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Hey all, long time lurker. I've watched alot of battle reports and have been a huge fan of 40Ks fluff. Although I own the Eldar (Not the 'Craftworlds' edition so it might not even be valid anymore), Tau, and Necron codexes. I haven't decided on which faction to start buying models for.

However I love the Tau fluff most of all and really like the factions models and history. However, I've seen them be horribly OP in battle reports.

Me and my brothers plan to play together, starting with small Heralds of Ruin kill team games. We want the games to be interesting, not one sided.

Getting to the point. How do you build an army list, or more importantly, a kill team list of Tau without them being horrifically OP?

Thanks in advance!

Don't be afraid, from what I understand tau aren't that great in kill team. A lot of things that make tau work (markerlights, ethereal, limits on pathfinders) are nerfed while a lot of their OP/cheesy stuff is gone too (riptide and broadsides) in HR, and if you were watching some tau vids from a while back tau may seem a bit OP because from my understanding they were in the past, but have been toned down a bit every since their codex came out in 2013. They still are one of the better armies though.

Also note that while tau are a potent force to meet on the table they aren't OP IMO. They have some glaring and exploitable weaknesses that can ruin there day. Bad melee, reliance on markerlights etc. There certainly is some cheesey OP Stuff (and ya can't bring a riptide in HR), but in a world with Eldar and necrons I wouldn't feel bad about playing tau.

weekdayshenanigans wrote:
Hey all, long time lurker. I've watched alot of battle reports and have been a huge fan of 40Ks fluff. Although I own the Eldar (Not the 'Craftworlds' edition so it might not even be valid anymore), Tau, and Necron codexes. I haven't decided on which faction to start buying models for.

However I love the Tau fluff most of all and really like the factions models and history. However, I've seen them be horribly OP in battle reports.

Me and my brothers plan to play together, starting with small Heralds of Ruin kill team games. We want the games to be interesting, not one sided.

Getting to the point. How do you build an army list, or more importantly, a kill team list of Tau without them being horrifically OP?

Thanks in advance!

No more than one riptide.

Do not spam broadsides.

Do not spam crisis suits.

Actually. Just google "tau cheese" or some variant of that, and don't play like that.

Traditio wrote:

weekdayshenanigans wrote:
Hey all, long time lurker. I've watched alot of battle reports and have been a huge fan of 40Ks fluff. Although I own the Eldar (Not the 'Craftworlds' edition so it might not even be valid anymore), Tau, and Necron codexes. I haven't decided on which faction to start buying models for.

However I love the Tau fluff most of all and really like the factions models and history. However, I've seen them be horribly OP in battle reports.

Me and my brothers plan to play together, starting with small Heralds of Ruin kill team games. We want the games to be interesting, not one sided.

Getting to the point. How do you build an army list, or more importantly, a kill team list of Tau without them being horrifically OP?

Thanks in advance!

No more than one riptide.

Do not spam broadsides.

Do not spam crisis suits.

Actually. Just google "tau cheese" or some variant of that, and don't play like that.

B-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but I play farsight enclave!

and he's asking about kill team from what I could put together and you can only bring one broadside in HR and no riptide.

JaxlerB wrote:-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-b-but I play farsight enclave!

and he's asking about kill team from what I could put together and you can only bring one broadside in HR and no riptide.

Kill team is specifically designed to prevent OP spam. If you're playing kill teams, my recommendation is just to take whatever you want. Whatever you take, it will probably be fine. It's kill team.

weekdayshenanigans wrote:
Hey all, long time lurker. I've watched alot of battle reports and have been a huge fan of 40Ks fluff. Although I own the Eldar (Not the 'Craftworlds' edition so it might not even be valid anymore), Tau, and Necron codexes. I haven't decided on which faction to start buying models for.

However I love the Tau fluff most of all and really like the factions models and history. However, I've seen them be horribly OP in battle reports.

Me and my brothers plan to play together, starting with small Heralds of Ruin kill team games. We want the games to be interesting, not one sided.

Getting to the point. How do you build an army list, or more importantly, a kill team list of Tau without them being horrifically OP?

Thanks in advance!

