New to Dark Eldar... My friend plays Tau....

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**Andy140491**

I bit the bullet and wanted to play the army I've loved the look off for ages, after a decent break from the game, and building a fairly decent sized (5k at least) space wolves army.

I wanted to play dark Eldar initially but my Tau friend has come out with these terror tactics on how he's going to utterly curb stomp me... And that I won't be able to beat him. Which tbh... Is the main reason I've never played (immature I know)

He runs 2-3 squads if 10 firewarriors normally with a fireblade or some other crap that gives him more shots. He also owns 4 riptides, mainly for using the tide wing, aswell as several Ghostkeels and missilesides. And most importantly... A BUCKET load of marker drones...

What's the best advice (aside from conceding) you guys can think of to ruin his day?

Thanks in advance

**raverrn**

Ally in Corsairs and take a SKATHACH WRAITHKNIGHT.

**Torus**

Lots of LOS blocking terrain, Eldar allies for some psychic support if you can stomach it and a ton of speed from your other units. The corpsethief formation maybe able to survive alot of the tau firepower he can throw out and the poison weapory certainly helps if he brings MC's to the game

As usual, against this particular opponent I advocate several applications of Revenant Titan behind void shield generators or Skyshield landing pads because it sounds like he deserves it!

**Traditio**

Andy140491 wrote:
I bit the bullet and wanted to play the army I've loved the look off for ages, after a decent break from the game, and building a fairly decent sized (5k at least) space wolves army.

I wanted to play dark Eldar initially but my Tau friend has come out with these terror tactics on how he's going to utterly curb stomp me... And that I won't be able to beat him. Which tbh... Is the main reason I've never played (immature I know)

He runs 2-3 squads if 10 firewarriors normally with a fireblade or some other crap that gives him more shots. He also owns 4 riptides, mainly for using the tide wing, aswell as several Ghostkeels and missilesides. And most importantly... A BUCKET load of marker drones...

What's the best advice (aside from conceding) you guys can think of to ruin his day?

Thanks in advance

Refuse to play with him in the first place.

1. He plays Tau.

2. He's set as a goal "curbstomping" you, even though you are playing a lower tiered codex.

3. He spams OP bull excrement.

Treat power gamers, TFGs and competitive people in the same way that the Imperium treats heretics, xenos and mutants.

**Andy140491**

I know people are probably going to kick and mock me.. But I really really don't want to take Eldar allies. Not entirely sure what corsairs are though? I'm trying to make a pure dark Eldar list if possible

**Torus**

No kicking, no mocking... its a tough task and nobody should be forced to use allies if they don't want to.

To answer your question, Corsairs are an army featured in the newest Imperial Armour book from forgeworld, they are Elves that are completely independent from the craftworlds and a lot more free spirited, you customise the leader to shape the army (for instance you can give him and therefore everyone in your army combat drugs). There are many people think they are Dark Eldar 2.0 and how they should play.

As I say with a pure Dark Eldar force, rely on speed and LOS blocking terrain, play anything but kill points, with plenty of MSU

**Traditio**

Torus wrote:
No kicking, no mocking... its a tough task and nobody should be forced to use allies if they don't want to.

To answer your question, Corsairs are an army featured in the newest Imperial Armour book from forgeworld, they are Elves that are completely independent from the craftworlds and a lot more free spirited, you customise the leader to shape the army (for instance you can give him and therefore everyone in your army combat drugs). There are many people think they are Dark Eldar 2.0 and how they should play.

As I say with a pure Dark Eldar force, rely on speed and LOS blocking terrain, play anything but kill points, with plenty of MSU

That's only if the goal is winning.

If the goal is actually to have a fun game, my recommendation is not even to bother.

His friend strikes me as a power gaming TFG power gamer.

And he plays Tau and spams the most OP bull excrement in his codex.

Feth that.

