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.

Okay so Ive been beating my head against gunline Tau since I started playing and after a recent tabling I need to make the upcoming match this week count. I want to stomp him good. How though?

We're playing at probably well over 2000k points and from the looks of it he's going to be bringing the Farsight Suit bomb as well as a couple Hammerheads, 3 Piranha, a Broadside, plus a flyer and plenty of stealth suits and vespid. Also the Riptide. I know I'm in for a hard fight and this will in all likelihood result in another tabling, but there has to be a way to beat this tournament style list!

My plan was to place objectives in his corners, then Outflank an entire Allied Detachment in his deployment zone and take them. I plan to bring the main force up to mid table and hold the firing lanes while my AT goes to work on the Hammerheads. I'm hoping this will keep him distracted enough to create room in the backfield. In the event reserve rolls don't go as planned I have enough in reserves that come turn 4 they will be enough to shift the game, if I can last that long!

I am banking on his inability to put large amounts of Interceptor fire on my reserves and of course also have his markerlight support taken out. The thing is this guy relies on a handful of Pathfinders for Markers and most of his shooting is done without it. I know this sounds strange, but he still manages to put out enough dakka to destroy my infantry heavy army. Without that support though he misses a lot of shots. I plan to capitalize on this by wiping them out early, then shifting focus to the tanks and Riptide. I'm pretty darn sure he plans to Deep Strike Farsight in on me, and I'm told he doesn't scatter, so I also want to fit in an Aegis Line with a Quad gun.

Does anyone have any tips or tricks for taking down Tau with Space Marines, especially Farsight Bombs?

Grav Centurions with Coteaz will rip a Farsight bomb a new rear end. If it has Shadowsun as well, it might use your Aegis line against you, though.

Which Space Marine Chapter Tactics do you use? Tigurius' divination buffs can give you some assistance when dealing with Tau; Prescience, Ignore Cover, 4++ Invulnerable save are all powers that will help you greatly; a Grav Star (for example) would also benefit from having Gate of Infinity from Telekinesis.

Are they Ionheads (Hammerheads with Ion Cannons) or Railheads?

I am running Iron Hands as my primary and taking Raven Guard to gain Outflank.

His tanks are of the rail variety and he likes to load up on submunitions, so I know what you're thinking and I thought that too, MSU. His only HQ is Farsight, he is actually kind of fluffy that way, haha! But he typically doesn't see a lot of deep striking, as this is generally considered suicide against Tau, so he normally won't spend points on anti air, he leaves that to his flyer, which is the fighter version. I've shot it down before with the lucky dice bucket, and I'm not overly concerned about AA, aside from making sure Farsight gets a load of Quad Gun the turn he arrives!

Also, should I bring Termies and hope for Tele-Homer assisted Deep Strikes or bring Grav Bikes and throw them at his Riptide? What I think will work best is a really heavy two pronged attack, and I don't want to leave myself with too little on either side of the vice so I'm kind of humming and hawing a bit here.

Pure Tau has a hard time dealing with high AV vehicles (unless he brings a lot of fusion guns, but they're typically not as popular). You're playing IH? A couple of Land Raiders filled with either Honour Guard led by the unkillable CM or some TH/SS termies with a chaplain. I know for a fact that once they're in CC the Tau just crumble.

TFCs are the tits against Tau, they get rid of pathfinders, tetras and any troops sitting in the open. You can also use them to "barrage-snipe" key HQs. Deploy the TFCs outside of missile-sides and they usually will do great.

If you have grav-centurions, they're absolute murder for Riptides and broadsides, grav-bikes are a good alternative.

My general advice though would be to not hesitate to get in his face, eat a round of overwatch and get in CC; Riptides are essentially neutered once they're stuck in CC.

Have you thought about doing Templars? Crusader-squad spam loaded in LRCs, led by Chaplains and backed by TFCs would be a great counter.

Lol try drop pod 5 man sternguard in with heavy flamers. laugh as entire squads are drowned in fire. Not point efficient but funny. On a serious note however, maybe you should take Raven Guard as your primary detachment instead. Strike from the shadows lets you scout forward all units without the bulky rule. Suddenly that honour guard landraider that was so far away is in your oppenents face on turn 1. Stealth also gives your army a massive durability boost on turn 1 so you can close the distance and crush them in cc turn 2. The assault squads of the raven guard are also extreamly deadly vs Tau. You can use jump packs for both movement and charge, reroll charge distance and gain an extra automatic hit with hammer of wrath. Basically a death spell for any Tau unit including Kroot carnivore tarpits. Iron hands can bring up the heavy firepower and Camp objectives whilst drowning any untied up squad in a barrage of fire.

