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I know some people think Mawlocs are terrible yada yada, but they are still devastating on certain units. I just recently saw my friend's centurions (4 out of 6) get mulched by a mawloc.

How do you Tau players deal with them? I have 2 squads of 3 broadsides behind an aegis (lots of points), which is probably where a mawloc will TftD. Don't say put them in ruins because we don't always play with ruins.

Would you actually want the mawloc to kill the broadsides so you can shoot at it next turn? Or would you put shield drones between the broadsides to at least have some sort of saving throw?

it is coming in from reserve, yes? why worry, just equip a couple EWOs and play your game.

 carldooley wrote:
it is coming in from reserve, yes? why worry, just equip a couple EWOs and play your game.

Have you ever played against a Mawloc before? He'll kill the Mawloc, sure, but his Broadsides will all be dead because it attacks when it arrives.

yes I have. my boss rather enjoys using them.

sorry, it is a game. you ARE going to lose models. if you want, you could ask your opponent to deploy everything in sight so you can kill them before they get into striking range, or if you want your stuff to not die, don't take it off the shelf.

remember, no plan survives contact with the enemy, and in this game your opponent is the enemy. you have your tricks, and your opponent has his. Don't deny his, and use yours.

The ways you avoid it are staying off the first floor (bottom) of things and getting lucky with scatter. Just kill it when it arrives and minimise losses by spreading out like with all blasts.

They have trouble killing multiwound models because if they hit two riptides, they only get two hits twice - any failures to wound means a deep strike mishap.

Shield drones are good.

I've never considered mawlocs bad - the'yre a scary, scary thing and the closest tyranids have to heavy artillery (except maybe the exocrine, but that tends to die before firing much).

If you have some drones, space them BS-D-BS-D-BS; now even if he doesn't scatter, most he can do is kill 1 BS and a drone or two. And there is a good chance it will scatter and miss completely.

and... ruins.

Few things taste as sweet as a Tyranid player than hitting a blob of broadsides or crisis suits and removing all of them with a Mawloc.

But yea, levels.

Get a fortification and put the broadsides in there. Or on top of a skyshield (in fact some tournaments count them as ruin levels so either a 4++ or immunity to the attack depending).

Also to reiterate what coredump said, don't cluster units. Keep them in a line 2" apart. This not only minimizes hits it creates more chance of a miss due to scatter. He may still get as many hits by hitting more units but he can't focus down a particular model as easily.

Also consider the sgt upgrade for key units, especailly if they have drones. 4+ look out sir can help spread wounds a bit.

TftD is not a shooting attack, so the skyshield 4++ should not apply.

The level issue may or may not....

Honestly theres one easy answer; Early Warning Override. Sure you wont be able to use one of the Broadside weapons next turn but just use their second or other weapon. A mawloc is still T6 which is a cake walk with Broadsides having access to twin linked everything and most to all their guns either wound really easily or take away armour saves. All in all you should want the mawloc to pop up right next to you for an easy kill point. By the way centurions drop like bags of wet gak against anything, really big expensive bags of wet gak.

The problem isn't it popping up right next to you - it's it popping up on you and killing you before you get to fire interceptor weapons (which doesn't happen unti after the Mawloc attacks and potentially kills you).

observe the diagram:

_______________________ |X X | |X

Put your broadsides like that in the corner of the board. Let the Mawloc try to deep strike you.

One note about broadsides. They don't die to Tyranids. A mawloc is about the only threat to them in the Tyranid codex (exocrine, and Crone Vector Strike). So putting them behind an Aegis is utterly pointless when you are playing Tyranids. Out in the open is fine.

Adding drones to your squads isn't a bad idea. Using clever placement you can help space out your units to avoid heavy loss. The diagram tag8833 made is a good example of something you could do and you could make this even better by spacing each of those broadsides out with a few drones.

coredump wrote:
TftD is not a shooting attack, so the skyshield 4++ should not apply.

