[rybnik]

write your advices, experiences

[warriorchris]

Well firstly welcome to boards and the forums. Secondly, is this for your personal use or general. If this is supposed to be a general tactica then try looking for one already. There is bound to be a one somewhere, try using the search function in the top right coner of the site.

But if this is for personal use we will need to know what you have in your army and roughly what your opponant has in his. This will allow us to consider how we would play the game.

Cheers

[Shas vre Tau kais]

Speaking as someone whos played as tau against space marines (an awful lot, might I add, I can't remember the last time I wasn't against marines or the occasional chaos space marines)

Firstly, if they take kroot, remember how weak they are and therefore how easy to kill they are at any time so you only need to shoot them to pieces when they actually become a serious threat, a lot of people overestimate the effectiveness of kroot and feel the need to shoot them to kingdom come on turn one, wasting a ton of firepower, and playing as tau I've found that they are excellent at drawing fire away from other, more valuable, units .

Secondly, if you have any tanks that you intend to remain stationary for the first few turns of the game or longer, try to put them in some sort of cover or terrain, otherwise they are at risk from deep striking fusion blasters.

Thirdly, make sure that you have a good few mobile units, otherwise jump shoot jump, or JSJ for short, is going to irritate hell out of you as they may have a large amount of firepower that you cannot touch.

Fourthly, do not underestimate tank hunting EMP grenades on fire warriors, one of my twelve strong fire warrior teams recently took out a chaos dreadnought in close combat, sustaining only three casualties themselves. This proves that they aren't as bad as everyone thinks.

Fifthly, terminators, I've found that I need to use one hell of a lot of firepower to bring these down if I don't have plasma rifles, but if I can't kill them they'll get to my physically softer units and make mincemeat out of them. So if you take them, (and I recommend you do) make sure that you cover them well, especially against plasma.

Finally, I reckon the sternguard veterans could be lethal against tau, the AP3 shots can be good against Crisis and stealth suits, and the AP4 can be good for out shooting fire warriors at range.

I hope that I've helped you.

[Watchdog]

I think rybnik needs advice on personal level, since I am his "steady" Tau opponent. I do not have a large army, to give me any real choice, yet, since I only started playing Warhammer 40.000 again just before Christmas 2008. I have kind of an advantage over him as I used to play Ultramarines in the 2nd Edition, so I kind of have an idea what are they good and bad in. Since rybnik plays Ultramarines, I chose Tau Empire.

He is usually having trouble with my Hammerhead tank (Railgun and SMS), which achieved a kill against his Predator Annihilator 2 times out of 3 in a direct shoot-out, and with my 2 XV8 Commanders' Plasma Rifles. The Stealth teams also cause a lot of trouble, but in the last battle, out of 6 Stealths and 4 Drones, only one team leader fell back from close combat and over the table edge. The rest got absolutely slughtered in close combat, notably by his Dreadnought.

We are currently in the middle of a partially self-evolving campaign. I write battle reports after our battles. If you are interested, they can be found here:

The Abandoned Outpost
The Recovery
The Crushing Strike

[warriorchris]

Ok, would it be possible to maybe post up what he usually uses and what you use?

[rybnik]

these are our rosters, I play Ultramarines

Tau Empire roster:

- two Shas'O Commanders, Fusion Blaster and Plasma Rifle, HW Multi-tracker, each having 2 Shield Drones.

- two bonded 3 man Stealth teams with a Marker Drone and a Shield Drone. The Shas'Uis had Shield Generators. The Shas'Vres each had a Drone Controller and a Markerlight,HW Multi-tracker and and HW Target Lock.

- two bonded 6 man Fire Warriors teams with Pulse Rifles, each led by a Shas'Ui.

- Devilfish transport, dedicated to one of the Fire Warriors unit. The Devilfish had Smart Missile System Targetting Array, Multi-tracker, Flechette Discharger, Disruption Pods and 2 Seeker Missiles.

- Hammerhead tank - Railgun, Smart Missile System, Multi-tracker, Flechette Discharger, Disruption Pods and 2 Seeker Missiles.

Total: 30 models

Ultramarines roster:

- Librarian, with Bolt Pistol, Force Weapon, Psychic Hood, Frag and Krak Grenades, Machine Curse and one shooting power.

- Dreadnought with close combat weapon, with Muti-Melta, Storm Bolter, Search Light and Smoke Launchers.

- Terminator Squad with Storm Bolers and Power Weapons.

- Predator with twin-linked Lascannon and two Lascannon Sponsons, Search Light and Smoke Launchers.

- three Tactical Squads - Veteran Sergeant, Flamer, Missile Launcher. One of them was carrying a Teleport Homer.

- Rhino, dedicated to one of the Tactical Squads, with a Hunter-Killer Missile, Search Light and Smoke Launchers.

Total: 44 models

[Watchdog]

Originally Posted by Chris the "Little Helper"

Ok, would it be possible to maybe post up what he usually uses and what you use?

Check the BatReps, there are army lists, though not thoroughly detailed. I always use Disruption Pods on my vehicles, since they help a lot against hits from a distance, especially those nasty Lascannons.

rybnik won this particular battle from which he posted the 1260 Points rosters. It was Annihilation mission. We both destroyed 3 units (Predator, Librarian and a Tactical squad vs. 2 Stealth teams and a Fire Warriors team), but mine were more expensive.

[warriorchris]

Ok, well then, rybnik, are you will to change your list a bit? because suggest getting rid of the hunter killer missile and search light on your predator and dread. those item i find are either not points effective or useless.

Next i would suggest dropping the terminators or dreadnaught (one or the other) and getting an assault squad. These will rip through fire warriors in assault. Possible get a few drop pods as well for the tactical squads. These will help you by allowing you to drop right in front of him so you take minimal casulties by getting there.

Tau tend to either rely on a very strong fire base (lots of fire warriors) or mobility (suits and skimmers) so in eitehr case really, a good shooting capacity and combat abnility is a must. With the Crisis suits JSJ (jump shoot jump) ability made worse, it makes it easier to take the suits with shooting. Just threaten them enough, try a tactical squad or flamers. while these won't negate the armour save, it will mean he won't get a cover save, thus making him unsafe behind cover (Taking away the key of the JSJ manouver) so they are stranding in the open. you should then be able to either melta them or just gun them down with enough shots.

But remember, it is the troop squads that count. You outnumber him and your basic troops are better. Use this to your advantage and take them soon, then he has nothing to hold objectives with. he can still contest, but he has effectivly lost the game from then on.

Hope i have helped

[Watchdog]

Until I get a full army to have some choice, our rosters are generallymade so that I choose my army, usually I buy what I can tell him what the Points limit is, and rybnik then fills the Points limit with his units. Some of the items he chose may have been just point fillers.

Some of the fights we had were prt of a campaign, with special demands on units are fielded, such as The Recovery mission.

When I get more units it is going to get better and more interesting for both of us.

[Greater good or bust.]

generally I think that drop pods devastate tau.

appearing half way up the table does that to them.