New 1000pt Tau List, quick battle report

Last saturday saw a 1000pt quasi-pickup game between Myself (Tau) and Matt (Space Marines) versus Aaron (Eldar) and Russell (Tyranids), played at Chaos Games (our FLGS) on what is without doubt the most amazing and awe-inspiring terrain board I have ever played a game of warhammer on. This thing was an epic, hilly skimmer/jump pack paradise, although as I learned, really obscured line of sight. The entire thing was a snowy painted landscape, and seeing how my models looked on it, I'm thinking about doing the bases as dark rocks with scattered snow - the contrast is appealing without looking absurd.

Anyway, moving on to the nitty gritty. Being as it was a 1000pt battle, I quickly switched around my "standard" 1000pt list to include another Broadside in place of the slow, useless, and utterly ignorable Kroot. Here's the result:

1000pt Tau Empire List
HQ:
-Shas'El Commander w/ Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker, Hard-Wired (HW) Drone Controller and 2 shield Drones
--> 2 Shas'vre Bodyguards, w/ Plasma Rifles, Missile Pods, Targeting Arrays, and HW Multi-trackers.

Troops:
- 7 Fire Warriors
--> Devilfish transport w/ Smart Missile System, Targeting Array, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod
- 7 Fire Warriors
--> Devilfish transport w/ Smart Missile System, Targeting Array, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod

Heavy Support:
- Hammerhead Gunship w/ Railgun, Smart Missile System, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod
- 2 Broadside Battlesuits, advanced stabilization System


Much the same as the last list, but I like having 2 broadsides rather than 12 kroot - with most of my army dependant on mobility and long range, having 1 lone unit of slow short range squishies isn't as effective as I thought, and at times is actually a detriment (12 kroot are __ points of stuff that the enemy doesn't have to worry about with most of his/her army, given that the little twerps aren't fleet and I always forget to make sure there's a good forest on the table.)

Since it was getting late and I'd already played 2 games of Warhammer Fantasy that day (my Lizardmen figured out that High Elves also taste just like chicken, and my Dwarf Army was brought out of retirement to remind me that, while they won't often win combats decisively, they're damn hard to kill, even against swordmasters -- a win and a draw/very minor victory, in total), I was pretty tired and not paying as much attention to the game as I should have been.


Tau (me) and Space Marines (Matt) vs. Tyranids (Russell) and Eldar (Aaron)

Game: Modified Capture and Control (I think...)
Deployment: Dawn of War
Allies: Matt (Space Marines)
Opponents: Aaron (Eldar), Russell (Tyranids)

The single objective was this truly massive and detailed Eldar custom-built Eldar tower (sitting on 2 hill levels in the middle) with rules on gettin infantry from the door to the shooting platform on top. Anything with 12" range was going to have a hard time shooting stuff directly below them, it was that high up (we used 'top down' sighting, we weren't that rules-crazy).

Given the massive amount of dangerous terrain cliff faces and obstacles (no 'slopping' hills here - dangerous terrain slopes were everything here) and the fact he hadn't played anything else for a while, Matt brought out a very standard and well rounded Space Marine Army, consisting of standard Marines (or sternguard?) in Rhinos, a Predator, some CC terminators, and another tank-busting-tank of some sort or another. I was getting pretty out of it by this time, it was after 8:00pm when we started, and I'd been wfb-ing since 11:00am. Russell's list was his standard with a few tweeks (the Genestealers had extended carapace - ohhhh man that hurt), and Aarons was.... some wierd Eldar thing with non-mounted/transported infantry and a big ol' forgeworld Wave-serpent thingy.

They went first, and Turn 1 saw very minimal deployment, given Dawn of War rules, and almost no shooting - except from my commander's battlesuits and the Hammerhead that rolled on during our 1st turn, both of which rolled EXTREMELY NICE night fight sighting rolls, taking out almost 1/3rd of a Guardian Squad, forcing him to go to ground and take a panic check. Matt took the middle/right, going for the objective, while I took the left edge, thinking to swing around and pump enough raw firepower into their flank to send even the synapsed Warriors running for the hills (if, you know, they actually were allowed to fail automaticly passed leadership tests).

