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Hey I'm thinking about collecting a tau army but am not sure where to start.

Is the battleforce a good buy?
What units are a must have for the army?
How would you start collecting so as to have a usable force for smaller games, with a plan to move up to bigger ones

I would start with 6 broadsides , 6 crissis suits , 1 cmd , 1 hammer head , 30 fire warriors , an aegis defensline , 1 unit of pathfinders.

Are you needing new or would you brave ebay?

If new the battleforce plus a squad of firewarriors would probably be the way to go, the above list is pretty extreme as an entry point. I think you are probably better getting off the core units then seeing if you want to invest in mech or suits.

Converting firewarriors to pathfinders is pretty easy.

I agree with both comments. however its up to you.

What i plan on buying when i have money to is (going with the GW website):

Farsight enclave box (farsight, 3 crisis, 2x 12 fw)
Battle force (12 fw, 3x crisis, 3x stealth, 1x pirhana)
recon team (10 paths, devilfish)
2x riptide
3x broadside
hammerhead
(i'm not suggesting buy it all at once)

I dont know if that gives you any guidance at all.
But it give you a good combination of units which you can use in many ways.
Alternatively you could buy 2 battle forces if you plan on running stealths and pirhanas.

This just seems to me to be a good combination of things.

With tau you can really buy anything and do just fine. I'd avoid vespids completely and for the first little while don't bother with stealth suits until you flesh out the rest of your army.

If you buy 1-2 of everything you'll be in good shape.

 gossipmeng wrote:
With tau you can really buy anything and do just fine. I'd avoid vespids completely and for the first little while don't bother with stealth suits until you flesh out the rest of your army.

If you buy 1-2 of everything you'll be in good shape.

Quoted for truth.

Honestly two army boxes to start, a unit of pathfinders a commander be it a crisis suit or special character and a hammerhead with Longstrike and 2 Broadsides to start is a pretty good way to go.

Gives you a few models to learn the finesse of Tau and gives you a chance to learn how you want to play your army.

Welcome to Tau, you will have a lot of fun!