Victory Point Denial Example: Tau

I have written two main articles on Victory Point denial, each from a slightly different perspective. I would like to follow them up with some concrete examples of how to use point denial within a given army list. In this particular article, I will cover the Tau army. The last article covered Tyranids. If I get a great response for more specific armies, I will follow with them. For more general information, please check the original articles: Tactica Point Denial and Victory Point Denial. I'll start this article by talking about simply adjusting tactics rather than changing the army list. Then I'll move into adjusting the army list, but keeping the overall same theme or idea, just tweaking it to make it better suited to Victory Point Denial. Finally, I'll talk about making the most efficient and effective Point Denial list possible, using the Tau army. (Note that the next three paragraphs are general tactics that can be used by any army and are thus much the same as in the Tyranid article. They are simply repeated for those that have not read that article.)

Using your current army list in a new way
Even without adjusting your list in any way, you can make use of Point-Denial tactics. Depending on the style of your army, some may be more effective than others, but they should all be useable by almost any army. First off, play hide and seek. Aside from Barrage Weapons and Deepstriking troops, they can't hit you if they can't see you. Get behind cover, stay out of contact and just generally try to keep away from the enemy. By itself, this won't win you the game (since you won't be getting any points either) but it can keep the bulk of your army alive while you utilize the next tactic, isolation.

Try to get an enemy unit isolated from the rest of the enemy army, then pounce on it with everything you have. Sometimes an enemy will do this for you (the afore-mentioned deepstriking troops, for example.) Other times, you may have to get them to isolate themselves, perhaps by offering a bait unit. When a single unit or a small group comes after your bait, hit them with everything you can. If a large detachment comes after the bait, pull a fade and try to hit something they left behind. If they stay in a large grouping, perhaps castling up in their deployment zone (standard shooty response) or barrelling forward in a huge group (typical assault response) then you use the next tactic, hit and run.

The more mobility and firepower (yes, in that order) you have here, the better. The idea is to damage the enemy a little bit without taking much damage in return. If you have longer range than they do, it's quite easy. Pop out so nothing else can see you and shoot whatever it is. If you can move in the assault phase after shooting, it's also quite easy. Jump, Shoot, Jump as the Crisis Suit Commanders would say. If you have good firepower, but not as much movement, then you have to be really careful with your line of sight. If you move so that only one unit can hit you, and you blast that unit to bits, they won't be able to tag you back. While most of these options are for shooty armies, there are some options for assault armies as well. If you have the Hit and Run special ability, you can zip up, smack the enemy unit for some damage, then run away again. Alternately, if you can stick around through the enemy turn, you've just tied that unit up for a turn, hit them over two assault phases, then you can run back at the end of their turn in time to do it again on your turn! Failing that, try to make sure that your assault unit (or units) will survive a bit longer (perhaps by tying up nearby units, perhaps by them simply being powerful and resilient, or perhaps by them wiping out the enemy unit and consolidating into another one. Finally, if you have no other option, try to make sure that their sacrifice was worth it. Perhaps the enemy unit they hit is the best chance the enemy has of taking on your army, so most of the threat will be neutralized. Or perhaps your unit will simply do more damage to the enemy unit (in terms of taking it under half or wiping it out for Victory Points) than your unit is worth. (If a 160 point unit of Genestealers wipes out a 250 point squad of Devastators or Assault Marines, you are 90pts ahead of the game even if the Genestealers are totally wiped out next turn.) Each of these tactics is a general idea, something you can use with almost any army, whether it be Tyranids, Tau, Space Marines or Dark Eldar. There are, however, some specific tactics that can be used by Tau, and I'd like to mention them next.

Army Specific Examples
The most obvious one is Jump, Shoot, Jump. It's what Crisis and Stealth teams are famous for and rightly so. Being able to move in the assault phase and have move and shoot weapons is a very strong combination. Starting out of Line of Sight of the enemy, moving in and shooting them, then moving back out of LOS means you don't take very many casualties. It's perfect for Victory Point denial and it's something every Tau army has at least a little bit of. Along the same lines, if you can start outside of the range of enemy weapons, jump in to use your own, then jump back out, you've got a winner without even having to use terrain. Speaking of range, let's take a look at how the range of our weapons can help us.

Extreme range is something the Tau excel at as well. The basic Warrior has a rifle that can shoot 30", which is longer than the range of any other army's basic weapons. They have to use heavy weapons to get that sort of range. In addition, Railguns have a 72(!) inch range. The only thing with that range or more that I can think of is a Battle Cannon or a Basilisk. While there are few places on the board you can make use of that much range, it can be very handy. Get behind cover so that the forces in front of you have no LOS, then fire at the side of something all the way across the board. It's a very effective way to keep your Railguns alive, whether they are on Hammerheads or on Broadsides. Any time you can outrange the enemy is a great opportunity for point denial. You can do this by having longer range weapons or by shortening the range that your opponents weapons have.

