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Hi,

I just played in my first tournament yesterday . The SGI Gamers one in northern virginia. It was outdoor, and it was a lot of fun! It consisted of four 2000 point games. Here were my results:

Vs. Orks (the eventual winner of the "win at all costs" award): I was tabled
Vs. Tau: Tabled opponent
Vs. Space Wolf: VERY close loss
Vs. Grey Knights: Tabled opponent

The reason I put these is that I did drastically better after the first game. This is because I went and talked to another Tau player who did really well, and had a similar army, about how he used it and deployed, and I used that strategy the rest of the time.

The first game I deployed spread out... and it was ugly. The next games, I deployed extremely tightly packed into one corner, with the devilfish in front, crisis suits, broadsides, and pirahnas behind. I then moved up one flank to engage part of the enemy army while the other part remained out of position. This worked really well! When the time came the pirahnas came out from behind and hurt some things, while the suits continually jumped behind the fish after shooting. I had some pathfinders and broadsides staying in back, but they both earned their keep, too.

I think a lot of people use this strategy, I just wanted to post it because I never had, and it worked really well . I guess not having devilfish before made me default to deploying in a line, instead of tightly packed together.

What other deployment strategies do you use with Tau? Also, for this strategy, what do you do against and indirect fire template enemy (like guard...) who would destroy a tightly-packed formation like this?

Hmm, was this too obvious?

I'm new to the game and am fielding a Tau Army. I'll have to test this strategy out and see how it works for me. I was thinking of a tight circle towards the middle to protect from outflanking. It all depends on my opponent and what the terrain looks like.

This deployment is pretty standard for shooting armies, including Guard. You are always gambling that your opponent is not lobbing Str 8+ pie in the sky. I guess, if he is, you just mount up and roll out, though. Don't just sit there if you're getting outshot, the Tau's strengths are Firepower and Mobility. Sacrifice the second, and you're giving up half your tools.

For some enemies (fast assaulters) you may want to do a split, or sacrificial deployment. Each battlegroup has to be able to fire freely at the other's location for this to work, because what you do is resolve yourself to the fact that a) the enemy will get to you in assault, and b) that battlegroup will die when that happens. The enemy takes two turns to get to one set, while you shoot it, and at least 3 turns to get down the long table edge to your other group, while being shot. It won't win you objectives games, but it's a tried and true strategy of survival for shooting armies with nothing to use to countercharge an assault based force.

That's a great tip General Retreat! Just one question... what happens if they just split their force in half, too? I guess then it's just like deploying on one flank, except you're doing it on each...

Good point Rogueeyes (and congrats on your first post!!! ).Against scuttling genestealers or similar outflankers, I might put them more in the middle after all! If it was a less-nasty outflanker, I might just try to grin and bear it, or hope they came on the opposite edge I guess

If they split their force in half, they aren't going to eat through either of your battlegroups before the end of 5-7 turns, which means win for you. As Tau, you have the option of playing as Dragoons, as well.

Dragoons (in case you don't know, if you do, ignore away) were not cavalry, but heavy, often ranged infantry that were _transported_ by horseback. So, they would ride to the battlefield, use their cavalry speed to get into a good position, tether the horses, hop down and dig in with longbows or hand cannons or the like of the day.

Tau do this exceptionally well. Using Suits and Firewarrior and Pathfinder teams with Devilfish, you can form a truly mobile gunline. You set everything (or most everything) up in a back half of your side (denied flank style). You have your infantry gunline in front of the Vehicles with clear fire lanes. The clearer the better, as you can bait your assaulting enemy into charging at your juicy WS2 gunline. However, and this requires timing and knowledge of your opponents capabilities (Orks' WAAAUGH is made to trip you up on this), the trick is to load up the turn before you get assaulted, then haul it with a bucket over to the other half or to the objectives. This leaves you with usually a 2 turn gap to reposition for the win.

Now, this only works against armies that want to charge you. Taking a mixture of suits to pop things like Trukks and Rhinos is a great idea, or even some early suicidal Pirhanna attacks will do it. The key is to win the MOBILITY war. Take away your opponents, then use yours to keep him at arms length.

Knowledgeable opponents can counter this with their own mobility and resilience (like a Death Company that can actually weather an entire fusillade in a turn), BUT, even when countered, it leaves you with the only control over the tempo of the fight. Mix up your guns, and be okay with sacrificing units as needed to get away, but never cheaply.

If you take stuff like Broadsides for serious killing power, stick them in the middle of your starting formation, and give them a pillbox unit of Kroot (also great for holding a home base, but this tactic assumes you can shoot and scoot. Defending is entirely different). When the charge is close, embark the Firewarriors in the Fish, jet off 12" and leave the opponent with a hard choice; finish off the suits and kroots that have done so much damage already, or divert after your Dragoons, and leave those guns at their back. Most will split the force. Now you rinse and repeat, fly all the way to the short board edge, or even to your opponents edge, deploy at the back of a clear field of fire, and watch your enemy run in circles, always into your guns.

Against high mobility armies, this tactic will often fail. Practice your spacing and deployment before the battle, and really learn to project the most fire into your field as you possibly can. For mobility to win, your shooting has to make the most of it.

When deploying bunched up you force the other player to swing towards you, in most cases. This buys you time, which with Tau you really need. Another thing you can do to distract their faster units is to place a squad or two of piranha's off to the side. This gives you great anti-tank options or makes them think twice about charging your hub full force.