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I am wondering if I would rather prefer to start a Tau army or a AM one. In both cases I,d start out by buying the battleforce box and making a 600 pts list. Here are the things I mostly like:

-Ranged weapons with long range(6th edition ^^)
-Ranged weapons that can actually kill things by having enought Str and AP
-Chance to reroll missed hits and wounds
-Footslogging over mech
-Strategical Options (not just a bunch of units rushing along to shoot anything).

If you could help me it would be greatly appreciated.

 Warzoner wrote:
I am wondering if I would rather prefer to start a Tau army or a AM one. In both cases I,d start out by buying the battleforce box and making a 600 pts list. Here are the things I mostly like:

(1)-Ranged weapons with long range(6th edition ^^)
(2)-Ranged weapons that can actually kill things by having enought Str and AP
(3)-Chance to reroll missed hits and wounds
(4)-Footslogging over mech
(5)-Strategical Options (not just a bunch of units rushing along to shoot anything).

If you could help me it would be greatly appreciated.

(1): Both have this. Guard has in bigger quantity because tank squadrons and HWTs. Aside some snipers and FW stuff, Tau doesn't possess many weapons in the 48" zone (it's either up to 36" or 60"+), which Guard has a lot.
(2): Tau has better basic infantry weapons (even Wraithknights can fall to Fire Warriors), but Guard can spam Autocannon/Lascannon/Melta (the latter with Deep Strike units for optimal use). FW has a special type of munition for tanks (Beast Hunter shells, great vs MC), but limited to the Armoured Group FOC list (IA1E2).
(3): Tau can ally with Eldar for Prescience/Guide, has the Buffmander and a lot of stuff can become Twin-linked; however, I don't remember anything able to re-roll wounds in Tau. Guard has useful psykers, can ally with Dark Angels/Space Wolves/Blood Angels for even more Divination and Wyverns come with both Twin-linked AND Shred. Although I keep reading people should buy more weapons than trying to make them better, with Guard.
(4): Guard has blobs, but with the last codex mech is a more preferable tactic. Tau has outflanking Kroot with sniper rifles and Ethereals can make Fire Warriors/Kroot advance with small chance of breaking. I'd give Guard a win here.
(5): I think Tau has the upper hand. Deep Strike suits (with Farsight Enclaves, they're troops), Markerlight, Seeker Missiles, Interceptor + Skyfire in a durable platform, good FW flyers, RoF with Missilesides, skimmer vehicles (able to cheaply ignore dangerous terrain), very good infantry weapon, special rules in a mobile platform (Buffmander), Farsight Bomb for certainly killing something important, Ethereal buffs, Positional Relay and Homing Beacon (former benefits outflank, latter benefits deep strike). Battle Brother with Eldar and SM, and can ally with virtually anything in the game, bar Tyranids.
Guard has Bullgryns (3+ armour if close to another, cover to people behind), Wyverns, Tank squadron HQ, re-roll orders, good orders, Commissars keep morale in check, psykers with Divination, Reserve toying (Officer of the Fleet), good flyers, blobs, Taurox Prime, Leman Russes, and a lot of shooting. Battle brother with mostly Imperium stuff (except GK), and an even better Ally table (except Eldar, regarding Tau).

those are my opinions. In the end, remember that you're going to spend a lot of time assembling and painting the models. If you rather one army in special, don't be afraid to dive in. Both are very good armies, rules-wise.

I play both, and Vector Strike pretty much sums it up. I'd throw in that IG is probably more fun to play against, because an opponent can do some damage to it even in a loss. Tau, when played on boards with decent terrain, can be no fun to play against, and not especially fun to play as. With the IG, you take punches and keep swinging. This is pretty fun for both players, regardless of outcome. With Tau, you often just dance around, never taking more than a glancing blow as you grind your opponent down. This ends up being a lot less fun, but is dependent on table cover.

Thank you for your time and your advices !

Astra Militarum w/ Tau allies.

A detachment of:
1x Buff CDR
1x squad of outflanking kroot
1x Ion accelerator Riptide
1x squad of Broadsides w/ missiles
maybe even some pathfinders

Would offer flexibility to any AM list. High strength twin linked cover ignoring Ion Accelerator or Broadside squad would be loads of fun and meet most of your requirements!

It seems like you could go either way if you want a non-mech gunline. Tau is going to be the stronger of the two, though, as guard puts a lot of its heavier hitting power on tanks and other vehicles.

Certainly neither army is going to be blindly bum-rushing anywhere, at least, as long as mech guard is out of the picture. Both armies are their strongest when the cower behind an ADL.

If you want to have more options as a whole, I'd go for guard, because they can do foot or mech, heavy tank squads, artillery barrages, or squadrons of fliers, mass deepstriking (up to 105 models per FOC), or mass goober pile (153 dudes per troops choice if you want). Tau, on the other hand... well... sort of have that one gunline that they can do, with pretensions of mobility by taking a farsight bomb.

Of course, tau do that one thing much, much better than guard can, so if all you really want to do is play gunline yahtzee, then tau is going to be the better army for you.

If you want more foot rather than mech, then Tau is for you. They have some insanely powerful weapons at their disposal and have a very long range. Battlesuits such as the Riptide could easily rip apart a tank or a squad of infantry. Tau are probably the most powerful army in the game currently.

 Farseer Will wrote:
Tau are probably the most powerful army in the game currently.

After reading many threads here and in other forums, looks like Eldar holds the trophy. It has more answers than Tau has to enemy stuff

That is why I collect Eldar

a wraith-thread!

With the new 7th rules, Guard got quite the boost. More durable vehicles, excellent Alliance table, able to fire at anyone even with night fighting and Invisibility/Shrouded-access are quite good.

Step 1) Read up on Gue'veasa:

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Gue'vesa

Step 2) Kit bash Tau/IG models into one unified format:



Step 3) Enjoy playing either or depending on which HQ is leading your army or used as allies. IG is the Warlord? Taking on their traditional fighting style or still early in their adaptation. Tau is the Warlord? They have learned the ways of the Fire Caste and ready to fight at a superior level than their Imperial brethren and have adapted to more powerful technology.

As an added bonus, model a Hammerhead with Pask in it and laugh at the hilarity of using that as your "Counts-As" Longstrike. If done right, you're army will be unique and awesome to look at which should give people no problems on your choosing the "flavor of the moment" style approach. Space Marines do it with a unique paint job, this just takes a bit more effort.

 TheKbob wrote:
Step 1) Read up on Gue'veasa:

http://warhammer40k.wikia.com/wiki/Gue'vesa

Step 2) Kit bash Tau/IG models into one unified format:

Spoiler:

Step 3) Enjoy playing either or depending on which HQ is leading your army or used as allies. IG is the Warlord? Taking on their traditional fighting style or still early in their adaptation. Tau is the Warlord? They have learned the ways of the Fire Caste and ready to fight at a superior level than their Imperial brethren and have adapted to more powerful technology.

As an added bonus, model a Hammerhead with Pask in it and laugh at the hilarity of using that as your "Counts-As" Longstrike. If done right, you're army will be unique and awesome to look at which should give people no problems on your choosing the "flavor of the moment" style approach. Space Marines do it with a unique paint job, this just takes a bit more effort.

You, sir, have won this thread.