# Tau Vs New Blood Angels HELP!



## lamby16 (May 14, 2008)

I’m having a lot of problems playing against a mechanised blood angels list and I was wondering if anybody could help me out with some useful tactics.
The list (as best as I can remember) is as follows:
1 x Baal with Autocannons + Heavy Bolters
1 x Baal with Autocannons + Heavy Bolters
1 x Whirlwind
1 x Demolisher with Seige Shield
2 x tanks with Autocannons (Razorbacks??)
1x Rhino
1 Squad of vanguard veterans
2x 10 man tactical squads, a librarian and a sanguinary priest. The marines are armed with melta guns and plasma guns, plus one heavy plasma cannon. The Librarian uses the glittering shield power (5+ cover save) and some kind of death lance? (strength 8 goes 3d6 in a straight line)
The basic tactics the player uses is to put the vanguards in reserve and outflank with the baals. He then tank rushes at me as fast as possible, firing as much as possible while peppering my fire warriors with shots from the whirlwind – uses the librarian to grant cover saves against my shooting (which is so annoying). When the Baals outflank they generally come in to targetthe back of my tanks or my broadsides, while the vanguard veterans often deepstrike next to my crisis suits or broadsides and charge them immediately 
My standard list is this:
2 x Hammerhead + Disruption Pod + Fletchette discharger
2x Broadsides + Targeting Arrays + Target Lock 2x Shield Drones
2 x 11 man Fire Warrior Squads + Marker Drone
2 x Devilfish + Disruption Pod + Fletchette discharger
Crisis Shas’o + Plasma + Missile Pod
2x Bodyguard Plasma/Missile Pod + Missilepod Flamer
4x Shield Drones, 2x Marker Drones
My usual tactics are to try and take out the tanks as soon as possible, but i struggle against the infantry, and I find myself running out of anti-tank shots increadibly quickly. I was considering putting some Fusion blasters in but I really didn’t want to get up to close to his marines who would tear me apart in combat
Any suggestions?


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## Kirby (May 16, 2010)

THe reason you struggle against infantry is you have no Crisis suits. I recommend you read this post here on Tau and add Kroot + Crisis suits to your list (lose markerdrones & minimise the FW squads).

You then layer the kroot in front of all of your units which forces any assaults from the Tacs/VV onto them which means your shooting units get to shoot still. Refuse flank him as well and pile your tanks up on one short edge, his baals now have to come in outside your bubble or on the wrong side. JSJ the Crisis in and out from behind your tanks and target the Vindicator first (it will ruin your Crisis suits day). Other than that it's about target priority. De-mech the Tac squads before moving onto the Preds with your Broadsides/Hammerheads. Once the Tac squads or VV are on foot, focus fire them with Hammerheads/Kroot/Crisis Suits until one squad is dead then move on.


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## Shortseer (Sep 3, 2009)

Also don't feel to bad. You are fighting one of the strongest codexes in the game with one of the weakest. If you win, be very proud and gloat about it here.


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## Underground Heretic (Aug 9, 2008)

I'll admit it's an uphill battle, but I would hardly call Tau one of the weakest armies in the game. Blood Angels, definitely one of the best, are uniquely able to attack Tau quickly and be insanely durable at the same time. I haven't been able to beat Blood Angels personally, but I've come close and had some fantastically bad luck screw me over, in addition to some bad choices.

Don't give up hope shas'ui! The greater good will triumph!


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## genesis108 (Jul 29, 2009)

Key to beating Blood Angels...talk to the player while they are looking at their army list so they miss stuff! I had a Tau guy doing this..showing me his models and crap..asking questions..and I forgot to put my Land Raider Crusader on the board...so I was only playing 1230 vs 1500...

That, paired with not being able to make a save if my life depended on it...(I lost 3/5 Terms in 1 round to FW with Pulse Rifles...)

And he wouldn't stop talking about random crap, I couldn't concentrate on the game and forgot to roll 1/2 my FNP saves for my Assault Squad..

So..the key to beating BA is random jibberish about stuff not related to the game...Distractions..the Anti-Angel..


