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

==Formations==
===Hunter Contingent===
That's right, TAU DECURION!  

*'''Bonuses:''' Aside from the usual WT re-roll, you get the ability to pour on the firepower! The '''Coordinated Firepower''' rule means you can have multiple units firing at the same time on the same target as if they were one unit, optimizing markerlight use up to mega-cheese levels, and if three or more units get involved, everyone gets +1 BS, stacking with all the bonuses to BS your army has (so BS6 Hammerheads ''before'' markerlights). TREMBLE IN FEAR AND VENERATION OF THE GREATER GOOD!
**Has been FAQed [https://www.games-workshop.com/resources/PDF/Errata/Warhammer_40000/Tau_Empire_EN.pdf here] so that the only shared benefit to shooting across multiple units is markerlights, so you can't share buffmander benefits and so on across the entire army.
***If you are the one pitted AGAINST this formation, don't despair - MSU spamming makes it more difficult for the Hunter contingent to bring its full firepower to bear. Even with jetpacks they can't be everywhere at once, which is further worsened by their LACK of OS (hello Demi-Companies!).
====Core (1+)====
*'''Hunter Cadre:''' A Battlesuit Commander and an optional Fireblade and Bodyguard gets to join 3-6 teams of Fire Warriors (either kind) or Kroot, 1-3 squads of Crisis suits, Stealth suits, Riptides, or Ghostkeels, 1-3 squads of Pathfinders, Drones, Piranhas, or Vespids, and 1-3 squads of Broadsides, Hammerheads, Stormsurges, or Sniper Drones. Units from this Formation may use Supporting Fire to assist other units from the same Formation within 12" rather than the usual 6". Furthermore, the '''Ambushes and Feints''' ability means that any units from this Formation within 12" of the same Formation's Battlesuit Commander or Fireblade may make a free Run or Flat-Out move before Shooting in this phase.
**'''Summary:''' This formation gives some interesting bonuses, though with the higher Troop tax and loss of Objective Secured, you must think carefully whether it's worth running this over a CAD. The extra range for Supporting Fire is nice to have, but super-situational, especially if you come across another shooty army or one that can deny your Overwatch. The extra pre-game movement is more helpful though, granting Tau extra mobility, and allowing them to reposition based on their own shooting results. The humble Tau Piranha in particular becomes a surprisingly comedic Melta vector. 
**Note how you can use this to run with your infantry while remaining stationary in the movement phase, meaning you can still benefit from Cadre Fireblades ability Volley Fire. Enjoy your now moving Wall of Death.
====Command (0-1 per Core)====
*'''Contingent Headquarters:''' A bonus Battlesuit Commander (or Shadowsun) get 1-2 squads of Bodyguards and can call in an optional Ethereal (named or not).  There's no other bonus to this. (Notice how the only way to take an Ethereal, without taking a separate CAD and adding two more troop choices to the 3 already required in the Hunter Cadre, is to own ''two'' Commanders. Gotta sell the new Commander model somehow I guess since every Tau player already had one).
====Auxiliary (1-10 per Core)====
*'''Retaliation Cadre:''' AKA Farsight Bomb 2, electric boogaloo. One Commander, 3 units of Crisis Suits, 1 unit of Broadsides, and 1 Riptide combine to gain Relentless and auto Deep-strike on turn two if you choose, adding +1 BS the turn they arrive. With the changes to Crisis and Riptide squad sizes this can mean up to 27 Crisis suits and 3 Riptides dropping in. Along with the Commander and the Broadsides that is 31 suits. Not that you will play this many outside of Apocalypse, but remember they don't need to be full units. Defeat the traitor Farsight at his own game!
*Read that again: [https://youtu.be/QND6Q044Crk?t=86 Deepstriking Relentless Broadsides]. Their only problem was they couldn't move and fire in the same turn and this formation fixes that. <s>Try to get that 'Coordinated Fire' bonus so their exclusive Missile drones get the benefits without needing an attached Buffmander for themselves.</s> The FAQ clarified that this doesn't work anymore.
