starting tau

i have been reading the tau codex at the den and some stuff on the net, and i seem to be drawn to them, i honestly don not have the money to start an army right now. so i will build,paint buy more, in order to not splurge all my money at once. I love how the tau (unlike anything else in 40k) try to make peace before declaring war. As well as they are one of the few races not dying out. I also wanna try playing a really shooty army. And i love there helmets for some reason. I wanted to post this before i buy the codex and fire warriors, because i was wondering if anyone had any reasons for me to play/not play the tau.

bensutherland333 wrote:As well as they are one of the few races not dying out.

??? Out of all the army books only Eldar are ever mentioned as a dying race. I'm pretty sure all others are doing quite well.

Good luck, as a Tau player myself (former?) I can tell you thery are definately fun to paint and collect.

gluvzer wrote:

bensutherland333 wrote:As well as they are one of the few races not dying out.

??? Out of all the army books only Eldar are ever mentioned as a dying race. I'm pretty sure all others are doing quite well.

Good luck, as a Tau player myself (former?) I can tell you thery are definately fun to paint and collect.

i mean its obvious that the imperial is slowly dying

and thanks for the good luck

Tau are the strongest army in 40K. The Tyranids might change that, but I doubt it. The lack of psychic defence in the Tau army is going to hurt them a lot; the Tyranids are getting some very, very nice powers.

Unfortunately, the Tau only really have one theme to play on. Similar to Eldar, they have terribad units and then there are units worth taking... and unlike some newer armies (IG and mareenz+puppies) the amount of good units is usually limited to one or two per FOC slot. So in terms of flexibility the Tau are quite lacking, but what they do have is very strong.


FTR I don't think Tyson's Farsight army is very strong, it's just that he crushes everyone else with superior tactics.


Fluff-wise the Tau are interesting; they're just as deluded as the Imperium, but are painted in a different light that makes them look like The Good Guys. I disagree with their rigid caste system, but it seems to work out for them because they are a small empire.

Holycause= I disagree. Tau are good, but most definitely not the top.

Ben= Go for it! The tau story is fascinating, and there are loads of cool, fun to play units. Like most armies, not all of them are super good, but a nice mix of vehicles and troops, and rad looking units, whats not to like? remember though, maintaining interest momentum is difficult over a long period of time. Buy one or two figs, experiment with colors, get em fully painted, then, once you've had time to decide if thats what you really want, invest. Take if from a guy who has purchased at least a 1000 pts in each army out there over the years, you will kick yourself for impulse buying a different army.

HolyCause wrote:Tau are the strongest army in 40K. The Tyranids might change that, but I doubt it. The lack of psychic defence in the Tau army is going to hurt them a lot; the Tyranids are getting some very, very nice powers.

Unfortunately, the Tau only really have one theme to play on. Similar to Eldar, they have terribad units and then there are units worth taking... and unlike some newer armies (IG and mareenz+puppies) the amount of good units is usually limited to one or two per FOC slot. So in terms of flexibility the Tau are quite lacking, but what they do have is very strong.


FTR I don't think Tyson's Farsight army is very strong, it's just that he crushes everyone else with superior tactics.


Fluff-wise the Tau are interesting; they're just as deluded as the Imperium, but are painted in a different light that makes them look like The Good Guys. I disagree with their rigid caste system, but it seems to work out for them because they are a small empire.

What unit is bad in the Eldar list? There is only good and broken from what I see.

Just don't do what I did and start painting them with long discontinued colours that are a mystery to remix with the new paint colours

It's a fun army, every gun has it's use. I'd recommend magnetizing your commander and *maybe* crisis suits.

There's some flexibility in that you can take a bunch of cheap, effective weaponry for your crisis suits and take more fire warriors, but it's all down to personal taste. Personally, I can't imagine Crisis Suits without Misslepod/Plasma and target lock... that's a lot of shooty. Oh! Shield Drones!

We now live in a time where you don't have to convert them! Take 2 for every suit unit.

Stealth Suits, Kroot, and Sniper Teams are all quite gimmicky (still fun and potentially awesome)

Steer clear of Vespids, they stink.

Pirhanna's are so cool looking, but I have doubts that they're any good *sniff* (That said, both vespids and pirhanna's didn't exist when I built my Tau army)

Lord_Commander_Stash wrote:
What unit is bad in the Eldar list? There is only good and broken from what I see.

The Eldar Elite choices stink, the only worthwhile thing being Fire Dragons, maybe Harlequins but I'd have to actually see them on the table. The Fast Attack also leave something to be desired.

