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Author Topic: My Experience with Tau Allies  (Read 2908 times)

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Offline Ludo

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My Experience with Tau Allies
« on: April 29, 2013, 11:36:02 AM »
I played my first two games using Tau as allies for my space marines yesterday and they performed wonderfully.  In a 2,000 point game I ran an 11 man firewarrior squad with emp grenades, two gun drones with a a cadre fireblade, and a riptide with SMS, ion accelerator, and early warning override.  In both games I had all my tau sitting in ruins with a thunderfire cannon (improved for a cover save equal to power armor). The purpose of the Tau in my list was to provide a strong firebase to support my two tactical squads and assault squad in drop pods and my fliers. I found that the improved range of the firewarrior vs. a tactical squad gave me the ability to fire at my opponent on turn 1. The fireblade's volley fire surprised both opponents and rapid firing wit the extra shot during overwatch gave me 8 wounds on one occasion. With the riptide sitting right next to them my opponents were rather nervous about getting close. 

I don't know if I am sold on the riptide for it's points.  The SMS ended up being more useful than the ion accelerator. I played IG and Eldar/Dark Eldar and found that using the nova reactor to double fire the SMS twice was well worth the risk of the single wound. I had to move forward to fire the SMS in order to reach my opponents ADL and then use the jet pack to bound back into cover. He was ultimately killed by a vendetta in that game.  The incredible range of the ion accelerator helped provide fire  support across the entire board.  I overcharged it every time I fired it and with a TEQ save I didn't take a wound on the rare chance I did overheat. He also soaked up alot of shooting that should have been directed at the firewarriors. I think the riptide needs markerlight support to be fully effective.  If I could have ignored cover I could have double or even tripled the amount of models he was able to kill.

What I'm not sure of is if I would be better served running something else for the points.  A hammerhead with submunitions and TL-SMS and disruption pods is quite a bit cheaper, puts out the same amount of shooting, but may not be quite as survivable. I could use the points I saved to put in a small team of pathfinders and use their markerlights to ignore cover or bump up the BS on the heavy rail rifle.
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Offline Halollet

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Re: My Experience with Tau Allies
« Reply #1 on: May 12, 2013, 08:31:37 PM »
The biggest bonus to the Riptide is the large ap2 blast.  That's something that a normal Tau army doesn't have.  Now if have no problem with slapping termies with your regular marines then yes, the riptide bonus does go down some.

Against Guard and (Dark)Eldar I can see why it wasn't overly impressive vs taking a Railhead.  However, if you had played against Chaos Marines then the Riptide would have shined!

I also always take interceptor on him.  In the last game I used him against Grey Knights, he intercepted a Calledus Assassin that was about to ruin my day and put her down before she could do anything.  That ability is soooooo gooooood.
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Offline Darkstrider

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Re: My Experience with Tau Allies
« Reply #2 on: May 13, 2013, 10:42:46 AM »
Against tanks and transports nova charge the ion accelerator because it gets ordnance, just target any low-med AV clumps. If you want to try something different you could:

1) Also drop the fire blade an take an ethereal, sniper drones, and some more FW's. The the ethereal has 4 powers that would effect all the tau in the ruins and one of them gives all pulse weapons an additional attack within half range, so you triple shot at half range.

2)The hammerhead doesn't sit still well but a skyray's markerlights are on the edge's of its missile rack so with the right cover you can shoot and still be out of LOS. I mean you could take a hammerhead but if you don't like the riptides large blast I don't think you will like the hammerheads.

3)Broadsides these would be a nightmare to IG and DE, they still have that SMS you like so much, take them with HYMP and missile drones.


Offline Ludo

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Re: My Experience with Tau Allies
« Reply #3 on: May 14, 2013, 10:34:00 AM »
I like the ability to nova charge if I need it but it has a 1/3 chance to strip a wound. That seems like quite the gamble.

With the fireblade I already triple shot at half range, double shot up to my full range, and I have a tougher HQ that doesn't give away a KP. I don't like ethereals.  I think their 4 powers are quite weak and not particularly useful.

Broadsides are a very viable solution.  I have thought about buying a pair and doing exactly that. The issue is that it's not a great tank hunter and I already have a ton of infantry and transport killers.

I have thought about getting two broadsides with rail guns and velocity trackers and a commander with a multi spectrum sensor suite and a command and control node. Maybe throw a pair of plasma rifles on there for good measure.
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Offline Darkstrider

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Re: My Experience with Tau Allies
« Reply #4 on: May 14, 2013, 11:42:03 AM »
If you want a velocity tracker on the broadsides I suggest tacking it on one and target lock on the other, this cuts down on points and makes better use of missile drones if you take them. Also giving them each a seeker missile allows your fire blade to shoot down tanks with his markerlight. Alternativly you could take a litle bit out of the runes and field a single suit with 2 fusion blasters and deep strike it behind his heavy tank(s).

Offline Ludo

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Re: My Experience with Tau Allies
« Reply #5 on: May 14, 2013, 11:56:16 AM »
If you want a velocity tracker on the broadsides I suggest tacking it on one and target lock on the other, this cuts down on points and makes better use of missile drones if you take them. Also giving them each a seeker missile allows your fire blade to shoot down tanks with his markerlight.

That's not a bad idea but my concern would be having only 1 shot at a flier.  If it's a stormraven or something else with AV12 I don't have alot of faith that one shot will bring it down. Same problem with seeker missiles.  That's alot of points for one missile that probably won't do anything. Though the missile drones would just be snapfiring at the flier. I think I'd rather have an early warning override instead of a velocity tracker.  Let me kill them before they can kill me.

Alternativly you could take a litle bit out of the runes and field a single suit with 2 fusion blasters and deep strike it behind his heavy tank(s).

I'm looking for my Tau allies to be my backfield holders.  I use drop pod space marines and fliers so I already have some aggressive meltas. That's why I have been looking at rail rifle broadsides, hammerheads, and the riptide.  They all have 60-72" ranges which will let me reach out and touch the whole board. (almost)

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