*'''Heavy Retribution Cadre:''' A Ghostkeel joins two unit of Stormsurges for dat new cheese. Acting as a spotter, if the enemy is within 12" of the Ghostkeel, the Stormsurges can re-roll to hit it. If at least two units of this formation attack the same enemy unit, the afflicted unit now can't run/flat-out and can only charge at half his distance. So yeah, they can't melee these Tau, they can't outshoot them - ''they can only cry''. Just in case you needed more reasons to field those [[Abaddon|Taubaddons]].
*'''Infiltration Cadre:''' Three Pathfinder teams join two Stealth suit squads and a Piranha unit as an alpha strike. If any unit here is destroyed, then everything you have in reserves automatically arrives - sacrifice one for the Greater Good?. If you lay three markerlights on an enemy you also get a Seeker missile to automatically hit them as well, absolutely free.
*'''Optimized Stealth Cadre:''' ''An evolution of the old Optimized Stealth Group''. A Ghostkeel alongside 2 Stealth Teams. Any Stealthsuits within 6" of the Ghostkeel gain +1 BS, get Ignores Cover, and '''AUTOMATICALLY HIT THE REAR ARMOR OF ANY VEHICLE'''. So yeah, they run independent of Markerlights, feel free to give them to someone else. Buh-bye, Leman Russes. Seeya Doomsday Ark! ''Amazing against GEQ ([[Troll|that includes Tau too]]) when the Stealth teams bring Gun Drones, a Controller, Fusion guns and Target Locks. The drones' Pulse Carbines WILL pin down those guardsmen now their AP5 shots ignore cover, and the fusion gun will [[/d/|poke their supporting armour's behinds]] blowing them sky high, as dirty as it sounds, without taking the Ghostkeel into account. That's 414 pts minimum, but it counters more than its cost on enemies in a single turn. Shame on you, Gue'La''.
*'''Firebase Support Cadre:''' A Riptide unit along with 2 Broadside teams. Very good way to beef out your tau with lots of fire support and a BIG distraction. These are even cheesier than their 6E iteration because they can all combine their fire, with an even better (see below) "resolving their shots as if they were one unit" trick than above, on top of also getting Tank Hunter and Monster Hunter when they do so. Everything within range will DIE.
*Specifically, when the Hunter Cadre's Coordinated Firepower rule was errataed in the FAQ, the same FAQ conspicuously did ''not'' errata the Firebase Support Cadre.  As a result, it has the original wording, which means all of the units fire as if one giant unit, so any unit-wide buff in any unit is shared by all of them.  That means you can e.g. attach a Buffmander to either Broadside team to propagate those benefits not only to the other Broadside team, but also [[awesome|to the Riptides]].
*'''Armoured Interdiction Cadre:''' 3 Hammerhead units alongside a Skyray unit. At the start of any Shooting Phase you can select one point on the board. The formation rerolls failed hits when shooting at anything within 6" of that point. Technically it also affects flyers.
**This formation breathes extra life into the Ion Cannon by granting extra insurance against bad scatters and Gets Hot, turning it into a budget Leman Russ that outperforms in the areas that count. 
*'''Air Caste Support Cadre:''' 2 Razorshark units along with a Sunshark unit. Everyone now ignores Crew Shaken/Stunned on a 2+ and they all restore a HP on a 6.
*'''Allied Advance Cadre:''' 4 Kroot packs join 2 Vespids gangs. Vespids gain Infiltrate and Stealth (Forests), and any Kroot within 12" of them replace Stealth with Shrouded while simultaneously gaining +1 BS, stackable with Coordinated Firepower. In addition, the formation gets Supporting Fire when assisting any member of their formation.
*'''Drone Network:''' One unit of drones. And that's it, no bonus rules. Useful to make meets end and to achieve Coordinated Firepower's +1 BS easier. Not actually a Formation.

