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.

First off, I'm a new player, and I'm posting this via my phone, so bear with me.

I recently began playing 40k, against my brother in law and his Tau. He is also a new player.
I routinely get STOMPED. He ordered his army from a tactical standpoint, while I bought the DV starter and a handful of supplements.

He uses two squads of fire warriors, a riptide, a broadside, and a terrifying tank with a railgun along with stealth suits.

I have the DV Chaos marines, along with 5 terminators, a termie lord, a rhino, a forgefiend and Fabius Bile. I also have 3 bikes and ten space marines.

I usually give my marines a rhino with havoc as a transport. They also have a plasma gun and a lascannon.
My termies have combi-weapons suiting my mood and usually MoS and an icon of excess.
I usually give my cultists auto guns, and everything else is pretty standard.

I deep strike my termies, which usually deal some damage then get blasted.
Everything else is usually decimated by the time I get into range, and yes, I try to use available cover.

I guess I'm asking for any advice. We're going to play 1200 points, and we aren't too strict with WYSIWYG.

Thanks in advance!!

blast away his firewarriors and you basically win the objective game.

There's nothing in your list that can even deal with the riptide, maybe the termies depending on load out but that's it.

There's no mobility in your list that could reach his units in time to deal enough damage to cripple him.
On top of that there's no long ranged weapons too.

Forge fiends are just horrible points wise and they cost anpit the same as a riptide but nowhere as good.

I have heard noise marines are pretty good vs tau. Tau relies heavily on cover to make up for their lacking armor save. Noise marines can blast right through pathfinders, kroot, stealth suits and firewarriors. Helldrakes are good vs everything and is really the back bone of chaos's power.

Kill his objective holders... Can't win most of the games if you cannot hold objectives so the Fire Warriors are your main priority. Completely ignore the riptide if you cannot take something down ignore it and move on.

Ignore the riptide.

Kill his Troops.

Get into close combat. you might as well multi charge if possible because your losing some of your attack bonus anyway due to photon grenades and it can help you sweep riptides off the board (i think. i need to reread assault rules again.)

also read each others book to prevent shenanigans.

Edit: Helldrakes make everyone sad.

As Desubot stated... "Helldrakes make everyone sad". This statement cannot be repeated enough, I cannot believe I did not point this out earlier.

First off, thanks for the posts. I appreciate all of the insight.
I'm aware my choices are.... Limited to be kind. I went with the starter so I could have the essentials, and I heard that Chaos is more forgiving than, let's say, Dark Eldar, which I may gravitate toward in the future. And I bought the Forgefiend because, well, it's a Dinobot.
I think my biggest issue is that I want BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and I basically advance toward his well fortified, well placed, long range units to, well, fight them.
I should probably keep my scoring units near objectives and force him to advance to claim them, not rush his main lines and scramble to reach something late game.
But, like I said, I'm a noob and I must be wired to think that "winning" means destroying his units.

Blackened41588 wrote:
First off, thanks for the posts. I appreciate all of the insight.
I'm aware my choices are.... Limited to be kind. I went with the starter so I could have the essentials, and I heard that Chaos is more forgiving than, let's say, Dark Eldar, which I may gravitate toward in the future. And I bought the Forgefiend because, well, it's a Dinobot.
I think my biggest issue is that I want BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD and I basically advance toward his well fortified, well placed, long range units to, well, fight them.
I should probably keep my scoring units near objectives and force him to advance to claim them, not rush his main lines and scramble to reach something late game.
But, like I said, I'm a noob and I must be wired to think that "winning" means destroying his units.

this could be your problem, but the shear fact that your acknowledging it means that you can easily overcome it. I've played (and lost) a lot of games to Tau, no matter what edition, or build, they are afraid of CC. Now your thinking "well duh", but heres the thing, they begin the game with their highest advantage, range. your advantage as chaos is being able to disrupt that, heres my idea;

Get some fast and furious stuff (warp talons, raptors, heldrake) and run it and your maulerfiend straight into his lines and begin the carnage. While hes trying desperately to shake them off after his first turn, RUN, with everthing, do not try to shoot, just try and get everything you can locked in close combat. You'll have to start making challenges, which will take out leaders (forget what they're called) which will lose friendship knives and start scattering them.

As a fellow dark god player, I have to say your best bet for dealing with pesky Tau are Noise Marines.

