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I am trying to help my friend out. He is a new tau player and really likes the idea of a max crisis suit army. I am a very good guard player but being in the military, I havent played in 8 months and am just getting back into the scene.

Can someone post some basic tau set up and tactics for a crisis suit list? Optimal builds, what to stay away from ect. I'm trying to give him advice my i'm so far into guard its hard. I try to research all these forums but without actually playing the army I am left with coming here and asking you nice people for advice. So really i'm asking for any preferences and any mainstream tactics and build being used so I can get a better idea where to point him.

Thanks in advance.

I don't know too much about Tau, but my cousin plays them, and we've found that the best (IMHO) build for suits against MEQ armies (which are the majority of armies faced) is plasma rifle, missle pod, multitracker
Plasma rifle beats MEQ (and Termie) armor save, while MP gives two shots at higher strength

First off, I suggest that you have your friend magnetize his suits. It will be better off in the long run instead of buying a boatload of suits or constantly having to proxy.

The aforementioned configuration (AKA the Fireknife) is a decent all around set-up and by far the most popular. Mathhammered out, it gives the most kills per turn (and I believe the most kills per points) in general.

Another consideration is Missile pod+Burst Cannon+Multi-tracker. This config loses a good deal of it's anti-MEQ power for horde killing goodness, while still staying somewhat balanced.
Both of these set-ups can also take down light vehicles.

Other configurations are for more specialized roles.

Tactics: Stay in cover. 3+ save 2 wound models look like they should live for a while, but at T4, most of the weapons pointed at them will cause ID and ignore the armor save (lascannons, Melta anything, demolisher and battle cannons). So use the Assault phase move to get behind cover. If there are some extra points after the list is made, consider buying shield drones for the suit teams. An extra disposable wound (especially one with an invul save) can soak things like a single lascannon in an infantry squad.

Deep Strike?: Not so much. It is almost always better to start them deployed than risk all that can go wrong with a deep strike.

Stay out of assault: The only time that you should risk it is when there isn't any chance of power weapons or, more importantly, power fists reaching the suits. Crisis suits CANNOT take being fisted.

Those are some basic strategies for running suits. Hope it helps.

On a similar note.

Would it be wise to take O'shova (Commander Farsight did I get the name right?) to get access to his large bodyguard of suits or should a "suit heavy" army just fill some elite slots and one HQ

What's the usual method of suit distribution. Crisis Commander + 2 bodyguard and three teams of three?

Farsight and Crisis Commander with one team of crisis in elite and stealths?

Something else entirely?

Don't forget to bring the following unit:

2 broadsides, drone controller, 2 shield drones.

Bring two of these.

Shield Drones are also a worthwhile investment on your more expensive Crisis squads; adding 30 points to soak heavy weapon shots to a 190-ish point squad of three models is valuable.

There is one unit is must proclaim to be the best for anti horde, thts 6 stelths and 12 gundrones for about 500pts?

works every time

For 500 points, it darn well better be terrific at what it does.

If he really likes his Crissis suits, Farsight is the way to go. There really is nothing like having that many suits in one squad. And with Ork-fighter, they can actualy use assault to clean up a badly damaged unit.

For the elites choices, I'd talor each squad to a specific roll, rather then trying to use 1 configuration 9 times.

Broadsides will help fill out this theme

Take a couple 'fished firewarrirs, that way their missile lauchers have at least 1 non-suit target.

Squig_herder wrote:There is one unit is must proclaim to be the best for anti horde, thts 6 stelths and 12 gundrones for about 500pts?

works every time

That squad is only 300 points. Add a Team leader and bonding and it's 315. It does dish out 30 shots with 12 of them pinning and have stealth generators with jet packs, and can infiltrate. Also has 18 wounds.

The old "Rules of Tau" still apply somewhat in the 5th edition environment.

1. Never twinlink.

2. Never bond.

3. Buy more shots.


I am a great fan of the Fireknife (Missile pod, Plasma rifle, Multitracker).

The Piranhas are also good. Fusionblasters on fast platforms are great and they can be used to physically block enemy unit in a pinch (allowing you to concentrate fire on other parts of the enemy). Giving them Flechette Dischargers makes them a major pain to deal with although a bit expensive.
Moving Flat Out into a blocking position, right in front of an enemy unit, leaves the enemy with some hard choices.
Shoot them (while they are Obscured) or assault them (only hitting on 6's, and getting a facefull of flechettes for your trouble) or walk the long way around them.

