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Burn_Tide
04-06-2012, 10:57 PM
Hey guys!!
I've been on a gaming rampage the past few weeks, and have cranked out a nice little 1000 point army of Tau, the Cadre being named the "Splinters" for their general battle techniques.

So, lets get to the list

Shas'el Commander
-Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Positional Relay, HW-MT, Shield Gen, Stimulants, 2x Gun Drones,

Shas'ui Monat Crisis Suit
-Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, HW-MT, Shield Gen, Gun Drone

1x5 Stealth Suit Drop Team
-Team Leader with Bonding Knife, Fusion Blaster, 2x Marker Drones

1x4 Stealth Suit Drop Team
-Team Leader with Bonding Knife, Fusion blaster, Gun Drone

1x6 FW Pulse Rifle Team
-5 Warriors with Pulse Rifles, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife

1x6 FW Pulse Carbine Team
-5 Warriors with Pulse Carbines, EMP Grenades, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife, Gun Drone

1x10/10 Kroot Carnivore Brood
-10 Kroot, 10 Hounds

1x1/3 Sniper Drone Team
-1 Shas'ui Spotter, 3 Sniper Drones

So there it is, my 1000 point army. I am restricted heavily on the financial front, and have not spent the money to purchase a Broadside, Sky Ray, or Hammer Head. However, most of those do not fit with the design of this list.

Lets discuss tactics. I'll go through my general ideas for the two basic types of games, Objective based game types and Kill Point types, and the importance of influencing/controlling your opponent's game play, when using this army. This First Part being on the basic formation for any game type, and the alterations for the Kill Points game type - personally my least favorite


Kill Points
To begin, I reserve my two Stealth Suit Teams, or as I refer to them, Drop Teams. Second, I will usually establish one to two fire bases of sorts. One side will be my two crisis suits, with the Kroot Brood infiltrating in support - though these tactics are always subject to change based upon varying situations. The other will be my Pulse Carbine FW Team, working with my sniper drone team. The Pulse Rifle team can have alternating positions on the field, depending on whatever is needed of them.

That is the basics. The Stealth Suit teams, as in most missions, will be deployed often behind enemy ranks or other locations. They are distractions that have to be dealt with, seeing as they have some massive fire power. If your opponent ignores them, you will attack major strong points of their army, decimating HQ's like Mephiston or vehicle units like Rhinos, DE Raiders, and Land Speeders. If your opponent does split a section of their force to deal with the threat, that is one less fraction of their total army barreling towards your lines. I will usually bring in the team with Marker Drones on the second turn, using the Positional Relay on the commander, and attempt to dole out some heavy fire power quickly. Turn 3/4 sees the second squad coming in, helping to split his forces even more - many times reinforcing a failing flank, often turning the tables on my opponent. Surviving the first one or two rounds of enemy fire, you bring in these bad boys and totally change your opponent's strategy.

What helps the stealth suits do their magic is having a relatively vulnerable flank, enticing your gaming buddy's army forward for the easy kill. Both of my flanks, Crisis suits with Kroot / Fire Warriors with Sniper Drones, are not wholly strong in among themselves, and the opponent will probably take the opportunity and advance en masse to win before the game really starts. However, this can be their undoing, if Luck runs your way. The goal is to not let your opponent come close enough to get into combat with either your Sniper Drones or Pulse Rifle FW's, whom provide much of the ranged support throughout your army. This can be accomplished by using those Pulse Carbine FW's. These guys do everything. 7 models to make it harder to get that 25% loss during the shooting phase, reducing the need to take leadership checks; they have EMP grenades, so they can slow down some tanks if necessary; Assault/Pinning Weapons @ S5 AP5; and are mobile at 18" threat range. This allows them tons of flexibility to cause disturbance in your opponent's advance - also allowing your ranged warriors to A) get farther away B) target other, more pressing targets, or C) combine fire to wipe out a squad or vehicle. But the strength of the Sniper Drones & Fire Warriors are lacking - Low overall survival rate during close ranged affairs - which makes them a juicy target for the challenger. Coupling this with the daunting challenge of taking down 2 crisis suits with armor enhancements and 20 man kroot blob as escorts, it is more enticing to target the weaker Fire Warriors, a nice option for the advance.

So your opponent is attempting to isolate your weaker fire base, you can move your base back - sacrificing shooting rounds, as necessary - towards your Kroot/Suits (who are also advancing toward the Fire Warriors). While you are "falling back" from your opponent's front line, spread out your army. if possible, divert his attention with the Monat Crisis Suit, sacrificing it to get your opponent out in the open. Moving your Monat Crisis Suit (or even your commander, if desired) to encompass their advance, you are presenting another threat similar to the Stealth Suits. If they do not take down the crisis suits, they will suffer some serious penalties. If the Stealth Teams have come into play, the enemy may be needing to divert some more elite forces to deal with the approaching crisis suit(s). Using JSJ tactics, drawing the challenging unit away from the main force, you are able to dissect yet another aspect of their army, thinning the ranks. Remember, its ok if your Commander is slain in battle - his primary goal is to dictate the arrival of reserves. once that second Stealth Team arrives, he can get as close as he wants - his meneauvers are often closely watched by the opposing general, and if you leave him in a "vulnerable" location, you can influence your opponent's decisions - leave the commander alone and suffer the consequences or get the quick kill, which leaves him in the open as well.

