LVO Results - A chance to look at the 40k meta (Beware: Mild Number Crunching)

The LVO (Las Vegas Open) Results are out, and as it's one of (if not the) largest tournaments in the world it's always nice to crunch the numbers and see does the meta of that tournament follow our thinking of which armies are the top dog.

First some pretty huge caveats:

• This is one tournament, and even if it is large it is still a small sample size as any statistician would tell you.
• With most tournaments having comp that will always change slightly which armies are good, with some armies being able to adjust to the comp better than others.  For the comp in this tournament, please look up the ITC (Independent Tournament Circuit) Rules
• Results can be skewed by several factors, eg. some people do not complete all their games leading to them having a lower placing than someone who does complete all their games, an army's primary detachment may be a very small portion of the overall army.

So while we should treat all such analysis with a pinch of salt, hopefully the above factors in some cases even themselves out with a large number of competitors.

The full results of the tournament can be found here.

So lets start off my with my predictions (honest I did these before the analysis):

• All the analysis tables will be dominated by the top 4 Codexs (Eldar, Necrons, Marines for which I include Dark Angels & and finally Tau), ie. the recent codexs with Decurian type detachments (although in the case of Eldar I think their detachment is not their strength, which I think is the base unit cost of their units meaning a CAD with an allied Aspect Host(s) being very powerful for them.  Mainly the top 4 are the most recent codexs
• They will be some placings for some armies, such as Daemons & Khorne Daemonkin, but the results will show the rest of the codexs are definitely chasing the top 4 in terms of performance, however good generals can get good results.
• The last stat I like to do, which shows how widespread an armies results are, which to me shows how much a good or bad general can influence the army, I'm not to sure on what this will show.  People like to say that anyone can win with Eldar, but to me they are becoming (like Marines) an army that everyone knows because they are so powerful and becoming so popular.  When I'm playing my Necrons or Tau I feel I know the Eldar better than my opponents know Tau or Necrons and that I have less to fear if I'm playing a worse player.  However in general I still see Eldar smash average generals with average armies whoever they are piloted by.  I think Marines will still have a wide spread of results as they are a popular army and many beginners start with them.

Well onto the stats, and lets take a look at army popularity:

Well no surprises here with my view of the top armies dominated both the field and also the top 50 placings.  A shout out to Dark Angels which got 10% of the top 50 placings while being only 4% of the field.

A stat that starts to shows the power of a codex is to look at how much more they factor in the Top 50 compared to the overall field.  If we ignore the armies with less than 10 armies, we get the following table:

A bit of a surprise (for me anyway) with Dark Angels topping the list, I suppose I need to pay more attention to them.  Apart from that things were as expected apart from Marines, which had nearly the same percentage in the top 50 as they had in the entire field.  Cult Mech and Nids also did well (however the Nids sample is very small, eg. it could have been just 2 armies with loads of Flying Hive Tyrants making the top 50, which would say much for the rest of the codex).

Now lets look at the average placing:

Eldar still dominate along with Marines, Tau & Necrons, but Cult Mech gets a good showing.  I particularly like to look at the stats for the top 50, as this shows what a good general can get out of the army, and also gets rid of the newer players bringing marines.  This brings up a few things, first being the Necrons did very well in the top 50 along with Daemons (although a very small number, 3, made the top 50).  The Chaos Marines, Nids and Daemons armies indicate that is may have been a very specific build that made the top 50 as the overall performance of the three armies was very low.

And now we come to the last stat, which tries to represent the spread of the armies.  To calculate this I looked at each player and how far their position is away from the average for their army, and then divide this by the number of players.  Again just looking at the armies which had 10 or more entrants we get the following table:

At the top of the list we have the armies which had the narrowest spread in the army placings.  In the case of the top three I think it's because it's hard (not impossible) to place in such a competitive field regardless of how good a general you are.  Another view could be that people who take the weaker armies are there more to have fun and socialise, my counter is that even if you are there to have fun and socialise a good general should do better than a worse, and although this is true with these weaker armies it isn't as much as other armies.

Next we have Cult Mech and Eldar.  It may be controversial to some, but it can be hard to pick a weak list for Eldar once you don't pick silly choices, a complaint I've even heard from Eldar players trying to tone down their list when playing against some of the lower tier armies.

Next we have the middle of the road (in terms of spread), here we have Space Marines (being a very popular first army, so can have lots of newer players as well as experienced players), Daemons & Dark Angels.

Lastly we have a big surprise, in the bottom three we have both Tau and Necrons, which had bigger spread of performance than the average, only beaten by Nids.  The new Tau codex might have had an impact with people trying out the new toys and formations, and not having enough practice time with them, but the Necrons is definitely a surprise.  My only idea is that Necrons can be a win big or lose big army, in that they are very resistant to most shooting, but can be susceptible to some types of firepower and can get sweep easily in close combat.  Examples include a Cavalry and Beasts Space Wolf army could go throw a Necron force like a knife through butter, sprinkle in some allied firepower or a Knight and it could be very tough prospect for a Necron force.  Even though these two armies being low on the spread chart is surprising, and I'm sure the Tau will improve as people get used to the new options in the new codex, or maybe even realise that some of the old ones are still good (I'm doing well and i haven't built my Ghstkeel yet or even purchased a Stormsurge)..


So did anything surprise you ?  Why do you think Tau & Necrons had such a huge spread (I may expand on my thoughts in a future post) ?  Personally I'm going to have another look at the Cult Mech codex and the nasty formation that combined Cult Mech with Skitarii and Imperial Knights.

Lastly this was the meta at this one tournament, and is irrelevant for your local meta, and more importantly the group of mates you play with.  The meta in the UK will be different, the meta in the north US, the meta in the next tournament will be different, however I think it does give an indicator of what codexs are the most powerful, and wasn't toooo far out on my initial predictions, but even I will be doing a bit more research to be more familiar with Dark Angels and Cult Mech.

Rathstar

Hunter Contingent [Tau] - Part 2 (The Best of the New Formations)

Well after looking at the basics of the Hunter Contingent, and the change to our pre-existing formation (here) it's time to look at the owww ahhhh part of the codex, with a look at what I think are the best of the remaining formations in the new Tau Codex


Optimised Stealth Cadre

This is my favorite formation, it includes the stunning new Ghostkeel model, the formation is so good that it gets my XV15 Stealth suits that haven't seen a battlefield in years out of the case, it helps with anti-tank, and is very very markerlight efficient.