BloodAngelic wrote:
Lol try drop pod 5 man sternguard in with heavy flamers. laugh as entire squads are drowned in fire. Not point efficient but funny.

I mentioned this tactic with the flamer vets offhandedly at my FLGS to someone, and they adamantly stated that most people don't understand how flamers work and that each one is resolved individually, must kill the first model it hits to continue to the rest, and that on the turn you use your flamers, none of the templates can strike the same model twice -- I literally just started 40k, so I haven't read the Rules enough time (since I just preordered the 7th, didn't feel like multiple readings of this edition would be worth it), so I can't say if he's right or wrong.

bryceloop wrote:

BloodAngelic wrote:
Lol try drop pod 5 man sternguard in with heavy flamers. laugh as entire squads are drowned in fire. Not point efficient but funny.

I mentioned this tactic with the flamer vets offhandedly at my FLGS to someone, and they adamantly stated that most people don't understand how flamers work and that each one is resolved individually, must kill the first model it hits to continue to the rest, and that on the turn you use your flamers, none of the templates can strike the same model twice -- I literally just started 40k, so I haven't read the Rules enough time (since I just preordered the 7th, didn't feel like multiple readings of this edition would be worth it), so I can't say if he's right or wrong.

That's ridiculous. Whoever said that is wrong.

I've ran into people as well that were staunchly of the opinion that if it used a template at all then it specifically targeted the particular models under the template. If that were the case then everyone and I mean EVERYONE would take a Callidus Assassin.

Umm it states is stated in the rulebook that each one is resolved individually..... treat each flamer template as a different template. I am very sure you dont have to kill the 1st model to proceed with the rest of the flamers and im also very sure you can hit units multiple times with different templates.

Something that has saved my hash more times than I can count. Supporting Fire does not lift LOS restrictions. If you can line up your charge in such a way that the supporting units cannot SEE the chargers (only the target unit can) then you will be able to weather some of that Supporting Fire. Not always feasible, but every little bit helps.

Not to derail the thread, but could you combat squad like 20 assault marines, and then assault 4 squads of 5 into the unit and the most that could die in overwartch would be 5?

bryceloop wrote:
Not to derail the thread, but could you combat squad like 20 assault marines, and then assault 4 squads of 5 into the unit and the most that could die in overwartch would be 5?

Yes

Yup but you have a higher chance that squad could break from losses. Snap shot bs1 is pretty bad and marines are pretty tough so it is better to charge with 10 marines instead of 5 cos if you take 2 losses it would force you take a morale check with a combat squad but not for a full squad

Flamers are not resolved seperately if they come from the same unit, and yes you can hit the same model more than once.


I dont know who's lying to you, but they either didnt read the rules or are just making gak up.

The rules for shooting are clearly written in the brb and flamers dont have any exceptions atm. In fact, as long as one of your other sternguard shoot a bolter, you can kill models up to 24" away with your flamer wounds.


This could very well be changing come saturday, but atm it works this way.

These are all great suggestions! I just finished up the match not 15 minutes ago and it was a crushing victory.

Pretty much it came down to a few critical points. The Land Raider and Terminators were huge, I was finally able to smash his Stealth Suits out of their shoot and move sweet spots, on turn 1 even! That was a bit lucky but still, assaulting out of a transport is crucial. Another great buy was the Quad Gun, I never did have to use the Aegis, as no one shot at it but the Quad Gun was beastly, eating up Vespid with Interceptor fire. It also was handy for glancing tanks and if I could have targeted some more infantry with it I would have even more praise for it. Also, the combined weight of the AV of my tanks was hard for the Tau to beat. I never managed to do more than immobilize one Hammerhead and I glanced his other one twice, but it was like he just didn't have the firepower to really hurt my tanks in return. The Land Raider eventually fell, probably because I never made a single IWND roll for it the entire game. He let me have one on like turn 5 after I realized I'd been forgetting, but then of course I roll a 1! But the AV was definitely a big big factor in how the game progressed. The other really big thing that won me the game was, as I suspected, Outflankers.

I held all my RG as reserves and outflanked on him. I placed my objective to match this tactic and was well rewarded. I only had 3 units and 2 of them came in on turn 2 and the other one waited until turn 4 but this too was also perfect for me as it was an ideal late game objective holder. The 3 units were 2 5 man tac squads built to take charges and sit in cover, DT'd in Razorbacks, and the Leader of my RG allies was a Captain on a Bike with the Primarchs Wrath accompanied by 3 Attack Bikes with H-Bolters. These 3 units slayed. The Bikes ate up tons of Fire Warriors and provided a nice distraction from the flimsy Razorbacks who didn't do anything except take a couple of glances and disembark their troops right onto their objectives.

