[Starchilde]

Hey folks,

Keichi246 and I have been at it again - he with his Tau and me with my new Death Guard and so far the results have been exceedingly one-sided: my Nurgle-loving marines have faced defeat in detail every time. In fact, we're at a point were we both agree that it may be impossible for a Death Guard army to defeat a static Tau army.

Needless to say I'm looking for suggestions and reccomendations on how to defeat such a Tau army. However, instead of just getting ideas for Death Guard, I'd like to open this topic up to all forms of Chaos to make reccomendations on dealing with a Tau army of this type. This will not only benefit us from a tactical point of view, but will help Keichi246 deal with other opponents (it's his tourney army after all).

If this thread works out well I will make a series of posts on the "How do you deal with...?" topic. I think it could help us all.

Additional information: Keichi 246's Tau army (weapon detail only)
************************************************** ***
HQ1 - Command battlesuit with cyclonic ion blaster and missile pod
HQ2 - Command battlesuit with plasma and missile pod
FA - Piranha w/ fusion blaster
E1 - 3x battlesuits w/ plasma and missle pod
E2 (F2?) - 6x Stealth Suits
T1 - 12x Fire Warriors all w/pulse rifles
T2 - 12x Fire Warriors all w/pulse rifles
T3 - 12x Fire Warriors all w/pulse rifles
T4 - 10x Kroot
T5 - 10x Kroot
H1 - Broadside battlesuit
H2 - Broadside battle suit
H3 - Full Drone sniper team (3x drone controllers and 9x sniper drones)

Note: I am fairly certain this is the correct information for the army list. I will correct it later if I am wrong.

[MalVeauX]

Starchilde,

Hate to break it to you, but that kind of Tau army is one of the easier forms of Tau for Chaos to beat. Death Guard, especially, is suited to weather this kind of force, though it will be more difficult without heavy weapons--You won't have the big guns, but you can get in his face, and make him sweat just as he does you. Under normal circumstances, ie: non-nurgle, this would be insanely easy to whipe off the board in one turn with a chaos force. The heavy bolter would be simply way too powerful for the bulk of his army to bear. However, plague marines can't bring those aboard. Anyhow, I'll give you some tips:

1 - You have powerful potent speed lords at your disposal. They can't be targeted unless they're the closest. You should be using them. You will absolutely annihilate squads of Fire Warriors and Kroot with ease. Take twins, and sweeten the deal. You also have access to a Lord who can actually take on all his Railguns and survive to hit combat.

2 - Your whole army is T5 and can infiltrate. Your toughness negates the effectiveness of the Fire Warrior pulse rifle. Just to give you an idea, it would take 72 pulse rifle shots to actually kill 6 plague marines, on average. If you have more marines than he has Fire Warriors, he simply will never be able to kill them. And at the same time, you can infiltrate and have your bolters, which are superior in a fire fight since you have (A) better BS, (B) better armor, (C) more toughness, while he can't hit as often, only wounds on a 4+ and you save easier. He is wounded on a 3 by a bolter and fails saves half the time. Fire Warriors cannot win a static fire fight with most armies unless you just let them and do nothing about it. Get in his face.

3 - Battlesuits can be annoying when they move faster than you do. It means, if nothing can catch them, then nothing can kill them since you have no ranged weaponry in plague marines. That means, only vehicles can reliably deal with the battle suits, but vehicles can also easily be destroyed by railguns. Regardless, you should explore two options: (1) Indirect Fire Defiler (hide it; bust those XV8s); (2) Chaos HQ with flight or speed. You can infiltrate close, and hawk them down faster than they can move. It's that simple.

4 - Sniper Drones can really kill marines. That's a huge amount of Str6 AP3 weapons that kill you on a 3+ and ignore your save. Worse yet, they can use their markerlights to make that so accurate that he can kill 6 to 7 marines per turn with them. That's unholy terror. And they're cloaked. So how do you deal with them? Combat. Again, speed units win the day here. They will obviously be stuck somewhere behind his firing lines, but remember, those things are non-scoring and taking up 240 points of his army list. Again, lob indirect fire on them. You're bound to get some kills. Also, when your whole army is in his face, sure, he can deal you a lot of damage, but if you just take too much for him to handle and put things in close combat, he simply loses all his abilities to (1) move away, (2) maintain firepower, (3) kill you.

