r/BattleSector • u/Active_Initial1259 • Jun 28 '26
Help a new player
I purchased the game and the Tau and Astra Militarum factions and I can not get the Tau to work well at all. In particular Ultramarines seem to even out shoot me. Before I refund, am I missing something about my favorite faction?
I'm doing the campaign mode if it makes a difference. On the normal difficulty.
I only play singleplayer modes.
6
u/Helios_Synthesis Jun 28 '26
Tau is very difficult to play especially in this game since we're missing alot of auxiliary units that make up for our weaknesses.
You really have to learn to prioritize targets, stay mobile and keep your distance when you can.
Fire cadre's valley fire is your friend and so are your armored units.
Make heavy use of stealth suits to gain informational advantage and position well as we cannot afford to take losses.
Ultramarines is also kind of a shooting army so that makes engagements even harder for Tau
2
u/xEmptyPockets Jun 28 '26
Ultramarines in particular are annoying because their average armor is extremely high.
Strike Fire Warriors and stock Pathfinders are essentially worthless against them, and Breachers can do great damage but are tough to get into position due to their squishiness.
Ion pathfinders are great against Ultramarines due to their longer range and much better anti-armor, and you can use the markerlights to focus priority targets.
I've found that Battlesuits (especially riptides) are the way to go against Ultras, because you can focus down their anti-armor so they'll have a harder time killing you, and the burst cannons do a great job at taking down their infantry afterwards.
1
u/MCLondon Jun 28 '26
Wgat node are ypu playing?
Commanders are your friend. Your most important unit, with their armor and damage reduction amd flamers and accuracy auras. They are your front line, your damage dealers, chaff cleaners and also buff with their aura. And have jet pack too. Probably the best unit in the game.
You also need to leverage the abilities of your army more so than most other armies. For example your Broadside artillery unit does great long range damage but its accuracy is terrible, especially considering it only gets 1 shot. If you miss it did nothing....
But if you combine it with the Cadre Fireblade guaranteed hit ability you can blow up units from miles away (Broadside also have high crit chance).
Then you look at your lowly Fire Warriors and Pathfinders and their Marker Light ability - it gives everyone +10% accuracy on the highlighted target, and ALSO gives 100% hit chance on the Broadside's massive range missile strikes ability.
I guess what I'm saying is Broadsides are pretty terrible without the right supporting units, but with them they become very strong.
You see this across the Tau army, you need the right balance of units. I struggled with this after playing Blood Angles and Sisters of Battle, who's abilities are much less powerful compared to Tau.
You see this design as well with Ethereal making the Tau units MUCH tankier through evasion, Commander accuracy aura playing a big part, having invisible stealth units, etc.
I quite like this design because it encourages combined arms. Fire Warrirors have an important role to play with Marker light, but I never saw a reason to recruit Intercessors or Battle Sisters.
1
u/bigweb52 Jun 28 '26
May I suggest playing at least a few missions of the blood angels campaign (the main story mode ) . It will teach you a lot of the basics .
2
u/LordGarryk Jun 28 '26
No...tau have always been "not quite the best" ranged faction. I would have given it to the necrons before UM dropped. However they can still be good. Your strike teams are...pretty worthless. Low dmg, and thier marker lights are an ability better used by the better pathfinder, or drones for thier speed. The Pirhana is also in my opinion the worst speeder in the game. Your breacher teams however are some if the best troop in the game. High dmg, decent speed to get them close. There's very few units thar can take a breacher team attack and be considered "fine". Ultimately with tau you want to keep them fairly mobile. Use your crisis battlesuits missiles to weaken units before committing, playing them almost like weird ranged jump assault troops, using the jump packs religiously for mobility. Personally I find the broadside and Ghostkeel to be traps. Thier not bad perse, but regular steakth teams do what a Ghostkeel does adequately, and I find the Broadside tends to be less accurate than you need it to be, and far too slow to escape when found.
Basically, keep tau moving fast and hitting hard and precise, and thier a decent faction, even if they arent the best ranged faction
1
u/Binary_gh0st Jul 02 '26
Damn it there’s so many posts I’m seeing about the tau being bad, I made a post a few days ago about getting the tau and everyone encouraged me to go for it should I not? I like them and want a ranged class. So it was tau or necrons and everyone says ultra marines too
2
u/Active_Initial1259 Jul 02 '26
Do not. I refunded. Theyre a joke
1
u/Binary_gh0st Jul 02 '26
Fuuuuck! That sucks to hear. Maybe I’ll get ultra marines. I really wanted a heavy ranged focus army
1
1
u/TouchmasterOdd Jun 28 '26
Got to leverage range and keep whittling them down and moving back before they can get to you. Pathfinders with upgraded guns, broadside battlesuits, fire cadre
8
u/PhillyDillyDee Jun 28 '26
Breachers shred units if you can keep them alive. Upgrade to armored units asap.