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trinhm03 wrote:

 Vector Strike wrote:

The best way to learn what will do good or bad in your group is playing. But, in general, we can say Fusion Blaster or Cclic Ion Blaster Commanders, Cadre Fireblades + Strike Teams, Darkstrider + Breachers + Devilfishes, Pathfinders, XV109 Y'vahra, Flamer Crisis Suits, Sun Shark Bomber and Hammerheads + Longstrike are our best units.

I am so sorry for being this dumb but what are these units? "Cclic Ion Blaster Commanders, Cadre Fireblades + Strike Teams, Darkstrider + Breachers"

I know what the commander is but I do not know what weapon. I am a little lost in what the other units are. Thanks for the info.

I might point out the Index Xenos 2 has all these units adn weapons, except for Y'vhara (Imperial Armour Index Xenos).
A single mistake: it's Cyclic Ion Blaster

 ZergSmasher wrote:
Well, I don't think anyone was suggesting trying to use the Coldstar to tie up Khorne Berzerkers or Assault Terminators or other dedicated assault units. Tanks are the only thing in the game worse at combat than Tau, so we should look to tie those up if possible.

Exactly. Tie up tanks/vehicles that cant do anything in CC. profit. Leman Russ battle tank is a great example. But if anything, GW has given us a reason to field the Coldstar in 8th, beyond the rules, its just badass to finally have a Gundam. Gonna paint my coldstar just like the Tallgeese in Gundam Wing.

Question regarding the pathfinder special drones to be specific the Pulse Accelerator Drones the rule stated that "T'AU EMPIRE INFANTRY units within 3" of a friendly Pulse Accelerator Drone have the range of their pulse pistols, pulse carbines, and pulse rifles increased by 6." would this work for overlapping drones i.e. if one squad has two drones within range would that be pushed to 12"?

E'mt P8al wrote:
Question regarding the pathfinder special drones to be specific the Pulse Accelerator Drones the rule stated that "T'AU EMPIRE INFANTRY units within 3" of a friendly Pulse Accelerator Drone have the range of their pulse pistols, pulse carbines, and pulse rifles increased by 6." would this work for overlapping drones i.e. if one squad has two drones within range would that be pushed to 12"?

"...within 3" of A friendly Pulse Accelerator...."

Like most things in 8th ed, it's a yes/no switch, not an additive. Are you within 3" of A pulse drone? Great! Here's the award. If you're near several? You still only get the one.

That said?

A Pathfinder team can get this, the Grav drone, and a pair of shield drones, setting the pack of four loose to go hang out with rifle teams to both give them longer punch and to protect them from charges. Keep a Fireblade over there as well, and you get a triple-tap at 18", supportive overwatch fire, a markerlight, and are fairly safe against charges as well.

Not a bad investment for 32 pts!

E'mt P8al wrote:
Question regarding the pathfinder special drones to be specific the Pulse Accelerator Drones the rule stated that "T'AU EMPIRE INFANTRY units within 3" of a friendly Pulse Accelerator Drone have the range of their pulse pistols, pulse carbines, and pulse rifles increased by 6." would this work for overlapping drones i.e. if one squad has two drones within range would that be pushed to 12"?


"...within 3" of A friendly Pulse Accelerator...."

Like most things in 8th ed, it's a yes/no switch, not an additive. Are you within 3" of A pulse drone? Great! Here's the award. If you're near several? You still only get the one.

That said?

A Pathfinder team can get this, the Grav drone, and a pair of shield drones, setting the pack of four loose to go hang out with rifle teams to both give them longer punch and to protect them from charges. Keep a Fireblade over there as well, and you get a triple-tap at 18", supportive overwatch fire, a markerlight, and are fairly safe against charges as well.

Not a bad investment for 32 pts!
The two lists I'm currently working on both have an ethereal and two fireblades aswell as three 11 man fw teams and three pf teams each with the Grav and Pulse drones to help with the turtle defense

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:

 FirePainter wrote:
Had a game vs IG last night. He took lots of vehicles ( artillery, 3 russes, 2 chimera) and 4 squads of stormtroopers. Ended up being a close game at 2 objs. to 1.


Any thoughts on dealing with their artillery and tanks? And yes I had two fusion commanders.

More fusion. Y'Vahra Riptides.