Chaos HQs which will whoop him:

Chaos Lt.
-Mark of Nurgle
Daemonic Speed
Daemonic Strength
Daemonic Visage
Power Weapon
Bolt Pistol
Frag Grenades
#Infiltration
117 points.

Chaos Lt.
-Mark of Nurgle
Daemonic Speed
Dark Blade
Daemonic Visage
Bolt Pistol
Frag Grenades
#Infiltration
117 points.

You can take TWO hqs like this (one with power weapon, one with dark blade). They're going to infiltrate right behind your other plague marines (who are also going to infiltrate). First turn, you will achieve an assault. With 19~24 inches as a min/max range, and 18 inches as infiltration distance, simply put more plague marines in front of him, and hope you don't roll a 1 for fleet. On a 2+ you will be in combat. In combat, they will not harm you easily, WS2 Tau units hit your WS5 Lt on a 5+ in combat. And their Str3 only wounds your T5 on a 6+. They simply will not beat you down. The only thing that can come close, are mounds of Kroot, and masses of Battlesuits--but you still have a great 3+ save on top of it--and you strike first, always, so you will be removing most models in base to base contact right away, and reducing the amount of actual attacks you take in return. You will easily mop up. You will win combat, and your daemonic visage will trigger a -2 leadership penalty on anything he's fighting, and you then see 12 fire warrior squads getting swept by your ini5 roll compared to his ini2 roll. Now, multiple that times two. Turn one. Get the idea? Pain.

Troops:

Plague Marines x 7
Free Asp. Champion
-Power Fist
#Infiltration
169 points.

You don't need fancy weapons to shoot down Tau. In fact, don't bother with a lot of assault guns. They will either be killed, or they will be shooting things that don't need AP1/2 kind of power. Instead, just put a lot of cheap T5 bodies with bolters in his face. First turn, you will have a fire fight. You may think he'll win it, but consider your twin HQs who are going to be in assault. You can (A) use the HQ to lock down his XV88s, (B) lock down the nearest squad of FireWarriors and (C) focus your firepower on whatever you want within 24 inches. If you can, target his Sniper Drones (unless he really buries them).

Take 4 to 5 squads like this. That's 28 to 35 T5 plague marines. It's enough to make him sweat. And it's enough bolters to kill up to 8 fire warriors per phase at 24 inches, or about 11 Kroot per phase (with their cover saves). He on the other hand, will be firing at you with quite a bit, and will also remove plague marines. The difference is, two of his shooting units will be denied shooting thanks to your twin HQs.

Elites:

This kind of Tau army doesn't have the means to deal with Terminators, especially Nurgle terminators, who have the added toughness on top of that save. You also have access to Reaper Autocannons, on the go. Deep strike them in if you wish, via a teleport homer on one of your aspiring champions. He will be forced to attempt to kill them with massed fire, plasma or anything he has at his disposal. Go for the snipers, or go for his XV88s if they were behind the main fire warrior / kroot lines. Get into combat if you want, but really, you want to keep them out of combat and just shoot away. They will melt away all infantry he has. And it will take a tremendous effort from him to stop them--all the while he has all those HQs and 28~35 plague marines in his face. He simply can't stop it all.

Heavy:

Defilers with indirect fire. Normally these vehicles aren't that great. Infantry is better. But Nurgle can't take infantry weapons that you need, like heavy bolters and lascannons. So in order to deal with things that are hard to access, you can take the indirect battle cannon plate and really make him sweat. Just hide it in terrain, or behind size 3 area terrain. Lob your shells on his large XV8 group first. After they're gone, go for his snipers perhaps. You will have added scatter, but with several teams of them, and them probably being spread out, you still have tons of infantry in his face. Either way it doesn't matter. So long as you get his XV8's eventually, then all is well (they're scoring units; snipers are not). Just move up and get into assault and you won't have that sniper problem. If nothing else presents itself then go ahead and attempt to put pie plates on his snipers. Depending on how spread out they are, you can still manage to nail them.

--- Now from the list you have shown, it looks like a 1500 point game.

HQ1 - 117
Lt. as above

HQ2 - 117
Lt. as above

Troop1 through 5: 915

Troops as shown above -- but if you want, add in 7x special weapons (plasma / melta). Plasma is 24 inches so first turn could give you easy access to hosing his XV-88s or some XV8's in range after you infiltrate. Go plasma.

Heavy1 & 2: 350

Defilers, indirect fire.

1499 points.

Go make him sweat

Cheers!

