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I am looking to start a Tau army.

I have only just started reading through a borrowed codex but i like what i see so far, it will be a nice departure in both painting and playing from my Chaos and Necrons.
Now, i know that the codex is due to updated in the next few months, but i am assuming the army staple units wont be changing. I also want to get some starter units to try a colour scheme with.

So i was planning on getting a couple of starter units.

Does anyone think that Fire Warriors will change much? Maybe a set of them with the rifles would be worth getting now and still be useable after the re-launch.


All i know so far that i want Fire Warriors, 2 squads of 3 Broadsides and a Hammerhead with an Ion Cannon, oh and 2 squads of 2 FW Tetras. Maybe use a FW Crisis Suit as a counts-as HQ.

So, any advice on a good unit to a) start an army with and b) get to grips with painting the army would be great.





BTW, colour-wise i was thinking of going with a blue/grey colour (think the old GW Shadow Grey) with orange unit markings. Maybe patches of white to break the monotony.

1. Hopefully firewarrior carbines become usefull in the next codex. But having the 30' range to reach out and smack something with the pulse rifle is nice.

2. Big thumbs up on broadsides. For the hammerhead , unless you already have it buythe skyray kit . It comes with all the parts for a railhead/ion head / skyray and it costs the same as a reg hammerhead . PS Go for the rail head first, you already have alot of s10 ap1 shots form the broads . Large blast would be nice. And the skyray can even be properly converted into a devilfish too . Go here ( http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=14454 )

3. Tetra = Tau sexy time

4. Forgeworld Commander = Pimpness

5. You need crisis suits , lots of crisis suits. Thats just how the tau roll .

PS> I have the same color scheme and it works really well. Shadow grey ( or the new color is The Fang ) , black stripes , grey highlights and fiery orange ( new troll slayer orange )

I would get the battleforce to start with then follow up with a skyray kit.
Its heavily rumoured that both the crisis suit and the broadsides are getting new sculpts.
Also some of the fw suits come on larger bases, hardly a problem but may be worth mentioning.

Get alteast one crisis suit team. I find them Wielding twin linked Missle pods fun.

 Praxiss wrote:
I am looking to start a Tau army.

I have only just started reading through a borrowed codex but i like what i see so far, it will be a nice departure in both painting and playing from my Chaos and Necrons.
Now, i know that the codex is due to updated in the next few months, but i am assuming the army staple units wont be changing. I also want to get some starter units to try a colour scheme with.

So i was planning on getting a couple of starter units.

Does anyone think that Fire Warriors will change much? Maybe a set of them with the rifles would be worth getting now and still be useable after the re-launch.


All i know so far that i want Fire Warriors, 2 squads of 3 Broadsides and a Hammerhead with an Ion Cannon, oh and 2 squads of 2 FW Tetras. Maybe use a FW Crisis Suit as a counts-as HQ.

So, any advice on a good unit to a) start an army with and b) get to grips with painting the army would be great.





BTW, colour-wise i was thinking of going with a blue/grey colour (think the old GW Shadow Grey) with orange unit markings. Maybe patches of white to break the monotony.

Welcome to the fold mate. Tau are 40k on hard mode, but once you've gotten settled in you'll never want to change.

Just a friendly tip though, the hammerhead is (imo) much better with a railgun. You can get a lot of low ap or s7 weapons on crisis suits, the railgun brings the ever usefull submunition pieplate and s10 ap1 single shot to the table.

First thing first-welcome brave follower of the greater good!

For a starter force, take the battleforce.

By all means the best batleforce out there if only because it is playable on it's own. (in a 500 point match) and provides a good mix of units, all got a use in game, all are on the decent scale at worst, and amazing at best.

As for fire warriors changing, I heard some wild speculation that Pulse carbines will turn to rapid-fire and rifles will turn to salvo, but as I said its wild speculation and I think equipping your guys with pulse rifles is a safe bet.

Tetra are the edge of markerlight goodness, take at least one per 750 point of your army if you can afford the bucks and you guys allow forgeworld. (more if you got no other buffing units such as the sensor tower, pathfinders, allies farseers, etc...)

