We all know what a Mechanized Tau army is or we all should. Anyone who is around these boards for any amount of time
will soon know the style. However mechanized simply means everything can move 12". Therefore there can be numerous variants
on this. The tactic I am about to describe (or actually strategem as a tactic is more an on the fly trick where as this can
be used to build an entire army) is about one particular aspect of Mechanized warfare.
The concept is simple, lots
and lots of tanks on the offencive. I have seen numerous Mech Tau armies that fight defencively or use mounted Firewarrior
squads as VP denial and almost never un mount them. This strategy is offencive at its core and is all about close range fire
fights. In short the strategy revolves around 3 units, the Hammerhead, Devilfish mounted Firewarriors and Crisis suits. This
may be expanded to include the skyray and piranha with the new codex release. Until then it is just these 3. They fill the
following roles:
The Hammerhead: Is the first strike and long range support unit that can also draw a lot of fire.
It provides the main hitting power until the main bulk of the army gets close enough to let loose in rapid fire range. For
the first few turns it is the primary attack unit and will be doing the most shooting and inflicting the most damage.
Mounted
Firewarriors: These are the core and bulk of the army. They are not about to sit inside their Devilfish either. They move
up the field, preferably in pairs and use the Devilfish as a wall to rapid fire their weapons behind. The Devilfish carries
them to their enemy quickly and lets them come to grips with the enemy hopefully unscathed and finish off those units weakened
by the long range fire.
Crisis Suits: These fill 2 roles, close range anti-armor and heavy infantry, and medium range
fire support. The key suit configurations that shine with this strategy are the helios, deathrain and burning eye. A Helios
commander and deathrain/fireknife crisis suits help fill in the gaps. Deathrain and Fireknife provide the lacking medium range
fire helping to soften the enemy while the Devilfish get close. The Helios help take down pesky units like terminators and
help against enemy armor once the army has closed the distance. In this way they act as the fire link between the Hammerheads
and Devilfish.
So how does this come together as a whole to form a battle strategy?
The army focus' on getting
close and getting there fast. This is a more agressive style of play. Using the Devilfish walls you can force close ranged
gunfights on your terms. Also the Hammerheads are going to need to get close aswell to draw fire away from the weaker Devilfish
and bring their secondary weapons to bear in support of the Firewarriors. All the while crisis suits keep pace with the tanks
providing light anti armor and medium ranged fire support while the HQ/helios are there as an insurance policy to help protect
the Firewarriors once they get in close, adding to the anti-heavy infantry and armor capabilities in case things get a bit
too hot. Railheads work especially well with the versatility to drop pie plates and fire solid slugs with a pair of them losing
one wont leave you lacking either anti hord or anti armor capabilities minimizing the damage. This army works because the
enemy is faced with a fast moving and hard hitting army. A lot of firepower is brought to bear at long range, with proper
target priority you can cripple the enemy before your main rapid fire strike.
With all that in mind lets move on to
the aspect of mobility a key strength of this army. With such speed you can segment off and issolate parts of the enemy army,
destroy them and move on. This can be done with more mobile infantry type mechanized armies but the key here is in using the
tanks to screen the enemy from reaching you and give even your basic infantry the speed they need to re-locate and face any
threat. Going on the assault helps to split the enemy forces. Once the opponent has begun to split your entire army can sweep
away to take full advantage of this break in coherency and drive a wedge into the enemy. You can use your tanks as a physical
hammer to break your opponents army in half. A divided foe is easier to defeat. Secondly you also can react to any tricks
your opponent pulls. Deep striking, drop pods and other threats arent so great when you can issolate it and destroy it using
speed to escape traps and turn it against your enemy.
Now let me say this, this strategy is deffinetly one for agressive
players. You must be willing to trust in your tanks and be willing to get up close and personal. With multi trackers and decoy
launchers Tau skimmers are extremely survivable, if a tank is stunned dont be disheartened, continue on and draw your opponents
attention from the vulnerable tank until it is up and moving again. You can do similar things with battlesuits but I find
that such a tactic works best with a majority of tanks. This is because tanks have a greater chance of surviving enemy heavy
weapons fire and do not need to hug terrain for their protections like JSJ suits do. Because of this you can take a more direct
rout and the tanks serve well to cordon off specific threats.
Well Im not entirely sure Ive presented the idea as well
as it deserves but I hope you all get the jist of it. I started doing this out of frustration. I got sick of waiting around
all day for my opponent to attack or for my units to get into position. It is also immensly satisfying to see your opponents
face when Tau, TAU come rushing into their face. Most of my opponents relish the idea of "forcing" Tau to come ot them, the
idea of Tau on the assault seems laughable to them. This tactic turns that in their face.
As a note because of the
agressive use of the Firewarriors bonding and the shas'ui upgrade help greatly making them far more stubborn and less likely
to flee, possibly putting them into more danger and hurting your battle plan by taking them away from their transports and
tank wall. Using this tactic it is quite common for me to keep my tanks engine to engine, dont be afraid to do so especially
once you have reached the enemy. The longer the wall the more difficult it is for the enemy to get around it and re-establish
their battle plan. Use roads/alleys and open spaces to your advantage, the terrain can help to block the enemy in even more.
Well now that you hopefully have the idea I hope it helps and put another possible strategy in your repetoir as Tau
players. Even if you dont use it knowledge is after all power and the ability to be flexible can be a real strength. Good
luck!
