40K: Theorycrafting with Marines and Tau

I thought about posting another Codex review for the new Space Marines, but damn, that shit is everywhere. I mean, come on, do we really need another "Review" of Tactical Squads? Besides a few minor changes here and there in leadership and point costs, they really haven't changed much.

If you're here reading our blog, then I respect you enough to know that you understand how a Tactical Squad works and I'm not going to waste your and my time by going over them again.

So let's get into some of what everyone is actually interested in...finding combinations that are amazing.

I have been looking into a lot of different combinations lately and so far, my favorite combination is Farsight Enclave with some Space Marines. Since they are Battle Brothers, there is tons of hidden stuff in there!

A quick disclaimer here before I get started:

I build lists for tournaments and league play, not casual games. Sure I'll play a casual game here and there on the fly, but if things like "Spam lists" upset you, then this is not the blog for you. If it's an available option to play, well then, I'm playing it.

Starting off, my lists will always include Farsight as he is needed to unlock the others of "The 8." Most notably, O'Vesa and Ob'Lotai.

One of the first things to look at here, is that if you run Space Marines with Farsight Enclave as an ally, you can technically run 2 Riptides; one normal one and O'Vesa.

Yes O'Vesa is very expensive in terms of points, but being able to run 2 Riptides in an ally can be game changing in and of itself, especially when you look at what O'Vesa has to offer.

The other thing to notice is that in the Supplement, concerning the 8, it clearly states that "the Signature Systems rule, left, does not apply to them," which means that even though O'Vesa already comes equipped with an Earth Caste Pilot Array, you can still give one to that base Riptide as well. Double bonus!

The second thing that caught my eye was Ob'Lotai, who is a single Broadside with all the trimmings, including 2 missile drones and a seeker missile. He shoots 3 times as many shots as a devastator squad full of Missile launchers and costs 2 points less...and since he's a independent character he can join a unit of Devastators. Or anything else for that matter...but more on that later.

I currently only run Farsight and a small unit of Crisis suits to clear and grab an objective here and there, so I am really not to interested in the other special suits at this point, but then again, I am just getting started with this combination, so you never know.

So now we know what we are dealing with, lets add the Space Marines into the mix and make shit work.

First question is which chapter to pick. For me there are really only 2 options here, Ultramarines and Imperial Fists.

With Ultramarines, the major draw here is Tigurius. His Psyker abilities alone are absolutely outstanding, but you already knew that. Now let's put him to better use. We are rolling him on Divination all day long, aiming for Forewarning, Perfect Timing and Prescience, which shouldn't be too hard with his ability to re-roll when choosing his psychic powers. This gives an army like Tau, that already has a lot of options to ignore cover, even more options. Add in that he gets to re-roll when casting his powers, and that he is LD10, and you're virtually guaranteed that his powers will work every turn.

If we add Tigurius to a Riptide we get this.
A Riptide, that because of Earth Caste Pilot Array, can re-roll to Nova Charge if it fails, has all Twin-linked weapons from Prescience, so it can re-roll those pesky "Gets-Hot!" results and re-roll the blast template if it scatters, Ignores cover from Perfect Timing, and has a 4++ save.

Now that's a good combo, but kind of expensive, and if we add Tigurius to a Riptide, it severely limits the Riptide's movement. Not too bad for a 1st turn, but lets look a a different option.

Let's add Tigurius to a unit of Devastators, and put them behind an Aegis Defense Line with a Quad Cannon. Then to make it even more entertaining, lets add Ob'Lotai to that unit. That gives us roughly 20 Twin-Linked shots, that all Ignore cover. Who cares if you don't have Skyfire, that's enough shots to take out almost any flyer. Plus the unit has a 4++ save to piss of those Heldrakes. But wait a second, what this? It looks like a free thing that the Space Marine Sergeant has called an Signum! Oh Glorious, Glorious Signum! Let's review what this does for a second.

The codex states:
"At the start of the Shooting phase, a model with a signum can choose to use it instead of shooting. If he does so, one model in his squad is Ballistic Skill 5 for the remainder of the Shooting phase."

Let's see,  who is in this unit, would benefit the most from being BS5...Ob'Lotai of course! "Hittin on 2's!"

To make things even more ridiculous, if you are running O'Vesa, he can join the unit for 1st turn as well to help take out a nasty Deathstar if needed.

Fear of that unit getting assaulted? Ultramarine's Devastator Doctrine is the way to go then. Move that unit back 6" and fire off a barrage of Missile Templates at full BS to thin the incoming unit. This does 2 things. It forces your opponent to decide which unit to assault, and whether or not to multi-assault.

If your Devastators do get assaulted, you get to re-roll those over-watch shots! Speaking of, don't forget that Devastators no longer have to lose their Boltguns to acquire Missile Launchers. So if you are getting them assaulted by a horde or large unit, you can still overwatch with Boltguns to get more shots off.

Unfortunately Psychic powers don't always work out how we plan, and some people like to rely more on consistency. So instead of Ultramarines, let's switch it up to Imperial Fists. Why? Tankhunter.

Same unit as above.
Devastator unit, Aegis, Quadcannon, Ob'Lotai, O'Vesa.

Since only one model in the unit is needed to give it all Tankhunter, and Marines and Tau are Battle Brothers, everything here gets the Special Rule for as long as they stay grouped up, including the Quadcannon itself, and O'Vesa and Ob'Lotai's drones...which is just sick. Group up first turn or two then spread out to take some objectives and win games.

Run some bikes, or a base Librarian...hell I don't even care anymore, doesn't really matter at that point.

I got my new Riptide in mail last night and managed to get most of it together for tonight's game.
I will finally be able to get my Tau on the table.

Here's the list I'm running tonight.

Ultramarines
Tigurius
5 Man Tactical Squad - Veteran Sgt, Flamer in a Razorback - Twin-linked Lascannon
5 Man Tactical Squad - Veteran Sgt, Flamer in a Razorback - Twin-linked Lascannon
5 Man unit of Devastators - 4 Missile Launchers, Signum

Farsight Enclave
Commander Farsight
3 Crisis Suits - Twin-linked Plasma Rifles, Missile Pods, 6 Gun Drones, and Bonding Knives
10 Firewarriors - Shas'ui, Bonding Knives
7 Pathfinders - Shas'ui, Bonding Knives
Riptide - Ion Accelerator, Smart Missile System, Early Warning Override, Earth Caste Pilot Array
Riptide - Ion Accelerator, Smart Missile System, Early Warning Override, Stimulant Injector
Riptide - Ion Accelerator, Smart Missile System, Early Warning Override, Stimulant Injector
Aegis Defense Line + Quad Cannon

I couldn't really find the points to cram in Ob'Lotai for this list but it's still a work in progress.

Hopefully will be able to get a Battle Report posted up tomorrow at some point, but tonight should be interesting to say the least.