March to Mayhem - Tau Infantry Roundup!
After months of testing plus 8 games at the Cherokee Open, I am ready to rebuild my T’aulist from the ground up. Part of this means re-evaluating every unit in the army and reassessing how best to use them to their full potential. As part of this series, I’ll be going through selections of T’au units, looking at use cases, and doing the math on just how much damage they can do.
Today, we’re starting at the basic units in the army - infantry. Strike Teams, Breachers, and Pathfinders are all going to feel the markerlights on them for a change!
Strike Teams
Strike teams are the most basic unit we’ve got. 75 points gets you 10 models armed with your choice of a pulse rifle or carbine, plus a couple drones to give some extra firepower or utility.
While you don’t get access to any special weapons like our friends in the Astra Militarum, the basic pulse weapons make their Lasguns look like laser pointers. At Strength 5, they’re wounding nearly every other battleline unit on 3s, plus a 30” range on the basic rifle means you’ve got time to line up shots. The carbine shortens the range to 20”, but gives an additional attack without needing to get into rapid fire range.
I personally prefer the rifles over the carbines, as that extra 10” of range means an easier time activating the Suppression Volley ability. Any infantry you hit gets a -1 to hit- a great way to keep the strike team from getting picked up on the crackback, or making an anti-vehicle unit struggle to put shots into your tanks or battlesuits. They’re also great spotters, freeing up some space in the markerlight economy. I usually give them the markerlight drone as a way to let them spot while having some extra mobility.
They are as fragile as you’d expect for basic infantry, but the optional guardian drone wargear makes them harder to wound- a real asset when most things will be wounding on 2s or 3s into their toughness of 3. That extra durability makes them less susceptible to indirect fire, and allows them to really exploit having such an incredible range.
I’ve found them best as a backline objective holder. Let them screen the back, hold the home, and help out with markerlights and with battleline units that decide to chance their firing line. That said, I’ve never made them my first choice, as we’ll see below.
Breacher Team
With their insane damage potential, breachers are a hammer into any unit stupid enough to think they can hold an objective near them. 10 models for 100 points, each with a blaster rifle that punches up into nearly every infantry unit in the game. They hit on 3s, reroll wounds against any targets on objectives, and the native -1 ap on their guns means that whatever they shoot is going to have that much more difficult of a time weathering the storm.
While they have the potential to clear all but the sturdiest models off a point, they have quite a few drawbacks as well. A 10” range on their shotguns means getting dangerously close to an enemy, and a well-timed overwatch has the potential to either blunt (or flat out delete) the squad. This means they are usually hanging out in a Devilfish until go-time, which means an additional 85 points to get them to combat.
Similar to the Strike Team, these guys are flimsy. You can give them the same guardian drone as well, but taking a point and holding a point are often different stories. If they don’t delete whatever they were targeting, they are more than likely going right back in the carrying case.
Arguably, the biggest problem with the breacher team is that they really want to be spotted by a Stealth Suit. Pushing them to hit on 2s while rerolling ones means 20 shots hitting, and with the wound reroll on objectives they can force opponents to make a lot of saves. It’s not a point either against or for them, but with the markerlight economy being what it is, sometimes you need to make hard choices about where that buff is going to go.
My experience with breachers has been feast or famine. Sometimes, they pick up a 5 Chosen. Sometimes, they kill a single space marine before being mulched by chainswords. Them’s the breaks.
Pathfinders
Pathfinders are some of the best position players in the T’au arsenal. For 90 points, you get a set of 7 Pathfinders with Pulse Carbines, plus 3 special weapons. Couple that with a wider selection of Drones, and you have a unit that can clear enemy infantry and even punch up into enemy armor, all while screening out charges and dishing out extra markerlights.
The ability to spot for an additional unit is nearly reason alone to take them, but their ability to control the board is something special. Yes, they’re squishy, but opponents will have to work to get within melee range of them and the damage potential of their guns means a rough time for anyone who fails a charge.
As far as special weapons, Pathfinders get access to railguns or ion rifles. While both guns natively hit on 5s (with the heavy profile), they’re punching up into vehicles or just obliterating marines. You do run the risk of self-destructing off the Hazardous rail rifles, but the damage potential makes it more than worth it.
The Shas’ui gets a choice of one of three drones- one upping the range of pulse rifles, one that gives some additional guns and the infiltrator keyword, and the aforementioned drone that gives a -2 to charge. The recon drone is incredibly useful, especially coupled with the scout ability, and lets your guys really explore the battlefield early.
I’ll be honest- I’ve slept on these guys. After running a squad at cherokee they absolutely getting some more space in the list. While they aren’t battleline units, I think my next list is going to get the full three squads on the field.
Leaders
The T’au currently have 3 units that can lead infantry - Ethereals and Cadre Fireblades can head up both flavors of Fire Warrior, while the Epic Hero Darkstrider can head up a unit of pathfinders.
