Tau & Eldar

[Typhus]

There were a lot of FMC lists at the Nova apparently.  Bill said in his blog that he played them 5 out of 6 games.  They just didn't end up topping Tau and Eldar.

I have 4 skyfire units that put out ludicrious shots each turn, and 2 of them have markerlights.  I also run 3 Broadsides with 12 missiles and target locks with 6 drones with 12 missiles with a monster hunter commander that will make them all twinlinked and ignore jink saves.  I care not for Flying Monsters and in fact laugh at them.  Easy answer is ignore Fateweaver and blow all the others out of the sky.

[MM3791]

Now we're playing theoryhammer, Typhus are you in the Storm and Shadows campaign?  I feel like I need to visit your planet..

[Benjamin]

So the first step to beating this version of Tau is killing Skyrays, which isn't as easy as it sounds.

And Wave Serpent spam is just redundancy upon redundancy, the new mech 40k.

I think the answer is probably simpler than I think. What will work best is as many as possible of the newest, most expensive Space Marines models, all of which can be purchased at your local Battleground retail location.

[Benjamin]

Now we're playing theoryhammer, Typhus are you in the Storm and Shadows campaign?  I feel like I need to visit your planet..

You're playing Theoryhammer. Typhus just got back from NOVA, if I'm not mistaken.

[Pat.H]

So the first step to beating this version of Tau is killing Skyrays, which isn't as easy as it sounds.

And Wave Serpent spam is just redundancy upon redundancy, the new mech 40k.

I think the answer is probably simpler than I think. What will work best is as many as possible of the newest, most expensive Space Marines models, all of which can be purchased at your local Battleground retail location.

You could always use those action figures from the Street Sharks cartoon as centurions.

 

[Bill]

Tau and Eldar were still the vast majority of the field followed by daemons I just happened to draw those opponents. I'm going to write and hopefully post an article tonight on the most common lists I saw at the NOVA and my thoughts on them as far as them being legit, gimmicky, easy to play, challenging etc.

[andalucien]

"Step 1: Kill the skyrays..."  ...  kinda funny.  It's implies that everyone plays against Tau is like "Oh, derrrp! I forgot to just kill those two big vehicles that were lighting me up... that was where I went wrong".   Skyrays are armour 13 front.  It's really hard to kill them while you're also being shot at by multiple riptides and the Broadside unit is deleting a unit of his choice each turn.   Basically... if you're being aggressive, and the Tau player goes first, just assume that the unit you have that would be best suited for killing a skyray quickly doesn't exist (it won't).

I think that for a lot of armies, it may be best to ignore the skyrays, because they don't have a realistic way to kill the skyray before it's unloaded all of its missiles.  And at that point, you can't really say that a tough-as-nails platform with 2 markerlights and a SMS is more important than killing his troops or his actual guns.  That's one thing that makes skyrays really good.

[Sir_Prometheus]

I played 3 FMC lists at NOVA, beat them all.  I only had one skyfire unit.    Wasn't easy, though.  I believe demons were actually the most common army, but they didn't dominate the top of the field. 

Drop pod wolf lists work pretty good, actually.  Tau have lots of intercept, but they can't intercept everything, and the pods let you choose where you're going to hit, which let's you get around a lot of the Tau tanking shenanigans.

Generally speaking, Tau only get one tanking unit, the iridium armor commander.  Drop some Str 8 ap2 on the other units, and you can kill crisis suits, broadsides.  (ignores cover is nice, but not required).

Want to know a fun fact?  I only lost a hammerhead like twice, I think. 

[PhoenixFire]

i've read a few articles on Tau and the sheer volume of Interceptor you can do seems great but the trade off is you won't get the boosted BS or stripped cover saves you have in a normal shooting phase

I like the hammerhead on paper but i'm wondering if Longstrike is worth the points

One of the most amazing combos i'm seeing is a commander attached to a riptide for twinlinking and no cover save shenanigans

[Typhus]

One of the most amazing combos i'm seeing is a commander attached to a riptide for twinlinking and no cover save shenanigans

My opening salvo is Ethereal for 6+ FNP (for failing Nova charge), Nova Overcharge for Str 9 Ap2 Ordinance, Commander attached for Tank Hunting, Twin Linked, No Cover.    Re-roll gets hot, re-roll the scatter, re-roll the pen.

Boom, Headshot.

[PhoenixFire]

One of the most amazing combos i'm seeing is a commander attached to a riptide for twinlinking and no cover save shenanigans

My opening salvo is Ethereal for 6+ FNP (for failing Nova charge), Nova Overcharge for Str 9 Ap2 Ordinance, Commander attached for Tank Hunting, Twin Linked, No Cover.    Re-roll gets hot, re-roll the scatter, re-roll the pen.

Boom, Headshot.

Jared you can have Twin linked and No cover going at the same time? i thought you had to pick and choose because the book says you can't have MMS suite and C&C node going at the same time.

Or are you getting twin linking from something else?

[Sir_Prometheus]

One of the most amazing combos i'm seeing is a commander attached to a riptide for twinlinking and no cover save shenanigans

My opening salvo is Ethereal for 6+ FNP (for failing Nova charge), Nova Overcharge for Str 9 Ap2 Ordinance, Commander attached for Tank Hunting, Twin Linked, No Cover.    Re-roll gets hot, re-roll the scatter, re-roll the pen.

Boom, Headshot.

Jared you can have Twin linked and No cover going at the same time? i thought you had to pick and choose because the book says you can't have MMS suite and C&C node going at the same time.

Or are you getting twin linking from something else?

It actually specifically says the opposite.  You CAN use both.   

[Sir_Prometheus]

i've read a few articles on Tau and the sheer volume of Interceptor you can do seems great but the trade off is you won't get the boosted BS or stripped cover saves you have in a normal shooting phase

I like the hammerhead on paper but i'm wondering if Longstrike is worth the points

One of the most amazing combos i'm seeing is a commander attached to a riptide for twinlinking and no cover save shenanigans

Yes, that is the downside with intercept....usually your regular shooting would be much better.  But it will also be after they've damaged you....

Meh, Longstrike is, in my opinion, costed almost exactly right.  Which means it's 50/50 on whether you want to take him.  My guidance is that if you're only doing one hammerhead, he's worth it, if you're taking two, I wouldn't. 

Twinlinking and ignore cover isn't THAT great on the riptides.  For one, the secondary's are already twin-linked, and in the case of SMS, ignore cover anyway.  Also, you can get the earth caste array for Farsight riptides that let's you re-roll ones anyway, and does the much more important effect of letting you re-roll the nova charge.  So that only leaves ignore cover on the big gun, and you can always use markerlights for that. 

[PhoenixFire]

One of the most amazing combos i'm seeing is a commander attached to a riptide for twinlinking and no cover save shenanigans

My opening salvo is Ethereal for 6+ FNP (for failing Nova charge), Nova Overcharge for Str 9 Ap2 Ordinance, Commander attached for Tank Hunting, Twin Linked, No Cover.    Re-roll gets hot, re-roll the scatter, re-roll the pen.

Boom, Headshot.

Jared you can have Twin linked and No cover going at the same time? i thought you had to pick and choose because the book says you can't have MMS suite and C&C node going at the same time.

Or are you getting twin linking from something else?

It actually specifically says the opposite.  You CAN use both.

Awesome, i need to go re-read the signature systems then!

[Chase]

Tau seem so freaking good.

edit: and cool.