Shoot Tau Thrill

Closing Time

2011-05-19T22:26:00.000-04:00

I'm done.
I've sat through the ridiculous price hikes in GW's models and materials, and turned a blind eye to their treatment of their customers and fan sites.
I was even willing to sit by when GW switched to a cheaper material whilst upping their prices.
But then they did this:
http://www.maelstromgames.co.uk/index.php?act=new&ref=212

This really hurts a large amount of GW's fans, especially our Australian brethren. Without the ability to purchase from other sellers, they must purchase directly from GW; who, for some reason, have decided that the price should be roundabouts doubled, after conversion rates.
I cannot support a company that will throw their customers under the bus for a small profit.
So I'm done. Goodbye.
I may be switching to Infinity and Warmachine, but I'm not sure. All I know is, unless there are serious changes in GW's policy, I will not be touching their products again.

Future Plans

2011-05-05T09:48:00.000-04:00

So uni is out in about a week's time.
Naturally, this means I will be at home, with a load of free time.
And naturally, the urge to expand has hit again.

My plan as of now is to attempt to buy one box of each of the items my army needs, discarding the older models or selling them, as the multi-stripped paintjobs are making them difficult to work with. So I'm probably saying goodbye to a bunch of older models, probably via Ebay or a local sale.
From there I plan to dupe the sprues I buy, keeping them as master sets, and building my army back from the ground up.

I've been working through some new ideas for a list, and it contains some Forgeworld; particularly XV9s.
I'll keep you all updated as I go.

Final Verdict on "Method"

2011-03-31T10:05:00.000-04:00

Method works better than Simple Green on metal models, stripping the paint off with little to no effort on the part of the user. That said, it is far less useful on the plastic parts. I had to do twice the scratching of the models just to bring back the shallow lines on the model.
As is right now, most of my suits and troops are not in any condition to be repainted, as the paint has remained bound on despite the treatment. Also, any remaining tac putty on the model acts interestingly with Method. I had a vat separate for the weapon systems, and the larger amounts tac left on the missile pods warped the plastic. This left me with some broken looking missile pods, which is a shame, seeing as how my next list is using Deathrains. Furthermore, my Commander's custom helmet almost came apart, meaning

This brings me to my next announcement.
I'm going to start making molds. A few of my weapon systems were fully destroyed in this process. In addition, I've always been looking to try my Commander's winged design again. So...
I'm grabbing a mold and some resin and going to town. A cheap product that works as an instant mold has recently been brought to my attention, and using this in conjunction with cheap resin can lead to a massive line of missile pods that I can use more liberally, as well as a few more winged suits for the army.

With this in mind, my painting will, sadly, be being pushed back. However, this is a chance to try something new, and I'm excited.
Hopefully the knowledge of making molds will help in the future for other projects. When I eventually get around to duping the models, I'll post up how I did. If I'm lucky I'll get the chance within the month.

Mark II Re-Armoring Vats prove a slight success.

2011-03-23T12:58:00.000-04:00

Whilst they took far longer to give an effect than the Mark I substance, the cleaning product "Method" also works for stripping acrylics. The good thing about this product is that the paint is actually flaking off in the mixture as opposed to me having to remove it through scrubbing.
A definite alternative to Simple Green.

Testing Mark-II Re-Armoring Vats

2011-03-21T14:24:00.000-04:00

Ergo, I'm trying an alternative to Simple Green.
The local shop was out, so I bought the knockoff product. Hopefully it will have the same formula that tears at paint when used in concentrated doses.
Will let you in on the product if it is a viable alternative, though I believe it was slightly more expensive.

Paintshop

2011-03-20T21:04:00.000-04:00

Well, didn't get to buy paints until today. That means no painting over the break.

However, I'm bringing a bucket of Simple Green and my paints to my dorm room, and converting my desk into a miniature painting area. With some newspaper Scotch-taped to the desk, I should be able to paint just fine, and at my own leisure.

My only snag is finding out where and how to prime. For obvious reasons, priming in the room I sleep in is out of the question. Doing the priming outside at uni could work, but I'd have to be careful and I'd have to bring the models in to dry. Basically, priming will be an arduous process. Also, without a form of compressed air (and an area to go) the airbrush is out of the question as well... unless I prime this week, run home and airbrush, and do the technical painting in my dorm.

But yeah, I'm working on it. In progress pics will be posted, but be warned, I'm not a good painter.

Stalwart Markers: Pathfinder Uses

2011-03-13T03:15:00.000-04:00

As promised, a short article on my uses of Pathfinders.
Pathfinders have a unique battlefield role. They are unable to deal any real damage by themselves, and must remain stationary to be effective. In an army built upon combined mobility and firepower, this is a strange combination of traits to have.
Pathfinders, as any good Shas'el knows, are of the utmost importance to an army's success on the field. Able to plot out the optimal firing paths against enemy units, they are capable of bringing the best out of your true firepower.

On the field, Pathfinders are useful when given forward firing positions. While useful in supporting positions, they rank below both Crisis and Broadside battlesuits in terms of survival priority. They are likely to be targeted by the enemy, and likely are going to be among the first of your units to go down. This can be used to your advantage, however.
By positioning your Pathfinders in a forward positioning, you ensure them two roles. First, they act as powerful early fire support. Second, they guide more than your own guns, as they will be lit up by whatever your opponent can send their way. By placing them forward they are able to absorb assaults for your main firing units.

All in all, it is most important to remember that Pathfinders are support, not your mainstay. They should be sacrificed for your true fire units when needed. Their value comes in their early support to your firepower, and in their ability to draw enemy fire away from your damaging units.

Revival?

2011-03-10T12:07:00.000-05:00

I think I'm coming back.
Months of little to no gaming, punctuated only by a select few enraging games with some of the worst rules-lawyers I know, left me with the feeling that 40k wasn't fun anymore. And it honestly wasn't. Stuck away from a real shop, I entertained myself with pen-and-paper games when I could, but my army sat alone and unused. My link to the 40k community, this blog, went with it.

Now, with a break from the year's activities just around the corner, I believe it is time for the Tau to step back up to the field of battle. Not without some changes though. Gone will be the Cadre of old. The Heartseeker Cadre will now step up to the field of battle.

Heartseeker Cadre

“These creatures believe that they are safe behind their champions, behind their walls of iron vehicles. Let's see if they would like to open channels after their

(Tau Empire Codex)

Headquarters

Shas'el -96

Heartseeker Shas'els have two roles. The first, and most familiar of these roles is that of the leader, leading his army's attack on the enemy, embodying the virtues of tactical prowess. These Commanders lead from the front, often accompanying an auxiliary scouting force or a Pathfinder team once battle begins.

-Crisis Battlesuit

--Air-Bursting Fragmentation Projector

--Twin-linked Missile Pods

--Hard-wired Target Lock

--Hard-wired Blacksun Filter

Shas'el, and Two Shas'vre Bodyguards -251

The latter role of the a Heartseeker Shas'el is to inspire in a different way. Burning short but bright, Heartseekers Shas'els select the most passionate bodyguards and launch into the fray, closing on the enemy's champions or thundering war machines, and crushing them along with the morale of the enemy.

(Shas'el)

-Crisis Suit

--Plasma Rifle

--Fusion Blaster

--Multitracker

(Shas'vres)

-Crisis Battlesuit

--Plasma Rifle

--Fusion Blaster

--Targeting Array

--Hard-wired Multitracker

Total Headquarters Expenditure: 347pts

Elites

Three Deathrain Shas'uis -141

Deathrain pattern suits and their embody the virtue of death from afar. Striking out with their missile pods, they see to eliminate the enemy's larger threats, moor them in wreckage, or outright eliminate them. If enemy hordes seek to close the distance, their flamethrowers can show them fear.

-Crisis Battlesuit

--Twin-linked Missile Pods

--Flamer

Three Deathrain Shas'uis -141

-Crisis Battlesuit

--Twin-linked Missile Pods

--Flamer

Three Deathrain Shas'uis -141

-Crisis Battlesuit

--Twin-linked Missile Pods

--Flamer

Total Elite Expenditure: 423 pts

Troops

Six Mounted Shas'la -145

Shas'la, the backbone of static cadres and retrieval missions, are not of mush use to a cadre such as the Heartseeker Cadre, as they simply do not bring enough firepower to bear to fit the Cadre's standard missions. That said, a handful of Shas'la remain, serving roles as field engineers and medics, whilst being able to effectively hold areas with Cadre support.

-Pulse Rifle

Devilfish APC

The Devilfish, normally anywhere from a low-orbit dropship to a light gunship, serves a purpose as a caravan to the Heartseekers; bringing medics, engineers, and their equipment. These Devilfish still are battle-ready, and can function on any role needed of them.

-Burst Cannon

-Gun Drones

--Disruption Pods

Six Shas'la -60

-Pulse Rifle

10 Kroot Auxiliaries with 5 Hounds -100

Kroot Auxiliaries serve the Heartseeker Cadre by scouting out weaknesses of the opposing force, and hunting them if they move to flee. When battle arrives, they form the frontline, deterring enemy forces from close quarters combat. When needed, these auxiliary units can act as an impromptu retrieval unit.

(Kroot)

-Kroot Rifles

(Hounds)

-Fangs and claws

Total Troop Expenditure: 305pts

Fast Attack

Piranha Light Assault Skimmer -75

As the Heartseeker Cadre moves to engage the enemy, their Piranhas move into position. Ejecting repair drones that remain with the rest of the Cadre, they swiftly move up the battlefield, flanking the enemy before moving into range with their melta weapons.

--Fusion Blaster

-Gun Drones

--Disruption Pods

Piranha Light Assault Skimmer -75

--Fusion Blaster

-Gun Drones

--Disruption Pods

Eight Pathfinder Scouts and Beacon Devilfish APC -181

Whilst standard Pathfinders use their vehicles to scout ahead of the force, Heartseeker Pathfinders move forward as rearguards to the auxiliary scouting forces. When battle begins, they set up excellent marking positions in forward positions, accompanied by the Kroot.

-Pulse Carbines

-Markerlights

Beacon Devilfish

The Beacon Devilfish is a standard piece of equipment for Pathfinder squads, holding additional equipment, from a wide array of scanners, a comms interface, and the Marker Beacon, which is capable of beaming their position (or that of the enemy) to support units.

-Burst Cannon

-Gun Drones

--Disruption Pods

-Marker Beacon

Total Fast Attack Expenditure: 331

Heavy Support

Two Broadside Shas'uis -148

As the main force of the Heartseeker Cadre engages the enemy in mobile combat, the Broadsides, having set up in key firing lanes, begin their onslaught. Utilizing Markerlight guided Railgun shots, these behemoths blast at enemy formations, reducing battletanks to wreckage and walkers to scraps. The strongest monstrosities cannot stand up to the battering of Railguns, and the Heartseeked Cadre takes advantage of this.

(Suit 1)

-Broadside Battlesuit

-Twin-linked Railgun

-Smart Missile System

--Target Lock

(Suit 2)

-Broadside Battlesuit

-Twin-linked Railgun

-Smart Missile System

--Blacksun Filter

Two Broadside Shas'uis -148

(Suit 1)

-Broadside Battlesuit

-Twin-linked Railgun

-Smart Missile System

--Target Lock

(Suit 2)

-Broadside Battlesuit

-Twin-linked Railgun

-Smart Missile System

--Blacksun Filter

Two Broadside Shas'uis -148

(Suit 1)

-Broadside Battlesuit

-Twin-linked Railgun

-Smart Missile System

--Target Lock

(Suit 2)

-Broadside Battlesuit

-Twin-linked Railgun

-Smart Missile System

--Blacksun Filter

Total Heavy Support Expenditure: 444pts

-TOTAL CADRE EXPENDITURE-

1850

This list still maintains the ability to use all of the tactics listed in this blog, albeit with a more offensive approach. I sacrifice a line of Kroot to bring along more devastating firepower, more anti-tank, etc. I fill the list almost to the brim with Crisis Suits, allowing a very mobile army not as tied down as my former; the Kroot simply run whenever possible to keep up with the army's speed.

This list has a few static components, namely the Broadsides and Pathfinders, and these will be positioned centrally. The suits can move with vehicle escort (cover) and harass with more ease. Most importantly, this army allows me to place my attacking units in multiple spots across the board, without having to worry about moving them all away from a single point of attack.

This is the closest combination of my tough, Kauyon style army and the fast, Mont'ka army that I was originally enamored with in the fluff. Let's hope it serves me well.

Articles should begin flowing within the week.

Pushing Flanks: Identifying Threats

2011-01-04T15:54:00.000-05:00

A long while ago, I promised to finish off my series on Pushing Flanks. So here is the final part: Identifying Threats.
Whilst there are obviously exceptions to the guidelines I am going to lay down, these are some simple criteria I use when identifying what to hit first.

These questions are asked in reference to each and every target available to me, at the beginning of the movement phase. Yes, not the shooting phase, the movement phase.

First off. Can I burst them down?
More or less, this is the most important question. You have to know if, firepower at full bear, you can reasonably assume that something will die. This is the worst part of the whole guide, as it is entirely luck-based. Probability can help you a bit, as can induction, experience, etc.. More or less, it is the worst part of this whole thing... it could take a single Missile Pod to crack a Razorback, it could take 18.
This leads to a corollary; can you block them off?
If you can't burst something down, then you have to use walls of Kroot or Piranhas to slow or stop it. This can be utilized in two ways: you can either toss them out early to slow movement as you focus other units, or you can wait and use the walls right before they hit to get a second turn to burst them. This is why walls are so important, i may add.

From second step onward it becomes more about your ability to gauge threats effectively, which is far easier than guessing at your damage output.
Step two is simple. Is it a threat this turn?
This is rather simple. Can this unit deal significant damage to your important units this turn? If you can avoid this damage, than you run a much more obvious chance of succeeding. These units should be your first targets.

Third is similar. Will this unit be a threat?
This addresses units such as Assault Termies in Landraiders. Sure, first turn they may SEEM like they aren't a problem, but then they will be in your face, and unkillable. This goes hand in hand with question 1. If you aren't able to destroy the unit in a turn, they become a major problem. Likewise, a unit that WILL be a threat, but you can deal with at any time with little effort, is less of a concern.

Four. Is this unit in my way?
This is a very important thing to think about as well, once you've done your threat assessment. When planning or executing a push, you should make this a big part of your target priority. What are your possible escape routes? What stands in the way of that? Can you kill or slow it?

Five. Do I have leftover firepower?
Once you have dealt with major threats, you can start aiming for easy or important kills. Can your firepower do any damage to that squad on the objective? Can you pickup an easy killpoint from that Landspeeder? Start putting your guns to work worsening the situation for your opponent.

Ranged threats vs Close Quarters threats
There is a bit of discussion to be put into the subject of the range of threatening units. As a general rule with Tau, Close Quarters units can deal more "burst" damage to us... as in the turn they hit, they are gonna hit hard. Ranged units, on the other hand, deal a decent amount of damage per turn. When targeting units, you have to decide when it is a good choice to deal with each threat.
The kneejerk response every Tau player has when asked this is to avoid close combat, no matter what. But consider this:
If a ranged unit can kill 1 model a turn, yet a CQ unit can kill 5, the CQ unit looks to be a problem. But if the CQ unit only ever gets into one assault, than a ranged unit can deal just as much damage.
So in those early turns, look to take out some ranged enemies if you can. Shutting their damage down early and then focusing on those burst units can save you a few models, and thus a few guns, in the long-term.
Also, note that your wall units can be used to lower the effectiveness of enemy units that rely on being at CQ range. These wall units can't mitigate shooting attacks (save for giving cover), so you can use your walls to stall CQ units as you burst down the ranged ones.

That's it for the subject of target identification.
This also closes off the segment on pushing flanks.

Any ideas on what to write on next? More and more I'm feeling that the Tau are being pushed out of the metagame, and it is terrible. I can't find a useful subject to write on.
Also, a bit of news; I may be starting up a new army besides Tau, as a wait until the new codex rolls around. So I want to know... if I where to give updates on this army, should I post them here, or make an entire new blog for them?
Anyways, see you all around.

Stagnation 2

2010-12-03T23:35:00.000-05:00

Alright, I know I haven't posted at all, but I've been swamped. Her is the thing though; in two weeks, my semester ends.
After that, I have over a month of free time, meaning a month of painting, listing, and gaming. If I'm lucky, I'll be getting at least two games a week, more if my brother has stepped up his Eldar.
So there will be more, count on it.

Stagnation

2010-11-18T12:16:00.000-05:00

So my 40k life has been slowing down considerably due to outside influences and increasing difficulty in finding a game. I've also grown tired of the local tourney scene, as my games have started to come down to the big dice roll of "Can I kill X before it hits my walls".
Sadly, you all are the ones to suffer from it.

I plan on finishing the series on Pushing Flanks, and I will keep up competitive and tactical advice, but my playstyle may be shifting strongly to another form of play...maybe I'll go back to a Mont'ka vehicle rush and attempt to make that work.
Sorry for the slow.

Pushing Flanks: The role system

2010-10-30T11:54:00.001-04:00

Where to push (in depth)

Choosing where to push a flank is a tough decision. The decision is multi-faceted, and each step requires difficult decisions. A push will necessarily require loss on both sides; you WILL have to sacrifice your own units to make a push. This section of the guide speaks about how to identify what units you can use in a push and how you should use them.

I have split these units up into three types, to help identify their roles. The roles may overlap, or units may take on a role they normally do not, depending on circumstances:

Pushers (Piranhas, Kroot, Empty Devilfish, Pathfinders)

Pushers are necessary to the Kauyon style push, hence why I label them “pushers”. These are the units that rush into the enemy army and sit right in front of them, disabling them. The idea here is that the units get in the way of the enemy, and hold them off whilst your other units do their jobs. Piranhas and Kroot get an honorable mention; this is what they excel at. Unused Devilfish make decent blockers, but rank lower compared to the above two due to the fact that you give up the transportation ability. Pathfinders are last on this list, as you generally want to use your Pathfinders as Clearers.

Clearers (Crisis Suits, Broadsides, Pathfinders, Shadowsun, Piranhas, Kroot)

Clearers are the iconic units of a Kauyon Push. The wreak havoc through their shooting, reducing vehicles to wrecks, vaporizing units, and volleying crude weaponry into poorly armored fighters. First up on the list are Crisis Suits and Broadsides. They are the kings of our ranged firepower. When up close, two Fireknife Teams can easily vaporize a unit or two, a Deathrain unit can get a damage result on a tank, and Broadsides can volley either weakly armored units or hit a tank hard. Pathfinders get a mention for making our firepower godlike. Shadowsun or other melta units such as Piranhas can assist in anti-tank. Kroot can hurt weak infantry pretty badly with Kroot Rifles if they don’t feel a need to run at the end of the phase.

