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Hey guys, Posting up my latest Tau list (1750).
Any help / comments appreciated (that is with the list or just tau advice in general)
Thanks!

Commander Shad'E - 97l
Missle Pod, Plasma Rifle, Targetting Array, H-W Multi-Tracker
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Crisis Battlesuit x2 - 106
TL Missile Pod, Targetting Array

Stealth Suits x5 - 200
Targetting Array
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Fire Warriors x12 - 120

Fire Warriors x12 - 200
Devil Fish

Fire Warriors x12 - 200
Devil Fish

Kroot x16 w/ Shaper - 133
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Pathfinders x6 - 160
2x RailRifle w/ Target Lock
Devil Fish
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Hammerhead Gunship x2 - 370
Railgun Turret, Smart Missile System, Multi-Tracker, Target Lock, Disruption Pod, Decoy Launchers

Sniper Drone Team x2 160

Just a few things. Looks decent in general

- Axe the Shaper for some Kroot Hounds. Bodies are more important in your squads.
- I'd take out the rail-rifles and just keep the markerlights on the pathfinders. Two BS3 rail-rifles aren't going to make much difference in the game anyways.
- What's the purpose of your footslogging firewarrior team?

Ah, hybrid Tau if I ever saw it! Couple pointers though...

Your commander should not be left alone. An experienced adversary will blast him away at the first chance he can. Shield drones are good, so is a Shas'vre bodyguard.

If memory serves only your team-leader stealth suit will be able to have a target array. you're better off having him follow the pathfinders and benefitting from the increased BS from them.

Troop selection looks good. Should serve you well in 5th ed.

Markerlights but no seeker missiles?

Broadsides are better than hammerheads. If you feel you can live without the mobility (and most of the time you can) than do it! Less pricy...twin-linked...2+ save plus a shield drone...all this equals bad news for your opponent.

true.

but broadsides cant dish out a sub-lovin smack down with a side order of SMS now can they???

both hammerheads, and broadiseds have their uses. with the hored armies being more prevelent in 5th ed. i think at least one pie plate is a must have.



though i would drop the decoy launchers on the heads. it has to be a glancing hit in order to get the benifit. and would still settle down to the ground insted of crash and burn. then you have a handy dandy rail gun SMS pil box that blocks LOS and has a 4+ cover save.

-Drop the Snipers
-Get rid of those Rail rifles... if you do ever get a chance to shoot them, they won't do much
-Drop some Stealthies
-Drop the Shaper

With all those points, get another Devilfish.

Thanks for the replies!

- Axe the Shaper for some Kroot Hounds. Bodies are more important in your squads.
- I'd take out the rail-rifles and just keep the markerlights on the pathfinders. Two BS3 rail-rifles aren't going to make much difference in the game anyways.
- What's the purpose of your footslogging firewarrior team?

- I haven't looked at kroot hounds before, thats a great idea.
- I agree with the rail-rifles on the pathfinders, they are out.
- The reason for the footslogging firewarriors was a lack in points for their DF, I thought i may be able to get away with parking the pathfinders somewhere nice, and making use of their DF to pick up the other guys when needed.
Being a hybrid type list, I thought at least 1 team would be needed to create a decent static firebase. (near the kroot preferably) Also if the scenario Dawn of War is rolled, they serve to get some first turn pressure fire going on,
while the rest of the team moves in. The pathfinders DF could then pick them up if they needed to move next turn.

Your commander should not be left alone. An experienced adversary will blast him away at the first chance he can. Shield drones are good, so is a Shas'vre bodyguard.

If memory serves only your team-leader stealth suit will be able to have a target array. you're better off having him follow the pathfinders and benefitting from the increased BS from them.

Troop selection looks good. Should serve you well in 5th ed.

Markerlights but no seeker missiles?

