orchewer wrote:If this was the army list board, I'd talk about this:
- You only have one Crisis Suit. This is a problem. You need more special weapon (missile pod, plasma rifle, fusion blaster) platforms for your Tau army.
- Drop the Gun Drones for your HQ. I can't quote chapter and verse, but they do something that negates your HQ's IC status. Use the points to buy a Stimulant Injector.
- Your Gun Drone squadron is basically a kill point waiting to happen (not to mention illegal - you need 4 drones per team minimum). Fold these models into your Stealthsuit team/Firewarrior teams.
- Add a Targeting Array to your Devilfish, and a Multi-tracker.
- Don't be afraid of dropping the Kroot Shaper to free up points.

With that out of the way, I'd be very impressed if your opponent could fit all that into a 600 point list, but here are some general guidelines.


1) Kill the Fast Things First
The fastest units in his army are what need to die first. Right now it looks like the Hormagaunts, which are ridiculously easy to kill with a Tau army.

If he outflanks with his Genestealers, castling is a tactic that is thrown around the boards. Leaving the Kroot and Piranha drones on the flanks to guard wouldn't be terrible either.

If his Warriors have wings, kill them first over anything else.

2) Focus Fire.
Pretty straightforward. Considering half a dozen Hormaguants can ruin your day, you need to make sure the squad you're shooting is no longer around at the end of the shooting phase.

This also means knowing which units to ignore - for example, you have almost nothing in your army that can threaten his Carnifex - ignore it.

Miscellaneous...
- Outflank your Stealthsuits. It'll give him one less target to devour on the board and puts him somewhat on the defensive (even against his Warriors, your suits are wounding on 3's)
- Keep your Firewarriors inside the Devilfish for as long as possible. There's no point in deploying them to rapid fire if they're just going to get charged by the Termagaunts behind the Hormagaunts or pie plated to death by a Barbed Strangler the following turn.
- Shoot with your Kroot. Even the Termagaunts outclass you in assault (higher I and they have an armour save). The S4 AP6 rapid fire is going to be much more valuable than piles of dead Kroot bodies in assault.

Fight well for the Greater Good!

Nick wrote:Hi, I need help beating this tyranid player. I havent fought him yet but every tells me that hes far the best. Even better then the Ork player i mentioned during my other Topic. I wondered if anyone had any certain tactics or basic tactics against Tyranids and i hope alot of people respond.

MY army:
HQ:
XV8 Crisis Battlesuit 35 Points
-Missile Pods (Twin-linked) 18 Points
-Shield Generator 10 Points
-Gun Drones x2 20 Points
83 Points

Elites :
XV25 Stealth Suits x3 90 Points
-Burst Cannons (Standard Weaponry)
-Stealth Suits (Standard Weaponry)
90 Points

Troops :
Fire Warrior Caste x12 w/ DevilFish 200 Points
-Pulse Rifles (Standard Weaponry)
-Burst Cannons (Devil Fish, Standard Weaponry)
-Smart Missile Systems (Devil Fish, Secondary Weaponry) 20 Points
-Flechette Discharger (Devil Fish) 10 Points
230 Points

Kroot Carnivore Squad x12 w/ Shaper 105 Points
-Kroot Rifles (Standard Weaponry)
105 Points

Fast Attack :
Piranha 60 Points
-Burst Cannon (Standard Weaponry)
-Flechette Discharger 10 Points
70 Points

Gun Drone Squadron x2 24 Points
-Pulse Carbines (Standard Weaponry)
24 Points

Total Points : 602

His army (i think)

Hive Tyrant w/guard
3 warriors
8 genestealers
16 spine gaunts
16 horma gaunts
Carnifex

Nick wrote:My Hq is at the wrong point total?

Lukus83 wrote:Also gun drone squadrons are a minimum of 4 models.

If I were you I would make a brand new list.

Include 3 XV8 suits with plasma and missile pods.
HQ same

2 squads of 6 firewarriors in devilfish.

A hammerhead.

That would be my list...around 600 points with relevant upgrades.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oops...maybe closer to 700. My mistake.

shas'o vera wrote:

Lukus83 wrote:Also gun drone squadrons are a minimum of 4 models.

If I were you I would make a brand new list.

Include 3 XV8 suits with plasma and missile pods.
HQ same

2 squads of 6 firewarriors in devilfish.

