# Help tackling Tau



## 666Snoopy666 (Jun 1, 2008)

I play as Chaos Space Marines, and have a fairly balanced army. Anyhoo, I'm in a small tournament (when I say small, I literally mean around five people) and I had everything planned out, but I'm still unsure as to tackle Tau. Every time I think I can get into close combat, there's always a Hammerhead or Battlesuit in my way, thwarting my plans! I'm literally stuck on how to give them a good battering. So, does anyone have any tips?

By the way, I've had a look and can't find anything on this, but if there is a topic on this already then a link would be much appreciated, thanks :grin:


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## bobss (May 18, 2008)

you can either fight fire with fire of with dynamite. basically you can assemble a strong shooting army against him, playing them at their own game or a very fast, combat orientated army. hoping to engage him where he is weak, yet without massive losses.


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## nightmare12369 (Dec 21, 2007)

try using 9 oblits and 2 lash sorcerors, that is a good start to beating almost anything.


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## TAUfanatic (Jun 7, 2008)

666Snoopy666 said:


> I play as Chaos Space Marines, and have a fairly balanced army. Anyhoo, I'm in a small tournament (when I say small, I literally mean around five people) and I had everything planned out, but I'm still unsure as to tackle Tau. Every time I think I can get into close combat, there's always a Hammerhead or Battlesuit in my way, thwarting my plans! I'm literally stuck on how to give them a good battering. So, does anyone have any tips?
> 
> By the way, I've had a look and can't find anything on this, but if there is a topic on this already then a link would be much appreciated, thanks :grin:


as a Tau player I can tell you exactly how to beat me ^^

Tau are horrible at close combat (as everyone knows)
try to give your close combat specialists a rhino transport so they can get to the tau quickly...if the battle suits have fusion blasters worry,if not you should be fine....as for a hammerhead I wouldn't know what to say....(try avoiding it I guess)

please khorne at the tournament for me k'?:grin:


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## TheUnmarked (May 19, 2008)

Something fast with a chaos icon to get those deep striking chaostermies in CC with him, or use a scary unit like a blood thirster or demon prince with wings, nail his transports and fire warriors as they are definitely the back bone of any tau army (just watch out for his firing lines his troops will rip most units to pieces while shooting) defilers should also ruin his day if used properly, and if he has few fusion blasters or hammer heads then a land raider will be invaluable


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## LordWaffles (Jan 15, 2008)

Raptors.

Use a minimum five man squad with two melta guns and the icon of chaos glory. They'll either A)Hit his frontline and MASSACRE most anything tau that stands in the way.
or
B)Take up an inexplicable amount of firepower that takes some heat off your rhinos.

Tau don't like anything that moves more than 6' a turn and can assault.


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## Hashulaman (Apr 9, 2008)

You could put a squad in a land raider with daemonic possesion, That way nothing short of immobolized will stop it. If you loose the lascannons, fine. Its meant to be a transport. Put a unit in there (Doesnt matter which since any decent Chaos marine unit can slaughter tau.) Sned tha land raider straight at a target. Unload, shoot your pistols or any assault weapons you have, then assault them. With luck the squad will be wiped out on the charge. You can move onto the next threat from there. Another thing, with that land raider heading straight for his lines. That tau player will do everything in his/her power to destroy it, taking fire off of other units. I also find noise marines work. I once marched the entire board to assault some fire warriors with Plague marines. The only casulty was from an exploded plasma. :laugh:


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## The Lord General (Jun 7, 2008)

What type of Tau army does he play and what units do you use?

A unit or two of infiltrating Chosen with Raptors flying behind them, backed by deepstriking terminators will allow you to get up close quick. 

That should leave you with enough points for some decent firesupport and maybe some more quick assaulting units (Daemon Prince and a squd in a Rhino).

If your opponent does nothing but JSJ with anti-meq crisis suits, you either need to corner him, run him away from cover or use a defiler. Defiler would be the easiest choice.


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## Juiceypoop (Jun 5, 2008)

Chaos space marines with mark of khorne, meltas and flamers, in rhinos. drive them up, pile out and rapid fire, then assault.


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## Cheeseball317 (Jun 11, 2008)

*I feel your pain*

Well I don't know anything about csm, but I do know from numerous trial and error methods, that trying to out shoot tau is near impossible if you play eldar. I know csm can stand infront of their enemy and shoot them like a man, but with fragile units such as mine I've lost horribley when trying to out shoot and maneuver tau. the ONLY times I have come close to winning against tau is when i've put about 80% of my points into cc and getting all those specialist to their target. that's all I've got


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## Son of mortarion (Apr 24, 2008)

Take advantage of cover, advance,advance advance. Don't give your opponent any more targets than you have to. Infiltrators and deep strikers are a great way to go about doing this. Infiltrate a sizable(10+) squad of chosen, armed either with 5 flamers or 5 plasma guns. use them to create as much havoc on your opponent's flank, make them a real pain, you know the kind they give you morphine for. Either take as many 10 man squad mounted in rhinos, armed with 2 plasma guns or 2 flamers and movemovemove, or take half as many 20 man squads with icon of tzeench, and 2 plasma guns and advance forward, using cover as possible. take two 5-10 man havoc squads, and specialize each, one with 4 heavy bolters and the other with 4 lascannons. If you still have points, take a vidicator, as it will be able to support the rhinos or infantry equally well, and can shift a significant part of any battle line. Good hunting, LET THE GALAXY BURN!!!


