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I'll start by saying I'm really not the best player around. I was invited to a tournament by my college tutor on the 28th December, and I think it's about time I did gaming right.
I don't particularly care whether I win the tournament or not, but I've made it a personal goal to beat my tutor at least. He knows I'm not a good player, so I'm hoping with some tactical advice from you guys, I might be able to catch him off guard and take the victory.

He'll be playing Tau. All I know that he has for certain are 2 ghostkeels, a riptide, 2 pathfinder teams, some firewarriors and marker drones. Probably a lot of crisis suits with ion blasters, too.
Upon submission of my own list, I was told that it was really good and somewhat broken, but me being me, I have no idea how or why. I just took what I think is cool.

Army List - 120 power

Death Korps of Krieg - Battalion - 37 Power
Karis Venner ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
Marshal - power sword, momento mori -------------------------------------------3
Command Squad - regimental standard, plasmagun, meltagun ---------------3
Commissar - power sword ----------------------------------------------------------2
Infantry Squad - grenade launcher ------------------------------------------------4
Infantry Squad - grenade launcher ------------------------------------------------4
Infantry Squad - flamer -------------------------------------------------------------4
Mars-Alpha Leman Russ - battlecannon, lascannon, heavy stubber --------12

Imperial Fists - Vanguard - 69 Power
Terminator Captain - relic blade, storm shield ----------------------------------8
Cataphractii Squad - 2x2lighting claws, 2 chainfists, 1 heavy flamer ------13
Relic Contemptor - 2 fists, 2 heavy flamers -------------------------------------13
Relic Contemptor - assault cannon, fist, storm bolter --------------------------13
Relic Deredeo - autocannons, missile launcher, heavy flamers ---------------14
Vindicator - storm bolter -------------------------------------------------------------8

Auxiliaries - 14 Power
Custodian Guard - guardian spears -----------------------------------------------14


So, any advice on how I should play my list and any tactics I could use to beat the Tau would be greatly appreciated.

a tournament in power level?

Is this local?

I have never been to any ITC with power level or any tournament that uses power level.

If they did, I would just run like 50 deathwatch marines all with frag cannons for that 80d6 for the lulz.


Your list is not broken, I'd say is okay.

To beat Tau? just rush your heavy melee units into Tau and hope for the fact he doesn't shoot you out before that.

Watch out for his Commander deepstrike knocking out your tanks and your Dreads. Bubblewrap them with your throwaway krieg. Consider swapping your chapter tactics to Ravenguard, in order to give all your dreads -1 to hit at range - his Tau will loathe that. Your Custodians will be in a tricky situation, as they can't deepstrike, but will be up against a mobule force that doesn't like to CC. I can't help thinking that you could spend those points better.

Good luck!

I can't really comment on your list but if your facing T'au there's a few things you might want to know. Though without codex and in their current state they're hardly the faction that will be giving you a hard time during a tournament.

Riptides are fairly durable but just don't have the damage output to justify their cost, especially if you can take away the marker light support. If you're going after any battle suite you need to take out nearby drones first using small arms fire, otherwise those las/battlecannon hits will just be pawned off. As mentioned the -1 to hit tactic really hurts since they're either getting close enough to eat a charge in melee (where T'au suffer) or taking a negative modifier to their already mediocre ballistic skill. Using codex armies you have a decent advantage in most engagements, just watch out for those deep strikers and remember most of the units have fly so you can't tie them down in melee.

Tournament is local, being held by a local club.

I can't change the list at all, as it's already been submitted. But even so, I really don't have much else I could have used.
I have a selection of knights I could have used, but LoWs are banned sadly.

Problem I can see with the Raven Guard tactic is that the T'au player loves his markerlights (He has about 15 in his list), so any penalty to their BS won't matter in the slightest. Things WILL be hitting me.

I think Black Templars might be a good idea. That's the re roll failed charges, right? I'd hate to give him overwatch for nothing.

Honestly, I'm quite afraid of this battle. I can't see how I could win unless he gets really unlucky. Either way, I appreciate the help so far.

I have to say, I really dig your list. It looks cool.

While I think it has potential, I have no idea why anyone would describe it as broken. If most people around there truly think so, I wouldn't think they know their stuff.

Let me elaborate: your list is way different from any norm. I can tell you that if you have a good idea behind such a list, you can do wonders with it. They'll never see something coming that... well.. they have literally never seen before. Do note that this is a general principle. I have no idea how well Krieg and Imperial Fists go together on the table.

I'd give you pointers about Custodian armaments and IG-special weapons but you said that you can't change them.

Like others have suggested, protect your vehicles with the guard, and throw as much small arms on the drones. But only until those commanders drop in, after that your guard have free reign, can't see a tau player trying to cc anything really. Don't waste your big shots on stuff that won't actually get hurt if you can avoid it.

Finally while playing keep a level head and pay attention. Kill what is actually killing you, not what looks like it's scarry. I can't tell you how often the distraction carnifex trick works. It's called a distraction for a reason.

Azuza001 wrote:
Like others have suggested, protect your vehicles with the guard, and throw as much small arms on the drones. But only until those commanders drop in, after that your guard have free reign, can't see a tau player trying to cc anything really. Don't waste your big shots on stuff that won't actually get hurt if you can avoid it.

Finally while playing keep a level head and pay attention. Kill what is actually killing you, not what looks like it's scarry. I can't tell you how often the distraction carnifex trick works. It's called a distraction for a reason.

Also? Play the scenario. Try to accomplish whatever it asks of you. That is how you win. Anything else is secondary at best.

As I don't know anyone there personally besides my tutor, I gave him my list to submit for me. He came back the next day and told me the guy running the thing said it was broken, or at least really good.
But he then told me he replied by saying that I was a noob that has no idea what to even do with it, so don't worry at all.
That's kinda why I want to beat him so much.

Anyway, that aside, what units of his that we know of would be labelled as a distraction? It all seems pretty lethal. Any idea what I should bring down first?

I don't see how they said your list is broken. It seems fine to me.

Ghostkeels are a bit of a distraction unit. They look cool, and are very durable, but damage output has always seemed a bit meh to me. They really need marker lights to be effective.

Riptides can be scarry as well, but ymmv. Last one I played against did absolutely nothing vs my guard because my guard list is all infantry so that had a lot to do with it.

Stealth suits seem good, watch out for them.

You may want to go read the tau tactical post, best way to know your enemy is to read how to play them.

I have a question about overwatch, if I may.
For the sake of argument, a battlesuit with a plasma rifle is being charged by the first squad, and fires its plasma rifle in overwatch. The first squad fails the charge, so a second squad is charging the same battlesuit. Would that battlesuit be able to overwatch with the same plasma rife a second time? Or can you only fire a weapon once per overwatch phase?

Also, if a charging unit has markerlights on it, would that allow the attacking T'au to hit on better than a 6+ in overwatch?

Still not sure on what markerlights can do this edition. And I'd like to get these details on point, as I'm not sure the guy won't try to cheat me.

The battle suit can fire it's pulse rifle again.

Marker lights only last the phase they are used in (tau shooting phase) so would not come up against charging unless the unit had marker light's in it (like a fire team) and rolled a 6 to hit you with the lights, which even then doesn't do much.