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This is my first attempt at a 'Castle Up' Tau Army. This tactic is basically formed by a static gunline. There are a group of Fire Warriors at the front with some pathfinders behind. This gives them lots of friepower and with all those markerlights then it should make the FW very accurate. Then behind this (These first two ranks shouldn't be more than 5" long) are some crisis battlesuits that can JSJ. Then, at the very back you have the Heavy Support like the Hammerheads and B-sides.


HQ
Shas'el
Equpment: 2 Missile Pods, Targeting Array, 2 Shield Drones
Total: 108pts

Elites
Crisis Battlesuit Team: (2 Shas'ui, 1 Team leader)
Equipment: Both Shas'ui have 2 Mssile Pods, Targeting Array
Team Leader has 2 Missile Pods, Targeting Array, Bonding Knife
Total: 169pts

Crisis Battlesuit Team (2 Shas'ui, 1 Team Leader)
Equipment: Both Shas'ui have, 2 Plasma Rifles, Targeting Array
Team Leader has 2 Plasma Rifles, Targeting Array, Bonding Knife
Total: 205pts

Troops
Fire Warrior Team (12 Man)
Equipment: None
Total: 120pts

Fire Warrior Team (12 Man)
Equipment: None
Total: 120pts

Fast Attack
Pathfinders (6 Man)
Equipment: Devilfish with Disruption Pod
Total: 145pts

Fast Attack
Pathfinders (6 Man)
Equipment: Devilfish with Disruption Pod
Total: 145pts

Heavy Support
Hammerhead Gunship
Equipment: Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pod
Total:155pts

Hammerhead Gunship
Equipment: Railgun, Burst Cannons, Disruption Pod
Total:155pts

Broadside Team: (1 Shas'ui, 1 Team Leader)
Equipment: 2 Shield Drones
Total: 175pts

TOTAL: 1497pts

12 Pathfinders is a bit many. I only have 10 and some people see that as oversaturation. But this is a simple fix.

Increase one squad of Pathfinders to 8. Nix the other one. Add one squad of Fire Warriors.

If you have any points to spare, upgrade one FW in each squad to a Shas'ui and give them two gun drones, but this part is not by any means required. I just personally enjoy having pinning weapons in my FW squads when the enemy starts getting close. Some people may tell you gun drones are a waste of points in general. So only do it if you have points to spare.

Add MultiTrackers to the Hammerheads so they can fire all their weapons if they move, MTs are cheap.

Also, check your codex, don't take my word for this, but I don't think Broadsides need a team leader to take drones.

Otherwise, this list looks really good.

I don't think your castle plan will work well with this formation, certainly against turn 1 assaulting armies.

FWs out of a devilfish are dead. Heavy flamers kill you on a 2+ with no save. Anything can beat them in combat and with outflankers and as prebviously mentioned turn 1 assaulters you really have no way to stop that happening to them.

The Crisis suits are pretty good, but you've put down that you have 2 of each weapon which is instead twin-linked as you can't take 2 of the same weapon. Though I'd probably go with something more exotic on the Commander, I just don't rate a Missile Pod as a 100 point weapon even with Bs5 and twinlinked.

Hammerheads are missing Multitrakers they should always have multitrakers. Targetlocks and flechettes are often a good buy too but not manditory like the multitraker.

Your Broadsides are illegal as they don't have a support system listed. ASS is normally the best bet, Targeting Arrays are awesome on Broadsides but when you roll DoW deployment you'll really wish you went with the ASS...

Enlighten me, and name a single army that assaults turn 1.

Doesn't happen in v5, especially not all the way across the entire field.

SaintHazard wrote:Enlighten me, and name a single army that assaults turn 1.

Doesn't happen in v5, especially not all the way across the entire field.

Oh dear, seriously?

Chaos (lash/unit in raider)
SM (Shrike w/ unit attached, Shrike w/ scouts just in the army, Scouts in a Storm)
DH/WH (A word in your ear + infiltrating unit)
Dark Angels (scouting Ravenwing bikers)
Eldar (Karandras, Pathfinder lols)
Kroot Mercs (if people still use them)
Just a few off the top of my head.

Hell, it doesn't have to be turn 1...outflankers can really hurt.
It is because it is 5th Ed were gun lines/"Castle Up" don't work as well as they did in the past.
All armies got faster. There are more units and deployment/reserve options.
There is stuff that charges out of deepstriking now, castling = more chances of combo charges which is even worse.
Etc.

Space Marines can assault in turn 1. They have one unit with a 42" first turn charge range and another with a 45" first turn charge range. Add in the 12" deployment zone and yes they can assault anywhere on the table in turn 1...

Orks can also turn 1 assault.

IG can too.

I'm sure there are others.

Alright, fair enough. So nix the third FW squad and give each of the others a Devilfish. Move some points around, it can be done.

Also, I see you edited your post - I was about to say that saying Castle Up doesnt work at all in Fifth is an exaggeration, but you've fixed that.

Truth be told, it works just fine for me. My Tau are nigh undefeated, and my list is far from perfect.

A gunline Castle will work against 2 types of opponent. Those that move slowly across the table against you and those that deep strike assault units in front of you. Neither of which are particularly effective or common builds.

In 5th ed armies come at you from all directions are much faster and have methods of assaulting you in the turn they arrive (i.e. outflankers or turn 1 assaulters).

If you get into combat against a gunline castle it is game over and in 5th ed people can do that before you've fired a single shot at them.

Then let it be based on your local metagame.

If you've got lots of players who get into assault turn 1, play Mechatau. If you get lots of slow-movers or shooty armies, play Gunline Tau.

Simple as that.

I play against Templars, footslogging/DP Nids, Necrons, footslogging Thousand Sons, footslogging IG, and jetbike Eldar.

I do very well with my Gunline Tau against all of the above.

True, tailor to your meta.
But it's not very flexible is it...

Slogging TS, I loled. Serious posts is no longer serious when Dust Buckets are mentioned .

Yeah I've posted about him before, he's... not great at things.

Anyway.

What about using Devilfish as blockers? Granted it'll give everything you shoot at a cover save, but it could certainly save you from anything looking to jump out of a transport at you. Jetbikes and jump infantry would still be a problem, but less so if you grouped everything so they'd have no feasible landing point inside of your lines.

They'd have to pop your Fish before they could assault your FW, giving you lots of extra time to shoot at them.

DF are not as spammable as they are not cheap.
You can run them as charge blockers.
Issues: if they die in the enemy shooting phase there is the chance the opponent can still charge through. In addition, you could just be giving that opponent more movement by being a charge receiver.
You can block your own LoS.

By castling up, you also make Template/Pie plates more economical...which is never a good thing.

I tried out this tactic the other day and i'm sorry hazard but it did NOT work!

TauCommander13 wrote:I tried out this tactic the other day and i'm sorry hazard but it did NOT work!

Using D'fish to block assaults or the whole 'gun-line' approach? Give us a ... two sentence per turn batrep.