6th ed Tau = (^_^)

[Panxer]

Ok, I'm a Tau doomer, as most of you may know, but I played my first 6th ed game today and Tau are now AMAZING!!!

I fought my standard nemesis (the Necron) and I'll go through a 1500 list of what I used, what worked, how it was made awesome or was nerfed and you guys out there can come back at me with your experiences as you get them

HQ: XV8 Shas'El with Shield Gen, Iridium, HWMT, CIB, missile pod, and body guard with burst cannon, missile pod, failsafe det, and HWMT.

What worked: EXTREMELY mobile, tough, and was made awesome by warlord characteristics
What didn't: Nightfight hobbled a lot of shooting attacks by providing cover saves to the enemy (but I also received cover saves by the same means so it's functional and adds resilience for an otherwise fragile XV pilot.

Ethereal: Basically just hung out attached to, but staying behind the broadsides and ensured people didn't run away.

What worked: He kept units from failing morale from losses
What didn't: Being with the broadsides made him very stationary and I didn't get a chance to get him killed and possibly giving all of my units (sans kroot or vespid) preferred enemy.

Elites: x3 XV8 teams (2ea) with fusion blasters, MT's, and Missile Pods.

What worked: Suits are now SOOOOO fast. 6" in the move phase, can run in the shoot phase, then 'thrust' 2D6" in the assault phase. Wow. Team Leader conferred 'character' rues to the unit and could snipe with missiles.
What didn't work: Fusion blasters were a bad choice in this fight because nothing really got close enough to use them and vehicles were taken care of amply by the broadsides. I didn't take BSF's...take them! It's worth it.

Troops: x2 Fire Warriors (x10 w/ rifles) + Team leader with bonding knife.

What worked: Remote Sensor Towers, multi phasic sensor suite making units within 6" TL, 15" rapid fire double tap range. Move and fire full range rule. Photon grenades conferring stealth, being in cover, nightfight shroud and stealth rules, AND random objective characteristics

What didn't: Unit is still fragile, but lasted MUCH longer in cover with nightfight and grenades. Their effectiveness and durability was doubled without a new codex

Remote Sensor Tower x2, TL Marker Lights, Target Array, Multi Phasic Sensor Suite, and Marker Beacons

What worked: Made fire warriors twice as effective and provided marker support.
What didn't: Bad dice failed to hit and provide marker support, otherwise I MUST TAKE

Fast Attack: x2 Tetras: Seperate squadrons with BSF's Target Arrays, Sensor spines, and decoy launchers

What worked: Dependable marker support, shroud and stealth from night fight, disruption pod
What didn't: I forgt to use the decoy launchers when they got hit, and both of them were either immobilized or wrecked via hull points

Heavy Support: 1 unit of x2 Broadsides with Target arrays, Team Leader with bonding knife, HWDC and x2 shieled drones.

What worked: Hanging out with the Ethereal made them stay on the board and marker support contributed to them avoiding night fight while helping to destroy every vehicle my opponent brought. Range also helped with shroud and stealth saves during night fight
What didn't: I didn't take HWMT's or Stabilizers so I couldn't move and fire at regular BS. I was stationary.

x2 Sniper Teams

What worked: Provided additional marker support, 2+ cover saves in area terrain from stealth fields (shroud and night fights)
What didn't: Unit doesn't have the sniper rule, and failed to make their targets at BS 2(3)

I hope this helps and am looking forward of hearing tales of the Tau'Va.

[Bigred]

I'm seeing an amazing power increase well.

In fact I'm thinking Tau may have gotten one of the biggest power boosts of any army out there.

My first rule of all my list building is: Blacksun filters on EVERY squad. Nightfighting is just too common now, and we have one of only 2 armies (with Dark Eldar) who can just ignore it. We however have the range to really punish folks at range that the Dark Eldar don't.

I've even moved my default FireWarriors to having the squad leader upgrade with the BSF, for the added utility.

Also, extra coolness points with tonight's game. Watching a Broadside snapfire a charging Lictor with its railgun was just too sweet words. That left a mark!

[gcsmith]

I love the changes, as ive been saying in my other thread. My army atm is a crap list, but I won a 1000 point game against chaos, that had a turn with Typhus charging a fire warriors. He lost 1 wound to overwatch and then died in combat before he could strike. Sorry but my firewarrior squad just got promoted. :D

[DrLove42]

Need to give them a go sometime soon. We're hopefully getting a new gaming club down here, so should get more in with them.