For this formation you will need a unit of Ghostkeels and two units of Stealth Suits.  There is no restrictions on size of the formation so it can be as cheap as 310pts (however I think you should always upgrade the Ghostkeel's secondary weapon to at least a twin-linked burst cannon, making the minimum cost 315pts).  What makes this formation so good is the Wall of Mirrors special rule:

Basically at the start of the game you should just tell your opponent that this formation will be activating the Wall of Mirrors every turn (as there is no downsides).  It's interesting to note that the units in the formation do not have to fire at the same target to get the benefits, so you could fire at three different targets all with +1 BS, Ignore Cover and hitting rear armour.  However if you do decide to all fire at the same unit then they can benefit from the Hunter Contingent's Co-ordinated Firepower rule to gain a further +1 BS to mean all the shots will be hitting on 2+.  Hitting on 2's with Ignore Cover is like having 4 free markerlight tokens against any of the formations target - that is just a brilliant bonus.

Since the previous codex when broadside railguns were reduced from strength 10 to 8, Tau have struggled a bit with high value armour.  A hammerhead is a bit expensive for 1 shot a turn that misses a third of the time.  We were almost forced to take fusion guns and try to get within 9" to get the melta effect with either Piranhas or Crisis Suits.  However most vehicles have low value rear armour, perfect examples being Predators, Necron vehicles with Quantum Shielding, Leman Russ tanks.  For most of the these vehicles the rear armour is 2 to 3 points less than the front armour, meaning that the strength 5, 7 or 8 (all three units can get fusion weapons) guns in this formation could really do a number on them.

Lastly be aware that the Ghostkeel is the lynchpin of this formation.  If the Ghostkeel's are dead the Wall of Mirrors does nothing, so if you opponent snipes your Ghostkeels you'll just be left with subpar Stealth Suits.  Keep your Ghostkeel(s) safe (well as much as possible given the short range on the Ghostkeel's weapons).  For this reason I think the formation really starts to shine when you put a 2nd Ghostkeel to the Ghostkeel unit, making it much harder to take out the Ghostkeel unit.


Burst Cannon or Fusion ??

This is more of a personal choice and will depend on the type of vehicles you normally encounter and how much anti-heavy tank firepower your army already has.  With fusion to get the most of it you have to get within 9" for the melta ability to take effect, which may be dangerous.

Outside of 9" you may think that with ignore cover you'd want the AP1 of the fusion gun, however with four times the shots and a good strength of five, the burst cannon will kill as many marines as the fusion gun.  Going against rear armour, in terms of stripping hull points the burst cannon does just as well as the fusion gun against anything it can hurt (AV10 & 11).

The fusion also has the chance of causing instant death to T3 and T4 models, but to start with I'm going to try saving points and just using the burst cannons.  This will give my 315 point formation 6 str 7 shots and 30 str5 shots.  I can't wait to assemble and paint my Ghostkeel so I can try it out.


Retaliation Cadre

The biggest issue with this formation is that it is quite a large formation, which may make it hard to fit into a Hunter Contingent along side a Hunter Cadre*.  The formation consists of a Commander, 3 units of Crisis Suits, a Broadside unit and a Riptide unit; taking the crisis suits as units of one, but giving them weapons will see the formation cost roughly 500-550points, and this will rise sharply if you add more crisis suits and additional wargear.  Personally I also don't like spending too much on HQ characters and this formation forces you to bring a second commander* (after the one in the Hunter Cadre).

The whole formation gains Relentless (only really a factor for the Broadside, but a very nice buff).  If the whole formation is kept in reserve then they all deepstrike on turn 2 automatically (even the Broadside) and get +1 BS on the turn they deepstrike.

Again nice benefits, and will cause absolute havoc the turn they deepstrike (with a guarantee that they will come in early).  To make the most of this I would try to put a few homing beacons in your army.  Ethereals, Tetras & Stealth Suits & Pathfinders (one of their special drones) can buy them.  Also remember that a unit does not need to be on the table at the start of the turn for it's homing beacon to be used (unlike the Imperial equivalent) so you could deepstrike a Stealth unit with a Homing Beacon and then deepstrike Crisis Suits with 6" with no scatter (you just have the risk that the Stealth Suits arrive after turn 2).

Also be wary that deepstriking the formation will mean a large amount of points are off the board for what could be 2 enemy shooting phases, so you will have to build the rest of your army with this in mind.


* Both of these issues can be removed by playing the Dawn Blade Contingent from the Montka Campaign, for which the core formation can be the Retaliation Cadre.

I think the top 3 picks for formations to add to a Hunter Cadre to make a Hunter Contingent are the three already discussed (Firebase Support, Optimised Stealth & Retaliation), and along with the cheap Drone Network auxiliary choice, are the main ones you should choose between.  There is however one more formation that I think is good, it's just very expensive to field:


Heavy Retribution Cadre

This formation is expensive.  It contains a unit of Ghostkeels and 2 units of Stormsurges, making the minimum points 850, and you will want to spend more on weapon and wargear upgrades (eg. replacing the flamer secondary weapons, giving the Stormsurges an invulnerable save etc.).  To field the formation as pictured above (from the GW website) the unit would cost a minimum of 1110, and more importantly cost you £315 to buy.

Although the formation is (in my mind) impractical to field apart from in the largest of battles the formation rules are nice.  The Stormsurges can reroll to hit against targets within 12" of any of the formation's Ghostkeels, plus if an enemy unit is fired on by 2 or more of the units in the formation then they can not Run or move Flat Our, plus must halve the results of charges range in their next turn (helpful to reduce their mobility and keep the Ghostkeels from being charged).

If you have big pockets and regularly play big games this formation may be worth it for you.  However in smaller games I would rather have a Ghostkeel unit as part of the Optimised Stealth Cadre and not be forced to bring at least two Stormsurges.

Well that's it for the formations from the new Tau Codex that I believe are going to be used regularly.  However that's not all the new formations that will be used in Tau armies.  The Montka Campaign supplement gave us other formations, such as the Riptide Wing, Drone-Net VX1-0, Etheral Council & Ranged Support Cadre among others.

Next post I will go over the Co-ordinated Firepower rule and it's implications and then look at the additional formations in the Montka Campaign supplement.



What do you think of the formations I've dicussed ?  Will you be using them ?  Did I miss out a formation that you think is great ?  Let me know in the comments.

