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Hello all,

As the title suggest, I need a hand against a Tau player (buddy of mine). He's easily my most frequent opponent and facing him has been rather difficult (He brings a Riptide. That fancy forgeworld one too. That monster). I play Dark Angels and though the 2+ rerollable jink on Black Knights is nice, it's not very great against Tau since they have tons of stuff to ignore cover. So my question is, in a 1500 point setting, what would one recommend a Dark Angels player use to battle the conniving Tau?

The most important thing to remember when facing Tau is, Kill the markerlights first. They are generaly found on Pathfinders who are squishy.

Take 3 drop pods, put some Sternguard in 1 or 2 of them, and drop them down on his Pathfinders and light them up.

As a tau player, we're kinda OP vs space marines. You can't drop pod unless unless he takes intercepters to get free shots (IF HE DOESNT, DO THIS!) So your next best bet is either infiltration of bikes. Also, try and get into CC asap. We suck in CC.

Either take some scouts and try and remove any marker lights, this will effectively reduce our shooting ability. If your opponent uses a buffmander, try and shoot him first, as they have BS5+ for the marker lights.

If you have bikes, try and rush large shooting squads, probably a squad of fire warriors, the riptide, or crisis suits that are loaded for bear.

try and stay outside their range of fire, if he takes lots of pathfinders, those are range 18, easy to avoid with boltguns. The jump shoot jump is pretty crisis suit specific, and crisis suits aren't that good vs bikes!

If you have tanks, focus them on the riptide (because as a tau player, **** riptides) and kill that thing asap.

As a closing note, just remember we aren't fearless. Destroying a large part of a squad will scare us quick, or using lots of bullets and force of to go to ground. Either way, good luck!

People still have trouble facing Tau?

 luky7dayz wrote:
As a tau player, we're kinda OP vs space marines. You can't drop pod unless unless he takes intercepters to get free shots (IF HE DOESNT, DO THIS!) So your next best bet is either infiltration of bikes. Also, try and get into CC asap. We suck in CC.

Either take some scouts and try and remove any marker lights, this will effectively reduce our shooting ability. If your opponent uses a buffmander, try and shoot him first, as they have BS5+ for the marker lights.

If you have bikes, try and rush large shooting squads, probably a squad of fire warriors, the riptide, or crisis suits that are loaded for bear.

try and stay outside their range of fire, if he takes lots of pathfinders, those are range 18, easy to avoid with boltguns. The jump shoot jump is pretty crisis suit specific, and crisis suits aren't that good vs bikes!

If you have tanks, focus them on the riptide (because as a tau player, **** riptides) and kill that thing asap.

As a closing note, just remember we aren't fearless. Destroying a large part of a squad will scare us quick, or using lots of bullets and force of to go to ground. Either way, good luck!

I'm going to give the bikes a whirl. Got 12 Black Knights that I'm going to throw at him and hope for the best. Also have a small squad of scout snipers to try to pick off the pathfinders from afar. And all the marines that can do have Grav Weapons. Going to see if those can do some work. Thanks for the tips!

A single Riptide? Consider yourself lucky. I brought one Riptide and a Y'vahrah. Someday I'll have my R'varna too and I'll have a Riptide for every FOC slot.

And the KX Supremacy Armor.

Ooooh, here's a fun idea. Take a squad of 5 scouts with chainswords inside an LSS. It's only 100 points. Outflank them from reserves and light up his markerlight squad with the Cerberus launcher. Tau have crap initiative so it's more than likely they'll fail the test and be reduced to BS1 and WS1!

For an added bonus, then you can torch them with a heavy flamer from the speeder and leap out of the speeder and into assault, likely sweeping the pathfinders off the table!

I personally run at least 2 scout squads like this in most of my lists.

 j31c3n wrote:
Ooooh, here's a fun idea. Take a squad of 5 scouts with chainswords inside an LSS. It's only 100 points. Outflank them from reserves and light up his markerlight squad with the Cerberus launcher. Tau have crap initiative so it's more than likely they'll fail the test and be reduced to BS1 and WS1!

For an added bonus, then you can torch them with a heavy flamer from the speeder and leap out of the speeder and into assault, likely sweeping the pathfinders off the table!

I personally run at least 2 scout squads like this in most of my lists.

