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

==Helpful Hints and Fun Strategies==
[[File:Tauassault.jpg|200px|thumb|right|Rule number one. '''Never. Fucking. Ever.''']]

Here's probably the number 1 tip for the Tau. Do you like seeing squad after squad of Fire Warriors get slapped to death by Conscripts? No? Keep them out of melee combat.

The question often arises on the viability of Burst Cannons Vs. Smart Missiles Vs. Gun Drones for vehicles.While smart missiles are better than burst cannons, both are twin linked and come in at the same number of shots, strength, AP and cost (free); however since the smart missiles have an additional 12" extra range, homing and ignores cover, there is nothing really that makes the burst cannon a superior alternative to smart missiles as a secondary vehicle weapon. The real question is now whether to take Gun Drones or Smart Missile Systems. Pinning, BS2 detachability and passenger firing status vs Homing, Ignores cover and extra range. 

[[Meme|Also]], [[Markerlight]]s, we should talk about them. These things are force-multipliers, plain and simple. Without them, you will do at best "alright" but with them (properly used) you will be kicking ass left and right. For all the talk about the Tau being awesome at shooting, the truth is that they are merely "good" at it. They put out a lot less [[dakka]] than, say, the [[Orks]] or the [[Imperial Guard]]. However, what shooting the Tau do have is very powerful when it hits, but it only hits half the time on a typical roll. Markerlights are what allow them to hit almost all the time, marker units lighting up the target and letting another unit slam that target with very specific fire-for-effect. This means that markerlight-heavy units are almost always best used when paired with other units, as the markerlight-wielders need to be able to paint the target, and the other unit needs to be in range to hit them when they do. If that supporting unit is very long range and has good line of sight (like broadsides or a hammerhead) then the markerlight unit can push forward and select targets for destruction from beyond your enemy's ability to retaliate against them. In contrast, if the supporting unit is short ranged (by Tau standards, like crisis suits or fire warriors) than they need to stay near the markerlight unit to take advantage of them. Since most armies will only have one or maybe two good solid sources of markerlight support, it is important to know what it will be best directed against (see target prioritization below,) usually starting with enemy vehicles and then moving on to wiping out infantry, though it will very depending on the foe and their strategy. Markerlights encourage you to focus fire on one target, wipe it out quickly, then move on to the next. Some units will put out more marker tokens than others, and you need to be careful about what you spend them for. Vehicle targets will have them spent boosting to-hit rolls and firing seeker missiles, infantry squads will also have to-hit rolls boosted paired with cover-denial if you can spring for it (the enemy will not be able to hide from the Tau's guns for long.) If your enemy is smart, they will realize all of this and make things hell for your markerlight-wielding units as quickly as possible. If ''you'' are smart, you will use this to lure your foe into a Kauyon trap (more on that later.)  

One thing that is even more important for Tau armies than it is for others is target prioritization. Indeed, in bygone editions the Tau had special equipment and options for circumventing target priority rules. The rules may have been dropped, but the need to be selective remains. Certain targets need to be dropped at the earliest possible turn, then the rest of the enemy can be defeated in detail after that. One hefty priority is when the enemy hides their infantry in<b> [[METAL BOXES|metal boxes]], THE COWARDS, THE FOOLS, YOU SHOULD TAKE AWAY THEIR METAL BAWKSES</b>. Preferably with [[markerlight]]-boosted railgun hits or the missile massacre on the first turn, if you can manage it. The moment enemy infantry reaches your lines, you lose, and they do that faster in vehicles. The moment enemy infantry is forced to footslog across the tabletop, ''they'' lose, as infantry in the open are a turkey-shoot in the face of the Tau's superior firepower. Let Crisis suits take the fight to enemy infantry, whittling down heavy infantry with plasma and missiles or burning blobs to cinders with flamers and burst canons, while the railgun units finish off the remaining enemy vehicles. If they overwhelm you with enough bodies and vehicles to soak up all your [[dakka]] and still keep coming, then do not be afraid to give ground and fall back, drawing them further in and giving you a little more time to pour on the fire. Remember, the Tau value mobility and holding the line is secondary to the destruction of the enemy. After all, once the enemy is dead, the terrain is yours to claim without contest.  

