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Tau were my first ever army, and after getting about 1000 pts of them I switched to Orks. The "run away entire game" playstyle of tau were just not as fun to me. Wanting to return to my roots, so to speak, I rewrote my Tau army list to try and get some games in. Any ideas on what I could add/take out? Keep in mind this will be the list I use for the first game, but there is no rule saying you cant have 2 different armies, so why not expand my tau a bit eh?

HQ
Crisis Commander Shas'o
-burst cannon, missile pod, shield generator, hardwired multi tracker, hardwired target lock
--125 pts

Elites
Battlesuit team
1 Shas'vre
-missile pod, airbursting fragmentation projector, fusion blaster, stimuland injector, hardwired multitracker
1 Shas'ui
-Plasma rifle, missile pod, multi tracker
--156 pts

Troops
12 Firewarriors with a Shas'ui team leader
-bonding knife
-devilfish equipped with decoy launcher
--220 pts

15 kroot and 2 kroot hounds
--117 pts

Heavy Support
Broadside Shas'vre
-Multi-tracker, drone controller, 2 shield drones
--115 pts

Hammerhead Gunship
-Railgun, burst cannons, multi-tracker, disruption pod, target lock
--170 pts

Total: 1001 pts

Any and all suggestions and advice are welcome. Especially whether to deep strike with my few battlesuits ._.
Mostly going to be playing against mixed eldar(mostly footslogging), daemons, and I can only assume MEQs and Orks as well.

No one has any suggestions for Tau? I was thinking of upgrading this to a Farsight army, how easy would that be?

With you list you could change to a Farsight list with little issue. You would just have to get rid of the Kroot and add in Farsight, since you aren't taking more than 1 of anything and you already have the 1+ crisis suit slot you would fill the basic requirements.

As for your list, it seems like your suits are all over the place. You are mixing short and long range inside of a suit configuration, so you will probably be wasting at least some aspect of your suit at any given time (get close to use the burst cannon, AFP, or Fusion blaster, and you are missing out on the range of the missile pod, or if you stay at long range you miss out on using those weapons). Typically you will want to focus your suits on either getting close and doing fast, hard damage or focus on doing longer ranged dmg with missiles and plasma.

Also, markerlights are a must for any Tau force. being able to deny cover saves and/or boost your unit's BS is just too good to pass up. I would suggest a squad of pathfinders with a fish and drop the dedicated fish on the Firewarriors (you can have the pathfinders fish pick up the FW's and tote them around as needed). I am also not sure if a decoy launcher does much of anything anymore (I don't have my codex handy to look it up), I usually see (and play with) disruption pods on all fish to get the 4+ cover over 12 since if I leave a fish within 12 inches of something its because I am trying to burn it down with rapid fire warriors.

Tychron wrote:With you list you could change to a Farsight list with little issue. You would just have to get rid of the Kroot and add in Farsight, since you aren't taking more than 1 of anything and you already have the 1+ crisis suit slot you would fill the basic requirements.

As for your list, it seems like your suits are all over the place. You are mixing short and long range inside of a suit configuration, so you will probably be wasting at least some aspect of your suit at any given time (get close to use the burst cannon, AFP, or Fusion blaster, and you are missing out on the range of the missile pod, or if you stay at long range you miss out on using those weapons). Typically you will want to focus your suits on either getting close and doing fast, hard damage or focus on doing longer ranged dmg with missiles and plasma.

Also, markerlights are a must for any Tau force. being able to deny cover saves and/or boost your unit's BS is just too good to pass up. I would suggest a squad of pathfinders with a fish and drop the dedicated fish on the Firewarriors (you can have the pathfinders fish pick up the FW's and tote them around as needed). I am also not sure if a decoy launcher does much of anything anymore (I don't have my codex handy to look it up), I usually see (and play with) disruption pods on all fish to get the 4+ cover over 12 since if I leave a fish within 12 inches of something its because I am trying to burn it down with rapid fire warriors.

OOPS. I had meant to say disruption pod on the devilfish. I wonder what I was thinking...
Yes, my suits are all over the place, it was my first army and I was just putting weapons on that I thought looked good/were good. It was before I really thought about points and synergy. Once I pick up some magnets I'm going to be sawing/cutting off an awful lot of weapons to update my models.
I actually do have pathfinders, although I had forgotten about being able to put other units in someone's dedicated transport.
Does farsight have an actual model or is it "convert one yourself lol". I'm still in Ork mode I think haha...
Also, what does a Farsight list typically look like? I would assume fairly standard except more crisis suits compared to regular lists...
How does farsight's bodyguard go? Obviously more than 2 if you have the points to spare, but A full 7 suit squad seems way overkill.

The plasma rifle/missile pod/multitracker setup for a suit works well. My marines don't like that config. The Shas'vre does seem all over (doesn't he too much equipment?).

I haven't played a Farsight list, but the thought of a 8 man squad of suits is scary. So much firepower...

The multi-tracker on the broadside or the target-lock on the commander can probably go; you're list is 1 point over after all.

Farsight has a model that you can pick up for sure. A Farsight list will limit your army choices by making pathfinders, pirhana, broadsides, hammerheads, skyrays, and sniper drone teams all 0-1 choices IIRC. He also limits you so that you can't take any kroot, vespid, or etherals, but makes Crisis suits 1+ (1 squad required).

Not a big deal in lower points games, since you probably won't be taking more than 1 of each heavy support anyway. His bodyguard is big, but really, at 1k points, I probably wouldn't bother with them. You can get cheaper suits out of the normal crisis team elite slots and the normal suits tend to be just as good.

Fiend wrote:
I haven't played a Farsight list, but the thought of a 8 man squad of suits is scary. So much firepower...

When I think of an 8 man squad of suits, I think, "So much fire power, so many ways a 700 pt. unit can get so easily slaughtered. You get assaulted, you get wrecked. It is way to hard to keep a unit like that alive. And also, its an extra 10 points per suit because they have to be 'vres. Farsight isn't an upgrade, he will kill you.

As for battlesuits, these are usually the only configurations I would ever suggest:

MP/PR/MT
FB/PR/MT
BC/Fl/MT
TL Fl/???

Other than your suits, you have a good list. I wouldn't have changed anything but your battle-suit configurations.

Kynelius wrote:Broadside Shas'vre -Multi-tracker, drone controller, 2 shield drones

Why 'vre? It does no real change in h2h and cost more than Team LEader, which does the same thing for less.

Araenion wrote: daemons, and I can only assume MEQs and Orks as well.

Although I respect TheBringer's opinions, he left out the BC/MP/MT FireStorm, which will go best against daemons; that is volume fire at a safe distance from a h2h enemy.

Farsight can't be played below 1500 points. See pg. 44 of the Tau Codex, under the rule 'Special Character': "Commander Farsight is a special character. He may be used in tau armies of at least 1500 points as an HQ choice..."

Alphapod wrote:Farsight can't be played below 1500 points. See pg. 44 of the Tau Codex, under the rule 'Special Character': "Commander Farsight is a special character. He may be used in tau armies of at least 1500 points as an HQ choice..."

I am aware of that rule. I tend to ignore it for casual games, however if I want any form of competency in my list I wont bring farsight in below 1500 points.