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My friend and I have recently started playing (within the last 6 months) We both chose armies based on our particular fluff tendencies. I went with the savage wolves and he went with the Tau. We are both hardened gamers over multiple spectrums and we are both tactically astute. We’ve both spent a horrendous amount of money on the game and can field armies of up to 4K each. In most game formats we are quite closely matched. One or the other will shade the victory count his preferred game but mostly we are evenly matched in most things.

Then we began playing 40K. I can’t touch him. I can’t engage with Rhino’s, If I drop pod in, he incinerates me. I’ve used my landraider 5 times and he’s popped it on the first turn 3 times. In short he’s annihilating me and it’s not even a contest. Even when he plays a TAC and I’ve tried tailoring. I’ve stopped playing games because it’s just soul destroying coming up with new theories and tactics and getting milked within a couple of turns.

If someone can offer some advice I would really appreciate it.

I’m really struggling with the amount of pie plates he is dishing out. Most games he plays 2-3 riptides and 2 hammerheads.

I know he’s weak up close but how do I get there with interceptor completely screwing alpha strike?

Have you tried Jaws of the world wolf on riptides?

I got told on the weekend that the riptide can intercept anything within 18" - so deep strike 24" away, disembark and jaws for all your worth maybe? you can get four rune priests into a normal game.

How much markerlight stuff does he have? anything bearing markerlights need to die asap.

Most of my alpha strike has been about dropping GH in with melta. I didn't think of that. Thank you

I make sure his Pathfinders die as quick as possible. He's burned me with them badly in the past

Another fun one - if you can get close and he's bought shield drones for his riptides.
You can charge, force a ld test by killing a drone (or wounding his riptide) and sweeping advance them. This just removes them from the table. I've heard stories of people multi charging two riptides with drones at once and sweeping them both.

One thing I never got to do before I sold my Arjac Rockfist was to hit something with his concussive shooting hammer. And then Jaws what he hit as its down to I1...

 PredaKhaine wrote:
Have you tried Jaws of the world wolf on riptides?

I got told on the weekend that the riptide can intercept anything within 18" - so deep strike 24" away, disembark and jaws for all your worth maybe? you can get four rune priests into a normal game.

How much markerlight stuff does he have? anything bearing markerlights need to die asap.

Riptide can intercept whatever its weapon can hit.

To avoid getting shot by riptide interceptor, drop very close to his line and hug his units, it is physically impossible to place a large blast on you when you're 1' away from his units.

I’ve rarely got his riptide in combat. Only when he made a stupid mistake and I managed to charge him out of a land raider. The biggest problem by far I’ve had is getting anywhere near him. Alpha hasn’t worked at all for me at all and trying to motor up in transports is a brick wall I'm not willing to smash my head against anymore.

Are you sure about the 18” intercept rule? I’m trying to find something to bear that out but most of the rules I’ve googled just says the range of the weapon is the only inhibitor. In which case it’s 72”

I'm not sure on that - its just something I was told...

In which case hug his units for all you're worth

He can intercept anything in range of the the Riptides weapons.

So with the Ion Accelerator he can intercept at 72"

I've remembered what it was, the riptide I fought had the big blast template gun and the 18" melta gun. It could only intercept my heldrake with the metla, hence the 18", sorry for confusing things.
Rune priests in pod are still nasty though...

Run 3 units of long fangs to help soften up his lines. Rune priest for the rip tides--possibly T-Wolf cav. Fenrisian wolves are a cheap, fast screening unit to help try and tie up those fire warrior lines.

I feel your pain wolf brethren. My best friend plays Tau as well. I haven't touched him since he figured out the 'dex. I disagree with long fangs. They are too easy to hide from since he beats out your range and his units are much more mobile. Thing is...well i don't really have a solid answer for you. Other than playing as a successor chapter from the new marine 'dex.

If your heart is set on wolves though, Rune Priests are definitely going to be your friends. Not so sure about TWC though. Maybe I'm just not doing it right, but every time I play with them they just get moved off the table way too quickly. Low ap shooting and volume of S6+ both do the trick. I play against Tau and Eldar mostly (life sucks right now) and they definitely have those bases covered.

Thunderwolves, lots of Thunderwolves. I regularly play against SW and by far the most irritating things are the those. Stick a Lord in with them and give them Storm Shields. They may be expensive but they're definitely worth it.