The Tau Empire codex will describe two central in-lore strategies employed by the Tau, Mont'ka and Kauyon. Mont'ka, "The Death Blow", involves bringing the Tau's full force to bare on a linchpin target which when removed will compromise the enemy's entire strategy. Kauyon, "The Patient Hunter", involves luring the enemy to the Tau, where they can fall into one of the most deadly cross-fires Tau weaponry can produce. ''[[Dawn of War]]'' would have you believe that these two strategies are mutually exclusive, and the codex itself does little to suggest otherwise. However, the truth is that both strategies are two sides of the same coin, and that one strategy can be flipped over and turned into the other in an instant. The battlefield situation is fluid, and so to should be your strategy. Tau are an army ill-suited to getting stuck-in, so any offensive actions will halt just at the edge of the Tau's maximum range, and the Tau forces will fall back from an enemy counter-attack. In this way, the battle lines get pushed and pulled backward and forward across the course of a match. You might start with a Mont'ka strategy, sending in Crisis suits (possibly with deep strikes) to hit the enemy hard on a critical unit, or push a Hammerhead Gunship ahead of the line to clear its line of sight to a target. Both will do great damage, but such units in turn attract a lot of enemy attention, becoming a lure for Kauyon in the process.  Take advantage of the enemy's distraction, and use the rest of your force to hit the enemy in a more vulnerable flank, or just position them to set up a cross fire they cannot escape from in time. Do not treat your units as expendable, but do weigh your risks and do not be afraid to take a risky path if the payoff will lead to victory. Exploit the range of your weapons and your mobility to get the enemy to break ranks in a gambit to reach you, pulling them into the open and cutting them down in equal measure, always ready to adjust your approach as the situation shifts.  

'''Wall of Death'''
Piranhas are fast vehicles, and possess AV 11 in their front armor. While useless against dedicated anti-tank such as lascannons and melta, this makes them impervious to small arms such as lasguns and bolters. One can use Piranhas as a mobile "wall" against squads of foot-slogging infantry. The infantry will be unable to pass through the Piranha squad, and the Piranhas can even fire with essential impunity. For added hilarity, do not forget your flechette launchers. If used properly, piranhas can even block enemy vehicles, by moving in a way said vehicle cannot turn or move without coming within 1" of the piranha. The vehicle would have to move back, turn, and move out, avoiding the 1" proximity, disrupting their entire movement and possibly shooting phase. Just be careful when the vehicle shoots back.  Oh what's that? Disruption pods give stealth now?  Stick these bad boys on your piranha, and laugh as your opponent tries to get through a 3+ cover save as you flat-out right into his face. Or for even more hilarity, seeker missiles. Get that piranha beside those valuable tanks and let those missiles fly.

'''Moving Cover'''
Everyone knows crisis suits for the Jump-Shoot-Jump, the ability to jump out of cover, fire, and jump back in, leading to endless annoyance for your opponent. This also works in reverse, with the humble gun drone and a squad of infantry. Have some gun drones (like the ones that come with devilfish) in front of some fire warriors. Move them together, the gun drones leading. When the shooting phase comes, move the gun drones back behind the fire warriors and shoot with impunity. Done firing? In the assault phase, move the gun drones back ahead. Instant cover! Brilliant! This works for Kroot, Fire Warriors, and even Broadsides! Stealth Suits too can do the Jump-shoot-jump tactic almost as well as the Crisis Suit for a lower cost. Bear in mind their weaker statblocks and shorter range, however. Still probably the cheapest way to get jump-capable Fusion Blasters on the table.

'''Fuck Troops''' Fire warriors, despite their very sexy pulse weapons, kinda suck (less so in 6th Ed though...) This tactic minimizes their place on the field in place of maximizing the more effective battlesuits. Typically you have bare-bones squads of six fire warriors hiding in devilfish behind terrain. The whole time they sit there while your Crisis, Hazard, Stealth and Broadside suits do all the work until it's time to claim objectives. Ironically, this setup actually favors the Sky Ray over the Hammerhead, as this tactic heavily reduces the number of markerlights in your army, and bs4 laser pointers (not flashlights) on an AV13 platform are invaluable. One particularly effective tactic is to completely remove Crisis suits as well, and stick entirely to Hazard suits, broadsides and stealth suits. This makes for an extremely mobile and trollworthy army bound to make Space Marine armies shit their pants in rage.
* With the arrival of the Farsight Enclaves suppliment, it is now entirely possible to do an army completely devoid of buying those points eating Fire Warriors.