I disagree with your rules.

Bonding can allow crisis suits to regroup after losing their drones. This has save a couple squads for me. Anything less then a crisis squad outnumbered by drone, not so useful.

Twin linking will work if your trying to save points. Except plasma, that you shouldn't twin link.

I'm not sure why so many people like Fireknife. It never works for me, plasma isn't strong enough to hit light vehicles, Missiles can't penetrate marine armor. I perfer Plasma/Fusion & Twin Missiles.

Steelmage99 wrote:

2. Never bond.

Thats the first time i've heard that. Everything i've ever heard about Tau is always bond. But since i've come to this board i've heard a lot that i've never heard before. Like 'FW are the worst unit and should always use kroot instead' (can't bring myself to believe this or use it because kroot are just so damn ugly they mess with my mojo or feng shui or what ever Tau call it).

There's been a great deal of discussion on the "never bond" topic. Back in 3rd and 4th editions, it was a no-brainer to skip bonding as units below half were no longer valid scoring units. Now that last guy can rally and hold an objective, so to me it's worth the 5 points for Firewarriors. I also use it in Broadside squads and Fireknife squads; my suicide squads are cheap enough that I don't worry about it.

Hm getting alot of mixed reviews....

I wish I had a better idea of the degree of player this knowledge is coming from...

Any hardcore tau vets out there got anything to say?

It'd be expensive. Both in terms of points and plastic. That is, if you use Farsights overinflated bodyguard of death.

Filling up on Crisis suits is an attractive idea, but it won't leave you a lot of room for those expensive heavy support slots, and the necessary troops choices.

Without enough troops, you're gonna have to rely on annihilating as much of the enemy as possible to win. [/40k 101]

I played Tau LONG before I played CSM, so I think I know what i'm talking about when I say that if you take a farsight army (which is a slight disadvantage) you should always bond, because it is free for everyone that can take it.
I dont like farsight because you can't take kroot. I have defended fire warriors against kroot, I still think fire warriors are better, but kroot have a place, several places actually:
a.) Holding objectives
b.) speedbump
c.) army fluffyness (something I am big on)
d.) anti-horde.

Farsight can't take kroot, or vespid, or ethereals.
Vespid suck ass.
Ethereals are only good if you like FW heavy armies.

His only advantage is
a.) Orks get sad when you put him on the board
b.) SUITS SUITS SUITS SOOOOO MAAAANY SUUUUUUIIIIIITS


Otherwise though, don't buy bonding, you can buy 1.5 fire warriors for the cost of a bonded shas'ui
That is, unless you run FW heavy armies, or plan on rapid-firing with them.
Then a shas'ui with markerlight + bonding knife, at 25 points, brings your squad's firepower up 16% as well as allowing your vehicles to use those seeker missiles that you should buy with this loadout.

Thanks for the posts.

No he wont be using commander farsight. He might be using one unit of stealth suits though we have gotten mixed reviews on that. I believe he just going to run alot of stealth suits, some things that markerlight and I believe his HS will be two hammerhead with 1 3 man broad side team.

Regarding the Burst Cannon/MP combo, it actually does far better than plasma rifles at killing marines in cover, even at 12" range.

<--- Played Tau for almost 4 years.

I can offer these tidbits of useful information.

1. O'shova is worthless- The idea of a massive suit squad sounds cool until you realize that your spending over 500 points on an HQ unit that in the end never pays for its points.

2. Always take at least 24 firewarriors in devil fish. Either 3 squads of 8, or 2 squads of 12 is up to you.

3. Disruption pods on EVERYTHING. For 5 points a vehicle you receive a 4+ save.

4. Always take 2 Hammerheads with railguns Multi-trackers and target locks.

5. Magnetize your suits. There are also only 3 main suit configurations.
-Fireknife- Plaz riffle Missile Pod and Multi-Tracker (for MeQs)
-Firestorm- Burst Cannon Missile Pod Multi-Tracker (for horde armies)
-DeathRain- Twin-linked Missile pods Drone controller With marker drones (marker-lights are your friends)

6. Always keep your distance from your enemy. That's an 18-24" Minimum distance away at the end of your turns. Tau insta die in close combat so keep away.

