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Hey Everyone! So this is my first time posting here! Yay!
I needed help deciding between several lists that i have been tossing up.

List one:
Hunter contingent:
Commander - 175
-Plasma rifle
-Cyclic ion blaster
-Stim injectors
-VRT
-Iridium battlesuit
-Puretide chip

Cadre fireblade - 60

Strike Team X11 - 198

Strike Team X11 - 198

Kroot carnivore squad X10 - 70
-sniper rounds

Riptide -190
-Ion accelerator
-Early warning override

XV8 crisis suits X3 -161
-plasma rifles X2
-plamsa rifles X2
-Fusion blaster X2
-Target lock

XV8 crisis suits X3 - 161
-Plasma rifles X2
-Plasma rifles X2
-Missile pods X2
-Target lock

Pathfinders X10 - 110

Sniper drone team - 58
-firesight marksman X1
-Sniper drones X3

Broadsides X3 - 255
-HYMP
-Missile drones X5

Hammerhead X1 190
-submunition rounds
-longstrike
-disruption pods

Optimised stealth cadre:

Stealth suits X3 - 95
-fusion blaster

Stealth suits X3 -95
-fusion blaster

Ghostkeel X1 - 178
-Cyclic ion raker
-TL fusion blaster
-Stim injectors
-Advanced targetting system

Total 1996 points

List two:

Hunter contingent:
Commander - 175
-Plasma rifle
-Cyclic ion blaster
-Stim injectors
-VRT
-Iridium battlesuit
-Puretide chip

Strike Team X11 - 198

Strike Team X11 - 198

Kroot carnivore squad X10 - 70
-sniper rounds

Riptide -190
-Ion accelerator
-Early warning override

XV8 crisis suits X3 -161
-plasma rifles X2
-plamsa rifles X2
-Fusion blaster X2
-Target lock

XV8 crisis suits X3 - 161
-Plasma rifles X2
-Plasma rifles X2
-Missile pods X2
-Target lock

Pathfinders X10 - 110

Broadsides X3 - 255
-HYMP

Stormsurge X1 435
-Air bursting fragmentation projector
-pulse driver cannon
-shield generator
-early warning override

Optimised stealth cadre:

Stealth suits X3 - 95
-fusion blaster

Stealth suits X3 -95
-fusion blaster

Ghostkeel X1 - 178
-Cyclic ion raker
-TL fusion blaster
-Stim injectors
-Advanced targetting system

Total points 2040

I have been tossing up between these lists for a while and still havn't got the second list close to 2000 points.
Just to keep in mind i do only play casually in a heavy marine meta. I play against chaos marines, grey knights, orks, tau, raven guard, space wolves and adeptus mechanicus. Thanks for your help!

I wouldn't mix weapons on crisis teams or the commander, even with target locks. I always double down on weapons and specialize crisis teams.

Additionally the shooting commander isn't generally the best choice. Having him sit back with some marker drone buddies is a better idea.

Drop the pathfinders. Drop the hammerhead.

Try to max the ghostkeels in the optimized stealth cadre. They are pretty good, not quite riptide good but still good. They are the reason you take the optimized stealth cadre. That and anti vehicle.

I love sniper drone squads, however I usually put them in a CAD just to get an ethereal in there. Now I know they aren't the most competitive because they are an easy extra victory point but if you hide them well they can really put the hurt on with 29 shots bs5 within 24". They can also be a secondary source of hs5 markers

Epartalis is right about not mixing gun types. You will save points on Target Locks not needed. EWO can now be bought cor those suits. Also, I recommend a Vre with MSS and C&CN for your big plasma gun group. With 5 shooters, that will pack a wallop.

I disagree about a gun Cmdr. Putting him with a gun crew of XV8s with PENchip boost is great. The baby sitter Cmdr is good too but I like a shooty HQ in the mix.

Stims are good for riptides and stormsurges.

However else you juggle points, 3 Marker units is good at 2k points.

Thanks for the feedback everyone!
I think i agree with you both in giving the crisis suits two of the same weapon. More specialised is good!
I was just wondering, out of the two lists, which would you think is the more competitive?

Aviax wrote:
Thanks for the feedback everyone!
I think i agree with you both in giving the crisis suits two of the same weapon. More specialised is good!
I was just wondering, out of the two lists, which would you think is the more competitive?

The Stormsurge in the list, the gun focus, and you are good. So #2.

Awesome! I was leaning towards that one!
Thankyou very much for your opinion!

You might consider breachers if you're in a very marine-heavy meta. Granted they don't have the flexibility
of your current troops, but as objective defenders or rearguard that up close and personal ap3 shot is pretty
nasty. They're also CC deterant. Who wants to charge a wall of ap3 shots? The gun commander is great fun
to be sure but not the best. The buff commander is very nice, but unless you bring something ridiculous like
a farsight bomb, I find it a bit hard to make up all the points. Maybe go with the new FMC battlesuit? Also, for
being the only person I've ever seen even think for bringing kroot, bravo! everyone seems really down on
the space chickens, and they can be quite the handy unit. I'd add a single hound for acute senses to re-roll
outflank. I disagree that you always need to avoid target locks on your crisis though, but only when bringing
dual fusion suits. Split fire on them means up to 3 dead tanks with a single deep strike. It also seems to me
you could use a bit more marker suppourt, but other than that, I'm liking what I see.

Thanks for your response mate!
I did consider breachers, but i find that their short range is a bit hard to work with. Especially in my meta where my opponents dont care about throwing away troops to hate on the tau!
With the FMC battlesuit, what would you think of kitting him out with? The plan of this commander was to put him with a group of crisis suits and hunt heavy units on the table.
Ill take that as a compliment! Ive always liked the fluff of kroot and their snipers look like they could lay down a lot of hurt! Plus they give me a little "tarpitting" ability if i need it!

Yeah, breachers are rather meta-dependent so best judgement. I do want to give them a chance myself as their
damage potential is tasty. As I recall the FMC suit has fixed weapon output. Its equipped with a high output burst
cannon and a missile pod with options for up to two suppourt systems and drones. An advanced targeting system
could be fun for sniping from the air and stimms and shield gen for added toughness are always nice. Unless
leadership shenanigans run rampant in your meta i'd say that the commander as a crisis suit babysitter is a bit of
a waste. He's better off being a demi hive tyrant with the coldstar or bringing a drone controller for some
marker-light rain. And yes, that is a compliment with the kroot. Many tau players focus too much on pure ranged
offense, which is where we're best don't get me wrong, but kroot balance the utter lack of CC so well and have
great utility and it saddens me that they're often overlooked.