure to check the batrep forum for when I post this, hopefully I do you proud.

The plasmagun thing, yeah, they carried over from my nids fights, they did well against them, and I'll consider switching them out, thanks

As others said, I am not a big fan of the plasma abundance you have. Swaping for melta and powerfist would serve you better, or would serve me better were I playing that list. Also, you would have the points to put 1 fist on the DC.

After that, the rhinos seem very out of place. I think dropping your rhinos for jump packs would benefit you more, as the rhinos have large shoot me signs if the enemy goes first. Same goes with the Storm Raven, as since your land raider can deepstrike the 'raider has a decent reserve option, costs about the same, and with AV14 is a better 'take all comers' choice. Especially since you dont have a dedicated unit like terminators for it, as mephiston is pretty quick on his own and can hide behind a land raider but not a storm raven.

By the way, where does your close combat librarian go? With the DC? If so, can you considered a chaplain? A chappy with a fist is a fantastic HQ choice if you already have a libby (like mephiston) and whats more, he makes the DC even better. The chappys abilities always work, he gets an invuln save, more wounds, is cheaper, and with an assault squad he makes them fearless. While the libby is nice if you get charged, with no save and only 2 wounds, he drops really quick if focused on.

So all in all, I dont dislike the list, but it is missing the synergy of a fully droppable list or a fully meched up list, which can be had with just a few alterations.

I'd be fine with switching out my plasma guns for melta. As for the Chaplain, I'd consider, but my librarian has been highly successful recently so I'll wait before making that decision.


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And I attach him to a 9 man squad usually, inside the stormraven, and he's now epistolary, an addition I made which makes him able to give the squad preferred enemy and himself a sanguine sword (which has allowed him to destroy a land raider :S). On the first turn I move flat-out 24 inches. The Rhinos work because they can move 18 inches flat-out, and then by the next turn they're close enough to the enemy to disembark the units for an assault, it's pretty sweet to see them in action.

Problem with DoA is that the best thing about angels is the charge, and because they can't assault after deep strike, I believe, they're too vulnerable if I deep strike near the enemy. This list would need too many changes to make it a DoA list, plus, I already have one ready so there's that. As for a "full" mech build, I dunno. This build has worked well, and has never really been truly bad in any of the situations so far. It takes full advantage of going into the charge and insane powers of BA librarians.