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Hey guys just bought the Tau Empire Codex and just wondering where I should start in collecting Tau. Haven't got any mini's yet, wondering if it is worth getting a battleforce as it is value for money or would I have wasted mini's that I wouldn't use? Cheers.

Battleforce is generally good - it's one of the few you can use out of the box. Most others you need to get a HQ at least.

Commander w/ missiles and plasma rifle and shield drone ~100
3 stealth suits ~ 75
6 Firewarriors w/Shas'la bonded ~75
6 Firewarriors w/Shas'la bonded ~75
12 kroot~85
6 Drones ~75
APC + d.field ~85

That's at least 500 pts (570 ish) add a tank and it would be up to 700, and a crisis suits team and you've probably got 850 another tank, unit of fire warrios w/ transport and its 1000pts.

I'd get it and play 500pts games, you have options at that point which is good.

battleforce is alright. Mandatory units to get are crisis suits (don't get the commander box unless you want to use the special weapons), fire warriors, devilfish, broadsides, hammerhead. These are the main units of the tau arsenal. Pathfinders with a devilfish are also a good purchase along with piranhas (tau speeder without scout rule), kroot if you want to have auxiliaries in your army although not that great unless used well. Ethereal is horrible. ATT is optimistic about them like always but they suck. Vespids are the same as ethereal except might be okay if used well for baiting. Sky rays are good because they have two marker lights and 6 seeker missiles. Mostly used as a mobile markerlight platform. Sniper drone teams are good anti meq and pinning. really for covering flanks and what not. probably isn't a good choice for a starter though.

I agree with the above. Get the bf and then expand. Also chat to others on how to/ and how you want to play.
I love Tau, their the under dogs in my opinion.

Before you start, make sure you like the GW crisis suits enough. I like the FW ones so much more that I'm going to replace my GW ones too.

Models you want:
- some fire warriors
- crisis suits
- broadsides
- a hammerhead (buy the sky ray, it's got the HH bits included)
- some devilfish
- some kroot
- a commander
- piranhas

Everything else is fluff or doesn't make your army stronger. And since it's an old codex, you need strong units.

Things you want:

- Crisis Suits (aim for 10)
- Firewarriors (get one box, it's all you'll ever need)
- Kroot (2 boxes and 10 hounds, go with 1 and 5 until your army is bigger)
- Piranha (2-6 depending on...)
- Pathfinder (8-16 you want your fast attack filled with either 1 unit of Pathfinders and 2 units of Piranha or 2 Path. 1 Piranha. I use the later)
- Broadside (aim for 6)
- Hammerhead (good for smaller games but not larger ones, get the Skyray box for extra bits and magnetize so you can turn it into a Devilfish)
- Devilfish (get one and by time you need more you can turn a Hammerhead into one or if you like the idea of Apoc. just get a Skyray kit for every tank you need)

Things you never, ever want:

- Ethereal (good for making half your army run off the table)
- Stealth Suits (while not bad per say, they suffer from a very serious condition known as not being Crisis suits)
- Gun Drones, Fast Attack (don't use them, that said you'll end up with enough of these things to make several squads soon enough)
- Vespid (worst unit ever)
- Sniper Drones (as per the Stealth Suits, they suffer from not being rail guns)
- Skyray (Limited number of very inaccurate shots, whats not to like? also not rail guns)
- Aun'va (Like an Ethereal only 4 times as expensive)
- Farsight (how to cripple your army before the game even starts)
- Shadowsun (a T3 Crisis suit that was weakened by 5th edition rule changes that costs as much as a squad of 3 real Crisis suits)

Kinda sad that half our codex is junk but that said Tau are still a great army so long as you don't fill it with junk units.

I appreciate how you convey the sad truths of the Tau codex. That said, Tau are still really good. If you are careful, what's left of the Tau Codex can be really good.

Battleforces are worth it, but I would never use the Stealth Suits in it.

After the battleforce, I would get these units, I consider them a must have:

3 Crisis Battlesuits, and 1 commander
1 Hammerhead
6 Pathfinders

The I would get a unit of fire warriors, another devilfish, another hammerhead, and at least three more crisis suits.

I saved money on broadsides, shield drones, and other such things by doing conversions.

