So I asked a question relating to *gasp* playing Tau.
Not painting, not fluff, not how to lose and then complain about it on the net on the Forum.
Locked and "Not up to standards" from so mod.
Really, you guys are doing the Tau players no favors with the high-handed fluff bunny elitism.
All I learned from A.T.T. was how to lose.
Thanks for poisoning the faction to newbies you Cry babies!
I can't understand their rule on no army list posts. If they kept army lists posts to a seperate section it wouldn't devalue the site.
ReplyDeleteAs I was learning Tau ATT was a nice site for exploring new ideas, in my case the Firestorm (missile/burst suits) and piranha blocking tactics. However over time it as become very anti-newbie, and only rehashs the same old concepts, as you can only look at individual units so much.
Some forums that do look at army list composition can be very random in the quality of the replies, eg. Warseer, but a Tau website I think is quite good is Tau Online (http://forums.tauonline.org/).
However the best sort of information dor you is browsing the old posts of the Tau bloggers you have on the right side of your blog. They are all good players and between them cover the different styles of Tau play.
One last source of information I would add is the 3++ blog, which has a very good Tau review section in his "Armies in 5th edition" section (http://kirbysblog-ic.blogspot.com/p/armies-in-5th-edition-articles.html).
To answer you question on heavy support make-up. In 1750 pts I use 2 railgun hammerheads and a unit of 3 broadsides, which tends to be on the heavy side of what I see in tournaments. At 1850 I would tempted to switch one of the hammerheads for 2 broadsides, but an alternative would be increase the number of crisis suits in the army.
What heavy support make-up have you been using so far, and what do you think of your current configuration ?
Rathstar
Hi Rathstar,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the advice on http://forums.tauonline.org , I'll check it out.
ATT is just unkind to new players and the new blood they'd bring to the hobby.
Right now I love my army. It's current incarnation is at 12 wins, 1 tie, 0 losses.
I'm in the process of scaling up from my comfort zone of 1500 points to 1850 for TempleCon. It's a different beast all together but the basics hold true. I ran it Thursday night with devastating results.
My initial thought was all Broadsides all the time, but dialed it down to two teams.
Also, it's dreadfully boring but 100% reliable. I've cut out Devilfish and Pathfinders completely!
How do you find the utility of Hammerheads vs Broadsides? I use to play Hammerheads, but the Twin-Linking of the Broadsides just makes it so much more reliable I found.
-Culain
Hi,
ReplyDeleteThere's no question that broadsides beat hammerheads hands down when it comes to tank killing. However the hammerheads do offer a few things the broadsides don't.
1) The hammerheads have the duality of being more versite because they can switch to anti-infantry with a large str 6 template and 4-6 more str 5 shots from secondary weapons.
2) The hammerheads are more mobile being able to move 12" and fire the railgun, meaning they are more likely to get side shots on vehicles, against predators and chimeras this can be very useful. Also if there is LOS blocking terrain mobility may needed to get a shot on important stuff.
3) Tau find it hard to score (with very fragile troops), and if there isn't a meltagun nearby I find hammerheads great at contesting objectives. Also hammerheads take some of the heat off any devilfishs you have when it comes to the targets of the enemy's anti-tank firepower.
All broadsides is definitely playable, so it depends on the how terrain heavy the boards you play on are, and the types of armies you'll face.
I'd still recommend considering the pathfinders, particularly as you move up to 1850 pts, where all three elite and heavy support slots are filled. The main reason is cover saves. When a vehicle pops smokes or is behind terrain 6 pathfinders will effectively double the effectiveness of a nearly 300 pt unit of broadsides, and against landraiders that you really need to stop by turn 2 at the latest they are golden. The devilfish can be used to keep the 6 fire warriors you have to take safe when they come onto th board from reserve. The ability to switch their support to what every is most effective at any point in time is what makes them so good in my mind (although I expect them to die by game end most games). Turn they guide a full broadsides squad stripping any vehicle cover saves, and later they can make MEQs cry when they guide crisis suits in rapid fire range :)
However overall it seems like your list mentality is fine, in that Tau excel at killing the enemy with broadsides, hammerheads and crisis suits, rather than capturing lots of objectives with fire warriors and kroot.
Rathstar
Excellent points Rathstar!
ReplyDeleteThat's actually a good reason to run Pathfinders. I went in the other direction and stripped the list down to simplicity and fewer moving parts. I'll toss it up tonight, thought, it's just different compared to most I think.
Looking forward to any feedback.
-Culain
I haven't seen ATT in a couple years, since I dropped the hobby, I came looking for it and there's this link right beside it on Google. At first I thought "Jeez, place must have changed" but nope it's the same as ever! I feel like there's got to be at least one comment on this post that defends the forum.
ReplyDeleteThe folks at ATT are (mostly) intelligent, and good people all. Yeah, they're elitist nerds from the outside, but that elitism comes from all the members following the same set of guidelines and elevating the overall quality of content of ATT above that of Tau Online or the Warseer forums.
ATT's good for the faction, that site has the best Tau-related content online and the vast majority of members don't deserve this publicity.