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I am playing against Tau next week and I think I found a loophole. I was thinking about Tau's joint overwatch between units and I thought what if: Unit 1 is charged by a powerful unit and Unit 2 and 3 help them out on overwatch. Can unit 2 and 3 overwatch on the same turn even though they already overwatched for Unit 1? I have not read the rule personally but I had it explained to me.

No, they cannot overwatch twice in an assault phase

Cheers to you if you can get 2 units within assault range in 1 turn...

Wings of Purity wrote:
Cheers to you if you can get 2 units within assault range in 1 turn...

Or ever

I play Ork speed freaks and I can usually get my battle wagons close enough to the tau in 2 turns that I still have enough boys to finish them off but sometimes the Tau just kill everything

Wings of Purity wrote:
Cheers to you if you can get 2 units within assault range in 1 turn...

flesh hounds , enough said

You could try dual land raiders

 calypso2ts wrote:
No, they cannot overwatch twice in an assault phase

With the exception of longstrike, he CAN.
And it might be with a rather nasty gun. he commands a damned hammerhead after all.

Yeah, this is exactly what I do. it's not that hard to split up the overwatch, you just have to have the units to do it.

When confronted with multiple units getting ready to charge, the overwatch spam tends to go away. I play Black Legion and bring a MoT, Jump Pack CL with a ton of artefacts, a 10 man biker squad with MoS and a unit of 5 MoN spawn. The CL has 3+ invulnerable rerolling 1s, the bikers are T5 FNP, and the Spawn are just spawn (hard to kill). Each assaults a separate unit.

I sometimes lose the spawn on the way there, but usually have around 7 bikers left and the CL maybe has lost a wound by the time of the assault. Getting in 2 good assaults is not really a backbreaker against Tau, but it helps.

May I ask why do you have a 3++ rerolling 1s? MoT does not confers that to it's wielder - only Daemon of Tzeentch does

I've charged with 5 diffferent units of bikes at once and picked all five up. Even if the unit you are charging is actually locked in mellee the other surrounding units still get to overwatch as if they were being charged. It's not hard to position themselves so there entire army can overwatch if you charge any piece of it.
The worst part is even if you get into mellee it's only going to be with the trash out in front which once you kill you'll be out in the open.
You must do some damage to their key points prior to thinking about charging. Shoot all their marker lights dead, run up some burna boys and roast some firewarriors etc.

Wings of Purity wrote:
Cheers to you if you can get 2 units within assault range in 1 turn...

CSM
Take huron
Take 2 units of chaos spawn, one with attached sorcerer
Infiltrate at least the one unit, maybe both
if allowed, take cypher, for auto 2nd unit to infiltrate.

Suddenly, there's 30 toughness 6 wounds that are at 18.1 inches away, and if CSM has first, they are 5.1- 1 inch away.

Unless you take lots of firewarriors, or lots of shots, the units really hard to stop. FNP on one of the spawn units really makes them last.

 juraigamer wrote:
Take huron
Take 2 units of chaos spawn, one with attached sorcerer
Infiltrate at least the one unit, maybe both

The Infiltrate conferred by the CSM Warlord Trait can only affect Infantry units. I've no idea if Cypher works there though.

I had a Land Raider with a Dirge Caster roll up and ruin my day... it was comical. 9 Beserkers hopped out and ate faces.

 juraigamer wrote:

Wings of Purity wrote:
Cheers to you if you can get 2 units within assault range in 1 turn...

CSM
Take huron
Take 2 units of chaos spawn, one with attached sorcerer
Infiltrate at least the one unit, maybe both
if allowed, take cypher, for auto 2nd unit to infiltrate.

Suddenly, there's 30 toughness 6 wounds that are at 18.1 inches away, and if CSM has first, they are 5.1- 1 inch away.

Unless you take lots of firewarriors, or lots of shots, the units really hard to stop. FNP on one of the spawn units really makes them last.

Cypher doesn't allow anything other than himself to infiltrate. ICs don't allow things they're attached to to infiltrate (there's loads about this in YMDC).

Kisada II wrote:
I've charged with 5 diffferent units of bikes at once and picked all five up. Even if the unit you are charging is actually locked in mellee the other surrounding units still get to overwatch as if they were being charged. It's not hard to position themselves so there entire army can overwatch if you charge any piece of it.
The worst part is even if you get into mellee it's only going to be with the trash out in front which once you kill you'll be out in the open..

With some shooting, you should be able to blow a hole in their lines enough to pull off a multi-charge - which dampens your initial assault a little bit and is a good hting. Also, with a little creativity, it is also possible to pull your punches in the first round so that the Tau stay in combat to keep you safe. Given those two things, it is not that hard to avoid taking a lot of damage from overwatch by baiting it out and using LOS blocking terrain to your advantage.

If your plan is to charge 1 unit at a time in plain view of the entire Tau army - you are really getting what you deserve. If there is no LOS blocking terrain - then you are pretty much doing it wrong from a board construction standpoint.

Tau are better than other armies against a single assault, but just as vulnerable to a multi assault or multiple units assaulting. Basically, when assaulting tau, you have one turn to break the gunline that will lead to a murder one way or the other.

 calypso2ts wrote:

Kisada II wrote:
I've charged with 5 diffferent units of bikes at once and picked all five up. Even if the unit you are charging is actually locked in mellee the other surrounding units still get to overwatch as if they were being charged. It's not hard to position themselves so there entire army can overwatch if you charge any piece of it.
The worst part is even if you get into mellee it's only going to be with the trash out in front which once you kill you'll be out in the open..