Until next time, happy gaming :)

Rathstar

Hunter Contingent [Tau] - Part 1 (Overview, Firebase Support Cadre & Hunter Cadre)

Note: This post was originally started in November, and since then I've been waiting for the controversy about the Coordinated Firepower rule to settle down.  Well now it is time to finish this part of the post, and put my thoughts on the Coordinated Firepower rule in a seperate post where I can do it justice - not the rule itself, but the options on how it could be played and Tournament Organisers could rule it.



In a previous post I said I was amased that there was going to be practically no changes to the stats, weapons and options of the Tau units which did not have a new release.  This lead me to stupidily think there would be little change in how competitive the Tau army would be, and that there would be many new units being used in Tau units.

Well I still think that there will be little change to the units seen on the tabletop for Tau armies, it'll be the same as before with the addition of the Stormsurge (see below for my change of heart) and the Ghostkeel (again I'll explain further down why).  Breacher teams will be seem briefly until most people see that a 5" range (the only range it's better than a pulse rifle armed fire warrior) combined with a overpriced devilfish to get them into range is not that effective.

So what's changed ?  Well formations :)  Tau followed the trend of previous codexs and got a Detachment of Formations and Codex enties.  The Tay version is called the Hunter Contingent, and like the ones before it requires a core formation (in this case the Hunter Cadre) and 1-10 Auxillery choices.  Here's the rules for the Hunter Contingent::

[Click on the pics to read them better]

The thing that jumps out is the Coordinated Firepower rule:

Caveat Controversy:

I think the biggest thing this rules shows is that GW doesn't playtest any rules in any depth.  Any casual Tau play immediately looks at the Coordinated Firepower rule and thinks, a nice fluffy rule that really helps against deathstars and must be used carefully not cause overkill and waste firepower, but then in seconds will think "hang on a second, have that thought this through", when they consider all the rule interactions and wargear that was point costed when they could affect only one (in most cases a specific) unit and now could affect multiple units under the coordinted firepower rule.

Now the rule (to me anyway) quite clear, most most people (myself included) thought GW would no doubt GW will FAQ it, as they couldn't have considered all the implications.  However to our surprise GW has been silent on the matter, and the closest thing is an e-mail from GW saying that the rule would not be FAQed because they meant exactly what the rule said.

Link to Facebook showing reply from GW: here
and the same from Imgur: here

Rather than discuss the Coordinated Firepower rule here, I'm going to leave it to another post (not to soon, as I promised a tournament organiser I would spell out the issues and options for his tournament).  Instead I will highlight the top formtions, just my opinion, that the Tau can now take (in no particular order).



"Mark a target and we will wipe it out"

Although this was a quote from the Skyray in Dawn of War I think it's a good for what I believe was the only Tau formation we previously had and the one I believe will still be a popular with the new codex (although it will get a lot of competition now); The Firebase Support Cadre:

This formation consists of a (unit of) Riptide(s) and two units of Broadsides (any size now).  The formation, compared to before, and been both nerfed and buffed.  Before  the formation got Tank Hunter and Prefered Enemy (Space Marines) innately.  Now they do not get Prefered Enemy at all and the formaton all has to fire at the same target to get Tank Hunter.  On the plus side the broadside units do not have to have the maxiumum of 3 broadsides in the team, meaning this formation does not have to be as many points as it was before.  The formation is also careful to say that all "models" have to fire at the same target unit (rather the all units have to) to get the formation benefits so target locks can not get round this.  A second nice bonus is that when the units fire together at the same target they get monster hunter as well as tank hunter, meaning the targets that the formation is very good against has expanded, partiularly when Wraithknights and Guargantuan Bloodthirsters are around.

Overall the changes are definitely a nerf compared to the previous formation, however I think it will still be popular because it gives a second access to Tank Hunter, and now Monster Hunter (the first being the Puretide Engram Chip signature system available to Commanders, and Crisis Suit Shas'vres).

At decent range the Tau have alot of str 5 and str 7 shooting, but at that range they struggle with the weaponry to kill av13 and av14 or T8 Wraithknights.  Before I used the Firebase Support Cadre to allow me to deal with av13, with so many str7 shots from the broadsides they could take out av13 targets like Imperial Knights, and luckily av14 targets were rare.

Without massed Sniper Drone and Broadside firepower boosted by Monster Hunter (and in the case of Sniper Drones also boosted by the Ethereal's Storm of Fire ability)  I think there's only one way to effectively deal with Wraithkights and other high toughness Guargantuan creatures, and thats a Stormsurge with markerlights making the destroyer missiles str D (that's the game changer that was not in the Wgite Dwarf preview that has changed my mind on Stormsurges).  Some people will take the Stormsurge route, but for those that don't I highly recommend the Tank Hunter and Monster Hunter available from the Firebase Support Cadre (along with the Puretide Engram Chip).



Hunter Cadre

This is the Core formation of the Hunter Contingent.  It is a very flexible formation, that will mainly be taken to get access to the Coordinated Firepower rule of the Hunter Contingent.

It's best to think of the formation as a slightly more onerous CAD, with a fixed HQ option.  The requirments are:
1 Commander
0-1 Cadre Fireblade
1-3 Elites
3-6 Troops
1-3 Fast Attack (excluding the flyers)
1-3 Heavy Support ot Lords of War (excluding Skyrays)

Notable exceptions are the remaining HQ choices, eg. no Ethereals or Darkstrider, unless you have a seperate CAD, no forgeworld, and no (non formation) fotifications.  Darkstider will not been seen unless you play that if he joins a unit that his part of the Hunter Contingent his structural analyser works on all the units that are part of a Coordinated Firepower.  Ethereals can be included in your army in one of three ways;

• as part of a Command choice of the Hunter Contingent, which also requires a Commander and a Crisis bodyguard team.  The crisis bodyguard team is inefficient compared to normal crisis suits, and while a Commander is ok, is a second needed when you already have one in the Hunter Cadre.
• by including a CAD detachment, for the min expenditure of 90 points for 2 units of fire warriors and an Ethereal, you open up lots of slots, that can also be used to include forgeworld, and fortifications - this is my preferred option as it also allows me to use my Tetras (although MSU Pathfinders and Marker drones give them more of a run for their money).
• one last option is the Ethereal Council formation from the Mont'ka suppliment, however you have to have 3-7 ethereals that have to join together as a single unit and still a give up an additional victory point for each one killed

The Hunter Cadre is so flexible that it is easy to convert any old codex list into the Huntre Cadre as it plays like a slighter larger CAD.  However there is a sizable minimum points cost to the formation, which may become an issue if you want to fit in a number of other formations.  For example if you want to use the Firebase Support Cadre you may not want another Elite or more Heavy Support choices.  This is particularly an issue if you want to play the Retailiation Cadre (which includes 3 crisis suit units, a broadside unit, a riptide unit and a commander).

