9x19 Parabellum Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 Hello! So I played my first game with Tau ever against my regular weekly buddy. I got my Orange ass handed to me on a silver platter. Here's the lists: Me (Sa'Cea Sept) Ethereal on Drone Cadre Fireblade (puretide engram neurochip, through unity, devastation) Coldstar, 2x fusion, shield, 1x airgun (with the Supernova relic) 7x fire warriors w/ trash can 7x fire warriors w/ trash can 7x breachers with guardian and gun drone 3x stealth with burst cannons and velocity trackers 1x ghostkeel with 2x burst cannons and ion gun ats+tl 8x pathfinders, 3 rail rifles, 5 markers lights, recon, pulse and grav drones 1x skyray gunship w/ 6 seekers, 2 burst cannons and 2 marker lights Opponent. 1 Trygon Prime 2x Neurothropes 3x ripper swarms 3x ripper swarms 3x ripper swarms 3x zoanthropes 3x zoanthropes 3x venomthropes 1x exocrine Everything was at -1 to be hit because of the Neurothropes (which, themselves were out of range) and then the pyschic phase in some cases made that even worse. The damage I was able to put on the exocrine was healed in his pyschic phases and/or by stratagems, who, in turn, pretty much deleted 1-2 of my infantry units per turn with his shoot 2x ability. I'm new to Tau and had low expectations, but this was a demoralizing game. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brother_b Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 Hello! So I played my first game with Tau ever against my regular weekly buddy. I got my Orange ass handed to me on a silver platter. Here's the lists: Me (Sa'Cea Sept) Ethereal on Drone Cadre Fireblade (puretide engram neurochip, through unity, devastation) Coldstar, 2x fusion, shield, 1x airgun (with the Supernova relic) 7x fire warriors w/ trash can 7x fire warriors w/ trash can 7x breachers with guardian and gun drone 3x stealth with burst cannons and velocity trackers 1x ghostkeel with 2x burst cannons and ion gun ats+tl 8x pathfinders, 3 rail rifles, 5 markers lights, recon, pulse and grav drones 1x skyray gunship w/ 6 seekers, 2 burst cannons and 2 marker lights Opponent. 1 Trygon Prime 2x Neurothropes 3x ripper swarms 3x ripper swarms 3x ripper swarms 3x zoanthropes 3x zoanthropes 3x venomthropes 1x exocrine Everything was at -1 to be hit because of the Neurothropes (which, themselves were out of range) and then the pyschic phase in some cases made that even worse. The damage I was able to put on the exocrine was healed in his pyschic phases and/or by stratagems, who, in turn, pretty much deleted 1-2 of my infantry units per turn with his shoot 2x ability. I'm knew to Tau and had low expectations, but this was a demoralizing game. I'm building my own army and this is the kind of information that's interesting to me. Sorry for the demoralizing loss but insight helps when building armies. I've been concerned about poor Tau shooting. For all the training they do as Fire Warriors, for all their amazing technological advances and ability, apparently they still can't grasp basic marksmanship! I've considered taking 2 cadre fireblades for that good BS to get the markerlights on target. I've also considered taking 3 X firesight marksmen in a detachment. Again, for those nice markerlights. I'm concerned because you played Sa'cea so basically with your stratagem you could drop markerlights on whatever target you want. It appears it was still hard. Anyway, any insight into what you did well? Did anything work? Thanks for the write up. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x19 Parabellum Posted August 24, 2018 Author Share Posted August 24, 2018 I can tell you for sure what I did wrong. Turn 1 targeting priority. -I marker lighted the Exocrine using the cadre fireblade, followed by the d3+1 stratagem. Then i poured all 6 seeker missiles into him. I was hitting on 4's (bs3+, -1=4, rerolling 1's). I did poorly here, only hitting with 2 I think, and then only wounding with 1. I then only got a 1 for damage. (i had a used a command reroll to convert the other hit to wound, which also failed). So, 6 missiles, 1 wound. Yep, it was going to be that kind of game. -I should have moved the skyray gunship further up (-1 to hit), but then marker lit and shot missiles at the Venomthropes behind (the ones' giving the -1 to hit debuff to everything). I forgot i had velocity tracker natively on the Skyray Gunship, which would have offset the movement penalty. So I would have still been hitting on 4's, rerolling hits. I also think maybe I should have gone for broke and used the d3+1 marker light stratagem AND the Sa'Cea one (character just grants an additional +1 stratagem, and then also shot marker lights in to hopefully get the 5 i needed for complete rerolls to failed hits). The seeker missiles would have wounded them on 2's and I think in general been much more effective against them. That would have disable his shooting penalty buff, and gotten me first blood. Other Mistake. I went in too fast and hard with my Commander because I didn't realize the Zoanthropes had 3+ invulns. So my fusion was wasted on them and my Supernova gun similary did crap. I ended up with no damage on a unit that I was hoping to destroy. He then went on to nuke my coldstar with mortal wound spam. yay 4++ shield. -What I did right? Pretty much nothing. I held my Ghostkeel back to deal with his Trygon who was in deepstrike reserve. Then again maybe that was the wrong move, because it allowed his Exocrine to just devour 1-2 infantry units each turn with his 12 str 7, ap-3 d2 shots each turn hitting on 3+. But at least I got slay the warlord (his Trygon). