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I have been playing tau for a year and have run into a problem, I get my butt handed to me every time I play. Its not that my army list isn't built right. The tau have no way to play competitively. Someone help, I have trouble playing them. Could someone please give me some help/hints

Haha. Well, we can't help without your list and your usual opponents. I know my tau which I just started run quite abnormal since I play a foot-sloggin BT list. Mine consists of two squads of Pathfinders at 1000 points so I can pin him every turn. Help us out and maybe we can help you.

Let's start with your army list and your most frequent opponents. Then Dakka can churn out some tactics for you.

I know Tau can play competitively. I frequently battle a terrible Tau player and a great Tau player. It boils down to their lists and how they use them.

Tau can be very competitive. However, they are not the easiest army to learn or to play. Like the posters above though, give us a breakdown of what you play and how you play it.

My main opponents are orks, necrons, nids, chaos, eldar. . . (last 3 I play less often than the first 2)
here's ma' list-1500 points take all comers
HQ
Shas'o-TL plasma rifles
2 Bodyguards-targeting arrays/ TL plasma rifles

Shas'o-TL plasma rifles
2 Bodyguards-targeting arrays/ TL plasma rifles

Elites
3 Shas'ui-targeting arrays/ TL burst cannons
3 Shas'ui-targeting arrays/ TL missile pods


Troops
6 Firewarriors-pulse rifles
-Devilfish-SMS/ multitracker/ disruption pods/ targeting array/ burst cannon
6 Firewarriors-pulse rifles
-Devilfish-SMS/ multitracker/ disrutption pods/ targeting array/ burst cannon

Heavy Support
1 Hammerhead-Railgun/ disruption pods/ burst cannons/ multitracker
2 Broadsides-TL railguns/ SMS/ targeting array
6 Sniper drones-2 spotters

that's all for now folks

Here are my recomendations

Drop the O's for El's and save some points. Maybe just one El in fact.

Drop bodyguard and put commander in a squad of 2-3

No targetting arrays, instead take multitrackers and two weapon systems

add pathfinders, marker lights can make or break a Tau force

my preferred layout for crisis teams in plasam/misslepod, great range great firepower, great flexibility

Give broadside BASS, (move and fire gear) Having your railguns mobile is a great plus believe me

I havent used sniper teams yet but I dont like what I have seen.

I had a hard time with Tau until I learned to master the markerlight and the right balance of firepower and wargear. It;s easy to throw tons of point sinto a single squad and have them underperform. Spread the points out and build in some redundancy.

I see many problems already.

HQ/Bodyguard: Need to be running Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod. The TA is good though. But yeah, TL on a BS4+ model is less important than two weapons. You should also give em each Hard Wired Multi Trackers. Also, two Shield Drones exponentially increases Survivability. Also, get rid of one HQ slot completely or get rid of both squads of Crisis Elites. Up to you, but your suit spam is too heavy.

Elites: I don't like Crisis Spam, some do. If you're running these, give em the same set up as the others above.

Troops: You're low on troops for 1500 Points. I'd suggest either increasing the numbers or altogether adding a new squad. It'll help.

Fast Attack: NO PATHFINDERS?! They're you're bread and butter! Putting 6 of those in a DF and using their Markerlights is a nessecary. Also, those Pulse Carbines are gonna pin those Orks down if they don't have an HQ with em. Once more, a life saver.

Heavy: In 1500 points, I suggest getting a third broadside and just ditching the snipers. Not all that useful with what you're facing, aside from crons. With the railguns you may actually take out a monolith, but you should REALLY be firing at those warriors. Also, I didn't see ASS on your broasides... WHY?!

In my opinion, you'd be good getting rid of a squad of crisis suits, adding some Paths and another broadside, and just making sure you're pinning orks and firing all you got at cron warriors.