Rangers (well, pathfinders) are pretty hard hitters against infantry, but they can't do squat against vehicles (MAYBE pen a couple transports) and their survivability... is terrible. Flamers love pathfinders, and if they get assaulted by anything less than a tac squad they're sure to die. Given that Wraithguard are terribad, and DA > foot Guardians, that's a whole two (out of five) troop choices that are worth taking.

In terms of HQ, I think the Phoenix Lords, whilst pretty sweet, are terrible overpriced for what they do. The Avatar suffers the same issue as C'tan does... big, mean, dumb, and SLOW. And unlike C'tan, even bolters can torrent this dude down.

Just don't do what I did and start painting them with long discontinued colours that are a mystery to remix with the new paint colours

Most of the GW paints that are discontinued are still offered by Vallejo. If you ask Darren he'll order you some... I asked him for some Terracotta for the exact same reason (my friend's Tau army) and currently there are some bottles sitting at the Den.

It's a fun army, every gun has it's use. I'd recommend magnetizing your commander and *maybe* crisis suits.

Why? All you're ever going to give them (this edition) are plasma rifles and missile pods

Stealth Suits, Kroot, and Sniper Teams are all quite gimmicky (still fun and potentially awesome)

I disagree, Kroot are excellent bubble wrap. Any Tau army that doesn't field them is handicapping itself IMHO. Now the only thing they need fixed is a Stealth USR instead of that stupid "only +1 in forests blah blah".

I disagree, Kroot are excellent bubble wrap. Any Tau army that doesn't field them is handicapping itself IMHO. It does take quite a bit of practice to use them well (for example don't ever ask me to play Tau with Kroot Razz )

I always put my Kroot on the board. I like to drop 'em in a forest and shoot things, sometimes assault certain troops (as long as I have an initiative advantage)

I dont know what you mean by "I think the Phoenix Lords, whilst pretty sweet, are terrible overpriced for what they do. " Maugen Ra is a tank at both melee and range. and for 195 points, I find he guns down many significant threats. I almost always go for him+far seer as HQ.

and eldar fast is great, Vypers as assualt weapon platforms with 7 S6 shots on the move (scatterlazer+shurikencannon) Swooping hawks with skyleap are great for piking off units across the table every turn, and Bright Lances eat terminators that deep strike into your ranks, or they finish off units that survived the shooting phase.

But as for tau, I dont find that all their units suck so much. They have amazing transports, and very solid troops (fire warriors). Then theres the speeders and battlesuits which are fast and shooty. And even the kroot are even not that bad of a swarming unit.

I've always found Tau to be a very solid army to play against, have fun building em.

thanks for the advice i picked up the codex and the fire warriors and will commence painting in 30 min

canadin wrote:I dont know what you mean by "I think the Phoenix Lords, whilst pretty sweet, are terrible overpriced for what they do. " Maugen Ra is a tank at both melee and range. and for 195 points, I find he guns down many significant threats. I almost always go for him+far seer as HQ

He's the best of the Lords, but the best of garbage is still... well, you get the idea. 195 points and no invul save? Kinda hard to be a "tank" in melee when power weapons eat you up.

Vulkan He'stan is five points cheaper and considerably better (both in how he influences the army and in melee)

The key to using any tau unit effectively is to not use any one of them in such a way that your plans only include that units abities.

Each and every unit must support one another on the table, ie: vehicles to protect the flanks, kroot to finish off a unit that your shooters were just hitting, crysis teams to leapfrog and mop up, pathfinders either lay down markerlights for your other units or draw fire away from your heavier hitting units etc etc. And don't let anybody bog you down, keep moving, and plan where you're going to be moving. You can't measure things ahead of time so try to get good at guessing distances, I need to do better on this myself.

Concentrate your fire. During the field deployment, observe what units your opposing player is using, and, than depending on your initial placement make a rough list in your head of which ones need to be removed first. IE;, that flying hive tyrant 18" is more dangerous than a shooty carnifex the same range away. Shoot everything at it in order till it's gone, but consider the order you use as well. You don't want to be unable to shoot those genestealers on your immediate flank because you used the troops that were in range to shoot the tyrant while you had other units in range of the tyrant but not in range of the genestealers.

Magnetize everything. I'm still new and I've really appreciated being able to change it up and experiment and still be wysiwyg. Even your crysis suits, because there will be cases where you wish you had a burst cannon in stead of a plasma rifle