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As the name says, 5th ed affected the Tau in some drastic ways and seeing as its going to be 2-3 years before they get a New codex. I figured that this would be a good time to work on adapting the Tau Tactics and Builds to 5th ed.
This thread is about sharing lessons learned, dirty(but legal)tricks, and the use of conventional and unconventional tactics in an effort to make the Tau more competitive or at least keep them interesting to play until the next codex.

Please no trolling or Tau hate posts. I will report such very quickly if others haven't already done so. I really would like for this thread to be about the exchange of strategies, tactics, and new ways of making the codex work in 5th ed.

I think most reading this thread will have enough experience to not need a recap of the basics. If I'm wrong on this please let me know. Having said that, I will begin with what are, IMHO, the current most common or promising Builds with their inherent tactics.

First, There is the Mech Tau Build. This build seems to be one of the more common builds. Its strengths are the use of Devilfish transports and Railgun Hammer Head Tanks that when teamed with the Tau diruption pod makes for a very durable, if somewhat boring to play,build. Mech Tau follows the philosophy of the Mont'ka(IMO). You hit hard in one area until the enemy is no more. Then you use the opening for manuvering room. This Army starts it dash for objective on turn 3. Sometimes turn four depending upon objective placement.
The positives are that the build is mobile and very durable.
The negatives is the lack of massed firepower becuase of everything in transports and an uninspiring playstyle.

Second, The Tau Staitic Gun-line Illusion. Not many run this build. I've been told that it is too chancy. The strength of this army is also its weakness. It is a Jack of all trades army that is balanced but doesn't excel. This army normally has four vehicles and the rest are infantry or jump infantry. This army plays off of their positioning and focused firepower. You set up to where your deployment looks like a classic static gun-line with the infantry dominating you deployment zone. The trick is to have the devilfish properly screened so that come turn 3 they are still around. Just about the time that the first hardhitters are in range to assault you load up your scoring units and dash off towards the objectives with the Tanks and jump infantry.
This army uses a combination of both the Kauyon and the Mont'ka.
Positives-Strong Firepower Army with the flexibility and tools to be good against most armies.
Negatives- Lose a transport or troop unit and the game can go quickly from a strong win to desperately scrambling for a draw.

Third, Ninja Tau- This is a tactic gaining popularity amongst the more experienced Tau players as well as possibly the newer players, too. This is a build that uses a piece of wargear and deepstriking units to allow the Tau player to set the tempo of the game by giving the Tau player a very precise means of controlling what comes on the Table from reserves and when they arrive. Using this the Tau player leaves one, acouple, or his entire army in reserve except for one or two squads. This build probably gives the most Tactical flexibility for the Tau but has its drawbacks too by pretty much having to make it to turn 5 in order to win..
This build is very much a mixture of Kauyon and Mont'ka with the emphisis being heavily upon the Kauyon style of warfare.
Positives-Army is protected by being in reserve and arrives where it will do the maximum amount of damage to your opponents forces.
Negatives-This Tactic relies upon the survival of one squad being on the table with minimal support for 3 Turns and in timed matches your opponent may Play Slowly hoping that the game ends turn 4 before you can get you army in position.

Fourth, is the Broadside spam army. This is a build that goes for maximum fire power and durability but sacrifices mobility in the process. This build is where the player tries to go for 2-3 full squads of the Broadsides which doesn't leave room for much of snything else. This army is a Mont'ka static gun-line army.
Positives-9 Railgun shots a turn and 9 armour save 2+models.
Negatives-Loss of mobility and reduced flexibilty in types of fielded weapons.



These are the basic starting point builds that I can immediately think of. The above are just quick references and if I missed any please to post them. If You feel that I am wrong then please post your reply from your POV. I will debate but if it tuns into an arguement then I will stop. Again this thread is about viable 5th ed Tau build strategies and tactics.



Now a personal tactic that I use. I make the Broadsides my Bait unit in games where I wish to use the principles of the Kauyon in my army. I run this unit at max capacity and also run four shield drones and two gundrones. The variety of the drones allows me to exploit the wound allocation table a little by having models equipped differently. To this squad I join an Etheral with a shield and a gun drone. This gives me a durable, fearless, and Toughness 4 bait unit that has to take eleven wounds from a single squads firing before the Etheral takes on wound.

