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I’m looking for some feedback on this list. I’m trying to make a strong, take-all-comers tournament list. I’ve broken the units down to make them a little more presentable and followed each with the reasons I’ve made the choices I did. I’m open to any comments and criticisms you want to offer. Thanks!!


=HQ=
Shas’el – 125pts
Plasma Rifle, Cyclic Ion Blaster, Stimulant Injector, Hard Wired Multi-Tracker, Hard Wired Drone Controller with 1 Shield Drone.
- 5 shots with pseudo-rending, 1-2 more AP2 all at BS5. Feel-no-pain and a shield drone to soak insta-kills.


=Elites=
Crisis Team 1 – 158pts
Suit 1 - Team Leader, Burst Cannon, Missile Pods, Multi-Tracker and Bonding Knife
Suit 2 – Burst Cannon, Missile Pods, Multi-Tracker
Suit 3 – Twin Linked Missile Pods, Target Lock
- I chose BCs over PRs for these guys to keep cost down. MEQ and TEQ killing power is pretty close especially taking cover into account. All members are equipped differently allowing me to allocate wounds. Able to target 2 units at once.

Crisis Team 2 – 158pts
Suit 1 - Team Leader, Burst Cannon, Missile Pods, Multi-Tracker and Bonding Knife
Suit 2 – Burst Cannon, Missile Pods, Multi-Tracker
Suit 3 – Twin Linked Missile Pods, Target Lock
- Same as the unit above.

Stealthsuit Team – 157pts
Suit 1 – Team Leader, Fusion Blaster, Bonding Knife, Targeting Array, Hard-Wired Target Lock, Drone Controller with 2 Gun drones.
Suit 2 – Burst Cannon, Drone Controller with 1 Gun Drone.
Suit 3 – Burst Cannon, Drone Controller with 1 Gun Drones.
- 10 S5 AP5 shots, 6 at BS3, 4 Twin-linked at BS5 and cause pinning. 1 S8 melta shot at BS4. Having the drones instead of another suit gives me the same MEQ killing power while also providing ablative wounds. Fusion blaster into a vehicle while shooting everything else at something nice and squishy.


=Troops=
Fire Warrior Team 1 – 105pts
Shas’ui with Pulse Rifle and Bonding Knife.
8 Pulse Rifle Warriors.
- These load up into a pathfinder devilfish on deployment and along with the other team, play fish-of-fury taking advantage of as many markerlights as possible. The unit is 9 strong requiring 3 to be killed before having to take a morale test.

Fire Warrior Team 2 – 105pts
Shas’ui with Pulse Rifle and Bonding Knife.
8 Pulse Rifle Warriors.
- Same as the unit above.

Kroot Team 1 – 91pts
13 Kroot Carnivores.
- In objective based missions these guys will infiltrate and sit on objectives (or in cover close to the objectives) and go to ground if shot at. In annihilation, they will outflank into cover and harass anything they can. The unit is 13 strong requiring 4 to be killed before having to take a morale test.

Kroot Team 2 – 91pts
13 Kroot Carnivores.
- Same as the unit above.


=Heavy Support=
Hammer Head Gunship 1 – 175pts
Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pods, Flechette Dischargers, Multi-tracker
- Solid shots to vehicles, monstrous creatures, demon princes, etc. Submunition shots vs. the hordes and swarms. I tend to use these aggressively, resorting to tank-shocking and ramming once the railguns are gone. 12” moves and Flechette Dischargers go a long way towards discouraging assaults.

Hammer Head Gunship 2 – 175pts
Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pods, Flechette Dischargers, Multi-tracker
- Same as the unit above.

Hammer Head Gunship 3 – 175pts
Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pods, Flechette Dischargers, Multi-tracker
- Same as the unit above.


=Fast Attack=
Pathfinder Team 1 – 167pts
6 Pathfinders
Devilfish with Burst Cannon, Gun Drones, Disruption Pods, Flechette Dischargers.
- Vanilla Pathfinder team. I try to stick them in cover and get as much use out of the markerlights as possible. 2 units of 6 get me 6 markerlight hits on average per turn which I use to remove cover saves or improve BS of the two firewarrior teams.

