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Just some quick theories as two how to best approach a fight with Tau:
(some basic Assumptions: A savy Tau player will probably have 2 groups of Pathfinders, and some marker drones sprinkled on for good taste. Most Tau Players will have one Riptide.)

1. Unique Snowflakes in hell: Two borrow the age-old Ork saying, "Boyz before toys". If anything, Tau excell at taking out priority targets, due to markerlights and units with high firepower (Crisis suits). Ergo: Don't bring any dreadknights; either you bring one or two and they don't survive long enough, or you bring 3 and he can focuss down your now pretty lacking troop choice.
1b. The armor, it does nothing!: Lots of AP2. Termies outside of a Landraider will have a hard time (For Landraider, see point 1).

2. They'll see you! : Anything which relies on cover safes is at best an iffy choice, so no Vindicares or ADLs.

3. They DID expect the spanish Inquisition: Deepstrike is another thing which will at best be iffy. You'll either have to place yourself far out, in order to avoid interceptor shots, or you'll have to place yourself so close that your opponent will think twice about placing that pie-plate. Both options are not really optimal, as they either negate your advantage, or leave you open for lots and lots of fire. Also a army with as few modells as greyknights or space marines, might actually get tabled before the reserves come in.


Now that we got all that negativity out our systems, let's see what we CAN do:
4. Henchmen are cheap: They are good against everything else, they are good against Tau. Cheap modells, high body count, some AP2 weapons which pose a good threat against suits, what's not to like? Ah yes, the fact that FW will wound them on 2+. Stay in your car and stick to cover.

5. Uninterceptable interceptors: Teleport modules for everybody! With these guys you won't have to wory about getting outranged, and might actually catch up to those pesky JSJ guys, not to mention that with a bit of luck you can bypass the ADL, which will undoubtedly hide those cowardly T3 FWs. Flamers, while expensive, might be a good choice just in case your opponent brought along Shadowsun with a crisis retinue.

6. Size doesn't matter: Combat Squad EVERYTHING! If a Tau player really wants something gone, it will evaporate in a hail of fire; force your enemy to play the good old priority game and cross your fingers. It's not like you need overhelming numbers to win CC.


Thoughts, critique, namecalling?

i feel againgst tau, grey knights just need purgation squads and strike teams armed to deal with suits.

The occasional allied force of Thunderfire cannon and or imperial guard artillery probably wouldnt hurt though.

Well, some intesting thoughts. Tau will outshoot GK unless they manage to get into range of 24'' or less.

Mordrak Bomb does well against Tau, as does shunting units. 3 DKs are tough to kill even for Tau. Interceptors are boss. For the rest, take what you can afford.

SJ

The flamer thing the dreadknight has is also a headache for tau.

And invul saves. they will be your best friends.

I agree with some of your conclusions but completely disagree with others.

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
Just some quick theories as two how to best approach a fight with Tau:
(some basic Assumptions: A savy Tau player will probably have 2 groups of Pathfinders, and some marker drones sprinkled on for good taste. Most Tau Players will have one Riptide.)

This should be 1+ riptides as the major GT winning lists are 2-4 riptides. I would say 80%+ of the Tau lists have 2+ riptides.

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
1. Unique Snowflakes in hell: Two borrow the age-old Ork saying, "Boyz before toys". If anything, Tau excell at taking out priority targets, due to markerlights and units with high firepower (Crisis suits). Ergo: Don't bring any dreadknights; either you bring one or two and they don't survive long enough, or you bring 3 and he can focuss down your now pretty lacking troop choice.
1b. The armor, it does nothing!: Lots of AP2. Termies outside of a Landraider will have a hard time (For Landraider, see point 1).

2-3 Dreadknights with teleport and incinerators are actually one of the better anti Tau builds for the GK codex. Put a toe in terrain and port up next to the Tau line turn 1. Flame a unit of pathfinders (you will probably break or kill 1 unit each). Next turn if they don't kill the knight it charges and ID the riptide/broadsides. The important part of this is you need to bring enough threates that shooting at the dreadknights is not the only correct choice for the Tau player. If you try this with 1 dreadknight and no other threates it will fail horribly. If you rush them with 3 dreadknights and a draigowing then it will inflict pain.

