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I have a Tau army and my friend has a CSM army. What are the most effective tactics against CSM?

That depends. CSM can put together multiple builds that are all very different. Any idea what kind of list your friend runs?
Even with that said, its hard to go wrong with broadsides.

he's got a mix of cc and then he's got his thousand sons and their aspiring champion

Pulse rifles (w/e they are, the ap3 gun on suits) are always good.

If he has little Anti-tank then put all your troops into transports, that's almost a must for tau vs. anyone.

Suits are probably the biggest threat to anyone, especially with some anti-heavy infantry.

Suits and obscured hammerheads will help.

Plasma rifles on your suits will help greatly. If he's taking tanks, grab a few railguns too. Other than that, you outrange him, and you have S5 shooting, so hang back and blast away.

I would go suit and railhead heavy.

Take 2 units of suits (minimum) and arm them with plasma rifles. (they do a great job against meq)

2 railgun hammerheads should also help take care of most things in your way.

another thing would be to try out vespid.
ive never used them, but i know people have had luck with them against meq.
however, they are fragile and need to hide alot.


with the suits you need to abuse thier assault move so you can move out, shoot and hide again (suits are pricey and cant afford to lose too many)

set up as far back as possible and focus on any transports he may have, then work on other fast moving units.
if he has anything that can seriously harm you (ie: a defilers battle cannon) be sure to aim at that 1st.
a well placed rail shot should see it out of your way.

For reference, the 1750 list that is the evolution of the lists Bite fights is in my sig.

It depends on how he likes to run his marines. Probably the zerkers for CC and the thousand sons for fire support. If he has any transports stopping them should be your first priority. As tau put a slightly higher focus on slowing/stopping the advance of his CC unit. Thousand sons can be tough to kill because of the invulnerable save and can be an extraordinarily lethal problem if they get into rapid fire range with their AP3 bolters. If you see then sitting on an objective take them out with long range weaponry and do so from inside cover if possible. I believe crisis suits are only a 3+ sv so t-sons will kill them, and mostly anything else that gets into gun range.

It's a really aggravating combination to play against. Stop/slow the transports as soon as possible and stay out of range of the melee units. That's really the best advice I can offer without knowing specifically which tau units you have at your disposal.