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This is my first shot at a tau army. Please Critique:
Thanks

Tau Mobilized (1498)

HQ (2)

Shas'o XV8 (256)
-Multitracker
-Missile Pod
-Plasma Rifle
-Shas'vre XV8 x 2
-Missile Pods
-Multitrackers
-Plasma Rifle

Troop (2)

FW x 10 (195)
-Shas'ui
-Devilfish
-Disruption Pod

FW x 10 (195)
-Shas'ui
-Devilfish
-Disruption Pod

FW x 9 (185)
-Shas'ui
-Devilfish
-Disruption Pod


FA (2)

Path Finders x 8 (181)
-Devilfish
-Disruption Pod


Path Finders x 8 (181)
-Devilfish
-Disruption Pod

HS

XV88 x 2 (140)

Hammerhead (165)
-Railgun
-Disruption Pod
-Burst Canons
-Multitracker

This one almost sunk to the bottom with no attention.

Ok, it doesn't look too bat, but here is what I would change:

Pathfinders shouldn't be moving at all. They are all about markerlights, and markerlights are heavy, so they shouldn't be moving at all. I would give their two devilfish to two units of firewarriorrs, and then get rid of the two previous devilfish they were using. That should give you a total of 170 points to spend.

I would upgrade all your D-Fish to Warfish by giving them TA, SMS, and MT. That will leave 65 points to spend.

I would give your FWs Bonding Knives and up their unit size to 12 for all of them.

I would also suggest making your Crisis bodyguards into their own elite unit. It makes them cheaper, and you can just reattache them to the commander right away.

Hope that helps.

To add to what The Bringer said maybe drop the 'O to an 'El and give him TA and HW the multi-tracker. It gives you the same BS but saves you 15 points.

I don't have the codex in front of me, so I'm not too sure about point values, but did you account for the battlesuit support system on the broadsides? If not I would add either Target Lock or Advanced Stabilization System. I would also try to get them some shield drones if you can find the points, but that would also require making one a team leader. You could drop the Pathfinder squads to 6 or 7 each, which is still a good number of marker lights.

firemind wrote:To add to what The Bringer said maybe drop the 'O to an 'El and give him TA and HW the multi-tracker. It gives you the same BS but saves you 15 points.

I don't have the codex in front of me, so I'm not too sure about point values, but did you account for the battlesuit support system on the broadsides? If not I would add either Target Lock or Advanced Stabilization System. I would also try to get them some shield drones if you can find the points, but that would also require making one a team leader. You could drop the Pathfinder squads to 6 or 7 each, which is still a good number of marker lights.

I would just give the broadsides A.S.S. and split them into two units.

The Bringer wrote:This one almost sunk to the bottom with no attention.

Ok, it doesn't look too bat, but here is what I would change:

Pathfinders shouldn't be moving at all. They are all about markerlights, and markerlights are heavy, so they shouldn't be moving at all. I would give their two devilfish to two units of firewarriorrs, and then get rid of the two previous devilfish they were using. That should give you a total of 170 points to spend.

I would upgrade all your D-Fish to Warfish by giving them TA, SMS, and MT. That will leave 65 points to spend.

I would give your FWs Bonding Knives and up their unit size to 12 for all of them.

I would also suggest making your Crisis bodyguards into their own elite unit. It makes them cheaper, and you can just reattache them to the commander right away.

Hope that helps.

But that means I cant start my FW on board devilfish of pathfinders. Also, isnt more tanks better? What about Dawn of War to get Pathfinders in position?


Automatically Appended Next Post:

firemind wrote:To add to what The Bringer said maybe drop the 'O to an 'El and give him TA and HW the multi-tracker. It gives you the same BS but saves you 15 points.

I don't have the codex in front of me, so I'm not too sure about point values, but did you account for the battlesuit support system on the broadsides? If not I would add either Target Lock or Advanced Stabilization System. I would also try to get them some shield drones if you can find the points, but that would also require making one a team leader. You could drop the Pathfinder squads to 6 or 7 each, which is still a good number of marker lights.

Oh wow. I totally forgot about the 3 mandatory systems on the XV88.

BTW, good idea as well on the O' to 'El to free up points. As for the broadsides im not quite sure if i would be able to put in shield drones. But lemme see.....

Yuber wrote:But that means I cant start my FW on board devilfish of pathfinders. Also, isnt more tanks better? What about Dawn of War to get Pathfinders in position?

And that is how the rest of us start our FWs; *not* in the Pathfinders' D'fish.

As for DoW? The MarkerLs are 36". The PFs move on 6", Run and then will shoot turn 2; odds are, any targets will be in range of 3 feet.

The 200 or so points spent on 2 extra transports are much better spent on a Railhead and/or Crisis Suits.