- My commander does need a bit of survivability. He usually joins a squad in game, but yeah some bodyguards would be cool.
- The stealth suits are all allowed to take target array's, I don't have a leader in the squad atm to save points.
- I'm not really sure about how to use the seeker missiles. I usually use the marker lights to aid my firewarriors bs. I think using the lights to take them from a bs 3 to a 4 is necessary. So shooting the pathfinders towards infintry makes the
missiles kinda pointless? I don't know, how do you guys use them?

though i would drop the decoy launchers on the heads

- Dropped

-Drop the Snipers
-Get rid of those Rail rifles... if you do ever get a chance to shoot them, they won't do much
-Drop some Stealthies
-Drop the Shaper

With all those points, get another Devilfish

- Not sure if I want to drop the snipers, I use them as another source of target locked marker lights. Open for some convincing though
- Min is 3 for the squad, not sure if i want to go that low. If i had 3 and 1 died, I would allready be taking ld tests. 15 seems like a good ammount of shots to me.
- Shaper dropped
- Maybe something other than a 4th devilfish is needed. I still think i can get away with 3. Maybe a pirhana, or more crysis suits. What do you guys think?

I'm going to be working out a new list after working out this stuff, thanks for the help guys.
-

Crisis suits are fantastic in Tau armies, as they are the only place you can get mobile plasma (plasma's a waste on Broadsides anyway) and Missile Pods, which fill a key gap in the Tau armory. It's also the only place to get flamers, but some folks don't like to take them.

SUITS.

I play a Farsight Tau army (played two official games with them so far. Lost vs Grey Knights the first time, then beat Khorne Daemons the second time.) and Crisis Suits are bloody amazing. I had 14 of them + Farsight for the Daemons game, and they were all still alive at the end. All but ONE of my Fire Warriors died. (The one Fire Warrior who lived actually KILLED a Juggernaut in CC after his squad died, then he went on the capture an objective!)

Anywho, Crisis Suits = YES. Take at least a squad of them.

Having a foot slogging unit of fire warriors hijack the Pathfinder's ride is standard practice. They don't need their own.

And why not give all your fish disruption pods? A 4+ cover save for 5 points? Gimme!

As said, crisis suits are amazing. Whether you're getting flanked by transports or some termies just deepstriked next to your broadsides, those guys are great at reacting to a lot of what you find getting thrown at you from all different kinds of armies. Deathrain, Sunforge, Fireknife...take your pick, they're all just a little marvelous...

I'm trying to think about the math for your stealth suits...the odds say they should normally get 7.5 hits, and you're spending 50 ponits to bump that to 10 hits. It doesn't seem worth it to me, but of course the next time they shoot you will roll 7 threes and curse me and my unborn children. And I wouldn't appreciate that. But consider exchanging them for 3 Fireknife suits and leave my future family out of this.

Those Snipers are two of three static units in your army... What if you traded them for a Hammerhead w/ a railgun, burst cannons, and a disruption pod?

I don't understand having target locks on your Heads. I've never been in a situation where just one SMS was enough to kill something and where I really needed to fire the second SMS at another unit.

In fact, if you run with 3 Railheads like I suggested, you would save 65 points and have enough for another Fireknife! But is that worth the SMSs? Maybe. They both work fine against the same targets, and you free up 20 points.

As listed your pathfinders should be 172 (72+20+80). And since you asked about how we use them:
Pathfinders like targeting the tough or big stuff. I might be Officer Obvious in saying that, but you look to see what the rest of your army can see, and you pick the toughest enemy unit--not just the one the most of your units can see. Hopefully with you're maneuvering, they're one and the same. In the case when you're picking the biggest meanie in the bunch, a couple of seeker missles can really help--especially when you can't get more units with a LOS to the thing. But even for 10 points a piece I think they can really add up quick for anything less than 2000. But maybe that's just me.

You're list looks fun as it is...but if you're wanting to win against tough opponents, methinks you need to change a thing or two.

