Versatility:

This is of paramount importance as I have found. The ability to alter tactics on the fly. To counter the ploys and actions of your opponent and most importantly to have a back up plan. If your Broadsides and Hammerhead tanks go down, who is going to take out the enemy Land Raider roaring toward your lines. Fusion Blasters can serve as a last ditch response to enemy armor of your heavy hitters are either down or cannot get line of sight. Hammerheads armed with the Railgun to take on both infantry and armor are very good for facing whatever threat comes your way. With the ability to down the heaviest of armor and cut down masses of infantry the Railgun is a very good weapon. Simply equiping your units both Crisis Suite, Hammerhead and others to be able to take on multiple tasks. This can be invaluable especially in tournament settings. A back up plan is never a bad thing.

 

Mobility:

The second ility in my tactics and stratigem. The ability to go where you need to, when you need to. This is also vital in all armies. A Firewarrior squad stuck in the corner while all the fighting is in the center of the board is useless. A broadside team that has no line of sight to the enemy tanks is useless. You have to be able to put your entire army into action and get it where its needed to concentrate your fire. Otherwise you are not being effective, otherwise the strength of the Tau is being wasted. In defence or offence you need to be able to get to the objective.

 

Concentrated Fire:

Multiple Firewarrior squads firing at multiple targets are not going to be effective as multiple Firewarrior teams firing at a single target squad. The concentration of fire on a single target until its elimination is the strength of the Tau. Dozens of strength 5 ap 5 shots are a nasty thing to most armies. A single team of Firewarriors is not effective on its own, where as several working in consort are a thing to be reckoned with. Putting your entire armies worth of fire on a hand full of squads can result in devastating effects.

 

Target Priority:

Proritizing targets is essential to the Tau. With concentrated fire we can stop enemy assaults dead in their tracks. But we must pick our targets carefully. To eliminate the most threatening targets first before they can be a major problem. Its useless if we stop one, two, three tactical marine squads and kill them if a single assault squad slams into our lines. Generally enemy assault squads, fast attack and any monster close combat units must fall first, followed by heavy weapons, then troops. You as a commander must make these choices for yourself but you must take particular attention as this is one of the most aspects of Tau combat.

 

Shas'O:

Many people do not want to spend many points on their commanders, or if they do they want them to be at long range and safe. I find this rediculous, foolish and cowardly. The Shas'O is the perfect unit to be armed with the Fusion Blaster and Plasma Rifle as he will only miss on a 1 and the fusion blaster will usually only fail to wound on a 1 and in most casses the enemy wont even get a save. The Plasma Rifle is only slightly less effective and has twice as many shots. In adition the Fusion Blaster lets the Shas'O be able to take on the heaviest and strongest in both infantry and tanks that any enemy could possibly hope to field. Such versatility and power must not be overlooked. Lastly given a shield gennerator the Shas'O will almost never be denied a save which means that he will be extremely hard to kill. Kept as an Independant Character he will also be extremely hard to target and even more difficult to kill. Its a shame such a monster of a unit is so rarely used.

 

Firewarriors:

Many people have a disdain for using the basic grunts in force. I honestly have no clue why this is. It makes no sense to me. Our basic infantry have actually very good armor 4+ is nothing to laugh at. Plus we also get the best basic infantry gun in the game. Strength 5 ap 5 and a whopping 30 inch range. We will almost always get at least one round of shooting in before the enemy has range. Not only that we also have rapid fire guns so even if they do get close we can suddenly double our output of fire. This insane ability to pile on a massive number of high strength shots is a great advantage for us. Thats not even counting the fact that for all this we pay only a meager 10 points. But waite, there is more, for 80 points and more likely 95 or 100 with  upgrades we can field one of the best transports in the game for our troops to ride in. With nice front armor of 12, the ability to carry full squads and a nice burst cannon this is a very nice tank, and thats forgetting the free pair of gun drones we get. Now yes we face a lot of marine players, this is inevitable, nevertheless our units are not the typical power armored or swarming masses that other armies have and yet can be amazingly good. I say we have a very sweet deal, why on earth should it be wasted... the answer is; it shouldnt.