As for the ion cannon-its unimpressive. either get all the way to Railgun (who will soon turn to the rail canon with cool new rules), or go forgeworld and get the plasma torrent, its just FAR more efficient then the ion for the same price.

About colors-I am going for solid DA green for armor over darkish brown for uniforms (plus touches of silver and red), so I cant advise you much there.

Can't really start with the battleforce as i am on a very limited budget. My cunning plan is to buy a new kit every month or so and buils up the army over a year-ish.

Also, the battleforce comes with Kroot and Stealth Suits, both of which are currently lack lustre (or so i've read).

The guys i play with are all fine with Forgeworld stuff - as long as it isn't stupidly OP, i have already cleared the idea of tetra units with them and they were fine.

At the minute i am scouring Ebay for soem sheap deals on firewarriors that i can use for painting practice.


Regarding the RailHead/IonHead arguement - Dont the Broadsides all have TwinLinked Railguns for S10 AP1? My thinking was with 6 broadside elsewhere on the table the Ion cannon would be a good anti MEQ/light armour option to have (the submunition mode looksa little sub-par tbh).

@Boomwolf - Rail Cannon and new rules? Please explain!

The Broadsides are great anti-tank units, but they're a lot less mobile than hammerheads. This means they're much more likely to get charged by something fast and tied down / torn apart in cc. The thing with 6th is that I seem to run into a lot less vehicles, so you won't really need more than, say, one unit of 2-3 broadsides in a 1.5k list.

The hammerhead is an all purpose tank with high resilience (3+ cover save from jink + d-pod and av13), mobility (skimmer and shoots as if fast) and a great all purpose main gun. Don't discount the submunition blast. Guide it in with two markerlights to negate cover and it'll rip apart hordes and necrons.

If you're considering forgeworld you might also want to give the hazard close combat armor a look. With pulse submunition rifles (stormbolter range s5ap6 pieplate, ignores cover) they're a great way to take out GeQ cowering behind aegis lines. Add to this that they're a fast attack choice with hit and run, defensive grenades and you have a solid toy to play with. Since there is no PSR variant model yet I'd recommend you to use a PIG model as base because, imo, it looks better than the other two (it doesn't have any silly wing-a-lings).

i keep forgetting that markerlights have multiple functions - i always though they just increased BS.

Going to spend my Christmas money and pick up my first box of Firewarriors on the 12th I think. I want to practice soem colour schemes before i buy anything too expensive and/or big.


PSR? PIG?

If my list pans out the way i am thinking i will only have 1 Fast Attack slot left (will use tetras in the other 2). Would the FW suits be a better fit in this slot than the other codex options (Pathfinders, Pirahnas, Drone)?

Assuming they work out alright i plan on buying a set of Tetras next - mostly coz they look so nice.

Well, I recently battled a Tau army (1500 pts) with Commander, 2 or 3 Crisis Suits, 2 Firewarrior squads, 20 Kroot, 3 Broadsides, and 5 o 6 Stealth Suits. He also attached some Drones to the Crisis and Broadsides. Its a very shooty army, but my Seer Council led by Fuegan and Harlies reached their front ranks. Tau surrendered.

 Praxiss wrote:
i keep forgetting that markerlights have multiple functions - i always though they just increased BS.

Going to spend my Christmas money and pick up my first box of Firewarriors on the 12th I think. I want to practice soem colour schemes before i buy anything too expensive and/or big.


PSR? PIG?

If my list pans out the way i am thinking i will only have 1 Fast Attack slot left (will use tetras in the other 2). Would the FW suits be a better fit in this slot than the other codex options (Pathfinders, Pirahnas, Drone)?

Assuming they work out alright i plan on buying a set of Tetras next - mostly coz they look so nice.

I wouldn't invest into the hazard suits before you've set up the rest of your army, really. They're comparably expensive, so it might be better to fill out your other choices first

The number one thing to remember is to magnetise your crisis suits. You will need to play around with the weapon options a bit until you find one that suits you, and magnetising lets you do this.

Oooh. Good plan!

Right - first purchase = Fire Warriors.

Also need to find a supplier and find out the right size magnets.

magnetising - is it best to have a magnet on each piece? or have a piece on metal on the main model, and a magnet just on the weapon itself? if anyoen coudl advise me as to the right size of magnet that would be grand as well.