Some of the Tau formations are so good, that an argument could be made for just taking the formations and not bothering with the Hunter Cadre, or just taking a very small CAD (which also has the benefit of having Objective Secured) for a much smaller points cost, allowing more points to be spent on the good formations.  If you took the Retailiation Cadre, Firebase Support Cadre and the Optimsed Stealth Cadre that could be a fluffy suit based army in itself that also has very additional formation good rules, that can be built to deal with any enemy force.

The main benefits of the Hunter Cadre is ok (units can give supporting fire within 12", and can run and fire if close to the commander or cadre fireblade), but in many cases these benefits are not as good as some of the benefits in the other formations.

Ultimately if doesn't come down to whether you like the special rules of this formation, but whether you want the special rules of the Hunter Contingent, mainly Coordinated Firepower.

The Coordiated Firepower rules makes markerlights much more effective, as they can affect multiple units, however if your army is less depenent on marker lights, and/or has large powerful units (which will ovekill units if they combined firepower) then you could be best not using the Hunter Contingent.  Another benefit of the Coordinated Firepower rules is the +1 BS if 3 or more units combine fire but if your formation already gives you extra BS (eg. the Optimsed Stealth Cadre) or gives twin-linked, you may not need the Coordinated Firepower rule as much.

My current army has lots of units, and most of them are in the 80-150 points region, so I know combining 3-5 of them will not kill a unit of marines, so I could do with the +1 BS and more efficient use of marker lights, so I will take the Hunter Cadre because I want to use the Hunter Contngent rules, not for the formation in itself.

In time as I buy more models and experiment with Stormsurges, units of multiple Ghostkeels, and some of the bigger formations I may not need the Coordinated Firepower rule as much, and therefore I would forgo the Hunter Cadre to spend more points of the formations I do want.



That's all for now, next post I wlll look into the best (imho) of the new formations.

What's your opinion on the Hunter Cadre and the Firebase Support Cadre ?  Do you use them, and what do think of the competition they face from the other formations ?

Rathstar

PS.  I little gem I found while researching this article is a formation compendium located on the Blood of Kittens website (link here).  It has a record of all legal formations and is a great resouce

[40k] First Thoughts on Grey Knights

Intro

Well I’ve had the Grey Knights book for a couple of weeks now, and I’ve been using some of the time I spend travelling on the train, and my evenings, looking through the book to ensure my armies are ready to face them.

Overall Assessment

When you see an army across the battlefield you need to quickly know the main strengths and weaknesses of it.  To do this quickly you should immediately know the main strengths and weaknesses of each race and then see how your specific opponent has strayed away from an average build (eg. more firepower at the expense of mobility etc.).

So what have the Grey Knights for a main theme ?  Looking through each of the unit entries the overwhelming impression that you get is that they are very good in close combat, particularly against units with good armour saves and/or multiple wounds.  The standard marine stat line, complimented by good psychic powers which increase their close combat ability (eg. +1 str before weapon modification, all their attacks causing instant death etc.), and an excellent line of close combat weapons (ranging from the basic nemisis force weapon to free or very cheap upgrades to force weapon thunderhammers, initiative 6 force weapons and even a defensive force weapon that gives a 2++ save in close combat).

As if the close combat ability wasn’t enough a closer look will show that their anti infantry firepower is not bad either.  All Grey Knights start with a storm bolter, and the options just get better and better.  Units and vehicles can have psy bolt ammunition that boosts the strength of bolters, autocannons & assault cannons by 1.  This upgrade is not that expensive (the cost of a tau fire warrior for dreads, twice that for squads, and half the cost of a fire warrior for rhinos/razorbacks).  You could have a squad of 10 Grey Knights throw out 20 shots at str 5.  Riflemen Dreadnaughts (dreads armed with 2 twin linked autocannons) become even nastier for 10 pts (over their marine counterparts) when their shots go from str 7 to 8.

Standard upgrade weapons for Grey Knights squads are the Incinerator (a heavy flamer with +1 str), Psilencer (a heavy 6 bolt gun that always wounds deamons on at least 4+) and Psycannon (an assault 2 or heavy 4, 24” range, str 7 ap4 rending weapon).  One notable omission from the grey knights arsenal is melta weapons (although they do have the ap1 missiles on the storm raven).  Two ways Grey Knight armies can get melta is on dreadnaughts, and taking warriors in the henchmen unit.  Warriors are 4pt guardsmen that can take 3 special weapons (eg. meltaguns) and can be mounted in a chimera.

Grey Knights can also be a heavy terminator army, with basic terminators as troops, and a new elite slot terminators with WS5 and 2 wounds.  The troops terminators are the same cost as standard marine terminators and come with nemesis force weapons (which can be upgraded to the other nemesis weapons) and storm bolters.  They have the same weapon upgrades as normal grey knights.

Overall we have an elite army that is very good at close combat and has good mid range (particularly 24” range anti infantry firepower).  Long range firepower will come in the form of dreadnaughts, razorbacks or land raiders.  Melta weapons are in short supply (mainly dreadnaughts and landraiders multimeltas or henchmen meltaguns).

The main weakness of Grey Knights (apart from heavy henchmen army builds) will be the toughness of the Grey Knights.  Although they have lots of boosts to their offensive abilities they die just as easily as a basic marine.  Plus their terminators do not get access to storm shields, and their elite two wound terminators (paladins) can be instant killed easily with only a 5+ invulnerable save from shooting.  Slightly increase your low AP and high strength weapons and your shooting should do well.

Basic Grey Knights are also slow outside their transport.  So tactics should include trying to out deploy or outmanoeuvre them and shoot their transports early.  The Grey Knights are also another incentive to mechanise your army more.  This will have the twofold effect of stretching their limited and/or short ranged anti tank and protecting your troops from their very effective anti-infantry firepower.

These general weakness flow through the entire list, as outside inquisitors and henchmen you only have the same grey knight unit and a two variants of terminator units.  In general terms for powered armoured grey knight units you have:

• The standard grey knight troop unit
• A elite unit that can take more special weapons
• A heavy unit that can take more special weapons
• A unit that has personal teleporters to make them jump infantry

Treat them all the same way you would treat their marine counterparts, apart from close combat because they are all good at close combat and require special attention if you intend to deal with them in close combat (particularly if your army has a good armour save as the nemisis weapons will cut straight through it).

