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I'm a new tau player who's previously played orks, and I'm having a hard time adjusting to fire warriors. What do you actually do with them during play? Do you keep them in their transports until you can take an objective? Put them in a line and shoot at guys until the fire warriors die? This may seem obvious to long time players, but to me the seem so fragile I can't find good options, but I have to take them, so I need to do something with them.

One thing you have to get used too is charge denial. Premeasure your movements to assure you're 18 inches away from anything that can assault you. Shoot em once, again after they advance, and then overwatch if they land an assault. The whole time you wanna be moving back and putting terrain in between ya to hopefully cause a whiffed charge.

Other than that its just a squad with a strong reachy gun

davou wrote:
Premeasure your movements

This 1000 times. The Tau win battles in the movement phase. You really need to premeasure, but it does not matter if you are a little less than 18 inches. I find that 15 inches is a perfect range, as it is unlikely to charge that distance once you have been shot back a couple of inches, and firewarriors are in double tap range. Another thing is to make good use of speedbumps. Gundrones that have detached from vehicles make great speedbumps, which can buy you an extra turn of shooting.

I am only really familiar with mech Tau, but usually I start my firewarriors in their transports, then try to disembark on turn 2 about 15-18 inches away from the enemy. I also detach my gundrones from my vehicles at that time. If you run your gundrones in the shooting phase and use the thrust move, you can cover quite a bit of distance. Hopefully you can stop 1-2 inches in front of the enemy, so that they cannot move until the drones are dead.

Once your firewarriors are out of their transports, you can start playing around with flat-out moves. One of my favourite things to do is to move my devilfish to the side and my firewarriors back 6 inches. Then after my firewarriors have shot, I flat-out my devilfish in front of the firewarriors. This way, the fish gets a lovely 2+ cover save, and the firewarriors are out of line of sight from return fire.

Also, if you are not using Tetras as markerlight support, you really should. A 55 pt Tetra can almost double the squads damage output.

 reddwarf54 wrote:

davou wrote:
Premeasure your movements

This 1000 times. The Tau win battles in the movement phase. You really need to premeasure, but it does not matter if you are a little less than 18 inches. I find that 15 inches is a perfect range, as it is unlikely to charge that distance once you have been shot back a couple of inches, and firewarriors are in double tap range. Another thing is to make good use of speedbumps. Gundrones that have detached from vehicles make great speedbumps, which can buy you an extra turn of shooting.

I am only really familiar with mech Tau, but usually I start my firewarriors in their transports, then try to disembark on turn 2 about 15-18 inches away from the enemy. I also detach my gundrones from my vehicles at that time. If you run your gundrones in the shooting phase and use the thrust move, you can cover quite a bit of distance. Hopefully you can stop 1-2 inches in front of the enemy, so that they cannot move until the drones are dead.

Once your firewarriors are out of their transports, you can start playing around with flat-out moves. One of my favourite things to do is to move my devilfish to the side and my firewarriors back 6 inches. Then after my firewarriors have shot, I flat-out my devilfish in front of the firewarriors. This way, the fish gets a lovely 2+ cover save, and the firewarriors are out of line of sight from return fire.

Also, if you are not using Tetras as markerlight support, you really should. A 55 pt Tetra can almost double the squads damage output.

Man thanks for the advice, The gun drone wall and devilish cover ideas should really help! I'd love to use tetras, but sadly I have none and I'm trying not to use forge world. Maybe I'll throw in a unit of pathfinders

I like to stack mine together for mass pulse hell. 3x12 fire warriors with a tetra focusing on 1 squad. If you get lucky with tetra hits and get at least 3 you can up each squads BS by 1 and in 15" doubletap range you can pretty much down any infantry short of a 10man paladin squad. All the better if they are behind a ADL.

I use mine with my devil fish, and use them as a rapid response anti-infantry team. Move them around the board hunting other troops killing them, also the new cover save rules is really fun to use, as the expression on your opponent's face as he can seem to get past your 3+ cover save.....

I regularly play against Tau (using DA and/or IG) and charge denial is the way to go. Load them in a Devilfish with disruption pods and you'll be able to deny charges and unload your scary rifles all day. Really great troops when used correctly.

I use mine two different ways.

12 man teams that stick outside or hope in a nearby transport if it's there and then shooting as I advance forward with markerlight support.

6 man teams that do nothing until the end of the game.

Tau are a tactical army, it's all about setup, movement, and enemy selection. I love firewarriors. I run 6 teams of 12 in my 2k list w/ heavy tetra support. I don't run any transports, devilfish are too expensive for 7 S5 shots. Use cover, grab an aegis line, and use your hammerheads as mobile cover. Firewarriors need to take advantage of their weapons and shoot each and every turn imo. And please remember if an enemy assaults, you get to overwatch before they even get to roll for it needing 6's to hit. I at times have forgot this and it has cost me a unit. If an enemy is 7 inches away and wants to assault they are in rapid fire range. 24 shots needing 6's a few will hit. If you knock a couple down it could take them out of charge range if say they roll an 8. Food for thought. Best of luck!!