Turn 2 - I continue to underestimate Russell, as a squad of incoming Genestealers obliterated my Battlesuits that jumped back to just too near the board edge rather than towards the middle. D'oh. Lots of fighting between Matt's Space Marines and the bulk of Russell/Aaron's infantry started up around the objective, and escalated with each turn. The waveserpent moved up to begin threatening my battlesuits/Hammerhead from behind cover, and recieved a few solid Railgun hits for its presumption, shaking the crew so they couldn't shoot the next turn.

Turn 3 - despite 3 solid Railgun hits, I failed to pen/he rolled good cover on his wave serpent that was progressing on my battlesuits, but 2 full rapid-firing squads of fire warriors finished off the Genestealers - as the 2nd squad came further towards my board edge. Oi. Fighting in the center started to get to a fevered pitch.

Turn 4 - Their turn saw the 2nd squad of Genestealers advance towards my Hammerhead, the waveserpent move from behind cover to point blank range, and the carnifex/warriors/gaunts moving around the middle objective hill to flank Matt's marines, and my hammerhead railgun getting busted off by the genestealers. Shooting was utterly worthless for me, as a lot of shots at the Serpent just ended up "can't move or shoot"-ing it, and another devilfish losing its weaponry to a Fex. The fighting in the center reached its climax, as Matt, desperate to hold the position at any cost, actually blew up the objective building, creating some cover for him to sit in and messing up the Tyranid advance.

Turn 5 - I didn't pay much attention here, with most of my fire warriors, the 2 broadsides, and the hammerhead being destroyed at the onset. Matt somehow managed to pass enough dangerous terrain tests to being his rhinos to the top of the hill to serve as a wall, and I followed closely (and more easily) with the weaponless Devilfish (which was promply blown up at the start of the next turn). A roll of 5 kept us in the game for another turn.

I left at the onset, having only 2 devilfish left, one of them without weaponry and quickly destroyed, the other doing a quick out-of-order but allowed shooting at the genestealers and getting packed up. It was well after 2:00am by this point, so I packed up and got a ride home from the 2 friends who had kindly stayed around another 20 minutes after their game of WFB ended to wait for me to get to a place to bow out.

What I've learned: My usual tactics and army builds works extremely well against tank and transport dependant enemies and MEQs, but not so much against infantry lists - I need to rethink a few things, possibly adding in a few more anti-infantry weapons on the Battlesuits in place of the Plasma rifles, or knocking off a devilfish in exchange for a few stealth suits and a static fire warrior shroud around the Broadsides. Despite some bad rolls this game, I never normally have trouble eliminating enemy tanks, and despite my mobility a lot of the hilly terrain really messed me up at first, allowing the more experienced Eldar player (whose board this was) to bottleneck me and keep me away from the main fight on the other hill. Of everyone, this board was really built for an infantry army, and both Matt and I had trouble with that.

This game also really hammered in the fact that I have to be more mindful of Genestealers/outflankers, especially when playing (Russell's) 'Nids. Overall, the game was fun but exhausting, and I'd rather not play with quite that much terrain and obstacles again, even if it does look just so gosh darn pretty.

Coming up - 3k and 4k Apocalypse lists and tactics for the game on Memorial Day. I'm not going to be there, but I'm letting them borrow my Tau to make the sides even if they can't find a 6th player (hopefully on the condition that they take pictures and let me live vicariously through their blog posts).

Something different? - Anti-Imperial Guard Fun-ness, and a Poll!

Given that the pathfinders, burst cannons on Hammerheads, twin-linked flamers, and the Ion Cannon did reasonably well in the last game, I've come to the realization that I may have a few too many pre-concieved notions as to what works best for a Tau army. My current lists (as well as those I've played in the past) always focus on Railguns, Devilfish, and Crisis suits, almost to the exclusion of everything else (save fire warriors in varying degrees).

On that note, I've been considering looking over the limited-yet-available units in the Tau arsenal that could prove to be a usefull inclusion in my Tau collection. Rather than simply buy more fire warriors and battlesuits and call it a day, I've made up my mind to make a servicable Apocalypse battleforce, though it'll take years. From my equally limited Apocalypse experience, having a vast array of different weapons, vehicles, and combinations is far more interesting (and still almost as effective) as having a horde of railguns, battlesuits, and fire warriors to provide those tried-and-true tactics that make Tau reasonably effective. If its more amusing and just as good, why not go for the more interesting options?

