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I cant beat eldar...
I don't know what to do, or what I'm doing wrong

he always has a squad of 10 dark reapers in the back corner with a farseer and a warlock can conceal, guide and something else on them, the sit in cover and require 6s to hit almost always, and they shred anything they aim at.

He has banshee masks on characters that charge in to tie up my units,

tau hitting on 5+ feels awful

what can I do?

TO clarify, 10 dark reapers in 1 unit? or multiple squads he holds back in 1 blob? b/c if its one unit, i think it's probably worth it to just sprint a max squad or 2 of shield drones in the FA slot to just get into melee and bog them down until the end of the game. and if they really are in the back corner they won't be able to fall back

Drones to tie them down, or crisis suits with a commander with flamers. You have to get in range but once your in 6d6 auto hitting wounding on 3's rerolling failed wounds will end their shenanigans quickly. And don't forget to charge, keeping them locked in cc with something stupid like a piranha or devilfish works wonders at tying them up for the game.

Or use the super bad 3cp orbital laser strategem to just dump mortal wounds on them? inefficient, but thematically fun

Dark reapers are strong for sure. I think the best way to deal with them if they fire and fade is LOS ignoring weaponry. However, I know our LoS ignoring weapons aren’t the best of range either

So I ended up saving all my pennies and stuff and went out and bought the big daddy of battlesuits, the Ta'unar Supremacy Warsuit. I know how I plan on running it equipment wise and army wise (is it me or is this thing a beast even at 1200 pts? Shield drones protecting it make it so survivable!) But what I am not sure of is what Sept works best for it. I plan on putting 2 ethereals next to it to give it reroll 1's and 6+++ in case it needs them so its perfectly autonomous to the rest of the army (don't need no marker lights here!).

Tau seems good defensively, all those shots helping on overwatch could be devastating. Borkan seems good too, increasing the range on the more basic weapons can't be a bad thing. Farsight seems wasted, I don't see getting within 6" to reroll 1's to wound honestly.

Thoughts?

I will go for Tau, no doubt.

Overwatch +5 is great in a huge suit like Tau'nar, to avoid charges and supporting screening units. Don't forget that Tau'nar can't leave a combat and still shoot. Also you can benefit of Shadowsun and Focused Fire in case you need

To maximize Tau'nar you will need markerlights, if you play 2000 pts your army will be Taunar plus things that make Tau'nar stronger, that is all

Good to know about falling back and shooting, important to note it doesn't have fly even with a large movement.

So i'm not a tau player and it's probably one of the armies i'd want after dark eldar and then genestealer cult. That said is it possible to run a fairly decent unconventional force? I want to run an army without Riptides or Stormsurge. I hear Stormsurge aren't good in 8th like they were in 7th and tau just curb-stomped my dark eldar in 7th though I did manage to kill a stormsurge once.

I'd be very new at thinking of tactics for tau. I like the basic infantry and some of the support systems. I think drones are too expensive to take if I use them on anything smaller than a battlesuit so most infantry probably aren't worth blocking with drones unless there's a boost the drones give. I kind of want to take a fairly good amount of piranhas and just load em up with 2 seeker missiles each (probably no fusion blasters as that would cost too much and they might not live that long). Piranhas also sound ok at taking objectives with their high speed.

Anyway i'm not entirely sure. Battlesuits are good but seem expensive when you load em up with everything and all the various ranges on some of em make me feel like some of their weapons are going to waste unless they hit a good range which wouldn't be cost effective. As far as ranges I've always been told tau's general effective "F- off!" range is 2"-18".

What advice would you veteran tau players have for me? Keep in mind I don't think i'd want anything bigger than a ghostkeel as far as battle suits are concerned. I think stealth suits and crisis suits are more my thing. I might actually just take a mixture of infantry, light vehicles with long range along with medium sized battle suits. Is that even viable?