I'm a Tau general primarily and I freaking hate Y'Varha suits...again. It's just such an unfun unit to play or to face.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

E'mt P8al wrote:
Question regarding the pathfinder special drones to be specific the Pulse Accelerator Drones the rule stated that "T'AU EMPIRE INFANTRY units within 3" of a friendly Pulse Accelerator Drone have the range of their pulse pistols, pulse carbines, and pulse rifles increased by 6." would this work for overlapping drones i.e. if one squad has two drones within range would that be pushed to 12"?

No.

 Jancoran wrote:

 Retrogamer0001 wrote:

 FirePainter wrote:
Had a game vs IG last night. He took lots of vehicles ( artillery, 3 russes, 2 chimera) and 4 squads of stormtroopers. Ended up being a close game at 2 objs. to 1.


Any thoughts on dealing with their artillery and tanks? And yes I had two fusion commanders.

More fusion. Y'Vahra Riptides.

I'm a Tau general primarily and I freaking hate Y'Varha suits...again. It's just such an unfun unit to play or to face.

Personally I love it. It's a fast, aggressive piece that forces decisions on your opponent. It's basically our version of Magnus/Knights/greater daemons. Something big, expensive, and potent that your enemy has to deal with rather than ignore.

The fact that it looks awesome and do fits my play style for Tau is a bonus. Considering it's cost it's actually fairly fragile against the things that should be targeting it, once the drones are removed. It took one of my usual opponents by surprise during the first game I used it in this edition... Then died horrifically the first turn off the second game when he cleared the drones outside of 3 inches and then hammered it to death with Lascannon fire.

Excluding drones it's not much more durable than a Devilfish, all it's points go into guns. Which have a maximum rang of 12". The issue is that a lot of people have the mindset of charging Tau, and this is a piece that punishes that severely.

Deadawake1347 wrote:
Considering it's cost it's actually fairly fragile against the things that should be targeting it,.

Surely the 4++, 2+ save and a couple of additional wounds mean it is pretty tough.

That being said, things like Mortal Wounds do make it sad and it is a perfect target for Smite.

At least we have a reliable counter to smite spa...

Deadawake1347 wrote:


At least we have a reliable counter to smite spa...

Well we have such excellent snipers that are easy to field and reliably get wounds through to those characters with smite

Razerous wrote:

Deadawake1347 wrote:
Considering it's cost it's actually fairly fragile against the things that should be targeting it,.

Surely the 4++, 2+ save and a couple of additional wounds mean it is pretty tough.

That being said, things like Mortal Wounds do make it sad and it is a perfect target for Smite.

At least we have a reliable counter to smite spa...

It's only a 4++ inside of 12 inches. It drops to a 5++ outside that, and since lascannons are -3 AP, which drops the 2+ armor save down to a 5+, it doesn't really factor in unless your opponent is dead set on charging you.

I'm not saying that it has no durability, but when you compare it to a lot of other 400 point models...

And ironically, the Devilfish is my anti-smite weapon of choice. It's fast enough to get into position, has enough wounds to soak several smites, and by the time it dies it's already unloaded a pile of Breachers where they need to be, and I don't care about losing it.

I agree the y'vahra is one of my favorite models (looks and rules). I really enjoy playing in your face tau with breachers, crisis, stealths, keels, and y'vahras. People for some reason don't expect tau to be aggressive and on their side of the board.

Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

 Jancoran wrote:
Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

I remember in 7th. The first time my friend saw a Y'Vharas was in a game against tau. Tau went first. He proceeded to destroy like a whole unit of grey hunters with it. My friend who is actually a really nice guy and competitive player basically said - okay - you win - and started packing up immediately. It's even stronger now - lol. If you play this unit against people you really are TFG.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:
Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

I remember in 7th. The first time my friend saw a Y'Vharas was in a game against tau. Tau went first. He proceeded to destroy like a whole unit of grey hunters with it. My friend who is actually a really nice guy and competitive player basically said - okay - you win - and started packing up immediately. It's even stronger now - lol. If you play this unit against people you really are TFG.

Seriously? It destroyed a whole unit of space marines, so it's OP? Do you know how many times I've lost entire units to marine shooting before?

Out of curiosity, do you consider anyone taking Magnus, a Knight, Guilliman, a greater daemon etc TFG? Because that's pretty much what the Y'vhrana is on par with. It's a big, expensive centerpiece unit.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:
Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

I remember in 7th. The first time my friend saw a Y'Vharas was in a game against tau. Tau went first. He proceeded to destroy like a whole unit of grey hunters with it. My friend who is actually a really nice guy and competitive player basically said - okay - you win - and started packing up immediately. It's even stronger now - lol. If you play this unit against people you really are TFG.