This is my Bait unit in the Tau Static gun-line Illusion.


Who is next with any helpful hints build strategies, or suvival tactics?

I am now running a Ninja Tau build with the Tau Crisis Commander(Shas'el) joined with a team of broadsides, an Ethereal, and have shield droned the heck out of them.

The commander has the positional relay and Iridium armour. Might even play with him getting the stim injector to soak up a few more wounds. I'm not going to get into the rest of the commanders load out because that will be a matter of personal preference.

Now this unit gets castled with a screening unit out in front giving a cover save to the Broadsides and to help prevent first turn assaults. They should give just enough time for a second squad to come in if the team is being pressed by numerous fast assault types of units.

This should leave enoght time to run the Ninja Tau strategy. One of the bright sides to this is that if your opponent comes after the team hard then he'll probably be out of position when the rest of your army arrives.

I don't play as Tau but i have had to face them a few times.
Ive seen some effective Build that utilize 2 or 3 Skyray Tanks. They did well and were able to Pop a few tanks while Pathfinders and Fire warriors moped up the people that survived. After the tank ran out of Seekers they became a mobile Markerlight shooter. They looked like a good think to work for 5Th E.

I have been playing Tau for a few years now in a casual gaming group. The general builds the OP suggested are good rules of thumb for tau players, I myself had the static gun line when I first started, but it lacked the dynamic flexability I wanted out of a tau army. Just wanted to toss a few things players may find to spice up their games. Now, before I start babbling I generlay run a somewhat mechinised army (2 devilfish, 2 hammer head) and play very mobile in the interest of drawing enemies into concentrated fire of a large number of suits I often field and use the tanks to cover.

Crisis suits, for example, offer many forms of flexabilty on their own. I find myself recently in love with a simple unit of three suits all with twin linked flamers/fusion blasters. Deep strikeing them in the interest of guarding your flank has proven increadbly useful over the last few games i have played.

If you need some hard hitting power armor cracking firepower, there is always the standard Plasma gun/Missle pod command team, though I find it a bit boreing to field from time to time, but always fun to watch the wounds roll.

Stealth suits and me have a very explosive relationship. They seem to do increadbly well and die in spectacular ways, or have a long slow life chipping away at things. With the most recent additions fusion blasters have increased that sort of relationship greatly, a few hits often the difference between victory and splatter.



As a general tactics note I would like to say that the key to being tau is to make sure a unit is dead when your done with it, now this seems like a pretty no brainer but I find the more 'overkill' I pour onto something the better I end up doing in the long run, barring catastrophic dice failure.

Well I will try and think of more as time goes, Thanks for starting a thread like this!

One of my favorate tactics is a "suicide" commander, followed by 2 sqauds of fire warriors, a devilfish(optional) and a etheral just behind him running the following:

XV8 commander "Shas'O"

- Failsafe detonator
- Stim injector
- Shield generator
- Anything that you fancy (my load is plasma, multi-tracker)

Fire Warrior sqauds (2 sqauds of 12)
- Bonded
- Shas'ui

Etheral
- Nothing

Now.. for the "suicide" to work effectively, you have to know the following:

- You WANT to the ENEMY to get into CC with this dude, not you.
- You WANT the XV8 commander to survive that round of combat.
- You WANT to lose and fall back

Most likely if your fighting a big BIG mob of orks or nids, chances are they can't get all their attacks. If you survive (hopefuly with 1 wound left) you prompt a moral test.

With a -1 to -3 penalty and with the commanders Ld of 10, you want to roll high with it. Having a etheral in range to re-roll the check helps alot.

If you passed the check, chances are if your fighting large mobs they would have surrounded you.. which meaning you can't fall back and get destroyed. If you fail the mortal check, you don't move back d6", and now that he's lost combat, he can trigger his powerful str 8 blast over the area.

