Tau...?

[Count Darvaleth]

Hello fellow denizens of the little crack in the universe,

Today, I had a thought. Before you all turn off your monitors for fear of insanity, don't worry: it's quite a small thought. You'll only drop a couple of marbles, and they won't roll too far. (Mine have already fallen of the Precipice of Unrelenting Despair. But enough on me.)

I was thinking of collecting Tau. But I don't know too much about them: they look fun, the models look nice, and I have an idea for very simple painting (spray black, dust-spray white to create highlights, ink & wash away, and use paints for details) which would mean they could all be painted pretty easily. :O

However, as I have said, I know little about them. What I ask of you, my dear demented companions, is a "sale's pitch" for the Tau. Sell me the army, let me see what it is that drives you Tau players, and I'll see if I share any common, well, interests, I suppose, with those Tau collectors.

If anyone would like to create the opposite, a post detailing why I should not sign up for the Greater Good, then that'd be helpful also. Essentially, I'm after Pros and Cons.


Thanks in advance for the help. I'm not really sure what the whole army is about, but like the look of them, and was hoping you guys could fill me in a bit. After all, being insane takes up quite a lot of cheesy-fried monkeys. And don't get me started on those dancing whales... they really make me want to iron my flying cat.

Yours forever, in life, death, and, erm, that painful part,

Count Darvaleth

 

[Lynks]

Well, the tau are will always be a firepower army, not matter how you play them. that said, they can be different in the ways that they fight. You can create your basic static gunline army that shoots the enemy down before they have even crossed the board or you can make a highly mobile force laying down the damage where it hurts.
you can then define your army be the units you field. You can field massed numbers of fire warriors all with the strongest basic weapon in the 40k world, the strength 5, ap 5, 30 inch range, rapid fire pulse rilfe, smothering your enemy under a hail of damage, making use of markerlights to make missing vitually impossible and cause a reaping, either pointing them in the right direction and telling them to shoot or to load them up in mech and have them move around in the fastest vehicles, albeit blood angels and dark eldar laying down their close range death. Alternatively, you could choose to field an army centred upon the elite (hehehe unit choice pun) battlesuits who can be customised to fill any role from tank hunting to killing heavily armoured foes to wiping out hordes and know that they will be able to achieve their purpose.
Tau still has access to some of the best weaponry in the game through their strength 10 ap1 72 inch railcannons which are almost garaunteed to kill the target, or one of the best sniper units in the game, pathfinders with the minaturised railrifle. essentially every weapon the tau has is of high quality, so i wont go into them all.
Tau are the army for a player who likes synergy and using swift desicive tactics to win the day. an overall dynamic army with great potential in the hands of a skilled player.

sold? ;P

 

[Sanai]

You cannot play the tau as a static gunline. You will lose against imperial guard.
The tau are a mobile, combined armes force. Fire warriors in transports make for a responsive, fluid force of skilled marksmen, while battlesuits really shine in their ability to hit and run exceptionally. Vespids and kroot provide variety for painting and modelling purposes, and fill roles fire warriors cannot.
Battlesuits are incredibly versatile and can be outfitted to fulfill a variety of roles really well.

 

[Count Darvaleth]

The idea of a static gunline seems like a fail to me; everything's so fast these days! I'd probably go for the "Fish of Fury". But my query is this:

Using transports to zip about with Tau, other than their £ cost (gulps at the size of the vehicles) how are they used in game-terms? I mean, you can't zoom, get out, shoot, then get back in to zoom next turn, can you? I've heard of hiding behind your transport to deter would-be survivors [they have to get through AV 12 first) from assaulting you. Can you shoot underneath your skimmers? I guess you can. (It could be anywhere, really high up etc. And even then you can see underneath it if you keep your flying stand!

Yes, this is similar to what I was thinking. Most interesting...

 

[Sanai]

You can in fact shoot through your skimmers.
Its called the Fish of Fury. Zoom in, unload fire warriors behind your devilfish, shoot through it, use the devilfish as cover for your fire warriors.

 

[Count Darvaleth]

Gah you ninja'd me Sanai. How embarrassing.

Yes, I'd heard Fish of Fury about the place. Seems like fun: having three devilfish zooming about each with ten guys and some drones... whatever they're for.

Although markerlights have me confused. Does each "markerlight" hit confer a bonus, or does each shooting hit on the target after it has been marked confer a bonus? Otherwise you could have all of them after one mark. Plus how long does it last?

 

[Sanai]

The markerlight is a shooting weapon. If it hits, a marker is placed on the enemy unit. You can expend markers when shooting at that unit to increase your bs while shooting and a variety of other bonuses.