That actually sounds like a lot of fun. I might give that a whirl!

SGTPozy wrote:
People still have trouble facing Tau?

Pretty mich this.
We can intercept, but then cannot shoot next turn, which makes intercept hardly free.

You will destroy any tau unit in CC generally by an overwhelming margin. Also godforbid as a tau player you go against a greentide, that crap will roll you into next year

 PaulTheFirewoodSalesman wrote:

 j31c3n wrote:
Ooooh, here's a fun idea. Take a squad of 5 scouts with chainswords inside an LSS. It's only 100 points. Outflank them from reserves and light up his markerlight squad with the Cerberus launcher. Tau have crap initiative so it's more than likely they'll fail the test and be reduced to BS1 and WS1!

For an added bonus, then you can torch them with a heavy flamer from the speeder and leap out of the speeder and into assault, likely sweeping the pathfinders off the table!

I personally run at least 2 scout squads like this in most of my lists.

That actually sounds like a lot of fun. I might give that a whirl!

As a bonus, almost nobody takes an LSS, let alone more than one, so opponents don't even know what the Cerberus launcher does.

 j31c3n wrote:

 PaulTheFirewoodSalesman wrote:

 j31c3n wrote:
Ooooh, here's a fun idea. Take a squad of 5 scouts with chainswords inside an LSS. It's only 100 points. Outflank them from reserves and light up his markerlight squad with the Cerberus launcher. Tau have crap initiative so it's more than likely they'll fail the test and be reduced to BS1 and WS1!

For an added bonus, then you can torch them with a heavy flamer from the speeder and leap out of the speeder and into assault, likely sweeping the pathfinders off the table!

I personally run at least 2 scout squads like this in most of my lists.

That actually sounds like a lot of fun. I might give that a whirl!

As a bonus, almost nobody takes an LSS, let alone more than one, so opponents don't even know what the Cerberus launcher does.

#

A Landspeeder what? Whats that

Tau have been a constant issue for me in 40k, so much that I just simply refuse to play against them. In the rare case that I do, I'll bring minimum 2 Wraithknights.
I have a friend that has 5 Riptides. Albeit, he really uses 2-3 of them in a standard game. This has led to him not being able to get a game at all with his Tau. So he has 3000 points worth of Tau that he can only use in tournaments really.

The biggest issue with Tau is that almost nothing in their codex is not, to a degree, a little overpowered. Even just the standard Fire Warrior. 30" range at S5? You're kidding right? Put a Cadre Fireblade and Ethereal with a 12 person unit and that's 36 shots (48 at 15" inch rapid fire). It's absolutely ridiculous. And just pop 4 markerlights into the unit and they're all hitting on 2s and ignoring cover. The ability to give almost everything in a battlesuit FnP is atrocious.
Assuming that you even make it across 3 turns of the board, you have to deal with a Tau castle. You attempt to charge his Ethereal and he has say, 2 units of Fire Warriors nearby. Now usually against any other army, that wouldn't be a problem, but when you're up against Tau, that's a potential 96 shots on overwatch. These can all be at BS5 if you have any markerlights on you.
Everything Tau has is designed to punish you all the way up the battlefield until you reach charge range and then again punish you.

I could go on for another 40 or so paragraphs, but honestly can't be bothered. You get the picture.

My best bit of advice when using Space Marines of any kind against Tau is to use an excessive amount of Drop Pods and/or artillery. (Thunderfire Cannon comes to mind). Use Force to instant kill the riptide and pray to that Emperor of yours for salvation.

If he is using the FW riptide (Y'varha?) then yes...That thing will give you hell. A little bit weaker than the normal riptides, but hits very hard and has to beclose , which is ironic because that is its weakness as well. So if you survive an an attack from it, charge it or shoot the hell out of it. It will punish you badly if you don't.

"The biggest issue with Tau is that almost nothing in their codex is not, to a degree, a little overpowered"

Says the Eldar player.

 Farseer Uruvion wrote:
Tau have been a constant issue for me in 40k, so much that I just simply refuse to play against them. In the rare case that I do, I'll bring minimum 2 Wraithknights.
I have a friend that has 5 Riptides. Albeit, he really uses 2-3 of them in a standard game. This has led to him not being able to get a game at all with his Tau. So he has 3000 points worth of Tau that he can only use in tournaments really.