This is all great advice by the way, many thanks to all of you!


What about vehicle add-ins?

Blacksun Filters seem to be a bit redundant. But Distortion Pods look to be pretty much a must-take. I'm also leaning towards Smart Missiles as a go-to option as well - decent range and no LOS requirements? Ahh, go on then.

Scour ebay for tau bits bags, i managed to build a fair chunk of my army for next to nothing chances are you will be doing this anyway just to get the weapons for your crisis suits.

Blacksun filters on your hammerhads for sure, dont bother on the devilfish.

Magnets depend on the quality of the magnets i guess, i have heard of people using just a piece of metal rather than two magnets but i tried it and it kept dropping off mid game.

what optiosn actually coem withthe suits then? One of each weapon?

Think i will get a set of thick magnets and a set of thinner ones to cut down on the drilling.

 Praxiss wrote:
Oooh. Good plan!

Right - first purchase = Fire Warriors.

Also need to find a supplier and find out the right size magnets.

magnetising - is it best to have a magnet on each piece? or have a piece on metal on the main model, and a magnet just on the weapon itself? if anyoen coudl advise me as to the right size of magnet that would be grand as well.



This is all great advice by the way, many thanks to all of you!


What about vehicle add-ins?

Blacksun Filters seem to be a bit redundant. But Distortion Pods look to be pretty much a must-take. I'm also leaning towards Smart Missiles as a go-to option as well - decent range and no LOS requirements? Ahh, go on then.

Welcome to the fight for the Greater Good!

Magnetising is the way forward for crisis suits, I wish id done it. I will eventually go back and do it methinks.

Blacksun Filters are the sex. They allow you to ignore a pesky turn of Night Fighting. Only us and DE can do this (I think?). You want these on almost everything for only 3/5pts a pop.

I approve of the IonHead, im leaning toward this aswell to rinse light vehicles, relying on Broadsides ( I favour TA's for them, to max hits) for AA. Railgun Pie plate is awesome vs hordes though.

Distortion Pods are awesome, but we have a 5+ jink save if we move now, so dont worry if you cant quite afford the points.

Mutitrackers on the Hammerhead and SMS Devilfish (AKA Warfish). You want to move 12" and shoot everything. Yes, yes you do

Run FW teams of 9. Best size I feel, others may have different opinions though. I never let them get closer than 15" to an enemy if I can help it. Rapid Fire range, then bail (unless holding an objective)

Shas'El for commander, with a TA to boost BS to 5. Cheaper HQ and as good as a Shas'O where it matters.

Shield Drones all up in this mother hubbard. 2 on every Crisis unit if points allow. 2 on Commanders too. And DEFINITELY 2 on the broadsides.

Best all round Crisis configuration are generally Deathrain (TL Missile Pods, and either a Flamer or TA in the 3rd hardpoint) or Fireknife (PR and Missile Pod, MT)

Pathfinders are fine, but as everyone has said, get Tetras if you can (I will be shortly!)

If youve read the codex you know the principles of Kauyon and Mont'ka. They are not mutually exclusive. Use the two ideas in conjunction. A heavy hitter (Mont'ka) becomes a lure (Kauyon) after one good turn of shooting something important.

These are the fundamentals I play by, but they are by no means the right way for everyone. I hope you find some of it helpful though

 Praxiss wrote:
what optiosn actually coem withthe suits then? One of each weapon?

Think i will get a set of thick magnets and a set of thinner ones to cut down on the drilling.

I've also seen people cut the head of a nail off and use that instead of a second magnet!

never thought of that, nold!

Why 2 Shield pods on a suit? According to the FAQ, a single pod gives the model the Stealth and Shrouded USR, both of which stack with each other. So that gives the model in question +3 to a cover save, even in open ground. All of a sudden trees and low walls are gving the suit a 2+ cover save!! if you had 2 woudln't that be takign up space that you coudl fill with a second weapon system? (am i right in thinking that a crisis suit has 3 hard points, the shield pod(s) woudl take up one each?)

I was planning on having 2 squads of 2 tetras in my final army.

Shield drones essentially give you an extra wound, right?


