Warhammer 40k

[Thaluikhain]

I'd recommend getting an army you like the feel of...but then to remember that GW likes to arbitrarily change things for the hell of it, so your expensive new army might end up with a stupid backstory, useless stats, or be based on things the rules don't allow for anymore.

 

[Brownie101]

Chaos Daemons: suffer from a severe lack of shooting ability, but oh my god do they love hand to hand. I mean, what did you expect. They're demons. Every unit has an invulnerable save, which is good. Only like 2 units also have an armor save, which is bad.

Nearly all Tzeentch daemons have shooting abilities, but yes, they do suffer a fair bit.
There's certainly more than 2 daemons with an armour save, but again, still few. If you take Fateweaver and keep him out of combat but near your guys, he can shoot and let your guys re-roll failed saves.

 

[Nouw]

Choose whichever race appeals to you the most for that is the most important. And be prepared to spend a fair amount of money and time. And by fair I mean a lot.

Angry Marines are the way to go! They'll stomp your face with POWAH FEET!

Keep it clean man.

 

[Canadish]

Choose whichever race appeals to you the most for that is the most important. And be prepared to spend a fair amount of money and time. And by fair I mean a lot.

Angry Marines are the way to go! They'll stomp your face with POWAH FEET!


Keep it clean man.

|

Oh snap!

Where the hell did you find that image btw!?

 

[SL33TBL1ND]

If I were you, I'd start with a cheaper wargame, but if that's what you're interested in,go for it. Go Space Marines. Games Workshop are notorious for rebalancing the game constantly to keep them as the best race.

 

[Mark Flanagan]

Snip

The reason I wanted to play Tau, is because I like the idea of range. I liking being able to at least shoot at anything, and to kill it before it gets me. Also, I've heard that the kroot aren't so bad as long as you have a shaper(not sure what a shaper is, but I'm just repeating what I'm told), so close combat isn't as bad as it seems.

Snip

I love my Tau cadre but a piece of advice; Don't buy the shaper upgrade. He cost's three times as many points as a normal Kroot and all you really get is +1LD and 5 attacks on the charge (3 base, Kroot rifle, Charging) as apposed to 9 attack on the charge from 3 Kroot.

I have two units of Kroot in my cadre (10 Kroot/5 hounds)that are super cheap and can perform many battlefied roles (Outflanking, Infiltrate, Holding Objectives in cover) and are fairly nasty in combat (The Hounds really help here).

IMO the 'best' way to play Tau in 5th is heavy mechanized, my 1500pt list contains two Warfish (BS4 Devilfish with Smart Missiles/Fires as if it was a Fast Vehicle) and three Hammerheads with Railguns. I use my suits mainly as support.

By keeping everything mounted up (excluding the Kroot who are just there for Kroot Loopz and bait) I can maneuver away from the enemy army while maximizing my firepower.

If you do use vehicles always buy them Disruption Pods, 5 point upgrade to make 50% of the hits on the tank from more than 12inchs away miss? Yes please.

 

[Sprinal]

Right Imperial Guard are good in large numbers or with lots of tanks.

Space marines are all rounders
Tau are long range and dead in close combat
Tyranids are fairly fast and do lots of damage once they hit (they are also a swarm army)
Orks are close combat oriented, fast, and their tanks are weak.
Eldar are for the experinced player
Witch hunters (probably will be re-named Sisters of Battle) are BANG FOR BUCK but are about to be re-done (they are also all metal)
Daemon Hunters (Grey Knights {Haven't seen new codex yet}) awesome and probably hard to play
Chaos Daemons are really good if your experienced
Chaos Space Marines. Are more expensive Points wise. Harder to pain but more interesting to paint than space marines. But are also slightly stronger than space marines. But are otherwise the same.
The Necrontyr are very weak these days but will hopefully get a revamp soon
Dark Eldar are fast yet are also in need of a revamp


I play Imps but out of your options I would play a few games first.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Right Imperial Guard are good in large numbers or with lots of tanks.

Space marines are all rounders
Tau are long range and dead in close combat
Tyranids are fairly fast and do lots of damage once they hit (they are also a swarm army)
Orks are close combat oriented, fast, and their tanks are weak.
Eldar are for the experinced player
Witch hunters (probably will be re-named Sisters of Battle) are BANG FOR BUCK but are about to be re-done (they are also all metal)
Daemon Hunters (Grey Knights {Haven't seen new codex yet}) awesome and probably hard to play
Chaos Daemons are really good if your experienced
Chaos Space Marines. Are more expensive Points wise. Harder to pain but more interesting to paint than space marines. But are also slightly stronger than space marines. But are otherwise the same.
The Necrontyr are very weak these days but will hopefully get a revamp soon
Dark Eldar are fast yet are also in need of a revamp


I play Imps but out of your options I would play a few games first.

