Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

Troop x2 Fire Warriors: 7 Shas'la , Shas'ui
Devil fish: Sms ,Target Array ,Multi Tracker
Total:[410]
Heavy: Hammerhead: Ion Cannon, Burstcannon,[Multi Tracker]
(Sniper Drones)
Total:[205]
Fast Attack:
Pirana Skimmer: Fusion Blaster (Seeker)
Total:[75]
HQ's: Shas'el [Twn Burst],[Hw] Blk Sun, Iridium Armor, [Target Array], HW Drone: Shield x2
Total: [125]
[Pathfinders] Shas'la x5 Emp 5
Devilfis: Seeker,Sms,Target Array,
Total [185]
Army Total ) 1000]

Posting the points for individual wargear is not allowed just post unit totals. Ethereals are alot harder to hide with precition shots so I would advise againced taking one

Alright I know its not the bread and butter list.... But ive been playing Tau for 7 years now i wanna test every angle of the army... Except kroot -.- i hate dem meat shields. Anyway I bet alotta you are like wtf flamer with blk sun=noob but if i've interpreted the rules right you take from the front so shouldnt you fill all wounds on a model befor moving back? so 2 on drone 3 on shas'el... so if im right i have a bullet sponge for my ethereal squad. while also blk sun if he joined the squard they get its effect and the overwatch with a flamer and hopefuly 24 rapid fires. not soundin to bad now huh? I then have my tank hunters and troop squads run in a pack because more targets in one place less shots for all... or all for one depends on the player. Anyways what do you guys think i know im countin a littile to much on my fast atks but its only 1k so might b ok if they arent str 5+ XD ... Im prolly screwed.

Yeah it won't always be easy to pick him out but precition shot the opponent chooses who takes wounds plus a hour guard unit are not hard to take down with a decent amount of fire power. People will target them and watch you run off theboard

(delayed post, man you guys post fast)
Hey guy! I'm a new member and Tau player so I had to chip in something.

First things first. Cooool idea. Seeing some real heavy specialist units that have cool unit builds Love the brute of a Devilfish . But I don't really know where your headed with the army as a whole. I see some real headaches in your future.

First I want to ask, 1000pts bringing 2 HQ units? (A solo battlesuit and ethereal with honorguard) may be wasteful. That fireball of a suit is cool, (might drop Blacksun Filter, unless you have a sneaky use for it i don't know? (edit: ah, I see, I think? how are you using this?) but I worry about survivability, even with shield frisbees. In a 1000 pt game he should have a buddy to take hits and make extra 'Look out, Sir' attempts. And pack a few big ranged guns to help too. Ethereal squad is sweet beans.

The other real thing that scares me is a 1000pt army with two minimal strength troop choices that love shooting but have a melee grenade (may have changed in sixth edition. still looking into that. anybody know?) What guns do they have, rifle or carbine?

Last but not least, piranha. Yes please, kill tank dudes. consider splitting the Seeker missiles off the Hammerhead to share between these guys, spread the love, diversify investments, get better launch vectors. You know, the good stuff.

But I don't have much experience so take what I say very lightly. Just know that I run a 750 pt Tau that packs most of this in it, i think you can expand for more units.

Forgot about look out sir but My point about shooting the honour guard unit to death and watching half of the army run away still stands. Knucklewolf Has said all I would about the rest of the list with my limited knowledge of tau in 6th Ed

Originaly it was 2 12 man squads but.... only 2marker lights both of which usless first turn. i supose i could drop honor to 6. and put 3 more in each. drop a seeker and 2 marker lights throw a invul on my comander and slice and dice some more till i can drop in a nother fish ( most likley stock) for my honour squad or i could drop honour and ethereal. and invest in a broadside or sniper squad 2up cover in cover. idk i tried to make it good against all forms of armor except termies. idk tho the point was to try and do a decient list without suits. What sounds best?

Thanks Kendowned. As I would have to differ to you on the Honour Guard getting beat up and 'Look out, Sir' attempts. I'll keep those in mind myself.

