Ok So I’ve been away for quite a long time and I could go on an on about why I haven’t posted since I opened this blog but that doesn’t matter.
So here’s the thing. I haven’t altered my army since I started and with Christmas that season of coercing innocent family members in to investing in your hobby fast approaching, its time to make some changes.
I have my colour scheme down as you have seen and although due to a lack of paint not everyone is finished (But a family member has already been given that wish list) I’m happy with the results.
I am looking at how to expand my army from a Battleforce with a Broadside and two more Battlesuits added in, to a more rounded and more importantly larger army.
My first thoughts were to get rid of the Kroot as up till now I haven’t had much joy with them and most games end up with them running off the table.
But this would leave me with a hole where some close assault should be. The answer I thought was to bring in Farsight and all his minions as a close assault team but I’m having second thoughts.
Manly due to the bad reports of Farsight armys and the many many good reports of Kroot attacks.
So the question I’m asking to the world at large is… Where next? Shall I get rid of the Kroot or increase their number. Shall I bring in Farsight and armfuls of XV8’s
I mainly fight a Demon Hunters or Dark Angles Army’s so need lots of anti terminator.
I know that I Defiantly want more Broadsides and a couple of Hammerheads.
And my fast attack plan has always been just Piranhas. But I’m open to any suggestions
So please give me your thought’s and guidance
The "Close Combat" gap will sort of always be there. Kroot are our best, but they're still not very good at it. No matter how hard you try, they just aren't :(
ReplyDeleteThe Shaper and 6+ are too expensive for what they do. You're better off just adding more bodies.
I like Kroot. They have interesting, subtle uses. This sort of sums them up nicely: http://incunabulum.co.uk/blog/2009/11/04/must-have-units-tau-empire/
Coming from a Battleforce + 1 Crisis Suit and a Commander: My next goals are a unit of 2 Broadsides, a Hammerhead, another Devilfish, and 2 more Crisis Suits.
The Broadsides are for the railguns. The Hammerhead is for the durable railgun and optional sub-munition. The Devilfish is to split my 12 fire warriors into another (I'm a fan of the Warfish).
The 2 Crisis Suits might be more what you're interested in. There is a setup known as "Helios". It's a suit with a Plasma Rifle, Fusion Blaster, and Multi-tracker. They're very effective against Terminator equivalents. I was planning on having a pair and eventually adding a Commander to it to make a command squad of it (replace the MT with a hard wired MT and give them Targeting Arrays to up the ballistic skill).
The only reason I'm prioritizing railguns over the Helios setup is my typical opponents are vehicle have and/or swarmy (sub-munition).
For fast attack...Well I've used Gun Drones to fill up points and/or be walls to try to guide my enemy. Really I'm just waiting for a new codex to support some of the Forgeworld variants. I like them all much better. The standard codex doesn't have one I like that I can't replace better with some more suits. A lot of people disagree with me here. Pathfinders and Piranha's definitely have their uses, they just don't suit me very well. Bring on the Tertras and the XV9s.
I talk to much. Hope that helps :)
Thanks for your help. I like you thoughts on Kroot and might try dropping the shaper. THe Helios Setup sounds interesting. I currently Have them setup with Twin Plasmas and a Missile system. I tried Flamers but never got close enough to use them.
ReplyDeleteI am also thinking about trying to use my Stealth team more and possibly introducing Shadowsun
I really like the idea of Stealth Suits, but I don't think I've figured out how to use them properly.
ReplyDeleteTL-Plasma Rifle, Missle Pod, and a HW Multi-Tracker? Otherwise you can't shoot both weapons. I really like PR, MP, Target Array, HW-MT for my command Fire Knives (Fireknife = PR, MP, MT). The TL makes your PR better than the +1BS, but the +1BS is better overall for the bonus to your Missle Pod. It can be crushing when you roll 1s and 2s on all your PR shots.
I'm not saying your way is inferior at all, just offering my perspective :) I think I'll try the TL-PR instead of the targetting array tonight to see how it works out. I've contemplated it, but never tried it. I always seem to care more about the PR than the MP when it matters anyway(AP2 is just too much win in an army of AP5).
Shadowsun has always appealed to me. Two Fusion Blaster shots are just amazing at BS5. She would go amazing with some Helios body guard for killing terminators and vehicles, but unfortunately she can't have a body guard and can only join a unit if all her drones die. She could probably work in tandem with another unit well enough, but the lack of body guard always turned me off of her.
