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Focusing on high volume missile fire. For tournament no super heavies allowed.

1250 Tau:

Current total: 1240

HQ: 152
Commander:
2 Marker Drones:
Drone Controller:
Target lock:
2 Missile Pods:

Elite 1: 190
Rip Tide:
Ion Accelerator:
Early Warning System:

Elite 2: 104
2 Crisis Suits:
Fusion Blasters:

Troop 1: 54
6 Fire Warriors:

Troop 2: 54
6 Fire Warriors:

Drone Squadron: 56
4 Marker Drones:

Fire base support Cadre: 630

Elite: 210
Riptde:
Ion Accelerator:
Velocity Tracker:
Early Warning System:

Heavy 1: 210
3 Broadside:
3 High-yield missile pod
3 Early Warning Override:

Heavy 2: 210
3 Broadside:
3 High-yield missile pod
3 Early Warning Override:

1-800-KillThemAllDead.

Looks solid. I'd drop the VT from the Riptide then get a target lock on one of the Fusionsuits and get a solo suit unarmed for objective grabbing.

I'd swap out 4 drones for 5 pathfinders to at least give you a decent chance of marking up more than one squad


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Only other thing I'd do is replace EWO with target lock on 2ish broadsides to give you more options.

Otherwise it's a great list, I love using FSC

Marker drones are infinitely better than Pathfinders. More survivable, much better Bs and the ability to move and shoot and then move again!

EWO all the way over target locks. Kill it, kill it dead.

 FlingitNow wrote:
Marker drones are infinitely better than Pathfinders. More survivable, much better Bs and the ability to move and shoot and then move again!

EWO all the way over target locks. Kill it, kill it dead.

Okay... pathfinders are your cheapest markerlight source

They also have an actual weapon so they can fight if needed

Pathfinders are BS3, drones are BS2. If you're attaching the mark'o to the 4 drones, he has 6 BS5 drones, which on average is 5 marker hits on one squad. When are you ever going to need that many? If you had pathfinders, you can mark 2 targets a turn.

You shouldn't have pathfinders out of cover - they're equally as survivable in cover

"Infinitely better" is just incorrect


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Having said this, tetras are better than both


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Also, at 1250 points, I can't imagine 6 broadsides needing to use EWO, as well as 2 riptides (riptides are more useful, they have a str8 blast)

Pathfinders in cover are not equally survivable for many reasons. Firstly T4, second ignores cover is a thing, thirdly not being shot at at all makes you infinitely more survivable than being shot at.

Bs5 is better than bs3 and is the best use of the commander. You can't mark 2 targets past turn 1 if you take the Pathfinders so that benefit is negligible.

Which is better 5 MLs a turn every turn on 1 target. Or 1.67 hits on 1 target and 2.5 on another turn 1 if you go first and 1.67 hits on one target every turn after your opponents first?

Drones are infinitely better than pathfinders who are easily the worst ML source in the codex.

When someone drops 5 Dreads in your face turn 1 with Drop Pods (entirely possible as that only requires 9 total pods which is very doable at this point level) you'll be glad you have that extra EWO. Also someone rocks a pair of Storm Ravens or Vendettas (or any AV12 flyer and to a lesser extent some AV11 ones) the ability to actually kill those flyers on interceptor (and force jink which an SR won't bother doing to just 2 Broadsides) makes a big difference.

I guess that's for the OP to decide through experience, but from my end, pathfinders have worked far better than you're letting on lol. Maybe it's just my luck?

And agree to disagree about the broadsides - I for one value the ability to pop an extra transport or two a turn, especially when using the firebase support cadre

I imagine it is more down to opponents. My opponents are competent enough to take FB and screw my MLs if I'm dumb enough to have them in LoS during my opponents turn.

13045273 wrote:
I guess that's for the OP to decide through experience, but from my end, pathfinders have worked far better than you're letting on lol. Maybe it's just my luck?

And agree to disagree about the broadsides - I for one value the ability to pop an extra transport or two a turn, especially when using the firebase support cadre

Out of curiosity what would you use the point for instead?

Tir Mcdoul wrote:

13045273 wrote:
I guess that's for the OP to decide through experience, but from my end, pathfinders have worked far better than you're letting on lol. Maybe it's just my luck?

And agree to disagree about the broadsides - I for one value the ability to pop an extra transport or two a turn, especially when using the firebase support cadre

Out of curiosity what would you use the point for instead?

Well at the moment, your list is 1240 points, so the first thing I would do is target lock one of your fusion suits. I'm guessing you're planning to deep strike them to try and take out a tank or two? If you have markerlights on two tanks, and you also happen to be within half range of both of their rear armours when you deep strike, there's a good chance you could pop both tanks if you're able to fire the suits separately.

To do this of course, you'd need two sources of markerlights which you don't get if you have the drone squad - this is where those pathfinders would come in. Swap out 4 drones for 5 pathfinders for the ability to mark 2 targets.

At the moment, you have 6 EWO broadsides, and all I'm suggesting is you have 4 EWO broadsides and 2 target locked broadsides. This means you don't have to waste shots if you don't need to. For example, a rhino is on 1 hull point, would you want to fire 3 broadsides at it or just 1? TL gives you the option to spread your fire to be a little more effective in some situations, but you still have 4 broadsides for interceptor as well as riptides.

