Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I don't want to offend any Tau players, but I can't see whats so good about tau. I think they're meant to be good at shooting but their fire warriors only have a bs of 3. I'd say the best thing about them are the Battle Suits but what else is going for them?

Superior technology+ superior weaponry= Tau win, so long as you keep your distance.

I like the Tau because they are challenging as an army. You can't just stay still and fire, because sooner or later, most likely sooner, you are going to be in combat. This where the challenge comes into play. By making your army mobile you can effectively avoid combat and keep blasting shots into your enemy.

BS 3 might not be great, but that's only the basic troop. When combined with markerlights for instance, that BS can jump up to 5.

Battlesuits are a must have for Tau, because they are so mobile. They can move six inches in the movement phase, shoot their weapons, and then move six inches back in the assault phase because of their jump/jet packs. Combine that with some of the Tau's tech and your onto a winning tactic.

Broadsides. Each one has a twinlinked Railgun shot of Strength 10 AP1. Range you say? Surely that must be the catch for something so powerful? Not really, because it's 72"....

In the hands of a skilled player, the Tau are a hard army to beat. The major downside to them of course, is their combat skills. Or rather, lack of.

And that's why I like the Tau!

Tau isnt really great by the current standard. Previously in the 4th ed they were great as their basic troopers possessed a superior gun to everyone else (in both range and strength) and could get an insane amount of shots off before the enemies closed the distance. There was also hiding behind their Devilfish transports and had Piranhas to cap points. 5th ed saw cheaper troops for the newer armies, the new Run Rule (which made closing the distance on tau much easier) and Fire Warriors could no longer hide behind their skimmers. Battlesuits also now cant duck behind cover to avoid getting shot at, instead only gaining a 4+ cover save in most situations (which isnt that good when you remember that Tau Battle Suits suffer insta-death from a lascannon to the face, whereas before they can just avoid being shot at altogether).

weapons. nice use of the icons by the way

Tau are not much good, they never have been.

They were always an army that rewards skillful tactics rather than obvious copypasta power lists.

Tau are very underrated. The right list can put out an impressive amount of firepower. It does get a bit pricey in real dollars though if you go with a lot of Broadsides. Now they die horribly in close combat but I wouldn't underestimate their shooting.

They get superior strength and ranged weapons but that is about it. Suits are good but only to an extent as explained before.

They are the best shooting army but they also are the most hamstrung close combat army.

The key to me is the markerlight tech. If they can use it to good effect, my stuff can all be firing with a BS of 5 (i.e It doesn't miss) that in conjunction with some of their outstanding weapons is good.

They suffer in 5th ed since HTH is now more decisive and the average scenario separation is 18" instead of 24". That is a big deal for a ranged army that generally sucks in HTH.

Kroot Lynching.

I think that the amount of wargear that you can stick on your commander's pretty cool. he can be a hulking iridium druggy with two shield drones backing him up along with other nasty weapons like the plasma rifle. He can be really badass. except when he gets swamped by orks. thank god for jumpsuits and kroot for meat shields.

Nothing. Nothing is good about Tau.

I like tau....but not their friends so much.... that is all


Automatically Appended Next Post:

coolyo294 wrote:Nothing. Nothing is good about Tau.

dont be a kill joy

Kilkrazy wrote:Tau are not much good, they never have been.

They were always an army that rewards skillful tactics rather than obvious copypasta power lists.

That's kinda what makes them cool however also really hard to play. At the moment I've kinda been failing in the tactics part.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

coolyo294 wrote:Nothing. Nothing is good about Tau.

Player/Tau/Other Hater

Evaelc wrote:

Kilkrazy wrote:Tau are not much good, they never have been.

They were always an army that rewards skillful tactics rather than obvious copypasta power lists.

That's kinda what makes them cool however also really hard to play. At the moment I've kinda been failing in the tactics part.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

coolyo294 wrote:Nothing. Nothing is good about Tau.

Player/Tau/Other Hater

hura!

Tau aren't nearly as hard as people say they are. I managed to ALMOST kill 500 pts of SM on multiple occasions with 300 pts of Tau. We're talking just half a unit short of total elimination. We made the sides uneven just to prove a point, as he also agrees that Tau aren't all that bad. There are much harder armies to play than Tau.


Another thing that REALLY bugs me with Tau haters is that they automatically assume that "because they are in 40k, they are really evil", when it was quite obvious that whoever designed them thought otherwise, so canonically, tau are the good"est" guys in 40k. The thing about concentration camps and crap is from a video game, and is probably not canon, or is just imperial propaganda in universe.

