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1500 Point Tau List

Started by Carrelio, June 23, 2013, 03:02:53 AM

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Carrelio

Today I played a 1500 semi-competitive game against a mechanized Eldar player. I played a mobile cadre and absolutely smashed the Eldar, and while he made some questionable tactical decisions which contributed to my eventual turn 5 victory, I thought it would be worthwhile to share the list with all of you here for your own reference and to fine tune the list a little more.

HQ:
Shas'O - 177 points
- 2 missile pods
- target lock
- drone controller
- iridium armour
- 2 marker drones

Elites:
Riptide - 190 points
- ion accelerator
- twin-linked fusion blaster
- early warning override

Riptide - 190 points
- ion accelerator
- twin-linked fusion blaster
- early warning override

Troops:
9 fire warriors - 93 points
- pulse rifles
- gun drone

Devilfish - 95 points
- disruption pods

9 fire warriors - 93 points
- pulse rifles
- gun drone

Devilfish - 95 points
- disruption pods

10 Kroot - 75 points
- sniper ammunition
- hound

Fast attack:
4 marker drones - 56 points

Heavy Support:
Hammerhead - 146 points
- railgun
- submunition
- twin-linked smart missiles
- disruption pods
- blacksun filter

Hammerhead - 146 points
- railgun
- submunition
- twin-linked smart missiles
- disruption pods
- blacksun filter

Sniper drone team - 144 points
- 3 spotters
- 7 drones

Total: 1500 points

I think everything is pretty self explanatory but I'll still expand on the above list.

9 BS5 markerlights support a flexible and mobile firepower composed of hammerheads (with 2 firing modes), riptides (with 3 firing modes), and sniper weaponry (kroot having the option for rapid fire instead), along with 3 moderate to high survivability troop choices.

The Shas'O serves as the obligatory warlord and fulfills the role of support commander. Depending on the mission type and enemy, he does best to choose primarily from the BRB command traits (looking specifically for 24" bubbles of: LD10, reducing the enemy to the lowest leadership in the squad, move through cover, or rerolling 1's against targets on objectives), and secondarily from the Tau traits in games without objectives, or with flyers present (for a 1/6 chance to get the predator of the skies power).  He is a primary support'O joining the markerdrones to grant them BS5.  He is most valuable on the field from turn 1, but can avoid certain nastiness, or get into a better firing position using deepstrike if necessary

In my experience, the 6 markerlights from the command squad provide adequate saturation for the top priority target that turn, while the sniper drone team and their markers can either contribute further lights and firepower to the primary target if necessary, or pick a secondary target.  The average survivability of each is very impressive, usually providing adequate light support into the late game.

The hammerheads and riptides provide the core offensive component to the list; allowing both anti-tank and anti-infantry coverage across a wide spectrum of targets.  Their impressive battlefield stature also generates the secondary objective of drawing firepower away from the fragile troop choices and sub-optimal targets presented by markerlight units.  The riptides utilize the nova reactor where necessary; most often for defensive purposes and re-positioning, but taking advantage of clustered vehicles to drop the S9 ordinance template on multiple hulls.

Kroot provide a flexible midfield harassment units to the army, with adequate deployment flexibility.  They receive a 4+ in almost all terrain pieces, making them as capable at holding backfield objectives as fire warriors, and their weapons have a range of uses which can be statistically weighed for the most effective use each turn (surprisingly often this is walking onto the opponent's backfield and rapid firing at his rear armour... rather than using the rifles).

The fire warriors are intended for the express purpose of claiming objectives.  The devilfish will move flat out each turn, providing partial cover for other units (riptides and Mark'O team) behind, and granting itself a 3+ cover save.  In turn 5 the devilfish will move to deploy the fire warriors, ensuring to keep the chassis between the warriors and potential threats.  In games where objectives are not present, fire warriors deploy and embark as the situation demands, looking to minimize incoming damage while maximizing output.

Anti-flyer defenses are kept to a minimum as a built in opportunity cost to the list.  This decision stems from a note on competitive list meta and the capabilities of Tau anti-air.  The majority of competitive lists tend to run an all or nothing approach to flyers; there will either be no airborne targets in which case every 20 points spent to grant a unit skyfire is 20 points wasted, or they saturate the field with flyers, in which case 1-2 units with skyfire will not be enough to drop all of them before the units with skyfire are dispatched themselves.  With that in mind, the only list that Tau anti-air appears comfortable with, are balanced lists with only 1-2 flyers present (which can be ignored for the most part).