For Broadsides, I converted a fusion blaster, grenades, and a burst cannon into some really awesome railguns, and then whenever I want a broadside, I just put two on a crisis suit, and give him two missile pods, and voila, a broadside with no extra cost.

Get an entire army of KROOOOOTTT!!!

heres my army, 15 stealth suits, commander and 2 body guard, 3 standard suits 2 broad side, 2 devilfish 2x 8 tau warriors


Automatically Appended Next Post:
what you want to look at is the functionality vs versability of your army, you need your fire warriors with a transport to capture objectives, the rest of your army can contend, you want to build your teams for roles, albeit not all catagory into 1 set, if you loose that unit you loose that entire ability to combat its target squad. i favour stealth suits for their suit functionality & burst+fusion, plasma rifles on the bodyguard and commander, missile pods & plasma on the secondary unit, broadsides i just love generally, smaller target with a reroll on your smaller focused shot.

i personally find pirahna, kroot, etherials, snipers, and such a point sink in functionality where you can get alot more bang for your buck in the units that can play out a much larger role.

I disagree on Kroot. I have had kroot decimate. If you get kroot in woods, they are guaranteed to be worth well over triple their points in how much they do. Kroot are not shabby in CC either, and they aren't bad at shooting. Infiltrate makes them useful for getting weaker enemy units in the back of the board as well.

dorions post is pretty subjective btw. those are some huge amounts of models that you dont necessarily need. If you magnetize xv8s you dont need 10 for example.

The Bringer wrote:After the battleforce, I would get these units, I consider them a must have:

3 Crisis Battlesuits, and 1 commander
1 Hammerhead
6 Pathfinders

The I would get a unit of fire warriors, another devilfish, another hammerhead, and at least three more crisis suits.

I saved money on broadsides, shield drones, and other such things by doing conversions.

+1 TheBringer's Recommendations.

B-sides? I bought the ForgeW ones. Worth the extra ~$10 for looks, assembly and durability.

Brothererekose wrote:

The Bringer wrote:After the battleforce, I would get these units, I consider them a must have:

3 Crisis Battlesuits, and 1 commander
1 Hammerhead
6 Pathfinders

The I would get a unit of fire warriors, another devilfish, another hammerhead, and at least three more crisis suits.

I saved money on broadsides, shield drones, and other such things by doing conversions.

+1 TheBringer's Recommendations.

B-sides? I bought the ForgeW ones. Worth the extra ~$10 for looks, assembly and durability.

I don't have the money for that kind of thing. If you have money, I wouldn't suggest making your own railguns, FW stuff is really awesome... but if you are like me, I convert everything I can.

Daemon, why even magnatize battlesuit arms? They fit nicely in without magnets for me. I just don't glue them and leave them, and they work wonderful. That said, I have eleven crisis suits, and I... sometimes... use all of them. I think the only thing that is too much is when you use bodyguards.

Cheers guys thanks for all your feedback, it was a great help.

You should buy the Skyray box sets instead of HH, they are about the same cost and the Skyray comes with all the parts for a Devilfish, HH rail, HH ion or skyray.

If you know how to magnetise you can do it to the turret and the drones/burst/SMS and you can interchange when ever you want.

But I say get
2 battleforces, (24 fire warriors, 24 kroot, 2 suits and 2 Devilfish, 6 stealth suits and 2 marker drones)
4 Battlesuits and a commander (this makes 6 suits total - 2 teams of 3/3 teams of 2, plus commander),
2 broadsides,
1 Hammerhead (skyray box)

This should get you rolling.

Also Bringer, the last 8 battlesuits I have had the parts have never just stayed in, they always always fall out on the arms.

anyone know if theres a tutorial on how to magnetize the front hull turret of the tank?

daemon wrote:anyone know if theres a tutorial on how to magnetize the front hull turret of the tank?

http://advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=14513 the whole HH

http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=14454 The front

That any help to you?

oh thats great thanks! It looks like a lot of work though, with supplies that i don't have =[. Hong Kong isn't too big on the hobby sadly.

If it helps Other then the magnets I use a small Pinvice and a flat and philips screwdriver and a pair of small metal scissors. It also helps to have cheap files around.

Pinvice gets they starting whole. Philips screwdriver widens it and Flat headed screwdriver bores out the whole till it is deep enough (I keep checking over) Then you get superglue.