Pathfinder Team 2 – 167pts
6 Pathfinders
Devilfish with Burst Cannon, Gun Drones, Disruption Pods, Flechette Dischargers.
- Same as the unit above.

List seems solid to me. I'm not sold on the BC/missile pod units but I don't fault the logic...But I do think there are plenty of times where things won't have cover and need some AP2 loving.

Not sure about the firewarriors deploying into the devilfish. Page 67 note on dedicated transports seems pretty clear that the devilfish can transport the firewarriors after the game starts, but not during deployment. Not sure if that has been FAQd or changed for some reason. Not a huge deal but something to be aware of...getting those FWs shot off the board on your opponents turn 1 would suck.

Sorry if I was unclear. The firewarriors will embark into the devilfish when they both deploy. Move this fish onto the table. Firewarriors get in during the deployment movement. Doesn't break any rules that way but does limit my devilfish deployment move a few inches.

The list looks pretty solid to me. The only thing i disagree with is the amount of BC. They are nice and do put up so nice shooting power, but you already have a good bit of Strength 5 AP 5 weapons. I would switch them out for some Plasma Rifles to provide some SM and Terminator killer fire power.

I'm not sure what you mean by "deployment movement". Firewarriors don't move during deployment - I assume you mean you intend to keep them off the board and have them come in from reserve, and then embark when they come in?

Patrick - take a look here http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=23&t=3018 and you'll see why I took the BCs over the plasma on the crisis suits.

Lambadomy - If they're coming in from reserves, yes. Otherwise they will deploy just behind the fish and move into it on their first turn's movement.

The problem that I always have with that analysis is that it ignores a couple important (IMO) things.

One, you're not paying 250% more for plasma vs BC. You're paying 12 points more. You have to calculate the whole cost of the suit, not just the weapon.

50 points vs 62 points is 1.24 times more

Second, it only talks about TEQ. What about 2+ save carnifexes and flying tyrants? (and, conversely, there should be analysis of TH/SS termies, where burst/missile is even better). It's too simplistic

Third, it completely ignores the fact that plasma shoots 24 inches, while burst only shoots 18.

I can understand using the analysis and playing with the suits this way. I just don't know if you really should play ALL the suits this way.

That linked analysis is so flawed its ridiculous. For example. Comparing FK to FS, once you factor in pathfinders, using markerlights to up their BS from a 3 to a 5 on your crisis suits, and rapid fire into terminators, a single suit of each configuration is super easy to see who kills more terminators. The plasma/misslepod suit kills 1.5 by itself, the burst cannon/misslepod suit gets just .5 kills. When you look at a full team, thats 4.5 dead suits to just 1.5 dead suits. If you run the numbers yourself and divide the cost of the suit to the number of kills, even in the worst possible situation, (firing at terminators in cover at max range) the fireknife config is still a few percent superior, point for point.
Other reasons that make that analysis ridiculous is that thanks to 5th ed and new codex's there is a lot of feel no pain, the plasma rifle says... no FNP for you, whilst the burst cannon can't stop your opponent from getting a 4+ save from dying.
The main strength of guardsmen and other armies with really bad armor saves is cover, 4+ cover. A good horde army player will take advantage of cover, if you are firing at them you'll use the pathfinders to remove cover and then yes, the firestorm is a little better, however, one has to remember that when it comes to orcs/ig/nids, that in general anything with 5+ or worse armor saves isn't going to be a threat to tau unless they are in huge numbers. A single terminator, on the other hand can be a major threat.
A 3 man firestorm configuration suit team will kill 9 orcs out of cover at bs5 and a fireknife kills 6-8 depending if you got rapid fire or not. Both force a break test, and against IG, the largest infantry unit thats a threat are heavy weapon teams, and 6 is their model count, so both teams do equally well there, if you have to deal with veterans you might have 10 models, but its unlikely as they are a disposable unit and most players won't waste the points on the extra 4 models.

Lambadomy makes an excellent point about nids, first a decent nid player will kill tau, so dont worry about it, but.... firestorms won't do anything to carnifex's, whilst fireknives will do more.