There will be a very high chance that the enemy attackers will survive... but that's only 1/2 the pain.. Because of the failsafe detonator, the enemy sqaud doesn't make a consiladation move (but sadly doesn't take a moral check via 25% loss of numbers), which means that the sqaud is completely out in the open. Move the fire warrior sqauds and rapid fire the fools to oblivion.

That's my mont'ka tactic..... if a bit extreme.

Also... don't discredit sniper drone teams. They are exellent at pinning and great anti-power armor fire power. Sure a bit static.. but that's why i sit a team really far away from my main army, right on the table edge. At only 80 points they could easily distract enemy units, most likely units that cost twice as much.... and if you cause a unit to get pinned, they've just earned you a extra turn before you have to deal with that sqaud.

Hammerhead tank equipment is important for survivability and flexability. Everybody always gets the good old distruption pod. 5pts of awesomeness, it grats a 4+ cover save if the attacker is shooting futher away than 12". We ALL pretty much know that and we all pretty much take them on every tank, flyer or skimmer we got. But we should note what upgrades are highly effective with the hammerhead, so i shall list a few.

Multi-tracker - 5pts - Multi-trackers function differently on tanks. Normaly on suits, they let you fire 2 weapons. With a tank, it counts as a fast vehicle for shooting purposes. It does NOT mean a Hammerhead becomes a fast vehicle and can move 18", it just means that you can fire a single weapon while moving at 12"... and i think i know what weapon you would shoot *cough*Railgun*cough*.

Thanks to the multi-tracker, the Hammerhead becomes a very mobile tank and for 5pts you can't go wrong.

Target-lock - 5pts - Target-locks are another awesome item for Hammerheads. This little puppy lets you fire each of the hammerheads weapon systems at different targets. So say you have a enemy ork tank in front of you, with troops walking along side of it. You could fire the railgun at the tank and then use your secondary weapons on the troops. Because the secondary weapons would most likely not able to even score with armor penertration, thats 4-6 shots gone to waste.

My play experience is very limited, but I have developed a fondness for Flachette Dischargers of Piranhas. I move up infront of a hord, deploy the drones and take o few shots. I don't care who they assault. hopefully the drones first, so i can move the Piranha and shoot some more. BUt it is a thing of beauty to see an orc mob lose half its force before the assault and then a bunch more when the Piranha's grav engines go critical.

Deathevn wrote:As a general tactics note I would like to say that the key to being tau is to make sure a unit is dead when your done with it, now this seems like a pretty no brainer but I find the more 'overkill' I pour onto something the better I end up doing in the long run, barring catastrophic dice failure.

Well I will try and think of more as time goes, Thanks for starting a thread like this!

This, is why my screen name is Focusedfire. To clarify this a bit further;

Make your battle plans to where you have redundancies in case of unfortunate dice rolls. Focuse on the primary threats untill they no longer exist and then move to the next most pressing target in need of vaporization. I set up with interlocking fields of fire in such a manner to where I can have the tactical ability to help support the removal of an enemy unit but if things go average or better the remaining units still have another viable target that isn't getting a coversave from my own units.



Deathevn- Your welcome and thank you for your well thought out contribution.

Just thought i'd steer the conversation a little.

How and when do you use Stealth Suits? Is the Fusion Blaster worth it? What kind of upgrades are best and for which situations?

One of the best uses of Stealth Teams I've found, particularly in the growing TLOS environment, is the Stealth Markerlight Team... give two or three Stealth Suits maximum Marker Light Drones, and now you have a squad that can move and hit with markerlights, taking advantage of JSJ, along with the Stealth Field Generators of the Stealth Suits themselves, making them very hard to kill.

I used to run them with the fusions but eventually came to realize that I could make a 2 xv-8 suit "suicide squad" that was just as effective for less points. The 2 XV-8's also seem to survive better.

Now I use them for their burst cannons so I don't have to put the BCs on a XV-8. I run them 4-6 strong and then deepstrike or infiltrate them trying to get an intercept on light vehicles or fast assaulters. That much massed firepower really rocks. Especially if you run them with targeting arrays.

If I'm playing a very assault oriented army I'll try to infiltrate deep into their territory. If you can hit a squad hard and get your opponent to divert some of his army to go backwards to get you it is pure win.

