Think I might have cracked open Farsight cheese...

Tau, missiles, ignores cover, riptides, no line of site needed cheese is a pain. Can be horrible but today, after a lovely 14:4 victory against Farsight, crisis list containing 3 riptides, 6 broadsides (3 squads with plenty if drones and plenty of missiles), multiple marker lights and as many crisis teams as possible. I think I have an actual method for beating tau consistently. This is the 5th victory on the trot with these basic tactics against Tau (3 separate players, one of which is a very successful tournie vet and beat him for the second time the other night). So here are my 10 commandments which I have found to be great:

1) Though shall use a Grotesquery
2) Though shall place thy Grots in Raiders with Enhanced Sails and place oneself as close to there faces as possible
3) Count to turn 2, not 1, 3 is too much and 5 is too high to release the grotesques
4) Venoms with small squads with blasters are sublime
5) Scourges with Blasters are now known as broadside-be-gone
6) Do not use reavers unless you want then to be wiped out very quickly
7) Dark Artisans if the game allows prove to be a real thorn in Tau's side
8 ) Blasters Blasters Blasters
9) Focus as much of your army on his most mobile flank so you wipe them out, keep the fight unfair
10) Blasters. Just bring as many blasters/dark lances as possible for insta-kill shenanigans

SOLID plan

instagibbing those sorry asses gives my pants a rise

let Thy will be done

How do you run your Dark Artisan?

Haemocules: web way portal, scissorhand

Talos: Ichor injector, splinter cannon

Chronos: Probe

Pretty basic but saves unnecessary points to use elsewhere. The most successful list I've been running I essentially:

Dark artisans (as above)
Grotesquery: 2x (4x grotesques) haemocules, syndics sump, scissorhand, 2x raiders with sails
Archon: Agoniser, shadowfield ( with grots)
4x (5xWarriors with blaster in venom)
2 x 5x scourges with 4 blasters
Ravager with dark lances

Grots just wreck tau. Lethal rose on stuff is great at getting rid of riptides if you are lucky and blasters laugh at broadsides!

This is at 2000 give or take "filler units" but at 1500 its similar minus the dark artisans. DA is great but expensive. And the grots "drug roll" is so so so good. Play a game with 8 grots with FnP 4+standard and they are untouchable.

Then against Tau I've to forget the reavers for scourges? What make them more fragile when facing Tau ?

Maestitia wrote:

Then against Tau I've to forget the reavers for scourges? What make them more fragile when facing Tau ?

They ignore cover with marker on almost any unit, and without jinking reavers will be splattered in a volley.

Thanks for the rule Javorra.
I note the combo blaster+venom is a constant great choice for DE army list, but is it not too hazardous to pay the high price for 5 Trueborns with 4 blasters in a transport? I mean, losing 5 kabalite is one thing but losing 5 Trueborns is a real pain in the arse for us.

Yes it's a pain, but it's basically our only choice to field 4 S8 weapon (apart from scourges).

Nice thread there Grub. Thanx for the tactics and list ideas.

Big tough stuff out front, venoms and blasters follow up (and clean up), take out the mobility first. Seems simple and effective, I will try it out.

Can't see anything wrong with that logic vs farsight. How does it roll vs other armies? Not too bad I'd wager.

Great info, Grub. Thanks very much for posting it. I find Tau to be by far the most annoying, frustrating army to play against as DE due to all of their ignore cover/SMS shenanigans. I haven't played against them yet since the new codex came out, but based on everything I've read, it seems like the Coven supplement, particularly the formations, provide a lot of good ways to deal with Tau.

Thank you guys, hope it works for you as well!

Against other armies it is pretty effective. Crisis suit Tau without burst cannons can sometimes struggle to force lots of saves. They have lots of special weapons for hurting a few things but struggle with numbers. Other armies less so, and grots can go down quite quick to massed shooting if you aren't careful! But I have had no problems although against almost any other army I would want to squeeze some reavers in somehow. Also, not great against GK when they charge those force weapons!

Also, I think besides Tau, goes for anything, play to your opponents weakness. Tau leadership with modifiers is poor really, so is the initiative so cutting them down in combat is a nice way to clear stubborn units!