GalacticDefender wrote:Tau aren't nearly as hard as people say they are. I managed to ALMOST kill 500 pts of SM on multiple occasions with 300 pts of Tau. We're talking just half a unit short of total elimination. We made the sides uneven just to prove a point, as he also agrees that Tau aren't all that bad. There are much harder armies to play than Tau.


Another thing that REALLY bugs me with Tau haters is that they automatically assume that "because they are in 40k, they are really evil", when it was quite obvious that whoever designed them thought otherwise, so canonically, tau are the good"est" guys in 40k. The thing about concentration camps and crap is from a video game, and is probably not canon, or is just imperial propaganda in universe.

The Tau are just very Animal Farm. " We are all equal just some are more equal than others." If you like the idea of a stratified socialist model as being "good" then the Tau are the embodiment of good. As far as what is good I will argue the Orcs, Tyranid, Demons and Necrons as being the most "good." Each in their own way follows their nature and just fulfills it. The Eldar are bitter, the Imperium - in all its forms - is paranoid and insular, the dark eldar are psychopaths, and chaos space marines are egomaniacal fools whose only redeeming feature is they refuse to prop up a soul-sucking "Emporer."

However, given the choices and being limited to being a human, the Tau are the best a human could hope for. In 40k's bleak future that isn't saying much.

I thought there was only suppossed to be one Anti-Tau thread a month.

Not every race has to be 3+ armor save and 4's across the board (Yeah I know. I bitch about too much Tau hate then complain about Space Marines.).

I play Tau because I like playing Xenos more than Humans, because if I wanted to play with Human soliders, I would join the army and play soldier for reals. I've always felt choosing Human as the playable race for anything if I had another option to be lame. If I wanted to play a Human, I would go out and do gak, not be inside and playing games.

Coolyo294, why do you troll every single Tau thread?

He makes up for it by hugging indangered spieces.

If you are a flagrant anime fan pick tau. This is EXACTLY the kind of people i see playing this race and i havent seen any exceptions yet (though i'm sure they lurk conveniently out of my sight just to further my bias)

Mukkin'About wrote:If you are a flagrant anime fan pick tau. This is EXACTLY the kind of people i see playing this race and i havent seen any exceptions yet (though i'm sure they lurk conveniently out of my sight just to further my bias)

If you're anime fan, pick Eldar. They are far more anime influenced than Tau.

Sadly, Tau are by no means the best shooting army, IG are far more cost effective for their firepower. However, they are a rewarding and potentially competetive army (as long as you don't take Vespid!)

Iur_tae_mont wrote:I thought there was only suppossed to be one Anti-Tau thread a month.

Not every race has to be 3+ armor save and 4's across the board (Yeah I know. I bitch about too much Tau hate then complain about Space Marines.).

I play Tau because I like playing Xenos more than Humans, because if I wanted to play with Human soliders, I would join the army and play soldier for reals. I've always felt choosing Human as the playable race for anything if I had another option to be lame. If I wanted to play a Human, I would go out and do gak, not be inside and playing games.

Im sorry, but you... *backspaces and rewords* I think that is rather unintelligent.

Thats like saying: why play call of duty when you can go outside and kill people in real life?

We play games so we can recreate things that are to wacky or dangerous to do in real life.

Kilkrazy wrote:

The Tau rules are in their codex silly



My brothers g/f just go into Tau, and in her first game almost won over my brother. He said he was surprised at the amount of fire power they can throw out. She made some obvious new person mistakes, but still, one of his tacticals was just shot to pieces because he didnt think they would die from her shooting phase.

Haters gonna hate,
Lovers gonna love,
I don't even want,
None of the above,
I just want to rail gun you,
Yes I do, railgun you,
Pew pew pew.


The main thing that the tau army has that's different is both its biggest asset and handicap. Markerlights. One unit of them can win you the battle, losing them in the first 1-2 rounds of battle can make the whole thing a lost cause.

Only talking from experience butour resident Tau player (who to be fair is a good player of most games) is nearly undefeated and those he has lost he has done by the smallest margin.

yes, Part of that is due ot his inate skill at maximising their stregnth - they are hugely flexible firing platforms many ofwhich have the ability to lead you by the nose whilst shooting the hell out of you.

He is also not afriad to chop and change and try new very different list - nearly all battlesuits, hardly any battlesuits etc. All have seemed pretty effective. He does so love his marker lights, railguns, missile pods and plasma guns.

also don't under estimate the "lowly" fire warrior - one killed one of my Ravegers on wednesday with one shot.

If you can get into combat they are hard pressed to survive but unless you can get in combat with them all or into cover after you win the CC - the second line of guns tends to hammer you hard.