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and now for something Completely Different; Trying out new Tau units
Topic Started: 13 Aug 2008, 07:45 AM (467 Views)
darkseer
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Warrant Officer First Class
Had a quick game of 40K last night.

Decided to "Try Something'" ....which usually results in Will Smith screaming "JIMMY NOOOOoooo!" (ref:Independence Day)

I tried a mostly infiltrating army with hopes to sweep on from the sides with overwhelming numbers.
Didn't quite go to plan as we ended up playing Secure & Control with SpearHead Deployment.

I took:
Fireknife commander and bodyguard, 3 shield drones, 1 marker light drone

6 stealth suits, 2 fusion blasters
6 stealth suits, 2 fusion blasters
6 stealth suits, 2 fusion blasters

10 Kroot
10 Kroot
10 Kroot
6 fire warriors
6 fire warriors

3 sniper drone teams


He took:
Fireknife commander and bodyguard, 3 shield drones

5 stealth suits, targeting arrays
5 stealth suits, targeting arrays

6 fire warriors
6 fire warriors

2 broadsides, stabilisation, leader with 2 sheild drones
2 broadsides, stabilisation, leader with 2 sheild drones
Hammerhead, railgun, SMS, multitracker, target lock, disruption pods.


Summary

It wasn't the most exciting game.
All my guys set up in a big line around his army, then started peppering away.
I claimed 3 objectives in the final turn with my sheer number of troops, but it was clear that while I had won the game, he had won the battle. Had the game gone on another turn I could see my army turning tail and fleeing.

Fusion blasters on stealth teams = bad. Couldn't get close enough to use them, not without risking the entire 200pts team. Due to losing 2 burst cannons, my squads simply weren't effective enough at infantry killing.

Kroot = meh. 1 squad of 10 kroot sitting in a building is a nice distraction and very effective. 30 of them is a waste of points. They sat in cover, shot a little bit, but mostly got shot back and died.

Marker light drone = undecided. I attached it to my commander to lend other units a hand at shooting. I hit once with it all game, then wondered what the hell to do with it. I'll try it out again because it has some potential, but it's a bit much for 30pts.

Sniper Drone Teams -rubbish. It was only after I deployed that I realised the whole unit sits in a big clump. With only range 36 and hardly any mobility, it wasn't a particularly effective unit. Costly too!
It took them 3 turns to kill a firewarrior team in a building.
The drones don't seem accurate enough, the range seems too short and there's virtually no mobility.
In future I'd be tempted to use them like a big, static stealth team and see how that goes. Basically an invisible gunline along my deployment edge. How are you supposed to use these?
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Brambleten
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The Red Hood
did you bother with armour or shapers on the kroot? or was it just bulking out the army?
my own tau army is taking shape at the moment and your summery is helping me see that i should carry on and get another 2 hammerheads instead of a sniper team
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Siegfried
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Corporal
Uses of tau sniper teams?
Fire support?
Pin small annoying squads, kill off t3 things(s6 right?)? Never really played 'with' tau, only spent my time killing them sadly..
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Brambleten
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The Red Hood
Siegfried
19 Aug 2008, 08:24 PM
Uses of tau sniper teams?
Fire support?
Pin small annoying squads, kill off t3 things(s6 right?)? Never really played 'with' tau, only spent my time killing them sadly..
yep, s6 marine killers. that may be one of their only functions, in an anti marine army
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darkseer
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Warrant Officer First Class
When a sniper team costs the same as a broadside....you may as well go with the broadside. B)
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fiendil
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Colour Sergeant
Quote:
 
Fusion blasters on stealth teams = bad. Couldn't get close enough to use them, not without risking the entire 200pts team. Due to losing 2 burst cannons, my squads simply weren't effective enough at infantry killing.


Agreeing with you on this. Stealth teams are weak up close and need to stand off. I prefer Fusion on Crisis suits, as Crisis suits can at least kick things to death in combat.

Quote:
 
Kroot = meh. 1 squad of 10 kroot sitting in a building is a nice distraction and very effective. 30 of them is a waste of points. They sat in cover, shot a little bit, but mostly got shot back and died.


