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I'm entering a competetive doubles match in two weeks and I need to see if this would be a good list for a long ranged tau list. I do not know who my double is since they pick names out of a hat for it, but here is my list:

HQ
Battlesuit commander (warlord) with missile pod, twin linked fusion blaster, Stim inject.

Ethereal with honour blade and shield drone

Elite:

2 crisis battle suits, each with two missile pods
1 crisis suit with twin linked fusion blaster and missile pod

Troops

11 FW with pulse rifles
11 FW with pulse rifles

FA

4 pathfinders
4 pathfinders
Strike fighter with missile pod

HS

Hammerhead with submunitions


Plan is to put the commander in deep strike with the fusion battlesuit, strike fighter will take out any heavily armoured units like terminators and hammerhead will take out tanks and infantry alike along with the twin linked fusion battlesuit and battlesuit commander.

Thoughts?

You list looks fun to play and I'm sure you partner won't be too disappointed going in with some long ranged Tau backup, but........ how competitive do you want to be?

I find that in random pairings, you are better off playing to your factions strengths rather than trying to take a TAC list, as you either end up with a partner who is the opposite of your faction (and therefore compliments you well as an overall force), or they are similar to your force and end up overloading your force in one aspect making you combined force very hard to take down (although admittedly, more susceptible to a hard counter - but which itself is less likely due to the random pairings).

With that said, you have the right approach in that long range support focus is going to be your strength, and as a partner I would be delighted to see an FBSC in you list (and equally disheartened if I saw it as an opponent) along with some decent ML support (i.e. a Mark 'O build) and a few Fire warriors to look after objectives (or just one key objective, supporting fire each other to stop any assaults dead in their over watch tracks).

The ethereal would have me worried though, as his buff to the FW is not really good at long range, and the extra VP he ships when dead would mean I wouldn't want to see him anywhere near the front line without a devilfish to protect him. Also the strike fighter - while fun to play in casual games - is a bit of a point sink as almost all the other factions have better flyers than Tau, so you should maybe focus on providing the AA cover (again, a Tau strength) and letting allies flyers do the dirty work.

925 makes it difficult to get and FBSC , but it is possible:

Mark 'O, Dual MP, DC, TL, 128pts
Fire Warriors 54pts
Fire Warriors 54pts
Crisis x1, Dual MP, 2x Marker Drones 76pts (Mark 'O goes here)
FBSC
- Iontide, IA, TL FB, EWO 190pts
- 3 Missilesides, TL HYMP, TL SMS, 3x EWO, 210pts
- 3 Missilesides, TL HYMP, TL SMS, 3x EWO, 210pts

Total 922pts

Anyway, as I said, it depends on your mindset (and what models you have). Your original list can be tweaked to be better too - lose the ethereal, split FWs down into 6 man squads for more ObSec units + increased survivability, take solo suits (1 Dual Fusion, 1 Dual Plasma, 1 dual MP) to give you flexibility in dealing with a range of enemies + increased survivability and put any left over points into ML sources (Tetra, another unit of Pathfinders, Mark 'O).

The games qs competitive as to have a referee at each table... I've never played a game that competitive before. The club which I'm playing at has a large concentration of orks, chaos and space wolves, so I should be fine with CC. I also think ill be fine because all infantry are scoring units, so I can take four objectives max with my partner with at least two other infantry units. I will tweak my list though.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Would you say to make one squad of 8 pathfinders and put them in a devilfish with the ethereal, or make two six man squads of FW's and put a squad of ten into a devilfish with a ethereal?

 Da Stormlord wrote:
Would you say to make one squad of 8 pathfinders and put them in a devilfish with the ethereal, or make two six man squads of FW's and put a squad of ten into a devilfish with a ethereal?

Honestly, given the way you are looking to play them and the competition format I would swap the ethereal out for a cadre fireblade, put him with a 12 man Fire warrior squad and camp them on an objective, then take 2 more 6 man fire warrior units (or kroot if you have them) and have them push forward/grab objectives on foot.

I take it you don't fancy the FBSC option I outlined above? If not, no worries but to improve your original list I would go with something like:

Mark 'O, Dual MP, DC, TL, 2x Marker Drones 152pts
Cadre Firebalde 60pts
Fire Warriors x12, 108pts (fireblade attaches here)
Fire Warriors 6, 54pts
Fire Warriors 6, 54pts
Crisis x1, Dual FB, 52pts
Crisis x1, Dual FB, 52pts
Crisis x1, Dual Plasma Rifle, 52pts
Pathfinders x5 55pts
Pathfinders x5 55pts
Marker Drones x4 56pts (Commander attaches here)
Hammerhead, submunitions, SMS, Longstrike 175pts

925pts

The Mark 'O commander will perform better than the suicide drop FB setup you had before, and you wont give away Slay the Warlord too. Fireblade offers a better long range buff and doesn't give away a VP if he dies (he is also a lot tougher and can help if the unit gets charged). Crisis are solo suits to allow more flexibility in deployment and increase the threat overload on you opponent, while pathfinders are bumped to 5 so they don't break when one dies but also might actually make a contribution with their MLs. If you are going to take the hammerhead, you might as well go all out and take Longstrike as he vastly improves the performance (even if he is expensive).

Thanks Iapedus! I will use your list, it looks fun and also very competitive. Thanks

Just to mirror what the previous person has said really, Fireblade > Ethereal in smaller point games in my opinion since he doesn't have a huge target on his head. Both Tau flyers are underwhelming, and the Razorshark is in almost all ways inferior to the Sun Shark bomber. If you really want a flyer grab a Sun Shark, if you need AA there's better option in the heavy support section.

 Da Stormlord wrote:
Thanks Iapedus! I will use your list, it looks fun and also very competitive. Thanks

Good luck, let us know how it goes - write a batrep! (and take end of turn pictures!)

 Iapedus wrote:

 Da Stormlord wrote:
Thanks Iapedus! I will use your list, it looks fun and also very competitive. Thanks

Good luck, let us know how it goes - write a batrep! (and take end of turn pictures!)

I will try, I've not got a camera but I think my phones fine, sometimes it takes good pictures sometimes they're fuzzy

Yeah I do all my batrep photos on an iphone, it hasn't let me down yet (just remember to take two or three photos each time so you can weed out the blurry ones later )

 Iapedus wrote:
Yeah I do all my batrep photos on an iphone, it hasn't let me down yet (just remember to take two or three photos each time so you can weed out the blurry ones later )

Thanks, ill take some for ya!

Unfortunately I cant use proxies, so I will be using necron allies too.