What to do against TAU!

[blastboy113]

Hey Guys

I am at a end with Tau. They are quite a hard army to verse with Space Marine especially with my mate who fields Tau is incredibly good with them

Every tactic i try against him gets owned

If i leave a Whirlwind down my end of the table, he will drop a squad of battlesuits down to pop it open and then outflank me

If i use terminators, he will get 2 squads of fire warriors plus marker lights to light them up and make me roll 10+ wounds and will be destroyed

His Devilfish has the outside 12" rule and he gets a 3+ cover save from any lascannon or missle launcher

His Broadside pops open my Landraider mainly in the first turn

I cant use Vanguard against his fire warriors because Overwatch and he will kill 1-2 veterans out of 5

And now the riptide has begun, I am clearly in over my head and Clearly dont know what to do

The tactics that have worked for me are

Sternguard squad using AP3 ammo against his Commanders works SO GOOD

Dropping a dreadnought behind a loaded devilfish with a lascannon..... INSTANT JOY


This person i play against is really smart and I am wondering if you guys can help me out

I do play Salamander Space marines and I just plainly need you help

Cheers

[Prince Nuada]

Hi!

As a Tau player I have to tell you that going toe-to-toe with Tau at range will not work.
Imperial Guard are perhaps the only ones who might manage it and even they will struggle.
Against Tau your primary goal should be to get into melee as quickly as possible.
The quickest way to do this is of course to drop pod alpha-strike. Load your Sternguard Veteran and Tactical Squads and Dreadnoughts into drop pods and give your friend the good news as quickly and as agressively as possible. Follow-up your first wave with more drop pods as well as deep-striking Assault Squads and Terminators. In this your strengths lie in your Elites and Fast Attack slots, NOT in your Heavy Support slots.
Leave expensive tanks like Landraiders at home, you won't need them and they will get destroyed.
If you are playing Salamanders bring plenty of flamers but don't bother with meltaguns, bring plasma!
This is your best bet and in all likelyhood your opponent won't expect it if he's over-confident and used to owning you. I know that if it was me I would just mount-up my mechanised Firewarriors, tarpit you with Kroot auxilliaries and redeploy to punish you from another angle, your opponent may try this, he may not. At least if you have deep-striking units in reserve you can cope with this, but then again that's what Battlesuits and Vespids are good for.
And keep your fingers crossed that your opponent doesn't clue-on and bring Wraithblade Eldar allies 'cause then you're screwed!

Good luck Gue'O. ;)

[blastboy113]

Thanks Prince for your two cents on this topic

Your suggestion leads to more thinking

You have to have 50% of your army on the table and not more than 50% in Drop Pods slamming down on the field

What could you suggest to field and to drop pod

ALSO

tactics against the riptide ( i call it the raptide)

Cheers,
Nathan

[Prince Nuada]

As far as I can tell Drop Pod Assault simply states that 50% of your drop pods must alpha-strike whilst the remaining 50% remain in reserve. This doesn't mean that 50% of your army must be on the table. So drop 50% of your pods and follow them up with the rest as well as other deep-striking reserves.

Alternatively, you could try Rhino-Rushing your Tactical Squads, just expect them to get half-way accross the field before they're popped. For that reason I'd give them plasmaguns and missile launchers. Maybe a combi-plasma, but I wouldn't bother with power weapons.
In your Heavy Support slot you might consider Devestators with missile launchers or even plasma cannons if you're feeling cheekey.

As far as drop pods go; Dreadnoughts and Sternguard Veterans are your best bet. You can deep-strike your Assault Squads, or you could remove their jump packs and drop pod them. You can also put Terminators in drop pods if you wish.

I don't personally have any experience with the Rapetide yet, it is a dakka monster! :D

[chicop76]

1. How is he poping your landraider with broadsides. Broadsides Railrifles are strength 8 ap 1. All they should be doing at best is glancing your Landraider.

