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A handful of Tau lists
Breten	Post subject: A handful of Tau lists Posted: Fri Dec 16, 2005 4:09 am
Brood Brother Joined: Mon Jan 03, 2005 10:15 pm Posts: 177	Well, I'll be getting my first game in with my Tau this weekend.  I will be facing off against either an Adeptus Titan Legion or against some Tyranids.  We're not sure how many points we're going to use yet, so I put together 4 lists @ 2000, 2700, 3000, and 3500 points using the Epic Tau I currently own.  Any critiquing or suggestions on what I should change, take or proxy would be appreciated. Epic Tau 2000 points Battlesuit Cadre Shas'o +2 Crisis Suits (475) Fire Warrior Cadre Devilfish Ethereal (375) Armoured Cadre +2 Hammerheads (500) Stealthsuits +3 Stealth (400) Barracudas (250) Epic Tau 2700 points Battlesuit Cadre Shas'o (350) Battlesuit Cadre Shas'El (300) Fire Warrior Cadre Devilfish Ethereal (375) Armoured Cadre +2 Hammerheads (500) Stealthsuits +3 Stealth (400) Broadsides (300) Barracudas (250) 2 x Tigersharks Railcannon (350) Epic Tau 3000 points Battlesuit Cadre Shas'o +2 Crisis Suits (475) Battlesuit Cadre Shas'El +2 Crisis Suits (425) Fire Warrior Cadre Devilfish (300) Armoured Cadre +2 Hammerheads (500) Stealthsuits +3 Stealth (400) Broadsides (300) Barracudas (250) 2 x Tigersharks Railcannon (350) Epic Tau 3500 points Battlesuit Cadre Shas'o +2 Crisis Suits (475) 2 x Battlesuit Cadre Shas'El +2 Crisis Suits (850) Fire Warrior Cadre Devilfish Ethereal (375) Armoured Cadre +2 Hammerheads (500) Stealthsuits +3 Stealth (400) Broadsides +2 Broadsides (450) Barracudas (250) 2 x Tigersharks Railcannon (350)
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Tactica

Post subject: A handful of Tau lists Posted: Sat Dec 17, 2005 12:01 am

Brood Brother Joined: Sat Jul 09, 2005 12:12 am Posts: 2241

Well, I'll be getting my first game in with my Tau this weekend. Congratulations! The E:A Tau have shaped up into a fun list to play in the past few months. I will be facing off against either an Adeptus Titan Legion or against some Tyranids.  We're not sure how many points we're going to use yet, so I put together 4 lists @ 2000, 2700, 3000, and 3500 points using the Epic Tau I currently own.  Any critiquing or suggestions on what I should change, take or proxy would be appreciated

Tyranids and AMTL are both tough developmental lists. AMTL perhaps may have an easier exploitation point, but both have their strengths and weaknesses. Both are scary to face on the open field. Tyranids will make better use of the terrain and AMTL will have to be dealt with one titan at a time. The list you face either will be completely different too.

I would start with commonalities in lists to face these two forces. You are going to want plenty of AT to take out big bugs and big titans or tank cohorts in AMTL.

You are going to want lots of speed because bugs are fast, and AMTL are slow with really big guns.

You are going to want to crossfire a lot as both armies have great big nasties with great armor saves.

You are going to want a _lot_ of quality AT shots (plus a few more) to take down all the shields of the AMTL and to deal the multitude of wounds required to deal with a tyrandid swarm.

You are going to want to avoid hand to hand with either AMTL or tyranids as those kinds of battles are just out of your league against these adversaries.

Both opponent lists are skewed towards lots of superheavies if the novice is fielding either list. That means, macro weapons, space craft with macro weapons, and more macro weapons.... it also means lots of AT fire to take down shields first.

So in effect, if you know you are playing against a guy that likes the big stuff, you can skew your list to match it. If he suprises you and takes a horde bug army with an unbelievable amount of little bugs and hardly any big bugs *or* he takes a warhound scout titan army and supports it with a plethora of those mean obliterator wanna-be infantry in chimeras supported by RA lemans... well, grab your ankles, grin, and bare it... you will have been out metagamed in either case.