===Dawn Blade Contingent (Mont'Ka)===
This detachment is exclusive to Farsight Enclaves. Besides letting the Warlord trait re-roll, this detachment's main draw is '''Killing Blow:''' This lets you secretly mark a unit for death at the start of your opponent's turn, and during your subsequent turn you declare which unit was Marked. Anyone from this Detachment rerolls to wound/penetrate that target for the remainder of your turn (Note: This is **not** Shred/Tank Hunters, which is probably for the best considering how which could interact with Target Locks, Ion Accelerators, etc). So, while Kauyon hits more often, Mont'Ka hits harder (''duh''). This Detachment has a higher potential damage ceiling, which can be useful against Deathstars, but requires more support to truly take advantage of.

====Core (1+)====
*'''Hunter Cadre:''' As seen in Kauyon, yours is a little more expensive because mandatory Bonded Knife.
*'''Retaliation Cadre:''' Unlike Kauyon's, it's a Core choice here instead of Auxiliary, which is more manageable because it was too expensive to use this ''and'' Hunter cadre outside Apocalypse. Now your whole army can be an XBOX HUEG Farsight Bomb. Excellent.

====Command (1)====
*'''Contingent Headquarters:''' A generic Commander/Farsight grabs a generic Bodyguard. Notice you don't get Ethereals. Not much else to it.
*'''The Eight:''' Farsight brings with him his besties. Now they actually get extra rules instead of behaving like generic Commanders. They have Fearless, Preferred Enemy, Independent Character (Note O'vesa still can't hide into a unit per 7th Edition BRB FAQ, because he is a monster), can Supporting Fire themselves from 24" away and, as long as one lives, ''all friendly Tau Empire are Stubborn''. BUT you have to take them all, which means you wont see them at all in games smaller than 2000 pts, and even then you wilk not take a lot of units along with them.

====Auxiliary (1-10 per Core)====
*'''Allied Advance Cadre:''' Another shared formation. Noteworthy in that you could take them to hold home objectives for rather cheap (384 pts bare bones, 444 decent, 1588 maxed) while the rest of your army Farsight-bombs the enemy. Quite doable in a 2000 pts game.  Does not provide Objective Secured, so don't completely assume any objective they're holding will stay held.
*'''Firebase Support Cadre:''' The last of the shared formations, they allow you to manage the relatively few markerlights you have. They can finish what your Crisis team started, and it helps that you have a better Riptide.
*'''Counterstrike Cadre:''' A Pathfinder team and three units of Fire Warriors (either Strike or Breachers) all ride Devilfish. In exchange, all models reroll failed shots against any enemy unit within 3" of an Objective, and the Devilfish gain Fast on the first turn they are on the table (this includes reserves).
** Notably, the Formation bonus applies to the Devilfish as well. If you're a fan of Devilfish and Seeker Missiles, you might as well use this Formation. The single turn of Fast allows them to move 12" and fire both missiles at normal BS, rerolling to-hit versus any target within 3" of an objective. Combined with the Dawn Blade's ability to enable rerolling armor penetration...
*'''Rapid Insertion Force:''' A Stealth team, 3 Crisis teams and a Riptide unit. The Stealth team has to start on the field while the rest of the formation stays in reserve. When they deep-strike within 6" of the Stealth suits, nothing scatters AND they get Twin-Linked for the turn. H-how lewd, Farsight-senpai... - ''Notice how several formations are differently-flavored Farsight bombs? Not like that is a bad thing, tho''. This formation's benefit is riskier than the Retaliation Cadre, and the Stealth team will have a giant [[Distraction Carnifex]] target painted on it.
*'''Ranged Support Cadre:''' 3 units of Pathfinders and Broadsides make the single most cheese team out there.  If the Broadsides use any markerlights fired by their Pathfinders, they count as double, so they'll always ignore cover. The Pathfinders also get Infiltrate and Shrouded, but lose the latter if they ever move or fire something that isn't a Markerlight.  Well, at least the Broadsides can Supporting Fire for them at full range.
*'''Piranha Firestream Wing:''' Like that Apocalypse formation, these are your Four Horsemen (''ay lmao''). 4 UNITS of Piranhas, but one of them ''must'' go alone and acts as a spotter for the other 3 and nominates a unit within 36" visible to it (doesn't give up shooting). The formation gets +1BS and Tank Hunters against the marked unit. Now the turbo fondue: if any unit ends up within 6" of a Table Edge after movement, it can escape into Ongoing reserves and return with EVERYTHING REFILLED (including dead unit members).  Which means they can (''and should'') spam all the drones and missiles they want. You may now proceed to hum [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3bxiPKWCzU Ride of the Valkyries, if put through a sci-fi filter]. Whether it is awesome or just plain trolling depends on [https://youtu.be/LReTvx2ksUQ?t=14 your point of view].
*'''Skysweep Missile Defense:''' A Devilfish takes command of 3 Skyrays. If the flyers get within 12" of the Fish, they can fire as many missiles they want and, while the Fish lives, everyone gains 5+ cover against anything shot by a flyer (so take Disruption pods, as usual). This brings a whole new definition to [[Fish of Fury|FISH OF FURY]].
*'''Assigned Air Caste Asset:''' Grab a Sunshark or Razorshark.  Nothing more to it.
*'''Air Superiority Cadre:''' Grab 3 Razorsharks.  They all get +1 BS against flyers.  On top of that, as long as one of them is still alive, they can drop D3 Markerlights on any unit they want, just like a Fighter Ace. To make this even worse, you can automatically arrive from reserves if you find any Flyers, Skimmers or Jetbikes.  Y'know, just in case you didn't have ENOUGH answers against those sorts of things. Can still get options from SoD, so take this over a CAD/ASD-bought Razorshark Wing, if you've already got Reserve rolls on lock.
*'''Drone Net VX1-0:''' 4+ Drone Squads, controlled by Skynet herself. They all get Interceptor, Jink, Outflank, Precision Shot, and Split Fire. Also, as long as at least 2 squads remain on the field, '''all drones''' in your army gain +1 BS. Your Interceptor/EWO phase now has Marker support. Sorry to say, but the GW faq states that no unit can both jink and Go to Ground, so dreams of killer Roombas must now go the way of the dodo.

