Tau Stratagem: Tactical Fluidity, Part 1

In this series, Tau Stratagem, I will be discussing tactics and give descriptive examples of games I have played - soon with links to the Battle Reports - concerning Tau. Each article will be ended by a brief analysis of the topic at hand.


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For this sub-series, Tactical Fluidity, I have constructed the following 1,000 point list.

Shas'el Commander
-Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Positional Relay, HW-MT, Stimulants, 2x Gun Drones,

Shas'ui Monat Crisis Suit
-Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, HW-MT, 2x Gun Drone

1x5 Stealth Suit Drop Team
-Team Leader with Bonding Knife, Fusion Blaster, 2x Marker Drones

1x4 Stealth Suit Drop Team
-Team Leader with Bonding Knife, Fusion blaster, 2x Gun Drone

1x6 FW Pulse Rifle Team
-5 Warriors with Pulse Rifles, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife, Gun Drone

1x6 FW Pulse Carbine Team
-5 Warriors with Pulse Carbines, EMP Grenades, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife, Gun Drone

1x10/10 Kroot Carnivore Brood
-10 Kroot, 10 Hounds

1x1/3 Sniper Drone Team
-1 Shas'ui Spotter, 3 Sniper Drones

Tactical Fluidity involves the use of one's entire army, working as a relative singular unit, to effectively "Draw and Quarter" the opposing force. This will be done through tactical maneuvers, deployment, and sacrifice. It is important to understand that a Sniper Drone Team can be as effective as a Crisis Suit, and no unit in the Tau Codex should be discounted.

This first part will be covering generalized tactics for the Kill Points game variant of Warhammer 40k, using 1,000 points of Tau.
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Kill Points
To begin the game, I reserve my two Stealth Suit Teams. Second, I will usually establish one to two fire bases. One side will be my two crisis suits, with the Kroot Carnivores infiltrating in support. The other will be my Pulse Carbine FW Team, working with my Sniper Drone team. The Pulse Rifle FW team can have alternating positions on the field, depending on whatever is needed of them.

Irondog Studios' Tau Fireknife Commander

The Stealth Suit teams will be deployed via deep strike behind enemy ranks or threatening their flank. They are distractions that have to be dealt with, seeing as they have some massive fire power. If your opponent ignores them, you can attack major strong points of their army, decimating HQ's like Mephiston or vehicle units like Rhinos, DE Raiders, and Land Speeders. If your opponent does split a section of their force to deal with the threat, that is one less unit of their total army barreling towards your lines. I will usually bring in the team with Marker Drones on the second turn, using the Positional Relay on the commander, and attempt to dole out some heavy fire power quickly (using the Drones to boost ballistic skills to 4, providing 2 out of every 3, as opposed to 1.5 out of 3). Turns 3 or 4 see the second squad coming in, helping to split his forces even more - many times reinforcing a failing flank, turning the tables on my opponent. Surviving the first one or two rounds of enemy fire, you bring in these bad boys and totally change your opponent's strategy.

What helps the stealth suits do their magic is having a relatively vulnerable flank, enticing your gaming buddy's army forward for the easy kill. The Fire Warrior base (Sniper Drone and Fire Warrior Teams) is the weaker of your two bases, and the opponent will likely try to get those three easy kill points.

The goal is to not let your opponent come close enough to get into combat with either your Sniper Drones or Pulse Rifle FW's - if this happens, the flood gates will open. This can be accomplished by using those Pulse Carbine FW's.

These guys do everything. 7 models to make it harder to get that 25% loss during the shooting phase, reducing the need to take leadership checks; they have EMP grenades, so they can slow down some tanks if necessary; Assault/Pinning Weapons @ S5 AP5; and are mobile with a 18" threat range. This allows them tons of flexibility to cause disturbance in your opponent's advance - as well as allowing your ranged warriors to A) get farther away B) target other, more pressing enemy squads, or C) combine fire to wipe out a squad or vehicle.

So while your opponent is attempting to isolate your weaker fire base, you can move your base back - sacrificing shooting rounds, as necessary - towards your Kroot/Suits - drawing your opponent towards your strongest units, which he/she was trying to avoid in the first place.

While you are "falling back" from your opponent's front line, you can divert his attention with the Monat Crisis Suit, sacrificing it to get your opponent out in the open. Moving your Crisis Suit (or even your commander, if desired) to encompass their advance, you are presenting another threat similar to the Stealth Suits.If they do not take down the crisis suits, they will suffer some serious penalties.

Always be prepared!

Using JumpShootJump tactics, drawing units away from their main force, you are able to dissect yet another aspect of their army, thinning the ranks. Remember, its OK if your Commander is slain in battle - his primary goal is to dictate the arrival of reserves. Once that second Stealth Team arrives, he can get as close as he wants. The commander's load out makes him, if utilizing cover correctly, almost impossible to kill from shooting - barring bad rolling, of course. That being said, this forces your opponent - if he wants your commander dead - to charge into close combat, losing a unit that could have done more damage elsewhere. If nothing is targeting your commander, he is free to harass and destroy whatever he wants: a win-win situation.

We've got two stealth teams, two Fireknife Crisis Suits, and a Pulse Carbine Fire Warrior team sacrificing themselves for the Greater Good. How many armies can deal with so many targets at once? Dark Eldar is one, and there are a few others, but it is difficult for a general to perfectly distribute troops to deal with all these threats efficiently, especially with supporting forces like the Kroot and Fire Warriors getting involved.

We haven't discussed much about those 20 Kroot. What good are kroot? they suck, don't they?

No. Not entirely. They are not that perfect, multi-use combat unit that Assault Marines and such are. Kroot (especially with Hounds) have specified purposes. In this list, their livelihood is to target units that are vulnerable - a fast, surgical strike, hammering out hits and dishing out wounds like no one's business. They can aid any unit on the board - utilizing terrain - from you crisis suits (deployed in tandem with the Kroot) or stealth suits on the other side of the board.



Just today I played a game against a Blood Angel player, who had severed his Sanguinor and Mephiston from the pack in order to eliminate my Monat crisis suit. I had moved my Crisis Suit within the HQs' 18" danger zone intentionally, with the hopes to draw out that combat strength from his primary contingent, weakening his overall presence in the game. This left Mephiston and the Sanguinor at the mercy of a hail of fire power from Stealth and Crisis Suits - both models taking a large toll of wounds.

Divide and Conquer

Following that I made a daring charge at his Sanguinor with my 20 man Brood, losing 4 kroot before I could attack. Then came my 30 hound attacks and subsequent 18 Kroot attacks, leaving the Sanguinor alone in the middle of a solitary ravine, wallowing, blood pouring from his fatal wounds.

When it comes to Kill Points, Tau can excel or entirely fall apart. It is important to always remember the ultimate weaknesses of your army and the opponent's army - and their inherent strengths. Seeing as most armies in the modern gaming world are combat oriented, and that is where Tau find their greatest weakness, it is important to shut down that aspect of the game. By using your Stealth, Fire Warrior, and Crisis Suit teams you can effectively dissect (spead out) your enemy's forces. When a section is isolated, combine fire upon that portion of their force, eliminate it, and move on.

Tau are most effective when all aspects of the army are working in unison, as a single unit fighting for the same objective, but not falling to a rigid gun line strategy. Being able to fluidly maneuver around your opponent is the most pressing concern when playing Tau.
This was Part One of my Tau Stratagem: Tactical Fluidity series, Part Two will be using the same list, discussing objective based games and how to utilize troop choices.