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

===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.