The biggest issue with Tau is that almost nothing in their codex is not, to a degree, a little overpowered. Even just the standard Fire Warrior. 30" range at S5? You're kidding right? Put a Cadre Fireblade and Ethereal with a 12 person unit and that's 36 shots (48 at 15" inch rapid fire). It's absolutely ridiculous. And just pop 4 markerlights into the unit and they're all hitting on 2s and ignoring cover. The ability to give almost everything in a battlesuit FnP is atrocious.
Assuming that you even make it across 3 turns of the board, you have to deal with a Tau castle. You attempt to charge his Ethereal and he has say, 2 units of Fire Warriors nearby. Now usually against any other army, that wouldn't be a problem, but when you're up against Tau, that's a potential 96 shots on overwatch. These can all be at BS5 if you have any markerlights on you.
Everything Tau has is designed to punish you all the way up the battlefield until you reach charge range and then again punish you.

I could go on for another 40 or so paragraphs, but honestly can't be bothered. You get the picture.

My best bit of advice when using Space Marines of any kind against Tau is to use an excessive amount of Drop Pods and/or artillery. (Thunderfire Cannon comes to mind). Use Force to instant kill the riptide and pray to that Emperor of yours for salvation.

Seems like a couple of people need to tone down their cheese.

Really, you play Eldar and complain about Tau? Eldar are one of the few armies that can compete with Tau in terms of firepower, along with Necrons and Space Marines.

Tau have such powerful shooting because they are terrible at assault and nonexistent in psychic powers. Markerlights are necessary because Tau have poor BS. I will, however, agree that their ability to strip cover completely is a little overpowered.

Besides, you play Eldar. Eldar can dominate in every phase of the game with the right units. If all else fails, abuse the Tau player's lack of psychic defenses and kill his Riptides with Psychic Shriek.

" I will, however, agree that their ability to strip cover completely is a little overpowered. "

I think it is actually appropriate given what modern targeting can do in real life. I have no problem at all with this ability.

 luky7dayz wrote:
As a tau player, we're kinda OP vs space marines. You can't drop pod unless unless he takes intercepters to get free shots (IF HE DOESNT, DO THIS!) So your next best bet is either infiltration of bikes. Also, try and get into CC asap. We suck in CC.

This is something I never understand. I'm a Tau player and I took the interceptor upgrade often. But very rarely did I ever use it, even when enemies were deep striking close to me.
Why? Because your enemy wins either way. If you don't shoot, just as planned. If you do shoot, then you're doing it at BS3 and they get their cover saves.

Why did I purchase the upgrade if I never plan on using it? It messes up your opponent so bad just to tell them you have it. They keep their flyers in very disadvantageous places because they're worried they'll get knocked from the sky first turn. Which I wasn't going to shoot with Broadsides, I was just going to wait one turn and use a Skyray on it. Drop pods and their cargo end up deploying out of line of sight and waste time just to avoid a single round of sub par shooting.

I purchase upgrades to trick my opponent into making bad deployment choices.

My Tau friend continually gets tabled by my Raptors friends. Really wierd you're having problems.

Nevertheless, it depends on the type of units he's bringing. Plasma and Grav work wonders against Broadsides and co, less so against Pathfinders.

Rule no. 1 is to kill the Markerlights first. Then you'll get your cover saves

Depending on your list (I assume Ravenwing, since you're talking about re-rolling Jinks), you might be able to take deployment by force. If your Tau opponent deploys his entire army across his deployment like casual gunline, deploy all your army on one side and refuse that flank. Essentially, you're pitting your entire army against part of his army, giving you the upperhand. If he deploys in the corner, make sure to space out objectives where he can't see and play to the objectives.

Martel732 wrote:
"The biggest issue with Tau is that almost nothing in their codex is not, to a degree, a little overpowered"

Says the Eldar player.

Okay then, let's have a game where I just use Storm Guardians, Rangers, Night Weavers, Illic Nightspear and some Shining Spears and watch as I get absolutely destroyed.
I was saying that everything in the Tau codex is a little OP, to some degree.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 TheNewBlood wrote:

 Farseer Uruvion wrote:
Tau have been a constant issue for me in 40k, so much that I just simply refuse to play against them. In the rare case that I do, I'll bring minimum 2 Wraithknights.
I have a friend that has 5 Riptides. Albeit, he really uses 2-3 of them in a standard game. This has led to him not being able to get a game at all with his Tau. So he has 3000 points worth of Tau that he can only use in tournaments really.

