The Tau are an army I've always wanted to run since I began playing Warhammer 40k in 2003. As a big time Mecha Anime fan, the army has a solid appeal to me. Something about Giant Robots battling for justice just draws me in. Now I know the rumor mills are abuzz with a Tau Codex on the horizon, but I just couldn't help myself and bought the current Tau Codex.
With Codex in hand I quickly began to digest how the army works and what elements I'd like to bring forth. Ultimately this army is for the fun of it and it's been some years since I've been able to put a competitive army on the table so winning games is secondary to having a blast playing them. So with that in mind I decided to focus on Battlesuits. Again, my draw to Tau has always been my interest in Mecha anime, Battletech, Heavy Gear, etc. and so I've always found Battlesuits to be the most interesting part of the Tau army for me.
So piecing together my list with my penchant for Tau Battlesuits I decided to take two Crisis Suit Squads and two Broadside Squads. I have a strong interest in Stealth Suits as well, but I wanted to maximize the bigger suits first.
The second thing I wanted to bring about is the use of markerlights. I like the system and think it has more merit than a Farseer using Doom and Guide. Well, Guide. Markerlights I think bring about the same impact as Doom, but in a different way. The benefit of Doom is that any unit targeting an enemy unit under its effect can take advantage of the re-roll. Markerlights have that same advantage.
Wanting to take the upmost advantage of markerlights I decided to not only including them in several places throughout my army, but also took two pathfinder teams. In casual games I've seen Pathfinder teams dropped within Pulse carbine range and subsequently get smashed by enemy units. My plan involves keeping them at the fringes of Markerlight range to support my Firewarriors and Battlesuits. The Devilfish will also be useful in that I can use them to reroll scatter when my Crisis Suits Deepstrike onto the table. I've also included a few Rail Rifles in each squad to help with the final element of my army. Delaying Tactics.
At the end of the day I've created a gun-line list and the key to any gun-line list is getting to shoot the enemy. Therefore I've made sure that I can accomplish this as much as possible. To delay the assault I have two major elements working for me. The first is pinning tests: I've attempted to capitalize on weaponry that forces my opponent to make pinning tests. This combined with target priority and selection should help keep the enemy at bay, at least a little bit. The second element comes in the form of my Crisis Suits which should drop onto the table and give my opponent something to think about.
At any rate, these are my ideas for now. Are there any veteran Tau players have any insight on how I can improve on my proposed tactics? I'd much appreciate the input.