Stealth Fields make enemy units roll to see if they can even shoot them, much like the Night Fighting special rules. With 2d6x3 for the roll, the average will be about 21 inches. At first glance, this seems rather poor, since the standard Stealth Suit has a gun with 18" range. On the other hand, it can jump forward 6" before it fires, giving it an effective range of 24 inches. That isn't a guarantee that it can't be hit, but it will reduce the number of units that can shoot at it, reducing the damage it will take. Even at the 21" range, since half the units that try won't be able to see it, it's almost like having an extra 4++ save on the unit in terms of damage they are likely to take. This is no guarantee, but there is a way to guarantee that you won't be shot back.

Kroot in deep Woods are nearly invulnerable. Most units can only see through 6" of Woods terrain. Kroot can see through 12 inches. If you have some Woods that are more than 6" deep, park the Kroot in them and just have them sit and snipe at targets of opportunity all game. They won't kill much, but as long as they aren't damaged, they don't need to. 10 Kroot cost 70pts and will take down about 5 Space Marines over the course of the game. Assuming that they are untouched, that's 70pts you have denied to your enemy and 75pts you have taken from them. Net 145pts in your favor! It's not a huge amount, but it's roughly the margin of a Draw in a 1500 point game. That means you might be able to turn a Loss into a Draw or a Draw into a Win, simply by this one unit.

Retooling the conventional Tau army
A conventional Tau army at 1500 points consists of about 6 Fire Warriors, 2x10 Kroot, a couple of Shas'El or Shas'O commanders in Crisis Battlesuits, 3x2 Crisis Teams (Usually the Plasma Rifle/Missile Pod "Fireknife" variety) 3 Hammerheads with Railguns and perhaps a couple of Piranhas. The Hammerheads and Piranhas hunt Heavy Vehicles, while the Crisis Suits hunt Light Vehicles and Heavy Infantry. The Fire Warriors, Kroot and the submunitions from the Hammerheads can tackle most light infantry.

By making our choices carefully, we can ensure a better chance of utilizing Point Denial tactics. I'll take a look at each part of the army list in turn to find the best options for it. We will start with the Commanders.

Since the Commanders are all about taking down Heavy Infantry, we can give them the Helios configuration, meaning they have Plasma Rifles and Fusion Blasters. While the Fusion Blaster's short range means they have to get in dangerously close, their Independent Character status will allow them to do this much more safely than anything else in our list. I'll actually take this a step further and make one of them a Ninja 'O. With Stimulant Injectors (Feel No Pain) and Vectored Retro-Thrusters (Hit and Run) this Commander can jet up the field, shoot a unit, engage it in combat for the enemy turn, then jump out and repeat the process on the next turn. As long as the Commander isn't hitting units that have Powerweapons, he or she should be able to keep going for quite a while, or maybe even survive the whole game while doing a fair amount of damage. If they run out of targets or find a particularly juicy or dangerous vehicle target, those BS4 or 5 Fusion Blasters should make very short work of it as well. And speaking of vehicle targets, let's take a look at the opposite end of the list, Heavy Support.

3 Railheads (Hammerheads with Railguns) are moderately effective at killing Heavy Vehicles, but they aren't as good at staying alive. Units of Broadsides with Advanced Stabilization Systems and Shield Drones are more effective at killing Heavy Vehicles, and they are better at staying alive, too. Not only can they not be killed in one lucky shot, they are hard to damage quickly. That means that if they take significant damage, you can simply have them walk back out of LOS and hide them to preserve some of their Victory Points, and they are a lot easier to hide than a Hammerhead. In addition, since they are less expensive than Railheads and they mount Smart Missile Systems, they can also be used for some light damage with no LOS restrictions, much like I mentioned in my article on the Unseen Enemy. On the other hand, if we replace the Railheads with Broadsides, we lose the Submunitions and thus about half of our firepower against Light Infantry. To get that back, let's look at the Elites section and our Crisis Teams.

Currently our Crisis teams cover Light Vehicles and Heavy Infantry. If we decide that we can cover Light vehicles elsewhere, we could switch our Crisis configuration to something a little more effective against both Heavy Infantry and Light Infantry. Stealth Teams are great against Light Infantry, but they aren't as good against Heavy Infantry. (When I say Heavy Infantry, think Space Marines and when I say Light Infantry, think Imperial Guard or Tyranid Gaunts.) The Bladestorm configuration (Plasma Rifle and Burst Cannon) is great against both, however. While we are here, let's add a few options for Point Denial. The first option is to make one member of a team a Team Leader. For a small number of points, this model can Hardwire the Multitracker and get a Target Array, which means it will have a BS of 4 instead of 3, making that model more effective. This way, when you take damage to the unit, you can lose the non-leader and still have a very effective Crisis Suit. This also allows the model to get a Hardwired Drone Controller and pick up a couple of Shield Drones. These will vastly increase the life of the unit when it gets hit, which will make it harder for the enemy to get Victory Points from you. Now, this change in configuration leaves us looking for more effectiveness against Light Vehicles since we no longer have the Missile Pods. For this, let's look to the Piranha.

