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Recently i have been looking at Tau and thought about a starter set

HQ
Commander (Pulse Cannon, Plasma Rifle; Irridium suit)
1x Shield Drone

Elite
1x Crisis (pulse cannon, Plasma)
1x Crisis (pulse cannon, plasma)

Troops
12x FW
12x FW

Fast Attack
1x Tetra (will change to Piranha if FW is a no-go)

Please bear in mind I have yet to buy anything was just wondering how feasible this would be and would it work for a starter Tau player before I bite the bullet and buy anything (currently mainly play Necro and Nids)

Also any other lists that could be made out of those units ( Crisis team box , 2 FW boxes, and Piranha box)

Hey there, Welcome to the Greater good!

First off, don't buy those things individually - get the Tau Battleforce box, as its probably cheaper and gives you more varied stuff to get you going. http://www.games-workshop.com/en-WW/Tau-Empire-Battleforce

Secondly, if you get the Battleforce set, you can definitely make a viable list for casual play / games night. This is what i would do:

HQ
Commander (use a crisis, paint his head white), Dual MP, Drone Controller, Target Lock, 2 x Marker drones, 152pts
TROOPS
FW x6, 54pts
FW x6, 54pts
ELITES
Crisis x1, Dual Plasma, Vectored Retro Thrusters, Gun Drone x2, 81pts
Crisis x1, Dual FB, Vectored Retro Thrusters, Gun Drone x2, 81pts
Stealth x3, Counterfire Defence System x3, 106pts
FAST ATTACK
Drone Squad, 4x Marker Drones 56pts (Commander attached here)
Tetra x1 (proxy Piranha, leave wings off when you build it) Disruption Pods, Sensor Spines, 55pts

Now I have gone overboard on the toys, but you could easily take some off to come in under 500 points. Commander provides your marker lights and some missile fire while staying out of range, Fire Warriors give your ObSec and decent rapid fire, solo Crisis suits can deep strike and target Vehicles (Fusion Blaster) and TEQ/MEQ/HQ units (Plasma) and use VRT to get away, while the Tetra provides more marker lights and Line breaker / late game objective grabber.

If you wanted to add to this list, I would suggest one of the following (in no particular order - try play testing with proxies first!): Another Battleforce Box / Broadsides / Hammerhead-Skyray combined box set / another Crisis suit set / Riptide. More fire warriors (or even Kroot) would be helpful but the bare minimum you get from the box should see you straight for a while.

Hope that helps!

Thanks, how effective are the Sky Rays if I get the box i would probably just model the hammerhead due to the one time use of the missiles

Zgecko666 wrote:
Thanks, how effective are the Sky Rays if I get the box i would probably just model the hammerhead due to the one time use of the missiles

Hammerheads have done wonders for me, I've never used a sky ray but if you fire one missile a turn you've got a sky ray that can keep its primary weapons for six turns

As for stater, I got a Battleforce. You can do a couple 500pts list with just that, and it's a nice goal for paiting. I finish painting mine yesterday, and this weekend I'm playing some 500points game with my little brother. I'm even thinking about getting another battleforce to bolster my forces before I start getting Heavy support choice.

Skyrays are probably the most competitive tank selection in the book. Not that it sounds like that's what you're looking for.

Personally, I'd build the kit without gluing any weapons on. That way you switch out various turrets and you won't get screwed when new rules drop.

Yeah, if you have some time, consider Magnet. I never used them before, but I bought 200 magnets for 12$ online and I start magnetising all my vehicule. Magnet for my Crisis suit gun selection, and magnet for my Pirahna wings and gun (to switch between Pirahna and Tetras)

Zgecko666 wrote:
Thanks, how effective are the Sky Rays if I get the box i would probably just model the hammerhead due to the one time use of the missiles

Normal hammerhead is fun but can be a little underwhelming - I have missed five turns in a row before, it is not fun - but it is also a big draw for enemy fire so plays more than just the 'big gun' role. IF you want it to be more effective then take Longstrike, but only if you have the points left over as it then makes the unit very expensive (but admittedly more rewarding).

Skyray is awesome - equally adept at going after flyers as it is ground armour, it can give you a first turn alpha strike of firing all its missiles in one go and totally annihilating something (much to you opponents chagrin) also has the added advantage of being an ML platform, so even when all the missiles are gone it still contributes massively.

As others have said, magnetization is a must for Tau - helps reduce cost of buying lots of suits, but also future proofs them against rule changes (see all those fireknife crisis suit patterns which are now fairly obsolete). Easy to do (plenty of utube tutorials) and fairly cheap for the magnets, no real reason not to.

And don't forget - proxy test before buying!