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First of all, I should start by clarifying that I'm a veteran Necron player, with a gak ton of games under my belt. I regularly attend tournaments, but the only army that really gives me trouble are Tau comp lists.

The general idea of the lists that are giving me trouble is:
Commander
2x fireblade
15x fire warriors
Y'varrah
2x riptides
25-35 shield drones
Usually Bor'kan for 18" Y'varrah flamer.

In three tournaments and countless practice games by turn 5 I'm basically tabled. They're the one army that continues to thrash me at every tournament and after much experimentation I will admit I have absolutely no idea how to beat this list.

Quantum shielding isn't effective, its firepower is devastating, max squads are easily dealt with, they out-range me completely, my big guns are ineffective unless I kill the drones, which is basically suicide for that unit that tries (and usually fails), close combat doesn't work because all the suits at T7 with fly.

Any ideas on how to counter this BS?

I would seriously appreciate some solid advice.

i played 2 yhvara and a riptide alot, i ran a vault,deciever, wraiths,immortalsn and lots of destroyers.

I ended up losing the game but he had 1 yhvara on 7 wounds and a riptide on 1 wound left at the end of the game. Had a few rolls gone my way I would have won the game...

Focus drones that are near yhvara, light up yhvara with destroyers, with full rerolls youll mince one a turn. Keep a cryptek with chrono near them to keep them up.

Vault is tasty vs all the infantry, and then its still T7 lots of wounds than has s7 tesla so it doesn't go so bad against his suits.

Am I missing something or is Bor'kan Y'varha only a 14" flamer

I would suggest a deceiver assault. Deceiver, 20 warriors, cryptek, and a dda or 2. Use the warriors to target the drones then the dda to blast the suits. It's how I have learned to deal with tau. Destroyers are used as backup. If the warriors didn't get enough drones down don't shoot at them with the dda.

What dynasty are you running?

 SHUPPET wrote:
Am I missing something or is Bor'kan Y'varha only a 14" flamer

Idk man, not my army, I'm just going off rough memory


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Azuza001 wrote:
I would suggest a deceiver assault. Deceiver, 20 warriors, cryptek, and a dda or 2. Use the warriors to target the drones then the dda to blast the suits. It's how I have learned to deal with tau. Destroyers are used as backup. If the warriors didn't get enough drones down don't shoot at them with the dda.

What dynasty are you running?

Unfortunately Deceiver is too risky for tournaments, if I don't go first they will literally kill everything I just teleported up the board quite easily

I mix and match different dynasties all the time. Usually Sautekh, Nephrekh and/or Mephrit. Don't think I'll take mephrit anymore though, doesn't seem that useful against the armies that actually give me trouble. Maybe a nephrekh warrior bomb using translocation Crypt would do the trick rather than the Deceiver. They screen well, but not enough to keep me out of 24" range I think.

You deceiver move after you know who is going first. Just the threat of what could happen due to you going first can change how they deploy. But I do understand, it's putting your Hope's on going first va tau.

You could just go pure speed. Destroyers, to tomb blades, doomsday arks, go for speed and range. If you don't have to get more than 35" in you will again take away a lot of the tau strength.

Necrons can't deal with invul saves on tough multi wound models. All our multi damage weapons pay for their high AP so can't be taken in sufficient quantities to brute force through invuls. We have no tricks to negate invul saves (entropic strike strat is it). We can't generate a lot of Mortal wounds vs single model units (the C'tan powers are more anti infantry).

I don't think there is a solution to this problem. Tesla Destructors dealing 2 damage would massively improve the codex, as it would help with this problem whilst also buffing some of the worst units (Anni Barge, Night/Doon Scythe).

What is the list you're using?

I think the problem is how to kill off the drones quick. Those 35 drones are quite nasty in performing as 35 additional 4++/5+++ wounds on the big suits. Especially any multi damage wounds would become a single MW which can be ignored on 5+++. In dealing with those, I think Necrons are better try to spam Tesla weapons to use volume of firepower to force failed saves. In doing so would be a choice between Immortals or Tombblades. The former has higher firepower output because MWBD. The latter would be more survivable under the Tau return fire given the -1 to hit and the fact that your opponent is not taking lots of Marker Light units.

Remember you dont get the invulnerable save with savior protocalls. And that's why I suggested warriors or immortals with the deceiver, hit the drones with number of shots so that they will fail some and die. Then use the big guns on a big suit. It's not easy, tau are a tough force to fight against, but we can do it. Mass Tesla may be the best option for drone killing honestly now that I think about it. A mid size group of tomb blades could really help there. Or an annihilation barge?

How about Tesla Immortals in a Night Scythe (or Veiled) with an Overlord for MWBD shenanigans? Will that give you the volume of shots to punk those drones?

zerosignal wrote:
How about Tesla Immortals in a Night Scythe (or Veiled) with an Overlord for MWBD shenanigans? Will that give you the volume of shots to punk those drones?

You are not getting MWBD after Veiled or coming out of NS. Best use to get combo alpha strike with Immortals is Deceiver redeployment, better with CCB for 12" MWBD giving you more choice of deployment location.

Veil with MWBD should I fine?

The ruling on bluffs then movement through "special means " specificly calls out that you lose any buffs that you put on the unit before it moves but it also specifies that it is talking about stratagems that cause said movement. Its ment to stop things like cultists getting boosted then being redeployed from the stratagem. You can MWBD a squad of immortals and then veil them and keep the bonus because the veil isn't a stratagem. Question of what dynasty is getting used is still in the air though.