Depends on who you are playing. If you are playing against a friend that brings a more fluffy list with non-optimized units, yeah, then you shouldn't bring an optimized list in return. If you are playing against a friend who is bringing Brimstone & Smite Spam, Brimstones and Knights, Stealer Rush, Scion Spam, ect, then bringing an optimized Tau list is fair game.

 wyomingfox wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:
Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

I remember in 7th. The first time my friend saw a Y'Vharas was in a game against tau. Tau went first. He proceeded to destroy like a whole unit of grey hunters with it. My friend who is actually a really nice guy and competitive player basically said - okay - you win - and started packing up immediately. It's even stronger now - lol. If you play this unit against people you really are TFG.

Depends on who you are playing. If you are playing against a friend that brings a more fluffy list with non-optimized units, yeah, then you shouldn't bring an optimized list in return. If you are playing against a friend who is bringing Brimstone & Smite Spam, Brimstones and Knights, Stealer Rush, Scion Spam, ect, then bringing an optimized Tau list is fair game.

I wouldn't include stealer rush in that list - but you are right.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 wyomingfox wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:
Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

I remember in 7th. The first time my friend saw a Y'Vharas was in a game against tau. Tau went first. He proceeded to destroy like a whole unit of grey hunters with it. My friend who is actually a really nice guy and competitive player basically said - okay - you win - and started packing up immediately. It's even stronger now - lol. If you play this unit against people you really are TFG.

Depends on who you are playing. If you are playing against a friend that brings a more fluffy list with non-optimized units, yeah, then you shouldn't bring an optimized list in return. If you are playing against a friend who is bringing Brimstone & Smite Spam, Brimstones and Knights, Stealer Rush, Scion Spam, ect, then bringing an optimized Tau list is fair game.

I wouldn't include stealer rush in that list - but you are right.

Perhaps now, but prior to the most recent FAQ which raised their costs to 15 points each, 60+ Ambushing GSC + GSC Characters + Tyranid Allies w/ Exocrines was definitely a nasty list.

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:
Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

I remember in 7th. The first time my friend saw a Y'Vharas was in a game against tau. Tau went first. He proceeded to destroy like a whole unit of grey hunters with it. My friend who is actually a really nice guy and competitive player basically said - okay - you win - and started packing up immediately. It's even stronger now - lol. If you play this unit against people you really are TFG.

Yeah I've got to say... there really isn't anything broken with the XV109.

It's weapon are 12" (or less!) range and it isn't crazy survivable.

I don't feel it should make people Angry.. no more than assault cannon razorbacks or Stormravens (yay FAQ), Shadowswords, open-topped eldar skimmers... etc.

Razerous wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:
Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

I remember in 7th. The first time my friend saw a Y'Vharas was in a game against tau. Tau went first. He proceeded to destroy like a whole unit of grey hunters with it. My friend who is actually a really nice guy and competitive player basically said - okay - you win - and started packing up immediately. It's even stronger now - lol. If you play this unit against people you really are TFG.

Yeah I've got to say... there really isn't anything broken with the XV109.

It's weapon are 12" (or less!) range and it isn't crazy survivable.

I don't feel it should make people Angry.. no more than assault cannon razorbacks or Stormravens (yay FAQ), Shadowswords, open-topped eldar skimmers... etc.

Range isnt relevant to this unit. So citing it is also irrelevant. It's broken and anyone who faces it learns this quite soon. I just refuse to field it. Tried it a couple times to see what it was like in 7E (borrowed). I've seen it in 8th. Nothing dispels my feeling on it, really. There's never just one of them. It's just a ridiculously good model.

Razerous wrote:

 Xenomancers wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:
Y'Vharas were and are just OP. I love my Tau but that model just makes people angry and that's no fun.

I remember in 7th. The first time my friend saw a Y'Vharas was in a game against tau. Tau went first. He proceeded to destroy like a whole unit of grey hunters with it. My friend who is actually a really nice guy and competitive player basically said - okay - you win - and started packing up immediately. It's even stronger now - lol. If you play this unit against people you really are TFG.

Yeah I've got to say... there really isn't anything broken with the XV109.

It's weapon are 12" (or less!) range and it isn't crazy survivable.

I don't feel it should make people Angry.. no more than assault cannon razorbacks or Stormravens (yay FAQ), Shadowswords, open-topped eldar skimmers... etc.

I agree. Y'Vahras are a glass cannon, really. They certainly pack a huge punch, but they cost 400 freaking points and don't have a whole lot of durability over a Devilfish.

Range isn't relevant?

