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

===The Most Important Rule===
Spoiler: It's not the "have fun" one, but if you don't follow it you can be sure as hell you won't have any. Do you like seeing squad after squad of Fire Warriors get slapped to death by Conscripts? ''No?'' '''Then keep them out of melee combat'''. Your army is WS2, so going against anything above WS3 feels like going against a fucking Bloodthirster. Everybody else will just drown you in bodies, and your I2 wont help at all. And [[Warhammer_40,000/Tactics/Imperial_Guard/Death_Korps_of_Krieg_Assault_Brigade(7E)|those fucking Korpsmen]] will do both at the same time.
*DO keep in mind that melee is much less deadly in 7E. After all, even if they are WS10 no one can hit more than 66% of the time, and most units aren't S5 or have a 3+ save like your Crisis teams. While melee with dedicated CC squads or even buffed regular troops are still out of the question, Crisis-and-better Battlesuits can hold their own in a brawl against those regular troops, especially after you've mauled them in the shooting phase - punching a few wounded scout marines might be better than exposing yourself to their sniper shots, don't you think? And you have lots of trinkets to help in CC - Fire warriors with their carapace armor are [[Fire_Warrior#On_the_Tabletop|just as good as Guardsmen]], and while they hit first, you have Photon grenades, so they're always as good or better. And don't even get me started on FSE. Yes, spending a turn in melee IS wasteful, no doubt about that, but what I'm saying is ''Don't PANIC at the thought of melee'', just avoid it on the grounds you have better things to do- ''Is that a power sword? RUN LIKE HELL''.

<b>[[Markerlight]]s, we should talk about them</b><br> 
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 vary 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.)  

<b>Target Prioritization</b><br>
More important for Tau armies than it is for others. Indeed, in bygone editions the Tau had special equipment and options for circumventing target priority rules. Those rules may have been dropped, but the need to be selective remains. Certain targets need to be neutralized at the earliest possible turn, then the rest of the enemy can be defeated in detail after that. "The Way of the Broken sword", they call it. One hefty priority is when the enemy hides their infantry in [[METAL BOXES|metal boxes]], THE COWARDS, THE FOOLS, YOU SHOULD TAKE AWAY THEIR METAL BAWKSES. The moment enemy infantry reaches your lines, you lose, and they do that faster in vehicles. Luckily for you, Tau have many ways of accomplishing their objectives, because [[Commander_Puretide|the truly wise adapt]]. So you could destroy their vehicles from afar with [[markerlight]]-boosted railgun hits, or a missile massacre on the first turn, or drop Fusion guns/Riptides for devastating hit and run attacks, if you can manage it. 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.  

<b>Mont'ka and Kauyon</b><br>
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.