how to skin a tau?

[Wolf Lord Mjolnir]

How guys never faced tau before but have a 1750 game next week.

 

Any observations and tips?

[Niiai]

Yes. Play anything besides necrons. If you are playing SW you are already doing very well!

[old git]

Scouts are your friend. The mere threat of them turning up behind the Tau gunline is enough to throw the Tau player off. He'll either castle up and surround his suits with kroot, thus giving you a prime target all in one place, or deploy further forward to try and get away from the threat of the scouts. Either way you can use the psychological advantage the scouts give you to your advantage.

[nurglez]

Haven't played tau in ages, and when I did it was with chaos, but I rarely had a problem.

 

They got ranged fire power, but totally fold in assault, even their kroot do, but I'm sure there are some good tau players out there, they are rather hard to play well with (from what I've seen with the codex)

[Orphus]

1) Be careful about drop-podding in forces behind firewarriors. Rapid-fire death.

2) do not under estimate pathfinders, kill them quickly

3) get close to Tau as quickly as possible as yes, they fail in melée

4) if possible shoot kroot as they have either a - or 6+ save

5) remember that crisis suites have relentless special rule

6) expect to take early losses from broadsides

 

What is your army list? Do you know your opponents?

[Valerian]

How guys never faced tau before but have a 1750 game next week.

 

Any observations and tips?

 

How many Wolf Scouts do you have? Take as many as you have and you'll be halfway there. Swift Claws are good, too, Turbo Boost for the good Cover Save, then easy charge in your next turn.

 

Tau can really hurt you if they can keep you at a distance. If you can get within 12" and then get the charge they'll fold.

 

V

[Loki-LaughingDeath]

Get a really sharp knife, chainswords tend to make several very large messes. I know that it has been awhile since I faced off against them, like 6 years, but the closest thing that can compare is clubbing baby seals.

 

Scouts will work wonders, and I know that everybody is gonna scream when I say this but Blood Claws, or Hunters with Ragnar are the good bets.

[SJumppanen]

Scouts will work wonders, and I know that everybody is gonna scream when I say this but Blood Claws, or Hunters with Ragnar are the good bets.

 

Ragnar is definitely overkill for Tau and instead of BCs i would suggest using Swift Claws. Against Tau Swift Claws are beter than TWC because they can get there faster. Also, don't forget Long Fangs, they are good as always so there is no reason to leave them out.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

I like Tau :tu:

and so I shouldn't really help you. You have a powerful Dex and want to slaughter the Universe's chance of happily ever after? Boo!

 

But because you are old and make nice conversions and kit-bashes, I'll try to help you :P

 

For Tau to be on the same field of muscle as the Wolves, they have a limited palette from which to paint from.

 

Broadsides. They bring the dreaded railgun. These make Las cannons look silly [and my Templars love Las cannons]

They form an ideal fulcrum for the Tau to fight from, and make an ideal lure to sucker in foolish mêlée army players.

They are sv2+ and can have drones with a 2+4++ save. You won't make much headway with Missile spam.

However, OBEL scouts, DSing Pods and Speeders can all cover the distance quickly. As soon as the Broadsides are in combat, even if you can't kill them quickly, you've won that contest.

 

Crisis suits. These usually bring the ubiquitous Fire Knife configuration [plasma rifle and missile pod] that hurts transports and MEq. These will do much of the killing of your guys. They can Jump-shoot-jump, meaning they can move 6" in the Assault phase, keeping their distance.

Krak missiles insta-kill these.

 

Pathfinders. These bring marker-lights, which buff shooting. Strangely Tau shooting is not that accurate, but marker-lights allow the guns to hit the bullseye often. They are very flimsy soldiers and die easily. If you can target them on T1+2, do so.

 

Kroot. These guys will not beat down your mighty Wolves, don't worry. However, they might become a thorn in your side, getting great cover saves [especially in woods] and firing bolters at you. When you do assault them, they'll be in cover. You'll win, be they'll be wittling your guys down and stopping them from getting to the good meat of the rest of the army.