[bebe]

Very nic Mal. Here are my thoughts ...

In my first game against Tau, my Bloodthirster appeared right in front of their army, charging before they had a chance to shoot it. There was little they
could do after that as it munched Broadsides and Fire Warriors severely weakening theiry firepower. I've learnt that deamon summining is very tough on Tau. Daemonic Beasts packs are also just gravy Vs Tau, especially Mounted Daemonettes and Furies. They'll reach enemy lines rapidly and can cause a lot of damage within Tau lines. Tau are most vunerable in close combat - build with this in mind. Their kroot aren't to scary to fight in CC. A Daemon Prince with daemonic speed will work wonders for you. Remember too that sheer numbers of CSMs /w bolters is your best bet. Believe it or nor but statistically all MEQ's outshoot tau. Under no circumstances use any vehicles except tindirect defiler.
Anything else will just die. Since Tau want to shoot you want to advance. Now, i rarely use possesed but possesed with flight might be a good deal here.
One good type of army against Tau are all the termie heavy chaos lists- plague wing, dust wing, lust wing and rage wing. Raptors with melta guns and melta bombsare one of the best tank busting units in the game with thew bonus that they can also assault the infantry. You might even be able to knock to even rip the boradsides and hammerheads to pieces. They also match well against the crises suits. Consider infiltrating Havocs with autocannons too. 8-men Havocs with Tank Hunter and 4 Autocannons (or 6 with 3 ACs) crank out a nice stream of 8 Str8 shots Vs vehicles. You'll pop Hammerheads with them. Now Obliterators trouble Tau - take 3.

Small summary ...

mounted daemonettes
furies
possesed w/ flight
oblits
defiler with indirect
blood thirster
anything with speed/flight
raptors
bikes
bikes with icons
tankhunting autocannon

Notice the common theme? Infiltaration and speed kills Tau.

[Starchilde]

Interesting Mal, I'll have to try that build (proxied of course).

I should note that we generally play on a 4' x 6' table with city terrain on it - lots of area cover with narrow lanes to move through (these amount to kill zones for the Tau firing line while moving through the rubble slows my advance considerably). I'd be more than happy to take a shot of the table we play on to show you what I'm up against. Also, due to the kind of terrain, virtually all of his units set up inside the rubble giving them a 4+ invulnerable save. This makes instant kill weapons non-instant kill. Finally, the two units of Kroot he uses helps to negate the effectiveness of my infiltrators. In other words I end up 18"+ inches away (usually behind cover to avoid being shot to pieces if I fail to get the first turn). I have never been able to place a unit out of site and just over 12" from him - he has so many models that there is no where to go that is out of line of site.

In my defense, I use a defiler/predator annhilator combo, have infiltrating units, a lord with speed, and always hug terrain. However, he is smart enough to set his units far enough from intervening terrain to avoid a possible charge from me (leaving my units hanging out in the breeze to be torn up by his rifles). He also spreads units out to avoid me being able to sweep from unit to unit in assault. However, this last point is virtually moot since I have only gotten into assault with him once over the course of five games (and there was so little of my army left at that point that it didn't really matter). Admittedly, Death Guard is T5, but against massed pulse files/sniper drones I'm just not surviving.

I thank you for the comments - keep them coming!

[MalVeauX]

Starchilde,

Actually, the city fight terrain and tons of cover is in your advantage, more than his. Cover helps ward of shooting attacks. He's the one shooting, not you. So your guns are less effective, but you're not shooting at him with range. In that case, you simply drop all assault guns and go for dakka--just bolters. Cover won't save him from close combat, where you dominate him (and when I say dominate, I mean really dominate). The terrain, area terrain, etc, means less and less of his high powered low ap guns will effectively remove marines so fast--you get cover saves in terrain too. This is good. Also, terrain effects how Infiltration works. Out of line of sight, you can infiltrate up to 12 inches. This is total death for him if you get it.

Now, I knew you'd bring up Kroot and infiltration as a means to stop yours. But here's the thing. Infiltrators are setup last. You both set one unit at a time, and you roll to see how starts first. If you place your infiltrating unit first, all is well--you totally can disrupt his Kroot/Stealths that way. If he places an infiltrating unit first, no big deal, you simply build your infiltrators on a flank, or two flanks. You can sandwitch him from two sides. It's only one unit at a time when placing, so it's impossible for him to totally mess up your deployment with his Kroot. All he can do is deny one entry point, but there are many. And if you place first, you can take the best spot early. It's a win win situation either way. Just look at it differently.

