M T TM e c h a n i z e d T a u T a c t i c a







Deep Striking Against Vehicles

Content by T0nkaTruckDriver, Written by T0nkaTruckDriver, Edited by T0nkaTruckDriver

Traditionally, many Mech Tau armies lack large amounts of anti-heavy-armor weaponry due to our inability to effectively field cheap Railguns in the form of Broadside Battlesuits. Instead, we often rely on one or two Hammerhead mounted Railguns to take care of the biggest threats. With the vast majority of games these days being of the Gamma and Omega varieties, the ability to Deep Strike seems almost ever-present; something which we can take advantage of to boost our anti-heavy-armor section by fielding Deep Striking Sunforge Crisis Suits.

While attractive at first, expending an Elite slot (or two!) for a Sunforge Crisis Team will necessarily deny you that slot for other puposes. For instance, a sample Mech Tau Elite section might look something like the following:
Deciding to include a Deep Striking Sunforge Team will necessarily reduce the effectiveness of your anti-heavy-infantry section, your anti-light-vehicle section, or your anti-light-infantry section depending on which unit you decide to swap out.

But there is hope! By bringing a Sunforge Team, you have significantly boosted the anti-heavy-armor section of your army list, allowing you to back off on the Railguns. Fortunately for us, the alternative, the Ion Cannon, is good at both anti-heavy-infantry and anti-light-vehicle making it a suitable replacement for both the Helios Team and the Death Rain Team! Although not quite as good as a Helios Team at killing heavy-infantry (an Ion Cannon won't scratch Terminator armor), and not quite as good as a Death Rain Team at killing light vehicles (4 Twinlinked BS 3 shots will hit more often than 3 BS 4 shots), the Ion-Head does have durability and versitility going for it, as well as the ability to bring a powerful defensive weapon option.

Ok, I'm Game, What Now?

Now that we've established that a Mech Tau list can be made to work relying on Deep Striking Sunforge Suits for the bulk of its anti-heavy-armor, what is the best way to execute this tactic? The first decision you'll have to make is how many Sunforge Suits to bring. Few commanders will want to allocate more than one Elite slot to their Sunforge Team, so we're largely concerning ourselves with how to equip one unit to best do the job. If you have two Elite slots available, your options increase proportionally.

The Monat Sunforge

This guy's in for one hell of a day. With only one Battlesuit, you'll need to take great care about how you equip him and where you place him. With only one Fusion shot at your disposal, twinlinking is helpful as well as some kind of Markerlight support on the turn he arrives, depending on the priority of the target. You also might consider equipping him with a Missile Pod and Multitracker to increase his damage potential. And finally, a Shield Generator or Drone Controller can offer him some much needed protection against return fire if you can spare the points and hard point. Below are some suggestions of possible loadouts for a Deep Striking Monat Sunforge:

1 Crisis Suit
[Twinlinked Fusion, Shield Generator]
1 Crisis Suit
[Twinlinked Fusion, Drone Controller + 2 Gun Drones]
1 Crisis Suit
[Fusion, Missile Pod, Multitracker]
1 Team Leader Crisis Suit
[Fusion, Missile Pod, Shield Generator, HW Multitracker]
1 Team Leader Crisis Suit
[Fusion, Missile Pod, Multitracker, HW Drone Controller + 2 Gun Drones]
1 Team Leader Crisis Suit
[Twinlinked Fusion, Missile Pod, HW Multitracker]


The Sunforge Team

Boasting increased durability, reliability and damage potential, the Sunforge Team is able to put out some serious lovin'. Although it's certainly possible to bring 3 Battlesuits in a Team, most commanders find the cost to be prohibitive and the risk too great (scattering off the board or out of range) and most Sunforge Teams end up consisting of 2 Crisis Suits. All of the above hardpoint considerations are still valid with the added caveat that a Target Lock on one Suit can greatly increase your damage potential, allowing this team to potentially destroy 2 closely placed vehicles in one turn!

2 Crisis Suits
[Twinlinked Fusion, Target Lock]
[Twinlinked Fusion, Drone Controller + 2 Gun Drones]
2 Crisis Suits
[Twinlinked Fusion, Target Lock]
[Fusion, Missile Pod, Multitracker]
2 Crisis Suits with Team Leader
[Twinlinked Fusion, Target Lock]
[Twinlinked Fusion, Missile Pod, HW Multitracker]
2 Crisis Suits with Team Leader
[Fusion, Missile Pod, Multitracker]
[Fusion, Missile Pod, Multitracker, HW Target Lock]
2 Crisis Suits with Team Leader
[Twinlinked Fusion, Shield Generator]
[Twinlinked Fusion, Shield Generator, HW Target Lock]


Where to Deep Strike

Do to our heavy reliance on our Sunforge Unit, we must exercise extreeme caution when choosing where to Deep Strike it. Because our Fusion Blasters are so much more effective within 6", we want to get as close to our target vehicle as possible while minimizing the chance that we will scatter on top of it... in which case the Unit would be lost. When choosing a Deep Strike location, keep in mind the AV of the target you're aiming at. If you're aiming at AV 11 side armor, being within 6" for the Fusion Blaster is less of a concern. If your target is a Landraider, don't bother placing your Unit at additional risk to have access to rear armor, it's AV 14 all around. And if your target is a Monolith... well, don't bother. Your Fusion Blasters will only be rolling 1d6 for armor penetration no matter how close you are. Keeping these things in mind lets do a short example. Say we've brought a Sunforge Monat equipped with Twinlinked Fusion and a Shield Generator, and our target is an enemy Predator. It's located a fair distance away from the board edge, so there's no additional risk associated with targeting its rear armor. Now we need to choose a location to nominally Deep Strike. When considering the possibility of scattering, there are three things we must worry about:

  1. If we scatter within 1" of an enemy model, our unit is lost.
  2. If we scatter off the board, our unit is lost.
  3. We must stay within 12" of our target to be effective, and it would be nice to stay within 6".
With these things in mind, it is generally regarded that the situation depicted below is the best spot to place a Deep Striking Unit aimed at targeting a vehicle.



Assuming there are no other enemy models nearby for us to scatter onto, and that the board edge is far away, this configuration gives us a a ~63% chance of landing within 6", a ~26% chance of scattering outside of 6" range, a ~1% chance of scattering beyond 12" range and ~10% chance of scattering onto the target vehicle.