 

Tau vehicles will often be given the Disruption pod, giving a cover save when the shooter is >12" away. This will reduce you attempts to suppress his vehicles with Fangs & Living Lightning shooting.

 

Piranhas. These are like a Land Speeder and bring the useful melta gun [fusion blaster]. Their real role is to fly up into the face of your vehicles, to move-block them. Move-blocking is an invaluable strategy for any 40K gamer [i just stopped Chaos Lords from brutalising my Crusaders this arvo with it ;) ] but works especially well for the Tau, who desperately need as much time shooting your guys up and staying out of close combat. Land Raiders are prime targets, but even Rhinos are fair game due to the 200 points of Grey Hunters they will be carrying.

 

Hammerheads. These bring railguns that can fire a 5" template, useful for killing passengers that are bunched up following the destruction of their transport. If given the multi-tracker, they can fire as a fast vehicle and so move 12" and fire the railgun and keeping you >12" away so the D-pod keeps working.

These often make great screens for Crisis suits, the tank moving and the Suits JSJ to keep cover.

You really need to get within 12" [preferably with a melta weapon] to take this thing down. Otherwise you'll be sending a lot of krak missiles its way and for little return.

 

These really are the best units for the Tau. If you foe is bringing other stuff, maybe you have already won :P

 

+++

 

Imo, Wolves are actually a shooty army that is solid in combat. I contrast this with Bloods and Templars, both of whom have to assault to get the killing done.

However, if you get into a shoot-out with Tau, you are allowing the Tau to play to one of their strengths [shooting, the other being moving] and not capitalising on their weakness of being able to get killed by a Guardsmen in mêlée.

You really want to play the typical rush'em method that typifies Templars and Berzerkers.

 

They other thing you want is to bring an overwhelming amount of AV so that he cannot get through it in time before your guys start to assault his.

But don't think that means heavy AV. Preds, Dreads and Raiders are always a delight to see when playing as Tau as you brought targets that die almost as easily as Rhinos, yet cost a lot more and means you'll have less Marines to kill the Tau with.

Rhinos, Razors and Speeders are good things.

 

Fenwolves and TWC have a 19-24" assault range and are excellent at locking up the Tau in combat. Just make sure your TWC can get to combat before being seen by s10 railguns. So 1-2 man packs or 5 man packs.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

Get a really sharp knife, chainswords tend to make several very large messes. I know that it has been awhile since I faced off against them, like 6 years, but the closest thing that can compare is clubbing baby seals.

 

Scouts will work wonders, and I know that everybody is gonna scream when I say this but Blood Claws, or Hunters with Ragnar are the good bets.

 

I agree with SJumppanen. Rags is like a hot katana through butter with regards to Tau. Even your second level characters like Wolf & Rune priests will slap them silly. Blood Claws are good in mêlée but against Tau it is unneeded. If you are lucky [or cunning :tu: ] you won't kill them on the turn you charge and so dodge a turn of shooting :P

Claws are too killy, whilst Greys will certainly get the job done and bring some shooty, which can be handy as you don't need to assault all the time.

[Darkseer]

Tau are one of the weakest Codex books right now.

 

Close with them fast, because they fight best at range.

Meanwhile target their battlesuits with your Long Fangs and watch them die very easily.

 

There's a lovely batrep where I walked all over a Tau army here:

http://space-wolves-grey.blogspot.com/2010...ace-wolves.html

and my army list was pretty shoddy at the time!

[Firenze]

Too many people here are assuming that Tau will be a pushover with a certain unit against them. I actually play Tau, and have beaten SW soundly multiple times. However, I do fear a few things:

 

Scouts and OBEL. Arm them with 2 plasmas, PW and meltabombs. Rips apart any rear echelon.

 

DP dreads. Do this in the midst of meaty units such as Fire Warriors or unsuspecting broadsides.

