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Hello,
I plan on playing against my buddy who just picked up the new Tau Codex. I am currently enjoying Dark Angels and thinking of running a DW list lead by Azrael against him. Considering the amount of firepower Tau can dish out, is DW at a disadvantage? My thought was to utilize LRs to get close and engage them in CC.

Also, our games are normally played around the 1,500 point range.

Thanks!

Whatever you do, don't deep strike. Tau now have easy access to interceptor.

As for whether he has you at a disadvantage, as usual it depends on what he brings. Tau now have lots of ap 2. If he brings snipers, rip tides or lots of plasma you could have trouble. On the positive side, taus ability to pierce armor 14 has been reduced, so your land raiders may carry the day. Just watch out for their 9 inch meltaguns. If he brings a gun line, make sure you attack the flanks, with their new over watch special ability, you need to minimize the number of units that can over watch you.

If he has a riptide TH/SS will do quite well in cc against it.
Cyclone Missile have the ability to to wreck his suits wounding on 2+'s and cause instant death. Once they're done they can rain frag goodness into his troops.

A LR can help get your DW into combat without too much shooting. Pop smoke to give you a 4+ cover. He can strip it with markerlights. But that causes him to focus on it instead of DWA a squad or two of terminators near him. Terminators coming down with twin-linked storm bolters is extremely painful.

Just some Ideas.

In regards of interceptor, that will be mainly on his battle suits or riptide. So he won't have markerlight support which can reduce his effectiveness. Then he can't shoot those weapons/units when they do have access to markerlight support. Also ask him what wargear he has on his units so you can avoid the units when you come down.

I'd not run DW against anyone these days, considering the cost increase. But i'd certainly not recommend it vs Tau, the anti-infantry firepower is just too great.

Interesting posts so far. I was debating on DW or going with SW the next time we played.

.... and here I was thinking that I would bring Belial with 10 termies accompanied by 2 drop pods with Veterans on one of their flank.

I thought that this would be the solution to their long range fire power...

So what do we do?

Look at the Tau codex for AP2 + interceptor... I believe the only probable is the Megatron.

i would run a small RW force so between Belial and them, you can precision strike with your DW. If you hug up close enough to him, he should be hesitant to drop big pie plates on you for fear of scattering onto his own army...

The one thing is due to his hoard of AP 2 weapons and your small but lethal numbers, I would predict this will be a short short game one way or the other.

I played this out at 1500 points last week, and lost a close game 8-7 in The Scouring.

He had a very tough time with my land raider; I scored quite a few VP when Belial and company deep struck in on his ethereal HQ and some fire warriors. Heavy flamer for the win, took some shooting in response and then wiped up that flank on turn 2. Riptides are brutal. I wound up feeding tactical marines to it to keep it locked down in HTH and keep my scoring termies alive.

It was a fantastically fun game for both of us, but certainly a big advantage to the Tau.

I have to disagree about the interceptor.

you cant forget that a riptide or any model that can take interceptor for that matter, only has BS 3. on average wont be hitting much. and otherwise if your walking em up, will have full support and will get that pie plate dead on for the most case. i think its best to deep strike with storm shields in front.

the only problem with this is that a Riptide or anything else can just jump away leaving you mostly stranded.

 Desubot wrote:
I have to disagree about the interceptor.

you cant forget that a riptide or any model that can take interceptor for that matter, only has BS 3. on average wont be hitting much. and otherwise if your walking em up, will have full support and will get that pie plate dead on for the most case. i think its best to deep strike with storm shields in front.

the only problem with this is that a Riptide or anything else can just jump away leaving you mostly stranded.

The reason I warned about interceptor is I read a battle report a few days back where a deathwing player went up against a tau player who brought 2 riptides with Ion cannons and interceptor. When the deathwing player brought in his termies, the tau player used the overcharged Ion cannon blast on them (S8, AP2, large blast.) Since the termies had deepstruck, they were clumped together, so the large blast hit and killed THE ENTIRE SQUAD. Now that's scary, but on the other hand a lot of things had to go wrong (or right, depending on perspective) for that result. First the tau player brought a riptide with an ion cannon and interceptor (common) then he had to get a direct hit with the ion blast (about a 45% chance) then the termies had to fail all their invuln saves (very unlikly). SO i guess I should say its a pretty big threat, but it still depends what the tau player brings, and it still may be worth the risk to deep strike and get into assault.

Bs3 WIll scatter 4" off the target 2/3 of the time which means maybe 1-3 hits. 2s to wound nets him 2-3 wounds with a 3+ save if they're TH/SS is 1 dead average give or take.

Now if he hits with the riptide that's a pretty big deal, but again with 3+ its not as bad if he had 5+ invul with tactical terminators.

EWO is a great upgrade on a Riptide, it depends on how many other suits he's bringing and their positioning. If you can make smart choices when and where to drop down it can be quite mean.

The only thing we have to take down a LR is FB at 9" or a Hammerhead (probably longstrike). 14 armor 4 HP is still pretty tough when its only 1 shot. Granted Longstrike is going to wreck face. A LR with a PFG HQ choice behind it will help that thing get in and disgorge its troops turn 2. And then smash face.