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I'll definitely be remembering the snap shooting and pen bonus for my next game, I always just took him for the blacksun filter and bs5. I like only needing 2 MLs for my s10 gun of awesomeness

Pretty sure Tank Hunter lets you reroll armor pen rolls, not roll 2 and pick the highest, just FYI. There's a pretty significant difference between the two.

HQ:

Darkstrider - never used him... not worth it in my opinion unless you are going with a pathfinder list. Drop him for a cadre fireblade if you want shooty.

Heavy Support:

Hammerhead Gunship
Weapons: Railgun (with submunition shots), Twin-linked Smart Missile System
Special Rules: Disruption Pod

Hammerheads are tank killers more than ever now. Don't bother with submunition: you will be too busy shooting enemy tanks.

145 pts
Elites:

XV104 Riptide
Armour: Riptide battlesuit
Weapons/Equipment: Ion accelerator, Twin-linked Smart missile system, 2 x Shielded Missile Drones, Riptide shield generator, Multi-tracker, Blacksun Filter, Velocity Tracker, Stim Injec
Special Rules: Interceptor, Supporting Fire, Nova Reactor, Deep Strike, Skyfire

Drop the blacksun filter if you have need of points elsewhere. Can't a riptide only take 2 support systems?

317pts

XV8 Crisis Team
2 x Crisis Shas'vre - Missile pod + Plasma rifle, 2xDrone Controller, Multi-tracker, Blacksun Filter
Crisis Shas'ui - Missile pod + Plasma Rifle, Iridium Battlesuit
6 x Gun Drones
Bonding Knife Ritual

Make this your HQ: you only need 1 drone controller to give all your gun drones the upgraded BS. Missile-plasma is a solid choice. Multi tracker not so useful: save the points and give him interceptor or vectored retro thrusters

282 pts

Troops:

Fire Warrior Team (x4)
5 Fire Warriors
1 Fire Warrior Shas'ui - Markerlight, Target Lock, 2 Gun Drones
6 x EMP Grenades
Bonding Knife Ritual

I like big squads of FW. Add a cadre fireblade and give them a position to hold. I never bother with EMP grenades. Shield drones might be useful. Or markerlight drones if you have the railguns/missiles to use with them.

484 pts

Fast Attack:

Piranha
Fusion Blaster
Disruption Pod

Great as a suicide troop. Is that what you want them for? With 1500 points, I wouldn't usually bring them.
65 pts

Pathfinder Team
10 Pathfinders
Recon Drone
Grav-inhibitor Drone
10 EMP Grenades
Bonding Knife Ritual
2 x Rail Rifle

169 pts

Thats a lot of hope tied up in those pathfinders. Not sure if it would be worthwhile to have all that in that squad.

Sun shark - twin linked missile pod, disruption pod - 180 pts

Pretty standard.


Overall: drop some of it, redo HQ. Add in another hammerhead or broadsides, and at least one skyray for anti air. Also, another riptide would be very useful. Also, more fire warrior squads.

My local tau player tends to run 2-4 12 man squads of FW, a hammerhead with rail, and the rest being crisis suits.

the list is effective however once they get into CC they are over.

My suggestion would be too buff your basic troops, aswell as including a few more CBS in there, try your best to stay of of CC.