GK: To play against... yes (too many targets). To play with, not that hard, as the army will invariably be small but very tough. It's just a case of objective prioritising.
DE: Another one?! They got one just a couple months ago. And if Eldar are for the experienced player, then Dark Eldar are for the long-in-the-tooth veterans who remember the days when Harlequins were legal!

 

[Raikov]

If you're gonna get Tau, I strongly recommend staying away from the special characters since they suck buying and fielding an Ethereal. Every Tau knows that using an Ethereal is a guaranteed win.

I agree with the above poster whose post I have clearly not edited in any way. Ethereals always allow Tau to win. *devious laugh*

((For those not in on the joke I'm a Chaos player and helping a Tau player is not in my best interest. If he fields that character and I kill it his whole army breaks and runs like the little girly aliens they are))

Yeah, that could happen. Unless you join a squad of Broadsides with 2 shield drones with the Ethereal (also having 2 shield drones). It makes the Ethereal nigh invulnerable from ranged attacks (and you can always protect the Broadsid/Ethereal squad with some meatshields) and you're whole army are likely to NEVER FLEE FROM CLOSE COMBAT. Seriously, one squad of Fire Warriors were in close combat with Mephiston for 4 (!) turns without fleeing. When they finally died 4 Broadsides, a bunch of Battlesuits and commander Shadowsun (a special character. I recommend against using one, but I'm retarded ;P) splatted Mephiston all over the grassy knoll he was assaulting over. Yes, I beat the crap out of a Blood Angel player with Tau.

So I never play without my Ethereal.

Something that should probably be mentioned is that we here in Sweden play with 1750 point armies.

Well I play Tau myself, and if you can stand getting your ass kicked for a while, at least until our new codex arrive, they're a very newbie-friendly race. Not so much equipment or slightly different units to choose from as the other races (also, no psykers), and their weapons are very good.

If you're gonna get Tau, I strongly recommend staying away from the special characters since they suck, and get a decent amount of Fire Warriors (at least 3 full squads) and some 20 Kroot Carnivores. Then throw in a few Broadsides and Battlesuits (you need to pay close attention to the equipment rules btw) and you are good to go.

And for making your own lists, don't listen to what anyone say will suck or not. All units have strengths and weaknesses that can be exploited/avoided with clever positioning and in certain combinations.
Try all units out to see what works! If you find ppl to play with that aren't assholes, you'll be able to use mock models for the stuff you don't own yet.

See, I just can't get it, because deep strikers (and that weird 'Gateway Portal' thingy that the Dark Eldar have) can ruin a Tau army without vehicles (which are much harder than people give credit for). Once Dante + crew/Land Raider/Terminators/Interceptors/jetbikers get going, it's difficult to see Tau winning a fight, even if they have Kroot backing them up.

Just place your Broadsides cleverly and use the terrain to form killing fields. There is a good chance that you kill the Land Raider in the first turn. I personally field 2 Kroot units (10 in each) that I outflank with, mostly against unprotected long-range tanks (30 attacks against rear armour ho!) and to cap objectives.

And remember the 30 inch range of Fire Warriors. The bs3 str5 ap5 weapons may not be that awesome, but I sure have a lot of them =P

Playing Tau is more of a location and position battle nowadays. I kinda hope that changes with the next codex.




EDIT: I just HAVE to contribute to the wonderful pictures here!

 

[bdcjacko]

I keep kinda wanting to get back into the game. But I just can't spend the cash on something like that. Such an expensive hobby. Oh well.

I was an Eldar player back on the 3rd Edition, I think it was 3rd.

 

[wooty]

I used to be a Tau player and found them quite interesting to play as, plenty of stuff to irritate other players with.

But I left that path a while back now, there are far too many geeks in my GW that take things far too seriously now and the cost of this crap is overwhelming

 

[Dectomax]

Space Marines, Dark Angels, 1st edition rules. - End of story.

Nah, I LOVE Dark Angels! There back story is amazing and up till about the 3rd Edition rules, they were a pretty awesome force.

I have a small Tau army That I haven't assembled yet - Stopped playing back in 2003. ( Yes, all my models are either 1st edition or 2nd edition...) I'd like to give them a go at some point, but it's just so expensive to get into.

 

[SckizoBoy]

Just place your Broadsides cleverly and use the terrain to form killing fields. There is a good chance that you kill the Land Raider in the first turn. I personally field 2 Kroot units (10 in each) that I outflank with, mostly against unprotected long-range tanks (30 attacks against rear armour ho!) and to cap objectives.

And remember the 30 inch range of Fire Warriors. The bs3 str5 ap5 weapons may not be that awesome, but I sure have a lot of them =P

Playing Tau is more of a location and position battle nowadays. I kinda hope that changes with the next codex.

