Warhounds[SW/IG] Vs Competative Tau [1850]

[Arguleon-veq]

This friend of mine has been trying to settle on a list for this edition for ages as he is a very competative player and always likes to take an army that has no bad match ups at all. He's finally settled on this list;

Tau Commander; 2+ Save T5, Drone Controller.
3 Missile Broadsides; Intercept
3 Missile Broadsides; Intercept
3 Missile Broadsides; Intercept
Riptide; Ion, Fusion, Intercept
Riptide; Ion, Fusion, Intercept
4 Pirahnas; 1 Fusion
4 Pirahnas; 1 Fusion
10 Kroot; 1 Hound
10 Kroot; 1 Hound
10 Kroot; 1 Hound
10 Kroot; 1 Hound
9 Marker Drones;

His idea is to forget about too many expensive upgrades and just go for as many high threat units as he can fit in. Rather than having to lose units to fit skyfire in on his units he has instead gone for overwhelming intercept.

I used my usual Warhounds list;

Primaris; enfeeble, life leech
Platoon Command;
50 Guard; 4 Autocannon, 4 Axes, 3 Flamers
Manticore;
2x Vendettas; HB's
5 Long Fangs; 4 Missiles
5 Long Fangs; 4 Missiles
5 Long Fangs; 4 Missiles
9 Grey Hunters; Melta
Drop Pod;
5 Grey Hunters; Plasma
Rune Priest; Lvl2 - 4+ Ward, Prescience
Rune Priest; Chooser of the Slain - Jaws, Lightning

Defense Line; Quadgun

I was pretty worried as his list had just tabled the previously all dominant necron wraithwing+chaos build in about 3 turns for the loss of hardly anything in his army.

Mission; Relic
Deployment; Hammer and Anvil
Night Fight; Off
First Turn; Warhounds

Pre Game Thoughts: Id played this exact mission/set up a few days earlier and I was glad it was relic as he would struggle to hold it with kroot, so I would have to take out his scoring, get first blood/warlord and try to avoid getting tabled.

[Chicop76]

Only problem I really see is his markers is in all one spot. I question the marker drone and commander with drone controller. Might as well take a ignore cover save/ tank hunter or monster hunter and attach him to a squad and take more troops.

Other than that his armour 2 all over would make it a rather pain to deal with. The only problem is that he can deny cover and increase fire power to kill one unit at a time. Against other tau builds which could deny cover to all his sides for example and blast them away with ap 2 weapons. I think he needs to split his lights up. I think it's great against killing any unit you need to kill, and heaven forbid if you deep strike on this guy.

[Arguleon-veq]

Turn 1:

I went first but I reserved all my none long fang marines and my command squad as I dont want to give up first blood. Annoyingly I have to bring in my pod and I do it in my own lines to keep it out of range of everything besides the riptides who luckily dont kill it with their intercept.

So I open up with my shooting and decide to try and kill a broadside unit. My manticore scatters killing some marker drones instead, all my missiles and autocannons get a broadside unit down to 1 broadside with only 1 wound left! no first blood!.

He powers up both riptides but one overheats and loses a wound, they both come at my lines as fast as they can whilst the broadsides move up and then run to try and get in range.

Turn 2:

Only my vendettas arrive but this lets him open up on them with intercept to again go for first blood as we know how key this will be. I position them so 2 broadsides cant see me because of some big terrain ruins. This leaves both riptides and  broadsides to intercept me and thankfully he only strips a few HP off the lead vendetta, again now first blood! My vendettas could try and down a full broadside squad but I dont want to risk fluffing my rolls especially now that lone broadside is out of missile rangte so I  put all 6 lascannons on a lone broadside and gun him down. First Blood!.

The rest of my fire blows away his commander and his drones thanks to some bad saves. Slay the Warlord!

In his turn he has very little to shoot with thanks to intercept, he does get on 30 kroot up the side of my manticore though who glance it to death.

Turn 3:

I get my command squad and marines on whilst my horde starts to move up towards the relic. I put a few wounds on the already wounded riptide as I dont want them pinning me in place only for his last kroot squad to come on and snatch the relic. My long fangs drop 12 super accurate frag rockets on those 30 kroot who killed my manticore though and I blow away all 3 squads of 10.

His other kroot do come and and annoyingly its out on the left flank behind some LOS blocking terrain, he tucks them behind it ready for a late game dash on that relic. His broadsides take out my lead vendetta to try and keep those kroot alive as thats one thing that can get a bead on them. The riptides pull out to either flank of my horde and put some fire into them. The undamaged one on my right flank is 11'' away so probably wont make the charge so he charges anyway with him to draw my overwatch. I do 2 wounds and he fails the charge. This lets his wounded riptide crash into my right flank though and its far enough along the flank to mean im only fighting it with 1 sarge and about 10 basic grunts. He doesnt manage any wounds thanks to my 4+ invulnerable save from my psychic power. I then sneak a wound back on it with my power axe thanks to prescience. He then fails his break test and is ran down by my swarm of guardsmen!

Thanks to this it means my horde isnt pinned in place and are now free to move up and shoot down the hiding kroot next turn which will leave him with no way to win so he conceeds.

Result: Warhounds Victory!

Post Game Thoughts: We knew it was pretty much down to first blood for the win although in the end I would have been able to take the actual relic myself anyway. I think what really cost him was wasting so much fire on intercept and it doing so little, leaving him with virtually no firepower in the next turn. He may be better off with just a dedicated skyfire broadside unit but then that means my vendettas get to shoot them before they fire so im not sure.

I think the problem was just the flyers he was facing. He can ignore helldrakes as they dont have any AP2 to really scare his list and the intercept shooting will be enough to take out AV11 or AV10 flyers.

[Chicop76]

That's why I take 2 skyrays with +1 cover. That being said even with strength 8 hits I had problems with 11 armour, bad rolling.

I think the intercept is wasted on trying to down flyers personally. Marker lights really help against flyers. Especially a skyray.

With that said I think a necron list would do well against his list as well

[BigToof]

That was delightfully quick and brutal.
I've had a recent game with IG/SW vs Tau and mine didn't nearly go as well!

How is the pod working for you?
Do you put both Rune Priests in it or just if you use Jaws?

I've used Pods like... once or twice and they seem very foreign to me for that reason.

Also, if you have a moment, could you look at my SW game and let me know what went wrong?
I'm not sure if I was hard countered or not, but I didn't have the command that you seemed to have even though I think we have similar Foot IG-SW builds.

Thanks!

Best,
-BT

[Arguleon-veq]

I think it was just a case of range, your Marine elements are pretty short ranged and they are the ones that took that early beating.

Against Tau I find im not even deploying my short ranged Marines in fear of them getting blown away without doing anything so I rely on my long range units to weaken the Tau enough before they come on. I try to hug my own table edge to stay out of the 30-36'' sweet spot Tau seem to have. The Manticore, 12 Missiles, and 12 Autocannon shots should give me the edge for at least the first turn, night fight permitting.

Ive always loved missiles but they arent getting much love this edition, I still think they are great. Instant killing battlesuits [or broadsides if you put enough wounds on them]. Decent enough for glancing their armour and the lovely frag to deal with those pesky Kroot.

For your game I think it was just a case that his plasmas can get the jump on your marines thanks to the jetpacks and put out some serious hurt before you get to return fire.