But to honest I didn't need to win the mission because by Turn 5 he only had 1 crippled Hammerhead left, a Drone bereft Riptide, 2 or 3 Fire Warriors trying to hold an objective against oncoming Termies, and one single Missile Drone that somehow survived the whole game after it's Broadside and partner Drone got ID'd by a Turn 1 Orbital Strike.

Edit: I should give honourable mention to the Honour Guard, who tanked the Farsight Bomb and won. Also, throwing around a few large blast every turn via the Vinni and Whirlwind was also pretty nice.

Tau? Pfft! Here I come Ebay.

Bring a whirlwind artillery tank. For 65 points you get a pieplate tailor made for blasting apart his stealth suits and infantry. Start with his pathfinder's and stealth suits. His fire warriors, kroot and vespids are next. With that gone he can move onto glancing devilfish and trying to take out an ethereal if he brought one.

assault squads, vanguard vets, and drop pods.

If you have the points, Grav-Centurions in a Land Raider will massacre any suit unit Tau can bring while being ok against his FWs. Given Taus troubles with AV-14 and vehicle buffs, he won't easily remove your LR which means your Grav Cents will almost certainly get to his lines and take his bullet sponge (obviously the riptide).

You'd also want a Lvl 2 Librarian (with an auspex to lower Stealth suit cover saves) to go for Biomancy and hope for Endurance, as the 4+ FNP with EW is great for those guys. TFC is a must as well to remove his pathfinders and take away their markerlight support.

A word about Centurions... over costed. Maybe the price is right for what they do, I wouldn't know. I balk at 300 point units. Toss them in a Land Raider and that is nearly 600 points... Boys Before Toys.

Honestly I felt like most of my success was owed to high AV and Outflank almost exclusively. I have used Grav weapons to take down the Riptide before and really now that I've had plenty of games against Tau I just don't fear it like I used to. Hell, you can even "glance" the thing to death if you bring enough dakka! In all honesty however the Riptide seems more to me like a glass tiger, big and scary but ultimately for show. Sure it's still a tiger but if you're tough enough (like me) then you can just nuke the light support and actively ignore it. You're firing what sorry? A what tide? Oh that thing... pfft! Rolling for effect!

Another major weakness of the Tau comes from their own USRs, the dreaded supporting fire and the skimmer tanks. The Tau want to stay bunched up as really this is their only real defense against CC, and their Tanks always want to move to get Jink saves, fortunately for us this means they fire only get to fire 1 weapon at full BS. Watch them cry when their STR 10 gun rolls a 3 to hit.

I'll be compiling all my findings into one super rant and I'll post it later. Hopefully no one will ignore that like they do my photos! Seriously, if you have Tau-Fear, just give me a day or two, I'll cure you.

darkcloak wrote:
A word about Centurions... over costed. Maybe the price is right for what they do, I wouldn't know. I balk at 300 point units. Toss them in a Land Raider and that is nearly 600 points... Boys Before Toys.

Honestly I felt like most of my success was owed to high AV and Outflank almost exclusively. I have used Grav weapons to take down the Riptide before and really now that I've had plenty of games against Tau I just don't fear it like I used to. Hell, you can even "glance" the thing to death if you bring enough dakka! In all honesty however the Riptide seems more to me like a glass tiger, big and scary but ultimately for show. Sure it's still a tiger but if you're tough enough (like me) then you can just nuke the light support and actively ignore it. You're firing what sorry? A what tide? Oh that thing... pfft! Rolling for effect!

Another major weakness of the Tau comes from their own USRs, the dreaded supporting fire and the skimmer tanks. The Tau want to stay bunched up as really this is their only real defense against CC, and their Tanks always want to move to get Jink saves, fortunately for us this means they fire only get to fire 1 weapon at full BS. Watch them cry when their STR 10 gun rolls a 3 to hit.

I'll be compiling all my findings into one super rant and I'll post it later. Hopefully no one will ignore that like they do my photos! Seriously, if you have Tau-Fear, just give me a day or two, I'll cure you.

Cents can be pretty good actually at dakka. Imperial fists/sentinels get the most use hands down. You land raider them, they pop out the front door, and stuff evaporates.

The easiest way to beat a tau player is forcing him to move his units away from each other. Force him to lose overwatch coherency and his troops become easy pickings for cc units, force his tanks around a corner and they have lost los

Force him to deal with flanking threats and his firepower has been halved from the rest of your army.

You force him to react to threats he can't deal with by standing still and turning and you have won.

Cover placement can really screw him up too. Make a blind spot on his flank via los blocking cover and he will be forced to react to this. And then he will have problems.