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I've had some Tau bits for a while now and figured I'd start a new force.

I've got 2 boxes of Fire Warriors and a squad of Stealth suits, I need some advice/suggestions on how best to arm them?

Arm the fire warriors with pulse rifles, don't use the pulse carbines to scratch yourself with, the range is too short, pinning? Which rarely works and finally the assault 1, assault 1? With tau?

My buddy usually arms all his stealthsuits of fusion blasters. But I am sorry to say, and it's not answering your question, but points stealth suits are expensive for what they do and battlesuits are better.

Ok cool, so pulse rifles on the warriors and fusion blasters on the stealth suits. Then get some battle suits.

Are there any decent hand-to-hand units other than the kroot?

(I don't actually have the codex at the mo! )

No, kroot are the best. :/ which isn't very good. Pulse rifles are a definite, and fusion blasters should also be taken on the suits, and yes get your hands on some crisis suits!! And maybe another squad of fire warriors and a hammerhead after that?

i prefer my broadsides to a hammerhead,

Emperors_Champion wrote:Ok cool, so pulse rifles on the warriors and fusion blasters on the stealth suits. Then get some battle suits.

Are there any decent hand-to-hand units other than the kroot?

(I don't actually have the codex at the mo! )

You only get 1 Fusion blaster/3 Stealth suits. Just thought you should know that.

Also if you plan to "Mech-up" the fire warriors(throw them in Devil fishes) the pulse rifles are not a horrible option; 18" range means you can hop out of the 'Fish and shoot while ensuring you are out of assault range to non- beast, Jump-pack, Cavalry, or Fleet units; although, as said, you will only get 1 shot/FW and Pinning rarely works as most units are either high-LD or fearless. Also for Foot-FWs you can "Fight and Fade" by dropping back out of the 12" assault range(Move+ Assault for most units other than those listed above) in the movement phase and Fire your guns still.

Devilfishes may be worth a thought, and the option is between broadsides or a hammerhead, eventually you should get both but I think hammerhead for now because at this size points the blast may come in handy and your enemy may struggle more to take out a tank than some elite troops (power weapons are more common than power fists at this level)

Also note that Fusion blasters (as noted with a 1 per 3 restricion) also completely negate the rather nebulous benefit of their stealth field.

I also have to side with Pulse Rifles. The Pulse Carbines just do not compare favorably. If you hop them out of a Dfish to shoot at a squad 18" away, you're going to lose shooting the next round loading them back into a dfish.

With 'shoot and fade', you can only move back 6" and shoot 1 shot. Whoever you're shooting at will move 6" and then run d6" and quickly close, it is highly questionable if you get more shots doing shoot and fade from 18" versus just shooting from 30" and double tapping at 12".

Also kroot, they make nice bubble wrap.

Stealth suits are best as Marker light delivery - take some marker drones and a marker light on the team leader - (just convert or use gun drones) - I would say 4 Marker drones + 1 Marker light on leader + 1 Fusion blaster, (in case something comes at you....its friggin 2 points :-)

Keep the Stealth suits at 36" range and fire Markers. With Stealth fields they will be very hard to hit if at all.

Thanks for the feedback guys,

so to summarise;

2 squads of FW with pulse rifles

Stealth suits with marker light and marker drones + 1 Fusion Blaster.

All the while keeping out of assault range with everything! This is not going to be easy, I will have to curb my Red Thirst!

Can I rob the drones from the FW kits or do they benefit from them too much?

That seems good, although for your next purchases I would recomend some kroot for bubble wrap, and you URGENTLY need battlesuits and possibly a hammerhead.

winnertakesall wrote:That seems good, although for your next purchases I would recomend some kroot for bubble wrap, and you URGENTLY need battlesuits and possibly a hammerhead.

Don't worry the battle suits are as good as ordered!

As for the kroot, I really love the krootox models so funds dependant I will add some of these guys. Whats the max squad size? (codex on route, I promise!)

They won't hit the table till they're painted anyway so could be a couple of months or so depending on colour scheme! And obviously need HQ!

As for the HQ should I be thinking battle suits or Ethereals?

I believe the max squad size is 20 kroot, 3 krootox and not sure about hounds.