Here's what's brought this on - after a recent converstaion/challenge, Max from the Defending Humanity blog (a friend and frequent 40k opponent of mine) and I have decided to gear up for an amusing "Tau vs. iGuard" battle, where we focus on something neither of us have done before - Tailored Lists. He's making an Imperial Guard list designed to kill Tau, and I'm doing the same with a new and interesting list to kill Guard. I'd call it a grudge match for the slightly amusing feeling of the phrase, but its more in line with just doing something new and just-for-fun.

So, here's a list of the "new" things in the Tau codex that I've never/barely used before that I think would make for a fun anti-Guard list. I'll put a poll up, and we'll see what my limited scope of readers think would be a fun idea -

1). Vespids - these cute little insectoids are often met with either intense praise or severe distaste from all Tau players I've read/talked to - there's no middle ground here, oddly enough. They're incredibly fast (jump infantry and 'Fleet of Wing', giving them a ~24" assult if they want it), and, like kroot, excel at assaulting most units, especially after laying into them with S5 AP3 Assault 1 Neutron blasters. Unlike kroot, they actually have an armor save (a T4 5+, but its something), and their ability to re-roll dangerous terrain rolls makes them some of the hardiest jump infantry in the game. While not as incredibly hard-hitting in combat as Kroot (as well as hideously expensive for the Tau list), Vespids seem like they could hold their own in combat against most things, and their blasters seem ideal at dealing with MEQs (Marine Equivalents). The speed alone makes me really want to consider them.

2). Etherial - there's not much love for this fluffy-centerpoint to the Tau list, as 5th edition's take on infantry combat has left made him more of a liability than a usefull addition. Re-rolling moral checks for all Tau-model infantry within line of site is nice, although in most mechanized lists fairly useless, but the price of his 50pt butt dying easily overrides the first advantage. Fire warriors (the principle beneficiaries of pretty much all his abilties) shouldn't be in combat no matter which way you look at it, so giving everyone the 'prefered enemy' special rule (as well as having to take a moral test or run screaming) if he dies is less of a good thing than ever. However, he does have one good point - at WS4, 3 attacks, and the ability to take a +2 str Honor blade or +1 attack (so 4 attacks, 5 in CC), he is actually the ONLY good CC Tau available. I can see him being a great focus for the rarely seen Kroot Combat List, as if he kicks it, non-Tau (i.e. Kroot and vespid) aren't affected. Either way, he's still not worth it, but I'll put it up anyway.

3). Sniper Drone Team - since I normally reserve my Heavy Support choices for Hammerheads and Broadsides, I've never seen much place for these guys. At 80 pts for 3 36" S6 AP3 shots + networked markerlight, its hard to justify these guys as better than a broadside - namely because they aren't. Sniping infantry is a touchy subject in 5th ed, as most special characters worth anything are normally immune to instant death, and those that aren't are just as efficiently taken out by solid-shot twin-linked railguns, or massed fire. Against Guard, where the officers often make the unit, this is a whole different story, and being able to slowly pick off each and every exposed character/command model could be incredibly useful. at BS3/4 and with a markerlight, I could easily see 3 of these teams making up their points pretty quickly against iGuard.

4). Piranahs - this is another unit that is either praised or disregarded completely among Tau players. The incredible speed, improved save, ability to outflank, and the possiblity to carry up to 2 seeker missiles to the rear armor of an enemy tank is a nice incentive, but being open-topped and still a little too big to effectively hope to hide from massed fire means these little buggers are without a doubt the most fragile vehicle the Tau have. To put it simply, their a huge gamble that can either pay off nicely with some tank killing or (in a pack of 3) infantry wiping, while at the same time 1 failed save will generally do them in . They proved effective seeker-caddies in the last Apocalypse game, but survived I think purely based on the fact that there were bigger fish to fry. The jury's out, but I could see a place for at least 1 pack of Piranahs in an anti-guard or Apocalypse list.

5). Stealth Suits - I'm putting this up here just for the sake of completeness - there's going to be a 5-6 man(Tau?) unit of these fellas in my anti-guard list. The sheer annoyance of stealth jump infantry with burst cannons is the reason for the old axiom a friend of mine uses - "every time Tau stealth suits fire, one of my Guard units dies." 24 S5 AP5 attacks on survivable stealth armor will do most squishy guard in pretty quickly, and their mobile enough to avoid most combat and shooting that has a chance of penetrating their stealth field. If I bumped my 1500pt list up to 1750, my 6 stealth suits would be the fist thing I included. I'm even thinking of finding a place for them in my current 1500pt list, though I'm having trouble figuring out what to cut...