Refugees (Fire Warriors during Objective games, Crisis Suits, Pathfinders, anything important to your later gameplay that can get out in time)

Large list. Practically everything can fit onto this list, but you have to be sure that:

a) -The unit can effectively escape. By this I mean that the unit is fast enough to escape the enemy pursuers in the worst case scenario. This is important, and I will go over why a single hopeless refugee can ruin your push. Your Pathfinders and Broadsides can’t make it out? Tough shit.

b) -It has utility. Don’t bring along a unit that can’t either act in a useful way. Battered units of Pathfinders pop into my mind here. If your unit only holds a few Kroot or Pathies, you can’t even block with it properly. It won’t get much use besides constantly running away to not killed and eventually getting picked off by random fire. It is far better to let these units stand and help out as they can in clearing.

Always remember; the purpose of a push is to protect the refugees, not to go out in a blaze of glory. So if anything might jeopardize these units, don’t do it.

As I said above, there are exceptions and grey areas between these roles; for example, a fast Clearer like a Crisis Suit may double as a refugee. In this case, it is always useful to run with your remaining suits if you clear the targeted enemies earlier than expected. Always use the offensive capabilities of the refugees last, if you can help it. This will save the option of using your run move.

A Clearer can also double as a wall; units that are too slow to escape may go out in their own, miniature blazes of glory, shuffling into the way before unleashing salvos into the enemy. Broadsides and Kroot do this well.

Finally, a Pusher may fake the intention of acting as a Refugee. For example, they make it seem as though they are running away, then expand into a full wall when the enemy gets close. Pathfinders, Piranhas and Kroot (during objective games) can all pull this off convincingly, buying your true refugees more time.

Next up in this segment will be identifying opposing units, and how to react to them.

Pushing Flanks: An introduction

2010-10-19T12:04:00.000-04:00

Pushing the flank... this is a term many of you have heard in reference to particular games, decisions, etc. What exactly is "pushing the flank"? How does one execute this maneuver? Why should one do so? How do I know which flank to hit? These will all be covered by this series.

First and foremost, a definition. What does it mean to push a flank? To understand this, we have to define flank, and a push. Whilst the majority of you likely know this, a flank is one of two things:
a) A subdivision of the enemy's army, specifically the outer groups.
b) The extreme right or left of an army.
Either of these definitions work.
A push, in military terms, is best defined as:
a) To move forward whilst removing obstacles

Now, looking at this in the context of the Tau Army. Unlike the majority of pushes, our army is in the unlucky scenario in which it cannot end said push in an assault (save for a random Kroot+Suit finish, which I don't recommend). This is not good for us. Whilst other armies get to gain extra movement and damage, we are stuck with shooting everything to death. This means that we are far less likely to be able to pull off massive pushes such as, say, Blood Angels, can do. We have to be tricky.
Hence the pushing of a flank comes into play. When looking at an attacking force, you need to be able to identify where it has weakness, and then pound that weakness into the dirt. If you are lucky, you can find a weakness on one of the flanks. This will allow you to move toward that side, clear it, and use the new found area to maneuver away from the bulk of the force.
You can use a spread out attack line against an opponent by getting to its side. For example, against a foot army, you may see something like this:

(Obviously, this is simplified, and not to scale)
We can see that the enemy has stacked the majority of his attacking force, specifically the hard-hitter, the Hive Tyrant, on the left. The Tau player thus should push the right flank, taking out the fastest threat, the genestealers, as well as hitting the secondary threat of the Hormagaunts.

The Kroot Wall then does its job of taking the initial assault; for all intents and purposes, I assume it falls.

The Suits then maneuver around the right, into open area, and kill the Hormagaunts who could have easily threatened them.

From here on out, it is easy; the remaining forces do not have the speed to catch the suits, only, at best, match their pace.

While a push is almost never this clean, this is a good example of what I mean. You take out the least durable enemies and use that open space to get away.
Next up in the series is identifying flanks and their composition.

Pushing Flanks

2010-10-13T23:49:00.000-04:00

So, the Spearhead deployment brought an end to the Laying Traps series, unless you guys want to hit me up with a request involving a weird board, terrain problems, odd deployment type, etc.

Luckily for you all, I have bit off WAY more than I could chew when I promised to explain the mechanics of flank pushing, and it is likely going to turn into a series in and of itself. So I'll be working on that for you all.

In the meantime, however, there will probably be few updates besides the occasional random idea, or a unit review. So if any of you want me to discuss a certain aspect of the game, please let me know.

Battle for Salvation (Again)

2010-10-07T13:37:00.000-04:00

So, I've decided not to attend. No doubt the tournament is going to be fun, but the ride up would take too long for my tastes.
Once I've got my models together I'll see what I can do for other tourneys, but for this weekend I'm just gonna be chilling at my LGS or with friends.
Good luck to everyone! (Particularly Old Shatter Hands!)

Laying traps: Spearhead, Deployment

2010-10-06T18:50:00.001-04:00

Spearhead deployment is one of the simplest styles of deployment for Kauyon Tau. Save for against outflanker heavy armies, the Tau normally can come out on top in this deployment type.

That being said, this deployment type can be tricky in the later turns… it is not how you act early on that will give you the advantage, but how you react. Due to the nature of Spearhead deployment, enemies can come from above or from the sides.

Fortunately, most opponents favor a flank to attack from, so it is not too difficult to find a weak flank to push. Deciding where to push is an important skill for a Tau force, and I’ll be going over the tactics of “pushing a flank” at a later date.

Deployment is rather simple; you spread your Kroot walls around your formation, making a quarter-circle around your firebase, with any overlap in the middle of the curve. This partially overlapping wall will shift towards the biggest threats as the game goes on.

The reason for this formation is that the enemy is able to attack from a multitude of angles in this game type. The position of the Kroot Walls allows for you to stay in a fully reactive formation until your opponent commits his units to a goal. Once your opponent shows his hand, then you can commit your walls to suppressing him.

The rest of the castle acts normally/as shown. Crisis Suits up front, ‘Sides in back, Pathfinders supporting, etc.

This formation has two possible outcomes. Either:

-You eliminate the enemy forces that attack from above your position. You will get into the position that Mont’ka players brag about; you are on the short table edge, using your superior range to pound away at the enemy across all 6’ of the board.

-Alternatively, you could end up destroying the force that started the game deployed. This position is more high-risk/high-reward as it puts you right in front of the enemy’s reserve units, but also gives you the center board and the ability to get into rapidfire range with more ease.

These situations rely almost entirely on your ability to pick which flank to attack and do so effectively. If both flanks prove too strong/you get unlucky/you pick wrong, you can be pushed into a contracted position in your corner. Whilst this is not the end of the world, it is important to note that you will lose a large amount of mobility.

If you are put in this corner, a crafty opponent will pound your walls, attempting to trap you behind them as they score. Again pushing the flank becomes necessary as an escape, and if you fail for a second time, you will almost definitely lose.

1850 and 2000 point Kauyon lists; also, the Hammerhead

2010-09-29T15:15:00.000-04:00

Shadowsun -175

ELITE

Fireknife Crisis Team- Shas'ui TL w/ PR, MP, MT, HWDC; 2x Shas'ui w/ PR, MP, MT; 2x Gun Drones -211

Deathrain Crisis Team- Shas’ui w/ TL-MP, DC; 2x Shas’ui w/ TL-MP, BSF; 2x Gun Drones -155

TROOP

Fire Warriors- 6x Shas'la -60

Kroot-10x Mercs; 3x Hounds -88

Kroot-10x Mercs; 7x Hounds -112

FAST

Piranha Squadron- Piranha w/ FB, TA; Piranha w/ FB, TA -140

Pathfinders-6x Shas'la; Devilfish w/ DP -157

HEAVY

Broadsides- Shas'ui TL w/ AdvSS, HWDC, HWTL, HWBSF; 1x Shas'ui w/AdvSS; 2x Gun Drones -193

Broadsides- Shas'ui TL w/ AdvSS, HWDC, HWTL; 1x Shas'ui w/AdvSS; 2x Gun Drones -190

1850

So, I discussed earlier with you all my growing disdain for the Hammerhead. This is what came of that. Originally, the plan was to lose the head and get either two more sides or a Deathrain team. Instead, I found the points for another Broadside AND a Deathrain team... just had to drop a few hounds and a handful of rather useless upgrades.

My 2000 point list uses similar ideas:

Shadowsun -175

ELITE

Fireknife Crisis Team- Shas'ui TL w/ PR, MP, MT, HWDC; 2x Shas'ui w/ PR, MP, MT; 2x Gun Drones -211

Deathrain Crisis Team- Shas’ui w/ TL-MP, DC; 2x Shas’ui w/ TL-MP, BSF; 2x Gun Drones -155

TROOP

Fire Warriors- 6x Shas'la -60

Kroot-10x Mercs; 3x Hounds -88

Kroot-10x Mercs; 7x Hounds -112

FAST

Piranha Squadron- Piranha w/ FB, TA, DP; Piranha w/ FB, TA -145

Pathfinders-6x Shas'la; Devilfish w/ DP -157

Pathfinders-5x Shas'la; Devilfish w/ DP -145

HEAVY

Broadsides- Shas'ui TL w/ AdvSS, HWDC, HWTL; 1x Shas'ui w/AdvSS; 2x Gun Drones -190

2x Sniper Drone Team -160

2000

The Sniper Drones add some extra anti-infantry firepower and a net gain of one Markerlight. I am thinking of instead going the route of upgrading the Deathrains to Fireknives (48 points) and buying something nice instead, but I don't really see what would be worth buying. So it is Sniper Drones for now.

As to the loss of the Hammerhead, I have a few things to say on the matter:

-The Railgun does not pull it's weight as a flanking, threatening anti-tank platform.

-The submunition is terrible. I'll get to that below.

-The contesting ability is useful, but it is easily melted at these ranges and ins't fast enough nor sneaky enough to pull it off against more intelligent players.

To 1&3, you will all probably nod your head. But 2? How can I say that the pie plate of doom is bad?

Let's look at some comparisons. First off, against a spread enemy formation (you know, the types good players use when they see templates?) the template can only really hit 3 enemies. Let's just assume, for the sake of argument, that you always get a hit with it.

So the Hammerhead gets 3 hits with S6 at AP4.

Now let's take the output of the Deathrains, shall we? They hit approximately 4.5 times, with higher Strength, and same AP. They have less range, but it will rarely come into play. Note that even with the ablative Drones (which I didn't take into account for shooting) the Deathrains still come out cheaper than most Hammerheads.

Now the Sniper Team. Assuming the same as before:

Hammerhead hits three times.

Sniper Drones (6 shots between teams) hit 3 times.

Wounds the same amount.

But SDT has AP3 and a chance to pin.

Remember this is all assuming no scatter.

So the Hammerhead cannot match the firepower of these units. In addition, its only advantage is its speed, which is the same speed as the Deathrain and whilst being faster than the stationary Sniper Drones, rarely comes into use until late game contesting.

Thoughts/Comments/Critiques?

Hammerhead Tank? SMS? List musings.

2010-09-28T12:33:00.000-04:00

I've been working with my list lately, and I've started to notice... my Hammerhead tank is not pulling its weight. With the points I throw into my Hammerhead, I can almost afford another two Broadsides without Shield Drones, or I can definitely afford a squad of Deathrains, fully equipped, both of which would add to my firepower immensely.
Furthermore, the SMS on my Pathfnder Devilfish hasn't really come into play... not that I expected it to, I only tossed it on because I didn't have anywhere real to put the points. If I drop those as well, the prospective Broadsides can grab some Shield Drones and other goodies. Alternatively, the prospective Deathrains can bloom into fully armed Fireknives, giving me a massive amount of anti-infantry weaponry.

What to do? I'm leaning towards the extra Railguns from the Broadsides right now, as 5 Railguns in addition to all my missiles will solve any tank problem I have. It could be argued that the Crisis Suits bring effective anti-tank as well, with more infantry killing power, but I'm not sure that I feel entirely safe with only one unit holding Railguns. Despite cover, Shield Drones, and leadership boosts, I am terrified of my Broadsides being singled out and me losing my best way to deal with heavy tanks. With two Broadside squads, I can finally play a dual firebase list effectively as well.
On the other hand, against all but high AV vehicles, the missiles are more effective overall. The plasma would be an excellent addition as well, as it would make my offensive force overwhelming powerful.

My feel now is that I should take the Broadsides for the extra AT, and the Deathrains or Fireknives at 2000. I could easily reduce a Kroot unit to find the points for firepower..
Thoughts? I'd love suggestions here, I feel I'm close to maxing out my firepower.

I'm torn right now.

Battle for Savation

2010-09-27T18:59:00.000-04:00

After careful deliberation, I have decided not to participate in Battle for Salvation. The amount of money and time I would have to put into my army to get it fully ready and painted for the tournament is beyond my capability at this time and registering now whilst my army is incomplete seems wrong to me; I may take someone else's spot who is .
That being said, I may still go to the tournament. I enjoy watching games almost as much as I like playing them, and it will be a nice way to meet fellow bloggers. I may not be going for sure, but I will do my best to plan ahead and get there.
Good luck to all the players who are participating!

Laying traps: DOW Deployment 2 (2nd Turn Deployment)

2010-09-27T11:49:00.001-04:00

Scenario: Dawn of War (or similar), Any mission type

Enemy forces: Anything that wants to assault you. So anything.

This deployment option attempts to form your castle as quickly as possible, just like in every formation. The downside to this one is that you can be pushed back early on, giving you problems of space,especially if the unit pushing you back is an offensive threat (guess what particular HQ I'm thinking about).

Anyways, it starts out fairly simple; you move your Kroot into the outer shell of the castle, and wait:

Your opponent then gets a choice; should he fall back or attack you with his deployed unit? If the enemy falls back to regroup, he gives you time to build the full castle, which is bad. So in the next picture I assumed he ran up and attempted to rapidfire the first line. This would draw fire as his other nits came on board, and hopefully run off my first Kroot.

In the above picture, I assume he does not run off the Kroot, as it statistically is unlikely, but the formation doesn't suffer too greatly from the loss of the first wall. The proximity of the attacking enemy allows an almost certain death, even through night-fighting.

Your vehicles can't fit behind the wall nearly as well, due to your original castle being pushed back to 6" tall. Instead, they come in on the sides, and f you can gain midfield, they'll slink back into place. Piranhas move forward to get ready to melt or blockade part of the incoming force.

Blow the close by enemy to hell. It isn't as if you'll get anything else thanks to night-fighting.

The castle than practically plays as normal, save for a little less space.

Marshal Wilhelm

2010-09-24T12:41:00.000-04:00

Marshal Wilhelm has brought up some very good points in the recent comments section about Dawn of War, and I think that the length and thought put into them deserve both credit and response. Marshal Wilhelm said:
"You don't like DoW?
Interesting.

With Templars, it is very annoying. You are a mêlée army you have to cover much of the board to beat face.
That makes Annihilation hard against someone who has no reason to close with you.
C&C is also frustrating. Joe Foe has his objective all but off the TT and you have to cover 48" to get there, unless he hasn't killed your 2 TROOPS + HQ, which can reduce the distance to 24-42" away.
This makes Seize Ground the only desirable mission for a mêlée army.

With a shooty army, DoW can be good. Very good.

If you deploy first, you push his guys back to within 6" of his edge.
You have gained 6" more than you would with Pitched battle set-up against his initial forces, and 12" more against the rest.

T1: Kroot long shoot they enemy TROOPS [providing they are foot]
The rest of your forces come on.
12" for Fish chassis. 24" for Piranhas [if warranted] 6+d6" for Infantry.
Suits 12+d6"
End of T1, his stuff is in position [12ish" on] and so is yours. Night fight done with.
You have 24+" between you and him, just like if you deployed via Pitched Battle.
As most guys rush-to-crush Tau, one less turn for them to cover the TT.
Not good or good?

If he deploys first, his initial force gets mugged by your whole army,
AND
you come on so you can be in range of his initial force with Suits and Fish chassis but also as far away from the bulk of his subsequent forces.

For example, playing against Templars:
Imagine a clump of Rhinos in the middle.
1] He brings his guys on to the left of them. So you attack his Rhino clump from the right.
The distance between you and his subsequent forces is increased.
2] He brings his guys straight behind them. You can still attack from the right [or left] and the distance [being a triangle] is larger.
or
you can deploy directly in front of the Rhino clump and his subsequent guys will have to drive around their carcasses. Also increasing the distance.
3] He brings his guys on in two parts and on either side of the Rhino clump. He is now as close as he can be to your guys with one part, but quite far away with the other part.
Beautiful! Destroy him in detail!"

Wilhelm also brought up some interesting theory on Broadsides, but I will wait to answer that until I get around to the Broadside unit analysis, if you don't mind.

Now for the response out. I'll be re-quoting throughout:
With Templars, it is very annoying. You are a mêlée army you have to cover much of the board to beat face.
That makes Annihilation hard against someone who has no reason to close with you
You note that there is one less turn for the enemy to get to us in Annihilation, meaning problems for assault oriented armies. I will concede that point, but note a necessary side of that; in objectives, there is one less turn for the Tau to weaken the enemy before they have to move on objectives. In an objective game, unfortunately placed objectives can allow assault armies to simply wait in ambush and bear the storm... Fritz's Harlequins come to mind as a perfect example of this, whilst other armies have to survive in different ways, such as reserves, going to ground, etc.

If you deploy first, you push his guys back to within 6" of his edge.
You have gained 6" more than you would with Pitched battle set-up against his initial forces, and 12" more against the rest.
You note that I should push back enemies. This is precisely right, but it comes at the cost of my forward Kroot often enough, and that is too early a death for my comfort. Still, it is how we must play.
You note that I gained area, but also note that due to a lack of ability to shoot, I also lose time. It is a fairly even trade off, but it is not a decision I get to make.

T1: Kroot long shoot they enemy TROOPS [providing they are foot]
The rest of your forces come on.
12" for Fish chassis. 24" for Piranhas [if warranted] 6+d6" for Infantry.
Suits 12+d6"
End of T1, his stuff is in position [12ish" on] and so is yours. Night fight done with.
You have 24+" between you and him, just like if you deployed via Pitched Battle.
As most guys rush-to-crush Tau, one less turn for them to cover the TT.
Not good or good?
Kroot will shoot downfield always if they stay up front... otherwise they fall back.
You are right in stating that the proposed scenario is good, but I still worry about the units that can break it. For example: I often play against Chaos Marines. A Lash Prince can bring the Kroot int assault range and, if he is lucky, lock himself in there. If this happens, I am unable to shoot the beast at my doorstep turn one, and then it can get rid of my second wall. This leaves me in an inferior Mont'ka, with a deadly beast breathing down my neck and another nearby (not to mention the Marines and Oblits on route). This is the worst case scenario, yes, but it is one that Dawn of War allows, and that I sit through many a time.
Overall, Dawn of War screws practically everyone. Shooty armies lose turns of shooting, assaulty armies lose space... I honestly think it is the worst deployment type of them all.