2. Tau is weaker outside of 36". You can out shoot Tau beyond 36". However outflanking and deep striking seems to hbelp with this weakness.

3. Tau have issues dealing with a lot of 13 armour. You have 13 armour dreadnoughts and heavy vehicles.

4. I wouldn't deep strike like that. If he is taking early warning override and the triple tap of death says it's a bad ideal. If you can manage to get your entire army in his face in turn one you might can get him. Also if he has a lot of reserve units he can quickly support where he needs to support.

5. His fire warriors and pathfnders should be your primary targets. To deal with his devil fish I would get a bike with a powerfist. The powerfist or chainfist will negate the cover save and you have a 24" range of taking it out.

6. Lots of melta. Melta can instant kill suits and put a hurt on his riptide. Your sternguard can put a decent amount of wounds on the riptide.

7. You can tie up a rip tide in bate. Bikes or assault marines can do this. Keep in mind the tide is probably going to win combat, but he will probably kill 1-2 models each ound. I found a squad of melta bombs can do really well against a riptide.

That is what I can think off. I play Tau and the only armies I lost against was Necrons, Daeons, and Daemon Hunters. With the two armies execpt Daemons I was out ranged,which I added more range which destroyed thoose two armies in the next tournament.

With Daemons it brings up another weakness which I have exploited myself with Tyranids.

Multiple assaults also hurts Tau as well.

With the hounds for example they would assault 4 units at one time, by doing so it forces me to fire with atleast with the 4 units and in some cases with every unit within 6". What this does is allow another unit to assault without the worry of getting hit with over watch. Keep in mind the hounds had a +2 invulnerable save with feel no pain and it will not die.

What I do with my nids is to assault with my squads that' about to die. An example is with 1-5 gaunts. If you don't overwatch you are locked in combat. Once I force the Tau to kill my throw away squads I than assault with my Trygon, or larger gaunt squads.

As a note you can't put your entire army in reserves. It say so under army deployment and I believe under reserves as well. You must field 50% of your army. It's probably in the FAQ as well since Dark Angel players tried to do the exact same thing since they can deep strike terminators on turn one. Again it's a bad ideal if he is running early warning override on the riptide. I have 2 riptides and have wiped out two squads rather easy. When I had them on my broadsides I was wiping out 2-3 squads before they could do anything. Needless to say it deters people deep striking against me. Again deepstriking and equal pie plate of death.

[GravesDisease]

Hi!

As a Tau player I have to tell you that going toe-to-toe with Tau at range will not work.
Imperial Guard are perhaps the only ones who might manage it and even they will struggle.
Against Tau your primary goal should be to get into melee as quickly as possible.
The quickest way to do this is of course to drop pod alpha-strike. Load your Sternguard Veteran and Tactical Squads and Dreadnoughts into drop pods and give your friend the good news as quickly and as agressively as possible. Follow-up your first wave with more drop pods as well as deep-striking Assault Squads and Terminators. In this your strengths lie in your Elites and Fast Attack slots, NOT in your Heavy Support slots.
Leave expensive tanks like Landraiders at home, you won't need them and they will get destroyed.
If you are playing Salamanders bring plenty of flamers but don't bother with meltaguns, bring plasma!


Few points i disagree with:

Forcing melee on Tau is not the defacto answer. Often it is far too much hassle that you will regret hanging around for a turn post deepstrike, or get mowed down in overwatch.
Melta are not useless again tau. In fact they instadeath suits, which plasma and flamer do not.
Tau usually field large amount of infantry. Dropping pieplates and blasts is a perfectly valid tactic against them. Even a thunderfire cannon can be very effective in changing the pace of play as the Tau player will make that faraway target his absolute mission.
Land raiders are actually fairly effective against Tau since they do not have that many answers to AV14 when compared to other races.