The level issue may or may not....

Gah right. Well fortification is still an option.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

tag8833 wrote:
observe the diagram:

_______________________ |X X | |X

Put your broadsides like that in the corner of the board. Let the Mawloc try to deep strike you.

I'd be careful with that placement though as typical broadside threat range is not all that great -- they kinda need central placement or favorable objective placement or somesuch in order to affect the game. Still an option to consider though for sure.

tag8833 wrote:
observe the diagram:

_______________________ |X X | |X

Put your broadsides like that in the corner of the board. Let the Mawloc try to deep strike you.

One note about broadsides. They don't die to Tyranids. A mawloc is about the only threat to them in the Tyranid codex (exocrine, and Crone Vector Strike). So putting them behind an Aegis is utterly pointless when you are playing Tyranids. Out in the open is fine.

This is why mawlocs are so good even if they don't or can't hit you they make you change your plans e.g. putting your 36 inch range killing machines in the corner of the board making the majority of the table a safe zone and out of their range.

Space out and suck up the hit.

 winterman wrote:

tag8833 wrote:
observe the diagram:

_______________________ |X X | |X

Put your broadsides like that in the corner of the board. Let the Mawloc try to deep strike you.

I'd be careful with that placement though as typical broadside threat range is not all that great -- they kinda need central placement or favorable objective placement or somesuch in order to affect the game. Still an option to consider though for sure.

Compared to Tyranids, that range is gigantic. Remember most Tyranids shoot 18".

djn wrote:

tag8833 wrote:
observe the diagram:

_______________________ |X X | |X

Put your broadsides like that in the corner of the board. Let the Mawloc try to deep strike you.

One note about broadsides. They don't die to Tyranids. A mawloc is about the only threat to them in the Tyranid codex (exocrine, and Crone Vector Strike). So putting them behind an Aegis is utterly pointless when you are playing Tyranids. Out in the open is fine.

This is why mawlocs are so good even if they don't or can't hit you they make you change your plans e.g. putting your 36 inch range killing machines in the corner of the board making the majority of the table a safe zone and out of their range.

Space out and suck up the hit.

Word. The simple answer for Tau is if you don't want Mawloc to mess you up, don't run a Gunline. Spread out, and move a round some...

2-store ruins
buildings. Imperial Bunker is quite cheap

 carldooley wrote:
it is coming in from reserve, yes? why worry, just equip a couple EWOs and play your game.

I think the Mawloc can start on the broad and burry in the 1st turn then come out in the 2nd. So interceptor may not work.........

Neophyte2012 wrote:

 carldooley wrote:
it is coming in from reserve, yes? why worry, just equip a couple EWOs and play your game.

I think the Mawloc can start on the broad and burry in the 1st turn then come out in the 2nd. So interceptor may not work.........

It still uses the deep strike special rule to re emerge so you should still be able to use interceptor.

yes, after it hits.

Neophyte2012 wrote:
I think the Mawloc can start on the broad and burry in the 1st turn then come out in the 2nd. So interceptor may not work.........

They could do this in the 5th edition book, but it is strictly prohibited in the 6th edition one. Now they can't use their burrow ability until the 2nd turn, so they have to start in reserves in order to do a turn 2 strike. I also don't see any reason Interceptor wouldn't work, though the question is what the platform itself is capable of. A Riptide intercepting for instance isn't really that scary to the Mawloc since it has 6 wounds to soak up damage.

Anyway, best counter to Mawlocs is mechanization. The changes to Terror from the Deep (now hits the side Armor rather than the rear) and the 7th edition changes to Smash and the damage table makes a Mawloc horribly ineffective against vehicles and more or less unable to use its abilities until everything is de-meched. Also as mentioned Bunkers are also good protection for key units like Broadsides as the Mawloc literally cannot hurt them outside of assaulting the building and even then they can only do a single point of damage a turn.