Piranhas are exceptional at taking out Light vehicles with their high mobility and Fusion Blasters. In addition, in squadrons of two, they can lose one, then boost away 24" and hide, keeping the opponent from getting _any_ Victory Points! Our original list had a couple of them, but we've cleared up a few points with converting from Hammerheads to Broadsides. We can use those points to add another squadron of two Fusion Piranhas to our list, giving us better anti-tank and more Point Denial possibilities. Now that we've seen one way to tweak a conventional Tau army to get more Point Denial out of it, let's take a look at a much more radical altering of the list...

Completely overhauling it
A conventional Tau army can be played in a point-denial style. We can, however, make it even more effective. We'll be using some of the elements that we already have, but we'll be using more of them or making them a little more extreme. Remember, Point-Denial has two parts. The first is to keep the enemy from killing your models, the second is to make those models worth a decent amount of points (which are then denied to the enemy.) So we want resilient or highly mobile units that are also expensive. Let us first look to our Crisis Teams.

The Crisis Teams work pretty well as-is. With Jump, Shoot, Jump they can often deny the enemy shots at them for most if not the whole game. To make them more effective in terms of damage and expense, let's add another to the team. Now we've got 3 Bladestorms, all with Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon and Multitracker. That's 174pts. Now we'll make one of them a Team Leader and give that one a Targeting array, taking us up to 199pts for the unit and giving it a little more edge in firepower. Finally, let's improve their resilience by giving the Team Leader a Hard-wired Drone Controller and 2 Shield Drones. Final Team: 229pts. Requiring 5 T4 Wounds with 3+ save (and the first 2 also have a 4+ invulnerable) to get half points. These should be able to throw out a fair amount of damage and stay out of sight most of the game. Even when they end up in the enemy cross-hairs, they can take some damage without giving up points. Not too shabby. Now let's take a look at our Heavy Support.

Broadsides are fairly resilient already, and with the Advanced Stabilization System, they can start the game out of LOS and still get in plenty of shooting. If things get too hot where they are, they can also move to another location and still fire. With their S10 Railguns, they can also often wipe out anything they can see, which limits return fire. Finally, their Smart Missile Systems allow them to fire without any LOS at all, which is great for a Point-Denial list. To make them more resilient, we'll be giving them a Team Leader with Hard-Wired Drone Controller and 2 Shield Drones and we'll throw in a Hard-Wired Target lock so that the Leader can shoot at a different target than the squad, in case they need to spread the S10 love around a little bit. We could replace the Advanced Stabilization System on each one with a Drone Controller and 2 Shield Drones for truly massive resilience, but that would mean the unit could no longer move and shoot, which is much more useful. That gives us this unit: 3xBroadside: Advanced Stabilization System. Team Leader with HWTarget Lock and HWDrone Controller and 2 Shield Drones. 275pts and requires 5 T4 Sv2+ Wounds (the first two of which have a 4+ Invulnerable) before it gives up any points. That done, let's look at our HQ.

We've already met one of our HQ models in this article. The Ninja 'O is pretty much perfect for this army. Unfortunately, the gear that makes him ninja is Special Issue, which means you can't have more than one. In turn, there's another piece of Special Issue gear that is also perfect for this army. The Airbursting Fragmentation Projector allows you to shoot without LOS and gives you a big blast template to lay down for damage. Toss on a Twin-Linked Plasma Rifle and a Hard-Wired Multitracker and put in on a Shas'El and you've got a 105 point model that can do some serious damage with or without LOS. Finally, let's take a look at our Troops selections.

We have to have at least one Fire Warrior unit, so let's keep it to the minimum and hide it away. So that it won't be completely useless, we'll put it near to a unit of Broadsides to ambush anything that tries to get too close to them. We'll also pick up a few squads of Kroot. They'll sit in cover, preferably more than 6" deep into Woods so that the enemy can't fire back at them. We'll also try to make sure we've got a squad nearby each unit of Broadsides, much like the Fire Warriors, so that they can ambush anything that gets too close to them. These squads are cheap and cheerful, so if we lose them, it won't be too many points. A Team of 6 Fire Warriors and 3x10 Kroot will run us 270pts.

Okay, so putting it all together, we've got our 2 Commanders, the Ninja and the AFP launcher. We've also got 2 units of 3 Broadsides to form small firebases, and 3 squads of Kroot and a team of Fire Warriors to protect them. Finally, we've got 2 units of Crisis Suits ready to do the JSJ thing. This isn't an overwhelming amount of firepower, but remember, you don't have to kill everything, just kill more points than the other guy does and you can hold on for the win.

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