Another thing you could do is what they suggest and run them with marker drones. MAN, they are effective like that. The Drones just happen to be about 10pts to expensive so I never run them that way. Only ever did it to test the concept. What I'm saying here is that they are extremely effective but not 30pts a peice worth. Thats giving up 3 fire warrior shots a turn for a 50% chance of a marker light.

When I use them now, it is as part of my Ninja Tau either to deepstrike back objectives or to infiltrate them right in front of the Team with the positional relay to give that team a cover save.



Spelling and punctuation edits

GhostRecon wrote:One of the best uses of Stealth Teams I've found, particularly in the growing TLOS environment, is the Stealth Markerlight Team... give two or three Stealth Suits maximum Marker Light Drones, and now you have a squad that can move and hit with markerlights, taking advantage of JSJ, along with the Stealth Field Generators of the Stealth Suits themselves, making them very hard to kill.

That's a good tactic.. if costly points wise. Would be quite hard to kill unless someone gets in close *oh look, running orks with warrghh*

Regarding Stealth suits I have to say I like them with fusion blasters, I usualy take 2FB 4BC unit in most games all with targeting arrays. I do argue with myself if the fusion's are worth tradeing the burst cannons for, but at the end of the day I find that I like the idea of having another unit people wish to avoid with their Land raiders/preds/russ's ect. Its more of a scare tactic then direct impression on the battlefield. Fusion blasters also have much better odds at poping marines and their equivlants then burst cannons, so a bit of punch in that regard is very welcome.

I am looking and willing to hear other ways people outfit their stealths, preticuarly in the Support systems regard, the +1 bs is nice and makes them alot more killy, but I am just wondering if other people have had noteable sucess with other bits and pieces.

As far as actualy applying them to the battlefield I love these guys on one of my flanks. With the loadout I give them they can handle any light intercepting units they throw to try and crush a vulnerable flank. Deepstriking seems a pretty good choice for them, but as a word of caution , deepstrike them into your own 'territory' as a counter unit. For some reason whenever I attempt it even vaugely near enemies, whole armies turn to pulverize the poor guys , this is usualy to my advantage, but not very healthy for the poor stealth suits.

Just thought I would throw my own question out there.

Devilfish a fairly simple APC, take your fire warriors from A-b without getting your head shot in. Its all good. Now my question is, besides disruption pods what do people equip on them for support systems? Gundrones or SMS? I rarely have a 'standard' loadout for them so I was just wondering what others commonly use!

I usually run my devilfish with Disruption Pods, Multitrackers, and Flachette Dischargers. I keep the gundrones to set a screen infront of the fish, plus i think the points could be better spent elsewhere. THeir primary function is to get the troops from point a to b, but then i use them to harrass the enemy hoping they will assault it. (a lot of ork and some nid armies at the flgs)

Now I understand this mentality on how to treat the APC quite well, Fluchette launchers are absolutely hellarious. But I have to ask, as an overall idea isnt it flawed? Your risking units in the hope that others will 'take the bait' as it were. It WORKS certinly, but there has to be a better way for us to handle our transports!... well at least thats the ideal. I love fluchette launchers and have done this myself many a time. Recently I have tried to cut back on that in the interest of preserving KP's

The best way for a lot of armies to destroy our transports is through charging them. Ignores the field, strikes at rear armor 10, lots of attacks. Especially enemies like Orks and Stealers. Flechettes can cut down drastically on the number of enemies trying to swarm the Fish/Head.

I just don't see any other use for them. There just aren't any other options for the 'fish. A second weapon system is wasted as i need them to move more than 6" each round as an anti-assault tactic. Eventually they will have to do something about the 'fish and drones. And that is what i want. Any unit assaulting the drones and 'fish are not going after my railheads and broadsides. That is what i am most concerned with. Would i like better options? sure, but i don't see any available.

Mentioning flechettes. I mostly run them on my Pirahnas.

This may be wrong but by the reading of the rules if you have three of them with flechettes and the squadron is assaulted then all three get to fire the flechettes.

This is how I've been running them and my gaming group agrees that they play that way.

