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I've been thinking about getting back into town and was wondering what are people's experiences with tau in 7th?

Previously in 6th I ran a heavy suit army with triple riptides, missile sides and a gun like. Now I'm feeling that a more mobile force would be better and more fun to play with so how would you rate something like

3-4 devilish with pulse carbine fire warriors
1 riptides with ion
2 Tetra
Barracuda
Fire support cadre
6 missile sides
Riptide with hbc

That Roughly comes in at 1750 which is UK standard tornement points level.
Would this be competive? Mobile scoring, heavy qty of S7+ Fire powers.

Itd be good to get a thread going like the nids thread JY2 started.

Let's talk!

What would you be running in the Cadre?

6 missile sides and a riptide?

I have no experience with Tetras or the Barracuda as my army is very much hindered by the fact I have no money.

But all in all looks a competitive list.

TAU are definitely competitive in 7th as it's still quite a shooty edition.

Short answer, nope. Tau haven't won a tournament in ages. Tau haven't been placing because 7th nerfed all their strong ally choices AND their ability to deathstar. Well, I guess they enjoyed their moment of glory.

Tau+Imperial Knights however is pretty okay however. Not as all round strong as IG+SM or E+DE but can compete.

Yeah, I'm not a tournament player so not really got much info I can give on that front.

why do you prefer the HBC? the ion accelerator admittedly has fewer shots, but you are not as likely to cause get hot rolls, it has a better range, and better AP for only a couple more points?

 Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Short answer, nope. Tau haven't won a tournament in ages. Tau haven't been placing because 7th nerfed all their strong ally choices AND their ability to deathstar. Well, I guess they enjoyed their moment of glory.

Tau+Imperial Knights however is pretty okay however. Not as all round strong as IG+SM or E+DE but can compete.

Hmm. I've never been that keen on death-stars but to be be fair, even with no more SM/Eldar allies they can still Farsight bomb. They just lack the ability to gate across the Board.

As with Ovesa star- I thought that as he's an IC You can stick him with a squad? Not as good as it once was but it's still a possibility.

I figured 3-4 devilish would be a good foundation as you can rock 12 inches a turn with a 3+ jink save. Fast and resilient transports with OS.

Granted- not as powerful as wave serpents...
Nor are they cost effective.
Anyone had any experience?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

LouisRuin wrote:
I have no experience with Tetras or the Barracuda as my army is very much hindered by the fact I have no money.

But all in all looks a competitive list.

TAU are definitely competitive in 7th as it's still quite a shooty edition.

Tetras are very, very good. I have no issues with their usability.

Barracudas are also extremely resilient with 2+ jink saves( with d pods). Just make sure you have ML support to assist them after.

 Wilson wrote:

 Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Short answer, nope. Tau haven't won a tournament in ages. Tau haven't been placing because 7th nerfed all their strong ally choices AND their ability to deathstar. Well, I guess they enjoyed their moment of glory.

Tau+Imperial Knights however is pretty okay however. Not as all round strong as IG+SM or E+DE but can compete.

Hmm. I've never been that keen on death-stars but to be be fair, even with no more SM/Eldar allies they can still Farsight bomb. They just lack the ability to gate across the Board.

As with Ovesa star- I thought that as he's an IC You can stick him with a squad? Not as good as it once was but it's still a possibility.

I figured 3-4 devilish would be a good foundation as you can rock 12 inches a turn with a 3+ jink save. Fast and resilient transports with OS.

Granted- not as powerful as wave serpents...
Nor are they cost effective.
Anyone had any experience?

Devilfish are really effective at getting across the board I have found.

But I'm never really inclined to move my FW's up, considering now you can hold objectives with Crisis suits.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Everyone I have played always seems to ignore the Devilfish as they are focusing more on Hammerheads/Broadsides/Riptide.

LouisRuin wrote:

 Wilson wrote:

 Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Short answer, nope. Tau haven't won a tournament in ages. Tau haven't been placing because 7th nerfed all their strong ally choices AND their ability to deathstar. Well, I guess they enjoyed their moment of glory.

Tau+Imperial Knights however is pretty okay however. Not as all round strong as IG+SM or E+DE but can compete.

Hmm. I've never been that keen on death-stars but to be be fair, even with no more SM/Eldar allies they can still Farsight bomb. They just lack the ability to gate across the Board.

As with Ovesa star- I thought that as he's an IC You can stick him with a squad? Not as good as it once was but it's still a possibility.

I figured 3-4 devilish would be a good foundation as you can rock 12 inches a turn with a 3+ jink save. Fast and resilient transports with OS.

Granted- not as powerful as wave serpents...
Nor are they cost effective.
Anyone had any experience?

Devilfish are really effective at getting across the board I have found.

But I'm never really inclined to move my FW's up, considering now you can hold objectives with Crisis suits.

The issue I have with crisis teams is that they are very points costly and will die very efficiently to anything that is S8 + or weight of fire.

