2 questions about playing against tau

After beating my mates tau a few times the penny has dropped and he has realised he needs more long range firepower to pop my venoms and ravagers with NS.  We play 2Kpts and I am expecting maybe a second riptide + hammerheads, railsides, missile pod crisis teams and a small farsight bomb.

I'm not changing my deployment/tactics to much, I'm still planning on spreading out along my table edge to limit the damage from all those large blasts early on, gunning for his markers and troops and charging in mid to late game.

So 1st question- If you have experience vs a more long ranged tau force at about 2K is this still a good idea or should I be doing something different with my deployment/tactics?



I have been running a large BM unit to soak up fire and pressure him and team up with my Archon and grots which go turboing in after turn 2.  I have had mixed results with them and after reading some BRs was thinking of switching the BMs for reavers.

So 2nd question- If you have experience with these units vs tau do you prefer BM or reavers or both?

Thanx guys!

So what kills us outside of our range (12" move + 36"); Ion Accelerators, Railguns, Seeker Missiles. Then there is a whole bunch more killing at 36" but this is where Nightshields come in to play. I'd be looking at either taking out or hiding, from those long-range weapon platforms first, whilst also staying outside of the SMS, Burst and missile pod ranges (36" or 30"/24" w/ Nightshields) which all have the ability to drop our skimmers out of the sky.

As for the BMs, 15 Khymera, Farseer and rolling Fortune is prolly the best way to keep them alive. However if u run Baron, u can charge pretty much anything early game (like an advancing Riptide) then Hit and Run out to keep moving into enemy backfield to go and assault what really needs to go (suits, sides or scoring units). Hit and Run keeps the Beasts protected from shooting phases and gives them some extra distance

Beasts survive best while locked in assault, using this Hit and Run slingshot will keep alive longer and get them to where they need to go. You just need to plan ahead coz your opponent will not see this move coming.....be careful/mindful or Supporting Fire when charging however.

Don't forget the BMs are Characters too so allocated their wounds on specific units too.....like killing the guys at the back of the unit if you are a long charge distance away, for instance

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So 1st question- If you have experience vs a more long ranged tau force at about 2K is this still a good idea or should I be doing something different with my deployment/tactics?

Honestly tau (non tailored) dont really get any longer range. That is a weakness of theirs, depending on the build, is that they are very static and cap out on threat range just short of some like us with NS.
What tau will do IME is run mobile elements like crisis suits and multiple riptides to compensate so I think your expectations are dead on.
One of my opponents runs a static scoring element, outflanking kroot, 2 iontides + 2 hammerheads (both hard-ish to get rid of and will reach out and touch you), crisis suits (often DS not always) and a broadside-star with HQ attached that splits fire 3 ways and decimates anything in 30". It attempts to dominate centerfield. Anyway I would expect your opponent to bring more mobile threats especially tides and suits. The suits will split fire and if you are bunched up in the backfield will wreck multiple skimmers. Also if he isnt already he really should be using the iontides more aggressively to include assaulting. They are far more problematic when used in this manner. On topic again these elements will attempt to de-mech you taking away your range supremacy. My answer varies but is often assault either multi with wyches and such or more practical with beasts since they can reverse speeds very quickly to guard the backfield and combo charge. They are also really good at denying LZs for DSing units. I also run grots btw which usually go right into their face.

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I have been running a large BM unit to soak up fire and pressure him and team up with my Archon and grots which go turboing in after turn 2. I have had mixed results with them and after reading some BRs was thinking of switching the BMs for reavers.

So 2nd question- If you have experience with these units vs tau do you prefer BM or reavers or both?

Havent used reavers here, I could see how they could be good at attacking their firebase and even assaulting against non combat armies like tau.
That said I dont see them being better than beasts in general. Reason is beasts can control board space very well with lower cost and higher body count and are a serious threat not just to infantry but also to armour and MC which bikes arent so much, more anti infantry focused.

Now my question for you is what is your beast unit built like and where are you encountering the problems? i.e. is it overwatch, leadership, focused fire destroying them, deployment issues? or just bad luck maybe?

Thanx for the feedback!

Brom- I usually field 13-15 khymera plus the baron if I can squeeze him in. This unit preforms quite well for me. The reason I was thinking of swapping them for reavers is the BMs large footprint make them hard to hide which gives tau a target to shoot all of there 36" or less guns at that would otherwise be wasted as they are out of range.

Reavers would not present a target until after they had bladevained some infantry. Reavers are also faster than BMs and more resilient than khymera as long as ive killed the markers which is usually the plan anyway.

Its just a theory at the moment but can you see where im coming from? What do you guys think?

Against Smart missile systems, Reavers are doomed and they'll drop like flies if your oppenent runs them. You need to be inside the SMS range to setup your assault too, and atleast Khymera can weather the storm somewhat

Ahh... yes SMS. Good catch 1++. Thanx.

Well if he takes a few of them my reavers would be in deep but at least they would have already done some damage.

Anyway in regards to my 1st question would you deploy/play any differently vs long range tau with lots of large ion blasts?

I guess you want to know where these large blasts are coming from so you know how u deploy and move/shoot on T1 and T2, coz I don't know if a Riptide can get killed T1 shooting alone....against Lances it's 5++/FnP and against Splinter Cannons its 2+/FnP.....so it svaes a lot of wounds

But going first really helps lol

Yes first turn would be nice so you could focus on those ions   But I would still not want to be too bunched up in case he seizes.

If going second at least you would know where those blasts are coming from so you would be able to hide your most important skimmers, ie. that raider with archon and grots.

But either way you want to spread out your skimmers, hiding the most important ones, with BM out front or on a flank running though LOS blocking terrain. So I guess the answer to my 1st question is... no.

As for my 2nd question I guess I will just have to give it a go and hope he doesn't have a lot of SMS.