Right now the list in my head is

HQ (a FW character or at least an XV9 suit, maybe some bodyguard suits)
24 Fire Warriors with rifles - most likely 1 Devilfish for rapid redeployment and objective capturing
Crisis Suits (number and build yet to be decided)
2 squads of 2 tetras
2x3 Broadsides
1 Railhead

I really like the though of Smart Missiles as well so i'm thinking them as the secondary system on my RailHead and Broadsides.

A flamer on a Crisis suit seems little eird as surely if the enemy is within flamer range then you've done something wrong. The Fireknife build seems to make more sense. I suppose it depends on your local Meta.

Most of my regular opponents field at least 1 sqaud of terminators so i would be looking at taking a few AP2 guns mixed in.

I think you have confused shield pods and stealth field generators, shield pods give you a invulnerable save.

Shield drones have a 4++ and act as extra wounds, they count for morale checks though too. Also the controller takes 1 hard point for upto 2 drones.

The flamer is the cheap go-to weapon to fill out hard points, mainly for overwatch but get a bsf on at least one of the suits.

Looking at the usrs that the pods and things give you, it looks like 6th ed just requires a single model to have the upgrade in order for the whole squad to benefit.

I would suggest getting the codex to clarify that.

Edit: just saw in your other thread that you borrowed one.

A shield generator does not give you a usr, it just gives a ++ to the model carrying it.
Some gear does give a usr such as bsf and reverse vector thrusters.
However whilst a stealth field generator does give you the stealth and shrouded usrs you cannot buy these as wargear so you can only realistcally confer them to ic's attached stealth suits or sniper teams, doing these reduces the toughness of the character though in most cases.

Ah, i'm getting my wargear confused. Apologies.

Tetras are AMAZINGLY good. Gone are the days of paying what I like to call "the Pathfinder tax" to make your Tau army playable. I run 2 units of 2x Tetra as well. Nothing like shooting at BS 5 and turning that 4+ cover save into a 7+ (I.E. removing it). With 16 makerlight shots and another light on each of your FW 'uis, you'll be able to do some work.

My current philosophy is a Plasma Rifle on *EVERY* suit. Missle pods are alright, but the STR 7 doesn't make up for AP4 IMHO (when 7/10 players are in some kind of power armour).

That was my thinking as well. not so much PR spam, but enough that i have an answer to terminators as they are so prolific now.

Forget about Tetras. Yes, they're awesome. But they're awesome right now. If you're planning on building your army at one kit per month you're probably not going to be done with the fundamentals (2x troops, HQ, a Broadside or two) and ready to move on to support units like Tetras by the time the new codex arrives (in theory, early next year). And once the new codex arrives it might make Tetras a bad idea. So, the better plan is to buy the core HQ/troops that will always be useful, and another 1-2 crisis suits and/or Broadsides that will probably continue to be useful and then pick your support units once you see the new codex and get a better idea of what you'll want in the long run.

I have 24 Fire Warriors coming.

My plan is to field them thusly:

12 Warriors, Shas'ui, HWTL, Markerlight.
--that way the shas'ui can fire the markerlight at a different unit whiel to warriors rapid fire something (am i right in thinking that a unit can't benefit from it's own markerlights?).

I think the idea is to get in as many markerlights as possible to maximise my shooting.

I think if i'm taking my time i will try to get the FW Broadsides as they look nicer (and only a little bit more expensive). The GW Crisis suits look a little "clunky" to me and I am tempted to get FW ones of those too (i like the XV84) but we'll have to wait and see.



Here's a sample list i have put together. Just something to work towards:

What is that, 1500?

Just tweaked it a little based on some advice in another thread.

Comes in at 1497.

That is an extremely solid list (and you are correct that your own unit cannot benefit from a light your 'ui fired). Just remember to always fire the tetras first! Your 'ui marker lights WILL benefit from the tetra lights.

DId you intend to deploy all your suits, or deepstrike them?

Good hunting out there! For the Greater Good!

Cheesedoodler wrote:
Just remember to always fire the tetras first! Your 'ui marker lights WILL benefit from the tetra lights.

No they won't. Markerlights explicitly do not benefit from other markerlights (otherwise you'd use drones to help a pathfinder squad be BS 5).