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So i recently returned to the hobby now that there's a game store that just opened up near where i live. My friend has as well, and he has chosen to go with Tau, while I am considering CSM. He's planning on running a riptide, crisis suits, broadsides, 2 FW squads, hammerhead, and possibly a bomber (side-note: we haven't gotten around to real army lists since we are still buying our models, but i'd estimate around 1500pt games). I'd like to be able to counter the mobility of his crisis suits with units of my own. I was thinking bikers b/c they are fairly cheap point-wise, the obvi heldrake, and was also considering a DP. I would like to have an assault-y army that's also very mobile. My theory was that my bikes would be able to close distance quickly and preoccupy his army while the bulk of my force can advance. An alternative strategy I've been looking into would be amassing deep-strike units, but this is more wishful thinking than actual true thought process. If anyone who has been playing a while could share some insight into possible units that work well with this type of strategy, I'd be very grateful. I've read a few threads on the subject, but haven't heard anything about bikers yet. Thanks!

A DP is a bit tricky, since Tau have weapons that can ID him (the rail cannon) and tons of strong fire and skyfire to ground him. Now that all vehicles can turbo-boost, closing in with Tau is not that complicated for most deploys, so between bikes, helldrakes and transports, you should be able to get close without much hassle.

One thing I've discovered is that my Land Raider survives a lot longer now that Broadsides are no longer S10. It will still blow up if he has hammerheads or piranhas, mind, but it is easier to protect and can deliver his assault troops way more often than before.

Bikers are really cool if you are not going full-Helldrake (I'm not). Against tau, Nurgle is the mark to use, and it makes their tons of @5 fire wound only on 5+. If you want a more general build, Slaanesh is also a very good mak on them as it lets them hit enemy marines first and opens the amazing FNP icon. A good bike squad should be between 5-10 bikes, and if you can add a Chaos Lord on a ride, all the better.

Heldrakes are the best model in our codex and arguably the game.