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So, Tau has been giving me problems. I've never won a game vs them, and I've almost always been tabeled.

Usually i face this:
1-2 Broadside units, usually 1 or both with double missiles
1-3 Riptides, usually 1 or more of the AP2 blast gun
2-6 crisis suit squads, either lone man fusion or other variants
"Batman" suit, the ignore cover super tough commander in a squad of crisis with lots of drones
0-1 void shield generator
1-2 tetra squads
everything after that varies
Usually all of the heavier suits have intercept, and riptides almost always have sky fire

Pretty much they counter Deep Strikes, Flyers, anything infantry unit that hides / relies on cover / jink, vehicle armor.

So what the hell is left?
I won't get turn 1 charges, as they will recognize an assault army and group up for overwatch / JSJ run away. I won't outgun them (tried with IG. failed miserably). Anything I have to try and catch them is too fragile for the payload they put out. If i take big tough units, they will never be fast enough to catch them.

I'm currently running Eldar / Dark Eldar. It seems to me like the only answer is Wraithknight / Invisibility Spam. Do I have to resort to that?

Is there something I am missing?

 danjbrierton wrote:
So, Tau has been giving me problems. I've never won a game vs them, and I've almost always been tabeled.

Usually i face this:
1-2 Broadside units, usually 1 or both with double missiles
1-3 Riptides, usually 1 or more of the AP2 blast gun
2-6 crisis suit squads, either lone man fusion or other variants
"Batman" suit, the ignore cover super tough commander in a squad of crisis with lots of drones
0-1 void shield generator
1-2 tetra squads
everything after that varies
Usually all of the heavier suits have intercept, and riptides almost always have sky fire

Pretty much they counter Deep Strikes, Flyers, anything infantry unit that hides / relies on cover / jink, vehicle armor.

So what the hell is left?
I won't get turn 1 charges, as they will recognize an assault army and group up for overwatch / JSJ run away. I won't outgun them (tried with IG. failed miserably). Anything I have to try and catch them is too fragile for the payload they put out. If i take big tough units, they will never be fast enough to catch them.

I'm currently running Eldar / Dark Eldar. It seems to me like the only answer is Wraithknight / Invisibility Spam. Do I have to resort to that?

Is there something I am missing?

Tau have a very tough time with 3 things: High AV vehicles, CC, and battling over 36" range.

And yes, the new Wraithknight is an extremely hard counter to Tau. It will destroy riptides and broadsides like crazy. Tau have little to nothing that is able to kill a wraith knight sadly (other than multiple sky rays using every single missile they have turn 1).

Wraith knights aren't the answer. One of my friends brought that little toy and failed miserably. I just simply let the knight do what t wanted and lived with the consequences. I dealt enough damage and was able to table him anyway by turn 5.

You need to realize that tau are a tactical synergistic army. You need to find out what he needs around, Ie buff commander, crisis suits, pathfinders and eliminate them. Don't focus on the riotides they are just a distraction unit. Take advantage of taus poor leadership with pinning weapons.

Wreck the Tetras and snipe out "Batman" and watch the effectiveness of his forces deteriorate rapidly. Remember Tau are just expensive guardsmen with cool toys and the inability to throw a punch. Without something to help them aim and remove cover they aren't nearly as dangerous.

Remember Interceptor and Overwatch can only be done once per unit per turn. So mass Deep Strikes and coordinated assaults by multiple units limit the effect of either of these tricks.

Jetbikes should catch anything that wears a Jet Pack without trouble.

You can also out maneuver him. Jet bikes and wave serpents are still a good thing to throw out there. If you can get some CC units in his ranks they will tear it up.

And ignore the riptide...

The Tau have no reasonable answer for the Wraithknight. Seriously, put one or two down on the table and you will be able to defeat most Tau lists quit easily. Wraithknights counter Riptides ridiculously well, it is sad how well actually.

Interceptor is once per turn, per weapon, and if used in this way it cannot shoot in their turn when it could benefit from markerlight support.

