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.

I'm going to be playing a 1500 game with a player soon who I strongly suspect of being about to play Knights. I'm moderately new to to 40k, and although a solid grounding in military history and tactics has led me to unlooked-for success against medium model count, medium power armies and horde armies, I'm completely at sea when it comes to fighting a few super-powerful models. If you have some advice for an infantry-heavy T'au army fighting Knights, I would appreciate it. I doubt I'll win, I'd just like to not get tabled by the 3rd round.

Much Thanks.

S5 is magical vs IKs. Just watch out for the 2+ armor relic. Tau should be one of the best armies vs IKs.

SirGunslinger wrote:
I'm going to be playing a 1500 game with a player soon who I strongly suspect of being about to play Knights. I'm moderately new to to 40k, and although a solid grounding in military history and tactics has led me to unlooked-for success against medium model count, medium power armies and horde armies, I'm completely at sea when it comes to fighting a few super-powerful models. If you have some advice for an infantry-heavy T'au army fighting Knights, I would appreciate it. I doubt I'll win, I'd just like to not get tabled by the 3rd round.

Much Thanks.

A few general tips:

Assuming this is a PURE imperial knights army, so no allies, he will be working with a fairly small CP pool (either 9 or 6, depending on army composition) and he will have two defensive profiles: T8 3+ 5++, and T7 3+ 5++. None of his models will have Fly or be able to legally end their moves in upper levels of ruins, and all his large knight models will be able to Fall Back through infantry models and will be able to shoot and charge after falling back.

-Your main goal should definitely be "i want to win the mission" - this should always be true, but it should extra-special-double be true vs imperial knights, who essentially couch their strategy on being tough to kill. in the first few turns, try to build up a high enough points lead that should things go south, you can evade and avoid until the end of the game and win on points.

-Focused fire is important but one strategy you should always consider is Rotate Ion Shields. This can grant a knight a 4++ rather than a 5++ for the turn, or (if it's a warlord knight that already has a 4++) even a 3++ invulnerable. so if you deep strike every fusion blaster you've got next to a knight and he pops that you may have a very time removing him. if your opponent has one piece that its' obvious he's keen to protect, like a knight he's granted 2+ armor or a 4++ invuln, I would advise waiting until he's out of command points or simply choose to impede that knight rather than engage and try to kill it.

-The Knight Helverins (smaller knights with guns) are VERY VERY bad at melee and DO NOT do the fall back and shoot/fight thing. It's got 4 S6 Ap- attacks. As Tau, with lots of vehicles and suits that Fly, you should strongly consider shutting these out by charging them.

-The large knights Fall Back thru infantry, but they DO NOT move thru infantry if they didn't start the turn engaged. If a knight has a melee component to him, and you see an opportunity to execute a "lockout" with infantry by ringing his base such that he can't move forward and get to your more expensive stuff, you should do that. Knights can't move through terrain and they can't move through models if they don't start engaged with them. Stopping the movement of the knight with your cheaper models can then become a very strong strategy.

-Remember the small knights are T7 and the large knights T8, this can be very important for some Tau weapons: Fusion blasters will be much better at killing the Armigers and Helverins than they are at killing the large knights. Conversely pretty much all your el cheapo S5 AP- fire should be pumped into a T8 knight target that does not have a 2+ armor save relic.

-Any objectives you can place on upper floors, you absolutely should. Knights will have a much harder time removing those units and can't claim those objectives themselves, and you have easy access to Fly.

You take a lot of fire warriors and fireblades and be tau sept with your whole army. Hit with 5 marker lights and you are 3+ reroll 1's to hit and +1 to wound with 7 point models wounding on a 4+.

Thats 90% hit then 50% wound. 50 Fire warriors with 3 shots each are dropping a knight a turn with this setup. This is also ignoring all the other firepower you have...like commanders and riptides and broadsides. This is one of the easier matchups for tau. No army destroys a single target better for the points....

Agreed on Tau Sept.

Darkstrider gives +1 to wound to one infantry squad.
Cadre Fireblade gives extra shots at half range.

Longstrike is +1 to wound vs vehicles, and you can protect him with Crisis Bodyguards - maybe with missiles since they'll be handing back.
Aun'va hands out buffs like candy. A 6+ FNP isn't much, but hey.

Vectored Maneuvering Thrusters on a Fusion Crisis Commander can duck behind terrain if he's set up right.

And of course the Focused Fire Strategem, +1 to wound with everything, and stacks with Darkstrider and/or Longstrike. Expensive at 3CP but Knights are the ideal target.

take 200 models mostly kroot and etherials play as a hoard and out objective them

-Field many small units rather than few large ones. Knights have big guns but each of those guns can only hurt a single unit.

-Focus them down one at a time. One less Knight is better than 3 hurt ones.

-Remember that your opponent can use rotate Ion shields (+1 invuln) only on one knight per turn and that it is significantly more expensive to use on dominus Knights (3cp vs 1 cp on other Knights) If you have multiple big scary guns you can try and lure your opponent to use it in the first occasion. You can then proceed to hammer a different Knight with the remaining firepower of your Army. This is the only time you should Split fire.

-Tie Helverins up in CC with cheap Troops. They will struggle to kill anything.

-Do not underestimate the Speed of a Knight Army. House Raven Knights can and will get in your face Turn two.

-Avoid big expensive Models like riptides or yvahras. Knights are really good at popping large single Models. Broadsides are much more preferable.

-Use Ruins and other elevated areas to prevent Knights from charging

-S7 Weapons are pretty poor against Knights. You should rather bring high rof s5 weapons than Plasma.

Morkphoiz wrote:
-Do not underestimate the Speed of a Knight Army. House Raven Knights can and will get in your face Turn two.

And House Terryn can be in your face on Turn 1.

Just spread out the first rank more if you see Terryn.

Morkphoiz wrote:
-Field many small units rather than few large ones. Knights have big guns but each of those guns can only hurt a single unit.

Then again their primary horde clearer the avenger cannon only kills about 5 fire warriors. So MSU isn't going to save that much from guns.

Bigger bonus is being able to be in multiple places at once.

Morkphoiz wrote:


-Do not underestimate the Speed of a Knight Army. House Raven Knights can and will get in your face Turn two.

The Knights can easily get a turn one charge, they have a universal WT that gives everybody of the same house +2 to advance and charge, and an stratagem giving one of them advance and charge. That means they have a charge threat range of maximum 34". Or on average dice rolling a 26" charge threat range.