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (T'au Empire) [92 PL, 8CP, 1,774pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Battle-forged CP [3CP]

Detachment CP [5CP]

T'au Empire Sept Choice: Bork'an Sept

+ HQ +

Cadre Fireblade [2 PL, 42pts]: Markerlight

Commander in XV8 Crisis Battlesuit [7 PL, 108pts]: 2. Through Unity, Devastation, Airbursting fragmentation projector, Plasma rifle, Shield generator, Velocity tracker, Warlord, XV8-02 Crisis Iridium battlesuit
. Supernova launcher (replaces 1 airbursting fragmentation projector)

+ Troops +

Kroot Carnivores [3 PL, 50pts]: 10x Kroot

Kroot Carnivores [3 PL, 50pts]: 10x Kroot

Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]
. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Pulse rifle
. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

+ Elites +

Firesight Marksman [1 PL, 25pts]: Markerlight, Pulse pistol

Firesight Marksman [1 PL, 25pts]: Markerlight, Pulse pistol

XV8 Crisis Battlesuits [24 PL, 496pts]
. Crisis Shas'ui: 3x Cyclic ion blaster, XV8-02 Crisis Iridium battlesuit
. Crisis Shas'ui: 3x Cyclic ion blaster
. Crisis Shas'ui: 3x Cyclic ion blaster
. Crisis Shas'ui: 3x Cyclic ion blaster
. Crisis Shas'ui: 3x Cyclic ion blaster
. Crisis Shas'vre: 3x Cyclic ion blaster

+ Fast Attack +

Kroot Hounds [3 PL, 48pts]: 12x Kroot Hound

Tactical Drones [2 PL, 80pts]
. 8x MV7 Marker Drone

Tactical Drones [2 PL, 80pts]
. 8x MV4 Shield Drone

+ Heavy Support +

XV88 Broadside Battlesuits [21 PL, 366pts]
. Broadside Shas'ui: 2x High-yield missile pod, 2x Smart missile system, Seeker missile, Velocity tracker
. Broadside Shas'ui: 2x High-yield missile pod, 2x Smart missile system, Seeker missile, Velocity tracker
. Broadside Shas'vre: 2x High-yield missile pod, 2x Smart missile system, Seeker missile, Velocity tracker

XV88 Broadside Battlesuits [21 PL, 369pts]
. Broadside Shas'ui: 2x High-yield missile pod, 2x Smart missile system, Seeker missile, Velocity tracker
. Broadside Shas'ui: 2x High-yield missile pod, 2x Smart missile system, Drone controller, Seeker missile
. Broadside Shas'vre: 2x High-yield missile pod, 2x Smart missile system, Seeker missile, Velocity tracker

++ Battalion Detachment +5CP (T'au Empire) [13 PL, 5CP, 225pts] ++

+ No Force Org Slot +

Detachment CP [5CP]

T'au Empire Sept Choice: Bork'an Sept

+ HQ +

Cadre Fireblade [2 PL, 42pts]: Markerlight

Cadre Fireblade [2 PL, 42pts]: Markerlight

+ Troops +

Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]
. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Pulse rifle
. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]
. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Pulse rifle
. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

Strike Team [2 PL, 35pts]
. Fire Warrior Shas'ui: Pulse rifle
. 4x Fire Warrior w/ Pulse Rifle

+ Fast Attack +

Kroot Hounds [3 PL, 36pts]: 9x Kroot Hound

++ Total: [105 PL, 13CP, 1,999pts] ++

Created with BattleScribe

flamingkillamajig

How you run your force is entirely up to you, and an infantry swarm is a good, though bloated way to run tau. By bloated, I mean that you are likely going to spend more time in the movement phase moving your models than another tau player, and you may find your games running a bit longer as a consequence.

If you don't mind an unconventional suggestion, consider the Tiger Shark. I was pleasantly surprised at the survivability and sheer amount of firepower available to it, especially if you manage to support it with 2 helpings of Mont'ka with Farsight and another commander.

Also, don't be quick to consider heavier options when it comes to vehicles. The Skyray and Ionhead are entertaining support options as well. I'm not a great fan of the Piranha, though the Tetra with its heavy markerlight is worthy of consideration too.

 flamingkillamajig wrote:
So i'm not a tau player
What advice would you veteran tau players have for me? Keep in mind I don't think i'd want anything bigger than a ghostkeel as far as battle suits are concerned. I think stealth suits and crisis suits are more my thing. I might actually just take a mixture of infantry, light vehicles with long range along with medium sized battle suits. Is that even viable?

The list I just posted is competitive and uses the normal Crisis teams without the big boyz.

It attempts to mark two units, and then delete three high priority targets. The range benefit for Bork'an forces is quite real on Broadsides and FW, as the expanded Rapid Fire range is quite nice.

