Hey guys,


Im new around here, and new with Epic. Ive had a handful of games at the LGS with my eldar but my true love is Tau. I recently got my hands on a tau army and Im getting ready to play my first game. Ive noticed some key differences between the Eldar and Tau which Im trying to wrap my head around. Im sure it'll take me a few games to get the strategy down but Im hoping you fine gents can give me some advice.

Ill start with the obvious, engagements are to be avoided. Now I can probably use my range to my advantage, but how do you handle drop pods? What do you do to recover from engagements? Are there any tricks I can use?

Air superiority is my next big question, Im currently deciding between taking a Manta or filling my slots with Cuddas, and AX-1-0's. In my current list which pictured - Im taking 2 squads of Cuddas, 1 manta, and 2 Orcas. Ive heard mixed things about the Manta in reguards to Titan hunting - is it useful in this role? Am I better off with AX-1-0s? How do I use the Manta Effectively?

Can Orcas be taken without spacecraft? I know theyre planetfall - but Im not sure if they can just be transports?

and finally any tips or advice you can think of? Anything you wish you knew before your first game?




Pictures of the list: http://imgur.com/VRx3J6t



The list
--------------------------------------------------------

Tau - 4000 / Tau Empire Third Phase Expansion Force     4000

    Crisis Battlesuit Cadre                              400
        Shas'o                                              
        5xCrisis Battlesuits                                

    Crisis Battlesuit Cadre                              325
        Shas'el                                             
        5xCrisis Battlesuits                                

    Mounted Fire Warrior Cadre                           475
        6xFire Warriors & 3xDevilfish                       
        Ethereal                                            
        2xHammerhead                                        
        Skyray                                              

    Armour Support Group                                 400
        6xHammerhead                                        
        Skyray                                              

    Armour Support Group                                 400
        6xHammerhead                                        
        Skyray                                              

    Broadside Group                                      325
        6xBroadside Battlesuits                             

    Recon Skimmer Group                                  175
        6xPiranha                                           

    Stealth Group                                        225
        6xStealth Battlesuits                               

    Barracuda Squadron                                   150
        2xBarracuda Fighter                                 

    Barracuda Squadron                                   150
        2xBarracuda Fighter                                 

    Manta Dropship                                       675
        Manta                                               

    Orca Dropship                                        150
        Orca                                                

    Orca Dropship                                        150
        Orca                                                
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


My plan is to load the Crisis suits up in the Orcas then have them come in for forward objectives, or to get way behind so I can get crossfire bonuses. I know my opponent usually takes Titans so Im hoping my Manta can take care of those, or at lease be a big enough target until my Armored formations can get some shots in. Ive spread marker lights around with skyrays and my stealth group. The infantry will probably load up on my blitz objective and be mainly used as a quick reactionary force. The broadsides will of course broadside.

Let me know what you guys think.

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[My eldar](http://m.imgur.com/zObS9SJ)
[My Tau](http://m.imgur.com/a/8oSqy)
Looking for top fins wings and stabilizers for eldar air units. Hit me up if u have them or ideas on how I can replace them.

I still have my Tau in the painting queue. But I can say based on my experience with Epic since '90 ... and being a student of weapons and tactics. Always ... Always ... use you ranged weapon to your advantage, ie. : Kill the enemy before they close the range and try to go into close combat. Set up flanking fire when you can. And maneuver to the flanks when possible. Have mutual fire support between units. Use terrain to cover your movements. And covering fire. Set up where you get cover. The best way to take an objective is to Kill the enemy before me can get there/occupy. Off the top of my head ...

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Good advice, im hoping the tau gun line can keep them at bay. I've read that some people deploy troops, then just back up as the game goes on. Kind of a retreating fight. Flanking sounds like a cool idea, especially since we have so many fast skimmers. I can run an armor formation, or a recent skimmer into firing positions on either side. Now when you say mutual support do you mean, making sure every squad is covered by another?

Sorry if NOOB questions.

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[My eldar](http://m.imgur.com/zObS9SJ)
[My Tau](http://m.imgur.com/a/8oSqy)
Looking for top fins wings and stabilizers for eldar air units. Hit me up if u have them or ideas on how I can replace them.

