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I'm a Tau player and my usual opponent plays necrons, last game I saw a lot of wraiths coming my way and they decimated my line. I was wondering what's the best and most efficient way for Tau to deal with a ton of wraiths rushing across the board at them?

Lots of shots. A wraith is as hard to kill as 2 marines if you're a Fire Warrior.

Riptides of course
Double tap them out. Then shoot them some more.

Rate of fire, mostly. Even fire warriors can put wraiths down, although there's a certain amount of luck involved.

They can be ID'd with S8, but with a 3++ it's almost not worth it; your strength 8+ could be put to better use, unless you have a lot of it.

 Truth118 wrote:
Rate of fire, mostly. Even fire warriors can put wraiths down, although there's a certain amount of luck involved.

They can be ID'd with S8, but with a 3++ it's almost not worth it; your strength 8+ could be put to better use, unless you have a lot of it.

It is definitely worth it to use your S8 on the wraiths. The wraiths are the backbone of the army and being able to take a unit out quickly is key. Otherwise they will tarpit and kill most things quickly.

Quantity of fire is also key, just bury them in saves. It takes an average of 6 wounds per Wraith to kill it.

So basically drown them in as much dice as possible..

A lot of people waste high strength low ap weapons (like plasma guns) at wraiths because they are scary. Ideally treat them like taking out 2 marines as stated before.

Also as said above using S8 weaponry at them is NOT a waste. You can easily kill two per blast if you hit.

^^Not sure if I'd say an "easy" 2 per blast. A smart player is obviously going to spread them out so you'll probably get 2, at best 3 hits. Even 3 hits only averages 1 dead wraith.

S8 and up weapons work nicely or simple volume. Avoid wasting s6 or s7 because there is always a better target for them.

I am going to assume the list you are fighting looks something like

2 destroyer lords
4 nightscyths
3x6 wraiths
3 a-barges

I would suggest deploying in a corner with your less mobile units, such as broadsides and firewarriors. More mobile units like riptides should be away from them but with los. Crisis suits depending on layout should either deep strike or stay with the riptides. Broadsides just sit and shoot, if you have marker lights let your broadsides use them. 3 broadsides and 6 missile drones with 2 marker lights can outright kill a unit of 6 wraiths. Use kroot as a road block to protect the broadsides giving them an extra turn of shooting (not to mention a very nasty turn of over watch). Just make sure you don't get multi-assaulted.

A-barges are not that scary to a riptide. Charge at the a-barges while avoiding the wraiths. If the wraiths look like they are coming for you nova charge for a boosted get away. If your riptides can make it to the back field you can start controlling it. Smash the a-barges and hunt down warriors as the drop down. If you sit on an objective it is very hard to move you.

If you are lucky you will be able to kill the wraiths before they do to much damage. If you are unlucky and your opponent keeps reviving his lords, they should be far enough away from the action that they don't matter any more.

I feel tau has the advantage in most missions. You should almost always get first blood as necron first turn shooting is really poor. Light breaker and slay the warlords are also pretty easy to get. With full heavy support and fast attack slots filled up you can get a few points there from the respective missions. Basically you want to plan on winning off of secondary objectives.

Rate of Fire as mentioned
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Misfortune works wonders if you can work access to this power into your list, Tiggy?

Kroot wrap around your units that have supporting fire, make it difficult for him to chew through your chaff so he has to take multiple rounds of overwatch from multiple units.

All great advice, thank you