I tweaked my list a little bit the ones in "()" are the changes. Added more units hopefully this will help a little doing this little tweak. and all my firwarriors ar rifle as of right now carbines arent anything special except a very slim chance to see another turn. Anymore input would b great. And trust me IKNOW HOW CRAPPY ETHEREALS ARE i lost 3 full squads of Fws in one turn (one reason for the fish being here).

Those changes I think are going to be relevant. lets see if we can shave the pencil a little thinner.

I love my eight man FW teams, both in math ( yuck, hate mathhammer.) and fluffy flavor. Wish we could equip half the squad only with EMPs but sadly can't. How do you feel about the Shas'uis having the EMPs only? Between the two squads that could net us 42pts! We could almost reinstate your death-dealing Hammerhead with that! (I'll ask because I don't know, are those snipe teams any kind of good? I always pictured them as scenario mission pieces.) Also, mixed infantry weapons can be fun if you expect them to be in constantly changing conditions, like assaulting and then defending objectives or structures. That extra turn in a turn limit game could be important. Maybe.

Everyone else shows concern over the Ethereal. Would you drop two more Shas'la from his team for just enough points to add in to our 42 -the answer to life the univer...yeah ill stop now- and pull one more nearly basic piranha for the others to fly support? Which raises the question: are you running them all as one squadron, or as individuals? Even maybe as a mix that can perform pincer strikes would be a neat experiment. If not the two Honor Guards even just one shield frisbee would get the job done without sacrificing Commander Fireballs overall effectiveness. Who, by the way, I am becoming quite fond of.

Are sniper drones good? Isa networked maekerlight s6,ap3 shot frome 3 guns at bs 3-5 good ? Well it equals an ion cannon. Butt boasts a 2+ cover save. Its another troop killing bullet sponge. Put him behind a line of Fws and uve got an almost unkillable team. Freakin 2 up invul practacaly from hidin behind ma men. Theyll start swingin them slugs at em once yhey drop a squad and the fws killed like 2 guys. My fws are my Ethereals wounds. and are bs 4 all i really need is bare bones fow him which is the bs4 marker but less fodder higher chance of losin men from bad luck once he Etherreal drops. Ill work on point shavin but as far as i know you cant just throw emps on sha'ui its all or non. trust me i tried when i first got into the game. A massive point drop from emps and markers tho (still on honour tho) ill think about it.

Nope, sniper drones aren't good. Your Heavy Support should be hammerheads and/or broadsides. As many railguns as possible.

I reccomend having a look at this site to get a feel for how the tau work.

Just checked my FLUUFFFYY ARMPIIT HAAIR. This lists FLUFFFY HOBOS as PANDAS, which so long as you take the CUDDLEY RHINOCEROUS upgrade, becomes available to him as a SUPER FLUFFY HOBO individualy from the PACK OF FLUFFYY KITTENS. My understanding. Mine. Noooot positive.

Lets not dismiss the FLUFFY EEEELEPHANTSSS too quick. While yes FLUFFY SPIIIDERS are awesome as the 'pie plate' is a super-FLUFFFY STIING RAAAY-disk and solid FLUFFINESS is very FLUFFFY, I like what I hear about these guys. Do the FLUFFFY EEEELEPHANTS benefit from ADORABLE USR like some FLUFFY PACADERMS do? FLUFFY ARMPIIIT says no essentialy. Not that they need it once in position, but worth asking.

OK so a one FLUUFFFY KIITTEN army, I get it now. This is starting to get cool...

TheBoy wrote:Troop x2 Fire Warriors, 5 Shas'la (7), Shas'ui , Markerlight , 6 emp (8)

Skip the ML, as they'll be moving and such. EMPs on FWs sounds okay, but in practice, who in your local meta (the guys that you play), who is still using vehicles? I'd run 8 FWs, no toys.

