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I was just wondering if Tau can be competitive in nowadays 40k. There are a few hard armys out there who look like they could paste these guys. As i have already bought the battleforce i was thinking what i could buy to beef up the Force and if there are any tau players out there to give me any pointers on a few tactics with them and what points limit they do well at.


Cheers Guyz Much love

Shouldnt this be in tactics?

This should definitely be in tactics. In response, though, the Tau are actually a fairly effective army when played well. The battleforce is a decent start on a force (I don't know about the kroot though, I've never used them). It really depends on which direction you want to take the army. A good starting place would be crisis suits though. They are involved in almost every type of Tau list. Adding a second fire warrior team is also probably a good idea, especially if you don't like the kroot. There is debate on Hammerhead vs. Broadsides as far as heavy support, but most players do run at least one Hammerhead. Plus, hammerheads are a lot cheaper in $$$ to get than Broadsides of the same point value.

To build on the BF bring/purchase your Crisis Suit total to about 6 to 8 suits; a mix of FireStorm, FireKnife and/or Deathrain.
Plus:
2 Railheads
3 b-sides with 2 Shield Drones (bonded) ... or 6 b-sides with one Railhead, *if* you run a Warfish or two.
A unit of Kroot, either min or near max; used for the Outflank factor.
At least a crew of pathfinders (don't buy the metal ones, just use FWs with carbines and a little bit of conversion. Saves ya $).

Competitive? Yes, as IMHO most codexes yield a decent army, that in the hands of a *capable* general, will win tourneys.

Well I'd say yes, but not on the Scale of, say, Space Marines or Tyranids.

If you really wan't to be competitive, take few Troops, and as many Battlesuits as you can (Twin-linked Plasma Rifles recommended). But watch out for other competitive lists, as they'll probably like to take lots of tanks - I myself took the following list in a tournament:
-1 Chapter Master
-5 Space Marines
-5 Scouts
-1 Ironclad Dreadnought in Drop Pod
-2 Land Raider Redeemers
=1000pts

Admittedly I only had a week to prepare, as my allies' original partner pulled out just before the event, so perhaps such noobishness can be forgiven.

Anyway, the point is, is that if someone wan't to win, chances are that they'll take lots of tanks, so watch out for that when you're writing your list. Broadsides and Crisis Battlesuits are your safest bet - I wouldn't recommend Stealth Suits, who are highly overpriced for what they do.

Tau can be very competive as they excell in anti-mech. This is a huge advantage as mech is a huge part of the meta game today. It is extremely possible (at 1850 points) to completely alpha strike the opponent's key vehicles on turn 1.

Fireknives suits (plasma rifle, missile pod, multi-tracker) are good against mech and MEQ, and tau players have the ability to take 15 of them (filling up elites and HQ, not counting FW hazard suits).

However, tau suffer greatly against fast, assualtl armies, so blood angels is the #1 enemy. This is bad as a lot of players run BA these days.

In my humble opinion I think tau qualify as a mid rank tier 2 army

Thanks guys really great feedback i have used army builder to get a decent list together thanks to your comments. Now i just gotta buy and paint all the models. Ill post it in the right place next time (Duhh).

Thanks to all.