Tau are not OP. Compare them to the new Eldar, Necron, and Imperial Knight Codexes and they will lose almost every time.

notredameguy wrote:Tau are not OP. Compare them to the new Eldar, Necron, and Imperial Knight Codexes and they will lose almost every time.

Your argument is: Other codices, which are commonly recognized as OP, can beat Tau. Therefore, the Tau are not OP.

Argument doesn't follow.

Traditio wrote:

notredameguy wrote:Tau are not OP. Compare them to the new Eldar, Necron, and Imperial Knight Codexes and they will lose almost every time.

Your argument is: Other codices, which are commonly recognized as OP, can beat Tau. Therefore, the Tau are not OP.

Argument doesn't follow.

I think he's trying to say that tau aren't OP because how can they be over powered if they don't have enough power to deal with the big hitters?

Jaxler wrote: I think he's trying to say that tau aren't OP because how can they be over powered if they don't have enough power to deal with the big hitters?

Argument: One million is a much smaller number than one billion. Therefore, one million is not a large number.

False.

Traditio wrote:
Do not spam crisis suits.

Kinda hilarious that people are still scared of crisis suits when there's the fething riptide competing with them in the same slot, for a similar investment of points.

Yeah, yeah, I know, "Just because the riptide is OP doesn't mean crisis suits aren't OP." Everything in the Tau book is OP, been listening to this garbage for almost a decade now.

Is someone scared of crisis suits?

Martel732 wrote:
Is someone scared of crisis suits?

If all you had was Marine power armor and a bolter, you'd be scared shitless of them.

Imagine it- you're supposed to be the biggest, baddest thing defending humanity, and all of a sudden you're against something that can fall from the sky, glass half of your tactical squad, and jet behind a building before you have a chance to return fire. The badasses you've spend your life idolizing- the 1st Company and their suits of Terminator armor- are mowed down like chaff as easily as your buddies. Your return fire is often deflected by expendable robots with force fields, and you are too slow to either get up close or to run away.

Too bad they die to common krak missiles pretty easily. Not so scary.

 EmpNortonII wrote:
Imagine it- you're supposed to be the biggest, baddest thing defending humanity, and all of a sudden you're against something that can fall from the sky, glass half of your tactical squad, and jet behind a building before you have a chance to return fire. The badasses you've spend your life idolizing- the 1st Company and their suits of Terminator armor- are mowed down like chaff as easily as your buddies. Your return fire is often deflected by expendable robots with force fields, and you are too slow to either get up close or to run away.

You forgot the part where the entire squad gets spooked and runs away after a couple of expendable robots die.

Traditio wrote:

Jaxler wrote: I think he's trying to say that tau aren't OP because how can they be over powered if they don't have enough power to deal with the big hitters?

Argument: One million is a much smaller number than one billion. Therefore, one million is not a large number.

False.

Actually if your dealing will billions a mil seems pretty small.

If Tau are OP then what are Space Marines?

Kill Team tames pretty much everything. You can't field 2+ armour, HQ/Heavy Support or stuff with more than 3W. Markerlights (one of the most hated Tau characteristic) aren't that useful in Kill Team. Supporting Fire, on the other hand, works as normal.

So don't be afraid. Field what you want - if the power gap between the armies shows itself to be too wide, tinker with your brother's army to better it. If it's still wide, field weaker stuff (kroot, vespids, stealth suits, drone squadrons)

My mechanized SoB have never had any trouble with my mate's Tau, though I often lose 3/4 models on securing a victory. He doesn't own a Riptide but often takes several squads of suits which I usually can't wipe out before the game ends. But his firewarriors and stealth suits, those die like flies and then he's mostly out of markerlight support. His regular vehicles seldom last long either - outflanking Dominion squads in MM Immolators are kind of nasty business.

And of, we don't play on flat parking lots where an entire gunline can shoot at one squad at a time. That parking lot is really the only explanation I can come up with for people failing to even get in range of the Tau.

IDK. Tau in Kill Team are decent enough. Question is, what do you want? If you take a min squad of pathfinders and a crisis suited squad, you can play any number of entertaining games with your opponent. The only real danger is in getting swarmed by either boys or gaunts.

