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So the main questions...

Are the Tau an army that is competitive yet?

I have read 2 battle reports of TAU..and they lost to Space Marines and Chaos/deamons


What are the results people are seeing? or its it towel time and go with marines?

This question can't be answered until there is a statistically valid pool of games played with the new codex before that can be formed. With this release schedule, I am sure there is still much contention over list building with CSM or DA, let alone Daemons.

Tau came out yesterday. Wait a few months.

Just looking at what they have, they definitly have the tools avaliable. Now its up to the tacticians to come up with how to use them.

They are definitly a hard counter to flyers with all the Skyfire they can get.

I guess we'll all have to play a bunch of games as/against tau and find out the hard way.

Judging by some of their new rules and the overall shootiness of 6th I'd say in time they will perform very well.

I'd say from what's been seen, they are certainly more competetive now.

They are not gonna wipe the board, but they will stand up well, especially when paired against flyer spam.

The fact that they have the answer to flyer spam alone means they can crush some of the current competitive lists. So, without seeing what the next few months bring, I would say Tau have good days ahead.

The new Tau strike me as very matchup dependent. They are now the kings of anti-air, and they got a lot of new blast and large blast template weapons, a lot of AP4 weapons, and will probably be removing coversaves with markerlights rather frequently. Flyer based armies, Orkz, Eldar, and Nids with few MC will get absolutely crushed by a properly kitted out Tau army. However, their heavy anti-tank has been crippled and Tau were never that good against MCs to begin with. Landraider heavy armies, IG armor armies, and MC heavy Nids or Deamons could easily walk over the Tau. I will have to start playing games with the codex to truly determine how competitive they are, but first impressions are that Tau will perform very inconsistently.

At 185 points Riptides are a hell of a bargain. Expect 3x Riptide to become standard in most lists.

Think about it. They're 15 points more than a Helldrake... and can start firing on turn one. They can kill Vehicles, which Helldrakes can't, and are T6 5W 2+ 3++. They can drop Str 8 ap2 or Str 9 ap 2 Ordnance large blast templates every turn of the game, and can't be stunned or shaken. Large Pie Plate > Flamer Template. They can contest, assault, and JSJ 4d6. They can't be intercepted or juked by moving..

I put together my Riptide last night had played a game with it today... I played 1500 points... I bought the feel no pain(stimulant injector) and Velocity tracker with 2 shielded missle drones... 285 points with a 1500 point army.. I lost the battle.. But I had a blast with him.. He was one of the last units to die.. He killed a Imperial guard flyer, blew up a demolisher.. Or whatever its called heavily damaged another flyer.. Absorbed 3 full turns of everything on gods green earth shooting at him.. One of the wounds I did to myself with failing a reactor roll... Once I learn how to use everything as a team...

 Dewgan wrote:
I put together my Riptide last night had played a game with it today... I played 1500 points... I bought the feel no pain(stimulant injector) and Velocity tracker with 2 shielded missle drones... 285 points with a 1500 point army.. I lost the battle.. But I had a blast with him.. He was one of the last units to die.. He killed a Imperial guard flyer, blew up a demolisher.. Or whatever its called heavily damaged another flyer.. Absorbed 3 full turns of everything on gods green earth shooting at him.. One of the wounds I did to myself with failing a reactor roll... Once I learn how to use everything as a team...

Now imagine if you didn't buy all those useless upgrades on him and fielded three instead!

Oh wow.. Having two of them running about.. But of course they could not absorbed as many shots... My wallet couldn't afford it quite yet either... lol

Yes, their real-life cost is far more prohibitive than their in-game cost

I have one, and it's a blast to use. It is a real shame that they compete with Crisis suits for a Elites slot...

I was really *REALLY* hoping that the new codex would come with a character who could take crisis suits as troops. I own twelve crisis suits and now two XV104s. There is no combination wherein someone isn't sitting out.

 Cheesedoodler wrote:
I have one, and it's a blast to use. It is a real shame that they compete with Crisis suits for a Elites slot...

