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I;'m trying to establish a potential expansion direction for my Tau collection. What do you think of this army?

+++ Tau 1500 (1494pts) +++

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

+ HQ + (242pts)

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

* Ethereal (50pts)


+ Elites + (171pts)

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


+ Troops + (216pts)

* Fire Warrior Team (108pts)
12x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle, Photon grenades


* Fire Warrior Team (108pts)
12x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle, Photon grenades

+ Fast Attack + (175pts)

* Pathfinder Team (65pts)
Photon grenades
* 4x Pathfinder Shas'la (44pts)
4x Pulse carbine with Markerlight
* Pathfinder Shas'la (ion) (21pts)
Ion rifle


* Tetra Scout Speeder Team [FW] (55pts)
* Tetra (55pts)
Disruption pod, High Intensity markerlight, Homing beacon, Sensor spines, Twin-linked pulse rifles


* Tetra Scout Speeder Team [FW] (55pts)
* Tetra (55pts)
Disruption pod, High Intensity markerlight, Homing beacon, Sensor spines, Twin-linked pulse rifles




Tau Empire: Codex (2013) (Formation Detachment) Selections:

+ Formation + (690pts)

* Firebase Support Cadre (690pts) (Tau Firebase Support Cadre Dataslate)
(Bane of Angels, Tank Hunters)
* XV104 Riptide (210pts)
Early warning override, Ion accelerator, Riptide battlesuit, Riptide Shield Generator, Twin-linked plasma rifle, Velocity tracker

* XV88 Broadside Team (210pts)
* Broadside Shas'ui (70pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Early warning override, Twin-linked heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked smart missile system
* Broadside Shas'ui (70pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Early warning override, Twin-linked heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked smart missile system
* Broadside Shas'ui (70pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Early warning override , Twin-linked heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked smart missile system

* XV88 Broadside Team (270pts) (Codex: Tau Empire p103)
* Broadside Shas'ui (90pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked plasma rifle, Velocity tracker
* Broadside Shas'ui (90pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked plasma rifle, Velocity tracker
* Broadside Shas'ui (90pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked plasma rifle, Velocity tracker

Drop the ion rifle and possible the pathfinders to get maker drones on the rest of the crisis team. It may also prove benificial to find points for devilfish with disruption pods for those fire warriors, the will allow you the mobility to get all 23 fire warriors into rapid fire with the ethereal that's 69 s5 shots. To find point for this I would drop the velocity trackers from you broadsides, that many twinlinked s7 shots is enough to down most fliers without skyfire. I don't know where else to trim points but I like the list.

Epartalis wrote:
Drop the ion rifle and possible the pathfinders to get maker drones on the rest of the crisis team. It may also prove benificial to find points for devilfish with disruption pods for those fire warriors, the will allow you the mobility to get all 23 fire warriors into rapid fire with the ethereal that's 69 s5 shots. To find point for this I would drop the velocity trackers from you broadsides, that many twinlinked s7 shots is enough to down most fliers without skyfire. I don't know where else to trim points but I like the list.

Actually I got the velocity tracker and EWO mixed up. I wanted the railsides as anti air (3 s8 ap1 shots with tank hunter) and the missilesides with Interceptor (since I doubt 3 rail shots will make a dent into a deep striking force unless it's dreads (any other vehicle you can deep strike btw?).

As a side note, are plasma rifles worth it on broadsides? Or shpuld I stick to the free SMS?

I will look into what I can drop to get the Fire Warriors into Devilfishes tonight.

Well there's two ways to look at the broadsides in my opinion.

You can have them as a jack of all trades, aka Missle sides. s7 ap4 isn't going to ignore many saves or get many vehicle explodes results on the damage table. However you will force your opponent to take a ton of saving throws, some of which he/she is bound to fail.

Or you can have them as opposite, specialists. S8 ap1 is a much better profile but with only 1 shot you have to make sure whatever you're shooting at is a priority target. Additionally even though it's twinlinked you are going to want to both boost ballistic skill and ignore cover(as the ap will auto pen their armor) leaving only invulnerable saves. This is especially true with vehicles since jink saves are so common. In this role I feel plasma rifles could be worth it to help fend off drop marines or something similar.