Darkstrider
As the only unit capable of leading Pathfinders, he offers some great screening potential with a 12” bubble that prevents deep strikes. He can also flex into a unit to give their guns a +1 to wound, while also having some decent damage of his own in his custom pulse carbine “Shade”. He’s a great tech piece against deep strikers, but he can take a squad’s damage potential to another level. It’s a shame he’s the only leader on the table for the squad at the moment, but there’s something to be said for quality over quantity. At 60 points, he is a difficult inclusion, and I personally don’t think he’s worth it over something like a Piranha.
Ethereals
An Ethereal, with armor looted from a vanquished Custodian
While I tend to see them more as solo pieces, Ethereals can be attached to either Strike or Breacher Teams. While they do give units a 5+ feel no pain and a better leadership save, they’re also capable of farming additional command points. This is a big boost in some of our hungrier detachments, but it being on a 4+ means there is an element of chance to it. I do think they are ultimately better as a tech piece, and there are worse ways to spend 50 points, especially since they can carry some valuable enhancements.
Cadre Fireblades
Gue’vesa Cadre Fireblade
For 50 points, you can add an additional attack for all your infantry. What else is there to say?
Giving your breacher teams 30 shots in total is a pretty good use of your resources, and while the Devilfish, the Fireblade, and the Breachers costs over a 10th of your army, they can and will delete nearly anything in the game. It is a massive amount of damage, especially with some of the potential stratagems and detachment rules available to push it further. I’ve never really seen them with strike teams before, but the extra attacks math is less favorable given their points cost.
Detachments
Three detachments have rules that buff up T’au infantry- Kauyon, Mont’ka, and the Auxiliary Cadre. Each one has their own benefits (and challenges) that are worth examining
Kauyon
The original index detachment, Kauyon gives T’au units sustained hits starting on round 3, with sustained hits 2 if the unit is being guided. The sustained 2 will often be most relevant for the breachers, as it’s rare that you’re going to be guiding pathfinders or strike teams. Guided by a stealth team, your breachers will be hitting more than their initial attacks- and couple with the rerolls to wound, there’s a potential to wound 25 or more times (or even into the 40s with a Cadre fireblade)
Kauyon also offers some choice stratagems as well. Combat Embarkation lets your infantry jump back into a transport when charged, while photon grenades lets you force a leadership test while making charges harder. On the offensive end, you can give a unit +1 to wound on a trapped objective, additional ap when firing into units with 9”, or let them get the ballistic skill bonus into a unit they’ve spotted.
As far as enhancements go, the Exemplar of the Kauyon lets your detachment rule kick in a round early for a unit, letting a squad pop off early into someone who really wants to close the gap. Through Unity, Devastation, gives a spotted unit Lethal Hits on top of the sustained 2 for even more killing power, and the Solid-Image projection unit lets you redeploy valuable assets.
I’ve found breachers to be very effective here, absolutely incinerating units that think they can hold objectives better than they can. With the volume of fire and the right stratagems (and you will have lots of CP available on Turn 3 given the restrictions on when you can use things) Even units of custodes and big knights will have trouble weathering the sheer amount of fire you can put out.
Mont’Ka
The opposite of Kauyon, Montka gives weapons assault, as well as lethal hits in for guided units rounds 1-3. Lethal Hits are killer, though often your infantry will be at the advantage when it comes to wounding. Pathfinders are great here, where the additional movement from assault lets them really fly around the board.
The available stratagems here let your units move faster and kill harder. My personal favorite lets two units dump all their fire into a single target for an additional AP, letting a riptide and a squad of infantry absolutely ruin something brave enough to get close. Otherwise, auto-advance rolls are always nice, and for two CP you can severely hamper a units movement for a turn.
Mont’ka’s most powerful stratagem, the pinpoint counter offensive, lets you get full rerolls on any enemy unit that takes out one of yours. It’s a great way to fish for lethals, but the restriction on T’au units only means you can’t just hurl a krootox at a problem to fish for the activation and a clever opponent can play around it by finishing off a unit with something less valuable.
I haven’t played enough Mont’ka to make crazy proclamations here, but I do think the immediate killing power is really strong. However, I think the assault keyword is usually irrelevant for strike teams, and Breacher teams already have that built in.
Auxiliary Cadre
Is there a kroot hound near you? If so, you will have a Bad Time. Additional AP is great across the board, and there are some killer combos as far as stratagems go. Pathfinders especially love this detachment, where they can dump ap 3 ion cannon shots into a unit of marines and see them get immediately picked up off the table. Breachers with AP 2 are also terrifying, with the potential to delete anything off an objective.
