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I'm playing Eldar in an escalation league and I saw a terrifying Tau list. He gave his commander 2+, 3 squads of 1 model kamikazi crisis suits a riptide and a squad of 3 broadside. In bugger points I imagine there will be a Ghostkeel and more suits. He did a combo giving his riptide ignores cover with an ap2 large blast. All his guys are 2+, and ignores cover seems to be a pain. Any tips? I could ally with Mechanicum and take grav or plasma or some DE

Well, there's D weapons. And bladestorm. And fire dragons. And scatterlaser spam. Why do you care about 2+ armor again? None of my Eldar opponents do.

Oh yeah, and starcannons. And D-scythes.

Also, the 1 model kamikaze suits are only 3+ saves, they'll likely die to shooting from 2 Scatterbikes (who cost fewer points). Equivalent points of scatterbikes will eat everything in the Tau army while also being more mobile for scoring and durable if MSU.

Warp spiders are also an excellent counter to Tau and Riptides. Most Tau are I2, so you'll wound almost anything on a 2+ and have a massive volume of shots to lay the wounds on nice a thick.

FInally, to make his large blast ignore cover, he'll need at least a few markerlights on the board. Destroying these should be the top priority as they greatly enhance the effectiveness of other Tau units. A few scatbikes will cut through any sort of markerlight source with ease.

quite literally any S8 AP3 or better guns will clear the crisis suits off the board, and being Eldar you have access to a lot of D to kill the other suits and the commander. D counts as S10 for ID purposes, so Iridium Commanders and Ghostkeels go splat regardless of the damage (assuming they failed their cover/invul if you didnt roll a 6)

I thought there was no cover on Strength D? I'm primarily concerned because it's low points (750-1000ish currently) and his T1 may crush me. I've only got 2 squads of bikes right now, 10 dark reapers, 15 warp spiders, 6 vauls Wrath and lots of wraithgaurd and lords (dont wanna take my WK) and wave serpents. Any suggestions to a list using primary these guys? He also made a comment about how I should only flicker jump once per turn with warpspiders- but this seemslike a big nerf:/


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He also only used 3 crisis suits with a 3+, the other 5 model are 2+... I guess I'm primarily worried about the turn 1 causalities, as my current lists have been deathstars with either wraith or dark reapers...I can proxy DE Reavers for Scatbikes if I need to!

Theres no cover on a roll of 6, nor invuls or anything.

Roll of 2-5 is just an AP1 or AP2 hit that does multiwounds, and both results are S10 for ID purposes and cause auto-pens on a vehicle (singular pen, despite the amount of damage)

They toned down D weapons a ton. It used to be straight up "I hit you. That thing is gone now" regardless of the size (think supers only took a structure point though...i.e. oldschool hullpoints).

Ah I gotcha, thanks any tips on the list ? An aspect host of warpspiders 3 vauls Wrath batteries 1 darkreaper squad 1 warlock and 2 squads of scat bikes is 752. My only concerns are the range on the guns... Ignores cover ap 2 will wreck all of these units, and I've still probably gotta waste a turn or 2 moving into range... Alternatively I could take 6 vinella vauls Wrath, 5 squads of 3 scatbikes , a farseers on a jetbike, and still have 50 pts left over?


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Alternatively:
CAD:
Warlock
5x3 scatbikes
Aspect host:
2x5 Warp Spiders w/ eartch
1x3 Dark Reapers Eartch w/ starshot missiles

The flicker jump ones a turn is based on the itc ruling. Because if you not they are really good. I think thats most fair way to play. But RAW you are allowed to do multiple jumps

Ha-ha he's probably crying cause I'd getta 2D6 move every time he'd target a marker light at me

marcman wrote:
I'm playing Eldar : saw a terrifying Tau list.

should never be said together....

Seriously though you should not be worried, focus fire on it you'll be fine. Since I don't know what you're playing I can't give specifics. Mass shuriken to utilize Bladestorm or Death Spinners for monofilament, you don't require low AP when you auto wound and cause AP 2 or 1 hits on a 6. So Dire Avengers in a wave serpent, Warp spiders etc. You can also mass Scatbikes but be ready to be given the cheese award.

