Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

After playing around with a few fire warriors, this is the first Tau army I'll be building. I'd appreciate any thoughts on it. The friends I play with mostly use space marines and Imperial Guard (the latter fully kitted out with carapace armour - he's scared of AP5 shots)

HQ = 148 points
1 Commander Shas’o with plasma rifle, twin-linked missile pod, hard wired multi-tracker, drone controller and two shield drones

Stealth Team = 122 points
2 stealthsuits with targeting arrays
1 stealthsuit with a fusion blaster and a targeting array

2 Fire Warrior Teams = 300 points
In each:
11 Fire Warriors
1 Shas’ui with markerlight, target lock and multitracker

Kroot Carnivore Squad = 116 points
12 Kroot
1 Shaper

Gun Drone Squadron = 72 points
6 gun drones

I know mixing guns, like in the stealth team, isn't usually advised, but I'm short on tank busters and think the fusion blaster could be useful (not that I plan on losing the fireknife). I'm quite keen on the kroot because a Catachan playing friend of mine always seems to insist there's a big jungle on our board, and my kroot took out 3 IG units (Catachan veterans, storm troopers and some Cadians) last time he tried it. Though I know 6 gun drones aren't going to win the game, I think they could fill a a few useful niches, drawing fire from my IC and the stealthsuits where necessary, blocking charges at the fire warriors or even having a go at light armour from behind.

When I eventually build the army to 1000 points I'll probably put in a railhead for the heavier armour those games will involve, along with a few more fire warriors for bulking out the stealth team.

Thanks for any advice you can offer.

gun line tau does not work. Mech mech mech.

Suggestions:

Shaper is no.

Add another crisis suit, a helios or fireknife is best.

If no helios, consider a broadside

6-man fire warrior teams instead. Give one a devilfish to take mid-field objectives late game, have the other hang back on home objective.

I simply wouldn't take the fusion blaster on the stealthsuit, but if you think you need it then it won't really hurt you that much.

Gun drones are probably not a good idea either.

Basically, you NEED to get a Devilfish, and add 1 more crisis suit. Everything else I mentioned I would definitely still consider.

Looks like you'd be fine against the IG buddy if he doesn't have too much armor. If he has over 2 vehicles though (AV12 or more) I think you'd have problems. The Stealth suits won't be anywhere near worth their points even though they are fun to use.
Gun drones are usually pretty worthless, especially for the kill points they offer up.
All that being said, see how your friends react to Ionheads with a few upgrades. They decimate at any point level but really shine on lower points. If you want crowd control instead, change the Ion Cannon to Rail gun and youll have great results still.

Okay, I have a couple of things.

First of all, I wouldn't suggest shield drones on your commander. They are decently pricey, and you could use those points for other things more worthwhile. Stealth suits are ok, but they tend to not be good for their cost. I would highly suggest getting rid of them and investing in a unit that will pull their own weight.

Kroot are all cool, I like using them, you just have to be careful because they will die easily...

For your fire warrior units, you gave your leader a multi tracker, target lock, and marker light. What the target lock? It is probably best to fire at the unit the rest of the team is firing at to improve an entire units shots...

I would also get rid of the gun drones, though they are never a bad investment. I would put the points left from shaving everything into plasma/missile/multi-tracker suits, nice, good suits.

Also, your commander is kind of redundant. The multi-tracker doesn't enable you to fire anything but two non twin-linked systems, so to fire both weapons you couldn't have a TL Missile Pod. It should only be a missile pod if you want to fire both weapons.

A lot of people prefer mech. Tau, but I do well without, so don't worry about it that much.

EDIT - Oh yah, never put FBs on your stealth suits. It is the ultimate nonsensical thing that you could do with them. They are unit meant for taking out troops. Not tanks. You didn't even give him a MT so as to not waste his units shots on something they can't hurt. Its way better to get Fusion Missile Pod suits to take care of armor.

A battlesuit with a multi-tracker doesn't let you fire a a twin linked missile pod and a plasma rifle? I thought that for firing twin-linked guns counted as one weapon, but just take up two hard points?

edit: Although looking at the codex it does refer to the multi-tracker allowing you to fire two weapons systems, not weapons. So I guess you're right.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

Thanks for all the input guys.

Would this be a better list?

HQ = 97 points
Commander Shas’el w/ plasma rifle, missile pod, targetting array and a hard-wired multi-tracker

Stealth Team = 120 points
3 stealthsuits w/ targeting arrays

Fire Warrior Squad = 130 points X 2 = 260 points
In each:
11 fire warriors w/ pulse rifles
1 Shas'ui w/ pulse rifle

Kroot Carnivore Squad = 91 points
13 Kroot w/ kroot wifles

Hammerhead Gunship = 180 points
w/ railgun, smart missile system, decoy launchers, disruption pod and multi-tracker

=748


Alternatively if I left the railhead out I could add another fireknife, keep the gun drones (which might be useful for holding objectives) and still have quite a few points to spend. Would that work better? Or use an ion head, find another few points somewhere and keep the battle drones. I'm afraid I'd still struggle to deal with a Leman Russ without a railgun.

