Tactics Thursday: The Tau Empire

Welcome back to the Maelstrom! Today, we’ll begin a look at the forces of the Tau Empire. As I am starting into the army once again, it will be a good opportunity for mental exercises within the faction. I’ve always found that jotting down my thoughts helps to clarify them when preparing lists. Since I’m doing it anyway, I figured I would formalize the process into a series of articles on the faction.

Masters at Range

Everyone who has played Warhammer 40,000 for any length of time knows that the Tau forces function best when fighting from range. While some of their units retain enough resilience to continue melee for a while, they generally lack the stopping power to finish the job once they get stuck in. For this reason, focus with the army should be on remaining clear of close combat. Each unit locked in melee reduces your ability to lay down the desired fire patterns considerably.

Maneuver, therefore, is the most important part of the turn for the Tau Empire. Each unit should be placed in a way that optimizes firing lanes and clears the unit from potential assaults. Where possible, the latter is more important than the former. If the enemy cannot close the distance, it doesn’t matter as much whether they are destroyed wholesale or not. There are obvious exceptions to this (last turn Objective holders, for instance), but it is a good general practice to observe.

In an age where you are free to pre-measure everything, the forces of the Tau Empire are extremely good at using their advanced firing ranges. It doesn’t take as much guess work to know where a squad needs to be in the following turns, which makes it easier to set up your ambushes and counterblows a turn or two in advance. Use this to your advantage as often as possible; optimally positioned squads that remain beyond the enemy’s retaliation range are a key part of succeeding with Tau.

Survivability

Despite the generally low Toughness across the army, the Tau Empire is actually quite resilient. This isn’t exclusive to the Riptide and Ghostkeel; it extends all the way down to the Fire Warrior, when he is concealed within the belly of a Devilfih transport. Small arms will have a negligible effect on your army, so long as you position well.

The key here is conservative aggression. You don’t want to allow the enemy to dictate the pace of battle, but you also want to conserve your own forces. Mass against his advances to drive them clear of your intended lanes of advance. Skirt clear of his strongpoints, until you are truly ready to bring them crashing down. The Tau work best if they win the small engagements immediately, scouring the intended foe completely from the battlefield before they even get a turn to retaliate. By doing this, you ramp up their survivability considerably.

Sometimes, this means over-committing resources to insure that a target is destroyed. As one of my old gaming buddies always said, “Overkill is underrated.” If one squad of Fire Warriors will statistically leave a single Marine standing, commit two squads to make sure that the target will not walk away. This prevents individual soldiers slipping through the lines, opening your firing lanes and exposing gaps that can be exploited. The fortress of guns only remains secure as long as all elements are operating at full efficiency.

Stick to the Plan

In my experience, Tau work best when they commit to a plan early and stick with it. This doesn’t mean bashing your head against an enemy hard point when the dice abandon you for a turn; rather, it means that you are always conscious of where your troopers need to be when the game ends. It gives you a clear, defined list of what enemy targets need to be neutralized each turn, and therefore a more focused plan of battle that needs less revision. The enemy will do what he can to change your plans if he is an effective general, but you should always have fallback options in mind to deal with the unexpected.

At the end of the day, the Tau are an extremely powerful force when fielded as a cohesive whole. Look for more coverage in detail as I dig further into the book, and continue to paint my initial 1,000 point list.

All right, my fellow Shas’O. What would you add to the generalizations of the faction? Enemies of the Greater Good; what are some good takeaways to counter the Tau’va?