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So, Im going to be teaching two kiddos how to play 40k, and I already have the AoBR set painted, and one of them expressed an interest in the Tau after going through the rule book.

I, myself, arent super experienced with Tau, and am looking for some input to put together a suitable and fair force to use against the AoBR contents.

Captain, 5 Terminators, Dreadnought, 10 Tactical Marines
Warboss, 5 Nobs, 20 Ork Boyz, 3 Deffkoptas

I dont want to have something that seriously shoots everything off the board. I realize that's sort of what Tau can do, but I want something that fits in the balance.

Please help!
T-

HQ - Crisis Suit
Troops - Unit of Fire Warriors
Unit of Kroot

How many Fire Warriors, how many Kroot? 10 and 10? 6 and 12?
You know, lol.

What's a good amount that wont shoot everything off the board. Remember though, at the same time, you're contesting the board with Terminators, Dreadnoughts and Deffkoptas. not too mention lots of bolters and choppas

Thanks!
T-

12 Fire Warriors and 16 Kroot.

Idealy the dreadnought would be countered by the crisis suit.

Are these other to armies evenly matched pointswise and if so, how much?
The first thing I can think of is going easy on battle suits possible something like:

Shas'el Battlesuit Commander with burst cannon, plasma rifle, shield generator and hard-wired multi-tracker, 3 stealth suits, 12 fire warriors and maybe a piranha with a fusion blaster

That would be just under 400 points and the setup follows the other armies with 1 hq, 1 elite unit, 1 "mechanical unit" and one squad of regular troops

IIRC the contents of the box are ~600 pts of Marines and ~ 450 of orks. Not precisely balanced.

But eiither way it breaks down to 1 troop squad, one elite squad, one single HQ model, and one vehicle unit per side.

So for Tau, to give the same general weight of units without worrying too much about points or balance, I might field a Shas'o or Shas'el in crisis suit, 6 stealth suits, 12 FW, and maybe a Pirhanna or three?


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I think the key - especially for kids - is to keep the forces balanced-looking (i.e. everyone has the same number of different kinds of toys), simple, and COOL

that's what Id like to do! I mean, who wants to be the one who DOESNT get the awesome Dreadnought or even some crazy looking Koptas, right?? lol

So, a BC/PR Crisis Suit, 12 Fire Warriors, 6 Stealth Suits w/ BCs and 3 Piranhas w/ BCs sounds balanced?

Thanks!
T-

I will make some adjustments to my suggested list

Shas'el Battlesuit Commander
Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Shield Generator, Hard-wired Multi-tracker, hard-wired drone controller and 2 gun drones.
this guy will be able to take on most other things with a decent chance of causing some damage, he will also be able to survive the odd missile or multi-melta hit and also shows battlesuit ability use more than one weapon with the right wargear

3(or possible more) stealth suits with a shas'ui with fusion blaster and target lock
They will add the element of stealth and the ability to shoot at diffirent targets(wich is rather unique for tau). It also fits the role as an elite unit without the chance of overpowering the foe in multi wound battle suits with more than one weapon.

12 taur fire warriors(with pulse rifles) with shas'ui with hard-wired drone controller and 2 Marker drones
This unit will allow them to try out the markerlight "feature" of the tau and forcing a choice between staying mobile or bunker down and lay down precise fire

Piranha with Fusion blaster and distruption pod
with a 4+ cover save ranged attacks(outside a certain range) it should be able to survive and be able to harass enough to be useable.

Note: this might be to many rules to have in an introduction game...feel free to point that out and change/trash away on this list. Tau is a rather difficult army to represent in an easy way in my experience.

I think IC's list sounds pretty good... I haven't played Tau (or really anything) since 3rd ed so my sense of what is "good" or a good fit is outdated and should be taken with a grain of salt.

That said: I think throwing in a Markerlight is an excellent idea.

I think maybe only having a leader/upgrade character in one unit might keep things simpler and matching up to the one sergeant in the Marine force.

I think it's probably better to keep wargear in general as basic as possible (though as I said including a markerlight or marker drones is an excellent idea for giving a taste of Tau special rules). I don't know how Drones play out in 5e, but I worry if Mixed Units are a little too complicated for an intro game.

As for balance... you may have to do some mathhammer... points are less important than having a force that won't absolutely cut the orks to shreds before the orks can get to melee, but can have a chance of cracking the tough nut of 5 termies and a dread. But (for intro purposes) I'd try to balance by adding or subtracting models rather than mixing up wargear.