Okay, Here is take two of my Tau army list. I took some of what you gave me, and a little of my own configuring and came up with this.
I'm not sure if I like this as the original list as I lost some really cool units. No more stealth squad, and no more sniper drones. Also played with
the idea of a 2 man piranha squad which are really cool, but they just don't fit point wise. It always feels like these point caps are bursting at the seams :p


Commander Shad'El - 122
Missle Pod, Plasma Rifle, Drone Controller, H-W Multi-Tracker, Bonding Knife, 2xShield Drones

Shas'Vre Body Guard x2 - 164
Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Targetting Array, H-W Multi-Tracker
__________________________________________________

Crisis Battlesuit x2
Shas'Vre - TL Missile Pod, Drone Controller, 2x Gun Drones, H-w Blacksun Filter, Bonding Knife
TL Missile Pod, Target Lock

Crisis Battlesuit x3
Shas'Vre - TL Plasma Rifle, Drone Controller, 2x Gun Drones, H-W Blacksun Filter, Bonding Knife
2x - TL Plasma Rifle, Target Lock

Total - 332
___________________________________________________

Fire Warriors x12 - 120

Fire Warriors x12 - 200
Devil Fish

Fire Warriors x12 - 200
Devil Fish

Kroot x16 - 112
__________________________________________________

Pathfinders x6 - 140
Devil Fish
___________________________________________________

Hammerhead Gunship x2 - 360
Railgun Turret, Smart Missile System, Multi-Tracker, Target Lock, Disruption Pod

_____________________________________________________________________________________________

I really do like the added Crisis Suits, and I think they will serve me well. I still have a few questions about playing this list though.
My Brother says that the plasma rifles arn't that great a gun because they only shoot once, and he says what will 1 wound do for the big picture
when most units will have 6 - 10 models in it. Not that great for vehicles either unless your shooting at armor 10. What does everyone else think
about the use of these str 6 ap2 weapons?

Also I had a question myself about the use of firewarriors in a mech army. How long do they usually stay embarked, and when would be the best time to drop them? Last game I played I kept them embarked until turn three, where the opposing army was finally within rapid fire range, and already broken up a bit. The rapid fire blew the rest of them away which was awsome, I thought I was going to win with almost 0 casualties. unfortunately once these two squads hit the table they got prism blasted by 2 prisms, and assaulted by the avatar and both got cleared out in one turn What looked like a clear victory turned into a tie by turn 5. I guess I'm not sure what they are really supposed to do with their devilfish, and deployment.

Last question, I was wondering about my Railheads. I'm always debating whether to shoot down enemy heavies, such as prisms, or use them to submunition troop choices to death. One direct hit on a squad of avengers will kill a bunch, maybe even wipe out the squad, but then the enemy heavies are there to blast me away. Either way you can't blow everything up, so which is the most efficient use of the railheads?

Thanks again for the tips!

Plasma rifles are rapid fire, so they only shoot once if you're at range, also aren't they S7?

Dropping troops. The trick (and this goes for debarking any mounted unit) is to decide what you want them to achieve - then drop them as soon as you're in position. If their job is to capture an objective 3 feet away, you want them in the transport for 2 or 3 turns so they can get there. If you want to kill a paritcular unit, drop them at optimal range using standard fish of fury tactics.
Remember, the strength of a Tau army is shooting and as long as they are embarked, they're not shooting anything!

Railheads: Kill what can kill them! S10 72" range is the game's ultimate tank killer. Correctly equipped you can move 12" and still fire, meaning you can keep moving out of range until your enemies are dead! As soon as the Prisms/Land Raiders/LRBTs etc are dead, then pie plate enemy dev squads. Repeat until you tank cannot be killed - then have fun

"Plasma rifles are rapid fire, so they only shoot once if you're at range, also aren't they S7?"

tau plasma rifles are str6- but do not get hot. An interesting trade off imo.

- You don't want to disembark your firewarriors until a) you are absolutely sure you can kill your target and/or your enemy has nothing to counter-shoot/assault your team b) claim an objective late game. The mindset you want is it's better to not get shot than to shoot.
- Railgun should take care of things the rest of your army can't, this being heavy tanks as priority.

Not a big fan of shield drones, you basically get a 4+ cover save from just standing around in 5th ed, there's no need to pay 30 points for that