A hammerhead.

That would be my list...around 600 points with relevant upgrades.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Oops...maybe closer to 700. My mistake.

the battlesuits are fine, fire warriors, fine, the hammerhead......... give it ion gun and burstcannon, great aginst low toughness enemies.

also, you need stealth suits, they can be really annoying to the enemy if used properly

shas'o vera wrote:plasma rifles and nother such weapons can do that

Aftersong wrote:I have never had a problem with infiltrating stealers, rapid fire vaporizes them, and even if a squad manages to get through then great you wipe the fcw's on the charge and are staring down the rest of the armies guns in rapid fire range when your turn ends.

I'll trade you squads of stealers for firewarriors 1 for 1 when I got to spend 2 or 3 turns shooting at you already, I'll make that trade all day long.

As for dakka fexes what kind of point totals are we talking about here 1 dakka fex in a 600 point list is not going to shoot down 32 firewarriors before the crisis suits put him in the ground.

kitsunez wrote:1 twin linked living ammo dakka fex with 8 shots will take out a squad for very very cheep... warriors probably running good guns too... so genestealers+carnifex+warriors+gaunts will equal alot of dead tau on the first turn... 80x3 is 240 thats more than 1/3 your force on turn one because you can't deal with the amount of firepower coming from nids when you only have a 4+ save and a ld of 7. also depending on how you have your firing lines you'll give them cover saves which you really dont' wanna give nids... firing lines don't work for tau...they just don't. They work for guard because gaurd have better ld, a heavy weapons choice, and the ability to not cost as much as a firewarrior.

tau are a mech army if your winning with non mech tau your playing against bad players. Ld 7 should run and scream like little girls

Aftersong wrote:

kitsunez wrote:1 twin linked living ammo dakka fex with 8 shots will take out a squad for very very cheep... warriors probably running good guns too... so genestealers+carnifex+warriors+gaunts will equal alot of dead tau on the first turn... 80x3 is 240 thats more than 1/3 your force on turn one because you can't deal with the amount of firepower coming from nids when you only have a 4+ save and a ld of 7. also depending on how you have your firing lines you'll give them cover saves which you really dont' wanna give nids... firing lines don't work for tau...they just don't. They work for guard because gaurd have better ld, a heavy weapons choice, and the ability to not cost as much as a firewarrior.

tau are a mech army if your winning with non mech tau your playing against bad players. Ld 7 should run and scream like little girls

Well first off your math is a little shoddy, a dakkafex with TL devourers and enhanced senses comes in at 113 points not 80 giving you a 339 point investment before you have even bought an hq which is what bare minimum about 100 points? leaving you 161 points with which to buy those genestealers that are going to crush my line? Secondly you have greatly over estimated their killing power vs Fire warriors

8 shots at bs3 twinlinked

8*.75=6

6 hits at str 6 rerolling to wound

6*.92=5.52

No armor penetration so saving on 4 +

5.52*.5 = 2.76

so lets even be generous and say 3 dead firewarriors a turn so your 3 dakkafexes constituting over half your armies points value (at the proposed 600 point limit) are only killing 9 firewarriors a turn and that is only after lumbering into range. by the time they are able to shoot their devourers massed str 5 shots have already annihilated your minimal troops choices leaving your big bugs all alone to get chewed apart by the crisis suits they can never even get range on to fire back.

Tau are a mech army but that doesn't mean they can't make use of static components. Are you going to tell me that broadsides are useless? No it just takes a different approach to army building. A big blob of notoriously squishy firewarriors is the lure by which you draw your enemies into your killzones, it's kauyon at it's finest. They charge headlong with dreams of free kp's dancing in their heads when suddenly the markerlights start flashing and the mobile elements sandwich them in as they die in droves.

You actually have to force a leadership test before leadership becomes an issue, dying in a well prepared killzone does not accomplish that.

agnosto wrote:Meh.

Ninja tau in this case or go full mech; they can't kill your firewarriors without killing the devilfish and 'nids don't have the range while your hammerhead and broadsides wreak havoc.

kitsunez wrote:

agnosto wrote:Meh.

Ninja tau in this case or go full mech; they can't kill your firewarriors without killing the devilfish and 'nids don't have the range while your hammerhead and broadsides wreak havoc.

this man gets a prize 3 free internets!