# anti tau question



## Feldrance (Sep 14, 2009)

Hey my primary opponent is a tau player and i'm about to start facing down the barrels of 2-3 squads of sniper drones and i was curious on suggestions on how to counter them. We typicall run around 1000 points, and staying within that cap im having difficulty thinking up how to try and keep them from mowing down my chaos marines

im faced with having to keep my stuff in the rhinos on the advance and thats ok but once i disembark im facing things that are pounding me with AP3 attacks in addition to dealing with his crisis suits and probably a broadside. Any tips?

i can choose from a daemon prince, berserkers, plague marines, various setups of regular/chosen chaos marines, raptors, for heavy support i own 3 obliterators and a defiler. i do have a few rhinos, but no land raiders predators/ect.

i suppose if i did go and buy 2 or 3 predators it would help *alot* though. the rail rifles cant hurt their front armor and their guns would make sure i could engage the sniper drones at any range they could shoot me at and deny them an armor save and they are fairly cheap tanks. just hoping to get a suggestion that doesnt cost as much money as 3 predators XD


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## Gigantor (Jun 21, 2009)

Whirlwinds would be a big help. With indirect fire you don't need to actually see the target so he will have trouble hitting you back and you can hit him from behind cover out of line of sight.

Or scouts with camocloaks in cover with sniper rifles. They're only toughness 3 right? And although they're lightly armoured, landspeeder typhoons are able to keep out of range and still hit them with good weapons.

I hope that helps give you some ideas. I'm a big fan of the whirlwind personally.


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## Pirate Metal Troy (Jun 2, 2008)

Err, landspeeders and whirlwinds don't help much when you play chaos 

I'd say go with more oblits. Rail rifles only have 36" range. Another dirty tactic is to take 3 vindicators and butt them up against each other, side by side, making a wall of av13, and advance that up the board dropping 3 s10 ordinance templates a turn. If you've got raptors, you should use a tank of some variety to hide them behind. 

It seems everyone has a different experience playing different opponents, even with the same armies. I play a tau player in my group and have never lost a game to him with my chaos army. 

I also have 3 oblits and a defiler, and love them. Use those for sure. Also, you still get your feel no pain save against ap3 weapons with the plague marines, so a healthy helping of plagues will do you good. 

if you want a good tank, buy up a land raider and put 10 berzerkers in it. that'll make any tau player wet his pants, and devote a lot of firepower to dropping the raider. This is your other stuff precious time to get into position.

you should be able to win with the stuff you have. That battlecannon can drop an entire squad of battlesuits in a single shot. since it pierces their armor, and is double their toughness. Plasma cannons will kill off those peksy drone squads, and anything else, for that matter. Just play smart, keep out of line of sight, and you should be golden.

He'll try to keep you at arm's length the whole game, don't let him. Rush hard and fast, and keep pounding with your support weapons (defiler and oblits). If you can make him start to move, you can gain control of the match, and use your rhinos to make walls and push him where you want him to go.

You may wanna try using a lash prince as well. They are all kinds of handy.

Yes those drones are s6 ap3, and there are quite a few, but they're not terribly cheap, and he'll be lacking in everything else, PLUS they aren't scoring units.

lash prince

zerks in a land raider
lots of plagues

3 oblits

defiler

sounds like a small scale version of the current chaos tourney list. Make it work.


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## Asmodeun (Apr 26, 2009)

I'll have to criticise PirateMetalToy a bit. One thing that you can't forget is that the drones have a stealth field, meaning you shoot at them under night fighting rules so oblits and preds aren't as much help as we'd all like. Also they _are_ quite cheap in comparison with cult troops, each unit is just 80pts, making it pretty damn cost effective.
Because they are so inexpensive, it's pretty hard to come up with an economical way of beating them. Chosen are probably a good idea, infiltrating in a rhino and using plasma or meltas would probably go a long way in sorting them out, along with the pesky crisis suits.


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## Feldrance (Sep 14, 2009)

you can infiltrate chosen in a rhino?


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## Asmodeun (Apr 26, 2009)

Yes, troops grant their transports infiltration and scouts, if they have them.


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## Feldrance (Sep 14, 2009)

rulebook page 75 for infiltrate


"If a unit with this ability is deployed inside a vehicle, it cannot infiltrate."



how do dedicated transports get around this?


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## Someguy (Nov 19, 2007)

You can't infiltrate in your tank. You can scout (if you have the rule and *only* in a dedicated transport). 

A unit that can outflank thanks either to infiltrate or scout is allowed to bring its rhino with it.


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## MetalHandkerchief (Aug 3, 2009)

Raptors are great for killing sniper drones, although I don't think they should be a big threat due to their low model count. Chaos Marines have high leadership, and won't be pinned by them too often. I would only throw "spare" fire at them, because although they wil consistently hittle down your numbers, they are too few to completely wipe out anything before hammertime, UNLESS, he has a good pathfinder team with markerlights lighting their way. If he's smart, he's keeping some XV8/ XV25/ Vespid in close support with the drones though, so CQC migh not be the best option, if so, get more obliterators...

Vehicles can't infiltrate, including transports, unless the vehicle itself has the infiltrate special rule.


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