[Prince Nuada]

Few points i disagree with:

Forcing melee on Tau is not the defacto answer. Often it is far too much hassle that you will regret hanging around for a turn post deepstrike, or get mowed down in overwatch.
Melta are not useless again tau. In fact they instadeath suits, which plasma and flamer do not.
Tau usually field large amount of infantry. Dropping pieplates and blasts is a perfectly valid tactic against them. Even a thunderfire cannon can be very effective in changing the pace of play as the Tau player will make that faraway target his absolute mission.
Land raiders are actually fairly effective against Tau since they do not have that many answers to AV14 when compared to other races.


Lol. You obviously haven't visited ATT. :rolleyes:
•If you can get within range to melta a battlesuit they're doing it wrong.
•Any Tau Commander worth his salt will have his infantry in solid cover so those templates are not going to be as effective as you would like them to be unless they ignore cover. Meanwhile, he's stripping you of your cover with markerlight hits.
•A deep-striking Monat with a fusion blaster can take out a Thunderfire Cannon in a single turn.
•Railguns aren't the only serious anti-tank you have to be concerned about. A squadron of fusion blaster Piranhas can deploy decoy gun drones (forcing a target priority test on nearby infantry) and mess up a Landraider's day pretty quickly, as can shielded fusion blaster Battlesuits. Railguns can be positioned to dictate a corridor which your armour will be forced to take (to avoid them) in which they can be ambushed by fast moving elements operating from behind cover (although in all honesty this doesn't always work against mechanised Imperial Guard).

[GravesDisease]

Barrage sniping ethereals is a tried and tested tactic. OP already has got a whirlwind so it seems with better placement and screening units he could have a pretty powerful long range firebase. Tau would have to either deepstrike (risking scattering off table) and thus split his units, or pay the tax and live in fear.

[chicop76]

Lol. You obviously haven't visited ATT. :rolleyes:
•If you can get within range to melta a battlesuit they're doing it wrong.
•Any Tau Commander worth his salt will have his infantry in solid cover so those templates are not going to be as effective as you would like them to be unless they ignore cover. Meanwhile, he's stripping you of your cover with markerlight hits.
•A deep-striking Monat with a fusion blaster can take out a Thunderfire Cannon in a single turn.
•Railguns aren't the only serious anti-tank you have to be concerned about. A squadron of fusion blaster Piranhas can deploy decoy gun drones (forcing a target priority test on nearby infantry) and mess up a Landraider's day pretty quickly, as can shielded fusion blaster Battlesuits. Railguns can be positioned to dictate a corridor which your armour will be forced to take (to avoid them) in which they can be ambushed by fast moving elements operating from behind cover (although in all honesty this doesn

't always work against mechanised Imperial Guard).

The problem with deep striking suits is sure they can take out whirlwind x, but some angry marines will come beat them with the silly clubs or blast the crap out of them. I would trade a whirlwind for your suits which cost you more.

Honestly vanilla marines do not have to many deny cover ranged weapons and have to get close to flame. The whirlwind are great vs pathfinders. However his best bet is to shoot at the right targets over trying to get into assault.

What Tau player runs pirannas, anyway the pirannas only deter pushing foward with a land raider which can also sit back as a shooting platform. My answer to pirannas is a captain with a chain fist on a bike.

The Riptide is probablly the hardest model for the Marines to deal with. I take mine with a fusion gun ususally. The problem here is it can drop a strength 9 barrage ordanance which can take out a whirlwind since it hit side armour, or any of your 11 side armour vehicles. If a vehicle comes too close it can fusion and hit a vehicle with 3 strength 10 smash attacks hitting rear armour.

Like I said before a ton of melta will help kill it. Also a ton of plasma wouldn't be a bad ideal.

Honestly though Vanilla Marines is probably the worst army to face Tau. Storm Shield Terms with feel no pain may be an option, however I had terms deep strike on my army and I wiped them out thanks to bs 5 tripple tap.

If he is suit heavy melta guns would be a better choice over plasma

I agree dropping a lot of pie plates does help against Tau. If they gtg than they are shooting snap shots. Taking out the pathfinders will level the playing field so to speak.

