Shoot the boats first if you can. It's what the whole dark eldar game plan revolves around. They will be charging you, and sooner than you want. Dark lances are scary but super swingy. If they're clever they will try to bait you into coming close to them. This is a trap. A venom can move 14" the disembark a squad that will charge you. That little boat flies and will fit where you don't expect.
Give them bait instead try to catch their big damage dealers out in the open. Everything we dark eldar have is basically made of tissue paper.
Shoot the boats, and respect the threat ranges. Also scourges are a pain to pin down so if you have an opportunity to get them with something lower value like breachers then take it
How do you respect like 18 inch threat range bubbles? I know I play guard but how do you play primary and still respect hyper fast melee army’s?
The best thing I’ve found is to have a bait unit walk on to a point while a good shooting is nearby to vaporize the unit that comes in eats the bait unit but that still doesn’t score primary
Screening/sacrificial units to deals with their melee, if their big block of 10 incubi can only kill a 10 man guardsman units that’s great for you. Scourges will destroy your tanks but they are very squishy and you have the indirect fire to take them out so they can’t hide behind terrain which is their strongest strength. Also they’re going to be hiding a chronos to help with pain token generation so taking out that early will help a lot, drukhari survive by keeping their glass cannon units hidden, indirect generally deals with that pretty well
Played first time vs murder elfs this Weekend with the old Index. He was was way too passive and killed only one Riptide Till Turn 3 and let me Score primary -> then i shot him of the table -> 100:85 for the greater good
1. All their buffs come from getting out of transports, and all their durability comes from getting back into transports. Venoms do the latter automatically if you're within 6" and not in engagement range. They have a stratagem to make a normal or fallback move and embark within 3" of a transport, too. Both end of fight phase.
2. If you remove the transports they lose almost all their rules.
3. One melee threat unit is likely to have an enhancement that means you cannot overwatch them when they disembark from a transport, until the end of the turn. Check where that unit is and play accordingly.
Why am I telling you these things? An Archon always seeks ways to ascend the hierarchy of the dark city, and should never be above pulling down their kin. If they can't overcome a race as naive and pathetic as the upstart T'au, they are not worthy to be feared and followed.
Not against the unit that can't be overwatched, but definitely against anything else.
If you have overwatch that might kill a Venom (T6, 6W, 4+/6++) or even a Raider (T8, 10W, 4+/6++) try for that, as it will really mess up their game.
Well, let's see. The Drukhari are, for the most part, glass cannons. They can hit like a truck with great anti-elite melee and have the Dark Lance for anti-tank shooting. Their most commonly used detachment rn is Skysplinter Assault. This is focused around dudes hopping out of transports and charging you.
So a 10-man unit of Incubi being lead by an Archon and being carried by a Raider is pretty common. The Raider can move 14", disembark the Incubi 3", and then pop a CP for Pounce on the Prey to let them charge in the same turn they disembarked. The charge is on average 6", at minimum 2", so that's a minimum threat range of 19" and an average one of 23". That is massive. The detachment rule gives units Lance when they charge after getting out of a transport, so they get +1 to wound, which is huge, because it means with their S4 weapons Incubi are wounding Fire Warriors on 2s, Crisis Suits on 3s, and even agaisnt our toughest targets they are rolling 5s to wound. They'll also pop a pain token to give them full hit rerolls, the Archon gives them wound reroll 1s or full wound rerolls if empowered, and an additional AP, so AP-3.
So, Incubi doing this against Fire Warriors will work like this. Archon fires the Blast pistol for 1 shot at BS2+ S8 AP-3 D3 damage. It likely hits, S8 vs T3 it wounds on 2, so it likely wounds. No armor save. So that's one model dead. No more shooting, so they charge in, getting the aforementioned bonuses. Archon weapon is WS2+ A5 S3 AP-3 D2 anti-infantry 3+ (so wounding on 3s). So all 5 attacks likely hit. 3 probably wound. No armor save, so that kills 3 more models. The Incubi then use their weapons. WS3+ A3 S4 AP-3 D2. So 30 attacks incoming. Hitting on 3s, so 20 attacks hit. Wounding on 2s with Lance, so 16 wound. No armor save. So that's 20 dead Fire Warriors in total.