Id like to believe the only suits you'd really need in 7th are broadsides and riptides as you're better off at having more bodies on the board for maelstrom missions.

Edit:

My thoughts exactly on the dfish- everyone worries about broadsides and riptides. They will draw a lot of fire away from them which will allow them to pick up objectives.

I was under the impression that o'vesa'star was a buffmander with a riptide and o'vesa. That is what is no longer allowed. then also, the unit that he joins would likely have to be tailored to him, think target locks on everyone. with that said, his status as an IC is. . . questionable.

Lastly, while the devilfish may not have fire warriors in them, they make dandy blocking terrain for crisis suits.

I always run a Buffmander with a Body Guard team.

They are very hard to kill with shield generators.

 carldooley wrote:
I was under the impression that o'vesa'star was a buffmander with a riptide and o'vesa. That is what is no longer allowed. then also, the unit that he joins would likely have to be tailored to him, think target locks on everyone. with that said, his status as an IC is. . . questionable.

Lastly, while the devilfish may not have fire warriors in them, they make dandy blocking terrain for crisis suits.

I tried the dual riptide/ovesa buffmander combo in a tormenent and got merked. It did not do well and I am not a bad player.
I never really liked it, i feel it's just restricting and gives your opponent and easier way to deal with two riptides as they are both in one spot as apposed to being spaced out.

Which army were you playing in the tournament?

LouisRuin wrote:
Which army were you playing in the tournament?

Ravenwing- mass plasma.-loss

Space wolves gun line- win

Chaos demons ( 2++ FMC) loss

Ahh cool.

I need to enter some tournaments and see how I do.

LouisRuin wrote:
Ahh cool.

I need to enter some tournaments and see how I do.

It was an interesting tournament. I didn't really enjoy it game wise due to getting my ass beat however a really gnarly tau/necron army did win the whole comp which was cool.

A very nasty list indeed - all 6th edition of course.

A Tau player came 4th at the Bay Area Open.

Take that as you wish.

Tau are still competitive, those that claim they arent dont know how to play tau without riptide cheese (either ovesa star or the ally shenanigans). I will admit though that tau have no mediocre game, they either crush or get crushed. Daemons give me issues but then again i play them the least.

Also Ovesa can still attach to units, yes, but he cant be with any other ICs since he is still an MC. The ovesa star was a normal riptide plus ovesa plus an allied in buffmander to give both riptides the buffage he brings at the same time. That needed to be nerfed since that was just insane. Solo riptide plus buffmander wasnt really all that awesome to me, so i almost never did it unless he was near my buffmander and his unit was dying.

Barracudas are freakin annoying. I dont have one yet but i want one badly. Another tau player in my FLGS uses one and that thing is SO ANNOYING with its 2+ jink and gakload of nasty shots.
Tetras i hear are still very valuable even with the jink change, but i dont know anyone personally that runs them.

It will be rare to see Tau dominate any tournament, but they will still have high middle ground showings.


I plan to see just how competitive they are as aim bringing them to NOVA in two weeks.

Dorksim wrote:
A Tau player came 4th at the Bay Area Open.

Take that as you wish.

Do you have his/her list?

Edit: never mind, got it!


HQ:
-Tau Commander - Twin-linking wargear, Drone Controller
-Shadowsun

Elites:
-Riptide - Ions, Fusion, EWO
-Riptide - Ions, Fusion, EWO

Troops:
-6x Fire Warriors - Devilfish w/Disruption Pods
-6x Fire Warriors - Devilfish w/Disruption Pods

Fast Attack:
-9x Marker Drones

Heavy Support:
-Hammerhead - Ion
-Hammerhead - Ion

Allies:
Tau Firebase Cadre

-Riptide - Ions, Fusion, EWO

-3x Broadsides - HYMP
-3x Broadsides - HYMP

Total:

 Zagman wrote:
It will be rare to see Tau dominate any tournament, but they will still have high middle ground showings.


I plan to see just how competitive they are as aim bringing them to NOVA in two weeks.

Don't forget to tell us how it'll go!

Tau are very powerful, I think with space wolves and the like making a comeback Taus ability to alpha strike them when they land will really help counter a lot of the rough builds.

I think they have the ability to place in GTs but they no longer have the crutches like they used to.

Only big issue I see in the your unit choice is pulse carbines. you gain very little and give up a lot. the standard plus rifle has way better range, same hitting power, can still fire on the move. All you give up is assault, not exactly something Tau want to do any way, and pinning which you don't need becuase you should not be close enough for it to matter.

 Vector Strike wrote:

 Zagman wrote:
It will be rare to see Tau dominate any tournament, but they will still have high middle ground showings.


I plan to see just how competitive they are as aim bringing them to NOVA in two weeks.

Don't forget to tell us how it'll go!

I'm planning on taking a few pictures of each game and putting up a Batreps of the games like I did for the Renegade Open GT last Nov.