In that case, please tell me you run with hounds.

Anyway, the XV88's only have access to the one-shot rail-gun profile, as opposed to the template one, IIRC. However, I am aware of their auxiliary weapon (though I've forgotten their profile).

As a player who doesn't use vehicles as fire support, I can say that your tactical thinking would need revising (not by much, mind you, but you'd have to be very lucky with your outflank rolls). And that reminds me, does the Tau have anything that can influence the outflank so that you come in via opponents LTE every time, because I wasn't aware of this?

On the occasions that I have played against Tau recently, I've always come up against massed Devilfishes and Hammerheads. Granted, you look as though you've got lots of feet on the ground, as the S5 high range will start to tell, but it just seems too defensive, and 20 Kroot don't make much of a tactical 'hammer'. You got any rail-rifles in there?

Purely my opinion, please feel free to criticise me back:

7 BA terminators + Sanguinary Priest + Chaplain = bullet magnet/anvil unit
5 Death Company + jump packs = fast moving bullet magnet/secondary hammer unit
10 assault marines = objective takers
10 assault marines + Chaplain = primary hammer unit

Surprisingly good against full-mech thanks to the obscene number of melta bombs and fusion pistols. Echelon advance and economy of force wins me my battles with this list.

 

[crazyfills]

its a good game but really expensive to play out of the three you picked I would recomend tau or space marines

 

[Azahul]

Just to be different, I would advise you look around at some other games if you're interested in table top gaming. Warmachine/Hordes in particular is a brilliant game. I've played both 40k and Warhammer Fantasy, decisions that in hindsight I somewhat regret after getting into Hordes (for those interested, Warmachine and Hordes are two compatable rule systems, the former for the steampunk races in the game and the latter for the more feral, beastial, and tribal teams). You need fewer models, they're often cheaper than Warhammer, and the game itself is considerably more balanced. Releases for every faction come out around the same time, preventing the "codex creep" Warhammer tends to suffer from, and Privateer Press have done a much better job of keeping their game balanced than Games Workshop. They're also a generally friendlier company as well, and even have their own official forum (something that Games Workshop lacks) where PP employees often post to clarify both background and rule issues for players.

To top it off, the background for the game is something that I find much more interesting than either of the Games Workshop systems. As amusingly over the top as 40k and Fantasy can get, Warmachine (despite the magic robots, dragons, steampunk Undead, frankenpigs, and other crazy stuff) tends to feel a good bit more real. The individual Warcasters and Warlocks all have considerable backgrounds and character development, and the story of the world moves forward with the release of each expansion. Honestly, just buying the books for the background elements and short stories can be worth it.

Still, it's a system that's a good bit less popular than the Warhammer games, so you might want to check out your local area to see if anyone else plays it before starting. Of course, if there aren't, nothing stopping you with picking up two or three Battleboxes (small starter sets containing a basic battlegroup) and luring some friends into playing a few games with you. If you're interested, you can find the starter rules on Privateer Press's website, as well as a list of Press Gangers (volunteers responsible for helping new players get started), so you might be able to find one in your area. That was how I got my first games, looked up the site for an easy to reach Press Ganger and sent him a PM on the official forum.

Now, I should qualify all of the above by saying that I did enjoy Warhammer while I played it. I dropped 40k to move on to Fantasy for something rather more obviously tactical, and then dropped Fantasy and moved on to Warmachine after 8th edition came out (in both cases, the decision to move came after the realisation that there didn't seem to be anywhere near as much thought going into my games anymore), but I did enjoy both systems up until I left them. Choose whatever you really want to play, but bear in mind that there are other options out there aside from the Games Workshop juggernaught.

 

[Zykon TheLich]

1st off, I can't

 

[Raikov]

-snip-

In that case, please tell me you run with hounds.

Anyway, the XV88's only have access to the one-shot rail-gun profile, as opposed to the template one, IIRC. However, I am aware of their auxiliary weapon (though I've forgotten their profile).

As a player who doesn't use vehicles as fire support, I can say that your tactical thinking would need revising (not by much, mind you, but you'd have to be very lucky with your outflank rolls). And that reminds me, does the Tau have anything that can influence the outflank so that you come in via opponents LTE every time, because I wasn't aware of this?

On the occasions that I have played against Tau recently, I've always come up against massed Devilfishes and Hammerheads. Granted, you look as though you've got lots of feet on the ground, as the S5 high range will start to tell, but it just seems too defensive, and 20 Kroot don't make much of a tactical 'hammer'. You got any rail-rifles in there?

