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One of the most over-powered things I think the Tau have are Smart Missile Systems.

In ITC a lot of armies and weaker units rely on the LOS blocking terrain and I constantly hear about how broken it is that I'm throwing bricks of dice against their units I can't see.

with warp spider spam entering the meta here in the US. I'm wondering how this list would fair against 6+ units of warp spiders, and if it's a hard counter.

Everything that require BKR has been paid for

Dawn blade detachment

Retaliation Cadre - 631

Commander - 140
Shield gen, EWO, XV81 suit (SMS) - rides with DS broadsides

Broadsides x2 - 166
EWO, HYMP, SMS,
Missile drone x2

Riptide - 191
EWO, IA, TL Plasma

Crisis Suit - 53
Fusion x2

Crisis suit - 53
Fusion x2

Crisis suit - 28
Flamer x1

Auxiliary

Ranged Support Cadre - 678

Pathfinder x5
Pathfinder x5
Pathfinder x5

Broadsides x2 - 166
EWO, HYMP, SMS,
Missile drone x2

Broadsides x2 - 166
EWO, HYMP, SMS,
Missile drone x2

Broadsides x2 - 166
EWO, HYMP, SMS,
Missile drone x2


Riptide wing - 540

Burst tide, SMS
Burst tide, SMS
Burst tide, SMS


I'm not sure what can deepstrike into 8 missilesides spread out and survive, let alone survive 3 burst tides using hail fire the next turn.

not to mention the retaliation cadre and ranged support cadre all benefit from the dawn blade rerolls on a target so no problem with LOW/death stars.

the only downside I see is the lack of mobility/reliability on cover the broadsides need.

pathfinders are by no means great but getting shrouded with the formation make them harder to peel off the table.


In total there are 12 SMS. no one would possibly be able to null depoly against this list unless they do so with a LOW.

Anything with a bunker can Null deploy vs this pretty easy TBH.

But it's a good anti spider list. It would be a messy, bloody game, but you've got a LOT of SMS. If the WK arrives with all 45 Spiders turn two you'll kill several units of Spiders. But they will then kill a fairly decen proportion of your army. Plus all the Scatterlasers. It's easy to get 45 spiders, a WK and 5x3 scatterlaser Jetbikes plus a bunker with comms and, or an autarch in. (I'd probably take an ammo dump instead to give reroll ones to hit for all the scatter lasers when they come in. They should still kill your riptide wing the turn they arrive.

If you really want to stop an alpha strike from deep striking, you may want to take EWO on the riptides and broadsides, good list otherwise! Personally I'm not keen on the dawn blade detatchment and would rather see a CAD for an Ethereal bubble for LD 10 on all your units. You could get a CAD to give you some solo deep striking suits, and still have points to max out the boradsides to 3 man and take 4 missile drones in each.

Just a thought.

Indirect fire like SMS and AFP is how Tau usually counters them so the usual lists works quite fine (at least in europe). Like you have done take SMS on Riptides but also put AFP on a few Crisis and Stormsurges.