TheBoy wrote:Devil fish , Sms , Target Array

Needs an MT to Move&Shoot like a Fast Vehicle.

TheBoy wrote:Hammerhead, Ion Cannon , Burstcannon , Seeker missle x2 , Disruption Pod

Dis Pod out as it's not as cool as it was, and 6e Cover Saves are easily gained. MT in for the ability to shoot all guns at Combat Speed. *Maybe* Sensor Spines in to hide in ruins for the Cover Save, but meh, depends on your table's terrain. IMHO, Seekers blow. I dislike one use toys.

TheBoy wrote:Shas'el , Twn Flamer , Blk Sun , Iridium Armor ,Hw Drone: Shiled Drone x2

Anyway I bet alotta you are like wtf flamer with blk sun=noob but if i've interpreted the rules right you take from the front so shouldnt you fill all wounds on a model befor moving back? so 2 on drone 3 on shas'el... so if im right i have a bullet sponge for my ethereal squad. while also blk sun if he joined the squard they get its effect and the overwatch with a flamer and hopefuly 24 rapid fires. not soundin to bad now huh?

You *do* take enemy models from front to back, and that has nothing to do with how bad this XV8 loadout and plan is.

1. You're thinking about Defense. That is the wrong approach to 40k. Think Dakka! Moar guns!
2. A TL-flamer XV8, especially one with high BS (a Shas'el) is a waste. The template hits automatically, so it can be put on a far cheaper Elite XV8. But you say, "Yeah, but I can join some FWs and they benefit from the BSF."
3. Yer right, but the BSF doesn't make the Pulse Rifles any more effective. Their range is safe from Night FIghting, so no gain there. Pulse Rifles are AP5, thus most enemies won't need the Shroud Cover Save that Night Fighting grants to makes saves against Pulse Rifles wounds. BSF is worthless versus MEq and AP4 enemies, not helping the FWs at all.
4. OverWatch on the squad - They get charged. With 24 shots, odds are (MathHammer, it's called) 4 should hit, 3 wound. One MEq will die. The template will hit 2 guys. Wound one. Save gets made. At most, with a little variance on dice, you might kill 3 or 4 marines, but the other 7 can easily crush your squad.

Sorry, dude, but it is a total nooB plan.

TheBoy wrote:Ethereal 11 Honour Guard (10), Shas'ui , Markerlight

Moar guns! One ethereal out for 5 more FW guns ... or a FireStorm XV8 (BC/MP). Nevermind the liability an ethereal carries, how about getting in more guns?

May I recommend buying the Hammerhead gun sprue to make your Devilfish a Railhead? GW still offers it I think.
All your next purchases should be XV8s. After 6 more suits, then you can look into other things.
You're going with Gun-line tau, 3 squads of FWs and a tank. You're out gunned by SW, GK, DE and IG. Back in 4e, tau were the Shooty Kings, and this set up would've been effective, but not now that those other armies can out shoot you.
Start buying Crisis Suits and equip them as FKs, FS or Deathrains.

Maybe list all the models you own? Or was this it?

Lmao iis that all i got XDDDD. 30 suits(includin farsight and comanders) 4hh 5-6devil fish( one is still in box) over 100fws shadowsun 3 piranas id like to say 12 pathfinders w/ or w/o railfifs like 4 do i think 2 ethereals 11 stealth suits. like i said i wanna stay away froms suits been doin it for years its easy oh and 3 broadsides. Oh ya and Brother this is by no means a static army. The only statics are my line which is. comander front joined in ethereal. him in back fws in the midle of those two the my snipers behind all that mess andy pathfinders next to em. the rest is in a giant mobile pack of death. my new alteration which i havent put up yet is 3 fish 1pirhana and my troop tryin to put my hh back in and they all charge forward get a good ground 3 fish go for light armor a concentrate fire with fws at full 30 inch ramge and ma tank hunter may or may not get the job done that turn. And the point of the squad in the back is for you to think huh a suit and an ethereal easy pickins. tau work best as a condenced units dropin one of 3 squads is better then dropin 2 from
each.

