Some tips for playing tau?

[StarFishon]

I can win againts hard with sm,csm,nacrons and militerium.. but somehow i dont understand the tau.. you can rush things but units are very fregile..

So someone can throw tips? Guide?

[hedgewitch]

I am really just starting out with them myself, but rushing builders and then tidewall defense seems to work way better than it should. They have better movement, dmg, attacks than devilfish and can be built every 5 turns by builders. Downside is you need assault dlc to build them. Tau town is a bit wonky, i just build one of everything up to 7 pop choosing one or two production buildings, then build hab after my third town only building one or so duplicate buildings for resource or production.

[Goblin]

Tau have amazing heroes and you should heavily rely on them early game imo. The fireblade buffs your infantry and at level 6 gives 6 loyalty to each city you have. His loyalty bonus will help your economy a lot.You should get him asap and start lvling him up.

The ethereal has an aoe heal on a three turn cooldown that will help keep your army alive early game as well as an aoe buff that either gives your units 17% increased damage or 17% increased defense. His aoe damage and defense buffs are a free action that you can use every turn(only one of them can be used a turn). At level 6 the ethereal unlocks another aoe buff that gives all units adjacent to the ethereal another action point. The ethereals level 6 ability lets you do a ton of damage if you use it on your strongest units.

The commander is a damage dealer with strong army wide buffs. His buffs can increase your armies damage, ranged damage reduction, or accuracy. His buffs are very strong if used right. The commander is your best source of damage early game. He is the only battlesuit unit you can get before tier 4.

My early game strategy as tau is to rush for all of the heroes and builder drones. I start my games by building a research building first followed by the hero recruitment building. Then I go for the fireblade first, then ethereal, then the commander. Also make sure to research guns drones at Tier 2. 1 fireblade, 1 ethereal, 1 commander and your 2 starting fire warriors with guns drones unlocked will be enough to take care of any neutrals except those robots. I wouldn't bother building any fire warriors or pathfinders. Just wait unit you can make crisis battlesuits which unlock at tier 4. You will be able to research crisis battlesuits right after you finish researching commander and builder drones.

Once you have builder drones researched you should build one immediately and rush for a second city. The utopia mechanic allows you to build a second city with out needing any loyalty buildings built, so rushing a second city is a must for tau imo. You also don't need any loyalty buildings built to counter your first population building in a city like other races do. You should build a population building when a city is around 5 pop to ensure it is constantly growing. It will not grow faster than you can build so there is no reason to lock a city at 7 pop.

Also to ensure you can always build buildings in your cities make sure your ore income is high enough to support however many cities you have. Tidewall gunrigs are good units but they have 3 ore upkeep so when you use them make sure they won't prevent you from building in any of your cities.The builder drones that build them also cost 2 energy a turn so if you have to choose between a drone or a building i would recommend going with a building. I only start using tidewall gunrigs when I have energy to spare on a builder drone.

[Valosar]

I know this is an ancient topic but wanted to add my two cents. I agree that heroes are essential to Tau play but also want to point out that you can convert influence to research and quickly jump to crisis suit infantry which are totally amazing! Combined with the hero units they can melt most neutral enemies with ease and backed up by the broadside suits can tear up enemy cities rather quickly. Every 3 turns surround your etherals with your damaged units and cycle them back to your front line with fireblade support. Rush to the top tier of research for a tech that vastly reduces the penalty for having multiple building types. That combine with fireblade bonus loyalty allows you to build tons of cities.

[StarFishon]

Originally posted by Valosar:

I know this is an ancient topic but wanted to add my two cents. I agree that heroes are essential to Tau play but also want to point out that you can convert influence to research and quickly jump to crisis suit infantry which are totally amazing! Combined with the hero units they can melt most neutral enemies with ease and backed up by the broadside suits can tear up enemy cities rather quickly. Every 3 turns surround your etherals with your damaged units and cycle them back to your front line with fireblade support. Rush to the top tier of research for a tech that vastly reduces the penalty for having multiple building types. That combine with fireblade bonus loyalty allows you to build tons of cities.

thanks :)

[DarKStell]

TY for the guide its only one what i found. Peaked up with friends and I play tau. Was fortunate to found your guide so i can suck less while playing them