[TauGamer]

Me and my friend just started playing 40k. enyway...he always rushes me with his space marine assualt squad. how do i(the tau) deal with this??

[Watchdog]

Stay out of charge range, try to put some impassable terrain between you and the Assault Marines. If at all possible, use your Suits to carry some Marine killing weaponry, such as Plasma Rifleor even Fusion Blaster in case of Stealths, and to jump to range, shoot and jump out.

Most importantly concentrate fire on the Assault squad. Sooner or later they start failing their saves in the massive hail of shots you should be able to throw their way.

Works for me.

[khanaris]

You can try to put a small unit in front to serve as a speed bump. Assault Marines have the same protective equipment as regular marines, but they cost more. So it may be worth sacrificing one unit in order to gain a turn of shooting with multiple units. Plasma Rifles cut through them pretty well, as do massed units of Fire Warriors.

[leatherback]

a couple SDT's can make short work of a team of space marines, especially with markerlight help. Just for some math.
3 SDT's will get 5.5 hits, 4.58 wounds, 4.58 dead marines (as long as they are out of cover). All this is without any outside markerlight help. Of course, 72 BS3 pulse shots will also down 5 marines, 48 BS4 works too.

[I am Legion]

Yeah It's not hard to deal with them as the above posts have mentioned most of the ways to deal with them. But I use lots of firewarriors, (and drones) sometimes with carbines so I pin most of the time. It would help knowing what you use in a regular game.

[yoogK]

i think a lot of it depends on how the marines are getting to your firewarriors. are they running at you? are they being transported in a rhino? if they are running at you, you should have a couple of turns to shoot at them and thin out their numbers with the FW's range along with at least one turn where youwill be able to rapid fire at them.

if they are in rhinos, a railgun will glance on a roll of 1 and penetrate on a roll of 2 so it shouldn't be a problem. even missile pods have a good chance to pen their transports.

main point, just stay away from them =T if you can't for whatever reason, field a full unit of kroot =D

[yoogK]

hm sorry, i just assumed you were talking about your firewarriors getting assaulted. if it's your suits, you should be able to constantly stay out of their assault range by jsj. rite? o and equip your suits with plasma rifles so the marines don't get armor saves.

[GoneFishing]

It really does depend on how he plays them, but they should not be able to get a first turn assault in (unless he is using the rather nasty tactic of putting Shrike in with the unit which gives them infiltrate and fleet! :-[ )

After that there are several ways of killing them - my favourite is Kroot! (which will not surprise many people! lol).

If you send 15 Kroot and 10 Kroot Hounds into a unit of 10 Assault Marines, the result should be fairly good. Your Kroot Hounds are faster, they will go first in CC, with 30 attacks, hitting on 4's and wounding on 4's

- so 15 hits and 7.5 Wounds - result? Should be 2 to 3 Dead Marines.

The Space Marines then hack back - lets say you have killed 3, so they have 7 left (including the Sergeant)

- That's 15 Hacks back, hitting on 4's and wounding on 3's - So 7.5 Hits and probably 5 wounds. - 5 Dead Kroot.

Take your casualties from the Kroot Hounds (who have fought already) and you still have 45 attacks from your Kroot (hitting on 4, wounding on 4).

- So you hack back. That's 22.5 Hits and 11.25 Wounds - which should result in 4 Dead Marines.

So Combat results are Kroot - 7 Wounds, Marines 5 Wounds - You have won Combat by 2.

If there Sargent is still alive they have leadership 9, and will need to make a break test on a 7, if he is dead it will be a 6. If they run you might hack them down (hooray). If they stay and fight you will probably win the next round of Combat as well.

This Tactic is even more successful if you can shoot the Marines up before hand so they have less models and therefore less attacks in CC (or just shooting them up so you don't have to use Kroot at all!) . There are several effective ways of doing this.

XV8's with TL Flamers - This is a very very cheap unit, you can genrally set up 3 of them for 102 Pt's. Why are they good? Because they should cause an awful lot of Wounds! In my Last game against Marines I had to deal with an Assault Squad and Shrike infiltrating in and hitting my Commander in the first turn of the Battle - In turn 2 I Deepstriked 2 TL Flamer Suits by the Assault Squad and killed 8 of them and wounded Shrike....My opponent was unlucky with his saves but with 3 Suits equipped like this if your opponent is bunched up you will cause carnage!