The biggest issue with Tau is that almost nothing in their codex is not, to a degree, a little overpowered. Even just the standard Fire Warrior. 30" range at S5? You're kidding right? Put a Cadre Fireblade and Ethereal with a 12 person unit and that's 36 shots (48 at 15" inch rapid fire). It's absolutely ridiculous. And just pop 4 markerlights into the unit and they're all hitting on 2s and ignoring cover. The ability to give almost everything in a battlesuit FnP is atrocious.
Assuming that you even make it across 3 turns of the board, you have to deal with a Tau castle. You attempt to charge his Ethereal and he has say, 2 units of Fire Warriors nearby. Now usually against any other army, that wouldn't be a problem, but when you're up against Tau, that's a potential 96 shots on overwatch. These can all be at BS5 if you have any markerlights on you.
Everything Tau has is designed to punish you all the way up the battlefield until you reach charge range and then again punish you.

I could go on for another 40 or so paragraphs, but honestly can't be bothered. You get the picture.

My best bit of advice when using Space Marines of any kind against Tau is to use an excessive amount of Drop Pods and/or artillery. (Thunderfire Cannon comes to mind). Use Force to instant kill the riptide and pray to that Emperor of yours for salvation.

Seems like a couple of people need to tone down their cheese.

Really, you play Eldar and complain about Tau? Eldar are one of the few armies that can compete with Tau in terms of firepower, along with Necrons and Space Marines.

Tau have such powerful shooting because they are terrible at assault and nonexistent in psychic powers. Markerlights are necessary because Tau have poor BS. I will, however, agree that their ability to strip cover completely is a little overpowered.

Besides, you play Eldar. Eldar can dominate in every phase of the game with the right units. If all else fails, abuse the Tau player's lack of psychic defenses and kill his Riptides with Psychic Shriek.

I'm complaining that EVERYTHING in the Tau codex is overpowered.
As I said to the other guy, Eldar have some pretty bad units mixed in with the OP stuff. The Eldar codex allows for a fair game, whereas with the Tau codex, it's virtually impossible. I've tried.

I AM SUMMONED!

Vespids, Kroot, Pathfinders, Drone Squadrons, Armywide BS3, Hammerheads, Railgun Broadsides, Aun'Shi, Shadowsun, Aun'Va, Cadre Fireblades, Stealth Suits.

Please tell me those are all overpowered.

You are exhibiting symptoms of being bad.

 Farseer Uruvion wrote:

I'm complaining that EVERYTHING in the Tau codex is overpowered.

Aun'shi, Darkstrider, Crisis suits, Stealth suits, Piranha, Vespid (especially with Strain Leader), Gun drone squadrons, Sunshark, Razorshark, Krootshapers and Krootox, Hammerhead (either variant), Railsides, Skyray, Sniper drone squads, and my favorite to add Devilfish.

If you want to extend it to forgeworld stuff
XV-9's, R'Myr, Remoras, Heavy gun drones, Barracuda, Tigersharks (both variants), Manta (better points and dollars spent elsewhere), Tetras, TX-42s, Drone turrets, Sentry turrets, all the Hammerhead turrets, and all the Kroot options.

Speaking of which, where are the Kroot options now? And the Hammerhead turrets?

 Verviedi wrote:
I AM SUMMONED!

Vespids, Kroot, Pathfinders, Drone Squadrons, Armywide BS3, Hammerheads, Railgun Broadsides, Aun'Shi, Shadowsun, Aun'Va, Cadre Fireblades, Stealth Suits.

Please tell me those are all overpowered.

You are exhibiting symptoms of being bad.

Vespids: Ultimate Mahreen Kilers.
Pathfinders: Pinning so super deadly against Orks and Mahreens.
Drones: Ablative Wounds is overpowered.
BS3: Eh, Tyranids hit on 4's usually and that's not overpowered.
Hammerhead: S10 with Tankhunters, easy explosions.

Am I doing this right? Lol.

