This is taken from my blog... http://www.tauofwar.blogspot.com

Old Shatter Hands studied the data and statistics on his xv8's inner helmet computer. Diagrams of enemy weapon loadouts and various codes scrolled before his eyes. A three dimensional map of the battlefield appeared before his ponderous eyes. "Pathfinder feeds are coming through now. Relays are online."

"Confirmed, Shas'O." responded his accompanying Shas'Ui battlesuit pilots.

The digital battlefield map rotated horizontally and vertically to give him all perspectives. He searched it for an advantageous avenue of approach on the attacking forces. He zoomed in on potential LZs and calculated enemy threats.

Patrolling piranha pilots had located enemy forces less then 10 clicks ago and sent digital messages to the Orca for support. Garrisoned Broadsides and Hammerheads were the first to arrive while Old Shatter Hands prepared for the drop from the safety of the Tau Orca. Devilfish APCs remained cloaked until well-positioned. Old Shatter Hands sent commands to ground forces via radio and cellular communication waves.

His cousin, nicknamed Centurion by his cadre due to racking up 100 kills of Gue'la regulars during the Taros Campaign, stood by with his bonded team of Shas'ui. They anxiously awaited the command to execute the drop and studied the incoming datafeeds from ground forces.

Then the bay doors of the Tau Orca slid open, the glow of the red planet below lighting up the stocky build of their XV8 suits. As their visual sensors filtered out the dust and smoke of the battlefield below. A rocket flew up and whizzed towards them only to explode on the Orca's energy shield, Shas'Ui pilots flinched at the explosion.

"Ho! Looks like a feeding frenzy at a Kroot bridal shower down there!" bellowed Centurion.

Old Shatter Hands turned to his cousin, "Centurion! Prepare your Shas"Ui. We drop on my command."

"Aye, Old Shatter." He nodded. "Listen up, Shas'Ui, the time is now. Our blood is forfeit for the Tau'Va. You didn't want to live forever did you? FOR THE TAU"VA!"

Old Shatter Hand surveyed the field, he linked his hard-wired visual systems to the Orca's sophisticated sensory systems and pondered the best moment to strike. He saw an opening. "Centurion, coordinates Q253465, E983781. Deliver the Mont'Ka!" The bulky yet nimble XV8s leaped from the Orca to descend on the chaos of the firefight below...

Deepstriking your XV8s: Best Principles

So how cool is the idea of deepstriking? Typically practiced by noobs, deepstriking is something you rarely see pulled off well. Most XV8s drop kill something then get blown to smithereens. But I simply love surprising my opponent by dropping XV8 Battlesuits from the sky, unleashing a flurry of plasma and missile fire in a pin-point attack.

The advantage of deepstriking is that your troops are held in reserve and it is something your opponent can't predict. He doesn't know when or where your XV8s will show up, making it difficult for them to calculate threats and the risks of their choices. It leaves him trying to choose his vehicle facings carefully and guess where and when your 'suits will drop.

It also gives the Tau player more range over the tabletop. How many games have you seen your Tau line, cramped in the corner as the enemy approaches, with little option but to shoot and hope for the best. Instead of setting up at, try putting the majority of your force in reserve and deepstrike some suits. Imagine a squad of Deathrains dropping down on a far flank, only to rain missiles on side armor of chimeras, rhinos and predators as the enemy attacks what he interprets as a Tau gunline.

The problem is, it's difficult to know exactly where the best landing zone is and where to strike. Do I go for safety or do I go for the glory? Most players will choose a spot that gets them a big kill while simultaneously putting their 'Suits in harm's way. They fear scattering too close to the enemy or over impassable terrain or even off the board so they position the unit 12 inches away from any terrain, enemies or board edges. This type of deepstriking often leaves deepstrikers out in the open and vulnerable to concentrated reprisals by enemy troops. I'm different, I say risk it! Position your XV8s in your ideal spot, where they will get cover or be out of sight and still gain a vantage point for some well=placed shots. Of course a pathfinder's devilfish marker beacon helps.

Consider proximity to the enemy. You don't want to get too close so that your unit will get assaulted in the next turn but you want to be close enough that your weapons are in range. You want to cause damage but you also have to prevent your units from dying. Consider too that the surprise element is a weapon in itself. You may be better off saving your guns for the next turn in order to survive the drop. You might want to consider longer range weapon loadouts so you can deepstrike in vacant table corners and still fire.

