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Dark Eldar has a rather easy time with those Riptides. I've seen a couple of Venoms putting it down to a single wound with a round (maybe 2) of shooting. If there was a Splinter Cannon Warrior squad nearby, it definitely would have gotten down in 1 tun.

Not quite that easy.

We do have to work at it, but with a little luck it can go that way,


Mathhammer only goes so far, after all

 Jackal wrote:
I really dont get why people worry about them so much.
They are 200+ points when kitted and they are a solid choice, but still easy enough to bring them down.

I think the easiest one i killed was against a newer player running a pair of them who decided to throw one at swarmlord.
Ending is kind of obvious on that one..

With my daemons though, i find a thirster kills it off pretty quickly and without much effort or damage in return.

Yes, a Riptide is easy to take down if your opponent is dumb enough to throw one at the best close combat model in the game, but I'm operating under the assumption that most Tau players know that close combat is bad for Tau. With the Riptide's mobility you need to chase it down with FMCs, Beasts or Jump guys, slower models simply won't be able to catch up.

Favorite way with CSM: Daemon Prince w/ wings, DoK/DoN, and Fury Axe/Black Mace. I'm gonna hunt you down and beat you silly

Favorite way with Necrons: Maximum Threat Overload, Doomsday Arks, Charging Wraiths, Heavy D's blasting away, C'tan with Time's Arrow and Entropic Strike, Deathmarks, etc. Pretty much put out enough scary gak (wielding AP 1 & 2 or tesla with my immortals or whatnot) that my opponent figures it might be better not to bring a riptide to a battle ever again.

zteknon wrote:
Mass bolter fire seems to work just as well on it as it would on a terminator squad.

Otherwise any low AP shots seem to do ok. Most people Nova Reactor for 3++ but when i do my Riptide seems to just kill himself slowly when i try so i dont.

It takes an average of 216 bolter shots to kill T6 W4 2+/5++. That's a Dreadknight. Riptides are T6 W5 2+/5++ with FnP and possibly 3++.

xghostmakerx wrote:
Lots of poison is my go-to Riptide killer. Plus, rending is good as well.

As a drop pod, crimson fist, sterngaurd player, this is my answer. Just a ton of hellfire shots will kill it. If you have two squads shooting at it, only one has to be in rapid fire range and you should kill it in one turn of fire.

I agree with Ryan, don't forget the combis.

On another note, would grav centurions in a raven be a reliable way to kill riptides?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I agree with Ryan, don't forget the combis.

On another note, would grav centurions in a raven be a reliable way to kill riptides?

ABG beast hunter shells!!!!! Every shot has a >50% chance to kill the thing

I field 2 riptides regularly. My greatest enemy seems to be myself: I fail a lot of my nova charges. I have been bladestormed to death by a squad of guardians, cc'd to death by an eldar farseer on a bike (he had some guardians with him), and even killed by an archon with a huskblade. Its not hard to kill them, just hard to shoot it to death. If you can catch it and keep it in close combat, its useless and probably dead.

The only problem is that they gave it 12 inch movement and a jump move in the assault phase, so catching it in CC is hard if you don't have fast moving assault units.

 Aeroroot wrote:
I field 2 riptides regularly. My greatest enemy seems to be myself: I fail a lot of my nova charges. I have been bladestormed to death by a squad of guardians, cc'd to death by an eldar farseer on a bike (he had some guardians with him), and even killed by an archon with a huskblade. Its not hard to kill them, just hard to shoot it to death. If you can catch it and keep it in close combat, its useless and probably dead.

You've had your Riptide killed by 3 units optimised to kill it (but still with terrible chances of killing it, you do the math on that Huskblade combat and on average it does less than half a wound) and you think you can make the blanket statement that they're not hard to kill? Pfft.

You can't rely on catching it in CC so that's out of the equation.

I have only downed one. It took two melta vet squads and a plasma squad, CCS, and supporting chimeras. Disembarked the three squads. CCS, with orders to twin link their own weapons, so, 3 plasma shots, one krak grenade, and commander on the quad gun (range just inside 24 inches), orders to twin link the plasma squad next to the riptide (6 plasma shots, 13 lasgun shots/laspistol), and the other two squads with a combined 6 melta and 26 lasgun/laspistol. Each chimera shot with multi lasers and heavy bolters (snap shot). Also, my Leman russ exeterminator with las cannon and heavy bolters finished off the last wound. Took all that to reduce the thing to nothing. Now, the rest of his army, and other Riptide, just survived to the next round.

 PrinceRaven wrote:
The only problem is that they gave it 12 inch movement and a jump move in the assault phase, so catching it in CC is hard if you don't have fast moving assault units.

Its a 6 inch movement in the movement phase, not 12, so someone has been playing this wrong and you might find getting into CC much easier now!

