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Playing against Tau this friday.
I might have two games one with 'crons and one with sm.
Can anyone suggest some good tactics for one or both races?

oggers wrote:Playing against Tau this friday.
I might have two games one with 'crons and one with sm.
Can anyone suggest some good tactics for one or both races?

I think plasma rifles are going to cause you some pain if you're using two MEQ armies. Also 'ware the railgun vs your expensive Land raider/monolith. My friend who plays Tau doesn't field Vespids (only started his collection recently), but afaik they too are pretty good vs MEQS

good luck

No monolith yet - small army.
No landraider either.
Thanks though

I'm not much help. I played a 3-way match between 'crons, SM, and Tau, recently, also with small armies. Honestly, the Tau player didn't challenge either myself (SM) or the necrons. He also didn't play smart. He had a lot of points sunk into his HQ suit, which he advanced away from his transport and ahead of his footsloggers. I shredded it with krak missles from my tac squads (I ran the standard 10-man ML/flamer squads). He deep striked stealth suits next to the necron player and advanced. 10 'cron warriors pumped those few suits full of smoking green holes in no time.

It was only a 500pt game and we're all pretty new, but these were my observations:
Tau aren't the most resilient race in the galaxy. They do, however, have some impressive PEW PEW power and maneuverability. If it's a small game, troops will be the focus. Take minimum HQ, load up on troops, and rapid-fire him to death if he's sloppy enough to let you. Krak missiles were sufficient to take out his pricey suit and frags wreaked havoc on his unprotected troops (those points for HQ add-ons would've been better spent on a second transport). I'd recommend combat squadding so the MLs can act as a firebase (be smart about cover) while the other halves advance on objectives (in rhinos, if you have the points/models).

Tau Battle suits will want to hug terrain so that they can JSJ as to put out lots of damage while not taking any themselves. Something to consider is if you avoid this type of terrain (LoS blocking buildings) by a substantial amount or through cunning deployment you can force the Tau player to abandon his cover and lose a large part of his durability. Destroyers will always do well against Tau, Str 6 will make those battlesuits roll a lot of saves, also don't worry about the Fire warriors, overall their damage is relatively minimal. A C'tan+ Monolith combination will also fare well against Tau as they have relatively few true high strength weapons (8+) so will struggle to stop both units, especially if you deepstrike the Monolith.

Just a couple of things to think about.

Foldalot wrote:....
A C'tan+ Monolith combination will also fare well against Tau as they have relatively few true high strength weapons (8+) so will struggle to stop both units, especially if you deepstrike the Monolith.

Just a couple of things to think about.

Eh What ?

Tau is the ONLY race I would NOT use a Monolith against and either Ctan

Twin linked 72' 10 str ap 1 raigun = dead monolith

mass str 5 attacks + high str shooting attacks vs Ctans 4+ save = Dead Ctan before reaching anything.

Vs Tau Scarabs are amazing , they actually kill stuff for a change
Lord with scarabs and lighting field can kill 2-3 squad before dying

Flayed ones, even 1 squad is kinda useful vs Tau to scare him due to infiltrate

Moonreaper wrote:

Foldalot wrote:....
A C'tan+ Monolith combination will also fare well against Tau as they have relatively few true high strength weapons (8+) so will struggle to stop both units, especially if you deepstrike the Monolith.

Just a couple of things to think about.

Eh What ?

Tau is the ONLY race I would NOT use a Monolith against and either Ctan

Twin linked 72' 10 str ap 1 raigun = dead monolith

mass str 5 attacks + high str shooting attacks vs Ctans 4+ save = Dead Ctan before reaching anything.

Vs Tau Scarabs are amazing , they actually kill stuff for a change
Lord with scarabs and lighting field can kill 2-3 squad before dying

Flayed ones, even 1 squad is kinda useful vs Tau to scare him due to infiltrate

Sorry, I should probably have spelt out what I meant a bit better, and I can see how what I said would have confused some people concentrating on these units in isolation. If the Tau are shooting at the C'tan or Monolith then they are not shooting at your most important units, Destroyers/ Immortals. Lets assume the necron player has noticed the Railguns in his opponents force and isn't foolish enough to deploy the monolith at the start of the game and deploys his C'tan so as to minimise the amount of shots he has to take (turn 1 atleast). To kill a C'tan you need to inflict about 12 Rail gun Hits, not an easy task considering at 1500 pts most Tau armies only field 2-4 railguns. Goodluck to the Tau player trying to down the C'tan by turn 3 when he hits assault and when a Monolith is suddenly in his lines too, either bringing in close immortals/warriors or dropping templates of doom on your suits.

I suppose my point is don't view the C'tan and Monolith in isolation, their worth comes from the fact they are there as fire magnets and they need to be dealt with by your opponent but are both very hard to take down.

My point stands however that Tau lack much str 8+ weaponry, yes they have a handful of railguns but that is it; most other armies (Hello Guard, Hello Space Marines) can field dozens of high strength weapons with out breaking a sweat.

In terms of Marines vs. Tau, I'd take a Rhino rush army with some Assault Marines behind,
supported by some mobile units giving cover fire, like
Assault Bikers, Predators, or Vindicators.