Editing Warhammer 40,000/7th Edition Tactics/Tau (section)

===Troops===
*'''[[Fire Warrior|Fire Warrior Strike Squad]]:''' Yes, they have the best basic infantry gun in the game. Yes, they will go down like a tower made of tissue paper if properly targeted or assaulted. For the new book, their price gets dropped to a much more workable 9 pts/model, so it just got a lot easier to buy a squad with a [[Devilfish]]; however, larger squads are going to be more difficult to squeeze into cover, but if they fit in a fish, you got it made. The price break does let you spend a little more on the Tau's new toys elsewhere though. Devilfish give Fire Warriors much needed mobility, and safety from assault. After all, the second ANYTHING gets into close combat with a Fire Warrior squad, the Fire Warriors will lose. Even if it's other Fire Warriors or even fucking Grots and Rippers. With abysmal WS and mediocre BS, if these guys are firing, use markerlights to up their hit chances, although other units may make better use of the markerlight tokens. Speaking of their weapons, their pulse rifles rapid fire on 15" and can glance light vehicles to death, or blast them to oblivion with EMP-grenades, and photon grenades allows them to blind enemies so they actually stand half a chance in combat. They also have Supporting Fire, they're quite the bargain now. Please note that only one model can ''throw'' an EMP-grenade and only one can use their grenade in melee(thanks to new FAQ rules). You can blind and EMP bitch-slap walkers to death, or murder enemy vehicles.
**When Shas'Ui takes markerlight for his rifle, he also gets a free Target lock. This allows you to chain markerlights between fire warrior squads by using the markerlight on the target of the next fire warrior unit. This may also be useful to man fortification gun emplacements without forcing all his squad wasting their shots on something they can't hurt, which is very useful.

*'''Fire Warrior Breacher Squad:''' A squad of Fire Warriors specialized for close-quarters firing with their new Pulse Blasters (Which sadly don't benefit from the Fireblade, but fortunately they still benefit from an Ethereal). Their guns are just the thing to break marines up-close, and they do so for cheaper than a Fire Warrior squad! Vespids would do the same job better and safer, being faster, tougher and having MUCH more comfortable range, but they cost twice as much, for eventually half the firepower. Also important to remember the entire squad can get a 5++ Invulnerable save for 22 Points (Shas'Ui (10) + the new MV36 Guardian Drone (12), and all models in the squad have the new Field Amplifier Relay) allowing them a measure of survivability against anything, so it could be possible (with some lucky rolling) for this squad to survive far longer than normal against the normal anti-Tau weapons.
**Lacking assault transports (or decent range in their shotguns), this squad WILL be on the receiving end of a charge if you're careless with them. Moreso than other Tau units, you want them to have a Devilfish, with Disruption Pods at a premium for superior Jink saves. Depending on the rest of your army, you can either use them for area denial or backfield disruption; in this second role, they combo remarkably well with Darkstrider, who gets them in, helps them kill, then bails them out of being charged.
**One thing to remember is that the strength of the Pulse Breacher depends on how far away the target '''unit''' is away from the Tau with said Pulse Breachers, and how this interacts with 7th ed. The weapon still maintains a maximum range of 15", but the end result is that unlike a flamer, you could theoretically flank an enemy unit, and reap the benefit of the maximized profile inflicting casualties up to the maximum range. You still have to check on a 'per-model' basis which Breachers are within 5" of the enemy unit despite firing the weapon 'in the same batch'.

*'''[[Kroot|Kroot Carnivores]]:''' Disregard what fluff says - Kroot are NOT assault infantry. Yes, they have WS4, so what? They can not assault after shooting, their saves are weak and they lost their S4 and extra attack from the rifle for no fucking reason (while remaining super-strong in fluff), and AP5 melee looks like a fucking joke in all-marine metagame. Instead look at their gun. It's a fucking bolter just with AP6, which don't matter a lot, cause most of the infantry in the game is either Sv4+ or better, or constantly in cover. Spend the extra point per model (for a total of 7 each) for Sniper Rounds, and you get the cheapest sniper squad in the game. A 20 strong squad hidden in a forest taking out Characters hidden in squad. This is more deadly against certain armies than other, but it's rather troll worthy at any rate. The only downside is the shortish range of the Kroot Rifle. Still, 140pts for 20 Sniper shots it's not that much of downside. And speaking about cover, these guys have Stealth (Forest) for 4+ save (even better if they're Ironbark). What you get is a fairly cheap, hard to shoot down from cover and hard to kill in CC area denial unit that shoot bolters or even sniper rifles, and can deploy anywhere on the field, messing with opponents pathing and deepstriking and keeping his forces away from your fragile gunline until they all die. In addition to regular Kroot, you can field the following Kroot subspecies:
**Kroot Hounds: Space Chickens in a dog form. Because the Kroot lost much of their close combat power and became infiltrating snipers, the I5 and extra attacks on these doggies won't help you much. If you plan to outflank instead of infiltrate, take one for acute senses.
**Krootox Riders: At 25 pts, you get a space chicken Silverback with a big Kroot Gun on its back with the rider. Having an S7 rapid fire gun that can shoot up to 48" is nice to have, along with two S6 melee attacks up close and two wounds. For the new book, Krootox riders no longer prevent your squad from infiltrating, which means you can now have an absurdly strong gun line infiltrating right where your opponent doesn't want it that can actually hold out in combat!
**Shaper: The boss of the Carnivore Squad. These Kroot have three wounds, +2A and +1LD. Oh, and he costs three times more than a Kroot for the upgrade. It's worth taking if you want the six extra S3 hits, which can help a bit. Still not great to take on anything except for Orks, Tyranids, and Daemons, so only take him if you plan on going up against other horde armies.
**An alternative look on these green lizard/chicken mercs is to dish em' out in front of a Firewarrior dakka line so your fragile little Fire Warriors won't die when the Kroot are getting the objectives (which is helped by them having infiltrate) . Even though on paper the idea seems flimsy you don't want to know how many games I've won because of my Kroot holding objectives and the Fire Warriors behind them peppering anything that comes near them to molten mush. Enemy claims cover from intervening models? Markerlight them.

*'''Gue'Vesa (FW - IA3, 2nd E):''' Shooty [[Gue'vesa]] troops, so far the only human auxiliaries you can field in 6th ed. They cost the same as Conscripts and 6 guys, with potential upgrades for another 5 guys, a sarge, and grenades (12 total). They are equipped with Lasguns and Flak, and get their shit kicked in by any Imperial army because of "[[Blam|Death To Traitors]]". Best used to garrison things. They are only allowed in specified Taros Campaign missions, but don't fret: they suck anyway. Take Fire warriors instead, especially since these guys have no Supporting Fire.

*'''Drone Sentry Turret (FW - IA3, 2nd):''' A group of up to four 11/11/11 immobile vehicles with TL burst cannons that can be upgraded to TL missile pods, TL fusion blasters, or TL plasma rifles. They have access to the vehicle battle systems and can be upgraded to have deep strike for 10 points each. Not an exceptional unit, but not a bad choice by any standard (they are cheap and immune to bolters). They do not count as a compulsory troop choice, but can still score and even ''secure'' objectives, and if placed in heavy cover with Disruption pods, they're going to hold that point like forever. If you keep the Burst cannons consider giving them Point defense targeting relay because TL and 4 shots is going to hit stuff.