That.... List.. is... it hurts my eyes...
I mean.. the layout is awful... xD

At this points level I would leave out the ethereal and just take another 5 Fire Warriors.

I'll give more advice if you change the layout into something more friendly

Edited main post im thinkin of swapin burst for missle pods on hq but ya seems like it could b a fun swarm of tanks. idk just somthin ive never tried before looks like it might be fun to play.

You can't have honour guard without an ethereal?

No. Can't have FLUUUFFFFYY BUUUNNNIES without FLUUUFFFFYYY KITTENS. That's how important the the FLLUUUFFFYY BAAABYYY SEEEAALLLS think the FFLLUUUFFY GIIRAAFFESS are. Which is kind of true.

TheBoy wrote: tau work best as a condenced units dropin one of 3 squads is better then dropin 2 from
each.

Huh? I can't make sense of this as it's about 3 clauses slapped together. And as for working best as 'condensed' units, the wisdom of MSU would disagree.

Some basic grammar would be nice, periods, commas, capital letters, etc. The teacher in me winces. Oh well, next week I'll have a fresh batch of kittens/students and I'll be correcting such passages anyway ... so you're just providing me with a warm up?

TheBoy wrote: ... like i said i wanna stay away froms suits been doin it for years its easy ...

Okay, so you have loads more models, but ... you want to stay away from using Crisis Suits?
...

Sorry, man. I'm out. Tau without XV8s is IG without the multitude of better tanks. Good luck!

Brothererekose wrote:

TheBoy wrote: ... like i said i wanna stay away froms suits been doin it for years its easy ...

Okay, so you have loads more models, but ... you want to stay away from using Crisis Suits?
...

Sorry, man. I'm out. Tau without XV8s is IG without the multitude of better tanks. Good luck!

As fun as that is, it's also fun to do alternate lists.

i.e. I'm working towards an 84+ Firewarrior list, which will have an absolute minimum of suits. (possibly a bunch of stealth suits.)

To everyone who thinks suits are all thats needed.. ya mabe ur right i can run a squad with pods and fusions with multi run a positional relay with pathfinder devil fish and almost alway land where i wanna then pop ur tank while my others are sweepin ur heavy squads with plasmas and missle pods while mybroadside team pops another heavy and my fws hide like lil bitches in a dumb fish just to hold objectives. we all know i can do that we all know it works. thats not the only way to win wars tho. im tryin to find other ways i wanna see what this army can do without bein cutn paste crissis teams.

Mister 'boy' sir, I salute and support you all the way my man. Screw the tried and true right?! Heck yeah, if there was only one way to play them they wouldn't have given us so many options and used a point buy system. They would of given us all one box, the same box, and only that box. Lets do this!

But man, now I'm on the fence about Commander Fireball. Brothererekose (how in the world do you pronounce that?) pointed out something I completely over looked: templates out of a high ballistic skill character. Alot of other little things too. I'm so used to seeing Multi-trackers on my army lists I didn't check yours.

Could we get a complete updated list, perhaps on a fresh post?

TheBoy wrote:To everyone who thinks suits are all thats needed.. ya mabe ur right i can run a squad with pods and fusions with multi run a positional relay with pathfinder devil fish and almost alway land where i wanna then pop ur tank while my others are sweepin ur heavy squads with plasmas and missle pods while mybroadside team pops another heavy and my fws hide like lil bitches in a dumb fish just to hold objectives. we all know i can do that we all know it works. thats not the only way to win wars tho. im tryin to find other ways i wanna see what this army can do without bein cutn paste crissis teams.

