Heavy armor, Flyers and You: Tau in 6e

A Couple of builds led by a Solid HQ Choice are emerging.

Tau are masters of shooting, Kroot, Firewarriors all have the ability to pour out torrents of fire to lay into infantry so I’ll skip that.  I want to talk about the Tau’s new weakness, heavy armor and heavy (AV 12 flyers).  Yes the masters of Landraider-slaying are no longer.

1) HQ with Broadside Detachment.

This is a great combo unit against flyers and medium to low armor.

Take a full broadside team with the high yield missiles and interceptor.

Take an HQ with Iridium Armor and the Puretide Chip and missile as well.

Also take a full complement of Missile drones.

This means when a flyers, Drop Wolves, etc comes in you can shoot 16 twinlinked missiles at them.  Sure you need a 6 to hit, but it’s twinlinked and you can reroll failed pens.

2) The Assassin with Passion Shadowsun!

Shadowsun is even better in 6e.

While Tau can get Melta from Piranhas, Crisis Suits or Riptides, you have to be close enough to make it count.  Shadowsun can infiltrate.  In fact all Stealth Suits can infiltrate.  Also, they can take Target Lock.

As deployment zones are not that huge armor tends to clump up.

Take a maximum Stealth Squad with 2 Melta Guns and Target Locks (200) points.  Join Shadowsun (with her C&C drone of course).  You start 18 inches away unless you can grab some great cover so it’s not a true melta shot, but you can probably side armor shot 3-4 targets, with a reroll from the drone.  Additionally those Strength 5 shots of which you have 20 are excellent for laying into troops.

For added lols take the Serg/Vre upgrade on a Burst Cannon with the markerlight and target lock..

Paint another armored target.  In your Fast Attack take a Piranha with 2 Seeker Missiles who can move 30 inches and use the Markerlight to fire it.

Pathfinders and 6e

So I denounced them last post.

Here's why I was wrong.
Yes, 4 sexy sexy markerlight drones for 56 points is amazing.

Pathfinders come in packs of 4, like a good micro-brew with Markerlights for 44 points each.

So it's better.

Also BS3 Pathfinders vs BS2 Drones.

The Pathfinder weapons are kind of bad, and the drones are too limited to be useful, but dang, 11 point Markerlight @ BS3? 
Thanks Great Good!

Tau are the New Sexy in 6e (Tau Tips)

Tau and You in 6th Edition

Executive Summary for Non-Tau players: Take Land Raiders.

The days of 9 10/1 shots are over.

However, I'll take it as there are now so many, many options.

The Broadside is dead, long live the broadside.

Nerfed down to 8/1 weapons, they now are missile batteries.

High Yield Missile Batteries + Smart Missile Systems + Missile Drones = Holy SHIT THAT'S A LOT OF MISSILES!

Unfortunately this means a choice between Missile Batteries and Hammerheads.

Hammerheads are the new sexy

10/1 with a 1 point Black Sun Filter and a Submuntion upgrade for 5 points.

They're the new AV 13/14 killer.

Set us up the Bomb

Farsight is back. 

Why is this important?  His 7 Samurai can take unique (and kind of weird) support systems.

Also there is one called the Donkey Punch, no seriously.  Onager Gauntlet, you're getting Donkey Punched.

Ones that let the unit reroll all to hit if the bearer doesn't shoot or one that denies cover saves, again if the person doesn't shoot.

And here's the sexy, one of them lets me deny shooting to a squad within 12 inches.

And here's the C-c-c-combo:

Farsight's Minion denies your ability to shoot.

Vespids Assault (after shooting AP3 guns.)   You can't over watch.  Hammer of Wrath from the Vespid, I6 Attacks and hit and run.

If you see Farsight and a massed amount of Vespid you are about to lose Close Combat against Tau.

You've lost close Combat against the Tau and now you have to live with that.  See you Space Cowboy.

Anti-Air

Not great. And by not great I mean balanced.  Interceptor + Skyfire is really, unkind vs flyers (and yes the Dragon is OP, we all know that) but gunning down your flyer before you get to use it is lame.

