POST MORTUM: 40k Tactics: Dealing with riptides

 Dealing with Riptides

 

Theres no getting away from the fact that with the tau's lattest expansion, the riptide has been making waves on gaming tables across the land. With its scary arsenal of devastating firepower, dual benefits of manauvreability and survivability as well as an amazing model to round out the package its sure to be popular amoungst tau gamers for sometime to come.  So if we're going to be facing these mechanised gaming bullies then we best get our heads around taking them on.  Im going to share some insights into what makes the Riptide such an intimidating foe for so many people, as well as some tactics for tackling the mightiest of the firecastes resources, the powerhouse that is the Riptide.

Know your foe

One of the most important things in tackling any threat your likely to face is in knowing exactly whats its capable of.  The riptide is a veritable swiss army knife of a unit being tough, fast, good in close combat [thanks to being a monsterous creature] and being absolutely devastating in the shooting phase.  This is one of the biggest reasons its so intimidating to face, theres just so many ways in which it excels it can be hard to best decide how to counter it.  That said its certainly not invulnerable and as it does take up a fair chunk of points.  The threat of the riptide is often worst then the damage it will do if you keep calm and take steps to mitigate the damage it will inflict.

Tough

With toughness value of 6, a 2+ save and an invulnerable that can be boosted if needed the riptide is the epitamy of tough.  What does that mean for us?  Well for one we shouldn't "expect" to take one down in a single turn.  If that happens then great but plan for it to be around for a while, and chip away at its wounds throughout the game, this way we can mitigate the damage they will do to our army during the game and get the edge of the pyschological game.  

One of the most important things about tackling riptides is knowing when to ignore it and when it needs to be dealt with.  As it is so tough to take down, and we are going to assume that were not going to kill one in a single turn then anytime there is a target which we are more likely to take out, with weapons that could target the riptide we should be seriously weighing up that decision. 

Thats not too say you should completely ignore it.  Unchecked its got the potential to slignificantly put a dampner on your battle plans.  Another great thing about chipping away at a riptide is that you can put it in danger of killing itself with a nova charge, which is highly satisfying.  If this happens doe try not too look too smug as they pack their favourite model away.  The threat of killing themselves with nova charges can be enough to sow that seed of doubt in their mind, and stop them making the decision to charge up at the oppertune moment. 

Manauvreability

The riptides boosted movement allows it to get out of dodge at a pinch, or to relocate quickly to make the most of cover and maximise its use of firelanes.  However it isnt an eldar jetbike squadron, so it can definately get pinned down and have its escape routes cut off.  The question then just comes down to do you have the chops to deal with it once it has been cornered.

Close Combat

Being a monsterous creature has many benefits, one of the biggest being the ability to do smash attacks allowing the riptide to threaten "most" things in close combat.  It will instant kill most characters and by pass most armour saves meaning there are a select number of units out there that are capable of taking it down when things get personal.  Luckily it does have a limited number of attacks, which means most other monsterous creatures get a slight edge against it, and if you can bring numbers to bare that can actually hurt it then you should be able to overwhelm it.  

Another thing that helps out our friend the riptide, is overwatch, and all the tau shenanigans that come with it.  However dont be too scared of overwatch, it will need to get lucky to score multiple hits and only models within 6" get too give supporting overwatch not the whole unit, so plan out your charges and take down the support the riptide has and you can leave yourself in a position to take him out.

Riptides will often be advanving, so may even leave the oppertunity for you to get in when its out unsupported anyway.

Make sure you have the tools for the job when you do make it into combat, bearing in mind unlike many other Monsterous Creatures out there the riptide isnt fearless and so even beating it in combat by a point or two could see it taken out be a cheeky sweeping advance.

FIREPOWER

This is where the Riptide really shines, especially with its Ion Accelerator.  With the options of multiple high str low Ap shots, or a large blast with a huge range and buckets of customisation from all the tau support system options.  Remember that it has gets hot as well as the ability to nova charge, so if they wanna rock out the big guns, they should be rolling for both.

There are three main ways of tackling the riptide at range.  Firstly throwing low AP high strenghth weapons at it like plasma and lascannon shots, in order to try to get as many wounds to stick as possible.  This is probably the most traditional approach to killing high toughness 2+ save units and would certainly be the go too approach if it wasnt for that shield. Number two is to play the numbers game and puts lots of shots into it.  when doing this high strength will help out, so tesla destructors, autocannons assault cannons etc are the kinds of things that will be useful here, however things like sniper rifle fire or massed poison shots are also viable options.  When taking the Low AP route its invulnerable and boosted shield can really help it out however one small grace is that the tau player will have to decide what to do in his turn and you can plan your strategy accordingly.  The third option is multi-shot lower str low ap weaponry.  If you happen to have acess to a few dark eldar ravagers broadsiding with 9 str 5 ap2 shots for less than half the points of the riptide cannot be a bad choice, while Starcannon loaded warwalkers are equally appealing, especially with guide and doom available.

In general if your opponents shield is boosted then starting with weapons with more over the lower ap shots is preferrable, and then if the riptides wounds get low you can try to finish it off with higher ap weaponry.  If it doesnt have the boosted shield and you have the high ap firepower, then weaken it first and then use weight of numbers to finish it off.

An honourable mention has to go out to grav weapons and in particular the Centurians when it comes to riptide hunting.  These are the one of the closest things that come to a hard counter, with grav weaponry being at its optimal efficiency when deployed against things high good saves and toughness.

 

KILL THE PATHFINDERS

One of the things that makes Riptides so good is that they can use marker light hits, to get rid of your cover saves.  In general no cover save means a Riptides Large Blast will do twice as much damage, as well as being likely to score more hits.  Do yourself a favour and make pathfinders your Priority kill.  Suddenly the Riptide wont seem so scary as you may actually get a cover save for most of your army.

TBC.......................