I agree with all of the above in that you NEED pathfinders. . . . those markerlights are what make or break your list

Blessed the only thing about the pinning from carbines is that I run my orks in mobs of 30 and the waaagh rule negates all leadership until I have 12 or less orks in mob

Step 1: read all the articles here http://advancedtautactica.com/
Step 2: ?????
Step 3: Profit!

But seriously, ATT is the best place for you to really start learning all the strategies for Tau and how to be competitive with them. The common configurations listed in the article on crisis suit configurations are common because they are about as effective as possible.

My own personal suggestions:
Look into some pathfinder units, markerlights should never be underestimated as a force multiplier and think about the kroot. They can add a lot to an army by providing you protection from scouting units such as Deff koptas through their infiltration and limiting how close they can actually get to your army turn 1 - 2.

I see a lot of Trukk ork lists which means they have low leadership, so that was why I suggested the carbine bit. But yes, you're right. That tactic is useless until your mob is almost gone.

For my thoughts on Tau Crisis Suits, check out this article.

Amen to all the talk about adding Pathfinders. I don't like Sniper Drones because of all of the cover saves and fearless units out there. You're paying too many points for what you get, and more importantly, you're using up a Heavy slot. I'd flesh out the Broadsides to three suits or add an Ion Cannon Hammerhead to the list. This will give you more hitting power or more versatility.

I would avoid twin linking unless you are talking Missile pods, or are trying to create wargear variety for wound allocation.

I liked sniper drones last edition, but this edition not sure. They are a way to get a marker light but they rarely will cause a wound against most units now due to cover. Usually if i use them I end up using the networked marker light for another units firing and just fire the drones at low armor value units hoping they make their points back.

The TL Plasma, TA suits are overcosted for a maximum of 2 kills and they'll struggle to do squat against vehicles.

If you really want to keep up the theme of marine/termie killing on your suits then replace 1 with a fusion blaster and replace the TA with a multi-tracker (or hardwire the MT on HQ suits). You don't have very much anti-medium vehicle shooting (3 deathrains) so making the burning eyes (TL-Plasma) into Plasma and Missile Pods or more deathrains would help with those.

At 1500 I'd take more than 2 troops choices as they will be blown away quickly.

I'm one of the people who thinks that more guns is better than pathfinders but in your case if you stop twinlinking then you may decrease accuracy but you increase overall damage and pathfinders would help them more.

PS. Whats the 3rd hardpoint on the Shaso's.

PPS. There are a few forums around dedicated to tau so have a look at them for advice.

I'd drop an HQ unit, and make the other one an 'El with a targeting array.

For suit configurations you should go with a lot of plasma rifle/misslepod/multi-tracker. Also you'll want one unit of deathrain (twin-linked misslepods and either a targeting array or flamer) in order to kill transports. Plus, markerlights. And don't bother putting the pathfinders in their devilfish, just put a FW team inside it.

Thanks for the insight, I was thinking of doing this type of army list http://advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=14974

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/260453.page#1045871

My list, this list has worked wonders for me, though for 1500 pts, I would drop the pathfinders first. They seem great in theory, but in all honesty, tau need more gunz on the board, and pathfinders only real roll seemed to be that of damage spunge, and they aint no cheap damage spunge. If you have any questions about my list for reference, let me know!

Yeah you have WAY too many points tied up in your HQ suit spam is fine if that is your objective but TL plasma is the worst possible thing you could put on a suit. The power of the XV8 lies in the multitracker and being able to fire multiple weapons to really rack up the kills (with the exception of tl missile pod suits). I think that simply changing your tl plasma suits to plasma/missile pod or plasma/fusion suits you will see a huge difference.

Next up burst cannons on xv8's is simply a no no they come cheaper and better defended on stealth suits, consider the cost of your tl burst cannon suits vs stealth suits with targetting arrays 47 for the xv8 40 for the stealth suits who have the stealth fields and can come in squads of up to 6.

