Advice wanted for a 1000 pt game vs tau

hi

ive got a 1000 pts game comming up in 2 weeks against tau and im pretty new to playing DE and have never plated against Tau so any advice would be appriciated

currently in thinking of using

archon (agoniser,PGL and shadowfield) with 4 incubi in a venom with splinter cannons (288pts)

8 wyches in raider DL,Flickerfield (150pts)

8 wyches in raider DL, Flickerfield (150pts)

6 reavers with 2 heatlance 156 pts

1 ravenger 3DL and flickerfield 115

total so far 859 (141 pts left)

undecided on what else i should add


currently in my collection i have 9 reavers, 2 razorwings, 2 venoms, 2 raiders, 1 ravager ,1archon,5 incubi ,20 warriors, 6 trueborn with blasters, 10 hellions and 10 scourges and 30 wyches.

If it were me I'd find a way to fill up atleast 1, if not both of the remaining Heavy spots. I'd also drop the Reavers and find a way to get the other Venom in there. Perhaps a 5 man kabalite warrior squad with a single blaster or a 3 man blaster born squad.

drop reavers, add ravager and razorwing. Sprinkle in wyches, and get an agoniser in there

First thing, Incubi are not needed. I love those lil blighters, but this ain't exactly power armor central. Weight of attacks is going to be far more important. So, lets go over what his list will likely contain:

Shas'o: The big cheese, encased in a battlesuit of killiness, this guy can take your vehicles apart in his sleep. One of the nastier combos they have is a plasma rifle teamed with a mini missile launcher (1-2 S6 shots, and 2 S7 iirc) His weakness? Tau are punks in CC. Catch him with a squad of wyches and you may not even need to involve your Archon.

Crisis Suits: The most annoying little jerks in the 40k universe. Armed with jetpacks, they can sit behind a building, move out and shot, then jump back out of LoS in the Assault phase. It will take careful maneuvering to hunt these down, and you must, because they are bristling with S5+ weaponry that will shred those paper airplanes and gib your Archon on a stray shot.

Stealth Suits: They can do the Jetpack scoot as well, and put out a surprising number of shots in the bargain. Stealth fields make them especially annoying, but the answer to that is a punch in the face. (yes, that's the answer to most of the units in the Tau Army.)

Fire Warriors: These guys are going to be a headache if your opponent is intelligent, otherwise, they are laughable. The thing to be careful of, they can Pen your raiders with small arms fire. Use Darklight to puncture their Devilfishes, and isolate in CC. They are pathetic in CC, so muchso that you will likely wipe squads out in the first turn of comat and leave yourself open to reprisal.

Kroot: S4, CC meatshields, their hounds are I6, so be careful on the assault. Honestly, a few bursts of Splinter cannon fire will ssend them packing. Don't underestimate their punch in CC, they are very cheap and have 2 attaks each.

Drones: Ablative wounds for characters, if your opponent fields a unit of them, be happy.

Pirahna: These are painful, small craft that pack just the right kind of guns to give us a headache, and Fast Skimmers to boot. If he fields them, expect to eat a melta shot or two before you can bring them down.

Hammerhead: They autopen your raiders, Darklance these ASAP, because they can also fire a large blast that'll wipe your assault squads off the board.

Broadsides: Same weapon as the Hammerhead (S10) but with one weakness you can exploit; they can be locked in combat. A 90 point Wych squad will take a squad of three out of the game, if not in wounds, than in tarpitting.

The Tau Philosophy is to keep moving and bring torrents of fire onto the individual facets of your opponent's army, and to lure him into a trap. Sound familiar? That's right, They have the same BASIC strategy as us, except they prefer to do it at arms length, and we get up close and personal.

All in all, I'd drop the incubi, the VERY last thing you want is to cut through a squad on the charge.

Night shields are great against Crisis Suits, but worthless against Hammerheads and Broadsides.

I second the advice to drop the Reavers and add in another troop transport, Put in a squad of Blasterborn if you can. The extra darklight is great for opening up devilfish, and the twin SC on their Venom will chew up whatever was inside.

This will get all 4 of your transports on the table, if you can squeeze in the points, (shouldn't be a problem if you drop the Incubi and Reaavers) I'd field the pair of Razorwings. Keep the lances on them, and don't bother upgrading the missiles, S5 wounds them on 2s anyways.

Speed and terrain are your best friends here, Tau and DE are both glass cannons; the trick is that he does it at range, so you need to close with him quickly. The bonus for you? His transports are more expensive than yours, and aren't fast. If he mechs up, he can prolong the inevitable, if he doesn't, then you can just reserve on the razorwings and unleash hell on his clumps of infantry. (For the love of god, keep them in reserve, if he has first turn or seizes init, he'll pop them like balloons on turn one.)

the problem is crisis suits and the shas'o are power armor central. With their mediocre WS and high strength, they will tie up the wyches just as long as they wyches tie them up, and since wyches are his only troop choice...

you might get away with dropping one incubi, as they are your major point sink, but personally I think you should either A: Keep them, or B: get a unit of bloodbrides equal to them and drown them in attacks.

I'll assume you've never played Tau at low points, The chances of running into a pair of triats at that point level are slim to none. Also, 24 attacks 16 hits, 6 wounds, 1 dead suit, that's a decent charge. Now true, an agonizer would be a nice touch; but if he softens the squad up beforehand with some lances of splinter fire, he should be golden. The very VERY last thing he wants is for Archon and Incubi to swoop in with their 15 power weapons, land 10 hits, and do five wounds, killing both the suits and forcing a Ld test that needs a 4 to hold. That leaves them, as Thor so awesomely put it, "standing in a puddle of gore high fiving each other while every gun on the other side aims at them."

Hi Guys

Thanks for all the feedback so far I will definately drop the Incubi/reavers and rework my list tonight to post for comments

Cheers

Ok

Heres my revised list

Archon (agoniser,PGL and shadowfield) (135pts) hitches a ride with the unit of 7 bloodbrides

7 Bloodbrides in raider DL,Flickerfield (161pts)

7 wyches in raider DL, Flickerfield (180pts)
1 Hekatrix with Agoniser

5 Warriors with venom (splinter cannon upgrade (110pts)

3 Trueborn with Blasters with venom (136pts)

1 ravenger 3DL and flickerfield 115

1 Razorwing DL flickerfield 155pts


992 total