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Revisiting Tactical Mobility for the Tau Based on a number of my initial games with Tau, I came up with the idea of a list focusing almost entirely on tactical mobility. More specifically, I was interested in a list that heavily utilized the Jump-Shoot-Jump mechanic to damage an enemy army without being harmed in return. My original thoughts on such an army can be found here. I have since gotten in more games against a wider variety of opponents and I can see some flaws in my initial thinking. I have been looking at my experiences playing Tau and I have been modifying my original concept of the tactical mobility list. The main change is the focus of the army. My original concept was to have a fair amount of firepower and utilize the Jump-Shoot-Jump mechanic to keep my army safe from most threats. After some more games, I realized that some of my reasoning wasn’t as strong as I’d thought.
The Crisis suits that were armed Helios-style (Plasma Rifle and Fusion Blaster) would have to get very close to do their damage and would often be unable to Jump-Shoot-Jump. While they would have shield drones to help them, they’d be bearing the brunt or even the entirety of the enemy army shooting at them. In addition, with the trend away from vehicles, there would be fewer useful targets for them. (Sure, they can still kill Space Marine equivalents, but that’s not nearly the kind of payback they need for their points.) Similarly, the concept of using the IC status of the Commanders to shield them while they operated closer to the enemy also didn’t hold water. If most of my army is out of Line of Sight or out of range, what will be shielding them? Hence, they probably need to have bodyguard teams. In addition, while the Ninja O seems like a great idea, he would be totally overwhelmed in this list, as he’d be the only one running up near any enemy units. Therefore, the O has got to go. Stealth Marker Teams seem like a good idea, and they can be. Unfortunately, they just aren’t as useful in this list as I’d thought before. The primary reason is that none of the units I want to use are big enough to warrant spending points on Markerlights rather than simply another damage-dealing unit. Markerlight teams are far more useful for really large teams, like full teams of FireWarriors. Small teams don’t get nearly as much benefit, which means the team isn’t worth as much. Finally, I started to recognize the value of the often-overlooked Deathrain. You may remember that I was starting to look differently at the Deathrain at the end of the last article, I have been more impressed by it since then. The Deathrain configuration Crisis Battlesuit features a Twin-linked Missile Pod. That doesn’t sound like much at first, since I’m used to thinking in terms of killing Space Marines. When you look closer, though, you realize the anti-vehicle value in having a 2-shot, S7 weapon. (It’s a _mobile_, twin-linked Autocannon!) You also start to realize the value of having a 36” range. I included a team of these in my initial list with the purpose of freeing up some terrain to be used by something else, since this team could operate at very long distance, thus using up some otherwise useless terrain. Alternately, they could simply operate in the open, using their jet pack movement to be 42” away from the enemy, so that very little would be able to reach out and touch them. When I started looking more closely at the Deathrain configuration, I began to reshape my ideas…
The Deathrain configuration gives accurate firepower over a very long range. It’s not very heavy firepower, but with the range and mobility these Battlesuits have, you can expect it to be around for most of the game, continuing to hammer away at the opponent. In addition, it’s effective against all but the heaviest vehicles, which makes it a dual-purpose configuration. (Yes, there are likely to be fewer vehicles, but these won’t need any help dealing with the ones they see, whereas other configurations might need a dedicated vehicle killer to assist them.) The Twin-linked Missile Pod is also AP4, which means anything less than power armor gets no save against them. That combined with their accuracy and two shots means they go through light infantry very effectively. (Additional note: Deathrains are very effective against Eldar Skimmers, which are looking to be one of the more popular tournament powerlists. Having 30 S7 shots per turn that are about 88% accurate is highly useful against such a list.) Hmm. 3 Deathrains cost about as much as 2 other configurations. They have very long-range weaponry that’s effective against a wide variety of targets and have excellent tactical mobility. While they don’t do fabulous damage against my favorite targets (Space Marines for those of you that haven’t been playing along at home) they can keep doing their damage longer than most other configurations can expect to do. They can also concentrate their firepower over a much wider area than any other configuration. All this adds up to taking lots of them. What finally swayed me was when I crunched the numbers. A basic Deathrain needs a third hardpoint to be filled. Often this is taken up by a Black Sun Filter, the least expensive bit of wargear possible. On the other hand, while a Target Array is more expensive, it also makes the firepower more effective, while keeping the Deathrain pretty cheap. A basic Deathrain 4 (Nomenclature for a Crisis Battlesuit with Twinlinked Missile Pod and BS4) gets 2 shots and hits 8/9 of the time (2/3 with a reroll) and wounds T5 or less 5/6 of the time, while powered armor has a 1/3 chance of being penetrated. That works out to: 2 x 8/9 x 5/6 x 1/3 = 0.5 Dead Space Marines. That’s not terribly impressive. A team of 3 Deathrain 4s will only take down about 1.5 Space Marines per turn. Again, not terribly impressive. 