Thinking about it some deep striking dreadnoughts with heavy flamers wouldn't be a bad ideal, 13 armour in Tau's face is hard for them to deal with. Stay away or take out the melta guns. Flame out his pathfinders and tau firewarriors. If he did take early warning over ride he will have a tough time taking out the dreadnoughts over squishy infantry.

Becareful since a Riptide can kill even a 13 armour dreadnought in combat. It would be a good fight since you can run the Riptide down, but if it get a +3 invulnerable it can hang and destroy your armour.

[GravesDisease]

Here's a point, does early warning override target the drop pod or can it the units that must disembark?

[Lost Vyper]

As an Eldar player going against GK/BA frequently, flamers/heavy flamers will do the trick :) Alpha Drop pod assault is brutal...combi-flamers/hand flamers i just hate those...

[chicop76]

Here's a point, does early warning override target the drop pod or can it the units that must disembark?

It allows the Tau player to shoot at the end of the movement phase, so if you use a drop pod he can choose to shoot the pod or the occupants before your shooting phase. 9 times out of 10 he will choose the meat. The riptide's strength 8 ap 2 large pie plates tend to make infantry based deep strikes a bad ideal. That's why I run 2 riptides and thinking of adding another one. Unless you want dead marines it is usually a bad ideal to come on from reserves with riptides on the board.

Hince why I suggest armour 13 dreadnoughts over squishy marines.

[Sly]

Unless you want dead marines it is usually a bad ideal to come on from reserves with riptides on the board.

I don't rightly see the problem. The Riptide can fire at the end of your Movement Phase with that blast, but without any Markerlight support, or it could fire that blast in the Tau shooting phase with Markerlight support and ignore your cover. Since you get to spread out pretty well when coming out of a Drop Pod, it doesn't seem more dangerous to face it as an Intercept weapon than as a normal weapon with Markerlight support.

[magickbk]

forcing a target priority test on nearby infantry

Isn't that not in the rules anymore?

[Prince Nuada]

Lol. Yes, you are quite right. My bad. :o
In any case, fast moving melta is very much a viable threat.

[Librarian Harker]

Have you considered using storm talons and storm ravens? Both units have a wide range of high strength low AP weapons, and the storm raven can hold a squad of assault terminators each. Broadsides can only skyfire or intercept meaning they have to wait till their turn or risk a snap shot. The riptides if they elect for skyfire and intercept will only hit on 4s and glance on 4s against the storm talons and 5s against the storm ravens. Judicious use of cover can offer some saves without having to Jink. You have ample opportunity to kill his broadsides the turn you come on, use cover to weather his storm of fire his next turn and then send thunderhammer armed terminators into hand to hand with his riptides. All you need is some scout units as your troops choice to camp your objectives and a terminator librarian to use null zone to make the riptides re roll every successful invun they make.

Ive used these tactics against tau armies in the past and I have had a good deal of success. One thing I would say is use a bastion or ageis with comms unit for the reserve rolls, and to target his broadsides and pathfinders as a priority.

Hope this helps

[Pendragon38]

As a SM player if found that two to three TFCs and a gun line with dreads is the way to go.

[blastboy113]

Can SM Close combat terminators assualt on the turn the drop from a Stormraven?

[Cap'nSmurfs]

The Stormraven is an Assault Vehicle, so yes.

IMO the Marines aren't actually lacking tools to deal with the Tau at all. You've got access to an awful lot of decent strengthmultiple shot, blast or template weaponry with AP 4 or better. We've several decent to great assault units. We've several methods to get right in their face as quickly as possible.

The problems might be that a lot of people's metagames up to now have been about killing MEQ, and lists built for that aren't necessarily ideal for clearing out the weaker but more numerous Tau. If you play MEQ all the time, you might scoff at Heavy Flamers, Thunderfire Cannons, Stormtalons with Skyhammer Missiles etc. but those things are king of the ring against fishmen (and most other xenos too).

