Disclaimer: This converstation never happened, and is being written in the style of comedic farse. There are lots of exagerations in this little story, and I hope you can get a small laugh out of it, while at the same time get in the frame of mind where I am coming from from my main suggestion of abstracting out Seekers, while keeping everything else the same.
Without further adue, "The Tradgedy of the n00b Tau player!"
I am Tau noob from WH40K trying to make a Tau army with an Epic Tau veteran.
me: Ok so I am going to bring these two cardres of firewarriors with devildish to move forward and try and cut down their infantry, and transports.
TauVet: You nub! Firewarriors are for holding objectives, you never attack with them. Better yet, use Human aux to hold objectives, they are even better, but I don't use them cause they're not Tau!!
me: huh?
TauVet: Ok FW's can shoot infantry pretty good, but they will get slaughtered by all the transports in the formation, they can't hurt tanks! Also he will just keep his infantry in his transports, shoot yours with his transports, and dare you to try and assult him if you want to take them out.
me: oh so asaulting with Firewarrios is the only way I can kill transports, but this isn't suppost to be an assaulty army?
TauVet: Thats right, you bring tanks if you want to kill little puny transports/LV's. Well okay, if you still want to follow this dumb idea of using your FW to engage other mobile infantry, then you should just sit back 75cm's away and fire at them with your Devilfish's, then move up and attack him once he has no more vehicles.
me: What?! My transports have a 75cm AV SHOT?!?
TauVet: God you have no idea how Tau work at all do you?
me: well, sorta, in 40k...
TauVet: 40k is not Epic, drop everything you know. Take tanks, and learn how to use Seekers as GM's now.
me: Okay well then I guess I will take some pathfinders to act as forward scouts to mark targets for my Tracers and shoot down hard targets.
TauVet: sigh, you really are a nub. No one uses Pathfinders for that! Use Tetras! They are faster, and able to mark just the same! No one uses pathfinders, except for the 75cm AV attack from the Devilfish, Wooo!!! Oh, and take more tanks.
me: I don't understand this,
TauVet: Thats cause you're stuck on 40K, this is EPIC!
me: Ok so I will move my Tetra's forward to mark the enemy mounted infantry, and then shoot at them with my Hammerhead formation.
TauVet: That's not an efficient use of your force.
me: Oh, so what should do for this move?
TauVet: Well if you shoot your GM's from your Hammerheads, then they can't shoot that enemy tank squad over there, as having GM's shot by the tank uses up its activation, and it must target the same unit it's seekers are shooting at. Just bring MORE tanks like stingrays, or bring Crisis suits. Firewarriors are for holding objectives!
Me: Huh, I thought seekers had nothing to do with the tanks. I thought that Seekers automatically smart fire once guided by the infantry's markerlights. The tanks are nothing more than carriers for them, thus the tanks could be free to go after the Heavy stuff with the enemy. In 40K.....
TauVet: Stop saying in 40K! In Epic, the tanks shoot the Gm's!
me: I know, and I really like the GM rules, Tracers and Hunters are cool and fluffy! But it seams wierd that the seekers are using the GM rules for these newer and more powerful guided munitions.
TauVet: Well Seekers were made GM's, I mean where do all those missile come from if they are not shown as a stat on all vehicles in the game? You can't abstract stuff like that for small things in EPIC! Anyways, this means that if they waste their time launching seekers at your dumb infantry target, thats not holding an objective *poke* *poke*, they can't do their job hunting tanks!
me: Right I get it, Firewarriors are for holding objects, but can't abstract stuff like that? Isn't that really just a choice of whether we want to or not? I mean all units are considered to have enough ammo for their basic weapons to last the whole battle, right?
TauVet: Maybe, but in 40K they are on the tanks, and you have to keep track of each one, so how could you shoot seekers if you had no tanks in your army? Huh, answer me that?
me: Well they could be carried by small drones, launched from off field, or maybe in small camoflaged racks that are setup with battle, or from some non combat aircraft or.... Hey, wait a minute, didn't you just tell my that this is Epic and not 40K and tha.....
TauVet: You really don't understand Epic.
TauVet: Look this is how you play. All your FW sit on thier buts once they get to an objectve. Take lots and lots of tanks, and use these other markerlights as mobile LOS bubbles. Until the enemy's warengines are taken out, hide all your vehicles at the back of the board behind cover, and launch GM's!!
me: but shouldn't they be up close supporting my infantry advance, you know combined arms and all?
TauVet: They don't have to be! You can hide them at the back, cause every tank in the army has all these neeto seeker thingy's that are GM's! Just make sure that they are within 45cm of your makerlight units, so that they can shoot from 75cm away all their little seekers missiles!
me: You're right I don't understand Tau in Epic.
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