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Wow! It has been a LONG time since I posted here. ATT is just too hard to get feed back on all aspects of a list now and they dont condone posting lists any more.

So here is my problem. I am stuck at a cross roads as to what to do for the semi finals round. I lost the other day to HugeEldars wraith gaurd list in a practice game. I won my local ard boyz but I dont want to go to semi finals and not go to baltimore this year. As such I am trying my best to tweak my cadre every-which way possible.

Im going to post up 3 lists. The first will be the list I took to Ard boyz. I felt it lacked the punch I want a list to have for a tourney but it was what I had tweaked to so far. The 2nd list is a revised version of the first list, using the knowledge I had from the first round of ard boyz. The third list is a Farsight list. Something I haven't tried since the last tau codex when farsight and his 7 man crew got sweeping advanced by a squad of dire avengers. Now I feel it might be competitive.

Any input you have will be greatly appreciated. In particular I am looking for feed back on the farsight list. Playing with or against the enclave is in particular. How it does vs other armies and the such.

#1
Ard Boyz 2008 Rd 1

Fi'Rios Expansion Cadre

HQ-

214 Shas'el- Plasma Rifle, Missle Pod, Hw Multi Tracker, Positional Relay, Hw Dronce Controler, Shield drones x2
Body Gaurd- PR, MP, Hw MT, Targeting Array
199 Shas'el- PR, MP, MT, DC, SDx2
Body Gaurd- PR, MP, Hw MT, TA

Troops-

183 Kroot x17 Hounds x4 Shaper
230 Firewarriors x10
Devil Fish- SMS, MT, FD, TA, DP
205 Firewarriors x10
Devil Fish- MT, FD, DP
205 Firewarriors x10
Devil Fish- MT, FD, DP

Elites-

141 XV-8 x3- TL MP, Flamer
129 XV-8 x3- TL Flamer, MP
186 XV-8 x3- Team Leader, cyclical ion blaster, PR, MT x1, PR, BC, MT x2

Heavy-

190 Hammer Head- Railgun, SMS, MT, TL, DP, FD
190 Hammer Head- Railgun, SMS, MT, TL, DP, FD
210 Broadside x2- Team Leader, Plasma Rifle, MT, ASS,x1 Ass x1

Fast-

226 Pathfinders x8
Devil Fish- SMS, MT, FD, TA, DP

_________
2498


#2
Ard Boyz 2008 Rd 1 REVISED LIST


Fi'Rios Expansion Cadre

HQ-

296 Shas'el- Plasma Rifle, Missle Pod, Hw Multi Tracker, Positional Relay, Hw Dronce Controler, Shield drones x2
Body Gaurd- PR, MP, Hw MT, Targeting Array x2

Troops-

175 Kroot x10 Krootox x3
60 Fire Warriors x6
60 Fire Warriors x6
200 Firewarriors x10
Devil Fish- MT, FD, DP
200 Firewarriors x10
Devil Fish- MT, FD, DP
200 Firewarriors x10
Devil Fish- MT, FD, DP

Elites-

245 Stealth x6 team leader, DC, Marker Drone x2
129 XV-8 x3- TL Flamer, MP
186 XV-8 x3- Team Leader, cyclical ion blaster, PR, MT x1, PR, BC, MT x2

Heavy-

180 Hammer Head- Railgun, BC, MT, TL, DP, FD
180 Hammer Head- Railgun, BC, MT, TL, DP, FD
190 Broadside x2- ASS, SD x2

Fast-

196 Pathfinders x8
Devil Fish- MT, FD, DP

_________
2497


#3

2500 Ard Boyz Farsight Enclave Prototype

170 Farsight
677 Body Gaurd- Fireknife, positional relay, Failsafe Detonator TL
fireknife, TA, shield drone TL
fireknife, TA, shield drone x2 TL
Fireknife, TA, TL
Helio, TA
Helio, TA, Shield Drone
Aurora, TA, TL, Shield Drone

150 Stealth x5
129 TL Flamer MP x3
129 TL Flamer MP x3

170 Fire warriors x6
Devil Fish- SMS, TA, MT, FD, DP
170 Fire warriors x6
Devil Fish- SMS, TA, MT, FD, DP
60 Fire warriors x6
60 Fire warriors x6
60 Fire warriors x6
60 Fire warriors x6

180 Hammer Head Rail Gun, BC, MT, DP, TL, FD
190 Broadside x2 ASS SD x2
240 Sniper Drone Team x3

2500

I played a very similar farsight list at the 2007 'ard boyz. it did pretty well, but I wasn't very familiar with it at 2500 points and so most of my games ended early, to my detriment.

I think the main difference was my fire warriors all had markerlights, and one of the crisis squads was actually two pirahas. maybe I had thrown some pathfinders in as well (farsight squad+ 3 or 4 markerlights = good bye target). I wouldn't use the piranhas now.