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## delta555 (May 27, 2008)

i dont know chaos but cause my friend plays tau and i always win
get your heavy support in first and make everything with railguns die
then take out anything with fusion blasters or waterver tau melta is called
then the blood comes he has nothing strong enough to stop u except a static firing line might stem your charge but watch the bodies fly as a brass scorpion kills them all

tau vs heavies needs railguns which is why they MUST be killed the fusion short enogh range u could charge emh


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## chaos vince (Jun 10, 2008)

i play a chaos assault army and i never have much trouble with tau. they're really vunerable to psykers, i find that a pair of lashes are just about right to pull them up close wher i can hit 'em with a nice 15 or 20 man beseker squad. usualy this is backed up by a havoc squad and either some oblit's or a vindi. the havoc's are usualy good enough to break the tanks up. gotta love the las cannon. once the beserkers get stuck in nothin the tau have got can hang


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## shas'o7 (May 17, 2008)

Ways to Beat Us:crazy:

-Get Troops into combat using Rhinos and Land Raiders these can be vulnerable to Broadsides, SO
-Usee assault squads to deal with the Broadsides in CC. You Assault Squads may take too many shotting casualties SO
-Deepstrike some termies. Terminators can engage the Tau in CC and slaughter them.

And all of this time have your main army moving forward to take advantage of any opening.


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## BlackApostleVilhelm (May 14, 2008)

the only thing i can say from experience is if you have a squad with the mark of khorne good if you have a berserker squad its even better. all you need then is a rhino to get them into cc and your set. if you dont have that use as much cover as you can and dont bunch up your squads cuz that will kill you. i have a daemon prince with wings and a group of berserkers with jump packs that i send into cc with the tau immediatelyso i can advance the rest of my units without that much enemy fire, if you can do that your golden and you can watch your csm rip them to shreds. hehehehehe.....


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## chaos vince (Jun 10, 2008)

beserkers can't get jump packs... rapors with icon of khorne are nice though


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## Tigirus (Apr 13, 2008)

well, what works for me is a 5 man assault squad with a vet sarge, the vet sarge has a power sword and a combat shield, and the squad is given a plasma pistol. Cheap, and effective, the rest of your force can deep strike or tank rush in one the broadsides are such in close combat or dead, for the rest of the time try to get your tanks hull down


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## Juiceypoop (Jun 5, 2008)

Cheeseball317 said:


> Well I don't know anything about csm, but I do know from numerous trial and error methods, that trying to out shoot tau is near impossible if you play eldar. I know csm can stand infront of their enemy and shoot them like a man, but with fragile units such as mine I've lost horribley when trying to out shoot and maneuver tau. the ONLY times I have come close to winning against tau is when i've put about 80% of my points into cc and getting all those specialist to their target. that's all I've got


If you are playing eldar against tau, the only close combat unit you really need is shining spears, they'll rape tau (and just about anything else) in assault, and have the manueverabillity to get there undamaged, combigned with the hit and run rule, they can choose wich assaults to be in.

as for mobile fire power, take upgraded fire prisms.


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## tyco (Apr 21, 2008)

ok, i play tau, and whenever i see them my first target are transports, so i would advise not bothering with them. i would leave the rhinos at home, and use infiltrators/deepstrike and maybe bikes/raptors to close quickly. normal marines i would foot slog and rely on cover for. most of the things that the tau have to deal with marines are fairly chort ranged, and then if they can shoot you, next turn, you can reach out adn touch them......HARD!!!!!!!!!


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## Hashulaman (Apr 9, 2008)

The only trasnport option i can think of that would be any good is a land raider with Daemonic possesion. I piled in 10 bersekrers including Pfist champion into a land raider, got as close to the tau, unloaded, then assaulted. Wiped them out on the charge.


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## howling griffon465 (May 23, 2009)

Use some weak distraction like a 6 man biker squadron and then get some chaos termies and possesed to engage them while their dealing with the bikers


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## Asmodeun (Apr 26, 2009)

If he has a railhead, keep squads away from each other. I've seen two mobs of orkboyz taken out with asingle submunition blast. They 7" blast is _really big!_


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## pylco (Jun 2, 2008)

be carefull of his XV8 , there a bunch of nasty and tricky CC tau (with there jump packs and fusion blasters). set them as a priority. take alot of CC units as mentioned from above but take a havoc squad, nothing wrong with some heavy guns ( must be an IG thing!!!)


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## Ishamael (Aug 26, 2008)

As a person who has to deal with Tau on a regular basis, I just want to make a couple of quick points:

A havoc squad with some combination of lascannons and missile launchers would be great for hunting Crisis Suits, as they will have to have at least 4 drones to fight that off, which is pretty expensive.

Chaos Chosen with plasma guns may work against the Broadsides, but they can be a bit of a point sink.

Daemon Princes are probably screwed unless they're Tzeentch. I've had a DP last for a few turns taking Rail shots to the face while destroying a couple tanks himself.


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## TheBog (Apr 27, 2009)

What about IG? What can IG do against lots of fast moving Railheads?


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## LukeValantine (Dec 2, 2008)

Two lash princes with a lot of rhino's with smoke launchers, use one two screen the others and pop smoke. So what if you get hit by a str 10 ap 1 gun, still more than likly not going to kill the vehicle unless they actually want to wast 3+ hammer head shots. By time they kill more than 2 your lash princes should have their army conga lining into your assault range.


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