Tau and 8th Edition
Tau is a faction I have pondered collecting for a number of years… pretty much since release back in 3rd ed if I’m honest. The mecha style battlesuits (reminiscent of Gundam, Voltron and Robotech/Macross) have always been a love of mine though the initial sculpts never quite grabbed me. I did love the XV-15 Stealth suit style (again a throwback to the Robotech Cyclone armour) and grabbed a unit of them who have slumbered in a bitz box for some 15+ years… until about a month ago.
Like a lot of my armies these days, my Tau started on a theory and quickly snowballed into a playable force in a rapid space of time. It was picked up in pieces second hand at very reasonable prices – Shadowsun and the rest of the XV-15 for around $110Aus. Building and painting was also reasonably rapid, I actually painted 1100 points of this army in just 3 days to a reasonable table top standard. I will admit to borrowing the 2 Ghost Keels from Danger Rod because I wasn’t sold on them and wanted to try them first. My Tau work on utilising the strengths that I see in the index as it stands, Strength 5 and mobility. So what’s in the list? Read on!
The List
At 1500 points for the event I attended, I wanted a really dynamic way of deploying, high volume of firepower and mobility. It needed to have durability as well because I tend towards the aggressive style of play so casualties would be expected. Here is what I came up with using Tau in a single Vanguard Detachment.
HQ – Commander Shadowsun (Warlord)
Elite – 6 Stealth Suits, 6 Burst Cannons, 6 Advanced Targeting Systems, Shas’Vre with Target Lock and Markerlight
Elite – 6 Stealth Suits, 6 Burst Cannons, 6 Advanced Targeting Systems, Shas’Vre with Target Lock and Markerlight
Elite – 6 Stealth Suits, 6 Burst Cannons, 6 Advanced Targeting Systems, Shas’Vre
Elite – 6 Stealth Suits, 6 Burst Cannons, 6 Advanced Targeting Systems, Shas’Vre
Elite – Ghost Keel Battle Suit, Cyclic Ion Raker, 2 Fusion Blasters, Target Lock, Stim Injectors, 2 Stealth Drones
Elite – Ghost Keel Battle Suit, Cyclic Ion Raker, 2 Fusion Blasters, Target Lock, Stim Injectors, 2 Stealth Drones
See a pattern yet? Lets walk through it step by step because it doesn’t follow the usual T’au builds we have seen for 8th ed.
Deployment
The whole army can ‘infiltrate’ essentially ensuring my guns have range T1 and more importantly, I can charge things turn 1 if needed. Yes, I just said I would charge things with T’au. The ability to deploy where I pleased really threw off my opponents and forced them to revise their own deployments due to the close proximity. This won’t work with every opponent but the gunlines hated it and the assault forces inevitably had to cover more ground as I was so much more spread out.
I mentioned charges with T’au and I meant it. Stealthsuits are surprisingly resilient in combat and the ability to charge tanks and enemy firepower units to lock them down and remove at least 1 turn of shooting is invaluable. 6 Stealth Suits have 12 wounds, T4 and a 3+ save as well as -1 to hit them… most vehicles can’t even hit them and they need to lose more than 1-2 models before leadership is a factor. You might not charge them all the time but the tactical options this provides is invaluable.
Firepower
Tau are known for their firepower and my list is no different, though it does it slightly differently than most. Thanks to the infiltrating nature of the list, my 96 burst cannon shots a turn were essentially all firing straight away and were so for the whole game. The -1ap from the ATS meant that I really threatened everything I fired at – even crippling a Leman Russ tank at one point with just a couple of the teams firing. Likewise the 6 fusion blasters I packed did solid work and again always started in range. The only disappointment was the Ion Raker – I will swap that for a Fusion Collider in future because I can then run the Multi Tracker in place of the stim injector (which I forgot a lot anyway!) so the Ghost Keels have reroll 1’s built in. Doing so lets me drop the 2 markers from the stealth teams who almost never fired them anyway.
Mobility
The best thing about this army is the FLY key word. Every model has it. This alone is amazing and even better when combined with the above average movement the army has. The Ghost Keels are even faster making them a real threat. Falling back out of combat is also a thing and at no loss of firepower which means I was able to move up, shoot, overwatch (often with many units thanks to the Greater Good) and then survive the charge, fall back and shoot again… and then repeat again if needed. Getting lots of shots with this army is king FLY makes that possible.
