%5B3%5D.jpg "FWfinished (3)")
Hey guys,
So I got another game in with my Tau yesterday, and frankly, they performed fairly meh like I expected. I had a two man Broadside team flee on turn one when a Lascannon shot evaporated one of the drones. I had to pump way too many shots into a Land Raider with the Broadsides and Hammerhead to justify stopping it, and my suits couldn’t stop a Predator or a Rhino, despite having side and rear armor facings…
I did try something new, though. I deployed a Fire Warrior Team on the Board, in cover, and in front of a Broadside Team. I should have been doing this earlier. My friend had a TH/SS Terminator Squad come out of the Land Raider and start marching across the board at me. My Pathfinder’s Markerlights hit 4 times, so I dropped his LD to 6. The Fire Warriors shot into the squad, and somehow killed 2 Terminators. This caused them to turn and flee. If only the fall back move had been more…
Anyways, so after another crappy loss, my friend and I sat down and tweaked the list a bit. Now some of the stuff is in here because I enjoy the Aesthetic look of Iridium Armour or I’ve already modeled Targeting Arrays on certain guys, but other than that, its an entirely new remake.
HQ
Crisis Command Team
- Commander Shas’el with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, as well as HWDC, HWMT, HWTL, Iridium Armour, and Bonding Knife. Drones: 2 Shield
- Bodyguard #1 with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Positional Relay, HWDC, and HWMT. Drones: 1 Gun & 1 Shield.
- Bodyguard #2 with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker, and HWDC. Drones: 1 Gun & 1 Shield.
Crisis Command Team
- Commander Shas’el with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, HWDC, HWMT, and HWTL. Drones: 2 Shield.
- Bodyguard #1 with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker, and HWDC. Drones: 1 Gun & 1 Shield.
- Bodyguard #2 with Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Multi Tracker, & HWDC. Drones: 1 Gun & 1 Shield.
ELITES
Crisis Suit Team
- Suit #1 with Fusion Blaster, Missile Pod, Multi-Tracker, HWDC, HWTL, and Bonding Knife. Drones: 2 Guns.
- Suit #2 with Fusion Blaster, Missile Pod and Multi-Tracker.
- Suit #3 with Fusion Blaster, Missile Pod, and Multi-Tracker.
TROOPS
- Fire Warrior Team (X12) with Team Leader, Drone Controller, and Bonding Knife. Drones: 2 Guns.
- Fire Warrior Team (X6)
- Kroot Carnivore Squad (X10) With Kroot Hounds (X11).
FAST ATTACK
- Pathfinder Team X8 with Shas’ui & Drone Controller. Drones: 2 Guns. In a Devilfish with Disruption Pod & Flechette Discharger.
HEAVY SUPPORT
- Hammerhead Gunship with Railgun & Disruption Pod.
Broadside Team
- Suit #1: Drone Controller with 2 Shield.
- Suit #2: Drone Controller with 2 Shield.
Broadside Team
- Suit #1: Drone Controller with 2 Shield.
- Suit #2: Drone Controller with 2 Shield.
This list should a little more powerful and optimized than my last one. The Positional Relay on the Command Team allows the Fusion Blaster/Missile Pod Team to deepstrike in on a 2+ and hopefully stop something nasty quick. The Second Command Team was my friend’s idea in that for just a couple more points, the Suit Squad is more powerful than it would be in an Elite slot.
As for the Troops, the FW either Deploy on the board or start in the Pathfinder’s Devilfish in reserves. The Squad in the Devilfish (Probably the 6 man) will make the objective run on turn 4 or 5, hopefully. The Kroot are there, unfortunately, to be the meat shield. The hounds are actually cheaper and better than the Kroot themselves, hence the 11 hounds and 10 kroot.
For Fast Attack, the Pathfinder Team is there to Markerlight, plain and simple. The 8 Man Team will put out the lights, while the Drones will attempt to pin anything that gets too close.
Finally, the Heavy Support. The Hammerhead is a necessity. The Disruption Pod helps keep it alive from long-range Lascannons and Autocannons. The Broadside Teams should stick around a lot longer now. 6 Models with a 2+/4+ save, and two of them putting out S10 and S5 shots makes them nasty.
I’m hoping to try this list out on Sunday, so I’d love for my followers to pick this sucker apart. I can already see some problems, but for an old book like this, that’s expected, right?