 

Gun Drones:
Ok, ok, ok they have a lousy ballistic skill of 2, its true. BUT, and this is a big but, they have twin linked pulse carbines. Like a lot of the guns in our army they are strength 5 ap 5 and these also cause pinning. They only havve an 18 inch range but with the jet packs these little disks of doom have well, its not hard to stay in the 18" range. The chance to pin an enemy squad in place and with the capacity to punch the rear armor of a lot, a very lot of enemy tanks, even to deep strike; well this is a really rather awesome unit. Oh and did I mention we only pay 12 points for all this. Again a very sweet deal, not battle winners, or things to put entire strategies around but these things are highly underestimated and can prove extremely usefull. Everyone should have at least some of these around.

 

Hammerhead:

More particularly a Hammerhead armed with a Railgun and given a Multi-Tracker. Thsi thing is amazing when used right. Not only can we drop str 6 ap 4 large blast templates on enemy troops that DONT scatter, but we also have a really sweet str 10 ap 1 shot, this is a very versatile tank. The Imperial Lascannon is not nearly as good. But waite, we also get a BS of 4, front armor 13, and the ability to move the full 12" and still fire both guns. Can we say wow? This is just a very, very nice set up and at a pretty fair points coste, not overpowered and certainly not underpowerd the Railhead is a good deal, a very good deal. There is more though, the Railgun has a sinister reputation, enemies will shudder at its sight. The Railhead will draw a shockingly high amount of fire, a very disproportional amount of fire and will either draw the enemy towards it or scatter them away. This is quite an advantage as this one tank can easily throw a wrench into our opponents plans and take all their heavy weapons attention for turn after turn while the rest of our army systematicly takes our foes apart. As long as the opponents of the Tau fear that that is the Railgun, we have a beutiful tool to work with.

 

Lures:

The Tau army is especially good at lures, particularly a versatile force. The Hammerhead and Crisis Suits fill this roll particularly well. Many times my suits and Hammerheads have drawn a much greater proportion of enemy fire than anything else in my army, or everything in my army combined. This protects my Firewarriors and keeps the greater proportion of my troops intact. Split into 3 units of 1 my crisis suits can only be killed one at a time and the Hammerhead can take a lot of fire before going down. In this way one can use these units to draw their opponent where they want and divert fire to the places they want. By placing the Hammerhead out in the open you can nearly assure that it will draw fire, meanwhile the rest of your force can move to better positions unhindered. By knowing what your opponent wants to shoot at you can either deny them the opportunity and draw them forward as they attempt to try and hunt the unit down, or you can give them the shots and accept the damage because you know that that unit will be damaged and so can preserve your army to further your goals in another place or in a latter turn. This means that despite your opponent choosing what they shoot at you can actually influence their decision without them knowing thereby adding a whole new level to your strategy and further confusing your foe, and of course making sure that the true weak spots in your army are not being attacked.

 

Offence:

The Tau are actually very good on the offencive. With the pulse rifles rapid fire status and how it is in 4th edition it becomes a very effective assault weapon for the Tau. We do not charge into combat so are unfettered by the loss of the charge when we rapid fire, rapid firing is our charge. Using the Devilfish to deliver our warriors to a forward firing spot, to attack a weak spot in the enemies line, to single out an enemy squad for mass rapid fire shots, whatever we do the Firewarriors can do it well and devastatingly. With 4+ armor and a str 5 ap 5 gun our troops have enough power and survivability to deliver a mighty hammer blow where and when we want it. In conjunction with gun drones to shield our warriors and add more weight to their fire and the possibility of pinning and with crisis and stealth suits to back them up with a greater number of shots or stronger shots we can effectively form a massive assault point, concentrating a great portion of our armies fire on a single point. When it is destroyed we can mount up, move off and do it again. In this way we can aggressively establish new forward firebases, threatening our opponents entire army, we can blast apart their flanks or split them in half, we have the ability to speed our firepower around and double it, by getting in close, 12 shots turns to 24, in this way we use our troops in a far more effective way than when they are static and firing at long range. Drones have the ability to fire and then charge into combat so even if the enemy survives we can sacrifice a few drones to hold up our opponents while our troops get away and once the drones flee or go down we can then pick apart whats left with long range fire. On the offencive our army can do some serious damage, we may have a greater threat of assault and perhaps no cover save at times but that is something that comes in the creation of our strategy, we must know when to gamble, when to give and when to take. Still on the offencive our army can shine and that is something Tau players do not often notice.

 

Thats all for now folks. Ill be working on more soon.