Help with Tau vs. Imperial Guard

[Dyrnwyn]

I don't bond much. With an Ethereal on the table, it's fairly rare that your Fire Warriors will break and run, so bonding them isn't that useful. If I bond anything, it's large squads of suits. Your Stealth Suits should probably be bonded, so that they can regroup even if there's only two left. Any two or three man Crisis teams are also worth it to bond. Possibly Pathfinders, but I haven't play-tested it.

Railrifles are okay, because they add to the firing on the unit you're trying to erase, but I think that they're largely not worth the points. The only place they really shine is aganst Marines and Necrons because it's one of only three AP 3 weapons in the Tau armory. The other two are the Seeker missile and the Ion Cannon. It's up to you whether or not you want to include them, but I only have two, and they've never done that much for me.

Against Imp Guard, I would reccommend the Railgun. The Ionhead is useful, but the railgun submunition is LETHAL against Guardsmen. The secondary weapon is more of a stylistic choice than anything else. If you tend to run your tanks close and in LOS of units, then go with the two Burst Cannon, otherwise the longer range and no LOS requirements on the SMS make it more worthwhile. All tanks NEED the following upgrades: Multitracker, Decoy Launchers and Target Lock. With the MT on there, you should be moving over 6" every turn so that you can only be glanced. Any Immobilized results he gets on your tanks you force him to re-roll so you don't crash with the DL. The Target Lock will let you fire some nice S5 AP5 shots into his Guardsmen while still letting you take a potshot at his tank over there. The Devilfish really only NEEDS decoy launchers, but a multi tracker and a targeting array help alot.

The Crisis loadouts are more of a personal choice, because they're loadout depends on what role you plan on making them play in your army. As tank hunters, I find that a Missile/Twin linked Fusion is best for me, as I tend to get into trouble when I deep strike, so with this I can sling shots with the Missile Pod as I move up the field and have the twin linked fusion when it counts. The most popular generalist loadout is the Fireknife, Missile/Plasma/Multi. It does everything, but it's a little expensive and it's not best at anything. And especially with regular suits BS, these always don't hit when they're needed. Personally, I always run a Shas'o if the mission rules allow it. Having BS 5 is such a change, and all your shots should hit. The 4 wounds and bump up in the WS department don't hurt either. IC status means he can dance around in the rear and never be targeted, and Skilled Rider and Move through Terrain almost guarantee he should move far on his Difficult terrain checks and take no wounds from jumping into Difficult terrain if nesscesary. I suggest a shield generator if you're going to use either of the commanders though, it's no fun to lose an effective 3 or 4 wound model to an errant lascannon shot with no save possible.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

IC status? Skilled rider?

[Inquisitor Maul]

IC status? Skilled rider?

Independent Character

[Dyrnwyn]

Independent Character. All Tau HQ choices are Independent Characters unless you give them bodyguards or drones. The rules for them are on page 50 of your rulebook. Skilled rider is one of the benefits IC's get, which means you can re-roll your dangerous terrain check. Using your jet pack and ending your move in difficult terrain prompts a dangerous terrain check.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Ah, of course. Question was quite nub of me but the rules slipped my mind at the time, thanks. Should I consider picking up some tetras or pirahnas from FW?

Also, should I take a shas'o with bodyguards or make him an IC and make a squad of crisis cuits in addition? Also, should I usually have an ethereal in the army?

Also, should I put disruption pods on my devilfish and hammerheads?

And should I bother taking a unit of gun drones to deep strike?

In a 1500 or 1850 pt game, how many fire warrior squads should I take, and how many members each?

[priamus]

I like the Tetra as a model. Piranha reminds me of a pod racer. Rules wise they seem to be valid fast attack choices, and the Tau are starved for FA choices. No expirience with either.

IC rules in 4th are too good to pass up. Be sure to read up on them.

DP are IMHO not worth it. Weapons dangerous to tanks tend to have ranges either long enough to eat the 6' or short enough not to matter.

I tried the drones. Didn't find them useful. YMMV

In 1,5k I take three full units. in 1850 I took four.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

That was very useful, anyone have any advice to add on that, or perhaps some advice on what to buy from FW? I already have the Taros campaign book and read it fully.