There are some powerful stratagems available- though the strongest gives weapons a bonus to strength when in range of one of the auxiliary units, giving breachers a potential for a strength 8, ap 2 weapon. Another nice option is the ability to move or fall back a unit at the end of the opponents fight phase, letting pathfinders set up shots with their heavy bonus.
The problem is the requirement to activate the detachment rule, which means devoting a portion more of your army to fragile auxiliaries. I had a mixed success with my breacher and pathfinders teams at Cherokee in this detachment- and while that should be taken with a grain of salt (because I am bad), I do think infantry are more useful in other detachments.
Final Thoughts
With their current point costs, Pathfinders are most versatile option for T’au players. While they lack the killing potential of Breachers, the ability to spot twice and punch up with special weapons means they can be useful against a wide variety of threats.
I plan on testing lists with 2-3 units as I prepare for Mebane Mayhem later this spring, especially as I play around in different detachments!
Cherokee Postmortem - Sam
Our Tau Hero has a time of it
I went in aiming for two wins, and I got three, which I am ultimately happy about. I think my biggest takeaway is that I am a much better player than I was a year ago, and that the next big event will be significantly better as well. I’ll get into my overall thoughts on Tau and my matchups, but overall my army felt strong into what I had teched for.
Game Recap
Round One - Vs Blood Angels
I paired into BA round one- not a matchup I wanted. I end up going first. It’s a tight game, until turn three when I heroically intervene with a squad of Rampagers. They do a single mortal wound on their charge and get hewn down by Sanguinary Guard. It’s a rough debut for them in the tournament, and unfortunately the game snowballs from there. I get knocked off primary, and my secondary objectives don’t show up either. I barely score 43 points, and game one is a firm loss.
This is going to go about as well as you think.
Round Two - Vs Votaan
This is my first game versus the dwarves, and he gets off to a very good start by popping ghostkeels. My shooting does ok, but his sagitaurs overperform. He is able to crush into my side objective and knock me off my expansion, getting ahead on primary in the last two rounds. The rampagers underperform again on a charge and then get picked up. I score 62, and go into game 3 pretty demoralized. I felt pretty confident in my matchup, but I underestimated the mobility of the sagitaurs and their potential damage output, especially combined with the hekaton fortress.
Round 3 - Vs World Eaters
I am really shaken going into this matchup. Angron is on the board, and it’s Purge the Foe which means my extremely squishy units just become primary points once the melee begins. I decide to play really cagey, setting up good sightlines and countercharges with the rampagers and just wait for the big red idiot to come in.
My opponent, terrified of my guns, lets me take control of the board. We are very neck and neck the entire game, but mostly just poking at each other until turn four when he sends in Angron to kill a ghostkeel on the middle objective. I kill Angron with a skyray and finish him off with Farsight, and nearly lose myself the game by letting a single eightbound finish off my lonespear in melee after I charge for some reason. I squeak out the win, 84-83.
Round 4 - Vs Chaos Knights
I feel ok going into this match after a win, and especially after practicing into them. It’s a weird match up, with both of us spiking and failing rolls to an improbable degree. She’s running mostly dogs, with a single rampager and some slaaneshi demons for secondaries. This is one of the first times my detachment rule has felt really impactful- she has a terrifying amount of indirect fire that she can’t get into my kroot and vespids, putting it all into a stealth suit who just refuses to die. We both struggle to score primary, killing each other’s units standing on points. The turning point comes on turns 2 and 3, when her rampager fails a big charge. Farsight spikes and overwatch and manages to bracket a karnivore before finishing it in melee without taking any losses. He then, with a sky ray, nearly kills the rampager, setting it up for a big charge with my krootox.
I make the decision to take potshots with their pistols to make sure I kill it on the charge, and they decide they’d rather not get close. They manage to get 4 wounds and she fails two saves and the rampagers die, leaving them stranded in the midboard. It’s a nice reminder that sometimes doing the funny thing is not strategically viable. They get killed in the center, and she manages to pull out the win. It’s a really funny game, but one that I definitely lost.
Round 5 - Vs Dark Angels
I want to quit the second I see this list. My opponent had been at the table next to me last game, and I had seen his horde of bikes and thought “I would hate to play this”. So, here we are.
This is my least favorite match of the whole event. My opponent is fine, but he has my number from the get-go. Bikes get in and just tear through me. He spikes an overwatch roll and dumpsters my vespid going for area denial, and my dice basically refuse to cooperate on anything. The rampagers finally get to show off in combat, and I do manage to pull off a cool move where I use my vespid to snipe a lieutenant attempting to sabotage. It’s a miracle I score over 50, but I feel battered after this match. His bikes just refused to die, and my skyrays and Farsight’s Sunforge Squad feel useless against this.
Round 6 - Vs Chaos Demons
Though I’m trying to keep it together, I am fully tilted. I lost my game 4, and was completely outmatched on round 5. I see my opponents list and it’s just the biggest, baddest demons. I decide to have fun and take a gamble, so I take fixed secondaries and go for assassinate and bring it down.
