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mainly need the pro's and con's of both armies.
only reason im stuck between the 2;

guard: love the catatchen models, love ogryns and sentinals, and could have some fun making rough riders using the new DE coldones.

Tau: just pure shootyness, ive allways used CC armies, and its a break from that, S5 weps as standard, and battlesuits, love the look of them (nice and Manga like, allmost armoured core looking)


sorry for any mistakes on SP, think my keyboards dying as it keeps missing letters.

Both are solid armies that can be a lot of fun to play. All in all, I think it really depends on what you are looking for in an army. The models from both lines have very distinctive flavor differences so depending on which style you like more (and feel like painting) you might have your choice made already. Beyond that, the play styles of the two can be very similar or very different depending on how each is done. Tau armies have 2 basic build concepts/elements, gun line or mech and the army changes a fair amount depending on how much of each you put in. Eldar are a much more varied force. They have a good selection of shooty, hand to handy, mech, and tough units. The key to playing eldar is to understand the relationships between the various units you've chosen and get them to work together cohesivly. This makes eldar a much more dynamic army to play, but it also makes it a much harder army to master. Tau are more straight forward.

Eldar are an army ive sworn never to use, last tourney i played 3 different eldar armies.

the mech style, which i jut blew apart with a mix of warp blasts and babed stranglers
Result - extermination

Aspect style, was a pain once the banshees got into combat, but all died quickly.
Result - 2nd exterination.

Saim haan (SP?) which was the most annoying army ive ever played, allways zipping about behind me, but just got shot out of the sky.
Result - massacre.

no matter what eldar army ive faced with my nids i just shot them to pieces then rushed into CC.

reason i want to play tau is they will be a much bigger challenge as i cant rely on CC atall.

guard simply for the convertions.
where as i dont get to convert tau so much.

Pros and Cons of Guard versus Tau

Tau mass more firepower. Basic weapon is S5. Most common anti-tank is S10 Ap1. Tanks have disruption pods and landing gear. Tau are pretty rigid in their troop makeup and deployment. A Firewarrior Squad is a Firewarrior Squad and they're not going to change up much.

Guard allow more flexibility. Drop troops, chameleoline, inquisitorial allies, vet and command squads special weapons spam, you can tailor your list to counter just about anything. Guard are very adaptable. Fighting heavy mech? Meltagun spam. Fighting monstrous creatures? Plasma gun spam. Fighting Lash? Inquisitor with psychic hood. Fighting massed infantry? Field massed tanks. A downside to playing Guard is that you seem to want to use Ogryns, which are terrible.

i know, but ive allways loved ogryns since i used to "help" my brother paint them lol, great models but i take it thier statline dosent do them justice.

only off putting things about guard are the lack of armour saves in the army, and the sheer ammount of painting involved (would be digi or red tiger camo catatchen)
and apparently rough riders are somewhat rubbish by thier rules, i was thinking about a unit or 2 of catatchin riding beasts (catatchen on a cold one usng RR profile)

as with tau they are fairly small in numbers, amazing weaps and tech, and have a great manga look to them.

JD21290 wrote:

...and apparently rough riders are somewhat rubbish by thier rules, i was thinking about a unit or 2 of catatchin riding beasts (catatchen on a cold one usng RR profile)

Which Gaktard told you this pearl of wisdom? Rough riders are THE best thing in a gaurd army, forget the tanks, everyone expects them, forget the lascannons, bah, we pay more than marines and are less likely to hit/survive, ignore the massed rank of lasguns illuminaing their foes in the name of the emperor (and occasionally causing some really severe retinal damage...)

nothing says "screw you" better than the cavalry counter charge against what's left of your opponents crack assault squads and then the look on your face when you explain that "yes those gaurdsmen on horses do have 2 strength 5 power weapon attacks at initiative 5"

oh and a threat range of 24".

my friend beserkers tremble at the thunder of hooves.

oh and if you give the melta bombs you can go super heavy hunting in appocalypse, that's also fun...

thank you vomp
im now thinking of this as a fast attack

1: 5+ RR's
2: 5+ RR's
3: 3 sentinals - lascannons.

and i dont care for tanks, will be a sea of guards.


Edit: also vomp, dont wanna be a pain in the arse, but any chance you have thier points and possible upgrades? wanna make sure they will be WYSIWYG, apart from the jungle boyz riding cold ones.