 

Mass LRs. Even AV14 can be a problem for railguns.

[Darkseer]

I used to play Tau Empire at a competitive level before buying a Space Wolf army.

Tau aren't a walk over, but their firepower is limited. If you can swarm them with more power armoured targets than they can handle, you will overwhelm them.

 

Then melta guns take out their tanks and battle axes butcher anything else.

Meanwhile your Long Fangs constantly pound their Battlesuits from afar.

[Stormshrug]

As a player who cut his teeth against Tau, a few words of advice:

 

-Drop Pods are not worth it. Never put your troops in double-tap range unless they're already locked in combat.

 

-Dreadnoughts and other expensive vehicles are generally a poor investment against Tau, due to Rail Cannons.

 

-Mechanized assault is going to serve you much better than foot-slogging most of the time, unless it's a very cluttered map. The less shots they can take at your troops, the better.

 

-Scouts and Saga of the Hunter brutalize Tau.

 

That's my take, anyway.

 

-Stormshrug

[Marshal Wilhelm]

Too many people here are assuming that Tau will be a pushover with a certain unit against them. I actually play Tau, and have beaten SW soundly multiple times. However, I do fear a few things:

 

Scouts and OBEL. Arm them with 2 plasmas, PW and meltabombs. Rips apart any rear echelon.

 

DP dreads. Do this in the midst of meaty units such as Fire Warriors or unsuspecting broadsides.

 

Mass LRs. Even AV14 can be a problem for railguns.

 

I agree that scouts are annoying and compel you to deploy >12" away from your table edges. This is a win for the Wolves as even if they do not turn up there, your army is now closer to the rest of his army.

 

DP Dreads shouldn't be too shocking. If they use DP Assault rules to come down on T1, you should have your FW in Fish, or off the table. Meanwhile the rest of your guys are huddled together and protected by Kroot. Sure the Kroot die, but that is their role nowadays.

 

Massed Raiders should be countered by your Piranhas. T1 flat-out right up in its face. Now the big metal bawks has to go around. Remember that at no point in time can the Raider move within 1" of the Piranha, causing quite a diversion. If the Piranha is taken down, it becomes a wreckage. Difficult and Dangerous terrain. If the Piranha does not get taken out, you now have a vehicle with a 12" move and a melta gun right next to the Raider, who cannot get away from it.... B)

 

The D-pod will mitigate, a little, the shooting from Fangs and Razorbacks that are not nearby.

 

 

I used to play Tau Empire at a competitive level before buying a Space Wolf army.

Tau aren't a walk over, but their firepower is limited. If you can swarm them with more power armoured targets than they can handle, you will overwhelm them.

 

Then melta guns take out their tanks and battle axes butcher anything else.

Meanwhile your Long Fangs constantly pound their Battlesuits from afar.

 

Tau are a harder army to play. They are somewhat like the Deldar to play in that you have to keep getting things rights. Except they move more like hippos in water than birds of prey.

 

I agree that Tau have a hard time against SUPPORT squads. If they were a Pred, they'd be taken out quite quickly. However, railguns do not have the rate of fire to kill a squad. Boo!

 

I look forwards to seeing your blog in action once the Tau get another day in the sun :P

[Loki-LaughingDeath]

Marshal Wilhelm, I love your attitude about my suggestions, however allow me to offer the following bit of wisdom. There is no such thing as over kill there is only the dead and the living.

 

I don't know how badly the consolidation rules, or follow up has changed, but if you are able to achieve breaking a Tau Unit and having them flee into another should you not allow them this mistake? I know that I am really REALLY out of date when it comes down to it...

 

Another great quote is you should never feel pity for the enemy while engaging him on the field of battle.

[MaveriK]

allow me to offer the following bit of wisdom. There is no such thing as over kill there is only the dead and the living.

 

FALSE! your statement should read, "there is no such thing as overkill, there is only: The Dead, the living, and the Undead.. or Keith Richards." :D

[Marshal Wilhelm]

Marshal Wilhelm, I love your attitude about my suggestions, however allow me to offer the following bit of wisdom. There is no such thing as over kill there is only the dead and the living.

