[Velocirapture]

I played my first game with the latest edition rules and codex yesterday and found it a humbling and learning experience, I hope others can learn from my mistakes!

My army is based on miniatures that I purchased on a whim about 10 years ago as follows:

5 Jetbikes, With Cannon
5 Pathfinders
3 Dark Reapers and Exarch, fastshot
5 Swooping Hawks and Exarch with sunrifle, skyleap
Farseer, guide, eldritch storm

So its a 2 pronged army based on long range fire power and using the jetbikes and hawks to ambush the units that get too close. I don't have any hand to hand so how am I going to fair in the tournament against my friends?

My friend plays Necrons and we decided to have a practice game to refamiliarise ourselves with the rules. His army as follows:

Lord
2 x 10 Necron Warriors
Tomb Spider
Destroyer
Scarab swarm

Well after 2 turns of shooting and his advancing I had downed nothing whatsoever. 1 jetbike shot. The jetbikes were in cover waiting patiently (fatal mistake), hawks skyleaped, the rangers and reapers shooting at the same squad downed 2 necrons who came back.
3rd turn my rangers were wiped out into h-t-h. 2nd jetbike lost.
4th turn m jetbikes got charged as did my reapers. Swooping hawks came back, scattered into a building and were destroyed. Later gave in.

So what did I learn and discover?

1.) Reading tau online battle reports is an aid for playing games and applying what you have learned from the forums. Whats written down needs to be traslated to the game table so write the points down and bring with you!
2.) You will generally lose less squad members if you are direct in your attacks than if you wait to counter charge your opponent using cover.
3.) Cover saves make rangers very durable, they absorbed 30 shots in 2 turns for no damage. In h-t-h they will die very quickly.
4.) Reapers are quite durable in h-t-h. Despite being support weapon troops they have WS4, so they will hold their own compared to other troops.
5.) Skyleap is useful but in small points games this removes your hawks from the game for far too long. They are better used on the table, especially if you have few troops.
6.) When deep striking chose LARGE empty spaces, ths means your hawks can be scattered very far away from where they need to be or risk being destroyed by landing on the enemy or buildings.

So, I am arranging a rematch in which I plan to deploy my farseer, reapers, hawks and jetbikes on one flank and the scouts in an annoying place.
The reapers (with the aid of fortune) and scouts will shoot at one regiment of necron warriors. The hawks and jetbikes will move forward and attack the same regiment quickly. Hopefully I will be using my entire force against single regiments one by one. Since my hawks and bikes will be engaging more closely to his delpoyment zone, he will hopefully try and combat this first. This will leave the reapers and scouts safe, and the hawks and bikes can move quick enough to respod to any problems.

Looking for an external viewpoint to pick holes in my plan, particularly with regard to the fact that I have no money to buy anything else, but I do have 5 banshees on the way. Power weapon goodness.
Also can mindwar be used against necrons? Do they have a mind per se? Eldritch storm isn't much use against them.
Thanks all

[GedofParagon]

Velocirapture,

Welcome to TauOnline fellow Seer! *Offers a seat in the Dome of Crystal Seers* I'd offer you a chair, but sitting on the naked wraithbone is far more comforatble. Please take a moment to glance at the forum Rules and post an intro in the Introduce Yourself board. With the pleasantries out of the way, lets look at what you've got.

5 Jetbikes, With Cannon
5 Pathfinders
3 Dark Reapers and Exarch, fastshot
5 Swooping Hawks and Exarch with sunrifle, skyleap
Farseer, guide, eldritch storm

-First I'll put it into force organization chart format for easier review, and add commentary:

This army iabout 750 points including the Banshees (Assuming a well equipped banshee Exarch)
HQ:
Farseer, guide, eldritch storm
-Generally it's not a good idea to have more than one power unless you also have spirit stones to allow dual usage. You also have a reletively small army points-wise, so you want to minimize your HQ cost as much as possible. Given your use of Rangers, Banshees, and reapers, I'd recommend dropping Eldrich Storm, exchanging Guide for Doom. If the points work our right, you can add Spirit Stones and Mind War as time goes on. Yes, mind war kicks the Tar out of Necrons. Remeber that the rule is "RAW", that is "Rules as Written", and nowhere is it written that 'Crons are invulnurable to Mind War.

ELITES:
None - but soon with 5 x Banshees!
-Make sure to use a triped out exarch with an Excecutioner. In a small squad like this you will need her power. Doom from the Seer will make those normally useless S3 powerweapons sing, and the S5 executioner is just nice. Try to use cover to screen this squad and use them as a countercharge unit to bail out your reapers and/or pathfinders for best results. (Countercharge = Charge into combat against the supported unit's foes the round after the supported unit gets charged)

TROOPS:
5 Jetbikes, With Cannon
-Very Nice. You next army purchase should probably be a second Shuri-Cannon Bike in all truth so that this squad get max return for it's points. In the mean time they are a good, mobile, and resielient troops choice. Doom (again!) benifits you against Necrons by increasing their to-wound rate from 50% to 75% on their Shuriken Catapults, and even better on the cannon.

5 Pathfinders
-Here is another unit that greatly benifits from DOOM on the Seer. When you get those AP1 hits, you still only have a 50% chance of making them count. Doom ups this to 75%. Es a Very Nice'a!

FAST ATTACK:
5 Swooping Hawks and Exarch with sunrifle, skyleap
-Try to find the points to put Intercept on these Guys against Necrons. Nothing is as heartbreaking to a necron player as when a Squad of hawks plants haywire grenades on their monolith and blows it to feth. > Not to sound like a broken record, but Doom takes the wound rate on these guys from 33% to 44%. Not a huge increase, but an increase nonetheless.

HEAVY SUPPORT:
3 Dark Reapers and Exarch, fastshot
-Typically I don't like to field these guys in squads of less than 4, but if you want to use a 3-man config, I highly reccomend a Tempest Launcher and Crack Shot. It ignores cover saves, has a blast radius, can be fired indirectly, and gers re-rolls to wound on 2 (count'em 2) blasts. Doom takes the reaper launcher wounds on a normal reaper from 66% to 88% and AP3 denies them their saves.

Tactica: Doom a squad - blast the crap out of it with everybody and wipe it out. Rinse and repeat.

Hope that helps,
Ged of Paragon