Che Webster's Tau

(Games Workshop's Club Guy)

Che has been playing 40K in 40 minutes at GW headquarters in Nottingham. He has kindly let me use his patrol as an example of how the Tau might patrol the front line.

Shas'vre Bir'el, guarded by gun drones, leads his patrol force featuring two Fire Warrior squads and a Devilfish for transit.

The patrol functions with Fire Warriors "beating the bushes" and able to call up the fast moving support of the second squad in the Devilfish. In dense terrain both squads deploy, but in more open areas the Devilfish shelters the supporting squad and moves them to a decisive point, usually outflanking the enemy. Bir'el himself, equipped with jetpacks, is able to either act as a ranged support platform for the advancing Fire Warriors or to lead more directly when on the defensive. The force is flexible but vulnerable when pinned down. Bir'el has had to learn that mobility is his best ally.

Another variant force Bir'el can utilise is to deploy stealth-suited Fire
Warriors instead of the second Fire Warrior squad, using their heavier
firepower to defeat larger enemy formations.

The Patrol weighs in at 398 points

Tim's Tau Patrol  

This patrol is made up from the Army box I won at Gamesday 02.

Those of you who have visited this site already will notice that my Tau patrol has changed a tad.

I decided that a Tau patrol ought to be a fast moving force. I wanted the whole patrol to be mobile so they could get to and from a skirmish quickly. This led to the use of a Fire Warrior squad mounted in a Devilfish. Like Che I couldn't resist using a devilfish, as they are the heaviest vehicle allowed. The Fire warriors are led by a Shas'Ui, they have a support weapon (see Codex amendments) The unit also has two gun drones.

The rest of the patrol is made up by a Gun Drone unit and a Shas'Vre in an XV8 battle suit. The Shas'Vre has a Missile pod, for taking on 'big nasties' and a Blast Cannon. The Gun Drones were selected for their twin linked weapons and ability to move in, shoot and move out.

This is a risky patrol to use, as it is very much an 'eggs in one basket' force. That is to say it is very 'shooty', but finds Close Combat very difficult. In one game against marines it performed well until a five man assault squad closed with the Fire Warriors and killed 9 of them in a single round of combat!

Jim Prostovich's Tau patrol

Jim sent me this patrol some time ago, before it had fought in fact.

Force composition:
A three man Stealth suit squad lead by one Shas'vre, dubbed Shas'Vre Kuan Ti.
Three squads of six firewarriors with one squad embarked on a Devilfish. The devilfish carries three seeker missles just in case there is some tough stuff to crack, and the Shas'Vre has a marker light.

 

Weaknesses: With only one markerlight its kind of putting all of my eggs in one basket as far as the seeker missles. If the Shas'vre is eliminated, thats 30 points of missles that are useless. Ouch!

Benifits: I am counting on mobility and range....we'll see how that works.

Thanks Jim!

Like them? You can send your patrols to

tim.eagling@lineone.net

Return to Sample Patrols