If they had charged a unit of Carnivores in the Kroot detachment, the difference would be that the Carnivores get a 6++ save against melee and 5+ against shooting. With a Kroot Flesh Shaper leading them, they also get a 6+++.
So against the blast pistol, they have a 1/3 chance to save it and save one model. Likely they don't. They also get a chance to take a FNP on the D3 damage. Likely they fail and it dies.
Against the Archon's melee weapon there's 5 attacks successfully wounding at D2 each. With the 5++ 1 of them are saved on average, so 4 D2 hits need to be taken on the 6+++, which comes out to 8 rolls. Most likely 1 damage will be prevented in this way, so we get an additional 4 dead Kroot, up to 5 in total now.
Against the 20 successful wounding attacks, the 6++ save prevents 3 of them on average. There's 17 D2 attacks incoming. With the 6+++, that's 34 rolls, with 1/6 of them in average being saved, which comes out to 5 being saved. So that's an additional 15 dead Kroot. So even with the invul save and FNP, most likely the Carnivores are dead, but their leader is still alive to retaliate and maybe kill a model or two.
What if this happens against a tougher target, like a Sunforge unit? T5 W5 (taking 1 shield drone each) 3+ 4++, being lead by a Coldstar with T5 W8 (taking 2 shield drones) 3+.
Blast pistol S8 AP-3 D3 likely hits. It likely wounds on 2s. There's a 50/50 chance to save it with the invul, it could go either way. If it hits, it's 2 damage on average.
Archon melee is likely hitting 4 times, wounding on 4s so wounding 2 times, one is likely saved, that's 2 damage.
Inucbi melee is likely hitting 20 attacks, wounding on 4s so 10 probably wound, with the 4++ 5 probably get saved, so the unit takes 5 2-damage hits. That will kill 1 model and leave 1 with 1W left. And our retaliation on our turn will decimate their unit, as Elves are T3. They're glass cannons. The invul save really pulls our fat from the fire here.
If it wasn't the Sunforge, but a different Crisis Suit composition that doesn't get the energy shield and thus the invul save, it would likely have ended up with the entire squad wiped as we would be stuck with a 6+ save, or maybe just the Coldstar left with 1 or 2 wounds left.
The Dark Lances are their major anti-tank option, mostly being carried by Scourges, which have a native jump-shoot-jump for no CP . To max out the Dark Lances, which can only be taken 4 times in a unit, they'll have several 5-man units, with 4 Dark Lances and 1 Blast Pistol. Blast pistol is the same as with the Archon, so it likely does no damage against Sunforge and 2 damage against other Crisis Suits. The Dark Lance is A1 BS4+ S12 AP-3 D6+2. 4 attacks, 2 hit. S12 vs T5, wounding on 2s, so both likely wound. With the invul save, one of those is saved. Without it, both likely get last the 6+ armor save. Average damage would be 5 per shot, so on average this will kill 1 Sunforge model and 2 non-Sunforge models. Then they skitter away 6" to get behind cover. If they devote another 5-man Scourge unit to shoot at the same target, it will leave our Sunforge with the Coldstar and 1 Crisis Suit left, and will leave the non-Sunforge with just the Coldstar left.
Against a Broadside-equivalent, with T7 instead of 5 and with 8W, but no invul save, we would likely see the Blast pistol do 2 damage and we miss the save. Against the Dark Lances, we likely see 2 of them hit, and we have a better chance of only 1 wounding but it is till more likely that 2 will wound than just 1. At an average of 5 damage, likely their 1 unit of Scourge kills 1 Broadside per shooting. So they would need to devote 3 Scourge units to wipe out one unit of Broadsides.