TheBoy wrote:Lmao iis that all i got XDDDD. 30 suits(includin farsight and comanders) 4hh 5-6devil fish( one is still in box) over 100fws shadowsun 3 piranas id like to say 12 pathfinders w/ or w/o railfifs like 4 do i think 2 ethereals 11 stealth suits. like i said i wanna stay away froms suits been doin it for years its easy oh and 3 broadsides. Oh ya and Brother this is by no means a static army. The only statics are my line which is. comander front joined in ethereal. him in back fws in the midle of those two the my snipers behind all that mess andy pathfinders next to em. the rest is in a giant mobile pack of death. my new alteration which i havent put up yet is 3 fish 1pirhana and my troop tryin to put my hh back in and they all charge forward get a good ground 3 fish go for light armor a concentrate fire with fws at full 30 inch ramge and ma tank hunter may or may not get the job done that turn. And the point of the squad in the back is for you to think huh a suit and an ethereal easy pickins. tau work best as a condenced units dropin one of 3 squads is better then dropin 2 from
each.

This is what we call a "Stream of FLUFFY BUNNY RABBITS!!!" aka what is written here is simply FLUFFY ELEPHANTS!!!. It hasn't been FLUFFY KITTENS!!!, and it hasn't been FLUFFY GIRAFFES!!!, and we can tell this through the fact that he talks about FLUFFY SNOW LEOPARDS!!!, then remembers the CUTENESS!!! and adds them where he is rather than at the end of CUTE FLUFFY PANDAS!!!. The reason knowing this is important is that from this we can tell that he hasn't thought about FURRY DEER!!!.

Now, I'm not saying this to flame you. I'm simply saying it to show you what's happening and give everyone here the faintest of chances that you'll actually step back, spend ten minutes thinking it through, and then come to a decision over whether you want your commander to be Mr. suicide, while being about as effective as this. Because, to be honest, that's probably the most he's gonna do.

Iif you wanna disprove me go for it... but how does my lists credability go away for ma lack of gramma? a list is a list the best player can win with the worst list against a in expirenced playa with the best list. i can hand you a gun but it wont do you any good if you dont know how to take the saftey off. I Finaly get why you all say hes a suicide suit now. When i said wounds i meant saves. ya allocate from the front but what i meant was my save throws. as in i take 2 2+ saves on my drones and then 3 2+ saves on my suit then move back to my 4+ to fill the res with. from
what i understand wound allocation is no more which is why i think this would work.
Oh ya and This

"Oh, and another thing, just to reduce your credibility a little further, you set out your army list first illegally and then simply inefficiently, and ask whether sniper drones are any good, then proclaim yourself to have gained masses of wins and this is why you want to try something different. I'm not complaining about you wanting to try something different, it's just that your consistency leaves much to be desired"
Someone got some issues with there ego and place in the universe?
OOOO im a bad boy arent I? Dont trust me guys im breakin da rules and prefere my list set up over urs OOOOO BEWARE!!
Learn to read names
When did i say such? Please quote it as i am lost. If ur talkin about the crissis set up i listed. Hmm well lemme ask you this. Whats ur tau list? Do you win? Do you ever look up lists online to better ur own? If you do does that mean since you read the top list you played it?
Well you hit the nail on the head... Or did u? hmmm.... Could i just wanna diverge from the tau meta? But no ur right. you obviously know me better then i know myself...

Now Now boys and girls. We are Tau after all! At the end of the day lists are built on the preference of the list builder. TheBoy can write how he likes and put in his list what he likes. My simple advice is if you don't like to read it dont bother lol. Then that saves people from getting themselves annoyed.

That aside, I have been playing Tau for a while and have lost lots and won lots and have fun learning from both. I do not ever leave home without my suits but thats just because I think Tau struggle to win without them. But TheBoy's ideas are fine, he might lose everygame but least he has switched it up a bit. I don't think it will do well lol but I'm sure he will have fun using it. P_Gray I think you went a little overboard man, like I said no need to dish out comments. This wouldnt be a forum if people weren't writing their thoughts out, after all its not a writing competition lol.

Anyway TheBoy try your list out and let us know how it works! Do not be bothered about winning or losing, be bothered about learning what works well in the list and what doesn't, after all its a game of dice, any list will win if you get some loaded dice

ATO

*SIGH*........................

