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HQ

Shas'el XV89 (Ejector system, HP: Drone Controller, HP: CIB, HP: Vect.r-thrusters, Marker Drone x1, Shield Drone x1)

TP

Fire Warriors x9, Shas'ui (Markerlight)

Fire Warriors x9, Shas'ui (Markerlight)

Fire Warriors x9, Shas'ui (Markerlight)

Kroot x8, Hounds x5, Ox x3, Shaper (Pule Rifle)

Kroot x8, Hounds x5, Ox x3, Shaper (Pulse Carbine)

Kroot x9, Hounds x5, Ox x3, Shaper (Kroot Rifle)


FA

Gun Drones x8

Piranhas x2 (BC, Gun Drones, 2x Seeker Missiles each)

Tetra x1

-------------------
Points = 1500
Comp = 100 (v5.1; http://www.svenska40k.se/forum/viewtopic.php?f=52&t=480)



P.S.

Swedish tournaments make use of various alterations, such as the "Swedish FAQ", RoE and all sorts of stuff, mostly laid down by svenska40k (Swedish 40k foundation). I, myself, don't care too much for their views on how to handle "Comp", but have decided to try it out with this list. Yes, it sucks. BUT, given that the high Comp will yield me bonus points each game regardless of outcome, it is still "competetive" in the sence that I will be doing something of a fighting-withdrawal, trying to take down as much as possible before I succomb to the superior beardness of my opponent.

Still, have 4 seekers, a ton of markerlights... Might even drop some hounds to give my Piranhas meltas to ad to their edge. (Scoutmove if going first will enable them to reach rear-sides of most opponents on turn one if used properly... )

But primary the goal is to rush in, dig in and stay alive for as long as possible.

Why the crappy weapons and upgrades on my commander? Everything else (almost) gives too much Comp-reduction so...






Now, I need to gather 15 'hounds and 8 'oxes... As well as an XV89, a Tetra and a pair of Piranhas!

Ejector system and CIB are pretty crappy addons to the HQ unless you h ave some special rules. The Ejector system just gives the enemy a free KP. Vectored thrust will not function as long as your drones are alive.

Get rid of the krootox as they are pretty useless and prevent you from infiltrating which is the kroots biggest advantage.

Your pirahnna's don't get a Scout move so i'm not sure what your talking about there.

This list has no anti tank ability. A Single land raider would kill your whole army by tank shocking it.


Unless you have alot of really strange rules in this FAQ then i don't see how you could possibly beat any army. And i see you losing without getting a single kill easly as 6 rhino's rush across the board and tank shock your infantry out of exististance and las your piranha's

I think you're going to get flamered or assaulted to death. "Getting in and digging in" isn't really a viable tau strategy; because they suck so much at close combat. If you wanted to try that strategy, you'd play space marines, and put terminators with thunderhammers and lightning claws into objectives in cover. *that* would be nigh-unkillable.

Here's something I wrote that you might benefit from.


Tau have just gotten a MASSIVE boost. 5th edition has shifted the meta-game into much more mechanization, and Tau are hands down the best tank killing army in existence. The second thing that Tau have at their disposal is the unique ability to influence a battle in interesting ways. You have LOTS of pinning weapons, the ability to pretty much force-pin units, wound allocation goodness to increase suit survivability, and the best troop weapon (the pulse rifle) in 40k.

How you use it all determines how you do. Personally, I find kroot distasteful. If I want a close combat element in my army, I play a 2v2 and have my wife join me with her orks. Tau are meant to shoot, shoot more, and lay down such a withering fusillade of firepower that enemy armies simply evaporate under your firepower. You'll see some interesting ideas for tau army lists floating around, and some incredibly dumb ideas too. I've been incredibly successful with a pure Tau gunline (using some tactical deployment to avoid being flanked and annihilated). Here's my advice:

1. Tau firewarriors: Take groups of 12 of them, with a shas'ui who has a handheld markerlight (10 points). Give the squad 2 gundrones, or 2 marker drones if you can afford it pointwise. I deploy these guys almost 2" apart, in a line where possible, and always in cover. 4+ armor save doesn't impress anyone, but 4+ armor save in addition to 4+ cover save does wonders for keeping firewarriors alive.