For example, playing against Templars:
Imagine a clump of Rhinos in the middle.
1] He brings his guys on to the left of them. So you attack his Rhino clump from the right.
The distance between you and his subsequent forces is increased.
2] He brings his guys straight behind them. You can still attack from the right [or left] and the distance [being a triangle] is larger.
or
you can deploy directly in front of the Rhino clump and his subsequent guys will have to drive around their carcasses. Also increasing the distance.
3] He brings his guys on in two parts and on either side of the Rhino clump. He is now as close as he can be to your guys with one part, but quite far away with the other part.
Beautiful! Destroy him in detail!"
Well said, and what I attempt. Many a time a Marine player attempting a cascading cover formation against me gets blockaded nearly completely by a wreckage and a Piranha. Making your opponent's footprint work against him is incredibly useful.

Tau Alliance

2010-09-24T10:43:00.000-04:00

Though I'm sure that you all have heard of him, Old Shatter Hands runs a pretty effective Tau blog at The Tau of War, and has recently given me a shout out. So, as a token of appreciation, and even though I'm sure you all know about it already, I have added a new feature to the blog.
A new gadget named "The Tau Alliance" should now be present in the sidebar, with a permanent link to Tau of War. I'll be adding sites such as NockerGeek's as well, and any other up and running Tau blog that I often discuss with or reference to.

Laying traps: DOW Deployment 1 (1st Turn Deployment)

2010-09-23T17:20:00.003-04:00

Scenario: Dawn of War (or similar), Any mission type

Enemy forces: Anything that wants to assault you. So anything.

Dawn of War is my least favorite deployment type, by far. For one, I need Adv.S.S. on my Broadsides almost exclusively because of it, I can't light things up first turn, and I have to deal with Night-Fighting when trying to hit enemy transports. Dawn of War also effectively shaves a turn off the game, a turn needed to whittle down the enemy before moving out to contest, capture or finish the enemy off. Those problems, coupled with the ability of problem HQs such as Daemon Princes (One of the only units in the game able to assault through the 18" barrier thanks to Lash) being right up in your face first turn, leaves a lot to be desired for as a Tau general.

That all being said, I have come up with two deployment options for this dreaded scenario; one for taking the first turn and one for taking the second. This is the former.
Assuming that you gain first turn, you want to take advantage of the fact that the enemy has to deploy 18" away from you, whilst being wary of Infiltrators. You also want to set up in a way that disallows prospective Infiltrators from getting behind your lines.
The main idea behind this formation is that you will deploy your forward Kroot formation up, but leave the majority of the enemy forces far back and the deployed ones dead, whilst forming your castle. The formation starts like so:

In the back, we see the beginnings of the castle; Shadowsun is on board, giving you at least the semblance of a threat to vehicles, though a small one at that. Your backfield Kroot are set up in their standard shielding position, giving cover and slight assault protection to your incoming units.
The forward Kroot are deployed far up, to push the enemy formation as far back as they can go. Each model provides an 18" buffer against the enemy.
To illustrate just how much of the board is covered by this formation, I've put together this picture below. The blue area is made up of a group of circles with 18" radii. No enemy can deploy in the blue area, and none can infiltrate there if they are visible.

As you can probably tell, this covers quite a bit of the area on the map. The only enemies your opponent will be able to target when he comes in are the Kroot, and only the deployed troops will be able to rapidfire them.
Finally, on your first turn, you bring in your castle and aim to hit whatever is on the board (night-fighting will nerf almost all shooting here).
Depending on preference, you can either leave your forward Kroot up as a skirmish line (a role in which they will probably perish), or fall them back and keep them close by.
From here on, the formation plays like the Pitched Battle castles. Block and shoot.

Thoughts?/Questions?/Responses?/Critiques?

Blogger

2010-09-23T15:56:00.002-04:00

Blogger just updated image posting (along with some other things), so that means that my pics will be bigger and easier to decipher now!
Speaking of which, Dawn of War deployment is on its way.

Laying traps: Pitched Battle, Deployment 3 (Heavy Deepstrike Defense)

2010-09-21T16:37:00.007-04:00

Tossing this one up, as it is rather short.

Scenario: Pitched Battle (or similar), Any mission type

Enemy forces: Used against heavy deepstrike, namely Drop Pod forces, preferably little to no backfield outflankers, whatever for Outflankers and Infiltrators.

This deployment attempts to neutralize the advantage of deepstriking melta forces from wrecking your vehicles early on or killing off a squad of suits with no cover, or (in rare cases) straight up assaulting you.

The deployment looks something like so:

I do not show Fire Warriors here, but they sit by the middlemost Devilfish, and hop in to avoid trouble.

The Kroot make a full bubble around the forces, giving enough space between themselves and your vehicles that melta range cannot be established. The Crisis Suits are protected by cover saves, as melta will probably reach them regardless of position.

The rest of the game is simple... stay in formation, blockade against and fire upon the enemy as they appear. Once the remainder of the force shows up, you no longer need walls everywhere... meaning a Kroot squad can likely, but not always, be dedicated to assault or scoring in a devilfish.

Remember that Drop Pod armies specifically gain their ability at a cost; they are slow afterwards, meaning in objectives you can use Piranhas and Devilfish to threaten to score. Furthermore, Drop Pods are asking to be melted for easy points in KP games, a task that you can set your Piranhas and Shadowsun to, provided they don't take away from blockading and leading, respectively.

This setup is weaker (but not weak) to frontal attacks, so use it only when you expect heavy deepstriking forces. Luckily, this formation does not take long to move back to the traditional Pitched Battle setup if your opponent decides to drop empty pods or otherwise not deepstrike.

Furthermore, this formation suffers severely against backfield outflankers, leaving you two choices if these appear in your opponent's army in anything but minuscule numbers:

1. Push forward Turn 1, and deploy your Gun Drones as free walls against the threat.

2. Deploy in formation 2. This may leave you in a load of trouble, but you can likely push forward with ease if the enemy has backfielders and deepstrikers.

Thoughts?/Questions?/Responses?/Critiques?

Also, if you want me to respond to a particular deployment setup (such as a Battle Mission, a tournament mission, or any of the above where terrain bothered you, give me an example of what you mean, and I'll queue it up.

Laying traps: Pitched Battle, Deployment 2 (Backfield Defense)

2010-09-20T19:52:00.007-04:00

Scenario: Pitched Battle (or similar), Any mission type

Enemy forces: Used against deepstrike (not fully deepstriking, but with some forces) and backfield outflanking forces (which can't be in its entirety), whatever for Outflankers and Infiltrators.

The idea of this formation is to setup against split formations using a partial forward force utilizing backfield outflanking or deepstriking force. These Hammer and Anvil forces will bypass a lack in backfield defense and hurt your heavy-hitters, or your mobile vehicles. I'm thinking of Drop Pod meltas or Wolf Scouts with the same.

Your deployment will look something like this:

Here, the deployment is mostly like the former one, yet instead of infiltrating the second Kroot line they are folded up in the back of your formation. This offers no extra defense against first turn deep-strikers, but will help protect your rear units as you move out.

As the rest of your force moves forward, the Kroot unfurl. Not including running, the Kroot can reach the positions below. 'Sides assumed 4", Pathfinders obviously scouted, Fire Warriors in tank.

Whilst this is not a perfect formation of the bat, it can help deter backfield outflankers and some deepstrikers. The seemingly empty space and "undefended" Hammerhead are some tricks I often use to try to cause deepstrikers to come down in that area, only to have them at best get the Hammerhead, and get killed, or at best scatter into oblivion. Whilst the Hammerhead would normally be used for mobile contesting later game, most deepstriking armies lack the continuing mobility for this to be much of a threat.

On the next turn, the position closes up fully, allowing a fully reactive defense of your firebase:

I show Piranhas moving out in this, but they don't have to at all.

Note how the Kroot are spaced out... Backfield Outflankers can't hit anything with melta besides Kroot. Furthermore, there is little Deepstrike room either; Fire Warriors can be redeployed to fill space if needed, but the safety of the Devilfish is useful here. The list than plays as normal.

Note that this is not made to stop a mass of deepstrikers or Backfielders, but it is a useful trick for delaying those disruption units and keeping hold of the game.

Thoughts?/Questions?/Responses?/Critiques?

For future reference...

2010-09-19T09:59:00.005-04:00

This is the list I will be using in my Kauyon deployment examples. It is a simple variation of my Kroot Wall list, giving up a few missiles for survivability.

Shadowsun -175

ELITE

Fireknife Crisis Team- Shas'ui TL w/ PR, MP, MT, HWDC; 2x Shas'ui w/ PR, MP, MT; 2x Gun Drones -211

TROOP

Fire Warriors- 6x Shas'la -60

Kroot-10x Mercs; 7x Hounds -112

FAST

Piranha Squadron- Piranha w/ FB, TA, FD; Piranha w/ FB, TA, FD -160

Pathfinders-6x Shas'la; Devilfish w/ SMS, DP -177

HEAVY

Broadsides- Shas'ui TL /AdvSS, HWDC, HWTL; 2x Shas'ui w/AdvSS; 2x Sh. Drones -280

Hammerhead w/ Railgun, SMS, MT, DP -175

1850

Laying traps: Pitched Battle, Deployment 1

2010-09-18T12:25:00.011-04:00

Scenario: Pitched Battle (or similar), Any mission type

Enemy Forces: Very little to no Deepstrikers, Very little to no Backfield Outflankers, and preferably no Infiltrators, though the last one really matters little.

This setup is my standard for Pitched Battle, and is my go to deployment against direct forces (forces that prefer to be on the field turn 1, or come on on their side of the field, and either rush or shoot me). This covers the vast majority of armies in the competitive scene these days... Razorback spam coming to mind.

I've put together a picture of what my standard deployment would be:

I understand that his may be hard to see, so I've provided a zoomed version:

The units here are my standard 1850 Kauyon/Kroot Wall list, save for a change in HQ; Shadowsun has replaced the two Commanders, trading ablative wounds and a few missiles for a fully Leadership 10 firebase.

Anyways, the idea behind this is that, without the threat of backfield enemies, and the enemies only popping in on your flanks and front, your are fully protected.

You will note that the forward Kroot need to be infiltrated; this is normally not a problem, but enemy infiltrators can mess with this a tad.

This army will move upfield on Turn 1, and attempt to get into optimal range for your Crisis Suits as early as possible. The idea is to move your Kroot line up and mess with an opposing charge immediately, whilst bearing down on the enemy with your full firepower. When the enemy enters your sweet spot, you will fall back again, and continually hit him with rapidfire strikes.

Your first and foremost objective in this is to demech your opponent. Infantry is very little to no threat to you, as the Kroot wall will protect you from their assault and you can strand them midfield.

A picture of your movement:

Once you have sufficiently thinned out enemy resistance, any remaining Kroot as well as the Fire Warriors can now grab objectives.

In this picture I show no movement of the Pathfinders, but note that they can Scout up and not lose much in terms of firepower...just note that they may be left behind if and when you fall back, and that they could be in trouble if the enemy seizes.

Against similarly castled or shooty armies, sending in the first wave of Kroot to mess with your opponent is useful, as it will disrupt their formation whilst you keep your cover giving wall intact. Against barrage heavy armies, you would be wise to spread this formation slightly to avoid massive amounts of pie-plates.

That is the gist of that deployment.

Thoughts/Criticisms/Suggestions/Questions?

Laying traps: Deployment options for Kauyon

2010-09-17T10:42:00.009-04:00

Deployment is a huge part of the game, and one that should be thoroughly understood.

It was once said that in chess that one should, "Play the opening like a book, the middle game like a magician, and the endgame like a machine". I honestly believe that this applies to 40k as well.

40k is, more than anything, about being in control of the flow of the game. Every time you are placed in a situation you aren't sure how to handle, your control can easily slip to your opponent.

If you allow this to happen before the first turn of the game, you will need to be ridiculously more skilled in every other area to pull off a win. And chances are, the difference won't be that large.

This segment is to give the deployments that, in my opinion, are the most effective deployment options for Tau in the majority of situations. Whilst every deployment option has its downsides and weaknesses, not every deployment option is a catch all deployment, which is why I will be looking at multiple different deployment options depending specifically on the deployment type, and the enemy units (specifically how they may deploy).

Note that I will NOT be taking into account terrain. This may seem odd, but it is important, as terrain is a constantly shifting part of the game, and I cannot account for every possible setting. Instead, these deployment options are made to be modular; models are not set in stone, and, for example, you are perfectly able to move your Broadsides to a better fire lane if there is terrain in their line of sight. Furthermore, terrain may (and should) be used to benefit you. Buildings and impassable terrain may make excellent Markerlight nests or roadblocks, while a forest becomes and obvious place to build your flak line.

The first of these will be up soon, and it will have pictures.

Rumours?

2010-09-09T01:14:00.011-04:00

Rumours of a Tau codex have come through, started by Dante76 on Warseer.

View the original thread here: http://www.warseer.com/forums/showthread.php?t=2

Also, discussion thread at 40kOnline here:http://www.40konline.com/community/index.php?topic=205133.0

Through a new source, who with hindsight turned out to be pretty accurate with Blood Angels and Skaven....

Pencilled in release date of Aug 2011

New Alien allies
All metal sets to plastic (Pathfinder, Krootox, Vespids)
Possible new tank
Changes to Hammerhead Railgun rules. Essentially draws a line across table hitting everything in line. Multiple pen through vehicles, only stopped by a glancing hit.
Changes to markerlights. Point system. 1 Markerlight point = + 1BS, 2 Markerlight points = reroll to wound/hit 3 = Difficult Terrain test (blinded by the lights?). Cannot be stacked. So cant have reroll to wound and reroll to hit at 4 points.
Battle Suits. A plug and play system. Essentially streamlined. Pick two guns and a skill or two skills a gun. New models might have interchangeable arms similar to Killa Kans....

On a side line, yes other armies might deserve attention quicker, but Tau currently are a: majority plastic b: play well currently.

More to come soon....

I'm not getting too excited, as there were rumors about half a year ago as well, but nothing substantial. Keeping my hopes up though.

Leading the Charge! Ethereals

2010-09-08T09:21:00.005-04:00

Ethereals are often among the the most hated units of the Tau Empire by the gaming community in general. Common wisdom would state that one should never take an Ethereal in any list expecting to win. Very much like how Necrons were always seen as an army you could phase out to beat, a Tau army with an Ethereal is portrayed to have a similar problem; kill the Ethereal and send half the army running.

This massive downside would probably sit fine with most Tau players if they got a tough model with the deal. The thing is, an Ethereal clocks in at just above a chunk of coal in terms of utility and slightly under wafer in terms of durability. The Ethereal lacks an armor save... or a save of any type. He has only two wounds, and a low Toughness. Not the epitome of toughness. The Ethereal also drops the ball by being the only Tau unit outside of Shield Drones and puppies to lack a gun.

The Ethereal has some definite perks, however; first and foremost being that he offers a re-roll to any leadership test taken by a Tau unit that can see him. He also makes any unit he joins fearless, increasing the durability against shooting of the unit he hides in by quite a bit. He adds a very small close combat punch, and can purchase Shield or Gun Drones. When an Ethereal's unit is whittled down, he can move into a vehicle;while not actively using his power at the time, it will save the problem of you running off the table.

The Ethereal can be fielded on the table one of two ways to be effective:

1. In sight, out of sight: An Ethereal will find a piece of cover ahead or to the side of your army, blocking enemy sight to him whilst allowing him to be visible to the rest of the army. A Devilfish that has landed can actually cover him completely whilst showing him to comrades to the sides; a useful thing to remember if you have, say, a Pathfinder Devilfish waiting to pick up reserved Fire Warriors. Do NOT do this if the enemy has barrage weapons.

2. In a unit: A team of Broadsides makes a great home for an Ethereal; strong, placed in the backfield, and now Fearless, the Broadsides will take quite a few hits for the Ethereal. Just beware being hit with massive amounts of hits and wounds getting to the Ethereal.Using Broadsides over, say, Kroot or Pathfinders, has the added bonus of having the Ethereal wounded as if T4.

That's all for the Ethereal.

Turbo: Gun Drone Squadrons

2010-09-07T18:19:00.003-04:00

Gun Drones are a little used unit, again competing with the far superior Pathfinders and Piranhas. The main problem, however, is not that Gun Drones are bad, but that we shouldn't paying full price for them in most cases; A piranha squadron will bring you a small squad for free, other vehicles can bring pairs, and they can also accompany Crisis Teams for a little firepower and ablative wounds for 2pts cheaper a piece.

In their squadron form, either formed via ejection from vehicles or simply purchased, Gun Drones have a variety of uses:

-Gun Drones are often used as "glue" for wall, using their expendable mass to fill in where Kroot have fallen.

-Gun Drones can move around to act as mobile cover for other units, giving cover saves or slowing would-be assault units.

-Gun Drones have low priority on enemy lists, meaning that they can often flank the enemy position if you present the opponent a distraction. Their carbines can be an effective weapon for slowing AV10.

-Gun Drones rarely deal enough damage to cause substantial chaos, but they have one large upside to their weapons; pinning. Firing your Gun Drones at an important enemy unit gives you a small chance to pin. While not reliable, it is a useful bonus that should be thought of every once and a while.

Gun Drones that are purchased in squadron form can Deepstrike, which makes them reaching annoying positions much easier. Deepstriking allows instant access to rear armor, and allows access to backfield enemy heavy weapons. Note that Gun Drones (like Shadowsun) don't suffer from the XV8's inability to jump after deepstriking.

Gun Drones may also find a niche in my proposed "mobile wall". Making up the bulk of the proposed Stealth Wall, the squadrons themselves may be useful in a similar way. While only 8 men strong, they are a cheap option... though this, again, is overshadowed by the Piranha, as they bring the drones necessary while making the needed blockades themselves.

Mobile Roadblocks?

2010-09-04T21:55:00.004-04:00

All right, I never really rapidfire posts, but this is a cool moment for me.

I had just suggested the use of Vespids or Gun Drones as a mobile walling unit, but now I think I have a better idea of one:

Stealth Teams.

Filling out a Stealth Team with 6 men and 12 Drones costs 300, not much more than two walls of Kroot, but fully mobile, nearly immune to ranged firepower, resistant to other guns, and able to stretch a distance equivalent to a single Kroot Wall. In addition, it can put out some withering firepower on enemy units that move in to assault you.

I'm just thinking... could this be a way to use a fully mobile Kauyon strategy? Using the Stealth Team as your Wall/Lure, and bringing them into the range of mass Crisis and S5 fire. The wall also can be used to Outflank the same way a Kroot Wall can, or Infiltrate up like they would as well.