Oh, yeah, 1+ on alla The Bringer's advice.

Brothererekose wrote:

Yuber wrote:But that means I cant start my FW on board devilfish of pathfinders. Also, isnt more tanks better? What about Dawn of War to get Pathfinders in position?

And that is how the rest of us start our FWs; *not* in the Pathfinders' D'fish.

As for DoW? The MarkerLs are 36". The PFs move on 6", Run and then will shoot turn 2; odds are, any targets will be in range of 3 feet.

The 200 or so points spent on 2 extra transports are much better spent on a Railhead and/or Crisis Suits.

I see, that frees up alot of points. Thanks alot.

What about troop count? is 30 FW enough? also is bonding knife autoget?

Yuber wrote:What about troop count? is 30 FW enough? also is bonding knife autoget?

Generally, a troop choice per 500 points. So 30 FWs (3x10) is good. 3x6 in 3 transports is okay. So is one FW unit and two kroot. Depends on how you'll handle 'em.

BK autoget? No. A lot of tau posters skip the BK. Several of us say take it every time.

*I* think it is a good idea, given the *lack* of scoring units in 5e (4e used to have all FoC choices as scoring, leading to a lot of minimum Troops/maximum Elite-Heavy selections in lists, but no longer). I've had those 2 or 3 FWs rally, and still make it back to an objective. Not possible for (most) other armies, except SM, where all of them can rally under half.

So, my advice is, "Yes, get BKs."

I'd definitely try to get shield drones to try and avoid those crisis suits being instant killed. The drones also give a few extra wounds to the unit which can keep it alive longer as well.

HQ (2) (1498)

Shas'el XV8 (87)
-Multitracker
-Missile Pod
-Plasma Rifle

Elite(2)

Shas'ui XV8 x 2 (124)
-Multitracker
-Missile Pod
-PLasma Rilfle

Shas'ui XV8 x 2 (124)
-Multitracker
-Missile Pod
-PLasma Rilfle

Troop (3)

FW x 10 (115)
-Shas'ui
-Bonding Knife

FW x 10 (115)
-Shas'ui
-Bonding Knife


FW x 10 (200)
-Shas'ui
-Devilfish
-Disruption Pod
-Bonding Knife

FA (2)

Path Finders x 8 (181)
-Devilfish
-Disruption Pod


Path Finders x 8 (181)
-Devilfish
-Disruption Pod

HS (3)

XV88 (103)
-Drone Controller
-Shield Drone x 2
-Blacksun Filter

XV88 (103)
-Drone Controller
-Shield Drone x 2
-Blacksun Filter


Hammerhead (165)
-Railgun
-Disruption Pod
-Burst Cannons
-Multitracker


Here's the new list.

I wanna thank everyone for their feedback, but I have a few questions.

This new list only has 4 AV targets. Is that a good idea? Wont they get blasted off the board with concentrated AT fire?

Its fine. If your opponent can provide concentrated AT fire, then all your tanks will be goners eventually anyways. Disrpution pods also take down that risk anyways, if you consider it a problem.

The new list looks fine.

Normally I don't see more than 24 FWs, and no more than 8 Pathfinders, but I think this list can work well.

Why is 8 pathfinders enough? at bs3 it means that you'll get off only 4 markerlights...

Yuber wrote:Why is 8 pathfinders enough? at bs3 it means that you'll get off only 4 markerlights...

I agree with you.

Other dakka posters have admonished me to split my 8 PFs into two units of 4. I might dabble with two units of 5 or 6. I have (at 1850+) fielded two units of 8 PFs, but not often.

Eh. Like the Bringer said, the list is good to go. Give it several tries.

Are you otherwise experienced at 40k?

Brothererekose wrote:

Yuber wrote:Why is 8 pathfinders enough? at bs3 it means that you'll get off only 4 markerlights...

I agree with you.

Other dakka posters have admonished me to split my 8 PFs into two units of 4. I might dabble with two units of 5 or 6. I have (at 1850+) fielded two units of 8 PFs, but not often.

Eh. Like the Bringer said, the list is good to go. Give it several tries.

Are you otherwise experienced at 40k?

Im experienced with MEQ armies and tactics against other armies. Not with the others tho such as tau.

I never fought a list that actually gave me trouble, so its either im really good with my army, or they really suck. Which I hope its lying more on the latter.

Kroot? I would drop one of the units of FW or lose a few men on each in order to get some kroot. You don't have any piranhas and you only have 2 units of 2 crisis suits, so your FWs are going to be out in the open and are vulnerable to a charge.

Also, why are the Broadsides in two seperate units? Wouldn't it save points to buy them together (not looking at the codex right now, but generally that is a rule of thumb), and get a target lock? Plus, then you could play wound allocation games.

Other than that, looks good.