[onlainari]

igotsmeakebob, have you got a list anywhere? you were outplayed, however I also see you had at least 4 seekers, which is too many, and I'd like to help you make a list that plays itself, with minor tweaks to suit what you own and what you like.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Onlainari I have plenty of every tay model needed for whatever kind of list is needed... I don't really have a static list yet, perhaps I could acquire some help on that note. I can tell what I have though..

70 Fire warriors (12 or so carbines), 3 hammerheads (rail or ion), 6 crisis suits (no weapons or options glued, so I can change easily), 6 broadsides, 4 devilfish, 8 stealth suits, 18 pathfinders (6 with rail rifles), 1 krootox, 1 ethereal, 60 kroot, 30 gun drones, 2 shapers, 6 shield drones.

[onlainari]

Well, if you don't mind me saying so, you're a rich b*stard . It will be a pleasure to help you sir.

The Tau codex has been out for a while now, some would argue not long enough for a new codex, but that's a different topic. I and a group of others have come to nearly the same conclusions on what works, and what doesn't in 4th edition.

Mech Tau works, so does hybrid. You don't *have* to go mech tau to be competetive. It is up to you whether you want to follow the fluff (mech tau) or not. As most of my games have been mech tau, I'd like to just stick with that.

The effective units are stealths and the hammerhead, more specifically the railhead. Fire Warriors and Crisis suits are both heavily overrated, and kroot are underrated. Drones are more helpful in a hybrid list, they're not so useful in a mech tau list, while pathfinders are good in a mech list and not such a good idea in a hybrid list.

So, we will start with the stealths. You have 8, that's 2 units of 4. No upgrades, never upgrade stealths, and always have them in units of 4 or 6.

The other elite slot is best filled with only 1 crisis suit, if any. The only suits you should use are the fireknife (plasma, missile, multi) or the deathrain (twinlinked missile), unless you want to try something different. Other suits that work well include the fireknife-6/7 (twinlinked plasma+mp or twinlinked missile+plas) and the burning eye (twinlinked plasma).

The other 2 crisis suits come from your HQ. Good commanders are the 96/97/98pt shas'el (a twinlinked weapon+hwmt) and the 110pt fireknife Shas'O.

I would have 2 crisis suits at 1000-1500, 3 at 1750, 4 at 1850, and I would use 1 bodyguard and have 5 at 2000pts. Units of 3 are a bad idea.

Now on to troops. Fire Warriors aren't very good. Stick them in devilfish and they can do a lot of damage where you want it, but you cannot win a game from doing that multiple time with multiple units. Maximum sized units are generally thought as the best size, but I like to have 1 unit of 6 to add another tank on the field and have a nice scoring unit. For the fire warriors, buy a Shas'el if you want, it's not all that useful, don't buy them anything else or give them carbines.

Devilfish must have decoy launchers. I think you should buy multitrackers and targetting arrays for them as it makes them better anti-tank dilution and keeps the hammerheads alive longer. The shooting is also worth the points.

Take 2 units of 10 kroot in 1000-2000pts. It has been proven this is the most effective way to deal with enemy infiltrating units while still being able to find sufficient cover for a very good static shooting unit.

Gun drones are best when they deep strike behind the advancing enemy and force them to turn around or ignore them, as mech tau has no battle lines they are not so useful.

Pathfinders are very difficult to use, nothing will change that. I found a unit of 8 with 2 gun drones worked well because of the 10W in the unit, I have found a unit of 6 better as it is more likely to be ignored. Always get a shas'ui, you really need to markerlight the unit you want. Don't bother with rail rifles, ever.

Broadsides don't belong in mech tau.

Hammerheads are best in 3's. I play with 2 because of the peer based composition requirements here in Australia, but 3 of them can easily fit under the math comp used in America. I use 2 ionheads, I think if you want a list that plays itself, you might as well take 3 railheads. Can't think of an easier unit to use. Point and shoot. Always buy decoy launchers, always buy multitrackers. Target lock is useful, especially if you have the points for smart missiles. I find that some people will overrate the disruption pod, but most know that it's only worth it if you really can't spend the 5pts elsewhere.

Speaking of the simple tactics of the railhead, deploy behind cover, always move more than 6", point, and shoot, the same can't be said for the rest of the tau units.