Again, if you're hugging Terrain, and his snipers will rarely have good sight, and you will get that cover save too. His pulse rifles are strong, but not that strong. If his firewarriors can shoot you, your bolters can shoot him back (30 inches is only 6 inches from being in range... it's not a big deal at all). And when you have nearly the same number of marines as he has fire warriors, you win the shooting fight between them. Snipers are dangerous, but again, cover saves = they're less and less effective. Assault is always effective. Start loading up on the Twin HQs. Also remember, Ind. characters have "move through cover" already (part of being an ind. character). Fleet of foot ignores difficult terrain completely. You can get him in assault fast. And you can do it twice.

If you want to make things even more interesting, throw some Plague Bearers into the list and drop some T5 daemons on his head. You could summon them from the HQs, and they can move and attack right away starting turn 2 on a 3+. Tau can't even beat down poor little plague bearers in combat, so have at him. The more models you have the better. Don't put all your points into armor and things that Tau easily bust. Most of his guns live by AP value; cover negates it. Most of his units have normal guns, and T5 make them less and less effective. Take more models than he has guns and he simply can't stop you in you infiltrate all over him. And there's no way he can avoid all that, even with good terrain and even with infiltrators of his own.

[hr]

Alternative approach:

Look at the army. Notice it's completely kitted to be static, or move no faster than 6 inches, and not equipped well to deal with armor. They're massed up on beating marine armor saves (ie: anti-you). They're not however, configured well enough to take on enemy armies who are horde, or armies that have lots of skimmers/tanks/walkers. You can play that card, and render most of his army completely useless.

1 - Predators with linked lascannon and heavy bolter sponsons, dozers and extra armor are beasts. That's A14. He only has 3 guns in that list that can even do anything to it. Two of them are effective, being railguns. But if he can see your tank, you can see his XV88. And a single failed cover save from your lascannon = Dead XV88. Afterwards, you have full range to nail all his infantry with heavy bolters. Let them take cover saves; they can't even damage your tank anyways. The fusion blaster from the pirahna could be a threat. But it's only a 12 inch gun, and only effective at under 6 inch range. If he's that close, you can shoot him just as easy... with bolters. Simply eye ball the little skimmer, and keep some marines handy near your tanks and use other vehicles to shield your side armors. He can't move up in space that you occupy, so put marines where he can't get that 6 inch hot zone for his fusion. With all the terrain, no doubt you can get obscure target called on a 4+ from his rails, making you glance only, while you unload that lascannon into his hiding XV88s who will eventually fail a 4+ cover save and be insta-killed 50% of the time.

2 - Dreadnoughts with lascannons, missile launcher and mutated hull is also a beast. Again, almost all of his army can't touch A13. Only those 3 guns listed above can. And the same thing applies again. Now, missile pods can glance you... on a 6+. But you don't have to worry about that as you can imagine. That's a solid long range anti-suit walker that is immune to the rest of his army and his snipers, moving forward, and threatening to insta-kill those battle suits. Predators are better, but it's an option for theme if you want.

3 - Lower your marine count use. His army is built to kill them. So why give him what he wants? Take some plague marines, for sure, but keep them simple and keep them near your vehicles to ward off fast moving skimmers or XV8's who think they want to come close. In fact, you can even hide the marines behind your vehicles while you advance, if you can manage to snuff out his XV88s. Then you can waltz right into his front door. Also, consider Daemons as troops--not marines. That way you can summon daemons from your terminators, after they arrive. You just denied his army literally all targets, except for 3 units in his entire force.

4 - Take some Terminators. Maybe even two squads. While his army is built to kill marines, it's not built to deal with 2+ saves that are just as dangerous to him as he is to marines. You can deep strike two squads of Terminators into his territory and watch as he stresses trying to kill them. Sure, he may nail a few. But if you take two teams of 6, he can't kill them all, and the hunt is on after that.

Example:

HQ1 - 112 points.
Chaos Lt.
Mark of Nurgle
-Daemonic Speed
-Dark Blade
-Daemonic Visage
Bolt pistol, Frags, Spiky Bitz
(No need to infiltrate, just follow your vehicles. After termis arrive, he cannot be targeted due to not being the closest target--poor poor tau).

HQ2 - 108 points.
Chaos Lt.
Mark of Nurgle
Terminator Armor
-Daemonic Strength
Power Weapon
Combi-bolter
Retinue:
Plague Chosen Squad #1

Elite1: 450 points.