Tau can take systems to get Interceptor or Skyfire, but it's really hard to take both.  In fact the only Units who can take both are HQ Suits and the Riptide.  And that's a waste.

Pathifinder
Are bad.  And that's okay.  All the categories have great stuff, Pathfinders have really overpriced weapons.

Kroot
Are typo'd the italic text says their rifle is close combat weapons but they've lost a point of strength and an attack in close combat.  They're great for outflanking Krootoxs or once they can take cheaper Space Marine HQs, but for now, either take all of them or none.

-Gundam John

Battlegrounds 500 Batrep

This was one of the best tournaments I played in as skill is more important at low levels and it didn't last 12 hours!

Recap: Tabled 3 Opponents.  Got tabled once


Grats to Ben on his victory!
Today was awesome.

Game 1: 21 Minutes
Vic’s Tau
Deployment: Hammer/Anvil with me going first and taking the high ground and 5 objectives

You know it’s going to be an easy match when I correct my opponent’s illegal list and help make it better.
His list: 6 Firewarriors, 1 Hammerhead, Kroot, 2 man team of C. Suits with 2 drones, 1 suicide suit

Turn 1:  Move up the Razorbacks to get line of fire on the drones, Split fire off the lascannons dropping the templates on the Kroot and removing the Hammerhead quickly.
Inflict 18 wounds on the Kroot but he makes enough cover saves to have some Kroot left.
Kill the two drones.

Leadership time, of which the Tau are legendary and now is no exception!  
The Suits fail and flee off the board.
The Kroot run 11 inches to safety off the board.

His suit shows up, scatters, melta shots my Razor, misses and then get 3 inches in assault away.
I disembark 1 troop on to an objective and they open up on the suit who explodes.

The Heavy Weapons finish off the firewarriors.

Vic went on to get 1st in the 3rd bracket.  I then told him my philosophy on the Tau in 6e.  He took notes.

Game 2: Chaos Marines 12 inch deployment, 2 objectives.
2 Squads of Cultists, 1 Squad of Obliterators, 1 Hell Drake.

We trade fire with my missiles pound the cultist removing one squad completely by turn two.
His obliterators take out my Razors on turn 2.  And get assaulted by the Obliterators on Turn 3
I park my remaining Razor back with the back armor directly against terrain.

Turn 3 the Drake shows up.  If it had arrived turn 2, completely different story.
Turn 3, it toasts on of my Long Fang squads.
Turn 4 it takes out the top rank of the other squad leaving a missile launcher and lascannon on the bottom.
Turn 4, Assault with the obliterator finally ends and my 1 remaining Grey hunter flees right on to the objective.  More cultists are gun down.
Turn 5
The Drake vectors and flames my Razor.  The Razor survived!  This wins the game.
I put a Lascannon up it’s back side and it dies.  My Razorback heavy bolters down the last Obliterator and with 3 Cultists left on the board he concedes.  This was the tightest match of the day.

Game 3: 
It happened.  

Game 4
Tyranids
List: Pooper, the Flyer, 11 Termegants.
I deployed like shit with my Long Fangs.  I deserved to lose this game and I did.  It was the Tyranid Flyer and the one that poops Termegants.  I only lost by 100 victory points as the Termegants I set on fire counted double.  As plucky as the Space Marines were, I got tabled.

Game 5  12 inch deploy, 3 objectives
Chaos
This was the most balanced match of the day.  He had a Razorback with 7 dudes, a Champion with a Plasma Gun, Cultists, Dread-Rifleman, A Terminator HQ.

Turn 1, I immobilize his Dreadnought and take the Havoc Launcher off the Razorback while sniping Cultists.

Synopsis.  I sneak my Razorback around, set fire to all the cultists while my heavy weapons take out his Chaos Marines.  My Long Fangs and his Dread exchange fire for 5 rounds until I glance it to death.
With my Razorback in his backfield holding the objective safe from all fire table him.

Tau and Space Wolves Allies @ 1850

The Tau shooting was doing great.  But against Marines, it needed more AP3.
Plasma Suits are point inefficient and require up-close and personal engagement and Markerlight Support to be useful.  Enter Space Marines!  Specifically the Space Wolves as their Psychic Powers are the most shooty!


