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I have been gaming with my friends a lot recently, I play tau. They seem to believe that you either kill the riptide by focus img everything on it and not achieving much else or ignore it and let it cause havok. After winning quite a few 1000 point games I have converted to their side really, yes I want to win so I'm not going to make a poor army list, but I actually want my riptide to go down a few times.
I know the die hard gamers will be either like "DON'T PLAY TAU NOOB" or "WHY DO YOU WANT TO LOOSE" but I just ant to have good games with my mates really with a tactically sound force.
So basically, in 1000 points, usually space marines, grey Knights and the occasional ad mech (there are three other guys in the group, not just some messed up imperial force) how does one deal with a riptide in a way that doesn't draw all your attention towards that and away from the game?

 unknown wrote:
I have been gaming with my friends a lot recently, I play tau. They seem to believe that you either kill the riptide by focus img everything on it and not achieving much else or ignore it and let it cause havok. After winning quite a few 1000 point games I have converted to their side really, yes I want to win so I'm not going to make a poor army list, but I actually want my riptide to go down a few times.
I know the die hard gamers will be either like "DON'T PLAY TAU NOOB" or "WHY DO YOU WANT TO LOOSE" but I just ant to have good games with my mates really with a tactically sound force.
So basically, in 1000 points, usually space marines, grey Knights and the occasional ad mech (there are three other guys in the group, not just some messed up imperial force) how does one deal with a riptide in a way that doesn't draw all your attention towards that and away from the game?

Use psychic to force an initiative test, I'd have to check my book at home and see which but maybe one see which one, but like JOWW and tau crumples to it.

Riptides are unusually efficient at low cost games. Thats part of the problem.

Unless you have access to initiative testing things, ID, or mass of AP2 its pretty hard to take a riptide down. And at 1000pts, odds are you dont have enough of those.
Focus firing with nonAP2 is a thing, but unless it has good odds to wound and wound a lot i wouldnt bother. For instance, as a Tau player, i will kill Riptides utilizing Missilepods more than anything else because of the sheer amount of reliable wounds i cause. Dont fire bolters at it unless you are trying to weasel out that last wound, fire heavier things.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Riptides are unusually efficient at low cost games. Thats part of the problem.

Unless you have access to initiative testing things, ID, or mass of AP2 its pretty hard to take a riptide down. And at 1000pts, odds are you dont have enough of those.
Focus firing with nonAP2 is a thing, but unless it has good odds to wound and wound a lot i wouldnt bother. For instance, as a Tau player, i will kill Riptides utilizing Missilepods more than anything else because of the sheer amount of reliable wounds i cause. Dont fire bolters at it unless you are trying to weasel out that last wound, fire heavier things.

Pour as much S5 Fire as possible. for SM a combination of HB, AC and Autocannon Fire will do nicely, And all those 3 heavies are also useful overall against Tau to begin with. The trick is to focus fire efficiently.

Additionally you can try to drop a Grav/plas squad on it and pray for the best.

The reason riptides survive is that they cause decent damage and can always get away with 12" movement and jetpack moves.Sorry to say if your tactically sound and or your opponent doesn't have enough MC killing weapons the riptide will survive.So if you want your riptide to die in a game do some damage then move barely and it should come down.

I once saw a guy who wanted to use his Riptide in a fun/ not OP way.

He charged it across the board, into the middle of the enemy force and assaulted.

It ended up killing some units (as its designed to do) but it also had some awesome melee combat and died gloriously.

Both sides had fun and a Riptide was involved.

Killing a Riptide is hard unless you have a dedicated tool to either attack leadership, initiative, or ID.

The great difficulty intaking down a Riptide is the fact it is very tough and does deal a lot of damage, but also the rest of the army can still cause a lot of damage, but are easier to remove.

Often it is simply more cost efficient with your shooting to ignore the Riptide.

The reason riptides survive is that they cause decent damage and can always get away with 12" movement and jetpack moves.

I'm assuming the "12" is a mistype since tides are jetpack MCs not jump MCs.. so they only move 6".


I'll second that riptides are a little good at 1k games and so can be hard to deal with. Forcing them to activate their nova reactor for invuln vs boost and generally forcing saves with high RoF weapons is what works at range. In combat they can be tarpitted pretty easily since they are piss poor fighters and/or broken and swept if you get the right unit into them. Assault is the easier method if you can pull it off so that is what I would recommend to your mates. Edit- just looked at your post again so for marines I'd suggest grav cmd bikes to do double duty in actively hunting them at range and in combat. GKs with teleporters, especially NDKs and a pair of these will sort one out quick. NDKs are almost on par with tides at 1k actually. Admech I'm not overly familiar with tbh.

Put a lib on a bike with a force axe and have him role up on Biomancy, pray you get Iron arm or endurance then charge the Riptide. Make sure you cast force so you insta D it

The answer is always Grav

Use HBc, don't buy support systems, rarely use Nova Reactor.

Blind it! LS Storms FTW!

Or just wait a few days, chances are that it is going down to 3+.

You ignore it. Because you likely can't engage it at 1000 pts. Or even 2000 pts if the Tau player is good. No lists pack enough lascannons to threaten Riptides. Other weapons don't reach.

All bets are off with SKyhammer of course.

Ya as a tau player myself I don't field riptides at that point level. I can still be competitive without one.

No use trying to blind, tau are immune to it.

Wait for their new codex... trend seems to be changing their armor to 3+ which could help with a lot... but maybe not.

For GK, get into CC and force weapon it

I'm assuming the "12" is a mistype since tides are jetpack MCs not jump MCs.. so they only move 6".

