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[Sir Pseudonymous]

So the other night I played a game against a Tau army, which had several vehicles using Disruption pods. He insisted that pods gave cover saves, I thought they just reduced range. I let it slide and checked a tau codex this morning. I was right, which is annoying because that's how he won the game.

Was he trying to claim they gave saves even within 12"? Because the text clearly states they're only an "Obscured Target" from more than 12" away, which according to the 5e rulebook should mean a 4+ cover save.


My internet is shit, so I can't watch that trailer, but is it for that console exclusive action game about smurfs? That's not going to be a horrible piece of trash deserving of hatred and ridicule, no I'm sure it won't...

[Jackrabbit]

C'mon dude, read the replies. The Smurfs are a placeholder, it's not about them.

[Sir Pseudonymous]

C'mon dude, read the replies. The Smurfs are a placeholder, it's not about them.

I think "smurfs" is really the least important word in that sentence. Space Marines are all hyper generic. Smurfs the most so. No matter what they make them, they won't be meaningfully different, and certainly not better, although I suppose they won't have that eyebleeding blue paintjob.

[Jackrabbit]

Small blessings.

[Neruz]

In the Fifth Edition core rulebook, a vehicle obscured by a special upgrade gets an automatic +4 cover save. Disruption pods are included in this. He was right.

Now the question is, does this fifth edition fix replace the effect in the codex, or compliment it?  Because the former sounds a lot more likely to me, just for feasibility.  But I guess it depends on what the guy claimed.

Neither.

Disruption Pods make any enemies more than 12" away from the vech count the vech as an 'Obscured Target'. Page 62 of the 5th edition rulebook states that if a special rule or piece of wargear confers to a vehicle the ability of being obscured even if it is in the open, this is a 4+ cover save unless otherwise specified in the codex.

Ergo, a vech with Disruption Pods gets a 4+ cover save from any enemy firing at it from over 12" away.

[BishopX]

All right, the Tau just seem to kick the living crap out of IG then, more mobile, better saves, better guns. Any suggestions for taking them out?

[Aqizzar]

Chimeras are good, since their AV12 front can ignore most Tau guns.  But more than anything, long range ordnance and heavy bolters.  Bring lots of both.

[userpay]

If you can get a force thats good at melee and somehow manage to get them to the tau (city fighting or alot of cover) that does pretty damn well.

[Ampersand]

It would probably be pretty hilarious if you manage to get an Eversor assassin into melee with the Tau

[Sir Pseudonymous]

All right, the Tau just seem to kick the living crap out of IG then, more mobile, better saves, better guns. Any suggestions for taking them out?

Vendettas. They're like a chimera, but they can fly and are shootier. Just watch out for broadsides, and make them the priority target for your lascannons. Anything else should crumble pretty fast under a withering hail of lascannon and bolter fire.

Pack them with vet squads armed with sniper rifles and heavy bolters, throw in camocloaks if you have enough points to spare. Load them up and move if fire warrior teams get within 30", unless you have a good chance of wiping them with the bolter, rifles, and the firepower on the vendetta.

Only drawback is you can't fire from inside them, but that's not much of a problem if you wait to the last moment to load them have balls of steel. You're also putting 140 (with the bolters, it's 130 without them) in a single model, but that's always a problem with vehicles.

Also, some people rage and cry about how op vendettas are, so you might have to put up with that too.

[Neruz]

Be careful with Vendettas; a good Tau player can right royally fuck you over if he knows Vendettas are coming (and since Vendettas are horribly OP every IG player fields them, so invariably he does), a proper deployment will prevent your Vendettas getting into range before he gets off at least one salvo with his Broadsides, and railguns will pop Vendettas like balloons.

[Org]

All right, the Tau just seem to kick the living crap out of IG then, more mobile, better saves, better guns. Any suggestions for taking them out?

Vendettas. They're like a chimera, but they can fly and are shootier. Just watch out for broadsides, and make them the priority target for your lascannons. Anything else should crumble pretty fast under a withering hail of lascannon and bolter fire.