Any critiquing or suggestions on what I should change, take or proxy would be appreciated.
This really depends upon table size, terrain cover, and what version of the above adversarial armies you expect to encounter. It also depends upon whether you are playing the WIP list or the v4.3.2 list or the v4.1 out dated list in the vault...  however, I'll go off of what you have listed and assume you are playing either the current WIP list or the v4.3.2 list as those are both close and newer.


Epic Tau 2000 points
1) Battlesuit Cadre, Shas'o, +2 Crisis Suits (475)
2) Fire Warrior Cadre, Devilfish, Ethereal (375)
3) Armoured Cadre, +2 Hammerheads (500)
4) Stealthsuits, +3 Stealth (400)
5) Barracudas (250)
A battlesuit cadre in a 2K army... hmm... seems like a waste of points. hoping to get close with this formation with relatively few models on the field?

Ethereal in the fish... why? hoping to get stuck in and hold the line?

Armoured cadre - good

Stealthsuit upgrade in 2K army... why? more activations against the opponents you are playing against will come in hand.

Barracudas are always good and at least one fighter element is necessary in every list IMHO.

Epic Tau 2700 points
1) Battlesuit Cadre, Shas'o (350)
2) Battlesuit Cadre, Shas'El (300)
3) Fire Warrior Cadre, Devilfish, Ethereal (375)
4) Armoured Cadre, +2 Hammerheads (500)
5) Stealthsuits, +3 Stealth (400)

At larger point games you seem to be putting faith in getting closer with smaller squads. Now we see two battlesuit cadres here. The ethereal is still present. The hammerhead and stealths are still in but there's no significant uptick in AT output. The list you've designed seems like you are expecting quite a bit of soft targets and very little AT targets. It also appears that you are expecting to get quite up close and personal.

6) Broadsides (300)
7) Barracudas (250)
8-9) 2 x Tigersharks Railcannon (350)
Now you're talking.  The broadsides will help punch holes, but they don't satisfy your need to be manouvreable. They are also a very small fragile squad as designed. I don't see reason to take broadsides without taking drones - especially considering they are LVs in all lists right now Against the two lists you are playing... you are going to be outranged by AMTL and you are going to need speed against the bugs. The manouverability element is going to be huge against both lists IMHO. I'd consider an orca if you are going to run the broadsides, otherwise, scrap them and run a HH contingent.

Tigersharks and barracudas are a wise choise here.

Epic Tau 3000 points
1) Battlesuit Cadre, Shas'o, +2 Crisis Suits (475)
2) Battlesuit Cadre, Shas'El, +2 Crisis Suits (425)
3) Fire Warrior Cadre, Devilfish (300)
4) Armoured Cadre, +2 Hammerheads (500)
5) Stealthsuits, +3 Stealth (400)
6) Broadsides (300)
7) Barracudas (250)
8-9) 2 x Tigersharks Railcannon (350)
IMHO - you should have two mooray here in this list dropping from a spacecraft with 2-pinpoint attacks. I think your investment in battlesuits are going to be dissapointing.


Epic Tau 3500 points
1) Battlesuit Cadre, Shas'o, +2 Crisis Suits (475)
2-3) 2 x Battlesuit Cadre, Shas'El, +2 Crisis Suits (850)
4) Fire Warrior Cadre, Devilfish, Ethereal (375)
5) Armoured Cadre, +2 Hammerheads (500)
6) Stealthsuits, +3 Stealth (400)
7) Broadsides, +2 Broadsides (450)
Barracudas (250)
9-10) 2 x Tigersharks Railcannon (350)

3 battlesuit squads... wow... I'll be impressed if you go with this one. I'd love to hear how the suit heavy force faired. I think I know, but I'd love to hear the feedback. Again, where are the moray's against this foe. I think the ion-morays would be good against either. The reaons is the mass small bug or AT potential for all the wounds. Also, they are great to take down shields and if shields are already down, blast 12 shots into a wounded titan and its probably pushing up daisy's if the guy doesn't roll so good. The ion's can also be used against all the tanks and chimeras you might see in AMTL.

Your lists look fun, but I think you may end up being a bit frustrated with the lists due to the amount of reliance you seem to put on some of the upgrades and mainly, the crisis. They just don't perform (for me) the way I'd usually like them too. Against these two adversaries, they really have the deck stacked against them IMHO.

Hope some of this was helpful, please take notes and report back with full bat rep!

Cheers,