Tau aren\'t the predictable long range beast most people make them out to be. At least they aren\'t always played that way! My mechanized Tau for example are much more about focussed, short ranged firepower than anything. Obviously tanks and battlesuits are capable of some medium-long range firepower (and some units really excel at it, in fact!) but that\'s more there to support the infantry than anything if you ask me.
The main thing with Tau is that they will pick you to pieces if you isolate parts of your army. It\'s all about supporting your advance, and giving him targets he will have a hard time dealing with. One of the
crucial things with Tau is to limit the amount of rapid fire volleys they get off. These can be devastating! Termis are generally very tough to deal with for Tau. They don\'t have a ton of AP2 weapons to bring to bear, the new Codex will give 3+ Invulnerable saves to combat Termis with shields, and the other weapons can be shrugged off pretty easily anyway. Termis are brutal for Tau because they can shred infantry, tanks and Crisis Suits equally easily.
Broadsides can fight off Termis pretty well, but you\'re wasting a LOT of firepower to shoot something that has a 5+ invulnerable save. Crisis Suits can do it, but they are much more effective shooting at medium infantry and light tanks. Fire Warriors, despite a huge volume of S5 fire, probably can\'t deal with Termis very easily. If you follow the Mathhammer arguments, then it takes 50+ pulse rifle shots (even with markerlights to increase BS) to take down a 5-man Terminator squad. That\'s an ugly statistic
What type of Marine army do you take anyway? The book is being replaced at the moment (through the Spearhead it\'s out already, and will be out separately within a few days) so we could go any number of ways with advice.
The one thing I can\'t recommend is taking a bunch of Landspeeders to deal with infantry. They are usually pretty rock solid, but against Tau light skimmers drop like flies. Crisis Suits and Fire Warriors are just too damn good at killing AV10.
Bikes might be a good purchase, since they are fast and tough. Turbo boost, and watch your opponent cringe as your bikes gain a 3+ cover save. Next turn he knows he\'s getting charged.
Drop Pods and Land Raiders are also a good idea. I don\'t care what people say, AV14 is still hard to penetrate for Tau. Unless he\'s taking 5+ railguns in his army, you\'re gonna survive long enough to charge on turn 1 or turn 2. Just make sure that you charge something worthwhile, because he\'ll probably unleash hell on the squad that\'ll be stuck out in the open after killing a bunch of Fishheads. Doubling up and taking multiple LR\'s and/or Drop Pods would be a good way to approach the battle. Drop a bunch of stuff off right in the middle of his lines at the same time, so he can\'t take the time to deal with them separately.