5 teams like that will only take care of 7.5 Space Marines per turn. Eh. On the other hand, that’s per turn. This configuration is likely to last for the whole battle. That means two things. First, it means that it will likely deny it’s victory points to the enemy, which means any points it earns are icing on the cake. Second, it means that it should be able to shoot for the entire battle. In most games, that’s 6 turns. 6 turns x 7.5DSM = 45 Dead Space Marines. That’s not just a good start, that’s often as many Space Marines as people bring in a game of 1500pts. That’s nearly the entire army. Okay, okay, so they do pretty well against Space Marines. What about vehicles? Well, against AV11 vehicles (many transports) they still get 2 shots and hit 8/9 of the time. Now they get a glancing hit on a 4 and a penetrating hit on a 5 or 6. We’ll just call this a damaging hit ½ the time. 2 x 8/9 x ½ = 0.88 damaging hits _per Deathrain_. That same list above with 5 teams of three will average 13.2 damaging hits per turn against AV11. Yeah, that’s pretty alright, but what about the other end of the scale. Predators and the like generally have AV13, which the Missile Pod can barely touch. Against AV13, they still have 2 shots and still hit 8/9 of the time, but now they only glance on a 6. (On the other hand, against a shooty vehicle, you often just need to glance it, since almost all the glancing hits will keep it from shooting.) That gives us only 0.29 chances to glance it per suit. That’s still 4.4 glances per turn, which isn’t too shabby after all.
Okay, so they hang tough against most vehicles and do pretty well against Space Marines, but what about the other end of the spectrum? That’s right, how do they do against a horde? Hordes are mostly light infantry, so we’ll say they are Imperial Guardsmen or Tyranid Gaunts. (T3, Sv5+) Okay, 2 shots, 8/9 chance to hit, 5/6 chance to wound and _always_ penetrate the armor save. That works out to 1.49 Dead Imperial Guard equivalents per Deathrain 4. Over 15 of them, that’s 22.35 per turn. Over 6 turns, that’s 134 dead Imperial Guardsmen or Tyranid Gaunts, which is more than I’ve seen fielded in any 1500pt game. (With the possible exception of my Swarm, I think I came in around that number a few times, but still, that’s pretty much the whole army.) Okay, I think I’m sold, break out the Missile Pods. (I actually have _zero_ Missile Pods at the moment, but I’ll be rectifying that situation!) Okay, so if all or most of my Crisis Battlesuits are Deathrain Configuration, what else should I have in the list? Well, I’d like to include a little bit more damage to Space Marine equivalents. Something with AP3 or less would be golden. The Sniper Drone Team fits this bill, with long-range S6 AP3 weaponry and Stealth Fields to stay hidden even when in Line of Sight. What else do I need? Well, with all Deathrain suits and some Sniper Drone teams, I have nothing that will really hurt Terminators. Since the Assault Cannon has become a superweapon, we are seeing these big nutjobs more often, and I need to have something that can deal with them. Replacing the Twinlinked Missile Pod on both of the Shas’Els with a Missile Pod and Plasma Rifle gives me some added firepower in the AP2 band. If I toss in a Target array and a Hard-Wired Multitracker, I can fire both weapons at BS5, which is almost as good as Twin-linked BS4. While I could do this with all of the Shas’Vre bodyguards as well, it would cost me an additional 19 points each and they wouldn’t be nearly as effective. (BS5 is nearly the equivalent of Twin-linked BS4. BS4 is not that close.) If I find myself up against Terminators on a regular basis, I may change my mind, but I don’t think that’s too likely to happen. I’d also like to have something effective against the Heavier vehicles, such as Predators and Leman Russes. While the Deathrains can be effective against them, if there are more than a couple, it’ll spell danger for this army. I’d like to add something that can take on those vehicles, but I want it to be something that fits in with the hidden nature of this army. I want it to be able to either remain unseen like with a Stealth Field or to Jump-Shoot-Jump. That narrows down my options. Piranha can be very effective, but they also end up being left out in the open and getting nailed. On the other hand, Gun Drones can be quite effective in deep-striking behind an enemy vehicle and shooting the weak rear armor. Almost all vehicles are vulnerable to S5 shooting in the back, and a squadron of Gun Drones has tactical mobility equal to my Crisis Battlesuits. Finally, the cost of a squadron of Gun Drones isn’t very much, so even if they are wiped out the turn after they shoot, they will almost certainly have been worth it.
That being said, have a look at the latest version of my Untouchable list… 103 Shas’El-FK5 (Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Target Array, HWMT, HWTL In the next article, I’ll go down line-by-line and discuss each of the choices and why I feel it’s the best fit for the army. You can find that article here. If you enjoyed this, email me and let me know |