It is a bit expensive for a sacrificial unit, but it has its values.

I think I'm going to try this out, it sounds like fun. May be a path back into using the speed of Mont'ka with the lure of the Kauyon.

Turbo: The Swarm

2010-09-04T20:06:00.004-04:00

The Vespid are among the most hated and most underused Tau units in the game.

Their range is terrible, they lack the ability to JSJ like other airborne terrors in the Tau Empire, their guns do surprisingly little damage, and they have little to no armor.

Why would anyone use our bug-like allies?

Honestly, outside of "THESE ARE SO AWESOME THEY MUST BE SPAMMED!!!!1!1!" I can't give any real reason to use them. They compete with Pathfinders and Piranhas, two of the most useful units in our codex for the purposes of force multiplication, while the Piranhas also double as effective melta carriers.

For those of you that actually want to use Vespids, the following tips and tactics are for you:

1. If you want to use Vespids, choose your army in such away that everything you have supports or draws fire away from the bugs. This can include maxing out on Vespid, as the easiest way to increasing their offensive output is to attack en masse.

2. Be willing to accept that against anything that isn't a Marine, you will probably will end up using them as expensive and fast speedbump units. You have to come to terms with the fact that Orks don't give a damn about your AP3.

3. Make sure you can hold down the enemy. If you can bring a lot of pinning weapons, do so. AFP commander, Sniper Drones, Carbines, etc. IF the enemy can't counterattack your Vespids, you have stopped their first big weakness from coming into play.

4. Use Devilfishes as mobile terrain. This can help seal off one unit in your opponent's army; with a combination of Vespids and other firepower can kill off the target squad whilst making it difficult for other dogs to target you.

There are two tactics that can be utilized with the Stingwings, but there is another brainchild of mine that I have yet to test which I will also be posting here:

1. First strategy is the swarm. It is rather simple, and uses multiple Vespid squads to achieve its goal. You bring in your first squad and fire on the enemy from cover, leaving the squad open to retribution. Meanwhile, move some other squads nearby. When they enemy moves in, you ambush them the next turn with a mass Vespid shoot-assault combination The high initiative of Vespid and their massed firepower can wipe a unit of Marines in most cases.

2. Second is the Bug Bomb, which is simple. Deepstrike them into a piece of cover occupied by a weakened enemy and finish them off.

Now here comes my brainchild, completely untested, and born from recent debate:

Seeing as how the Mont'ka rarely uses Pathfinders, the slot is open for Gun Drones and Vespids.

So I got to thinking... can Vespids or Gun Drones be used as if they were fully mobile Kroot Walls? It is something I HAVE to test out; the sad thing is that they lack the numbers to spread out as much, but a full squad of Vespid or Gun Drones have merit in walling capabilities.

Sadly, I lack means to try the Vespids right now, so I'm going to ask a favor; will a Mont'ka player try this out? I'm going to check out the viability of Gun Drone Squads for this.

Anyways, that's all I have for you for our Wasp-like friends.

Pic/vid tutorials?

2010-09-03T19:29:00.002-04:00

I mentioned this to Kroxitau, but I'm going to use this as an overall announcement.

If any of you would like a visual guide to a concept or a more in depth explanation, etc., shoot me a comment/message/etc. Preferably a comment.

I'll do my best to get a decent guide up.

My response to Nocker Geek's Mont'ka article: Redux: Concluding Arguments?

2010-09-02T15:55:00.007-04:00

NockerGeek has recently revised his article on Mont'ka vs Kauyon, adding new arguments and moving away from the less effective ones. However, he is still off on some areas, and so this is, again, a counter-counter-point. He has stated it is his last post, so I will just toss this down and it will likely end roundabouts there, unless he pops back in or someone else wants to take up the mantle.

Instead of going paragraph to paragraph I'm going to go issue to issue:

Tethered to cover/Making our own cover:

This is a misconception; The Kroot do not need cover, as anyone shooting at them is simply wasting their bullets, and the survivability of the Kroot is not the purpose of their positioning. The first line is vulnerable to first turn, turn 1, alpha-strike, but it will be in cover turn 2 or bottom of 1, because of what I will describe below.

The second line is behind the first, meaning automatic cover. These two walls give cover to everything behind them; this is the very definition of making our own cover.

At the beginning of the Kauyou player's first turn, if shooting is expected, the Piranhas move out, blocking clear LOS to the first line of Kroot. They are now in cover. The Piranhas can gain cover via either flatout or disruption. Everything has a cover save. Crisis Suits, both lines of Kroot, Pathfinders, Broadsides. Suits can jump out. Broadsides are hitting tanks or MCs, meaning the shooting through a unit rule does not apply.

So the Kauyon MAXIMIZES cover; a large amount for you, and no self-inflicted cover on the enemy; meaning they have to tether themselves or take indirect routes... and even then Pathies can strip it away.

Mont'ka can give cover to everything via D.Pods and running away... but if they get anything within 12" you're in trouble, specifically because that thing is likely a meltagun.

Note also that the Mont'ka requires retreat from melta-carriers to stay alive; and since melta is so prevalent, that is a lot of retreating to do.

Fire Bad:

Flamers are incredibly overrated, and that says something because most of the internet hates them already. To do significant damage to my likely strung out line, you'd have to be right up next to the Kroot and spray sideways... a task that would have had you within rapidfire of my Crisis Suits the turn before turn, even with Jump Packs (unless you DS'd in rightnext my Kroot and whole army, but I encourage that idiocy against me). Then you have to deal with me shooting after, so:

1) You somehow moved a unit through rapidfire of two Fireknife units boosted with Markerlights.

2) You spend your last surviving turn flaming kroot.

3) You get rapidfired AGAIN.

Seeing as how that unit must have been rather expensive to effectively live to GET to me, or at least have been paying for a Deepstrike ability... you are at a loss even if you do flame my Kroot.

Then I throw in the tidbit of information that even with optimal positioning, strung out Kroot will only grant you 3-4 flamer hits (you need 5 to cause morale on 17-man squads)... yeah, that doesn't work.

And I KNOW someone would mention other weaponry in the squad, but honestly... how does it survive to get there? And why would anyone take a flamer oriented squad anyways? To get beatdown by mech?

Assault Worse/Assault not as bad

As to your talk about assaulters vs Kroot lines:

1) A decent general will shift the Kroot line to center near a suspected attack... or even give them no other option than to do so by surrounding them! The Kroot WANT to absorb that assault, leaving them in the open for our guns. Speaking of which...

2) We don't anchor to cover, not normally at least. If we do, your consolidate won't be enough to reach it if you are hitting the edge of the line, no way in hell.

As to Mont'ka being "not so bad" in CC... I admit that the tanks can be hardy due o the hit on 6s rule. The problem is that the squad assaulting you is now in position to perpetually assault, and thus perpetually melta, your vehicle. Also, if that melta (I assume it's there because it always is) immobilized you, your tank is now made of wafer and balloons.

Furthermore, your tanks are not as expendable as my Kroot... they contain juicy Fire Warriors, whom you praise later for their ability to score, and fun Gun Drone kill points.

My Kroot give you scorers I planned to lose, and a fistful of plasma and missiles.

Around, Over, or Through

Don't forget under! Sneaky Tyranids.

But yeah, this is really not a problem.

Jumpers: They can't jump over the wall because against jump infantry I'll puff out all my units to take up maximum space, and thus there will be no area they can legally jump into... meaning landing front of my line and assaulting Kroot like everyone else. Also, these guys can't hop in transports, meaning that I can be hitting them since turn 1.

Outflanking: Won't do crap. I'm either in the middle of the board so they have to walk through like everyone else, or I'm in the corner with a vehicle blockage plugging the wall, meaning that when they come in the fight... Kroot. Like everyone else.

Infiltrators: These guys. Here's the thing... I have Kroot. They can't get within 18" of said Kroot. The Kroot are often INFILTRATED farther forward, or at least placed far up. meaning they are basically not doing anything special.

Deep Strikers: See what I did in Jump Infantry? That. But with added fun of scattering amidst me and blowing up. Against a DS heavy army, I'll castle up in the corner or put my walls fully around myself. Against a random DS unit in there? It can't assault first turn unless you took Vanguards (good luck making your 300 point power armor unit work, bro! Got an Honour Guard?) they can't assault me that turn, meaning I just smash them. No big deal.

By the by... how does Mont'ka deal with this? My Mont'ka always had problems with those tricky Wolf Scouts with melta. Have you ever faced a Chaos Termie squad with combi-meltas deepstriking in? What about Multimelta/Meltagun Oblits? What about Logan with Relentless, splitfiring, Multi-melta LongFangs popping out of a drop pod? What about melta in drop pods in general? What about Scouting Veterans with melta hitting you first turn? Same with Deffkoptas?

Mont'ka has problems with these. Kauyon can laugh them all off with Kroot Walls.

Fire Lanes Required/Making our own Fire Lanes

So your problem with the Kauyon is that we have to make a killzone? All joking aside:

1) My entire army can shift 6" in any direction, with the Broadsides lagging around slightly. My Crisis Suits and Broadsides are just as mobile as Mont'ka Crisis Suits and Broadsides. The only units that can "outspeed" me and "make their own fire lanes" are Mont'ka's dual or triple Hammerheads... I have one as well.

2) If LOS either way is really bad, then I don't need too many Kroot for cover, do I? Meaning I can keep one back for a later assault blocking role and move one farther forward as a lure into my sights.

3) Bad LOS will even screw the Kauyon... more so, in fact, because the denser the terrain, the more LOS is blocked, the easier it is to get into effective melta range.

4) When they hit my line of Kroot, I will see them. While this not the best scenario, and bad LOS screws with Tau, I can still reliably draw them to me, assuming they aren't Guard. Mont'ka can as well, but every sacrifice is more costly.

Support Dependency/Support-Independent

Quite frankly, this is the worst argument throughout.

First off, let's look at the fallacy that Kauyon uses less guns...

A) The Kauyon has access to the cheaper, stationary units for both Railguns and Markerlights. This is true... point for point, our 'lights and Railguns are cheaper.

B) The Crisis Suits for Mont'ka nd the Crisis Suits for Kauyon are priced equally.

C) The Kauyon often spend less on Troops than the Mont'ka does. Luckily for us, NockerGeek, we see the perfect example of that in our two lists; you run two minimum Fire Warriors in cheap Devilfish (310 total). I run the minimum 6 Fire Warriors in reserve, and two 17man Kroot units (284 total).

D) Based on C, we know that the Kauyon has slightly more points to spend on Troops, and one more scoring unit than the Mont'ka in this case; though Mont'ka could add another, it would simply accentuate the difference in cost of troops.

E) Based on A and B, we know that the Kauyon player can afford more bullets than the Mont'ka player, point for point.

F) Based on D and E, one can thus conclude that Kauyon lists can easily hold more firepower, if they'd like.

Our two lists show an anomaly in this, however; your proposed 1750 (mused about here: http://www.nockergeek.net/2010/05/20/somethings-got-to-give/) would have more suits than me. Why is that?

The reason is because I purchased Devilfishes with the Pathfinders. This is not a detriment; one is necessary, but the other one is just useful; blocking, acting as a backup, tank-shocking to contest, etc.

If I had dropped a single Pathfinder squad and its Devilfish, I could afford a THIRD Fireknife squad, factoring in the difference between our troops as well. I could afford another Hammerhead or a Broadside squad. I could even grab a damned Skyray For now, I like the extra 'fish and redundant 'lights. But note that the Kauyon is NOT outgunned.

This is not to mention the comparative survivability of our units, specifically the slow moving Broadsides and Pathfinders the Mont'ka is so keen to leave in the dust.

As to the other assertion:

1) Pathfinders will be on the same line of fire as the units they are supporting (namely Broadsides), meaning that the lanes of fire only hurt them as much as it hurts every other Tau army in existence.

2) Pathfinders do not widen the wall, the will be very close by to the Crisis Suits and Broadsides, or will take the place (or sit directly behind) Piranhas had occupied, etc. Piranhas actually help the wall; late game, if the wall is breached, they become the next skirmishers to keep my guns alive.

3) A canny opponent should never ignore 12 Pathfinders. I'd love to spend the first through turns marking him up as he whittles through my Gun Drones with a 4+ cover save.

An Objective Too Far/Capture and Control

The idea that Kauyon is a static, unmoving mountain of firepower is a farce. The Kauyon can attack the enemy with incredibly heavy firepower, and then use the Mont'ka method of reserving Troops to the same effect; only with more enemies dead.

The Kauyon can be surprisingly mobile for its playstyle; often 1 or 2 squadrons of Piranhas, not to mention anywhere from 1-4 vehicles, the Kauyon can be a very mobile force when it wants to; and can act like a Mont'ka in terms of objective taking, making up for a lack of one or two vehicles with its ability to reduce the enemy resistance more than the Mont'ka.

Furthermore, the Kauyon has more troop choices base, despite the Kroot being used foremost to keep their guns alive. Kroot also make better late game contesters/converters (turning an enemy held objective to your own) than Devilfish, as most Troops hold anti-tank and the assault ability to kill Fire Warriors. A Devilfish's worth in such a time really comes from its tankshocking abilities and size, but not much else.

Kroot however, can assault the unit, and are not affected by meltagun fear nearly as much. A whittled down unit of Marines can still kill Fire Warriors and hold melta. A whittled down unit of Marines may not survive the remainder of your Kroot crashing into them.

In conclusion:

The Kauyon is effective, and requires a lot of planning and understanding to use to its full effect. On a personal note, I'm actually enjoying it more; the games becoming more about target priority and subtle defensive shifts than my old Mont'ka games, which I did not expect. Not having a Achilles' Heel in melta really relieves a lot of stress and makes me play more aggressively.

The Mont'ka is a fun way to play, but I feel it folds in circumstances in which your opponent has melta and knows how to cut off your movement advantage with it, which happens too often. When your opponents figure this out, your games become a inferior Kauyon; your tanks trapped in a corner and your units pummeled without enough firepower to stem the threats. Without this fear, the Kauyon can strike offensively, even move upfield.

My suggestion: Try the Kauyon and the Mont'ka, and find that which fits you best; just make sure you find a way to deal with melta en masse if you choose the latter.

Turbo: Piranha strike forces

2010-09-01T14:24:00.004-04:00

I've already posted stuff on Piranha units, but for the sake of having it all in one place I'm making a rehash. From my old post, "Speeding Up":

"Piranhas are useful in a wierd way to the Tau army as they don't bring a lot of firepower, and because of this their mobility seems rather useless; I can bring one Fusion Blaster and Targetting Array there for 70 points? And they seem rather fragile compared to most other vehicles. Weakest possible armor on the side and rear and overpriced compared to Landspeeders, as well as poorly armed in comparison.
So why use Piranhas? Because they make excellent roadblocks. Piranha roadblocks can be used in two ways; the Swordfish and the School of Piranhas.

The Swordfish tactic is simple; A piranha with a Fusion Blaster and Targetting Array rushes the enemy and parks directly in front of the enemy's vanguard vehicle, moving flat-out. The enemy can attempt to destroy it in his shooting phase, but the movement prior will be slowed by him circumventing your vehicle. If your vehicle lives, then you can hop to the enemy's rear armour and fire your meltagun, or plop down in front again.

The School of Piranhas uses two or more Piranhas (two are a cheap annoyance; three or more are a tank murdering unit that should be feared). Each Piranha is armed with a Fusion Blaster (you could use Burst Cannons, but I feel they are a waste of the Piranha), Targetting Array, Flechettes, and some should have Target Locks. The strategy begins the same as the Swordfish; rush a tank, block path, melta and then annoy. But this becomes much more effective; the space taken up by two Piranhas is enough to waste entire turns of movement, and three or more can easily block mulitple units. In addition, the Target Locks will allow you to attempt melta on multiple vehicles; an extremely useful ability. Finally, the Flechettes will allow you to block off infantry paths; putting them between you and an offending unit will force them to move around. Assaulting them will not help your opponent either, as the Flechettes will tear light infantry apart, while hurting even the heavier ones (two Flechettes in a squadron while statistically wound every model in the assaulting unit! That means only 5 Boyz from a full 30 man mob will live, or you can shred about three Marines from a full Tacsquad if they attempt to grenade your Piranhas to death). In addition, when moved at cruising or flatout speeds, the enemy needs 6s to even hit the vehicle, which is easily failed.

If you are having trouble stemming an enemy rush, try using Piranhas in your list; from popping mech to Flechetting hordes, these models can annoy or kill any would be threat that holds vehicular form."

Rathstar

2010-08-30T23:30:00.002-04:00

Just want to give a shout out for Rathstar's new article.

He analyzed the strengths and weaknesses of both sides clearly, and neglected to side, leaving an unbiased and generally true article.

http://rathstarramblings.blogspot.com/2010/08/kauyon-vs-montka-key-difference.html

Using Shadowsun

2010-08-30T10:25:00.005-04:00

Shadowsun is constantly given flak for her ability. Armed with no mid to long ranged weaponry, but using a Stealth Field, she seems to be even more of a contradiction that Stealth Suits.

Her ability to Deepstrike and still make her assault jump, as well as her twin fusion, makes many view her in a suicide role... though that role can be filled far more easily by a Sunforge or 3, and cheaper as well. Not to mention that Shadowsun sacrificing herself to kill an enemy vehicle is far-fetched (though I've seen fluff assumptions that at her last "wound" she switches on cloaking and vanishes, which makes it seem more like a hit and run).

Shadowsun costs as much as two Commanders, and almost as much as a full Fireknife team. These numbers make her output seem even more unrealistic and worthless. Why would anyone purchase such an overpriced model?

The reason I'm considering her for my lists is not because of her own ability, but the fact that she brings a unique model with her onto the table; the command drone. The command drone is, hands down, THE most effective piece of wargear in the codex. This wargear negates the key weakness all Tau armies have; leadership problems.

Not only does Shadowsun bring the Command Drone into play, she also serves to protect it. Her other two drones are both shield drones, giving important invulnerable saves, whilst thanks to the Stealth Field Generator, she is practically immune to ranged combat.

Though often claimed rather useless, Shadowsun herself does bring some heavy hitting guns to the punch; her two BS5 Fusion Blaster allow her to tear into most tanks. This is incredibly useful for those ridiculous transports that live through 6+ Railgun shots and almost hit your line.

I'm thinking on using Shadowsun over my two Fireforge Commanders; the missiles will be missed, but I think four missiles is a decent price to pay to have my entire firing force at 10 Leadership. Now I just need a stand-in model... may actually be using my winged Commander for this.