 

[Anubis]

You can in fact shoot through your skimmers.
Its called the Fish of Fury. Zoom in, unload fire warriors behind your devilfish, shoot through it, use the devilfish as cover for your fire warriors.

Just beware of enemy deep strikers who will eat your fish of fury formation for lunch! I once bagged me 11 of 12 fire warriors with a 55pts deep striking sentinel! (okay, that was with old doctrined guard, but you get the idea?!)

A fish of fury is quite nasty because the 'V' formation makes it very difficult for most units to assault your squishy fish-cow people. (as you cannot come within 1" of a model you're not assaulting - those flying stands really protect you!)
But some canny minds will bait your formation with a hard-as-nails sacrifical unit you feel you must kill (because they're dead 'ard and will likely kill you!) and then pounce on you with template toting deep strikers like an angry, malicious, evil, ninja-kitten once you've exposed your warriors! (NB: I have two of those devil creatures - they are pure evil, but cute.)

Thus, it's good to bring some support units like battle suits and/or stealth suits to cover your flanks, (thus making the deep strike massively risky-suicidal), and aim to take on only a smaller portion of your foe's force...

Cheers!

 

[Sanai]

Yes, the idea is to systematically destroy the enemy force piece by isolated piece without letting the enemy get to grips with you.

 

[Count Darvaleth]

I'm sorta heading towards a "pure" Tau army (no Kroot or Vespid, to start with at least) with perhaps three units of 10-strong fire warriors zooming around in fishes, then a couple of commanders and then perhaps more crisis suits, with a, erm "fireknife" (?) set-up to handle all-comers.

Top that off with some, perhaps pathfinders? Or hammerheads? Then I'd be pretty much sorted.

How does it sound? :?:

 

[Sanai]

Three fire warrior teams in fish is a good number. I would recomend that you take at least two battlesuit teams, each team fitted out for a specialist role. Commanders are good choices as well and depending on points you may want two commanders, and bodyguard battlesuits with those commanders (if you have the points/money to spare)
Here are the different loadouts I would go with for battlesuit teams:
Close range anti-armour (fusion blasters, flamers, shields)
Anti-personel (burst cannons/missile pods, gun drones, airburst frag launcher, multi trackers)
Burn team (flamers, burst cannons, gun drones, multi-trackers)
Plasma (Plasma Rifles, Missile Pods, Multi trackers, cyclic ion blaster)

Each team can be further upgraded with hardwired kit for commanders/team leaders, upgrades, etc. You may prefer to build versatile teams with a variety of gear, but personally I feel specialist teams are more effective.

As for other options to add around the core of battlesuits and fire warriors, the following I feel are most useful.
Pathfinders: They add alot of markerlights, which is very useful.
Stealth Suits: Small elite unit. Very cool.
Broadsides or Hammerhead: The hammerhead has a bigger railgun (or ion cannon) and is more maneuverable, but broadsides are harder to wipe out (a unit of 3 instead of a single vehicle) and have more railguns.
Skyray: Havn't seen one in action yet, but their networked markerlights look handy. Pathfinders are probably better for markerlighting however.
Vespids: Adds some painting variety, decent guns, can keep up with battlesuits.

 

[Count Darvaleth]

Close range anti-armour (fusion blasters, flamers, shields)
Anti-personel (burst cannons/missile pods, gun drones, airburst frag launcher, multi trackers)
Burn team (flamers, burst cannons, gun drones, multi-trackers)
Plasma (Plasma Rifles, Missile Pods, Multi trackers, cyclic ion blaster)

Curious you don't include the common "Fireknife" variant. I'm thinking of a squad of three crisis suits with Plasma Rifles, Missile Launchers, and Multi-Trackers. Not bothering with team leader to save points. What do you think of that as a support role? Chucking out six Terminator-killing shots and another six high-strength shots, all at the comfortable range of 24" (making it up to 30" away from my target if I'm crafty) Plus their longer-ranged weapon can be used early on or against fast-approaching enemies, making them brilliant against Dark Eldar skimmers.

As a Commander set-up, I have a crafty idea:

Shas'el
- Airbursting Fragmentation Projector
- Cyclonic Ion Blaster
- Targeting Array
- Hard-wired Multi-Tracker

For only 100pts I get a horde-muncher. Say I take two of these bad boys, I will then be able to deal with, say, Orks or Tyranids. Coupled with the aforementioned Crisis Team, I will be all set!

EDIT: Ah, can't take two, Special Issue. Well, I can always take other stuff for the second guy, perhaps spreading the Special Stuff evenly...?

