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hello,
i'm going to be facing a Tau list that i have no forwarning of what he'll be using. i'm running Ig. any suggestions as to tactics to use would be greatly appreciated.

alarmingrick wrote:hello,
i'm going to be facing a Tau list that i have no forwarning of what he'll be using. i'm running Ig. any suggestions as to tactics to use would be greatly appreciated.

Deep Strike/Outflank and get Close Combat oriented units into Close Combat as soon as possible.

Also, Template weapons love to turn Fire Warriors into xenos-hamburger meat.

1) Add some power weapons 2) Assault Tau 3) Laugh out loud 4) Repeat

Seriously though, I'm in a 1k Campaign which included two Tau. 1) Vets with a power weapon will win assaults 2) Demolishers (and other Rear AV11 variants) hold up well 3) Hellhounds to wipe out Fire Warriors.

Lots of ball-crushing indirect fire.

Heavy bolters=Fire Warrior Mincemeat. That said, do watch out for Fire Warriors. They will annihalate your guardmen in a firefight. Crisis battlesuits are awesome, and take any opportunity to shoot at tham that you can. Watch out for outflanking Kroot, but they are generally just a distraction. Also, fear hammerheads, and take lots of russes. FIRE ZE RAILGUN!

Manticores rip Hammerheads apart. S10 Ordnance means 2 chances at beating AV13 and ignoring cover means you largely nullify their defences.

wow! thanks for all the info so far.
the only thing i can't really do that's been advised so far is the Manticore. i don't have one.
is the indirect arty too fragile against the Railguns and Crisis suits i'm sure i'll see? and are Griffons good enough or should i go for the Bassy?
i considered loading up chimeras and rushing him with Vet squads with Melta/Plasma, PCS with flamers and hellhounds.
then some gunline squads/hws to hold my objectives and shoot Hammerheads/ Crisis suits. and supporting them with Russes and Demolishers.

Sly Marbo= lots of dead rail guns

Hellhounds and outflanking vendettas.

get lots of tanks e.g. leman russ (diff variants) and also outflanking chimeras

The beauty of indirect is that you don't need LOS. So if you hide them then they can't see them. If they can't see them, they can't shoot them. Just watch out for Crisis suits on the flanks. Also, I agree, don't get in a shooting match of Firewarriors vs. IG Grunts. Unless you got some heavy bolter back up.

1: Dont try and take them on in a firefight, thier basic weapons are just as good as most of your tank weapons

2: Get close and assault them.
Guard may be poor in CC, but tau are even worse!

3: Sly.
Take him, use him well, that is all.

4: Terrain - make use of it if and when possible.
Keep away from markerlights if possible aswell since they tend to go round objects

5: Good luck, just make sure you push him into combat quickly, and watch out for the crisis suits, if he knows he is against guard then chances are his suits will be tooled up with either burst cannons or flamers.
If there is a railhead there then aim for that 1st.
If you dont you will be losing alot of troops and vehicles.

okay, Marbo sounds like a great idea.
how do i make chimeras "outflanking"? who/what would ride in it to give it that ability?
would Griffons be sufficient, or would Bassies serve the role better?
would it be worth the points to bring an =I= with mystics for deepsriking Crisis suits?
would it be worth it to bring Creed to Scout in a couple of Hellhounds, Demolishers or Russes?
would an Executioner be worth taking?

Al raheim makes the entire platoon out flank.

Try penal legion troops to get into close combat

don't go for a fire fight unless you can clog their vision with bodies. That is wasteful however so i don't recomend it.

Fear the broadsides. They are big and they don't like tickled by lasguns. These are a bit of a priority, especially if you have a tank heavy army.

lots of tanks will prolly be your best bet, as a tau player i can say from personal experience, AV 14 isnt too bad to beat if theres 1, but 3-5 leman russ are downright painful, even with 4 railguns i rarely take out that more than 2-3 in a game.