===Dataslate Formations===
*'''Ethereal Honour Guard (Start Collecting Tau pack):''' An Ethereal on a hoverdrone, a Crisis Team and a Strike Team, all in one box. This gives the other guys a bit of a free move if they're near the Ethereal - The unit can pick a single model in the unit to act as a Lynchpin and then have everyone regroup around him so that they're all 3" away from him (Unless it's a turret. The turret stays where it is). It's a pretty devious way to get some more range from the other units, or to pull one unit out of a melee.

*'''Infiltration Cadre Burning Dawn (Infiltration Cadre Burning Dawn Boxed Set):''' Aun'Do, Pathfinder Team Aurora, Stealth Team Shadowtide and the Tireless Hunter (All a box set) team up.  Aun'Do gets one turn to pull two elements, everyone gets Shrouded and Scout (or Infiltrate if they have Scout before).  All in all, not too bad a setup, but it is fragile.

*'''Tidewall Counterstrike Cadre (Web-Exclusive Bundle):''' In a blatant move to sell even more Tidewalls comes an exclusive formation along the lines of the Cohort Mechanicus and the Court of House Terryn. It's composed of a Strike Team, Pathfinders, and two Breacher Teams in a Tidewall filled with two Shieldlines, two Gunrigs and a Droneport to center on.  The Breachers , when firing from the Shieldlines, get to boost the ranges on their weapons' profiles, so now you have a not-quite plasma gun from 10" away, which is much safer.  The Strike Team re-rolls hits while on the Gunrigs or Droneport and the Pathfinders act as, well, Pathfinders, as the Tidewall can move up to 9" so long as it gets closer to them. 

*'''Tau Firebase Support Cadre (Dataslate):''' The Tau Firebase Support Cadre is a Formation consisting of one Riptide and two FULL units of Broadsides. Each member of the formation has the Tank Hunters and Preferred Enemy (Space Marines) special rules. In return, your Space Marine enemies will get Hatred (Tau Firebase Support Cadre). This is fair enough really, and not much of a downside... If you're stupid enough to let Space Marines get into CC with your units, then you probably deserve to lose. ''Even with the 7E version around this formation is still very valid - Marines are the most common army and PE is better than Monster Hunters against them, who have none. Also, you don't need to fire at the same unit like the 7E formation, so it's valid against other armies as well''. Keep in mind how versatile this formation is. You want all High-Yield Missile Pods and Interceptor on your Broadsides, and an Ion Cannon and Early Warning System on your Riptide? Good idea. You don't want to include Shas'vre in each Broadside team? No problem.  You want lashings of Drones with every model? Sounds good! At the end of the day, this separate detachment will end up costing however much you decide to spend, but the bare minimum is 570 pts so it's not cheap.  But it's a  hell of a lot of potential firepower that your opponent has to face down the barrel of, with units you might have already planned on bringing.  Flyer heavy opponents probably shit their pants just thinking about this formation.

*'''Kroot Hunting Pack (Apocalypse):''' 5 Kroot squads, kitted out however you like. This is a fluff formation, plain and simple.  They only get Furious Charge and the ability to Outflank on any side they wish. Better than your average Kroot, they're beleaguered by the fact they're still just Kroot.

*'''Optimized Stealth Group (Apocalypse):''' 3+ Stealth Teams are needed. This formation has one nice rule and one meh rule.  The nice thing is that their shots ignore cover.  The meh thing is that if they infiltrate, they need to halve the distance they can set up from the enemy. Being Tau, the prospect of being closer to the enemy shouldn't be a good idea...but it does leave them in Melta range, even when Infiltration in line of sight. With the arrival of Ghostkeels this formation has lost most of its allure.

*'''Riptide Wing (Mont'ka):''' 3-9 Riptides.  THAT GUY TEAM COMING UP!! Yeah, this is just being unfair. Not only can any Riptide within 6" of another re-roll failed Nova Reactor rolls, but they also get +1 BS when firing at something another Riptide already shot at, and once per battle they can ''shoot twice with each weapon in a turn they didn't move'', which can be also combined with Ripple Fire to allow to each Riptide to ''fire the same weapon four times''.  Really, who'd want to play this and claim themselves fair?