ShadowSun and the Ethereal mean the army stays on the board and it has 8 scoring units!
 
Any feedback is welcome!

List Tau-Marine Hybrid 1850

HQ 1
1 Shadowsun

HQ 2  
Ethereal with 9 man Firewarrior Squad

Aegis Defence Line
 Quad Gun

Troops
Squad 1 11 FireWarriors
Squad 2 11 FireWarriors
Squad 3 11 FireWarriors
Squad 4 11 FireWarriors
Squad 5 11 FireWarriors
Squad 6 11 FireWarriors

Fast Attack 16 Pathfinders
 Devilfish w/ Disruption Pod

Heavy 1
Broadside W Targeting Array
Broadside W Targeting Array
HWBSF + HWDC + 1 Shield Drones

Heavy 2
Broadside W Targeting Array
Broadside W Targeting Array
HWBSF + HWDC + 1 Shield Drones

Space Wolves
Rune Priest with:, Living Lightning, Jaws of the World Wolf
5 Grey Hunters
Long Fangs with 4 Plasma Cannon

WIP Iron Hand Apothecary

Picked up the GW apothecary.
It's extremely lackluster.
And I decided, old Gundam John can do better.

It's Mad-Scientist meets Surgeon.

Instead of a normal Chain Sword or Chain Axe it has a circular saw arm great for operating or melee!
I sliced off the heat vents from the backpack and replaced it with a drill on one side as 41st Millennium surgery isn't delicate and it has a nice "Repo" feel.  For the monitor/sensor I used a Target Lock from the Tau empire.  The other arm is magnetized.

Now to think about the legs and find an appropriate head.
Any ideas?

Tau Expansion: Allies

Expansion

In 6e, the Tau Codex is rocking.

But it suffers from Older Codex-itis at high point levels.
Though by high point I mean over 1500 but below true 2000.

I've posted my list building else prior, so here's what I'm using for allies:

Codex Shopped Vanilla Marines, Blood Angels, Eldar, Dark Angels and finally came to Space Wolves.

Why Space Wolves?
Aside from being 1 point cheaper than their brethern they have great heavy support.

Madness you may cry from behind your keyboard, Tau have amazing Heavy Support!

Kind of.  Hammerheads are now good with a 2+ save but with the wane of mech on the table everyone wants to burst their melta all over my armor 13.

Broadsides are still amazing, 10/1 will never be bad.  In 5e I packed everyone I owned into a list.
But after they Demech your opponent or blast the Land Raider or Monolith back to the Craftworld, they're really expensive snipers with 1 shot each.  The Hammerhead's pie plate is better but not twinlinked.

I've scaled down from 3 squads of 2 because there is just less armor to nuke. 

What Tau are lacking in a point efficent manner is MeQ killing power.

Plasma-Flamer or Plasma Missile suits are great, but for the plasma to be effective you need to be up closer than you want.

64 Points per 2 shots of Plasma for a Crisis Suit @ 12 inches away.

That's expensive.  Which is Why Space Wolves!

Cause they can take Plasma Cannons in a Dev Squad.
Also a Librarian with Jaws of the World Wolf and Living Lightning.

So instead of taking an ally that can give me assault protection, I'm taking an ally for more shooting.

Hail Beserker Space Viking Werewolves!

Battlegrounds Tau 1850 Bat Rep-ish

Tournament at Battlegrounds Today.
I ran 1850 Tau.

3 Power Armor Lists.  Worst Match Ups Ever

Overview:
Game 1 vs Mike (Vs Mike's Blood Angels)
Medium Victory (3 Pts off a tie)

Here was an interesting Blood Angels Strategy:
5 Drop Pods, 3 Empty, with Sternguard/Command Units doing all the work.
Only 2 scoring units of 5 man Assault Marines in Storm Ravens who would fly over and only jump out if it was safe to land.

Very effective strategy.