Here's something it took myself and others a while to learn. The first priority of stealths is to keep them alive, the second priority is to shoot them at something. Naturally, with 3 shots each, it wasn't easy to realise this. But if you can just trust me, it's the best way to play them. Never deep strike them.
Against guard, if you can find a piece of terrain to walk into (difficult terrain test), shoot, and jump out of, they're devastating.

Crisis suits have different tactics depending on their configurations. Deathrains are the easiest to employ jump shoot jump with. Fireknives take a little more thinking about the terrain, considering they need to be 12" closer. Twinlinked plasma rifle suits are best at 24" until you can be sure the unit will be very weak after being rapid fired. I would usually recommend against deep striking crisis suits.
Crisis suits shoot at sentinels and chimera's and storm troopers, they're not that usefulagainst guard. Keep them behind cover.

Fire Warriors are quite useful against guard, you can easily target a flank with a couple of units in fish and wipe it out. Shooting devilfish become really handy as well, killing 2.6 guardsmen on average each.

Kroot are great at cutting up guard in combat. They're great at shooting marines from cover, great at combat against guard. Remember the difference. Assault guard.

Gun drones are fun against guard.

Pathfinders are very useful at markerlighting units in cover. Against guard, a markerlighted submunitions can devastate guard bunched up in cover. It is best that the pathfinders hide from nearly everything though, they are often better behind cover where they can only see a fraction of the board than in cover.

Hope you read that.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Not as rich as you'd think. I played tau for a short period before, and all of the new things i've acquired have been off of eBay (averaging to about 60% off).

[blue midgets of doom]

as stated before the easiest way to kill an artillery tank behind good cover is a deep striking siut w/ twin linked fusions, missle pod and hard wired multi tracker. if you roll like i do than i can understand how difficult it can be to kill the Russ'. just empathy there.

[sageofwisdom]

Against anything hiding in cover that isn't a marine, the best way to dig them out is a markerlight guided submunition shot. It hits on a two, wounds on a two, and with the markerlight, will not allow a cover save. You can clobber whole squads at a time, especially if your opponent crowds them together to take advantage of cover. Against a guard player with two russes, I would recommend keeping the broadsides for the extra railguns that will be required to keep the russes from mowing down your forces.

Due to the weak side armor of the basilisk, as an alternative, you can use smart missiles on a hammerhead to destroy it. It has the mobility to get around to the side, and the missiles don't need line of sight. With a target lock, you can split your fire and go after the basilisk while still finding a good target for your main gun.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

Friday I'm playing 1500 or 1850 pts vs word bearers. I know the daemons he has are furies, khorne demon things with big axes, and daemonettes. I also know he will probably be fielding a defiler.

Also, my friend is going to be collecting necrons, which i hear are quite tough to beat with tau...

So far these tips are great!

[onlainari]

as stated before the easiest way to kill an artillery tank behind good cover is a deep striking siut w/ twin linked fusions, missle pod and hard wired multi tracker. if you roll like i do than i can understand how difficult it can be to kill the Russ'. just empathy there.

Wrong, you are better of with twinlinked missile pod and target lock.

[Negafex]

for fighting that chaos force i recomend 2-3 rail heads, at least 24 fire warriors, stealth suits, and a flamer on a shas'o. for the necrons i recomend crisis suits with fusion/plasma, ion heads, and broadsides. infantry doesnt work so well against them. i have fought bboth armys with my tau and these tend to work the best for me

[igotsmeakabob!!]

That certainly helps.

[Samoth]

Do you know how the dameon's rules work? Keep well away from any squad, regardless of how it move. As you can potentially be assaulted by daemons summoned from a squad 24" away in the case of the furies, assuming the worst possible scatter for you.

[onlainari]

Put the plate in base contact with the icon. That's 2.5" to the hole. Scatter 12" towards you. That's 14.5". Put a daemon on the edge of the plate, that's 17". Move 12" with furies, that's 29". Assault 6", that's 35".

Even a scatter of 7" towards you results in 30".

I've play a few games of Night Lords. My furies have gotten into combat the turn they were summoned every single time.

igotsmeakabob, can you just make an army list and stick to it no matter who you fight please? I can't stand tailorers.

[igotsmeakabob!!]

I try not to tailor my army list (which is easy since I don't really have one yet) but I never tailored with my marines.

I just wanted some tactics assistance, what to watch out for etc, didn't want to tailor my list to fighting them.