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panzer Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 Geez that Tyranid list. o_O I don't know too much about competetive Tyranids but taking nothing swarms and floating brains and floating tentacles smells like cheese. Anyway, T'au take some time to get used to play compared to other armies imo. Keep your guys together and focus on one target after another. BS4+ is a :cuss and we somehow have to deal with it. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x19 Parabellum Posted August 24, 2018 Author Share Posted August 24, 2018 Just wanted to add I think bs 4+ is very reasonable for a 7 pt model with a str 5 gun. I don't begrudge the design space for Tau on that. But the prevalence of penalties to hit really hurt, and I think the marker light chart might need to be rethunk (or the cost/availability of marker lights in general). EDIT. Upon reflection, Panzer, it occurs to me that maybe you're not talking about basic troops but elites and such. It does seem reasoanble that Shas'Vre might have BS 3+, although I think riptides with 3+ BS are kind of terrifying, as are stormsurges, and they'd both need a price hike if they got that. Indeed, the lack of BS3+ is why I'm drawn to the much maligned Skyray/Hammerhead (which, I think, would have done more for me this game had I used it properly). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brother_b Posted August 24, 2018 Share Posted August 24, 2018 Great feedback thank you all. Do markerlight drones hit on 5 or 4? I don't have my codex available right now. I'm bad at target priority/finishing off targets. I'll have to double down and make sure I concentrate and focus to remove threats before moving on to the next threat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
9x19 Parabellum Posted August 24, 2018 Author Share Posted August 24, 2018 markerlight drones hit on a 5+, but they have the stable platform, so don't suffer the -1 penalty to move and shoot with heavy weapons. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Progenitor Posted August 28, 2018 Share Posted August 28, 2018 Just to note, the Stormsurge does hit on a 3+ if you deploy the anchors after the turn 1 shooting phase. Effective 2s if you can get 5 markerlights on something. T'au, IMO, are about precise application of overwhelming firepower. You don't really want to plink away at a few targets, but focus on eliminating the most threatening one. I'll admit that Nid list does look horrifying to play against though. Like you came to the game with different expectations of what kind of game you're playing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Pounder Posted August 29, 2018 Share Posted August 29, 2018 I too have recently played my first game! I found what I believe to be an effective combo I haven’t heard of before and thought I’d post to see if I got lucky! I used my XV8 Commander in Iridium Armour and gave him 4 Missile Pods, the Puretide Engram Neurochip relic and the Through Unity Devistation Warlord Trait. I sat him at the back with my gunline (3 teams of Fire Warriors, Fireblade and Stormsurge) basically he buffed the units within 6” of him and even got off a Kauyon on turn 2, the whole time he was helping to farm Command Points and stayed alive right to the end! His firepower was useful without setting the world alight but he did exactly what I was hoping for him to do! So what do you think? Was I just lucky? Or am I on to something? Either way I’ll be trying it again! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panzer Posted August 30, 2018 Share Posted August 30, 2018 It's an okay-ish combo. Missile Pods are overcosted, Iridium armour not needed thanks to character keyword protection, PEN could be carried by a Firesight Marksman/Ethereal/Fireblade just as well and Kauyon is only once per game anyway. ^^ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Triszin Posted September 2, 2018 Share Posted September 2, 2018 Geez that Tyranid list. o_O I don't know too much about competetive Tyranids but taking nothing swarms and floating brains and floating tentacles smells like cheese. Anyway, T'au take some time to get used to play compared to other armies imo. Keep your guys together and focus on one target after another. BS4+ is a and we somehow have to deal with it. nothing a squad of crisis with triple flamers cant melt Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Panzer Posted September 2, 2018 Share Posted September 2, 2018 Geez that Tyranid list. o_O I don't know too much about competetive Tyranids but taking nothing swarms and floating brains and floating tentacles smells like cheese. Anyway, T'au take some time to get used to play compared to other armies imo. Keep your guys together and focus on one target after another. BS4+ is a and we somehow have to deal with it. nothing a squad of crisis with triple flamers cant melt One of my favourite units for sure. ;) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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