new tau

when will they update the tau

A long way off Im afraid

Chin up Ben! Don't let a few bad games get you down, or you will just keep switching armies. Your tau are pretty sweet, you just need a few faster units. Remember, Tau rock when they can stay away from the enemy and keep firing. And don't listen to anyone who says the tau no longer work in 5th, its not true!

Ben,

I am not sure what you have in your army...but, these are what I am scared of....

- Hammerheads, S10 AP1 or Large Blast is alway fun.....add Missle pods for added punch & still be useful when the main gun is knocked off
- Crisis Suit and Crisis Suit Commanders
- Fire Warrior Gun Lines -- These guys have nasty range and a good strength on the gun

yes i see thank you everyone in 2 months my birthday comes i can blow 400$ on 40k then i will mechanize my tau, also anyone have any tips to guard against out flankers they are really killing me.

Hey Ben.
From experience too, outflankers are my bane. Just a matter of trying to keep everything as far from the sides as possible an still keeping to terrain.
Every new army that has been released so far seems to be assault heavy, which is a massive set back for the tau since anything that assaults them practically kills them.

Some things I learned.
Hammerheads. Hard to kill and mount the rail gun.
Broadsides. Keep them center of table guarded by your other models to save them from getting outflanked.
Crisis suits. Equip with differnt gear to let that lovely wound allocation rule help keep an expencive unit from dying fast.
Devilfish up those firewarriors. The gun line strat doesn't work hardly ever anymore. I no longer use it as it results in massive death for the firewarriors. Keep them in devilfish and only disembark when absolutely nessessary.

Yeah gunline doesn't work anymore, Tau have the advantage of being highly mobile however. So if you're into tanks you're in luck, tau have the best transports and tanks, Hammerheads can move 12 and fire their railgun (with wargear) and they get a 4+ cover from shooting, which means they're walking a fine line between being invincible, I once played an apocalypse game with 5 hammer heads and 5 devilfish and lost 1 hammer head in 4 turns, because they have good armor and 4+ save from shooting and always moving more then 6" so monstrous creatures need 6's to hit them. Then there's more advanced mech tactics like fish of fury, deploying firewarriors out of the transport to rapid fire and using the devilfish to block. As a mech army Tau are definately top teir.

They're damn good with suits too, ask Tyson.

bah its my fault anyway i wanted a gun line army with cool fluff i should have researched more. oh well come april i can mechanize them

Tau don't need an update. They're currently the strongest army in 40K. They are however extremely difficult to run well and really only have one effective theme (semi-mech shooty with a lot of suits)

Tips for a strong list:

-Minimal firewarriors (so 1x6). They're honestly not worth it. Yes they have a strength 5 gun with 30" range, I don't know why people go ballistic over this. They also die. A lot. It makes for interesting target priority if there's only one group of them, since most people will just ignore them and go for nastier things (like suits, or kroot)
-pod/rifle suits.
-2x2 Piranhas are nice. They can be used to deliver melta-death to something annoying or block movement (an important tactic) or if they live long enough turbo-boosting for contesting objectives.
-Kroot. Always kroot. Give them hounds, makes them very annoying. If you have two groups of Kroot they can be a very effective fire wall/meat shield for the rest of your army. Kroot are a very very effective utility unit but they are also extremely difficult to use well.
-I would recommend keeping your markerlights to pathfinders only. Pathfinders do die, a lot, but they're significantly more useful than Firewarriors - learning to keep them alive is crucial because they remove one of the biggest pieces of survivability in 5th edition... cover saves. Keep them away from land speeders with heavy flamers especially deep-striking ones, I've insta-killed many groups of pathfinders in one fell swoop. Man was he pissed. lol

Oh, and if someone isn't letting you have a "forest" on the map somewhere... they're just being an asshole. Kroot might as well have the Stealth USR, imho.

anyone have any tips to guard against out flankers they are really killing me.

Set up in the middle of the board, use Kroot as bubble wrap, Piranhas to block nastier things' movement. Remember they if the pirhanas move 12" they can still deliver melta-death, and in CC they can only be hit on a 6. Since most things don't have enough attacks and/or lack rerolls it's unlikely they'll be killed.

Or you could set up in a refused flank position; castle yourself in a corner, use Kroot (again) to cover the last bits of the board edge. Note that this only works if someone isn't outflanking tanks, as they can just tank shock on (or stuff like Valks, who can just fly over)


Don't give up, once the Tau "click" in for you they'll be a very rewarding army to run.

Eh, I've never understood why people go so crazy over kroot.

YAY, a subpar melee unit in a non-Melee race! Woo! Yes, I suppose they work well for bubble wrap, but only against certain forms of melee. Most Tier 1 dedicated melee tears right through them, often using kroot as a stepping stone to get to the meat of an army.

Caros wrote:I suppose they work well for bubble wrap, but only against certain forms of melee. Most Tier 1 dedicated melee tears right through them, often using kroot as a stepping stone to get to the meat of an army.

They're good as bubble wrap because they can stop mean looking forms of assault things from reaching the meat and potatoes of the Tau army.

Sure Vulkan termies paste kroot like there's no tomorrow, but you can't kill all of them and they'll do a small number. 10 kroot, 7 hounds... 34 attacks, 17 hit, 8.5 wound, 1-2 termies die. And once they run away (since you can't sweeping advance)... oh crap, you're stuck out in the open in rapid fire range of suits. Yes you have a 3+ invul, no you cannot roll that many dice and live. lol

For others that can sweeping advance, if you can get to the Tau army there's probably not too many of you left. And since there's two walls of Kroot you need two turns to get through them; that's two free turns of having most if not all of the Tau army shooting your dumb ass into oblivion.

Kroot have in many occasions valiantly sacrificed themselves for the greater good; protecting units from outflanking or deepstriking. Problem with them is they're very easy to use wrong, where they end up getting killed needlessly before they can do any good.

With tau you have to try very hard to control the movement of the game, and you have to stay one step ahead (in terms of assault range). In my playoff game I made a horrible, stupid mistake which lead to the destruction of half my army in turn 3 (or was it turn 4?). Up until then, tau survivability and maneuverability limited my losses to one shield drone and one railgun.

Firewarriors can be very good if, like kroot, used in a very specific manner. I usually keep them in devilfish, having them pop out in rapid-fire range to finish off a dangerous unit. They are very good at this. But when it goes wrong, oh does it ever go wrong.

Tau vehicles are extremely survivable. Interchangeability is a great plus too when fiddling with lists (magnetize!!). Use vehicles, and standard wargear for them are things like disruption pods, flechette discharges (if facing a horde assaulty army), and multi-trackers.

When things go bad for my tau, they go bad fast; like a cascade. When I'm playing them correctly, rolls are average to fairly good, predicting your opponents moves etc, you can come out with a win and a largely unscathed army. It's just quite hard to do. Never give up on a loosing game, 75% of a time you'll have a last ditch chance to pull out a draw or a minor victory, but more importantly you can figure out what you did wrong.