*'''Ghostkeel Wing (Mont'ka):''' 3-9 Ghostkeels. They get +1 BS when firing at something another Ghostkeel already shot at, their drones have effect to every Tau within 12" from at least two of the formation's units and if they charge an enemy unit within 6" from another Ghostkeel, that unit can't Overwatch.

*'''Ethereal Council (Mont'ka):''' 3-7 Ethereals (Aun'Va and Aun'Shi can be part of the formation). As long as two of them are still alive, they're considered a single unit, the range for Failure isn't an Option is doubled, and they give all four the elemental buffs in the same turn.

===Warzone Damocles===
*'''Shadowsun's Firestrike Assault Hunter Cadre (Apocalypse):''' Shadowsun takes command of a grand total of: a Crisis Bodyguard team, 2 regular Crisis teams, 6 Fire Warriors with a Fish, 6 without, 2 Pathfinders with Fish, 2 Stealth teams, 2 Riptides, 3 Hammerheads, 3 Skyrays, and 4 Razorsharks. Really, this is just a convenient excuse to gather all this wanton firepower together, with a bonus of giving anyone within 24" of the commander Fearless and Preferred Enemy.  If you really have that many models together (and you like running stuff like the Tyranids Living Tide) then rock on, you extremely rich GW slave.

*'''Piranha Fireteam Squadron (Apocalypse):''' 5 Piranhas.  Only five, no more, no less. This is a surprise assault formation, plain and simple.  They deploy as a team on the second turn, they can jump into reserves so long as they're all within 6" of a table edge and come back whenever '''fully restocked and restored'''.  If you thought the Tau had enough cheese, there's this, an instant-revival that can make even Tyranids jelly.

*'''Ethereal Council (Apocalypse):''' So long as you get three Characters, you can choose between Aun'Va, Aun'Shi, and more than one plain Ethereal. Grouping this many squishy Tau together boosts their FiNaO range from 12" to 24", but if they're all removed, the enemy gets ''another'' VP for killing them all.  In addition, they can all use one more elemental power just to coordinate the other side's ruination by control.

*'''Hunter Cadre (Apocalypse):''' In a smaller Shadowsun formation, a single generic Commander gets: a Bodyguard team, 2-6 regular Crisis teams, Broadsides, Piranhas, and Hammerheads, 1-3 Stealth, Pathfinder, regular Drone, and Sniper Drone teams, 1-3 Skyrays, 3+ Fire Warrior teams, and an option to take up to 3 Fireblades, Kroot, and Vespids each. This formation gifts a bit more to the team.  First off, they grab Acute Senses.  Then, they can start from reserves and then get out in the first turn.  After that, they all get 12" range for their Supporting Fire, meaning that now it changed charging them from a stupid idea to a phenomenally suicidal idea.  All for the Greater Good.

*'''Drone-net VX1-0 (Apocalypse):''' A real drone network. 12+ Gun, Marker, and/or Shield drones can take optional Sniper, Missile, Recon, Grav-inhibitor, and Pulse Accelerator Drones, all in groups of four or more.  All this dronage grants them a grand total of...+1 to their BS.  It's meant to be a distraction, and the Shields help on that, but if you're expecting them to survive, don't.

*'''Hammerhead Interdiction Cadre (Apocalypse):''' 3-5 Hammerheads put together (so that's +1 BS due to Fire Team). Now, you love Skyrays, ya hate their lack of Railguns. Watch this, so long as the lead vehicle hasn't been blown to bits, it can give your army D3+1 Markerlights to use for extra killing, because this is Tau.

*'''Paradox Squadron (Apocalypse):''' 3-5 Sunsharks in a team. When put in the Arrowhead pattern with 3+ pulse bombs, the lead bomber gets to make a Strength D AP1 Large Blast bombing run, with rolls of 1 on the D table instead [[What|restoring lost wounds/hull points]].  Really, this is more of a gamble than most would want, with a chance of either instantly wiping out an enemy or making them even tougher than before. Its only a 17% chance but still, run at your peril.

*'''Ranged Support Cadre (Apocalypse):''' 1-3 Pathfinders leading 3-6 Broadsides. By joining, the Pathfinders all get Infiltrate and Shrouded.  However, if they ever fire something other than Markerlights or even move they lose it, making placement a priority.  In addition, if the Broadsides use the Pathfinders' Markerlights, the value of the lights get doubled.  Yes, this is about as cheese as everything else, because this gives them the ability to get +2 BS or ignore cover with all of ONE markerlight.