Your list seems pretty solid, but I'll make some comments anyway

First - you don't need so many target locks. There are a lot of big squads and hard targets in 'ard boyz, you don't need to divide your fire so much.

i go back and forth on this, but I really feel like farsight's squad should be almost entirely fireknives, maybe one helios. Just lay waste to what you want to lay waste to. You still don't want to end up too close to most assault units in the game, don't pretend farsight is a real assault unit.

I'd drop a squad of fire warriors to give some of them markerlights. I might actually drop two sqads - use the points from one to get markerlights for some, and the other points to buy say 6 pathfinders instead. Use the pathfinder's devilfish to cart some fire warriors around.

First good luck with the Tau. I love to play them as well.

IMO Farsight is way too big of a liability to bring. First round last year I played against Farsight, I put enough fire in to make him take morale on the first turn and he ran off the table. It isn't incredibly likely that he runs, but 850 points in one place? Way too many eggs in one basket.

I like your second list, tweaks that I would make:
Ditch the krootox for a few hounds. Maybe 16-18 total models in the squad, krootox just mess up the flexibility and cheapness that is a mid sized kroot squad. Also ditch one of the 60 point firewarrior squads and use the other points from the krootox to get a second kroot squad of 10 kroot and 6-8 hounds.

Use the only firewarriors without devilfish in the pathfinders ride. That way all of your troops are mounted or kroot.

I would drop a couple firewarriors from each of the mounted units to get SMS on their devilfish, I think that you get to use them more often, you aren't tempted to unload your firewarriors and get them killed as much, and you don't give up kill points for all the stupid drones unloading.

I am not a huge fan of stealth suits, but if you like them go ahead. My only other suggestion is to make all of the weapons in a given squad of crisis suits the same weapons. That way you don't miss out on shooting some of them or some being less effective against your chosen target for the turn. Then you have dedicated unit priorities.

All together though it looks fairly solid.

Very nice in general. I'm not too keen on either Shaper or Krootox, but the heavy support choices, hq choices (other than Farsight which I'm not sure of, have never played with or against him) and elite choices are good. Stealthsuits is my biggest concern there, but people seem to be able to do some good with them so perhaps they can pull their weight.

I'd use list #1. Seems kind of similar to the lists I've been thinking of lately.

Not convinced markerlights in firewarrior squads are that good.

Other than that I'll just keep my mouth shut and point at what Froggage has written above.

So I have dropped the Farsight idea. Here is a pretty solid list I have put together going to give it a try a couple time tonight. Probably pretty close to what I will end up running at ard boyz.
2500 revised ard boys


299 hq fk fs w/ abfp bs w/ cib PoR sd x2
212 Kroot x20 hounds x12
230 hammer fish fw x8
230 hammer fish fw x8
80 fw x8
80 fw x8
178 fk fs bs (sub BC for FB)
170 fk fs bs
129 tl flamer
180 hh
180 hh rail bc, mt, dp, fd, tl
190 bs x2 sd x2
155 pathfinders x5 hammer fish
155 pathfinders x5 hammer fish

Hammer fish?

I'd split the kroot squad in two personally, but I haven't tried that big of a squad on the other hand.

And those crisis suits, fk fs bs? Fireknife I guess, and then what? Haven't played Tau (or 40k for that matter) for that long so it may just be me.

If you get any spare points I think you should pour them into your pathfinder squads.

I'm not sure how competitive it is against the lists you'll be up against, but I really like the list. It's well balanced and your firewarriors can sit inside if threatened or shoot away with the option of hiding later if needed.

I think your best Tau armies still look basically like this:

6 Devilfish borne-Fire Warrior squads, 2 Railgun-hammerheads, 1 unit of Broadsides, then all the Fireknife crisis suits you can fit in the list.

Hide the guys in the AV 12 units and then behind them if the tanks get busted. JSJ is ruined, but you can still just try a straight shooting fight with the your non-scoring vs. their nonscoring, reinforced by missiles from the fish.

I think that the efficiency of the railguns depend quite a lot on markerlights though, so they aren't going to be hitting as much as they would with a few markerlights (statement of the year, I know, but the point still stands).

A unit of outflanking kroot can make your opponent play quite a bit differently, fearing the kroot as either assaulters or objective-holders.

And fireknifes are quite expensive. They are good, no doubt, but expensive. Perhaps a Deathrain thrown in there can work wonders.

But I get the feeling that one should start with the army you describe and work from there. That is the base platform to tweak from.

700-750 points left for suits for the 6xDF+heavy support. One can get up to 10 crisis suits or so for those points.

I still think that 5xDevilfish, Heavy Support, 2 Pathfinder teams and one kroot would work better. The crisis suits should generally be a mix of deathrains and fireknifes. Perhaps tweak a HQ or an elite squad a bit more to your taste. ..and tada. As good as Tau gets.

Not sure exactly how good that is.
Does it work against Rhino/Immolator Witchhunters? Land Raider Spam? Drop Pods with Ironclads?