News: No news is good news...

Login  |  Register

Author Topic: 1500 point Tau Battlesuit Vanguard  (Read 1813 times)

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Offline Wyddr

  • Author Eminence: Hereticus Liber Daemonica | Fio'shas Shi
  • Lazerous Penguin
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5254
  • Country: us
    • My blog about SF/F stuff
  • Armies: Daemons, Imperial Fists, Tau, Ksons, Vostroyans
1500 point Tau Battlesuit Vanguard
« on: October 25, 2020, 09:53:08 AM »
I'm posting this here because this board has been dead far too long. Respond or not, this is just in memory of the great times I had here in years past.

So:

Tau Vanguard

Custom Sept: Upgunned, Turbo-jets
Stratagems: Emergency Dispensation (-1 CP for bonus signature system)

HQ
Commander in XV85 Enforcer Battlesuit (2x Burst Cannons, 2x Fusion Blasters, 2x Shield Drones, Warlord: Through Unity, Devastation)

Elites
Riptide Battlesuit w/Amplified Ion Accelerator, Smart Missile System, Drone Controller

Stealth Team (x5) w/Shas'vre, 1 Fusion Blaster, 2 Gun Drones

Crisis Team (x3) w/Shas'vre, 2x Burst Cannons, Advanced Targeting System, Gatling Burst Cannons, 2 Gun Drones

Crisis Team (x3) w/Shas'vre, 2x Missile Pod, Advanced Targeting System, 2 Gun Drones

Ghostkeel w/2x Flamers, Cyclic Ion Raker, 2x Stealth Drones

Fast Attack
Tactical Drones x6 (3 Gun Drones, 3 Marker Drones)
Tactical Drones x6 (3 Gun Drones, 3 Marker Drones)

Heavy Support
2 Broadsides w/Heavy Rail Rifles, Smart Missiles, 2 Marker Drones

Totals
1496 Points
PL 84
8 Command Points

The Plan
Hunker Broadsides, Riptide, and Tac Drones in cover somewhere, infiltrate with the Stealths and Ghostkeel, and the Commander + Crisis Teams Manta Strike in somewhere.

Run some tests (i.e. "games I play against myself on my computer") and the list kicks out enormous quantities of damage and is a lot better at taking objectives than it looks (everything but the Broadsides move at least 10"). Short on numbers, so it has to work the Secondary Objectives (usually the ones that involve killing things) to pay off, which I honestly think is very Tau-like.

Best part about this list is that I *almost* own it. I need the Broadsides and the Ghostkeel (and should probably update my ancient XV15 Stealths to the more modern models), but otherwise I'm mostly okay.

On a final note: so, given 9th Edition rules, Stealth Drones just...don't do anything anymore, eh? Can't say I love the "capped at -1 to hit" rules, especially given Orks already have a few work-arounds. Ah well.

Thoughts?
« Last Edit: October 25, 2020, 09:54:38 AM by Wyddr »

Offline The GrimSqueaker

  • The Badger on the Road | Staff Infection Officer | Debased Vassal Slayer | Title Barfly | XOXOXO Gossip Girl | Bent Over
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 19053
  • Country: nz
  • From the Fourth Necromantic House
Re: 1500 point Tau Battlesuit Vanguard
« Reply #1 on: October 27, 2020, 07:20:17 PM »
Is the Ghostkeel all that effective? I do appreciate the multitude of drones as you just can't get enough.
Quote from: @TracyAuGoGO
Tact is for people who are too slow witted to be sarcastic.
Drink
Knights Tippler
Quote from: Surviving the World
If you can't make fun of something, it's probably not worth taking seriously.

You have to love the smell of science in the morning. It smells of learning.... or perhaps a gas leak.

Offline Wyddr

  • Author Eminence: Hereticus Liber Daemonica | Fio'shas Shi
  • Lazerous Penguin
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5254
  • Country: us
    • My blog about SF/F stuff
  • Armies: Daemons, Imperial Fists, Tau, Ksons, Vostroyans
Re: 1500 point Tau Battlesuit Vanguard
« Reply #2 on: October 28, 2020, 08:14:40 AM »
Is the Ghostkeel all that effective? I do appreciate the multitude of drones as you just can't get enough.

The theory behind the Ghostkeel is not that it kills things, but it bogs things down. It's tough to take down, even in melee, and it can still shoot its flamers in combat. I was initially underwhelmed by its statline and I see lots of people kitting it for antitank duty (Fusion collider and double fusion blasters), but that seems pointless given the weight of antitank the list is already packing. Instead I see it as a versatile mid-field harasser.

Based on my tests (which, you know, are only simulations of me rolling dice against myself, so...), it can take a mob of 30 orks to the face and walk away and its very cheap for what it does. 

