Some thoughts on Tau

Hey.

We had the "first" game with my wip Tau this week and I was pretty pleased with the outcome. As I just wanted to test the few units I already have, we played with no restricted FOC and I was out for a lot of points to get as near as I can get to 500 points.
I fielded:

Shas'O (cyclic ion blaster, plasma rifle, missile pod, hw multitracker)
12 firewarriors (including a Shas'ui with bonding knife)
Warfish (SMS, targetting array, multitracker, decoy launcher, disruption pods),
Sniper drone team

First game was against Eldar. Basically Trotzki put a squad of guardians with star cannon, dire avengers (don't remember how many), 3 dark reapers and as HQ an autarch with jump pack and fusion pistol on the field.

We played on a 48"x48" table with two LOS blocking buildings and several 5+ cover ruins. Mission: Kill'em all!!!

That game ended with a draw, me only having the the warfish left and all Eldar killed.

Second game against Space Marines.
A Reclusiarch with jump pack, pfist, frag grenades, terminator honours.
6 SM with missile launcher and flamer
10 SM with heavy bolter, flamer in rhino with extra armour and smoke.

The Marines suffered yet again another defeat. The Tau could outmaneuver them completely. On turn 2 and 3 I really thought the chaplain would get the commander and he was on the run, but he could escape him and meanwhile shoot on the tactical marines. In the end I had 5 firewarriors, the devilfish and the commander left, the marines entirely wiped out (*sigh* for me marines...)

Ok, let's come to my musings :-)
The winner of the game or MVP or whatever you wanna call it was definitely the Shas'O! This guy rocks! The cyclic ion blaster is really worth the points and combined with either 2 missiles or 1 to 2 plasma shots is really devastating against everything. And with a bs of 5 he nearly hits everything he points his guns to. I often read that the 'O is not worth the points and one should rather take the 'El and spent the 25 points elsewhere but I must say that I really appreciate the advantages this guy brings with him and I think he is worth it and he suits my style of gaming (with 4 wounds I willingly risk jumping him into difficult terrain...). A little drawback is the missing invulsave (the autarch melted him straight into oblivion), but I think with more models on the field and his IC status will make him more survivable.

Firewarriors in warfish: I wanted to test the famous Fish of Fury so I kept them back until 3rd or 4th turn. But I am really satisfied with the warfish. The SMS is really useful and the addition of a targetting array further enhances that.
But I must confess that I still have to learn to guess 12" correctly. After I FoFed a SM squad I got charged the next round...sadly. But oh dear, the little firewarriors managed to kill 2 marines! Yeehaaw!
Ok, I think with 2 fishes it will perform better and when I am able to place them exactly in 12" distance to the enemy it will be pretty nice. (but to be honest, I really really fear the whirlwinds my marines will definitely field! Two units of 12 FWs bunched up base to base and a 5" pieplate with ap4 wounding on 2s....kiss your *** goodbye!)

Ok the gundrones: CRAP! Really, I like the style of them, but game-wise crap. Not being able to move, only hitting on 4s or sometimes on 3s with 3 shots is ridiculous. And as I understand it, as they have to keep unit coherency with the spotter they can't even use their jump capability in the close combat phase to move away from their position. Maybe they are more useful when fielding 3 teams but a single one is crap. And at higher point games the HS slots will be filled with far more versatile units. Sorry guys, you will stay at home the next games.

Conclusion: Shas'O is great, skimmers are great, JSJ is really funny and I am looking forward to the next games with hopefully more models.
And let's see what 5th editions brings concerning the warfish and LOS for the suits.