This pays off in a big way. Everyone spikes rolls, and the rampagers atone by demolishing two greater demons. Everyone chips in, and I end up maxing primary and nearly secondaries. It is a really great way to end day two, and it’s nice to see my list pop off in such a big way.
Round 7 - Vs Custodes
I always end up playing Custodes, I don’t know why I’m surprised. We’re playing on scored earth, which is a mission I feel really comfortable on, and despite a rough turn one and a mediocre turn two, My opponent is too cagey and lets me get too far ahead on primary before attempting to contest. The rampagers show up for a final time to ruin a squad of Wardens before finishing a tank by dealing 11 mortal wounds on the charge (they needed one, but they really wanted it.) I max primary and cruise to a win in the last turn. I feel a little bad for getting my opponent with my pathfinder drone making them harder to charge before remembering mentioning it at the beginning of the game. It was really nice to see my list performing so well into terminator bodies, and especially to get a win against Custodes for the first time.
Round 8 - Vs Blood Angels
I think about dropping to end on a win. I regret not doing it. The game is over turn 2. I get boxed in and the death company just devour my units. I basically do nothing for an hour except watch my dice roll twos and my units get swallowed by the tide. The less I think about it the better.
List Analysis
Commander Farsight was a good call to bring in. The free strat was really impactful, especially to reposition his unit to get better shots. The Sunforge Crisis Suits were a great bit of extra anti-tank that really punched up. They also managed to do work into smaller elite squads like Venetari.
The Krootox Rampagers were wildly spikey, either taking over the game or doing basically nothing. They were incredibly fun, and the threat of the counter-charge really scared a lot of my opponents. I don’t know if they work in any list except Aux cadre, where the reroll and -1 ap strategems allow them to really overperform in melee. On the one hand, it was a little annoying to need 2 cp to allow them to go that hard, but I also wasn’t really spending it elsewhere.
The Pathfinder Squad was really beneficial in the Markerlight Economy, but also let me do actions in the backfield and kept the home objective safe. I appreciated having an extra two markerlights to play with, but inevitably whenever I spotted with them I felt like I wish I had used a stealth suit.
Stealth Suits, for that matter, were real stars. Specifically, one stealth suit squad that absorbed two rounds of chaos knight indirect fire while keeping vespids in lone-op, and shooting from a predator and 2 rounds of melee with mephiston. Rerolling ones was huge. I don’t understand how I ever ran lists without three of them.
Sky Rays absolutely killed, unless they didn’t. They deleted big demons and knights, but had some really disappointing turns where they did managed to do 2 wounds.
The three Ghostkeels were great objective holders, and presented a really interesting puzzle to some of my opponents. They are great into elite units, and also forced opponents to get closer for krootox or other heavy hitters. Ghostkeel Zone Defense is a really good strategy, and i think one I am going to roll with for a white
Vespid are good. No notes.
The Lone Spear was not super impactful, the reroll to hit was nice, but it kind of felt like a wast of points most of the time. I love him as a model, but I don’t think I’d run him without the krootox.
Final thoughts
I think there is something a little telling about there only being 7 other Tau players, with the best showing at 50. Auxiliary cadre is a weird detachment, and my list really performed into the things that I had tooled against. Monsters, Demon Primarchs, and knights had a bad time, and practicing into terminators so much really helped against the Custodes, but fast attack marines just ate my lunch.
It’s hard to say if Tau feel weak- I’m not good enough to make that argument one way or the other, and my list was wildly off-meta to a comical degree. Current Terrain layouts favor melee, and the speed available to most armies means that you can have guys in your face on turn 1 or two. There are also so many crazy synergies, with marines especially, that stuff like death company just feels savage. I don’t want to say it feels unfair, but I really feel that Tau lack something in their sheet that are just good into everything.
I don’t know if there is a problem, though current win rates seem to indicate one. I also don’t know how you fix Tau in a way that isn’t just making things cheaper. I felt like I was nearly out of space in my deployment zone sometimes, and 25 units that don’t do anything aren’t better than 22 units that don’t do anything.
I’m not good enough to make the calls, but having played mostly into elite profiles and vehicles before, I need to start incorporating stuff to kill hordes as well. Death Company really ate my lunch, and It would be nice to have something to really hammer into that - burst cannon riptides, flamer suits, and missile suits are a good call- something to practice with.
I am also probably going to pop off aux cadre- it is incredibly fun, but ultimately i think it requires too many extra units to operate at max effeciency. Rampagers are incredibly fun, but i don’t know how they feel without spending two cp to give them rerolls to wound and -1 ap. I’m going to need to do some testing before mayhem.
I just need a little more flexibility, but I also just need to get better at positioning. And maybe some new dice. Definitely some new dice.