[Shaso Wanax]

I'll be posting a series of batreps from my GT adventure last weekend, but I just wanted to make people aware (Now that it is too late) of a guy who has quietly worked the GT circuit in the US for the last few years: Scott Simpson.

Scott is a Tau player. I just watched him get a perfect score in 5 game to take second overall and best general both (obviously someone dinged him on sportsmanship or something). A perfect score people...with Tau...and a seemingly unplayable army list!

His list contained:
3 Railheads with decoy, TA, MT, and TL. secondary weapon was SMS IIRC

2 Pirranahs with fusion blasters, TA

3 teams of 2 each crisis suits all with fireknife+

1 'o with 2 'vre sunforge and 2 fireknife+ 2 Sdrones

4 6 man FW squads

That's it. No markerlights, no sniper drones, no vespids, no broadsides, no kroot, no shadowsun, no devilfish, nothing outstanding.

But he blistered everyone he met. I came in 30th of 70 or thereabouts and I mean I killed almost everything I saw with my hyper shooty Tau, but this guy just made me look like the amature I am.

What little I had the chance to watch, here is how he did it. The 3 railheads would all zap the same targets with template or shot depending upon what it was. the army to beat at this tournament was the 120+ ork waves that no one could shoot enough of (orks came in first overall). Scott pieplated them out of existance. His suits basically worked the meduim toughness vehicles and command groups, his fire warriors stood back to protect objectives and/or quarters.

I was in awe. the amazing part is that Scott's tactics with Tau have gardered him with 4 GT wins, 2 second places. The guy is dialed in. The sad part...4th edition is over. I talked to scott about 5th for some time and basically he is abandoning Tau as unplayable in 5th. :-[

[Sidstyler]

Well I can see why he got dinged for sportsmanship (that is, if he wasn't dinged just because he met someone who hated Tau :P). He's got 3 hammerheads, and your list is a little hard to understand but either 11-12 battlesuits (did he have two commanders with two bodyguards each, because you can't have more than two guards per commander I thought). He also minimized fire warrior squads.

People tend to hate hammerheads period and usually look down on battlesuit spam.

That's it. No markerlights, no sniper drones, no vespids, no broadsides, no kroot, no shadowsun, no devilfish, nothing outstanding.

Markerlights are a hit or miss for most people, lots of people don't ever use them it seems. Sniper drones are good, but usually outshined by railguns so they're not often used. And Vespid are no surprise. Kroot aren't anything outstanding either, but at least they're cheap.

As for the end of your post I can't say I admire his attitude. He's yet to hold the 5th edition rulebook in his hands, let alone play in a tournament under 5th edition, and he's giving up on the army that got him four GT wins just like that? Good riddance I say.

I mean we all have our hangups about 5th edition, but surely Tau won't be that bad...

[Vallessian]

Just downright disgusting.

He creates a devastatingly effective army in fourth edition, but then once fth edition comes out, he cries and claims the Tau are unplayable, when in reality they are he just can't stand the idea of being beaten since he can't use his old tactics as effectively.

Basically he's a power gamer and a poor sport. A smart gamer would adapt his army to be successful in the new edition.

[Dezart Fox]

Heh. sounds like my army almost.. except mine only has 6 firewarriors :shifty:

Yeah my perfected list is unplayable, but meh, I can make a new list. Ion heads or sky rays seem to be my friend now

[Falstead]

This guy isn't a genius, he's using a carefully tuned fairly standard tournament set up for tau. He's hit the pinnacle of 4th edition Tau. This certainly isn't "Tau...and a seemingly unplayable army list!"

Tau are a really nasty 4th edition army. 5th is going to be a really steep learning curve for them, but I think they'll still be effective in it, but they'll have to take an actual combined arms approach, not just spam the nasty.

[ForbiddenKnowledge]

Originally Posted by Falstead

Tau are a really nasty 4th edition army. 5th is going to be a really steep learning curve for them, but I think they'll still be effective in it, but they'll have to take an actual combined arms approach, not just spam the nasty.

Exactly. We've had a very good edition with 4th - a lot of things were in our favour. Now we have to change, and think a bit outside the box.

I've not altered my main Tau list virtually since 3rd, before FoF'ing made us better. And its been effective the entire time. Now, its gonna need a look at.

Last week at club, I used a completely different army - 3 fire teams, 12 kroot, commander, 2 helios, 2 tetra, a Hammerhead (Ion) and my Cuda (what, I don't use it much...) and it rocked. For a design I thought would be inneffective, weakened by loss of vehicles etc, and something I wasn't used to, it was brilliant. I lost a couple of Kroot, and they in return ate a Daemon Prince.

So its easy to be surprised - I thought the list would get shafted, but it performed so well I couldn't believe it. So all that needs to be done is a rethink of lists and strategy.

As for the guy packing up the army, well, good riddance to him. He was clearly WAAC, so I can't say its a huge loss.

[Vallessian]

5th edition gives shooty armies somewhat of an advantage since there is no more consolidation.

[ForbiddenKnowledge]

Originally Posted by Vallessian

5th edition gives shooty armies somewhat of an advantage since there is no more consolidation.

Dunno, compared to the disadvantages of running et al, I'm not sure thats great.

However, I think thats more of a problem for IG - we still do have mobility, even if its more limited now.

[Vallessian]

Well transports are no long dedicated I hear, to that will help IG as well as Tau.

[ShasVre_Koyaan_KiVak]

From this topic, I can see that I really need to research 5th Ed. That's about it :P