[[Image:Kroot_Trolling.jpg‎ |thumb|Just look at that grin on his face. An epic troll.]]
'''[[Kroot Conga Line]]''' <s>Now it's history due to reserve limit, but it worth saving just for lulz. ''It's very situational (as in your opponent being a compete retard), but it is perhaps one of the absolute funniest ways to use the Kroot and twist the rules at the same time. This requires your opponent to have all of his forces in Reinforcements, but not Drop Podding or Deep Striking, and for you to have enough Kroot to form a line along the board. Simply infiltrate your Kroot to their side of the board and form a line that manages to keep in coherency while also covering the entire side. They will be unable to draw any reinforcements, they will count as Destroyed, and you will have won in the Deployment phase.''</s> Place a big line of Kroot in front of your firing line, stretching all across the board. This keeps enemy units from assaulting you and you can abuse Supporting Fire by having your whole army overwatch a single unit. Add markerlights and counter fire defense systems to drink your opponents tears. (This works because only the overwatching unit needs Supporting Fire, not the unit being charged.)

'''British Firing Line''' If you've seen The Patriot, you'll know what this means. Basically, just push as many warriors out on the field with two pulse rifles Tau up in the front and put all of the carbines in the back. Camp like a bitch in terrain but make sure there is a bit of open ground. Exploit the Supporting Fire special rule ruthlessly. Send your Crisis suits out to kill any and all ordinance carrying people. Have broadside suits camp in the back with a few ordinance rail guns to pound the living shit out of any assaulting units while said assaulting units are being chewed the fuck out of them. Laugh as you see said enemy cry as his precious troopers being chewed to bits by fire. As powerful as this is against an enemy who has to cross the tabletop, this strategy's main vulnerability is from enemies who can bypass the firing line altogether, either through Deep Strikes or Outflank maneuvers. You might want to hold a Crisis team back as a mobile reserve, jumping up and down the line to counter threats as they come up and lend extra fire power to prevent the line from collapsing.  

'''Gun Drone Spam'''  Something that has never really been widely used, this is centered on stuffing as many gun drones as you can into as many Devilfishes as you can field. sneak around cover, flat out to an objective and disembark next turn. [[Troll|Surprise!]] gun drones in your face without the pesky scatter. 

'''Big Daddy, Little Sister''' Shadowsun combined with a RipTide provide infiltrate, stealth, shrouded as well as a 3d6 jetpack move. Infiltrating and JSJ'ing with a giant mech and HQ that receive a +3 modifier to cover is more than able to put a halt to enemy advances. Not to mention the fact that they can get around quite fast. This is allowed as the Riptide is not always just one model, as it can take drones via a drone controller, an independent character is allowed to join it.

'''Farsun/Shadowsight Bomb''' Due to the lack of restriction against it, you can take Farsight and Shadowsun in the same list and attach Shadowsun to your Farsight bomb to bestow stealth and shrouded to the entire unit (which is supremely ironic as Shadowsun absolutely hates Farsight and expects confront him in battle one day.)  There is some debate regarding weather to use Farsight or Shadowsun as your actual warlord. The scatter-free deep strike is super useful, but is a one-and-done and could be achieved through beacons, whereas the 3d6 jetpack moves will be useful all game long. Really it all comes down to what the rest of your list looks like, and how you plan on using the bomb unit. Ally with Tigurius and use Infinity Gate (if you managed to roll it) to rinse and repeat. Your opponent won't have enough intercept to hit this otherwise untouchable deathstar.

'''Out Dakka Anything''' The new codex reduces the costs of damn near EVERYTHING. This allows you to take more bodies than [[Khornate Knights|all the dead Sisters that the Grey Knights killed]]. In a 2,000 point battle, ten 12 man squads of Firewarriors, 6 FULL squads of suits with Plasma Dakka, the Pope swinging his scepter around saying "Shoot them again!", and then whatever amount of dakka you want to take in whatever amounts allows you to fill something with enough pulse/plasma dakka to ensure it's dead. Be sure to bring your tearcups when facing large amounts of infantry, and even flyers wont be able to stand up to 1,200,000 pulse rifle shots a turn.