 

I don't know how badly the consolidation rules, or follow up has changed, but if you are able to achieve breaking a Tau Unit and having them flee into another should you not allow them this mistake? I know that I am really REALLY out of date when it comes down to it...

 

Another great quote is you should never feel pity for the enemy while engaging him on the field of battle.

 

I am not quite sure what you are saying. So I'll say this and hopefully it helps us be clearer with one another :angry:

I will be switching from Tau - loser and Wolves - winner in my verbage. Hopefully it is still clear.

 

In combat, say you kill 5 tau and he kills 1 wolf. Wolves win by 4.

The loser [the Tau] now takes a Ld test at -4.

If he fails the test, he now rolls a d6 + his majority initiative and you also roll a d6 + your majority initiative.

If the winner ties or beats the loser's score the losers unit are wiped out.

 

The winner's unit now makes a d6" consolidate move. This move is like a normal move and cannot be into another enemy unit.

 

If the loser's unit beats the winner's unit on the initiative test, the loser's unit fall back 2d6" and the winner's unit consolidates d6" but again, not into any enemy unit.

 

If the Tau unit beats the Wolves score [remember that i3 Crisis suits have to beat the Grey hunters i4 score and so have to roll TWO higher to beat them] they "get away"

The Tau unit is now falling back.

 

For them to regroup they must be:

above 50% strength.

more than 6" away from enemy units

in coherency

 

It then has to pass its Ld test. Suits have Ld 8, which is reasonable but not great.

 

If he rolls 7" for his Tau and you roll 1", he is still within 6" and so cannot regroup that turn.

 

I feel that Greys do more than enough in combat to render any Tau unit ineffective, at least for a few turns sake, whilst they bring more accurate melta guns [essential imo] and can hunker down and RF with bolters. The super-killy the Claws bring isn't needed and then they cannot hold an Objective and contribute shooting like Greys can.

 

That is what I reckon anyway :blink:

[Loki-LaughingDeath]

I was not clear on the fact that you can no longer consolidate (follow up for those of us with gray hairs) into CC anymore. It has been at least 2 editions since the last time I played and things have changed.

 

I still like Blood Claws they tend to make a mess that attracts my opponents attention so that the poor, poor Gray Hunters end up getting ignored.

[Stormshrug]

Except they move more like hippos in water than birds of prey

 

Hippos are actually quite graceful in the water.

[Marshal Wilhelm]

Loki-LaughingDeath

We need to get you out of the tavern, brother!

Ale is fine, but battle, that is to truly live, eh?

Then you have new tales when you drink more ales.

It is a glorious cycle :yes:

 

Except they move more like hippos in water than birds of prey

 

Hippos are actually quite graceful in the water.

 

Oh I agree, but they are slow in that grace ^_^

[CainTheHunter]

Except they move more like hippos in water than birds of prey

 

Hippos are actually quite graceful in the water.

 

Oh I agree, but they are slow in that grace ^_^

 

 

Slow as koalas? :P

[Loki-LaughingDeath]

:D How did those surly drunk critters make it into a discussion involving Tau?

[CainTheHunter]

:D How did those surly drunk critters make it into a discussion involving Tau?

 

If in doubt - blame Templars!

[Marshal Wilhelm]

How did those surly drunk critters make it into a discussion involving Tau?

 

They were made by the Old Ones to fight of the C'tan, which is why you need to emigrate to here. Just remember to bring some trees with you.

 

Perhaps the Old Ones made the Tau ~ possible conversation link?

 

How did those surly drunk critters make it into a discussion involving Tau?

 

If in doubt - blame Templars!

 

That's right.

It's always the tough kid who gets blamed for when things go wrong. :D

"Mister Inquisitor sir, we are not mutants. *doe eyes* Have you seen how many Templars there are?"

^_^