Starting Tau

[milkybarnid]

Hey hive,

My friend has been bugging me to start another army, im not sure what army to get but im leaning towards the Tau at the moment, im not a fan of the imperial armies and i wanted an army that revolves around the shooting phase rather than the assualt.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks to share? what tactics do you use?

Thanks

[sturm]

Had a friend who started Tau not too long ago. He stopped playing because he said there arent many viable lists beside one standard build. If you want to play a shooty army, you sure have a good one, but from what ive seen, its pretty much stay away and shoot all game.

All of my experience against Tau was right before the 6th came out, so it probably changed a bit with all the objectives missions. I also heard the overall army got a few buffs, but id still be worries about not having enough room to have many army builds. Someone with 6th edition experience with Tau could have different opinions though.

[Ryojin]

I just started a Tau army.. So I'm looking forward to people's answers here

So far I have played only one game, but I'll post here once I get more games under my belt on these fellas. So far I like their fluff, their models are appealing to me (totally different from 'nids) and their fire power was buffed by the shooting rules a lot

They should be getting a new flyer too when the next batch of flyers gets going and they will propably be one of the first armies to get a codex in 6th edition after marines chaos and eldar. Or that's what I have heard, can't confirm though.

[swarmy]

With the reduction of transports those Ion-Heads (Ion cannon Hammerheads) might make a comeback. 60" S7 AP3 with 3 shots (take that marine armies ). Also, you are well suited with tau to take out flying MC's since you have the sheer quantity of fairly long range rapid fire weapons to force the falling down tests then make an AP1 to AP3 coup de grace.

They are a very finesse based army though. It will probably take you some time to figure out where/when to jump around and when to run away or stand and shoot. They are doing pretty solid in 6th from what I've seen so far though.

[nidzy]

My regular Tau opponent has been running a horde Tau list that is pretty effective, but considerably different from other Tau looks I commonly see.


Basically it looks something like this:

Crisis Suit Commander: missile pods
Crisis Suit Commander: bc/mp

3 crisis suits w/ burst cannon/missile pods
3 crisis suits w/ tl missile pods and targeting arrays
6-8 stealth suits: sometimes with fusion

2x 6 pathfinders w/devil fish

3x12 fire warriors
10-15 kroot

2 broadsides
3 sniper drone teams w/spotters

When you add in miscellaneous gun drones it generally comes out to about 90-100 models depending on how many kroot/pathfinders/stealth suits.

Firewarriors have essentially a 21" rapid fire range now with movement. This makes it hard to play agressively with flyers or FMC's because of the high volume of fire they can put out there. The sniper drones add in extra marker light support as well as the potential to kill/pin marines. Stealth suits are a very solid harrassment unit, and they can put some hurt out with markerlight support. If they are also in cover, they always get a 2+ as they have both stealth and shrouded so they are tough to deal with if you cant get something in range to assault.

The kroot outflank or infiltrate into a nice comfy forest.

A couple of minuses that they face in this edition: Tau got hurt by random jump length just like the rest of us got hurt by random assault length. Sure it is nice to be able to reposition 12" but it sucks hard to roll double ones and leave your squishy crisis suits out in the open. And, as always, Tau have (please do not swear) leadership so when they take morale checks they are generally as likely to fail as not.

Missile pods got a boost now that pens are less important. With BS 4-5 and twin linking they definitely put some hurt out against everything but armor 14. The only fliers I have played against them have been stormtalons, and though the suits haven't managed to kill the stormtalons the turn they show up they have definitely consistently either destroyed a weapon or dropped a hull point and made me evade and thus keep flying which limits the ability of the stormtalon to continue to maneuver.

Lookout sir is a tremendous help to crisis suits (not unique to tau though...) now as they can stand the IC out of cover in good position to jump again, and look out sir ID wounds or otherwise to other models, including ones they have already allocated a wound to.


Overall I think Tau will be a good army in this edition. They also should get an update sometime in the next year or so which would be very solid. You have to remember about Tau that they play very much like their mindset in the fluff: they will always give ground rather than stand and fight. They move well enough to be able to bend but not break and then move back to their spot. Having really strong target priority is probably your biggest key to playing them, then planning your jumps appropriately so that you can maximise output and minimize return fire.

[orkblasta]

in my opinion the absolute best way to start a tau army is to pick up the battle force and a crisis suit commander. Ethereals suck, don't touch them, after the battle force it's up to you, more stealth suits, battle suit heavy, pathfinders (definitely a must have for every tau player), or hammerheads.