Basic tactics against elite armies that will help against Grey Knights are:

• Try to pop their transports early to reduce their mobility, reducing the chance they can use their good close combat ability much or coordinate and focus their excellent short to mid range shooting.
• Try to refuse flank them and/or split up their army allowing you to deal with the enemy in small chunks, while the rest does not play too large a part in the battle.  While this tactic can be used against most armies the fact they Grey Knights need to get to close combat to make the full use of all their abilities and the short range (normally 24”) on their infantry means this tactic can be devastating to them if pulled off well.

Things to Watch Out For

• Daemon Hammers:  These are an upgrade to the standard nemisis force weapon.  It is a force weapon and a thunderhammer at the same time.  When combined with the Hammerhand psychic power which gives +1 str before weapon modifications it gives the Grey Knight Str 10.  This can instant kill T5 troops (such as thunderwolves) and make it much easier for the Grey Knight to deal with dreadnaughts in close combat
• Nemisis Halberds give the user initiative 6 force weapon attacks.  This can totally swing a combat if you don’t take them into account.  Some close combat specialist rely on killing the enemy before they strike, so if suddenly the Grey Knights get to strike first with Str4 power weapons it could be disastrous (eg. dark eldar incubi, genestealers etc.).  Even heavy hitters would not like losing casualties before they attack (eg. blood angel sanguinary guard, marine command squads etc.).
• Dreadknights look awesome, and their stats back up how impressive they look, monstrous creature, 2+ save, additional invunverable save, good in combat and shooting.  However if you think of him as a better daemon prince you won’t go far wrong.  Without a personal teleportor (see Shunt move below) he is slow and he only has 4 wounds.  He does have the nice combo of good armour save and good invunverable, so a few more low AP1 weapons so it has to rely on it’s invunverable save would be good.
• Purifiers are an elite slot version of the basic Grey Knight power armoured squad.  I think these will be seen a lot because they gain so much over the basic squad for only for 4pts more a model.  They can have the double the special ranged weapons, plus the heavy flamer equivalent drops from 20 pts to free, and psycannons stay at only 10 pts each.  Purifiers are also good against hordes because their Cleansing Flame psychic power allows them to cause a wound on all close combat opponents on a 4+ and these would happen before blows are struck and count towards combat resolution.  A squad of 5 could charge a mob of 30 orcs and cause an average of 12.5 wounds from this special power, and then deliver another 15 close combat attacks which should kill just under another 4 orks.  This totals just over 16 kills from the 5 Purifiers (on average).  Even when the Purifiers loses on average 2 guys from the orks return attacks the majority of the remaining orks should die to the no retreat rule.  With the ability to cover the Grey Knight weakness against hordes, and their flexibility to be ranged anti-horde with up to 4 heavy flamers or ranged heavy weapon teams with 4 psycannons (16 str 7 rending shots of they stay still) they are a great unit.  The icing on cake is that a reasonable costed special character can also make Purifiers troops choices.
• Vehicle Psychic Pilots (which pilot all the space marine vehicles, ie. rhinos, razorbacks, landraiders, skyravens & dreadnaughts) come with the psychic power Fortitude, which means that if they are shaken or stunned they can ignore it if they can pass a ld10 psychic test at the start of their turn.  A common tactic used against vehicles is to stun or shake them so they can not cause any shooting damage the following turn and then move onto the next vehicle.  The Grey Knights vehicles will probably ignore such damage meaning you will need to destroy key Grey Knights vehicles, facilitating the need for more anti-tank and/or an increased proportion of AP1 weaponry.  Just remembering that stunning a Grey Knight vehicle does not necessary put it out of the game for a turn will stop game changing mistakes happening.
• Shunt moves given by personal teleportors can cause a nasty surprise.  As well as allowing the unit to move as jump infantry it allows them to (once a game) make a 30” move, although they can’t assault that turn.  Luckily these can appear on the fast attack powered armoured Grey Knights and the Dreadknight (for an expensive 75pt upgrade).  While the Shunt move can allow them to redeploy very quickly and shoot a unit/vehicle you thought was safe, it is very nasty when combined with the Grand Master (standard HQ character) that allows D3 units to be given one of a number of Universal Special Rules (one of which is Scout).  If a Grey Knight army goes first and gives a DreadKnight the scout ability it can set-up normally, Shunt as it’s scout move 30”, leaving it free to move and assault 18” in the first turn giving it a 48” threat zone from where it deployed.  Counter options include:
• Reserving your whole army to give the DreadKnight no turn one target
• Castling your army, with cheap sacrificial units on the outer edges
• Let the DreadKnight have it’s first turn fun, knowing that what it kills will probably be worth much less than the DreadKnight (which could be near 250 pts with upgrades), and then the DreadKnight is in the middle of your army unsupported.  This only works if each of your units/vehicles the DreadKnight can get to is not worth too much, if the DreadKnight can charge a full Tau broadside unit for example it will make it points back before you even have a chance to move (castling or reserving would be better tactics in this case).

With that I’m going to leave going into the Grey Knights psychic powers and the Inquisitor henchmen for another post.  Hopefully this post will have given you some ideas on how to prepare for the Grey Knights, the overall theme of the list and what to look out for.

Let me know your thoughts, and feel free to point out where you think I’ve got it wrong and other things I may have missed so we can all learn.

Rathstar

Tau Army Review – Devilfish Transport

After looking at Fire Warriors, lets turn our attention on one of the best ways to keep them alive, mobile and useful; making available a devilfish transport.

Following the format of the previous article on Fire Warriors I'll quickly go through the basic strengths and weaknesses, the equipment they can be upgraded with, and typical unit loadouts, and finally my opinion of them.


Strengths

Good transport capacity
Good armour for a transport (resilience helped further by the disruption pod upgrade)
Good mobility
Good protection for the fragile Tau troops

Weaknesses

Expensive compared to other codexs (especially compared to the newer codex such as the Space Marine Rhino or the Imperial Guard Chimera)
Either has drones which make it 2 kill points in anniltion missions or much take the Smart Missile System upgrade which can make the transport get even more expensive


Upgrades

Disruption Pod

Excellent increase in the tank’s survivability for a very small cost. There should never be a Tau tank that doesn’t have it.


Targeting Array

A cheap upgrade that increases the shooting damage by 33% (excluding any gun drones which are not affected by it.

