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I'm trying to put together an 1000 points Tau list to establish my future purchasing priorities. What do you think?

+++ Tau (999pts) +++
+++ 1000pt Tau Empire: Codex (2013) Roster (Combined Arms Detachment)) +++

Selections:

Tau Empire: Codex (2013) (Combined Arms Detachment) Selections:

+ HQ + (208pts)

* Commander (158pts)
Advanced targeting system Crisis battlesuit, 2x Fusion blaster , Puretide Engram Neurochip , XV8-02 Crisis 'Iridium' Battlesuit


* Ethereal (50pts)



+ Elites + (294pts)

* XV104 Riptide (190pts)
(Nova Reactor, Supporting Fire)
Early warning override , Ion accelerator , Riptide battlesuit, Riptide Shield Generator, Twin-linked smart missile system


* XV8 Crisis Team (104pts)
(Supporting Fire, Very Bulky)
* Crisis Shas'ui (52pts)
Crisis battlesuit, 2x Fusion blaster
* Crisis Shas'ui (52pts)
Crisis battlesuit, 2x Fusion blaster


+ Troops + (397pts)

* Fire Warrior Team (203pts)
12x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle , Photon grenades
* Devilfish (95pts)
Burst cannon, Disruption pod , Two Gun Drones


* Fire Warrior Team (194pts) (Codex: Tau Empire p99)
11x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle (99pts), Photon grenades
* Devilfish
Burst cannon, Disruption pod , Two Gun Drones


+ Fast Attack + (100pts)

* Tetra Scout Speeder Team [FW] (50pts)
* Tetra (50pts)
(Scouts)
Disruption pod , High Intensity markerlight, Homing beacon, Twin-linked pulse rifles


* Tetra Scout Speeder Team [FW] (50pts)
* Tetra (50pts)
(Scouts)
Disruption pod , High Intensity markerlight, Homing beacon, Twin-linked pulse rifles

Is it that hopeless ?

I would take the D-pods off the Devilfishes and put a target lock on both crisis suits, that much fusion into one unit is a little much.

Another thought would be to swap a fusion on each suit for plasma, gives you more dakka. dakka good, dakka your friend.



That's thoughts, other than that list looks fine.

-Take off the point values, its against the rules.
-You can only have 4 systems on the commander, so drop the ATS.
-Like Kathias said, plasma is a good option.
-If you take off the D-Pods, you can add in a 3rd Crisis suit. If you do that, drop 2 Fire Warriors off of each squad to give it dual plasma, switch a second to dual plasma, and give the remaining with fusion blasters a target lock.
-I don't really know Forgeworld, so I can't comment on the Tetras other than that your lack of Pathfinders makes me sad.

 TranSpyre wrote:
-Take off the point values, its against the rules.
-You can only have 4 systems on the commander, so drop the ATS.
-Like Kathias said, plasma is a good option.
-If you take off the D-Pods, you can add in a 3rd Crisis suit. If you do that, drop 2 Fire Warriors off of each squad to give it dual plasma, switch a second to dual plasma, and give the remaining with fusion blasters a target lock.
-I don't really know Forgeworld, so I can't comment on the Tetras other than that your lack of Pathfinders makes me sad.

List was pasted straight from mobile version of Battlescribe. Will take them out as soon as I get to a computer. Phone makes editing a nightmare. :(

Crisis weapons:I'm thinking to swap them out as needed between missiles fusion and plasma.

Tetras: I'm thinking of using them as Pathfinder replacements as they provide somewhat better markerlight to points ratio (at 35 or 50 with d-pod I can get a Heavy 2 twin-linked 36" range markerlight).

Thanks for the other suggestions, will do a list update tonight.

I'd suggest more marker lights, you don't have any TL or BS5 apart from your commander so everything would benefit from them.

Also a heavy support might be handy, like a missileside or skyray to deal with flyers.

What would a good number of markerlights to aim for be? Also what would you drop to.fit some heavy support?

I don't see a way to add HS in at this point vale without massive changes t the structure of the list.

You should be looking to plan markerlight support around what you're going to be boosting. You want to support the Riptide and the Crisis team. You typically want 2-3 markerlights per unit to boost. That should be enough land at least one each turn on 2 different target units.

I got 2 shots on each Tetra markerlight with twin-linked. I think that should be enough to get 2-3 markerlights 'hits' per turn, wouodn't it?

I honestly would try to either change the commander to a Mark'O, or find the points for a Pathfinder team. .

