Note the following is all theory hammer
So I have been thinking all week about different tactics to fight the Tau menace. I learned a lot from the recent game and have quite a few tactics to try out. In the near future I will post a full on anti-tau tactica, but for know I will share my recent epiphany. If you have already come to the same conclusion and use this already, sweet you are ahead of me.
Tau are a tough nut to crack, we all know this. They do have weaknesses however and a big one is that they have low leadership and initiative. So while I was thinking about this I was looking through the rule book and was thinking about bringing some psykers. And then I say psychic shriek, oh my, yes I want that. Psychic shriek is a Ld based attack, so you roll 3D6 and minus your opponents Ld and they suffer the remaining number of wounds with no armor or cover saves. Now this sounds ok, but then you have another unit in IG called the psyker battle squad, which has weaken reslove, ie lower targets ld by number of psykers. Well now that just got mean. So using this in conjunction with a primaris psyker with telapathy, namely the shriek, you can go around mind raping the Tau.
So assuming you have a max psyker battle squad, you are going to be reducing even Ld 10 units to Ld 2 (thats the minimum). Well then roll 3D6 and even if you roll poorly you can do serious damage. This is something I am trying in the next game. And the great thing is the battle squad is pretty useful even against other opponents, good attack, and the resolve is awesome. The primaris can choose from every table besides divination(OH NO!!!!!) which means you have great flexibilty on how you want to play him, fighting Tau roll twice on telepathy to give you the choice of what you want, then take shriek for the second as its the primaris. Fight other opponents you can choose differently.
The key is to fight the tau against their weaknesses, the big one is their Ld. Make them make Ld tests and pinning test, eventually they will fail. This tactic also takes great advantage of it, and if you are targeting a unit, you can pretty much guarantee even if you don't kill it, they are running, unless they roll snake eyes. This is a great way to one shot an MC too, all you have to do is pass a Ld test, and barring him rolling a six, that riptide will be rolling a good amount of invul saves. I can't wait to use this, my psykers have been sitting on the side for a bit and could use the time out of the case.
So I will follow up with how well this works, but in theory you can just wreck face with the mind rape tactic. Thats what its called now, mind rape tactica. Now if your not IG, one stop crying that you don't have divination, and two you can do this too. Granted you won't have the weaken resolve unit that makes this so devastating, but there are other ways to lower Ld, and in the end most of the Tau have low Ld, take advantage of it.
Anyways, happy gaming and get to mind raping.
GG
I've found shriek to be vary and I mean very unreliable, especially if you can't snipe the Etherial.
ReplyDeletealmost a third of the players locally are Tau and what I've found out works best is proper target priority and AV 14.
Tau have almost no way to deal with shooty AV14 like Russes, especially if they decide to invest in multiple Ripptides/ Broadsides.
Yes fusion works great but has to get close to you, and that leaves them open for counter charge or just unloading with your guns. Sure Hammerheads with rail are good but its only 33% for a penetration (a glance doesn't really matter) before cover.
And here comes target priority markers are priority number one, followed by broadsides and crisis suits, afterwards fire warriors.
Ripptides are best to be ignored, unless they are coming to charge your tanks.
If that is the case they are in plasma/melta range and aren't that hard to take down or tie up in CC.
Ripptides aren't much of a danger for Guard if they pick the ION gun. S8 AP2 isn't that great against Chimeras AV12 and 55pts, nor does it do that great against squads on foot with decent spread (pure overkill even with markers) and can barely scratch the paint on a Russ. Sure it can Nova for S9 ordnance, but it can overheat and take a wound and it's still a blast that can miss badly even at BS5.
It can be, but you can mitigate it with the psyker battle squad. This is what makes it effective. Even a Ld 10 model will be reduced to Ld 2 with a full psyker battle squad. He can still be fearless and Ld 2, so the shriek attack would still do a decent attack even if you rolled low. I don't see this as a squad killer on its own, but you reduce the Ld, shriek kills at least a few, then they take morale, fail, run. the outcome is the same. This also is a way to put a lot of wounds on a MC with one "shot". It certainly isn't the onl tactic to use but I think when used right it can be devestating. Its a combo of the Psyker battle squad and the shriek from the primaris.
DeleteArmor is def a great way to go nowadays in general, a lot of armies have dropped the high S and low AP weapons for S7 AP4 weapons. Like I said this wasn't a full fighting tau tactica, more of a specific tactic I had thought of. Markers and broadsides are absolutely target number one, riptides aren't too threatening without marker support and simply cannot match the output of missilesides. Gun down the infantry after that (kroot/FWs), and you will be set. The Tau army has great firepower, but its all held in a couple of key units, once gone the arm crumbles.