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Anyone have any good ideas for a Tau army at 1500 pts? Kroot seem more like a natural choice now. Pathfinders also seem more viable with the new TLOS rules.

Help me out with feedback.

Kroot suck, a lot, now. Their only advantage was being able to see out of area terrain 12", so they can shoot and not be shot. That is gone to hell. They are completely useless.

Fishy(Mech) Tau seems to be where its at now. Free 4+ save, everywhere. Very useful.

A basic Tau list Template:

HQ-Shas'O
-Airbursting Frag Projector OR Cyclic Ion Blaster
-Burst Cannon
-Multitracker
-Hard Wired Drone Controller
-Shield Drone
-Stimulant Injector
Total-128-133p
XV8 Bodyguard x2
-Missile Pod(x2)
-Plasma Rifle(x2)
-Multitracker(x2)
-Hard Wired Drone Controller(x2)
-Shield Drone(x2)
Total-174p

Elite-3x XV8 Squad
-Fusion Blaster(x3)
-Missile Pods(x3)
-Multi-Tracker(x3)
-Hard Wired Drone Controller(x3)
-Shield Drone(x3)
Total-207p

Troops-12x Fire Warriors
Shas'la
-Bonding Knife
-Marker Light
Devifish(110p)
-Smart Missile System
-Targeting Array
-Disruption Pods
Total-255p

Troops-12x Fire Warriors
Shas'la
-Bonding Knife
-Marker Light
Devifish(110p)
-Smart Missile System
-Targeting Array
-Disruption Pods
Total-255p

Troops-12x Fire Warriors
Shas'la
-Bonding Knife
-Marker Light
Devifish(110p)
-Smart Missile System
-Targeting Array
-Disruption Pods
Total-255p

Heavy Support-Broadside
-Drone Controller
-2x Shield Drones
Total-100p

Heavy Support-Broadside
-Drone Controller
-2x Shield Drones
Total-100p

Total-1474p

I think I'm doing somethign wrong, but I'm not that familiar with tau.

Haven't played Tau since 4th, so I could be wrong but....

Don't those battlesuits have an awful lot of guns? I used to put either 1 missile pod and another gun or 2, but not 2 and 2 more guns! If it is like this now...wow. Or are you just trying to give him stuff to pick from?

HotSoup wrote:Kroot suck, a lot, now. Their only advantage was being able to see out of area terrain 12", so they can shoot and not be shot. That is gone to hell. They are completely useless.

Fishy(Mech) Tau seems to be where its at now. Free 4+ save, everywhere. Very useful.

Really? I have found them to be the only troop choice worth a crap now for tau. I think the key is hounds, and outflank.

I have about 5 games in with Tau under 5th. They unfortunately took a pretty big hit with TLOS. The consolidation thing was a big swing in our favor, but the leadership modifier is absolutely brutal.

I was Crisis heavy, I think I am going to start going Stealth heavy. Crisis suits are just to big to hide anymore, and they die fast. I really think the stealths w/ gun drones and outflank may have something going for them.

Definitely 3 Hammerheads. They are the only proven killer. If somebody cries cheese, tell them to try to win with tau without them.

I think with TLOS Broadsides are more worthless than ever. Sure they may survive every game (only if your enemy doesnt deep strike) but they arent going to hit anything without giving it a cover save. Against a good enemy with vehicles worth firing the BS at, he will keep either out of LOS or enough that he gets a save while giving him full view of his target. Railheads can respond to enemy movement.

With the "always 4+ cover" that is the DPod in fifth, you are silly not to take three railheads.

Kroot are good. They keep the enemy off your gunline for at least a turn, and that is worth 70 points. Iver never really used them offensively so I cant comment on that, but they still do the defensive role well.

For suits I like 3 with BC MP. You get the same shots as 5 stealth, but less points and 6 of those shots are str. 7 instead of 5.

I think MP PR took a hit because of all the cover. I never really liked it because it doesnt put out enough fire anyway though.

Twin fusion is still a good deppstriker as either monat or twin suits. Less likely to die if you mess up the DS.

I think I might try BC twin Flamer at some point. I think that would be interesting...

I wouldn't ever call a railgun worthless. Sure Broadsides are fireplatforms, that's why the good Aun in the sky gave us markerlights and pathfinder teams.

Kroot should never be used offensively, I agree, with S3 and I3, they're not going to do much offensively anyways. To be honest, I never really liked them, but I do use them just as an annoy unit.

I'm still a fan of the fireknife, even though I originally ran the numbers on BC and MP. The thing is, with the range of the BC, you may as well take a rapid-firing plasma rifle. AP 2 still counts for something, just not if you're blasting away at range. Something I'm trying right now if the PR and Flamer combo.

kroot are better than firewarriors in 5th. both suck, but you dont have a choice about that. a large (HAS to be 15+models i reckon) kroot squad with hounds outflanking is scary, especially since if you get them into cover theyre hard to get rid of. it doesnt matter that they have no saves, +4 cover is all they need. it doesnt matter that they dont have decent guns, the rest of your army makes up for it. they are there to sit on an objective, absorbing fire that would otherwise be directed at your precious suits.

for suit make-up, the ol' Plasma Rifle/Missile Pod combo will probably be phased out in favour of Pr/Burst Cannon or Missile pod/Burst Cannon as we see an increase in the number of horde armies and a fall in the number of low model MEQ armies. dont buy shield generators for your suits. they will be getting a 4+cover save against anything that can pierce their armour and most things that ignore cover saves arent enough to worry about.

pathfinder are looking a lot better now, especially since you can give their transport to a squad of firewarriors to keep them out of trouble. i wouldnt take more than one squad though, they do rack up points pretty quickly.

boardsides arent as good as they used to be. they take a big hit with TLOS giving vehicles a coversaveand arent manuverble to get around this. hammerheads, on the other hand, become really fantastic. with a multi-tracker they can move 6" and fire all their guns or 12" and fire 1, which is much better than every other tank in the game if you consider its weapon options. with a distruption beacon it can do whatever the hell it like, safe in the knowlege that its coversave can protect it. take hammerheads as your heavy choices. each 5th tau army should probably have 2 of them.

i would write you a list, but i cant find my 'dex.

Yeah, with my Marines it's just playing 'avoid the hammerhead' until I can get into combat. Rarely try to kill the one that I regularly play against, so two would be a pain... although it would take another trio of Crisis suits out of my friend's list, so it's not bad.

Thanks for the feedback guys. This helps alot.