You want about 2-3 marks to land on an enemy so I run squads of 5 PF who'll hit half the time.

Its less about how many individual marker lights you have and more about how many 'marker light sources'.

You have 2 marker light sources and 4 units who I would say need marker light support unless you plan on only shooting 2 enemy units a turn.

I don't particularly like Ethereals cause I figure your only gonna get use out him when the enemies less than 15" away and if that's the case he's probably soon going to be screwed. So I would ditch him and get another tetra or some pathfinders.

As for heavy support, your suits are set up to deal with tanks and MC so its not that important. and for flyers maybe loose the dis pods and give the riptide a VT?

Hope this helps

Updated based on the suggestions: I now have 3 sources of markerlights (2 Tetras and 2 drones on the commander)
Question about the commander: TranSpyre suggested so many items might not be legal, but I've checked my codex and it says 'May take up to four items from the Ranged Weapons and/ or Support Systems lists' and then
'May take items from the Signature Systems list' (so not included in the 4 items limit). Has there been any FAQ/Errata I am unaware of?

Tau v2 (995 pts)

Commander (192pts)
Target Lock , Crisis battlesuit, Drone controller , 2x Plasma rifle, Puretide Engram Neurochip , XV8-02 Crisis 'Iridium' Battlesuit
2x Marker Drone (24pts)

XV104 Riptide (210pts)
Early warning override, Ion accelerator, Twin-linked smart missile system, Velocity tracker

XV8 Crisis Team (171pts)
2x Crisis Shas'ui (57pts each)
2x Fusion blaster , Target lock
Crisis Shas'ui (57pts)
2x Plasma rifle, Target Lock

2x Fire Warrior Team (161pts)
9x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
Devilfish
Burst cannon, Two Gun Drones

2x Tetra Scout Speeder Team [FW] (50pts)
Tetra (50pts)
Disruption pod

Looks good, only thing I'd say now is the commander currently has to shoot at the same thing as the marker drones, so I'd try and find the points to give him a target lock. I'd do this by getting rid of the ATS. Then I'd say you've got everything covered I think

Taffy17 wrote:
Looks good, only thing I'd say now is the commander currently has to shoot at the same thing as the marker drones, so I'd try and find the points to give him a target lock. I'd do this by getting rid of the ATS. Then I'd say you've got everything covered I think

Good point, updated

Just realised that, assuming you joining the commander with the suits, they would need target locks as well :/

Taffy17 wrote:
Just realised that, assuming you joining the commander with the suits, they would need target locks as well :/

That was the plan indeed (joining the commander with the suits). Two of them had target lock already so I added the third. Between that and taking out a fire warrior (which leaves me with 2 squads of 9) I'm at 995 points, which means I can add another 5 point system to the riptide or one of the crisis or one of the vehicles (commander already has 4). What would be the best choice here?

Edit: since with the Ethereal gone and their numbers dwindling with each list update the fire warriors are becoming less important, should I consider swaping one of the fire warriors squads for kroot? I can get 20 kroots with sniper rounds and 1 hound for 145 points, comoared to the 161 of the 9 fire warriors and Devilfish they would be replacing.

9 fire warriors is about the minimum, any lower and its a leadership test every time 2 die in the same turn instead of 3.

Looking at it now your list is pretty solid.
-The Crisis Suits for anti tank and TEQ
-The Riptide for AA
-The Fire Warriors for hordes
-Tetras for marker light support
You've got everything covered

If you wanna add more in I'd take a devil fish out. imo fire warriors should be shooting as much as possible, not in a box.

But you should make your list based on your preferences. So if your starting from scratch, just build it up slowly and adjust it if you find gaps in it, that's what I'm doing

In all honesty, I'd drop a Devilfish and split its occupants into 2 groups. Same dakka, more targets.

The saved points could go towards pathfinders or a Sniperside.

More markerlights are always nice, and so is S8 AP1 with a 60" range.

Then, should I maybe consider dropping both devilfishes for a pair of Sniper Broadsides with EWO?

As a side note, what's the functional difference between AP1 and AP2 (since there's no 1+ armor save AFAIK) ?

It affects vehicle results, AP1 weapons get a +2 on vehicle result table rolls from a pen, while AP2 gets only a +1.

If you're taking Broadsides with EWOs, take HYMPs over the rail rifle, Ifs a better choice. If you're dropping both devilfish, you could take a Piranha school, get some more mobile fusion blasts. They can also be used as mobile cover for your warriors.

You could also add more pathfinders or a Crisis suit team.