I put disruption pod, target lock, multi-tracker, taregtting array, and flechettes on my devilfish, but thats because i use it as a light tank that happens to carry fire warriors :-P

flechettes are DEFINITELY worth the 10 points. in order to get a clean shot at out tanks you have to either assault or get to point-blank range, and usually assaulting is easier.


Now i just wish we could tank shock and fire em off. get the wounds, dont get assaulted!.

A fairly minor tactic I like to use is disembarking gun drones from d-fish or piranhas and using the drones as one-way cover saves for infantry. It's pretty easy to space two drones wide enough in coherency to help fire warriors survive heavy bolter or Necron Destroyer fire better, and the drones can use their jet pack rules to move when you're shooting your own guns. It's also kind of fun to use a couple of drone squads to give a big kroot mob saves while they walk across the field and soak up lots of fire for such a cheap unit.

Obviously the two-drone squads are liabilities in Annihilation, but for objectives they can really improve infantry survivability since most people want to focus on the Troops instead of wasting a turn shooting up a two-wound unit.

Back to stealthsuits for a moment. I never take fusion blasters on them because they're such short range and not at all the same targets you'd want to shoot with the burst cannons. Some people are irrationally terrified of stealthsuits because of the combined annoyance of their stealth fields and jet packs, and because they get so many shots. I love to infiltrate them up close to get in the action right away, and hopefully kite some slow assaulters.

Now there is a topic i'd like to see discussed. How do you decide to infiltrated and what scenarios do you look for in doing so? Is there something you see on the board that sets a light off in your mind that says time to infiltrate? How do you avoid the unit being cut off and murdered? Also, i would like to know the same about Deepstriking. Where and when?

The awesome thing about Infiltrate is that you can always just place the unit in your deployment zone if it looks too dangerous or whatever. Stealthsuits' short-ranged guns and jet packs make infiltrating far forward an attractive option unless there are fast assaulters. I don't even really ever deep strike stealthsuits since I want to get them shooting right away, but deep striking gun drones or suicidal fusion-equipped Crisis suits is fine with me.

The thing I'm still trying to learn in 5E is when to leave things in regular reserves...

Mechnomancer- I see the difference between deepstriking and infiltrate as follows:

Infiltrate-Declared during deployment and deployed after all units have been deployed but befroe first turn or scout moves.

To me this makes infiltrate a situational reactionary device. Not something I actually factor in as a set move when designing the list but more of intentional flexibility. It is a final way to gain an advantage through the actual tactical deployment or from just the threat of the deployment.

If stuck deploying first I often threaten infiltrate with my kroot or stealths just to keep my opponent "honest". When I make this threat it is often my intention to infiltrate into my own lines. My opponents do not know this and will often spend so much time deploying to deprive me of the imagined positional advantage that they leave their units exposed.

These units can still be used defensively to react to your opponents infiltration moves.


Deep-Strike- Declared during deployment places the unit into reserve so that the unit will not hit the table until turn two. Deep Strike units(By this I mean crisis suits and drones) are something that you do factor into your plans when writing the army list.

To me the deepstrikers are a part of the overall strategy instead of just reactionary flexibility. Whether it is Ninja tau or that one backfield tank killing unit the deepstrikers are written into the army list with the primary thought that they "will" instead of may deepstrike. The reason for this is their weapons load outs. In 40K :

Fusion=deepstrike right behind tank
Missles= deepstrike towards opponent table edge near the corners as is safe then harass enemy light vehicles.
Plas=Positional deepstrike pinpoint MEQ killing.
Flamers=deepstrike and burn the weak back objective holding unit or atleast cheap swarm killers.
Gundrones=Cheap deep-striking back objective denial. Don't shoot worth a flip but can tough enough with sv 4+ to take more than an isolated units fire to remove.


There are more but I think I have presented my point of veiw of my preffered methods on when to deepstrike or infiltrate.


Edited for spelling and sentence structure.

Im going to chance the conversasion a bit as I have nothing to add to the deepstrikeing list, for the most part I have to agree wtih Focusedfire's useages of them, but in the general theme of it I would like to say that I dont put together 'suicide' units of Crisis suits, I love the buggers to much to do that to them. I usualy use the short ranged loadouts as a deturent to assault units.


