When playing against Tau I would try and have

- 2 scout screens placed behind or in cover (I would try an take 2 with any army/opponent) so that they have to be removed before markerlights can be used. It can be made difficult using scout ZoC and terrain to actually get in place to shoot them.
Getting rid of them if hidden and placed well should take Tau a few activations.
- When/If scouts are removed then go at the Tau, vultures/warhounds will make a big mess of most Tau formations.
- Artillery, again Tau have poor saves so target the big more dangerous formations with barrages, even if you don't kill anything BMs affect the ability to coordinated fire and to retain.
- Better dice. Even when markerlit guided missiles will only be hitting on 5s so you only have to really worry about the railguns

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Hmm, with no particular axe to grind,

• What type and level of terrain coverage do you have? Ideally you should have 12 pieces of the correct size, which should result in 25%-40% coverage. Equally the way you treat built up areas is important, as is the way you treat LoS.
  
  In the UK tournaments (admittedly for speed) we consider all terrain to be 'very high' so it always blocks LoS on the level, and the built up areas are mounted on a base so no LoS through it, both of which help to restrict long-range shooting.
  
  
• How are you using artillery and other long-range IG weaponry? This ought to beat the **£$%** out of Tau formations weakening them. As others have said, Vultures on OW at the edge of the table can be a real nuisance to enemy LV, along with TBolts.
  
  
• Do you use any IG Titans? Warhounds also ought to clobber those pesky tetras.
  
  
• Are you able to concentrate your army against part of the enemy? Do you have sufficient mobility (motorised infantry, tank companies etc) to be able to crush a flank while stalling on the other?

Finally to the markerlight LoS question raised above. I may well be wrong here but I would have thought that, while a Tetra can light up one unit in an enemy formation allowing the Tau to hit the whole formation with indirect fire, only those units that are actually lit up should suffer the +1 for the ML shot. What do others think?

Tau have a 50% loss rate against Steel Legion in Epic UK. Way up on their 34% average. That's with the likes of Rug, Steve54 and Richard L playing as Tau as well!


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We play using the suggested terrain rules from the rulebook so we have 12 - 14 (usually 12) terrain pieces all 15-30 cms across. Buildings and ruins are grouped tightly together into large blocks of area terrain like woods. All terrain is tall enough to block line of sight. Only real house-rule is that units on a hill always use the skimmer's popped up rule for line of sight.

My manticores can usually break what they shoot at turns 1 and 3 if they last that long. There's always a spaceship as 1st activation so shadowswords don't usually last very long.

I don't have any war hounds or vultures at the moment but I'm experimenting.

Mobility is something I'm struggling to maintain after an initial burst of speed. My tank company is usually playing quite conservatively after losing it countless times to a crossfire triple coordinate so it usually stays where I can guard its flanks

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So by this I assume that units on a hill do not have their LoS completely blocked. If so, that is a quite a big advantage for long range shooters.
I recommend trying these out (using proxies initially until you find the right formations), along with sentinel screens as suggested by Steve.

Have you tried out any of the IG lists on the E-UK site - preferably those of the leading players as indicated above. Note especially the number of formations used compared with the number you use. Tau coordinated fire should give you an activation advantage which can be significant, and which you can increase through thoughtful list design.

Above all, as others have indicated, you have to defeat the enemy strategy. In this case

• By restricting tthe movement of the Tau tetras / markerlight capability, through scout screens, artillery barrages etc
• Using your firepower and especially OW to threaten or preferably block potential avenues the Tau can advance along.
• Keeping "one foot on the ground" by moving your formations so that they provide mutual support and cover
• Concentrate on the smaller Tau units to increase your activation advantage, which you can use at the end of each turn to improve your strategic and tactical position.
• Be prepared to sacrifice a formation to flush out a larger Tau formation.
• Above all by using the terrain to reduce the effect of Tau firepower
  - Don't forget to use Cautious moves (5cm) to allow AV to enter terrain;
  - Consider starting your WE inside terrain if possible to mitigate Spaceship and AX10 firepower

That said, be advised that I usually do quite badly in competitions, so take the above advice "under advisement" as they say

When on a hill units can see over terrain that is closer to them than the target same as if a skimmer pops up. It was to try and balance the fact that everything the tau shoots is from behind cover popped up.