'''Darkstrider and Friends''' Darkstrider's Structural Analyzer allows you to treat the enemy's toughness as 1 lower when you shoot at them. Essentially, a T4 Spess Mehreen is now T3, and most monstrous creatures are now T4-5. Pathfinders can take cheap rail rifles, three to a squad. Stick Darkstrider with a unit of Rail / Ion Pathfinders, and your opponent will need to wipe the mess off the floor.'  Stick  Ob'lotai 9-0 in with them for more insta-gibby goodness.

'''Donkey Punch Delivery System''' XV8-02 Iridium Armor. Onager Gauntlet. Vectored Retrothrusters. Donkey punching the enemy to death out of nowhere? Priceless.

'''Drone Babysitter''' Drone Controllers now have the drones share the BS of the wearer. Sticking a Babysitter commander with a full squad of marker drones means a ton of BS5 markers exactly where you want them. The only problem is it might be a bit overkill. But since when has that been bad? (The answer is when you regularly have 3+ unused markerlight hits. Of course, now that there's no cap on BS from markerlights, I'm sure you can find some way to spend them.)

'''Multitasking Markers''' basically 1 Commander with plasma, melta, drone controller, target lock, 2xBodyguards/3xCrisis with plasma, melta, target lock, each, 6 to 8 markerdrones at BS5 thanks to commander target lock means you can mark one unit and shoot the hell out of another one.  Better yet, take a unit of Pathfinders as well, and use two of the marker counters generated above to augment ''their'' markerlights, which should nearly double the amount of marker counters you get out of them.

'''The Meatgrinder'''  This one is pretty simple.  Equip a maximum squad of crisis suits with dual burst cannons and give them support via a support commander with a healthy number of markerlight drones.  24 str5 shots at BS5 will undoubtedly punch a sizable hole into whatever horde you're shooting at, if not wipe most of the squad out.  Two teams of crisis suits equipped this way will pretty much remove the entire squad.

'''Troll Drones''' Basically get at least four vehicles that can carry drones, twin HH and twin devilfish are an easy method as well as piranhas You want at least 8 drones, 12 is awesome. Detach all of the drones and put them close to each other and in an area you think that the enemy will be assaulting. When their assaulters get close, (within 15 inches of a FW squad is ideal) you zoom your drones out and surround them in a bubble. Now the enemy has to assault the drones, but here's the good part. Since the drones aren't all one unit then you can only lose at most two drones per assault phase. Now, if your ballsy enough then you did this within 6 inches of a FW squad so they overwatch. But if you couldn't then thats fine because those assaulters will have to eat plasma during your next turn. During that next turn you will close the gap made by he two dead drones with the other drones, and march up a unit of FW to be in overwatch range. For the love of all that's holy don't counter charge with the other drones, your opponent has to be the ones to charge them. Thus, for 12 drones you can keep an enemy occupied for 3 turns before the bubble is too thin to hold the assaulters, that is 6 turns of shooting for you (3 overwatch cycles and 3 normal cycles) at rapid fire range. So between at least one FW squad, and the drones, no assault unit should escape alive. This doesn't work against jump infantry, they'll just laugh at you and hop over the drones. So for the price of ZERO (the drones are free remember?) you can babysit/slaughter a squad of 200+ point terminators for a long time.
*Or, if you're not playing a complete idiot, they'll know to just make a disordered charge against the whole circle, and the drones will be wiped out by the start of their next turn.

