Some army photos might brighten up the Blog.Here's my new Piranha!
Friday, October 22, 2010
Saturday, October 16, 2010
“Stop eating your Kroot Loops”
Kroot or “Stop eating your Kroot Loops”
Why use Kroot?
I’m not a Kroot hater. I have 40 assembled Kroot, 30 painted and 50+ Kroot desprued.
I’m a Kroot fan. But after using them in games, I gotta ask, are they worth it? Verse Spaz Marines, the Kroot die like lemmings into a blender. A space marine can break wind and an entire Kroot squad is wiped out.
But why field them?
They’re cheap. 70 points buys you 10 of them. Tactical uses: they form a cheap unit wrap, aka “Kroot loops.” This benefits if the Tau warrior is playing the Internet approved Tau Castle game. The Tau Castle just makes it easier for your opponent to win, but further details on the reasoning behind that will be offered in another post. The Tau Castle is just a bad deployment, mediocre group-think, but more on that another time.
Cheap does not forgive crappy. They have no save, for 45-55+ points PER UNIT you can give them a 6+. Those points equal most of Fire Warrior squad or a Crisis Suit.
What can make them not horrible:
The Best Use
The best use of the Kroot is to annoy your opponent. Nothing can distract/annoy/confuse your opponent like 32 units showing up on turn 2. Others might think, “That’s unreliable!” My Pathfinder Devilfish disagrees. On a 2+ they show up. Some might want to split the Kroot into smaller units to assure they get something on the proper table edge. Smaller units die quicker, it’s a good idea but I want my Kroot massed for safety and to raise that 25% casuality limit high. Also, every shot heading at the Kroot is one less at my Crisis Suits or Broadsides or Devilfish.
And bring them in as far away from your table edge as possible! Because when the unit fails it leadership check, because it will happen (quickly) you can still fire while retreating.
Those 32 Units have 3 attacks in close combat on a charge so 96 attacks. Moving in you can ring a transport and prevent debarking. And unless it’s a Landraider by volume you will pop it.
Standard Kroot Uses:
Hiding:
If there are forests or swamps on the table deploy as close to them as possible and Run into cover, get them into cover as quick as possible or kiss your 70+ points goodbye. The Kroot can then sit there and fire out of cover. Any unit assaulting into cover goes last in initiative. This means the Kroot get to take some opponents with them before they are murdered horribly. They can also shoot out of cover give you a 24 inch firing arc. That many shots is bound to hit something.
Contesting:
A ten man squad of Kroot can stretch a little less than 30 inches (1 inch base, unit cohesion) that can hold or challenge 1 or 2 objectives.
What else could I buy instead?
If you want to protect units buy a Devilfish, it’s 10 points more, armored and comes with 2 drones. 70 points is a baseline Broadside. And that TL Railgun will do damage, toss in 5 more points for the Multitracker and missiles away. Or get 6 Firewarriors and give 3 of them EMP grenades. Those Grenades can kill Mech. Or a Piranha with Melta.
So What?
If you’re going to field Kroot, either run into cover and pray the enemy ignores them, or fill up the unit and wreak havoc until they get shot at and run away like the French.
Sure you can build your walls out of them, but those walls will come tumbling down.
Why use Kroot?
I’m not a Kroot hater. I have 40 assembled Kroot, 30 painted and 50+ Kroot desprued.
I’m a Kroot fan. But after using them in games, I gotta ask, are they worth it? Verse Spaz Marines, the Kroot die like lemmings into a blender. A space marine can break wind and an entire Kroot squad is wiped out.
But why field them?
They’re cheap. 70 points buys you 10 of them. Tactical uses: they form a cheap unit wrap, aka “Kroot loops.” This benefits if the Tau warrior is playing the Internet approved Tau Castle game. The Tau Castle just makes it easier for your opponent to win, but further details on the reasoning behind that will be offered in another post. The Tau Castle is just a bad deployment, mediocre group-think, but more on that another time.
Cheap does not forgive crappy. They have no save, for 45-55+ points PER UNIT you can give them a 6+. Those points equal most of Fire Warrior squad or a Crisis Suit.
What can make them not horrible:
The Best Use
The best use of the Kroot is to annoy your opponent. Nothing can distract/annoy/confuse your opponent like 32 units showing up on turn 2. Others might think, “That’s unreliable!” My Pathfinder Devilfish disagrees. On a 2+ they show up. Some might want to split the Kroot into smaller units to assure they get something on the proper table edge. Smaller units die quicker, it’s a good idea but I want my Kroot massed for safety and to raise that 25% casuality limit high. Also, every shot heading at the Kroot is one less at my Crisis Suits or Broadsides or Devilfish.
And bring them in as far away from your table edge as possible! Because when the unit fails it leadership check, because it will happen (quickly) you can still fire while retreating.
Those 32 Units have 3 attacks in close combat on a charge so 96 attacks. Moving in you can ring a transport and prevent debarking. And unless it’s a Landraider by volume you will pop it.
Standard Kroot Uses:
Hiding:
If there are forests or swamps on the table deploy as close to them as possible and Run into cover, get them into cover as quick as possible or kiss your 70+ points goodbye. The Kroot can then sit there and fire out of cover. Any unit assaulting into cover goes last in initiative. This means the Kroot get to take some opponents with them before they are murdered horribly. They can also shoot out of cover give you a 24 inch firing arc. That many shots is bound to hit something.
Contesting:
A ten man squad of Kroot can stretch a little less than 30 inches (1 inch base, unit cohesion) that can hold or challenge 1 or 2 objectives.