Offline The GrimSqueaker

  • The Badger on the Road | Staff Infection Officer | Debased Vassal Slayer | Title Barfly | XOXOXO Gossip Girl | Bent Over
  • Global Moderator
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 19053
  • Country: nz
  • From the Fourth Necromantic House
Re: 1500 point Tau Battlesuit Vanguard
« Reply #3 on: October 28, 2020, 08:30:21 PM »
Well, no-one likes 30 Orks to the face, not even in the Kardashians years.

Yeah, stats aren't everything when the weapon loadout comes into action. I'll have to look at them more favourably.
Quote from: @TracyAuGoGO
Tact is for people who are too slow witted to be sarcastic.
Drink
Knights Tippler
Quote from: Surviving the World
If you can't make fun of something, it's probably not worth taking seriously.

You have to love the smell of science in the morning. It smells of learning.... or perhaps a gas leak.

Offline Lord of Winter and War

  • The Cause of Diabetes -Captain- Necrontyr Immortal - KoN Veteran - Master of All Diplomacy | Wi-Fi Nomad |
  • Ancient
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 8901
  • Country: ca
  • Armies: Harlequins, Spiderfang, Bonereapers, Space Wolves
Re: 1500 point Tau Battlesuit Vanguard
« Reply #4 on: October 29, 2020, 08:37:15 AM »
I think this sort of army will struggle in 9th edition, personally. Killing isn't as important as it was in 8th edition/ITC. It's all about getting 10pts (at least) a turn on Primary, and getting as many secondary points as possible as the tie breaker.

For me, killing secondary's are a trap. They are hard to accomplish, and can be negated by your opponent hiding units, or putting them in reserves. I think that if two of your objectives are not Engage on All Fronts, and Deploy Scramblers, you're already at a disadvantage. Those two objectives can be accomplished regardless of whatever your opponent tries to do, for easy points.

Drones are fantastic for the former, but I feel that you will struggle with Primary (especially in a Hold 2/Hold 3 missions). You have a lot of mobile units, but very little infantry which I think is really important.

Killing Orks is fine, but if you're stuck in your deployment zone killing Orks, you've already lost. You need to be pushing to control the mid-board, and being able to screen out enemy scoring units from stopping you from getting the 10pts a turn for primary.

Deepstrike is hard, especially on the smaller board sizes, as a smart opponent can screen you out, and stop you from landing anywhere you want, especially if they have the numbers to get good board control, which will be easy against you.

These are my concerns. I would recomend taking more stealth suits to deploy mid-field, instead of the broadsides and ghostkeel. More infantry, and board control off the hop.
Harlequin Army Blog

That's not blatant, this is blatant: I'm super happy that I'm playing Austria, the greatest nation in all of Diplomacy!

Azore of Austria

Offline Wyddr

  • Author Eminence: Hereticus Liber Daemonica | Fio'shas Shi
  • Lazerous Penguin
  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5254
  • Country: us
    • My blog about SF/F stuff
  • Armies: Daemons, Imperial Fists, Tau, Ksons, Vostroyans
Re: 1500 point Tau Battlesuit Vanguard
« Reply #5 on: October 29, 2020, 09:48:36 PM »
The hold 3 objective missions will be tough, for sure, but hold 2? Not that bad, at least as far as I can tell. This is a 1500 point list, notably, so the numbers are proportionately smaller and the list can really kill infantry fast (AP -2 Burst Cannons are vicious).

I haven't played a hell of a lot of 9th, certainly, but just in noodling around in scenarios, I've been finding scoring the control secondaries to be a lot harder than the killing ones. With the killing ones, you're scoring point for doing something you'd have to do anyway.

The Shadow Ops ones (Deploy Scramblers especially) is brutally difficult, since it requires you to have a unit just stand there in your DZ, their DZ, and in neutral territory--that's 3 turns with a unit doing nothing. Again, in a 2000 point game, perhaps, but at 1500 I struggle to think of a list that can afford to have guys standing around doing nothing that isn't a Guard list.

It seems as if having a concentrated list that can kick out a lot of firepower just blasting units off objectives, earning points for doing said blasting, and then picking up a couple primary points by sitting on two objectives of their own, would work pretty well. Because you score primaries at the start of your turn (before moving), if you shoot the guy off, those points are lost their next turn and there's nothing they can do about it.

Anyway, when I finally get around to playing games again, I guess I'll find out. I do totally agree this list would be more competitive with infantry, but I'm essentially disinterested in fielding a Tau gunline and I'm not particularly impressed with a Tau mechanized list these days. If I'm going to play a Tau game, it's going to be with battlesuits or nothing.   

 


Powered by EzPortal