'''Alt Build: Bubble-wrap ze enemy!''' A particularly hilarious way to also use drones is as a mobile fitting of bubblewrap. Drones aren't cheap, but they aren't exactly expensive, either, if taken in moderation. This build calls for 2-4 squads of 4-8 drones, which could run you under 200 points if used sparingly. Preferably, more smaller-sized squads work better but let me explain why. You see that melee supee-unit your opponent is charging your direction, such as a squad of hard-to-hit Harlequins? Drop in the 4 squads of 4 drones all around the Harlequins and open fire. Chances are that at least one or two of the squads will be in range, if not all if you get good rolls, and not only will the withering rate of fire potentially destroy the targeted squad through unrelenting RoF, but now you've made the four cheep squads high-priority targets, '''maybe even higher priority than your expensive weeaboos jumping around elsewhere'''. Now with a jump move, circle the remainder of the squad being trolled with the drones, bubble-wrapping it with bodies. Make sure they are working that less than one inch between them, cordoning off an entire section of the trolled team's movement through bodies. Now when the enemy goes to move the following turn, you just road-blocked that direction off from them, possibly even preventing them from moving at all that turn. Now your enemy has to make a tough choice: Use their ranged weapons to target fucking drones (in which case lolz, you just won) or ignore them and let them stay for the next part (in which case, still lolz cuz you still won). If enough drones survive, then most likely the team being bubble-wrapped will assault them. Not only will they only be assaulting one small squad of drones as opposed to all of the drones together, but you will get one bitchin Overwatch turn, with the sheer amount of TL shots you might get. While the melee squad is occupied, have the drones go troll someone else. Not only did you just keep a melee team away from more important targets for a turn or two more, but you finally have an excuse to spam drones. You're welcome.
*** Orrrrrr your opponent will tank shock one of the units (or more, if they're that close together) and force them to move. Or you screw up one of the Deep Strikes and this strategy falls apart. Or you suddenly come to your senses and realize that, to get this to work, you're using 2-4 Fast Attack choices to, at best, hold one unit in place for a turn. This tactic is troll-worthy, but not anything resembling effective.

Another good tactic for troll drones is against melta units. Now before you guys get more pissy then an angry marine at seaworld keep in mind that firing through units nets a 5+ cover to the unit behind them. This has saved many a tyranid from being shot through the horde. Your tanks have D-pods (if you were smart), THUS your hammerhead has a 4+ cover save, literally for free. Or screen shadow sun with them, jump shadowsun ahead, melta the enemy, then either jet thrust her behind the drones, or jet the drones ahead of her. Voila, instant 2+ cover save to her and ANYONE else in her squad. 

'''Farsight Death Squad''' Get farsight and his full 7-Crisis bodyguard unit. Slap target locks and double plasma/fusion on 6 of them, but the 7-th wouldn't have weapons at all. Instead give him drone controller, rethro-thrusters, CnCnode, MSS Suite and Neuroweb jammer: now all other Crisises in your squad have twin-link and ignore cover on all their guns, can hit and run on Farsight's I5, and make all that bolters and lasguns aimed at them Gets Hot. Since this squad IS a fire magnet, you need a lot of drones - usually gun drones, since they can dish out a lot of hurt, and soak up as many shots as shield drones against AP5 or more. So what you got is an absurdly killy perfectly deepstriking and ridiculously tough unit, which can kill multiple MEQ units per turn even if they are in cover. On the other hand it would cost you 700+pts. If you want your opponent to strangle you to death add Shadowsun to this unit.

'''Seeker Sniper''' A nice cheap tactic. All you need is at least some markerlight support and at least two tanks or three broadsides. Since the new codex, seeker missiles can be thrown on tanks in twos or a single one on broadsides for the tiny price of 8 points a pop. A lot of armies (read, ALL OF THEM) like to hide support hq's (ie. synapse warriors) in some kind of cover, whether by using jink saves (Necrons, and jink does equal cover), literal cover (everyone), or bodies (Orks and Nids). What you do is you markerlight these hq's with markerlights. The enemy gets no sort of savs against them. And then you expend the markerlights to fire off the missiles. At S8 AP3 BS5, ignores Los, ignores cover, each missile is almost guaranteed to hit, and since MOST low to mid level hqs have T3 and T4, this means inta death. So for non invulnerable save hqs you want to use a single missile to kill it, for invuln saves, maybe two or three. 

Example: Three tyranid warriors hiding behind hormagaunt squads. Eight pathfinder fire 8 markerlights, hitting with four on the three warriors. Four missiles are fired, all four hit. Three missiles wound and one fails to wound. The warriors get no cover saves due to cover ignoring. The seeker missile is AP3 so no armor save, and the missiles are double the warriors toughness so the warriors are insta killed. And now the gaunts panic with no synapse source.

