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I wanted to come up with an army that would use only suits (except the mandatory Troops choices). I then thought about making Multipurpose Crisis suits that could Deepstrike and Either Blow Tanks or Burn Infantry. I also wanted to SPAM everything, so everything has to be the same, with the same loadouts. No Tanks, no extra foot troops, no nothing but suits, spam, rails, and fire. Here is what I got.

HQ
Shas'El Commander TL Fusion Blaster, Flamer, HW Multitracker, 1x HW Shield Drone 92
1x Bodyguard Airbursting Frag Projector, Flamer, Multitracker, HW Target Lock, 1x HW Shield Drone 84
1x Bodyguard TL Fusion Blaster, Flamer, HW Multitracker, 1x HW Shield Drone 79

Shas'El Commander TL Fusion Blaster, Flamer, HW Multitracker, 1x HW Shield Drone 92
2x Bodyguard TL Fusion Blaster, Flamer, HW Multitracker, 1x HW Shield Drone 158

ELITE
Crisis x3 Flamer, Fusion Blaster, MultiTracker 138

Crisis x3 Flamer, Fusion Blaster, MultiTracker 138

Crisis x3 Flamer, Fusion Blaster, MultiTracker 138

TROOPS
Firewarriors x6 60
Firewarriors x6 60

FAST

HEAVY
Broadside Team Lead Advanced Stabilization, 2x Shield Drone 110
Broadside x2 Advanced Stabilization 160

Broadside Team Lead Advanced Stabilization, 2x Shield Drone 110
Broadside x2 Advanced Stabilization 160

Broadside Team Lead Advanced Stabilization, 2x Shield Drone 110
Broadside x2 Advanced Stabilization 160

1849


Anyone think this is a good idea at all?

This is a fairly good list. I would take out a broadside team to get a hammerhead though, maybe even two teams for two hammerheads.

You need some more troops in there, you don't want your very weak fire warrior units dying in any kind of obejective grab.

I'd take out two broadside teams and put in a hammerhead and Kroot.



Other than that, this looks like a good list.

Yeah, you desperately need more troops, even if you make them as cheap as possible. Any opponent will concentrate fire on the FW in an objective game and wipe them out with ease (12 T3 models go down pretty quickly).

That'd be fun with all the suits It's also cool to see an all-suits, non farsight list.

I know you said no tanks- but this list becomes viable imho if you put those two FW squads in devilfish. Then you could hide them while you blast away, then jump out to claim some objectives.

What about dropping a broadside from each squad and adding two devilfish? Just a thought OR better yet- keep your current list, find a few points and add two devilfish to make it a 2000 point list- that way you don't have to make any sacrifices in what you want, only additions

You could drop the Shas'ui and the bonding from the FW if you wanted to do this, since they'll be hiding inside the devilfish. That'd give you 179 points to get up to 2000, more than enough for two 80 point devilfish and your choice of upgrade (with disruption pods you're looking at 170 points, with 9 to play with). Anyway... just a thought that might let you win a few games that require troops to claim something

My original list had some Devilfish worked in to protect Troops, but then I got to thinking if I really wanted to make it a purist theme list, I should keep all the Devilfish and Tanks out of it...

I wonder if by keeping the Troops in Reserve, maybe for a while longer by using the Positional Relay to delay their arrival, could one keep the troops safe enough to still take close objectives late game...?
(FYI, I will be amending the list since Positional Relay takes up a slot, I didn't have my codex handy...)

Anyway, I'm going to try to convince myself to include some Transports in the list, I'll work on this tomorrow, please check back to offer comments.

12 Firewarriors as your only troops ensures tha you will never win an objective mission, ever. I'd drop 3 Broadsides (1 suit from each unit) and a unit of Suits to get Devilfish for each FW unit, and put the remaining points into units of Kroot. Units of Kroot with lots of hounds.