The Kauyon; past the walls

2010-08-29T20:28:00.004-04:00

A lot of stress has been put into the Kroot Wall aspect of the Kauyon; if it is best, how it works in most lists, its survivability, etc. I thought it would be worthwhile to look beyond the wall for a bit, and highlight how key units to the Tau army fight in context of it, and how they fare outside. I will be looking at two units specifically; Broadsides and Pathfinders.

-Broadsides: Outside of Kauyon, Broadsides make a big show of themselves; the often deploy centrally, drawing attention to themselves whilst maintaining a cover save. They attempt to abuse the enemy's fear of Railguns; making them target the 'Sides before anything else, leaving you time to maneuver away.

The downside of this is that the Broadsides are likely to be eaten alive unless thoroughly defended; in Mont'ka lists, small Broadside firebases are left in the dust, meaning the silencing of your railguns immediately.

In the Kauyon, however, they remain. Broadsides are often placed very far behind protective lines, leaving them among the last of your units to fall, only sacrificed to save Crisis Suits and your Fire Warriors. This means that opposed to a near maximum of three turns shooting, Broadsides can last 5 or 6, easily. This effectively doubles your anti-tank; something you can't see when just glancing at your list's weapons.

-Pathfinders: Regardless of the style, Pathfinders will receive the same treatment; newer players will ignore their non-damaging guns, only to be wiped by your buffed suits, while veterans will target them early and hit them with enough shots to send them packing... which is not a great many.

Pathfinders are constantly in danger in a good game. In the Mont'ka, the player must choose between setting them up in cover and camping until death, or continually redeploying them via transport to avoid enemy assaults. They either suffer the same problem as Broadsides, or they lose turns of firepower to stay around. Either way, they get in around 3 turns of shooting in MAX if they are under pressure.

In the Kauyon, they suffer the same problem; they are relatively easy to shoot out of the game. But the Kauyon offers a slightly better alternative to sticking them in area terrain or ferrying them; putting them behind a Kroot Wall. This may seem trivial, but it adds two major changes to the playing style of the pathies:

1) The Pathies get a choice of the best possible lane of fire. This is due to the fact that the Kroot wall can stretch to give them cover regardless of where they are. Instead of anchoring into terrain, they benefit from freedom and cover.

2) Assault protection. The Pathfinders no longer have to relocate to avoid assault; the Kroot have that covered. Without having to relocate, they avoid assault completely, allowing a focus on shooting; critical, as during the first few turns they have a large amount to support.

Why did I choose these two units specifically? Again the answer is two-fold:

1) They are the best of their role: They are the cheapest renditions of their incredibly useful and limited weapons. While others exist, they are inferior for that specific role; Hammerheads are inaccurate and expensive, while Stealth Marker Teams and Skyrays cost far too much for the 'lights they bring.

2) They work better in the Kauyon. These units both suffer from one drawback in comparison to their more expensive and less effective counterparts; they lack mobility. In the Mont'ka, this regulates them to an Alpha-strike followed by their inevitable demise. In the Kauyon, a solid system of blockading, trapping, and cover synergy leave them strong and firing.

750 Castle

2010-08-26T16:52:00.004-04:00

Sat down and fleshed out a 750 list as well.

The list is rather similar to how I play 1850; it is a true castle, albeit with only one layer of Kroot, no Markerlight support, and only one Piranha to blackade... but it is still very workable. The Fire Warriors are 10 men strong to help lend some fire support.

Fire Warriors: 10x Shas’la w/ Rifles -100

Devilfish w/ D. Pods -85

Crisis Commander: Shas’el Deathforge (TL-MP, FB) w/ HWMT -85

Crisis Suits: 2x Shas’ui Fireknives (PR, MP, MT) -124

Kroot: 13x Mercs-91

Piranha w/ FB, TA -70

Broadsides: 2x Shas’ui w/ Adv.S.S. -160

500 point castle

2010-08-26T16:19:00.005-04:00

The net is buzzing with Fritz's new challenges. 500 and 750 lists, an attempt to bring back the old-school armies where there was far less on the table.

I am not fully ready for 750 yet, but I have tossed together a 500 list; the thought process involved tossing together 3 lists that embodied certain styles, and picking the best.

I have settle on a semi-static list with a small line of Kroot, 4 Crisis Suits, and a mobile scoring unit. Meltaguns are held in back; I'll have trouble against guntanks that sit in back, but I can bear the shots or deespstrike.

60pts: 6 Fire Warriors w/ Rifles

85pts: Devilfish w/ D. Pods

91pts: 13x Kroot

88pts: Shas’el Deathforge (TL-MP, FB) w/ HWBSF, HWMT

124pts: 2 Fireknives (PR, MP, MT)

55pts Deathforge (TL-MP, FB)

My response to Nocker Geek's Mont'ka article:

2010-08-25T21:35:00.005-04:00

Recently, OSH (Old Shatter Hands) tossed down an article about some of the problems with Mont'ka, here:

http://tauofwar.blogspot.com/2010/08/kauyon-patient-hunter-gets-prey.html

There was a response defending the Mont'ka and denouncing the Kauyon, posted on Nocker Geek's blog here:

http://www.nockergeek.net/2010/08/25/montka-we-will-strike-the-killing-blow/

In an attempt to continue this marry-go-round of decent articles, I will be responding to the above article, giving my counter-arguments for the Kauyon.

And so we go:

The first problem with the argument is that Nocker Geek makes light of a cover save, claiming that most armor reducing weapons will be at point blank, or barrage. This is hardly the case. Missiles and Lascannons are still around, and can insta-kill a Crisis Suit. The cover save also makes Gun Drones a better buy, gaining a cover save to make up for the lack of invulnerable save.

Further in the paragraph, Nocker Geek notes you are giving cover to Marines if you shoot through the Kroot Wall; but fails to note that JSJ allows you to clear your skirmish line to deny cover.

This seems to be odd to me, as he later advocates using JSJ in the Mont'ka as a means of breaking LOS; but I'll get to that soon.

His second point, that Kroot are not hardy, is very true. But again, he ignores certain facts that are common knowledge to most Kauyon players; unit composition and the positive aspect of Kroot's low leadership.

He cites the fact that Kroot will likely be sweeped; this is untrue, as an intelligent Kauyon player will have taken a large amount of hounds, meaning you will be hitting first to soften the damage and then making your assumed fallback at initiative 5 once you take off your actual mercs. This means your Kroot's low leadership is actually a boon; the most likely scenario is you absorb a charge, deal some damage, and fall back, leaving an enemy force completely in the open and available to be shot to pieces. Then you have a good chance of your wall regrouping and coming back into the fray. This makes a very useful, though not hardy, walling element; an assault absorber that leaves the attacker in front of a mass of guns and may have a chance to be recycled.

The face-to-face paragraph has a decent point, but I honestly don't see 12" a turn as fast enough to gain side armor shots on experienced players. Even so, the ability to make multiple firebases makes up for this downside, even though I wouldn't recommend that.

The argument becomes silly when trying to point out a static force's weakness to Deep-strike and outflankers; we have Kroot to fully surround our forces against deepstrike heavy armies, while our vehicles can make rough outflanker blockades, which honestly are not needed if we have the middle of the board.

A Mont'ka force should fear such units far more; they provide new and exciting ways for their opponent to box them in with meltaguns.

The next argument brings up breaking line of sight. Honestly, this is the most backwards looking argument in the whole article to me, as it seems to be saying "camp you Crisis Suits behind a wall", which is obviously a much bigger tactic with Kauyon than with Mont'ka; as Mont'ka's supposed claim to fame is its ability to move... an ability not sufficiently abused when chained to one area.

The paragraph on avoiding conflict is also odd to me; he implies that the Kauyon doesn't plan on killing the enemy, which is absolutely false. In fact, the Kauyon can do so better than the Mont'ka, as static lists tend to have far more emphasis on Crisis Suits and Broadsides... thus having a bit more firepower overall. While it is true that a mobile force gets the assistance of Burst Cannon and SMS, the static force gets masses of Kroot Bolters and a mediocre but crushing assault.

Mont'ka forces tend to pay far more for their Troops, Kauyon Walls included, meaning that they tend to have less points for firepower... making the argument that the Mont'ka is a better"killy" army a rather hollow one.

The argument that position can amplify firepower is true... but doesn't apply the way Nocker Geek would assume.

Rarely does side armor make a difference in games... only with Guard and other Tau is there a significant advantage to reaching side armor, as Rhinos, Wave Serpents, Land Raiders, light skimmers, all infantry, all MCs, and many other common threats don't care were you are, while backfield guntanks are nearly impossible to get side armor on anyways.

Meanwhile, as the Mont'ka wheels around to match the opponent's pivots, the Kauyon attackers fire for multiple turns practically uncontested... their safe location amplifying their attacks by giving them multiple turns of optimum capacity firepower.

The next paragraph applies to Kauyon as well; shoot at the actual guns who enjoy cover and support, or shoot at the support units.

I have tried using vehicles as blockades, and it fails miserably for one reason; meltaguns. Melta is a key part of any respectable assault squad, and having vehicles as your main blockading force is destined to fail, as you must contract your position in fear of melta weaponry.

Furthermore, Kauyon builds CAN play mobile... the Kroot outflank and they fight a modified Mont'ka with a higher Crisis:Tank ratio. It just isn't its most effective way of playing.

I don't believe that the Kauyon is the only way to play... the Mont'ka offers the use of the Tau's mobility and it's firepower, the two traits it is supposed to be renowned for. The problem is, by looking into the supposed advantages of the Tau, you may miss the more technical ones... the ones the Tau can base a firm army on.

Kroot Wall list

2010-08-17T18:53:00.007-04:00

The crude vehicles rumbled loudly down the beaten roads of the lost Imperial Sector, the sun rising in the distance to light the shadowy city. The smell of Ork fuel was easily distinguishable, not that it was a necessary marker with the sight of several greenskins protruding out of the topless compartments. The column came to brief stop upon sighting the scouts, but that brief moment was superseded almost immediately by war cries and the revving of engines. The Orks had found a target and would like nothing less than to engage it and tear it to shreds.

The Burnas were the first to reach their target, igniting flames that had proven effective at pushing back the avian forces they had faced earlier in the campaign. Massive swathes of burning fuel cut into the improvised cover of the creatures, killing a handful of the scouting party. Instead of a fleeing party, however, the Burnas were met with furious growls as wolf-like creatures pounced out of the mangled building and tore into them. The Burnas fell back under the onslaught, only to be caught and torn to shreds. The vehicles and their cargo were undeterred by the canines, thundering forward nonetheless.

The next instant can only be described as an explosion. A tremor shook the road, and the dust and soot of battles past obscured the road, shielding the scouts from view. Before the pollutants could fully clear, a bright bolt of energy struck outwards. It connected with the foremost Ork vehicle, reducing it to a smoldering wreck in the path of the Ork advance.

The origin of the blast appeared in the smoke. A hulking walker appeared, much like common weapon platforms of the Ork’s enemies, with a few striking differences. Great wings protruded from the suit, and a large spout of green energy spewed violently from its right fist. The walker was crowned in a helmet-like array of odd technology, including odd smoking areas to the sides of its sensor suite.

The Walker’s voice boomed loudly through its speaker suite, assuming a simplistic but effective Ork tongue, “Enemies of the Empire! This planet is the property of the Tau Empire. There is a cost for your trespass and belligerence, and you shall play it in blood!”

The road was lit by a plethora of lights, followed swiftly and lethally by a burst of plasma and a plethora of missiles. There would be no victory for the Orks that day.

In the post before this, I talked about competitive lists VS fun lists. I thought it would be worthwhile to post my preliminary idea of what such a list would look like, how it would work, etc. This may be the path I take with this army, for better or for worse.

So first, the list:

Fireforge Crisis Commander- Shas'el w/ TL-MP, FB, HWTL -85

ELITE

Fireknife Crisis Team- Shas'ui TL w/ PR, MP, MT, HWDC; 2x Shas'ui w/ PR, MP, MT; 2x Gun Drones -211

TROOP

Fire Warriors- 6x Shas'la -60

Kroot-10x Mercs; 7x Hounds -112

FAST

Piranha Squadron- Piranha w/ FB, TA, FD, DP; Piranha w/ FB, TA, FD -165

Pathfinders-6x Shas'la; Devilfish w/ SMS, DP -177

HEAVY

Broadsides- Shas'ui TL /AdvSS, HWDC, HWTL; 2x Shas'ui w/AdvSS; 2x Sh. Drones -280

Hammerhead w/ Railgun, SMS, MT, DP -175

1850

The list has a lot of synergy in it, and I'll be describing it by layer to help illustrate this.

The outmost layer will be a wall of Kroot, joined by one of my Fireforge Commanders. The attached IC will make them harder to run off, which will be helpful as they won't have too much staying power bar lucky terrain and tricks (see below). The Commander adds a little melta and a tankshock deterrent (I will actually put him directly in front of/assault a tank so they must TS him or go around... which is an auto melta-hit).

The second layer is completely identical except for the fact that their cover is nearly assured by the forward unit. Same deal with melta and such. This unit can function as counter-charge if it needs to, but will mostly stay in place.

Layer three are the Suits, who will be jumping in and out of my castle, ensuring cover for themselves whilst avoiding the enemy gaining the same favor. Their role is rather simple; shooting. Broadsides will sit pretty center stage and blast transports to pieces.

Piranhas will start a little behind the suits, and move out early on to block enemy movements and provide cover for my Kroot; it is unwise to underestimate the durability of AV11+cover; and I can see them absorbing a large amount of shots. If neither role is necessary, they will sit back for contesting duties. Flechettes allow them to be a pain to both hordes and vehicles in their quests to disrupt movement.

Seeing as how Markerlights only need to see a sliver of their target and there is no cover from the Valkyrie's Mark, they will sit farther back, and light targets of priority. They will stay still as long as possible, being my last unit to move into a blocking position, bar the suits. Fire Warriors who refuse to stay in reserve will sit with them as well.

Finally come the vehicles; they sit back and provide minimal fire support, but have two important goals. First and foremost, they will act as outflank blockers, covering my sides from enemy attacks if I am forced into a corner deployment. Secondly, they will act as mobile bunkers and objective takers. In KP games, heavily wounded units can shelter in them, and in objective games, they will pickup any maimed Kroot units or my reserved Fire Warrior squad and ferry them to an objective.

Against mass barrage IG or the such, this entire idea kind of goes in the toilet. I have to play loose in such a case; Kroot Outflanking, Suits moving with a escort Devilfish for cover, Pathies in cover, Broadsides making a big lure of themselves while hitting everything they can, Commanders DSing... not as static of a plan in that case, but I'll do what I can.

That's my take on it at least. I am rather new to the idea of kroot wall armies, so if I missed something big or you have a suggestion, please toss it into the comments.

Kauyon or Mont'ka?

2010-08-16T11:15:00.006-04:00

I've been reaching a bit of an impasse here with my army lately.

Recently I have been testing out the effectiveness of Kroot in a walling formation, to help buy some extra turns for my Broadsides and such. Preliminary tests have come up well; Kroot Walls are very effective at buying me time and blunting an enemy's offense.

I have also been using a buffed up Markerlight Network; again with great success. Having double the amount of Markerlights makes my shooting ludicrously powerful for a very small amount of points.

I have put together a list with very few mech elements, dual Kroot Screens, Markerlights everywhere, and a mass congregation of suits that will easily win most of my battles... but I hesitate to use it. Why?

Rule #1.

Playing against an army that can wholesale rip you to shreds without giving you a counter is no fun for anyone. I don't WANT to field this list because I feel it would take the fun out of my games. However, I feel like the choice is between that and losing.

It isn't as if I'm facing themed armies I can afford to handicap myself against; the most themed list I play against involves 12 ATs and Lysander hitting me hard and fast. Thew others range from a heavily mechanized Marine List with no shortage of mid-ranged firepower and, the worst, a dual Prince, 9-Oblit, melta termie deathstrike that excels in ripping apart the sub-competitive lists that make Tau fun while still giving a good game.

So how do I deal with this? I'm honestly thinking of going out to buy some Kroot to make a second line, and leave my 5+ vehicles at home...

Turbo: Using Pathfinders effectively

2010-08-05T15:49:00.006-04:00

This will be my first section on Fast Attack, and it is rather unfitting that the first section is on the rather slow Pathfinders.

Pathfinders give very little to the team in terms of pure firepower; they are more expensive Fire Warriors armed with Carbines, and forced to bring along a Devilfish.

On the other hand, they make great support units; bringing the game's cheapest markerlights to the fray, and their devilfish carries a nice device that allows a reroll to deepstrikes within it's line of sight.

Using Pathfinders is a matter of preference, relying mostly on your army build. Some players go out of the way to relocate them when they are endangered, while some use them as sacrifices so that their guns stay shooting.

Personally, I use them as a bait unit; the stay away from my main force, marking from a distance. If my opponent knows very little about Tau, he might leave them be; which would be great for me, as I'd keep my force multipliers. If my opponent goes for them, he takes pressure off my main guns.

Normally I make a small firebase of Pathfinders and Broadsides to draw attention. These can't normally be killed off until around turn 3-4, and by then they've done their jobs; demeching, bringing pain, then distracting the enemy so my mobile units can move on objectives.

How do you use your Pathfinders? Do you keep them alive as long as possible, or do you use them as late game pawns?

Gaming tomorrow?

2010-08-04T12:15:00.003-04:00

With summer seeping away and college starting up around the corner, I've missed a few opportunities for games, and thus reports for you all.

Luckily, turns out I might be getting in a day of gaming at the LGS, meaning you can watch me get eaten by Daemon Princes.

The Unveiling: My Standard 1850 list

2010-07-23T16:47:00.001-04:00

Its about time I got my standard 1850 list up. Here we go, and all comments and crit are welcome, though I'm rather set on my choices:

Shas’el w/ PR, MP, Flamer, HWTL, HWMT -96

Very simple, a cheap, functioning Commander. He will often join the Pathfinders for the leadership buff, and late game he will either join a Crisis Team, the 'Sides, or sacrifice himself.

ELITE

Shas’ui Team Leader w/ PR, MP, MT, HWDC [2x Gun Drones]; 2x Shas’ui w/ PR, MP, MT -211

These form the bulk of my firing output; they give me a very healthy amount of anti-infantry firepower that can double as anti-transport. I have chosen Gun Drones over Shield Drones, as they are incredibly likely to get a cover save the way I am using them.

TROOPS

6x Shas’la w/ Rifles; Devilfish w/ FD, DP -155

6x Shas’la -60

Simple, scoring. The third squad is reserved and gets the spare devilfish, or hides. The Devilfish themselves form my skimmer wall; a mobile defense of skimmers moving at 12" a turn. They will almost always have cover, and they are difficult to kill in CC (6s to hit). Melta is a weakness to this, but it brings them incredibly close to Crisis Suits, and with everything in the army out to wreck mobility, it may be hard.