What else could I buy instead?
If you want to protect units buy a Devilfish, it’s 10 points more, armored and comes with 2 drones. 70 points is a baseline Broadside. And that TL Railgun will do damage, toss in 5 more points for the Multitracker and missiles away. Or get 6 Firewarriors and give 3 of them EMP grenades. Those Grenades can kill Mech. Or a Piranha with Melta.
So What?
If you’re going to field Kroot, either run into cover and pray the enemy ignores them, or fill up the unit and wreak havoc until they get shot at and run away like the French.
Sure you can build your walls out of them, but those walls will come tumbling down.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
The Battle of Blueberry Gulch
The Battle of Blueberry Gulch (As we were drinking Blueberry Ale during the game.)
“Hey, what’s that?” I ask pointing to a large tank.
“A land raider.”
“It’s cool looking. What’s the armor?” I ask wondering how easily my Broadsides will destroy his work of art and the many, many points it must represent. His tears (metaphorically) will be delicious and for the Greater Good or something.
“14.”
“Oh, so like 14 front, 12, 10?”
“No, 14 all around.”
“Oh.” That’s... a challenge. 4 to glance with a Broadside. 3 Broadsides on the table. 2 Fusion Blaster Piranhas. And every troop unit he put on the table is wrapped in a Rhino.
A whole lot of transports, not enough Armor Penetration to pop it all first turn and my sight lines were partially obscured by terrain.
I’ll spare you the full Batrep, we ended in a tie in turn 7 which was the best I could hope for after all my troops were killed except some Kroot who spent 7 turns sitting on an objective.
My Piranhas blocked in his land raider, popped drones and then annoyed him. The Piranhas faced sundry forms of getting incapacitated, weapon destroyed, immobilized, etc. His terminators did have to disembark to kill the Drones which I took as a moral victory.
Moments of Learning:
1) Sniper Drones suck. They seem good on paper. Another Broadside is points better spent.
2) I do not miss my Hammerhead. Sure it had a big gun, with cool gearhead upgrades, looks awesome, but in it’s place are two broadsides. Twice the gun, and twice the twinlinked. Also, with a TL upgrade and a HW Multitracker, it gets to fire zee missiles! The option to fire the missiles makes it superior to the Hammerhead Burst cannon in terms of range, if not in terms of rate of fire. My testing agrees with Shoot Tau Thrill.
3) A Devilfish provides the same cover silhouette as a Hammerhead for 1/2 the cost. Sure it’s risky using a troop filled transport as mobile cover but the 3 to 4 Crisis Suits behind it make it worth it.
4) I’d been fielding Fireknives (Plasma and Missile Pods) exclusively. Plasma kills Marines dead. However, getting into Rapid Fire range is chancy and point for point, stripping my list down to 1 team of Fireknives and a FKnife commander and using the point savings from the other 3 man squad equates to 2 2 man squads of Missile Pod Suits. With the enhanced Range and Twin-linking, I think it’ll be an improvement.
“Hey, what’s that?” I ask pointing to a large tank.
“A land raider.”
“It’s cool looking. What’s the armor?” I ask wondering how easily my Broadsides will destroy his work of art and the many, many points it must represent. His tears (metaphorically) will be delicious and for the Greater Good or something.
“14.”
“Oh, so like 14 front, 12, 10?”
“No, 14 all around.”
“Oh.” That’s... a challenge. 4 to glance with a Broadside. 3 Broadsides on the table. 2 Fusion Blaster Piranhas. And every troop unit he put on the table is wrapped in a Rhino.
A whole lot of transports, not enough Armor Penetration to pop it all first turn and my sight lines were partially obscured by terrain.
I’ll spare you the full Batrep, we ended in a tie in turn 7 which was the best I could hope for after all my troops were killed except some Kroot who spent 7 turns sitting on an objective.
My Piranhas blocked in his land raider, popped drones and then annoyed him. The Piranhas faced sundry forms of getting incapacitated, weapon destroyed, immobilized, etc. His terminators did have to disembark to kill the Drones which I took as a moral victory.
Moments of Learning:
1) Sniper Drones suck. They seem good on paper. Another Broadside is points better spent.
2) I do not miss my Hammerhead. Sure it had a big gun, with cool gearhead upgrades, looks awesome, but in it’s place are two broadsides. Twice the gun, and twice the twinlinked. Also, with a TL upgrade and a HW Multitracker, it gets to fire zee missiles! The option to fire the missiles makes it superior to the Hammerhead Burst cannon in terms of range, if not in terms of rate of fire. My testing agrees with Shoot Tau Thrill.
3) A Devilfish provides the same cover silhouette as a Hammerhead for 1/2 the cost. Sure it’s risky using a troop filled transport as mobile cover but the 3 to 4 Crisis Suits behind it make it worth it.
4) I’d been fielding Fireknives (Plasma and Missile Pods) exclusively. Plasma kills Marines dead. However, getting into Rapid Fire range is chancy and point for point, stripping my list down to 1 team of Fireknives and a FKnife commander and using the point savings from the other 3 man squad equates to 2 2 man squads of Missile Pod Suits. With the enhanced Range and Twin-linking, I think it’ll be an improvement.
Intro to Play Tau Win
Now I’m a new player, 4 games in total. I’m new but learning. I've been reading up on the faction and the game for about 2 months now.
Sunday means beer and Warhammer 40k by the Grace of my wife.
I believe the Tau can be competitive. Here is my tale...
Sunday means beer and Warhammer 40k by the Grace of my wife.
I believe the Tau can be competitive. Here is my tale...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)