I know mech tau lists have a lot of fans, but I already own the kroot and two units of fire warriors, whereas devilfish are pricey. I might get there in the end, but for now financial factors are inclining me more towards a hybrid list.

At these points, I would put in suits instead of a hammerhead.

Fusion Blasters = your friend against armor. The melta will really help against a Leman Russ, and you can have way more of those than railguns...

I would suggest, if you really have trouble with armour, Fusion Blaster/Missile Pod/Multi-Tracker suits. They should be able to deal with both light armor and heavy armor vehicles. With these, you could kill the nasties he may throw out at these points, and still destroy light vehicles like Sentinels.

If you want to keep the Hammerhead, exchange the SMS for a pair of Burst Cannons. You not only get more shots, but it is half the cost of the SMS. It is by far the better option of the two.

The Bringer wrote:

For your fire warrior units, you gave your leader a multi tracker, target lock, and marker light. What the target lock? It is probably best to fire at the unit the rest of the team is firing at to improve an entire units shots...

Can't do that, since Shas'ui Markerlight is not Networked Markerlight. I've sometimes used Shas'ui with Markerlight and Target lock to allow him to pick other targets and possibly call Seeker Missiles on them, but it seldom seems to work since he is just BS3 and always just misses with the Markerlight. Besides adding all that wargear makes him 40 points and that's too pricey IMHO.

The Bringer wrote:
Also, your commander is kind of redundant. The multi-tracker doesn't enable you to fire anything but two non twin-linked systems, so to fire both weapons you couldn't have a TL Missile Pod. It should only be a missile pod if you want to fire both weapons.

Rules are kinda ambiguous there since Codex refers Twin-linked weapon as both single weapon and two weapons. At any rate, having twin-linking for BS5 model is sorta useless, except perhaps for Melta.

I usually do have at least one Gun Drone or Shield Drone with my Commander, as an ablative wound. Lone suit without Drones is just too attractive target for stuff like Krak Missiles.

The Bringer wrote:
A lot of people prefer mech. Tau, but I do well without, so don't worry about it that much.

Yeah, no point going with flavour of the month. It's much more fun to find out yourself which works and which doesn't.

The Bringer wrote:
EDIT - Oh yah, never put FBs on your stealth suits. It is the ultimate nonsensical thing that you could do with them. They are unit meant for taking out troops. Not tanks. You didn't even give him a MT so as to not waste his units shots on something they can't hurt. Its way better to get Fusion Missile Pod suits to take care of armor.

I tend to take Stealth Suits either plain or with some Gun Drones. I've found them to be fun, but very uneven performers.

I do not recommend Missile-Fusion Blaster-Multitracker suit unless you have at least BS4 or multiple such suits. When you need Fusion Blaster, you usually _really_ need it, in a situation where Missile Pod is not likely to help, and BS3 is just way too unreliable. In small points games I sometimes use Missile pod - TL Fusion Blaster combination, without Multitracker.

Yeah... well, about the marker-light, that's what I get for not looking at the codex >.<

The suits I use against marines are MP/PR/MT, in fact, these are my favorite suits in general. The most important thing about suits is getting combinations of weapons that are the most relevant. Some guns have similar purposes, but different range. I find that the Plasma Rifle/Missile Pod are both good at medium to heavy troops at long ranges (with 3-4 shots), which is why I prefer it so much.

If you really have trouble with armor, get rid of a hammerhead and get broadsides. For relatively similar points, you can get about two broadsides or more that are almost guaranteed to hit, whereas the hammerhead has a %66 to hit.

They usually do really well, doing well over their points cost in damage. This unit could easily be good against IG as well, though I haven't ever played a competent IG army.

Here's my critique, having played Tau since they came out. A few things just overall. You need crisis suits (MP/PR/MT & a leader with shield drones), and mech up. Get at least 1 devilfish to mobilize your troops and shield the FW from assault.


HQ = 148 points
1 Commander Shas’o with plasma rifle, twin-linked missile pod, hard wired multi-tracker, drone controller and two shield drones.
Go with a shas'el plasma, missile pod & Target array. This will effectively make him BS5 so you don't need to twin link. Drones may be pricey but I like em & multi tracker is good. This will save you points.

Stealth Team = 122 points
2 stealthsuits with targeting arrays
1 stealthsuit with a fusion blaster and a targeting array
Bad, mediocre short range firepower but very weak in melee. If I HAVE to use these I tend to designate them a suicide unit becaus they might as well be one.

2 Fire Warrior Teams = 300 points
In each:
11 Fire Warriors
1 Shas’ui with markerlight, target lock and multitracker
Lose the multi trackers. Not worth it.

Kroot Carnivore Squad = 116 points
12 Kroot
1 Shaper
Shaper is not worth it at all, lose him.

Gun Drone Squadron = 72 points
6 gun drones
BAD, no other way to say it