This leaves you with 6 points, so maybe give the broadsides bonding knives or twin-link a suit weapon or something? Just my thoughts since you asked

To do this of course, you'd need two sources of markerlights which you don't get if you have the drone squad - this is where those pathfinders would come in. Swap out 4 drones for 5 pathfinders for the ability to mark 2 targets.

Can't DS turn 1 so pathfinders make no difference to ML sources by the time the Fusion suits arrive.

Flingitnow is basing this on his assumption that your pathfinders will always be 100% wiped out by turn 2. This is not the case. He's pathfinderist.

Make up your own mind which models you prefer and for which purposes etc, there isn't that big a difference really, just different preferences and experiences

Pathfinders are the worst marker option available. T3, bs 3, armor 4+ really hurt. With a commander tanking with irridium armor and stims with the occasional drone for looks out sir it is a way more survivable option.

I think tetras are better still, and though skyrays are the most survivable marker sourse they are also the most expensive.

That being said its a brutal 1250 list. I like heavy burst cannons over ion accelerators but that's just me, especially when you have tank hunter with the fbsc. I've heard of plenty of people who feel the opposite but I think if you do the math or just play enough games hbsc is the way to go. Particularly if you want it to shoot anything in the air.

13045273 wrote:
Flingitnow is basing this on his assumption that your pathfinders will always be 100% wiped out by turn 2. This is not the case. He's pathfinderist.

Make up your own mind which models you prefer and for which purposes etc, there isn't that big a difference really, just different preferences and experiences

I'm basing it on the assumption that you're playing a competent player and if you're playing an incompetent player you'll beat him anyway particularly with a FBSC. Sure if your opponent isn't competent he's not going to cripple your ability to ignore cover and grab an easy First Blood/Strike.

Epartalis wrote:
I think tetras are better still, and though skyrays are the most survivable marker sourse they are also the most expensive.

Yeah like I said before tetras are better, so if you can get your hands on maybe a couple of tetras you're set!

Also if you expand to higher points, consider the skyray as mentioned here - skyfire BS4 markerlights are very handy on a durable base

Pathfinders are the worst marker option available. T3, bs 3, armor 4+ really hurt. With a commander tanking with irridium armor and stims with the occasional drone for looks out sir it is a way more survivable option.

I think tetras are better still, and though skyrays are the most survivable marker sourse they are also the most expensive.

Completely agree.

That being said its a brutal 1250 list. I like heavy burst cannons over ion accelerators but that's just me, especially when you have tank hunter with the fbsc. I've heard of plenty of people who feel the opposite but I think if you do the math or just play enough games hbsc is the way to go. Particularly if you want it to shoot anything in the air.

Depends what you use it for. Personally I don't rate the HBC unless you also have the ECPA, but I'm biased because I pass Nova charges about 1 in 3 times (I passed twice in my first 13 attempts which was frustrating to say the least). Without rending the HBC just doesn't do enough.

So need to get some tetras. How many should I get? They are fairly reasonably priced for forge world at about $55 for 2.


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Redo List changing up a bit but keeping the core mostly the same.

1250 Tau:

HQ: 60
Fireblade:

Elite 1: 190
Rip Tide:
Ion Accelerator:
Early Warning System:

Elite 2: 52
1 Crisis Suits:
2 Fusion Blasters:

Elite 3: 52
1 Crisis Suits:
2 Fusion Blasters:

Troop 1: 72
8 Fire Warriors:

Troop 2: 54
6 Fire Warriors:

Fast Attack 1: 70
2 Tetra

Fast Attack 2: 35
Tetra

Fast Attack 3: 35
Tetra

Fire base support Cadre: 630

Elite: 210
Riptde:
Ion Accelerator:
Velocity Tracker:
Early Warning System:

Heavy 1: 210
3 Broadside:
3 High-yield missile pod
3 Early Warning Override:

Heavy 2: 210
3 Broadside: 195
3 High-yield missile pod
2 Early Warning Override:
1 Target lock

Tir Mcdoul wrote:
So need to get some tetras. How many should I get? They are fairly reasonably priced for forge world at about $55 for 2.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Redo List changing up a bit but keeping the core mostly the same.

1250 Tau:

HQ: 60
Fireblade:

Elite 1: 190
Rip Tide:
Ion Accelerator:
Early Warning System:

Elite 2: 52
1 Crisis Suits:
2 Fusion Blasters:

Elite 3: 52
1 Crisis Suits:
2 Fusion Blasters:

Troop 1: 72
8 Fire Warriors:

Troop 2: 54
6 Fire Warriors:

Fast Attack 1: 70
2 Tetra

Fast Attack 2: 35
Tetra

Fast Attack 3: 35
Tetra

Fire base support Cadre: 630

Elite: 210
Riptde:
Ion Accelerator:
Velocity Tracker:
Early Warning System:

Heavy 1: 210
3 Broadside:
3 High-yield missile pod
3 Early Warning Override:

Heavy 2: 210
3 Broadside: 195
3 High-yield missile pod
2 Early Warning Override:
1 Target lock

I don't think you actually need that many tetras at 1250 points, so I'd say drop one tetra and this leaves you with 35 points to play with, maybe for stimms as this is exactly 35 points for the 'tide. As for buying the tetras, I had a quick check on eBay and there's only 1 listing for 2 tetras at the moment, but keep an eye out and you're bound to spot something that will save you money.

Alternatively, you could add 4 fire warriors to make the squad 12 which means they get max benefit from the cadre fireblade. This does however mean you're 1251 points