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Tactics as tau on how to kill annoyng space marines?

well that is a very broad question. there can be many types of Sm armies out there. Is there a specific army varient that is causing you trouble? Also an idea of what your current roster is so we know what to work with would be nice.

I agree with mechiour. there's going to be a huge differnce depending on what you play (mech, hybrid, ninja, or static) and they play (drop pod heavy, mech, etc).

Surrender immediately and hope they go easy on you?
It's like a moral victory?



Silly Tau.

phoneix lord kandras wrote:Tactics as tau on how to kill annoyng space marines?

railguns. lots and lots of railguns.

A squad of three broadsides with railguns and at least one ionhead. Also some Sniper Drones never hurt, though they're near useless in other lists.

Pinning tests are good too if you use Markerlights to reduce LD.

easy:

Your facing range, little close combat (lots of vindi/land raider/devastators) you'll need fast moving numbers that can pull off havok.

I'd suggest piranahs.
CC? I'd suggest alot of long range blast weapons.

Mixed? well, screw it! you just need range.

mixed SM really don't work, I mean, they'll offer great mixed coverage, but in the hands of one of the (many) inexperienced mixed players will end up with around 30 dead marines in the first turn.

Plasma.

Plasma

More Plasma

Yet more Plasma

If still confused add more Plasma

Markerlights and plasma ad nauseam

They cant hit a barn with a car. Best you throw yourself off a cliff you mutant xeno scum.



PS. Keep out of SM close combat and you might have a chance. Kroot are meat shields.

Keep moving. Give everything transports, and just stay manouverable. try to take out transports as fast as possible. If the marines have to walk around they will never catch tau. Disruption pods really help protect vehicles and if you have the points give devilfish SMS then sit them out of LOS and keep shooting. Unless you have a good reason keep the FW inside transports, they can be very helpful in the last two turns once the table has cleared a bit.

rhinos/razorbacks/land speeders/dreadnoughts - missile pods

land raiders/ironclad dreadnoughts/predators/vindicators - railguns, fusion blasters

bikes/terminators/marines - plasma rifles, smart missile systems, pulse rifles (last resort)


If your space marine opponent is giving you trouble, take these weapons in accordance with what ratio of these units he is using against you. Learn good target priority, shoot to destroy his mobility, then redeploy, then finish him off.

Concentrate fire. If you score two burst cannon hits on a tac squad, they're gonna save them. If you score twenty pulse rifle, kroot rifle, missle pod, burst cannon, whatever-else-is-available hits on that tac squad, they're gonna die in large numbers. Also, use plasma and markerlights and maybe sniper drones if you just want to kill marines. Try and pin them with the drones using markerlights. And if you think you are able to, use helios suits-plasma/fusion. A squad of three will wreck marines...with marker support. But be careful of their close range.

Deathrains (TL Missile Pods) can kill his transports very effectively.

Helioses (Fusion Blaster and Plasma Rifle) make marines, terminators, and multi-wound T4 characters cry.

Fireknives (Missile Pods and Plasma Rifle) can do both of these jobs. Some argue that they're too inefficient to be worth the cost. They're the closest thing in 40K to a jack of all trades unit that doesn't suck. I like using them because they can fill the holes left by bad rolling from the Deathrain or the Helios teams.

Ionheads are meh. Bring a Railhead everytime; the submunition will kill more marines than the ion cannon...but as always, YMMV.

Broadsides and Piranhas with a Fusion Blaster are the definite choices for AV14 work. Give your Broadsides shield drones. Lascannons and other nasty things like to shoot at them.

Markerlight assisted Fire Warriors can hurt things, but if you do this, you'd better not have any other choice or make sure nothing will remain to lash back at them. Keep them in their transports and only let them out when it's safe to play. I'd have a minimum sized squad in a Devilfish for objective grabbing and then, if I have the points, a full sized squad in another Devilfish for the same task, plus rapid firing something to hell if the need arises.

Kroot are your troop choices you want to be running around. They're cheap enough to lose if the worst comes to worst, and with a good number of Kroot Hounds you can do some damage if you have to assault. Bring Kroot.

Stealth Teams are mediocre at best against Marines...if you bring them, bring 3 and give them Marker drones to have a back up to your Pathfinders.

You are bringing Pathfinders, aren't you?

Give your Shas'O (or Shas'El depending on point level) an Aurora loadout (CIB and a Plasma Rifle) and a couple of shield drones.

This army list is a good place to start. I've had pretty good success against Marine players with a healthy mix of the units listed here.