What it cannot do with Markerlights it attempts to do with Volume of Fire firepower. It is ideally suited to killing both elites and hordes. Making matters worse for the foe is the Kroot Hounds and Kroot Screens we can use to blockade the firebase...and the fact that the fire base is quite mobile, so cornering it isn't the simple task it might otherwise appear to be. It's light on Fire Warriors, and that trade off isn't insignificant when it comes to going and getting objectives. I would always prefer to have ONE unit of them at full strength and you could make a sacrifice somewhere in the list to get that (for maximum stratagem/ability shenanigans). Other than that one little issue, it brings a lot of pain. The volume of fire is tremendously high and effective. Re-rolling Hits and Wounds on a Broadside unit is scary, and a thing. Added Missile helps make that initial strike quite the event.

Downsides: It is not T'au Sept, so you take a bigger beating from assaul armies, and you must learn to use Kroot effectively. They are exceptional at creating the corona you need, and recreating a new one. Fire Warriors can be used similarly but the lack of T'au Sept Overwatch will EVENTUALLY hurt, so you have to deploy according to the advantage Bork'an provides. Also yuou have to go to third party vendors to get all the bitz you need for it, which is annoying but ultimately necessary if you're ever going to afford it.

Upside: Extreme firepower. If you think it looks good on paper, wait until you see it wipe all three Ravagers off the table in a single round. It's impressive. I took a 7 flyer, 7 Venom list and tables all but two Archons (because Archons never die or they die immediately, lol). LOTS of things have fly in the meta (even non flyers), and boy do those +1's pay off for it.

Ultimately you have to feel your own way, but this is my current competitive iteration, and like you I tend to prefer not using the big stuff if I can get away with it. People just don't enjoy the Triple Tide matchup and I would rather win with something people don't hate as much. That's just me, and winning is winning so hey: if you don't HAVE to use the crazy meta build, why do it. I mean right? T'au has a lot of good options to win with that don't get used.

Take it for what it's worth but the list does work. My original version had a Riptide and a couple MORE Broadsides. This version actually hits harder and finds it easier to get around the battlefield.

I'm playtesting a 3 Ghostkeel 9 broadside army...so far it's working. The key with Tau is one how are you going to delete targets ( here most use riptides but there are plenty of options.) 2. How do you protect your killers. 3. Board control.

I feel there are very few unusable units as everything can fit in. It's simply a matter of the high tournament meta requires efficiency and the units that are continually mentioned maximize it.

Hi.

I'm a tired of melee fights ork player, wanna test some Tau.

What do you recommend for starting? Start collecting?

I have no idea about Tau, marklights or whatever, and every Tau name seems the same for me (i.e XV123, IV4543).

I'm just an ignorant, just wanna buy some boxes, Paint and learn something, Thanks.

Kebabcito wrote:
Hi.

I'm a tired of melee fights ork player, wanna test some Tau.

What do you recommend for starting? Start collecting?

I have no idea about Tau, marklights or whatever, and every Tau name seems the same for me (i.e XV123, IV4543).

I'm just an ignorant, just wanna buy some boxes, Paint and learn something, Thanks.

The Start Collecting Tau is basically mandatory. For a small amount more than a Crisis Team box you get 10 Strike Team (or Breachers), an extra 2 drones, a support turret and an Ethereal on (optional) hoverboard. Crisis Team includes 6 drones, so 8 drones total. Crisis Suits aren't super good right now but you can build them as Commanders and you're allowed one Commander per detachment, which should tell you how good Commanders are. Want 4 meltaguns hitting on 2+ dropping from Deep Strike? Commanders can do that.

The Tau Christmas Battleforce is up for pre-order. No Ethereal, but 3 Crisis Team, 10 Strike Team, 3 Stealth Team (good stuff), 1 Commander model (Enforcer or Coldstar - Coldstar being better and stupidly mobile) and a Devilfish Transport (pretty durable with good amount of dakka for a transport), plus all attendant drones/support turrets. All at a discount over retail.

So either of those two is a great place to start. After that, a second box of Strike Team/Breachers to fill out Troops - or, if you like Crisis Suits, a second box of Start Collecting (does anyone buy just Crisis Suits instead of Start Collecting?) and maybe a box of Pathfinders for some Markerlights and special weapons, Ion Rifles being pretty decent.

After that, the Cadre Fireblade is a great, cheap HQ that buffs Strike Teams with extra shots at half range (which is 15" for Strike Teams), the aforementioned Stealth Teams are good, and the bigger robots (Broadsides, Ghostkeel and Riptide) are all good choices.