Pack them with vet squads armed with sniper rifles and heavy bolters, throw in camocloaks if you have enough points to spare. Load them up and move if fire warrior teams get within 30", unless you have a good chance of wiping them with the bolter, rifles, and the firepower on the vendetta.

Only drawback is you can't fire from inside them, but that's not much of a problem if you wait to the last moment to load them have balls of steel. You're also putting 140 (with the bolters, it's 130 without them) in a single model, but that's always a problem with vehicles.

Also, some people rage and cry about how op vendettas are, so you might have to put up with that too.

Lolzers. AUTOCANNONS.

That is what you want. And plasmas against Suits

[Aqizzar]

Yeah, with Valkyries against Tau, don't expect them to last more than one turn.  Your best bet is to use the Scout move to drop their squads in good firing positions, and pray you roll for first go.  On Turn 1, sit still and fire off all those one-shot missiles to blow up as much of the Tau as you can get away with.  From Turn 2 onwards, any Valkyries that survive should try to screw up the Tau's firing lines and make a nuisance of themselves, but again, they'll probably be dead already.

And remember your target prioritization.  A well equipped and moderately lucky Hammerhead could probably destroy a 1000point Guard army all by itself.  Knock those out absolutely first, then concentrate on anti-infantry units because your vehicles are as good as dead anyway.

I would recommend against plasmaguns for shooting suits.  No Tau player worth the name would be dumb enough to put their suits within 24" of plasmaguns, let alone 12".  You'll probably only get one shot if at all with them, so you may as well focus on other options.  I might almost suggest sniper rifles, since the Tau's small squad sizes and relatively low leadership make them susceptible to pinning.  Probably.

[Igginator]

I play Tau and marines 
Its good to see so many other 40k players here, anyone in victoria in australia?
Also i use disruption pods all the time and they give you a 4+ save if you are more than 12" away from the firer THAT IS CORRECT 
Also if anyone plays it on vassal let me know and we can try to organise a game

[Sir Pseudonymous]

Be careful with Vendettas; a good Tau player can right royally fuck you over if he knows Vendettas are coming (and since Vendettas are horribly OP every IG player fields them, so invariably he does), a proper deployment will prevent your Vendettas getting into range before he gets off at least one salvo with his Broadsides, and railguns will pop Vendettas like balloons.

A railgun will pop a leman russ too. Or a chimera. Or a monolith. If the map has enough cover, it would be trivial to move a vendetta or two into position and pop the broadsides. Not to mention that lascannons have a range of 48", which is the short length of the board. It's doubtful that they'd end up out of range unless the broadsides were hiding in a corner.


A heavy bolter fires three shots per attack, if it's a vet squad firing it'll hit on a 3+, meaning 2/3 of those three shots hit, for two hits per attack, on average. Autocannons fire two shots, 2/3 will hit, leaving you at 4/3 hits per attack. Heavy bolters are S5, so against T5 they'd have a 1/2 chance of inflicting a wound. Autocannons are S7, and so have a 5/6 chance of inflicting a wound against T5. The bolters will thus inflict 2/2 (so one) wound against a T5 per attack, and autocannons will inflict 10/9 wounds per attack. I use T5 because it's the turning point where autocannons become effective, they're also of more use against vehicles. Against T4, which is the toughest the tau have short of lol krootox, the bolters will inflict a wound 2/3 of the time, and autocannons 5/6 of the time, for 4/3 wounds per attack for the heavy bolters, and 10/9 for the autocannons, leaving the bolters slightly more effective. Both are AP4, and thus the saving throw is irrelevant to these calculations, both will perform the same against a given save. Even 10 armor is equivalent to T6 (well, marginally better...), so the autocannons is always the choice weapon for engaging vehicles, at least compared to heavy bolters.


Aqizzar: vendettas, not valkyries. Vendettas are worth a damn, and will slaughter the tau's heaviest hitting units, valkyries are not, and will be nothing more than annoying little sacks of shit buzzing around. And if you're not deploying them behind BLoS terrain on the first turn, you deserve to lose.


I think most of us are playing it on vassal, though I haven't seen many on recently.