6). Krootox/Kroot Hounds - anything that's described as armed with "their ferocious fangs" gets an A+ on my amuse-o-meter, and that's the reason I already own 6 Kroot Hounds. slightly more deadly than normal kroot on the assault (and 1 pt cheaper), kroot hounds are definitely a good addition to any Kroot carnivore squad that's not geard towards self-sacrificing oblivion. The mighty Krootox, however, is a different story - the 48" rapid firing kroot gun isn't going to take down a lot of tanks by itself, but against infantry and especially in combat, the S6 krootox can deal a murderous amount of damage against those big combatty guys. More expensive than I'd like, but still within the range of possibility. Both are good choices, and may involve me getting a seperate unit of kroot for each, and seeing who does better (my money's on the hounds).

7). Kroot Shaper - again, here for the sake of completeness, as I will not use this thing. I'm not just saying that - no matter what way you look at it, he's not worth his points. Of his 3 "bonuses", a 6+ save is useless, the +1 Ld bonus isn't worth his cost, and giving him a pulse carbine/rifle is pointless when I can just buy fire warriors. Despite several conversations a while back with friends, we couldn't find a single good point to this absurdly over-costed "leader", and I find it a lot better to just take 4 normal kroot than bother with him (yes, his points cost is exactly that of 4 normal kroot - he 'boosts' a normal kroot to a shaper for an extra 3x its cost). He's out.

So there we have it - I'm not including the Skyray because, honestly, I still don't like the thing, even after giving it a good try - an Ion Hammerhead is actually a lot better, cheaper, and more reliable.

Vote for what 2 would be good additions that I should try out for my anti-Guard army, and I'll likely pick one or both.

1500pt List

Well, after some math-0-mancy, shuffling around, and a lot of agonizing over just what could be cut from the overpriced initial list, below is my new, improved, experimental 1500pt list. It incorporates a few things that I've been thinking about trying for a long time (the Pathfinders and Ion Cannon), and a few things experience has shown me might be a better bet (the gun drones and burst cannons). So, here it is.

1500pt Tau List
HQ:
- Shas'el Commander w/plasma rifle, missile pod, multi-tracker, HW Drone controller & 2 shield drones,
---> 2 Shas'vre Bodyguards, w/ plasma rifle, missile pod, targetting array, HW multi-tracker
Elites:
- Crisis Shas'vre, w/ TL flamer, missile pod, HW drone controller & 2 gun drones
---> 2 Crisis Shas'ui w/ TL flamer, missile pods
Troops:
- 6 Fire Warriors
---> Devilfish transport w/SMS, targetting array, multi-tracker, disruption pod
- 6 Fire Warriors
---> Devilfish transport w/SMS, targetting array, multi-tracker, disruption pod
- 6 Fire Warriors
Fast Attack:
- 5 Pathfinders
---> Devilfish transport w/SMS, targetting array, multi-tracker, disruption pod, [Marker Beacon]
Heavy Support:
- Hammerhead w/ Railgun, burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pod, target lock, [targetting array]
- Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon, burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pod, [targetting array]
- 2 Broadside Battlesuits w/ advanced stabilization systems


(As I always seem to forget about it, the items in [brackets] are what comes for free/standard on the specific vehicle - hammerheads always come with a targeting array, and pathfinder-devilfish always get a marker beacon)

I switched the smart missile systems for burst cannons on the Hammerheads because:
A). burst cannons are literally half the price of a smart missile system,
B). they get 2 more shots at the exact same S and AP of a SMS
C). counts as 2 weapons instead of just 1 (so the hammerhead 'fire magnet' stays in longer)
D). target lock and a multi-tracker allows them to fire at 2 seperate targets
E). most enemies attack hammerheads from the front as quickly as possible, making the SMS's ability to shoot around corners/out of line of sight rather useless 90% of the time.

They are losing 6" of range with the burst cannons, but the advantages more than make up for it, and I have 5 SMS's already (3 devilfish and 2 broadsides). Honestly, I don't know why I wasn't doing this in the first place. I need to start reading into the finer points of the list section of the codex a LOT more.

