Revival?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.