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what is a good way to build a competitive 500-1000pt. army out of 1-2 Tau Empire battleforces?
any help much appreciated.

i mean based off of those units...
and also what i would have to buy...

Only thing that is really missing is a source of railguns and a few more suits. Not much of a tau player though

soo maybe i should get a railhead?
or a couple broadsides?

Well it depends on what you're going for.

3 Broadsides can really muck up armor. On the other hand the hammerhead is one of the few sources for a blast

yea... it can take out hordes and armor...
also, they are cheaper-70 pts, 30$ for a broadside
140 pts, 40$ for a railhead.

broadsides/hammerhead.
kroot shaper
kroot hounds
one more crisis battle suit and a commander
and you should be good but
it should look a bit like this

HQ tau crisis suit commander
3 crisis suits
1 stealth team 6x with marker light
1 kroot squad 12x with Shaper 1, and hounds 4/ krootox 2
1 kroot squad 12x with Shaper 1, hounds 4/ krootox 2
1 team fire warriors 12x with pulse carbines with devilfish
1 team fire warriors 12x with pulse rifles with devilfish
3-9 broadsides or 1-3 hammerheads
Its been awhile since Ive played or even glanced at my tau codex so Im not quite sure the points range on this list but that's the list i played with before.

thanks all! any ideas for cost effective lists?

Look at Amazon first or Ebay. then GW

no i mean the units


Automatically Appended Next Post:
my FLGS has a 10% discount off of GW prices on all WH40K products

Hmm Now i have to resort to my codex no........

500 you can pull off with just Battleforce units, I would go with

20 fire warriors
20 kroot

shas'el with burst cannon, missile pod, targetting array, multi tracker, bonding knife
Crisis suit with burst cannon, missile pod, multi tracker

Devilfish with smart missile system, disruption pod, multi tracker, targetting array

for 500 exact

if you're going 1000 you'll need heavy support, I usually run 2 hammerheads in 1000, sometimes 3 but usually 2. heh, hell i run 1 hammerhead in 500 half the time.

I suggest against getting Krootoxs due the fact they take away the ability to infiltrate, and using missiles pods is just as effective due to the JSJ of suits. Also upgrading to a shaper tends to be a bad thing from what I've read here on dakka mainly because you can take three other kroot for the price of the upgrade. But for your question I would get two railheads for the mobility and the pie plate. (Also get the sky ray box as it contains all the parts for the hammerhead and the bitz for the skyray.)

1000pts of cost effective Tau Battleforce awesomeness.

Get a Battle force, a box of kroot and 2 Sky ray boxes. Convert the stealthsuits into XV22's (counts as XV8's). Get Bits form Ebay or friendly Tau players.
Make this list:

Commander 87
Shas'el
*Missile Pod
*Plasma Rifle
*Multi-tracker

3 XV8 186
*3 Missile pods
*3 Plasma Rifles
*3 Multi-trackers

6 Fire warriors 60
Devilfish 110
*Smart Missile system
*Disruption pod
*Targetting array

14 Kroot 98
14 Kroot 98

Hammerhead 180
*Railgun
*Smart Missile system
*Multi tracker
*Disruption pod
*Target lock

Hammerhead 180
*Railgun
*Smart Missile system
*Multi tracker
*Disruption pod
*Target lock

999pts

Get trough the very steep learning curve of the Tau...
And start kicking some mayor butt!

You could also squeeze in another 6 Fire warriors by removing 2*4 Kroot and the DF targetting array. More scoring units, though less beefy.
For funsies, make 2 Remora's form the left over Skyray turrets.

It's not a bad idea. All you really need is 2 or 3 railheads, an HQ choice and you have a cheap, very balanced army.

Some fast attack can't do bad though.

You hardly have points for your basics in 1000pts, including fast attack is to expensive...