If you're having problems with an isolated Whirldwind, then why not use it as bait in a trap? Be ready to dump something nasty on his units when they arrive to take it out. As well as providing cover denying pieplates, the Whirlwind is dirt cheap. Does he really want to sacrifice his battlesuits to kill a cheap artillery tank? Etc.

As others have said, target priority is key. Pathfinders have to go, followed by their big nasty guns. Get rid of their toys and stop the Tau from supporting each other and they're not so tough.

[Prince Nuada]

I think when it comes to Tau it's all about the commander.
Marines are easy to use which is why most people start out with them and they really don't require any skill.
But Tau commanders (like Eldar commanders) are a different story.
The successful ones tend to think outside the square and are very good strategists.
If Erwin Rommel was in 40K he would be Shas'O Ro'mel.
What you need to do is adapt your play to suit your opponent as much as his army.

[Cactus]

My suggestions:

*Drop pod guys with flamers and/or meltas into the back field. They will have to answer that threat right away and your other troops can scoot across the table. Termies, marines, Dreads, will work.
*Deepstrike stern guard. Same tactic that allows you to pick a target, plunk it and distract from the rest of your army.
*Land speeder squads with heavy bolters and meltas. They have jink and can take out troops and tanks alike. I like mine with two heavy bolters though and I target drones.

For play style, you can delay your deployment with reserves, deep striking and outflanking.

[Stone Edwards]

I think when it comes to Tau it's all about the commander.
Marines are easy to use which is why most people start out with them and they really don't require any skill.
But Tau commanders (like Eldar commanders) are a different story.
The successful ones tend to think outside the square and are very good strategists.
If Erwin Rommel was in 40K he would be Shas'O Ro'mel.
What you need to do is adapt your play to suit your opponent as much as his army.

After playing quite a few games against Tau I would have to disagree. Tau can do VERY WELL just castling up in a corner and shooting at what ever comes close, not exactly a lot of strategy required there.

[chicop76]

After playing quite a few games against Tau I would have to disagree. Tau can do VERY WELL just castling up in a corner and shooting at what ever comes close, not exactly a lot of strategy required there.

I never castled and win a lot of games from not doing so. However I noticed castle Tau tend not to do well as a more mobile Tau army. That said playing with Tau is harder than playing with Marines. With Tau it's important to kill all mobility and kill the other side beforeit gets to you. I tend to move up with my Tau and get more rapid fire shooting by doing so.

I found moving up and moving away and shooting to work really well. Standard troops outside of vehicles have a harder time assaulting if you move in the opposie direction the same distance that they move up. If you kill their mobility they can't kep up. It works really well with suits.

However with my Tau the only thing that scares me is quick durable units, a lot of high armour, and a lot of flying MCs. However due to overwatch assault raely happens and not much scares me. The only times I lost with Tau is due t being out ranged, more than out shot, and a lot of assaulting units.

The problem with deep striking is you really don't have enough fire power to really hurt Tau from deep strike. Daemons from last edition was differant since I could at times wipe out 75% of your army when I deep striked in. I say shooting out of deep stirke is very effective. The problem lies that you are in range of a lot of models and you probably can't use cover. Also the fact ap 3 weapons kills marines dead makes it not really viable.

I can say since 3rd edition I never lost to a deep striking army with my Tau and that is with like a 55% percent win ratio, 4th and 5th hit Tau hard. I never faced Tzeentch type Daemon list when I played my older Tau and played against Daemons 3 times only losing one game, and that one game no deep striking was going on.

The problem I see is you can hurt Tau via deep strike, but not really criple them. The return fire can and usually will pick up all the deep striking models. In 6th it's worst since you will be over watched to death. The closest game I ever had vs a deep strike army was when I faced 3 Old hard to kill Monoliths with Necrons coming out the portal and teleporting through the portal with veil teleporting on top of that. The reason the game was sooo close was due to the monoliths blocked line of sight due to them not exploding.

