Mont’ka: We Will Strike the Killing Blow

UPDATE: This article is based on incomplete information at best. Click here for a revised counterpoint.

Yesterday, Old Shatter Hands over at The Tau of War posited that mechanized Tau was not the way to go, and that it was the Kauyon style of play that was more successful in today's environment. Being a mechanized player myself, and having taken many lessons and moments of inspiration from his past writings, it struck me as a major reversal. He's invited me to provide a counterpoint in support of the Mont'ka mechanized attack style, and I've decided to step up to the challenge.

OSH describes an army that mostly eschews mobile elements, instead setting up an army that would look very familiar to historical wargamers. The heavy-hitting units, mostly Broadsides and Crisis Suits, sit in the back of the army while a skirmish line of lighter elements, mostly Kroot, Gun Drones, and Piranha, screens them and keeps the enemy occupied at arm's length. Initial deployment consists of one or two such firebases, and during the game the army moves forward and tries to press the attack by claiming the middle of the field. It's a full-on frontal assault that pits the bulk of your army against the bulk of your opponent's, rather than the strike-and-move tactics that are commonly associated with the Tau.

I have a few issues with this strategy:

• Screening is a Two-Edged Sword. In 4th Edition, screening made perfect sense, because it was a form of target denial. In 5th Edition, it provides cover saves, which aren't nearly as effective a safeguard. In this case, you're screening Broadsides and Crisis Suits, which already have better armor than the cover save you get from screening them, and most weapons that can penetrate that armor will have to be within your screen to be in range (or are barrage weapons and will ignore your screeners anyway).  Worse yet, the same skirmishers that are screening you are screening your opponent from you. They're going to be providing a 4+ cover save to them when you fire at them. Against Marine equivalents especially, this is very counterproductive; you've just neutered the threat from your plasma rifles by giving the opponent's troops a 50/50 chance to survive each shot.
• Kroot aren't hardy enough. Well, if the Kroot aren't there to shield you from guns, maybe they're there to shield you from assaulters. They're semi-competent in assault (which puts them light years beyond the rest of the Tau army in that regard), and they can be run in decent numbers. However, their low toughness, low initiative, lack of an armor save, and relatively low morale make them less than optimal for this task. Again, let's put them up against a MEQ assaulter. The Kroot will go second, they'll take a fair number of wounds they won't be able to save against, and most of the wounds they inflict when they attack will be blocked by the Marine's 3+ armor. They'll likely lose the assault, break, and very likely get swept. Now, it is true that if they do get swept, that leaves the winning assaulter open to be shot at, but you've just given up your skirmishers to be little more than a speedbump. OSH suggests using Gun Drones to try to screen your Kroot, but it's really just trading one delay for another. Neither unit is tough enough to either act as a tarpit, or to inflict enough damage on the enemy before dying to let the next unit do clean-up.
• You're stuck face-to-face. With your largest firebase engaged on the same side of the table as your enemy's strongest flank, you're forced to trade fire against one another's front armor. Granted, Tau railguns are good, and they'll still be damaging AV14 half the time, but being stuck in one forward-facing position prevents your other weaponry from having access to the enemy's weaker side and rear armor. This can be mitigated somewhat by having a second firebase, as OSH recommends, but you're still going to have to work slowly around their flank before you get full access to their weak points. Meanwhile, moving up the table face-to-face leaves your sides vulnerable to outflankers, and the rear of your army is open to drop pods and other deep-strikers.

What the Kauyon approach seems like, more than anything else, is a stalling game. By throwing ultimately disposable skirmishing troops at your enemy, it aims to keep your larger guns alive longer and maximize their utility. However, I'm not sure I'm convinced that it's a winning strategy. OSH posits that it's a reaction to the more crowded tables created by newer codexes and their lowered point cost/increased model count armies. I'm left wondering what size games he's playing where this is the case; he specifies that it's for tournament play, which would indicate 1750 and up to me. At 1500 points, even against Space Wolves or Blood Angels, there's still plenty of room to take advantage of Tau mobility.

How does a Mont'ka-style army approach the above weaknesses in the Kauyon battleplan?

• Breaking line of sight is better than cover. The bulk of your mid-range firepower is in Crisis Suits, and Crisis Suits are used most effectively when the enemy can't draw line of sight to them. At this point, everyone's familiar with the Tau jump-shoot-jump strategy. I've heard that true line of sight makes it less effective in 5th Edition, but I disagree. It's a matter of picking the right terrain to hide behind; hills and buildings are far more effective than loose foliage. The approach to handling troops is similar; Fire Warriors in Devilfish are (generally) kept in reserve. A unit that isn't on the board can't be shot at by the enemy.
• Avoiding conflict is key. Skirmishers, like the Kroot in a Kauyon army, are meant to tie up enemy units for a little while. The Mont'ka army, on the other hand, attempts to destroy an enemy unit utterly rather than just tie it up. Rather than throwing waves of disposable infantry in the way, moving around to deny cover saves, coordinate fire, and throw plenty of high strength/low AP weaponry at the target keeps them from getting at your higher-priority units. By using tougher, better-armed, more mobile units, you can aim to avoid assault as much as possible while inflicting more damage on the enemy.
• Superior position can magnify weaker firepower. While having Broadsides hammering the enemy with railgun rounds is useful (I run such a unit in my otherwise-mechanized list), having increased mobility allows other weaponry to be deadly as well. Missile pods and plasma rifles are still threats to AV10 and 11, and with the ability to quickly cross the table and put themselves in position to exploit those weaker spots, they can prove as deadly as a Broadside. Also, by having the army arrayed throughout the battle field, there are fewer concentrated weak spots in your own lines, and the mobility of a mechanized army allows you to more quickly adapt to a changing battlefield.

One other strength of the Mont'ka style is that it saturates the field with threats. In the Kauyon style, your big guns are concentrated in a couple of spots, and everything else is just filler that has to be worked through (or avoided) to get to where the core of your firepower is situated. In a mechanized Tau army, though, everything is a threat, both alone and in combination with other units. Your opponent can either spread his fire out in the hopes of hitting a bit of everything, or he can do the same focus-fire on you that you'll be doing to him. By taking advantage of the battlefield terrain and denying him targets, you can blunt his ability to react in kind.

Finally, one more advantage of the mechanized format is that, when needed, it can masquerade as a Kauyon-style army. Piranhas and Devilfish can act as blockers and mobile cover while protecting the Broadsides, Hammerheads, Crisis Suits, and Fire Warriors behind. However, as the situation changes, the army can quickly reposition itself and/or scatter as needed. The more static guns-and-skirmishers build, on the other hand, is locked into one style of fighting.

It's not that I necessarily think the Kauyon build is unworkable; Old Shatter Hands is obviously making it work for him. However, it just seems like it doesn't play to the Tau's strengths and that it's an uphill battle. I'd like to see his actual list, because maybe there's some magic that I'm just not seeing. In the meantime, though, I still contend that fast and mobile wins the day.