Some things do seem clear to me -

Blacksun filters, as mentioned are essential.
As are bonding knives. Stick it and nothing else on the squad leader and stick him at the back. The ability to always regroup at full Ld even when theres only 1 guy left? Win
It bugs me that split fire became a USR,a nd yet Tau can no longer do it
Hammer and Anvil deployment can really favour tau with long fire lines
Stealth suits are great now as well. 4+ in the open and a 2+ in any kind of cover?

I had decried that my Tau would be in storage till the new codex. They might get out earlier....

[Jacubus]

Okay, it seems to me you gave all of your stealth units fusion blaster which only 1 in 3 can have. I know it's a stupid rule but what are you going to do.

No target lock/ splitfire is annoying that it's gone but the amount of fire power my units are spitting out seems to be nearly 3 times as much as before so meh.

Plus firewarriors are moving now! before my firewarriors were hiding in cover waiting to be slaughter by the next assault. Now I can manipulate fire coverage much better.

I tried the grenade rules out myself. The 8 inch range doesn't help tau out as much as I wish it did. Too close to assault range although I was lucky once when my opponent rolled snakes for assault charge. I ended up using them as I did before, as assault weakeners. Bit annoyed that the faqs didn't also say that EMP grenade = Haywire grenades. I wanted to try out some vehicle grenade destruction.

I also found that my opponents were not running their vehicles in as fast as before. Hullpoints must scare people

To me, fortifications are Tau's new best friend. I had fun taking out Flyers with these.

I love the new 2d6 in assault movement. It's been great for me so far but I can see where it may go sour. I've always been a fan of using gun drones but now they harass my opponent even more.

So in conclusion, yay for tau

[TheStarkLord]

Got to agree on the emp grenade thing. When i first saw haywire i got super happy and then it was the only thing that really let me down in the faq. Still tau are looking more playable again. Hopefully when we gwt a new codex we will get haywire nades cause well come on thats what they should be.

[Panxer]

Okay, it seems to me you gave all of your stealth units fusion blaster which only 1 in 3 can have. I know it's a stupid rule but what are you going to do.

No target lock/ splitfire is annoying that it's gone but the amount of fire power my units are spitting out seems to be nearly 3 times as much as before so meh.

Plus firewarriors are moving now! before my firewarriors were hiding in cover waiting to be slaughter by the next assault. Now I can manipulate fire coverage much better.

I tried the grenade rules out myself. The 8 inch range doesn't help tau out as much as I wish it did. Too close to assault range although I was lucky once when my opponent rolled snakes for assault charge. I ended up using them as I did before, as assault weakeners. Bit annoyed that the faqs didn't also say that EMP grenade = Haywire grenades. I wanted to try out some vehicle grenade destruction.

I also found that my opponents were not running their vehicles in as fast as before. Hullpoints must scare people

To me, fortifications are Tau's new best friend. I had fun taking out Flyers with these.

I love the new 2d6 in assault movement. It's been great for me so far but I can see where it may go sour. I've always been a fan of using gun drones but now they harass my opponent even more.

So in conclusion, yay for tau


Nope. Used XV8's. Given the new rules, and for the points I'd still only take stealth suits if they were a troops choice. XV8's are more powerful, tougher, upgradable, and cheaper than the stealth variant. Ok, they can re-roll to outflank, but why would you (other than to make your opponent think twice about hugging the sides)? If you HAD to use them, just max them out with options, deepstrike em in (don't forget the marker beacon), fusion blast whatever to slag, and run away 12" behind cover.

Honestly though? Other than the cover and jetpack buffs? I'd still take XV8's over XV15/25's any day.

[Uncle Nutsy]

yeah when i read about the new flamer rule in 6th i just went 'damn, I knew equipping two suits with twinlinked flamers was a good idea...'

not only was it a good idea in 5th, it's now a gross idea in 6th.

[Panxer]

yeah when i read about the new flamer rule in 6th i just went 'damn, I knew equipping two suits with twinlinked flamers was a good idea...'

not only was it a good idea in 5th, it's now a gross idea in 6th.

So what do they do? I haven't read that section yet...

[Uncle Nutsy]

we can use them as a response to being charged and possibly killing their assault dead in it's tracks.

My third teamleader suit will also have a flamer (plus fusion blaster, HWMT and targeting array). that's right. dude's gonna have a nice AP1 blast to the dome if he tries to charge.

[DarkLink]

Flamers can overwatch. It's called wall of death, or something.