[Maelstorm]

I've punked Net-list Tau hard using Blood Angels and a simple wall of AV13.

1x HQ Libby - Shield of Sanguinius,
10x Troops
10x Troops
3x Librarian Dreadnoughts - Wings of Sanguinius (12" jump troops with Hammer of Wrath), Fear of the Darkness (Morale test at -2)
3x Baal Predators - TLAC, 2xHB
3x Predators - AC, 2xHB

The wall of 9x AV 13 (27 Hull Points) renders 80-90% of Tau weapons useless.
Everything can move 12" and fire for full effect
Fear of the Darkness will easily route markerlight and battlesuit units off the table
4x Librarian power weapons insta-kill both Riptides and Battlesuits

Focus on eliminating weapons that can PEN AV13 and hit Markerlights with 12 Heavy Bolters.
It's point and click against Tau - kind of boring - but works...
It's also hard-core against any codex except Necrons....

[LordGrise]

I play Tau exclusively. Fast mover and swarm attacks are the worst: no strategy, no fancy tricks, just a wall of death. I don't have enough pie plates to deal with it. and Overwatch? Yeah, I've never, and I mean NEVER had it be a significant factor. If ANYTHING gets thru, it all comes apart.

Armor spam? Sure, no problem - if I know it's coming. Of course, that takes us into the whole 'Are you loading for the specific army you're facing' thingie. That's a different string.

[Pendragon38]

I like to play Tau with this list it's my favorite list/all comers. I've fare really well and I like to out range my enemies.



Hq) MotF with conversion beamer for 120pts.


Troops) 10 man squad of SM with ML and flamer 170pts.
5 man squad of scouts with sniper rifles 75pts.


Elites) 3 dreads with auto-cannons for 375pts.

Fast) 3 storm talons with twin linked las and assault cannons at 420pts.


Heavy) 3 TFCs at 300pts.

And yes they my have more troops than me but doesn't stop me from mobbing up on them.

[Nathan Flentjar]

Hey Guys

I am at a end with Tau. They are quite a hard army to verse with Space Marine especially with my mate who fields Tau is incredibly good with them

Every tactic i try against him gets owned

If i leave a Whirlwind down my end of the table, he will drop a squad of battlesuits down to pop it open and then outflank me

If i use terminators, he will get 2 squads of fire warriors plus marker lights to light them up and make me roll 10+ wounds and will be destroyed

His Devilfish has the outside 12" rule and he gets a 3+ cover save from any lascannon or missle launcher

His Broadside pops open my Landraider mainly in the first turn

I cant use Vanguard against his fire warriors because Overwatch and he will kill 1-2 veterans out of 5

And now the riptide has begun, I am clearly in over my head and Clearly dont know what to do

The tactics that have worked for me are

Sternguard squad using AP3 ammo against his Commanders works SO GOOD

Dropping a dreadnought behind a loaded devilfish with a lascannon..... INSTANT JOY


This person i play against is really smart and I am wondering if you guys can help me out

I do play Salamander Space marines and I just plainly need you help

Cheers

So what you're trying to say, based also upon your grammar and level of literacy, is that your friend is clearly just... better than you at things that require intellect? Yup, can't help you there. No good telling you "what to do against TAU" if you're slow by default.

Besides, how the hell are you losing Land Raiders to Broadsides? How is that possible?

[Pendragon38]

So what you're trying to say, based also upon your grammar and level of literacy, is that your friend is clearly just... better than you at things that require intellect? Yup, can't help you there. No good telling you "what to do against TAU" if you're slow by default.

Besides, how the hell are you losing Land Raiders to Broadsides? How is that possible?

Dude layoff the kid he's is asking for help, not to get bashed on here. If you don't want to help with some good advice log off.

[blastboy113]

Nathan Flentjar: I'm not some kid, i am 21. And yeah my grammer is not the best BUT who cares?

