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Tommorrow I'll be playing a 1500pt competitive game vs a friend who uses Tau. I'm not 100% sure what he is bringing, but most likely there will be MCs and drones. I know he owns some GhostKeels, and Drone net, a couple Riptides, maybe a StormSurge. There might also be some Broadsides & Crisis suits, I'm pretty sure he likes going Suit heavy

My list will have:
Farseer on bike
4 units of Scatterbikes (5, 3, 3, 3)
2 Pulselaser Hornets (2 seperate units)
WraithKnight w/ 2 Shuricannons
D-sythe Wraithguard
Archon w/ WWP
5 Kabalite warriors
Void Shield Generator w/ 3 shields and 2 barricades

So given that I know he will have a few MCs, I put Shuricannons on the WK (for bladestorm), but can't decide which version would be best: the Wraithcannon or Glaive-n-Shield. I typically rely on the shooty WK in most games, but I feel like I need to be aggressive and get close with the WK, so the CC WK might be best.

Tactically I would start everything within the VSG to limit the first turn damage. The D-scythes will drop in with the Archon and hopefully vaporize a Riptide, Stormsurge or Ghostkeel unit.
One of my concerns with the CC WK is that on turn 1 if I move him just outside the VSG, he becomes the only target, unless he wants to waste shots downing the void shields.

Str D shooting is pretty much always good. And if you can out shoot Tau, do it.

I disagree. The CC wraithknight variety wreaks havoc among the Tau. Buff it a little bit if you need to, get it into close combat and cleave the stormsurge and fire warrior alike into many pieces.

Shooting variant. Sacrificing your shooting to trade S10 AP2 attacks for D attacks isn't that great vs tau. You can already ID everything except big suits, and you still have stomp. You want that D shooting to take out Stormsurges and Riptides. Nothing is stopping you from being aggressive, you just get to shoot as you advance and still have almost zero threats in CC.

Skathach with Deathshroud Cannons.

 greyknight12 wrote:
Shooting variant. Sacrificing your shooting to trade S10 AP2 attacks for D attacks isn't that great vs tau. You can already ID everything except big suits, and you still have stomp. You want that D shooting to take out Stormsurges and Riptides. Nothing is stopping you from being aggressive, you just get to shoot as you advance and still have almost zero threats in CC.

The D-glaive isn't what I'm interested in. It's the 5++. With so much of their regular shooting being able to wound the WK, I was thinking that a 5++/FNP would make the difference when getting hit with any AP2. Are you suggesting that Tau lists typically don't have a lot of AP3/2, but rely on weight of fire instead?
My thinking was that I want the Tau to shoot at the WK as I push it forward aggressively. This is a tactic that I don't often do with the shooting WK since it is more of a counter assault threat.
If I knew for sure that my opponent was bringing a Stormsurge and at least 2 Riptides, I'd go with the shooting WK all day, But I have a feeling that he might have a GhostKeel heavy list

 Imateria wrote:
Skathach with Deathshroud Cannons.

Although I have my WK converted and magnetized to play as any of the 5 variants, I need a copy of the rules to use this guy, and I don't have the resources to get the rules right now.

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Generally speaking the WK is not an ideal target for Tau plasma as it is S6 vs T8. You are so fast Fusion is not a big issue and Riptide blasts have better targets (your bikes).

More likely he will try to stack wounds with missileside and pulse fire?

You may be a tasty Stormsurge target with all that D of course and if a Ta'unar appears...

Man, there's a lot to think about. I have yet to face Tau since the new codex and pretty much always run the shooting WK.

Would it be worth it to bring an Autarch and place everything in reserves, except the WK and VSG? Deploy the VSG at my deployment line, WK behind it, turn 1 move the WK up just within VS range and hope for the best. Turn 2 Alpha strike as many units in as possible to take out the bulk of his shooting.