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Alright, I've already made and entered this list for the game today, but if you guys have any tips for how to play it, or change it in future, the help is welcomed. My opponents will be a teamed IG and SM, and my allie will be Orks.

Shas'El - 97
Cyclic Ion Blaster, Twin-Linked Burst Cannon, Shield Generator

Fire Warriors - 85
7 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife

Fire Warriors - 85
7 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife

Fire Warriors - 85
7 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife

Hammerhead - 165
Railgun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod

Hammerhead - 165
Railgun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod

Hammerhead - 165
Railgun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod

Total: 847

anon/rassilon wrote:My opponents will be a teamed IG and SM, and my allie will be Orks.

Will your opponents & allies continue to be this combo? As I think about it, my advice doesn't change that much:

anon/rassilon wrote:Shas'El - 97 Cyclic Ion Blaster, Twin-Linked Burst Cannon, Shield Generator

This is not a legal combo. As the CiB, 2 BCs and SG take up four hard poitns. The 2 BCs shoot as one TL- gun, but take up two points.

Why not the Multi-Tracker? Are you just happy with shooting one gun?

Try this instead:
CiB, TL-BCs, hwMT, hwDC, Shield Drone.

If he gets hit with a Missile Launcher or other AP3+ fun (which are usually STR8+), and fails that Invul, he's Instant Deathed. The Shield Drone is better.

anon/rassilon wrote:7 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife
7 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife
7 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife

3 scoring units at 850 is a lot. I'd combine them into two units of 12 each; this is 2 less FWS, and one less 'Ui+BK, freeing up points to spend on ...

anon/rassilon wrote:Hammerhead - Railgun, Smart Missile System, Disruption Pod

... Giving your 3 Railheads MTs so *they* can shoot more than one gun at Combat Speed. At 850, the majority of enemy models are going to be infantry, and having the BCs quiet is a wasted opportunity to put 6 dice of tau love into the enemy GROPOS. And *maybe* target locks too as you'll want to split the RG for tanks and BCs for troops.

*If* those orks end up being an enemy in later games, giving the Railheads flechettes would be good and dirty . It ought to cut any assault by orks, on the tanks, in half.

Kroot up at 850 points! You don't really need 3 Railheads - at that points I'd tak some Ionheads as well. I'd take something like this:

Commander: 'El + AFP/CIB/Array, HW Multi, 1 x Shield Drone - 115
10 Fire Warriors - 100 (or 2 x 6)
11 Kroot - 77
Pathfinders: 4 x Pathfinder, Dfish/Disruption Pods - 133
Ionhead: Hhead, Ion Cannon, Burst Cannons, Multi-Tracker, Disruption Pods - 130 (583)
Ionhead: Hhead, Ion Cannon, Burst Cannons, Multi-Tracker, Disruption Pods - 130
Railhead: Hhead, Railgun, Burst Cannons, Multi-Tracker, Disruption Pods - 165
= 850

+1 Tan chassis, a transport for FW/Kroot...you won't be facing much if any heavy armour at this level. Pathfinders mean Railhead can be as good as possible with single shot, and on average both Ionheads shooting at one target they light up will be at Bs5. Swap something out for TL fusion/flamer suits maybe if you find you lack anti tank?

+1 To brother Erekose's advice.
+1 To Gurevell's list, though it lacks some AT power, even for 850 pts. One railgun doesn't cut it, you will need at least a fusion blaster on your commander imho.

Also, never ever put SMS on Hammerheads. Always get Burst Cannons. Burst Cannons are half the points and get two more shots. They sacrifice that for being 6" shorter range and a nice-ish special rule, but it is totally worth it.

personally it's good over all but you have ZERO reliable AT as the hammerheads (even with BS4) will hit 2/3 of the time plus the armor penetration (low point list so I wouldn't expect any LR really), and only kill 50% of the time. And for 5pt less you could buy 2 broadsides with TAs instead of each railhead. I'd say since you're facing SM & IG take either 2 railheads and 1 squad of 2 broadsides, or 2 squads of 2 broadsides, and 1 railhead. This way you have good AT (broadsides) with the IG armor ignoring insta-gibbing pie plate of death (the sub-munition).

Alternatively you could take 2 squads of 2 broadsides and buy a cheap crisis squad to deal with the marines better and let the orks deal with the guard mostly (horde vs horde) and focus on the marines to kill them off as their armor save will be a somewhat annoying problem even for the amount of attacks orks can hit things with.

definitely take Erekose advice too, Erekose brings up good points there.

Where is the rule that says the 'El may only fire one weapon per turn?
Also, the alliances may shift, but it's always going to be Space, Guard and IG. That's why I'm trying to make a balanced list.

It is not a tau codex rule, it is WH40K rules. Unless stated otherwise in codex (which it it not w/o the multi-tracker) an infantry guy can only fire 1 weapon per turn.

I like it. Apart from the advice on the hardpoints, quite effective. In my 850 Ellysian army, I have 4 valkyries, which overwhelms them. I feel this list could be good against things like this. Also, people should remember the 4, str6 ap4 large blasts he could put out per turn. Ouch. I would say to play it, if you win look to how you could have won quicker and if you lose, look to how you could have won.

Any advice on wargear for the 'El? The CiB and BC were just experiments. What do you guys think the list needs?

Looks good aside from the shas el. If your playing with allies you can use them as shields to avoid combat. Give your suit some long ranged weapons TL missile pods would be good. Shield drones are a must for lone HQs.

In doubles games kroot are unneccessary. Most other armies infantry will do a better job of protecting you from assualts and will do it's own job to.

