Fighting the forces of "The Greater Evil" (they choose to call it good)

[Monodominant]

So up against the communist Tau tomorrow...

We will be playing tournament lists... ie the lists we had at the last big all-comers tournament.

I know (as I didnt play him directly) that he had an all mechanised Tau army. What that entails though is beyond me as I dont really know the Fish. I do recall something among the lines of a couple of hammerheads, one of those things with the many missiles etch...

My tournament army was... well... BC , 3 units of PAGK and 3 LRs...

I am not here asking for what list to take but rather how to increase the chances of survival and secure a draw/victory as I have rarely played Tau, let alone a mech-tau...

thanks in advance!

[AtlantianWarrior]

If he only has hammerheads you will be okay. Now if he has railheads your LR's will be toast. If he has broadsides with railguns hide your armour so he can not pop them. By the way if you did not know that is AP1 S10. Ground his armour and you will have a better chance of making him play the game you want to play. Also get into melee with his units. that will also save your can.

[jy2]

Do not let him fire on you first. Consider an inq with emperor's tarot to try to steal first turn. Get smokes and EA on all your LR's. Move 12", pop smoke, and fire 1 TLLC. By turn 2 you should be able to assault.

[Pheonix Lord]

Move 12", pop smoke, and fire 1 TLLC.

Still a Grey area. don't play that card if you still want friends. T'au arn't Commies really.

PL

[Badblade]

Consider an inq with emperor's tarot

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Tarot get squished by the 5ed FAQ or Errata? I think they plainly stated that it no longer does anything.

[jy2]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't the Tarot get squished by the 5ed FAQ or Errata? I think they plainly stated that it no longer does anything.

Not to my knowledge. They did away with daemonic infestation, daemonic instability and minor psychic powers because those are no longer in the 5th rules or daemon codex, but the tarot has its own self-contained rules in the DH codex.

[Badblade]

Apologies, I was thinking of the Liber Heresius. Tarot works as it always has.

[number6]

I play both armies, so hopefully I can help a little.

The hammerheads are almost certainly going to have railguns on them. That's the Tau's primary anti-armour weapon. Still, it's only 50% chance of damaging a raider, so raiders are still useful to you. If his only railguns are the two hammerheads, you will probably be OK. Drive hell-for-leather straight at him, pop smoke -- forcing any hit to be glancing, VERY IMPORTANT -- then repeat (minus smoke, of course), disembark, and wail away at whatever infantry he leaves exposed.

And he should have infantry exposed. Any useful Tau army relies on its battlesuits -- particularly crisis suits with missile pods and, usually, plasma rifles, to do the heavy lifting. These are actually more important targets than the hammerheads. Kill all the battlesuits, and even if the railguns pop your raiders, you're in good shape. The worst a hammerhead can do is kill one GK a turn -- either through a lucky submunition template or a straight shot with a solid slug -- so they're really not that harmful to power-armoured infantry.

Just kill all the crisis suits. That's very very important.

The 3rd heavy slot is key. If it's Broadside suits with TL railguns ... you're really going to be hurting. They hit more reliably than hammerheads and a pair of broadsides with shield drones is comparable in price to a hammerhead, so they're really deadly. If they dismount you on turn one, then the Tau general can just dance around at range torrenting you with his crisis suits until you're dead, end of game. So if you see broadsides along with those hammerheads, they are your #1 priority.

If the 3rd heavy slot is a skyray -- the all-missile boat you appear to be referring to -- it's not a direct threat to you. It's a moderate Tau force multiplier, giving them reliable markerlight hits each turn. Markerlights let the Tau increase the BS of a unit, or decrease the cover save of a unit, or let them fire off one of those seeker missiles. I wouldn't concern myself too much with it. It can be a problem, but it doesn't do the actual killing. You need to concern yourself with the units that can really hurt you. Meaning crisis suits and broadsides.

If your Tau opponent doesn't use piranhas or much Kroot, then you are in control of the pace of the game. Push yourself into the Tau army's face ASAP. They crumple to even crappy assaults, and GKs will just annihilate them. If the Tau general follows the same principles I do, then they will use Piranhas to block your armour and Kroot to slow down any infantry advance. It's a board control army, a tough nut to crack when backed up by jumpy, mobile plasma, missiles, and railguns. Honestly, I nearly always beat my own DH armies when I play my Tau against them, so I don't know what to tell you if you face that kind of lineup other than ... good luck! You're gonna need it.

Just remember: close combat is the best way to beat them. Do anything you can to make it into contact with vehicles, infantry, anything and everything.

If you happen to have a Callidus, USE HER! She is the single best anti-Tau weapon in our arsenal. Send her against battlesuits and watch them disappear. Not to mention the intial Word In Your Ear redeployment. Brilliant. Just brilliant.

I have, of course, assumed all along that you're playing mechanized DH. If you're playing mostly footslogging, relying primarily on dreads for your heavy support ... well, you're in big trouble. Good luck. Almost any Tau army, even one I would consider rather poorly put together (e.g., a static gunline) can kill infantry pretty quickly if it's just hoofin' it across the table.