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.

Hello Everyone, 
I recently started to play WH40K and fell in love with tau. (before I knew they were annoying in some people's eyes) and I have very little experience with an actual game. 

I want to know how general weaknesses to armies/factionsand how me (the tau) can expliot them 
Any help at all is appreciated. 

-aceneo

So, you know that some people find Tau annoying and you'd like to exploit the weaknesses of other factions. I trust that you'll be tailoring lists against each faction just to make games extra fun?

Exactly

Well, I am just going to say right now Tau are not OP. Anyone that tells you otherwise is just being a douche/ is bad.

I don't remember a GT in recent memory where Tau even placed top 10. They only have 1 phase of the game, people may hate them for their one dimensionality.

My only recommendation is not to fall for the Tau players usual gimmick of a completely static gunline, I dont remember the last time I havent tabled such a list.

The best advice I can give then.

Large blobs of Kroots with Sniper rounds. This will help you deal with Monstrous Creatures.

Max squads of Vespids. This will allow you to deal with MEQ.

Be nice happy. He just wants to learn how to play Tau better.

However, you are asking the wrong question. You first need to craft a list that you want to play with that can answer most or all of these questions:

How do I deal with hordes of infantry?
How do I deal with heavy infantry/Monstrous Creatures?
How do I deal with mech spam?
How do I deal with AV14?
How do I deal with death stars?
How do I deal with fliers?
How do I reliably take and hold at least one more objective than my opponent?

Once you have a list like that, you can then start to determine the micro-interactions between your list and an opposing army and how to maximize your efforts against an army in general. Otherwise, the only advice that can be given are things like, "play to the mission, and don't try to just kill things" and "use probability to understand the average outcome of an action and plan your strategy accordingly"

I think Vespid might be a cool meta pick, so they're not a complete joke...but.

They're not something you slap in and roll with.

Ah.
So this is a Tau thread.
(title lead me to believe it was a general thread about army weaknesses)

Load up on ignore cover SMS, all you need.
Good for every army.

Now enjoy no longer making friends and not playing games.

Lots of grumpy in this thread.

OP my recommendation is to pick what looks cool to you. I run farsight enclaves, crisis suit troops, 3 missle sides, 3 riptides and a deepstrike blob.

This works for me but ive seen players do really well with blobs of fire warriors and minimal suits.

Kroot and vespids are okay, but the book has better choices to choose from in those slots usually.

Stealth suiys are fun to play with , though i have yet to really see them turn a game in my favor.

Most importantly, keep each unit within 6inches of each other for combined over watch. Its a really nice tool, be smart though, a multi charging opponent can really mess you up.

Keep track of what upgrades are on each suit, i had trouble and had to keep refering to my list when i started out at first.

Most importantly have fun!

 aceneo wrote:
Hello Everyone, 
I recently started to play WH40K and fell in love with tau. (before I knew they were annoying in some people's eyes) and I have very little experience with an actual game. 

I want to know how general weaknesses to armies/factionsand how me (the tau) can expliot them 
Any help at all is appreciated. 

-aceneo

All armies are weak against dice

You can exploit that by making them roll dice

Or chuck it at there heads.

Etherway

die toten hosen wrote:

OP my recommendation is to pick what looks cool to you. I run farsight enclaves, crisis suit troops, 3 missle sides, 3 riptides and a deepstrike blob.

In a game that is utterly unbalanced this is pretty bad advice. And after this you mention that you just find cheese looking cool....

Believe it or not there's more than one way to play Tau. 40K is not like most PC and console games; there's no one 'build' that can successfully take all comers.

You're going to have to play some games and figure out what kind works best for your personality and tactics. That probably means some losses early on, but don't despair.

Some posters have told you that Tau are only good during one phase (the shooting phase). Not necessarily true, although that's certainly the Tau strong suit.

The psychic phase is obviously not a thing with Tau. That suggests that knocking off enemy psykers shold be a fairly high priority for you. However, psykers are usually quite pricey and well protected by durable meatshields. You'll have to invest loads of firepower to taking them out. If the enemy psyker has weak powers or has been ineffective you may want to focus on juicier targets.

