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

==Tau Special Rules==

* '''Bonding Knife Ritual:''' A unit with this upgrade has Heroic Morale, allowing them to always test to regroup on their unmodified Leadership (so <s>niche-case</s> completely unlike Stubborn, as testing to regroup does not modify Leadership and is not affected by Stubborn). Is it that useful? Not really. It is a super situational upgrade, even though it is cheap. But it fits nicely on battle suit squads with drones, as the increased squad size can mean being below 25% is a possibility, and it costs even less for those squads because drones don't take it. Spending 3 points to make sure your last suit doesn't have to roll snake eyes to regroup is worth it. Note that if you're running a Farsight army, this is mandatory. 
*'''Supporting Fire:''' A unit with this special rule can Overwatch if a friendly unit within 6" is being charged. Note that a unit can still only Overwatch once per phase. This is absolutely vital; it can stave off assault by a turn or more. It can be especially devastating when combined with copious amounts of Markerlights, which according to Pinpoint, do benefit during Overwatch. It allows your infantry (and some battle suits) to become a "wall of pikemen". If you keep the units tight together, the enemy charge may not break, but it will be much more painful for them if to try it, and they will be likely to lose a few models just closing the distance. The survivors will still kick your blue ass though, so do not count on it unless you have a truly massive blob of supporting fire goodness; best options are flamers, burst cannons and plasma rifles, and drones with their twin-linked carbines. Keep in mind a unit does not need to have this rule to ''receive'' supporting fire, only to give it. This is especially hilarious when combined with 30 man Kroot squads stretched out from table edge to table edge, allowing for units 30 inches from the assaulting squad to auto-hit with flamers. If enemy complains, flip to Wall of Death and prance about.
*'''[[Markerlight]]s:'''Technically Wargear, but important enough to cover here. As any defender of the Tau'va worth their salt Markerlights are what turn a rambling mob of [[shooty]] morons into a synergistic army of hard cheddar. The delivery system for these little babies has stayed the same: Pathfinders, Tetras, Marker Drones & Skyrays (amongst other niche units). What makes this great is that markerlight hits can't be saved. Not even by cover. Their uses have been ever more streamlined, leaving you with the most beneficial uses:
**'''Pinpoint:''' Spend 1 marker for +1 BS with no limit; Pinpoint even applies to Snapshots and Overwatch.
**'''Seeker:''' Spend 1 marker to fire a Seeker missile at BS5 which ignores line of sight and cover. The missile must be fired by the unit spending the token and at the same target that the rest of the unit is firing at, but doesn't count against the number of weapons it can fire. ''Many armies like to hide support HQs in cover. Tyranid Warriors behind gaunts? IG Command squad behind an Aegis line? Mark them (cover wont prevent this) and suddenly a missile IDs that commander, throwing his troops in disarray. That's Mont'Ka for you''.
**'''Destroyer:''' Spend 1 marker to fire a Destroyer Missile at strength D. This is how you make Stormsurges nightmarish.
**'''Scour:''' Spend 2 markers to give the entire firing unit Ignores Cover against the marked target. In all better than before seeing as it used to take on average three markerlight points to completely negate someone's cover save. This sees good use against [[Eldar|skimmers that can use a jink save]], since jinking confers a 4+ ''cover'' save. Since you can't save against markerlights, a jinking enemy has no chance to make use of their jink ability.
*'''Fire Team:''' GW's reason for you to shell out cash for the new expensive models and it's a decent reason, too.  A unit with this rule that has three monstrous creatures or vehicles gains +1 BS. Combine it with Coordinated Firepower to get BS5 even before using markerlights. This makes a team of Hammerheads dangerous in their own right and reduces needed markerlight support.  <s>You can even do this with freakin' Stormsurges.</s> Unfortunately they don't have the special rule on their profile so no 3 BS4 surges in one unit. Three Ghostkeels in an Optimized Stealth Cadre will be your independent hunters of the night, making your opponents cry delicious tears.

