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Tau was my first army and has a special place in my heart, but I have a problem. I lose almost everytime.
I dont need to win every time, but if I would win about 1/3 of my games I would be really happy. So could someone tell me what im doing wrong?
My usual tau list is something like:
Commander
2-3 crisis suit squads
FW squad (small), warfish
Maybe, 1-2 pathfinder squads, warfish
0 or 3 piranha
1-2 broadside squads
Hammerhead
This for 1500pish

I think I need help with my kroot, not 100% sure how I should use them. I usually use them as wall.
My common tactic is to bubblewrap my suits with kroot and tanks. Usually I can send some units for objectives when needed. Still I lose like 9/10 of my games. So any ideas what I should do/try?
Thanks in advance

-unforgiven-

the unforgiven wrote:So any ideas what I should do/try?

Play an army that can be remotely competitive in the current era while you wait for the 5th edition Tau codex.

I enjoyed my Tau for some time, but they're just not workable right now unless your opponent ties one arm behind his back, so to speak, or is completely awful. Necrons, Tau, and Sisters occupy the lowest tier of army workability right now, but Necrons at least have some reasonably workable builds. My Tau have now colonized the underside of my bed for the greater good, waiting with the patience of the Kauyon until they get a better codex. Personally I'm hoping that stealth suits become good, I love the models.

Hah! Lololol... i really think that you should go to fight with ”im gonna kick your ass” when you start game. Not like ”if i lose, i will kill my self” like today... go to battle with clear mind and focuse all your consertation to that moment when you need some pure mind and brainwork. Everything is not ”what ever”.

Tau if played well can be a decent army.

Like Dark Eldar they require an immense amount of strategy and a very solid shooting game plan.

I run Farsight with max suits on all fronts. Some people prefer a vanilla commander and some prefer Shadowsun.

My opinion is that you never use Kroot, Vespid or Skyrays.

-Keep formations tight
-Always have a solid shooting plan for Deep Strikers
-Use terrain
-Use suits to kite (shoot then hop away)
-Use disruption pods

Just some pointers. Remember, no matter what army you use, expect a good loss streak before you fully understand your army. Even the OP armies out there require a few losses to fully understand the tactics.

I'll try to throw out some pointers.

Tau and Sisters are not 'bottom tier' armies. Both can be and are very competitive, but only when done well by a decent player.

First off, Tau are not marines. Most poor Tau players I've come across also are marine players and get really frustrated when they can't figure things out.

There are 2 main styles that work with Tau, mobile or static. At 1500pts, I'd go mobile. It sounds like you're sort of stuck doing a hybrid, which doesn't work as well as it used to.

My Mobile lists usually consist of 2-3 Railheads, an HQ squad (Plas/missile), a couple Elite crisis units (TL missile/TA), 2-3 min sized FW squads ( 6 firewarriors, Devilfish w/ D-pod), and a unit or two of 2 fusion Piranha. If only one unit of Piranha are taken then you can upgrade the Dfish to Warfish.
In these lists, avoid Pathfinders and Broadsides, they're not 'bad', but you don't want to have an anchor restricting your movement. The whole army needs to move and operate as a flotilla, with the tanks on the 'outside', suits on the 'inside' JSJ in and out, and the whole army kites your opponent around the battlefield to buy you time and spread the opponent out. Take out enemy mobility and anti-tank first, then move onto other targets of opportunity. Move cruising speed when threatened by assaulters, use drones and Piranha to block enemy movements and absorb/buffer assaults.

The Static tactics are better for larger armies, 2000-2500pts. Based mainly around 6-9 Broadsides, maxed out Elite suits, an HQ squad or two, 4-6 Piranha (2-3 units), a couple units of kroot, a couple min firewarrior squads in Fish. Pathfinders are optional, and usually dependent on your Crisis suit loadouts. The idea here is to have increased volume of firepower at expense of mobility. You buy your suits time by layering your buffering (Piranha/drones/kroot) rather than moving away from the opponent. Advantages here are you don't have many 'tanks', and Broadsides are very difficult to remove with Shield drones hanging around. Its sort of an ultimate solution to all the Mech lists around these days.

Things to work on:
1) Using Piranha well is an essential tool to being successful with Tau.
2) Suits do most of the actual damage in Tau lists (except maybe Hammerheads), the rest of the list needs to buy the suits time and/or score.
3) Play the full game, it takes 5-6 turns for Tau to win most games and you have to keep the mission in mind. Other armies often just have games that are a big CC party in the middle of the board, and the winner runs around to grab objectives. Tau don't work like that.

Hope that helps some. Tau aren't easy, but its always fun to humble the various flavors of marines.

Have you read this site?

http://tauofwar.blogspot.com/2010/09/joining-tau-empire-part-3-creating.html

Also check out part 4 and 5 for specific ways to deploy, screen and execute your fire plan.

I really think we an in depth list of your army would make it easir for us to assist you. It could be that you are giving your suits the wrong equipment/ upgrades based on the opponents your fighting. I would say that usually the most common reason a tau player would lose, besides picking vespid or sniper teams Here is what I commonly do with my lists

No
vespid
sharper
skyray
stealth suits
shaso
ehtreals
special characters

I personally do not like the war fish and spend as many points on my suits as I can, I run a super suit list that revolves around keeping my suits alive while making them monstrous killing machines. The weapon choice is what I find most critical. But as far as using kroot I do something like 1-2 units as a bubble and then 1-2 in reserve to go where need, usually outflank. So i run 3 squads with hounds. Then equip them with hounds so that they hopefully do some damage to to the enemy when in CC. Then I do not go for a static gun line deal, more like a fire base or double fire base with my crisis suits moving all around the board trying to not get killed while blasting at the enemy. The one army I just accept I will never be able to beat are Drop Pods or deep striking demons lol But besides that Tau stand a good chance against all the other types. Some better than others of course, but I would not say that any other army is a guaranteed loss

flavius infernus: thanks, this really helps. I have been trying to do something like that, but this really helped, thanks.
My favourite suits are: fireknifes, deathrains and bladestorms if someone needs to know.
Im maybe playing game or 2 this weekend so lets see how I do.
Anymore tips or tricks?

-unforgiven-

In general, it would be nice to know what is always killing you?

Your list looks OK broadly speaking, though it perhaps could use more Railguns. AP1 is king in the 5th Edition.

One thing which always works with all armies: don't forget what the mission is!