The drones help in movement blocking, stopping infantry, tickling rear armor, etc. In KP, they hide.

FAST ATTACK

Piranha w/ FB, TA, FD, DP; Piranha w/ FB, TA, FD -165

Piranhas are among (are?) the best movement blockers in the game. These are used to both block off the enemy's forward moving units, and to hit enemy vehicles with melta sting. The major purpose of this unit is deathstar removal, either by popping their ride or by simply harrying them to the point of keeping them off me.

6x Shas’la w/ Carbines, Markerlights; Devilfish w/ FD, DP -167

I'm not sure I have to explain marker support. They form a small firebase with the Broadsides and any accompanying drone walls, as the rest of my army moves out. I have no qualms with using them as a lure to seal off a dangerous unit.

HEAVY SUPPORT

Broadside Team Leader w/ TA, HWTL, HWDC [2x Shield Drones]; 2x Broadside Shas’ui w/ TA -280

Massive amounts of demeching power.I don't understand the allure of Adv.S.S.; my Broadsides arely need to move, save for in Kroot Wall builds in which the whole force inches along. The TA maximizes my firepower, allowing spare lights to be utilized for cover removal, not BS increase. Forms the small drone castle with Pathfinders.

Hammerhead w/ Railgun, SMS, MT, DP -175

Simple backup; these are more expendable than Devilfish, and form the flanks of the wall, due to their stronger side armor. Submunitions and Rails make great support fire.

Army Update

2010-07-21T22:23:00.001-04:00

Alright, I'm not showing the Pathfinders or Fire Warriors here ( I have 18 of the latter, 6 of the former), but I will be tossing in the suits and vehicles.

So we go.

First off is the Broadside teams; Their little gimmicks are two-fold. The first is that their railguns are of all different sizes (Ranging from a scratch built little shoulder cannon to the Hammerhead variety. The second is that the hands that are on the rail side are painted Bleached Bone, which is my current squad marking color for battlesuits.

Piranhas. I did far less with gold with these because I liked the idea that their small frames and calmer colors made them easy to pass over when looking at the rest of my army. This is of course exactly what I want, as they will be causing havoc from turn 1, and they need every single piece of protection I can afford them.
Hammerhead Gunships. The Tau symbols came out nicely, and the gold really makes them stand out proudly on the field.
Far less threatening looking than the Hammerheads, yet far less expendable. I need these for my troops, as you all know.They are modelled with SMS systems, but the weaponry isn't picked out and is flush to the underside, making it easy to simply count the systems as drones, as I am doing in this army.
My first Fireknife Team for my list; their squad markings are on their weapon systems, as well as the fact that the leg markings are the mirror opposite of the other squad.

The secondary team. The heads and shoulders of the models bear the squad markings.

Alright, that's all I have for now. I don't plan on doing more painting and modelling anytime soon, so I'll be moving back towards tactica for a while. I may get a batrep for you all, but that is still up in the air.

1850 Assembled, painted.

2010-07-21T01:48:00.001-04:00

RAARGHHHHHHH!

Its 1:37 AM, and I have finished assembling and painting my whole 1850 force. It is an amazing feat; I have been using proxies for drones, suits without weapons, etc..

I'll post the list eventually; I've been working on my ideas for a more mobile castle, lessening my reliance on kroot for the role and switching to vehicular blockers.

Good night (morning) all.

My personal view on the GW Spray Gun

2010-07-17T13:38:00.000-04:00

Don't buy it.

Mine was off an on, temperamental and ate through its air can way too quickly for my tastes. I've switched to a high-end airbrush after a lot of thought, and with the old air compressor I had laying around I managed to get a nice even flow of paint going; I would definitely suggest shelling out the money instead of going with the GW brand.

@GW:

I'm sorry for ranking on your product, but it honestly wasn't your best work. Stick with what you know; models and paint.

Drones? An important question

2010-07-12T17:11:00.000-04:00

Gun Drones on vehicles. Are they a blessing or a curse?

On one hand, they make great roadblocks, contesters, and general annoyances, built-in to the cost of the Devilfish.

On the dreaded downside, however, they are ruled to give up KP in most events. This can absolutely screw a Tau players chances in any mission that involves, KP, essentially giving up an additional killpoint for the deaths of our transports.

So the question is becomes: is it worth the points to get rid of them? 2/3rds of the time, they can slow enemies attacking a small firebase, block assault lanes, give cover... but on the third, they can lose you the game easily.

To buy SMS for a Devilfish, you have to pay 20 points. While it gives you a bit of firepower, the amount isn't really equal to what you can be getting from an actual fighting element, such as a Crisis Suit. You lose your road-blocking techniques, but gain safety in Annihilation.

As for me, I've been on the fence for this for a while. After some deliberation, I've found that my army needs the extra points in real firepower. Drones are back on my Devilfish to both save points and to run interference for my Broadsides and Pathfinders, buying them some extra shooting turns, hopefully.

Other Tau players; do you have Drones on your 'Fish? No Drones? No 'Fish?

Simple Green

2010-07-09T12:30:00.000-04:00

Just an unpaid plug for a cleaning item:

Simple Green cleaner can be used to strip paint off of models; drop them in a vat of the stuff, leave them there for a day, and scrub the paint with an old toothbrush. It won't get it all off, but it will remove enough that you will gain all your detail back; which is very helpful for painting on a new coat.

The reason for this? I'm putting a new paintjob on my vehicles. Trying out the GW Spray gun. Wish me luck.

New Layout! Again...

2010-06-22T13:19:00.001-04:00

So despite the older layout being a lot cooler looking; grim, dark, etc., it was becoming less and less manageable; so I've switched back to this style for the time being. It's brighter, more streamlined, and better organized, at least I think.

Thoughts on the change? Want the older blog layout back?

Aloh'Nan'El goes Airborne

2010-06-20T21:09:00.000-04:00

My first big conversion is finished! As my skimmer tactics are becoming more and more complex; walling, trapping, mobile cover, touch-shocking, etc., I decided that to keep up with a mobile Cadre my Commander needed some better gear.

So some pics of the new conversion, fresh from the shop!

The head here is the standard head, but the antennas have been replaced with the business end of a Fusion Blaster. The "hat" piece is a Shield generator, and the space in between is green stuff, painted black. Up close you can see a bit of the mess I made with the Green stuff on the backpack; no amount of sanding could smooth that down too well.
A look at the "Fusion Sword", made from the back of a Fusion Blaster and a flying stem, and painted with various shades of gold and white, and its simple yet effective accompanying Plasma Rifle. You can also see the magnetic base here; a simple magnetix toy glued to a base and attached to a magnet mounted on the suit. Note the golden tipped Seeker Missiles, acting as the thrust for the wings.

A quick view of the wings; the green stuff is a bit off here as well, but it luckily doesn't mess with the magnificent wingspan.

The bottom angle gives a better look at the missile pod, as well as giving a good look at the bulked up shins; it makes sense that a suit flying at high speeds would need more effective shocks.

Holding Ground! Troops, Part 2 (The Noble Fire Warrior)

2010-06-15T09:16:00.002-04:00

Fire Warriors are one of the most conflicted units in the game, and as such are rarely fielded en masse anymore.

Fire Warriors hold the best basic gun in the game, both in terms of range and strength. On the other hand, their Weapon Skill, Initiative, and Attack stats leave them in the dust for melee; their weakness to close combat is in fact the source of the meme that Tau suck at close combat.

Many players simply take this in stride, falling back on the seemingly above par shooting skills of the Tau. This is, in itself a folly, however. While Fire Warriors do excel in tearing apart light infantry targets at range, their shooting can't really match up to the posterboy of 40k; the Space Marine. If Space Marines and Fire Warriors fought at 24", simply plonking shots at each other, the Marines would cause more hits, equal wounds per hits, and cause more deaths per wound. I'm well aware that I am comparing to a more costly unit, but to be honest, this is assuming a fight on the Tau's turf; shooting. The Marines could cut down the Tau with ease if they moved in; not that they'd have to.

Fire Warriors aren't the toughest thing in the game, with MEDI-class (Medium Infantry Equivalent) toughness and armor, but they aren't the weakest, they can survive against a good amount of basic rounds, and can outlast enemies such as guardsmen and orks, but these forces tend to outnumber them almost two-to-one, and can outmaneuver/mob your Warriors if they ever reach close combat.

When Fire Warriors gain Markerlight support, they gain a fearsome new set of teeth. Being able to strip cover away from light infantry and boost accuracy makes long range warfare a deadly nuisance for opposing forces, and a bloodbath when the Fire Warriors close to rapidfire range. However, there are downsides to this. The use of Markerlights for Fire Warriors is generally a waste unless the Fire Warriors are facing their favorite form of enemy; light infantry. The cost of Pathfinders or a similar Markerlight source is also a factor, as is their survival.

What do Fire Warriors bring to the table that make them more favourable than Kroot? To me, it's rather simple; they can bring a Tank.

The Devilfish is expensive, and has a slight deficiency due to starting with an extra killpoint attached, but they can become a very powerful asset for your army; from the SMS, a rather rare cover-ignoring weapon for the Tau, to the chassis itself blocking off lines of fire and assaults to your Crisis Suits. The durability of AV12 combined with a near constant cover save makes this vehicle one of the more difficult targets to kill; meaning that tossing a small squad inside and using the vehicle as a scoring unit is an effective tactic. Using the vehicle in this way gives it a great role; early game it blocks paths, drops SMS fire, keeps your shooters alive. Late game, it moves in to score, able to deploy a relatively healthy Fire Warrior squad out for a rapidfire if the enemy gets within range.

Flechettes on the Devilfish cement their role as a wall and allow them to dissuade light hordes from trying to reach your Fire Warriors inside; and also protect the Fire Warriors from the enemies using your Devilfish as extra movement without a large penalty. And if you are moving at cruising speed, you are incredibly durable against all but some of the best equipped vehicle shredders.

Basically, I see Fire Warriors not as a unit in and of themselves, but almost as symbiotically connected to their vehicle; they give it extra firepower and the ability to score, and it gives them protection and speed. As a quick example, the Fire Warrior unit I've been using most lately is:

6x Shas'la w/ Rifles; Devilfish w/ SMS, Multitracker, Targeting Array, Flechette Discharger, Disruption Pods -190

I run three of these and a small squad of Kroot in 1850. They are more than capable of keeping my suits alive, withstanding enemy firepower, and shredding light infantry. Their cover-denying capability and good Ballistic Skill allows more to forego a lot of need for Markerlights. They can Tank-shock onto heavily protected objectives, and they can simply drift onto any objectives that are not. They are a valuable asset in my army.

Any of the readers use a different build? Any static players? Anyone who throws six Fire Warriors in a Pathfinder fish and grabs Kroot instead?

Spearhead Formations are out!

2010-05-28T22:00:00.000-04:00

The new expansion, Spearhead, is out, and in its infant stages:
http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/content/article.jsp?aId=9800021a

I immediately see three of the spearheads as useful to the Tau. In order of least usefulness to greatest, I'll give the explanation of why they are useful (in my eyes) and an example 500 point Spearhead:
-Skyfall Spearhead: Though there are problems with Deep Strike, the Skyfall allow the Tau to get into a good position mid-game, and they can slow infantry and wreck tanks. Railheads, would be ideal, as the blast would gain pinning and the Railgun would be near unstoppable. The Ion Cannon becomes more attractive due to the side armor rules. Smart Missile Systems would really come into their own here as well; Move 12" (Multitracker standard) fire the Rails at vehicles and the SMS at infantry entrenched in cover (no target lock needed). Possibly blow up three tanks and pin three squads on the deepstriking turn with the triple Hammerhead Spearhead.
Example Spearhead:
Skyfall Rule -45
Hammerhead w/ Railgun, SMS, Multitracker, D. Pod -175
Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon, SMS, Multitracker, D. Pod -140
Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon, SMS, Multitracker, D.Pod -140
500
This Spearhead relies on the multiple Pinning shots of cover-ignoring SMS and the Side armor rule to maintain a fast-moving, long-ranged war machine, capable of blasting away anything that relies on its front armor value.
- Seek and Destroy Spearhead: Would allow for a massed Piranha Squadron/ Gun Drone rush on a flank, with a melta threat of 30" once per game. That is an amazing threat, especially en masse.
Example Spearhead:
Seek and Destroy Rule -50
Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Flechette Dischargers; Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array -150
Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Flechette Dischargers; Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array -150
Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array, Flechette Dischargers; Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array -150
With the six Skimmers and twelve Drones provided here, you can harrass the enemy to hell and back. The strategy I'm thinking of is simple; the Piranhas rush forward as a long line, flat out and empty their Fusion Blasters into six seperate tanks. Mass panic from the enemy. Mass kills for you. Noticing the threat, the enemy will likely dedicate massive amounts of firepower to killing these squadrons; when the suprisingly durable vehicles remain, they will move at cruising speed and do so again, and again, all while dropping Drones to annoy and blocking the now dismounted and disarrayed enemy's movement. During this time, the rest of your army tears them to shreds.
Against hordes or footsloggers, the addition of Flechettes and the durability of the Piranhas gives you the luxury of simply corralling the enemy into a nice circle of Piranhas as you shoot them to hell. It is literally shooting fish in a barrel, in 40k form.
-Ambush Spearhead: THE best option for Tau. Three Hammerheads, all infiltrating to create an independent firebase of Ion Cannons or Railguns, deploying last (or at least after most) to gain side/rear armor shots. Not to mention that our vehicles get Stealth. This is huge. When equipped with Disruption Pods, our tanks get a 3+ cover save. This is amazing. Our vehicles have STORM SHIELDS. The tank goes from annoying to hard as nails. Diamond nails.
Example Spearhead:
Ambush rule -75
Hammerhead w/ Railgun, 2x Burst Cannons, Multitracker, Disruption Pod -165
Hammerhead w/ Railgun, 2x Burst Cannons Multitrackers, Disruption Pod -165
Hammerhead w/ Ion Cannon, 2x Burst Cannons, Multitracker, Disruption Pod -130
A cheaper version of the skyfall, as the SMS lacks the pinning sting, this unit can infiltrate in, with zero risk (unlike skyfall; thought of 500 points gone in a mishap = *shudder*), get side/rear armor, and proceed to pound the opponent.
There are three things that (in my opinion) make this Spearhead better for Tau in terms of the effect on the battlefield (even assuming that the deepstrike is successful). First is the 3+ cover. That makes this Spearhead impossibly durable to enemy shooting. The second is that the threat is there from turn one, as opposed to waiting for reserves. The third is that it has a psychological effect. If the enemy sees the Skyfall, they will continue on as is, expose rear-armour, than react after the turn they can come in; they can't stop the side armour shots, but you can't benefit from rear armour until the turn after. By then they react. With the Infiltration, the enemy has to deal with the threat of a flanked, near-invincible firebase, and that will have an effect on him. Does he dedicate units to it? Does he attempt to ignore it to hit your main army? Is he stuck in a side/rear armor crossfire between your real firebase and your Spearhead? You give the enemy the opportunity to make mistakes, to split forces, and you can capitalize on it.

What do you guys see as the potential of Spearhead formations? Any experience with them yet?

Combat Patrol Video

2010-05-26T20:44:00.000-04:00

As promised, a quick explanation of the Stealth Recon list in the last post, explaining the use of Piranhas in combination with Stealth Suits.

Running a Combat Patrol

2010-05-25T17:12:00.000-04:00

So due to fan questioning and the general 40k blogosphere, I'm jumping on the Combat Patrol bandwagon.

What is CP?
Combat Patrol is an odd little game that is simple to play and an easy way to get started. It is small enough to get a general grasp on the rules of the games, and see the synergy between units on a smaller level; synergies that larger armies can be built on.

Combat Patrol can, however, be brutal. The small points level rewards the leanest of players, who can fit every fist and bullet into their list they can. Those small level synergies can be deadly combinations, with no way to force through them; take, for example, Fritz's Harlequin list: http://saimhann.blogspot.com/2010/05/clown-patrol-harlequin-combat-patrol.html#/

The list has a very low model count that you won't expect from Foot Eldar (Footdar), but has a few nasty surprises; it is practically unshootable due to durability (2+ saves in CP via cover!) and the Shadowseer (unshootable over 24", annoying night-fighting-like tests). It snipes something early and then books it away and hides, and can handle itself in assault (Harlequins are very good).

In this competitive form of CP, every move counts; there is no room to blunder, as a single mistake, a single model's death, can change the game. It is a very exciting game, and it is over shortly enough for a rematch or three.

What does a CP list need?

First off, CP is about Victory Point denial. There are two ways to do this; unit-pinching and, on the opposite spectrum, unit-spam. Unit-pinching puts massive amounts of points into units that are made very hard to kill; see Fritz's list. Unit spam means putting very small amounts of points into units so that when they give up points, the amount is very small. An example of this would be a list with 5 8-man Fire Warrior squads.

A CP list, first and foremost, needs a single Troop choice. For us Tau players, this choice is a bit limited; we are stuck, as always, with a choice between Kroot and Fire Warriors. My opinion on this is simple; the Fire Warriors are more durable, and give us more deployment options (i.e. not cover-tied) than the Kroot, meaning that they can take up better firing positions; furthermore, their 30"range means that on the 4'x4' tables that CP is played on, they;ll always have a target. They prefer backfield sniping in CP, while Kroot are used up-close; meaning that unless your opponent has brought as much ranged firepower as, well, the Tau, he will be far more likely to pick up Kroot points than Fire Warrior points. So I give my personal edge to the Fire Warriors. (I should also note that it is undecided whether a unit of Fire Warriors are 1+ in CP. I'd say no, as the Commander cannot be taken. Otherwise, I assume normal FOC limits for CP, as it makes the game easier to get through. Yet another reason for Fire Warriors ;D).

My second maxim for Combat Patrol is to have some anti-tank, while my third is to have vehicles. The reasons? First off, while most vehicles aren't allowed in CP, some are. You need a solid way to deal with them when your opponent starts spamming chimeras or something else stupid. Second off, while Pulse Fire can down AV10 when you hose it at them, a meltagun can't hurt for emergencies. The inverse applies to my statement; most players lack effective vehicle killing weapons, rationalizing that they are unnecessary in a game with only light armor. For this role, and one that will be explained below, the Piranha (with Fusion Blaster and Targeting Array) makes it into my list.

Now it is clear we need a firepower element. Right now my list has very few actual guns, and thats bad for any army, but specifically Tau. Many will take the knee-jerk response and jump right to Crisis Suits, and for good reason; Crisis Suits are the workhorse of Tau. A Fireknife can put out more high strength shots than most, can do it from a long range, and likely pick up cover.

There are downsides to the Crisis Suit, however. One wound and it gives up half its Victory Points, and even at its extreme range it is in danger; Instant Death! can remove it outright. So it is our best shooter but, is a glass cannon. Note that this is a problem in CP, as they can get away with being rather fragile in objective games, but here, it matters.

