Help with Tau vs. Imperial Guard

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Let me point out that before writing this post, I had writtin a much longer version containing the army lists, specific moves and shots of the battle that occurred, and after there was a power surge while I was putting in the last sentence, I was quite frustrated. So if you have any questions, just ask.
A 1500 pt cleanse game btw. Deep strike, victory points, infiltrate.

I recently played my newly constructed Tau army vs. my friend's imperial guard, and was slaughtered by turn 3 or 4. My biggest problem was my inability to deal with his vehicles and far off heavy weapons after he took out my hammerhead and pathfinder squad w/ devilfish. I had 2 seeker missiles on each.

He hid his Basilisk and remaining leman russ (he had 2, i took out 1 after 2 seeker missiles and 2 railgun shots) behind a building. My broadsides were too slow to get within sight of them anytime soon, and all I had left was the small remnants of a stealth suit squad, an ethereal, and 3 firewarrior teams.

[shutupSHUTUP!!!]

Imperial guard are a tough opponent for tau, from my own experience playing as guard and the testimonies of tau players. It depends on his army though, what type of guard army was it?

[igotsmeakabob!!]

I'm not sure what all of the doctrines he took were, but I know he took the drop doctrine and sharpshooters. He had 3-5 infantry squads with a missile launcher each, a 3 lascannon team, a deep striked storm trooper squad and 2 deep striked infantry squads with meltas, 2 leman russes and an indirect firing basilisk.

[azimaith]

Broadsides tend to surivive longer (in squads) than tanks do against an enemy with a good quantity of anti-tank rounds. Other than that massed pulse rifle fire into heavy weapon squads till they are dead to the last man work as well.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

The way he set up was so that 3/4 of his squads were in one building, on 3 different levels, and each had heavy weapons. At turn 3 he had killed everything but 3 members of a maxed stealth suit squad, an ethereal, 3 broadsides, and 3 firewarrior teams with small chips in them. Then he deep striked 2 squads and killed a fire warrior team and the ethereal, and the broadsides ran off the board. Really sucked for me. After that I had nothing to deal with the russ, and the building with infantry in it was 4-5' away.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

anyone? I could really use some help.

[priamus]

The only time i've won against IG was when most of his drop troops scattered badly and died.

That said there are some things one can do:
- pathfinders as they stand are a waste of points. Drop them.
- while your basic troop outguns and outranges his, it does NOT outranges his heavy weapons. Deploy in cover and make him come to you.
- there are only two things I know of in Tau army that can handle a hidden basilisk: deep striking crisis suits (side armour - too bad you can't always deep strike) and tetras (Forgeworld - never mind).
- max out on btlsuits. I use 5 crisises and a full unit of stealths and I don't think it is enough.

[Black DH templ.]

Hm, how does the drop troops manage to do so much harm? Guard are almost just as bad as Tau in CC.

[Samoth]

I think he's dropping in command squad's with lots of melta's. Those do hurt.

First of all, I'd like to knowyour army list in full, and the terrain on the board. You say he setup most of his army (50+ models) in one building. Did you hvae something similar? The thing to remember is to not have fire warriors standing around without cover, they are reaped by heavy bolters like so much wheat. Try to keep them in cover, and out of massed lasgun range - some are ok, but not half the army.

Do you have any kroot? Combined with infiltrating stealth's and foward, aggresively deployed crisis suits should be able to soak up a lot of ig fire letting your fire warriors and hammerhead clear out the top of the building.

[athamas]

stealth suits hurt gaurd, alot...


if you have 2X6 strong units, and keep on moving thm behind cover, you can kill a unit a turn with ease, and escap un harmed...

[Falkus]

Broadsides tend to surivive longer (in squads) than tanks do against an enemy with a good quantity of anti-tank rounds

No they don't. Lascannons chew broadside squads up and spit them out.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

My army list had an ethereal, 3 full fire warrior teams w/ 3 carbines and a sha'sui each, a full stealthsuit squad w/ markerlight and a target lock on shas'vre, a full pathfinder squad w/ devilfish and a shas'ui with a target lock, one railhead, a full broadside squad with target locks and a shas'vre with drone controller and 2 shield drones, and a full gun drone squad being deep striked.

[azimaith]

Lascannons do the same to *gasp* tanks. Its why you can give your broadsides an invulnerable save and they can shoot form across the board. Besides, you should be in cover, good cover if you can help it. The job for your broadsides is to kill their tanks before they all get shot to death, surviving the battles not necessarily part of the deal.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Broadsides tend to be one of the last things shot at on my enemy's list, just above fire warriors and drones (unless I've deep strikes them into a corner to capture).

[Hoshi No Koe]

If your target is grouped in good cover, you can use your markerlights to great effect in combo with submunitions to make a mess of them.
Kroot can be nice against IG if you can get them close through wood without them facing too much fire. If they're going to be standing at least one turn in the open before they can assault you're best off staying in the wood and shooting. Kroot will do some nice hurt with shooting on guardsmen. A couple of DS ing crisis suits will enable you to threaten tanks of his that hang back out of railgun sight.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Unfortunately our board has no forest or jungle, and we have yet to acquire anything aside from a couple buildings and alot of hills.. although it is a very nice battle board.

[Dyrnwyn]

My army list had an ethereal, 3 full fire warrior teams w/ 3 carbines and a sha'sui each, a full stealthsuit squad w/ markerlight and a target lock on shas'vre, a full pathfinder squad w/ devilfish and a shas'ui with a target lock, one railhead, a full broadside squad with target locks and a shas'vre with drone controller and 2 shield drones, and a full gun drone squad being deep striked.

Okay, my thoughts on your list? Drop all upgrades on the Stealth team. They should be taking advantage of markerlights or adding more fire to the barrage, and the Markerlight just kills you chance to move in the Movement phase. Drop the Target lock on the Pathfinder Shas'ui. 50% of the time he'll miss what he's shooting at anyway. Better to focus fire on one unit at a time and erase each one. For the Broadsides, target locks mean you can engage three tanks independently, but how often do you come up against three tanks in the open? Give them Shield Generators if you don't usually have any 4+ cover to put them into and can spare the points, otherwise, Multitrackers. Drop the Shield Drones from the leader. Drones can't protect anything unless thier in the majority, at least until the new codex comes out and fixes them. In fact, drop his Shas'vre status and just leave him as a team leader. Give him a hard wired Target lock and a Multitracker.

Where are your Crisis Suits? They're you're only carriers of mid-range low AP weapons, and you should have at least two. They are also good at light vehicle busting, and can be easier to use than Gun Drones in that regard. You shouldn't have all that much trouble dealing with him. Deep strike some drones and Crisis suits near his Basilisk if nesscessary, Otherwise, punch a hole in his lines with as much fire power as you can bring to bear and then run a Hammerhead into the gap to take out the Bassi.

Now I can't say much for basic problems you're having with your army against his, but I think the biggest one is right in your first post:

I recently played my newly constructed Tau army

Tau are difficult to pick up. Expect to be stomped in most of your early games as you slowly start to get the hang of how they function. Anyway, I hope this helps and good luck on your next battle.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Should I bond everything? Or what should I bond?
Should I use rail rifles in my pathfinder squad(s)?

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Also, what would you recommend me putting on my hammerheads in terms of weaponry and wargear?

And what should I put on my crisis suits? wargear, weaponry? Should I make them HQ or elites?

[igotsmeakabob!!]

The armies I'll be playing against most often will be imperial guard, khorne, thousand sons, undivided, tyranids, and word bearers.