[kennyha]

So my friend is a power player and new nids haven't exactly made my situation look any better. He's beaten the best player between the six of us three times straight with this same list now from what I heard.

As far as I know, there's at least:
- Trygon Prime
- Mawloc
- Those two pop up or something like that

- Full squad of hormies
- Some synapse creature?
- Run up while everything is tied up.

I don't know how Tau could handle that if they rush you so quick. Melee is obviously not an option

[salamut2202]

ok, keep you kroot back and tie up that mawloc before it can burrow again, and ion cannon is more effective than a rail gun in the case of monstrous creatures. afp is great against nid troops denying coversaves and cib is nasty to get in before an assault due to a high rate of fire. if your suites have a twin linked weapon then take a flamer for those nasty surprises. synapse is a priority but hormagaunts a fast enough that even under the influence of feed will come after what they want anyway.

[pepsi]

Tau have every weapon in the sun specialized for the nids now. Now, its timing the flankers coming in, with your own. Everything with a 3+ save is now more friendly fire capable, and plasma actually doing something against FNP is a definate plus. It might be recommended to keep suits in, until the surprise shows, until then missiles ahoy mate. Kroot actually make sense with nids, they are cheap, less of a liability and hey, stick them in cover and most nids wont even have grenades to be smacked with a space marine style attack.

Even swarm lords will have issues with 9 missile wounds, which should be the magic number to kill them on average . You can never run the risk of having your whole army in static defense, but you can always place bait for "casaulties" poor shas las

Tervigons are actually one trick ponies if you can kill them. You get one down, you can simply pin gaunts all day.

Mawlocs? Wait for it to come, and hit it with all you got at once. easier said then done, but again, timing. Cyclic ion blasters for your commanders mate :P Missiles and flamers for everyone, leaders with their appropriate plasma

[jonnyp]

The ioncannon is great weapon agaisnt the bitter bugs. With three S7 AP3shots a turn at BS4-5 they can really bring the hurt every turn. dont underestimate the hammer head pie plate either, it deletes the gants armor AND FnP should they have it. Tau have more than enough weapons to deal with the gribblies.

Best bets:
Hammer heads
Crisis suits
Kroot
Fire warriors
Stealth suits

Not so hot
Sky ray
Pathfinders
Piranahs

Worthless:
Broadsides
Vespid
Ethereal

my 2 cents

[kennyha]

HQ
Shao’O – 145Pts
-AFP
-CIB
- HW Drone Controller W/ 2 Shield Drones
-Multi-Tracker

Elites
(3) Crisis Suit – 141 Pts
-TL Missile Pod
-Flamer

Troops
(2) 6 Firewarriors – 120 Pts
10 Kroot – 100 Pts
- 5 Hounds

Heavy Support
(2) Ionhead – 240 Pts
-Dual Burst Cannons
-Disruption Pods

So how's this? My HQ is this hard hitting mob clearer. The Crisis suits help mop up mobs that might endanger the HQ after his shooting, or light up his monstrous creatures with 3+ saves or worse. Hopefully Flamers can do something besides take up 4 pts each. Also help when mawloc pops up.

The kroot is distraction, rapid firing, kroot hounding, w/e. Try and slow down the progression of the mob.

The two tanks have tremendous range even with ion cannons. The reason I took them over the railgun is because with so much monstrous creatures, hopefullly the HQ can help whittle down large gaunt squads. These guys will nail mounstrous creatures, and help when the Mawloc pops up.

[pepsi]

looks simple and solid mate. ;D, no bonding knife for your crisis teams? oe 3 seperate ones?

[salamut2202]

that's actually a very good list right there. nids would now hate and accuse you of trailering and cheese. have fun!

[BlackPowderChocobo]

Personally, I hate using AFP/CIB combo on a commander; the AFP really doesn't take advantage of the high BS score and with both weapons, your commander cannot tackle most MC's due to the low strength. I'd keep him Aurora; he can deal with any target with that load out. (upto 7 shots, 2 of 'em denying FNP guaranteed if they wound).

If you need the AFP, upgrade one of the Deathrain suits to be a Shas'vre and slap that on instead of the Flamer; on that note, I'd also consider giving one of the other suits a pair of Flamers a single Missile Pod for some Wound Allocation abuse, just in case they receive some stray fire (overall net cost for both moves is +12 points). As Pepsi suggested, may wish to consider a BK, and even a shield drone or a HWMT for the Shas'vre as well. Heck, even a HW-Target Lock has promise if you need to AFP something different from the flamers/missiles of the other 2).

I suggest this as it allows your HQ to be useful regardless of what he's facing. Your Deathrain suits can still go after MC's or swarms with the same overall effectiveness.

Lastly, get Multi-trackers for the Ionheads. If you can take out the big bugs, most Tyranids have poor Leaderships without the Synapse and you can then Tank shock a group of troop 'nids then still fire the Ion Cannon at your target of choice, all the while giving you a nice lil defensive boost to your tank from assaults (alternatively, the points for a Target Lock can allow you to still fire the BC's at a small horde with the MC going after the bigger fish).

Of course, this is all without knowing your point values you play at, but hopefully this is still useful to you!

Sincerely,
BPC