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London Experimental Day - Tau games

 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 2:04 pm 
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Tim - So you essentially have a problem with a Tau army having to spend points (which should be increased) on an extra unit and use up support formation slots to get an ability that Marines, I.G., Eldar, Tyranids, Titan Legions, Chaos and Squats get for free?

I would not urge for the sentries to be dropped from the tournament list.

E&C - I have already answered that question and you quoted my answer (which does solve the problem). Jervis has not asked for less special rules, just less words to be used for them.
Nothing more to be said there...

Mephiston, I agree that a price increase is necessary for a group of 3 (I DO NOT think they should be bought singularly, not worth it).

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 2:32 pm 
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E&C - I have already answered that question and you quoted my answer (which does solve the problem). Jervis has not asked for less special rules, just less words to be used for them.


Indeed. He's recommended dropping rules if the current set can't all be made to fit however, and 'cheating' by using pre-existing universal special rules to achieve a similar effect as the previously-intended rule.

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:31 pm 
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Under Tau technology
TAU DRONES
Tau make extensive use of floating, disc-shaped robots called Drones. In battle, Drones are programmed to shield their
controllers by getting in the way of incoming fire or close combat opponents.
Formations do not receive blast markers for drone units that are destroyed, but drones lost in an assault do count towards the
assault resolution as normal. Drone units do not disallow garrisoning at setup if the formation would otherwise be able to do
so.

and under designer notes
Tau Drones: The effect of Drones is built into the shooting values and armour values of Tau units, rather than being listed
separately. For example, the effect of Gun Drones is built into the firepower for the pulse weapons used by Tau infantry, and
the presence of Shield Drones accounts for the higher than average armour values of Tau infantry and Tau battlesuits.

If the drones are available as upgrades why are they already taken into account for armour and shooting shouldn't one part be dropped.

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 3:46 pm 
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If the drones are available as upgrades why are they already taken into account for armour and shooting shouldn't one part be dropped.


This comes up all the time in my group, with similar opinions being aired... notably the FW army list has a less impressive armour save on its Crisis Suits, which is another of the reasons we've started using it (Or a slightly modified form thereof).

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 6:26 pm 
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Quote: (Onyx @ 07 Jul. 2008, 12:17 )

Chris - Whats the difference (in your opinion) between "extreme" and "min maxed"?

Extreme is going for one style hoping it overwhelming your opponent. An example would be a massive air assault horde. If you end up facing say Eldar with flak and nightwings you are stuffed. Or a terminator horde facing a skimmer of doom force.

Min maxing is simply getting as much as possible of whats good and minimising whats bad. An example on a very small scale is a Hammerhead. You get the best aspects of a tank (in the French's view - mobility and firepower) but also you minimise your weaknesses, you can't be CC'ed so the poor CC factor doesn't matter and the skimmer ability can be used to boost your armour. Nothing but hammerheads wouldn't be min maxed as you can't take on certain types of forces, but an army of all but varied skimmers (Hammerheads, Skorps, etc), if the list allows it cheaply enough, cuts out a vulnerability for no cost. So to stop that you either use the list structure to make it impossible or alter the points to make it prohibitive.

Believe it or not, I'm 38 years old and have been gaming for over 20 years.

I have teh twenty years but must respect your additional 8 over me venerable one :)

I do understand all the concepts that you and others are describing here but some of the proposed solutions (unit removal, etc) are not always going to be the ideal solution. Why not find a way to make it work rather than throw it out because some can't be bothered?

Oh definitively try and fix it first. Cutting something should be the final straw as it were. That could mean some stuff becoming one dimensional (look at assault marines int he marine list - air assault only).

We've played over 15 games with Tau and the games where the Markerlights are ignored are far more competitive (without exception). Wasting activations on killing them only allows the Tau more time to get into position and we've found that to be far more devastating than getting the advantages from the markerlights. If you use 3-4 activations on killing Turrets that gives the Tau player 3-4 activations to be killing your tanks...

I think you have to max out the advantage it gives you to get a real benefit. A Hero is compulsory (paying those points to hit 4 separate formations is very worth it just for the disruption, not to mention the dead Thunderhawks :) ).

Is this really an issue? I believe a better solution would be to reduce the number of Guided missile in the Tau army (points increases for a few units to reduce activations and maybe a minor stat change or 2). I think this would make a WORLD of difference to the effectiveness of the list.

I would hate the GM's to be reduced. I love them as its the only purpose of markerlights in the SG list and gives the army a very interconnected feel. Not to mention in theory intensify the fire enemies face as they close with Tau formations.

Turret wise to be honest I would like to see Turrets be a standard Tau formation, any 6 turrets. Zero special rules (well bar the expendable one). Stats something like

Drone Turret
Light Vehicle, 0cm, Save 4+, CC- FF6+
Twin-linked Missile Pods, 30cm, AP4+/AT5+
Notes: Scout, Thick Rear Armour, Expendable. May deploy up to 15cm from a War Engine transport

Drone Turret
Light Vehicle, 0cm, Save 4+, FF5+
One of the following
Twin-linked Plasma Rifles, 15cm, AP4+/AT4+
Twin-linked Fusion Blaster, 15cm, MW5+
Twin-linked Burst Cannon, 15cm, AP3+, Disrupt
Notes: Scout, Thick Rear Armour, Expendable. May deploy up to 15cm from a War Engine transport

Remote Sensor Tower
Armoured Vehicle, 0cm, 6+, CC-, FF-
Notes: Scout, Thick Rear Armour, Expendable, Markerlight




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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Mon Jul 07, 2008 7:57 pm 
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IIRC that's pretty much how the Forgeworld army list does their turrets.