Ok,

To The boy, there is a difference between trying something new and re-inventing the wheel. Trying different things is fine, questioning long-held concepts is fine but going through unnecessary steps that will lead you finding out what you already knew is (imo) just a waste of time and effort.

Now, if you are really interested in trying something different from "moar battlesuits", that is ok. It is how you are trying to do such(Both in layout and content) and how you are communicating that is throwing the other posters off.


Lets look at some new (6th edition friendly) ideas.

First, there is nothing wrong with wanting to try a minimal battlesuit build. There is a problem with building an auto-lose list because you are not taking the alternative units to replace what the suits bring to the table.

For instance, you don't want to take crisis suits, then take sniper drones, vespids and ionheads. Also, when not running battlesuits, taking the EMPs are a must. Don't let others talk you out of a very reliable anti-dreadnought item because they are trying to convince you to go with a traditional build.

Next, a twin-flamer Shas'el is ok if you give him a plama rifle and have a plan for him, but the bsf is a waste of points.
I would suggest taking an aegis defense lime and sticking your Shas'el on the icarus las-cannon. Then let your opponent rush the line and when thy get close, have the Shas'el step-out to road-block.
(Btw)You can only twin-link one weapon on your commander, or "Is the flamer & burst cannon twin-linking just a revision that reads wrong?".

Personally, I would give the command either TL missile pods or TL'ed plasma with a flamer added on. Then add hard wired multi-tracker, hard-wired drone controller with 2 shield drones and finally the iridium armour upgrade.

I would probably drop the ethereal and the body guard for the aegis line and a small squad of Fire warriors to hide in it.

BTW, if you decide to go with some sniper drones, they synergize nicely with the aegis defense line.


@All other posters-

You may not agree with some of my suggestions but I ask you to remember that this is a low points level game. The aegis lines and sniper drones can be gold at these lower point levels. Admittedly, not as good as some of the more standard lists, but the op doesn't want to run a standard list.

My main issue is his layout...
I need to go into town briefly but when I get back I'll put up a thousand pt gunline list to show The Boy an example of a layout that's nice and clear doesn't hurt my eyes, and maybe give him some ideas.

Ovion wrote:My main issue is his layout...
I need to go into town briefly but when I get back I'll put up a thousand pt gunline list to show The Boy an example of a layout that's nice and clear doesn't hurt my eyes, and maybe give him some ideas.

I understand. Imo, a 1000 point tau list with minimum suits would look something like this:

Shas'O with Plas + Fusion + Flamer, hwmt, hwdc(+2SD) + Stim injector 166

3 FW teams of 7+1Shas'ui+ Gun drone. Arm with grenages 396

Sniper Drones (2 teams) 160

Ion head w bc,mt,tl, bsf sensor spines 145

Aegis line w/Icarus 85


This is about 952

leaves room for a gundrone sqadron of 4 or just drop the ion head and bring in 2 broadsides



That would be a solid no crisis suit but the mandatory commander list. You could even play around with it to try a full gun drone squadron or even vespids.

OOOOHHHHHHH MAAAAAN! Sprinkle a little vanilla in here and you could eat the hate'n right out of the air it's so thick. Opened up the tab and all I saw was

And I was all like "DAAANG!"

Then I had an idea!

I think would be really funny to see if everyone edited all their posts to say nothing but "FLUFFY BUNNIES!" fifty times in a row (or kittens, or dogs or, I don't know hippopotamuses, whatever). Then others would read the thread and get down here to mine and be all like "What in the Emperrors loving Warp? What the blasphemy is wrong with these heretics? And what in Chaos were they talking about!?" They would be sooo lost! It would just be a bunch of peeps talking about random crazy fluffy animals! Here, I'll start. After all I wouldn't want anybody knowing I was a part of this mess.

(1st edit: OK! Got two done. Was laughing too hard to get to the others. Check 'em out up in the thread yo!)