If you will be playing 2v2 a lot I recommend swaping a hammerhead for a unit of Pathfinders. FW hidden behind a a block of guard or orks backed up by path finders will be quite good.

With the Shas'El, there are various setups that can be great in low point games. Plasma+AFP or CIB can be nice for an all-round 'Crisis' suit, I've heard great things about TL-Flamer+AFP for a cheap, templatey HQ who can act as a template bubble (could somewhat compensate for swapping out a Railhead for 2x Broadsides) but might seems a bit innefficient. The thing with lower point games if you can be overhwelming with your unit choice - take 4 tau tank chassis (3 HH ones) and your opponent will struggle to overcome it. Take 2, and your opponent has just the right amount of anti-tank and anti-infantry to deal with it.

2 Twinlinked Fusion + Flamer suits are also great at this points cost - your opponent usually has bigger worries to spend their limited resources on if you fluff the arrival, although they arn't likely to forget the fusion very quickly if you will be in range next turn(remember the pathfinder devilfish special rule!) and the flamers mean you can still make an impact if you scatter near infantry. I make it 94 points for the team, on at worst an important distraction and at best, a dead tank/squad of infantry. Take a 3rd TLFlamer/Fusion suit in the squad to make them a bit harder to kill (first squad costs 94 points, first 2 failed saves=dead suit, second squad costs 137, takes 3 failed saves to kill one, and you have the option of applying more wounds to the TLFlamer suit if you have a tank target next turn, or a TLFusion suit if you are gonna be getting infantry. If taking Fusion I wouldnt reccomend it on an 'El despite the high Bs - its inneficient to use a pretty brutal platform for a weapons system.

However, 'Raiders and 'Liths aside, deepstriking a Firestorm (Burst Cannon/Missile Pod/Multi-Tracker) will actually get great results, be more versatile, and the fact that all the back AV you'll face will be 10 means a 2-man squad shooting 4MPs (2 hits, 2/3 Pen 1/3 Glance) and 6BCs (3 hits, 1/2Pen 1/2Glance) so a total of 0.83 glancing hits and 1.16 penatrating hits, without markerlight support or a targeting array on a team leader, or gun drones. However, a reasonable kitted squad of 2 will set you back 120-140 points.

If you were going to 'de-mech' (maybe off topic here as this is taking the discussion away from your list a bit) a 3-man squad of TLflamer/1x Gun drone can act in many roles, dictating movement of infantry, deepstriking for a same- or next-turn barbeque, and protecting units from melta/assault (bodyguarding a devilfish in return for a cover save essentially - between terrain and a 6 model squad it can be hard to get the 6" melt range off on a tank that's well placed, with the added fact of losing the melta unit next turn). But effective crisis loadouts in low-point games is totally another topic.

I agree if you know you will be partnered with an IG or an Ork player then kroot are a bit unnecessary, but still not a worse choice than fire warriors - just less outstanding in comparison (not taking into account fire warriors have access to devilfish). If you are gonna be with a hoard-ey player then I'd recommend taking 2 minimized fire warrior squads and the rest on awesome tau firepower! Also remember in doubles if you take a load of tanks and your partner doesn't, your combined opponents will still be well equipped to take them out with their AT weapons - writing the lists together means the combo will be a lot better. If you are gonna be swapping partners then theres not a lot of advice to give really.

anon/rassilon wrote:Any advice on wargear for the 'El? The CiB and BC were just experiments. What do you guys think the list needs?

HQs: Seeing as he's got better BS than others, I think transport popping and Oblits and MCs are the kinds of things he ought to take care of, if he's a FireKnife: PR/MP/TA +hwMT. Your CiB/BC combo has him hitting infantry for a small hurt.

For protection, you'll have him 'attach' to some FWs, yes? If so, then I'd equip as such:
Shas'el : Target Array, PR/MP hwMT, hw Target Lock
... and the FWs will hit infantry while he hits the things above.

@ Brothererekose
Maybe something along the lines of:

Shas'el - 112
Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, Hardwired Multi-tracker, Hardwired Drone Controller, Shield Drone

anon/rassilon wrote:@ Brothererekose
Maybe something along the lines of:

Shas'el - 112
Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, Hardwired Multi-tracker, Hardwired Drone Controller, Shield Drone

Add the hwTarget Lock. Otherwise, he's stuck shooting at whatever the FireWarriors are shooting at. *If* you JSJ him with his drone, try to be sure that your table will provide good LoS-blocking terrain to hide him.

But, yes, it is a good load-out and one of the main ones you'll see on the table.

Ah totally missed out the Fireknife, such a typical build I forgot to mention it! Just as a general rule, have a very good reason if you aren't gonna have Plasma on a commander, given his high Bs.

Alright, here's the new list. Thank you everyone for all the advice.

Shas'El - 117
Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, Targeting Array, Hardwired Multi-tracker, Hardwired Target Lock, Hardwired Drone Controller, Shield Drone

Fire Warriors - 115
10 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife

Fire Warriors - 115
10 Fire Warriors, Shas'ui with Bonding Knife

Hammerhead - 165
Railgun, two Burst Cannons, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod

Hammerhead - 165
Railgun, two Burst Cannons, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod

Hammerhead - 165
Railgun, two Burst Cannons, Multi-tracker, Disruption Pod

That's 842. Anything else I could put in for 8 points?

anon/rassilon wrote:That's 842. Anything else I could put in for 8 points?

Target Lock on one HH. Run the list. It's good.

Maybe a HW Blacksun Filter on your HQ and/or one of your HHs.