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Well I went 1 and 2 at the primer at
Flatland games prior to the GT. Bill Kim laid waste to my army
despite
my best efforts to wipe his troops from the board. My win
against Dreadbeards Tau in round two did not prepare me for a more
optimized Tau tourney list in round 3. I went 2 and 4 in the GT
actual and once again the Tau gave me issues when Riptides were
involved. Needless to say I hate Riptides. IN fact I have been
putting a lot of thought into the Riptide. Mostly how to kill one
quickly and efficiently with the tools I currently have in the codex.
The real issue is killing multiple Riptides. As it seems the current
meta makes facing 2 to 4 Riptides a forgone conclusion. On the note of Meta, I have been putting a lot of thought into the current one as well. I think its really time to explore the codex and try some new and different things.
Many tournament lists run more than one
Riptide and therein lies the challenge. The amount of fire needed to
bring down one Riptide can eat up a lot of your firepower. When you
are dealing with more than one it gets tricky. You need a cohesive
plan and very good fire discipline to take down more than one. You
of course can ignore the Riptides and take out the players ability to
score, which is pretty minimal when you are running 4 Riptides, but
its hard to ignore the damage multiple riptides can do. So first
lets look at the Riptide and see if we can find some chinks in its
armor.
If we look at its stat block we can see
it has the usual Tau weaknesses. A WS of 2 and a base BS of 3. It
is T6 though with 5 wounds and a 2+/5+ save. When it comes down to
it they are a big tough terminator with character like wounds thats
lackluster in close combat. Its nova generator allows it to be fast,
have a 3+ invulnerably save and overload its weapons. It can only do
one at a time though and they have to do it in the movement phase.
Lets look at what the Eldar have to kill Riptides on an individual
basis before we move onto fighting groups of them.
Ranged Combat
This is an area that Tau excel in. You cant out shoot them with
Eldar. Yes we have the Wave Serpent and they can bring massed fire,
but as soon as you start taking casualties the amount of fire you can
bring drops off quite a bit. In addition the real combo that makes
them effective, scatter laser and shield, only has a range of 36
inches. Despite the mobility of the Wave Serpent force, Tau heavy
weapons can range them in easily and take them out fairly quickly,
especially when the shields are down. Combine this with tournaments
moving towards making the shield a weapon that can be destroyed and
you find yourself in a pickle quickly.
Massed fire can bring down models. Quality fire, the AP 2 kind, can
bring down Riptides more quickly. So what do the Eldar have that
gets the job done. They have more than you think. Bright Lances are
the first obvious answer. Rate of fire is an issue with the Bright
Lance though. Falcon's and Crimson Hunters, and War Walkers can
bring several to bear, in the former two cases the pulse laser can be
lumped in with the lances. The faithful Star Cannon is my personal
choice. My War Walkers have become packs of Riptide hunting wolves.
Three Walkers Armed all Armed with Star Cannons and the ability to
out flank help put them in position to hit Riptides hard in their own
backfield.
There has been some discussion among the Craftworld writers about how
to best deal with the Tau. The consensus is that bum rushing them
and weathering the fire is a viable tactic. This tactic also brings
probably the Eldar's most deadly weapons to bear. Distortion
weapons.
Wraith Cannons and D-Scythes are close range power houses. A squad
of Wraith Guards can easily lay waste to a Riptide when they are
within range. The real trick is getting them there. This of course
means doing something contrary to current Eldar tactica. Not
dropping shields on your Wave Serpents and moving them flat out into
the jaws of the enemy. This same tactic is viable with Fire Dragons
as well. Massed Fusion gun fire has a similar effect. Although the
Distort rule does have the edge as it can kill a Riptide with a
single hit.
AP 2 weapons are an obvious choice in dealing with well armored
targets. The Eldar have other tricks though. Psychic tricks.
Running deep with Warlocks and Spirit Seers gives you a decent chance
of getting the Protect/Jinx power from the Runes of Battle. If you
run Bike councils or Foot Councils, which I am trying to make work
once again, you will get this power at least once.
This power can be major when facing the Riptide. Hitting a Riptide
with a Jinx makes it way more vulnerable. Especially to Dark
Reapers. A decent Sized Squad of Reapers and level a Riptide with
Starshot Missiles. I know this can be a little tough to pull off,
especially when the Tau player is running the Farsight Enclave book
with that stupid amulet. The real key to that will be discussed in a
future post about tactics. Namely it involves order of fire and
target priority.
Next time I am going to talk about hand to hand combat. This is an
area that the Eldar can really hurt the Riptide and the Tau in
General. You just have to play it smart and not get shot to pieces
while trying to assault the Tau lines. Therein lies the challenge.
Until Next time......
Blood Runs, Anger Rises, Death Wakes, War Calls!!!!!!!!!!!!!