It looks like you ran headlong into a formation called a Retaliation Cadre. If he didn't make it clear, there are some clear limitations to the formation:
he really only gets the bonuses if he reserves them, but if he does, they come in turn 2 and get +1 BS on the turn that they deepstrike. Also keep in mind that the broadsides are the only ones that really benefit from relentless as nothing else needs it.

FYI, the riptide and broadsides have a 2+ save. The commander can or one of the crisis suits can buy one, but the rest of them have only a 3+ save.

It is slightly funny though to have an eldar player be in fear of anything really.

Haha for the record I've only played 3 games so far with Eldar all at verly low points I mean it was mainly that ignores cover into large blast template. My last gaves I've just been clumping in the same cover area, and none of our cover is really a LOS blocker cause it all has windows and I don't wanna lose my whole army T1

I can fully understand if you are a new player to the game (which it sounds like you might be) why you may be overwhelmed by some of the tricks Tau can do.

The only blast he seems to have is his riptide, and remember that he needs to roll a gets hot to use it (just incase he is not).

But yeah, your list is solid, you should be wrecking his face, don't be afraid to be aggressive. If he is indeed using a retalliation Cadre then spread your army out turn 1 so he can't concentrate his force, you want his army to be spread out. Once this goal is achieved you can just roll over his force piece by piece. You are more mobile then him, so use that to your advantage.

You aren't going to lose your whole army to a retaliation cadre 1st turn. Unless you bunch up your dudes under that pie plate.

He needs to hit you with marker tokens to get that ignores cover (and even then it only ignores cover on the unit that got markerlighted, right guys?) also, spread your units out.

Conventional wisdom will tell you to take out the markerlights first. Most Tau players expect this and may take precautions, but it's still a very important. Without the markerlight support your next priority should be the broadsides for the number of shots they put out, take out crisis suits as targets of opportunity, at this point you should also be maneuvering to play the mission objective.

Retaliation cadre is more of a "I need more suits!" formation than anything else. The +1BS on deepstirke is useful but thats a pretty mild bonus compared to other formations since its only one turn.

Biggest thing to remember with Tau is target the markerlights. Dont make the mistake my friend keeps doing and try to remove my Ghostkeels first...always ALWAYS take out the markerlight sources. Tau drop to mediocre once the markerlights disappear unless the dice gods are smiling upon us.
None of them are durable either, except the Skyray which is too expensive to field for its markerlight perks anyway (its more of a side bonus, not the reason we use them). Pathfinders are a joke, marker drones are only slightly tougher, and forgeworld Tetras are again only mildy more durable.

So many people complain about markerlights and usually those same people dont ever try to counter the markerlights, they just let us abuse them. Most of the games i lose i lost because my markerlights vanished by turn 2.

 Captain Joystick wrote:
You aren't going to lose your whole army to a retaliation cadre 1st turn. Unless you bunch up your dudes under that pie plate.

He needs to hit you with marker tokens to get that ignores cover (and even then it only ignores cover on the unit that got markerlighted, right guys?) also, spread your units out.

Conventional wisdom will tell you to take out the markerlights first. Most Tau players expect this and may take precautions, but it's still a very important. Without the markerlight support your next priority should be the broadsides for the number of shots they put out, take out crisis suits as targets of opportunity, at this point you should also be maneuvering to play the mission objective.

He may be playing rules as written combined fire with a buffmander, giving TL and Ignore Cover for anybody his unit and "combined" units shoot at as long as the commander himself doesn't shoot. it doesn't sound like it necessarily.

Tau are very dangerous when they RAW-dog it.

Definitely - S8 AP3.

Plasma guns can work too, Insta-Gib is best tho.

I've never had any issues with them, following this plan:

- Feed them: Put juicy (but not mission-critical) targets for them to drop behind, they'll likely make goo out of the unit.

- Counter-Target them: Drop your own awesomeness, or shoot, or especially assault them (more options of the S8AP3 variety) and deliver few but impacting wounds on them. Doesn't take much. Likely they'll place drones in the squad to absorb, so spam mass saves on them first, then creating a hole throw in the Stronger shots at them.

Now that they're at least minimized, if not neutralized, they are easy pickings and ignorable.