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I've been running into a problem lately. I try to go to as many tournaments as I can, and while I fully understand that Tau are not the cutting edge fotm army, I still believe their codex is semi-viable.

Effectively, my problem is this: When I kit myself out to be versatile and capable of dealing with multiple opponents, I get steam rolled by MEQ's, especially fast assault armies (Blood Angels, Khorne CSM).

So at my most recent tournament I attended, I kitted myself out to kill MEQ's and ended up getting curb stomped by both 'nids and Orks, after tabling a BT army, and winning against BA.

The problem seems to be, in order to take enough plasma to take out MEQ's (which are the vast, overwhelming majority of opponents) I'm screwed against Green Tide and most Nid lists. The MEQ killer list performed well enough against melta-vet IG and Nob Biker orks, but it just doesn't have the room for enough template to quell the green tides.

Any Tau players have 5th edition tourney success? Suggestions?

at 2000 pts, my heavy support looks like this:

2 ionheads w/ b.c mt, tl, dpod

3x broadsides, ta on all, team leader w/ hwtl, hwdc, 2sd

Lots of marine killy, but not alot of railguns.

I over come the lack of railguns in heavy support by taking the following elite:

1 crisis w/ t.l fb, ta
1 crisis w/ t.l fb, ta
2 crisis w/ t.l fb, fl

then, for HQ, 2 identical commanders and bodyguard. I use the bodyguard rather than normal suits to gain access to the ta, which makes up for the lack of markerlights in my list.
Shas'el- pr, mp, ta, hwmt, hwdc 1x sd
1 bodyguard, pr, mp, ta, hwmt hwdc 1xsd
1 body guard, pr, mp ta, hwmt

By splitting the shield drones, I effectively have more model types and can split wounds better.

Troops are then 2x6 firewarriors in warfish, and 2x10 kroot.

2x piranhas w/ goodies round out the list, but can be switched around for whatever you think you might need.

The volume of fire generated by the ionheads(18 shots) and warfish(14 shots) is alot for both horde and mech armies to deal with. The tl on the ionhead allows you to focus your s7ap3 weapon on the big guys, which burst cannons can target gaunts.

I typically use the kroot to either shape the opponents deployment zone through infiltration, or camp my own objectives in the back court. this allows the mech fws to push forward grabbing any objectives i need.

A good idea, but ionheads are terrible. They really are.

In short and in my opinion, the best idea to deal with all armies is the following setup:

Hq with body guards with fusion/plasma on each

Hq with airburster and whatever else you want, attach to your other anti infantry unit

One team of three xv8's with TL missile pods and flamers

Two railheads

a team of three broadsides with advanced stabilization


After that, focus on your infantry in small units of 6 and throw them in dumbfishes with flechette launchers. This will keep the hordes at bay and keep your guys alive.

If you need markerlights, I suggest two small teams of steath suits with two marker drones, a markerlight on the team leader if you really need it. add some gun drones to them too so important things don't die that fast.


The railheads will have their large blast of horde killy, your hq will have the same thing except no cover saves, your missile pod team has flamers for when they will get close, and they will, and the infantry will be in vehciles that will move as fast as possible and their flechettes will take care of about 50% of whatever hits them on average.

If you really, really want to, run a squad of 5 piranha with flechettes. Due to squad rules, each model attacking them in melee will take up to 5 wounds that must be saved for before any blows are struck. You can also make a team of 10 gun drones from this unit and have it screen for you.

juraigamer wrote:A good idea, but ionheads are terrible. They really are.

I disagree. Your odds of hitting are higher, and you still wound most things on a 2. I've had way to many railgun shots miss.. Kinda like, ehhh, well... that sucked.

They work with my play style.

I agree ionheads can be worth taking. They are strength 7, so they can take down transports if there is nothing better to shoot at.

The strongest Tau lists floating around are generally all pretty similar at their core. 2-3 units of Broadsides (usually 3 x 2 at 2000pts, Railhead if you go 2 x 2 or 2 x 3), 2-3 units of Crisis Suits with twin Missile Pods and Plasma/Flamer/something else, HQs with similar loadouts to the normal suits (usually with Fusion Blaster instead of Plasma), Piranhas with Fusion Blasters, 1-2 units of Fire Warriors in Devilfish (to hide and stay alive to grab objectives mostly) and 2-3 units of Kroot with Hounds. You sit all the suits deep in your deployment zone, Broadsides on the board edge usually and then basically use everything else to create layers of stuff they have to fight through to get to your damage dealers. Force them to fight their way past the Piranhas (boost into their face, they can't ram past most of the time as you are a skimmer and infantry get slowed down significantly) then a screen of Drones (from all the Piranhas and Devilfish) then the Devilfish themselves (drop the Fire Warriors out safely first) and finally feed them Kroot units if you need to. The amount of time it takes for people to munch through that much stuff is going to be more than enough time to shoot them to pieces no matter what the army is, Missile Pods will drop Marines just fine and you should always be able to fire as nothing should get tied up in combat where you can't shoot them (either they hit vehicles and just stay put or hit something like Gun Drones or Kroot which disintegrate in a single round).

PraetorDave wrote:I agree ionheads can be worth taking. They are strength 7, so they can take down transports if there is nothing better to shoot at.

Instead of wasting the heavy support slot on a single str 7 three shot weapon, one railgun with the ability to deal with hordes is a far better trade. Since I always advocate the usage of missile pods, transports aren't an issue.

Now if you have horde and heavy tank taken care of in your lists, then yes an ionhead is effective. Then again it's still fighting over the heavy support selections.

Have you considered the "volume of fire" route for dealing with MEQ? The idea behind that being spend less points to get higher rate of fire weaponry and more of it (burst cannons galore). You won't be cutting through armor but the 3+ save is far from invulnerable. If you just built a list around volume of fire (with broadsides and maybe deathrain suits to deal with armor) then you may find that you can focus down even terminators by forcing your opponent to make a ton of saves. The last game I played with my Tau (not in a tournament though) I killed Logan Grimnar and his unit of Terminator armor Wolf Guard by focusing all of my S5 weaponry on them (gun drones, Railhead burst cannons, Piranhas, Fire Warriors, Devilfish) in addition to things like submunition railgun blasts and they were gone in two turns of shooting. They didn't even reach my lines. I still had Shadowsun, Braodsides, Deathrain suits, and two units of pathfinders free to deal with other parts of the SW force.

Also, going the volume of fire route also automatically positions yourself to devastate horde armies. I'm not saying take the idea directly to a tournament but play some pickup games and see how it works out. Drop the expensive plasma and melta and load up on the Tau's ultra inexpensive S5 weaponry. Tau players ignore the strengths of S5 because its standard in the book but its really a great strength, wounding MEQ on 3+ and all else on a 2+.

juraigamer wrote:

PraetorDave wrote:I agree ionheads can be worth taking. They are strength 7, so they can take down transports if there is nothing better to shoot at.

Instead of wasting the heavy support slot on a single str 7 three shot weapon, one railgun with the ability to deal with hordes is a far better trade. Since I always advocate the usage of missile pods, transports aren't an issue.

Now if you have horde and heavy tank taken care of in your lists, then yes an ionhead is effective. Then again it's still fighting over the heavy support selections.

Ionhead is not at all terrible: one of the best tools against most Monstrous creatures, which are often troublesome for Tau.

*cough*
http://yesthetruthhurts.com/forum/tau/tau-phase-four-expansion/
Now, before I hide in the corner and put on my flame proof suit... This list has enough volume fo fire to kill MEqs and enough anti-tank to kill vehicles off, plus a ridiculous number of expendable units to block with.