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I had gotten the impression that the principle strength of the Imperial Guard is the stupendous amount of firepower that it can bring to bear. However, having reached that conclusion, I remembered that the Tau have some of the best weapons in the game: better in quality (if not quantity) than the Guard. As if this wasn't enough, they have jet packs and effective transports; they can thus outmaneuver and outflank the Guard. What do you do with them?

prussia59 wrote:I had gotten the impression that the principle strength of the Imperial Guard is the stupendous amount of firepower that it can bring to bear. However, having reached that conclusion, I remembered that the Tau have some of the best weapons in the game: better in quality (if not quantity) than the Guard. As if this wasn't enough, they have jet packs and effective transports; they can thus outmaneuver and outflank the Guard. What do you do with them?

I think you could easily put out more anti-tank firepower, and Tau rely on their transports and tanks more then alot of armies.
Focusing on S7+ firepower to knock out their armor and S8 weapons to insta-kill their suits seems like a good start.

Tau are also one of the few armies you IG could assault and stand a fair chance of winning, especially if you sneak a Power Weapon in there.

Use blobs of infantry to rush their fire warriors possibly ? last time i faced tau i advanced straight at em with my tanks in front when i got close mass bayonet charge into em, they dont like close combat aparantly This may have only worked because my oponant only had 2 rail guns i dunno :/

My best friend plays Tau, and plays them extremely well. He is a skilled tactician who uses his pathfinders/suits and firewarriors well. He uses his Devilfish to drop Firewarriors onto objectives on the last turn. He is fiendishly gifted with target priorities. I've been fighting him for all 5 years I've been playing and I can honestly say he's annihilated me far more often than I've eked out a victory. However, I've now gotten far better with the guard and can say that massed tank/artillery fire can ruin their day. My friend humps cover all the time but with a colossus, hellhound or banewolf or two and it ruins his plans awful quickly. My current airborne list involves veterans, stormtroopers and the company command squad kitted with carapace to survive those nasty pulse rifles, flamers, heavy flamers and meltas for that all around suit-pulping goodness. Sgts and the commander have power fists and power weapons and they are all screaming in on Vendetta gunships. With that many lascannons his suits' days are numbered and if I can land next to ANY of his squads and unleash the full fury from 6 shotguns, bolt pistol flamer, hvy flamer and melta then it's good night tau boy.

All that being said, I've found that the Tau can outgun most vehicular guard just because cover-bound broadsides can obliterate tank squadrons in short order, and even if all they do is prevent them from shooting it's made your tank a 200 pt paperweight.

The more expensive tau have a hard time dealing with hordes of infantry. They just don't have the numbers to deal with the attrition. And listen to our good buddy Dan Abnett, massed lasgun fire can kill anything (well not quite but almost). Focus on bringing down their suits and tanks as their firewarriors, though good, will rarely carry the day on their own.

Hope that helps.

Tau, like a lot of armies, simply can't deal with walls of chimeras fast enough.

They also don't fare too well against Manticores, as long as you keep them well hidden with said chimeras.

I've never been happier with a Callidus Assassin than against Tau. You can use AWiYE to move something 6" - move broadsides/suits out of cover and annihilate them turn one. Then you can come in anywhere and assault that same turn - bye bye, broadsides.

Marbo can also be a pain for the Tau.

But, IMO, Callidus and indirect fire are the best options you have available.

The IG has 1 big advantage..they can do the alpha strike/outflank tactics to deny the tau the first round of shooting...and deep strike as well as a well place marbo can also disrupt their firebase...

I can see the problem if the IG uses a mechvet list...but a hybrid or footslogger list should be able to weather tau shooting better...