Close Combat is Key

I took my Tau army for a spin last night at the Essex Warhounds club. Typically, because I hadn't arranged a game, I had to play whoever was available, which was a young lad with a Grey Knights army. Well, obviously playing an overpriced 3rd edition army meant he didn't have much of a chance. But while I was butchering his blokes, I couldn't get him off the damn objectives, which gave me great concern with regards to actually winning games.

By the end of the game my Tau army had munched through his storm troopers and Grey Knights, but it had taken me the full 7 turns to wipe him out just from shooting. On turn 5, he had troops sitting on 2 of the 3 objectives.

Had the game ended then I would have lost. The only way I could wipe out his units quicker would be through combining shooting with close combat for the quickest kills. But when Tau suck in close combat, how do you grab objectives? Or are you meant to just contest them and win on Victory Points, even though it typically counts as a Draw in most tournaments?

Have been chatting to a couple of hardcore tournament goers. Seems that I need more Tau battlesuits for high strength hits. Back to the modelling desk.