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I work with a guy who used to play 40K..a while ago..back when he was in the air force. [5+ years or more]
He used to play Tau and still has all of his minis and he thinks the codex. He's thinking of getting back into playing. [maybe I'll get to play again]

How many Tau codexes have been released? When was the latest released?

He's getting some more minis from an old friend that used to play.
Any tips for him?
Things that have changed?
Must have minis under the newest rules? Minis that are now worthless? [maybe weren't before]

Thanks for any info.

[note that I'm not asking for rules or anything that violates GW IP, just basic info.]

2 Codexes. Tau Empire is the newest codex. All the past models should be still usable.

So his might be old, I'll tell him to look at the pic of the 1 on the GW site.

NOW...
tacticlly speaking, is there anything that isn't as useful as before?

or is there anything that's a must have, that wasn't before?

I see there are several articles about tactics on the GW site I'll direct him to read.

Biggest poroblem with suggesting units is the personal ability to use the units. Tau are much like Eldar in that some units have a specific use. For example Many people simply do not like Kroot. I on the other hand use them frequently and often times dissrupt the back lines of an army with them.
Here is a list of cool units that I have personally found useless

Vespid - Great Idea, however they are specifically geared to take out MEQ, not that great in HTH, guns ensure that they will be charged if the unit does not kill what they are after.
Sniper team - Personally I'd rather use the heavy slot for either Broadsides or a Hammerhead
Piranha - I really do like these, however they are just not as useful as another Battlesuit so I've eventually dropped them from my current list. They do have a place of honor in my Apocalypse lists

Units that I find that you can never have enough of.
Missle pod equiped battlesuits. The S7 missles are just to useful for popping all transports so that your firewarriors can be used more effectivly. More important is that those missile pods have a great range to keep all those ork trucks at bay if you get first turn.

When the new codex came out I did do some major retooling of my original Tau army, only to have it drift slightly back to the original concept. Though I have to say that a unit of stealth suits with the BS upgrade outflanking and hitting all kinds of rear armor 10 vehicles has been the joy of my life and the bane of most of my opponents.

Tau are still a gunline-oriented army or a mobile firepower army. No big change there.

You get 3 Sniper Teams for one slot, and they are cheap MEQ killers.

Vespid suck. Points cost does not justify their usefulness.

Fire Warriors or Kroot? Tough choice and depends on your play style.

Broadsides or Hammerheads are another tough choice. One is more survivable, but the other can deal some good damage versus vehicles or troops.

Like mrshann said, a good Tau army from the first codex, will still be viable with the current one.

None of the Ethereals that are out there are worth it. Run Suit HQs instead.

Devilfish equipped with SMS systems are seriously nice transports, but cost an arm and a leg.

I am having (locally) luck with Drone Squadrons.. they are suprising late-in-the-game objective contestors (and they even occasionally kill things!)

Ok thanks all.

I''ll tell him that not much has changed for them.

So he'll just need a new codex and of course the newest rule set...unless he finds people still playing under the old set.. I know what few who play at te FLGS new the newest set and the infrequent tourney there uses the newest rules.
I'll look around online for hm and see what I can find.

Lol... Thought u didn't care about 40k anymore

The (cheap) hq suit decked out with the plasma/melta and watever let's u shoot multiple guns are the only hq worth taking

steath teams are okay if u can't afford the max number of crisis teams built with plasma, melta, multishot do-hikie
one pathfinder team also works really well just because they are really good cheap market lights.

fire warriors arnt as hot as kroot, kroot are super cheap space marines with what? 6 point 2A space marines (the hounds).
So take the 1min unit of fire warriors in a fish and leave it in reserve.

The mini speeders are really good in 3s, one burst cannon (for allocation of damage) and 2 meltas

vespids SUCK

1 hammerhead is good for anti side armor with marker light (which us why u take pathfinders)
2 units of broad sides (as many that can fit btw) with drones are the beat anti mech in the game IMHO (twin linked bs 4(?) st 10 ap 1? Suuuure)

anyway hope it helps and sorry bout the cruddy sentances.

Not much on Tau knowledge here.
Just wanted to share this:

When playing Tau, there are only a few things I WORRY about.

1) Damned jump suits... Jumping back away, instead of assaulting. This is a HUGE tool for the Tau.
2) Marker lights. These things are extremely valuable to the army.
3) The guided missile things (no LOS necessary).
4) All that damned plasma!.
5) Broadsides.


Eric

@ EZ Mac, I didn't say I din't care about it anymore, I said I haven't liked the rules since 2nd ed.

I love the minis and the fiction.

I hate the companies policy about replacing the rules every 2-3 years; and droping figures, especially expensive ones or entire armies.

I try to give them little $ as possible. If I can trade for it or buy it used, then thy're not getting anything from me.

With TLoS in 5th edition, crisis suits suck. They are WAY too expensive for what they do, and you can easily lose a 250 point squad that's kitted out to one turn of shooting from a mediocre anti-tank unit (SM devastators for example).

Markerlights are god, and work fantastically with everything in the army. They're the only thing that got better in 5th edition.

Cheap is the way to go, don't load up on upgrades, you need as many shots on the table (with as few kill points as you can manage) as you can muster. Kroot and Stealth suits are awesome because infiltrate. You can put a hell of a lot of shots on the opponents flank and keep them boxed up in the middle, where your railguns and long range stuff can keep them scrambling.

Tau are a really tough army to play in 5th edition, but if you do it right, they can win tournaments.

I totally agree with Getupandgo...

getupandgo wrote:With TLoS in 5th edition, crisis suits suck. They are WAY too expensive for what they do, and you can easily lose a 250 point squad that's kitted out to one turn of shooting from a mediocre anti-tank unit (SM devastators for example).

Markerlights are god, and work fantastically with everything in the army. They're the only thing that got better in 5th edition.

Cheap is the way to go, don't load up on upgrades, you need as many shots on the table (with as few kill points as you can manage) as you can muster. Kroot and Stealth suits are awesome because infiltrate. You can put a hell of a lot of shots on the opponents flank and keep them boxed up in the middle, where your railguns and long range stuff can keep them scrambling.

Tau are a really tough army to play in 5th edition, but if you do it right, they can win tournaments.

Crisis suits are still viable. You just got to keep them cheap and equip them with shields or drones to take advantage of wound allocation.

Actually the TLoS is one reason why I LOVE my stealth suits. Since they always require a test to see if the enemy sees them or not (stealth field uses the same rules as night fight)
So since the avereage rolls for a night fight "sight" is roughly 21" and the suits can stay at roughly 24(ish) inches that gives them a fairly high level of survivability. Add in the outflank rule and you can keep them off the table getting shot and 2/3rds of the time get them to come in where you want them to and cause lots of havoc.
I never use drones with my suits. Baiscally I can find some sort of cover somewhere to grant them the cover save, even if it means I have to move a Devilfish as a mobile barricade right along side them. Move suits, move fish to where I want the suits in assault phase, shoot with suits, Assault behind fishies.

I have only begun to reintroduce markerlights into my army, I triedto compensate with more long range. Though my last game with the markerlights went decidedly better as I was able to hit remarkibly better against the millions of marine players in my area.

While I don't PLAY Tau, I've played against them a lot (both of the other main members of my game group have Tau armies).
If it wasn't for Shield drones and Marker Lights, I'd wipe them up rather handily most of the time (IMO LOL). With them, the fight becomes a LOT less lop-sided.

IMO, no Tau army should go without shields and marker lights.


Eric