I'm confusing Riptides with other mecha creatures then, I'm pretty sure the wraithknight and the Imperial Baby Carrier both have 12 inch movement, RIptides still have the jet pack move though, and can double the amount of dice for it, so the're still pretty difficult to catch.

patzerwv wrote:
Initiative tests are fun too. When the land speeder storm arrives and he goes blind let the fun begin!

Three words: Blacksun Filter baby!!!!!!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
The only problem is that they gave it 12 inch movement and a jump move in the assault phase, so catching it in CC is hard if you don't have fast moving assault units.

Am I missing something here? I thought the Riptide could only move 6" in the movement phase and then 2D6" in the assault phase.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 PrinceRaven wrote:
I'm confusing Riptides with other mecha creatures then, I'm pretty sure the wraithknight and the Imperial Baby Carrier both have 12 inch movement, RIptides still have the jet pack move though, and can double the amount of dice for it, so the're still pretty difficult to catch.

Correct, Wraithknights move 12". Dreadknights move 12" as long as they purchased a Teleporter for 75pts.

 Senortaco wrote:
I agree with Ryan, don't forget the combis.

On another note, would grav centurions in a raven be a reliable way to kill riptides?

Grav Centurions would be alright, but aren't grav weapons fairly short ranged? unless you could get them in close and quickly, I don't think that they'd be that effective.

Hence "in a raven"

 Senortaco wrote:
I agree with Ryan, don't forget the combis.

On another note, would grav centurions in a raven be a reliable way to kill riptides?

Yes and no.

If you have plenty of LARGE LOS blocking terrain to avoid the interceptor and survive then proceed to go into hover and drop them off(i cant remember if thats how you do it) you would have basically one chance at blowing up 1, but min squad of 3 should just barely kill it. assuming it isnt in 4+ ruin saves.

(edit forgot about grav amps. 3man squad should just kill 1 even in 4+ cover)
(its 24" salvo 3/5) honestly even a land raider driving up field and flatting out turn 1 then move 6 drop 6 would be enough to get them in range of anything asides from perhaps playing in hammer and anvil.

As a CSM player I'd either take out the riptide with a winged DP with a black mace or infiltrate a squad of havocs (chosen if troops) all with plasma guns & combi-plas

I think that the main point with Riptides is this: If an opponent is fielding 2-3 of them (or even the 4 that some ridiculous lists are showing now) over 1/2 of their points is tied in these units.

Now what about their troops? As a tyranid player, I'll wreck everything else on the board THEN line up the Riptides. Usually, by this point, the board should be flooded by gribbles that'll restrict the Riptide movement. I'll catch them and take care of them in my own time.

 Mr.Omega wrote:

 Aeroroot wrote:
I field 2 riptides regularly. My greatest enemy seems to be myself: I fail a lot of my nova charges. I have been bladestormed to death by a squad of guardians, cc'd to death by an eldar farseer on a bike (he had some guardians with him), and even killed by an archon with a huskblade. Its not hard to kill them, just hard to shoot it to death. If you can catch it and keep it in close combat, its useless and probably dead.

You've had your Riptide killed by 3 units optimised to kill it (but still with terrible chances of killing it, you do the math on that Huskblade combat and on average it does less than half a wound) and you think you can make the blanket statement that they're not hard to kill?

Well, if the first round of combat, the Archon doesn't get the wound, still no worries. The Riptide isn't going to do anything to the Archon. The Archon should do a wound in the second round of combat, and that's all the Archon needs since the Huskblade causes ID.

Saldiven wrote:

 Mr.Omega wrote:

 Aeroroot wrote:
I field 2 riptides regularly. My greatest enemy seems to be myself: I fail a lot of my nova charges. I have been bladestormed to death by a squad of guardians, cc'd to death by an eldar farseer on a bike (he had some guardians with him), and even killed by an archon with a huskblade. Its not hard to kill them, just hard to shoot it to death. If you can catch it and keep it in close combat, its useless and probably dead.

You've had your Riptide killed by 3 units optimised to kill it (but still with terrible chances of killing it, you do the math on that Huskblade combat and on average it does less than half a wound) and you think you can make the blanket statement that they're not hard to kill?

Well, if the first round of combat, the Archon doesn't get the wound, still no worries. The Riptide isn't going to do anything to the Archon. The Archon should do a wound in the second round of combat, and that's all the Archon needs since the Huskblade causes ID.

Killing the first one is a little tough, unless he has the reroll to wound combat drug, or +1 strength combat drug and 2 pain tokens. The second one will be a lot easier with double strength.

Also an archon with huskblade isnt optimized to kill a riptide. He is optimized to score slay the warlord.
An archon with flesh gauntlets and a Llamyan is optimized to kill a riptide. 2+ to wound, ID, allows armor saves. Still does less than 1 wound per turn, but the novacharged 3++ doesnt mean jack.
Also a clonefield could completely shut down a riptide in combat, so that would be optimized.

After playing against a fair amount of Tau in this edition.