Granesh
Hi,
ReplyDeleteNice list, but I think you have some inefficient choices and too many points spent on wargear. Tau need to be completely ruthless in what wargear you pick, because the opportunity cost is always more guns which in most cases will be better.
A good example is you HQs. By my rough adding up the 2 shas'vre bodyguard to the first HQ is 209 pts. I'd rather downgrade these to an elite slot crisis suit. 3 crisis suits with plasma, missile, tracker with leader with 2 gun drones is 211. You lose 2 shield drones, but if the shas'el still joins them you still have 2 shield and 2 gun drones. However you have increased the "bodyguard's" firepower by 50%.
I'd take the same approach with the second squad. You say it more effective than an elite squad - how ? They cost 194 pts, for 15 pts more you lose 2 drones, but have 50% more firepower.
If you really want the positional relay I'd add it to one of the shas'el, but I recommend you drop it and either risk the reserve rolls or give them longer range guns. Dropping close enough to use melta means that any supporting troops nearby will probably kill the fusion unit. You may want to keep a cheaper suicide unit (such as 2 suits with twin fusion) to deal with landraiders, however everything else can be delat with from accross the board with railguns and missile pods.
I'd only advice HQ bodyguards if the three elite slots were filled, and then I would suggest you give the bodyguard targeting arrays to increase their firepower.
Next I don't see why armour that is modelled to be heavier on the shas'el has be to Iridium Armour. I'd just drop it.
Next is the fire warrior upgrades. I would lose the bonding knife and the drones, and rather have 25 pts of firepower elsewhere in the list.
The large kroot (with hounds) unit can work, maybe have another unit of 10 kroot (maybe with 3 or 7 hounds) to put between your firepower units and any assaulters heading your way.
I'd drop the devilfish Flechette Discharger. It probably won't discourage an assault if they can kill the tank, and the majority of times I bet it will go down to shooting, particularly as you have so many drones on everything else, all the enemies anti-tank guns will start firing at the only 2 vehicles you have rather than trying to strip drones away.
I can see the reason behind the leader and drones on the pathfinders as they are so crucial in improving the rest of the army.
Counter to the rest of my advice the hammerhead should also have the multi-tracker upgrade. It's nice having a railgun that can move 12" and still fire, or move 5" and fire all guns.
With the broadsides I understand the reasoning of trying to get the unit past 4 models, so 1 casaulty doesn't trigger and morale test. You could save pts by going down to 3 drones, or switching 2 of them to gun drones. Personally I prefer AdvStabSys but the extra drones and cheaper cost can work, but it's probably essential to have a second kroot squad to give you another turn of firing before any assaulters get to the broadsides.
Alternatively if you can find 100 pts in the list, I'd upgrade one unit to 3 broadsides, give them all AdvStabSys and give the leader a target lock and 2 shield drones.
Hopefully you see my comment as harsh, but fair. I think the basis of the list is sound, I'd just move the crisis suits to elites and try to strip out lots of the upgrades to get more firepower.
Rathstar
Hi Rathstar,
ReplyDeleteWelcome to blog and thanks for the critique!
The Second HQ squad is supposed to be better because...hmmm...I'm not quite sure why that's in there. My friend and I put this together, and he had some good idea for it that I can't remember now. I'll drop the Iridium Armour, I liked it as a fluffy up-armoured up-saved unit, but I think I'll need the full 6" jump.
The Flechette Discharger was me trying to fill 19 points left over on the list. Consider it dropped.
I'm going to stick with the Bonding Knife on the Fire Warriors, as I'm not meching them anymore. The range and strength of their guns can slow down Rhino-Rushes and even damage Monsterous Creatures, so anything that keeps them alive and on the board is good.
The Multi-Tracker on the Hammerhead is an excellent idea, I'm surprised I never looked at it...
The Kroot squad has so many Hounds because they're cheaper than the Kroot themselves, plus will hit higher in Initiative Order that they'll do better than the Kroot. My only thing with them, and I've let my friend know this, is that the Hounds are so F***ing expensive, I can't justify $75 for 10 hounds. I'm really still learning to play my Kroot, so that squad will change a lot.
I'll be writing a new list tonight hopefully, so I'll post that up tomorrow!
Granesh