I've been playing Tau for a while, and when playing friendly games I try to look for new ideas to approach building my force. I set out to build a list with maxxed out suits, which means 15 Crisis and 9 Broadsides (assuming I don't want to use Stealth suits). I know I will be hard pressed to get those Firewarriors on objectives, and am looking for any ideas that could help.

However, saying, take your whole theme, toss it out the window, and add a bunch of stuff that you know already works, isn't what I was looking for. I can build Static, Mobile, Hybrid, Farsight, etc... lists all day long, that's not exactly what I'm trying to do. Any help along in line with those guidelines are more than welcome.

Also, taking 12 Firewarriors as my only Troops doesn't "ensures tha you will never win an objective mission, ever." It just makes it more challenging. I'll agree that any reasonable-minded player will see that he can kill my troops to ensure I can't capture an objective, but I don't plan on letting him get the chance. Not easy, but there are plenty of ways to help limit him from doing damage to them, especially with Cover, Reserves, a Positional Relay, and a big stack of Deep Strikers to kill and distract.

And, since it will be a friendly game, there's nothing to lose. But I don't plan on losing, maybe tying, but not losing. Unless he brings his 2x Seer Council on bikes. Then I'll probably lose. And if we roll a Kill points game I figure I'll have a good shot at mopping him up.

Ok, so, quite simply you need to expand a little with your crisis and I think youve got it made... I know you enjoy cheesing the flamer fusion, but the problem is strictly range... range and crisis is like crack to a crackhead, they mesh so well. and with that many crisis, and that few troops, your biggest problem of course is going to be objective games. One troop on the back objective is gonna need serious d, possibly stick both on the back one(thinking a four objective mission, and contest the hell out of the others. Blast as much gak as early and quick as you can.keep two broad groups with the troops to provide "jucy-er" targets, force them to be like... Broads or his troops, OR you could even hold one in the open and wall them with a crisis unit. Firgure out a way to get atleast one unit with shield drones, or run the commanders with the one unit of warriors to be a wall until they can hit some further up cover. All I can think is that youd have to bait him away from the warriors...

One of the problems I know I will have is that my opponent almost never goes after the Broadsides. He finds that the 2+ Saves and the Shield drones are too hard to kill, so he ignores them. That's why I have to pack in the maximum number of Broadsides, so that they are ripping him to pieces and he'll have to decide not to ignore them, or they will wipe all hard targets off the board.

I kind of like the idea of putting in some different Crisis options, I will be toying with that idea today. Thanks for the good input.

No, I'm not telling you to scrap your theme. Dropping 6 suits for some small amount of stability is hardly dropping the entire theme. You still have 18 suits at that point, I'd say thats enough to comfortably call the list a suit themed list. If I was telling you to drop all your Broadsides for Hammerheads, some of your Crisis Suits for Pathfinders, etc etc then I'd be demolishing your theme. It is completely, 100% possible to have a suit themed list without taking as many suits as humanly possible. 18 suits is still a TON of them, and maintains the theme fine while providing you with the ability to actually win games that require objectives (and fyi the issue with 12 FW as your scoring models isn't getting them places, its keeping them alive, which will be next to impossible the second your opponent realizes you can't win when your 12 squishy troops are dead). Even with cover and reserves, it would be 1 turn of shooting maximum to kiss those FW goodbye. By the time they come in off the relay your opponent will also be all over the table, making it even easier to reach them as they walk in from your board edge. I like your line of thought by keeping them in reserve because it keeps them alive longer. They are still naked and compeltely unprotected once they make it to the table and cover saves are nice, but 12 t3 models will still drop very quickly if they get focused on.

I'm not sure what possible suggestions can be made to the list if you don't want to change anything, so I'm confused as to why it is even posted here. The tactics section would have likely been ideal for this thread if all you want is advice on how to play it.