Thought about allies at all? They might not go with your fluff but something like Guard would add some needed firepower, Manticores are disgusting against Fire Warriors.

astro_nomicon wrote:
I feel your pain wolf brethren. My best friend plays Tau as well. I haven't touched him since he figured out the 'dex. I disagree with long fangs. They are too easy to hide from since he beats out your range and his units are much more mobile.

48" is as good as you get for range with SW. The only thing they have to out range the long fangs is a turbo charged riptide or tanks. Also, tau are one of the most static gun line armies in the game.

My buddy plays wolves, and he's tried a fair amount of stuff. A full pod strat might work, where everything drops, and you take extra empty pods to drop later, frontloading your army. Drop everything right in his face.

Bottom line though, your buddy has a strong army and has figured out how to neutralize your main advantages. Consider a number of heavy flamers in your pods. That will pen his troop's armor, and ignore the aegis they are almost certainly behind. Work on killing his troops, and hiding some of yours in your backfield. What Tau have in terms of firepower, they do lack a little in mobility. Riptides can't score and devilfish are expensive

The strategy I have seen work for SW versus Tau is drop pods. Usually it's a bunch of Long Fang squads dropped in at plasma or melta range targetting anything with markerlights. I have seen a couple armies tabled this way.

POKEYtheBIG wrote:
Run 3 units of long fangs to help soften up his lines. Rune priest for the rip tides--possibly T-Wolf cav. Fenrisian wolves are a cheap, fast screening unit to help try and tie up those fire warrior lines.

I've not really had much luck with the long fangs. If i pimp them with lascannons or dice with the plasmacannons. They don't last long and it's an expensive unit to lose to a Pie plate. He normally throws between 3-5 a turn through his riptides and hammerheads depending on how much terrain I've managed to place. I do like the fenrisian wolves. I've had some fantastic results with them against his path finders and fire warriors. Only Problem is that he plays only 2 units of 6 fire warriors now. He doesn't even bother with the pathfinders most games.

I haven't tried the Thunderwolf Cavalry because I saw so many negative posts about what a points sink they were.

The biggest issue I have is that by turn 3 I'm lucky to have half my army left. And then his Mini Bomb arrives from reserves. I've tried demolishers, all drop pod, rhino rush, landraider rush and rhinos behind landraiders. I even considered foot slogging but then the drugs wore off.

As for Hugging units from Alpha, that is something I will definitely try. Thanks for the tip. Please keep em coming guys.

Imperious wrote:

I've not really had much luck with the long fangs. If i pimp them with lascannons or dice with the plasmacannons. They don't last long and it's an expensive unit to lose to a Pie plate. He normally throws between 3-5 a turn through his riptides and hammerheads depending on how much terrain I've managed to place. I do like the fenrisian wolves. I've had some fantastic results with them against his path finders and fire warriors. Only Problem is that he plays only 2 units of 6 fire warriors now. He doesn't even bother with the pathfinders most games.

I haven't tried the Thunderwolf Cavalry because I saw so many negative points about what a points sink they were.

The biggest issue I have is that by turn 3 I'm lucky to have half my army left. And then his Mini Bomb arrives from reserves. I've tried demolishers, all drop pod, rhino rush, landraider rush and rhinos behind landraiders. I even considered foot slogging but then the drugs wore off.

As for Hugging units from Alpha, that is something I will definitely try. Thanks for the tip. Please keep em coming guys.

If he is not running many firewarriors then he is not going to be forcing the mass saves most often needed to take out T-Wolf Cav. You can also drop the fenrisian wolves as they would be used to soak up the ridiculous firewarrior overwatches--unless they are hunting pathfinders. If you are going to run a few cavalry units I would revisit the longfangs as the attention would most likely be paid to the super fast and choppy unit.

I have not had luck with Wolves vs. Tau, tried foot lists and was tabled quickly.

The only thing that I thought might work well for me, which I have not yet tried, is running an all drop pod list. Using Wolf Guard (either as troops or elites, preferably as troops), I plan on giving each squad 6 combi flamers and 4 combi meltas. If I can drop a pod near each target, and deploy the meltas near the pod with the flamers outside, that should give the target a good number of wounds. Then the flamer guys will be ablative wounds for the meltas, which will be used for anything harder than troops.

I think that 3 or 4 of these should do a pretty decent job of neutering the Tau on the drop. A few empty pods for 2-3 small squads of missile long fangs will ensure the quantity I need. Someone also suggested running a Prescience Rune Priest with some fangs for the rerolls, which was a brilliant idea. Good luck!