All im doing is asking for advice because the last 3 games i have played against my friend he has wrecked me

I forgot the broadside rail got nerfed. So I am abit more confident taking a mighty land raider

I coverted a a chapter master in termie armour into Tu'Shan with a thunder hammer in each hand and a storm bolter elevated aboving his head

Pics will come soon

[Prince Nuada]

I like to play Tau with this list it's my favorite list/all comers. I've fare really well and I like to out range my enemies.



Hq) MotF with conversion beamer for 120pts.


Troops) 10 man squad of SM with ML and flamer 170pts.
5 man squad of scouts with sniper rifles 75pts.


Elites) 3 dreads with auto-cannons for 375pts.

Fast) 3 storm talons with twin linked las and assault cannons at 420pts.


Heavy) 3 TFCs at 300pts.

And yes they my have more troops than me but doesn't stop me from mobbing up on them.


With your Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support slots maxed and only one and a half Troops choices you might run into a bit of trouble there mate.
Troops are scoring and that is all the more important in 6th ed.
It's not going to take much to kill those Scouts and then your left with only a single Tactical Squad.
In an objective game I would ignore the rest of your army and make hitting those squads my focus.
Also, how do you take/hold more than one objective? I wouldn't rely on those scouts if I were you.
You'd at least be better off with two Tactical Squads, but three would be better.

Just some friendly advice. ;)

[Angelofblades]

Honestly, the best way I've found to deal with tau is to have adequate Los blocking terrain. Unfortunately, not everyone has a large enough piece of Los blocking terrain. I'm talking high enough to hide a leman Russ behind and long enough to hide 2 chimeras back to back.

No amount of tactic or strategy works against an army that has just about every counter in the book.

Opponent has cover saves?
Use marker lights
Opponent has fliers?
Twin linked and sky fire shots
Opponent has armor/MCs?
Tank hunters / monster hunters
Opponent has hordes?
Large blast high S low AP + ton of high S shots

It's really sad, but true. Want to survive against Tau? Don't let them shoot you and the only way you do that is to have enough Los blocking terrain.

6e is the shooting army's edition and Tau have lots of chances to shoot from interceptor to overwatch, medium to long range shots, while at the same time everyone is scrambling for every bit of cover they can get, Tau just laugh and deny, while claiming cover themselves.

[Pendragon38]

With your Elites, Fast Attack and Heavy Support slots maxed and only one and a half Troops choices you might run into a bit of trouble there mate.
Troops are scoring and that is all the more important in 6th ed.
It's not going to take much to kill those Scouts and then your left with only a single Tactical Squad.
In an objective game I would ignore the rest of your army and make hitting those squads my focus.
Also, how do you take/hold more than one objective? I wouldn't rely on those scouts if I were you.
You'd at least be better off with two Tactical Squads, but three would be better.

Just some friendly advice. ;)
Thanks for the advice. But how would I catch my fish! I love to use them as bait and saying here fishy fishy fishy. Oh and I haven't lost to a tau player yet with this list simple because I can out range him with the TFCs.

[chicop76]

Even with terrain blocking line of sight it's not a big deadly for tau

My smart missiles do not need line of sight and my broadsides can fire barrage shots as well and do not need line of sight. Also you can move around and infiltrate in terrain which also cuts back on the line of sight issue. Another bonus is having scout. Even more so if you have a scout transport.

However the only time i see it make a huge difference is when i am being out ranged. i played against daemons with a wall that was 2ft long 5" tall in the middle of the board and still wasted them. i moved around the wall and simply fell back while i was shooting. infiltrating kroot really helped and stopped the hound rush since scouts can't be with 12" of another model.

[Angelofblades]

Even with terrain blocking line of sight it's not a big deadly for tau

My smart missiles do not need line of sight and my broadsides can fire barrage shots as well and do not need line of sight. Also you can move around and infiltrate in terrain which also cuts back on the line of sight issue. Another bonus is having scout. Even more so if you have a scout transport.