If you insist on keeping it exactly how it is (aside from perhaps some different weapons?) then fine. Consider at least changing some of the weapon systems on your suits around though. Things like Missile Pods and Plasma Rifles are very good and should not be avoided. Once you make range with those Flamers and Fusion Guns, you're going to be right into the meat of the opposing player's threat/assault range, which is very bad news for you. A unit of Harlequins or Striking Scoprions can demolish your units of Suits in combat. you sohuld probably want to stay more out of range of threats like that and the way your list currently is, the vast majority of your army doesn't nothing when its further than 12" away.

So, are you putting in a few devilfish ? That definitely makes your strategy simpler, as (if you're succesful in hiding them early on) you can rush them out for objectives later in the game

I like the list, but I'm suprised your opponent finds the broadsides that durable. I lost a squad of 3 this past weekend to one shot from a barbed strangler, along with the two shield drones (I know, I know, that should never happen... but it did ). But that is good to hear as I'm thinking what happened to me was a Major fluke!

I know you said you wanted to spam, but I'd like to see some variance in the Crisis Suit options, too, especially the weapons. They're very versatile as-is, but you might want some dedicated big-target killers, and some dedicated to anti-troop duty. Might make things more interesting and maximize your firepower, too!

Looking forward to your next list

While you say that tanks will take away from the theme, devilfishes for the troops will help you alot. To me at least it can help with the overall mobility theme of your army. Also a squad of pathfinders would help for two reasons, first the markerlights and second the Marker Beacon. If you want deep strike, a marker beacon will be of great help to you. As others have said, get at least one squad of plasmas and missile pods, that will give you more flexibility and greater range on your suits. Plus some stealths for burst cannons would not hurt either. Other than the flamers your a little weak on the horde control, burst cannons can help with that, making for smaller squads for the flamers to deal with when they get in range. That or a squad of gun drones, carbines have the same stats of burst cannons, and the drones are jump infantry like the suits.

I don't know about the crisis suit loadouts. with 15 suits, I think you'd be better off making half of them fusion/plasma and half of them flamer/something. but this gets more expensive. I can understand wanting multipurpose suits when you don't have a lot of them, but you have so many and a positional relay, you should be able to get the ones you need when you need them where you need them, and have plenty leftover.

You should do OK in a kill point misison, and have a good chance to force a tie or win in the two-objective mission by leaving your fire warriors in reserve and trying to go second. You have little chance of winning either objective game if it goes 6 or 7 turns though, imo. without armor, 2x outflanking kroot squads may be a workable choice, but takes away from your theme (though you could spam 4 and adjust the theme to kroot and suit...40 kroot would only be 195 more points since you'd lose 6 FWs...thats like 3 crisis suits). But then you're giving up a lot more kill points and not sticking directly with your theme.

I say go for it. Would have been great in 4e when you could really use those suits to control objectives.

Caffran, surely you understand not wanting to put tanks in, not too long ago you posted a CSM list where you specifically said 'NO DEFILERS'. When a few posts in someone started in with the 'I know you said no defilers, but maybe think about a defiler...' I just wanted to reach out and smack the guy. When I tell my GPS I want to drive somewhere and avoid I-95, I don't expect it to tell me maybe a little bit of I-95 wouldn't hurt...

Anyway, I am going to test this list out probably on Monday, and if it proves too difficult to protect troops and get an objective, or if it suffers too badly from Deep strike scatter, then I will revise the list and throw in a Pathfinder Devilfish with a minimum squad of Pathfinders.

Also, I have revised the list a bit and added in some Shield drones and cut some of the extra wargear and infantry.

Well, the game is over, the results are in. My opponent broght his Avatar bubble list with 5 units of 10 Dire Avengers, 3 Units of 8 Fire Dragons (with Exarch/crackshot), 1 Farseer with Magic, 1 Avatar, 2 Vypers, 1 squad of 3 Warwalkers, and 2 squads of 3x Dark Reapers with Exarch/crackshot. We played Killpoints.