It really depends on the weapons on the devilfish and whether it has the multi-tracker as to whether the +1 BS is worth it. For the cost of a fire warrior (rather than half the cost on a devilfish) you could increase the firepower of a crisis suit firing a missile pod and a plasma rifle. If the devilfish only has a burst cannon it’s not worth it.

Also consider how often the devilfish will fire. If you use the devilfish to ferry Fire Warrior or Kroot towards objectives you’ll probably be moving more than 6” a lot, meaning that the most the devilfish will be able to fire is 4 Str 5 SMS shots, is it worth making that small amount of firepower better ?


Multi-tracker

Increases the firepower of the devilfish while on the move. For gun drone equipped devilfishes it means you can fire 5 str 5 shots while moving 12” rather than none. On SMS equipped devilfishes it allows the vehicle to move 6” and put out an impressive 7 Str 5 shots at longer range to the standard devilfish. A nice useful upgrade


SMS

Removes a kill point from the devilfish, increases the range and amount of firepower, however it comes at a price (25% increase to the base cost). Adding a SMS also makes other upgrades useful for making the best use of it (ie. the multi-tracker and targeting array).

The decision on whether to add the SMS depends on your view of the devilfish in anniliation missions, and what you want your devilfish to do during a game, and particularly how often it will be moving more than 6” a turn (ie. can only fire one weapon if upgraded with a multi-tracker).


Sensor Spines

This will avoid the dreaded 1 on a differcult terrain, which can be a nice benefit. However you have to weigh up how often this will come up, as being a skimmer a differcult terrain test is only needed if the devilfish starts or ends it’s move in differcult terrain. Even if an objective is in difficult terrain you can make your full move to be right on top of the objective and even if you immobolise the devilfish it’s still a nice bunker for the troops inside. Overall I would skip this upgrade especially when considering how much it would cost to add to all vehicles in an army list (normally 3-6)


Flechette Discharger

An interesting upgrade. If the skimmer moves over 6” assaulters need a 6 to hit it, but the dischargers will put a str 5 hit on half of them. Against an ork mob of 30 boyz this means that 10 will die before they get to strike. However in reality this will have little effect as it’s the nob with a powerclaw that is the real threat, so the main advantage is that it might deter small units wishing to assault the vehicle.

You also have to consider the cost of upgrading all devilfishes, and the fact that if an enemy unit is close enough to assault they are close enough to use short ranged anti-tank guns such as meltaguns which would also ignore the disruption pod. Ideally you shouldn’t be getting the devilfish that near the enemy apart from a late turn dash to contest/claim an objective. Would it be better to spend the points elsewhere to help kill the enemy near the objective rather than hoping on flechette dischargers to save the devilfish.


Decoy Launchers

This wargear took a hit in 5th edition. Skimmers moving over 6” used to only get glancing blows from shooting, now this is not the case. In most cases a hit will be a penetrating hit more likely than a glancing hit (meaning the decoy launchers are useless) or you’d rather have the vehicle immobolised rather than risk losing the main weapon (particularly in the case of hammerheads). In general I would advice against adding decoy launchers and spending the points elsewhere.


Blacksun Filter

With the short range & only medium strength of the devilfish weapons this is not worth it. To spend points on blacksun filters it needs to be on something that can really affect them game in a night fight, ie. do something significant turn 1, eg. pop a key transport at range. Killing a couple of infantry if there is a unit that has deployed forwards is not worth it, especially when you are putting the devilfish more at risk by moving it close to the enemy early.


Target Lock

With only a few str 5 shots it’s not worth being able to split fire, better to spend the points elsewhere


I will cover seeker missiles in a separate article.


Be Ruthless

Tau have a lot of very good cheap upgrades, and it’s essential to weigh up the benefits of making the devilfish better against other cheap upgrades that could be bought to aid your army list. For 5 pts would could:

• Allow 2 Broadsides to fire at separate targets
• Allow a shas’el or team leader to fire at a separate target
• Give a Skyray a Blacksun Filter (can be a game winner in Dawn of War, eg. a Skyray allows a broadside team to fire on a landraider full of terminators turn 1 forcing them to walk all game)
• Be half way to extra drone protection for a crisis suit unit
• 1 point away from an extra kroot hound

Tau are an army that can spend way to much on upgrades, and you must be ruthless and only take what you think will really help your army in a worthwhile way in the majority of your games


What Do You Want Your Devilfish To Do

Before I move on to typical set-ups, when choosing the set-up you must give thought to what you want the devilfish will be doing.

A main role will be to protect troops inside and give them much needed mobility, so this question is what else.

• Do you want the devilfish to be part of your main firepower ?
• Do you want it to keep a low profile until late in the game when you want to dash troops to objectives ?
• Do you need to reach objectives far away with the devilfish (which would mean moving 12” most turns and be more at risk being of destroyed) ?
• Can you get enemy transports destroyed and keep enemy infantry in the 18”-24” range, so you can move forwards 6” and fire all weapons at them ?

All these questions will determine which devilfish set-up is best for you and your army list.


Typical Devilfish Set-ups

Cheap Transport (sometimes refered to as the Dumbfish) – 85 Pts

Upgrades: Disruption Pod only

This is the cheapest version. It’s still worth 2 kill points due to it’s drones. In non annihilation missions the drones can be a useful distraction unit and even move to contest objectives on turn 5. Lets look at the contesting threat of drones on a devilfish:

• Devilfish moves 12”
• Drones disembark with the back of the drone base 2” from the devilfish, ie. gaing 3” forward movement
• Drones run d6” in the shooting phase
• Drones make a 6” assault movement to get 3” from the objective

In total the drones on a devilfish can contest an objective 25-30 inches away. Not only will the enemy rarely expect this, but if the game continues the enemy on the objective will probably be forced to shoot the drones rather than firing on the approaching devilfish.

This devilfish focuses on being a cheap transport and nothing else. No temptation to engage the enemy to make use of expensive upgrades, and no temptation to move slowly to get more shots off. Keeps the fragile troops protected and keeps them moving to where they need to be.


Cheap Devilfish Plus – 95 Pts

Upgrades: Disruption Pod & Multi-tracker

The addition of the multi-tracker allows the cheap fish to fire 5 str 5 shots while moving 12” (as the drones are allowed to fire if the vehicle can fire at least one gun). 10 pts for 5 str 5 shots a turn is not bad. However if you need to fire the drones you can always disembark them.

One disadvantage is that moving within 18” to fire gives the enemy the change to move forwards and fire meltaguns or rapid fire plasmaguns which can be dangerous to the devilfish.