So for example BC equipped vehicles might not be optimal tactically, but you can say, as you teach, "this vehicle's gun works the same as the stealth suits' guns" etc.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
also worth noting - high AP/ low rate of fire weapons like plasma rifles or fusion blasters (though I'm leery of introducing the Melta special rule) will give the Tau an edge against the termies and dreads without being significantly more deadly against the orks than the pulse rifles and burst cannons are.


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Might even be worth throwing a Hammerhead in in lieu of the pirhannas. It's got a lot of Cool value but it's high point value will not be overbalanced as the railgun is overkill for most things it will be up against and it's a fun and straightforward model to run. On the other hand if there's nothing in the marine or ork list that can crack it, it's probably a bad idea.

drones got the same toughness as the tau fire warriors and the same armour save so its just a case of choosing whats hit.
But it might be a good idea to give the commander Shield Drones now that you mention it...since those share their thoughness and save with the model.
In that case dropping the shield generator and giving him a normal multi-tracker to streamline things...I'll make a quick changing of the list:

Shas'el Battlesuit Commander
Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Multi-tracker, hard-wired drone controller and 2 shield drones.

3(or possible more) stealth suits

12 taur fire warriors(with pulse rifles) with shas'ui with hard-wired drone controller and 2 Marker drones

Piranha with Fusion blaster and distruption pod

That should be more manageable



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hmm..true about the melta, I wanted them to have something to counter the dreadnought with, seeker missiles on the piranha might work though, but that adds to the "difficulty" of the list. You also could give the commander a flamer instead of a burst cannon to enable him to counter the orcs.

Iratus Custodis wrote:Shas'el Battlesuit Commander
Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Multi-tracker, hard-wired drone controller and 2 shield drones.

3(or possible more) stealth suits

12 taur fire warriors(with pulse rifles) with shas'ui with hard-wired drone controller and 2 Marker drones

Piranha with Fusion blaster and distruption pod

That should be more manageable

I think this is a good list that is simple and captures the feel. I would do some mathhammer on the stealthies - 3 seems a bit too few but those burst cannon can throw out a lot of shots and you don't want it getting too crazy... also I might drop the DC on the FW shas'ui and just give him a markerlight. But if the kids can manage 2 shield drones then can probably manage 2 marker drones as well and get a feel for the fact that the Tau have different types of drones.


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Iratus Custodis wrote:
hmm..true about the melta, I wanted them to have something to counter the dreadnought with, seeker missiles on the piranha might work though, but that adds to the "difficulty" of the list. You also could give the commander a flamer instead of a burst cannon to enable him to counter the orcs.

I think the melta's less trouble than seekers. IIRC the Marines already have a flamer, so that addition wouldn't necessarily complicate anything.

A Tau Battle force would give you:

1 Crisis Suit

10 or so Fire Warriors

10 or so Kroot

3 Stealth suits

1 Piranah

That should put you around the 450 points. You will use the devilfish post AOBR, so it is not going to waste. If you want add a couple more crisis suits and you have a good core that can also fit well into an expanded Tau force.

DAaddict wrote:A Tau Battle force would give you:

1 Crisis Suit

10 or so Fire Warriors

10 or so Kroot

3 Stealth suits

1 Piranah

That should put you around the 450 points. You will use the devilfish post AOBR, so it is not going to waste. If you want add a couple more crisis suits and you have a good core that can also fit well into an expanded Tau force.

12 fire warriors

12 kroot

and it is a devilfish, not a pihranha.


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as well as the stealths and the crisis

Doesn't the battleforce include one of those fast attack vehicles?

not that Im aware of.
Battle Force should include something like:

1 Crisis Suit
3 Stealth Suits
12 Fire Warriors
12 kroot
1 Devilfish
8-10 Gun Drones

I do actually have the models mentioned by Iratis Custodis

"Shas'el Battlesuit Commander
Plasma Rifle, Burst Cannon, Multi-tracker, hard-wired drone controller and 2 shield drones.

3(or possible more) stealth suits

12 taur fire warriors(with pulse rifles) with shas'ui with hard-wired drone controller and 2 Marker drones

Piranha with Fusion blaster and distruption pod "

Just wanted to make sure what's here is good enough, without overpowering or getting run over by Choppas or Bolt Shells! lol

Thanks for the feedback!
T-

Might even be worth throwing a Hammerhead in in lieu of the pirhannas. It's got a lot of Cool value but it's high point value will not be overbalanced as the railgun is overkill for most things it will be up against and it's a fun and straightforward model to run. On the other hand if there's nothing in the marine or ork list that can crack it, it's probably a bad idea.

Or a stripped down XV88. Easier to pop than the HH, no submunition (so orks aren't totally screwed) and you still get to teach them rule #1 "More railgun".