#1: The Broadsides did very well, castled right in the middle of the table edge on a big terrain piece. They killed on average 4 Dire Avengers per squad everytime they unloaded with SMS. This reduced the volume of fire coming at them as he charged my position, reducing casualties. I also took shots at the Warwalkers with 1 squad, they killed 1 and took all the weapons off of the other 2, Shaking them 2ce as well. That was a dissapointment, 9 railgun shots, 7 penetrating hits, 1 Destroyed result = subpar, but at least they weren't a big issue.

#2: The Deepstriking was worse than I thought it would be, I mishap-ed 2ce, once with my Command squad and once with a regular squad. Both times my opponent was able to reloacte the squad, and stuck them in corners. The squads that did come in did poorly against T3 Sv3+ Firedragons in cover, but well against Dire Avengers. Then they got blown up. Their saving grace proved to be getting into combat.

#3: If I was to be forced to play this list again, I would start with everything on the table and use the Crisis suits to make a perimeter around the Broadsides to keep things out of 18" Range. Deepstriking was not a good idea.

#4: Since it was Kill Points my troops weren't an issue, but they did ok anyway. One squad blew up a Vyper then held a squad of Firedragons for 3 turns in CC. The other squad took fire from the Dark Reapers and a Vyper and Warwalkers for 2 turns, so they were a fairly effective distraction.

That being said, I lost 3-5, I pretty much hate this list, as it doesn't do well against MEQ (and I'm sure it would suffer vs. TEQ). Also, its pretty hard to kill an Avatar when all your weapons are heat-based and ignored... Next Theme list will pack more punch.

Interesting read. I'm looking at doing a "max Crisis/Broadside" list since my 24 Machinenkrieger suits showed up today.

I'm going to focus more on the plasma rifle/missile pod combo, but I had also planned to Deepstrike most of them like you did. The Broadside perimeter defense sounds interesting, but I don't want to be so immobile.

i would add more troops, also, each one having a fish should make them last a bit longer and prevent 1st turn death of them.

ubersnax wrote:Caffran, surely you understand not wanting to put tanks in, not too long ago you posted a CSM list where you specifically said 'NO DEFILERS'. When a few posts in someone started in with the 'I know you said no defilers, but maybe think about a defiler...' I just wanted to reach out and smack the guy. When I tell my GPS I want to drive somewhere and avoid I-95, I don't expect it to tell me maybe a little bit of I-95 wouldn't hurt...

Anyway, I am going to test this list out probably on Monday, and if it proves too difficult to protect troops and get an objective, or if it suffers too badly from Deep strike scatter, then I will revise the list and throw in a Pathfinder Devilfish with a minimum squad of Pathfinders.

you'll notice that he never said to run a defiler, simply that he would never ever run Dreads, and that if it came to it he'd prefer Defilers. Big difference. Further still, had someone brought a very convincing argument to that thread that made it clear that a Defiler or two would be an outstanding choice with the army, I would strongly reconsider my stance.

The reason I and a few others in this thread suggested tanks is because they fill a very important gap in the army and can greatly improve its ability. You said absolutely not, but sometimes it doesn't hurt to reconsider when faced with reasoning for something that you perhaps did not include in your original thought process when building the list.

If you don't want to drop a single model or anything, then at the very least you need to diversify the weapon loadouts on your suits. Missile Pods are fantastic for Crisis teams, as are Plasma Rifles. Both of these give you some depth to your firepower, allowing you to pressure opposing infantry and light armor early i nthe game. This will be important for helping you dictate what you opponent will do as you increae your threat radius. The FB/Flamer combo seems nice, but BS3 Fusion Guns are not very ideal. I would run them on BS4 suits or make sure they're twin linked to improve your odds of hitting. Perhaps consider running suits of this nature with TL Fusion/Flamer/HW support system of your choice (I think Drone Controllers or Target Locks would be ideal though).

I think you'll see better results with the list if your suits are not all the same. Spamming things is good when the army is designed and suited to spam them to good effect. Tau aren't really ideal for spamming flamer templates and Fusion Guns as the suits aren't exactly fast and they have fantastic ranged weaponry to use. A few close range weapons are very important, but you definitely need to utilize the other weapons available as well.