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HQ

Commander Shas'o
-CIB
-PR
-Shield Generator
-HW MT
-HW Drone controller w/ 2 shield drones
-Iriduim Armor

2x Bodyguard Shas'vre
-PR
-FB
-Targeting Array
-HW MT
-HW Drone controller w/ 1 drone each

TROOPS

3X FW squads (8-man)
-Pulse carbines
-Shas'ui w/ markerlight, bonding Knife, and HW Target Lock

2x Kroot carnivores (standard 10-man)

ELITES

Crisis team (3-man)
-Team Leader (HW MT and Targeting array)
-PR
-FB
-MT

FAST ATTACK

2x Pathfinder teams (7-man)
-Shas'ui
-Bonding knife
Devilfish w/ Disruption Pod, Flechette dischargers, MT and Targeting Array

HEAVY SUPPORT

2x Broadside teams
-Team Leader (w/ targeting array, HW MT, HW Target Lock, HW drone controller w/ 2 shield drones)
-Targeting Array on one
-Target lock on another
-TL plasma on all

2x Sniper drone teams

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Haven't gotten a chance to playtest it yet. Hoping pinning might be the secret to actually winning against BA, though. Thoughts?

aren't BA fearless and LD10? IDK what pinning is really gunna do against them

No they are not. Surprisingly not many BA units are fearless. Only ones that come to mind are Corbulo, Dante, and Death Company.

This list makes my head hurt, I would honestly just scrap it and get more real firepower in the list rather than try silly gimmicks.

oh ok then because inmost cases i would say pinning isnt the way to go about things simply because of all the LD10 fearlessness thrown aound.

As for the list the things I would change are

*drop the snipe teams I undestand why you have them but I think you would be better served with a hammer head if for nothing else other than the pysch(sp?) factor. Also maybe get some kroot hounds in there?

and in your body guard, rather than give each of them a drone, give both drones to one of the bodyguard, so you have different wound groups and can spread wounds around better. with your current set up, 2 unsaved wounds would kill a suit. With both drones on one suit, 2 unsaved wounds puts a wound on both of them.

MrDrumMachine wrote:This list makes my head hurt, I would honestly just scrap it and get more real firepower in the list rather than try silly gimmicks.

The problem is Tau can't generate enough AP firepower to be a serious threat to BA with damn near everything getting FNP like its going out of style. Well, at least not enough to make a difference when BA are in your deployment zone and are assaulting almost all your army on turn 2...

Turn 2 they should only be assaulting the bad parts of your army, not the parts that actually do the killing. You lack blocking, screening, and killing elements in your list so of course you'll get wrecked by blood angels.

Going second sucks, but should let you at least refuse flank and buy you enough time to whittle down the jumpers as much as possible. If you had piranha you can still block jump movement for the most part when you stop about 7 or 8" away they're forced to either start going around or assault the piranha and buy you another turn at least of shooting. Then the gun drones, then whatever devil fish you happen to bring, then the kroot. By the end of the line hopefully they're dead enough to where you can kill off the last few with whatever of your forces remain.

It's no different than dealing with nob bikers, or SM bikes.

Wishful thinking. Common tactic used by BA players is drop pod assault on turn one with dreads and assault marines, with vanguard vets and jump packers DSing in turn 2. And with FNP, FWs are just about worthless. And kroot? HA! they aren't even useful as a meat shield anymore. Crisis teams and broadsides can get a few shots off, but due to the small squad size, they're easily wiped out in one turn of CC.

Okay, I have quite a few things to say:

First of all, to you want a fun list, or a practical list? Pinning is next to pointless as most units have high leadership. Orks have fearless, marines have high leadership, crons have high leadership, most nids are fearless.....

That aside,

Your commander could use some revision. First of all, I would make him a Shas'el, and give him a TA, that way he has the same BS, but he is cheaper. I would give him two guns that go together as well. A CIB does not go with a PR. Also, a shield generator, 2 shield drones, and Iridium armor altogether is overkill. I would get rid of the shield generator, and probably the iridium armor too.

Don't get bodyguards until you fill out your elites slot completely. Bodyguards are more expensive than your average suits. Also, you don't specify what type of drone, you just say "1 drone each"

Your crisis team looks fine.

I would give your pathfinder Devilfish SMS, and when you play, I would give their devilfish to your firewarriors, as your firewarriors could use them a lot more than your pathfinders.

I would give all your broadsides A.S.S. look fine, but I wouldn't give them TL plasma rifles. They are expensive, and you can't fire that and the railgun, (without a Multi Tracker), and so they are pretty much wasted. Let your crisis suits deal with the heavy infantry, let your broadsides deal with the tanks.


Ignore this section if you are going for a fun/fluffy list:

Pulse carbines = a big no-no. They are terrible, and have shorter range than pulse rifles, and they aren't rapid fire. Pinning is rather terrible, please change them to Pulse Rifles. Also, sniper drone teams are a glass hammer. Somewhat strong, but they die easily. I would suggest taking an ionhead instead.

You ARE aware that markerlights can be used to lower the leadership of an enemy unit to resist pinning, right?

Let's take sniper drones as an example. Assault marine squad w/ sanguinary priest is coming at you; pathfinder team lights them up, drone controller lights them up, sniper drones use the markerlight counters to lower their leadership dramatically and fires. Even with FNP, the odds are one shot is going to get through , and that's a pinning check at an incredible penalty.

Pulse carbines, same thing. But, meant more for torrent of fire against something big (like Mephiston, etc) where the only way to really wound it to cause pinning is a crapload of shots. Dude, I'm not a newb, I know pulse rifles are typically preferred due to it being rapid fire, but for this list, I'm trying something new.

As for my commander, I've always been against the doctrine of skimping on your commander's loadout. As for the bodyguards, yes, they're more expensive, but they can take HW wargear, while standard crisis teams can't except for the TL. As for the CIB and the PR, I maximized it for anti-MEQ.

Broadsides: seriously, you're the first Tau player I ever met who actually said to NOT take the TL PRs on them. That's almost sacrilege. First off, they're actually cheaper than equipping them on regular crisis suits (only an extra 10pts per model? Deal!) And if I had a nickel for every time a cocky marine player DS a standard assault marine squad or a squad of termies right next to them thinking "heh. The most I'm going to lose is three from the railguns, and I'll be able to assault and take them out next round!" only to be sorely mistaken when they unleash 6 shots of str 6 AP 2 TL hell on them, reducing them to a man (or wiping them out completely), and watching the player's jaw drop, well, I'd have a load of nickels.

"I would give your pathfinder Devilfish SMS, and when you play, I would give their devilfish to your firewarriors, as your firewarriors could use them a lot more than your pathfinders."

I would, but the SMS is rather pricey for what it does, and I don't have any spare bits for it. As for giving them to the FWs, yeah, no , Sherlock...

Really? I'm the only player that doesn't like PR on broadsides?

The way I see it, you are firing a TL Plasma Rifle on a 95/100 pt. model. Sure you have a railgun, but its an either/or deal. If I got them the plasma rifles, I would probably also get multi-trackers so I could fire both the weapons, though you do have a multi tracker on your team leader...

At that point crisis suits are cheaper for the effective same equipment.

Sniper drone teams aren't bad. I forgot about the SFG.

I am aware that Markerlights take down leadership for pinning tests, but you will roughly only be able to successfully pin 2-3 units a turn.


Personally, I usually dislike unconventional lists (probably not the best habit), because their is usually a catch. And that catch, in this case, would be that you may do well (possibly) against BA and other races, but against orks and nids the main strength of this army is pointless. If you know that you aren't fighting them, great.