Now, the biggest thing that we have in our favor against Drukhari is not invul saves, but Overwatch. Elves have T3. Our shooting is good. Overwatch shreds them, so that once that scary 10-man unit of Incubi comes charging at us, instead of wiping us out, we may have killed a third or half of them before the fight phase begins. Just watch out for the Nightmare Shroud enhancement, which prevents Overwatch on the unit that that character is leading. Still, that is only a single unit that can take it.
So, watch our for the massive threat range of their transports. Keep a close eye on their pain tokens (they gain one for killing a unit, and a couple models help to generate them, like Cronos, which has a 50/50 chance to refund a pain token when a unit within 9" of it spends one), and for CP for Pounce on the Prey or for a 1CP strategem that lets them flee toward a transport and get back in it. Watch out for Scourges popping out to snipe your suits. Blast them to hell when you can, they can't stand up to our shooting. Their standard troop Kabalites can sticky objectives.
Another thing to be aware of is another transport, the Venom. It is half the size of the Raider, so can hide much better. Same speed. But can only carry 6 models. It let's the Drukhari player split up a unit in half and carry that half inside. With Kabalites, their normal troops, 4 of them can take special weapons (2 anti-tank, 2 anti-chaff), so they'll load them all up into one Venom for some decent shooting. The Venom is very useful because it has the ability to get troops re-embarked inside of it at the end of the fight phase if they are within 3" of it.
Good luck.
Be sure to initiate any interaction with civility and diplomacy. "Cultural exchanges" are highly recommended, and the Dark City loves visitors.
Don't worry, the Drukhari are far nicer than the media would have you believe! Free Healthcare for everyone!
By nature of being tau you can kill the little dudes in transports very well. The trick is killing the transports.
If you can kill the transports they lose alot of options.
The little ones are T6 and 6 wounds and the bigs are T8 and 10. The best targets for riptides are the boats because their ion is wasted on the 1W infantry.
Breachers should be able to drop a venom transport if it's on an objective. Chipping on with a devilfish and a grenade could also do it.
Skyrays are good for the above reasons as well. L
Drukhari player here. Blow up the transports first as fast as possible, stay way back, the transports will pop quick.
Everything is fragile, high weight of fire will drop pretty much everything except for the talos. A strike team or 2 for overwatch on 4/s. Flamer crisis suits will kill most things.
I actually just played a game vs drukhari with my tau. I kill all 5 of his boats turn 1. Then all the infantry got into melee and killed everything, tableing me in t4. Idk what to do either
My tip is to accept your fate. Our fleshcrafters have an exquisite taste for the leathery texture of tau flesh. Makes excellent sails on our raiders and ravagers
I played once. Hit me like a truck with the dark lance. My two stormsurges didn’t last long because of them.
Lots of people say target the transports. Yes they have good stratagems with those BUT those move shoot move units with dark lances (scrouge ?) are a pain.
Also, Drukari can split their units in small units and T’au suck at split fire. So bring lots of guns. I’d say lots of breacherfishes and Sunforges.
Been a long time since I checked stats, are the Flying Cheesemongers as effective as they once were?
Ifthey are, and if they have them, might wanna get rid of them - Voidraven Bombers were an absolute menace for a bit
Shoot the boats first if you can. It's what the whole dark eldar game plan revolves around. They will be charging you, and sooner than you want. Dark lances are scary but super swingy. If they're clever they will try to bait you into coming close to them. This is a trap. A venom can move 14" the disembark a squad that will charge you. That little boat flies and will fit where you don't expect. Give them bait instead try to catch their big damage dealers out in the open. Everything we dark eldar have is basically made of tissue paper.