Durability
The whole army is minimum T4 and apart from 4 drones has 2 wounds minimum a model. Combined with a 3+ save (again excluding drones) and the obligatory -1 to hit (or -2 for the Ghost Keels in some situations) and the low model count is less of a factor because its way tougher than the first glance tells you. The best part of the -1 to hit for them is, as I mentioned above, that it works in combat for most of the units. That alone can blunt charges from decent assault troops and essentially negate charges from average units. Tau are known to be weak in combat and it never really showed in my games… I wasn’t doing much damage with my charges but I wasn’t taking much in reply either.
Results
I played 4 games at KRAGS Unending Battlelines event only a couple of weeks ago with my Tau…. You can find the videos on the ObSec Facebook Page but here’s the abridged version
Game 1 vs Space Marines – Dan has 2 Storm Talons, 2 Predators, 2 Razorbacks, 2 units of Tac Marines, 2 units of Scouts, a Hammer Master on Bike and land speeder storm. I won the game on objectives at the bottom of turn 5 when the game ended but we both agreed it was likely a turn 6 draw and an almost certain turn 7 win to him with the chance at tabling me. I just couldn’t kill those storm talons! I lost both Ghost Keels early because I got too aggressive with them but the Stealth Teams clawed it back for me! 18/2 Win
Game 2 vs Astra Militarum – Aven had Creed, 3×10 infantry with a lascannon each, Astropath, Master of Ordanace, Tank commander in Punisher, Armoured Sentinel with lascannon, manticore, Leman Russ tank squadron of a Punisher & Vanquisher and a banewolf chem tank. My infiltrate deployment won me this game really – I was able to kill most of the infantry in the first shooting volley and then charge and surround Creed to keep me safe and then fall back in turn 2 to gun him down. I tagged nearly the entire gun line with charges turn 1 and proceeded to shoot and charge and shoot and charge again and again across all 6 turns. I lost models here and there as well as a Ghost Keel by the end of the game but I was scoring Maelstrom every turn thanks to the multi charges locking up multiple things and Shadowsun deleting things with ease. 20/0 max win
Game 3 vs Tyranids – 2 Flyrants with Devourers and Venom cannons, 3 (or4?) units of 3 rippers, 30(give or take) gargoyles and I believe 6 (or 7?) carnifex with Devourers and Venom Cannons. Alan is a fun guy to play and capitalised on me not going first and hurt me badly By the time I scored my first points of this game I was down 5-1 and never really recovered. I should have played it much like the guard list the round prior as the fex were no better at combat than the tanks were essentially. Shadowsun shone this game taking out both Flyrants back to back before dying and I held on to the bottom of T6 with just a single Shas’Vre alive on 1 wound for a 15/5 loss. Had I gone all in turn 1 it might have been different but I don’t think I would have gotten more than a 12/8 win at best.
Game 4 vs Daemons – Flying Prince, Lord of Change, 30 Plague Bearers, 30 Bloodletters , 2×3 Nurglings, 6 Nurgle Drones, 20 (ish) Flesh Hounds. Daemon bomb incoming! Ben really had no option for where the bloodletters could land because of the way I deployed – zoning him out of most of the table. When they did land, they had to charge through a crater making things even tougher for him. Over the 5 turns I shot and shot and killed everything except the plague bearers and prince and was finally scoring maelstrom cards when we ran out of time and the game ended 12/8 in his favour. I hadn’t really lost much and was confident of pulling out a win Turn 6 or 7 but it wasn’t meant to be. I love maelstrom missions but every now and then the cards hose you and there’s nothing you can do.
Whats next?
A new Tau codex is on the horizon and will likely stir up this army quite a bit. Everything I used felt over priced in general but not stupidly so. I think the change to the Fusion Collider is a solid change for the Ghost Keel but think dropping the second for a ColdStar commander for extra mobility and then adding drones to shadowsun for more reroll options and tanking heavy hits for her would be useful though it does leave me low on proper anti tank options… maybe at 1500 that’s not such a huge issue.
Bring on the 5th Sphere Expansion for the Tau and the Greater God!