However the only time i see it make a huge difference is when i am being out ranged. i played against daemons with a wall that was 2ft long 5" tall in the middle of the board and still wasted them. i moved around the wall and simply fell back while i was shooting. infiltrating kroot really helped and stopped the hound rush since scouts can't be with 12" of another model.

I currently play Eldar. My wave serpents would rather take those S5 Smart Missile barrage than those S7 high yield missile shots.

Also infiltrate means very little since you can ensure units that attempt to infiltrate are force to at max distance.

The only unit that of any worth that has scout are pathfinders, iirc, you cannot disembark as part of a scout move.

[Prince Nuada]

Do not forget that even Str 5 can glance AV11 on 6's and AV10 of 5's.

On the subject of out-ranging Tau: do not assume that Tau are inclined to sit back at maximum range. We can/will close to bring the foe under as much fire as possible. You might attempt to out-range us but it won't be for long and you will certainly struggle to out-maneuver us. ;)

[JxKxR]

Sternguard and Pedro are good against Tau.

[chicop76]

I currently play Eldar. My wave serpents would rather take those S5 Smart Missile barrage than those S7 high yield missile shots.

Also infiltrate means very little since you can ensure units that attempt to infiltrate are force to at max distance.

The only unit that of any worth that has scout are pathfinders, iirc, you cannot disembark as part of a scout move.

Funny you brought up that army. The first time I faced the new Eldar I had that type of situtation and still destroyed them.

The problem I seen is riptides can easily take out wave serpents with strenght 9 ap 2 ordance barrage shots if the Tau player goes first which means no cover saves. The sad part is you can possibly take out multiple vehicles.

Another issue I seen is Kroot sniper rifles can glance death serpents as well. Also Krootox can get clear line of sight shots as well.

Also pathfinders is not the only unit that can scout. Firewarriors can too with Darkstrider. Also if you keep allies in mind you can infiltrate with any Tau unit as well, example would be the scorpions pheonix lord.

I would say my 2 tournament games I lost due to line of sight terrain. However after that experance and having even worst los problem in the 2nd tournament I won all my games still. Here is a hint, you can move.

That being said the problem I seen with Eldar was once I grounded the fire dragons serpent or the wraith guard serpent the army simply didn't have enough shooting to be a theat against Tau's durable units. Once they position themselves to shoot at Tau their serpents got glance death, or the passengers got blasted off the board. The only thing I seen was a real issue is the fact Eldar can out manuver me, or easily get to objectives. Besides that I am more scared of Necrons which are more annoying.

Also not to mention I can outflank/ deepstrike half my army rather easily. Love rear hitting serpents.

Still Tau have enough weapons to deal with los issues more than most other armies do. If Tau can shoot you and you can't shoot them back it is an issue. 2 Riptides do plenty of damage and I can imagine if you run 3 of them.

Yeah the smart missles can't take out serpents, but they can easily kill most of your troops, even dire avengers feel the twin linked ignore cover sting of the missiles. Right now I have 18 smart missile shots which can kill guardians no problem. All I got to say wound on 2s. Riptides crack the shell, smart missles eat the meat.

[chicop76]

Do not forget that even Str 5 can glance AV11 on 6's and AV10 of 5's.

On the subject of out-ranging Tau: do not assume that Tau are inclined to sit back at maximum range. We can/will close to bring the foe under as much fire as possible. You might attempt to out-range us but it won't be for long and you will certainly struggle to out-maneuver us. ;)

Yeah the unit it hurt the most is your high yield missile sides. You move 6" and can run d6", honestly half the reaon I use grace with my ethereal a lot. It's not a real issue with fire warriors. It's an issues with pathfinders and broadsides, it means taking those units out of cover, and means ap 2 weapons will get the sides out of cover and your patfinders die rather quick out of cover. Depending on what you are facing it can actually help the other army more if you move up out in the open.