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So I have built a tournament list that so far hadn't lost. It had blown away screamerstar, jetlock council, and a bunch of other armies. Then I started to play against O'vesa Star...
So here is my list:

2000 pt DE/Eldar/Inquisition

Vect

3 Trueborn: 2 Splinter Cannons

5 Kabalites: Venom with Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalites: Venom with Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalites: Venom with Splinter Cannon
5 Kabalites: Venom with Splinter Cannon

Ravager
Ravager
Ravager

Allied Eldar:

Farseer

5 Avengers: Wave Serpent with Scatter Lasers, Holo Fields
5 Avengers: Wave Serpent with Scatter Lasers, Holo Fields

8 Warp Spiders

3 War Walkers: 2 Bright Lance each

Inquisition:
Coteaz



So the list is highly mobile, almost always goes first if I want it to, has free Twin-Linked from the Farseer that usually go onto the Spiders and War Walkers, and has enough shooting to ~usually~ wipe armies off the board. But then I started thinking of tough counters and had a friend play O'vesa Star a couple times against me. The first few times I won pretty well, but then we thought of ways to make the list better, and he got better with the list, and I lost my first game. This isn't going "OH NO GUYS I LOST". I'm not pretending to be some amazing player who never loses, I just hadn't lost with the list, and see O'vesa Star as a primary concern. Since it seems that half the Tau armies are O'vesa Star, I need to figure out to beat it!


So here are my thoughts:
1. Ignore the O'vesa Star.
It's crazy hard to kill, and by killing the support elements, especially the troops, you make it so he can't win. For awhile I was able to kill most of the O'vesa Star in a single turn, but then I told him to have O'vesa up front and everyone ese exactly 2" away from O'vesa so he can LOS to anyone. Now it takes literally 2-3 turns of my entire army shooting at the O'vesa Star. All the while venoms and Serpents and Ravagers are dying like crazy. So ignore the star. Kill the troops, Tetras, and Skyrays first

2. Let him go first
This goes counter to the list, but O'vesa star can actually go toe-to-toe with me shooting, which means that I am giving him the final say for shooting me off of objectives, or using Thrust Moves to contest. If i let him go first, I can spread out, hide, and make it so that ideally his first turn only kills 2-3 vehicles. This is one that I am not sure about though...Because he can easily incapacitate alot of my shooting with this, and he gets a chance to buff his O'vesa Star with Nova Rolls. Not sure on this one...

3. Hope to God that the mission isn't Purge the Alien/Relic
Seriously. The game I lost had Purge the Alien primary, and Relic secondary. So yeh...I need to play more games with those missions to get used to it I guess...

It should be noted that several key mistakes were by me in that game. It was almost comical...*Sees Crisis Suits in open, doesn't shoot at them*, or even *Forgets to Battle-Focus War Walkers*. Ouch!
So I learned alot about my army that game.

So for those of you who play with/against O'vesa Star consistently, how do you think I should beat it? I am leaning towards go first and kill all the support stuff asap. Besides that, I can't think of much else. I can't assault it, I can't outshoot it. I can't outrun it. So how do I beat it? These games were against someone who has only played with the O'vesa Star for a couple months. No doubt if I play against a seasoned veteran it will be an even tougher game!

I'm confused as to what Coteaz is doing in/for that list?

Making it even more likely you get the first turn. After that not sure where he goes in this list though.

Is O'vesa star even good against your list? The O'vesa star is like 850pts and can what, kill a ravanger and venom a turn? If it has a heavy burst cannon it can kill a wave serpent, if not it is pretty out of luck against the serpent with a shield. O'vesa star is great against tau where it can blow up a who crisis team or marines where terminators and devastators go up in smoke. But it is not great at spending a whole turn to ruin 45 pts of warriors and a 75pt transport.

If something is giving you trouble in a tau list I would think it is either broadsides or missile pod crisis suits who are much cheaper and can ruin your paper vehicles just as easily. I would say just ignore the star and kill off smaller suits.

 lambsandlions wrote:
Is O'vesa star even good against your list? The O'vesa star is like 850pts and can what, kill a ravanger and venom a turn? If it has a heavy burst cannon it can kill a wave serpent, if not it is pretty out of luck against the serpent with a shield. O'vesa star is great against tau where it can blow up a who crisis team or marines where terminators and devastators go up in smoke. But it is not great at spending a whole turn to ruin 45 pts of warriors and a 75pt transport.

If something is giving you trouble in a tau list I would think it is either broadsides or missile pod crisis suits who are much cheaper and can ruin your paper vehicles just as easily. I would say just ignore the star and kill off smaller suits.

Yeh my problem was that I had the mindset of "HAHA I CAN KILL EVERYTHING", but O'vesa Star has proven to be too tough to kill. As for what it kills:
Warp Spiders, War Walkers, and Wave Serpents. The Burst-tide will kill a Wave Serpent every turn. O'vesa himself is less of a threat. But yes, I definitely have the shooting to kill off the stuff besides O'vesa Star. I'm going to play against it again on Monday(Hopefully I'll remember to Batrep it, if so I'll link it in this thread). Because first turn I can kill all 3 skyrays pretty handily. After that it's just mulching through fragile Crisis Suits.




