Saturday, May 18, 2013

The Fourth Phase Expansion


"Those of you who would flinch at the horrors you commit, those of you who would lament the lives you extinguish, the land we claim, the fields we scour, the towns we burn, the bastions we smash - indeed these are terrible acts we are about to commit. These acts are deeds for good. The fury of war fans the flames of the greater good. For it is ever the star of the Tau'va that guides us through misery, death, and fatigue to emerge once more in a universe re-forged. These men you are about to kill are naught but the building blocks of a new age."
-Aun'O Naganito Kirosasha

A little flavor text to get you into it. True, the greater good is the only justification for our brutal new codex. There's just so much to like about it. I played my first game today against my buddy, who actually helped me craft the list I used. 

What a blast! I feel like a young shas'la again, lifting his pulse rifle for the first time. Delighted by its power, but still too inexperienced to wield it elegantly. 

Broadsides are still one of my favorite units and attaching a commander with the puretide engram chip made them effective despite the drop in strength. Marker lights are now amazing - combine them with storm of fire for ridiculous woundings. I was rolling 30 shots at times, scoring 15-20 wounds with a single fire warrior squad.

One thing we noticed instantly was that if Tau aren't facing large blasts, they can bunch up and make themselves unassailable. Thus helps them make use of the supporting fire rule and ethereal invocation powers to maximum effect.

Along the same lines, it seems you can't just rush at Tau anymore and hope to make it intact. Enemies will need some sort of long range fire to soften up the battle line before one can advance. We talked after the game about how Guard have what it takes. If you wanna beat Tau, get yourself some Guard allies - manticores for the win! Space wolf long fangs aren't a bad choice either. 

I think I want CommanderFar sight. Not to build a farsightbomb as much as to add an element of daring into my games. For the most part, today was about being an effective shooter and maximizing the efficiency of markerlights, instead I want some more action! Farsight could add what I'm looking for. Thoughts?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Your post pretty much summarizes my feelings too about the new codex. It's exciting and fun!
Also since you are going to use Com. Farsight put him in a unit that can use markerlights to deep strike near enemy artillery units. So you can disrupt enemy artillery with seeker missiles and of course Farsight himself. That way you can get blasts away and get action too.

Garnet said...

Farsight is solid, but it's Shadowsun who's tempting me. I already have plenty of daring with my Commander (Iridium/Stims/2xPR, AFP); what I need from Shadowsun is the perfect accompaniment to my Riptide. T6/2+/5++, with Stealth/Shrouded, 3D6" Thrust move and a drone that lets it re-roll its Gets Hot's on top of all that? Yes please!

Lord Alchemy said...

I had my first game with them last week and all I could say is wow, just wow. Dual missile pod suits for the win, I had units of 3 suits with dual missile pods putting out 12 shots a turn!! Just glad to see you excited again, your enthusiasm was sorely missed!!

Cobalt Cannon said...

It's just awesome to see your tau on the field again Tim!

I have a few questions for you if you get time to answer them.

I see that you are using a hammerhead with ion cannon. How do you like it now that you get that nice large blast ability?

On your crisis suits, are you using burst cannons and missile pods, or are those Paulson vulcans proxies for plasma rifles? If burst cannons, has the extra shot made a major improvement to them or minor?

Why drones on your tanks instead of Smart Missile Systems?

No Piranhas?

Lastly, have you tried stealth suits again?

Take care Tim and keep kicking butt!

Tim said...

Hey Cobalt,

Using the Ion Cannon to start but decided to switch to the railgun for long range land raider destruction. haha

The crisis suits were actually being run with tl-plasma and plasma because I was cheesing it out. But in future will have the burst cannon/TL-missile combo.

I put drones on my tanks because I LOVE the fact that they are not VPs. I use those drones for assault-blockage. Drones are actually really good overwatchers because of being TL.

Had 3 piranhas but weren't in the photo. heh.

Haven't tried stealthsuits yet, but will soon!

Chuckles said...

Clearly, I need to finish(start) painting my Eldar to be ready when their new codex comes out and I can show you upstarts how it is done.

We can post some size comparisons of the fire warriors => battlesuits => broadsides => riptide against my guardians => wraithguard => wraithlord => wraithknight => PHANTOM TITAN.

And we could maybe play some games again.