1500pts Urien Led - Tau Grudgematch!

Comments appreciated.

HQ/
Urien

Heamonculus, Liquifier - 60pts

Elites/
3 Grotesques, Aberration, Liquifier- 125pts
Raider, Darklance, Flicker Field- 70pts

5 Mandrakes

Troops/
8 Wracks, Acothyst, Liquifier- 100pts
Raider, Darklance, Flicker Field, Trophies- 75pts

9 Wyches, Syb, Power Weapon, Hydra Gauntlets- 120pts
Raider, Darklance, Flicker Field, Trophies- 75pts

5 Warriors, Blaster- 60pts
Venom, Double Cannon- 65pts

5 Warriors, Blaster- 60pts
Venom, Double Cannon- 65pts

Fast Attack/
5 Scourge, 2 Haywire Blasters- 130pts

Heavy Support/
Ravager, 3 Lances, Flicker Field- 115pts

Ravager, 3 Lances, Flicker Field- 115pts

Well apart from the mandrakes, not really sure what the go is there, it looks like a nice list. Yeah, I can't really pick flaws in it as Tau field lots of battlesuits, you won't need as much AT. The only problem I have is with the mandrakes. They will get shredded before they can do anything (thinking of burst cannons here).

The mandrakes are there as an outflanking threat. Just to put some pressure on, they are cheap and if they get stuck in they will shred some tau!

I had a detailed post written up, but realized it was mostly useless. If you each get to pull from a large pool of miniatures, and get to tailor your lists, then any advice about typical effectiveness against "Tau" goes out the window.

For example, the idea that AT is of lessened value fails before this:

60 Fire Warriors
5 Devilfish
3 Hammerheads
HQ+Crisis Team

Which is pretty close to 1500, IIRC. Unworthy for a tournament (in the words of my friend, the Tau player with all of the models!), but perfect for dissecting an assaulting Dark Eldar army with light AT. Frankly, this list would still challenge the most AT stacked list with it's fancy 4+ cover saves that cost 5 points, not that I'm bitter!

So, I would ask: what does he have access to? Do you expect him to metagame? Does he run a themed list around a special character?

In case I don't get a chance to reply to your response before you play, my main comment is that with a Coven list against Tau of any flavor, I would aim for non-traditional deployment. That usually means Webway Portal, and there are probably dozens of articles about WWP Coven lists on here. Alternately: Duke Sliscus. If he knows you're playing Coven and expects Urien, only to have Grotesques and Wracks fall out of the sky into his backyard, the look on his face will be worth the trouble.

The secondary point I would make is spread your units out. Maximum unit number, minimum squad size. Max out your Troops, certainly, whether you need more skimmers with more threats to be deployed traditionally, or to reduce the variance of coming from reserves.

Mostly though: do you have the goods on what he's going to play?

Thanks for the comment. If you watch,my latest batrep on the youtube channel he should be running something similar to that. He does not know that i own coven units, i just purchased and will paint them for the game on wednesday.

What the hell are "Pathfinder Tetras"? Vehicles?
If those are lightly armoured, perhaps get some dissies on your Raiders for killing his battle suits and Pathfinders. You might even shoot down his piranhas if you hit their side-armour.

Tetras are a fast skimmer that has a heavy 4 markerlight system, for a reasonable pt cost. A helluva lot better than foot pathfinders. They really help the tau compete.