6th ed Shenanigans part II

Remember when I said 6th ed would help give Tau a fighting chance? Forget would, it DEFINITELY helped. Thanks to a lot of new things: Pre-measure, Mobile rapid fire, and Stealthsuit buffs.

Before 6th ed, I was struggling with 5th edition because I have a very wonky sense of distance. This meant me getting the shit kicked out of me three times a day all week, especially when I misjudge the distance for my Fire Warriors to shoot my intended target. This is because:

A: You can only fire rapid fire shots at 12 inches after moving.
B:  Back in 5th ed, rapid fire meant you are now in assault range.

When 6th edition rolled around, Firewarriors became a lot more lethal by allowing rapid fire guns to fire a single shot up to their weapon's maximum range, and rapid fire's distance is half of your maximum range. This allowed my Firewarriors to effectively move around and shoot their targets with 30 inch guns, forcing assault units to either take the risk of charging straight into an entire line of plasma fire, or sitting back and being a complete point sink. Additionally, pre-measure allowed me to judge the maximum shooting range to effectively ensure everyone was capable of shooting, while at the same time staying out of the enemy's field of fire.

That meant whittling them down one by one until we could execute the Mont'ka.

The next thing is Stealth Field Generators. Like I've mentioned in an earlier post, SFGs now confer Stealth + Shrouded instead of forced night vision and barrage re-rolls. This means they have a natural 4+ cover save in the open. If they get themselves in cover, they get a normal 2+ cover save. That's essentially a 2+ invul save for non-flamer/cover cancelling weapons. Stealthsuits in my army now no longer carry fusion blasters, but rather markerlights + markerdrones. Having them stick around in the cover and way out of enemy assault range made them a very hard to dislodge forward observation team.

With support from 6 to 9 broadsides, it's no surprise things WILL start dying. I've played at least three games with 6th ed during the weekend: vs Chaos Space Marines, Orks, and Grey Knights.

The first game against orks was a battle for each others objective in their deployment zone. (similar to the old one each objective.) However, the deployment favored me very heavily. The opponent played an ork army that focused primarily on assaulting. but the deployment, Hammer and Anvil, made us deploy on the SIDE table edges. This meant the ork's assault distance became a LOT longer. the game ended in a victory as I still held on to my objective, while my opponent had virtually lost the rest of his forces.

The second game was against Chaos Space Marines. Technically, the game ended in a draw; Both of us still had scoring units holding onto an equal number of objectives. HOWEVER, due to warp shenanigans, my objective ( which was booby trapped ), had to BLOW UP at the last turn of the game, killing off one Fire Warrior out of 3. Despite the presence of an Ethereal, the FWs failed their leadership and scurried off the table, thus costing me my objective, as well as my technical victory. (As I still maintained my Warlord while my opponent lose his.)

The last game was against Grey Knights. Like in the first game, the deployment was Hammer and Anvil, but this time I was playing against an army which could shrug off heavy weapons like it was a calm sunday afternoon. Despite an early encroachment into my gunlines by two Dreadknights and the horrible misfortune of losing my advance Broadside team, I eventually won the day by holding onto my objective for dear life, while Shas'vre'Ram'Bo, the last surviving member of Stealth team B, assault jumped into the enemy's lines and contested his objective, leaving me as the winner of the game as I maintained my hold on my own objective.

So far, 6th ed has really given my army a new lease on life. In fact my horrible rolls have even started to slowly wane. If my luck keeps up, maybe I could score a decent amount of wins/draws instead of constant desperate draws and total defeats.