Vote in the Poll! Also, weapons roundtable!

The title of this thread is slightly misleading - its mainly there to get you, my fellow warhammer crazies, to vote at the aforementioned poll to your immediate right. Thats right, look over there and vote quick for 2 units you believe would work well in a for-fun Anti-Imperial Guard list (who in turn is bringing an Anti-Tau list). Go on, vote....

... you voted now? Ahh, good, good.

Now, on to the other nitty-gritty bits of this post. As anyone who has experience with/against a Tau Empire army can tell you, Tau shooting excells at basically 3 things -

A). Anti-Vehicle Weaponry - Railguns, Fusion Blasters, Plasma Rifles: heck, even the humble pulse rifle has a chance of glancing or even penetrating AV10.

B). Versatility - Battlesuits and tanks have a surprising array of possible weapon combinations and upgrades, giving the ability to tailor specific Crisis teams and Devilfish/Hammerheads to one purpose or another.

C). Range - from 72" range Railguns to 30" range Pulse Rifles, Tau have very few problems finding suitable targets for their weapons, and with rapid-firing Plasma and Pulse rifles, getting in closer isn't necessarily safer for the enemy.


While these 3 advantages are all well and good, there are a few things that hamper the effectiveness of Tau shooting in certain situations. For example....


A). Volume of fire - Tau weaponry is definitely quality-over-quantity, and as such even the anti-infantry weapons can't match other armies in sheer quantity. Even burst cannons, for all their potency, only fire 3 shots.

B). Numbers - given the focus on Battlesuits and Tanks, and that the cheepest infantry units on the Tau list (that aren't Kroot) are 10pts a model, Tau have a hard time putting down as many ground-pounders as most other infantry-oriented lists.

C). Close Combat - there is nothing in the Tau codex that has a decent chance of survival if assaulted. Sure, battlesuits are S5 T4 - but WS2. Kroot can dish it out - but cannot take it. Vespids are mildly effective - but hiddeously expensive for it. Fire warriors... don't ever get fire warriors into combat.


What all this boils down to is a serious problem with Horde armies, who have too many models for a Tau player to kill enough of to stem the tide. Orcs, Imperial Guard, and Tyranids all have fairly effective Horde-options, and as such are probably the best suited to negate a fair amount of Tau Weapon advantages.


However, all is not lost! Even though they focus on anti-tank/MEQ weaponry, the Tau arsenal does have a few weapons specifically geared towards the hordes of uncivilized heathens who would rather die in the millions than follow the true and logical teachings of the Greater Good. However, they do require a fair bit more precision in both list construction and strategy than other Tau armies, and as such are most effective when you know you'll be facing a big ole' Horde and plan to counter it somehow.

In the next post - the lowdown on Tau Anti-Horde Weaponry!