You don't.

You kill pathfinders, then missilesides, if those are dead you probably won.

Most of my games end with the riptide jumping around shooting me while I sit in cover or on objectives and win.

Otherwise, wait a few more months, BA, Tyanids, Orks, and Guard are all going to force the Tau meta into a bit more mech than it currently wants.

hahah you guys got this all wrong.. just overrun him with gaunts... and since there will be no room to move your swarmlord will eat his face.

cant say ive ever had a problem with riptides.. they are easy targest :-p

roxor08 wrote:
I think that the main point with Riptides is this: If an opponent is fielding 2-3 of them (or even the 4 that some ridiculous lists are showing now) over 1/2 of their points is tied in these units.

Now what about their troops? As a tyranid player, I'll wreck everything else on the board THEN line up the Riptides. Usually, by this point, the board should be flooded by gribbles that'll restrict the Riptide movement. I'll catch them and take care of them in my own time.

This is the strategy that I am thinking of using, similar to the way I feel flyers should be dealt with as a Tyranid player. My Tau associate has not built his riptide yet, though, and I haven't had the opportunity to try the tactic out. How do the Riptide's guns do against big hordes of t3 gribblies? Psychic buffs seem necessary to me.

 Exergy wrote:

Saldiven wrote:

 Mr.Omega wrote:

 Aeroroot wrote:
I field 2 riptides regularly. My greatest enemy seems to be myself: I fail a lot of my nova charges. I have been bladestormed to death by a squad of guardians, cc'd to death by an eldar farseer on a bike (he had some guardians with him), and even killed by an archon with a huskblade. Its not hard to kill them, just hard to shoot it to death. If you can catch it and keep it in close combat, its useless and probably dead.

You've had your Riptide killed by 3 units optimised to kill it (but still with terrible chances of killing it, you do the math on that Huskblade combat and on average it does less than half a wound) and you think you can make the blanket statement that they're not hard to kill?

Well, if the first round of combat, the Archon doesn't get the wound, still no worries. The Riptide isn't going to do anything to the Archon. The Archon should do a wound in the second round of combat, and that's all the Archon needs since the Huskblade causes ID.

Killing the first one is a little tough, unless he has the reroll to wound combat drug, or +1 strength combat drug and 2 pain tokens. The second one will be a lot easier with double strength.

Also an archon with huskblade isnt optimized to kill a riptide. He is optimized to score slay the warlord.
An archon with flesh gauntlets and a Llamyan is optimized to kill a riptide. 2+ to wound, ID, allows armor saves. Still does less than 1 wound per turn, but the novacharged 3++ doesnt mean jack.
Also a clonefield could completely shut down a riptide in combat, so that would be optimized.

I actually enjoy running my Archon with Huskblade/Soultrap/Clonefield. Sure, it's not the best combination against all comers, but it's still kinda fun. I used to run him with Bloodbrides with 3xShardnet so the 'nets could hug the guy the Archon was fighting to pretty much guarantee that the Archon wouldn't see any returning attacks. But that's been a while. I haven't really played much 6th with my DE.

To all the DE players who claim their poison is great anti-Riptide, how many shots does it average to take one down?

Because the math says it's over 100 splinter shots to kill an uncharged Riptide. Something like 116 shots to be exact. I don't doubt that with good rolls you can obliterate a Riptide with an entire army's worth of DE shooting, but I imagine it would be highly dice dependent, both yours and your opponent's.

It takes a lot.

Thing is, the Riptide is something of a secondary target for DE anyway. It doesn't put out enough firepower to be terribly threatening, compared to other targets.

If a DE army is piling fire onto a Riptide it's generally because they've already killed everyone else.

Darklight weapons need less shots. S8, AP 2 fire is plentiful in DE.

Sisters? Scouting Melta, Searchlights (for Nightfighting) and Exorcists. T6 MC with 2+ armor? Let me play you the song of my people....

Grey Kngihts?

Let me show you who did "fancy new monstrous creatures" first. I give them the old:




(or if I have my Nemesis Greatsword... ,... obviously):




Silly Riptides....

 Tyberos the Red Wake wrote:
To all the DE players who claim their poison is great anti-Riptide, how many shots does it average to take one down?

Because the math says it's over 100 splinter shots to kill an uncharged Riptide. Something like 116 shots to be exact. I don't doubt that with good rolls you can obliterate a Riptide with an entire army's worth of DE shooting, but I imagine it would be highly dice dependent, both yours and your opponent's.

Well a little rough mathhammer. First would be poisoned weapons. You need 30 wounds on the Rip to fail 5 times (2+ Sv). Which is 60 hits (4+ poison). At BS4 thats about 90 shots. Although those numbers can vary alot with Twinlinked weapons.

With the Lances its a good deal less. S8 AP2. You need about 8 wounds(5++ Sv). Which is 9ish hits, so 12 shots at BS4.