Tau Strategies

[Symmo]

i also find it very hard to attack with the tau due to them needing a good range and their vehicles not being very good at assualt due to their low health and having to keep some men at the base to defend it from attack as the tau dont have turrets, so can people post how they like to assualt bases with the tau anything will do, thanks :D

[SGT.Muffin badger]

i just rush tua vehicles and heavy troops and that seems to do the trick. and always rush upgrades

[Mr.Person]

I get a bunch of the riflemen (i forget names, I have not played in a while, had it on disk) and some some spotters to defend the base, and get more riflemen plus the cloacked units to attack bases. send the cloacked units in, and the riflemen can shoot from extreme range. The honor guard ones have even longer range than normal ones. Tau is my favorite race

[PowerKristals]

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=206430557
I got strats for every race here if you want to know more please add me I will be happy to assist.

[Cosmic Minstrel]

For the Tau you always want to get dug in fast like the IG. Just like them the Tau are a good late game race, with the exception of a guardman rush strategy. In the early game I get one Kroot squad and two Fire Squads. Kroots are easy to reinforce and can keep enemy units busy while the Fire Squad's range damage picks them off. Once settled try to hurry and get a pathway chosen. For the Patient Hunter path you want to get Krootox quickly for the large amount of punishment they can take and the Path of Enlightenment upgrades or for the Killing Blow path you want to get the Crisis Battlesuits quickly for the strong firepower and they are good at raids on enemy bases with their jump-packs. Once you get a pathway chosen it's best to go on the offense. This is my strategy for the Tau and it has been successful.

[Fireeye]

One word: Pathfinders. I feel that the proper use of pathfinders really seperates the wheat from the chaff when it comes to playing Tau. Thanks to their absurdly large line of sight, you can snipe out any potential threats before they come ven remotely close, and that's not even considering their Marker ability.

I agree with Freedom that Tau should be on the defense in the early game, although I've had some surprisingly effective rushes with Vespids and the Tau Commander w/ flamer. Given that both can jump, you can do some pretty nifty harass with them.

[Erik Taurus]

My problem with Tau is that the AI instantly knows where I have my Stealth suits. When they are just standing on guard somewhere you have an orkk commander or Imperial spam "ping" right over their spot. (which is the same for the Eldar sniper team)

IMHO Tau is the weakest race in DoW Dark Crusade.
Tau is very weak early in the game, with no addtional means of defending themselves like turrets and such which makes them extremely vulnerable to rushes.
One odd thing is that the Tau listening post turrets have less hit points than any other race.

Late game they are about average, if you do not chose the "hunter"-path your kroots(meat shield) is killed within milliseconds. Even with "hunter"-path you will have extreme difficulties attacking.

Sure the Broadside teams are good, but isn't exactly what you bring along when you attack as the game is over when they've reached their destination.
They can be ferried accross the battle field in the transport vehicle, but taking the cost of building the vehicle beacon when your resources are needed elsewhere, i.e. reinforcing your kroots...

The force commander "trap" which has been mentioned here is istantly destroyed as it's a "hidden" unit and most races have more than one unit or other means to reveal them and the targetting AI have them high on the priority list.

The suggestions here works but are highly dependent on the forces you are to battle.
Tau defense, defense, defense, attack takes alot of time, and most games are over within 15 minutes.

However, seeing the Tau Empire is difficult to play makes them interesting to play as you need to be alert all the time, not as Necrons where you send in your troops to the enemy base and go and tend to other things and when you come back you've won.

I've read somewhere that the extreme imbalance between Necron and Tau in Dark crusade was due to the campaign and these things wasn't changed in MP or Skirmish games, is this true?
If so, are there any mods that change Tau and "tune down" Necrons a bit?

[Mr.Person]

Necrons arent that hard to kill, and the best Tau strategy is to leave one team of fire warriors (or honor guard ones even better) and a team of stealth units farther out in front of your base. They have such long range that I killed 2 units of necron infantry before they got even close to my base, but the necron lord is still trouble. offensive I do the same thing, get 1-2 units of stealth or spotters and have them infront of a large group of fire warriors and just kill their base from long distance, and they can shoot through cliffs so it makes it even easier.

[Ø76923]

I find they are best used defending chokepoints, mostly due to the fire warrior's set-up time. A few squads of FW's with a Pathfinder Squad can defend one chokepoint, move onto the next as the combat lulls and rinse and repeat. The Pathfinders are key (as has been said above) due to their rangefinding, and using markerlights can really help out.

You're best off defending your base with fully upgraded stealth suits: they can pick off vehicles super easy and a Broadside Battlesuit emplaced nearby should be able to take out raiding squads. If you can spare the vehicle points a unit or two of drones hidden at base do well. Also, never underestimate the utility of a Kroot squad with a Shaper! That's about 5 or 6 squad points for defending if you're keeping a permanent garrison.

Crisis suits are great for hit-n-run tactics using their jetpacks if you can spare the time. I also find that I forget about the Skyray's Missile Barrage ability. With multiple Skyrays you can disrupt an entire army or even outright destroy them if they stay clumped together.


The whole game with the Tau is how their units support each other (for the greater good!), so just pay close attention to your unit variety and where they in your defensive line and you're golden. A pack of kroots in front of an army of fire warriors and a pathfinder squad works wonders. Don't underestimate Stealth squads late game, their low squad cap impact and lethality against vehicles with upgrades is killer.

[Arteus]

Use Broadside suits as defence. You can also dig in some drone squads as a suprise counter-attack. As for attacking, i would reccomend using the Killing Blow plath and getting the Crisis suits and the Hammerhead Tank. Dont underestemate the Devilfish's ability to attack. it is suprisingly effective. Ethereals are useful as their Air Caste barrage is devestating(it can harm your troops as well be careful). Hope this helps

[Vlka-Fenryka-7th]

The Annilation mod on Filefront allows the Tau to build listening posts as turrets and allows you to buy both end tech buildings (forgot the name of these buildings)

[Ø76923]

yeah annihilation 1.7 is great, most of its changes are for the better imo.

I recommend drone squad(s) with a unit of kroot to hold the line for your armies, whose range will come in handy. Alongside skyray barrages, you have three lines of disruption to keep your fire warriors stationary for firing.

Also you should set the barracks to stand ground so its fire warriors don't move and disprupt themseves :P

[Symmo]

yeah i should mention that i only play with my friends who use a no limit mod so i ended up facing down hundreds of bloodthirsters (i can also use both tech trees so i have every unit at my command)

[kris220b]

for the most i hold the line untill i have a full army
or if your playing titian wars or ultimate apocalypse spam turrets, walls, mines, broaidsdes, skyrays and sniper drones for defence this work best on top of a hill so you can have the defences along the egde
this means that the enemy has to pass trough all defences to get to you
and some stealth teams along the frontline with fusion blasters is a good firts line of defence

[snaketzu]

Tau get turrets - click on any listening post to upgrade it.

I find Tau better at defending a prepared position than assaulting, unless I can utilize their extended range to engage from distance. I tend to build kill boxes at strategic points and let my enemy destroy himself attacking into a prepared position. In the lull between battles I take ground and prepare again. This is more a long game strategy that will need adjustment based on the map and what race you are facing. I consider Tau to be a finesse race and not a good choice for beginners.

[Mr.Person]

they mean that the Tau have no deployable anywhere turrets like the space marines etc