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HQ


Crisis Shas'o 75
Plasma Rifle 20
Twin Linked Fusion Blaster 18
HW-Multi Tracker 5
HW-Drone Controller
2x Shield Drones 30
Iridium Armor 20
Stimulant Injector 10
Bonding Knife 5

183

Retinue
2x Crisis Shas'vre 70
Plasma Rifle 40
Twin Linked Fusion Blaster 36
HW-MT 10
HW-Drone Controller
1x and 2x Shield Drone 45(one has one, the other has 2)
201

Troops


Fire Warrior Squad(12) 120

Fire Warrior Squad(10) 100
Carbines
Shas'ui 10
Bonding Knife 5, Drone Controller, 2x Gun Drone20

Fire Warrior Squad(10) 100
Shas'ui 10
Bonding Knife 5, Drone Controller, 2x Gun Drone20

Elites

Crisis Suit Team(3) 75
Team Leader 5
Twin Linked Missile Pod 18, Plasma Rifle 20, HW multi Tracker 5, HW Drone Controller, 2x Shield Drone 30
2xShas'ui-- Missile Pod 24, Plasma Rifle 40, Multi Tracker 10

Stealthsuit Team(3) 90
Team leader 5, Markerlight 10, Fusion Blaster 2, HW Drone Controller, 2x Shield Drones 30, Targeting Array 10, HW Multi Tracker 5
Shas'ui x2-- Targeting Array 20


Fast Attack


Pathfinder Team(5) 60
Devilfish 80, DP 5

Heavy Support

Hammerhead Gunship 90
Railgun 50, SMS 20, DP 5, MT 10, TL 5

Totals up to 1498

I made sure my HQ was all unique for wound allocation, so they get to be cannon fodder and distraction. They should be able to soak up a ton of fire while dealing out anti MEQ and vehicle shots.

The other crisis team is general purpose shooting, the stealth team is there to JSJ with markers and anti infantry if the enemy gets close enough, or tanking hunting if necessary

Pathfinders for marking of course, Hammerhead for heavy anti vehicle and anti mobs

32 fire warriors with 4 gun drones seemed a solid base.

People argue over pulse carbines and rifles, personally i like amix of them. Rifles have a pure range benefit over carbines, but carbines are more mobile and safe. A carbine can move and fire 18 inches away, while the rifle has to be stationary to fire over 12 inches. even though you get 2 shots at 12 inches, 12 fire warriors will miss 12 shots, wound with about 6-8 of them(assuming 3 avg toughness, 4 less common but still frequent toughness) and will pierce about half of target's armor, so youre looking at 3-4 wounds maybe. And then after that, youre within assault range of anything that isnt moving through difficult terrain. Whereas the carbines can move within 18-13 inches and still fire, while being safe from melee and still shooting, sometimes pinning. I havent tried carbines enough to know if i would want more or less carbines than pulse rifles yet. The rifles are still important, i dont doubt that, that 30 inch range can give you a good backup firing line behind cover. Rifles are also good objective holders, being able to hold an objective and still shoot far. I tend to play a more mobile tau army, points wise, most of my army moves 12 inches a turn. The fatal flaw of using a lot of rifles is that if you can't completely kill a squad in rapid fire range, youre probably going to lose the fire warriors to an assault

So what do you guys think.

I no nothing about tau but seems like a strong list.

Your HQ suits are really good if you deep strike them; otherwise they'll have mobility problems; iridium armor limits your movement to d6. If you need unique models, tack a blacksun filter on one guy. it's only 3 points.

Drop the fusion guns from the stealth suits; they should not be operating that close the enemy, period, and you already have mr. irdium with his vehicle destroying helios hanging around. Keep the burst cannon.

Why do they have a markerlight? specialize the unit, either make them 6 strong with minimal wargear (just a bonding knife, really) so they can take some shooting, or reduce the squad to three, keep the light and tack on 3 markerdrones for a 3-markerlight team that can operate from 36'' and never get shot at. since you already have pathfinders, I suggest the former.

Why does one squad of firewarriors not have a bonding knife? it it's because they're riding in the pathfish? if so, just bite the bullet and get carbines so they can shoot from 18'' as soon as they get out; I find that you have to get uncomfortably close to fish-of-fury nowadays; so why not just shoot them from further way? it's safer, for one thing.
Troops

Your pathfinders need a bonding knife badly; they will run as soon as they get shot at, I assure you.

gun drones? eh, you can take them or leave them.

only one heavy support? really?

are you not a fan of broadsides?