With the plethora of cover, you may not like tanks, but you should strongly consider a hellhound or two.

going with fluuf i will be using the jugle would be too dense for tanks to be any use, sure, a hellhound woul clear it, but it would slow down the troops and attract attention.

Okay, JD21290, I used to think that I hopped between armies - but man, settle on one for a little while!

Roughriders are a decent countercharge unit..... once only, in the first round of combat. After that, they're just faster moving IG.
Regarding the three sentinels, have you thought about putting some sentinels in the HQ Command Platoon?

My personal preference is Tau, because, well, I play them.

Crisis Suits are THE GREATEST thing EVER. Fighting Terminators? Oh here, eat some plasma that doesn't overheat. Fighting Guard? Here, have some pulse beams from my burst cannon(s). Sentinels/Rear Armor Ten vehicles? Here comes Missile Pods. Plus the Jump-Shoot-Jump tactic is awesome.

Guard are definately a tough army though. My main opponent was Guard for a long time. I still haven't played them as Tau, but I'm sure it will be a good game when it happens!

ROUGHRIDERS, are a pain in the ass. I'd definately suggest taking a squad or two of them.

monkey, it aint possible
only armies i dont have:

40k: dark eldar, eldar, IG, tau, sister.

WFB: dwarf.

nope don, but i will now.
any idea on the max ammount of sentinels you can field?
by that i mean not just squads.

im stuck between the 2 :(
love battlesuits and the whole tau look.

butlove sentinels just as much, and RR's :(

Well, I opt for Tau. Go for a mech Tau army with Fire Warriors in Devilfishs, heavy support tanks, and Battle Suits.

if i collect tau i will have 6 units of 10 fire warriors.
want a nice fire line of pulse rifles.
maybe some drones thrown in aswell to get in the way, if points permit.

as for heavy it would be broads, a railhead and a ionhead.

if i collect tau i will have 6 units of 10 fire warriors.
want a nice fire line of pulse rifles.

A mech army is more fun to play.

i play main 3k - 4k point games, so it will be possible to throw in a DF or 2, but i just hate em lol.
firewarriors dont need to move much.

firewarriors dont need to move much.

Fish of fury is a useful tactics (slowing down the enemy's advance, outmaneuvering).

and once the fish get blown up, which it will, i have a scoring unit stranded close to the enemy, who will allways have stronger CC troops ready to finish the off.

The enemy has to decide what to shoot. The DF or the FWs. If she blows up the DF the FWs can shoot while moving back.

i rather keep a solid wall of fire while slowly moving forward.

How about infiltrators or scouting units? Two squads of Scorpions can be endlessly annoying.

scorpions can be dealt with easily.

a nice rail gun sub shot should do plenty of damage, and 1 or 2 FW squads should be able to mop them up.

Scorpions are mean in cc and can take down FWs quickly. But thanks to the new edition, they will stand in the open unable to consolidate into another enemy unit.

i know just how good they are
its bashees that would worry me more, faster, no saves, and allways gunna hit me 1st.

once again, just shoot them to death, rather waste 1/4 of my shooting on 1 unit to keep it away from my line.

If you have success with a static gun line, then go for it.
I'm curious if there will be Tau armies at the GT final (Oct.); I'll play mech Eldar.

ive allways used a static gunline for 1 of my nid armies, and that killed most armies by tern 3 or 4, so im hoping the tau can do better.

Well, full annihilation by turn 3 or 4? Sounds incredible. I recently battled a Nidzilla army with mech Eldar and annihilated most of the units (one wounded HT and one Gaunt squad left) by turn 6.

mainly due to the army list:

HT - barbed, talons
HT - barbed, talons

5 warriors - 4 deathspitters, 1 barbed
5 warriors - 4 deathspitters, 1 barbed
5 warriors - 4 deathspitters, 1 barbed

16 spine gaunts
16 spine gaunts
16 spine gaunts
16 termigaunts - devourers
16 termigaunts - devourers
16 termigaunts - devourers

5 raveners - devourers
5 raveners - devourers
10 gargoyles

Fex - barbed - claws alot of upgrades
Fex - barbed - claws alot of upgrades
Fex - barbed - claws alot of upgrades

my shooty army of death, plenty of templates