**Torus**

Maybe, but if there's someone who is having games against a more friendly Tau player with DE then I figure it may help, or maybe he's just saying that jokingly and is a nice person, who knows

**the_scotsman**

Well, if you really do want to play him (and it sounds like you do) just have a list tailored against Tau specifically, and it'll likely do pretty well against everyone else too.

1) Grab a Dark Artisan formation, big, tough, capable of surviving a whole tau army worth of firepower, and capable of dropping right in turn 2 and acting like a nice distraction carnifex.

2) Razorwing Jetfighter works great against mass Tau infantry, showing up and dousing them with tons of monoscythe missiles for a nice one-turn punch.

3) upgrade all your vehicles with flickerfields (5++ save) rather than night shields (stealth) as he can remove cover. Most tau anti tank (particularly if he's bringing riptides) is single-shot so reducing the firepower with an invuln, even a low one is solid.

4) bring lots of disintegrators, as they are the only proper high volume of fire medium-strength AP2 weapon the DE have access to. I would prefer those over standard poison gear, since the riptides have a 2+ save and rarely really care about poison.

tbh though...to echo the posters above...if you can find different opponents than a guy running 4 riptides as tau, you should definitely do so. It'll make you much happier in this hobby.

**Imateria**

the_scotsman wrote:
Well, if you really do want to play him (and it sounds like you do) just have a list tailored against Tau specifically, and it'll likely do pretty well against everyone else too.

1) Grab a Dark Artisan formation, big, tough, capable of surviving a whole tau army worth of firepower, and capable of dropping right in turn 2 and acting like a nice distraction carnifex.

2) Razorwing Jetfighter works great against mass Tau infantry, showing up and dousing them with tons of monoscythe missiles for a nice one-turn punch.

3) upgrade all your vehicles with flickerfields (5++ save) rather than night shields (stealth) as he can remove cover. Most tau anti tank (particularly if he's bringing riptides) is single-shot so reducing the firepower with an invuln, even a low one is solid.

4) bring lots of disintegrators, as they are the only proper high volume of fire medium-strength AP2 weapon the DE have access to. I would prefer those over standard poison gear, since the riptides have a 2+ save and rarely really care about poison.

tbh though...to echo the posters above...if you can find different opponents than a guy running 4 riptides as tau, you should definitely do so. It'll make you much happier in this hobby.

You can't upgrade DE vehicles with Flickerfields, only the Venom has them.

Disintegrators aren't a bad idea actually, two Ravagers with tripple dissies should be able to put out a lot of hurt on a Riptide.

There's also the option of a Coven army to attack their Leadership stat. All the formations have Freakish Spectacle (12" bubble of-1 to Leadership which stacks from different formations) which can be very interesting when throwing in a Harlequin Cast of Players formation (Shadowseer, Death Jester and a single Troop) that have their own Leadership debuffs and access to things like Psychic Shreik. Put Torment Grenade Launchers on the vehicles and watch the Tau run away.

**DirtyDeeds**

Playing Dark Eldar against Tau will always be an uphill battle as they are THE hard counter to our army. Our only defense is cover, and Tau cares not at all. If you want to stick with the Dark Kin, I recommend looking into the formstions in the Haemonculus Covens supplement; particularly the Grotesquerie, the Dark Artisan, and Corpsetheif Claw formations. These high toughness models with FNP will be difficult for any army to effectively tackle without Str 10 or instant death, which Tau lack. Hit them in combat with stacking layers of Freakish Spectacle to severely hurt their gunline.

**Andy140491**

Sounds good dude but I'm trying to run mono dark Eldar

Automatically Appended Next Post:

DirtyDeeds wrote:
Playing Dark Eldar against Tau will always be an uphill battle as they are THE hard counter to our army. Our only defense is cover, and Tau cares not at all. If you want to stick with the Dark Kin, I recommend looking into the formstions in the Haemonculus Covens supplement; particularly the Grotesquerie, the Dark Artisan, and Corpsetheif Claw formations. These high toughness models with FNP will be difficult for any army to effectively tackle without Str 10 or instant death, which Tau lack. Hit them in combat with stacking layers of Freakish Spectacle to severely hurt their gunline.