The only things remotely worth complaining about in Tau are Broadsides, Riptide and Buffmander and even then it pales in comparision to what 7.5 has brought us.

SGTPozy wrote:
People still have trouble facing Tau?

In the mediocre FLGS tables, Tau rock out quite a bit. ( The ones where people run things like melee units in rhinos, autocannon helldrakes, tactical terminators, the Sanguinor, or deep striking mutilators.) It's not until they start running against middle table or higher tourney lists that the typical mono-tau list starts getting crushed.

 Verviedi wrote:
I AM SUMMONED!

Vespids, Kroot, Pathfinders, Drone Squadrons, Armywide BS3, Hammerheads, Railgun Broadsides, Aun'Shi, Shadowsun, Aun'Va, Cadre Fireblades, Stealth Suits.

Please tell me those are all overpowered.

You are exhibiting symptoms of being bad.

Hahahaha.
Kroot can all take sniper rounds for just 1pt per model. Take that rend everywhere.
Vespid have damn AP3 base.
Pathfinders? You're kidding, right? That's the whole armies cheap way of getting markerlights.
Drone Squadron? Hahahahhahahahahhahahahahhaha. Okay, put a Tau Commander in with a full squad of gun drones and give him drone controller. They're all BS5 now and re-rolling to hit. This has been used by my friend a lot and it dominates. Plus, they serve as a way of having extra wounds for the commander.
Army wide BS3 is negated completely with markerlights. The whole army can be BS5 if they want to.
Hammerheads? S10 shots? Equip Darkstrider (or whatever his name is) and it gets to overwatch and hit on 2s.
Railgun Broadsides? Again, high powered shots, multi-wound models with incredible range. You won't even get to them before they've destroyed your transports.
Aun'Shi is an ethereal. Storm of Fire giving all pulse weapons +1 shot. Nice, so with 2 full Fire Warrior squads with a Cadre in each unit puts off 96 S5, AP4 shots at 15" range. Or he can give all Tau within 12" FnP 6+.
Aun'Va has that Paradox of Duality thing. So I can shoot 15 S10 AP1 shots at him, and he automatically ignores it because it's AP1. If they're AP2, he'll ignore them on 2+, etc. that's ridiculous, oh as well as his normal saves. He gives all Tau re-rolls for any Ld check on the board, plus he can give off 2 ethereal powers. 2? Hahahha what?
Cadre Fireblades? As long as he stays still (which Tau do anyway) he gives all Fire Warriors in his unit +1 shot just for being there. As I've stated before, put a Ethereal nearby and all single Fire Warrior models get 4 shots each.
Stealthsuits. 2+ cover saves for days.


Okay, I was wrong about Shadowsun. She is maybe the only thing not OP to some degree. But you can not have 1 of her ever. Other than that, I've reinforced my point completely.

 Farseer Uruvion wrote:

 Verviedi wrote:
I AM SUMMONED!

Vespids, Kroot, Pathfinders, Drone Squadrons, Armywide BS3, Hammerheads, Railgun Broadsides, Aun'Shi, Shadowsun, Aun'Va, Cadre Fireblades, Stealth Suits.

Please tell me those are all overpowered.

You are exhibiting symptoms of being bad.

Hahahaha.
Kroot can all take sniper rounds for just 1pt per model. Take that rend everywhere.
Vespid have damn AP3 base.
Pathfinders? You're kidding, right? That's the whole armies cheap way of getting markerlights.
Drone Squadron? Hahahahhahahahahhahahahahhaha. Okay, put a Tau Commander in with a full squad of gun drones and give him drone controller. They're all BS5 now and re-rolling to hit. This has been used by my friend a lot and it dominates. Plus, they serve as a way of having extra wounds for the commander.
Army wide BS3 is negated completely with markerlights. The whole army can be BS5 if they want to.
Hammerheads? S10 shots? Equip Darkstrider (or whatever his name is) and it gets to overwatch and hit on 2s.
Railgun Broadsides? Again, high powered shots, multi-wound models with incredible range. You won't even get to them before they've destroyed your transports.
Aun'Shi is an ethereal. Storm of Fire giving all pulse weapons +1 shot. Nice, so with 2 full Fire Warrior squads with a Cadre in each unit puts off 96 S5, AP4 shots at 15" range. Or he can give all Tau within 12" FnP 6+.
Aun'Va has that Paradox of Duality thing. So I can shoot 15 S10 AP1 shots at him, and he automatically ignores it because it's AP1. If they're AP2, he'll ignore them on 2+, etc. that's ridiculous, oh as well as his normal saves. He gives all Tau re-rolls for any Ld check on the board, plus he can give off 2 ethereal powers. 2? Hahahha what?
Cadre Fireblades? As long as he stays still (which Tau do anyway) he gives all Fire Warriors in his unit +1 shot just for being there. As I've stated before, put a Ethereal nearby and all single Fire Warrior models get 4 shots each.
Stealthsuits. 2+ cover saves for days.