To clarify: The suits I have are a Fireknife command team. The Helios suits would be my new squad (when I get them), but I only ever normally face a single unit of 5 termies, and the Fireknives handle them well enough (though it would be nice to free them up for other things).
ReplyDeleteYeah Hardwired MT, I mainly added the TL Plasmas to help iradicate the Terminators as they ignore the armor save and te re-roll helps too. I think that if I add a second XV8 squad I will configure them differently. Maybe aim them more towards getting rid of troops that spill out of popped tanks as I mainly play for objectives. Thanks for your comments its been great to have a second perspective on the how to setup an army. I only started playing in July and I'm still learning. I keep finding little things in the codex that suprise me. I agree with you on the Stealth Suit's I havent really had much luck but saying that I have only just realised that they too have the Jump shoot Jump ability so I'm hoping that will solve a few Problems. as for Shadow sun I think that if I loose the Drones and add her to a Stealth Squad they would prove a tough force to beat and with all those fusion blasters I could start popping some tanks.
ReplyDeleteThanks again for your advice.
Hammerhead! Get yourself a hammerhead with a railgun. Mobility, fire power, durablity (esp when upgraded with a D.pod), all things a good Tau army should be.
ReplyDeleteKroot are great, try outflanking them more and keeping them protected. keep them in cover.
Defiantly a Hammerhead. Im heading towards a 2500 point army and think ill settle with a Broadside Team and two hammerheads as my heavy choice.
ReplyDeleteThis might be worth a read..
ReplyDeletehttp://www.librarium-online.com/forums/tau-empire/173742-5th-edition-tau-tactica-w-i-p.html
:)
Hey there, always good to hear of a new Tau player. I am in a similar boat to you with respect to what I bought. I started with a battleforce and a skyray kit. This last one is important because it comes with all the parts for a hammerhead as well as the missile parts. If you buy this kit and combine it with a devilfish, you can get a Hammerhead and a skyray from one kit.
ReplyDeleteMy intended list I'm aiming for (with reasoning) is below. Hopefully it gives you some ideas and thoughts. I'm basing it on my experiences, plus playing against Old Shatter Hands and other tau players.
- 1 Helios (Fusion, plasma, multitracker) Shas'El plus helios bodyguard + 2 gun drones. These will use high strength, low AP guns to kill terminators/montrous creatures/vehicles. They have to fight in close so accept that you might lost them. Drones are there for taking instant death shots
- 3 Deathrains (Twin missile pods, Flamer). These guys shoot up transports from range and flame things that get close.
- 6 Stealth suits + 2 marker drones. These aren't the most popular but they come with the battleforce so i'm going to use them. 18 S5 shots hitting on 2+ if both markerlights hit will drop hordes quickly.
- 2x9 Fire warriors. Sit in cover and shoot things up.
- 2x12 Kroot. Sit in cover and shoot or infiltrate to threaten opposing objectives. Also work well with the Fire warriors to form a gunline that can assault if need be.
- 6 Pathfinders with a devilfish. Markerlight support to control and corral the enemy (see http://incunabulum.co.uk/blog/2009/11/17/tactica-pathfinders/). The devilfish transports fire warriors/kroot/nothing as need be and lets me reroll scatter for deep strike if I choose to do it.
- 2x2 fusion piranhas. These are my tank hunters and I will use them to block off enemy movement and control them. I keep them in 2s so that I have a bit more flexibility than with a big unit and they can always work together if need be.
- Skyray missile gunship. Mobile markerlights and seeker missile platform. Mostly this one will be used aggressively once it has fired off its missiles. The seekers aren't the main thing with it though, the markerlights are.
- 2 Hammerheads with railguns. These guys are here to kill infantry or transports, not tanks. I've learned from playing Old Shatter Hands that they are not reliable enough to blow up heavy armour. Instead, drop those submunition pie plates on the enemy troops and whittle them down.
This army is 1850 pts and can be made from 2xBattleforce, 2xSkyray, 4x Piranha and 3xcrisis suits. That comes to 216 pounds from Maelstrom games in england, or $355 from the Warstore in the US. Not a tiny amount of money, but not the largest either.
The trick is basically to learn to use what you have in the best way. Kroot shouldn't be used to close combat terminators. Instead, use their guns to force lots of saves on the terminators. If you drop two regular terminators, then you've almost made back the points of 12 kroot. If you kill two Grey Knight Terminators, you're ahead in points. Those armies in particular will suffer against mobile armies because they are so small in number.