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Howdy, I am about to have my first real game against Tau (been lucky so far I guess)...

Just wanted to ask if I should save points on flyers and go for more punchy fast units instead...

Prolly be a 2000 point game CSM vs Tau.

Thanks!

I'd more leave the hellchicken at home because youre against an army that rarely cares about it than fear of it getting splatted easily.

That flamer torches drones and firewarriors...whooptidoo lol least for me. My suits are never bunched up enough to cause more than 1-2 wounds, so yea it hurts cause it pens my armor but its nowhere near a hard counter. That and i have a lot of casual anti-flier units (broadsides, riptide, or skyrays).

Also he will probably expect a flier, since hellchickens are pretty much always included in any CSM army. Mind games, my friend

Here's the problem I have with tailored lists.

A) If you and a friend are playing a game and you both tell each other what you are bringing, army wise and list composition, someones going to get the shaft and be completely countered with their list when the other player takes exactly what he needs to counter it.

B) Tau have "Good" anti flyer capabilities. If they take them.

C) I've seen Tau players in tournaments NOT take anti air and get completely stomped BY aerial units.

Here's my suggestion. If you haven't told him you play Chaos, don't tell him if he asks what you are bringing and force his hand at a TACs list. That way he could take a few Anti Air units but the majority probably won't be bringing it. Heldrakesa are amazing at taking out Marker Light units and Fire Warriors hiding behind an ADL or cowering in Ruins.

When I play games, I never tell my opponent what army I am going to play, and I ask him to never tell me. I simply ask the bare minimum in mutual ruling we would both like to play with. Escalation y/n? FW y/n? and point value. That's all you really need to ask. And that's all they really need to know.

Playing against a Tau player and saying you play Chaos can mean either one of two things (As you've stated above) "Do you bring flyers and hope he doesn't take EVERYTHING he can with Skyfire?" The answer would probably still have been yes either way simply to get that 1 or two much needed Torrents vaporizing his Markerlights. But you'd be at a much higher disadvantage if he knew what you were bringing.

I had a bloke once in the old GW location I played at always ask what army his opponent would like to play as. To the point he was taking things like Ork Kann Walls against Dark Eldar Poison spam. It's not fun to go up against. It's a massive waste of time.

Now I get that most people don't have the expendable cash flow to play more than 1 army, let alone have enough points to mix and match everything from their entire codex. I understand that. I've played games where I don't use any Heldrakes not knowing WHAT my opponent was bringing and wasted a great deal of their points for said Skyfire. I've also taken Heldrakes thinking my opponents will take normal Troop choices and they walked out with Terminators lol The points is, the game is more fun when things are layed out as simply 2 armies fighting, which armies are coming is the mystery

I usually play Pick-up games at my shop, so my lists are always TAC. But I also have some plug-in units that all roughly cost the same to Sub out something. If I'm playing a new person who hasn't played against Flyers I wont take the Heldrakes, I'll plug in a Bike Lord that costs the same points.

For this game I'm just curious to hear if the Flyers should be dropped, almost guaranteed knowing they are being tailored against right now. The options are to drop Heldrakes for the standard PF/LC Nurgle Lord and Bikers.

New edition could change some stuff around I hope...