You guys are aware that the "OP" tau place under the "poor" space marines and nids in practically every tournament these days, nevermind IK, eldar or necrons, right?

Tau golden age is long gone. These days the are in the mere middle of the pack with how 7th modified them and stripped off their cheese combos,and latter comedies do anything tau does, and better.

Without the top dogs of tau the IAtide, missileside and crisis packs, they would be a bottom dex. With them they are merely middle dex.

If you include a little of everything, excluding broadsides and riptides you should be good. Just never run 2 buffmanders and such.

Traditio wrote:

Jaxler wrote: I think he's trying to say that tau aren't OP because how can they be over powered if they don't have enough power to deal with the big hitters?

Argument: One million is a much smaller number than one billion. Therefore, one million is not a large number.

False.

Actually its true buddy, its all relative. If there are 4-5 other codices that can easily beat tau consistently, they are thus not OP. Just because tau are good (1 mil), if other codices are much better (1 bill) then its true. So stop trying to give irrelevant arguments, it just makes you sound condescending.

 BoomWolf wrote:
You guys are aware that the "OP" tau place under the "poor" space marines and nids in practically every tournament these days, nevermind IK, eldar or necrons, right?

Tau golden age is long gone. These days the are in the mere middle of the pack with how 7th modified them and stripped off their cheese combos,and latter comedies do anything tau does, and better.

Without the top dogs of tau the IAtide, missileside and crisis packs, they would be a bottom dex. With them they are merely middle dex.

Without grav cents, smashbane, and FW ICs, marines become... BA and DA. And we know where they stand. The units you mentioned are better than anything in either the BA or DA codices, but I agree that Tau are (upper?) middle of the pack now. They really can't compete with gravstars, Eldar, and Necrons at this point.

Ignore the thing about not spamming Crisis Suits. Just stay away from too many Riptides, Broadsides and Buff Commander and you will be fine.

bibotot wrote:
Ignore the thing about not spamming Crisis Suits. Just stay away from too many Riptides, Broadsides and Buff Commander and you will be fine.

Even broadsides have their limitations, namely, 36" range. They are one of the few "power units" where Imperial heavy weapons actually work well against. The only truly OP thing in the Tau codex is the Riptide, and as horribly OP as it is, even it has been eclipsed in terms of OPness recently.

Tau are not OP, a lot of the grief they get stems from 6th edition so don't worry about it. The Riptide is strong but not OP (in fact the Ion Accelerator is the only thing that really needs to be changed) and Broadsides are not OP either. A lot of it is hypocritical as hell, especially with IoM players who have access to Everything in every other IoM book pretty much.

 gmaleron wrote:
Tau are not OP, a lot of the grief they get stems from 6th edition so don't worry about it. The Riptide is strong but not OP (in fact the Ion Accelerator is the only thing that really needs to be changed) and Broadsides are not OP either. A lot of it is hypocritical as hell, especially with IoM players who have access to Everything in every other IoM book pretty much.

The Riptide is OP as hell, and I will stand by this. It just can't do it alone anymore. I mean the thing is basically immortal at the ranges it functions at.

Dont use farsights 7 bodyguard rule
Because when you have a deepstriking tarpit of 3+/4++ with 16 S6 AP2 shots and 28 S5 AP5 (plus 5+ FNP!,or fleet and H&R)
Keep a broadside in a back corner of the board and give it a positional relay to make them come in on the side table edge (for less casulties as deep strike mishap can be very deadly)
Costs 815 points
Now THAT is what you call OP

Just play them how you want to play.

Tau are not what they were in 6th edition, and despite being on the stronger side of codex balance, still fit in quite well with the others.

Spamming riptides should be the only thing to avoid. Even then they are not too bad without markerlights and support.

 Big Blind Bill wrote:
Just play them how you want to play.

Tau are not what they were in 6th edition, and despite being on the stronger side of codex balance, still fit in quite well with the others.

Spamming riptides should be the only thing to avoid. Even then they are not too bad without markerlights and support.

Spamming R'varna is where its at
2 large blast strength 6 (7 for bulky,jetbikes ect)(8 for Monserous and gargantuan creatures+ tanks) AP4 shots at 60" range
Heh heh, wraithknight wont know what hit him...