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 3:30 am 
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Thanks for the explanation on extreme/min maxing Chris. Very well described.

Venerable one... :laugh:  Thanks mate.

I believe a Hero is compulsory too. It is the eternal bugbear for my opponents when they use Guard.

When I said reduce GM's, I actually meant to reduce activations that use GM's. I don't want to see stats changed too much.

In your turret list above, how does the Remote Sensor Tower deploy? Same as the others (from War Engines)? Garrison? I've already mentioned that lighting up your own half of the board is fairly pointless for Tau. If you can't light up the opponents half of the board (and especially their deployment zone for the Hero early attck) there's no real benfit to the Tau.

Speaking of the Hero, it is a unit that really annoys Tau opponents here. 200pts to put blast markers on 4 formations is almost rude. Maybe one of the missile attack could be removed (only allowing 3 missiles instead of 6 and only attacking 3 formations)? If that was the case though the rule about only targetting WE if no Markerlight present may need to be changed.

Anyway, we'll see what CS comes up with in time.

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 5:19 am 
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Sentry Turrets Make them 25pts. each and 1-3 per 3000 point game. Make them a standard unit BUT with no activation
.

This was my idea in my tau alterations post (good to see it was well read  :;):  )and is still my recommendation. Thanks for the support Dexys!  :agree:  :vD

The turrets aren't the bogeyman people are making out. Reddeth constantly out-manouvres mine (granted I take no more than 3 - which i think is how it should be...) which makes them useless on occasion in that outcome. If you deploy them near the enemy they invariably die quickly. The +1 to hit is not the "killer" bonus people are making out either. One thing I like about them is that I find they provide the Tau a "deterrent" to formations planning to charge through to engage the Tau. It's more of a "channeling the enemy" kind of thing. It makes your opponent think twice about barging his heavy assault units through to your brittle formations. It makes them re-think their strategy and that is good IMO. It makes the game more interesting to both sides as the opponent doesn't just play his standard tactics that he might be used to.

It would merely restrict the problem and not hide I think. The inherited problem that I have with them is that they can be deployed everywhere and that they require opponent to spend 3 activations to remove 50 points worth to get rid of

Well adopt my proposal and that would go away Hena.  :yes:   :;):  You can't deploy "everywhere" with Turrets as they stand now. If we limit them to 3 max in a game both sides get a benefit. Trust me I've played many games with my turrets and I always found 3 to be quite enough. In fact strangely enough, 6 was too many and detracted from the fun - there's no challenge in saturating the table with them so every nook and cranny was marked....

Turret wise to be honest I would like to see Turrets be a standard Tau formation, any 6 turrets. Zero special rules (well bar the expendable one).
We tried that set up in an earlier version of the Tau. It was ridiculous. 6 turrets get wiped out in an assault with the loss of just one turret that can't fight and can't retreat when it gets beaten in assault. If this was re-adopted I wouldn't bother taking this formation. Just as you love your GMs TRC recognise that myself, and others, love our turrets....

Speaking of the Hero, it is a unit that really annoys Tau opponents here. 200pts to put blast markers on 4 formations is almost rude. Maybe one of the missile attack could be removed (only allowing 3 missiles instead of 6 and only attacking 3 formations)? If that was the case though the rule about only targetting WE if no Markerlight present may need to be changed.
I agree. Just make it a 1 Gravitic Tracer attack with 4 (or 6?) xMW Tracer attack. You reduce it to 3 BMs then. Most other ships can put down about 3 BMs - perhaps more when you take into account barrage templates (of various size depending on the ship size)and pin-points. They get to use theirs with impunity. Tau only get the tracers if they have MLs.





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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 8:07 am 
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Deploying turrets - as garrisons. If you note they have scout and with 6 you can string them easily up to the half way line and get coverage 30cm into the opponents half. And really if you want markerlit units on the opponents base line you should have to drop Drones or move pathfinders in.

Losing them in assault - did you have the scout rule then? You can string them out all over the shop so they can't all be engaged (I have played around with move zero units a lot). But beyond this defence for a very cheap offensive/defensive garrison they should just die. For 50-100 points you would have lit some stuff up, shot a bit and tied up an opponents activation.

Everything else in Epic is at risk from shooting and assaults, if you want these guys to be immune you should make them terrain features.

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 9:49 am 
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Chris - Wouldn't Sentry Turrets have to be Fearless then?

If garrisoned across the board as you desribe, a simple clipping assault on one of them would wipe out the entire formation. Why should robotic laser pointers suffer from hackdown (we got em demoralised!)?

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 12:21 pm 
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They would get a couple of hack down hits but strung out you will on average have a couple left if they can only lose 1 to attacks. You could make them fearless if you really wanted to but now its just to make them very hard to get rid of. Should they honestly be that hard to die? Considering that my ML drones I drop from Tigersharks die - indeed if they don't get only broken sharpish - why should these be any different (note I reckon you should be able to drop them from tigersharks as well).

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 Post subject: London Experimental Day - Tau games
PostPosted: Tue Jul 08, 2008 1:52 pm 
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I guess it's just that if anything fitted the description of Fearless, it's a computer with a laser pointer and no concept of suppression.

They should function at 100% until destroyed.

Does dropping Heavy drones from a Tigershark trigger Overwatch fire?

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