Editing Warhammer 40,000/6th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

====Welcome to 6th Edition: Ion Weapons are to your right.====
The Tau have had a serious overhaul thanks to Jeremy Vetock (the Hamster-man of Awesomeness), only time and play-testing will tell. Things look good however. When transitioning over from your previous codex, you will note several things from the get-go:
*'''Suit Up:''' Tau battlesuits of all shapes and sizes have Blacksun Filters and Multitrackers by default alongside a price ''break''. 
*'''Slow Down:''' On the flipside of things, Tau vehicles no longer have access to Multitrackers or Target Locks. This mostly serves to slow down Hammerheads. Also no stabilization system on Broadsides, so move or shoot. Not as bad as it seems since they can still snapfire on the move and markerlights can boost snap-shots. Battlesuits have jetpacks which makes them relentless
*'''Support the Troops:''' Everything except Kroot and Vespids have Supporting Fire. If you have a guy within 6" of a friendly unit being charged...your unit gets to Overwatch. Think Empire and Detachments and you're not far off. Make sure to have your units with Markerlights fire first so that your other overwatching units can boost their BS. Since Markerlight Pinpoint states it boosts Snap Shots AND Overwatch, you should never lose to an assault based army like Blood Angels or Daemons.
**Keep in mind that a unit can only Overwatch once per assault phase, so while a single Ork Boyz squad will get shredded by everything in your cadre, if you get assaulted by two or more units, either you try to obliterate one unit, or you kill a couple of guys in each, but either way:  Your unit is probably going to get wiped out when they get into base contact.
*'''FIRE ZE MISSILES:''' In a surprising maneuver, Games Workshop released a FAQ one day after the codex dropped, simply to say "Nope! Denied!". Missile Drones may only join Broadside units. On the flip side, Seeker Missiles no longer need Markerlights to fire (though they benefit *greatly* from them.)
*'''Sproing:''' Vectored Retrothrusters are no longer special-issue; this means for a minimal investment per-squad, each Crisis unit can now Hit and Run. As long as the unit has at least one Drone, this is done at Initiative 4. Battlesuits no longer have to worry about being tied up by chaff units, and may even be able to tie weaker stuff up. Avoid anything resembling an assault unit, of course.
*'''Post FAQ Crisis:''' GW just FAQ'd that Crisis Suits can double-up on weapons without twin-linking them, but at the full cost of both weapons. Expect Crisis Suits with dual plasma rifles, and dual missile pods to become popular.

*'''The Crisis Crisis:''' You like Crisis suits, right? Of course you do. And with the new Farsight Enclaves supplement, you can indulge in your jet-pack fetish by taking them as troop choices. Think about it: Half of your army dropping onto the table at once, and they are scoring units. So much win.

So to sum it all, Tau are now a power army. Not only do you have delicious cheese combos, but all other armies' cheese could be hard countered by you to the ground. [[Necron|Mass]] [[Elysian Drop Troops|flyers]]? Velotrackers on everything! [[Deathwing|All]] [[Grey Knights|terminator]] [[Logan Grimnar|army]]? Eat plasma/ion interceptor shots! [[Eldar|Heavily]] [[Imperial Guard|covered]] [[Dark Angels|gunline]]? Ignore cover with markerlights! [[Tyranid|Nidzilla]]/[[Iyanden|Wraitharmy]]? Our cheap snipers would drown them in poisoned wounds. [[Imperial Guard|Mass]] [[Necron|heavy]] [[Blood Angels|mech]]? Fusion blaster drops and EMP grenades everywhere! [[Orks|Hordes]] [[Dark Eldar|of light]] [[Ravenwing|vehicles]]? Oh boy, our basic guns are S5 and their jink saves wouldn't help them due to markerlights.[[Blood Angels|Deep striking dedicated melee Units with Feel No Pain]]? Counterfire Defence Systems, and Early Warning Overrides will help you make short work of them. Well... There is no way one can out-cheese properly prepared Tau. Not like you can do all of these with one army, but if you want to ruin the day of some local gameclub cheesemonger Tau are definitely your army.

'''Modeling note:''' If you mind the the weeaboo aesthetic of the Tau battlesuits, Forge World makes variants of the Crisis and Broadside suits (as well as a named commander) that are more in line with the "high-tech aliens" look of the rest of the range. [http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/Warhammer-40000/Tau/TAU-BATTLESUITS-AND-DRONES/TAU_XV107_R_VARNA_BATTLESUIT.html They even have a Riptide!]