You may want to try a single detachment battleforged game against your opponent. Then, there is also Maelstrom, which could be an entertaining game for the both of you.

Tau are a common army that I play against and they are a hard match up, but not impossible to beat.

I'd advise using wraith guard in a serpant (maybe 3 of these so they survive the massed fire) the d weapons will wreck havoc with the riptides and such)

Though any good tau player will do what they do best and run away from such units so how about the flier with d blasts?

All in all you shouldn't have much trouble with them if you're playing eldar, sure tau are a higher tier army and difficult to beat, but from experience eldar are far stronger

 danjbrierton wrote:

I'm currently running Eldar / Dark Eldar. It seems to me like the only answer is Wraithknight / Invisibility Spam. Do I have to resort to that?

Is there something I am missing?

Warp Spiders. Flickerjump the hell out of the Tau weapons and let the fishmen waste their shooting on one or two units. Dance around their army, you can JSJ better than the Crisis suits with the infinite move in their Shooting phase and Monofilament + I2 = you wound even the Riptides on 2+. Also have some War Walkers in the background with EMLs to dispatch the Tetras and the Crisis suits from a safe distance.

Your Jetbikes have S6 and pseudo-rending; with greater range. I agree the Tau have no Wraithknight counter, but it seems most competitive events will ban it. I'd flood the field with MSU bikes if I played Eldar.

Also, if you are already an Deldar, a sick combo is putting 5 Dscythe Wraithguard in a raider and deepstriking it.

 Zagman wrote:
The Tau have no reasonable answer for the Wraithknight. Seriously, put one or two down on the table and you will be able to defeat most Tau lists quit easily. Wraithknights counter Riptides ridiculously well, it is sad how well actually.

There is nothing sad about a Riptide getting stomped. The faster the better. Bitterness is the secondary victory condition when you can't get a real victory.

If he's running an incredibly powerful list, then resorting to your own cheap tricks becomes an acceptable solution. Yes, Wraithknights, Invisibility spam, and Scatterbikes. Since he doesn't have a lot of vehicles himself, arming your Wraithknight with the Suncannon, Scattershield, and Bright Lances will work great. Fire the Suncannon first to peel away Shield Drones, then blast him with Bright Lances that inflict instant-death at S8 and AP2.

With your Psyker spam you'll also likely get some Renewer psyker powers, allowing you to heal wounds from the Wraithknight for even more ridiculousness.

I'm surprised that you're having trouble as Tau are a really bad match up against Eldar as Eldar do the only thing that Tau do well (shooting) far better.

Eldar are better at shooting, have more shots, have psykers, have a battle brother, are faster and can do combat well.

What do Tau have? Ugh... Marker lights? Oh wait; they'll be dead turn one.

"everything after that varies" ?? You're already looking at an obscene amount of points with all that stuff added up. What points level are you playing at?

Eldar can outrange Tau quite easily. Tau shooting maxes out at ~36", so use that you your advantage. JSJ with Scatterbikes will keep Broadsides frustrated. Make him come to you if he wants to do any damage - and then close the trap when he's spread out.

Most Tau markerlight sources are very fragile. Tetras and Pathfinders can be cleaned up with pretty much anything (forcing them to Go to Ground is almost as good as killing).

Any Lance/Melta that you have should be directed at Broadsides or Crisis when possible. 2's to wound with no saves - far better return on investment than using it on his Riptides or Vehicles

Wraithknight just does all kinds of horrible things to riptides. Realistically it should be able to take out one per turn between its shooting 20-30% chance of instagibbing with D-Weapons) melee attacks and stomps. Tau have very very few efficient answers to Wraithknights now that they are GMC's. Possibly if they devote a turn of shooting with their entire army they might kill one in a turn. If he takes a void shield, drop the shield early by shooting with S6-7 shooting and then blow the damn thing up (single D weapon shot should take it out quite handily - buildings do NOT like taking penetrating hits)