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Tomorrow I am playing a guy who is try-harding in our 40 person crusade in our local area. He is playing Tau with a battle suit focus with at least 2 riptides and 3 broadside.

Now I am playing Dark angels but other then my 3 Eradicators, I am quite a melee focused list and would like help on what would be the best idea on what strategy to take against a good shooting and overwatching army

What's in your roster and what do you have to work with ? Also what PL are you playing at, have you spent your RP already, what models do you own and etc.

Give us more details, I am sure many of us would love to help

DiscipleofAsmodai wrote:
Tomorrow I am playing a guy who is try-harding in our 40 person crusade in our local area. He is playing Tau with a battle suit focus with at least 2 riptides and 3 broadside.

Now I am playing Dark angels but other then my 3 Eradicators, I am quite a melee focused list and would like help on what would be the best idea on what strategy to take against a good shooting and overwatching army

Depends. The broadsides are bait - they probably won't be effective and Eradicators can just vap them off the table. The Riptides might be a bigger problem, but aren't Infantry so they can't do most of the crusade mission objectives except Actions, and if they do an Action they can't shoot. So I'd focus on playing the objectives and hiding. If your board has enough terrain, you should be able to either:

1) hide from both riptides if they are together, making them irrelevant to the game since they can't score or do actions very well

2) hide from one riptide while blasting the other if they're apart. Riptides are tough, but between CC and shooting Marines can probably bring it down, unless it's literally surrounded by huge amounts of drones.

Get them into combat as quick as you can. They are pillowfisted and can't stand up to good melee troops. Clear drones first whatever you do, bolters are great for this.

so my Are is doing Points not PL my roster is as follows

Primaris Captain - Sheild, Sword, Heavy Bolt Pistol, Relic (The Burning Blade)
Interogattor Chaplin in Terminator armour with Combi Flamer
Primaris Lt. with Storm Shield, Master Crafted Power Sword, Neovolkite Pistol. Champion of Humanity WL Trait
Primaris Librarian with Tome of Malcadore knows - Null Zone, Might of Heros, Veil of Time, Smite
Infiltrator Squad of 5
Intercessor squad - walking wounded
Intercessor Squad
Bladeguard Vets
Deathwing Knights
Judicar - armour indomitus, The imperiums sword, teleportation transponder
Primaris Apothecary - halo indomitus
Ravenwing Black Knights - Shell Shock
Eradicator Squad -Marksmans Honors

 Brotherjanus wrote:
Get them into combat as quick as you can. They are pillowfisted and can't stand up to good melee troops. Clear drones first whatever you do, bolters are great for this.

I would not recommend recklessly charging forwards. That's easily punished by a good player, and Tau especially are used to learning to counter this tactic.

I see your Librarian knows Null Zone. Pity there's no way to get him up the board, that would bascially guarantee a riptide a turn is deleted by Eradicators.

I hope to get one Riptide off with my eradicators at least because my Deep Strike form my DWK, Judicar, and Interrogator Chaplin can finish any other squad. Does Tau get free overwatch or just free overwatch like in 8th? I dont know how their ability works with the overwatch strat

DiscipleofAsmodai wrote:
I hope to get one Riptide off with my eradicators at least because my Deep Strike form my DWK, Judicar, and Interrogator Chaplin can finish any other squad. Does Tau get free overwatch or just free overwatch like in 8th? I dont know how their ability works with the overwatch strat

Tau can overwatch like 9th never happened. Furthermore, the T'au sept can overwatch on 5s.

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

DiscipleofAsmodai wrote:
I hope to get one Riptide off with my eradicators at least because my Deep Strike form my DWK, Judicar, and Interrogator Chaplin can finish any other squad. Does Tau get free overwatch or just free overwatch like in 8th? I dont know how their ability works with the overwatch strat

Tau can overwatch like 9th never happened. Furthermore, the T'au sept can overwatch on 5s.

If they have different detachments with different septs do they lose certain abilities for splitting?

DiscipleofAsmodai wrote:

 Unit1126PLL wrote:

DiscipleofAsmodai wrote:
I hope to get one Riptide off with my eradicators at least because my Deep Strike form my DWK, Judicar, and Interrogator Chaplin can finish any other squad. Does Tau get free overwatch or just free overwatch like in 8th? I dont know how their ability works with the overwatch strat

Tau can overwatch like 9th never happened. Furthermore, the T'au sept can overwatch on 5s.

If they have different detachments with different septs do they lose certain abilities for splitting?

No. Different detachments can be different septs with no penalty. However, as a courtesy and in the spirit of Crusade, I would identify each units Sept on their Crusade card ahead of time, so you should be able to know which unit is which sept without looking at his list yet, just by looking at his roster.