Tell me what you think, and ask questions as necessary.

The Man They Call Jayne

I'm not sure how your Devilfish are getting a 3+ save. 5+ for Jink and +1 to that for D-pods. The only way I know of to get a 3+ is to sit in area terrain or have the enemy shoot at an armour arch they are not in, but can see.
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knightperson

Quote from: The Man They Call Jayne on June 23, 2013, 06:47:57 AM
I'm not sure how your Devilfish are getting a 3+ save. 5+ for Jink and +1 to that for D-pods. The only way I know of to get a 3+ is to sit in area terrain or have the enemy shoot at an armour arch they are not in, but can see.

5+ for Jink, which becomes 4+ if going Flat Out. Disruption pod makes it 3+.
Cured of what I'm suffering from, but suffering from the cure.

The Man They Call Jayne

Ahhh yes, my bad. I so rarely slide flat out I forgot it had that rule.
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Chicop76

Why the gun drone per squad. I don't get the one gun drone per fire warrior squad. Can you explain why you spending 10 points to do that when you can take 3 fire warriors to your 2 gun drones.

Not much to really say. Glad to hear you are finaly doing good with Tau.

I like the smart missile system, but the drones as crew desn't impact you moving over 6" since they do not count as weapons. The smart misiles however has come in handy in some cases.

I personally would like to see maybe 1 more kroot squad.

I think we ben over the skyfire option on the commander. Lack of slots make this a poor option.

Only thing I wuld like to see is maybe drop some point to add an ethereal to the sniper drones.


Carrelio

#5
A drone is a 3 point upgraded fire warrior that grants the unit initiative 4 for it's initiative tests (most notably fleeing from a lost combat).  After fire warriors have been deployed outside of their fish (typically in the enemy deployment zone in the late game), it doesn't take much to scare them off, and an opponent can often use a non-dedicated close combat unit to beat them down and overrun them without having really dealt much lasting damage to the squad (from the perspective of scoring).

The prime example is this:
Top of turn 4 Devilfish arrives at enemy objective and unloads into cover behind the devilfish, claiming the objective.
Bottom of turn 4, the Tau cannot be shifted by enemy firepower due to the large LOS blocking devilfish preventing shooting, the opponent is instead forced to call back a unit of assault marines from the frontlines, moving 12" and then charging 2d6 (an average 7").  They will deal 4-5 wounds to the 10 man fire warrior team, and receive 0-1 in return, fire warriors losing combat by 4 (Ld3).
Without the drone, the fire warriors are running away at I2, meaning 50% of the dice is already a failed result.
With the drone, the fire warriors are running away at I4, the same speed as the marines are chasing them down, giving a much  better chance of escape (in a hurry can't run the numbers).

Smart Missiles are important because they take heat off the railgun if a weapon destroyed result is rolled.  As a free upgrade they basically give you a 50% do over chance at losing your railgun, and with markerlights they don't lose any real efficiency, and even without lights they are twin-linked, which puts them on par with a BS2 weapon while taking snap-shots.  They also provide the chance to hunt down 1-2 man infantry squads that have taken to hiding outside of LOS in an attempt to survive till the endgame.

I would also like one more kroot squad... and I wouldn't mind if those kroot squads had some krootox riders (since who can really say no to 25 point auto-cannons?).  In the 2000 point list, I will consider them (it's between them and another devilfish of fire warriors).

Skyfire on the commander in this list will only come through warlord traits which 1/6 of the time will give his unit skyfire for a turn (yay 6 BS5 light and 4 missiles firing at 2 separate flyers!).  It's by no means a solution for anti-air... but it's as useful as anything else in the charts.

I am a little leery of the ethereal.  Giving up the extra point makes him quite the liability, since this list will only ever win by inches in most cases (mechanized Tau is looking for a 1 point victory, rather than a landslide of 5-7 points ahead)... this makes that 1 extra point quite the mountain... even if it would make the sniper team even more potent (though I must confess, at 14" they were actually doing their job too well... killing the units I had markerlighted before I got to spend the light tokens).