Riptide lessons!

[Chicop76]

As I play my riptide I learn more and more each day. Instead of going over what evryone else is saying I figure I will mention my own observations.

1. As more and more games get combat element in them I slowly facing combat. At first I shy away from it now I embrace it. A good example is fleshhounds of khorne. The fleshhounds are a re problem that can deal major damage to your army. One thing I have learned is if you assault them instead of the other way around the tide can tie them up for a very long time, watch out for any ap 2 weapon heralds. The unit needs 6s and you need to roll a 1 to take a wound. Heralds need 3-5s but without an ap 2 weapon they can't do much. If your postion is getting over whelmed use him to tie up combat. The hounds cost way more than he does by the way usually.

2. I learned this the other night. Stay away from melta bombers. That being said I completly forgot that the riptide have fear. Remember the fear and use it on units with poor leadership. A squad of 5 nobs at leadership 7. Use that fear to drop them to ws 1 so now instead of hitting you on 3s they hit you on 5s and you can smash away with hitting on 3s.

3. Smash, Riptide Smash. This I learned has cought a lot of players off guard. They see no strength 10 long range weapons, nor meltas and think you have nothing that can defeat said armour 14. Wrong! You proceed to nearest armour 14 vehicle and smash away with 3 strength 10 attacks. It catches them off guard.

4. Ion Cannon is strength 9 barrage, ordanance. Which means you hit side armour. Yes you might hurt the poor 5 wound monster, but you can now take out a russ due to side armour 13. I have found that it's very effective and now I use it against guard. It's the same as having longshot with his re roll armour pen hitting front armour of a guard tank.

[Arkitek]

1. Smash halves your attacks, rounding down. So a Riptide gets 1 attack at Strength 10.

2. The Ion Cannon is not Barrage. It's direct-fire only.

[Cammerz]

1. Smash halves your attacks, rounding down. So a Riptide gets 1 attack at Strength 10.

I wasn't sure about this so I looked in the rulebook, it doesn't specify there whether it rounds up or down, I then looked at the FAQ where it gives an example saying that it does in fact round up.
Source: Rulebook FAQ pp.6

[Arkitek]

I stand corrected.

Alright, two attacks, then. That's still less than three. Unless you add the attack for charging after you halve the attacks.

[Cammerz]

I stand corrected.

Alright, two attacks, then. That's still less than three. Unless you add the attack for charging after you halve the attacks.

That is exactly what happens, and charging is the only way you'll be getting into combat with an AV14 thing. I've had great fun in the past smashing a Land Raider Crusader with my Bloodthirster.

[Arguleon-veq]

Only barrage hits side armour, not just ordnance.

I would avoid combat with the Riptide, your only getting a few attacks and with its poor WS so it is very easy to do no damage at all then if you take even a single wound in reply your taking a break test and your probably getting ran down if you fail it.

The other day my guard horde was charged by a riptide that intended to tie them up but thanks to a 4+ ward on my squad and it only managing 1 wound, which I saved my 1 wound in reply was enough to break it and run it down.

[Arkitek]

How does one run down a monstrous creature?

[Arguleon-veq]

As far as I can tell, its not fearless so when it loses a combat it can break like any other unit and be ran down in a sweeping advance. Unless ive missed something? My opponent didnt question it either.

[Cammerz]

Well this edition specifically states that models with the 'Fear' rule are not themselves immune to fear and it doesn't list 'Fearless' in its Special Rules so yeah, it can run away, and of course with the frankly appalling initiative of the Tau it will quite likely be caught.

[Carrelio]

With the adequate drone support that almost every Tau unit has access too, we're actually pretty speedy at running away (I4).

[Arkitek]

Sorry, that's not quite what I meant. I mean, suppose it's fighting some Guardsmen and one of them gets a lucky bayonet strike in. Disregard, for a moment, that bayonetting a Riptide is a bit strange. What do they do to it that makes them so deadly that they remove it instantly? XD

[Carrelio]

I'd assume from a fluff perspective it would be that having sustained a critical hit that called for the pilot to retreat, the riptide starts to fire up it's engines, when suddenly 50 guardsmen pile onto it... it struggles to take off, spiraling out of control into the soft mud, a hundred hands clawing at the cockpit doors, smashing out optic sensors and severing anything they can get to.  The riptide thrashes, unable to right itself and take flight, as the door to the cockpit is torn off and the inside of the cabin is scorched by hundreds of flashlights.

[Arkitek]

I figured it'd be something along those lines, but it just seems like it'd take much longer than a turn to resolve, lol

Also by 'some' I meant "a squad".

[DEF Knight]

guardsmen do carry grenades and spare, potentially volatile if tampered with ammunition and weapons. A riptide is a very complicated machine. A fragmentation grenade may not be the most deadly thing in the 40K universe, but getting lucky and stuffing one into a over-charging reactor or vernier necessary for a safe landing could do an awful lot of damage...

[Chicop76]

I learned melta bombs and vet squad guard are nasty.

That being said I forgot it's not fearless which however it can easily be stubborn due to your friendly neighboorhood ethereal.