2. Broadsides. In 5th edition, Broadsides rule supreme. You should have six of them. Two teams of three. If you're playing 1,000 points or less then two teams of two. Team leader with a target lock, and both teams need two shield drones each. You've got 2+ armor saves, and your drones have 2+ armor saves and 4+ invulnerable saves. These puppies ALSO need to be deployed in cover. Preferably on top of a building somewhere that counts as ruins, so that climbing is required if people are going to try outflanking and assaulting you. Putting them in cover gives you 4+ cover saves in case you run into AP2 weaponry. Those six broadsides should form the backbone, the core, the heart, and the basis of your army. The rest of your army is really just support for your broadsides, ESPECIALLY today where everyone is running such heavily mechanized lists. Depending on mood, sometimes I'll take a Railgun hammerhead as a third heavy support for its large blast template; as anti-tank its next to useless.

3. Snipers! A heavy support choice that can consist of three individual teams of snipers. Each of them STR6 AP3, and able to headshot an MEQ without a save, and each able to pin a unit. One of my favorite, FAVORITE tactics in 40k is to have a broadside team blow up a transport, have a firewarrior team drop 1-3 markerlights (2 drones + shas'ui) on the disembarked unit, or have a pathfinder unit drop 5-8 markerlights on them, then pin them using a rail rifle and markerlight modifiers. You play against Eldar often, and those pesky wave serpents turbo-boost around the board getting cover saves, right? Drop a couple of markerlights on it, reduce its cover save to nothing, and introduce it to a whole team of broadsides. 4+ rerollable to hit, depending on facing, you need 3 or less to glance, and if they're turbo-boosting, 3+ destroys it. AP1 gives +1 on the penetration table, and if a turbo-boosting vehicle is immobilized, it counts as destroyed. Hey! Free pinning test on the guys inside!

4. Speaking of rail rifles....if you have a team of pathfinders with rail rifles+target locks, and 3 sniper teams, you can cause 9 seperate pinning tests across an enemy army. If you toss a bunch of markerlights into the fray, you can go a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong way towards immobilizing an entire enemy army.

5. Crisis suits: Crisis suits exist to fill holes in your army strategy; this includes your HQs. With broadsides levelling every tank on the field, sniper drones and pathfinders forcing pinning tests on anything with a leadership value, and multiple firewarrior squads laying down ridiculous numbers of STR5 shots at anything willing to step 30" into range, you've got your anti-tank answer, some anti-MEQ, and the first step towards anti-horde. The gaps in your army are reliable MEQ and terminator killers, and more anti-horde. My favorite suit combination is plasma/fusion with multi-tracker, team leader giving me two gun or shield drones (depending on points). Drop 2 markerlights on a terminator squad, and you've got BS5 needing 2+ to hit, and at the 12" mark, you've got 6 plasma shots and 3 fusion shots. Thats 6x STR6 AP2 and 3x STR8 AP1. 2+ to hit, 2+ to wound. No saves, no feel no pain. Insta-killed anything you like. In larger games, I also take a team of "deathrain" crisis suits, which is twin-linked missile pod suits in my back, working on killing light transports or geting side armor shots on anything they can. That saves the broadsides for the big guns. Give your Shas'el Iridium armor and two shield drones, and you've got three 2+ armor save models; I think the fragmentation airburst launcher (large blast, ignores cover) is pretty much mandatory, and I give him a flamer too. Perfect anti-horde! Suits range across the field dealing death to anything that isn't being pinned or destroyed by your longer range firepower.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Strategy: You now have a static gunline capable of destroying ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that can be thrown against you. The weakness: You're static. You're not moving across the board to take objectives. Believe it or not...there's a simple solution for this one too. In capture and control, you have one objective, and your enemy has one objective. In Seize ground, you're going to have one, and possible two objectives to control. You don't NEED to go take the enemy objectives. All you have to do is destroy their troop choices. With the vast amount of firepower and long range dakka....its pretty easy. Don't forget all those pinning weapons either. Pinned units can't hold an objective.

You'll need to learn and understand enemy lists, and a VERY important question you need to ask EVERY game is "What are you keeping in reserve?" You need to know what's in reserve and if its outflanking or deep-striking. If your flanks are going to be threatened, then deploy in the middle so that flanking units can't get to you. You'll also learn the magic of spreading across terrain to prevent lictor entrances, and using firewarriors to wall off access to broadsides.

