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.

Guys, I play Tau.

I'm a casual player.

But once... just once... I want to win. I'm not very good at building army lists - I'm more about building models themselves.

Any size, any models. I'm just looking for, well, a really good army list.

I'm open to personal criticisms as well.

Depends at what level you want to compete tau won't win major tournies but can still kick ass at club and a semi competitve tournament level ,I've been playing tau getting decent amount of wins.

The Tau are mid tier right about now.

They get a little better if you include Forge World stuff, Tetras are amazing.

Tetras, lots of suits with plasma and missile pods, mobility for troops in the form of devilfish and basically pick your battles. Make sure to prioritise things that will get into your lines first

 EccentricOwl wrote:
Guys, I play Tau.

I'm a casual player.

But once... just once... I want to win. I'm not very good at building army lists - I'm more about building models themselves.

Any size, any models. I'm just looking for, well, a really good army list.

I'm open to personal criticisms as well.

Tau are ok in 6th edition. Crisis suits are still great, be sure to include missile pods. Fire warriors are a lot more playable now since their rapid fire weapons got better. Broadsides are still great, but make sure to have shield drones, oh, and get the forgeworld models!

The disruption pod is in vogue again, which really helps hammerheads. I still think devilfish are way too,expensive but one is ok.

Kroot are still usable but make sure to stick to cover

It is possible. However, you have less margin of error compared to a "modern" army. You'll need to limit yourself to only the few good units (deathrain or fireknife crisis suits, broadsides, fire warriors, tetras, possibly hammerheads) and ignore all the horrible units (everything else in the codex) and ruthlessly optimize your list for maximum firepower (no "fun" or "maybe it will be useful" upgrades, just maximum firepower per point). And even this won't give you an easy win, it just brings you up to the point where you can attempt to win.

Of course whether or not you want to invest in new models with a new codex about to arrive and change everything (and probably make Tau a lot more competitive) is up to you.

Plasma rifle will probably be priced out, so they can sell lots of new models.

But as for now, I think your best chance is to go anti-meq. Go fireknife and deathrain. Choose your battles, and dont be ashamed to take cheezy anti-meq lists... God knows they are hard enough to beat as it is.

Forget about kroot.

Tetras and Railguns, friend.

So there is no 'trick,' huh? Just take exactly the sort of stuff that seems like the obvious choice?

That's kinda sad. ): I hope we get a new codex soon.

With Tau (and I am not that familiar with them) the basic rule is stay the hell away from the enemy while shooting them. You hope for short Table Edge deployment because it gives you more room to retreat.

I have heard that if you run Jump Troop Heavy and always take your turn to put difficult or dangerous (or even impossible) terrain between your Jumpers and their Troops, then shoot them to death repeatedly it works well.

I would definitely say yes Tau can be competitive. Allies really really help though. GK, Necrons, or Eldar are all excellent options. GK have great core troops to build around. Just because they are allies doesn't mean they can' donate 2 solids troops ;-). That's how I run IG and so far it has worked well. Necrons donate much needed flyer support and good solid mobile troops. Eldar buff the hell out of Tau while giving you some jet bike units to score. I really think that most if not all armies only get better with an ally at > 1500. The so called HQ tax doesn't exist when your allied HQ is a badass (ie Coteaz, DLord, Farseer.... lol).

I'm not sure if this post belongs here...maybe in tactics. Anyways, my buddy plays Tau and he has had much success playing other newer players such as Nids, Wolves, other Tau. He has to pick his targets very carefully but it is doable.....hopefully we will be seeing a new dex out next month!

Also, Ork allies (Boyz, mainly) can help assist the major weaknesses of the Codex.