What I would do if money wasn't an issue is, pick up a crisis suit commander and x2 battle forces. The diversity in that alone is huge and it will really help you get to know the army for future expansion.

cheers.

[milkybarnid]

Thank you very much guys, i am holding off buying any models or the codex, in LGS most of the people there believe that tau will be getting a new codex after choas and dark angels, of course this is speculation but if they change any models id rather not buy the new one again to use the unit. i dont know when they will get a codex, just not too late preferably.

[Psychichobo]

You wouldn't have to buy the new model just to use the unit, I've seen tonnes of 2nd end models in lists before. It's legal to use any edition Carnifex for example, despite the 2nd ed fex being TINY.

Also, your name is EPIC.

[Gravekeeper]

Here are my tips on Tau

1. HQ: Go for a Shas'o commander or two, with some fancy weapons (plasma rifle is good).

2. Troop: Fire warriors are great take some of those. They are your main fire power.

3. Troop: Kroots are good, I ALWAYS take some. The choice to outflank with to go offensive
or Infiltrate and hold midfield objectives and to be a cheap cannonfodder against closing enemies (kinda like Gaunts).

4. Elites: Crisis suits are good and can fill any role with the right loadout.
Tankhunters (fusion blaster), infanty hunter (flamers or burst cannons), heavy infantry ( plasma rifle).

5. Heavy: Broad sides are great durable support with their TL Railguns, which kills tanks an heavy like there was no tomorrow.

Then just shoot things to smithers.

[bloodborne]

I love and hate Tau... I love playing this army, but after the collapse of my collection, I'll probably never pick up the army again (had 5K points, including a Manta)The army in and of itself is a mid to high skill level army. Transports here are still your friend, as you can effectively keep your units at range from your opponent and shoot basically as much as you like. The Assault phase is not your friend, as it is with nids, Most everything you have in the Tau codex dies very VERY easily in CC, and the only real combat effective unit Tau has NEEDS to kill what they charge immediately, preferably units that are otherwise stranded from the rest of the opposing force, are battlesuits. Even then Battlesuits are fairly 'meh' in CC.

As has been stated previously, and will be echoed again, Missile pods and Ion cannons are golden with this army. Much of other very nice weapons they have can usually be twin linked if you take the right units.

Personally, I would stay away from their flamers though, not one of their better ranged options in my experience.

Plasma cannons for Tau are ok, but there are better options available here too... the biggest boon for these is they don't get hot as they do for other armies.

IMO, the biggest downfall for the Tau, is their complete lack of either special or heavy troop weaponry. Which means you generally have to make sure ahead of time that everything in your list is balanced between your infantry(which WILL kill other infantry if used right) and your suits/tanks(which are Tau's only option for killing enemy armor/IDing ICs).

Oh, a last thought, NEVER underestimate the power of drones.... I leave it to you to figure out your own uses for em, but these little guys are fun...

[coredump]

I decided to start Tau about 12-18 months ago, and did a lot of 'research' on various Tau sites.

Tau has a ton of 'good' builds, that is part of the funny.... all those sites will argue about the 'best' build... because there are so many to choose from
Now, also realize that there are no 'great' builds. Top level lists with top codices will always be a big problem. But you can build several different Tau armies that will be equally successful.

Don't wait for the codex... it will take a long time to show up.

Ethereal trick: Make sure your units are in transports.... run ethereal straight forward until dead. All of your Tau on the board now have PE for all of their shooting. (Not saying it is a good trick.... but not sure)

Also, I have not looked at them at all since 6E, so I don't know what that may have changed.

[baconslice]

Get your codex on eBay, got mine for £6. I didn't want to pay full price as half the rules are redundant and have just got to be crossed out.

Also: can anyone help, the codex says that if you take TL battle suit weapons, that they count as 2 weapon systems. Does this mean you have to take a multi tracker, and that you will only be able to fire your TL weapon on your turn? Plus how does a TL flamer work, just 2 templates?

[snowdaman]

Aug 17, 2012 8:40:13 GMT baconslice said:

can anyone help, the codex says that if you take TL battle suit weapons, that they count as 2 weapon systems. Does this mean you have to take a multi tracker, and that you will only be able to fire your TL weapon on your turn? Plus how does a TL flamer work, just 2 templates?

it counts as 2 systems for taking it as in you have three systems you can take all together but still counts as one TL weapon when firing. Is how we have played it in my area. and TL templates are re-rolls to wound

[baconslice]

Sweet cheers guys, not very clear that one. Thinking shoulder mounted TL bust cannons will look sweet, with TL flames on the arms, that'll teach them pesky orks!

[coredump]

But that is 4 weapon systems, and you can only have 3.