Instead I prefer the Crisis Suit's overshadowed brethren; the Stealth Suits. The Stealth Suits work up-close, which is problematic, but with the use of Piranhas as a mobile terrain piece, they can draw assaulters away yet stay safe against enemy returns. They are nearly immune to long range shooting due to the Stealth Field. Also, Infiltration allows them to hit turn 1. So Stealth Suits are my go to CP unit, despite my general dislike of them in the normal game.

My final CP list ends up looking like this:

8x Shas'la (Rifles) -80

3x Stealth Shas'ui -90

Piranha w/ Fusion Blaster, Targeting Array -70

-400

The overall synergy of this list is a bit hard to explain without a representation of the models of some sort, so I have a video for you all! Next post is the general strategy of the army, with, of course, the visual examples.

New Layout

2010-05-17T10:02:00.000-04:00

So after tossing around some layouts I found around, I settled for this.

Personally, the dark feel of it lends more towards 40k than the Purple that I used to have to represent my Cadre. This blog layout can be found at Blogger Templates, a link to which is at the bottom of my blog. For anyone starting up a blog or looking for a change, I'd HIGHLY recommend taking a look.

What do you think? If everyone prefers the simple purple I'd be happy to change back.

Holding Ground! Troops, Part 1 (Kroot, the Creeping Menace)

2010-05-15T11:49:00.001-04:00

Kroot are an odd unit for Tau. Statwise, they seem to be geared for assault, but point for point they are better at shooting than Tau. Unlike the rest of our technologically advanced army, they are unarmored, and use simple weapons. In fluff, they form the role of scouts and shock troops, doing everything from tearing apart advanced Marines, and Eldar to holding off swarms of Hormaguants.

But how to use them in game?

The problem with Kroot is that they are absolutely bad statwise, not making up their points in either shooting or combat against anything else in the game. Kroot can hold their own against guard and smaller squads of Nids, but they fail to hurt anything that is really dedicated to combat, and they are a flamer or blast away from extinction.

Kroot also do not work well in a combatant role in small numbers. A squad of 10 will get knocked out of the game too fast for you to even realize you wasted 70 points. A full horde of 20 Kroot can give some punch, but the combat resolution rules still don't favor our unarmored, uninspired brethren to take out combat specialists. The size increase does help against shooting, however, increasing the amount your opponent has to down before you have to take a moral test; an annoyance for the opponent if you hide them in cover.

Kroot have two buddies that can be brought along with them for the purpose of boosting their abilities in one way or another. The first buddy is the Krootox, sporting the Rapidfire equivalent of a Missile Pod. I would suggest never taking Krootox in your whole life ever as it takes away your Kroot's ability to Infiltrate, drastically reducing their effectiveness (see below). The Krootox is made to increase the effectiveness of "sit and shoot" Kroot. I have never such a monstrosity work, and do not plan to.

The second buddy for Kroot is Kroot Hounds (puppies!). Kroot Puppies cost a point less than the common Kroot, put out equal attacks, with equal Strength, Toughness, Weapon Skill, etc. but with I5! The downside? Kroot Puppies have no guns, as puppies with guns would be to awesome even for 40k to contain. The Puppies also do not benefit from fieldcraft, as they break cover to chase grenades.

Kroot Puppies are very effective for Kroot, as they bring in two boosts via their I5:

1. Sick of your Kroot getting killed before attacking? Take wounds on the Kroot Puppies, who have probably already attacked, to keep your units that have yet to swing alive. This is useful if you want your Kroot to actually have a chance to kill the enemy on the charge.

2. Are your Kroot forming a wall of expendability against a charging foe they cannot hope to defeat? Save the Puppies! If, at the end of combat, you have more Puppies than Kroot, you flee (or sweep) at I5 as opposed to I3. This can keep your Kroot from being run down, allowing them to get away without dying miserably.

Shapers are another upgrade Kroot can grab at. Costing as much as 4 Kroot, a Shaper benefits from getting a free T-Shirt saying "I Love Angkor Prok", which gives him a 6+ save, and has brought a box of spares that he is happy to sell to any Kroot for 1 point. He is slightly less challenged than normal Kroot, bearing a leadership of 8. He has figured out the contraptions of Tau weaponry, allowing him to use a Pulse weapon for free, though that takes away from his total amount of attacks in CC, making it a poor option. Sadly, he does not hold his points weight in neither shooting or CC compared to 4 of his kind and thus is used by Tau players very rarely.

How does one use Kroot to get good effect out of their weak, armor-less hides? The true advantages to Kroot are four-fold, and come from outside their statline.

1. Kroot are Troops. This means Kroot can score objectives, a modern marvel as it was once thought they would simply eat them. A tactic known as pillboxing has evolved from this, and it is the simplest form of objective scoring you will ever see. Place an objective in cover, preferably woods, and sit a massive blob of Kroot on it, who continually go to ground when fired upon. It will annoy anyone who has not brought effective cover-ignoring weapons to know end, as they bring hundreds of fifties of pounds of ordnance down on a difficult to extricate horde. This leaves your opponent's with an irksome choice; dedicate firepower to the 100 or so points of Kroot hiding away, or hit your actual firepower.

2. Kroot hordes take up space. This can be used to make a very annoying wall, circle, etc. that can screw with your opponent's ability to maneuver. In DoW games, you can place your Kroot far forward if you get first deployment, limiting the area your opponent can deploy into. You can form large blocks around vehicles to dissuade deepstriking melta from landing too close. You can circle up around your Broadsides to protect them from quick assaults. They can provide a wall of cover to your Crisis Suits, allowing them to jump behind it after firing freely.

3. Kroot make great outflankers. A 20 or so man squad (with Puppies!) can threaten the flanks very well, tarring up units in assault or killing weakened enemies. If no targets are available, they can come in on a cornered objective and score. Your success with this strategy will vary, but back in the day when I used outflanking Kroot as part of Ninja Tau and Ethereal Tau (I know; ew) they ranked up: 2 Rhinos (1 full of TacMarines that couldn't disembark), a Daemon Prince with 3 wounds, 2 Basilisks, and some Scouts. It can be rather effective.

4. Kroot can INFILTRATE. This is a big deal. You can set up to push back enemy Infiltrators, or stop a first turn rush, or any such nonsense. You can get yourself into shooting range or threaten infantry targets. It is a very reactive ability that can help to remove alpha-strike threats from a less tactical opponent. That being said, I prefer to use Stealth Suits for this role, as their guns have more of a punch, but Kroot are cheap and effective at this.

Tau players, how do you use Kroot? Do you see them as useful or useless?

One last thing; Kroot can win you the game automatically against an all-reserved all-bike/infantry army :D

http://img198.imageshack.us/i/photo053gnr.jpg

Leading the Charge! (Crisis Commanders and their Bodyguards)

2010-05-03T14:25:00.002-04:00

Crisis Command Teams are a highly debated subject. The roles of the two Shas'vre bodyguards could easily be filled by Shas'ui purchased in the Elite slot, sporting the same number of wounds, same ballistic skill, and same mobility as the more costly Shas'ui. So why do many Tau generals insist on the use of bodyguards?
Bodyguards bring to the table three advantages that shas'ui do not. Sadly, the first two of these advantages are so miniscule that they are not deciding factors in the slightest:
1. They take up an HQ slot. This means that if you enjoy taking masses of Crisis or Stealth Suits, you may need a spot to fit more Crisis firepower. This only comes into play with larger point games, and rarely with any army builds but Crisis-spam.
2. They are better at combat. Bodyguards not only have an easier time hitting in combat, but they don't allow the Commander to be singled out (or vice-versa) by things that could easily kill it.
3. They have access to Wargear and Special Issue Weapons. This is the big one. This allows a plethora of options not otherwise seen. Want a team made to crush infantry? Plasma, CIB, AFB, Missiles, all in one squad. Do you want to have three weapon systems on each suit? Go ahead, you can hardwire multitrackers. Want Fireknives with backup flamers? Do it up.
The big thing here though; with the ability to hardwire multitrackers, you can finally give your whole team access to Targetting Arrays, which is key in lists that run few to zero markerlights.

A word to the wise, however. Bodyguards are expensive. You should only use a bodyguard team if you have reason to. Taking bodyguards only is worth the cost when:
a) you are out of Elite slots
b) you have a Special Issue team planned
or
c) you lack Markerlights
If you do not meet these criteria, stick to the shas'ui.

Leading the Charge! (Crisis Commanders and the Positional Relay)

2010-04-15T19:06:00.002-04:00

The Crisis Commander is a rather broad subject. He can be run in a variety of ways, forming a lynchpin or a spearhead for your army. With access to all of the equipment a Crisis Suit can don he can fill almost any role given to him.

Today I'll be focusing on Commanders with the Positional Relay; a game changing device that can manipulate your reserves and thus give you unprecedented control of the battlefield. Flip open your codices and take a look at the Positional Relay and its abilities. It allows you to call in a single unit on a 2+ from reserves, denying all other reserved units from coming in that turn. This helps you in two ways:

1. You will (almost always) get the right man for the job at the right time. Whether it be a unit of outflanking kroot, a piranha squadron to wall off the opposition or bust a tank, railguns (either of the Hammerhead or AdvSS Broadside variety) marching in on the other flank to hit side armor, or deepstriking suits, you are almost assured that the unit will arrive right when needed.

2. On the exact opposite end of the spectrum, the Positional Relay can keep your reserves off the table. This is useful for players who use minimal troop choices; your valuable scoring units are kept off the board until late game when they sit on an objective. You can also keep your entire army off the board (save the Positinal Relay user) to lower the sting of drop pop or daemonic assault armies; half the army drops on a cheap unit in a corner, allowing you to outmaneuver him when your reserves come on elsewhere. This tactic is called Ninja Tau, and while useful sometimes, is prone to random fluctuations based on the insanity of reserves, and a good opponent's ability to pick you of piecemeal as you send in bait units turn by turn.

An example of a Positional Relay army would have powerful Heavy support options on a flank with a Crisis Team with Positional Relay. They would draw opponent's units across the diagonal towards a faux firebase, as they take heavy fire. Second and third tur reserves would slow or bother the units trying to reach your firebase, forcing the commitment of more resources. Your reserved Troops and a support unit or two come on the side they abandoned, landing on softened or deserted objectives late game, in a similar way to Fritz's (PLEASE look him up if you haven't ever heard of him) Eldar Jetbike Contesting/Capturing.

The great part about this is that if your opponent sits on the side of the board with the objectives and ignores your firebase, he is looking at massive Rail, Missile, and ranged Plasma fire hitting him as he hunkers down, which does not bode well; Tau are second only to the Imperial Guard at removing entrenched units from a range.

Those are the basics of Positional Relay tricks. Next up is the Commander's Bodyguard; a look at if they should be taken, and how to equip them.

The Few, The Proud... The Elites PT4 (Crisis Teams: The Ta'ro'cha)

2010-04-05T14:55:00.001-04:00

The Ta'ro'cha is loosely translated from Tau language as "three minds, one purpose" from the Tau language. One would be wise to keep this in mind when setting up their unit; the Team will do well if their purpose (and weapons) are one.

Ta'ro'cha teams are the greatest amount of special/heavy firepower that can be achieved in a single unit for our army. They are similar to Duo teams in that taking long range builds is an effective use of points, and very far from Monats in the sense that a suicide drop with them will be costly (though still acceptable with the dirt-cheap Heatwaves).

The biggest change is their notoriety; experienced enemies will know to target unprotected Ta'ro'cha teams early on, as each death will cause a massive loss of firepower. Thus the major change over duos is not how you use the team offensively; but how you keep it alive.

Drone support. I am a firm believer in Drone Support. For a very small amount, you can add more wounds to your unit, and in the case of Shield Drones, a useful invulnerable save. Marker Drones are an expensive way to do this (with a few added boons), but I'd recommend against it in most cases, as it makes your unit a bigger target. Unless of course you want to make the unit a target, in which case go ahead.

Wound allocation. I spoke of this in the section on Duos, but a Ta'ro'cha team needs the allocation far more; while Duos gain an extra wound of preserved firepower, the Ta'ro'cha gains two (not counting ablative Drones). The way to gain difference in the models varies, however, and may mess with coherent firepower. For example, take a Deathrain squad as follows:

Shas'ui Team Leader w/ TL-MP, Flamer; Shas'ui w/ TL-MP, Flamer; Shas'ui w/ TL-Flamer, MP -142

This squad is fully different, meaning that it can take full use of wound allocation rules to its advantage. The is little firepower compromise either; one suit has lost its twin-linking on its main gun, but has gained a twin-linked flamer for its secondary role of burning away infantry. If I wanted to solidify the unit's role as Missile dakka, I could have given said Shas'ui his Twin-linked Missile and a Black Sun Filter, thus keeping the unit "different". If Drones wish to be added to the unit, than I simply give the Team Leader a Hard-wired Drone Controller.

This effect is more difficult to achieve with suits that use multitrackers, however. Take the standard unit of Firestorm Suits, for example:

Shas'ui Team Leader w/ BC, MP, MT; Shas'ui w/ BC, MP, MT; Shas'ui w/ BC, MP, MT -155

The general idea of using Burst Cannons and Missile Pods in unison cannot be kept here. We will either have to change a weapon (see example 1) or Twin-link a weapon and drop the other entirely (example 2):

1. ...; Shas'ui w/ PR, MP, MT (Adding in a Fireknife as opposed to a Firestorm allows you to keep full wound allocation but loses a Burst Cannon.)

2. ...; Shas'ui w/ TL-MP, BSF (Using this suit moves the purpose of the unit to be more Missile Centric. Giving the Shas'ui a TL-BC would do the opposite.)

Cover Saves. Even with Drones, Crisis Suits can take heavy casualties from low AP weapons (which good players will almost always direct at your suits). There are two effective ways I have seen for generating cover saves besides the simple JSJ tactics. I cannot take credit for either however.

The first tactic is the use of Piranhas moving fast or Kroot walls to get cover saves. To use te latter, place 50% of your Kroot in area terrain and form a line with the other half. Jump your suits over this line to shoot and then back again. Enemies returning fire are shooting through a unit, thus granting you saves. Shooting the Kroot allows you to take saves with them (or go to ground), but the Kroot are expendable in this tactic generally. With the former, you move the Piranhas fast near the suits (the Piranhas get saves) and then using the Piranhas as mobile terrain and moving behind them. This tactic is based heavily on Fritz's tactics using Guardian Jetbikes and Vypers to generate coversaves. For those of you who no little of Fritz and hisvarious 40k blogs, I suggest visiting his youtube page as a start. Sifting through the older tactics videos will give you a look at his unorthodox but effective playstyles. Check out: http://www.youtube.com/user/WayOfSaimHann

The second tactic is also someone else's. It is called Circling the Wagon, and is the brainchild of one of the only two other active Tau blogs of found on the net. You use a Devilfish or other battletank as a moving chunk of cover. For mutual support, Crisis Suits with flamers are a good reason for assaulters to stay clear of your vehicles. You can check out Tau of War's youtube page here: http://www.youtube.com/user/tauofwar

Next up on my list of posts will be looking into Crisis Commander tricks and the Positional Relay.

The Few, The Proud... The Elites PT3 (Crisis Teams: Duos)

2010-03-27T17:48:00.002-04:00

Duos are odd little Crisis Teams. They can bring enough firepower to make good use of Markerlights while still remaining cheap and expendable (and thus still a good candidate for deepstrike). In addition, the use of Target Locks can make a cheap squad do damage far beyond their cost.
Duos are used in an almost identical way to Monats; cheap units are dropped to where your opponent wants them least, burning or smashing things in their wake. Alternatively, you are reaching the level of firepower where suits that hang back and use Markerlights and Missiles effectively enough to actually do something at range.

Because of the similarity, I will not be posting effective builds here, as they are the same as for Monats, mostly. I will be however, remarking on three things; Wound allocation, Target locks, and Drone support.

Wound allocation comes into play when Crisis Teams become larger. The essence of wound allocation can be found in the BRB (Big Red Book AKA the core rulebook), but it is worth summarizing how it works here.
If a unit has multiple multi-wound models that are identical, then any wounds that are placed on the unit are saved normally, and unsaved wounds are allocated on models so that none can be placed on others until the first wounded model is removed.
Wordy? Not done yet.
If these models differentiate in any way, then the the wounds are allocated before saves are made. In addition, you can place wounds on whoever you want, meaning that a Crisis Suit with one wound remaining can be spared the worst of the fire, or can be sacrificed to an Instant Death! attack to save the models with more than one wound left.
This is useful for Crisis Suits, as you can make it so that you can take more wounds than normal before losing a model (and thus firepower).
To do this, the Suits must be different in some way. This could be as simple as making one a Team Leader or giving the two suits slightly different equipment. Target locks are effective for this, as they give an effectiveness boost and also add diversity in the unit.

The second thing to learn is why and how to use Target Locks in Duo Team. Consider the firepower and threat of two identical Sunforge Battlesuits in a unit. They can drop down and pop a single tank, and then will likely suffer enough return fire to kill them. They may flame infantry if no tanks present themselves.
A unit of Sunforges with one model replacing their flamer witha Target Lock costs one point more, and has the potential to kill two vehicles, if the opportunity presents itself. In addition, it has wound allocation.

The final thing worth noting is Drone Support. Buying Drones for something this cheap and expendable doesn't sit right with me, personally. I normally reserve Drone Support for large squads, as an investment of that size needs protection.

That's all for now. I'll have three man teams up as soon as I can.

The Few, The Proud... The Elites PT2 (Crisis Teams: Monats)

2010-03-17T21:01:00.001-04:00

The Crisis Teams are the iconic weapon-bearers of the Tau Army, sporting many forms of special weapons. They are also the cement of your army, filling in any cracks in your offensive power and solidifying an offensive core.
Crisis Teams are a complex subject, involving many layers of strategy and tactics, and to ease the strain of writing on myself and sifting/reading for you all, I'm splitting this into multiple posts. And so we go.