The Shas'vre in the Flamersuit squad was a must, based on recent experience - unlike most suits, they WANT to get close to the enemy to be the most effecient, and given how often they end up in combat, the Shas'vre's extra weapon skill and iniciative can't hurt. Likewise, experience has taught me that there are MUCH bigger targets in this list than these guys, so their likely to not take much/any hi-AP/S fire - the Shield drones are normally killed off by a bad armor save from some grunt's s4 ap6 gun. The gun drones are equally well suited to soaking up wounds in this case, and they're cheaper and can fire back to boot. We'll see how this works.

I've wanted to really seriously give my pathfinders a good try for a while now, and this list seems like a great place to do it - there's plenty of tanks, fire warriors and battlesuits to beef up the BS on, and it lets me really concentrate on killing those "must die" targets - land raiders, Carnifex/Hive Tyrants, command squad chimeras/rhinos, etc, and I needed a 3rd Devilfish for the 3rd fire warrior squad anyway, and it's not much of an issue to load up the fire warriors on turn 1 - they never end up doing anything anyway!.

I didn't include any seeker missiles in this list - despite their potential, they've never actually proved worth their points in any games I've played (even the massive apocalypse game where I had 30 of them and the 'markerlight drop' ability-thingy). Likewise, the Skyray really didn't live up to expectations, and I find the idea of a Ion Cannon Hammerhead much more appealing - I've already got 3 railguns, but a 'heavy 3' space marine/terminator killer is a whole new can of worms.

Tactics: fairly straightforward - the devilfish/fire warriors zip around and claim objectives/harrass and rapid-fire targets of opportunity while the hammerheads, broadsides and Shas'el's Crisis Suits start picking off transports, tanks, and threats. The pathfinders and Flamersuits act as floaters, covering up leaks - the pathfinders for more effecient killing, and the flamersuits are ideal for flushing things out of cover and actually jumping into combat once in a while.

So yea, there it is, along with long-winded exposition on how it works. I'm getting better at intuitively getting how each unit works, so I'm looking forward to the 1500pts/player 2v2 game tonight against Space Marines, Tyranids, and iGuard. Hopefully a brief battle report will follow.

thanks for reading!

1000pt Tau Army List

From the basics, here's the 1000pt Tau Army List that I'll be using as the 'core' of my army - essentially, what I'll probably end up fielding in almost every game. Not too sure how this'll preform, but hey, maybe I'll get to give it a try soon.

Tau 1000pts
HQ:
-Shas'El Commander w/ Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi-tracker, Hard-Wired (HW) Drone Controller and 2 shield Drones
--> 2 Shas'vre Bodyguards, w/ Plasma Rifles, Missile Pods, Targeting Arrays, and HW Multi-trackers.

Troops:
- 7 Fire Warriors
--> Devilfish transport w/ Smart Missile System, Targeting Array, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod
- 7 Fire Warriors
--> Devilfish transport w/ Smart Missile System, Targeting Array, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod
-12 Kroot

Heavy Support:
- Hammerhead Gunship w/ Railgun, Smart Missile System, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod
- Broadside Battlesuit, advanced stabilization System


A little heavy on the Groundpounders, and this list will have a slightly bigger problem with a vehicle heavy enemy army than other Tau lists (which is to say, still not that much), but I like it. I nixed a broadside to add a 12 kroot bodyguard, since enemies with brains (and tanks to protect) will be targeting the broadside and Hammerhead with whatever outflankers' they've got - most likely infantry, a weakness for most of my railgun-equiped stuff. If nothing else, they'll make a good infiltrating harrasement/throwaway unit to give me another turn of shooting.

Ordinarily, I'd go at least 8 fire warriors per squad, but I tried the 6 man squads in a battle the other day and they did a LOT better than expected, since the enemy underestimates them based on size, and I didn't think they'd do much myself - until they started rapid-firing 'Cheese Machine' (space marines) squads to death, claiming out-of-the-way objectives for cheap, and being overlooked in favor of more potshots at my tanks. Therefore, I compromised at 7 - big enough to do damage, not quite big enough to be a serious priority.

If/when I play this list, I'll throw out a battle report. If I don't end up playing tonight, I plan on throwing a Devilfish onto the 'What's Painted' list - I think it'll be easier to paint than the fire warriors, honestly enough.