How high are you exactly?


It will utterly melt a unit of marines, yes.
Said unit costs a fraction of it though, and are not very hard to melt.

However the 109 itself will be left right next to the enemy, probably alone and quite open to counterattsck, if they have anything that remotely resembles a melee unit in the area.

Its a good unit, but that's it. It's not broken, not even close.

And that's why I've started running mine with a Devilfish list. Nearly the whole of my army is across the board turn one, with the rest manta striking down. If you build your list to be aggressive, if forces hard choices on them, rather than letting them target the big scary thing and easily removing it.

My friend plays a Cobra against me all the time haha. I'll order an Y'vahra without second thought ^^

At first glance I agree that the 109 is OP.

I think it does an insane amount of damage.

Then, I back up, look at its points - and look at a few of the other units in its points range (a tad over 400 with standard upgrades, but no drones).

I look at Roboute - for 360 points.
I look a land raider terminious ultra for 400 points.
Then magnus the red, etc (read his smite power...).
Then the hellforged levithan dred..etc.

Then I realize the problem is not the 109 - the problem is that most of the big units are OP. they can kill just a ton more than their points feel they should.

Personally, I think the 109 at his current level (compared to those others) is NOT as OP as those ...but it should be a lord of war. that way if you want to NOT play with lords of war...

XV109 is basically our Leviathan Dreadnought, but exchanging durability for mobility

 BoomWolf wrote:
Range isn't relevant?

How high are you exactly?


It will utterly melt a unit of marines, yes.
Said unit costs a fraction of it though, and are not very hard to melt.

However the 109 itself will be left right next to the enemy, probably alone and quite open to counterattsck, if they have anything that remotely resembles a melee unit in the area.

Its a good unit, but that's it. It's not broken, not even close.

If you say so.

What is your Tau play style? sit back and shoot or more aggressive movements
I'm leaning toward for a more aggressive Tau tactic that's up in the front ranks moving and shooting? Ghostkeel, Stealth suits, Crisis, devil fish+ Breach team ect.. Don't really know what else to field but I feel this tactic is weak to Dreadknots and obv close combat. Any Advise on this way of Tau?

How do you all feel about the Piranha in this type of strategy?

After around a dozen game my play style is built around two lines. The center line, with Shadowsun, Ghostkeels, and Stealths, and the back line to support them, with Broadsides, Strike Teams, and Pathfinders.

And in reserve, 3 Crisis, a Fusion Commander, and Vespids.

trinhm03 wrote:
What is your Tau play style? sit back and shoot or more aggressive movements
I'm leaning toward for a more aggressive Tau tactic that's up in the front ranks moving and shooting? Ghostkeel, Stealth suits, Crisis, devil fish+ Breach team ect.. Don't really know what else to field but I feel this tactic is weak to Dreadknots and obv close combat. Any Advise on this way of Tau?

How do you all feel about the Piranha in this type of strategy?

I definitely play aggressively.usually the only things on my side of the board at the end of turn one is my Pathfinder squads, and depending on point levels a unit of Fire Warriors holding ground. I like the Breachers/Devilfish combination quite a bit, especially with Darkstrider in one, and drones filling in space in the other. The rest of my list usually consists of a Y'Vahra or two, a pair of quad Fusion Commanders, and some dual Cyclic Ion Blaster/ATS Crisis Suits loaded with drones. The Y'Vahras and Devilfish blast up the field while the Commanders hit the heavy things. Ion Blaster Crisis Suits can act as antitank along with them and the Y'Vahras, especially with a single markerlights. 6d3 shots at strength 8, AP -2, d3 damage per unit can put out some hurt. With the reroll ones you only have a 1/36 chance of hurting yourself, and they're a great way to drop drones exactly where you need them most, by commanders or the super fast suits that leave any drones behind them first turn.

As far as close combat being an issue, it always has been for Tau, and always will be. The trick it to know that, and position yourself accordingly, so that you only lose what you're willing to lose. It definitely takes some practice, but it's fun, positioning is very important to aggressive Tau. Once those Devilfish have unloaded your Breachers/Fire Warriors, jam them down your opponent's throat. Charge with them, block charges with them, be annoying, go hunting for characters. They've already done their job at that point, so you don't have to care about losing them, but a good player can really screw up plans with them.

I'm not a huge fan of Piranhas, personally. They're a decent annoyance unit, putting out as much fire power as a min Stealth Suit squad. It depends mostly on what you expect out of them. They're unlikely to kill much, though they can be decent character hunters since they're so fast and can fly. If you're going to use them, you have to force your opponent to deal with them. Otherwise they can be safely ignored. My biggest issue is that fight with Pathfinders, Drones, and the Y'Vahra...