Lesson Learned: Ignore the Flyers


Game 2 Vs Ragnar's Blood Angels -Eldar Knights
(Loss)
He used The Storm Raven to drop off Death Company and the Elder have amazing cover saves.

Lesson Learned: Strike at the back lines and Eldar Burn Nicely

Game 3 Vs Brian Sisters of Battle
(Win)
Lesson Learned: I need to take better care of my transports.
Also.  Deep Striking Flamers is useless.
The Tau have plenty of long range STR 5 weapons.
If you can't shoot it, it can't shoot you.
And STR 5 @ 30 inches is really good.

Also Targeting Array on Broadsides is the best upgrade ever!

Tau 6e Winning List

I've gotten requests to share what I'm running.  You need to ultimately tailor the list to how you play but here's the high view of it.

Ultimately it's nothing special.

Troops: TAKE ALL THE FIREWARRIORS! 
Seriously 6 squads of 12 or 11 or if you have the points 5 Squads of 12 and one giant squad of Kroot to annoy, distract or  general make a nuisance of themselves.  The Kroot will die, but it's better to have the fire focused on them instead of the Broadsides.

And Broadsides.  All your heavy support should be Broadsides.  Yes, the Skyray, Hammerhead/Ionhead looks amazingly cool, it's a futuristic space tank!  But it's just so bad by comparison to twinlinked.

Why so many Firewarriors?
60 to 72 Firewarriors are pumping out 60 to 144 shots per turn.
These shots cut through Guard, Orks, some tyranids and a few Dark Eldar as well as wounding on 2 vs some of those armies.  Vs Power Armor they're wounding on 3.  That's a lot of forced saves.

It's victory by overwhelming fire power that comes with having among the farthest firing range available.

Also, you've a pile of troops to hold objectives.

Go Forth And Win For the Great Good of Our Space Buddist Robot Overlords!

Tau in 6th Edition

Back from the Battleground Invitational.

Wow, according to the internet the Tau is the 2nd worst Codex out there.
The only thing that sucks worse is Sister of Battle.

Somehow I just won a second tournament with them.
Suck it Internet!

Upcoming Tournament

1250 Tournament coming up on Saturday.

I'm bringing the Greater Good.  What a surprise!

It's a lot like the last list, only no dual ethereal, no markerlights and no Kroot.

Really wish I had an Aegis Defence Line to go with it.

Apparently one can fit 22 Terminators in at 1250 so it's going to be tough,

Tau 40K: Why I Won

Here's why I won (aside from the cover in Ruins) with the lessons to learn from it.

1) It was a 2000 point tourney.  Everyone else brought 1999+1 lists.  I showed up with 12 troops and double force org.  Build your list to the tournament.

2) No one had ever seen Tau and had no idea about what an Ethereal did.  Because really, who plays Tau?  It's a suck-ass Codex right?  Everyone not Bill focused on my troop not my HQs, Broadsides or Pathfinders.  They know troops equal victory with so many objectives.  However, when I have 100 troops, that's a lot of fire to devote to them to try to take them out.  Also, everyone fell for the Suicide Ethereal.  When the comments of "Whoa, he must be good in melee if you're charging with him."  I'm not giving away my battle plan, my answers were an honest,"He's one of my best melee units in the codex."  Which is a true statement.  You don't know the rules for something ask to see the Codex.

3) In the 3rd match I won primary by 1 point.  I read the mission and was happy to grab the 2 objectives that were worth more points.  I definitely attacked the one in the center which my opponent went for, but that was worth one point.  By his latching on to it and not focusing on the nearer higher points one, he obviously hadn't read it completely.  Always read the missions carefully.

Game On: Game 3 Grey Knight-Crons

Game 3 Vs Dan
Vanguard Strike
This would get repetitive so I’ll summarize this one.
I have 58 points, he has 54 by this point
Primary: Objectives
Secondary: Kill points
Grey Knights With Necrons.

It’s a Draigo Paladin death star with Corteaz.
3 Dreadnoughts.
3 Transports with 3, 3 and 4 guys in them.
The Necron Flyer with some Deathmarks and the HQ.