 

[Anubis]

I think a plasma rifle synergises better with the ion blaster... Keep in mind that 40k's average is T4 troops due to the prevelance of MEQ's. Being that the ion blaster is only S3, this means that roughly 50% of you to-wound rolls against MEQ's will also be at ap1 and thus will ignore their save.
An anti-horde set-up would be the airburst + something like a flamer or burst cannon... (I personally would prefer a flamer since it ignores cover which most hordes tend to rely on!)

I think sniper teams also deserve a mention, as they can be a real thorne - especially for those MEQ's. Sure pinning sucks right now as Ld is so damn high, but a possible 9 S6/ap3 shots for 1 heavy slot seems like not a bad buy?!
It also gives you a rather annyoing unit that can sit back say on an objective marker to contest it. Placed up high with a good field of fire, you can pretty much force your opponent to try and deal with this unit, thus diverting attention from your main force!

Cheers!

 

[Sanai]

My little brother liked to run battlesuits with plasma rifles/missile pods/multi trackers vs my old blood angels and they really chewed through power armoured units.
If you can spare points a team leader is handy simply so you can give him a hard wired drone controller to add two extra wounds to the unit but it isnt strictly neccesary.
The horde munching commander looks pretty handy. Alternitavely you can have 2 commanders, one with each special issue weapon.
I personally would prefer a burst cannon with the frag launcher simply because a lone commander is not going to survive long in flamer range of one of my guard squads.

 

[Bishop]

A Tau army in the hands of a skilled Tau player is a scary sight indeed!

Definitely take a (more) mobile force. It's really the best advantage they have. They have arguably one of the better transports in the game (Almost as good as a Wave Serpent ).

For the weapon loadouts - just don't glue any weapons on! Buy some magnets, and then you can switch them around game-to-game.

 

[Count Darvaleth]

For the weapon loadouts - just don't glue any weapons on! Buy some magnets, and then you can switch them around game-to-game.

Magnetising sounds incredibly stressful. I doubt I'd have the technological know-how.

Blu-tack, however...

 

[Bishop]

Blu Tack would work, if magnets are beyond your skill level.

To be honest, depending on the angles of the arms, you can put the weapons (plastic only ) on with nothing ... I've actually seen this!

 

[Lynks]

For the weapon loadouts - just don't glue any weapons on! Buy some magnets, and then you can switch them around game-to-game.

Magnetising sounds incredibly stressful. I doubt I'd have the technological know-how.

Blu-tack, however...

I used to blutack my carnifexes... it works in the very short term but just becomes stressful later on, i would avoid it if possible.

 

[Sanai]

The weapons and systems on battlesuits are designed to simply click into slots on the arms and shoulders.

 

[Fallen Angel]

Let me hijack this thread for a few seconds..

I've got some questions on my own

If I give a team leader a markerlight or a marker drone, can his team mates benefit from it if he hits a target with it?

Is all pathfinders equipped with a markerlight? For example, if I have a squad of eight pathfinders, can I fire eight markerlight shots in a singe turn with that unit?

 

[Sanai]

all pathfinders have a markerlight, so eight shots.
Only networked markerlights benefit the unit that fires it.

 

[Bishop]

Fallen Angel, that's a yes to the 2nd question.

Though, I'm not sure on the first one. The marker-light places a "marker" on the target unit, which can be expended for certain benefits. The only issue with your first suggestion might be the timing, as the Crisis team should fire all it's weapons at the same time... this would prevent it from using it's own marker lights.

(Granted, I'm not a Tau player... there should be a way to make the 1st suggestion work).....

edit: Yeah, networked markerlights (thanks Sanai, I forgot what they were called) /edit.

 

[Fallen Angel]

Allright! Thanks guys!

 

[Count Darvaleth]

I may be buying a box of Fire Warriors and a Battlesuit Commander today (along with the codex, of course!) to play at my local GW in a scheduled event. Hopefully my bare-bones force will be able to compete with the massive armies that normally frequent such event (known as "big games" in the store) and perhaps even make a solid contribution. (Similar to when I went with just 10 Necron Warriors and a Lord; using the teleport and a Subvert Machine stratagem I was given, I managed to destroy a Stormlord, the Fortress of Arrogance, a Baneblade, and two Vindicators, all with Gauss and the stratagem! )

Anyway, I'll see how it turns out. Of course, I'll have to assemble the damned things beforehand...

 

[Lynks]

wow, thats impressive! reminds me of an easter game i played where my entire army save for a lone carnifex was wiped out first turn, the carnifex then punched a baneblade which went apocalyptic, which sent the two other baneblades beside it apocalyptic, which wiped out 90% of the opposing force on the other side of my board section and the edges of the two board sections beside it. and the carnifex still had a wound