Warfish / Gunboat – 120 Pts

Upgrades: SMS, Targeting Array, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod

With the ability to fire 7 Str 5 shots at BS4 the devilfish can more meaningfully contribute to the army's firepower, plus it can still transport troops to objectives, and lastly is only worth one kill point in annihilation missions. A couple of warfishs packed with fire warriors can deliver a torret of str 5 shots.

However it does suck up a lot of points. To fire the maximum 7 shots the devilfish also needs to only move 6”, and it can be hard to coordinate multiple devilfishs onto the same target without losing some of the firepower because a devilfish has to move over 6”.

There is also the danger of moving with 18”, which will allow an enemy that isn't wiped to move to within 12” to fire meltaguns or rapid fire plasmaguns.



My Experiences with the Devilfish

I started using the warfish in 5th edition, and it's firepower output was impressive, but even with the addition of fire warriors rapid firing it's didn't seem to kill enough, and was exposed to enemy counter attack.

As soon as the devilfish was destroyed the troop unit inside normally followed soon afterwards (if not the same turn).

My use of the devilfish is now to keep it mainly to transport the fire warriors or a small unit of kroot. Staying further away from the action makes it much more likely to last till turn 4/5 where it is essential for getting the troop units to objectives (or just keeping them alive in annihilation missions. Therefore I have moved to using the Dumbfish configuration. I found the extra 70 pts from downgrading my 2 devilfishes much better spent on crisis suits and/or broadsides.

This is not say that I think this is the only way to use the devilfish. It will really depend on what you need your devilfish for. If you are light on str 5 fire power you might the warfish argmenting that. If you have larger fire warrior squads you may not be so concerns with engaging the enemy with their devilfish.

The Dumbfish is just what's working for me at the moment.


Well there's the end of my devilfish overview, hopefully it has been useful and/or interesting. If you think there's anything I've missed or wish to let me know anything please leave a comment.

Rathstar

Tau Army Review - Fire Warriors

Tau Army Review - Fire Warriors

Rather than starting with HQ I'm going to start with the unit that will be in every Tau Army. At least one unit of Fire Warriors must be taken in any Tau list. I'll quickly go through their basic strengths and weaknesses, the equipment they can be upgraded with, and various typical unit loadouts, and finally my opinion of them.

Strengths

Obviously the 30” range on their pulse rifles are a good strength, but in 5^th edition I think the strength 5 and rapid fire ability of their pulse rifles is more of a strength than the range. Fire Warriors also have a decent (but not good) armour save of 4+ which means they get a save against most basic weapons, however heavy bolters and autocannons rip straight through their armour.

Fire Warriors are also one of the two units that can claim objectives in 5^th edition, and it’s essential to have enough scoring units.

Weaknesses

Fire Warriors have only leadership 7 and can only be upgraded to leadership 8. This is one of the lowest leaderships in the game, and nearly all other low leadership troops have some rule to help them against it (Tyranid Snapse, Imperial Guard Orders, Orc Mob Size etc.)

I also believe that Fire Warriors are quite overcoated for their abilities, with the release of each new codex Fire Warriors just don’t compete with other armies troop choices in term of effectiveness for their cost.

Upgrades

Below is a quick run down of the upgrades fire warriors can take and their usefulness:

Bonding Knife (Shas’ui only): Useful for large squads, particularly if they either don’t have a transport or intend to be out of a transport for most of the game

Photon Grenades: Never take them, in close combat a Fire Warrior will still lose (and you want them to lose on the turn they are charged), Photon grenades only increase the chance that the Fire Warriors may stay in combat the turn they are charged, but the survivors will probably lose and get cut down in the Tau turn, meaning the assaulters have escaped the Tau firepower response.

EMP Grenades: Some people suggest having a small specialised EMP grenade squad. However there are much better vehicle killers in the Tau list, and the chance is still quite slim of a small EMP squad killing a moving vehicle. I would advice against using grenades at all, keep the Fire Warriors with little equipment to keep them cheap and focused on what they do best (firing str 5 shots into the enemy).

Carbines: Allows the Fire Warriors to move and fire, however what ever they fire at is in range to move forward and rapid fire at the them, or if they have fleet, jump packs or are beasts/cavalry they can still charge the Fire Warriors. In 4^th edition they could be used well, but in 5^th edition the rifle is better, as you want to either shoot from far away or get 2 shots at 12” with the intention of wiping the enemy out. The secondary effect of pinning with carbines comes up rarely due to the high leadership of most armies or special rules they can use to offset their poor leadership. If you want carbine I’d recommend that you use gun drones instead that are jet pack infantry and can move back after shooting.

Markerlight (Shas’ui only): Can be useful in a gun-line squad, especially if the shas’ui has a target lock so he can fire at a different target to the rest of his unit, eg. lighting up a vehicle for a broadside unit to use the markerlight while the rest of the squad can still fire at infantry.

Gun Drones: These are the same toughness and armour save as the Tau, another fire warrior is better than gun drones, unless you want to bring the largest squad you can. A maximum sized unit with drones takes 4 rather than 3 casualties to require a morale test, however they now can't fit in a transport, and the gun drones can’t fire at the same range as rifle equipped fire warriors. I wouldn’t recommend gun drones.

Shield Drones: A bit of extra survivability, but on the whole I recommend sticking with just fire warriors.

Marker Drones: A very expensive source of markerlights. If you want markerlights I recommend you use Pathfinders, Skyrays, or Stealth Teams with Marker drones (in that order)

Typical Unit Set-ups

Gun-line Squad

A typical squad that is meant to be part of a gun-line type army needs to be big and have good leadership because it will be taking casualties (plus it can make the best use of markerlights if you have any). Also because they are a scoring unit a bonding knife is useful because the enemy has to kill every last one to ensure they can’t take an objective.

12 Fire warriors, incl Shas’ui with Bonding Knife – 135 Pts

Optional Extras: Markerlight and a Target Lock for the Shas’ui, bringing the cost up to 150 Pts.

Devilfish Scoring Unit Upgrade

6 Fire Warriors – 60 Pts

Optional Extras: None

This squad is meant to fulfil the minimum requirement of one unit of fire warriors. They should spend most of the game either in reserve or in a devilfish. Starting in reserve and then embarking onto a pathfinder devilfish when they arrive is a good way to keep them alive.

The squad should only occassionly get out of a devilfish to rapid fire at the small remnants of an enemy squad. You have to be careful with this squad (particularly if they you have a small number of scoring units) as they will die to enemy fire very easily.

