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My buddy (let's call him Mike the dirt bag, I hope you read this) is going to run 2 Tau stormsurges in our upcoming game. Both will have early warning systems, which makes deepstriking a big no no. How would you handle it? General input welcome, for specifics I'll be playing as AM with a little GK troops

Drop the GK and bring manticores, gg.

 Marmatag wrote:
Drop the GK and bring manticores, gg.

Sadly this. As much as I love my Grey Knights they have been shelved since 8th ed dropped.

Bring anything of comparable points with heavy weaponry, and go to town. Stormsurges are hopelessly undergunned for the cost.

Stormsurges aren't amazing for how much they cost.

The way to deal with double stomrsurge is to not even plan towards them and keep your usual plan.

They are honestly just not very good.
They are big and scary, but once the initial payload of destroyer missiles is off, they become very much not cost effective any more. and even with the missile salvo, they are not all that bad.

If you REALLY feel threatened, a couple of lascannon teams will make short work of them.

Bah, I almost tabled 3 stormsurges with GK/Guard list. Last Surge had like 8 wounds remaining and the game ended on turn five. They really are not that amazing.

Funny thing is I lost that game due to objectives, but that was just me not playing objectives and going for the kill bloodlust guiding my actions. I'm ashamed.

As everyone else has said, Stormsurges just aren't that amazing. Overcosted for what they do, and honestly are sort of a one hit wonder.

They spam S5 fairly well, but Tau in general does that so not a big deal. Their destroyer missiles will either be used up at the first opportunity or saved for the entire game and never used, depending on the player using it, and have far too much variance to be relied upon (Need ML support to be actually used, can do only a maximum of 12 mortal wounds, without outside support beyond 2 MLs to fire at BS they'll only do on average 4 mortal wounds). Their big guns are the only real threat from them, and the PDC is too expensive for what it brings to the table, while the PBC is short range and forces the Surge to be in your threat range and not make full use of it's anchors in order to be in good position.

As for support systems, well they're guaranteed to have a Shield Generator for a 4++, they'll have an ATS for the PBC and the S5 spam (these 2 systems are auto-include on Surges right now), and the 3rd you said is gonna be EWO, which is an easy work around. It only works if you set up within 12" of the Surge. Set up just over 12" away and you're free and clear. Or just don't DS near it and shoot it from range.

Remember that they're only T7, 3+, 20 wounds. Even with an SG for the 4++, they really are not survivable at all when focused. They cannot benefit from Savior Protocols, nor any Ethereal abilities as they lack the BATTLESUIT keyword.

2 Surges in a single list with standard loadouts (PBC, Flamers, ATS, SG, and EWO) is going to run your opponent 876 points, meaning the rest of his list will be fairly limited, especially when you factor in the ML support they'll need. You should be able to clear out 1000 points of Tau if you decide to just ignore the Surges.

But none of this matters since at the end of the day you'll be playing Guard. Literally any competent list you build will wipe out a Double Surge list with no problem.