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Dakka,

I need some examples of a real Mech Tau tourney list. 1850 pts, INAT FAQ in effect. I am helping someone compete and want to challenge then without building specifically with their army in mind. I have plenty of suits, piranhas, stealth, warriors, fishes, and HHs so I can make whatever list you all suggest. Help me help him. Thanks.

EDIT:

Hey guys, rate this 2500 list please! I need to use it Saturday morning to help someone test their Guard for 'Ard Boyz.

HQ:
Shaso - 75
AFP - 20
Missile Pod - 12
Shield Gen - 20
HW-MultiT - 5

132

2 Shas'vre - 70
2 Shield Gen - 40
2 PlasmaR - 40
2 Missile Pod - 24
2 HW-MultiT - 10

184

TROOPS:
FWT (9) - 90
Shas'ui + bond - 15

105

DevilFish - 80
SMS - 20
DP - 5

105

FWT (9) - 90
Shas'ui + bond - 15

105

DevilFish - 80
SMS - 20
DP - 5

105

FWT (12) - 120
Shas'ui + bond - 15

135

KROOT (20) 140

140

FAST ATTACK:
PATH (8) - 96
Shas'ui + bond - 15

111

DevilFish - 80
SMS - 20
DP - 5

105

PIRANHA (5) - 300
FusionB (3) - 15
TargetA (5) + DP (5) - 50

365

PIRANHA (5) - 300
FusionB (3) - 15
TargetA (5) + DP (5) - 50

365

HEAVY:
HH - 90
RailG - 50
SMS - 20
TLock + MultiT + DP - 20

180

HH - 90
RailG - 50
SMS - 20
TLock + MultiT + DP - 20

180

HH - 90
RailG - 50
SMS - 20
TLock + MultiT + DP - 20

180

TOTAL:

2497

Thoughts? Trying to make it a list you'd see at 'Ard Boyz with what I got (not many suits) without specifically aiming at what I can guess he is bringing.

Well after getting mauled over by a Farsight drop bomb from a friend I have to say that its one hell of an army.

He is currently making a secondary army with a big number of Kroot and Piranhas, something that makes me believe he will do hit and runs and eventually use tactically placed Kroot as a meatshield/wall to ring around the rosie for another shooting run.

Do you want us to look up army lists? or...?

a quick google search found me this here

Well as far as I am aware it was a Spanish dude who won the first round of the UK GT. His list was as follows (this is accurate as I have been able to confirm):

HQ
Shas'El with Plasma, MP, TA and Multi
Shas'El with Plasma, MP, TA and Multi

Elites
3X crisis with TL MP & flamer

Elites
XV8 x 3 with Plasma, MP and Multi

4x Stealth suits with 4 Gun drones.

Troops.
6 Fire warriors

16 kroot

Fast
Piranha with TA and Fusion
Piranha with TA and Fusion

Heavy
1 Hammerhead with RG, Multi, SMS, TL and Decoys
1 Hammerhead with RG, Multi, SMS, TL and Decoys
1 Hammerhead with Ion, Multi, SMS, TL and Decoys

As you can tell, the above list is pretty clearly a 4th ed list, since there's decoys on the railheads and the guy was using fire knife... It is remarkably similar to the list I run, except I use burst instead of plasma, I carry a AFP to pieplate troops in cover (no g2g for you!), and my troop choices are 2 firewarrior squads in warfish. (up to 3 squads at 2k) Plus, I have flechettes on everything, which isn't really necessary to be competitive, but which I feel helps for dealing with certain armies.

That said, asking for a Gt-winning tau army list is a lot like asking for the address of a Honduran (or any other tropical country) bob-sled Olympic gold-medal winner... Although I suppose those might exist too... I'm too lazy to go on wikipedia and check.

do note that GT's use victory points, not kill points, take that into consideration if you do decide to copy one.

Thank you for the examples. I wasn't so much looking for the "winning lists" because that is conditional to who you fight and when. I just want to ensure I challenge my opponent.

What I realized while reviewing these suggests is that my real problem is I have not brought out my Tau since 4e (excluding Apoc) and no longer know what is obsolete and what is now shining.

For example; I thought even in 5e that Disruption Pods are a serious default.

Any help on 5e'ing a 4e Tau player is appreciated. Ready? Go!

Sure...the best I can offer you is to whip your stuff out, look in your Codex, make a few different lists, and play in your FLGS.

Oh, going from 4th to 5th? Then a few notes:

HQ and Elites:

True-los rules now make suit spam armies more vulnerable on many levels. You can't really JSJ in and out of cover anymore. Keep this in mind.

in general, plasma suits are less useful than before as cover is more prevailent now. It's not bad, exactly, it does have a little more range, but burst/missile suits do the same role for the most part, for less points.

Oh, and mech armies? they're in style now. consider grabbing extra missile pod sprues so you can make a few twin-linked missile suits.

Also, AFP is now the special-issue weapon of choice, I feel. the ionic cycler is... ok I suppose, but cover makes the gun much less appealing now.

There is a new strategy called "ninja tau" that revolves arounds the use of the positional relay. look it up or something.

Stealthsuits are still kinda situational. one the one hand, infantry armies for tau are less effective, so the army they syngerize best with is less effective. but they can outflank now, which gives them potential as backline disruption, and which makes fusion guns a more reasonable choice for the unit in this context.

Troops:

Kroot are much better now, due to outflanking as a deployment option; plus you know, cover. you'd want to use them in larger squads than the old 10-15 man squad size you might have used to pillbox with in the past, however.

As for firewarriors... well, they're still kinda bad. But their ride is still pretty sweet.

Also, a brief note about vehicles in general: you know how in 4thm you put decoys on everything? ok, now remove em all, replace em with distrution pods. Also look into the "no cover save" properties of SMS (I think it's just for units not in area cover); since that's pretty useful to be able to throw out in quite a few matchups.

Fast Attack:

Pathfinders... Well, I don't use em or like them; I think they suffer from basically all the same problems as firewarriors, so I won't go on about them; use your own discretion here. I think you should be aware that you can no longer fire heavy weapons while disembarking out of a transport that didn't move that turn; if that's something you wanted to do, I suppose.

Piranha's might actually need a d-pod now if you use them, if only for the imperial guard matchup, since hydras will do horrible things to them. they are a more riskier unit because the drones they carry are now a second kill point; so make sure you detach them if you assemble one now. This also applies for devilfish and such.

Heavy Support:

Still pretty good, for what it's worth. For obvious reasons, sniper teams and ionheads aren't as useful, again because of abundant cover saves. Notes about velicles above still apply here, but I seriously doubt you use drones on your rail/ionheads.

@Milquetoast Thug: Thanks for the quick rundown. Thats what I needed to know.