tau. they be failin

[blackbolt]

i play a tau army most of the time but lately it seems i cant win a game. the tau odex is to old and the only things i got going for me is battle suits. and since ever other player knows about battle suit they just equip all there ap3 crap and im done. is anyone else finding the tau a bit underpowered these days?

 

[Wicksy]

I was going to start a Tay army but never could get into it. Looking at the codex though, it does suffer. However, if space marines can survive then battlesuits should be able to. Take advantage of the terrain and the fact that they can jump out of cover in the mocement phase, fire then move back in the assault phase. Use fire warriors to keep the attackers to a distance and make use of markerlights. Concentrate on one unit until its dead then move on to the next. S5 30" pulse rifles are nasty. That'll force a lot of wounds on any MEQ unit. Couple that with the battle suits and you should be able to keep up with most armies. Rail guns are awesome for anti-tank so spam them. Again, concentrate fire until desired tank is dead.

Trouble is, the last few codexes are going to be nasty. Fast, assault heavy armies will rape Tau easily. I hear that they might get a new codex sometime in the next year or so. Keep the faith, it could be worse, they could be Necrons

 

[IdofEntity]

i play a tau army most of the time but lately it seems i cant win a game. the tau odex is to old and the only things i got going for me is battle suits. and since ever other player knows about battle suit they just equip all there ap3 crap and im done. is anyone else finding the tau a bit underpowered these days?

Try something radically different. I mean radical. Field a giant mob of kroot if they're beating you up with heavy weaponry. Or hit them with mass fire teams and transports. Predictability = death. Given, a completely backwards strategy might mean a loss for you. If they're not prepared for it, and you've given it a LOT of thought you could pull some wins out of it.

My advice? Create 4 VERY different lists that don't suffer from the same exact weaknesses. Then take on your opponent with a list he doesn't expect.

Also, are you only playing obliteration games?

 

[blackbolt]

i have a couple differnt lists and they are as differnt as i can get with the models i have. on is a kroot army with shooty firewarrioirs one is a battlesuit farsight army one is transport haevy and still(iv even tried a list with vespids and pirhanas). no matter what i do i cant win. and especially vs DE. they feild one full squad of grotesques and im done. and no we play whatever the dice rolls

 

[IdofEntity]

Well if you're not having fun because it seems impossible to win...perhaps it's time to switch armies or take up a new game?

If you're still having fun then keep plugging at it until you solve it.

 

[Master of fact]

Iused to hate playing against tau, but finnaly got a list to whack em, but it got emptied by rail guns.

Take broadsides/railguns and mash transports, use piranha's to flank/trick and fire warriors to mop up.

 

[IdofEntity]

Master has a decent plan.

Something I've had a lot of luck with is a staggered firing line. Keeping two squads of fire warriors at 24-30 inches at all times, and as the enemy advances I retreat the first line back. The second line takes up firing. The First line continues to fall back another round, and the second line falls back as the third line fires. Keep maneuvering around the board in that manner. Prioritize your targets in order of immediate threat, and don't be afraid to throw away a unit and get some distance between you. If you have Devilfish out use them to keep your squads mobile. It was infuriating for the Ork player. I lost 20% of my force by the time he had lost 40%. I won by a small amount, but it was a win.

It is getting more and more difficult to win matches at the LGS. The reason I win as many as I do is just from my opponent deploying in silly formations and not making the most of his unit's strength.

 

[blackbolt]

probelm with that is especially DE can cross the board in one turn with either sails. litterally. and if they have more then 1 transport doing that theres no way to kill them all befor they hit ur lines in cc. same problem with drop pod heavy armys

 

[Master of fact]

Playing any of the older dex's is not great. The new DE dex, hang back in transports using medium strentgh high shots to hit transports. Dont spread fire, shoot it till it dies. Deploy behind cover, when the transports are dead use crisis suits with flamers, DE might be good in combat but nothing 3 templates wouldnt sort out. I never leave flamers out of my list, so good. I killed 4 marines today using the flamers in my wraithlord. TOASTY!

IdofEntity, wish you wernt a few continents away, would love to try my deathguard against you.

 

[IdofEntity]

IdofEntity, wish you wernt a few continents away, would love to try my deathguard against you.

I'd love to. Given, I hate fighting marines of any kind. The f^&*ers are too damned resistant to leadership tests of any kind.

A lot of my local competition is way too focused on absolute destruction. A lot of them figure that if your opponents are dead they can't claim objectives. (To be fair, completely true) But too many people forget how much mobility matters. Alas we have no players that play Deathguard (those are Deathwatch?) or Dark Eldar.

 

[blackbolt]

alas today is a good day. i destroyed a dark eldar army with my tau. its been so long and i finnaly won. and in style to. he got 2 kill points while i destroyed all but 3 of his squads in a bases game. all i did was mass tanks and hid lots. cover saving my way through all his darklance shots i took out his vehicles from ion cannon shots and pretty much left me with control of the field. it felt good not gonna lie.

 

[Master of fact]

You see, it pays off to stick to something! Glad you got a win, especialy against a new powerhose codex!

 

[IdofEntity]

Congratulations! Learned something new about your army?

 

[blackbolt]

indeed. tau vehicle are still awesome even if there codex is outdated. and by not putting in to many "useless" guys just to fill in points helps me deny him any extra killpoints.