Believe me its no benefit to the tau at all as they can do that anywhere as and when they like.

I usually manage 10 or 11 activations in my steel legion lists where as the tau routinely bring ~14. I tried a game last night against marines that used a list I'll probably try against the tau next. It was

Reg HQ
Mech inf
Shadowsword comp + hydra
Rough Riders
Sentinels
Manticores
Hydras
Shadowsword
2 independent Warhounds
Thunderbolts

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So a Tau "popcorn " list. . . .

Could you post an example of what it looks like.

Its currently

2 min crisis formations one with SC
2 min mech fire warriors
2 railhead +skyray formations
2 fusionhead formations
3 tetra formations
1 barracuda formation
Cruiser

Something along those lines

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Ok, the list you presented is

575 . . . 2x min crisis formations one with SC - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - co-ord fire
450 . . . 2x min mech fire warriors (presumably 6x units in transport)
650 . . . 2x railhead +skyray formations
400 . . . 2x fusionhead formations
450 . . . 3x tetra formations- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - co-ord fire, markerlight
150 . . . 1x barracuda formation
200 . . . 1x SpaceCruiser

That is 2875 points, with two formations at 325 as the BTS (Crisis + SC and Railhead+Skyray) leaving 125 points for upgrades / variations. Seems reasonable


Ok, you need to be able to counter the key Tau capabilities which are Markerlight and Co-ordinated fire. To do this you need to consider restructuring the IG army. Look at dropping the Shadowsword company and singleton in favour of infantry company(s) allowing you to increase the long-range artillery, scout screens on OW and adding more aircraft.

Also, just check that you are playing markerlight and co-ordinated fire correctly.

You've got a good all comers list there. I would try to win with that rather than getting into full on list tailoring (that could be a last resort). All of Steve54 and Gingers points should work with the list you currently have. Rough riders and sentinels screen your army from about the halfway line (don't foget, if you can bm a tetra unit the rough riders can probably break them through combat res alone). Manticores start hitting the big infantry blocks, warhounds go after the tetras, while the infantry and super heavies move into mutually supporting positions. If he leaves you space I'd look at marching one of the mech cos as near as possible to his blitz late in turn 2. He'll have a nightmare trying to shift it on turn 3 and it'll force him to break up his attack to go back and deal with you. Rather than pushing onto your objectives.

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Yeah we're currently preparing for wrath of tyrant so I'd rather try and shy away from list tailoring. I haven't tried the new list against the dirty commies yet so I'll see how that goes before theoryhammering a new list. I've got a game against them tonight so hopefully it won't be as one-sided as the usual throwdown.

Thanks for all of the help so far guys

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We had the game and I'm pleased to say that the tau lost their first game in about 4 months. I can't take too much from the game though as I only won because Dave got a bit carried away killing redcoats and didn't see the end of the game coming.

The warhounds didn't seem to do a lot apart from draw attention. Killed a few tetras here and there. One died to a railhead formation on the advance in one turn and the other spent most of the game broken. I'll give them another whirl though and keep my eyes open for some on eBay.

In the end I won 2-0 with BTS and DTF but I doubt Dave will let me off as easy next time as my casualties had been horrendous thanks to him winning strategy every turn and immediately hitting me with at least a triple coordinate plus a retain each turn. Luckily my HQ managed to just cling on to a patch of woods in the centre (mainly thanks to a timely hold by the nearby fire warriors in turn 3) and deny him TSNP and DTF otherwise a turn 4 wasn't going to end well for me. BTS was easy in the end after my hydra battery managed to scoot in and break his crisis suits a manticore strike finished them off with disrupt.

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Interesting read, thanks