Fish of Fury

This unit is designed to move around the battlefield in a devilfish and then get out and rapid fire enemy squads, supported by markerlights, and other fire warrior units doing the same. Protected inside a devilfish the unit has mobility and resilience.

10-12 Fire Warriors – 100-120 Pts

Optional Extras: Shas'ui with Bonding Knife

10 is sometimes better than 12, as it allows you more units, and it can sometimes be hard to disembark 12 warriors within 12” of the enemy while still being safe from assault. The way to be safe from assault is to fire at the enemy under the devilfish (the enemy won't reach the fire warriors because they have to go round devilfish, and they will need 6's to hit the devilfish in combat, as it should have moved 12”). Alternatively the devilfish drones and be used to get between the fire warriors and the enemy so the enemy can't reach the fire warriors.

A full fire warrior unit with a devilfish (upgraded with an SMS) will put out 31 str 5 shots (or 28 shots if the devilfish moved more than 6”). However without markerlight hits that will only kill 3.7 marines on average, therefore to take out a tactical squad you will need to do this with two units and have other firepower to take out the remaining 3 marines.

This tactic therefore needs to whittle down enemy squads to a manageable size and then coordinate attacks of multiple units, and losing a devilfish to enemy fire will hamper the coordination of this manoeuvre. A full fire warrior squad with an upgraded devilfish will cost around 240 pts, and if it does the rapid fire manoeuvre 3 times a game (optimistic) it will kill roughly 11 marines, much less than it's points cost. So a final point of this tactic is that it's more about keeping the fire warriors safe and mobile to capture objectives rather than it's damage output.

My Experiences with Fire Warriors

I'm sure most people would agree that fire warriors are a bit overcoated for their abilities in the current environment. 5^th edition has made 40k a faster game, due to transports being more survivable and the run rule.

Their leadership is poor, and the change in the meta game to a more even mix of MEQ (Toughness 4, 3+ save enemy) and Horde (Guard, Nids, Orks), and increase in cover saves has increased the use of weapons such as heavy bolters, autocannons, whirlwinds, and scatterlasers etc. These weapons are the bane of a fire warriors existence.

In 3^rd and 4^th edition I always used 30+ fire warriors, but the 40k game was slower and more predictable. In 5^th edition I have tried to find a tactic that makes fire warriors good. Gun-line type lists didn't do enough damage before the enemy got to them, a mix of gun-line and Fish of Fury took so many points away from the rest of the army and the fire warriors still couldn't pull their weight.

Fire Warriors give a hard choice for the Tau player in 5^th edition. They are fragile, but you need troops to capture objectives. My solution at the moment is to use just one unit (Devilfish Scoring Unit Upgrade configuration), rather than have a second unit I use 10 kroot to go into a second pathfinder devilfish because I think they are so much more flexible for the 10 extra points.

I could advice against taking many gun-line type units, however even though I don't use it, I have seen multiple Fish of Fury units used well. My concern is that 3 units of Fish of Fury takes so many points away from the army, and I prefer to spend the points on more Hammerheads, Broadsides & Crisis Suits.

For an alternative view point and a very good example of a Fish of Fury type army played well, I recommend you view the battle reports of Adam from Warhammer Tau.

Lastly it's also important to pick the style of Tau army you will like playing, and I think that starts with the type, number and configuration of your troop choices. All successful Tau armies outmanoeuvre the enemy while bring firepower to bear. If you like the idea of outmanoeuvring your opponent while bring devastating pin-point fire power to a section of the enemy force before moving off again you may prefer the Fish of Fury type lists. If you like manoeuvring, but prefer to do your killing from further away, and don't mind sacrificing a unit for the greater good to do more devastating firepower from turn one, you may prefer sticking with less troops and putting more points in Broadsides & Crisis Suits.

If you have any questions, comments, or areas you think I have missed out please leave a comment.

Rathstar

Related Army Review Articles

Devilfish Review

[Army Styles – Link to Article will be added shortly]

[Kroot – Link to Article will be added shortly]

Tau Army Review - Intro

A little project for me over the next month or so, will be to do a series of posts reviewing the Tau Army units.

I will go through each unit in turn, commenting on how effective I think they are, what equipment combinations are useful, and what my experiences have been with them.

To the right of my blog will be a section showing all of the sections I intend to cover, and links to each article. Rather than just putting out theory-hammer I will stick to my own experiences of using units, therefore unfortunately there will not be a review of Vespids, Sniper Drone teams, or Skyrays. On occassion the review will refer to a forum discussion that either supports or gives an alternative view to my own.

So before I start my review I'll give a brief history of my Tau playing career.

I started back in 3rd edition. I had a fully painted Dark Eldar army, and wanted another challenge. In my area no-one really played Tau, and there was a lot of trash talk against the Tau, particularly the Fire Warriors. I've always liked being the underdog, and I'm was confident that a army made up of lots of Fire Warriors could work. So I started out with a heavy fire warrior army, supported by an Etheral to hold the army together, supported by crisis suits & stealths.

When 4th edition came round I still used many fire warriors, but as people came more and more wise to my army I started to add more mobility into my army with hammerheads and more crisis suits.

By the time 5th edition started I was using what was probably a pretty standard tournament army, few troops, with more crisis suits, hammerheads and broadsides. I even won my first tournament, a 35-40ish person tournament that is held at the Colours Convention in Newbury each year. After coming 2nd and 3rd with my Dark Eldar it was nice to finally win it. However the tournament was the first I went to in 5th edition, and it was lots of 4th edition armies trying to come to terms with 5th edition.

As people got more and more used to 5th edition I've found it harder to win games, especially against my mates tournament armies (Mech Eldar, Twin-Lash Chaos & Mech Guard), which has led to more experimentation in army list structure, unit composition and weapon loadouts.

And so I enter 2010 with the intention to make my Tau more competitive with regard to the list I use and my use of them. I look back at the list I used for the tournament I won, and think how much stronger my list is now, and how much better I know how to use the Tau. It just goes to show how much 40k has moved on with stronger armies (Marines, Orks & Guard particularly) and they way people have learnt to adapt to 5th edition.

If there's anything in particular you'd like to see in the Army Review, just leave a comment, and I'll try and incorporate it.

Rathstar

Picture Credit: I found the picture at the top of this post on google. It shows Adam's (also known as Darkseer on many forums) Tau army at Warhammer World on some wonderful Tau terrain. To see more of Adam's army and his read his experiences with them please see his blog, Warhammer Tau