Monday, November 28, 2011

I hope Tau isn't the next Codex

After the amazing two games I've played with my Tau, I have to say that I like the army.  The variability in their wargear options has allowed them to stay competitive despite the age of the codex.  Tau very effectively matches my play style.  I've always been a castle type player.  I prefer to build a defensive line and make my opponents come to me.  This works fairly well in lot of game systems for me, so long as I can find an army that can effectively fight that kind of battle.

When I played Flames or War I used German Grenadiers.  They where a very effective defensive force.  You couldn't effectively fight them from greater than 16" away, and they had some very good mobile reserve options in the form of Tigers and Stugs.  My Cygnar in Warmachine was much the same.  They weren't as tough, but they could outrage anything else they would fight. They had a lot of units that weren't good at leading a charge, but where more than adequate to clean up anything that survived a turn or two of trying to march though long gunner fire.

It may seem like a simple way to play the game; just sitting there and roll dice while your opponent marches across the table.  It's much harder than you think to do it right.  You have to build the defensive line just right so that you can absorb a charge and regroup.  You need to build in bait to tempt the enemy to commit their forces where you want them to.  You need to have a mobile reserve behind your lines to counter whatever tricks your opponent pulls off.

40K has given me some trouble because I could never build an army that worked that way.  The way the armies are designed in 40K you can win games by aggressively driving your assault units into the opposing army.  You can't quite do that in other games.  In FoW you need to measure your movement out just right to make an assault work.  The Defensive Fire mechanic and the deadliness of weapons fire under 16" in that game make miscalculations very painful.  In Warmachine you have to protect your own warcaster, so if an all out attack fails, you're probably going to loose to the counterattack.  In both games, needlessly sacrificing units can tend to hamper you chances of winning.

In 40K, assault units are relatively cheap, and losing one doesn't loose you the game in most cases.  The good assault based units are generally so much better in assaults than ordinary units, that there is no likely chance of failure.  In assault unit versus assault unit match ups, mutually assured destruction is usually good enough.   It's acceptable to loose an assault terminator squad to take out a Thunderwolves unit.

I'm not a very aggressive player.  I think this is a result of Eldar being my first army.  I've never held much stock in relying on close-combat for victories since my games always featured my expensive exotic aspect warriors bouncing off of regular old tactical marines.

Tau is the first army that I've played where I think a defensive strategy will work.  It has cheap units to absorb charges, and sturdy units that can stand up to ranged fire.  Many of the units are also decently fast enough to go on the offensive when the situation calls for it.  I can build an army that will force my opponent to think about how to attack it.  Or better yet, one that my opponents don't know they have to think carefully about approaching.

Anyway that's my hope.  Based on the enormity of my experience(2 games).

So how does this relate to not wanting Tau to be the next codex?  I don't want to have to relearn the army for Adepticon.  Especially with as late as a march release window for the next codex.  I also don't want to have to do any marathon painting sessions to get a rebuilt army ready in time.

I've been rethinking my list a little in the meantime though.  I was worried about the Necron solar pulses.  A ranged army really doesn't need to loose 2+ turns of shooting, so I removed a few gun drones to fit in some black sun filters.  I haven't read the Necron rules, so I would be grateful if someone would confirm if the standard anti-night-fight equipment works against solar pulse.

 New list follows:

Unit NameUpgradesQty
Shas'el (Commander)  
 Missile Pod 
 Plasma Rifle 
 Multi-tracker 
 Hard wired black sun filter 
XV8 Team 3
 Missile Pod3
 Plasma Rifle3
 Multi-tracker3
XV8 Team 3
 Missile Pod3
 Plasma Rifle3
 Multi-tracker3
XV8 Team 2
 Twin linked Missle pod2
 Black sun filter2
Fire Warriors 6
Fire Warriors 6
 Devilfish 
 Seeker Missiles1
 Disruption Pod 
Kroot Squad 10
 Kroot Hounds7
Kroot Squad 10
 Kroot Hounds7
Pathfinder Squad 8
 Devilfish 
 Seeker Missiles1
 Disruption Pod 
Piranha 1
 Fusion Blaster 
 Targeting Array 
Piranha 1
 Fusion Blaster 
 Targeting Array 
XV88 Broadsides 2
 Team leader 
 Hard-wired black sun filter 
 Hard-wired target lock 
 Drone Controller1
 Shield Drone2
 Black sun filter1
Hammerhead  
 Rail Gun 
 Smart Missile System 
 Black sun filter 
 Disruption Pod 
 Multitracker 
Sky Ray  
 Smart Missile System 
 Disruption Pod 
 Black sun filter 
 Multitracker 
 Targeting Array 

Saturday, November 19, 2011

Tau - First Games

I finally assembled the 5 battle suits and sky ray sitting on my workbench; giving me enough tau for a 1500 point game. I won one game against chaos demons and tied Nother versus chaos marines. I was running the following list:

Shas'el (Commander)
Missile Pod
Plasma Rifle
Multiple-tracker
Hardwired drone controller
Gun Drone
XV8 Team x3
Missile Pod
Plasma Rifle
Multi-tracker
XV8 Team x2
Missile Pod
Plasma Rifle
Multi-tracker
XV8 Team x2
Twin linked Missile pod
Target lock
Drone controller
Gun Drone
Fire Warriors. x6
Kroot Squad x10
Kroot Hounds x7
Kroot Squad x10
Kroot Hounds x7
Pathfinder Squad x6
Devilfish
Smart Missile System
Disruption Pod
Targeting Array
XV88 Broadsides x2
Drone Controller
Shield Drone
Target Lock
Hammerhead
Rail Gun
Smart Missile System
Disruption Pod
Multitracker
Sky Ray
Smart Missile System
Disruption Pod
Targeting ArrayMissile pod
Target lock

The list works pretty well, but is short on troops. My Kroot die horrible bloody deaths to protect the rest of the army. This leaves me with only the one fire warrior squad to score objectives. The adepticon missions from last year weren't objective heavy, but having another troop unit at 1850 would be handy. This is what I'm thinking about for my Adepticon list:

Unit Name Upgrades
Shas'el (Commander)
Missile Pod
Plasma Rifle
Multi-tracker
XV8 Team x3
Missile Pod
Plasma Rifle
Multi-tracker
XV8 Team x3
Missile Pod
Plasma Rifle
Multi-tracker
XV8 Team x2
Twin linked Missle pod
Target lock
Drone controller
Gun Drone
Fire Warriors. x6
Fire Warriors x6
Devilfish
Seeker Missiles
Disruption Pod
Kroot Squad x10
Kroot Hounds x7
Kroot Squad x10
Kroot Hounds x7
Pathfinder Squad x8
Devilfish
Seeker Missiles
Disruption Pod
Piranha
Fusion Blaster
Targeting Array
Piranha
Fusion Blaster
Targeting Array
XV88 Broadsides x2
Drone Controller
Shield Drone
Target Lock
Hammerhead
Rail Gun
Smart Missile System
Disruption Pod
Multitracker
Sky Ray
Smart Missile System
Disruption Pod
Multitracker
Targeting Array

Sorry for the bad formatting. iPads and blogger don't mix well.

Monday, November 14, 2011

Kroot-tastic

I finished painting the kroot squads for my tau army.  One more step down the road to Adepticon.


There's 20 Kroot Warriors plus 14 Skinks counting as Kroot Hounds 


It breaks down to two squads of 17(10 warriors and 7 hounds)


Here's a shot with one of the battle suits to compare the color scheme with the rest of the army.

And some more pics...