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Ok so here is my 1000pts of tau

HQ
Commander with cyclic ion blaster, airbursting frag projector, shield generator
Cadre fireblade

TROOPS
12 fire warriors with Shas'ui and 2 gun drones
6 fire warriors with shas'ui with markerlight and target lock and 2 gun drones

ELITE
3 man crisis suit team with 6 gun drones
Suit 1 (fusion blaster, flamer, shield generator)
Suit 2 (plasma rifle, missile pod, flamer)
Suit 3 (plasma rifle, burst cannon advanced targeting system)

3 man stealth team with marker drone 2 burst cannons shas'vre with fusion blaster, markerlight and target lock and homing beacon

FAST ATTACK
piranha with blacksun filter

HEAVY SUPPORT
2 man broadside team
Suit 1 (HYMP, velocity tracker, twin linked plasma rifles, seeker missile, target lock)
Suit 2 (HYMP, twin linked smart missile system)

And that is my 1000pts
So my main question is, is it any good? (it doesn't need to be tournament Good, just playable in regular games)

It doesn't look like you've got anywhere near enough Markerlight support.

For your Commander, try slapping on Target Lock, Drone Controller, x2 Missile Pods, and 2 marker drones. You can either stick him in a drone squadron with Marker Drones, or kit out 2 of your Crisis with x2 missile pods and one with target lock.

Your third crisis I'd probably put on x2 Fusion and something to give him a little survivability.

I'd also split your FW teams into 3 teams of 6. It allows for better mobility. Also, they won't need anything, just send them in vanilla.

I haven't used Stealth teams much myself, so I don't know what to tell you there. Same with Piranhas.

As for the Broadsides. HYMP, TL SMS, EWO.

Welcome to Dakkadakka!

Lets start with HQ
I don't really have any problems with your choice of commanders although I might only give him one of the 2 weapon options. as equipped he would do well vs hordes (high volume of fire) but would struggle or be ineffective vs better armour.

What will the fireblade be doing? If the answer is buffing one squad, would not an ethereal work better?

your elite slots

if they were single suits I would have little issue, other than possibly giving them 2 of one type of weapon (not twin-linked) and then a different weapon that fires at a different range (keeping them focussed on on job but allowing them to assist elsewhere) I say single because they want to attack different types of targets

3 man stealth seems to be a little too small, but that is my humble opinion

I really want to like piranha (maybe you will have better luck with them then I)

your heavy support

I would make them 2 units of 1... it would save you some points and again they seem to want to hunt different targets

 the_kraken wrote:
It doesn't look like you've got anywhere near enough Markerlight support.

Yes this is a problem I have encountered. I'm thinking about some pathfinders to solve this.
I really don't want to split up my fire warriors too much as the fireblade in the unit of 12 has proven devastating (they managed to kill 5 canoptek wraiths in one turn).
The stealth suits are great, put them in cover and they get a 2+ save very, very handy
Piranha is garbage on its own, it needs to be in a squad of 3 (2 vanilla, 1 with fusion)
As for the commander and crisis suits I would have to either buy new ones or convert them if I wanted to give them new wargear,(I guess crisis suits decked out with tons of wargear would look pretty good)


Automatically Appended Next Post:

paramedicpirate wrote:
Welcome to Dakkadakka!


What will the fireblade be doing? If the answer is buffing one squad, would not an ethereal work better?


I really want to like piranha (maybe you will have better luck with them then I)

your heavy support

I would make them 2 units of 1... it would save you some points and again they seem to want to hunt different targets

Fireblade is for the buff, no he is better than an ethereal as he provides a markerlight and works at full range instead of only half meaning he gives more for his points cost

Piranha needs to be in a bigger unit or replaced.

Broadsides are better in one unit (it costs the same) as it provides less kill points plus one has a target lock so he can skyfire without affecting the other broadside

There are actually a lot better options than Pathfinders. Is your local meta FW friendly? You could pick up a few Tetras.

 the_kraken wrote:
There are actually a lot better options than Pathfinders. Is your local meta FW friendly? You could pick up a few Tetras.

Yes but I'd need the book which costs £50 on top of the Tetras otherwise I'd jump straight on, however most people use neurons at my local storr so I'm not sure how effective they would be as the piranha tends to do a lot of nothing against them


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Damn auto correct

Glasdir wrote:

 the_kraken wrote:
There are actually a lot better options than Pathfinders. Is your local meta FW friendly? You could pick up a few Tetras.