Crisis and Stealth Suits can maneuver quite effectively thanks to the jetpack rules. Usually they'll be maneuvering away from enemies after shooting rather than toward them like must Jump Pack troops (something completely different)

Kroot actually can assault effectively, you just have to remember that they're effectively horde units. They're going to take a LOT of casualties. That means you want big units of them. Many players hold them back as 'counter-assault' units to charge enemy assault units that are already engaged in close combat. Kroot actually shoot surprisingly well, but because they're so fragile per model you usually don't want to default to shooting with them as your tactic of choice.

Fire Warriors just lay down a nasty base of fire. That's it. But they're pretty good at it, and they can hold objectives. A squad of S5 30" shots range can tear up Marines, especially if two squads work together.

Vespids... well, they certainly have the right guns to shoot 3+ armor saves (Marines), and they're fast. They're also fragile and short ranged. I've usually seen them used as a one-shot weapon to break a crucial enemy squad. Then they die. But your knowledge may vary.

Broadsides and Hammerheads can lay down some great long range, high strength firepower. Broadsides are better against heavily armored infantry and Hammerheads are better against vehicles, but like all Tau units they can be tailored to your opponent. Both typically attract a lot of enemy fire. Fortunately they can be tailored to be fairly resilient.

Those are some basics. I still see mechtau in my local meta, and with careful deployment (and redeployment) in Devilfishes they seem to do OK. Riptides are impressive, but they're expensive and running just one is begging to get it shot down. I'd recommend running two or more if you run any.

In the end you have to figure out what kind of army you want to run and test it out a couple of times. You may well find that you're better suited to a style you didn't imagine starting out. Or a different army. Have fun finding out, preferably in fun games against opponents who are willing to teach and are not just out for blood.

My two teef.

Zsolt wrote:

die toten hosen wrote:

OP my recommendation is to pick what looks cool to you. I run farsight enclaves, crisis suit troops, 3 missle sides, 3 riptides and a deepstrike blob.

In a game that is utterly unbalanced this is pretty bad advice. And after this you mention that you just find cheese looking cool....

This is kinda unwarranted.
Its what i like to play. Its harldy over powered as it can be picked apart quickly by faster armies or back field pods.

Op has the right to play whatever he wants without being called WAAC or cheese, same as i have that right, and you do aswell.

My advice still stands, play what you think is fun and hopefully you can find others who do the same.

All this is great but what i'm really looking for is something like this.
Gray knights have very poor range, therefore if i keep my units far enough that they cant charge me they'll have a bad time.
if you guys play armies other than tau what is the hardest thing to overcome for you.

Looking forward to your responses
-aceneo

a couple suggestions from a longtime player: put most of your points into Large Blasts and Markerlights. The source of the markerlights doesn't really matter - they can be marker drones attached to your suits, skyrays, or pathfinders. Large blasts can come from a variety of sources as well - IA Riptides, Flyers, Hammerheads, etc.

Consider getting 2 things not in your codex: an aegis defense line - it grants easily placed cover to your line, your pathfinders, and depending on your build, a 3+ cover save to your vehicles; and a Culexus (personally I use an old Lictor - getting the model has been impossible for me) - it is invaluable for shoring up the weaknesses in our force, 'Oh you have an invisible death star?!? Not now!'

A point about your original request. The grand majority of army choices are capable of a staggering variety of builds (other than say, Knights), so asking the weaknesses of other factions doesn't exactly have a readily quantifiable answer. For instance, GK do have relatively short range, but if you build to stay out of their range, expect a bunch of shunting dreadknights in your face turn one.

 Lord Commissar wrote:
Well, I am just going to say right now Tau are not OP. Anyone that tells you otherwise is just being a douche/ is bad.

I don't remember a GT in recent memory where Tau even placed top 10. They only have 1 phase of the game, people may hate them for their one dimensionality.

My only recommendation is not to fall for the Tau players usual gimmick of a completely static gunline, I dont remember the last time I havent tabled such a list.

Tau are no longer the MOST OP, but still up there. They had the crown when their codex was newest, but then eldar came out and showed them up in the other phases of the game while rivaling them in the shooting phase. Still only about 5 codices that I put above tau.

One of their big issues is the ever famous riptide, which EVERYONE KNOWS should have been a vehicle, but was made a MC specifically to make it broken and sell a lot of them.

If that one unit were fixed, I think I could officially call the tau "baseline strength" in the current state of the game, rather than under/overpowered.