With some shooting, you should be able to blow a hole in their lines enough to pull off a multi-charge - which dampens your initial assault a little bit and is a good hting. Also, with a little creativity, it is also possible to pull your punches in the first round so that the Tau stay in combat to keep you safe. Given those two things, it is not that hard to avoid taking a lot of damage from overwatch by baiting it out and using LOS blocking terrain to your advantage.

If your plan is to charge 1 unit at a time in plain view of the entire Tau army - you are really getting what you deserve. If there is no LOS blocking terrain - then you are pretty much doing it wrong from a board construction standpoint.

I think you missunderstood what I said, I've charged with 5 biker units in the same turn and picked all of them up.... not one single biker surving the overwatch 25 T5 3+ sv wounds dead.... in a 1500 point game.
Your talking about multicharging as if its going to matter, you not going to reach the primary target let alone the secondary. Their fire warriors can be putting out 3 shots each netting them a 50% chance each to score a hit and that's if they don't get any bs bonus from marker lights and firewarriors aren't even worth talking about compared to the rest of the army.

It really comes down to whether or not the Tau player knows what he's doing and if the etheral is still alive.
Sure if there is some LOS blocking terrain in the right possition and the Tau player didn't see that coming because they are just a noob playing a netlist then yes you can smash him.

You need to do other stuff to crumble a Tau castle prior to attempting to charge, they are not weak to assualt at all.

yes, if you can get multiple units charging the same area, its a tau weakness.

i have always said, when playing an assault based army (my orks, and a grey knight build in 5th) its best to get all your assault elements to bear at the same time, to maximize effiecency. back in 5th it was so that when you popped out of assault you couldnt be shot up, in 6th its to minimize overwatch. for this to work tho, you need alot of assault units, (or the ones you take) to be arriving at the same time. with random charge ranges its no longer that reliable, but...

- if 2 or more units can reach the target area, say that block of firewarriors and broadsides, in one piece (because you know hes going to be shooting at them like crazy) then i usually charge one of my weaker units in first it either draws the overwatch preventing him shooting at other more valuable assaulters, or it gets them into combat and thus removes ability to fire. for this reason if i can, i often declare a multi charge. after that, i send in the other units on a 1 on 1 basis trying to cover as lage a footprint as possible.

its risky... tau are great at shooting down transports, and making you pay for deepstriking near them. so you will need something that can handle that firepower;. then of course there is alwyas the chance his overwatch wipes out your initial units charge, leaving his other units to do the same on your remaining. its a tough trick to pull... but nothing is more satisfying then crashing a unit into the heart of a fire warrior blob and watching them wither.

Yep, I've tabled Tau Farsight Enclave turn 3 by doing exactly that, playing against a guy who usually breaks my face. Pushed two units of spawn, two maulerfiends, three rhinos w/ 6 CSM, and a winged DP of Tzeentch at I believe 1250. He couldn't get enough overwatch, and the unit whose overwatch I was scared of I parked the rhino with a dirgecaster next to.

That said, vs the same Tau player I later got my butt handed to me. Brought 2 LRs full of 'Zerkers, and he one-shotted each of 'em with his single hammerhead. Stupid dice. Stupid Longstrike. Stupid Tau.

Without cover to get your models there, though, you're in trouble. Yes, I'm talking about using cover vs Tau. If he has to use his marker lights to strip cover from your models, he isn't getting improved BS and guaranteeing his terrifying shots from hitting. And if you have enough cover, which Maulerfiends and Spawn don't care about, you're also messing with his targeting priority and that is a Tau commander's most important skill. If he shoots the wrong targets, you win.


@ Vector Strike; he can reroll 1s on his 3++ via the "Crucible of Lies" artefact from the Black Legion supplement.

Kisada II wrote:
I've charged with 5 biker units in the same turn and picked all of them up.... not one single biker surving the overwatch 25 T5 3+ sv wounds dead.... in a 1500 point game.
Your talking about multicharging as if its going to matter, you not going to reach the primary target let alone the secondary. Their fire warriors can be putting out 3 shots each netting them a 50% chance each to score a hit and that's if they don't get any bs bonus from marker lights and firewarriors aren't even worth talking about compared to the rest of the army.

It really comes down to whether or not the Tau player knows what he's doing and if the etheral is still alive.
Sure if there is some LOS blocking terrain in the right possition and the Tau player didn't see that coming because they are just a noob playing a netlist then yes you can smash him.

You need to do other stuff to crumble a Tau castle prior to attempting to charge, they are not weak to assualt at all.

That is an interesting scenario - I think you might have been playing it wrong. Here is why.

25 dead marine bikers is enough that we can look at it as an expected value. that is 75 unsaved wounds. On a biker that is 150 Pulse hits. With overwatch - assume no marker light hits for simplification - that is 900 Pulse Carbine shots if you hit on 6's. With 3 shots each from an Ethereal that is 300 Fire Warriors. I understand there might be some missiles in there too, but that is hilariously unlucky.

Multicharging does matter against Tau - because you are going to eat all the overwatch anyway so you might as well win combat against multiple units at once. LOS terrain matters because I am not sure how to draw LOS with 300 Fire Warriors on a reasonable board. Not to mention, the Tau player can do their best to mitigate the terrain - but in an objective game they are going to be stuck dealing with it to some extent.

My suggestions are not a panacea, but it sure beats charging straight into a single unit backed by 300 Fire Warriors of overwatch with clear line of sight to your unit. I guess I should add the caveat that a Tau list with that kind of Firepower is probably immobile, so sit tight, avoid them and grab objectives in the last turn.