Yes but I'd need the book which costs £50 on top of the Tetras otherwise I'd jump straight on, however most people use neurons at my local storr so I'm not sure how effective they would be as the piranha tends to do a lot of nothing against them


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Damn auto correct

Yeah, codex prices tend to be a bit outrageous.

Yeah if IA3 was not so expensive I would certainly consider it straight away, the other problem is that I tend to mainly face necrons at my local store so the tetras would get destroyed very quickly before doing anything, I've scoured the codex c but I can't find any units in particular that may be of use against necrons, are there any you recommend?

Glasdir wrote:
Yeah if IA3 was not so expensive I would certainly consider it straight away, the other problem is that I tend to mainly face necrons at my local store so the tetras would get destroyed very quickly before doing anything, I've scoured the codex c but I can't find any units in particular that may be of use against necrons, are there any you recommend?

I play Necrons fairly often and do alright. I'm running a FE list with a lot of suits.

Ah, I don't run FE rules as I don't yet own the book because I still want to expand my numbers. I've recently picked up some pathfinders and a devilfish, what's the best way to rn them?

I rarely use Pathfinders outside of my 500pt gunline (solely to provide cover for my Ethereal). Additionally, I don't use Devilfish often either. I'm afraid I won't be much help there.

No, I figure they will be useful for the markerlights and heavier weaponry, the devilfish should come in handy for moving anything away from units that are too close for comfort to. Also what do you recommend for countering a troop heavy necron army that may have fliers?

For AA I always take Sky Rays. Apart from that, as I mentioned, I have a lot of suits and I use a Riptide or two.

Glasdir wrote:
Also what do you recommend for countering a troop heavy necron army that may have fliers?

Missile Pods, and lots of them (including the HYMP variety). AP4 helps with most Necron Infantry, and S7 means you are wounding on 2's generally. They can also deal with most necron vehicles / flyers (just as long as you get past the Quantum shielding...). For the 3+ armour infantry, the IA on the Riptide and Ion Cannon on the Hammerhead are both good options. Vespids are also surprisingly effective (just make sure you take a strain leader and don't engage anything without ML support).

Looking at your original list, this is what I would do with it:

HQ
Commander, TL, Drone Controller, Dual MP, 2x Marker Drones 152pts
- Bodyguard, Dual MP, TL, 2x Marker Drones 91pts
Cadre Fireblade 60pts

TROOPS
12 fire warriors 108pts (Cadre here)
12 fire warriors. shas'ui 118pts

ELITE
Crisis x1, Dual Plasma Rifle 52pts
Crisis x1, Dual Fusion Blaster 52pts
Stealth x3, BC 90pts

FAST ATTACK
Piranha, FB 50pts
Pathfinder x5, 55pts

HEAVY SUPPORT
Broadside x1, TL HYMP, TL SMS, EWO, Seeker Missile 78pts
Broadside x1, TL HYMP, TL SMS, VT, Seeker Missile 93pts

Commander+bodyguard gives you ML support and Missile Pod fire, FWs give you VoF, Crisis run as solo suits make them more flexible - dual weapon loads are also more effective. Stealth are great for infiltrating onto objectives in cover, Piranha is fine and basically there to get line breaker and maybe in behind a necron vehicle. Pathfinders for more ML (although they wont survive long, but better them be targeted than the commander unit) while broadsides are also solo to avoid one unit being focused down T1. I have left VT on one since you are worried about flyers and EWO on the other to help out if needed/intercept Deep strikers. Only thing missing is an ADL for cover, so just set your terrain up accordingly.

Thanks, that looks pretty solid, just out of curiosity how well would it fair against other armies?, I'm guessing it might be stymied by ork or tyranid hordes.

It should still hold its own against hordes - it doesn't have anything in the way of blasts/large blasts/barrage, but makes up for it in the VoF. You will just have to adjust the way you play the list (i.e. Bottle necking the blob, collapsing one flank first, using JSJ to keep the pressure on but stay out of CC, etc).

ok, I might experiment with it and tweak it a bit vs hordes (which shouldn't be too hard as a lot of my force has anti horde weaponry). also out of curiosity would it be worth eventually picking up a R'varna and a riptide to go with it?

Remember....weapons on Crisis do not have to be twin link.......so 18 Str7 AP4 throws is fun to see.....and more fun to see when used with marker lights either stripping cover or boosting BS

no, of course not, however how many suits would you need for 18 missile shots?

 Glasdir wrote:
no, of course not, however how many suits would you need for 18 missile shots?

5 Crisis Suits, each with 2 Missile Pods, puts out 20 S7 AP4 shots per turn (4 each) at 36". They are pretty affordable, too. I usually take 3 units of 3 in my army, totaling 36 shots.