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I enjoy shooty armies, and love the idea of a semi-mobile gunline. The Supporting Fire rule of the Tau makes it somewhat better for this purpose than AM, at least in my opinion. The purpose of this list if to have the Mark'O and Pathfinders in a forward position marking high-value targets. The rest of my forces will be in two identical groups on both sides of the board. I went with Fireblades over Ethereals because I don't like that you have to be within 18" for the extra shots to be effective. The Crisis teams are meant for rapid-response against any choppy units that get too close. If I need to push for objectives I can leapfrog my army, moving equivalent units turn after turn to provide constant firepower. As the Crisis teams are troop choices, they can rush any objective needed with objective secured. I know its not as "efficient", but I'm adding a Sniperside to each Broadside unit. I love the idea of sniping out any MEQ characters, and they still do well against light to medium vehicles. They also give me anti-lascannon support.

Tau Gunline - 1998
CAD 1: Tau Empire - 1508
HQ: 120 points
Cadre Fireblade

Cadre Fireblade

Elites: 450 points
Riptide
Ion Accelerator
Early Warning Override
Stim Injector

Riptide
Ion Accelerator
Early Warning Override
Stim Injector

Troops: 414 points
11 Fire Warriors

11 Fire Warriors

6 Fire Warriors

6 Fire Warriors

6 Fire Warriors

6 Fire Warriors

Fast Attack: 88 points
4 Pathfinders

4 Pathfinders

Heavy Support: 440 points
3 Broadsides
2 High-Yield Missile Pods
2 Target Locks
Shas’Vre
1 Advanced Targeting System

3 Broadsides – 195 points
2 High-Yield Missile Pods
2 Target Locks
Shas’Vre
1 Advanced Targeting System

CAD 2: Farsight Enclaves – 490 points
HQ: 152 points
Crisis Commander
Dual Plasma Rifles
Command and Control Node
Drone Controller
2 Marker Drones

Troops – 282 points
3 Crisis Suits
Suit A –
Dual Plasma Rifles
Flamer
Suit B –
Dual Plasma Rifles
Flamer
Suit C –
Dual Fusion Blasters
Target Lock

3 Crisis Suits – 66 points
Suit A –
Dual Plasma Rifles
Flamer – 5 points
Suit B –
Dual Plasma Rifles
Flamer – 5 points
Suit C –
Dual Fusion Blasters
Target Lock

Fast Attack: 56 points
Drone Squadron
Marker Drone Upgrade

Thoughts? Comments? Criticisms? If someone could come up with a better use of 22 points then the 4 Crisis suit flamers, I'd appreciate it. It just doesn't feel right, but I can't think of another good use of the points.

Looks pretty solid to start I do have some thoughts though if you care to hear em

Tau HQ
I think an ethereal and a few devilfish for the fire warriors would help you with mobility. Volleyfire is really nice but I would prefer to be able to buff all of the units nearby and be able to move
Tau Elites
Solid selection for the riptide - some advise against Stims but I personally like them. You could swap one of the Ion Cannons for Heavy Burst Cannon and VT for Anti-Air if that's a concern. Making one an Earth Caste Pilot can also help when you absolutely need that Nova charge.

Tau Troops:
Great amount of troops to play -like I suggested above it might be good to have one or two of these units in a devilfish perhaps if you can.

Fast Attack:
these two units are a little small for 2k if you can I would add at least one more member to each squad.
Heavy Support:
It's a neat idea having Advanced Targeting on your Shas'Vre's but I don't think it's worth the points of upgrading him. Also, since you have two units it would definitely help to give a few of them Early Warning Override which can really help against DS and can help to deter flyers a little.


Enclave HQ
I don't think you can take C&CNode in an Enclave so you'll have to drop that from your Commander - I'd also suggest you swap the Plasma for Missile Pods and give him a target lock, this way he can engage targets and marker light from a relatively safe distance. You could also give him the Talisman of Arthas Moloch which gives you a nice counter to psychic powers as well as a 5++ save (a personal choice but I like to have a chance against good AP/Pschic abilities)
Troops
Not a bad idea splitting your Dual Fusion suits up but someone once suggested that you'll probably want "Just one more" in a pinch. Flamers are good for overwatch so it's not that bad to have them.

Fast Attack
Good - I generally take this amount and think it wont be enough but as long as you keep them moving and take cover when you can they'll do well.

Hope this helps!

If only the ethereals had cooler models. The larger blobs of firewarriors weren't meant to be mobile, hence my choice of fireblades over ethereals. I wanted the extra shots at range. If they're close enough to be affected, then the enemy is basically in assault range. I was going to rush forward with the 6 man teams, supported by the larger suits.

Can you think of a good place to liberate the points for a Devilfish or 2? If I can fit in just one, I'd combine 2 of the 6 man warrior teams into it.

I could always take one of the fireblades/standard ethereals as the FE HQ, then take the commander in the standard CAD. Since Tau and FE are battle-buddies, It gives the same functionality.

looks good, but if your putting a Fireblade in the squad you might as well make it a 12 man squad just to get the most out of him.

you could find points by ditching the shas'vre on the broadsides as well cause they don't really do much

Shasvre on the Snipersides is to compliment the ATS, giving a 1/3 chance of a precision shot rather than a 1/6 chance.

Think it'd be worth losing the flamers for?

Meh, i'd say your Broadsides will probably have better things to do at 2000 points than hoping to pick off characters in a squad.

TBH your list is good, and my suggestions are only based on my preferences. The only way to find out what you want/need to change is by playing it. Your broadsides might snipe the enemy warlord first turn and I'll eat my words :p

Should I just go with target locks on the snipersides and use the saved points to add the extra 2 warriors?

Their current set up is only 8 points more, and you gain a pretty decent chance to snipe out important units, like power fists in marine squads and heavy weapon squads in AM units. Seems like a better points use than adding 2 warriors worth of dakka.

The Railsides don't need target locks because you've already got 2 target locks in each squad, and unless you want to insta kill the enemy warlord its a waste of such a powerful weapon

If i was you i'd stick an EWO on one of the missilesides, and target locks on the other two, and give atleast one of the riptides a velocity tracker instead of stims. This lets them intercept flyers. Missilesides don't need the VT so much cause they fire so many shots that one might get a flyer.

If I added Target Locks, I would give EWOs to the Misslesides. I can see the convenience of VTs on the Riptides, FMCs are a common thing at my FLGS. Tyranids irk me.

I think I'm going to turn the Mark'O squad into a Mark'O'Rain squad.