Now my only problem is I don't think I'll be able to get my Display board out there...


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Wilson wrote:

Dorksim wrote:
A Tau player came 4th at the Bay Area Open.

Take that as you wish.

Do you have his/her list?

Edit: never mind, got it!


HQ:
-Tau Commander - Twin-linking wargear, Drone Controller
-Shadowsun

Elites:
-Riptide - Ions, Fusion, EWO
-Riptide - Ions, Fusion, EWO

Troops:
-6x Fire Warriors - Devilfish w/Disruption Pods
-6x Fire Warriors - Devilfish w/Disruption Pods

Fast Attack:
-9x Marker Drones

Heavy Support:
-Hammerhead - Ion
-Hammerhead - Ion

Allies:
Tau Firebase Cadre

-Riptide - Ions, Fusion, EWO

-3x Broadsides - HYMP
-3x Broadsides - HYMP

Total:

Note, he was running Shadowsun for the ability to Infiltrate a unit of Broadsides. BAO rules that an IC with Infiltrate can grant it to a squad predeployment. Spam Adams used this tactic to great effect and I read that he got Master of Ambush and used the same primciple to Infiltrate his entire FBSC to win by Sudden Death Victory early against one opponent.


He is also a common opponent of jy2 so there are Batreps floating around of him playing.

I'm glad to see firewarriors in devilfish. for some reason I'm really keen on that sort of build.

also, master of ambush is just so, so good.

Ultimately 7th is still a shooting edition and that's where Tau excel. They can reliably strip cover and increase BS to maximise shooting efficiency which is in some cases more powerful than psychic equivalent powers.

What prevents them from being top tier IMO is zero psychic and allied synergy.

Firewarriors in devilfish were always good but the problem was the fish had almost no use It. was a ~100pt sink that wasnt terribly durable in the situations its driving into, guns suck for the cost, and what did it do after putting the firewarriors down? nothing besides tankshock/ram and be a roadblock. Not worth the points. Now it scores and has a 3+ jink. Unless you hit it with an ignores cover weapon that thing is hard as hell to kill. Its guns still suck but its a massive and surprisingly durable roadblock, and i have won games purely because this thing tankshocked something and they lost their leadership roll.

Contrary to popular opinion it isnt a bad thing to move your firewarriors up. I do it every game with a duo fish combo, i'd bring a third if i had the model though. Ethereal stays in the fish so his 12" bubble gets stretched slightly from the vehicle haul (and better protection) as you dump all 23/35 firewarriors within doubletap range of something. I have WRECKED termy blobs with this tactic, and because of the position of the rest of my army if you kill the firewarriors while theyre exposed i will actually thank you because i would MUCH prefer they die than my suits that are nearby. Far cheaper unit to lose.

Firewarriors suffer from bad armor so they cant footslog very well unless massed, but then that feeds into their other issue which is their firepower per point is pretty lame until doubletap range. Most of the things that kill them have equal or greater range - least for me - so protecting them in a fish is highly valuable. Afterwords i got me a Tankshocking platform that also scores

I am personally not that into Crisis suits, while I think they do a job I agree they seem to crumble easily unless in some kind of Deathstar/Farsight bomb.

My regular Tau opponent runs 3 vanilla with plasmas then a Riptide and a 4 man Stealth team deepstriking to go after a tank and dakka some backline infantry.

As much as the armour save is only a 4 there is something frankly terrifying about facing 48 Firewarriors at 1500pts especially if one is buffed with a fireblade who gives them the extra shot even at full range. 26 S5 shots at 24'' God forbid you get in close and suffer 39 shots...

Slap them behind a QuadGun Aegis with a Shas'ui with target lock and suddenly they are causing sheer bloody carnage to one area of the table and become very hard to dig out

God I hate Firewarriors..!

They are however not great at foootslogging, I would be inclined if I was making a Tau army to go for a mobile infantry build with Fishes for almost all if not all my FW Squads, I think there is a killer mobile infantry list waiting to be written for Tau in the hands of the right player who can use them effectively, certainly be a nice change from dual Riptide or Crisis Spam.

I despise Fireblade, he enduces a pure gunline army that says "No, you come to me!" to be useful. He also forces you to buy an aegis since without that 4+/2+ cover he WILL DIE since any firewarrior unit or pathfinder dies really fast when focused, why would you add a very very nasty and fairly expensive model to them to make them an even higher target priority?

Until i started hiding my ethereal inside a fish or a broadside unit, literally every game i bring an ethereal/fireblade/cadre he dies by turn 2/3 because his squishy unit just got hammered by everything that can reach them, vaporizing the ranks before i get a chance to change units.

I have seen the power of 24 firewarriors buffed by an ethereal and 12 of them by a fireblade though. That is just scary, but most armies will just shoot it from a distance. Pfft even my orks just shoot it from a distance, i faced it once and i just lobba/kannon'd them to death while the rest of my army scooted around the 30" bubble of no-no-zone.