Check it out when you've got time

http://d6addiction.blogspot.com.au/2017/01/tau-go-to-cancon-2017.html

That was a fantastic read. I throughly enjoyed that! Going to try out the Tau list myself tomorrow evening. Looking forward to seeing how mY experience compares to yours and we'll see if we can make the list more viable. Hoping Matt gets a chance to read this. Bravo on getting as much detail as you did during a 5 game tourney.

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This was a great indeed! Is there snywhere you can see the full results of the tournament?

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Very interesting read. Thanks for that! Made my trip to work a pleasure. I'm always a bit disapointed by Tau (I've only ever played against them). That said I know Richard L has made the UK version work very well at 4k and I'm pretty sure Steve54 has had some success with them too. They do seem a little undercooked to me though.

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I've definitely suffered many a mauling at the hands of Steve54's Tau, but I'm sure he'd agree they can be very hard to use well.... my experience from facing them is that they like to use recons and pathfinders to limit your movement while raining seeker missiles on you from 90cm away, they then gang up with co-ordinated fire and take out bigger units with massed railguns, then to cap it off they like to drop orcas loaded with broadsides for some horrible crossfire action

I was thoroughly taken apart by RichardL's Tau at challenge last year, my guard seemed to have no answers to his combination of speed, lance shooting and massed AP firepower, the worst hangover I've ever had didn't help either...

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Very good read, thank you. I liked the style a lot: is the opposite of mine, while it has less information the writing style is more clear and one gets hold of what happens even without looking at the photos.


I cannot agree either on Tau being weak as i get tough games against Tau most of the time. They lacking offensive power in assaults i see it just as part of its flavour same as with the other lists' weakness but i can't see it as something critical. I see this list as something similar to codex Space Marines, an army that is hard to master.

What i agree with is about the marking being counterintuitive and mostly useless on Skyrays. You won't want to put a so expensive and frail unit so close to the enemy except on extreme situations, even if put on mechanized Fire Warriors with Ethereal BTS is bad as Pathfinders are a better upgrade in them in most situations. Maybe on Hammerheads with Fusion cannon, but i cannot see them for Tournaments, as they will be probably the main objective of the artillery.

When i play against Tau i get smashed by marked crossfires and missiles of both kinds, which opens the path for the rest of the army, ending up in being devastating when it works except if the list is quite sturdy. Only when i play knowing it will be against Tau and know he won't bring more than one deepstrike they have a real weak point, as in that case they lack any decent medium or long range AP fire and I take advantage of that with some armies, by keeping them at bay with infantry on OW or with lines of shooty infantry overall which also neutralizes Markers and AT missiles and restricts the army for a while giving more freedom to the rest of the army to pick them off, but that only works if one makes a list tailored for that, so outside Tournaments.


It was a pity the game against Gargants was so one sided. When i saw the list using the Transporta upgrade which no one did in this forum ever, i wanted to see that option being used in that game at all costs, and if possible it ended up being useful, but you demolished both Gargants before they could unload the cargo and the list having many soft parts and no Fightas didn't help much on that.



UK version? The version in the UK page is the NetEA one, same as the one here, same PDF file even. Some quick look around didn't give me any results. Which version are you talking about? Where is that?

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Thanks for the reports, it was a good read.

Abetillo - EUK uses the same Tau list as NetEA so no need to search any further.

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Outstanding effort to get reports done during a tournament.
Thanks for the enjoyable read. Sad to hear the Tau are parked for the fore-seeable.

Thought I'd offer a few comments about Tau, and unit effectiveness.

Crisis Suits

I have found it very challenging to use Crisis Suits effectively.
They are pretty useful AP shooting units, but this sits in an army with lots of really good AP shooting options.
Managed to get the Shas'el included free (saves 25 pts) on the formation but not quite enough.
Coordinated fire on an initiative 1+ formation is a nice addition.

Think that the Plasma Rifles should have an AT factor. All other plasma weapons have such.
Basically they are in small fragile formations, easily broken and then killed by BMs.
Have had some success combining Crisis Suits with Mantas, as aggressive battle-taxis.
Also they are interesting, but expensive, in larger formations.

Trawling through the Epic UK tournament lists suggests that successful players there minimise
their use of such formations. Just one to get the Shas'o supreme commander but any lists with
more have a pretty poor record.


Markerlight Provision

Only 4 markerlight formations seems pretty light to me. Especially since two of them (skyrays)
are in formations that generally prefer to keep further away (railgun hammerheads). As you say
they are also expensive units (not liking to risk) and provide important AA cover.
The recon formations (5 strong and light vehicles) are also pretty vulnerable.

Norto had only 1 markerlight formation. And that a Skyray. This rather misses the strength of
that special rule entirely.

I typically use rather more markerlight formations, and risk them to help set up crossfires.


Tiger Shark AX-1-0

Both you and Norto used this. My probability calcs suggest that this aircraft is rather less effective
than it seems at first glance. The 2+ initiative, esp if having taken BMs makes it hard to activate.
Just one, and no DC, makes it rather vulnerable to CAP. And the guided missiles need markerlights
on the ground.


Orca Assault Dropship

Really like the Deflector Shield on the Vior'la version of the Orca. Makes the air assault rather more
robust. Also a great little objective contester in the end-game.


Protector Spacecraft

Certainly think the two pin-point attacks are pretty useful. Assuming actual WEs on the enemy OrBat.
I have a regular debate about putting both onto a single DC3 target. Try for the kill rather than hope?
Probably you are more correct, . . . especially given the odd critical.

Like Riptides but the a Shas'o in one can easily be pin-point attacked from space!

Should be a picture of the final breakdown on in the post.

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