Dark Crusade: Tau Campaign Mode Guide 3

The Campaign Continued

With Pavonis under your control you are now able to go to almost any province in the map. I recommend that you either go to the Eres Badlands next so you can get Fury, which will allow you to move/attack twice in one turn or the Vandean Coast, which will give you an additional 1000 resources at the start of each battle.

The Eres Badlands

To win this province you have to kill 70 opposing units. Your enemy has two bases, or so the report says. I've never been able to verify this because you can win this map by simply playing defensively. Start building your base the usual way and amass your forces nearby. Eventually your opponent will attack you. As long as you can keep yourself alive and kill his units faster than he can kill yours, you'll win this map.

The Vandean Coast

The game tells you that in order to win this map you have to gain 2600 power. What it doesn't tell you is that you can also win the old-fashioned way, by destroying your opponent's base. I'll leave it to you to decide on how you want to win. If you want to go the power route, simply build generators and play defensively until you reach the required amount. You can also increase your power-gathering by building a Thermo Plasma Generator (or equivalent) on the Slag Deposit above your base. You can also simplify things by simply walking over to the other side of the map with your army and destroy your opponent's base. Again, if you rush him early it'll be easy.

The Tau Commander

The Tau commander is one of the strongest commanders in the game because of his weapons arsenal, stealth and mobility. He can take out enemy bases single-handedly if you set him out early in the game. In terms of wargear, I recommend you get the stealth field first, followed by either the jetpack or the missile pods. The jetpack provides great mobility for an otherwise slow unit and the missile pods are good at destroying enemy vehicles and buildings. They also knockdown enemy infantry. Add the fusion blaster and the plasma rifle next. If you want to make him a solo assault unit you might want to get the advanced sensor array earlier than the other upgrades. Get the flamer before you get the drone upgrades.

Enemy turrets can detect infiltrated units. To get around this you can toss a snare trap within range of the turret. The turret will start firing on the snare trap and when it does, the Tau commander will start attacking the turret. Similar to the Fire Warrior Bodyguards, the range of the Tau commander's weapons have a greater reach than his line of sight. Tossing the snare trap will extend his line of sight far enough to attack the turret from a safe distance.

The Campaign Continued

I recommend that you attack the Demes Northlands next so you can get another Fire Warrior Bodyguard honor guard unit. If you attack this province early in the game you'll only have to worry about one base. Wait longer and there will be two bases next time. Everything will be easier to rush if you have your commander and two squads of Fire Warrior Bodyguards.

Later on you'll be dealing with provinces that have two bases. Rush early and eliminate one base as quickly as possible. Should you ever be involved in a late game scenario, I recommend following the path of the Killing Blow. Hammerhead Gunships will make short work of almost anything that get in their way. Remember to build a Coalition Center so you can get the Ethereal unit. Aside from providing a global boost to the Tau, he can also summon Fire Warrior Bodyguards for free. Just right-click on the icon and he'll summon them as soon as they become available.

With the Space Port, Fury and Industrial Production under your control it should be pretty easy to go out and conquer new provinces. For the strongholds themselves, I suggest you consult NightmareHunter's excellent walkthrough for details.

That's it for now. I hope you found the information useful. I'm considering writing guides for the other races as well so you should let me know if there's a race that you want me to write about first.

Part 1
Part 2