7. target Locks are non-functional wargear, so Broadside teams aren't as good as they once were. No more than 1 team of 2 suits ever.

8. Never buy a Shas'o. Shas'els with target Arrays are just as good for less points.

9. tau are not as competitive as they once were (due to fairly weak overall troop choices)

That's just some useful information from someone that Played tau for the last 4 years can tell you. Tau is a very fun but highly unforgiving army.

Red_Lives wrote:<--- Played Tau for almost 4 years.

I can offer these tidbits of useful information.

1. O'shova is worthless- The idea of a massive suit squad sounds cool until you realize that your spending over 500 points on an HQ unit that in the end never pays for its points.

2. Always take at least 24 firewarriors in devil fish. Either 3 squads of 8, or 2 squads of 12 is up to you.

3. Disruption pods on EVERYTHING. For 5 points a vehicle you receive a 4+ save.

4. Always take 2 Hammerheads with railguns Multi-trackers and target locks.

5. Magnetize your suits. There are also only 3 main suit configurations.
-Fireknife- Plaz riffle Missile Pod and Multi-Tracker (for MeQs)
-Firestorm- Burst Cannon Missile Pod Multi-Tracker (for horde armies)
-DeathRain- Twin-linked Missile pods Drone controller With marker drones (marker-lights are your friends)

6. Always keep your distance from your enemy. That's an 18-24" Minimum distance away at the end of your turns. Tau insta die in close combat so keep away.

7. target Locks are non-functional wargear, so Broadside teams aren't as good as they once were. No more than 1 team of 2 suits ever.

8. Never buy a Shas'o. Shas'els with target Arrays are just as good for less points.

9. tau are not as competitive as they once were (due to fairly weak overall troop choices)

That's just some useful information from someone that Played tau for the last 4 years can tell you. Tau is a very fun but highly unforgiving army.

If the troops are the weak point... why do you suggest taking so many of them?

With proper play, a troop-light army can work very well in 5th ed, contesting objectives that you do not control. I got 1st place at an RTT with two-troops Eldar, and one of the missions was 5 objective seize ground against a Guard player with something like 8 scoring units.

If Tau's strength lies in their non-troop units, you should take less troops.

<----Played since they were released. Played against a wide range armies. No tournament experience though.

Agree with pretty much everything Red_lives says.

One exception is point 2. Don't get me wrong mech-units are strong in this edition, but it doesn't have to be the only option.
Another option is a single minimum sized unit of Fire Warriors (because you have to) and 2+ units of Kroot with Hounds. It requires a slightly more agressive playstyle though.
Using Piranhas as screens allow you to use the Infiltrate ability of the Kroots and the movement of the suits to aggressivly take on parts of the enemy. I have yet to meet an opponent that isn't somewhat taken back by the mobile firepower potential of such an army.

Steelmage99 wrote:The old "Rules of Tau" still apply somewhat in the 5th edition environment.

1. Never twinlink.

Hmm...I can't agree on this. Sure, some weapons aren't worth TL:ing (anyone ever use TL Burst Cannon?) but I think TL Missile pod is essential owing to its excellent reliability. If I target, say, a Rhino on Turn 1 I want to hit & neutralize it right away.

Some people these days advocate configurations like TL Missile pod + Flamer. It is cheap, at long range it is nearly as effective as pure Deathrain and Flamer is good if enemy infantry gets close.

Red_Lives wrote:
7. target Locks are non-functional wargear, so Broadside teams aren't as good as they once were. No more than 1 team of 2 suits ever.

Non-functional? How so?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

archite666 wrote:Hm getting alot of mixed reviews....

But isn't that a good thing? If everyone just says "Take XXX and buy them YYY and put them on ZZZ and charge towards the enemy" then it would show that the army has no variety...

<--- Also played them from when they were first released.

1. O'shova is worthless- The idea of a massive suit squad sounds cool until you realize that your spending over 500 points on an HQ unit that in the end never pays for its points.

True, but he's still fun.... I don't use him though.