The 50 point HQ plus targetting array is better than the 75 point guy in my opinion. 15 points less.

yes i save 15 points, but for that 15 points I get one more W and 10 ld, if i can afford it i usually consider it worthwhile, 9 can still fail often enough to turn the tide on a bad roll, 10 is much more stable., plus i consider the extra wound worth 10 of those points, pick up a few shield drones on him and his retinue to stop high S attacks and hes really hard to kill

on the stealth suits, i'm probably going to drop them, or drop the pathfinders and pay to give them as many markers as i can afford, they arent bad tank hunters, if you can manage to infiltrate behind cover near an enemy vehicle, then JSJ and take it out, but other than that, i would rather take a piranha with fusion blaster than a stealth team w/ one, it's cheaper. if i need a tank hunter the piranha can flat out 24 inches into blocked LoS and if not it can get its normal obscurity, then pop out 12 inches over terrain and blast. 36 inch movement by turn 2 and fire fusion would be a decent tank hunter

the rifle squad has no knife cause i was tight on points and ideally they will be out of the major fighting, i should probably give them one if possible though

and as far as broadsides go, theyre really really good, but at this points value i prolly won't take them, it depends, i'm still working on my style of play. I may try out a 2nd hammerhead before broadsides, I tend to be pretty mobile whenever possible. A lot of times i will take the railhead up onto impassable terrain to get good LoS, with its range most things won't be able to fire at me early game up there. I've had lascannons coming at me do nothing pretty often, 13 front armor and obscurity over 12" is pretty good protection. I play against orks pretty often( a friend of mine and my brother play them), the railhead submunitions is invaluable against them, even 'ard boyz cant stand up to it. Just the other night i took out 11 orks in one blast. They were moving through a cramped ruin towards my infantry and i got a direct hit, wounding on 2+ and ignoring armor, after that they were still fearless but my FW's mopped them up when they ran forward.

IMO, a second hammerhead would suit my playing style more than broadsides, but in even bigger games, my 3rd HS selection would definately be broadsides. At that point, I think the pure destructive power of 3 TL rails for one choice would be better than a third railhead

gun drones on my FW's, i already had a shas'ui, so the controller was free, theyre the same points value as the warriors, and a TL BS2 is slightly better than BS3, not much but slightly. BS 3 misses 1/2 the time. TL BS 2 will miss 2/3 on first roll, 2/3 on second roll, multiply and we get 4/9, very slightly under 1/2. as far as i can see, for no extra points theres no reason not to take advantage of them, maybe in the rare instance of an attacker that can pick what model takes the wound it would be worse, but those enemies will probably be picking off my crisis suits to bypass the drones. Gotta pull in every little bonus you can.

and as far as drone's on vehicles, i tend to prefer them on some vehicles, sure it adds a KP, but if KP's are tight i can hide them in a corner or deep in cover. the advantage they give me is an independent unit thats protected on a vehicle to contest territory. in that same game against orks, i tied because of the drones on a devilfish. I had 1 objective and one troops choice left, he had 2 and 3 troops left. I had no way to kill off the troops capping, one was deep in cover and out of LoS(we had a building set up with an obj on it, he was entrenched in trukk wreckage right next to it, with one model in 3" and LoS) the other was way too far away. I managed to move 12 inches toward it with a devilfish, and disembark the drones 2" from the front, making them close enough to contest.

As far as i'm concerned, a vehicle or two with drones will help in most missions.

from what ive played, i think 32 FW+drones is too much, i could drop a squad of carbines and save 135 points, if i make up points somewhere else, i can add a hammerhead

i'll post a revised list later, probably with an ethereal, i want to try them out, they seem usefull

ok heres a new list

HQ

Crisis Shas'el 50(trying to save points)
plasma rifle 20
TL FB 18
HWMT 5
HWDC
2x Shield Drone 30
Iridium armor 20
Stim Injector 10

153

retinue x2 70
plasma rifle 40
TL FB 36
HWMT 10
HWDC
1x and 2x SD 45

201


Ethereal 50
HWDC, 2x Shield Drone 30
Honor Gaurd x12 144
shas'ui 10, HWDC 2x SD 30

ok up to 608--the honor gaurd will be replacing my rifle squad in the previous army, 2 more points each for 4BS

very few people take ethereals it seems, maybe they suck i dont know, wont know till i try it. From what i've experienced, the major problem for tau is morale, the ethereal should help, plus i get a more accurate rifle squad

Troops
Fire Warrior Squad 12
Shasui 10, Bonding Knife 5, HWDC 2x Gun Drone 20

155

Kroot Carnivore Squad 10 70

there cheap and can sit on objectives, ive already got 22 FW and 2 GD's

Elites
Crisis Suit Team 3, 75
Team leader 5
has TL MP 18, PR 20, HWMT 5, HWDC 2x SD 30, bonding knife 5
2xShas'ui-- Missile Pod 24, Plasma Rifle 40, Multi Tracker 10
232

Stealthsuit Team x3 90
TL 5, Bonding Knife 5, MarkerLight 10, DC 2x MD 60
2x shas'ui DC 2x MD 120
290
OK for 290 points i get 5 markers, pathfinders would cost at minimum 120 for 5, but have to be stationary to fire, while the suits can move 12" a turn, fire 5 markers and if close enough 6 shots from the shas'ui's, they have 3+ armor, and at max range, the enemy would ahve to roll 12 on 3d6 to fire at me

Heavy Support
HammerHead 90
Railgun 50, DP 5, SMS 20, TL 5, MT 10
180

Totals up to 1465, how should i spend the last 35 points?

i may drop 2 warriors from the carbine squad and try to free up a few more points and mount them in a fish for them