Take cover, Shas'la! Deepstrike to a position that allows your deepstrikers to take cover and protect themselves rather than putting them in a position to get the biggest kill.

Stick together. Don't isolate your XV8s. While clad in sophisticated and advanced battlesuit armor, XV8s still need supporting units. I tend to deepstrike my units close to a piranha squadron, that way if I fear an enemy assault, I can turbo-boost my piranha in the way to create a skimmer-wall of defense. This also means that if the enemy decides to shoot my XV8s, they'll get a cover save from the blocking piranhas. By turbo-boosting, the piranhas will be getting one as well. This can also be done with Devilfish upgraded with disruption pods. In addition, a supporting unit will also be able to assist by providing supporting fire.

Look before you leap. Don't get surprised, be the surprise. Know thy enemy. Before placing your XV8s, carefully consider which enemy units can threaten your Battlesuit pilots in a counter-attack. Choose a spot that looks good and then quickly survey your opponents army and see which units are capable of mounting a successful counter-attack. If it looks bad, choose another spot.

Delivery the Mont'Ka with the utmost confidence and enthusiasm. Ok, we all know how dangerous deepstriking can be, but remember fortune favors the bold. Not only that but it's game, have fun and be adventurous, ya nerd!

Bearing all this in mind, you should have some spectacular successes with deepstriking. It can really throw your enemy off and get your battlesuits exactly where you need them. A couple pieces of wargear to consider are the Positional Relay and the Pathfinder's Devilfish Marker Beacon. Both of these items can be extremely useful when deepstriking, one allowing you to control reserves and the other allowing you re-roll poor deepstrike scatter.

Then comes the issue of which games and versus which opponents to do I deepstrike as opposed to holding in regular reserves. I have decided that for the next 5 games, I am going to deepstrike all of my XV8s and see what happens. I can see it being useful to getting side and rear armor shots, contesting objectives and precision strikes on valuable targets.

It's my belief that one day, the Tau will have a new Codex that makes them the best deepstrikers in the game. With marker beacons on all devilfish and XV8s getting the pinning ability on all their weapons the turn they deepstrike. Until that day, let's get some practice.

Over to the forums, what are your thoughts? Any advice for deepstriking XV8s? Is foolish or genius? How do we make ourselves the best deepstrikers in the game before we get a new Codex?

Very very good points here. I really get what your saying, and while it seems like common sense, its still very important to look at it in depth.

The main points you made are the "Deliver the Mont'Ka with the utmost confidence and enthusiasm" and "Stick together" points. These two stand out the most to me.

One thing I like is your point of using pirahnas as moving cover. If you can drop within optimal range of your target, but other nasty units are too close, just move a wall into place.

I really didn't think about just being confident may be whats causing me such bad luck with deep striking. I need to try that next game.

Very good write up. (And I really like the story too!)

[Edit:] I remember a game I played against orks. I deep struck in, did my damage, and lost my hq team. All because I didn't realize the burnas counted as having power weapons in CC if they didn't shoot. (and a full trukk load of them had just charged me) Knowing what to avoid, and whats going to fall before you is the most important step when deepstriking. (If only I had fully realized that then)

Hey since we're the only army that actually deepstrikes from low, low orbit using guidance systems, advanced suit thrusters and markerlight guidance, shouldn't we be more accurate in our jumps? For something that is so integral and "fluffy" to our way of war, we're not very good at implementing it in action.

I demand that Aun'va use his pheremones to persuade GW to change this....(heeeheeeheeehee)

I'm a huge fan of deepstriking XV8's; a Heatwave team is a regular in my lists. Cheap and deadly, and the Pathfinder Devilfish ensures the flamers always cover plenty of the bad guys.

Deep Striking XV8's are probably the best kind of reserves, and I am a fan of generalist deepstrikers (such as Heatwaves, Firestorm team and TmLd w/Fusion Blaster) as opposed to specialists (such as Sunforges). It gives me a lot more flexibility when delivering the Mont'ka and definitely excels in a TAC tournament setting. Having a heavy hitter arriving exactly when and where you need it is one tactic the Tau can pull off extremely well.

I already consider the Tau to have the best deepstriking ability (Apart from those Eldar Hawk guys... muttermutter). We get a Positional Relay, where we are pretty much guaranteed to have one of our deepstrikers to come in. And the Marker Beacon is great because it's fairly easy to draw LoS to most of the board, it's much better than things like the teleport homer. Or I might just be really lucky with my deepstrikers. The only thing we could do better is to get items that ignore reserve/outflank roll modifiers.