I've mostly been on the recieving end of the tau, but what tends to work well for them is using several recon formations calling co-ordinated fire and concentrating on the target with several formations, a spaceship is really handy for sniping at troublesome stuff like void spinners, shadowswords and decimators as well as hurting big titans when you knock their shields down

There is always the temptation against titans to think that the only thing that can kill a titan is another titan.... this is not the case at all, E:A is a game of objectives, all you need to do is have more activations than the amtl player on turn 3, then work on grabbing objectives and breaking titans through blast markers, use recon screens to limit their options, snipe warhounds with your hammerheads (which now have lance) and hide from the big stuff, turn 3 either out-activate the amtl player or go all out on his BTS titan with co-ordinated firing hammerheads, pinpoints and crisis suits.... tigersharks are int2+ (always great at standing down when you really need them) and can't grab objectives, mantas are expensive and reduce your activation count...

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NetEA Space Marine, Imperial Fists and Blood Angels Army Champion

NetEA Red Corsairs Army Champion

My hobby/painting threads

Army Forge List Co-ordinator

Yes, fast skimmers are like the traditional Cav, are great for exploiting and covering flanks ... Yes, try to have units covering each other. As far as Titans ... IMO, Make them priority targets. Use all available firepower to turn these targets into burning wrecks within a couple of turns.

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Legion 4 "Cry Havoc, and let slip the Dogs of War !" ... "People sleep peaceably in their beds at night only because rough men stand ready to do violence on their behalf."

Drop pods: yes they can be awkward for you - as you have guessed, it is almost always preferable to avoid engagements. However, bear in mind that they will often be fairly weak detachments and come down in turn 1, when you are packed into your deployment zone to maximise the orbital barrage and deathwind attacks. That means the pods are often isolated from the rest of your opponent's army. If you avoid intermingling your formations the damage can be limited, and then you should be able to neutralise them at your leisure. Try not to get too distracted from your plan.

Orcas can be taken without spacecraft. Crisis, broadsides and fire warriors are all useful cargo, but be careful with them. In comparison to transports from other races, Orcas are quite easy to kill. This means you may be more restricted where you can land them, i.e. inside your own skyray cover to deter CAP, and outside of the enemy's flak if they have a lot of it. That can make it hard to use with short-range infantry inside, but tends to matter less when using them for long range broadsides.

In general I'd say you have quite a lot of points tied up in air units, and that inevitably leaves you lacking on the ground. However this really depends on your local metagame.

Likewise, in many groups there is a very high pressure on having lots of activations, and so you will tend not to see more than one "big" formation (BTS) and very few formation upgrades (unless they are flak or something else necessary, like markerlights...). For example, you could drop all those extra hammerheads (and maybe the ethereal) and get another 1 or 2 formations. The reason is simply because of how the game focusses on objectives. If you have lots of activations you can stall in the first turn, forcing your opponent to activate his good formations without anything juicy to attack, and then in later turns you can move around the board to contest and capture objectives after he has activated everything. Again, this might not apply in your local group, it depends how they play.

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Kyrt's Battle Result Tracker (forum post is here)
Kyrt's trade list

The latest approved version of the list is 6.8 http://www.taccmd.tacticalwargames.net/ ... 23&t=29531 which has a number of points changes.

Looking at your list I would say personally I prefer a few more formations at 4000 pts. However if you really want to use a Manta that might be difficult. I would still try to get up to 15 activations if you can and if you really want the Manta it might be a good idea to include a spaceship to allow for the flexibility of planetfalling. If you use the planetfalling ability you could also potentially remove the need for Orcas.

I would also personally prefer smaller more flexible support armour formations.

So maybe something like

Mech Fire Warrior Cadre + Skyray, Pts = 325
Mech Fire Warrior Cadre + Skyray, Pts = 325
Fire Warrior Cadre, Pts = 225

Broadside Group, Pts = 300
Crisis Battlesuit Cadre + Shas'o + Drones, Pts = 350
Crisis Battlesuit Cadre, Pts = 250
Recon Skimmer Group, Pts = 175
Recon Skimmer Group, Pts = 175
Recon Skimmer Group, Pts = 175
Skysweep Support Group, Pts = 250
Armour Support Group, Pts = 225
Armour Support Group, Pts = 225

Manta, Pts = 650
Barracuda Squadron, Pts = 150
Protector, Pts = 200

But really the best thing to do is try some lists out that you like and see what works for you. Just be aware the Tau in epic can be a fairly tricky list to get the hang of.