2. Always take at least 24 firewarriors in devil fish. Either 3 squads of 8, or 2 squads of 12 is up to you.

I actualy agree with this. Mostly because I disagree 9. Firewarriors arn't as comparitivly good as they used to be, but they're still solid troops. Just know that Firewarriors do better holding objectives or taking objectives in the open. With out flamers or assault, they have difficulty removing units from cover.

3. Disruption pods on EVERYTHING. For 5 points a vehicle you receive a 4+ save.

Yes.

4. Always take 2 Hammerheads with railguns Multi-trackers and target locks.

I wouldn't say always, but they're very good tanks, particularly supported by pathfinders. Broadsides give you cheaper railguns, but the submuntion can be vital against hordes.

5. Magnetize your suits. There are also only 3 main suit configurations.
-Fireknife- Plaz riffle Missile Pod and Multi-Tracker (for MeQs)
-Firestorm- Burst Cannon Missile Pod Multi-Tracker (for horde armies)
-DeathRain- Twin-linked Missile pods Drone controller With marker drones (marker-lights are your friends)

Must disagree. Deathrain is good, I don't like fireknife, perfering Plas-Fusion mixes. I also don't like Firestorm, because I perfer stealths for that role. If he gets a chance to play with a few different configurations, he might find one he likes over the others.

6. Always keep your distance from your enemy. That's an 18-24" Minimum distance away at the end of your turns. Tau insta die in close combat so keep away.

The only caviat I say to this comes from plasma suits. These should be played slightly more agressivly, jump to 12" then back to 18" so they can get their doubleshots. They'll never make their cost one shot at a time.

7. target Locks are non-functional wargear, so Broadside teams aren't as good as they once were. No more than 1 team of 2 suits ever.

Target Locks being non-functional is an arguable point I won't get in to here. I didn't use them on my broadside teams anyway, perfering ASS. Broadsides are truely the best way to destroy tanks.

8. Never buy a Shas'o. Shas'els with target Arrays are just as good for less points.

True, unless you want to use another support system in that slot.

9. tau are not as competitive as they once were (due to fairly weak overall troop choices)

Yeah, there probibly not as competitive. Still fun to play, which may be all your friend cares about.

Mars.Techpriest wrote:
Yeah, there probibly not as competitive. Still fun to play, which may be all your friend cares about.

That's why i play Tau . That's why i'm dieing to put together a O'shova squad with 7 TL flamers and use it against a horde group. And them deep strike them right beside the horde army. I'm sure it will fail at least half the time because of miss drops and dropping too far away for the flamers but the times it works i will be giggling as i watch my opponantes jaw drops seeing 8 suits go for close combat. Noone will be expecting it .

My attitude with Tau is that the enemy -will- get close, so you might as well be prepared for it.

Fusion Blasters, Plasma Rifles, Flamers on my suits.

Railguns take care of anything far away. Maybe a twin-linked missile pod on my Commander.

And any firewarriors not in a devilfish have a good chance of being dead firewarriors by the end of the game.

Has anyone ever used your vehicals gun drones to shield your FW units that are holding points? Keep them behind your units during your fire phase and then move them infront of your units after your fire to give your FW a 4+ cover save...or you enemys have to kill your useless drones. Also they either have to go around your drones to assault your troops or they have to kill the drones. That way you don't have to tie up a 80+ point fish to protect your FW they can be off doing something more important.

I don't use anything to screen my firewarriors because my firewarriors only voluntarily disembark for two reasons.

1) Claim an objective at end of game.

2) Fish of Fury.

and 2 only if I'm absolutely sure I can kill my target.

There is also starting them outside their transport on Turn 1 to make use of their range, but past turn 1, things start moving in fast, and keeping firewarriors out will result in them getting shot at/assaulted..which they doesn't tend to yield positive results.

Don't forget that you can claim an objective while inside the devil fish as well, so even less reason to get them out.

VoxDei wrote:Has anyone ever used your vehicals gun drones to shield your FW units that are holding points? Keep them behind your units during your fire phase and then move them infront of your units after your fire to give your FW a 4+ cover save...or you enemys have to kill your useless drones. Also they either have to go around your drones to assault your troops or they have to kill the drones. That way you don't have to tie up a 80+ point fish to protect your FW they can be off doing something more important.

Can you explain this tactics more? I keep hearing people using gun drones this way but I dont really understand how it would work with so few models and how can they move? Can drones move in the assault phase?