So, I got my first game in against the new Tau the day they released, and I must say they are amazing. So amazing in fact that I think they're going to shift the entire meta of the game. Get ready to say goodbye to massed flyer spam folks, cause the sky is most definitely falling. Or at least flyers will be falling from it, and falling hard.
I had actually intended to be in a tournament this day, so I had what I know to be, a really competitive list for the meta in my area. The list was as follows:
HQ
Necron Overlord - Warscythe
- Sempiternal Weave
- Phase Shifter
Royal Court
- Harbinger of Despair
- Veil of Darkness
- Harbinger of Destruction
- Solar Pulse
5x Deathmarks
- Night Scythe
Troops
7x Necron Warriors
7x Necron Warriors
- Ghost Ark
7x Necron Warriors
- Ghost Ark
- Ghost Ark
5x Necron Warriors
Fast Attack
Heldrake
Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
- Night Scythe
Fast Attack
Heldrake
Heavy Support
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Annihilation Barge
Total = 2000
This is actually a variation of my "I Bet You Thought You Wouldn't Play Against So Much Mech In 6th List". I know it's a long name but I'm pretty sure when I play lists like this in 6th a lot of people poop their pants a little. It usually has Grey Knight allies and after this game I think Ill be going back to them. Forgive my lack of Tau knowledge especially of the new codex. Ill do my best to remember what he was running:
HQ
Commander
Elites
3x Crisis Suits
12x Fire Warriors
7x Pathfinders
3x Broadsides
Aegis Defense Line
Commander
- Iridium Battlesuit
- Neuroweb System Jammer
- Puretide Engram Neurochip
- Twin-Linked Plasma Rifle
- Drone Controller
- Stimulant Injector
- 2x Drones
Elites
3x Crisis Suits
- 3x Twin-Linked Fusion
- Other stuff...maybe missile pods
- 6x Drones
- 3x Twin-Linked Plasma Rifles
- Other stuff...maybe missile pods
- 6x Drones
- Twin-Linked Plasma Rifle
- Ion Accelerator
- Stimulant Injector
12x Fire Warriors
- Pulse Rifles
- Shas'ui
- Pulse Rifles
- Shas'ui
- Pulse Rifles
- Shas'ui
- Pulse Rifles
- Shas'ui
7x Pathfinders
- Shas'ui
- 2x Marker Drones
- Shas'ui
- 2x Marker Drones
3x Broadsides
- 6x Missile Drones
- 3x Twin-Linked High Yield Missile Pods
- Shasv're with Drone Controller
Aegis Defense Line
- Quad Gun
My opponent was one of the better tournament players in the area. I knew he was pretty savvy and that he would really make the most out of the new Tau. We played Crusade with 3 objectives; Hammer and Anvil deployment. He won both rolls and the roll to place objectives first so he chose his side and deployed with 2 objectives behind his lines to my 1 objective. No night fight turn 1 and I failed to steal the initiative. Of course I set off my Solar Pulse and made it night fight for him anyways, but this was of little use since all of his damn suits had black sun filters and ignored it. This was especially terrible for me when taking shots from the Riptide and Broadsides. By the end of his first turn he had taken 1 hull point from an Annihilation Barge and killed over half of my poor little zombies. My 1st turn was simple. I pushed all my tanks forward firing anything I could as I moved. I fired all my tesla weapons at the same unit behind the aegis, because the way he had his units set up, the shots would arc to at least 4-5 other units. The main focus of my fire went to ground and saw little in the way of casualties. The arcs weren't all that geat either but managed to strip a few fire warriors from multiple units.