Recon formations are key. I always try to put them with a least one unit close to a Hammer head formation. The recon can then call in a coordinated fire action. They double up put markerlights at a juicy target (a double move gives a potential markerlight range of 100 cm) like a warhound for instance. With a bit of luck you'll even take a shield down. Then you advance the hammerheads and skimmer pop up to shoot. Usually breaks a small titan and sometimes even kills them (easier now with the lance rule).

Other than that I like to upgrade any mechanized firewarrior formation with pathfinders. You then get 8 units with two AP attacks each. bringing their own markerlights. They can cripple most infantry formations if you manage to get within 15cm. I usually try to move them late in a turn as they are not the tuffest. Leaving them exposed is of course always a gamble, but if you win initiative the turn after then you're usually in a good position for a sustain or advance action, which is where FW really shine.

Hmmm, good advice. I hadn't really been thinking of activation per round or anything like that. I also like your FL set up. I ordered 50 FWs & 20 pathfinders from eBay so once those arrive I'll have a bit more I can throw into formations which will help. I think you're right about taking pathfinders with FWs. I was sticking skyray with them for marker light and air coverage, i didn't even think about coordinated fire - which I should be since i could see it aa a huge advantage if used correctly. Also a major disaster if used incorrectly :p


With the updated list I managed to swap out the manta for two AX-1-0s. I kept pretty much everything else the same for the time being since I'm pretty much using everything I have in this list. I have 4 crisis suits w/ shas'el, 1 panel of firewarriors and 1 of stealth suits left. I have 2 recon formations of 3 and 3 but I haven't based them yet so they're still all loose. I have another 4 crisis suits, 6 hammer heads, 3 ion heads, 6 stealth suits, 25 (I think) Kroot with Krootex and Kroot hounds, and some devilfish on the way from eBay. I ordered some objective markers from shapeways so hopefully those will be cool. Also hopefully I'll be ahle to throw a half decent list together.

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[My eldar](http://m.imgur.com/zObS9SJ)
[My Tau](http://m.imgur.com/a/8oSqy)
Looking for top fins wings and stabilizers for eldar air units. Hit me up if u have them or ideas on how I can replace them.

The AX-1-0's are great and really brings something the list needs. I found them to be great against any drop army. They can just shoot any landingcraft/landa/thunderhawk/whatever after they've landed. Titans that you have prepared taking away shields are in danger and basically every small shieldless warengine I guess.

I have used them a few times. The problem is if you face an opponent with lots of AA and interceptors. They are quite fragile. I feel they are gamble due to that. I therefore used the spaceship in my last few games instead. It's great. It can't be shot down can't be hidden from. Can attack two different targets. It's the bane on all things 2-3DC. Obvious drawback of the spacecraft is of course if you go up against an army without WE's.

I'm not saying that you shouldn't use the AX-1-0's. It's more of a preference thing and depends on how you like to play. high risk high reward vs more dependable lower reward.

I played 2 games since i last posted. One with the last shows against IG, and one with AX-1-0s and a bunch of barracuda formations. The second list did way better against SMs. Due to high number of activations over the list with the Manta really helped as the game went on. I had 4 wings of Cuddas 2 orcas and the ax-1-0 squad, my opponent had a huge titan that they ended up focusing on after we had secured air superority which helped, plus the random run on broken formations helped. All in all the manta is not useful against most lists. Definately not useful as a titan killer. AX-1-0s are far more useful in this reguard. Perhaps if a huge formation needs a to land, I could see the manta being useful.

Thanks for all the tips friends. I won the second game!

_________________
[My eldar](http://m.imgur.com/zObS9SJ)
[My Tau](http://m.imgur.com/a/8oSqy)
Looking for top fins wings and stabilizers for eldar air units. Hit me up if u have them or ideas on how I can replace them.