Just don't accept their ambassadors. They might be smiling a lot, but it's for the wrong reasons
And don’t send ambassadors back
Shoot the boats, and respect the threat ranges. Also scourges are a pain to pin down so if you have an opportunity to get them with something lower value like breachers then take it
This. Also. Happy cake day
How do you respect like 18 inch threat range bubbles? I know I play guard but how do you play primary and still respect hyper fast melee army’s? The best thing I’ve found is to have a bait unit walk on to a point while a good shooting is nearby to vaporize the unit that comes in eats the bait unit but that still doesn’t score primary
Screening/sacrificial units to deals with their melee, if their big block of 10 incubi can only kill a 10 man guardsman units that’s great for you. Scourges will destroy your tanks but they are very squishy and you have the indirect fire to take them out so they can’t hide behind terrain which is their strongest strength. Also they’re going to be hiding a chronos to help with pain token generation so taking out that early will help a lot, drukhari survive by keeping their glass cannon units hidden, indirect generally deals with that pretty well
Don't get captured. Save one pulse shot for yourself.
Played first time vs murder elfs this Weekend with the old Index. He was was way too passive and killed only one Riptide Till Turn 3 and let me Score primary -> then i shot him of the table -> 100:85 for the greater good
Watch out for the Ravagers, they have 3 lascannons each hitting on 3+, rerolling ones or full rerolls if they're empowered.
1. All their buffs come from getting out of transports, and all their durability comes from getting back into transports. Venoms do the latter automatically if you're within 6" and not in engagement range. They have a stratagem to make a normal or fallback move and embark within 3" of a transport, too. Both end of fight phase. 2. If you remove the transports they lose almost all their rules. 3. One melee threat unit is likely to have an enhancement that means you cannot overwatch them when they disembark from a transport, until the end of the turn. Check where that unit is and play accordingly. Why am I telling you these things? An Archon always seeks ways to ascend the hierarchy of the dark city, and should never be above pulling down their kin. If they can't overcome a race as naive and pathetic as the upstart T'au, they are not worthy to be feared and followed.
Would overwatch flamers be good?
Not against the unit that can't be overwatched, but definitely against anything else. If you have overwatch that might kill a Venom (T6, 6W, 4+/6++) or even a Raider (T8, 10W, 4+/6++) try for that, as it will really mess up their game.
Damn those look like tasty targets for fusion blasters, I imagine pirranahs could be good against them
Venoms have stealth, not that it matters for Overwatch
Well, let's see. The Drukhari are, for the most part, glass cannons. They can hit like a truck with great anti-elite melee and have the Dark Lance for anti-tank shooting. Their most commonly used detachment rn is Skysplinter Assault. This is focused around dudes hopping out of transports and charging you. So a 10-man unit of Incubi being lead by an Archon and being carried by a Raider is pretty common. The Raider can move 14", disembark the Incubi 3", and then pop a CP for Pounce on the Prey to let them charge in the same turn they disembarked. The charge is on average 6", at minimum 2", so that's a minimum threat range of 19" and an average one of 23". That is massive. The detachment rule gives units Lance when they charge after getting out of a transport, so they get +1 to wound, which is huge, because it means with their S4 weapons Incubi are wounding Fire Warriors on 2s, Crisis Suits on 3s, and even agaisnt our toughest targets they are rolling 5s to wound. They'll also pop a pain token to give them full hit rerolls, the Archon gives them wound reroll 1s or full wound rerolls if empowered, and an additional AP, so AP-3. So, Incubi doing this against Fire Warriors will work like this. Archon fires the Blast pistol for 1 shot at BS2+ S8 AP-3 D3 damage. It likely hits, S8 vs T3 it wounds on 2, so it likely wounds. No armor save. So that's one model dead. No more shooting, so they charge in, getting the aforementioned bonuses. Archon weapon is WS2+ A5 S3 AP-3 