Get 2 Squads of 10, put 2 Blast Masters in each squad behind a D-Line and you will effectively keep them at bay without suffering any casualties from said fire warriors. Salvo is a brutal monstrosity against their long ranged rapid fire, so long as you keep them pinned down with the Blast Masters at an impressive 48" you can easily wipe the floor with them

As for the Riptide, Try to buy some Sponsons and Turret Mounted Lascannon bitz off Ebay, making a Tri-Las-Predator. 2 of these will make short work of his Riptide after a few short turns. (I say buy the bits because a Rhino and Predator can easily be the same model if you decided to simply magnetize or even just remove the Turret and sponsons in between games)

New Tau can be a BEAST to get into close combat with, but I found that if you truly want to, Buy a Land Raider. Buy a box of Khorne Berzerkers, then place a 5 point upgrade on your land raider called "Dirge Caster" The DC removed the ability of any enemy unit withing 6" of the Land Raider from preforming Overwatch, and subsequently, also removes their ability to Shoot then Run D6 away from you. Since the prerequisite of firing Overwatch is taken away from them, they cannot do so

Buy a Heldrake as stated above as well. These things are the bane of EVERYTHING not in Terminator Armor Equivalent. You will melt his entire squad

In my experience Noise Marines suck. They are far too costly for what they can do, and you have to use with a Slaaneshi Lord to make them Troops. Sonic blasters are Salvo remember, and if they move they can only fire up to 12" w 2 shots....it's not like Rapid Fire where you can always fire up to the maximum range.

Bikers w 2 plasma guns will be real cheap, like 100 points, and can put some pain on bigger stuff quickly. Bikers are Relentless, and so can fire as stationary even after moving. I would get some more of those and Mark them Nurgle (T6, nice...) But 3 can be something they must deal with, or be assaulted and slaughtered by just a couple bikers, Tau are that crappy in combat!

The Forgefiend can be good, but not great, and very hit or miss, literally. If you like the Dinobot effect, magnetize the arms and turn him into a Maulerfiend. Cheaper, super fast, and another example of deal with it or die for the enemy.

Terminators with Lightning Claws could be good as Slaaneshi ones, however for a suicide combi-weapon drop unit, Tzeentch is far better. I would also give them a power or chain fist, maybe a power axe or 2, and then a couple power mauls if you want variety. FNP is nice, but a 4+ invul is way better. A

dding a Sorcerer to the Bikers or Termies will also be a nice effect, keep him/them unMarked for 3 powers of pure BRB types, no loser Chaos powers (though I guess some Slaanesh ones aren't bad).

Rhinos unfortunately just mean a free First Blood for the enemy these days. But if you go first and zip it up 12" then flat out 6" it can deliver dudes with shooting quickly. I'd skip the Havoc Launcher, as you won't be able to fire it moving, and it will get blown up before you fire anyway. But do put a Dirge Caster on it (especially vs Tau) and hope that it makes it to within 6" of them when you plan on assaulting. And remember, you can't assault out of Rhinos, not even in the next turn after it blows up (they FAQd that loophole away darn it).

If you can get a Heldrake, or even Flying Daemon Prince of whatever sort, go for it. They eat Tau.
Good luck!

Lol well, thats what you AREN'T supposed to do "move"

Keeping blast masters stationary means you will always outrange FWs and don't forget, Sonic Weaponry = Ignores Cover.

FF is a waste of points in comparison to a Tri-Las-Pred being 35 points more if you DON'T take the optional Ectoplasma Cannon.

But you are very right in saying Termicide drops with Combi Plasma are deadly.

If possible, try to get your cultists in melee with the riptide. If they charge, that's 60 attacks, averaging 30 hits, averaging 5 wounds. That's statistically 1 wound per turn, but the thing is, that the Riptide sucks bad in melee, and will probably only kill 2 cultists back each turn. Add something with Leadership (Fabius), and they will probably hold him down the rest of the game.

Against Tau especially, I cannot recommend Dirge Casters enough. They simply have WAY too much Overwatch, and unless you go Noise Marine, you will probably have to rely on melee for a win.

Deepstriking Terminators with either combi-meltas for the riptide/vehicle or flamers for the infantry is a decent effort.

Bikes with 2 plasmaguns are both fast and tough, and a reasonable threat to every enemy model.

You can also try Chosen in a Rhino. They can get 5 Plasma Guns, which will pretty much kill anything they point at, if they get in range.

If you're not too big on WYSIWYG, then try a unit of Havocs with Missile Launchers. They are great for taking down the riptide as well, and when he's down, they are excellent for blasting away chunks of puny Tau infantry.

Outfit your Helbrute for Shooting, as he will probably never get to melee range. I would go with a Plasma Cannon and a Missile Launcher, but the Reaper Autocannon is also a decent pick.

Once again, thank you so much for the input. I never imagined this community would be so helpful. If I'd known, I would have posted a month ago.