I'm gonna build up my kabal soon first dude and branch into a coven side bit after

then maybe a Wych cult

**Fishboy**

Traditio wrote:
Andy140491 wrote:
I bit the bullet and wanted to play the army I've loved the look off for ages, after a decent break from the game, and building a fairly decent sized (5k at least) space wolves army.

I wanted to play dark Eldar initially but my Tau friend has come out with these terror tactics on how he's going to utterly curb stomp me... And that I won't be able to beat him. Which tbh... Is the main reason I've never played (immature I know)

He runs 2-3 squads if 10 firewarriors normally with a fireblade or some other crap that gives him more shots. He also owns 4 riptides, mainly for using the tide wing, aswell as several Ghostkeels and missilesides. And most importantly... A BUCKET load of marker drones...

What's the best advice (aside from conceding) you guys can think of to ruin his day?

Thanks in advance

Refuse to play with him in the first place.

1. He plays Tau.

2. He's set as a goal "curbstomping" you, even though you are playing a lower tiered codex.

3. He spams OP bull excrement.

Treat power gamers, TFGs and competitive people in the same way that the Imperium treats heretics, xenos and mutants.

Not that great of a solution. I understand the sentiment but to just fold without trying the challenge seems so.....French military.

Taking the Revenant Titan is a good idea and it is not an ally. It is a LOW choice for Eldar and DE. The Coven list and formations will probably help too. Corpse thief is great. Puts out a ton of shots, high toughness, and quick to the line. There is also a formation that allows first turn deep strike with venoms and wracks. Enough fire power to grab first blood. Just don't tell him ahead of time what your list is so he does not shift to a bunch of interceptor. The riptides are very vulnerable to mass poison shooting. Scourges are awesome and cause an raptor of damage too.

Automatically Appended Next Post:
Side note....wych cult is pretty sucky right now. Just read your last post and if you don't want to delve into the coven book then I think the recommendation to use all the leadership shenanigans is a great step against Tau. Leadership and psychic are probably Tau's greatest weakness.

**oz of the north**

Going against tau is going to be an uphill battle. With out taking covens or eldar/ corais allies. You will need to rely on leadership shenanigans, that would be best method, also venom spam will be your friend. Since the amount of ignores cover tau have an invun. save on venoms will be a godsend.

**ALEXisAWESOME**

I've found a wonderous unit to beat Tau. It drops in and causes colossal havoc and it's probably the most durable unit we have.

That unit is the Dark Artisan formation from the Covenite supplement. The unit consists of a Talos, a Haemonculu and a Chronus all in the same unit. Tau have lots of high strength/high rate of fire weaponry and lots of low AP shots but very rarely do both of these come on the same weapon. The unit is T7, 3+ Sv 4+ FnP re-rolling ones if the Haemonculi is the warlord. The plethora of Str 5 weaponry wounds on 6's and we get both saves, plasma rifles wound on 5's and we get a 4+ FnP against it, fusions only have a single shot at mediocre BS and still only wound on 3's with FnP. The Haemonculi can pack a webway portal and a Liquifier Gun, the Talosi can pack a TL Liquifier and the Chronus has a Str 3 AP 3 template.

Turn 2 webway in with no scatter and line up all 3 templates to hit as many of his Fire Warriors as possible. He will be packed nicely to gain the benefit of the Etheral (one of the ways to gain an extra shot). You will roast at least 1 unit whilst also being a massive durable threat in his deployment zone. With your units closing in from the front he can't avoid you, he has to dedicate all his fire power into killing that unit or it will hide in combat and never die. This gives the rest of your army, however you want to build it (Grotesques lead by a Succubus or Archon are my favourite assault unit) the freedom to move up and apply more pressure.

Break down of the unit.

Spoiler: