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Hi Guys, Gals and Xenos,

I've got a 2000 pts game against tau in a few weeks and I need some tactics advice. The Tau player plays a lot of plasma armed Crisis battle suits and has recently bought a R'Vanna battlesuit ( whatever the that is?? )
I'm always true to the fluff of Wolves and always have:
10 Grey Hunters 185pts (1 Melta Gun, 1 Plasma Gun and 10 Chainswords)
15 Blood Claws 190pts (1 Wolf Guard Pack Leader w/ Bolt Pistol and Chainsword)
6 Long Fangs 175 (Ancient w/ Bolt Pistol and chainsword, 2 Plasma Cannons, 1 Heavy Bolter, 1 Lascannon and 1 Flakk Missile Launcher)

Any Ideas of what i can bolt on to my army that could help? Space Wolves units only

Thanks

Don't worry about an R'Varna it's S6 AP4 large blasts won't worry your power armour too much.

Your problem is you are mixing weapons too much in your squads like las cannons and missile launchers with heavy bolters and cannons. One wants to shoot at vehicles, one wants to shoot at flyers, one wants to shoot at heavy infantry and one wants to shoot at medium to light infantry.

Plus your wolf guard pack leader brings nothing to your blood claws for too many points.

I find the fangs squad works well. What should the guard be given? And what else would you recommend?

Put a rune priest (ml2, roll both on tempestus)in a drop pod with 9 blood class (one with flamer) give him the helm of durfast and drop them in right in front of the line. Flat out/run/turboboost every unit you have towards them, keep a unit of terminators in reserve with plenty of storm shields, a termie wolf priest, and a heavy flamer. Turn two his army should be pushing up daisies.

I battled a tau army last week and found a 5 man TWC team with a wolflord on a thunderwolf mount realy effective.
fast enough to go across the table without getting to shot up and tough enough to take some beating. they were all equipped with storm shield and had a mix of wolf claws and thunderhammers.
the storm shield are a real must.

I agree, those long fangs all need to standardize their weapons that engage the same target priority.

Tau really struggle against alpha/beta strike assulty armies or really fast durable armies. drop pod the hell out of them, create a wall of drop pods to limit field of view from 1/2 to 2/3 their army so they cannot bring a full hit back. soft defeat against their massive shooting/interceptors.

When shooting before charging, attempt to shoot to kill models to get units greater than 6 inches apart.

prioritize marker lights. marker lights are a huge force multiplier for the tau. keep in mind his entire army is bs3 w/o marker lights.

with crisis suits, I like to try to make him come to me. you wont catch him on foot. use terrain and drop pods to create line of sight issues and firing lanes or to corner the crisis suits and trap them. if he wants to shoot you he has to risk leaving his hiding spot. they can move 12 " forward, but on avg will only move 7" back.

Crisis suits against marines cannot charge into the middle of the board. They need to skirt the edges/terrain, thus making it difficult to score. bully him off of the objectives.

Just about everyone in my community plays tau from the very competitive to the 'I am kroot' level. I would say 70% of my games are against tau.

 Smotejob wrote:

with crisis suits, I like to try to make him come to me. you wont catch him on foot. use terrain and drop pods to create line of sight issues and firing lanes or to corner the crisis suits and trap them. if he wants to shoot you he has to risk leaving his hiding spot. they can move 12 " forward, but on avg will only move 7" back.

This is wrong mate, Crisis only move 6" in the movement phase. So they move 6" forward and then 7" back on average.

For what it's worth, I find Grey Hunters are better used as specialists - if you're going to give the unit special weapons, give them two of the same. 2 Meltaguns will be way more effective against heavy armor (and slightly cheaper) than 1 Melta and 1 Plasma. Likewise, 2 Plasma guns rapid firing are more effective against light armor or Monstrous Creatures. 2 Flamers will be your best bet if you know you're going after infantry.

I agree with the other folks about the Long Fangs... You're better-served keeping long-range weapons and mid-range weapons distinct. You're better-off building one group based pretty much wholly on Missile Launchers and Lascannons and another using Heavy Bolters, Multi-Meltas, and Plasma Cannons (or any 2 of those 3). You can stay with just one Ancient and pick one squad for each battle, based on who you're fighting, or you can build 2 Ancients and run a backfield unit and a midfield unit simultaneously.

I disagree on the comment about the Pack Leader for the Blood Claws. For 10 points, you're getting another attack, a higher Leadership, and better Weapon Skill and Ballistic Skill for that model. Usually going to be worth the points.

Some things to consider (not sure what you already own, and not sure what your budget's like...), but a Rune Priest or 2 is almost a necessity in the current game (particularly great as an addition to a GH or LF unit, depending on what discipline you choose). If you run a full 15 Blood Claws, and it looks like you do, a Wolf Priest is an excellent addition - Feel No Pain 6+ for all 16 models, Preferred Enemy for all 16 models. And, if you can, 15 Blood Claws and a Wolf Priest fit perfectly in a Land Raider Crusader or a Stormwolf, both of which have the Assault Vehicle rule.

I also like Thunderwolf Cavalry and Fenrisian Wolves, but they're not as handy against Tau... Tau are almost invariably going to hang back as far as they can and shoot, which means beasts and cav are going to get chewed up as they run across the field. Though, for what it's worth, if you have a full squad of FW in front of a unit of TWC, they serve as intervening models for cover, and they soak Overwatch when you finally get them to your enemy (a unit can only fire Overwatch once per turn, and they have to do it against the first unit that charges them... so charge your FW first, then charge the TWC, and your enemy can't Overwatch the TWC). Adding Harald Deathwolf will give the FW unit and the TWC unit Furious Charge, while also giving the FW unit his Leadership 10 (just make sure the FW unit is less than 12" from the TWC at all times).

Steel Rain (lots of Drop Pods) is probably the best choice, though. Bringing GHs and BCs built to shoot right into their backfield is nice, since they tend not to have great armor or toughness. Just be wary of which Tau models have Interceptor. Additionally, if you DO invest in a Stormwolf full of Blood Claws, running as Wolves Unleashed allows you to bring in a Reserves unit of your choice every turn (except turn 1, of course), meaning that Stormwolf full of Blood Claws is guaranteed entrance turn 2. Also, running Wolves Unleashed means a unit of Grey Hunters with a Rune Priest attached has a 50% chance of getting Outflank, which can ruin the day for a Tau unit too close to one of the sides of the board (and Acute Senses means you have a pretty good chance of getting to enter on whichever side you want). You lose objective secured, but most Tau armies aren't well-built to contest objectives (and for those that are, that's where a DP full of specialized GHs comes in handy).

Also note that Tau have a hard time against av 13/14 unless they're packing melta suits or longstrike

 zbg97 wrote:
I also like Thunderwolf Cavalry and Fenrisian Wolves, but they're not as handy against Tau... Tau are almost invariably going to hang back as far as they can and shoot, which means beasts and cav are going to get chewed up as they run across the field. Though, for what it's worth, if you have a full squad of FW in front of a unit of TWC, they serve as intervening models for cover, and they soak Overwatch when you finally get them to your enemy (a unit can only fire Overwatch once per turn, and they have to do it against the first unit that charges them... so charge your FW first, then charge the TWC, and your enemy can't Overwatch the TWC). Adding Harald Deathwolf will give the FW unit and the TWC unit Furious Charge, while also giving the FW unit his Leadership 10 (just make sure the FW unit is less than 12" from the TWC at all times).

Word. I find this tactic works against most things.