Deployment:
It's a sparse terrain table.  I have a crater to stick Shadowsun & Ethereal in.

On my side I have a tiny crater, a mini farm house and a fallen pillar for cover.  The center of the table has a house as does my front left.  He's got a grave yard on his side.  The objectives are 1 in the center 1 in each deployment zone and 2 diagonally from the center.  There is a forest next to the house on my right.

I string out my gunline to cover the objectives as best I can.  The HQ takes cover and my broadsides have a decent fire arc.  It's Grey Knights, he has a 24 inch fire reach.  I have 72 to 30.  He's got to come to me if he wants to win.

I seize, Corteaz makes me reroll.  I do not seize twice.

Turn 1.  
He pops my empty transports and focuses on shooting my troops, Kroot are murdered.
I don’t think he understood how many Troops I had.  Corteaz perils twice and takes 2 wounds.

I get my Ethereal to charge the Draigo-star and he gets overwatched into Oblivion.  The army supercharges!

Summary
I shoot the death star, about 1000 shots into it.  Dan-Draigo's Paladins only takes a wound on a “1” from Firewarriors and can FNP most of that away and “Look out Sir!” them around.
For 3 turns I pile on wounds that get parceled around and FNP.  Everything is going into this! 

If I can break Draigo’s Paladins I will win.  If Draigo closes to assault he wins.  It’s that simple.
I ignore the Dreadnoughts who start taking out my troops strung out on the on the right.

Markerlights on the Paladins, broadsides open up first rail and missiles, rapid fire next, single shot Firewarriors after that.  The railguns and missile eventually finish off all the Paladins on the 4 turn.

*Having fought Bill’s army way vital to this match as I refined the cracking of a deathstar.  And Bikerz aren’t as bad as Draigo.

Turn 3
His Necron flyer showed up (unless it was turn 2, it’d been a long day.)  I ignore because it’s annoying with the Tesla, not deadly to my entire army like the Paladins.

The Necrons pop up and he assaults.  Overwatch drops some punks.

Interesting thing, the Leadership manipulation was vital for this as I’d use the Squad’s leadership and they have a better Initiative than the ‘Cron so I could run away and regroup off Shadowsun.

Shadowsun also melta’d the Cron HQ down three times, but the Cron got up twice making me melta it over and over again.

Turn 4
Finish off the Apothecary and Corteaz.  It also saw me start running Firewarriors towards the objectives.

Turn 5
The Cron are down, Draigo’s Paladins are vapor and my broadsides start hitting the transports and Dreads.  Also it’s night fighting.  Bad for him and his dreads, good for the Blacksun filters on the Broadside and the markerlights!

Turn 6
We go into 6.  He’s got 2 troops on the objective in the back field, 1 in the center and 3 more near the building in the center.  I blow up his transport and take out 1 more guy.  Broadsides lay into the troops who go to ground for a 2 up.  My Firewarriors run and make it to the two on my side of the board.

I can’t take out his last Dread nor can I finish off his last 1 guy in the central building nor the 2 outside of it.

It ends.  I would have tabled him in 7.

However, the center objective was worth 1, the others worth 2.  I knew that.  Dan didn’t.  It was in the packet and in the rules but it’d been a long day.

I win primary.  He gets secondary by 2 units.  I get all but 1 bonus point.

Victory: For the Greater GOOD!

Game On- Game 2: Ork-Guard

At lunch Bill and I chat, the only match we don’t want is each other.
Thus of course:

Game 2 vs Bill
Dawn of War
Primary: Area Control
Secondary:  Objectives
Ork+Guard
BikerNobz
Colossus, Manticore, 3x Chimera

On the Strategic Chart I roll “Gain Stealth in Ruins” the entire table is made of ruins.  This wins me the game.

The terrain is: a big tower in the center, two towers on my side with one in the middle back.
Cathedral-ruins in all 4 quarters.   A very symmetrical ruin laden table.


I put one of the Kroot squads as close to his parking lot of Tanks as I can to keep his switching fire, he knows if he focuses the wrong way it’s 30 attacks on rear armor.