That's basically it. This type of list and this strategy has pretty much won me almost every Tau game I've played in the last year. I've been playing Orks heavily for the last six months because I've decided I prefer assaulting over shooting. If you go first, the game is practically over; you can level 1/3 of the enemy army in turn 1, take out most of its mobility, and probably pin a unit or two. If you go second, you'll have to be a bit more tactical about target priorities and threat analysis, but either way, between your broadsides, markerlights, and pinning weaponry, your enemy is not doing much moving the entire game.

If you could imagine what I just described in a movie or a video game, its basically a defensive fortress. Firepower would be flying across the screen so heavily that you'd feel like getting underneath your computer desk to keep your head down. And now the metagame has shifted even more in your favor; more vehicles means less troops, and Tau anti-tank is unrivaled. Don't worry about objectives; you can deny objectives to an opponent by tabling them or killing their troops easier than you can use your own troops to hold them.

Honestly, I don't think Kroot are worth using. If you wanted to play a sneaky, outflanking army you should pick something besides Tau. Dark Eldar, or Orks. Every point you waste on a kroot (who is a subpar model in every respect; its melee usefulness is solely in its ability to tie up an enemy unit for a turn before dying) is a point that you didn't put into the overwhelming firepower that will win you games.

That's my....much more than two cents.

VoxDei wrote:Ejector system and CIB are pretty crappy addons to the HQ unless you h ave some special rules. The Ejector system just gives the enemy a free KP. Vectored thrust will not function as long as your drones are alive.

Get rid of the krootox as they are pretty useless and prevent you from infiltrating which is the kroots biggest advantage.

Your pirahnna's don't get a Scout move so i'm not sure what your talking about there.

This list has no anti tank ability. A Single land raider would kill your whole army by tank shocking it.


Unless you have alot of really strange rules in this FAQ then i don't see how you could possibly beat any army. And i see you losing without getting a single kill easly as 6 rhino's rush across the board and tank shock your infantry out of exististance and las your piranha's

They are crap yes, and thus give no negative modifiers... Re: Eject, I thought that I DENIED the KP, by not being killed per se... Oh, well... Might toss some gear around then...

Cannot skip the Oxes, they are one of the few things that gives my Comp a much needed boost. Why? 'Cause they suck...

Hmm, need to do abit of research on my Piranhas, but either way; they are too awesome-looking to skip!

Sure, a land raider... A landraider by its mere precense in the enemy force gives the enemy enough negative comp to make a "win" for my part that much easier!

Rhinos? Hmmm... Str 5 hits from my rifles could stop some of them...


I've made a second version of my list and it is as follows:





Tau Army List
Total points: 1500


++++ [HQ] ++++

Points: 147
% of Army: 9,8

Unit cost: 147
XV89 Shas'o
--- [CIB, Missile pod, Vect. R-Thrusters, HW Multi-tracker, HW Target-Lock]


++++ [Troops] ++++

Points: 1081
% of Army: 72,06

Unit cost: 155
Fire Warrior 'ui
--- [Pulse rifle, Markerlight, Bonding knife, HW Drone controller, Gun Drone]
11x Fire Warrior 'la
--- [Pulse rifle]

Unit cost: 155
Fire Warrior 'ui
--- [Pulse rifle, Markerlight, Bonding knife, HW Drone controller, Gun Drone]
11x Fire Warrior 'la
--- [Pulse rifle]

Unit cost: 155
Fire Warrior 'ui
--- [Pulse rifle, Markerlight, Bonding knife, HW Drone controller, Gun Drone]
11x Fire Warrior 'la
--- [Pulse rifle]

Unit cost: 155
Fire Warrior 'ui
--- [Pulse rifle, Markerlight, Bonding knife, HW Drone controller, Gun Drone]
11x Fire Warrior 'la
--- [Pulse rifle]

Unit cost: 233
Shaper
--- [Pulse carbine]
11x Kroot
--- [Kroot rifle]
3x Kroot Hound
--- [Fangs]
3x Krootox Rider
--- [Kroot gun]

Unit cost: 228
Shaper
--- [Kroot rifle]
11x Kroot
--- [Kroot rifle]
3x Kroot Hound
--- [Fangs]
3x Krootox Rider
--- [Kroot gun]