Plague Chosen Squad #1 - 225 points.
Chosen Terminators x 5
Mark of Nurgle
-Reaper Autocannon x 1
Chaos Icon

Plague Chosen Squad #2 - 225 points.
Chosen Terminators x 5
Mark of Nurgle
-Reaper Autocannon x 1
Chaos Icon

(One is a retinue, and one is a stand alone elite. The reason is to be allowed to have two squads, instead of one, since you may only use 1 single squad of terminators without being a retinue. Prepare to deep strike!)

Troop1: 112 points.
Plague Bearers x 7

Troop2: 112 points.
Plague Bearers x 7

Troop3: 96 points.
Plague Bearers x 6

(They can only arrive from your icons. They will arrive on turn 3, on a 2+, if your termis are on the board--meaning, they all arrive.)

Heavy1: 170 points.
Predator
-Linked Lascannon
-Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Mutated Hull, Dozer Blades, Extra Armor

Heavy2: 170 points.
Predator
-Linked Lascannon
-Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Mutated Hull, Dozer Blades, Extra Armor

Heavy3: 170 points.
Predator
-Linked Lascannon
-Heavy Bolter Sponsons
Mutated Hull, Dozer Blades, Extra Armor

1500 points.

Anyhow, you get the idea. Right away, you have an anti-tank war. He can only take down 2 preds. And it's decent odds, but not great for him. His XV88 has to have line of sight. You can call obscure target if deploy half in cover. He has to hit you (75% odds). He has to penetrate you (50% odds). And then, he has to destroy you (50% odds if penetrated; 17% if glanced due to obscure target roll, 50% of the time). You have three. He has two guns. The odds are more in your favor, since you have a twinlinked lascannon, each hitting an XV88, 83% of the time you will hit. 83% of the time you will wound. And if he has a cover save of 4+, you will instakill him 50% of the time. You have 3 lascannons doing that. If you kill even one XV88 it will severely limit his capability to deal with the predators. The rest of the army can't even touch them. The Piranha will pose a minor threat, but it's one you can generally ignore for the first turn as he no doubt will try to hide it and it cannot fire if it moves more than 12 inches--that means, no first turn punch downs on you. That means you can go for his XV88s right away. Next turn, hopefully some terminators arrive. You deep strike. He will now be hard pressed with those, and he will be trying to get his plasma in range of them. That's a lure. Because then the other terminators arrive, if they didn't already. And next turn, the daemons arrive. Plenty of daemons to cause plenty of ugly assaults too. And after this has happened, your HQ1 comes in, with his speed, and easily takes on anything that isn't already in assault.

Cheers!

[Keichi246]

I figure I would put my two cents in - being the designated target...

He had a fairly good synopsis of my army - he was missing one squad of 3 fireknives - but that is about it..

The broadsides are BASS configuration - TL RG, SMS, AdSS, Team leader- HWMT.

here's the way it looks from my side...

During set up - I try to set up long firing lanes with no fire warriors within 6 inchs of each other, each squad with a Sniper team in support. I try to make sure there are NO blind spots for a 12" infiltrate... Carefull placement generally lets me do that...

The kroot are my "anti-infiltrate" force - basically there to keep him further away - etc... whether they go first or second in the "infiltrate phase" I use them to either block off infiltrate zones - or use them to reinforce a threatened flank...

Because I outnumber his army almost 2 to 1 - i can place a significant portion of my army AFTER he deploys - which allows me to concentrate force where i think i need it. This then lets me pick a target - pound on it with markerlit fireknife suits, broadsides (if they aren't tank hunting), etc...

If the speed lord DOES make it into combat (which has only happened twice) - they tend to wipe the squad - but that just puts him out in the open for the rest of my army to squish him... (using a 150 pt character to kill a 120 pt squad)

T5 is good - but not THAT good...
I mean - 12 Pulse rifle shots at BS3 - average of 6 hits - wound on a 4+, 3 wounds. 1/3 kills. I average a Death Guard a squad of Fire Warriors... most times I can get 3 squads to target a a squad... thats half a 7 man squad just with Fire Warriors. Add in a some Fire Knife goodness - I average a Death Guard Squad a turn...

I just have to be careful in my targeting assement...