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## RENEGADE_COMMANDER (Jul 16, 2010)

aright, enough guys. iv beat a list very close to this recently in a tournament with mech tau and hardly broke a sweat. the trick is to de-mech your opponents army as soon as posible. shut down anything thats going to pose a problem to your high str weapons first turn if possible. i run on average atleast 6 fireknife elite xv-8's and a shas'o fireknife with similarly equipped bodyguard. dont waste points on things like sheild drones and bonding knifes :nono:, i used to make that mistake, instead utilise your jsj abilitie to get lines of fire, hit withh as many str 7 on his light armour you can and then jump back behind cover. if anything you will atleast glance two shots causing a shaken or stunned. BETTER THAN A BAAL PRED SHOOTING!!!k:


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## Kirby (May 16, 2010)

RENEGADE_COMMANDER said:


> aright, enough guys. iv beat a list very close to this recently in a tournament with mech tau and hardly broke a sweat. the trick is to de-mech your opponents army as soon as posible. shut down anything thats going to pose a problem to your high str weapons first turn if possible. i run on average atleast 6 fireknife elite xv-8's and a shas'o fireknife with similarly equipped bodyguard. dont waste points on things like sheild drones and bonding knifes :nono:, i used to make that mistake, instead utilise your jsj abilitie to get lines of fire, hit withh as many str 7 on his light armour you can and then jump back behind cover. if anything you will atleast glance two shots causing a shaken or stunned. BETTER THAN A BAAL PRED SHOOTING!!!k:


This lad deserves a cuddle. Spot on.

Whilst Tau have a crap codex in terms of flexibility their top level army list is very, very effective and is no uphill battle against any of the good BA lists.


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## Sovren (Jul 24, 2010)

Genesis108 has probably the best advice, but I would also humor the Farsight list(s) *gasp* I read your standard list, but if you have additional Crisis Suits available, why not give it a try? Maybe deep strike Farsight and sucka punch 'em.


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

If he has a deathstar unit, kill any transport and then focus down whats inside with fire warriors.
Against any mech, focus on the ones carrying assault troops and the ones that can hurt your vehicles the most.
The most important thing is target prioritizing. Isolate important units and then kill them. I was playing against a friend who has tau (I slaughtered him thanks to my infiltrating baal), and I just ignored most of his shots. 2 squads of firewarriors and some broadsides killed 2 marines (yay FnP). His mistake was lining up all his fire warriors in a neat little row for me...
the best thing he did was immobilize my razorback in the back and destroying its weapon. The problem is, instead of letting it go and killing the threat right in his face he focused it down. Thanks to cover and good rolling for me, it survived, he didnt get the kill point, and he didnt kill the 10 man assault squad right next to him. I hopped over his fire warriors and killed his broadsides while bringing in my baal... That game, luck and his inexperience were on my side.

His list was this (roughly)
a Shas'o with missile pods plasma rifle and shield. A shas'vre body guard with the same I think.
2 squads of 12 FW with devilsfish transport. He gave them the thing that let them move like they were fast and then kept them stationary...
2 broadsides with 2 shield drones. These evaporated from boltpistol fire. Yay...

Again, look at the list building thing, bring more battle suits and pick out targets at the beginning and then kill them as efficiently as possible. its better to kill one than to weaken three, so focus one down if you can.

GLHF, GG
-JAMOB


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## Shas'o (Jun 11, 2012)

Beyond the necessity of crisis suits, I myself run 12 and in one list 15 (a kamakaze unit with TLFB and TL who deep strike and come in on a 2+ with the help of a position relay), there is one thing that makes the Tau army amazing that is sorely missing from your list MARKERLIGHTS!! pathfinders are the backbone of your army they will increase your ballistic skill making all your anti-armour considerably more efficient, as well as giving you the potential to dissolve the enemies cover save which will enable you to strengthen your killing ability before those devious Blood Angels make it into close combat


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## D-A-C (Sep 21, 2010)

I just wanted to point out that this thread is over two years old.

I doubt the original poster is still stuck with his problem, and even if he was, I doubt he is waiting for any responses from the Heresy community.

Always check the dates of the last post on a thread guys. In most instances, if its more than a year old, its probably best to move on.


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## JAMOB (Dec 30, 2010)

I dont know, Tau vs BA is still pretty difficult  Sorry though, really need to check that...


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