I feel in this edition you are much more likely to glance vehicles to death rather than explode them. Also I find that my misslesides can deal with terms or other 2+ inf with volume of fire. So for me 6 misslesides early wading override and the riptide hbsc and fusion with either earth caste pilot array or atoms is the way I run the fire support cadre.

One last comment, with all that anti inf firepower I think changing your plasmas to fusion would be the best call for the crisis teams.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I believe the dark eldar have some ways to deepstrike vehicles but they are so poorly armored s7 is plenty.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Ok this is the last thing but you need more marker support in my opinion to make the rail sides work over misslesides.

Blood angels have a DSing land raider, but rarely seen.

I stick with free SMS on the 'sides, but EWO plasma in bulk can really put a hurt on DS'ing units.

I am not convinced you need Markerlights on Railsides. Target selection is much more important for them, I do agree. VT on them for AA duty pretty much means flyers are going to Jink. A buff'mander means no Jink save.

I ahve revised my army a bit.

Regarding railsides, I know they're not optimal, but I like the model, and I would love to include at least a couple in my army. I tried my best to make them work. I hope between twin linked, tank-hunter and some markerlight support (I have 4 markerlight capable units+the fireblade) they should hit and pen pretty reliably.

Regarding the Crisis team: I have them magnetized, so the plan is to swap between plasma and fusion depending on foe, deploy them via deep strike whenever is necessary (hopefully taking out a valuable unit quickly) and general exploit their mobility.

I've decided to drop the Ethereal. I simply can't get room for 2 Devilfishes in there without dropping either the formation, the Crisis team quite a few markerlights. The fireblade provides 1 more markerlight, and I can use his squad of fire warriors to hang back and camp an objective or something like that. I've dropped the 2nd squad because I figure 20 Kroot with sniper rounds outflaking with rerolls are likely to cause way more mayhem than 12 firewarriors on foot with no support whatsoever.

How does it look now?

+++ Tau 1500 (1495pts) +++

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

+ HQ + (242pts)

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

* Cadre Fireblade (60pts)


+ Elites + (171pts)

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


+ Troops + (253pts)

* Fire Warrior Team (108pts)
12x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle, Photon grenades


* Kroot Carnivore Squad (145pts)
20 Kroot, Kroot Hound, Sniper Rounds

+ Fast Attack + (144pts)

* Pathfinder Team (44pts)
Photon grenades
* 4x Pathfinder Shas'la (44pts)
4x Pulse carbine with Markerlight

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


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




Tau Empire: Codex (2013) (Formation Detachment) Selections:

+ Formation + (690pts)

* Firebase Support Cadre (690pts) (Tau Firebase Support Cadre Dataslate)
(Bane of Angels, Tank Hunters)
* XV104 Riptide (210pts)
Early warning override, Ion accelerator, Riptide battlesuit, Riptide Shield Generator, Twin-linked plasma rifle, Velocity tracker

* XV88 Broadside Team (210pts)
* Broadside Shas'ui (70pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Early warning override, Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked smart missile system,
* Broadside Shas'ui (70pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Early warning override, Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked smart missile system,
* Broadside Shas'ui (70pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Early warning override , Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked smart missile system,

* XV88 Broadside Team (270pts) (Codex: Tau Empire p103)
* Broadside Shas'ui (85pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Twin-linked heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked smart missile system, Velocity tracker
* Broadside Shas'ui (85pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Twin-linked heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked smart missile system, Velocity tracker
* Broadside Shas'ui (85pts)
Broadside battlesuit, Twin-linked heavy rail rifle, Twin-linked smart missile system, Velocity tracker

barnowl wrote:
Blood angels have a DSing land raider, but rarely seen.

I stick with free SMS on the 'sides, but EWO plasma in bulk can really put a hurt on DS'ing units.

I am not convinced you need Markerlights on Railsides. Target selection is much more important for them, I do agree. VT on them for AA duty pretty much means flyers are going to Jink. A buff'mander means no Jink save.

Then maybe it would be a good idea to move the marker drones to the Cadre Fireblade (or is moving them to the Crisis Team a better idea)? Then add a Multi-Spectrum Sensor Suite to the Commander (and drop the guns ofc) then join him with the railsides as opposed to the crisis team as I had planned eariler?