I'd suggest that you want to be more aggressive with them against Tau (or IG for that matter), who aren't going to be coming toward you. Last time I took out my Tau, it was also against Tau, and he had Kroot and I didn't. He rammed them down my throat and stopped me from moving forward until I'd dealt with the Kroot first, by which point he'd shot me to death with the rest of his army.

Quote:
 
Marker light drone = undecided. I attached it to my commander to lend other units a hand at shooting. I hit once with it all game, then wondered what the hell to do with it. I'll try it out again because it has some potential, but it's a bit much for 30pts.


3 Stealth suits + leader + markerlight + 2 markerlight drones. Bounce that unit around your backfield using their new improved Relentless boost to allow mobile markerlight goodness for a real headache for your opponent.

Quote:
 
Sniper Drone Teams -rubbish. It was only after I deployed that I realised the whole unit sits in a big clump. With only range 36 and hardly any mobility, it wasn't a particularly effective unit. Costly too!
It took them 3 turns to kill a firewarrior team in a building.
The drones don't seem accurate enough, the range seems too short and there's virtually no mobility.


36" shouldn't be too short a range unless you're on planet bowling ball. The networked markerlight on the spotter boosts the BS for the drones (don't forget they start at BS3 from the Targetting Arrays). The teams can be deployed seperately, they don't have to be in one clump, and 2 teams is more than enough in 1500, I find.

They're good at slotting Avatars and Farseers, Tyranid monsters, Nobz, light vehicles and the like, as well as Marines of all flavours (watch the terror on the face or the Death Guard or Ravenwing commander), and if dug in, their stealth capabilities combined with infantry cover saves, should make them nice and tricky to shift at range.

Never had a unit survive a battle though. Their static nature always gets them killed by whatever assault units get to my lines. The thought goes through my head at this point that they'd make good bait for the Patient Hunter style of play.
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darkseer
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Warrant Officer First Class
Quote:
 
Sniper Drones are good at slotting Avatars and Farseers, Tyranid monsters, Nobz, light vehicles and the like, as well as Marines of all flavours (watch the terror on the face or the Death Guard or Ravenwing commander), and if dug in, their stealth capabilities combined with infantry cover saves, should make them nice and tricky to shift at range.

Never had a unit survive a battle though. Their static nature always gets them killed by whatever assault units get to my lines. The thought goes through my head at this point that they'd make good bait for the Patient Hunter style of play.


I think I'd rather take a hammerhead, or a broadside team to be honest.
Like you say, their static nature gets them killed in a game where manouverablility is key.


Quote:
 
I'd suggest that you want to be more aggressive with Kroot against Tau (or IG for that matter), who aren't going to be coming toward you. Last time I took out my Tau, it was also against Tau, and he had Kroot and I didn't. He rammed them down my throat and stopped me from moving forward until I'd dealt with the Kroot first, by which point he'd shot me to death with the rest of his army.


I was very aggressive. He castled beautifully and strategically tore them apart, squad by squad with mobile elements of his army (hammerhead).
Kroot are ok sitting in cover and shooting, but that's all they're good for if people don't come to you...unless you're lucky enough to make a mad 12" dash across open ground and back into cover.


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fiendil
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darkseer
6 Sep 2008, 06:42 AM
I think I'd rather take a hammerhead, or a broadside team to be honest.
Like you say, their static nature gets them killed in a game where manouverablility is key.

You're probably right on the Snipers being the least effective of the HS options. They're still perfectly useable in the right circumstances, but not as efficient as the others, and their job can be done pretty much by the right config of Crisis suits, without taking up an HS slot.

Quote:
 
I was very aggressive. He castled beautifully and strategically tore them apart, squad by squad with mobile elements of his army (hammerhead).
Kroot are ok sitting in cover and shooting, but that's all they're good for if people don't come to you...unless you're lucky enough to make a mad 12" dash across open ground and back into cover.


Doh. Fair enough. As you say though, he went turtle and, ultimately failed to achieve any of the objectives of the mission. If he was actually going to stand a chance of winning, he'd have to put more points into troops, and that's probably going to reduce his HS choices, making the Kroot more effective.
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