His turn 2 saw the Commander/Fusion blaster crisis suits come in and take shots at one of my ghost arcs, which he managed to rip a couple hull points off of, and bestow gets hot upon. Poor Typhus and the zombies would end up being kited by this unit the entire game only killing all the drones and 1 suit while striping the other 2 to 1 one wound each with support fire from the ghost arcs and warriors. His Riptide took out a barge and broadsides stripped a hull points from a ghost arc. My reserves brought in a nightscythe, heldrake, and the deathmarks. The drake wiped out most of one of the units of pathfinders, the nightscthe lost 2 hull points to the quad gun and was forced to evade, and the deathmarks nearly wiped out a unit of fire warriors which failed leadership and broke off the board edge. My Overlord failed a 3 inch charge into the Commander/Fusion suits like a big dumb. The barges and 2 of the ghost arcs continued their push forward to the enemy lines thinning out more units of suits and fire warriors.
By the end of his turn 3 he had dropped both of my flyers sadly. The broadsides totally roached the heldrake. Nothing will stay in the air against that many S7 twin linked shots. Even without skyfire. The nighscythe lost its final hull point to heavy fire warrior shooting enhanced by the Etheral. My last night scythe came in and did very little while one ghost arc disabled itself in terrain, leaving it with one hull point, about 7 inches from his aegis line.
Turn 4 shooting saw the death of my nightscythe and of a ghost arc. While I continued my slog forward. I would eventually get my warriors across the line and into CC which pulled a unit of fire warriors off of one of his objectives. I managed to cause the unit sitting on his other objective to fail a leadership test and break off of the board. That gave me line breaker and the one objective in my backfield to his line breaker, and first blood. This put me in the lead going into 5.
Turn 5 he managed to down my warlord with shooting from his Commander thanks to failed look out sir rolls, and after getting his riptide into combat with the warriors and fire warriors, managed to cut them free to retake his backfield objective. With no troops left to push forward to take his objectives I was left with a loss. Sad times.
Yada, yada, yada...Broadsides are amazing. Yada, yada, yada,...Riptides are also amazing, be sure to give them feel no pain with Stimulant Injector to counter the Nova Reactor if it fails.
His turn 2 saw the Commander/Fusion blaster crisis suits come in and take shots at one of my ghost arcs, which he managed to rip a couple hull points off of, and bestow gets hot upon. Poor Typhus and the zombies would end up being kited by this unit the entire game only killing all the drones and 1 suit while striping the other 2 to 1 one wound each with support fire from the ghost arcs and warriors. His Riptide took out a barge and broadsides stripped a hull points from a ghost arc. My reserves brought in a nightscythe, heldrake, and the deathmarks. The drake wiped out most of one of the units of pathfinders, the nightscthe lost 2 hull points to the quad gun and was forced to evade, and the deathmarks nearly wiped out a unit of fire warriors which failed leadership and broke off the board edge. My Overlord failed a 3 inch charge into the Commander/Fusion suits like a big dumb. The barges and 2 of the ghost arcs continued their push forward to the enemy lines thinning out more units of suits and fire warriors.
By the end of his turn 3 he had dropped both of my flyers sadly. The broadsides totally roached the heldrake. Nothing will stay in the air against that many S7 twin linked shots. Even without skyfire. The nighscythe lost its final hull point to heavy fire warrior shooting enhanced by the Etheral. My last night scythe came in and did very little while one ghost arc disabled itself in terrain, leaving it with one hull point, about 7 inches from his aegis line.
Turn 4 shooting saw the death of my nightscythe and of a ghost arc. While I continued my slog forward. I would eventually get my warriors across the line and into CC which pulled a unit of fire warriors off of one of his objectives. I managed to cause the unit sitting on his other objective to fail a leadership test and break off of the board. That gave me line breaker and the one objective in my backfield to his line breaker, and first blood. This put me in the lead going into 5.
Turn 5 he managed to down my warlord with shooting from his Commander thanks to failed look out sir rolls, and after getting his riptide into combat with the warriors and fire warriors, managed to cut them free to retake his backfield objective. With no troops left to push forward to take his objectives I was left with a loss. Sad times.
Yada, yada, yada...Broadsides are amazing. Yada, yada, yada,...Riptides are also amazing, be sure to give them feel no pain with Stimulant Injector to counter the Nova Reactor if it fails.
Sounds like we are all gonna have to learn how to beat Tau. I'm worried about them removing jink saves on my bikes. I wanna play against them!
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