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Just an idle musing....
If you do a bit of a search you will see I play tau against a nids player and have been having a few wins but alot of losses.
He tends to run in 1500pts 2 Tervigons, 2 Trygons, gargoyles yrmgarl genestealers, hive guard and a few small bugs.
I have tended to play a somewhat mobile gun which the bugs tend to herd me into a corner by about turn 3 to 4 and well you can guess what happens.
My moblie parts of the army seem to end up helping the gunline and get caught (hive guard in terain in the middle of the board are a pain!)
I have no problem killing small bugs the big ones however are tough (iron arm)

Last game i played a lone devilfish with firewarriors flanked the nids and attacked gaunts sitting on a back fild objective and won it. All the main nids were down the board unable to help.
The firewarriors earnt 4vp's (objective and the enemys deployment one) and this got me thinking. By sitting back I am giving up 2 vp's before the game starts (my oponent will end up in my deployment and I not in his) also it gives the nids a few things to worry about and divide the army. With the range on the tau weapons you should be able to shoot most things on the board.
I don't think deep striking is the way to go as all guns should be shooting from turn on.

Thanks for reading the long rant just wondering what people think and how would you play it...

I'm thinking
A unit each of Broadsides and Firewarriors and 2 units of Pathfinders to sit on the home objective.

A unit of Kroot to sit on any mid field objectives (infiltrate)

at least 2 groups to move down the board and take oponents objectives.

A bit of target saturation but all for the greater good
Interested to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for reading.

Kroot's nerf means that they're only really useful now for infiltrating into area terrain with sniper rounds and picking off special weapons and important characters.

To kill the big stuff I would suggest either Riptides or Broadsides, the former will do well against the hordes as well, while the latter will excell vs deep strikers and flyers. Personally I would go with a mix of both as Riptides will help counter the Tervigons and their spawn while the broadsides will excell at killing trygons, hive guards, and the hive tyrant. Plus, when properly kitted out, a riptide can withstand ymgarl genestealers and their tendency to magically appear.

Run Broadsides with HYMPs and SMS, with maxed drones, have them focus the MC's
You should be able to kill one a turn.

if you dont mind the spam, run 3 units, kill 3 mcs a turn if you roll well, plus interceptor shots if he deep strikes the trygons

Use your firewarriors to mow down the gaunts.
I'd consider crisis suits with plasma as well for mobile pressure on the Tervigons

sniper drone teams
broadsides as other suggested
riptides
hammer heads with rail and submunition for clearing hordes/killing biggies

Sky ray will take down a flyrant with a single volley and is another marker and SMS source. As suggested the high yield broadsides are brutal, I'd take two myself.

Build your army as efficiently as the codex allows and you should be tabling nids before the game ends.

djn wrote:
Sky ray will take down a flyrant with a single volley and is another marker and SMS source. As suggested the high yield broadsides are brutal, I'd take two myself.

Build your army as efficiently as the codex allows and you should be tabling nids before the game ends.

That really depends on the Nid list. I have seen lists played that have 16 troops slots on the board end of turn 2 and that is from a single FOC 1850 list. STD are good for handling Iron Arm bugs with the Rending and wounding on a 4+ and you get a markerlight to burn for something less like the hammerhead.

barnowl wrote:

djn wrote:
Sky ray will take down a flyrant with a single volley and is another marker and SMS source. As suggested the high yield broadsides are brutal, I'd take two myself.

Build your army as efficiently as the codex allows and you should be tabling nids before the game ends.

That really depends on the Nid list. I have seen lists played that have 16 troops slots on the board end of turn 2 and that is from a single FOC 1850 list. STD are good for handling Iron Arm bugs with the Rending and wounding on a 4+ and you get a markerlight to burn for something less like the hammerhead.

Fair point but a MC heavy list as mentioned in the OP is Tau's bread and butter. Are you talking 5 tervigons? Still I'd expect Tau to be dropping at least 2 MCs/turn at that points level and the gribblies are not a problem for S5 small arms.

Some general advice regarding Tau from some of my test games;

Stay in position so that units can mutually support eachother within 6"
layer your defence so the nids have to get through several layers before they get to the real firepower eg. kroot / fire warriors / suits + broadsides
Maximise the number of turns you're shooting at full efficiency
Dont worry about giving up board control you have the fire power to take out most armies
Focus on two/three units max per turn and shoot them until dead
Wait till late game to push for objectives if needed; riptides are probably the best unit for contesting late with an overcharged jump

Thanks for all the reply's

@dbsamurai: With the kroot I was thinking of doing exactly that. Place an objective mid board in terrain (out of the way) and infiltrating the kroot on top. A Cheap (no upgrades) unit with a few wounds and lots of shots. The option of going to ground might make the opponent spend a few turns (or units) removing them instead of running at my main force.

Not that I have tried them the HYMP broadsides don't really appeal to me as the lower strength and higher AP are a bit limiting. Especially against MC's. Then again the number or dice is just crazy. Just a thought but the broadsides (with the right upgrade) can shoot the genestealers with the no sight no cover smart missiles on the turn they arrive and then fire the railguns at another unit in the normal shooting phase. 12 s5 twinlinked shots from 3 Broadsides (followed by supporting fire) can make a good protective bubble around the firebase.

Loving the skyray idea! Now what do you do with the markerlight hits? Remove jink(cover) increase BS or use them to fire 2 of the seekers. By Firing the seekers with the markerlights the flyrant is "hit" by three sources. So that would be three drop tests. I knew i put railguns on the broadsides for a reason. Another option for the markerlight hits is to boost a pathfinder unit. More lighter hits = more seekers= more drop tests.... Any thoughts?

I know points are limited but the sunshark can do a similar thing (markerlights and seekers). And will be very hard to stop when the flying opposition are eliminated.

Sniper Drone teams are an interesting one.... I think you would have to have lots of drones for lots of shots.... And after broadsides and skyray are the sniper drones really better than a hammerhead?

Seems everyone is in favor of sitting and shooting?
No fans of spreading objectives and using the long range of the Tau to be aggressive and make your opponent spread out?

Thanks for contributing