++++ [Fast Attack] ++++

Points: 272
% of Army: 18,13

Unit cost: 102
V. Strain Leader
--- [Neutron blaster]
5x Vespid Stingwing
--- [Neutron blaster]

Unit cost: 85
Piranha
--- [Fusion blaster, 2x Gun Drone, Seeker missile, Seeker missile]

Unit cost: 85
Piranha
--- [Fusion blaster, 2x Gun drone, Seeker missile, Seeker missile]

-----------------------
Total model count: 93
-----------------------
Total Comp count: 100





I've tossed around stuff abit, and added some Vespids for a nice Comp-boost to afford dropping a Kroot unit and getting more FW. Dropped the Tetra as it's damned expensive to buy, split up my Piranhas to ba able to split up their precence as needed. I've also dropped some kroot hounds in favour for more kroot as I don't own as many Kroot hounds. (and it was a good way to round out my points! )

With regards to true anti-tank: All my options there suffer HEAVY negative Comp-modifiers.


Why is Comp so important? Because... Say that I loose 20-0 against a low-comp list. This loss will thus be made a draw because I have max-Comp. If I pulled of a 15-5 loss, I would have made it a win! Just by not using "good" things too much! :O

Yeah, it sucks. I love my Mechanized Tau, 3 railheads and tons of 'fishes, but then I am on the "low-Comp"-end of the spectrum and need to make 20-0 wins and still might suffer a draw because of my low Comp-score.

So I figured I'd try this as a different flavour for once. Going in as the underdog, with crap stuff but a high Comp. Playing somewhat of a fighting withdrawal, knowing I will loose the game, but will try to inflict as much harm as possible and thus might actually win in the end when the Comp-modifiers kick in.

I don't know the comp rules you are playing by, but some of the things you do seem wasteful. You could squeeze out some more points.

Starting with the HQ Choice, downgrading to an 'el and taking the Targetting array. You give up 1 ws, 1 wound, and 1 attack. VRT was made useless for tau due to the initiative test required now. Both commanders are only I 3. Depending on if you are joining a squad or not the target lock can be passed up also. Setting out to lose, taking a more suicidal commander isn't a big issue. I would say take a 2nd commander and go "helios" for this list, but I imagine the HQ suits would hurt comp.

He comes in at 92 points (-55) although I don't know the rules for the XV89.

For your troops I would drop the marker lights, or take the targets locks. These markerlights are NOT networked and thus cannot boost the squad that has them. He also only has a 1/2 chance to hit making it soso and forces the squads to stand still. Also the gun drone I'm not sure about is it for comp points, or to require a 7th wound to cause 50% casualties or just to add firepower? Because I don't know exactly what you were going for I'll throw out some options.

Drop the marker light, take a second gun drone (14 w squad no points change)
Drop the drone, take a target lock (-5 points per squad)
Assuming that the markerlight and drone aren't for comp points, drop both to free up more points. (-20 per squad -80 total)

Now the kroot, you mentioned the krootox was for comp so we'll leave them. I'm guessing the shaper is also? If not drop the shaper for more regular kroot. The upgrade to the pulse rifle is somewhat meaningless and can save some points. I would make the squads more focus'd like this. giving you one squad that is more melee oriented and one that is more shooty oriented and shaving 19 points. If the shaper is required for comp you can just drop each squad to 10 and give up the pulse rifle to keep the 19 points.

211
10x Kroot
6x kroot hound
3x krootox rider

245
18x kroot
3x krootox rider

Now the Piranha's, drop the seeker missiles. that gets you 40 points right there, and to be honest they only excel at killing crisis suits and multiple wound T4 units and those tend to be hidden in squads. Give each of them a disruption pod and targeting array and you are looking at -10 points here.

This gets you 164 points ( 55 HQ 99 troops 10 from fast attack) assuming that my math is correct. So take 2 more Piranhas as your lists weakness seems to be anti tank the fusion blasters will give you a chance against high armor targets.

SUMMARY:
1 hq suit
48 firewarriors
28 kroot
6 kroot hounds
6 krootox
6 vespids
4 piranhas

99 models
no idea what the comp score would be. but I don't think I'd have killed it to badly.