Bill has the Bikerz on my left and the parking lot of tanks on the right.
(I forgot to take pictures at this point)

I set up ShadowSun and the Ethereal behind a tower out of LOS.

It’s 2 squads of 9 firewarriors on either side of them them with a pathfinder team on the left.
A Broadside team is in the cathedral ruins to the left, right and center.  Firewarriors are in the left and rightside ruins with a devilfish on either side so 2 of the 6 man teams can embark after the shooting stops.

Turn 1
Bill unleashes hell as templates rain from the sky and the Bikers get closer ready for turn 2 assault.  Kroot die as does a shield drone.

I start peppering the Bikers with fire. “Look out Sir!” and FNP mean the few wounds are passed around.  I move my Firewarriors to screen the HQ Combo and limit assault ability.
My Ethereal charges the Bikerz, dies and the Army Super Charges.

Turn 2
More templates, some FW are lost, and another drone gets popped.  Again the Stealth Ruins are amazing.  The Bikers move in and fall 2 inches short of the assault after killing most of a squad.
A vendetta arrives and takes out some more Firewarriors.

The Boss with a 6 toughness is incredibly hard to take out as I can’t one shot him with a Railgun.
I unleash everything on the Bikerz.  If I get multiassaulted which is likely as I’m clumped up, he wins that turn.  

As he moved in between ruins towards my Firewarriors with the Boss & Bikerz he presents the side bikers to clear close shots from the broadsides.  The Pathfinders light the Biker up so I can open up with all the BS weapons.  ShadowSun leaps out and inflicts 2 wounds.  The broadsides open up with Rails and Missile from both sides thinning down the numbers.  I put in a seeker missile for good measure. The horde of Firewarriors finish them off.

Turn 3
More Pie Plates OF DOOM! from Bill and some back and forth with troops.  The other vendetta and Ork fighter show up at this point.  He thins out some of troops by a couple of heads.
The firewarriors start advancing on the objectives as my Broadsides, freed up from the Death-Star get Markerlight support from the pathfinders to start taking out tanks.  

I spackled most of the tanks except the Manticore which only has 1 shot left at this point.  My firewarriors begin to drop his IG Troops and the left and right flank devilfish fill with FW and start moving up

Turn 4
The vendettas/Ork jet lower squad size for the Firewarriors and the Broadsides are still fine.  The manticore is empty.
My Firewarriors march towards the objectives and the Devilfish moves to quarters.  Then I pop the remaining tank with Broadsides and take out the 2 flyers.  The Firewarriors finish off the Guard Troops and with only a Colussus left on the board Bill surrenders.

Max Points.

Game On Bat Rep 1: Tau vs Blood Guard

2000 points 
We’re running the Feast of Blades Missions
The big thing is I brought a 2000 point double force org chart.  Everyone else brought a 1999+1 list even though it was a 2000 point official event.  12 Troops choices?  Hell yeah!

Game 1 vs Mike
Scenario: Vanguard Strike
Primary: Kill Points
Secondary: Table Quarters

Blood Guard (ie Blood Angels with Guard Allies)
2x Land Raiders with Tact Squads
Multiple Guard Squads with a pile of Auto cannons and a librarian for the reroll
Storm Raven with 5x Terminators
Aegis Defense Line


Deployment
I put my Tau back far enough to tap his gunlines and my broadsides are in cover with good overlapping arcs of fire.  My HQs are safely nestled in cover for a 2+ and I've a Kroot screen out front with the remaining units behind him.

He’s pressed forward against the diagonal line so his auto cannons can reach.
The Tau have a longer range than the Guard so I deploy as shown.
In fact he’s so far forward I can put my Kroot squad behind him!

Mike goes first
Turn 1
He starts moving his guard squads forward and moves the Land Raider out of cover to deal with the Kroot who otherwise would cripple the mortar squads.  The other land raider moves forward towards my gun lines.

The landraider kills 5 Kroot and the guard line kills a few more.

Move the Ethereal up, and I start the 5 remaining back field Kroot towards the Autocannons.

I lay into the Landraider with broadsides and kill it popping out a Termy Librarian with SS/Th and his squad.  The back row FW pop off everyone but the Libby.  I plink down some more of the advancing Guard.

