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you have to wait at lest one turn before you can use the carbines if you dont take a devil fish, i take 2 squads in fishes and a unit of parthfinders and rush the 3 forward towards the biggest combat squad i can find for my games, if they arnt fearless then they may be pinned if they are then they still have to go through the the 12 gun drone shots and 24 normal crabines if they take the bait and then charge you then next turn they wil be in rapid fire range of your lines with an allready damaged combat unit

i have yet to work out how to play with the tau yet i had lost 7 games in a row and then i won a game, and i have now lost 4 so far.

Just because the other guy contradicted you, Red, gives you no reason to snap. You act the same way he does, but most people take it in stride, either way... he sounds as though he speaks from experience.

It may be a good idea to take into account some of the things he has to say, like for example the thing about the kroot, that is a seemingly "Patient" hunter tactic. Waiting in cover and shooting until they assault.

I am thinking quite alot about starting a Tau army once I feel my eldar army is to what I want it for now.
Either that or a 'nid army, but Tau are looking appealing right now.

I'm looking into buying a Tau army and basically I need some help here. I've got quite a bit of money saved up but I don't want to buy anything I won't use. Since I have never used Tau before I wanted to ask a few questions:

- Are Pirahan's actually useful or do they go down before they can do any significant damage?

- For troops choices I keep going back to Fire Warriors; in my current Tau army list I have 4 Fire Warriors squads; 3 at 12 men and 1 at 9 men; is this good or useless?

- When it came down to Heavy Support I got a 3 man Broadside squad; a Sniper Drone Team and a Hammer Gunship with a Railgun, a Smart Missle System, and 2 Seeker Missles though my only Markerlight is on my Stealth Team of 6. With only one Markerlight would have two Seeker Missles be a bit redunant assuming the squad won't have a chance to use a second light?

- Also the Stealth team itself; at 6 men is it worth it or not?

- Lastly I put Shield Generators on every single model that could take them. Is this redundant or will it truly help my force survive longer? I have 10 Shield Generators throughout my army costing me 200 points alltogether. 1 on my Shas'o (Only HQ choice), 6 on my Stealth Team (1 Shas'ui in the team), and 3 on my Broadsides (Shas'ui in there too).

Now this is based off a 2,000 point force; please take some time and answer my questions if you wouldn't mind.

of course i speak from experiance, i belong to a very dedicated group of tau players...you may have heard of there most famous tactic...fish of fury?(and more recently "feeding frenzy")
trust what i say, but dont take it to heart, everyone has their own way and i meant not to tell what people to do, but to share my experiance on what works.

look up "advance tau acadamy"...there is an ovebudance of knowledge on teh tau way of warfair, plus you get to meet the best names in the tau empire.

Alright. This is all opinionated, so here I go. 3nodding

1) I am going battlesuit army (23 battlesuits including Farsight, Regular commander, and 3 broadsides). I only have a shield on 4 units: My 3 broadsides and my commander. (Farsight automatically gets one, so I am not including that.)

2) Shields cost too much in the long run. If you put a shield on every thing that can take one, you will lose way too many points of firepower. Tau have an alright armour save and shields are only good against armour penetrating hits. Battlesuits have a save of 3+ and with iridium armour, 2+, but i dont recommend the armour. So, you dont need a lot of shields because ap 3- is the only thing that can kill a battle suit, or atleast wound it. I suggest keeping the shields on your command squad and your broadsides. They are THE most valuable in the long run. 3nodding

3) I don't recommend sniper drones unless in a city battle or of the likes. They pin, yes, but a tank can take massive casualties. 3nodding The snipers are useless against Grey knights, chaos space marines, space marines and anything that is fearless (They are good against tyranids, though because Tyranids don't have good armour saves, but they still don't pin).

4) I've ever used a pirahna, nor will I ever, so I have no idea if they are useful. sweatdrop

5) It looks as if you are mechanizing your army. 3nodding I don't suggest a smart missle system on your tank, because of the points, but if you aren't actually mechanizing, then don't worry about it. 3nodding

6) I used stealth suits before, but I actually think that they are a waste of points in an open field battle. sweatdrop Yes, they jump and have major anti infantry, but you can only take so many into an army and can only choose 1 character to take a heavy weapon. Battlesuits on the other hand have 2 wounds, are better in most areas, and can choose better weapons. 3nodding

7) The deal with the marker lights... You can give a firewarrior squad commander a marker light for 5 points, so you can now ha ve a better chance of firing your seeker missles. 3nodding If you give each squad leader a marker light, that gives you 5 marker lights (If you keep the stealth team, but if not, then just 4 markerlights).
When you have 4-5 marker lights and then the 2+ mounted on the actual sky ray, that gives you 6-7 marker lights. You can fire that many in a turn, as long as the marker lights are in range, can see your target, can actually hit, and sill have that many seeker missles on the board.
DON'T FIRE SEEKERS AT THE FRONT OF A TANK!!! Bad idea. neutral They need a 5-6 to glance most of the time. Definatly not worth wasting a seeker missle. Try firing at a smaller vehicle like a transport or a walker. It does a lot more damage. If your sky ray is facing the side of a tank and you just so happen to hit it with one of your marker lights, then by all means, go ahead and blow that thing to pieces. 3nodding

ALL OPINIONATED!
DO NOT HARASS FOR BITTER JUDGEMENT!!!
The end.

I'll bet that isn't true. You just gotta find the closet geeks. Check an opponent finder if your FLGS doesn't have enough geeks, or if you lack a FLGS.

I'm sure even Area 51 personnel need their comic book fix. ... or especially Area 51 personnel.