Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

So, I recently had a game against Tau where I brought a fun, semi-fluffy list aginst tau with DE and Harlequins. Included grots, incubi, heros path and a few other less than competitive options, my goal in that match was leadership manipulation. After having the initiative stolen and almost being completley wiped out (other than reserves) by turn 2 I decided that I have to bring something with a little more punch.

HQ:
Archon - Shadow field, Webway portal
Court of the Archon - 3 medusae, venom - two splinter cannons

Elites:
Kabalite Trueborn - 4 blasters, venom - two splinter cannons
Kabalite Trueborn - 4 blasters, venom - two splinter cannons

Troops:
Kabalite warriors - 8 splinter rifles, raider - splinter racks, night shield
Kabalite warriors - 8 splinter rifles, raider - splinter racks, night shield

Fast Attack:
Razorwing jetfighter - 2 dark lances, 4 necrotoxin missles
Scourges - 4 blasters

Heavy support:
Ravager - 3 dark lances
Ravager - 3 dark lances

Formation:

Dark Artisan:
Talos - ichor injector, heat lance
Haemonculus - webway portal
Cronos - Spirit probe

Open to any tips and suggestions. I get a tau head when I beat his primarily suit army and my DE need it for their bases

No suggestions? Any help is appreciated. Help me conquer the fish people

Honestly, the best way to play DE is spamming venoms, 3x ravagers, scourges and grotesquerie.

Unfortunately for you, DE have no chance against taus in competitive meta....

However, if you wanna go all in, try to hide a few units out of sight, deep strike your raiders and get rid of maker lights. Then, you can fianlly jink on 3+ and also charge on turn 2. If you start on the board right away, he will beat you quite easily... I played my DE in a GT, trust me, riptide wings and stormsurges are a pain...

Good luck mate !

my 1500 list that I have been having some success with is basically as follows;

a lhamean in a venom
six min units of warriors in venoms
3 ravagers
3 razorwings

as far as dealing with riptides, fear bombs are pretty strong ways to try and handle them, but the most reliable way is to try and fit in that plus a source of psychic shriek. (easiest way for me is harlequin shadowseers)

Otherwise, they are a tough nut for DE, and there isn't much you can do aside from running a super refined army list like I mentioned earlier in this comment.

I would imagine MSU is the way to go. That way you minimize their markerlight support, and can keep the pressure on with your poison/S8 weaponry.

I see that you are trying to spam S8 weapons to ID his suits (Crisis anyway), but by doing this you are going for a "eggs in one basket" approach. All of these units are expensive, and very easily killed.

I would try to use the tried-and-true method of "If you cant kill it, ignore it". I played against a knight list with my DE, and with only a single lance ravager. I still managed to tie the game, despite not actually being able to damage his army. Just play to the mission, and hide/reserve like a champ.

Can you give an example of a list you generally face?

I've typed and retyped then deleted a few answers here because I just can't see how you can bring an army that wins here against a reasonable tau army.

The worst gun they have can wound you and negate your best armour save completely. they can ignore cover on anything you bring that's really strong.

Tau's only weakness is vulnerability to psychic, which you dont have.

So on that cheery note, here's what you can hope for, in my opinion.

Get a comms relay on a big ass bastion, where you hide your starting guys in. AV 14 is pretty hard for tau to get through. Reserve as much as you can to survive getting to turn 2 and then deep strike as much as you can with MSU. this will overload his intercepting shots, and waste the benefits from marker lights.

Use your fearless from power from pain to have a load of targets on objectives, that he cant get rid of all of them, and then win that way.

If there's a riptide wing, have a leadership bomb and force leadership checks.

make sure you kill something, rather than inflict a few wounds on a lot of things. The end of the game should look like you're about to get wiped out, but you're spread out and mobile and he's standing and shooting.

Watch Tabletop tactics, Laurence primarily runs Dark Eldar and recently ran against a Tau monster mash (Riptide wing, Stormsurge, marker drones, void shiled) and thoroughly thrashed him.

I had the pleasure of playing against him with my Eldar and got battered in a couple of turns as well... he's the one to watch if you want to run competitive Dark Eldar.

In short your Venoms, Ravagers, Reavers and Talos formations are your win conditions

 Torus wrote:
Watch Tabletop tactics, Laurence primarily runs Dark Eldar and recently ran against a Tau monster mash (Riptide wing, Stormsurge, marker drones, void shiled) and thoroughly thrashed him.

I had the pleasure of playing against him with my Eldar and got battered in a couple of turns as well... he's the one to watch if you want to run competitive Dark Eldar.

In short your Venoms, Ravagers, Reavers and Talos formations are your win conditions

That game is why I'm going to suggest a Corpsthiefe Claw with the Dark Artisan walking up behind it with the Haemonculus as Warlord so you have 6 Talos with 4+ FnP rerolling 1's, at T7 with 3+ armour they will absorb an astonishing amount of firepower with only D/Instant Death or massed grav really doing significant damage.

 Imateria wrote:

 Torus wrote:
Watch Tabletop tactics, Laurence primarily runs Dark Eldar and recently ran against a Tau monster mash (Riptide wing, Stormsurge, marker drones, void shiled) and thoroughly thrashed him.

I had the pleasure of playing against him with my Eldar and got battered in a couple of turns as well... he's the one to watch if you want to run competitive Dark Eldar.

In short your Venoms, Ravagers, Reavers and Talos formations are your win conditions

That game is why I'm going to suggest a Corpsthiefe Claw with the Dark Artisan walking up behind it with the Haemonculus as Warlord so you have 6 Talos with 4+ FnP rerolling 1's, at T7 with 3+ armour they will absorb an astonishing amount of firepower with only D/Instant Death or massed grav really doing significant damage.

Yeah he can really drag out the potential out of that otherwise 'weak dex'. Against me he ran venom spam with 6 squads of 6 man Reaver Jetbikes all with caltrops and blasters behind a void shield against me...

Lucky git rolled for Stealth in ruins for his WL trait for 2+ jinks (there were a lot of ruins) and +1 toughness on his drugs roll!

Dark Eldar can take on suit spamming Tau. But you need a beefy core or your forces collapse.

Check out this batrep, will give you some ideas.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQOOoTt1JDI