I personally like sniper drone teams however they just don't fit with the rest of your list you are highly mobile with all the suits you bring to the table so I would try and stick with that theme if you drop the broadsides and the snipers combined with the points you save on removing the tl plasma for more affordable weapons it should free up points for you to buy 2 more hammerheads. This gives you full mobility to dance around orks, and bring all your firepower to bear on warrior squads to help prevent wbb (knock a whole squad over at once and you deny wbb)

Take pathfinders to get markerlight, and dump them in cover. Then give their vehical to the firewarriors. Personally I don't like burst cannons on suits (though I think it looks cool) I would trade the burst cannons for, plasma, fusion, multitracker combo, then deepstike them near a marines type unit using the pathfinder devilfish to aid the scatter, add 2 markerlights and you will cause 9 ap1 and ap2 wounds that will hit on 2's and wound on 2's. This has always been my play style and it has worked fairly well.

I also like sniper drones. Set them across from some guard in cover, or across from a devastator squad, and suddenly you can shoot them, and they can see you.

It's also very important to mention that Tau is only 50% army list. This a tactics forum, right? So let's talk some tactics!

The most important thing to remember when playing tau is to keep your army working in concert. They are not space marines, where you can camp one tac squad and run the other across the board with no cover and ds terminators wherever you want. Every unit needs to have a specific objective, and needs to stick with that objective until it is achieved. A proper tau army should work like a well-oiled machine.

For example, hit your enemies transports with the broadsides and deathrains, then mulch them with the fireknives and submunitions. Don't just take the FWs and rush an objective, hoping the opponent won't notice. Put some suppressing fire on any units covering the objective first. Advance your fishies slowly so they are able to fire all 7 of their shots and then clean up with some fire from your suits. Always try to kill as many whole units as possible in a turn. This means using 2 or more units to gang up on them, usually from different ranges. Go for the isolated units first in annihilation missions. Then attack their big firebase from long range first.

That's pretty much the style of strategy tau use. There are other examples but you get the idea. Basically it boils down to concentrating fire and using units to cover and support each other. Tau are a thinker's army. They require a bit of strategy, even if the strategy varies from turn to turn.

i would definitely load up on some more troops since they're the only scoring unit in 5th edition. i personally like firewarriors but there are alot of people that don't (and like most things in the tau early 4th ed codex, they're overcosted compared to 5pt guard and 6pt orks but still worth it IMHO). i'd suggest adding a unit of kroot. they're cheap to buy and they're a good "home" unit for objective missions. if you're able to, put an objective in a forest and go to ground with the unit when they take serious incoming fire, giving them a 2+ cover save. the only thing that can ruin their day would be a deepstriking flamer template.

From what I've seen don't split your firepower too much, since that leaves the units alive(although less man/xeno/daemonpower)
use firewarrior units to support each other. . . . .
Yorick has it right on

warboss wrote:i would definitely load up on some more troops since they're the only scoring unit in 5th edition. i personally like firewarriors but there are alot of people that don't (and like most things in the tau early 4th ed codex, they're overcosted compared to 5pt guard and 6pt orks but still worth it IMHO). i'd suggest adding a unit of kroot. they're cheap to buy and they're a good "home" unit for objective missions. if you're able to, put an objective in a forest and go to ground with the unit when they take serious incoming fire, giving them a 2+ cover save. the only thing that can ruin their day would be a deepstriking flamer template.

Those are a couple of good points. Kroot are good objective campers, especially in forests. You can beef them up with hounds and infiltrate them onto more forward objectives, too. Just make sure they have some cover, and some support from afar because if they don't have both of those things they will get destroyed.

warboss's point about troops is an important one, too. Fire warriors are actually good for this, despite many people's reservations about them. I tend to have one 6-man FW unit in a war fish off capturing objectives in more of a mech style. I also take another squad sometimes to camp a back objective and be used in more of a gunline style. This kind of static squad usually uses a markerlight to fire seeker missles and boost supporting units' ballistic skill. And as long as I'm mentioning markerlights, you should have some pathfinders. And make sure if you take pathfinders you have a 6-man FW squad to put into their devilfish to make it scoring.