I charge my Ethereal at the Guard Squad who gun him down and make all my saves super charging the army.  Lasgun shot to the head for the greater good!

Turn 2
Mike finishes off the Kroot and his Storm Raven comes in and takes some shots killing a BS Team Shield drone.  His guard units continue to walk into a hail of fire taking heavy casualties.
His Termy-Libby declares assault and dies spectacularly.

Now all I've done, aside from murder my HQ in cold blood and lose some Kroot is stand there an shoot.  It works well with all those markerlights and rerollable "1's."

The land raider comes out of cover again and the Broadsides pop it pinning the Squad inside as the explosion kills 2 of them.  The Stormraven gets immobilized and locked speed.  Most of his units have gone to ground for a better save.

Turn 3
The termies exit the Stormraven before it leaves the board and scatter 7 inches away towards the board edge and no where near my army.
The broadsides tear through the 2 SS/TH upfront and the FW take out 2 of the Claws before returning to picking off the guard.  All the guard squads that had been heading towards me are dead.  His landraiders are toast.  The termies are well out of assault distance and all I’ve lost are some Kroot.

He surrenders.

Max points.

Game On RI Tournament

With a quick note, I'll get the Bat Rep written soon.

The Greater Good placed first!

I won a tournament!

2000 points, double force org!

6e learnings

Thing #1 to Remember: Firewarriors can move and shoot!

Tau Vs Chaos: 1500 Point Rumble

Thursday I played Frosty's Chaos Marines @ 1500 points with my Blind-Folded Ethereal List.

He's packing a Land Raider, a Demon Prince, Beserkers, Defiler and Troops.

It's 12 inch deployment and 5 objectives.

I deploy first but he steals the initiative.

I've a gun line centered out from ShadowSun with FW wraps around my Broadside teams and the Kroot as close forward as I can put them.

Here's the interesting part:
Frosty knows I want the Ethereal dead to bolster my army and he's doing everything he can to avoid it.
This is actually better than killing the Ethereal as it creates a 12 in bubble around him.

At one point I moved the Ethereal to get in the way of the Landraider Tiamen Square Style.  Instead of Tank Shocking which would be awesome, Frosty run the LR into difficult terrain causing some deployment issues.  At lot of time was spent in avoidance.  The Ethereal lasted till turn 3.

Turn 1, The Defiler unloads on the Kroot as does everything else killing 10 and they fall back.
It's solid plan to take out my only Close Combat Capable Troops to get the beserkers into melee with the squishy fire warriors.

Broadside take out the Defiler, I Marker light the Prince and Dakka it down.

Turn 2+ it's shooting vs advancing Beserkers.

Summary, he got a great assault in with his Termies vs my left wing of Broadsides and was able to hide his troops on a rear objective but the shear volume of fire whittled down his forces.

You Killed Kenny!

Here's the scaled down version of what I was running last week and will run tomorrow hopefully.

How to play it?  Step 1, put the Ethereal upfront and alone.

Step 2 deploy the gun nest within 18 of Shadowsun.

Use the legion of FW to shield the Broadside teams.

Toss the Kroot upfront to screen and distract.

Murder the Ethereal by any means necessary and then you're rerolling 1's like a BOSS SON! 

Blind-folded Ethereal List 1500

HQ 1 

ShadowSun

HQ 2 

Ethereal

Troop 1

9 Firewarriors

Troop 2

9 Firewarriors

Troop 3

9 Firewarriors

Troop 4

9 Firewarriors

Troop 5

9 Firewarriors

Troop 5

17 Kroot

Heavy 1

Broadside 1 + MultiTracker
Broadside 2 + MultiTracke

Broadside 3 +5 MultiTracker

+5 Serg +3 HWBSF

Heavy 2

Broadside 1 + MultiTracker
Broadside 2 + MultiTracke Broadside 3 +5 MultiTracker

+5 Serg +3 HWBSF

Fast Attack 1

Pathfinders x8 Devilfish with Disruption Pod

+TL +BSF