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As I was slaughtering Tau today, my foe had a good question. Is there anyway of pulling out of an assault with either having to

A. Loose assault and Fall back

or

B. Win assault and drive your foe before you


Is "hit and run" the only rule that allows for that?

To my knowledge there is no way of willfully falling back anymore. Trust a Tau to bring that up eh?

no, he just has to fall back from losing the battle and get away from your troops or sit in combat and die

Good! He sat in a whole bunch of combat and he died a lot.


Retreat. Bah. Weedy.

Yep, the only ways to get out of combat (without specific special rules like the necron veil) are:

1) Die
2) Lose combat and break
3) Use hit and run
4) The unlikely situation where models from both sides die in such a way that after the 6" pile in moves from both sides, no models are in base to base.

If the tau player wants to run, he may be able to work it out with an etherial. They let you reroll moral tests. If the rules say you can "reroll moral" tests and they do not say "reroll failed moral" test then he could reroll tests that he passed in hopes of failing them.

see but then you have to roll your tau initiative to escape, and most things in CC with them will have 4-5 initiative making in neigh impossible to escape...yay tau suck!

Bastirous666 wrote:see but then you have to roll your tau initiative to escape, and most things in CC with them will have 4-5 initiative making in neigh impossible to escape...yay tau suck!

From the tactical standpoint of the tau, it is much better to try and run (and get wiped out) on your opponent's turn then it is to stay in combat and get killed (through wounds or running away) on your turn. If combat breaks on the opponent's turn, then the tau can open up with all their full shooty power on the enemy rather than just taking it on the chin again next turn.

true enough

Phoenix wrote:Yep, the only ways to get out of combat (without specific special rules like the necron veil) are:

1) Die
2) Lose combat and break
3) Use hit and run
4) The unlikely situation where models from both sides die in such a way that after the 6" pile in moves from both sides, no models are in base to base.

If the tau player wants to run, he may be able to work it out with an etherial. They let you reroll moral tests. If the rules say you can "reroll moral" tests and they do not say "reroll failed moral" test then he could reroll tests that he passed in hopes of failing them.

It worked that way under the V3 Tau Codex. Not sure about the newer one though. Saved my butt against seeding swarm "ferocious" stealer hordes sometimes. Those don't exist anymore (thank god) but you get the point.

One way Tau can withdraw is to position their squads so that very few models are in 2" then when you lose you hope to fail your Ld test, and (since you have to be in base to base contact with at least one model to pursue) fall back with them only being able to consolidate. If you have a Shas'ui with a bonding knife you can regroup and shoot the crap out of the enemy next turn.

Cheesy Tau tactic

that's more of a last ditch effort though. the real trick with tau is keeping the enemy from ever reaching your lines and even if they do keep them from moving one squad to the next

Remember that units with no btb models cannot sweeping advance. So your ethereal can "help" you fall back if you have taken all your casualties from the btb models. Then you can fall back with impunity and regroup/rapid fire.