After several games withthe y'vahra, commanders, cold star, drones and pathfinders, i am confident that only the quad fusion commander is close to being overpowered. here is my take on the units.

y'vahra - the initial reaction from my opponent is always negative, accusing it of being overpowered. I will then analyse the game afterwards with them and see in what way it is overpowered. After the game, none of my y'vahra has gotten back its points worth in damage dealt despite of it melting a few units left and right. The true value of y'vahra is being tau distraction carnifex. The only time its worth taking is when it is paired with drones and absorb enemy fire power and take their focus away from the real glass cannon of my army, the quad fusion commander. The y'vahra augments opponent shooting, movements and their entire strategy outlook of the game It is priced correctly at just over 400 pts. As an example, today i went up against a dreadnought deathwatch list with flyers and killteam support. The two y'vahra i fielded melted a 5 man killteam and 3 dreadnaughts for the entire game. It does not make it points worthwhile if we just analyse kill, but it along with a few drones absorb an entire firepower of my opponent for the rest of the game. One ended along with a dozen drones died in the first two turns. In another game, it killed a 8 flamer nobs and one boyz before being vaporized...way underperform, but it did take the brunt of half of the opponent firepower and assault for two turns before dying....see the pattern. This vs my two quad fusion commander which manage two eliminate two corvusblackstar flyers and two dreadnaughts in two turns of shooting.....thats close to 900pts of enemy unit dead by a 320 pts for the two commander that did the dirty work. If i exchanged my two y'vahra for 5 additional quad fusion commanders, the game would have been over on the first turn instead of 3rd turn.

commander (quad fusion) - I only use two in my list to not anger my opponent and have a fun list to play with. This is the real deal and one of the few unit that can be considered overpowered as it is a character and has ungodly fire power. between the two of them, they usually killed 400 - 800 pts worth of enemy units easily each game (even vs ork hordes). Brutal and is ussualy the last few unit standing in the game. My opponent always focused on taking down y'vahra while the commander points and erase units behind drones and y'vahra. once my opponent destroyed the y'vahra, they realized who the real glass cannons are, but its most likely too late for them since their star unit would have been erased already by the commander. Having said that, the unit is not overly OP. Smart opponent can easily focus on it if they can somehow forget about the hulking y' vahra spewing scary plasma flamers at their front line units.

Drones (gun and shield) - the other MVP of almost every game. My opponent hate them to their guts. It made their high-quality shooting into garbage. Drones made the commander the star and made y'vahra a viable unit to play. without them there is no viable/competitive 8th edition tau army.

Pathfinders - i bring them to screen attacks like what most people use kroots and hounds. Their 7 inches scout move is golden. The special drones they bring can sometimes be an MVP against certain army build. For example in one of my games vs orks, the grav inhibitor drones which stays hidden in ruins managed to stop four charges which will be deadly if they are successful. At other games they are entirely useless. The ml that the pathfinder provide is rather situational. I probably use ml for the first two turns and fires its pulse carbine for the rest of their game...if they survived since they are a fire magnets.

Longstrike - a very mediocre unit that dies rather quickly there is no good way to protect it. In the game that it survives, it does insignificant amount of damage. I rather use it as fire magnets for first turn opponent shooting since most of my opponent happily shoots a character tanks without any extra drone protection. I am really considering its usage in my list.

devilfish - not bad, reduces my deployment setup significantly and gets the drone where they need to be. even an extra 3inch of extra movement for the disembarking drones matters alot in the first two turn of the game. my opponent tend to ignore it, so it gets free reign on midfield and up-field to take points and so on. if you can charge them into enemy tanks such as predators then its even better.

cold star- i use one as a drone nanny/character slayer/ objective grabber/ first turn aura/orders. super useful in term of utility. every tau list must include at least one. usually my warlord since it can run rather fast and opponent tend to ignore or being unable to shoot at it for the entire game.

Hope this helps.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Playing an assault/aggressive tau is a fresh change from my 7th edition battlesuit gunline tau. Its definitely much more challenging and more rewarding if it manage to outmaneuver and surprise the enemy. lots of potential mistake in term of positioning and firing order, but most of my opponent is totally unprepared to see an entire army shift more than 10 inches towards one direction in a turn, raining down tons of short-ranged firepower on them. I shelved my space marine army ever since i discovered this new tau playstyle.