So, we've got two stealth teams, two Fireknive Crisis Suits, and a Pulse Carbine Fire Warrior team sacrificing themselves for the Greater Good. How many armies can deal with so many targets at once? Dark Eldar is one, and there are a few others, but it is difficult for a general to perfectly distribute troops to deal with all these threats efficiently, especially with supporting forces like the Kroot and Fire Warriors getting involved.

We haven't discussed much about those 20 Kroot. What good are kroot? they suck, don't they?

No. Not entirely. They are not that perfect, multi-use combat unit that Assault Marines and such are. Kroot (especially with Hounds) have specified purposes. In this list, their livelihood is to target units that are vulnerable - a fast, surgical strike, hammering out hits and dishing out wounds like no one's business. They can aid any unit on the board - utilizing terrain - from you crisis suits (deployed in tandem with the Kroot) or stealth suits on the other side of the board. Just today I played a game against a Blood Angel player, who had severed his Sanguinor and Mephiston (though they are a little expensive for such a low point game) from the pack in order to eliminate my Monat crisis suit - which they did, no problem there. However, I had moved my Crisis Suit within the HQs' 18" danger zone intentionally, with the hopes to draw out that combat strength from his primary contingent, weakening his overall presence in the game. This left Mephiston and the Sanguinor at the mercy of a hail of fire power from Stealth and Crisis Suits - Mephiston losing 3 of his 5 wounds, and the Sanguinor taking 1 of his 3. Following that I made a daring charge at his Sanguinor with my 20 man Brood, losing 4 kroot before I could attack. Then came my 30 hound attacks and subsequent 18 Kroot attacks, leaving the Sanguinor alone in the middle of a solitary ravine, wallowing, blood pouring from his fatal wounds.

However, right after this i made a terrible decision to join those Kroot into combat with Mephiston, who had charged my Shas'el, and both units were overrun by Blood Angle hoodlums and such.

Barring my following errors, fighting the Snaguinor was a quick and decisive combat that led to my eventual victory in that match.

In that game I used the first Stealth team to distract his Land Speeder Squadron, eventually destroying both. I used the second to aid my failing Fire Warriors, save my Sniper Drones, and eliminate both his HB Razorback and assault squad inside. The Fire Warriors were able to target his combat Scouts, the squad succumbing to the rail and pulse fire after falling back twice. The Crisis Suits were able to draw out the HQ's and the Kroot were able to assassinate one of them. Mephiston remained the only thing still standing of his Blood Angel contingent - surrounded by two stealth teams and a Fire Warrior team within rapid fire range, all at or near 100% capacity. the game ended with my victory 5-4, kill points.

This play style basically forces ultimatums upon your enemy every phase - the flow of the game constantly changing with every decision he makes, in reaction to you. "Drawn and Quartered" is an accurate name for this strategy. It has been fairly effective for me. Though I am new to the Tau, my current standing is 2 wins, 1 tie, 1 disastrous loss.

please don't hate for the long post. I simply wanted to explain my army - will be in two parts - and get some ideas out that I've had. if you guys find any obvious hickups, please let me know. also, this is the way I play, and I can't perfectly right all of it down, so if you have questions, please ask - or anything to say at all, more over

thank you, and Happy Wargaming!! :eek:

Chexmix282
04-07-2012, 12:19 PM
I like the list! It's not "fantastic" from a tournament player's point of view, but it works. I'm sorry but I did not read through your entire wall of text, just the army list. Not going to lie ;)

The only thing i would change is the Stealth Suit setup. Rather than 1x4 and 1x5, I would do 1 x 6 with 2 Fusion Guns and a Bonding Knife, then 1 x 3 with 2 Marker Drones and a Bonding Knife. This allows you to use the 6 man unit as a reliable tank-hunting unit, now that they get 2 fusion blaster shots. This also allows the 3 man unit to take full advantage of their Stealth Fields by remaining 36" away from the enemy and becoming a dedicated Markerlight team. They then use their Burst Cannons only in a pinch, but this is one of the best ways to field Markerlights IMO as they are very hard to shoot at.

I've never been a fan of Bonding Knives, and you may find yourself not using them very much. But if they suit they way you want your army to perform, by all means keep them!

Panxer
04-07-2012, 10:18 PM
The only thing I saw wrong with your list was your XV8 suit load outs can only have 3 support or weapon systems. i.e. you're have a commander with a Positional relay, plasma rifle, missile pod, AND shield generator. You can either do the positional relay OR the shield generator for what you have as a load-out.

Example: XV8's typically (unless they have access to special wargear-limited to the special wargear items) a typical XV8 suit can have any load-out as long as it is within the scale and scope of the codex, i.e. missile pod, plasma rifle, and multi-tracker. Or, TL Fusion Blaster and Target Array.

I'm not saying or intending to say that you're doing it wrong ('cause you are <wink>), but otherwise, if the list works for you, then roll with it!