[bretonnian4]

Hi all,

I currently play a Tau army a nd was thinking of doing Guard as my second amry. My Questiono for you is, is there much difference playwise between playing Tau and Guard? I realise there both shooty army but is there any other differences or would it just feel like playing the same army again only with Humans instead of blue aliens?

Thanks,
Matthew

[Elessar]

they are very different, the only things that are the same are that both armies excel at shooting. tau are very maneuverable, can claim objectives, have specialist units and shooty HQs. now imagine a static tau army, without suits and half priced firewarriors. that sorta what playing imperial guard is. i started off playing tau and then switched to imperial guard and i have never felt that im playing the same army.

[redbeard]

They -can- be similar, but they're not necessarily.

Guard can play mechanized, using a mass of chimeras, which are a bit more vulnerable than devilfish, but the concept is similar.

Tau can play very static, creating a firebase and sticking to it.

But no, in general, the two armies play differently. You pretty much have to go out of your way to create either force mimicing the other.

If you already have Tau, I would recommand an army like Tyranids or Orks as your second force, as, playing Tau, you miss out on the nuances of the assault phase, which is 1/3rd of the game and worth learning. Most Tau players seem to see the assault phase as something to be avoided at all costs.

[Nova]

Guard gives you really big guns, and a bunch of cannon-fodder you hope will keep things away long enough for those guns to do the job. Heavy armor, entrenchment and attrition. The specialised weapons/squads are found within the regulars, not just elites and vehicles, but the rest of those regulars are just extra wounds with flashlights to keep'em safe.

Tau gives you smaller "big gun" blasts. No big ordnance, only the submunition (very useful mind you) and AFP large plates and some useless (compared to other available equipment on those units) flamers. In exchange your troops aren't cannon-fodder but actually quite versatile thanks to their pulse weapons. Relative mobility (not eldar-fast), combined arms and hit&run are what you essentially go for. Your elites and heavies are your only sources of specialised weapons, but they're damn good at what they do.

While you CAN tool things in the extreme to turn one into the other, they're pretty different. Not "night and day" but definitely "morning/afternoon".

[frankthetank]

there different. guard have the most fire power in 40k you can bring so many lascanons and lasguns it crazy tau cant stand toe to toe with guard that why we use are skimmers stay out of range or sight same with crisis jump shoot jump back in to cover there way different

[Nova]

Well, we can't stand toe-to-toe with ANYONE. Its a very bad range to be at for tau. Hormagaunt toes are very unfriendly.

You can get a good deal of firepower out though. Stealth suit squads are nothing to sneeze at, full FW squads put out plenty of firepower (you can't blow a chimera with JUST lasguns, but on the side or rear those pulse weapons will do the job), drone squads work wonders against just about anything in the IG repertoire (even have a small chance of taking down a russ), broadsides with A.S.S. put lascannon infantry to shame in range, power AND mobility, and all of the above have better saves than guardsmen.

Its true you can bring out well over 100 flashlights... but its not necessarily MORE of a threat than what firepower the tau can put on the table.

[frankthetank]

Originally Posted by Nova

Well, we can't stand toe-to-toe with ANYONE. Its a very bad range to be at for tau. Hormagaunt toes are very unfriendly.

You can get a good deal of firepower out though. Stealth suit squads are nothing to sneeze at, full FW squads put out plenty of firepower (you can't blow a chimera with JUST lasguns, but on the side or rear those pulse weapons will do the job), drone squads work wonders against just about anything in the IG repertoire (even have a small chance of taking down a russ), broadsides with A.S.S. put lascannon infantry to shame in range, power AND mobility, and all of the above have better saves than guardsmen.

Its true you can bring out well over 100 flashlights... but its not necessarily MORE of a threat than what firepower the tau can put on the table.

all im saying is we can only bring so many big guns im talking railrun i mean you can max it out with 3 team of 3 broad sides that 9 rail gun but i know yu wouldnt do that on the other hand guard can bring like 8 or 9 lascanons if they want i seen some fire power like this before backed up my tons of lasguns but i know we can beat them seeing how i never lost to a guard army yet knock on wood

[tauman5263]

imperial guard are a numerous horde of people brought together for a fight.

tau are specialization force. a balanced tau force will have a hard time fighting anyone, but if you specialize your tau to be good against imperial guard then the imperial guard will have a hard time defeating them.

for example, a tau army with this config for heavy support would do badly against imperial guard [balanced force]:

hammerhead with ion cannon and SMS
2 broadsides with TL plasma rifles [instead of SMS]
Skyray


on the other hand this heavy support config would do much better:

hammerhead with railgun and two burst cannons
hammerhead with railgun and two burst cannons
2 broadsides with ASS


tau rely on versatility over numbers. their vehicle mounted railgun is stronger than a lascannon and also can shoot a blast. alot of lascannons can only be effective against a numerous amount of tanks [or termies ;D] but a vehicle mounted railgun can take on anything in the imperial guard army without losing effeciency.

i wonder what would happen to an army full of lascannons against an army of fire warriors and kroot.

Well, we can't stand toe-to-toe with ANYONE. Its a very bad range to be at for tau. Hormagaunt toes are very unfriendly.

that's why we have kroot. and our skimmers provide excellent defence for our fire warriors. i love when a guard squad charges my tank and can't even hurt it.

all in all, an army depends on how you play it.

[Gada Mazaha]

Originally Posted by frankthetank

all im saying is we can only bring so many big guns im talking railrun i mean you can max it out with 3 team of 3 broad sides that 9 rail gun but i know yu wouldnt do that on the other hand guard can bring like 8 or 9 lascanons if they want i seen some fire power like this before backed up my tons of lasguns but i know we can beat them seeing how i never lost to a guard army yet knock on wood

Jeez... Ever heard of periods?

Tau are more mobile, and about putting extreme firepower in select places at the right time. Guard is about blowing the whole board to hell and killing everything, preferring to "smash a nut with a sledgehammer".

[Steel Skeleton]

Originally Posted by frankthetank

all im saying is we can only bring so many big guns im talking railrun i mean you can max it out with 3 team of 3 broad sides that 9 rail gun but i know yu wouldnt do that on the other hand guard can bring like 8 or 9 lascanons if they want i seen some fire power like this before backed up my tons of lasguns but i know we can beat them seeing how i never lost to a guard army yet knock on wood

I have to say that you are starting to type just like tetonhammer used to. Let me point out a few things to you. You have 89 words/numbers in the post. You have 0 periods in the post. You have 0 commas in the post. You have 0 capitalized letters in the post. You have 4 spelling errors(excluding errors for lack of punctuation). In reality you have absolutely no punctuation of any type anywhere in your post. Did you put any time and/or effort into this post? When I have to re-read somebody's post 4 or 5 times to understand what they were trying to say, something is wrong. This is a forum, not an online chat with your buddy. Please put some degree of effort into your posts, please? Also I would like to point out a crucial feature that Tau Online is kind enough to provide us for free; it is called the Spell Check. It is a wonderful thing that would help you catch words like yu and rail run (both of which were in your post). To use it, look down at the bottom of the box where you enter your text when you are posting. There should be three buttons; Post, Preview and Spell Check. Just click Spell Check and then do what it tells you to and you should be in good shape. No offence intended but wow, did you wish for people to actually read and comprehend what you had typed? Thanks

Steel Skeleton

P.S. It really does help make TO a better place when its members take a second to give a damn. >