Drone-wise, Shield Drones are almost mandatory to protect some of the bigger units - Commanders, Crisis Suits, the big robots. Gun Drones are also decently mobile objective grabbers that have a lot of shots but only a BS5+, though that can be buffed.

Yeah, the start collecting is decent. Firewarriors are a good core, and these days crisis suits have a couple decent builds, depending on what you want. Also you can use them as XV-8 commanders.

The biggest key to success with Tau is to make good use of drones. They can take hits for your battlesuits, and if they are shield drones, they might just completely negate the hit.

For reference, I just had a mirror match of Tau vs. Tau. We both had a core of powerful suits (I had ghostkeels, he had broadsides and a riptide) backed up by drones, and they really kept the hard-hitters alive longer than you would expect. He did make some mistakes, putting most of his drones on the other side of his riptide from his broadsides, and sticking his commander in front of his stuff (so once the drones were dead by it, it was easy pickings) so I only had to kill off 8 ish drones to take out his broadsides, and the riptide by itself was not enough to punch out my ghostkeels, which with drone support had weathered his full combo quite well.

In other news, does anyone have plans for their army after the chapter approved point drops? My 2k competitive list is getting 135 points (I have 2 ghostkeels, 2 squads of stealth suits, a squad of crisis suits, and a quad-fusion coldstar who are all benefiting) and I am going back and forth on what to add. I had 4 points of wiggle room, so I have 139 points to work with unless I drop something. I have some flamer crisis suits, which could be fun, but I worry that they would just be heavy weapon bait since they would need to start on the board to have any impact. Alternatively I could add a third squad of stealth suits, with 6 suits or 5 plus drones. That would add some extra board control, but they seem a bit anemic offensively still, and my current stealth blob seems to do a good job already. I could add some burst cannon/ATS crisis suits, but that would need new models (yes I am bad and do not magnetize my suits). I did eventually hit on adding 13 gun drones in two squads to beef up by beta strike/horde clear. This has the advantage of doing decent damage, being models I already have (I think I have that many... at the start of 8th I went ham on the gun drones, partially since most kits used to only come with gun drones, so I had plenty floating around to build) and fitting my horde Tau skew list theme (the only non-infantry or drone models are commanders, Shield Generator Ghostkeels protected by shield drones from stealth suits, or a squad of crisis suits that deep strike in, accompanied by some drones)

Woah, nice explanation guys, thanks you both.

So I'll start buying a start collecting after I finish my orkz, then another start collecting or a chrismas box, Tau seems cool to paint (and faster than orks...).

Kebabcito wrote:
Hi.

I'm a tired of melee fights ork player, wanna test some Tau.

What do you recommend for starting? Start collecting?

I have no idea about Tau, marklights or whatever, and every Tau name seems the same for me (i.e XV123, IV4543).

I'm just an ignorant, just wanna buy some boxes, Paint and learn something, Thanks.

Firesight Marksman and Cadre Fireblades are great as far as Markerlight support goes. Recommend those strongly. Broadsides are very effective with a normal inexpensive commander next to him and twice as dangerous when near Shadowsun. Though if you skip Shadowsun you can get the extra 6" on your weapons which pays dividends.

Anyone else going to try suicide Vespid squads with their juicy points drop? Unlike everything else in our army with problems, the main problem with Vespid was always their points cost

They do seem tempting, especially considering the preponderance of their main target, marines. If they were plastic rather than resin they would be even more tempting. When I assembled darkstrider, I was reminded that I hate superglue!

I have had a lot of luck disrupting my local meta with my farsight crazy tau force.

It runs 3x3 man stealth suits with their special beacons, 2 ghost keels, a 6 man Crisis bodyguard squad each with 2 flames and an advanced targeting system to get that sweet ap-1, Farsight, a coldstar with special melee blades / fusion blasters, a riptide for long range support, a commander with 4 missile pods, and the basic 5 man teams of firewarriors and a few marksmen for markerlights(plus the mandatory half ton of shield drones) Its hard to deal with the sheer craziness that is that much stealth starting t1 so close to your enemy lines and with the wording on the beacons it's entirely possible to drop those bodyguards and farsight onto the field within flamer range. From there its charge, keep the enemy tied down, then jump back out of cc and shoot again. Add the strat so farsight doesnt shoot but the bodyguards get to reroll failed wounds and well.... things die to that level of flamer power. Plus between the shield drones and the bodyguards its almost impossible to kill farsight without killing everything else first.