===Warlord Traits===
Tau WTs are heavily geared towards Battlesuit commanders, but the best are available for all - sadly, those are One Use only. If your warlord rolls a Tau WT they can't use, they'll just reroll it, Battleforged or not (though you should be). This is most noticeable with Ethereals.
#'''Precision of the Skilled Hunter:''' Enemies can't use Look Out, Sir! when shot at by your Warlord. Useful for sniping the enemy Warlord if he is a coward and a fewl and hides in a [[METAL BOXES|METAL BAW]]- I mean, if he hides in a unit.
#'''Through Unity, Devastation:''' For one shooting phase, all Tau within 12" reroll To Hit rolls of 1 — Particularly useful if you're deploying as a nice castled-up gun line. Can stack to ludicrous levels if you combine it with Markerlights (''which you should''), formations and Ethereal or/''and'' Cadre Fireblades +1 shot to pulse rifles/carbines for true devastation®. Note that in 7th edition, there now exists a WT in the base rulebook (Target Priority from the Command Traits table) that provides the exact same benefit but is not single-use, meaning this trait just became far less special.
##Extremely useful, provided the situation involves lots of Gets Hot weapons. Want your Riptide to fire its Nova-charged Heavy Burst Cannon without killing itself, while you overcharge all nearby Ion weapons at the same time? Well now is the time. ''Maybe it is worth the risk, roll for Target Priority, good luck!'' Anything targeted by this combination is dead, ''dead'', '''dead''', and you run no real risk to yourself by doing it. Some [[cheese]]monger who concentrates all their points in some kind of super-unit will explode with [[rage]] when hit by this. Make your standard-issue Tau tear collection cup handy before doing it.
#'''A Ghost Who Walks Among Us:''' The Warlord and his unit move 3D6" with their Jet Packs. It makes them much less likely to suffer a snake-eyed fail of a thrust move. Commander Shadowsun gets this trait by default if taken as your warlord.
#'''Exemplar of the Selfless Cause:''' Once per game, all units that have gone to ground stand back up and act normally. This means you can weather a turn of enemy shooting, then stand right back up and shoot him in the face; needless to say, this is one of the better Warlord Traits. If you took bucket loads of Battle suits it has less use for you, but then you'd be rolling Farsight Enclaves' WTs instead. Aun'Do and Aun'Va get this trait by default if taken as your warlord.
#'''Predator of the Skies:''' For one shooting phase, your Warlord and his squad get Skyfire - which you might [[Fail|already have]] from a Velocity Tracker or Coldstar, but you do have Ideal Mission Commander...right? It's not ''that'' bad if your Warlord's unit has Markerlights, tho.
#'''Through Boldness, Victory:''' Your Warlord and his unit don't scatter on Deep Strike. If you're planning to do a Commander-bomb, this is the one you should fervently hope/pray for. Commander Farsight gets this trait by default (if taken as your warlord), and can deepstrike with NINE Crisis/Bodyguard suits, all their drones, a second Commander with drones if you're feeling saucy, and with guaranteed no-mishap. Hell, cut on some Crisis, add a Riptide and some Broadsides and that's a '''Retaliation Cadre''' with no scatter. Screw tear cups, you'll need tear ''pools''.
*'''X: The Assassin:''' O'Ra'lai has Preferred Enemy (Independent Characters). As of the latest BRB FAQ, Preferred Enemy on any model in the target unit grants Preferred Enemy against the entire unit.

===Fighter Aces===
The new Death From the Skies (from Shield of Baal: Leviathan) gives you the ability to bolster flyers with a special rule, all of them inferior to the ones in the previous one, but at least it got cheaper.  For 35 points, you can roll a D3 and give a Flyer or FMC (FGC are up to debate though, but J.H.C., BS 6 Coldstars) a special bonus. Not available on the Y'Vahra because of that one rule it has.
#'''Targeting Array:''' +1 BS. Could be useful for rationing Markerlights if you're going economical with them, or to hit a target beyond your markerlights. Near useless on a Coldstar Commander (his weapon is already BS5 Twin-linked, and BS6 Missile pod isn't a huge step up from BS5), a Sunshark will benefit more of it.
#'''Stealth Shielding:''' All cover is improved by +1 to a 3+ Cover Save.  Expect to spam this to keep them running. Might save you from a Slay the Warlord, sucks if you got it on a flyer with Disruption Pods.
#'''Marker Plane:''' Add D3 Markerlight tokens to a single target within 12" of your Fighter Ace.  Rejoice as you give your troops an opening to kill with. Approaches the previous version's effectiveness when the Ace has other sources of Markerlights, like a Sunshark, and it's useful when your Coldstar swoops, as he leaves his drones behind.

===Tactical Objectives===
*'''11. The Lure:''' Pretty simple: Win 1 VP for destroying an enemy unit that charged during the last turn.  If you do it three times, you win D3 VP
*'''12. Patient Hunter:''' 1 VP for eliminating an enemy in your Deployment Zone.
*'''13. Ambush:''' Real easy here.  You win a VP for either eliminating an enemy unit or if they fail morale.  If you get three units to do either or both, you win D3 VP.
*'''14. Multiple Distractions:''' This one requires a bit of setup.  The only way you can achieve this (and win 1 VP) is if you get an enemy unit within 12" of one table edge while getting another within 12" of the opposite table edge.  Having mobile firepower helps with this, as do Kroot.
*'''15. Feigned Withdrawal:''' This one's a little risky; to win this, you need to destroy an enemy within 9" of your units and outside of his Deployment Zone. Alternately, this one is a freebie if your opponent scatters poorly.
*'''16. The Greater Good:''' This requires attention.  You only win D3 VP for taking over an objective controlled by the enemy.  If you repeat this three times, you get D3+3 VP, and you win an additional VP if you suffer no casualties during this turn.  To maximize this, you need to prioritize what you can use to take these points immediately.