Sorry I don't know why I said that lol. Must've been thinking about Jump infantry or something.

 TrenchCoatCreep wrote:

I'm assuming the "12" is a mistype since tides are jetpack MCs not jump MCs.. so they only move 6".

Sorry I don't know why I said that lol. Must've been thinking about Jump infantry or something.

Jet infantry "jump shoot jump", jump infantry move quickly like a jet bike. Its all too confusing at times.

Engage in close combat.

Often, as a Tau player, I've gotten over-confident with my jetpack move and/or the opponent has rolled high on their charge rolls.

You only need to engage with some ATSKNF marines or fearless/stubborn bodies, its 3 ws3 attacks will often wiff or not matter much.

Razerous wrote:
Engage in close combat.

Often, as a Tau player, I've gotten over-confident with my jetpack move and/or the opponent has rolled high on their charge rolls.

You only need to engage with some ATSKNF marines or fearless/stubborn bodies, its 3 ws3 attacks will often wiff or not matter much.

Don't underestimate a Riptide in CC. One of my favorite moments was when a Riptide and a Shooting Wraithknight got stuck in combat in 6e. They were stuck there for the whole game with the Riptide constantly using Nova shield and ended up killing the Wraithknight.

Riptide in the current dex is actually the only non-commander model Tau have that is actually respectable in melee. WS2 is its only real drawback, but its S6 AP2 with 3 attacks and i'd be surprised if anything that wasnt an ID weapon at initiative kills him before he can swing. Tarpitting it is more likely than killing it in melee more often than not.

Riptide is more likely to just sit there for eternity than die in melee. And even then, he has good odds to win. I actually win a lot of assaults with mine. That being said i still avoid melee stars like the plague lol...units that are actually designed for melee and not through sheer numbers like Boyz can usually rip the Riptide a new one, its the average joe units that i dont really worry about

Also i'd be surprised if the Riptide went to 3+ armor. The fluff behind the riptide's armor shows its extremely expensive to produce, so the two new suits were designed with less expensive but still effective armor/technology so they could field more of them.
Tbh, if the Stormsurge and Ghostkeel had 2+ armor it would be kinda bs. That would make 4 units with 2+ armor (5th with Iridium armor commander) in our codex, all of which are totally viable and good units.

the easiest way would probably be skitarii drop pod teams with blood angels as an ally but then your really only going to get one good shot

another answer would be like the vindicator laser destroyer and thats assuming it gets to sit still for two turns and shoot at it. but at 1000 points i dont care if it is a 130 point tank forgeworld shouldnt be an answer to 1000 point game problems

It all depends what your opponent is playing.

Gunline armies who rely only on relatively static long range weapons will always have a tough time vs a riptide.
Fast armies with close range ap2 guns or cc elements take it down without a problem.

SM can take grav in nearly every unit.
GK have force weapons in every unit.
AdMech have plasma calivers (ally in BA drop pod for easy take down).

I understand your concern but I think I agree with your regular opponents that at 1k it's better to ignore it and play the mission.

Obviously there are counters, grav bikes, Sternguard, Dreadknights, force weapons, tieing up in combat are probably the best.

D

Psykers are a good start. Either a librarian with a force axe, or psychic shriek, can do nasty things to it.

A telepath psyker also has the advantage of having a suite of powers well suited to messing with Tau - which pure Tau armies have little options to prevent:

Hallucinations - not exactly lethal but may pick off squad leaders. If you can have a squad punch their own etheral to death it's amusing.

Terrify - because tau leadership sucks anyway so why not make it worse?. Bonus points if you one-two-combo this with Psychic Shriek or Dominate. Hell, just use it and hit someone with sniper rifles or other pinning weapons.

Dominate - Making Tau take many leadership tests in a turn messes with manouvrability, firepower and their combined-fire-overwatch stuff.

Shrouding - Improved cover saves annoy shooting armies. The Tau can cope using markerlights, but then that's markerlight hits they aren't then using to improve ballistic skill.

Invisibility - If you aren't aware of the amount of gibbering rage this power induces, look elsewhere on this forum.

Essentially, you've got a garuanteed effective primaris power, and 5/6 powers that the Tau would really like you not to have.

 Vineheart01 wrote:
Riptide in the current dex is actually the only non-commander model Tau have that is actually respectable in melee. WS2 is its only real drawback, but its S6 AP2 with 3 attacks and i'd be surprised if anything that wasnt an ID weapon at initiative kills him before he can swing. Tarpitting it is more likely than killing it in melee more often than not.

Riptide is more likely to just sit there for eternity than die in melee. And even then, he has good odds to win. I actually win a lot of assaults with mine. That being said i still avoid melee stars like the plague lol...units that are actually designed for melee and not through sheer numbers like Boyz can usually rip the Riptide a new one, its the average joe units that i dont really worry about

Also i'd be surprised if the Riptide went to 3+ armor. The fluff behind the riptide's armor shows its extremely expensive to produce, so the two new suits were designed with less expensive but still effective armor/technology so they could field more of them.
Tbh, if the Stormsurge and Ghostkeel had 2+ armor it would be kinda bs. That would make 4 units with 2+ armor (5th with Iridium armor commander) in our codex, all of which are totally viable and good units.

3+ armor would be much more fair. I don't give a feth about the Riptide's fluff.

Bringing a riptide a 1k can be hard to deal with, and you are trying to be competitive. Are your oponents bringing strong lists? Grav will put the wounds on it pretty good. Spamming s5 works, force weapons work.

S5 and poison don't work, because by the time you get through the 2+ armor, your list is dead. Remember that unlike infantry with 2+ saves, the Riptide loses no firepower until the last wound is gone.