I have been watching the mighty internet scratching their heads since the release of the new Eldar book on how the new wave serpent can be stopped. The meta has shifted again and the panic has set in......."But we have all bought Tau, and now the Tau have trouble with serpents."
Cries of holo fields, armour 12, and moving flat out send the droves to the forums to claim [H] Tau Army [W] Wave Serpents. I mean if you can't beat them, join them right?
Since 6th edition has hit, the big claim has been close combat is dead. This was especially the feeling when Tau was released. Well, as it turns out the close combat that everyone has shunned is the easiest was to kill the mighty wave serpent.
ZOMG, Iknorite? Remember; their serpent shield, the holo fields and even the armour 12 is completely ignored as bonuses when you engage the machines in close combat and with all the fast close combat options it is not too hard to chase the fast skimmer down.
The first important advantage to remember is that when attacking vehicles in close combat you attack their rear armour and Wave Serpents like many others means this is armour 10. Because the vehicles are fast you want to make sure that you are going to kill it when you engage it because you may only get one opportunity. I will even put close combat at a disadvantage and not factor penetrating hits.
Str 3= Cannot damage tank
Str 4(Standard infantry)= 24 attacks on average to get 3 hull points
Str 6(Crack grenades, etc.)= 8 attacks on average to get 3 hull points
Str 8(Power fists, etc.)= 5 attacks on average to get 3 hull points
Str 10(Smashing MC's)= 4 attacks on average to get 3 hull points
Lets compare this to shooting at the Wave Serpent when it has gone flat out with holofields and serpent shield. This is assuming BS4.
Under Str 6= Cannot damage the tank Str 6(Scatter lasers etc.)= 38 shots on average to get 3 hull points
Str 7(Missile broad sides, tesla, etc.)= 19 shots on average to get 3 hull points
Str 8(Missile launcher, etc.) = 13 shots on average to get 3 hull points
Str 9(Las Cannon, etc.)= 9 shots on average to get 3 hull points
Another advantage to keep in mind is that vehicles cannot overwatch so all that fire power is useless when you are running at the tank screaming. Just keep an eye out if there are any of those good-two-shoes supporting fire Tau hanging within 6" of the tank.
I hope this articles helps your Wave Serpent woes and helps people give a second thought to close combat before you turn your back on it completely. Oh, and most important; close combat is way more FUN. Remember? That thing you should be having in a game.
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Maybe it's time for me to bust out my ole Scarab Farm? 2 scarabs on the charge will on average kill a wave serpent (10 attacks, 6.6 hits, lower it to 7 rear armor, now 6 or 7 penetration rolls needing a 4+ to glance).
ReplyDeleteThe problem is that wave serpents are also very good at killing scarabs, all their shots are str 6...
I was thinking... what about buying an Aegis Defense line, setting it up about at midfield. Scarabs are very short, shorter than grots. Would a wave serpent even be able to see scarabs that were behind the wall? I doubt it... but I don't have Wave serpents to see how far away the scarabs & serpent would have to be in order to block LOS...
Scarabs also have the largest charge range in the game when coupled with Spyders, since the spyder can add new swarms 2" out front before movement. Their total charge range is about 3" + 12" + avg 9" charge, so 24" on average, ignoring terrain. Tough for serpents to escape that.
You have some very valid points Matt and although not many armies have scarabs or spyders anymore, in my opinion the best lists do. Spyders are still three MCs for very cheap and scarabs are really uber fast swarms with tons of tricks and with no fearless wounds can tarpit like no tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteThe shield gun will tear them apart but they are very easy to hide as you point out. Being necrons you of course have the mighty wraiths with that nasty destro lord tanking hits and you can throw oby or a veil in with spyders to teleport them around the board causing havoc.
I have also been looking at lychguard lately....
Assault is definitely the big weakness of serpents. I think that people bringing 7 of them are going to be a bit surpurised when they see the Yarmgarl genesealers wipe out 2 of their serpents in a single turn.
ReplyDeleteSerpents also don't handle well to losses. 8 serpents in an army is very dangerous. Once they lose 6, they are still good. Once they go to 4, they are decent. 2 is not that dangerous.
So a serpent players game goes downhill fast when it goes downhill.
That's why I think pure serpent spam is a one trick pony. You need something like a seer council to see the assault units off you.
Hey Labmouse,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment! Ymarggllglglgg genestealers are certainly a key unit to destroying wave serpents. Deathleaper is a pretty solid tool for it as well.
Great point you make too about their power diminishing quickly once you start killing serpents. If you have 5 of them you are looking at about 10 wounds to a unit a turn. Each one you kill is effectively dropping your damage output by 20% which is huge for any army when you consider it only takes 3 "wounds" to do that.
That's why I think you can do a lot with the proper shooty army on an alpha strike. Lets say your playing dark eldar with 3 ravagers. You can guide/precience 2 of them, so your going to be hitting ~8 times and going 4 hull points of damage. That's one serpent down.
ReplyDeleteThen you use some other dark lances scattered in your army to down another wave serpent before the eldar player can move. Scorges, warriors, trueborn, etc...
If the eldar player has 6 serpents, they lost 1/3 of their firepower off the top. That means they will be having an uphill battle.
On the right board edge, Tau can do the same. Tau have the capacity to remove cover, which is critical when facing serpents.
While a serpent player can sit back at 60" and plink away at broadsides, their effective damage-per-point invested is actually really bad. A serpents sweet spot is 24" away.
This lets you bring your full firepower to bear while bringing little risk to yourself. The drawback with this, of course, is that it sacrifices your ability to push and easily control a section of the board.
Of course, the best way to deal with serpents as you mentioned is still assaults. One army my serpent army is dead scared of facing is a triple mars pattern land raider build with marines that can come combat squadding out of. That would wipe my entire army off the board before I got a chance to do anything.
PS - I was the Eldar/Deldar player you played yesterday in the 2nd round.
Assaulting with the unlikeliest of armies can prove to be the spams undoing. Riptides are monstrous creatures and do smash with 3 auto-penning hits. keep in mind that an Onager gauntlet is pretty much an auto include. 5 pts for a power fist that is AP 1 and strikes at initiative on a tau isnt shabby. Also for the Farsight players, fusion blades should be considered as well. almost every army has the capacity to take them on. Tau maybe more so than most, we have an ass ton of shots at strength 7 (if you are doing it right) and we have monstrous creatures and plenty of meltas. rear armor isnt hard to smack with tau.
DeleteExcellent points again if you are playing a shooting army you really need to try and get that first turn. Once they start moving it becomes infinitely harder to kill them but the Alpha strike can be especially crippling.
ReplyDeleteOh great! Thanks again for the game man, sorry I was a boring opponent I just didn't have much to do for a while lol. It was a pleasure both meeting you and playing against you. It will be great to hang out a bit at NOVA. Make sure you have a safe trip down. Playing against your army was the best practice for me of the day for next week hands down!
What takeaways did you have from the game?
ReplyDeleteThe takeway I took was to be very careful about your shooting order. I should have fired the one wave serpent closest to my side of the table edge first, which would have allowed me to clear out that squad of gargoyles.
I took away to roll better lol. Just kidding, I made a couple errors, the first being, even trying to be offensive with doom. My thought with him was even trying to be offensive and use the pod to contest but I really just should have kept him back and saved two kill points or dropped him on my board edge. I also should have just charged the seer council with the ymgarls since I had limited charge targets with them (well done) and maybe try to take them out. The council is great in combat but without fortune I may have done OK. Better than I would have killing that one venom lol.
ReplyDelete