[BambooDragon]

Disclaimer: I'm still pretty new so I don't have a lot of experience against a lot of different armies but this has won my last three games against Sisters, Imperial Guard, and Tyranid.

Hi all,
I love chess and I love the Tau so I try to find ways to play them in a flowing manner. This works nice because the fluff mentions the flowing attacks. Also I love games of strategy so I try not to use lists that are geared solely to win. I try to use equal parts FW rifles and FW carbines and at least one stealth team with targeting array (two is better). I deploy the rifles in overlapping fields of fire, not hard with a 30" range, and place the carbines up front. Where exactly to place the carbines depends on the terrain and where my opponent is placing their forces, center or flanks. The reason I use at least one stealth team is so that I can infiltrate somewhere to give the carbine teams 'covering fire' as they move up the board, clearly the rifle teams also give covering fire until they need to shift fire elsewhere. I do move those carbine teams up the board hard and fast so I also take crisis teams with twin linked missile pods for range/# of shots/AP value. That's just personal preference. Everything else in my force is more or less how I feel that day but it's usually something that will only reinforce this fluid theme. That's my very broad strategy that seems to work. People don't like having to choose between stealth or that team of carbines that will be in range in a turn and if my carbines are assaulted usually the enemy is so worn down from covering fire that it's a pretty even match and believe it or not my FWs have actually won a few assaults despite all the naysayers regarding tau close combat.
As an aside: It seems that I was assaulted usually when the enemy thinks the unit is doomed (and it is) and they figure maybe their understrength team can take out my understrength FW team. I'm convinced this is purely psycological as we have a bad rep for close combat. I just level the playing field...board.
Depending on how things are going during battle it can actually be to my advantage to start bringing the carbines back to my end of the board as a lure to get an enemy unit into rapid fire range of the rifle teams. I started using my FWs this way as a means to complement the JSJ ability of our elite units and so far It's worked out well. I'm 4-0 with my tau but didn't really use this strategy in my first game.

I should mention that I play this army like chess, meaning this unit covers that unit that covers that unit etc. For example, the stealth gives covering fire for the carbines but the carbines are also racing up to help the stealth so that they are not left on their own.

Questions? Comments? Cries of Outrage?

Peace all

[shasolenzabi]

[[[ Excellent! you have learned early on that Tau work best with overlapping fields of fire, and maneouver! it took me some time to get that right, applying something akin to real militray tactics to 40k can be work! 40k seems to be more a "Bean-counters" game at most times. Meaning the most shots/dice rolls will win the fight

[cheeseman]

nicely done hoep you keep winning.
tau seem to be the army easiest related to today's military tactics, so it's nice to see that in 40k.

[greensmurf]

Thanks for sharing. I am just starting Tau after playing marines for about 3 years this was very helpful. Keep up the good work!

[Silver Surfer]

Originally Posted by shasolenzabi

[[[ Excellent! you have learned early on that Tau work best with overlapping fields of fire, and maneouver! it took me some time to get that right, applying something akin to real militray tactics to 40k can be work! 40k seems to be more a "Bean-counters" game at most times. Meaning the most shots/dice rolls will win the fight

The military grunt term for the "Bean Counter" strategy as you call it is "Spray and Pray". The idea is that the more shots are in the air the more likely it is to hit the target. Except for specialized units, modern military marksmanship training is less stringent than it used to be.

I see the Guard, and to some extent the Marines being of this mindset. When the Orks shoot instead of charge they also fit the bill.

Necrons, Eldar, Dark Eldar, and Tau on the otherhand emphasize precise shooting over volume of fire.

The Nids are a special case all to themselves.