Infiltrate? Usualy only with kroot, and I usualy try and delay it as long as possible and use them to rush/contest an objective in the rears of the enemy. Basicly a last ditch objective/killpoint grab and or snipe .


I would like some imput on ethereals , I cant stand the buggers to be honest, but ive heard of some people useing them to great effect and im wondeirng if i could get some basic/useful stratagies for employing them on the battlefield

Deathevn-I run a single squad of what would normally be called a suicide squad. Funny thing is that when combined with my other tactics these guys have been surviving better then my other teams.

It has to do with my deployment and subsequent movement or possible lack there of. Most of my opponents will try to stick one nasty tank way in the back and in cover. Becuase most don't fear the Tau assaulting such they will leave that vehicle relatively isolated.

I combine my deepstrikes with LoS to the PF devilfish for added accuracy and what usually happens now is that when the team takes out the isolated vehicle they are in cover unless it blows up. Either way there is usually not enough in the area to take out the squad.


Ethereals it is all about mitigating the possible downsides of using them. If you want a nasty anchor for your mech-tau. Join them with a broadside squad and shield drones so you don't have to take morale tests for losing the sheild drones. If the Ethereal buys it your army is tanks and don't test.

You can also run the ethereal with a fire warrior squad with 4 sheild drones so that they are hard to push off of the objective. This can be a reserve squad loaded in a devilfish that is supposed to shoot the opponent off of the objective or just a foot unit that walks on the board near your closest objective.

Personally, I've found that ninja tau does a good job of mitigating the ultimate price of failure rolls as the army either isn't on the board or you've just supplied to many targets to deal with and not enough time. I've already covered the Broadside/Etheral Tactic. To this squad I join a posi-relay commander.

Let me know if you need me to be more detailed.

After around 20 games of 5th edition (having missed out editions 3-4) here are my thoughts on Tau:

Everyone seems to take tanks. I am beginning to realise why – Tau infantry are just not survivable enough without them.

Everyone seems to take multiple shield generators. I am curious about this: why so many? You don’t get multiple invulnerable saves, do you? Having said that alot of my suits end up getting insta-killed. And every other army I face seems to have invulnerable saves. So maybe I should follow suit.

Taking drones for extra wounds is a great idea until you fail a few morale checks.

I find that I struggle alot against horde armies such as Orks and Nids. I can’t seem to pop off enough of them before they reach my lines, especially when we play dawn of war scenario. I recently fielded stealth suits for the first time, however firstly (against Nids) I got charged in the first turn before a shot was fired, and then secondly was out of range (against an Ork horde), after that I failed a morale check and fled the board. So not great so far, especially for 30points a suit.

Deep striking the elite units seems to make sense purely on the basis that they are still on the table at the end of the game.

On a positive note, I would recommend sniper teams but only against SMs, and take at least 2 units.

So I think I have alot to learn but these boards certainly help. Thanks for starting the thread.

troy_tempest wrote:

I find that I struggle alot against horde armies such as Orks and Nids. I can’t seem to pop off enough of them before they reach my lines, especially when we play dawn of war scenario. I recently fielded stealth suits for the first time, however firstly (against Nids) I got charged in the first turn before a shot was fired, and then secondly was out of range (against an Ork horde), after that I failed a morale check and fled the board. So not great so far, especially for 30points a suit.

Submunitions are your best friend against horde armies.

Kroot are the unsung heroes of the tau lists imo. They screen my gunlines from charges to buy an extra turns shooting. They screen the flanks from outflankers and deepstrikers. They provide a mobile cover save for crisis suits to JSJ over. They never survive a battle.

Poor guys *single tear while saluting*

Oh one other thing, how can you have irridium armour and positional relay in the same army when they are both special issue?

Iridium armor is from the wargear portion of the list where the positional relay is from support systems row of battlesuit options.

BTW, sorry I haven't posted much in the past few days. Busy schedule IRL for the past week or so. I'll try to start posting more on-topic strategy tips to get the conversation going in the next couple of days.