Additionally Tau have 1 unit which is really good against AV14 and have relatively few units that are good and have AP2 weapons. Most Tau lists will have masses of S7 AP4 and S5 AP5. They will then have 2-3 riptides for AP2. The real reason Sv 2+ have troubles against Tau is the RoF they put out which can force 1's relatively easily. The interesting thing is that I have actually been seeing draigo wing have good success against Tau as Draigo tanks the S9 AP2 riptide shots and the paladins+FnP handle the small arms shots. You absolutely need to remove the markerlights and threaten the riptides so porting incinerator dreadknights work well in such a list.

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
2. They'll see you! : Anything which relies on cover safes is at best an iffy choice, so no Vindicares or ADLs.

This is partially true only as long as the Tau player has markerlights and cover can still cause the Tau player to burn markerlights they could have used to buff BS or shot seeker missiles. ADL therefore have a use in burning through markerlights and if you can remove markerlight sources then the ADL is golden.(which dreadknights do well)

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
3. They DID expect the spanish Inquisition: Deepstrike is another thing which will at best be iffy. You'll either have to place yourself far out, in order to avoid interceptor shots, or you'll have to place yourself so close that your opponent will think twice about placing that pie-plate. Both options are not really optimal, as they either negate your advantage, or leave you open for lots and lots of fire. Also a army with as few modells as greyknights or space marines, might actually get tabled before the reserves come in.

I agree that GK has trouble with a proper reserves list as they lack large numbers of abilities to DS units all together. You should note however once you DS 4+ targets (combat squading helps here) you suddenly make intercept a bad option for the Tau player as they don't get their precious markerlights during these intercept shots.

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
Now that we got all that negativity out our systems, let's see what we CAN do:
4. Henchmen are cheap: They are good against everything else, they are good against Tau. Cheap modells, high body count, some AP2 weapons which pose a good threat against suits, what's not to like? Ah yes, the fact that FW will wound them on 2+. Stay in your car and stick to cover.

Actually I find they are a mix bag. Tau do not have

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
5. Uninterceptable interceptors: Teleport modules for everybody! With these guys you won't have to wory about getting outranged, and might actually catch up to those pesky JSJ guys, not to mention that with a bit of luck you can bypass the ADL, which will undoubtedly hide those cowardly T3 FWs. Flamers, while expensive, might be a good choice just in case your opponent brought along Shadowsun with a crisis retinue.

QFT. I agree completely either fight Tau outside 21" or fight them in melee.

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
6. Size doesn't matter: Combat Squad EVERYTHING! If a Tau player really wants something gone, it will evaporate in a hail of fire; force your enemy to play the good old priority game and cross your fingers. It's not like you need overhelming numbers to win CC.

Except in KP games...this will give your opponent silly KP totals like 15+ if you combat squad too much. MSU can help dilute the effects of Tau markerlights. Which is huge.

DrunkPhilisoph wrote:
Thoughts, critique, namecalling?

A nice perspective post and it was well organized. Do you have a preferred name to be called? I am happy to oblige.

I second jeffersonian's remarks about ghostwing. I think it has the best chance of success in theory. I would have a core list consisting of:

Modrak+ghosts+librarian with warp rift and teleport homer
2 Dreadknights with heavy incinerators and personal teleporters.

You really want to go first...this maybe be easy to achieve since everyone wants to go last these days. Turn 1, shunt and deepstrike modrak. The dreadknights take out the pathfinders. The librarian casts warp rift on the riptides. If he is close enough together to get multiple riptides with the template, all the better. Then, you hope he rolls a couple 3+. If it works, you will take out his support units and a big source of AP2 that will hurt your deepstrikers. Then you pray that the dice gods let you live to turn 2. If you do, psychic communion+teleport homer should bring most of your reserves in right on top of the Tau gunline. From there you're just trying to get everyone in melee, and keep them there. You aren't trying to grab objectives, you're trying to cripple/table your opponent, and only going all in will enable you to do that.

As far as other units go, interceptors with incinerators could do some nasty things to fire warriors (though they're expensive). Terminators and strike squads can both deepstrike for your turn 2 drop. I've actually considered a land raider to rush a squad up for another turn 2 assault and to draw high strength/low ap weapons from targeting my dreadknights. I really want to find a way to get an Inquisitor with that plasma syphon up there, but I haven't found a good way to do that yet