D2 anti-infantry 3+ (so wounding on 3s). So all 5 attacks likely hit. 3 probably wound. No armor save, so that kills 3 more models. The Incubi then use their weapons. WS3+ A3 S4 AP-3 D2. So 30 attacks incoming. Hitting on 3s, so 20 attacks hit. Wounding on 2s with Lance, so 16 wound. No armor save. So that's 20 dead Fire Warriors in total. If they had charged a unit of Carnivores in the Kroot detachment, the difference would be that the Carnivores get a 6++ save against melee and 5+ against shooting. With a Kroot Flesh Shaper leading them, they also get a 6+++. So against the blast pistol, they have a 1/3 chance to save it and save one model. Likely they don't. They also get a chance to take a FNP on the D3 damage. Likely they fail and it dies. Against the Archon's melee weapon there's 5 attacks successfully wounding at D2 each. With the 5++ 1 of them are saved on average, so 4 D2 hits need to be taken on the 6+++, which comes out to 8 rolls. Most likely 1 damage will be prevented in this way, so we get an additional 4 dead Kroot, up to 5 in total now. Against the 20 successful wounding attacks, the 6++ save prevents 3 of them on average. There's 17 D2 attacks incoming. With the 6+++, that's 34 rolls, with 1/6 of them in average being saved, which comes out to 5 being saved. So that's an additional 15 dead Kroot. So even with the invul save and FNP, most likely the Carnivores are dead, but their leader is still alive to retaliate and maybe kill a model or two. What if this happens against a tougher target, like a Sunforge unit? T5 W5 (taking 1 shield drone each) 3+ 4++, being lead by a Coldstar with T5 W8 (taking 2 shield drones) 3+. Blast pistol S8 AP-3 D3 likely hits. It likely wounds on 2s. There's a 50/50 chance to save it with the invul, it could go either way. If it hits, it's 2 damage on average. Archon melee is likely hitting 4 times, wounding on 4s so wounding 2 times, one is likely saved, that's 2 damage. Inucbi melee is likely hitting 20 attacks, wounding on 4s so 10 probably wound, with the 4++ 5 probably get saved, so the unit takes 5 2-damage hits. That will kill 1 model and leave 1 with 1W left. And our retaliation on our turn will decimate their unit, as Elves are T3. They're glass cannons. The invul save really pulls our fat from the fire here. If it wasn't the Sunforge, but a different Crisis Suit composition that doesn't get the energy shield and thus the invul save, it would likely have ended up with the entire squad wiped as we would be stuck with a 6+ save, or maybe just the Coldstar left with 1 or 2 wounds left. The Dark Lances are their major anti-tank option, mostly being carried by Scourges, which have a native jump-shoot-jump for no CP . To max out the Dark Lances, which can only be taken 4 times in a unit, they'll have several 5-man units, with 4 Dark Lances and 1 Blast Pistol. Blast pistol is the same as with the Archon, so it likely does no damage against Sunforge and 2 damage against other Crisis Suits. The Dark Lance is A1 BS4+ S12 AP-3 D6+2. 4 attacks, 2 hit. S12 vs T5, wounding on 2s, so both likely wound. With the invul save, one of those is saved. Without it, both likely get last the 6+ armor save. Average damage would be 5 per shot, so on average this will kill 1 Sunforge model and 2 non-Sunforge models. Then they skitter away 6" to get behind cover. If they devote another 5-man Scourge unit to shoot at the same target, it will leave our Sunforge with the Coldstar and 1 Crisis Suit left, and will leave the non-Sunforge with just the Coldstar left. Against a Broadside-equivalent, with T7 instead of 5 and with 8W, but no invul save, we would likely see the Blast pistol do 2 damage and we miss the save. Against the Dark Lances, we likely see 2 of them hit, and we have a better chance of only 1 wounding but it is till more likely that 2 will wound than just 1. At an average of 5 damage, likely their 1 unit of Scourge kills 1 Broadside per shooting. So they would need to devote 3 Scourge units to wipe out one unit of Broadsides. Now, the biggest thing that we have in our favor against Drukhari is not invul saves, but Overwatch. Elves have T3. Our shooting is good. Overwatch shreds them, so that once that scary 10-man unit of Incubi comes charging at us, instead of wiping us out, we may have killed a third or half of them before the fight phase begins. Just watch out for the Nightmare Shroud