I think I was probably one of those Deepstriking noobs, but over time I think I have become a very experienced deepstrike artist (it's an art form when you see its true potential). I think I can maybe give some advice: Make sure you know exactly what threats you will encounter when you hit the ground. Be it dangerous terrain, fast vehicles, anything. Have a plan, know what you can achieve. It's almost a waste deepstriking a Fireforge next to a Tactical Squad if there's a Predator somewhere else Lascannoning your Hammerheads. That one suit is not capable of fighting off a whole squad of marines. Know what your deepstriker can do, fully analyse the situation, and by the Aun make sure he has support.

This is my rules for deep strike units

1).The First Rule of Deep Striking is, You do not talk about Fight Club... - "Two guys to a fight" Position yourself so that if you scatter, you land near another tasty morsels to devour. If your dead on you get two or more morsels to blast away.
2).Pathfinders are a must - Ever Scattered right off the table with double 6's? Ever wish you could re-roll? Read your codex, Pathfinders allow you to Re-roll those scatter dice. when it comes to units that cost 200pts, accuracy is a must.
3).One shot, One Kill - In a game of deep-strike, come planing to only get a single shot off, any more is a precious gift your enemy hands to you. Make every shot count.
4).For The Greater Good - And the number one thing you can count on. You just blew up a Land Raider, or layed waste to the Spearhead and given yourself one last chance, you think your enemy wants you to take down another key unit?! No, plan on your unit as if it was a sacrificial lamb. Do not pimp out your Crisis teams thinking the more good the better, accept the fact they are about to get completely trashed. This way it will not hurt your strategy if you get boned and do not get good roles, and planing on the unit to die keeps morale up as it fulfilled the primary objective every tau should be seeking in life, The Greater Good. The unit died so that others may live, and Teabag those ultra-smurfs.

To add to the stick together point:

The reason why most suit deepstrikes fail is because they strike in isolation one suit/ team. It lands behind enemy lines and pays for it. In my opinion to deepstrike effectively you need support from other units.

I run a fairly in-your-face QQC force and always land my suits near my other units to force a cross fire. This is done so that:

-You can co-ordinate focused fire with your forward elements
-You can deny cover saves (in some cases) of forces set up to take on your front elements
-You overload the enemy with targets (do they shoot your suits or the FW rapidfiring their face off etc)
-You suddenly make a safe area a hot zone – i.e. concentration of force in one area
-You put the opponent on the back foot as he has to react to this
-Perhaps the most important – the suits can continue to be useful after the strike as they become elements of what they struck in to support. They continue to be useful, rather than being out of position, isolated, destroyed as per an assassination strike.

Remeber that Tau always work best in combination!

That seems a very good plan. If you can DS into a nice crossfire position, one of your units will likely be in a good shooting spot even if the enemy moves towards CC with the other.

And to add to the cover point above, there's nothing wrong with deep striking out of LOS of your target and JSJing the next turn. My last deep strike attempt with XV8's failed precisely because I was a little too aggressive and deep struck to a shooting position, with the plan to move to nearby cover after firing in the next phase I could move. Then I scattered into charge range of a samba-line of 'gaunts. If I had gone for the more protected spot out of LOS I would have scattered about to a good shooting position (given the same scatter), or been on target and popped out and fired the next turn.

Comment Round-Up

Thanks for all the comments here. The collective knowledge will certainly further the perfection of XV8 deepstrikes.


So true, Huru, how many times have we seen careless XV8 pilots drop, all alone, directly in front of the enemy's battle-line? It's a shame and it's unnecessary.



Yet still some pilots choose the role of sacrifice. Hard-wired to his XV8 suit for entirely too long, tormented by the dark memories of the deaths of his bonded team members, a Shas'Ui dons the role of Mon'at and seeks death in battle with his sights on one last kill.



Though friends close-by might save him from oblivion.



Thus preventing enemies from taking his life before his glory is attained.

Remember the old saying, it is the patient hunter that gets his prey.

The ethereals have spoken.