I was really *REALLY* hoping that the new codex would come with a character who could take crisis suits as troops. I own twelve crisis suits and now two XV104s. There is no combination wherein someone isn't sitting out.

Use Farsight to bring 7 of the Crisis Suits with her

 Cheesedoodler wrote:
I own twelve crisis suits and now two XV104s. There is no combination wherein someone isn't sitting out.

Take Farsight and a Commander. Two units of Bodyguard consume 7 and 2 more suits, and you can run a single regular team of 3.

A list that features 12 Crisis and 2 Riptides seems pretty scary to fight against

Especially since this isnt even considering the heavy weapons support

I think Tau is competitive. It is not IG or Necron level but I think it is on par with everything else. From what I have read Marine armies fall apart to it pretty easily.. s8 ap2 ignore cover blasts really hurt, a bunch of fusion and plasma shots do too. Tau is going to be all about Alpha striking in the first few turns to remove any major threats (and they can do this pretty well) Our major flaw is our troops which arn't good at holding or grabbing objectives so we will rely on secondary win conditions. First blood will be pretty easy to get and slay the warlord won't be impossible, line breaker is also not hard for us with the survivability of the riptide.

As for anti-flyers everyone is talking about broadsides but I just want to point out how useful a defense line with a quad gun is. A broadside with skyfire cost 85 pts while a line + quad gun cost 100. They both have 4 s7 ap4 tl shots but the quad gun has intercept, can have bs5 with characters and intercept plus offers a great bunker for you marker lights and firewarriors. I suggest getting a defense line first and if you need more AA get broadsides

I think while we are not good at holding objectives, we are very good at clearing objectives, and I feel our infantry puts out more damage for cost than the other basic infantry of other armies

Fw lack of ony heavy weapons really bugs me. And it funny with new faq only broadside can have missile drones. fw should be able to take missile drones it would help them so much

frogy27 wrote:
Fw lack of ony heavy weapons really bugs me. And it funny with new faq only broadside can have missile drones. fw should be able to take missile drones it would help them so much

I like to look at it that they are all carrying mini heavy weapons

I just feel that all other armys get more then just rifle. why can't the tau.

frogy27 wrote:
I just feel that all other armys get more then just rifle. why can't the tau.

Communism

All fire warriors are equal, treated as equals and equipped as equals

Are you kidding me?
Tau have the best basic armament of any trooper (my guard would sell there souls for a 30" st5 ap4 gun that wont blow up in their hands).
As for heavy weapons, that is what the Broadsides are for. I'm assuming the can still move shoot jump right?
And they still have the second best dedicated (as in proper tank) tank in the game (the LRBT is still the best for me).
Tau are a highly mobile gun line army, their rules reflect this.

frogy27 wrote:
I just feel that all other armys get more then just rifle. why can't the tau.

its their tactical doctrine not to mix heavy and special weapons into their basic squads of riflemen. they prefer to pass those weapons on to the crisis suit teams.

and its been that way since they were first released. read andy chambers' design notes for the tau from back in third edition.

So how are they doing in battle reports? Again, I have only heard they are losing.

J0kerrMT wrote:
So how are they doing in battle reports? Again, I have only heard they are losing.

They have only existed for two days, give it a rest with the BRs. I imagine that we'll need MIUCH longer to hash out optimal builds and strategies with the new codex.

Why do people keep saying it takes months? You don't need months to immediately tell whats good and bad.

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Why do people keep saying it takes months? You don't need months to immediately tell whats good and bad.

Yes it does. Simply looking at something on paper only tells you a little about what it does on the table top. You could theoryhammer everything out, but its faster sometimes to play with something to see if its any good.

Again, Heldrakes. Everybody thought they were horrible when they came out. Now they're the Vendettas closest competition for most underpriced flyer.

Tau weren't competitive before?

Oh yeah, they weren't the flavor-of-the-month until now. New codexes often do that.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Asmodai Asmodean wrote:
Why do people keep saying it takes months? You don't need months to immediately tell whats good and bad.

Heldrakes prove your statement is invalid.