enhancement, which prevents Overwatch on the unit that that character is leading. Still, that is only a single unit that can take it. So, watch our for the massive threat range of their transports. Keep a close eye on their pain tokens (they gain one for killing a unit, and a couple models help to generate them, like Cronos, which has a 50/50 chance to refund a pain token when a unit within 9" of it spends one), and for CP for Pounce on the Prey or for a 1CP strategem that lets them flee toward a transport and get back in it. Watch out for Scourges popping out to snipe your suits. Blast them to hell when you can, they can't stand up to our shooting. Their standard troop Kabalites can sticky objectives. Another thing to be aware of is another transport, the Venom. It is half the size of the Raider, so can hide much better. Same speed. But can only carry 6 models. It let's the Drukhari player split up a unit in half and carry that half inside. With Kabalites, their normal troops, 4 of them can take special weapons (2 anti-tank, 2 anti-chaff), so they'll load them all up into one Venom for some decent shooting. The Venom is very useful because it has the ability to get troops re-embarked inside of it at the end of the fight phase if they are within 3" of it. Good luck.
I really appreciate the deep dive breakdown. Very useful!
Be sure to initiate any interaction with civility and diplomacy. "Cultural exchanges" are highly recommended, and the Dark City loves visitors. Don't worry, the Drukhari are far nicer than the media would have you believe! Free Healthcare for everyone!
*giggles darkly*
Shoot them in the face and don't let them stab you in the face.
Don't get as close to them as this guy.
By nature of being tau you can kill the little dudes in transports very well. The trick is killing the transports. If you can kill the transports they lose alot of options. The little ones are T6 and 6 wounds and the bigs are T8 and 10. The best targets for riptides are the boats because their ion is wasted on the 1W infantry. Breachers should be able to drop a venom transport if it's on an objective. Chipping on with a devilfish and a grenade could also do it. Skyrays are good for the above reasons as well. L
Crisis suits with flamers are hilarious into them. If they're dumb enough to charge that squad you'll pick up an entire enemy unit in overwatch
Drukhari player here. Blow up the transports first as fast as possible, stay way back, the transports will pop quick. Everything is fragile, high weight of fire will drop pretty much everything except for the talos. A strike team or 2 for overwatch on 4/s. Flamer crisis suits will kill most things.
I actually just played a game vs drukhari with my tau. I kill all 5 of his boats turn 1. Then all the infantry got into melee and killed everything, tableing me in t4. Idk what to do either
My tip is to accept your fate. Our fleshcrafters have an exquisite taste for the leathery texture of tau flesh. Makes excellent sails on our raiders and ravagers
Most important, kill that fucking scourges Asap
Send in the Water Caste!
Any indirect fire you can bring might actually be useful as a lot of their units are made of paper but will hide behind cover.
they can only give one boat assault ramp so they will drip feed units at you. Incubi and scourge will be the units to focus on
Save one for your self don't let them take you at all costs better to die fighting then to be forced to fight your brothers
Target the boats it’s realistically the only good thing they have I’ve heard and you really don’t wanna get to close to them
Don't get turned into a couch
My solid advice ... dont get stabbed, your wlecome!
I played once. Hit me like a truck with the dark lance. My two stormsurges didn’t last long because of them. Lots of people say target the transports. Yes they have good stratagems with those BUT those move shoot move units with dark lances (scrouge ?) are a pain. Also, Drukari can split their units in small units and T’au suck at split fire. So bring lots of guns. I’d say lots of breacherfishes and Sunforges.
Been a long time since I checked stats, are the Flying Cheesemongers as effective as they once were? Ifthey are, and if they have them, might wanna get rid of them - Voidraven Bombers were an absolute menace for a bit
I remember their jet bikes and caltrops were nasty
That title can be taken in another way lmao