Automatically Appended Next Post:

Mavnas wrote:
I'm confused as to what Coteaz is doing in/for that list?

Seize 75% of the time. He then rolls on Div, hopes for Precog, then runs at the enemy. It's handy to take firepower, because with a 2+/4+ he's actually the most durable model I have...which is kinda sad.
I understand that sometimes it is a wasted investment, but it has been worth it more times than not

jathomas2013 wrote:

Yeh my problem was that I had the mindset of "HAHA I CAN KILL EVERYTHING", but O'vesa Star has proven to be too tough to kill. As for what it kills:
Warp Spiders, War Walkers, and Wave Serpents. The Burst-tide will kill a Wave Serpent every turn. O'vesa himself is less of a threat. But yes, I definitely have the shooting to kill off the stuff besides O'vesa Star. I'm going to play against it again on Monday(Hopefully I'll remember to Batrep it, if so I'll link it in this thread). Because first turn I can kill all 3 skyrays pretty handily. After that it's just mulching through fragile Crisis Suits.

Give us a rundown of his list and we can give you some advice on what to focus on. The O'vesa star is probably a very bad idea to focus on early. One of its biggest strengths is people waist so many shots trying to take it down that the rest of the army goes on killing. You are better off taking down chucks of the opponents firepower first and then start focusing on the star.

Here is the list as it stands currently:

Farsight
O'vesa

Riptide: Burst Cannon, Talisman, Stim,Target Lock
Riptide: Ion Accelerator, Stim, EWO

3 Suits: 2x Missile Pod
Suit: Missile Pod, TL Missile Pod
Suit: Missile Pod, TL Missile Pod
Suit: Missile Pod, TL Missile Pod
Suit: Flamer, TL Flamer

Tetra
Tetra

Skyray
Skyray
Skyray

Allied Tau
Commander: PEN Chip, CNC Node, Vectored Retro Thrusters, Multi Spectrum Sensor Suite, Iridium Armor

10 Kroot


Inquisition Detachment
Inquisitor: 3 Servo Skulls






The list has some good shooting, but I think if I start with Skyray -> troops -> Star then I should be good. But currently getting through 10 t6 2+ wounds(O'vesa also goes for 3++, and both have FnP), 2 Shielded Drones, Farsight, and a Buffcommander...That drains me too much. Because by the time I've killed the star the rest of his army has killed most of my army.

I didn't get the chance to game today, but will tomorrow. When I do, I'll batrep it, put it in the Batrep forum, and link it here

On the other hand, if they change how battle bros interact(no sharing of special rules) that would pretty much eliminate most deathstars

jathomas2013 wrote:
On the other hand, if they change how battle bros interact(no sharing of special rules) that would pretty much eliminate most deathstars

Except screamer star, farsight bombs and grav cent stars.

Just going to echo everyone's assessment here- kill everything but the star. No sense wasting firepower on something that you can't bring down in one-two turns, or at least not at the beginning of the game. You'll just have to ignore it, and try to take more objectives than he can late game. And try to get First Blood as well. Going first half the time, and seizing three quarters of the time should help with that.

 Sinful Hero wrote:
Just going to echo everyone's assessment here- kill everything but the star. No sense wasting firepower on something that you can't bring down in one-two turns, or at least not at the beginning of the game. You'll just have to ignore it, and try to take more objectives than he can late game. And try to get First Blood as well. Going first half the time, and seizing three quarters of the time should help with that.

Agreed. I was hoping to play against him again today but wasn't able to squeeze in a game. Killing the skyrays will be key because the SMS just murders the poor kabalites...We'll see how it goes. I don't think I'll have a problem killing off everything but the star, it'll just become a game of how well I can avoid the star at the point. And I think I have the mobility to take care of that


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Scipio Africanus wrote:

jathomas2013 wrote:
On the other hand, if they change how battle bros interact(no sharing of special rules) that would pretty much eliminate most deathstars

Except screamer star, farsight bombs and grav cent stars.

Grav Centurions become alot weaker if you alter how Battle Bros work. You could still make it strong, but it would noticibly take a hit

UPDATE: I just played against O'vesa Star with this list, and using some different tactics won very handily(played Mission 6 of the Golden Throne test missions found here
http://prime.goldenthronegt.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/GTGTmissionTEST.pdf

First turn I targetted his Skyrays and other Riptide, and managed to kill 2 Skyrays and the Iontide. I also did a wound to O'vesa and the Bursttide with the stuff that couldn't see other targets. He unfortunately targeted my lance weapons 1st turn, and kill 2 war walkers as well as 2 Ravagers. My second turn Vect(with Fortune) and Coteaz(with Precog) charged the star after some shooting put some wounds here and there. I Stunned his other Skyray and put a hull point on a Tetra.

The assault was uneventful, with me failing to kill anything and Coteaz falling before he struck. Key note here is that the Star failed to Hit&Run!

Throughout the game I mostly ignored the Star and focused on the support elements. By the end of turn 4 he had 2 Suits and the Kroot left besides the deathstar(which had lost the Bursttide and O'vesa had a single wound left). In short, not shooting at the star first turn was the key. Of course, getting Fortune was also pretty helpful

Thanks for pitching in ideas by the way, I appreciate it!