That's about as unconventional as I have ever seen tau played.

That sounds like a similar playstyle to my list, though mine is built around Shadowsun rather than Farsight.

My list has a core of Shadowsun, 2 Ghostkeels with rakers, fusion blasters, TL, and shields, and 2 squads of 3 stealth suits that bring shield drones. They just take a spot on the board and take control. Between the stealth suit's drones, Shadowsun's drones, and the natural advantages of the ghostkeels, they are quite resilent.

I back them up with a blob of 20 firewarriors around a fireblade, a coldstar with quad fusion, a ATS/MP crisis commander (He has been in my army since the beginning--the second kit I got was crisis suits, and after 8th he got promoted from being a buff bot shas'ui to a missile commander), special weapon pathfinders, and 6 squads of breachers that sprint across the board. I also have some kroot, Darkstrider, and a plas/MP crisis team with some gun drones to drop in on people.

The in-your-face style of Tau does seem to do quite well, especially with the progressive-scoring type missions, I am able to get out and score quite well.

The breachers are interesting--with their short range they can often lack targets, especially against gunlines, but once they get close, they just melt stuff.

LoftyS wrote:
Anyone else going to try suicide Vespid squads with their juicy points drop? Unlike everything else in our army with problems, the main problem with Vespid was always their points cost

I own 27 Stingwings. so yeah.

 Jancoran wrote:

LoftyS wrote:
Anyone else going to try suicide Vespid squads with their juicy points drop? Unlike everything else in our army with problems, the main problem with Vespid was always their points cost

I own 27 Stingwings. so yeah.

Noice, 24 here, all metal. Dang heads keep falling off though

2 part epoxy is the answer

 KonTheory wrote:
I cant beat eldar...
I don't know what to do, or what I'm doing wrong

he always has a squad of 10 dark reapers in the back corner with a farseer and a warlock can conceal, guide and something else on them, the sit in cover and require 6s to hit almost always, and they shred anything they aim at.

He has banshee masks on characters that charge in to tie up my units,

tau hitting on 5+ feels awful

what can I do?

This is kind of list taloring but this would handle it quite nicely. Take a coldstar (or an enforcer for turn 2 deepstrike) and give him 3 airburst frags and upgrade one to the supernova launcher and take advance targeting system. This will do decent damage to the unit. also charging them isn't a terrible option. Another build that can work would be a 4 plasma coldstar and just fly into the building. Or a 4 flamer coldstar and do the same thing (3flamer ats is probably better). Outside of that just making him burn 2 CP a turn to protect it after firing a single smart missle system at him is also viable. Just destroy the rest of his army. Start as far away as you can also.

 Jancoran wrote:

LoftyS wrote:
Anyone else going to try suicide Vespid squads with their juicy points drop? Unlike everything else in our army with problems, the main problem with Vespid was always their points cost

I own 27 Stingwings. so yeah.

Whats the draw. Hitting on 4s, wounding on 2s at -2 AP? Any tricks im missing?

 Dynas wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:

LoftyS wrote:
Anyone else going to try suicide Vespid squads with their juicy points drop? Unlike everything else in our army with problems, the main problem with Vespid was always their points cost

I own 27 Stingwings. so yeah.

Whats the draw. Hitting on 4s, wounding on 2s at -2 AP? Any tricks im missing?

Markerlights affect them.

 Jancoran wrote:

 Dynas wrote:

 Jancoran wrote:

LoftyS wrote:
Anyone else going to try suicide Vespid squads with their juicy points drop? Unlike everything else in our army with problems, the main problem with Vespid was always their points cost

I own 27 Stingwings. so yeah.

Whats the draw. Hitting on 4s, wounding on 2s at -2 AP? Any tricks im missing?

Markerlights affect them.

And 14" move unboosted. Borderline Coldstar buddies. Also, whatever job they don't finish with shooting, they can finish with melee.

I'm new to Tau and building out a 1,000 pt list for a team event and thinking about using something along the lines of this:

Outrider detachment:
Enforcer with 4 Fusion blasters, shield drones
2 squads of shield drones
Pathfinder team

Vanguard detachment:
Enforcer with 4 Fusion blasters, shield drones
2 Firesight Marksmen
2 Riptides (ATS, HBC)

Contemplating replacing an enforcer with shadowsun with some drones. Maybe another squad of drones instead of the pathfinders.