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I have thought about starting a Tau army recently and I wanted to hear from y'all and see what your thoughts are. I already run a hefty sized SM chapter, and I am nearly done with my WAAAGH!, so I thought I might move on to Tau. I know IG are KATN, but I really don't want to deal with that many models so soon after putting da Boyz together. My only hesitation to playing Tau comes from a game I saw recently. A Tau player literally lost half of his army in 2 turns to an IG player...I don't wanna be that guy. So yeah thoughts and opinions welcome

It depends on how you set up. The tau are a very dynamic army and require their units working together, supporting each other less the single unit gets mowed down.

- Your Troop choices are frail as paper, keep them in transports the majority of the time.
- While your crisis suits are great units, avoid putting them in hand to hand... less you get rolled by professional HtH units.
- Tau Anti-Armor is awesome. Railguns pretty much wreck anything not AV 14 in a single shot and fusion blasters with deep strikes can break tanks with ease.
- Hammerheads with Multi-trackers are great (Lets you SHOOT as if you were a fast vehical, so a hammerhead can move 12" and still fire his railgun), also take disuption pods to give them extra durability for a losy 5pts
- You want to check around for some good tactics. Don't do ninja tau... it's a one trick pony. Gunline can work.. but the majority of the time you will get broken by things like IG armies. Best bet is to keep moving around while harrasing enemies with powerful weapons... like railguns.

My advice may not be 100% perfect.. but just don't treat the tau like they are a high-tech IG... cus they ain't.

Superscope wrote:It depends on how you set up. The tau are a very dynamic army and require their units working together, supporting each other less the single unit gets mowed down.

- Your Troop choices are frail as paper, keep them in transports the majority of the time.
- While your crisis suits are great units, avoid putting them in hand to hand... less you get rolled by professional HtH units.
- Tau Anti-Armor is awesome. Railguns pretty much wreck anything not AV 14 in a single shot and fusion blasters with deep strikes can break tanks with ease.
- Hammerheads with Multi-trackers are great (Lets you SHOOT as if you were a fast vehical, so a hammerhead can move 12" and still fire his railgun), also take disuption pods to give them extra durability for a losy 5pts
- You want to check around for some good tactics. Don't do ninja tau... it's a one trick pony. Gunline can work.. but the majority of the time you will get broken by things like IG armies. Best bet is to keep moving around while harrasing enemies with powerful weapons... like railguns.

My advice may not be 100% perfect.. but just don't treat the tau like they are a high-tech IG... cus they ain't.

This man speaks the truth.

Tau don't play like the other races. You NEED to break away from the thinking that every unit operates as an island. Everything works best when they all support each other. Troops don't have anti-tank weaponry so you need your Crisis to take em out. Crisis usually can't stand up to mobs so you need yer troops to Rapid Fire the mobs.

I was an IG player waaay back in 2nd or 3rd and when I got back in I though I could do the same thing with Tau like I did w/IG. Man, I was soooo wrong. I think Tau's selling point is their anti-armor. They have the best anti-armor weapons in the game (IMHO). No other race has what they got in terms of "I see your landraider out in the open and against other armies, they'd be scared...but meet Mr. Railgun". It feel great when you can take out enemy armor like crazy when other armies struggle. Against horde armies, Tau suffer tho. But thats the tradeoff.

Tau are great to play and the HARD AS HECK to figure out properly. It took me a while to refine my tactics but I've learned a whole bunch on how to play them.

Bad Points

Tau are the antithesis of Ork. Tau SUCK in H2H, but they're great in shooting. Whatever you do, learn from the codex and you gotta learn to displace. Your Firewarriors will get chewed up by anything and everything in H2H.

Lack of Pieplates. Flamers and Submunition Railshot. That's about it. If you want pieplates, look to IG.

High learning curve. Because Tau work EXACTLY how they are meant to, meaning everything must work together for the Greater Good (IE winning), it takes a while to get the hang of switching your mindset.


With 5th Ed looking very mech-heavy, Tau vehicles are more expensive (point-wise) until a new codex comes out. But model-wise, they are one of the better races out there to make, pose, customize, and do crazy things with them. If you go Tau and stick with them, you should be very surprised. Just figure out how you play and your weakness, then change yer tactics. ...but its easier said than done, eh?

Good luck.

One fo the things that tau does so well is reacting to a crisis. As a matter of fact, I would almost go so far as to say that a typical game with Tau revolves around crisis management. Do you need to destroy a powerful unit like Ork Nobs or Terminators? 90% of your army can drop what it's doing, redeploy, fire awesomely effective weapons at that unit, and in many cases bound back and be safe from retribution by the survivors.