(BTW - it *is* a very static army... so far I haven't had too many problems dealing with anything that has been thrown at me... Medium to large horde 'nids melt under Pulse Rifle fire. Vehicles give me some problems - but that's why I have two BASS, and the Fusion Pirahna... Then again - most people around here aren't taking too many vehicles, so between the Broadsides and the Fireknifves - I can generally kill them ok enough...)

-Another Edited in comment: As to pounding me with defiler indirect fire - since the Defiler deploys as a heavy support choice - I generally have a very good idea of the miminum 36 inch range for indirect fire... It is rare that he has quality shots on anything particularly valuable for more than one or two turns... and if he has to step out for direct shots - well - that's what railguns are for...

Dave

[Dezart Fox]

dont stand in front of it

[freecloud]

Originally Posted by Starchilde

Needless to say I'm looking for suggestions and reccomendations on how to defeat such a Tau army. However, instead of just getting ideas for Death Guard, I'd like to open this topic up to all forms of Chaos to make reccomendations on dealing with a Tau army of this type. This will not only benefit us from a tactical point of view, but will help Keichi246 deal with other opponents (it's his tourney army after all).

Hi

I've played them twice with my Word Bearers...lost 1 drawn 1 (just played this weekend)...here's what I found:

1. Furies! - I have 3 units of 'em.......awesoms

2. The Lord is capable of crunching Suits and their HQ's...get him in early!

3. Just get the CSM into contact...I have 2 infiltrating units...was too slow to get in in game 1....just went for it in game 2...lost a lot of guys but MoCU helps

4. Game 2 I fielded a Defiler rather than Havocs.....I found the Pie Plate gave me options on the hiding suits I did not have earlier.

Game 1 I spent too much time shooting with my big guns.....Game 2 I just went for it...no soften up shooting at all.

[Gallthan]

Originally Posted by MalVeauX

Chaos Lt.
-Mark of Nurgle
Daemonic Speed
Daemonic Visage<--------
Power Weapon
Bolt Pistol
Frag Grenades
#Infiltration
117 points.

MalVeauX,
Sorry, but on this one point I have to disagree... Daemonic Visage. For normal use, its a fairly cheap power that can have a lot of effect, but for Tau, I normally don't want to kill them all in one turn (because it leaves my units out to dry on his firing phase). I'd replace it with Spikey Bits just for the re-roll (almost as good as another attack when you roll that many dice) and you should kill him off in his next turn, leaving the combat blocking line of sight to the rest of the army.

[MalVeauX]

Gallthan,

Perfectly fine to disagree. Daemonic Visage can be risky--quite true. While one may think that they are going to be stranded in the open after a sweep, it's not always the case. There are factors you must consider.

Allow me to explain:

1- You just charged with 5 attacks; no doubt, you got base to base contact, but only with a few, and only with a few near by in the 2 inch kill zone.
2- You will win combat. But you may not perform a sweeping advance, if there are no models in base to base contact.
3- Your opponent will have little choice, but to remove the models in the kill zone, since there will only be 2 or 3 anyways involved. You will kill them.
4- He can fail moral (Ld6) or pass moral. If he fails, he merely falls back. If he passes, he piles in (this is killer if this happens, huge tempo boost).
5- If he fell back and you were left stranded; it's possible you will lose the character. ***
6- If he passes moral and piles in upon you, there will be many models in base to base contact for the assault phase on his turn.
7- You will win combat again on his turn, there will be a model in base to base, and you can then perform a sweeping advance on his turn.
8- If you win combat on his turn, and sweep him, you will be free to assault again on your turn without being shot at.

While it's not perfect, you do see why this can be incredibly powerful? Having a massive tempo boost by him passing moral, is why it can be worth the risk. And remember, you have two of them and you can do it to two different units.

And while this may seem like a massive waste of spending the cost of your two HQ characters to kill measly infantry squads that possible cost less points--you're looking at it blindly as number compared to number. Your non-scoring unit, just eliminated a scoring unit and if your opponent fires at your character, he's firing at non-scoring victory points instead of a unit which is a scoring unit. Win-Win-Situation (***). And to top it off, so what if you lose two characters? You just denied him 12 to 24 guns, which is nearly half his firepower output in a given turn at variable ranges. That's not just a loss for him, that's a huge denail of tempo in terms of damage output in the shooting phase, that he needs to keep a constant damage total on you. If he can't shoot due to losing the guns, he becomes nothing but weaker and weaker in the shooting phase, and far more weaker in the assault phase.

It's not just black and white

Cheers!