Purely my opinion, please feel free to criticise me back:

7 BA terminators + Sanguinary Priest + Chaplain = bullet magnet/anvil unit
5 Death Company + jump packs = fast moving bullet magnet/secondary hammer unit
10 assault marines = objective takers
10 assault marines + Chaplain = primary hammer unit

Surprisingly good against full-mech thanks to the obscene number of melta bombs and fusion pistols. Echelon advance and economy of force wins me my battles with this list.

No Hounds. I don't have the points xD

I don't even have points for markerlights. And no rail rifles either. 1750 points tends to limit you a bit.

And I never ever use Hammerheads. The template kinda sucks compared to the other races, and the considerably cheaper XV88 have twin-linked bs3 Railguns (which is actually a bit better than bs4). Also, XV88:s can actually take more punishment (especially with shield drones!) than a Hammerhead can. And, if you do like me and don't use vehicles, you can by default make certain enemy AT weapons kinda useless (melta bombs anyone?).

And about the outflanking.. I have 2 units, so I have a decent chance to get at least one on the right side of the table. But it's more of a mind game, really.

Say that the first time you face a Tau player. He puts all his Broadsides (in my case, 4) in the centre and as far back as possible. The vast majority of player will then place their vehicles far back and on the flanks. This is where the Kroots come in. And now, even if you don't win the match, the next opponent is for sure gonna have those Kroots in mind for the entire game, regardless of where you place the XV88:s.

If you then take into account the mentality of most players and their races strengths and weaknesses, you can to some extent dictate where the enemy will move his units. And right now, with all the 5:th edition races, you will need this advantage.

Loads of Fire Warriors may seem defensive. But if you use cover wisely and cover their movements with static squads, you can foot-slog quite effectively. I have owned a IG player with footslogging Fire Warriors once.

And sure, Kroot are no 'hammer'. They're squishy as hell and it's kinda hard to deploy them effectively. But if you do it right, you can get you enemy to rage about how overpowered they are! xD

 

[Vampire cat]

I currently own slightly above 50 separate armies split between various GW games, Tau amongst them.

50 seperate armies? 50? Not 50 lists but actually 50 full on armies? You actually do shit gold don't you?*

When you own a store you get your Warhammer cheap... Very cheap... On average I pay 1/4 of normal retail price for things I want for myself. Also, I've been collecting for many, many years. My armies vary in size from 1000pts to 3000pts, though all armies above 2,000 use elements of other armies in them (as I have for example 3 seperate Empire armies, and some times I want to make one really big one, so I combine 2 of them). I also have 3 Battlefleet Gothic "armies", or fleets as they are called. I don't play any of the other GW games regularly, so only have Fantasy, 40k and Gothic armies.

And yes, 50. I finished army 52 two months ago, it's a Chaos Mortals Slaanesh force for Fantasy.

 

[SckizoBoy]

No Hounds. I don't have the points xD

I don't even have points for markerlights. And no rail rifles either. 1750 points tends to limit you a bit.

And I never ever use Hammerheads. The template kinda sucks compared to the other races, and the considerably cheaper XV88 have twin-linked bs3 Railguns (which is actually a bit better than bs4). Also, XV88:s can actually take more punishment (especially with shield drones!) than a Hammerhead can. And, if you do like me and don't use vehicles, you can by default make certain enemy AT weapons kinda useless (melta bombs anyone?).

And about the outflanking.. I have 2 units, so I have a decent chance to get at least one on the right side of the table. But it's more of a mind game, really.

Say that the first time you face a Tau player. He puts all his Broadsides (in my case, 4) in the centre and as far back as possible. The vast majority of player will then place their vehicles far back and on the flanks. This is where the Kroots come in. And now, even if you don't win the match, the next opponent is for sure gonna have those Kroots in mind for the entire game, regardless of where you place the XV88:s.

If you then take into account the mentality of most players and their races strengths and weaknesses, you can to some extent dictate where the enemy will move his units. And right now, with all the 5:th edition races, you will need this advantage.

Loads of Fire Warriors may seem defensive. But if you use cover wisely and cover their movements with static squads, you can foot-slog quite effectively. I have owned a IG player with footslogging Fire Warriors once.

And sure, Kroot are no 'hammer'. They're squishy as hell and it's kinda hard to deploy them effectively. But if you do it right, you can get you enemy to rage about how overpowered they are! xD

Would've loved to see that Tau/IG battle. Well, you look as though you've got a good thing going. Puts me in mind of Shadow Warriors scouting behind a well hidden artillery piece, sorry that's WHF.

I'm still wondering how you do against genuinely fast moving armies. Because the Blood Angels would be on top of you by turn 2. Prodigious use of cover can get Assault Marines a long way even against railguns (that ridiculous unit shoot through cover save... which means my 10AM's get a 4+ save against it, even though they're part of the same unit, except they've combat squaded apart). *meh* We must play one day to resolve this argument!

 

[Zykon TheLich]

[quote="Vam