Okay, I was wrong about Shadowsun. She is maybe the only thing not OP to some degree. But you can not have 1 of her ever. Other than that, I've reinforced my point completely.

Half of that can be avoided through staying out of RF range, killing markerlights and target priority!

I like how you resorted to playing against Tau with essentially two Wraithknights lol. You talk about Tau being overpowered when the Wraithknight is undercosted by at least 125 points, if not more.

 Farseer Uruvion wrote:

Kroot can all take sniper rounds for just 1pt per model. Take that rend everywhere.

Poor leadership, no armor, low toughness. Snipers are still heavy weapons so they are immobile to fire or firing bolters to move.

Vespid have damn AP3 base.

BS3, low numbers, high point cost/survivability, and extremely poor leadership.

Pathfinders? You're kidding, right?

Are you? T3, poor armor, immobile, BS3, and generally poor Leadership. Easy targets. You take these out and you hurt the entire army.

Drone Squadron? Hahahahhahahahahhahahahahhaha. Okay, put a Tau Commander in with a full squad of gun drones and give him drone controller. They're all BS5 now and re-rolling to hit. This has been used by my friend a lot and it dominates. Plus, they serve as a way of having extra wounds for the commander.

So something becomes OP if you can throw in a single IC to give bonuses? Isn't that more so the IC being overpowered than the unit? This is something just about every player can do now. It's not Tau specific.

Army wide BS3 is negated completely with markerlights. The whole army can be BS5 if they want to.

Markers still are costly it takes 6 pathfinders to give one other squad BS4 and ignore cover. This is a cop out and you have to be aware it is. That BS5 has a cost associated with it. The army isn't entire BS5 starting off.

Hammerheads? S10 shots? Equip Darkstrider (or whatever his name is) and it gets to overwatch and hit on 2s

Single shot weapon on a platform that can be shaken/stunned easily. Overwatch is negligible. No templates and it's a single shot S10 shot that needs a 6 to hit.

Railgun Broadsides? Again, high powered shots, multi-wound models with incredible range. You won't even get to them before they've destroyed your transports.

Expensive and immobile. High powered? It's S8. There is a reason why Melta weapons get in close vice staying at range.

Aun'Shi is an ethereal. Storm of Fire giving all pulse weapons +1 shot. Nice, so with 2 full Fire Warrior squads with a Cadre in each unit puts off 96 S5, AP4 shots at 15" range. Or he can give all Tau within 12" FnP 6+.

Expensive and weak.

Aun'Va has that Paradox of Duality thing. So I can shoot 15 S10 AP1 shots at him, and he automatically ignores it because it's AP1.

Are you serious? Yeah it stops you from firing a weapon you'd never fire at an Ethereal, but it does nothing to protect him from everything else that will murder him easily.

Stealthsuits. 2+ cover saves for days.

Oh my god, you're serious aren't you?

I think it's less to do with Tau and more so you not knowing how to deal with them. You have plenty of options.

I'm really confused especially that in Eldar player thinks that they are too strong when they still arguably have one of the strongest if not the strongest books in the game. Try throwing a bunch of psychic powers are way, outside the single item in the Farsight enclaves book we have 0 psychic defense.

On top of that you were just coming off as a hater who clearly does not want to change up or implement different tactics to play against Tau. You do realize that if someone invests in a lot of marker lights he is spending a good chunk of points for a toughness 3 or 4 model with a 4 + or 5 + armor save. They are not hard to kill and Tau are not as strong as you're making them out to be.