'''Anti-Air Missile Pod Suits''' Get 3 Crisis Suits give them 2 Missile pod each and a velocity tracker and pop those flyers out the sky. Their main advantage is that they are cheap than a 3 man anti-air broadside team(they cost 216 points the broadsides cost 255)also the do well against light vehicles and infantry because they put out 12 str7 ap4 shots. Also marker lights help. 

'''fusion ha''' take brightsword and a generic commander with fusion blades add a seismic fibrillator node and warscaper drone and attach them to two crisis suit teams (or both on one team) (kit out how you want) then have them bounce around doing silly things like charge into terminator squads (stay the hell away from storm sheilds though) and watch as your oponent who thought you were being silly by charging your tau into combat realises that you just killed an entire terminator squad in close combat (bonus points for way of the broken blade making your warlord weapon skill 5)

'''The Bruiser Squad'''  Shadowsun with three XV9's, kitted out with whatever gun you want.  Got an annoying MC that's SOMEHOW survived a hammerhead/R'Varna combo?  An annoying distraction unit?  Or maybe a little god squad tucked in the corner.  This little unit is like your meched out Don Corleone and his crew.

''''Commander Laser Pointer''''
A fun, and as of writing untested, method of getting decent markerlight hits is to take a Commander w/ Drone controller, 2 missile pods, target lock & 2 marker drones and throw him with a unit of 2 to 3 crisis suits each with 2 missile pods, a target lock & 2 marker drones a piece. This gives 6-8 BS5 markerlights and double the number of S7 AP4 shots to shoot at markerlight range, at another target (or 3 or 4 targets!). It is pricy though so I would not recommend more than one of these babies. If 6 markerlights sounds like too many laser pointers (and why would it) dropping two of them can get you 24 points back, though for the 12 points per BS5 markerlight, it's really a steal already.
*Alternatively you can run crisis suits naked, using them as ablative wounds for marker drones and commander - this way it would be MUCH cheaper, albeit you wouldn't get a hail of missiles, and would feel awkward for using battlesuits for tanking damage instead of drones.

'''The Gruesome Twosome'''  O'Ra'lai, Shadowsun and her commandlink drone.  Float Ms. Tsundere behind Mr Big Bad Angry Tau Grandpa and use her commandlink drone to nominate him.  If you thought re-rolling the Riptide's "Gets Hot!" was good, wait until you get a load of giving that gift to O'Ra'lai weapons.  Yeah.

'''Unkillable Commanders'''
Commander with iridium armor and stim in a full drone squadron made entirely from shield drone with 4++ saves is almost unkillable. Add Shadowsun with her stealth, shrouded and two 3++ drones for more fun.

'''NEW Fish of Fury'''
Devilfish transports make excellent cover for Jetpack jumping Crisis Suits.  Drive up the board with your suits immediately behind, jump out with your jetpacks, shoot the crap out of stuff, jump back behind the Devilfish with your Thrust move, stay hidden!  Watch your opponent foam at the mouth as he can't see your suits behind your vehicle.  Make sure you fit a disruption pod to the Devilfish... That'll probably ensure that they stick around for a while under heavy fire.  Also, don't forget to fire the weapons that are on your 'fish.

'''Tommy Gun Firewarriors'''
Make a single Firewarrior squad vomit more shots than your opponent's army. Works best if you have Farsight allies. Take Cadre Fireblades with two Gun Drones for all of your HQ slots and attach them to one unit of Firewarriors (make sure to take a Shas'ui with a Gun Drone as well) then place them in a fortification or heavy cover. Each Fireblade will add an extra shot to all of your Pulse Rifles and Carbines when they don't move, turning your S5 single shot gun at 30", into 4 shots with only 3 Fireblades. At 15" that single squad will be vomiting 115 S5 AP5 shots a turn, and if you add 1 more Fireblade with drones it spikes up to 156 shots. Throw some backfield artillery and objectives to draw them in and they won't know what hit them when you open your 5th dice box. Just don't expect this to work on round two.