Monat refers to a Crisis Suit that is alone, fighting without squadmates or drone support, normally bearing the weight of a suicide mission. Monats are rather simple; they are cheap units that carry effective special weapons and it doesn't mean much if they die; they shouldn't cost more than 70 points apiece anyways.
Effective Monat Builds include:
Heatwave (TL-Flamer, BSF) -34
Cheapest possible suit of all time; Deepstrike it in and roast someone. It will die to rapidfire or assault. End of discussion.
Toasterboy (TL-Flamer, MP) -43
A slightly upgraded version of the Heatwave, sporting a Missile Pod thatwill allow it to move upfield to its target, or as a secondary if Deepstrike goes askew and lands away from the original target.
Sunforge AKA "Suicide Suit" (TL-FB, Flamer) -47
This is the standard suicide suit, dropping from the sky hoping to get close to anything, flaming infantry and melting tanks, only to die in a torrent of fire and fists. Burn bright, not long.
Deathrain (TL-MP, Flamer) -47
A suit to jump around and annoy at range. Anti-light vehicle with a flair for setting infantry on fire.
Fireforge (MP, FB, MT) -54
My personal favorite Monat, filling in for quick, effective anti-vehicle for those who don't attempt to squeeze in expensive railguns at low point levels.
Helios AKA "Forgeknife" (PR, FB, MT) -62
Anti-heavy infantry, anti-tank. Deepstrikes to deliver melta and rapidfire plasma and annoy or distract opponents. A little on the expensive side.
Fireknife (PR, MP, MT) -62
Anti-light vehicle, a flair of anti-heavy infantry. Long ranged, and use of cover can make it worth its points.

This is it for now. I'll be back with two man team tactics soon.

The Few, The Proud... The Elites PT 1 (The Stealth Team)

2010-03-17T17:06:00.001-04:00

There are only two Elite choices in the Tau codex; The Crisis Team and the Stealth Team.

The Stealth Team is infinitely worse offensively and defensively than the Crisis team. If I were to take three Crisis Shas'ui with Twin-linked Burst Cannons and a Black Sun Filter (not that I would) it would run me 120 points. Compare this to 4 Stealth Shas'ui with Burst Cannons.

The Stealth Team hits 50% of its shots, meaning you will average 6 hits. The Crisis Team hits 75% of the time, meaning that while it has relatively few shots, its total hits will average 6.75.

On the defense, the Crisis Team has a higher toughness, increasing the survivability from all small arms significantly. The Crisis Team also has a larger amount of total wounds. The Stealth Team has a Stealth Field Generator, but at 18" away (the amount of distance that would be between a infantry unit and the Stealth team, including Stealths jumping back and infantry moving forward) the Stealth Field will fail to work 58% of the time; meaning that you will get gunned down rather quickly by what you tried to shoot up.

Where the Stealth Team excels, however, is its deployment options. With the ability to Deepstrike, Infiltrate, and Outflank, the Stealth Team, can get themselves exactly where your opponent doesn't want them. This makes their otherwise puny offensive abilities much better; they can hit isolated units, make attack runs at objective, or hit rear armor of a pesky vehicle; An AV12 or higher front armored vehicle with AV10 rear or side can be much better killed by outflanking Stealths with Burst Cannons, better than by an points-equivalent amount of Deathrains (TL-MP, random item).

Another optin while using the Stealth Team is to drop a great many points on them to turn them into a Stealth Marker Team. This requires Drone Controllers with Marker Drones, minimal team members, and maybe a Team Leader with a Markerlight. The idea is that while this unit is far more expensive than Pathfinders, their mobile Markerlights (due to the Relentless USR) and their Stealth Field coupled with the effective range of their lights and infiltration abilities makes them very difficult to kill, almost ensuring Markerlights all game long.

Stealth Teams deliver a punch of small-arms fire where you need them, or scout out targets for the main force. Try them in your lists.

Speeding Up

2010-03-14T21:44:00.000-04:00

The Battleforce also lacks a form of Fast Attack; meaning that you'll have to get some yourself if you want to use anything.

I've already toldyou how to convert spare Fire Warriors into Pathfinders, so that should be of little concern.

I do not recommend the use of Vespid, and Gun Drones (while severly underestimated) are not recommended either. The latter is usable, but their effectiveness is mostly as an annoyance unit, meaning that they are not that great to take until you've filled your other points with Scorers, Railguns, and Crisis Suits.

That leaves us the use of Piranhas.

Piranhas are useful in a wierd way to the Tau army as they don't bring a lot of firepower, and because of this their mobility seems rather useless; I can bring one Fusion Blaster and Targetting Array there for 70 points? And they seem rather fragile compared to most other vehicles. Weakest possible armor on the side and rear and overpriced compared to Landspeeders, as well as poorly armed in comparison.
So why use Piranhas? Because they make excellent roadblocks. Piranha roadblocks can be used in two ways; the Swordfish and the School of Piranhas.

The Swordfish tactic is simple; A piranha with a Fusion Blaster and Targetting Array rushes the enemy and parks directly in front of the enemy's vanguard vehicle, moving flat-out. The enemy can attempt to destroy it in his shooting phase, but the movement prior will be slowed by him circumventing your vehicle. If your vehicle lives, then you can hop to the enemy's rear armour and fire your meltagun, or plop down in front again.

The School of Piranhas uses two or more Piranhas (two are a cheap annoyance; three or more are a tank murdering unit that should be feared). Each Piranha is armed with a Fusion Blaster (you could use Burst Cannons, but I feel they are a waste of the Piranha), Targetting Array, Flechettes, and some should have Target Locks. The strategy begins the same as the Swordfish; rush a tank, block path, melta and then annoy. But this becomes much more effective; the space taken up by two Piranhas is enough to waste entire turns of movement, and three or more can easily block mulitple units. In addition, the Target Locks will allow you to attempt melta on multiple vehicles; an extremely useful ability. Finally, the Flechettes will allow you to block off infantry paths; putting them between you and an offending unit will force them to move around. Assaulting them will not help your opponent either, as the Flechettes will tear light infantry apart, while hurting even the heavier ones (two Flechettes in a squadron while statistically wound every model in the assaulting unit! That means only 5 Boyz from a full 30 man mob will live, or you can shred about three Marines from a full Tacsquad if they attempt to grenade your Piranhas to death). In addition, when moved at cruising or flatout speeds, the enemy needs 6s to even hit the vehicle, which is easily failed.

If you are having trouble stemming an enemy rush, try using Piranhas in your list; from popping mech to Flechetting hordes, these models can annoy or kill any would be threat.

Bringing in the Heavies

2010-03-14T09:01:00.000-04:00

One of the constants in the Battleforce lists are their reliance on Crisis Suits for anti-tank. This can be the route you take, but the Tau are unique in that they carry the best long-ranged anti-tank weapon in the game; the Railgun.

Fortunately for everyone else, Railguns can't be crammed into every corner of our lists; only our heavy support. So here will be talking of our two Railgun toting Heavies.

The Hammerhead makes a very effective use of the Railgun if equipped (minimally) with a Disruption Pod and a Multitracker. This allows it durability at a range and the ability to move 12" before firing the Railgun, which is useful for side armor hunting. It can be used to tank shock objectives later in the game. It also can fire an anti-infantry round.

Broadsides are slower, but put out much more firepower. They are slightly more accurate then a Hammerhead, and with the use of Shield Drones and cover they become more durable to shooting (if easy to wipe in assault). You can get two Railguns for the price of one mounted one, and the SMS deal quite a bit of damage as well; I actually find myself firing said weapons far more often in the later phases of the game.

Which should you get first? Buying a Hammerhead model is cheaper than buying two Broadsides, and keeps mobility in your army. Broadsides, however, clearly put out more anti-tank firepower... but is the damage output worth the speed sacrifice and the additional chassis? Its your choice overall; I run both in high-points.

2 Battleforces (1000pts)

2010-03-11T20:15:00.000-05:00

While a usable 500 point army can be made from a Battlebox, a decent 1000 point army can be made from two boxes.

First come the Troops; Again we start with the base of Fire Warriors riding in a durable Devilfish, but with the extras we can have two squads. As above, the choice to take Rifles or Carbines is yours, but again I recommend Rifles.

8x Shas'la (Rifles) -80 pts
8x Shas'la (Rifles) -80 pts
The trick in the prior list of taking the Devilfish that come with the Pathfinder squads is used her again... with a quick catch discussed later. Redundancy (use of the same unit multiple time) makes it more difficult for the enemy to blunt your offensive tankrush.

Next we have the Krootses (not actual plural). Kroot like hordes. They take less morale test that way, bring a lot of wieght in combat and can shoot a lot from cover. It is also VERY difficult to remove a Kroot horde from cover; one of the reasons Kroot hordes are sometimes championed above mechanized Fire Warriors. Their extra deployment techniques make them tricky, as they can start right next to your opponent or off on the side in a wood. The can sit 50% in terrain and 50% in a line across the field to grant cover to your other units. They die to anything that denies cover by the bucket. But they are nonetheless dangerous. Use them.

20x Kroot Mercenaries; 4x Kroot Hounds -164
How to get the Hounds? Model some of your Kroot in leaned over positions, don't give them guns (maybe cut the knife ends off and put that in their hands) and make them converted "Feral Kroot". Paint blood on their hands and maws. These conversions are simple and effective.

Pathfinders are key, and start becoming really useful at 1000 points or higher. Here we will field 8; the other 4 coming from the conversion method outlined in the post before.

4x Pathfinder Shas'la; Devilfish w/ SMS, TA, MT, DP -168
4x Pathfinder Shas'la; Devilfish w/ SMS, TA, MT, DP -168
You can combine these units if you want, giving the second 'fish instead to Fire Warriors. This method will save you one KP, but will make the squad a big target. This way you can light up an extra target, and will make killing all of your lights annoying.

Remember that measly Stealth Team with low amounts of firepower? With a full squad they can shred through soft targets, hurt heavier infantry, and even break through rear armor through use of extra deployment options or just great maneuvering.

1x Stealth Shas'ui Team Leader w/ Bonding Knife; 5x Shas'la
This is where you will first see the use of morale upgrades. A full Stealth Team benefits from a Bonding Knife, as if they fall back from their forward roles they can regroup and move back up, once again aggravating the opponent.

Now we go back to the Crisis Commander; again we lack Heavy Support (AKA no Railguns), so any Crisis Suits need to be of the anti-tank variety. So we use the same Commander as before.

1x Crisis Shas'el w/ TL-MP, FB, HWMT -85
Nothing needs to be said. Its all in the last post.

In 1000 points, one Suit with anti-vehicle guns isn't enough. Luckily for us we can afford a second.

1x Crisis Shas'ui Team Leader w/ TL-MP, FB, HWMT -65
A less accurate, less tough, but equally shooty suit. Use is the same as the Commander, only slightly more expendable.

So the final list looks like:

1x Crisis Shas'el w/ TL-MP, FB, HWMT -85
1x Crisis Shas'ui w/ TL-MP, FB, HWMT -65
1x Stealth Shas'ui TL w/ BK; 5x Stealth Shas'ui -190
8x Fire Warrior Shas'la (Rifles) -80
8x Fire Warrior Shas'la (Rifles) -80
20 Kroot Mercenaries; 4x Kroot Hounds -164
4x Pathfinder Shas'la; Devilfish w/ SMS, TA, MT, DP -168
4x Pathfinder Shas'la; Devilfish w/ SMS, TA, MT, DP -168
TOTAL= 1000 pts

Single Battleforce Army (500 points)

2010-03-10T19:21:00.000-05:00

The Battleforce contains (as stated previously) 1 Crisis Suit, 3 Stealth Suits, 1 Devilfish (2 Drones on 'fish), 12 Fire Warriors (comes with two drones), and 12 Kroot.

The first thing you need in a Tau army is to decide how you are going to run your Fire Warriors. In lower points they can afford to be on foot, but since this is likely your first army, it will be nice for you to try both mechanized and footslogging troops.
Model 8 of your Firewarriors with Pulse Rifles or Carbines (Rifles are widely seen as superior) and this will be your mandatory Fire Warrior Squad.

8x Shas'la (Rifles) -80 pts
This squad will move forward and attack an objective or some infantry in a Devilfish. In this point level, the Devilfish will be difficult to kill, and "Tankshocking" makes them great for attacking objectives.
Note: This squad will not buy the Devilfish for themselves, but they will ride in it. More on this below.

Next is for the second Troop choice. Since you cannot form a Firewarrior squad out of the remaining form (there's a point, trust me), you must look to your Kroot. These guys will give you experience with footslogging units.

11x Kroot Mercenaries -77 pts
Note: Kroot are odd. They will die if shot at almost always, but can make decent use of cover to make themselves more durable. They can also bring a hefty amount of attacks onto the enemy via close combat. For this list, your Kroot fulfill the role of a "pillbox" unit; they will sit in cover on an objective and shoot anything in their range. If shot at, they will "go to ground" (check the core rulebook) making them difficult to remove from an objective.

Pathfinders are our next choice. While these are normally not to be used below 500 points, it is important to learn the workings of Markerlights. "But we don't get Pathfinders!" some will proclaim. While it's conversion time.
Take the 4 extra Firewarriors, model them with Carbines and no shoulderpads (for a scouty feel). These will act as your Pathfinders. The Devilfish that you're forced to take with them will be given to the Firewarriors on the first turn.

4x Pathfinder Shas'la; Devilfish w/ Smart Missile System, Targetting Array, Multitracker, Disruption Pod -168
The Pathfinder squad is a good help to your everything but your Kroot, and they have some interesting effects (look 'em up in the codex).
The Devilfish has been upgraded a LOT. This is called a Warfish, holding considerable firepower, and being rather tough to crack. It can transport your Firewarriors into fire and back.

Next is the Elite choices; Stealth Suits come to mind, as the Commander will teach you about Crisis Suits.

3x Stealth Shas'ui -90
Stealth Suits are decent for delivering small arms firepower to unexpected places. Learn how to use their extra deployment options and you will do fine.

The final part is the Crisis Commander. First off, Shas'o are normally not worth the points. The extra point in BS is nice, but that can be accomplished by buying a Targetting Array for a Shas'el; for less points.
Second off, I normally leave my Crisis Suits until last when building. It's not that they aren't important, they are; they just fill in gaps. For example, this list has multiple anti-infantry weapons, overpowering most warriors. But no way of dealing with vehicles except ramming means problems; hence the need for a Commander wo can fight tanks:

Shas'el w/ Twin-Linked Missile Pods, Fusion Blaster, Hardwired Multi-Tracker
-85
This Shas'el is for hitting vehicles specifically; deepstriking with him is suprisingly useful, as Missile Pods hitting rear armor are painful. Make sure you familiarize yourself with melta weapons, but never attempt to deepstrike into melta range against any vehicles carrying troops (unless necessary), as even if you do pop the transport they will assault and kill you Commander next turn.

So the list is as follows:
Shas'el w/ TL-MP, FB, HWMT -85
3x Stealth Shas'ui -90
8x Shas'la (Rifles) -80
11x Kroot Mercenaries -77
4x Pathfinders; Devilfish w/ SMS, TA, MT, DP -168
TOTAL= 500 points

Next post I will outline how to make a 1000 point army using two Battleforces.

Starting Tau Pt1

2010-03-09T19:46:00.000-05:00

This is for any newer players that stumble upon the blog, fresh from training as Shas'saals.
First off, get a codex. Don't pirate it, then you are a douchebag. Buy the 'dex, and if you don't have a friend who already plays, buy a core rulebook. For actual collecting, you should start off with the Tau Battleforce.
This will give you a full squad of Fire Warriors (12), meaning you can either treat them as a single unit or split them into two minimum-sized squads, depending on your plans. This is great, as at least two troop choices are needed in standard games, and for Tau, one of them must be a group of Fire Warriors. You also get a Devilfish, which is an excellent, though expensive pointswise.
You also get 12 Kroot, just a little more than a full squad. These guys are either hated or loved by Tau players, depending on playstyle. I will post some theory on them at a later date. Suffice to say that they are point for point a better offensive unit the Fire Warriors, but lack the ability to bring transports, and lack any armor, making them easy to kill if not hidden in cover.
You get three Stealth Suits, who by themselves, are near pointless. Many players avoid Stealth Suits, as they suffer from being worse in terms of firepower to points conversion than Crisis Suits. They do however, gain in terms of maneuverability; they have additional deployment options that Crisis Suits don't have.
Speaking of the Suits, you get one of those. This Suit will act as your Commander early in your career, as you MUST have at least one Shas'el or Shas'o to lead your army.

A second Battleforce will give you more than enough models to make a decent army. Then you need to branch out into Heavy Support. Hammerheads or Broadsides, or both. Skyrays are unorthodox but entirely usable. Sniper Drone Teams are great units, but they compete with things that are much better uses of the slot.

Next pos, I'll review how to build a viable army using one Battleforce, then using two.

Slow & Purposeful

2010-03-09T19:40:00.000-05:00

My hobby time is coming slowly lately, with the things I own in the limbo state between built and painted. I'll be getting more in two weeks or so, but I've decided that this blog needs to be updated far more often.
So since I can't get modelling stuff up, I'll be moving into theory. Wish me luck.

2010-02-21T21:27:00.000-05:00

Back from across the globe. In my lethargy, I forgot to give you all warning.

I'll get some pics of the gaming board up sometime this week as apology. I should have some Batreps to post in a week or two as well.

Gaming board

2010-02-08T19:01:00.001-05:00

I've been assembling a home gaming board lately, and due to my general sloth it is coming along rather slowly. I'm modeling it after an iceworld, and am modeling built in rivers, which are treated as frozen. I've found special rules online that work for frozen lakes, as well as some other nifty winter rules; I'll post them or the link later.

Finally

2010-01-28T16:55:00.000-05:00

I promised you a finished paintjob, and here it is:

I originally owned a Broadside and three Crisis Suits, but I have come into the possession of two more suits (as of yet unbuilt) and Commander Shadowsun is being mailed here as a present. That'll give me a total of 7 suits (including Shadowsun and the Broadside). A Broadside and a Crisis Suit are all I need to complete my 1750 list.

In other news, I'm getting some games in at the local gaming club. If you don't mind that they'll be using proxies, I'll get some Batreps up if I get a chance.

See you all soon.

Camo Done

2010-01-21T21:46:00.000-05:00

Well, a detailed job on five tanks and a piranha took some time.

I'll post pictures when I get the chance, but they look nice.

Painting

2010-01-18T12:51:00.000-05:00

The mechanized wings of my Cadre are undergoing new camouflage paintings, losing their traditional arctic camouflage for a more distinguished deep purple. I'll be uploading the Cadre's new color scheme once the modifications are done.

(Translation: Re-painting my army today. Pics soon.)

Welcome to the Shas'o Covenant.

2010-01-14T21:15:00.000-05:00

Welcome, my fellow Commanders.

I am Aloh'Nan'El, formerly Aloh'Nan'O, and Sept Commander of one of the foremost military forces to ever be off the records of our Empire. After a period of avoiding active communication, I believe the time has come for me to convey the hardships and knowledge I have learned over the years. I will be attempting to communicate via video log in the future, uploading both still images and aerial scouting drone footage, though the quality of both may vary due to the constantly changing distance between myself and the other colonies.

For the newer military commanders and even the more hardened veterans, I will attempt to highlight both tactical acumen and the various ways to employ the various weaponry of the Fio caste.

I look forward to this continued correspondence, and I hope that my musings will not fall to the Warp, but instead reach someone, anyone, who can make use of them.