What you may consider is this, run a unit thats just fusion blasters and plasma rifles, and then run a unit of stealthsuits. You cover both ends of the spectrum, and then run a unit of fireknifes so you have some overlap.

just say no to burst cannons on criss suits, tau have str5 ap5 just about everywhere else, get some beef on your crisis

for the kroot squads i would add some hounds they rock in cc

Thanks Sazzle. I was hesitant about the change there, I currently run fireknives and now I think I'll stick with them.

I would give your commander a bonding knife and upgrade them to a Shas'o. The extra points will be worth what you get.


Also, you don't wnat you're commander getting broken and running away when his shield drone is killed.

This could be wrong, monats might not be able to get broken.

Definitely agree with Sazzlefrats, a well-written article about rubbish is still just a few fun to read paragraphs about trash. The author discounts a great deal of the other benefits of AP2 STR6 Plasma. I guarantee you will be glad you brought those Plasma rifles when you get that instakill shot on the Eldar Farseer with guide, or when you make the Zoanthropes 2+ Armor save into a silly 6+ Invulnerable Save, or when you are shooting at the front of a Rhino and you roll a 6 and you think, hey, that's a Penetrate not a Glance, now I'm not so sad I missed with both Missiles. The maths he uses don't take into account the real ranges of the weapons. If he did an analysis of how both suits worked at 24", the Firestorm would do a good deal worse than the FireKnife.

Anyway, that topic is worn out pretty well.

--------------

I am not convinced the CIB is worth putting in a weapon slot, even if it was free (its a hefty 15 points, as it stands). The 5 shots is nice, but the range is so short, and if I was going to come to 18" range, I would rather be packing the Airbursting Frag Projector, or just a Plasma Rifle with Missile Pod or Fusion Blaster. It does depend on your intended target for the Commander, if you are going hunting for Terminators or Carnifexes, the CiB is going to get you an extra rend here and there, but the other shots are going to be pretty ineffective. If you are hunting 4+ Armor Save models then you are going to do a little better.

Also, I am not sold on the Stimulant Injector, as there are too many things that disregard FNP, and it is pretty expensive.

I've never like FireStorm, the STR and Range Differences in the Missiles and the Burst Cannons seems too counter productive to me, not to mention the Plasma Rifle can be a moneymaker.

Kroot - Maybe trim these down to 12 Models so they can get in a Devilfish in a pinch.

I don't like using larger teams of Firewarriors in a Devilfish. The Fish of Fury Tactic is not as viable anymore with coversaves from the Devilfish, now the Fish of Fury does less damage and the Warriors are more vulnerable to eating an assault. I typically will put a minimum team of 6 in a Warfish, using the points from the upgraded squads to make the Fish more shooty (and reduce Gun Drone Kill Points). The 6 Firewarriors are just for objective capturing. This hurts me a little each time, when did my shooty Tau Pulse Rifles of death get relegated to menial tasks like guard duty...? But I can't seem to get the effect I need from the Fish of Fury anymore. I suppose a possible tactic would be to use all Carbines and roll up on a Markerlit unit and go for Pinning, but that's not something I have tried yet.

Stealth Suits - I like this unit. In my opinion Gun Drones for Stealth squads are the most value buy units in the Tau army. You get a 12 point model for 10 points, and go ahead and make them invisible for free. I sometimes run 6 suits with 12 drones, its a pretty shooty unit, especially if you can get a markerlight or 5 on the target...

Hammerheads - I like TargetLock on mine. Being able to actually use the Burst Cannons you paid for when things get up in your area is worth the 5 points for me.

Pathfinders - If you think Markerlights will help your Firewarrior teams be more effective (and they will), think about what 30 shots from a megaStealth team would do with some Markerlight support... Also, I like to support the FireKnife config team of 3 suits (joined by my Commander (or sometimes 2 Commanders = 5 total suits)) for maximum Markerlight efficiency. in my opinion, a team of 12 Firewarriors makes each Markerlight hit more valuable than a team of only 9. I like to stretch my Markers that way.

ubernax wrote:Stealth Suits - I like this unit. In my opinion Gun Drones for Stealth squads are the most value buy units in the Tau army. You get a 12 point model for 10 points, and go ahead and make them invisible for free. I sometimes run 6 suits with 12 drones, its a pretty shooty unit, especially if you can get a markerlight or 5 on the target...

Don't tell him crazy things like this! He might take the advice... and butcher my poor orks.