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Hi,

I'm starting with 40k and chose Tau as my first army. When playing against friends i found I have a lot of problems with highly mobile armies (armings constisting mostly out of jump units for example). How it usually goes is that the jump units can advance without getting any shots fired at them at all until they're in close range (ie, they're assaulting and all i can do is overwatch...).

The battlefield consists out of simple 'blocks' which can cover an entire squad. (Perhaps this is the problem? i'm not sure)

Are there any tips/ suggestions you guys could give which could help me on this 'problem'? Are there any things i should be doing to 'counter' this problem?

We're mostly playing at around 650-750 points games. I usually run about 3 crisis suits, a pathfinder team, 2 fire warrior teams and the rest changes mostly. for example sometimes i use a riptide sometimes more firewarriors, sometimes a drone squadron instead of the pathfinder team, etc.

Best Regards,

At that low of points there's not much you can do. You can devilfish your troops and that's about it. Markerlight drones and Tetras will be more mobile than pathfinders. At higher points you could choose Farsight Enclaves for a suit army with JSJ and deepstrike being as mobile as it gets. Other than that you are looking at allies for fast units.

In low points games the Tau flyers are pretty solid especially the Barracuda from Forgeworld. Use sniper Kroot to infiltrate and take out any quad guns on turn 1.

If you shoot them to death, they don't move so fast anymore. Works against my BA every time but once. Yes, I have one win against Tau since their book dropped.

Smart missile systems ignore cover and line of sight, they are very effective.

Think about where you set up in order to maximise your firing arks.

Thanks all for the input so far!

@Martel732: Thanks, but the problem is I don't got any option to shoot. There's never any LOS until they're closeby.. ie, I would need more options which allowed me to actually start shooting

@wtnind: Didn't think of that! doh! Going to try that out upcoming game



Probably the low point game is also part of the problem.. we'll see

rel wrote:
Thanks all for the input so far!

@Martel732: Thanks, but the problem is I don't got any option to shoot. There's never any LOS until they're closeby.. ie, I would need more options which allowed me to actually start shooting

@wtnind: Didn't think of that! doh! Going to try that out upcoming game



Probably the low point game is also part of the problem.. we'll see

Maybe this is a case of too much LoS blocking terrain? Which fast movers are we talking about? Chaos spawn? ASM? What? Because ASM should be easy to kill.

Don't play castle Tau. Tau have always been one of the more mobile armies in the game, it's one of their biggest strengths.

@maceria: I don't

@Martel732: It's what i was thinking too myself, but seeing i don't have a lot of experience yet/ know what "normal" terrain should look i'm not sure.... Don't laugh, but: Seeing we don't have any normal terrain we use small drinking packs for children lol. usually 6 divided equally across the board. See image below lol


It's basically an army with just assault squads (all equiped with with jump packs)... it's not that when i'm shooting i don't kill, it's just that i don't get any opportunity to shoot seeing he's jumping from cover to cover... all the way.

I tried coming from multiple sides (so multiple shooting angles). The problem is with the low points is i can't even put some bait for him to assault lol

When you start using trees and stuff, true LoS really helps the Tau a lot. I think your problem with go away with different terrain, and the other guy will start having a lot of problems.

Gotta say, Martel's advice is always tried and true.

If you want to win with that type of terrain, you need to spam as many Smart Missile Systems as you can. Devilfishes, Broadsides, Riptides, Skyrays, any that doesn't need LOS. When you get legit terrain, switch back to normal.

Lucarikx

It sounds like you are putting your troops into too much cover when anything you have should out range anything but the opponents heavy weapons. Yes it does feel strange to say put your troops in the open, but with the range of even the basic Fire Warrior pulse rifles should be able to fire across most tables at least one if not two turns before the guy across the table can start returning fire.

Or you take nothing but fire warriors and loose 2-3 units to assault but murder the rest when they overkill and can't consolidate to safety.