If you can hit all 10 of them with 3 Templates that's 30 Dice to Wound, re-rolling failures.

- So 15 Wounds, and 15 Re rolls - then 7.5 Wounds - Average result - 22.5 Wounds. - That should result in 7 dead Marines.


Khanaris has already very sensible mentioned Pulse Fire - Enough Pulse Rifles firing will down a few of them happily. (On averages every 12 FW's shots should result in 1 Dead Marine, with out Markerlight Support).

Then there is your AP3 Weaponry.

Ion Heads - AP3, will mow down Marines if they are not in cover (2 Dead per Ion Head on average.

Sniper Drones. - I am not a fan of them myself, they are to fragile in 5Th, and too static for my tastes. But if Fairness as Leatherback says -

Originally Posted by leatherback

a couple SDT's can make short work of a team of space marines, especially with markerlight help. Just for some math.
3 SDT's will get 5.5 hits, 4.58 wounds, 4.58 dead marines (as long as they are out of cover). All this is without any outside markerlight help. Of course, 72 BS3 pulse shots will also down 5 marines, 48 BS4 works too.

They are an effective long range option from a pure firing standpoint, you can also boost the numbers of your Rail Rifles by taking Path Finder Teams with Rail Rifles (3 Per Team) which adds to the long range Carnage).

Then there are the more expensive options like Plasma Rifles on your Suits - which will also cause carnage (if there are no Cover Saves).

Vespid will also be effective, but again - I am not a fan! I would suggest reading this Thread before you make up your mind on Vespid! http://forums.tauonline.org/index.ph...msg1098543#new

Generally speaking though you should be OK if you focus your fire on the unit, they will fall down like any other Marine! - And don't be afraid to sacrifice a unit, you can use it to hold his unit in place (to receive yet more fire - he cant consolidate into CC anymore) or to make sure it is positioned where you want it (to take a full Charge from your Mighty Kroot ).

I notice you aslo have a similar thread at the moment "I need help with tau tactics!" - The answers there will be very similar to this - Marines are a vanilla Army, the only difference between and Assault Marine and a Tactical Marine is the Jump Pack and the Close Combat weapon. But anyway, here are a few rules that you should try to stick to when playing Tau.

Don't Overload on cool toys - we have lots, but the points start adding up when we take them in bulk. Just take what you need to fulfill your battle plan.

Don't spread your forces across the entire table edge (especially against Marines). Tau Armies need SUPPORT from other units more than any other Army, If you keep your forces together you will be able to focus your fire on a unit and take it out/cripple it. If you are spread across the table the weight of your fire will be ineffective and you will find your units taken out 1 at a time, and your response will be ineffective.

Focus your Fire - as above really, If there is a threat to your Army you want to take it down quickly, focus all your fire on it and it will fall over. Then next turn do the same on another unit. Try not to split your shots up firing at loads of different units each turn, you will get a few Models but the rest will keep on moving right at you (especially if they are Marines).

Use your Maneuverability. When you first start playing Tau the temptation is to create a very static force and blaze away. This can work, but it takes away one of the greatest strengths of the Tau, we have a fast maneuverable army, and played Right we can bring alot of Fire Power to a point on the Battlefield quickly and effectively.

Don't be afraid to lose units - sometimes it can be necessary to gain advantage later.

And finally, Objectives and positioning. Tau rely a little more (in 5Th Edition) on pre game set up than other armies. Always keep in mind your battle plan when placing objectives/units, for example if you are packing massive amounts of fire power put an objective right out in the middle of the table with no cover - you can mince anyone who trys to take it.

When you do hold objectives its good to have a secure focused base that your Troops can hold easily (plenty of supporting fire), you can then rely on other faster units to contest your opponents ones (like Piranha's, XV8's, Tanks etc).

Hope this all helps and good luck with it!

[leatherback]

But I use lots of firewarriors, (and drones) sometimes with carbines so I pin most of the time.

Against Marine's, Carbines are a bad idea. Unless you take a lot of markerlights, they are just to hard to pin.