Hellhounds rape FW's, nuff said.

Outflanking sentinels are amazing against tau. A friend of mine runs 2 teams against me, 1 with 3 missiles, the other with 3 autocannons, they run in near my back corners, shoot everything, get rear armor on vehicles, get behind FW cover, and assault FW's, they will eventually win since the FW's cant hurt them. I had to learn quick to move away from my edges as soon as I can to avoid them(I wont even get into how bad my nid friend's stealer swarm is for the tau)

RedFloyd90 wrote:...

Hellhounds rape FW's, nuff said.

This is very true. Any variant works pretty well against Tau. My friend LOVES to use the Banewolf against me and my friends. He likes to use that thing against my Crisis Suits a lot.

I'd go for the Broadsides and any anti-armor stuff first. Don't bother using mortar teams and use auto-cannons (for the range). Heavy Bolters are ok, but most Tau guns'll outrange it.

Take Marbo. I hate his arse! He does some pretty good damage against my suits.


....AND, you gotta let us know what happens.

Watch out for outflanking Kroot that can put a beat down on any troops/artillery on the sides. Even though they can only glance AV 10, the auto hits against artillery (assuming you didn't move them) means you can kiss those weapons bye-bye. Use cheap infantry units as a human shield against that, or leave your artillery in the middle.

If you can get a sentinel locked in combat, you can take that unit out for the whole game, usually. Tau have nothing that can really deal with armor in close combat. Even a broadside unit will have trouble taking out an outflanking sentinel that gets stuck in with them. At the very least, you rob him of precious shooting phases.

Tau are the one of the only armies to actually be concerned about the LE eradicator, although a hellhound will usually do better.

Fire warriors outrange your lasguns, I woulden't advise slogging it into the teeth of FW's, broadsides, ect, unless they are in trasports, and even then they are in trouble. Instead use your superior ability to load up on long range heavy weapons, artillery and such, and all of a sudden they are coming to you! If this happens, feel free to charge, as your G-men probably out number them, and definatly outclass them.

If he uses kroot, try getting as many templates on them as possible, or use the armored sentinel tarpit to deny them objective taking.

One thing to consider when using the aforementioned hellhounds (and in fact all Chimera variants): tau have some of the best anti-armor out there, and you must be intelligent about their deployment or they WILL get smoked by a broadside or railfish. I've seen mech lists do well just because there are so many hard targets, but putting your faith in one or two tanks usually ends poorly on an open board. You have to look at how he's deployed and think like a tau player.

In essence, compare unit placement to terrain, figure out the most lethal fire lanes, and try to stay out of them.

As for kitting out, it's just so terribly amusing to have a squad of shotgun vets shoot, charge, and then open a can of whoop-@$$ on some fire warriors. The sentinel tip is also golden, if you can keep it alive until it hits their lines.

Would multi-laser equipped sentinels be better? Wouldn't they slaughter a lot more Fire Warriors than the Autocannon?

well, i'd like to thank everyone who took the time to reply to this! i found lots of sound advice.
but, when i got to the game yesterday, they completely changed things up. they decided to play a 3 on 3 senario. so, it wound up being 3 space marines vs. 2 eldar allied with my IG. i'd have done better if could've hit AND wounded!
again, thanks for the feedback!

Do you own every model in the IG codex? wy don't you post the list you will be using before people give you suggestions on how to handle tau.

No sense in people saying take this or take that if you don't actually own the models

Every one is saying take lots of tanks. But I'm not so sure about that because tau the railgun 72range 10str 1ap 4BS. and almost all of there HS take them. The tau have best anti tank in the game so I dont know how that would work

wow mrdabba, thanks! great idea! seeing how the game already happened AND i didn't play against Tau, it would be a great idea!

@Addicted to Bleach
that's why i think some people said bring lots of armor. if he had railguns, target saturation meant he wouldn't be able to get them all before some got him.