This reminds me of a scene in Tael's story, Counterpoint:


That's how I view them in my army. The rest of the cadre will focus on achieving mission objectives, while the Crisis Teams focus entirely on just that: handling whatever crisis may arise. Swarm of Gaunts knocking on your backdoor? Well why not deepstrike some Flamer toting XV8's or some Firestorms. Chimera's or Rhino's coming your way? Have your Deathrains take 'em out. Armor too heavy? Well then deepstrike a Fusion Blaster behind it. Terminators? How about a deepstriking squad with rapid firing Plasma and Fusion?

Basically, whatever issues may arise on the battlefield can be dealt with by a properly equipped XV8. That's not to say that they alone will win battles, but they will be instrumental in eliminating key threats while you maximize on the opportunities they create. Deepstriking allows them to be exactly where you need them. That's why a Pathfinder Devilfish and a Positional Relay are essential in my opinion. They basically allow us to have control of the battlefield.

Czar Ziggy sent me a great comment. He couldn't post as this was in Tactica and he's a Saal right now. So here is his comment:

This is an idea I had to help any type of battle suit squad from being too bunched up when they deepstrike.

It states in the Tau codex that battle suits may not move in the assault phase the turn they deepstrike. (Probably something do with a tone of metal smacking into the ground)
This dose not apply to drones. (They just bob around on there anti-g motors)
So place the drones first and put the battle suits around them. Then in the assault phase move the drones out of the middle of the formations so blasts are not so effective.

This can also be used in another way. Though better if you have more drones.
Placing the gun drones first when deepstriking and in such as way that they are closer to the enemy. You can then move them back behind your suits in the assault phase giving you an extra few inches of ground for your opponent to make up if he wants to charge you.

In both cases it can depend heavily on how close you land to enemy units and how many drones you have in the squad to start with.
In short the defence vs blast you could getaway with just a couple of drones hard wired to the team leader. For the other plan you might need a few more.

A third plan is to deepstrike a separate gun drone squadron down so that they are between a heavy weapon team say and your battle suits and then spread them out in the assault phase so they give your battle suits a cover save. This will allow your battle suits to target there primary target while getting covers saves in the open from a separate hostile unit shooting at them. though this dose depend on the gun drones turning up in the same turn as your battle suits.

Unfortunatly, this does not work. Yes gun drones can make the assault move after deep striking, but the suits they are attached to cannot. When in squadrons, if 1 model moves, the entire squad moves. So, in effect, If your gun drones attached to your suits deepstrike in, then jump in the assault phase, you count as moving the suits as well, which would be cheating

Nte that Shadowsun can also make her assault jump after deepstrike.

I don’t read it that way but I will re read agene it from your point of view JT 2k5 =)

He's right. You can't move just part of a unit. A unit either moves or it doesn't, even if some of the models reposition and some remain stationary.

So in a vehicle squadron if one is immobilised then the rest can not move..................... that is not the case.

I can not find the part in the main rule book where it states the whole unit may not move. There is one part where it mentions the units moves at the speed of the slowest unit but I do not believe this counts if one model can not move at all for some reason as then units of vehicles could not move when one is immobilised and that is not the case.

If you can provide a page number that states otherwise then that would be good but I think this is a 4th ed rule that people have carried over?.

I can't tell you the page,
but I had that case in my last battle against Orks.

Situation:

I destroyed a vehicle (don't know the english name, was something with Flamers on it) from a 3 Vehicle squad, one got immobilised, I thought that they all can't move but my opponent and all others in the room told me, that the immobilised vehicle is useless and so gets left behind by the other squadron members and counts as destroyed, while the squad moves normal (well just one squad member less).

BRB p 17, "Moving and Shooting" box states verbatim that a whole unit counts as moving if any of its models moved.

Meanwhile, Squadrons - p64 - states that immobilized vehicles in a squadron are destroyed (and stunned are shaken), making the situation impossible in a squadron.

Lol now it is me carrying rules over from 4th ed sorry about that vehicle squadrons where if you moved over 4" away from them they where counted as destroyed.

p17 only refers to moving and firing weapons. but the bit you refer to and i quote "the most important thing to remember is that the whole unit counts as moving if any of the models moved in the movement phase"
How dose that effect this discussion? If a unit of battle suits deeps strikes they count as moving that dose not in any way stop attached gun drones from moving in the assault phase that I know of?. (and this should probably be moved else where as we are distracting from the originally reason for this post)

Ok I am sorry and I take it all back. my cunning plan has been scuppered by the rules.
Indeed Attached gun drones can not make secondary moves in the assault phase the turn there battle suits deepstrike. Darn and blast them rules.