Where IG simply flood the board with firepower, hammering armies until they are gone, Tau focus on individual units and (very quickly) neutralize them

If you don't mind the other site Jeb head over to the tactics section at Warseer and browse through the Codex: Tau Empire tactica. It's like 60+ pages but they touch on a lot of things there and you can find some bat reps to see what other people use and how they use it.

But yeah, don't play Tau like they are IG. For now they play similiar to Mech Eldar or Mech DE. Troops in 'fishes until needed, everything else sit back and shoot.

Oh, and in 5th markerlights are your friend. I have 16 pathfinders, a skyray and if I face IG i'll go with 2 hammerheads; vs anything else I'll run a single hammer head, skyray and 3 broadsides with shield drones.

Thanks for all the feedback thus far guys, I really appreciate it. One question I am looking for an answer though, that hasn't really been covered yet, is how do y'all think Tau are matching up against other armies in 5th Ed?

The short answer is "it depends."

In my personal experience, mech armies are usually at a disadvantage because you can destroy neutralize their mobility very quickly. Horde armies and armies that can get in your face quickly without vehicles usually pose a problem (biker marines, daemons, certain Ork armies, jetbike seer councils)

Deeps stikes are your worst enemy... that's about all i can say ):

Tau Empire is an army you have to play, and play a lot, to get right. It really is a completely different approach than anything you probably have played before. Do NOT get into the mindset of "shoots like this army, weak in CC like this army,etc," because it really is not like that at all.

If you go to Warseer, TO and LO you will find a lot of tactical advice for how to play Tau. The funny thing is, none of these tacticas agree on how to play, and on many sites there are endless arguments on how to properly play Tau. I just want to make it clear, while there are many wrong ways to play Tau, there is absolutely no right way to play Tau other than playing what works with you.

The first thing you need to learn is how to make a list. It isn't as easy as you think, and if you are one of those mathammer types you will most likely be writing bad lists for the first dozen games until you realize what is really effective vs what is only effective on paper.

After that, learn to love your Kroot. There, I said it. If you can learn to use kroot effectively you will have two squads of Kroot (with Hounds! Hounds are good!) in every list that isn't vs. CC oriented Space Marines.

Above all else, learn to min/max. If you want to win with Tau, this is absolutely crucial. It really depends on what army you are facing and you will want to play as many different armies as possible to learn what is good vs. what.

A few points to get you started.

-AV 10 or 11, shoot it with missile pods. AV 12 or higher, use a railgun. Fusion Blasters (melta) are worthless against armor unless they are on a Piranha. A Fusion Blaster/Plasma rifle equipped suit is anti-Terminator equipped, not anti-armor.

-Railguns are your friend, but learn to bring the right number. Broadsides are cheaper and moderately more accurate, but Hammerheads are more mobile and have a submunition option.

-Make very effective use of your AP. Plasma Rifles are your best friend if you can catch a marine army out of cover.

-Mechanized really is the way to go. Two nine-man squads of Firewarriors in a Devilfish is all you need; fill your other troop choices with Kroot. Crisis suits and more Crisis suits is the name of the game. Magnetize them so you can change your load-out to suit the army you are facing. I prefer the Shas'o over the SHas'el, it always makes up its points. Also, the Shas'o can be a beast in CC if you are going against an army that is not so hot in CC. That is the only time I would bring a crisis suit into CC.

-Markerlights are only as effective as you can make them. Pathfinders are a cheap source, but very difficult to use. Marker drones are more expensive, but can still fire after moving. The Skyray is an often underutilized source of ML, but is very difficult to get your points out of if you do not bring another source of ML so supplement.

Above all else, change your tactics around. Never let your opponent know what he will be facing. I mean, obviously share your list before the game, but if you keep throwing curve-balls, he will be thrown off his game from the start.

Oh, and don't bring Vespids.

@Fizyx: Thanks for all that info. I definitely won't be purchasing much in Tau until I can get a chance to try my friends army and see how it goes. I really like their basic troops choices, and I think Crisis suits are awesome. How does an ethereal generally fare, and how do Tau do against the hoard armies? I have seen them play SM and they do fairly well, but I have never seen them play Nids or Orks, and I have seen IG just laugh them off the table...

The Etheral often gets eaten alive... but the honor guard he brings along can be really powerful if used right.

The Etheral ain't actualy bad in HtH either.. but not 100% good either.. not wise to risk it.

Huh....Not too much a fan of the Kroot. But then again, it's HOW you play that will determine what guys you should get.

My experiences w/Kroot are the polar opposite. Mine have been chewed up and spit out against Chaos Marines, IG, Eldar. Maybe I'm playin em wrong but eh.