I havent seen his roster only him play on a table next to me before and my buddy has also played him. I just know he has some Farsight Units and some Tau Sept Units. Now shield drones are only able to save against the same sept. So for his Tau Sept Drones cant savior protocols for a Farsight model and vice versa

You have one hell of a bonus in using DA in particular - the automatic Transhuman from your Deathwing Knights, plus their storm shields, makes them very durable even against Tau.
Use this to scare him. Keep them in reserve as long as you feel you need to, force him to consider their arrival with every move. Then when the time is right, drop them as close as possible to a Riptide with the goal that he will expend a lot of firepower on them. This allows the rest of your army to get much closer.
You might also want to consider keeping the Eradicators in strategic reserve too, for the same reason. You also don't want them getting shot up turn 1 or 2, before they've gotten close enough to do real damage - so outflanking them is also beneficial in keeping them safe for longer.

I'll second the suggestion of playing the objectives game as you definitely have the edge there. Definitely bring all 3 Troops units, the Infiltrators should be set up a little forward to grab an objective early, but only while still able to keep them as hidden as possible - no point sacrificing them needlessly on turn 1.
The Ravenwing are your key to getting Engage On All Fronts secondary points - as such, you want to keep them safe as much as possible too. Keep them on an outside flank, use terrain to block line of sight, don't risk popping them into visibility just to get a few shots out of them.

You're going to need a way to keep that Librarian safe, as mentioned Null Zone will be incredibly useful and Veil of Time will come in handy too. Keep him with your Troops as central as possible to get the most out of those powers' ranges.

Lastly, the Judiciar is a wasted points sink against Tau specifically. Leave him at home.

 Super Ready wrote:
You have one hell of a bonus in using DA in particular - the automatic Transhuman from your Deathwing Knights, plus their storm shields, makes them very durable even against Tau.
Use this to scare him. Keep them in reserve as long as you feel you need to, force him to consider their arrival with every move. Then when the time is right, drop them as close as possible to a Riptide with the goal that he will expend a lot of firepower on them. This allows the rest of your army to get much closer.
You might also want to consider keeping the Eradicators in strategic reserve too, for the same reason. You also don't want them getting shot up turn 1 or 2, before they've gotten close enough to do real damage - so outflanking them is also beneficial in keeping them safe for longer.

I'll second the suggestion of playing the objectives game as you definitely have the edge there. Definitely bring all 3 Troops units, the Infiltrators should be set up a little forward to grab an objective early, but only while still able to keep them as hidden as possible - no point sacrificing them needlessly on turn 1.
The Ravenwing are your key to getting Engage On All Fronts secondary points - as such, you want to keep them safe as much as possible too. Keep them on an outside flank, use terrain to block line of sight, don't risk popping them into visibility just to get a few shots out of them.

You're going to need a way to keep that Librarian safe, as mentioned Null Zone will be incredibly useful and Veil of Time will come in handy too. Keep him with your Troops as central as possible to get the most out of those powers' ranges.

Lastly, the Judiciar is a wasted points sink against Tau specifically. Leave him at home.

This is a Crusade Game and we are playing at 1500 points so I have to bring him otherwise I would agree and would prefer just a larger eradicator squad to outflank but I appreciate all your adivce

That's not true. You don't have to bring every single unit on your roster.

The Crusade rules (which I understand your club aren't using) separate Roster Size from Battle Size.

For example, I could have a 75 PL roster just by spending my first 5 RP on 5PL extensions. However, step 1 of the Crusade Missions Pack is "Select Battle Size." That's the step where you go to your opponent and say "what do you want to play". So, given the case where your opponent spent his 5RP on WLT and Relics instead, you might compromise and play 60 PL - his 50, but with more WLT and Relics, to your 60. The 60 PL are chosen from units on your 75PL roster - this means that, for this battle, 15PL are staying home and won't gain experience or participate.

Nowhere does Crusade force a player to bring their entire roster - in fact, even if the power level permitted you to, it still isn't mandatory (so if you wanted to leave off a unit for fear of getting a battle scar or something, that's permissible).

That said, I have no idea how your group has houseruled it.

Well the point level we discussed was 1500. I do want to get experience on all my units even if he just sits on objectives or hangs out with some other units. My Judicar is also a nasty melee character so I can just drop him in my opponents back field and destroy all his smaller units. Its not great but I want at least the 1 experience on him

Okey dokey. I just don't want you to go into it with the idea that you HAVE to bring your entire roster exactly as it is laid out.

Furthermore, be careful. "just getting 1 XP" could also mean "losing D6 XP" or taking a crippling battle-scar...