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I have an army, completly focused on close combat, and I still can't beat the tau! I have a librarian, 6 terminators with a chain fist and a heavy flamer. I also have Vulkan, 2 tacs with a 2 flamers a multi melta, and a missle launcher. I have a Vanguard squad, totally decked out.

Drop pod army!

I'm on a budget and I can't getmore than one set a month. Any other suggestions?

Land Raider Redeemer.

That is a good idea, but when I field a land raider, he blows it up with his railguns!

Yeah believe it or not other shooty armies give Tau more problems than assault based armies, just consider the math he gets to spend 2-3 turns shooting at you before you get to do anything then you are in assault range he is in rapidfire range you wipe a squad he wipes a squad you trade back and forth but he already been shooting at you to deplete your ability to trade with him 1 to 1.

if you want to keep the assault theme I would suggest scout bikers they can get a first turn assault via scouts and turboboost to either tie up the broadsides or multi melta the hammerheads allowing your landraiders to make it across the table.

Simply put
Your too slow. Trying to footslog across the board into a tau gunline is pretty much an autoloss. You need to find a way to make your army much more mobile. Land speeders,
gate of infinity, and shrike are possibilities. Also you are going to need much more credible high strength anti tank. One multi melta and one missile launcher is not nearly enough. Remember outside of 12" a tau player is going to save half of the shots into any vehicle. Normal Land Raiders, Predator Destructors, and combi-melta sternguard are good ideas.

Your list needs redundancy in critical areas and as you have seen, fielding just one of a unit is usually ineffective. Bring two or three landraiders or none at all. This is true across almost any army.

Finally, take heart. As your games go up in points this will get easier. Tau are very powerful at 1000 pts and below but get gradually weaker as points increase due to FOC restrictions. Don't sleep on the Tau though, their shooting is plenty good enough to get it done against anyone. You have to focus on manipulating the deployment of your troops to minimize your exposure to his shooting in both duration and quantity and get to assault quickly where you will carry the day.

It will not be easy though. I had death company and a whole pack of blood angels in assault by turn 2 and I held on for 7 turns and lost by a single kill point.

Aftersong makes a point. With his Str5 weapon troops and your Str4 weapon troops, you are both wounding each other on 3+ (unless you are a heavy Mark of Nurgle user) and if he is shooting without using marker lights then you will be hitting him on 3+ still also, while he is stuck with 4+ for hits.

clevelend wrote:I have an army, completly focused on close combat, and I still can't beat the tau! I have a librarian, 6 terminators with a chain fist and a heavy flamer. I also have Vulkan, 2 tacs with a 2 flamers a multi melta, and a missle launcher. I have a Vanguard squad, totally decked out.

See, that's the problem. You are overkitted for close combat. You don't actually need all those killy characters and weapons to beat Tau in assault.

As mentioned you don't need to be close combat based until you're facing XV-8's or better in close combat. Engage in short range firefights as that negates their bonuses (long range shooting + survivability at long range) at close range they lose stealth field disruption pods and next turn your in close combat. Regular marines will outshoot, outcombat and are tougher than their troops and some fast attack, elites. As mentioned Drop pods are probably the best way to do it as you only mishap when off the board and it allows you to shoot first (unless if they're in reserve).

i play tau and gun lines are a dying/dead breed because almost every race can get to you very quickly and the only thing you have are firewarriors (Which blow without marker light support) and railguns which most armies have only have around 5.

And space marines have so many ways to get there probably the easiest is bikes because they almost always get a turn two assault and that's if you don't outflank them which khan lets you do.

You can drop pod any instantly get into shooting range with a very high possibility of a turn two assault and what tau do against las fangs??? NOTHING we can take out a few with railguns but take 2 squads or something and depending on disruption pod luck and the hammerheads and broadsides are going down. and gun lines need at least 2 turns of full shooting to be effective.

I won my first game with tau today 1 out of three and that was because the only units that stayed still were broadsides and pathfinders because marker lights heavy i deployed the broadsides in ac corner and i now know to give them shield drones because two lascannon shots took down the team of two but even them i gave advanced stabilisation so they can move and shoot.

And remember that the hammerheads and broadsides are weak and whirlwinds are great because they are great at removing pathfinders from cover and fire warriors from anywhere and if positioned properly wont be seen by any railguns.

So all in all it takes a very skilled player to run gunline and this normally incorporates kroot.

Well that's what i think anyway

I think other posters have said this, but my opinion is that you are spend way too many points on a very few amount of units. Spread the love. More Tac units, Land Speeders, Predators, Whirlwinds, or even a Dreadnought could be useful. A 10 man Tac squad can own almost anything his list can field in CC. You'll sweep him off the board more times than not. A 15 model strong Kroot unit might be a different story, but you just shoot those things to pieces.