Vespid? They're expensive money-wise and point-wise. I consider myself a collector so I bought em anyway. 50/50 on them. But for pointswise, they are too expensive.

Hordewise, you better make use of what template weapons (flamers and submunition railgun). And use those rapid fire weapons like a mofo. I have done relatively OK with horde armies.


But yeah, I've been taken to school with my friends IG army. Use burst cannon/flamer suits!

The kroot are supposed to get chewed up and spit out: and to slow down your opponent's advance. They are there to shield your other units from fast-moving HtH units and to make it more difficult for your opponent to deepstrike next to critical targets.

I just don't like that I'm dropping some major points in supposedly "expendable" troops when I can buy me more firewarriors in devilfish.

I'd rather intercept flanking forces with Piranha's or shoot em down w/my Railguns then waste points on a screen. Railguns make the opening, Firewarriors fill the gap, Crisis suits sweep and clear. Piranha act as interceptors.

But then again, I've seen some battlereports that make my Kroot tactics look fraggin stupid. But whatever works for the Tau player, so long as you get the honorable win.

I am going to go against the grain here...I play a non mechanized Tau list, and I do very well with it. I am a markerlight addict. I have 2 squads of fire warriors both with markerlight drones, (I do have a 3rd squad in devilfish but no drones) and my honour guard squad with 4 markerlight drones. Finally I have a sky ray to complete the fun. I like to markerlight the heck out of a unit and fire everything at it. But it also has the bonus of allowing my firewarriors to have anti-tank capability by means of seeker missiles

Ethereal: Not worth the points. You are effectively paying 50 points to have one squad of BS4 Fire Warriors that are more expensive than regular ones. The points just do not add up, I would rather bring just more Fire Warriors. More wounds and more dice (to lower deviation.) When the Ethereal dies, and he WILL die eventually, the benefit is far outweighed by the chance to lose many many units on the table.

Vespids: Just too expensive for a unit that will most likely die right after it pops off three marines.

Kroot: Never, ever, underestimate the power of dropping 60+ S4 attacks on the enemy, especially if you are facing toughness 3. Their WS is not too shabby, and hounds can wreck at least a few models before they get to attack back. Plus they are absolutely fantastic at holding objectives in a forest. I've actually had opponents place an objective in a forest at the table edge. They only do it once. I will say that they are definitely a gamble (though a small one if you plan right) and not for everyone.

Horde: Nothing says I love you better than a S6 AP4 large template hitting 10+ orks or guardsmen. Eldar Pathfinders hiding in trees? Deep-strike-Twin-link-flamer their ass into oblivion. The reason I love Tau is that they have a solution to pretty much anything out there. Obviously it is impossible to fit every solution into a tournament list, but then what army can?

I commend you on waiting to make purchases, because many of your purchases will be made based on your play style. Some items will be mandatory (Crisis suits, Hammerheads, etc) but everything else is really personal.

Oh, and yes guard can be a PIA. Mostly because you really have no idea what you will be facing. If you bring Two hammerheads, two XV-88's, two small units of FW inside a DF and supplement the rest with Crisis suits and kroot you can not fo too wrong. The problem is if you are facing a guard gunline and having little horde capabilities, or facing a mech guard list with 60 kroot waiting to outflank and no way of getting inside of the 5+ troop carriers you are facing. I'm not saying the guard codex is OP, just really hard to manage. God luck!

Strip the guard's armor with high powered railguns and just slowly take out those pesky guardsmen sqauds. If they get pretty close to you (around 13-18") run to a devilfish and float back a bit. Reset shooting's kgo.

to deal with DS, just set up some gun drones to cover your ass. pro: you might get lucky and pin 'em con: you'd probably lose some gun drones, but then again losing about 2-4 gundrones is better then losing 6-12 FW's. pro: if you do lose the gun drones, your army can turn around and pop a cap in the enemy that magically appeared behind you. con:....wait, hammerheads have 360 turrets...(hi, we're flayed ones and we use deepstr---nothing is heard after 3 broadsides and a hammerhead unload there clue glue all over there faces....hehehe) vespids suck, unless your playing with ruins, or a BUNCH of terrain....and ethereals REALLY suck (except Aun'shi.....i miss his skinny no-gun holding ass......he rocked) and if your playing anything 1500 or more, O'shovah is the answer to orks, and i can't say i have found an answer to shadowsun.....oh yeah, if any1 has a heart out there, please pm me about ninja tau....either i'm not lookin in the right places, or i'm over looking, but i just want to know what they are.....i don't plan on using them, except on Captain killjoy's SM's....i owe him quite a few ass-whoopins....lol