 Farseer Uruvion wrote:

Martel732 wrote:
"The biggest issue with Tau is that almost nothing in their codex is not, to a degree, a little overpowered"

Says the Eldar player.

Okay then, let's have a game where I just use Storm Guardians, Rangers, Night Weavers, Illic Nightspear and some Shining Spears and watch as I get absolutely destroyed.
I was saying that everything in the Tau codex is a little OP, to some degree.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 TheNewBlood wrote:

 Farseer Uruvion wrote:
Tau have been a constant issue for me in 40k, so much that I just simply refuse to play against them. In the rare case that I do, I'll bring minimum 2 Wraithknights.
I have a friend that has 5 Riptides. Albeit, he really uses 2-3 of them in a standard game. This has led to him not being able to get a game at all with his Tau. So he has 3000 points worth of Tau that he can only use in tournaments really.

The biggest issue with Tau is that almost nothing in their codex is not, to a degree, a little overpowered. Even just the standard Fire Warrior. 30" range at S5? You're kidding right? Put a Cadre Fireblade and Ethereal with a 12 person unit and that's 36 shots (48 at 15" inch rapid fire). It's absolutely ridiculous. And just pop 4 markerlights into the unit and they're all hitting on 2s and ignoring cover. The ability to give almost everything in a battlesuit FnP is atrocious.
Assuming that you even make it across 3 turns of the board, you have to deal with a Tau castle. You attempt to charge his Ethereal and he has say, 2 units of Fire Warriors nearby. Now usually against any other army, that wouldn't be a problem, but when you're up against Tau, that's a potential 96 shots on overwatch. These can all be at BS5 if you have any markerlights on you.
Everything Tau has is designed to punish you all the way up the battlefield until you reach charge range and then again punish you.

I could go on for another 40 or so paragraphs, but honestly can't be bothered. You get the picture.

My best bit of advice when using Space Marines of any kind against Tau is to use an excessive amount of Drop Pods and/or artillery. (Thunderfire Cannon comes to mind). Use Force to instant kill the riptide and pray to that Emperor of yours for salvation.

Seems like a couple of people need to tone down their cheese.

Really, you play Eldar and complain about Tau? Eldar are one of the few armies that can compete with Tau in terms of firepower, along with Necrons and Space Marines.

Tau have such powerful shooting because they are terrible at assault and nonexistent in psychic powers. Markerlights are necessary because Tau have poor BS. I will, however, agree that their ability to strip cover completely is a little overpowered.

Besides, you play Eldar. Eldar can dominate in every phase of the game with the right units. If all else fails, abuse the Tau player's lack of psychic defenses and kill his Riptides with Psychic Shriek.

I'm complaining that EVERYTHING in the Tau codex is overpowered.
As I said to the other guy, Eldar have some pretty bad units mixed in with the OP stuff. The Eldar codex allows for a fair game, whereas with the Tau codex, it's virtually impossible. I've tried.

I'll remember that I'm always playing an unfair army when I'm using only crisis suits, broadsides, and a single riptide at games over 1500.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 Savageconvoy wrote:

 luky7dayz wrote:
As a tau player, we're kinda OP vs space marines. You can't drop pod unless unless he takes intercepters to get free shots (IF HE DOESNT, DO THIS!) So your next best bet is either infiltration of bikes. Also, try and get into CC asap. We suck in CC.

This is something I never understand. I'm a Tau player and I took the interceptor upgrade often. But very rarely did I ever use it, even when enemies were deep striking close to me.
Why? Because your enemy wins either way. If you don't shoot, just as planned. If you do shoot, then you're doing it at BS3 and they get their cover saves.

Why did I purchase the upgrade if I never plan on using it? It messes up your opponent so bad just to tell them you have it. They keep their flyers in very disadvantageous places because they're worried they'll get knocked from the sky first turn. Which I wasn't going to shoot with Broadsides, I was just going to wait one turn and use a Skyray on it. Drop pods and their cargo end up deploying out of line of sight and waste time just to avoid a single round of sub par shooting.

I purchase upgrades to trick my opponent into making bad deployment choices.

That is brilliant, Im going to have to work this idea into my lists, I've only taken interceptor once, and it didn't seem to have any real value to me, but now that I think about it my opponent deployed really weird.

Double post sorry