Suit commanders, for the Emperors sake, Suit commanders! All the flak the Ethereals receive for being completely useless is fully deserved. Never use them. NEVER.

squad size is: 10-20 kroot, 0-12? Hounds, 0-3 'ox
There is just one problem of you take krootox: you cant infiltrate and it is expensive (for points) but I you use them for wall I think that's okay
And for hq NO ethereal, commander is overcosted but ethereal just makes your own units run away....
For my commander I play shas'el :
1. Tank hunter, with fusion blaster(s) and targeting array
2. Boost my crisis suit with plama rifle, missile pod, targeting array and multi-tracker, with fireknifes
Or twin missile pods and targeting array, with deathrains
And for suits weapons I play
1. Fireknifes: plasma rifle, missile pod and multi-tracker (expensive but effective)
2. Deathrains: twin missile pods and targeting array is what i use but flamer or blacksun filter is used too(cheap and good enough for me)
Hope this helps

-unforgiven-

Cheers guys! So that's a no to Ethereals then? Thought that might be the case as no-one suggested them at any point previously!

So I'm gonna need suits and plenty of them!

Kroot can be used in serveral ways:

Cheap meat shield:
10 kroot
Just use several of these to bubble wrap your firewarriors

Outflankers:
10-20 kroot, max hounds
Use these to outflank, and swallow up dedicated fire support units (devastators, XV88's, artillery). The hounds have a lot of attacks, and their high initiative helps them hit first.

Blob (sort of):
20 kroot, some hounds, 1-2 krootox
This is going to be a big unit, meant to funnel the enemy or trap in more dedicated CC units. The krootox help add some ranged fire, and CC bite (str6).


You can never go wrong with some hounds in a unit, however only use Krootox if you have a definite plan for them. They slow down the kroot, and its not like you can't get str7 AP4 shots elsewhere.

Firewarriors should run with Pulse Rifles, and leave the Stealthsuits are home if you want to be even semi-competitive.

You should focus on getting Battlesuits, battlesuits, battlesuits, Hammerheads, and Broadsides. Oh yeah, don't forget some Kroot with Kroot Hounds and some Devilfish.

I have only played as Tau once, yet I have had considerable experience against an opponent who uses a slightly different army list to the norm.

Firstly, crisis suits are a must, with a powerful leader. However, while doing damage with these units is important, try to take as many defensive upgrades as possible to improve their survivability. they should always take the maximum available number of drones.

I would also favour hordes of kroot over fire warriors, for two reasons: firstly, they really pack a punch especially as if they outflank; secondly, they are cheap as chips!! they are only two point more expensive than guard, but for that one gets and extra point of Ws and S and an aditional atack, weapons equivelent to boltguns (nearly) and the multitude of special rules that acompanies Kroot. It is worth noting that while kroot are built fo close combat, in many instances they function better at a range. if you are in rapid firing range of a small unit of enemy assault troops, you should always shoot instead of asault.

Hammerheads are good, but only if the enemy is fielding hordes of infantry and/or very heavy tanks. this means that they exel against Guard, whos primary strengths are in thes fields. however, they should be left at home when fighting space marines, as they do not have particularly good tanks while their men will still get their armour saves against the Hammerhead's pie plates. Broadsides are obviousley only useful against tanks heaavy armies (where they exel), and i think they are too easy to intant kill.

leave transports at home. if you are prepared to use the anoying tua tactic of hiding behind tranports and rapid firing under them then by all means go ahead, but a chance to do this sledom comes and they end up just getting killed.

equally, drones are too expensive for what they do and should be left out--at their effective range, they can be too easily asaulted.

lastly, always go for pulse rifles over pusle carbines--they are more effective at more than 12" (as they can actually shoot that far!), and i think they are more effective within 12" as they can rapid fire. you should never have to asault with eather fire warriors or pathfinders--IF YOU HAVE GOT THIS FAR, YOU HAVE PROBABLY ALREADY FAILED.

Stealth Marker teams are the most survivable marker lights, but in most cases too expensive. a teamleader and two suits with four drones and a ML on the leader runs you 225 points for 5 ML, or 45 points per marker light, of which you can expect half to hit each turn (BS 3).

I would avoid large blobs of Kroot, They do not gain fearless and are only leadership seven. Taken in smaller squads they are very useful for things already mentioned.

Normally your stealth suits want to be at range to make the most of their stealth fields, by this logic putting fusion blasters on them is a waste and gets them killed.

If you really need the fusion, piranhas are the way to roll.

In short with what you have, pulse rifles on the FW and burst cannons on the stealth.

I've run a standard commander, Shadowsun, Farsight and even an Ethereal for the lulz.

Suprisingly Farsight has been my most successful build.

I run 17 suits and barebones FWs.


Fireknifed em all up save for one Shas'Vre rockin a postional relay. Sometimes I drops suits for a broadside team or hammerhead if I am gonna all comers list it up.

I'd for sure recommend a standard commander if I were you with no secondary HQ. Try it and see how it works for you. As others have said, don't ever bring an Ethereal... Until they get a fix they are terribad even with their honor guard.

OK, so finally got the codex! (Feels very old skool compared to my others!)

After sorting out the useless wargear (i.e broken) and working with what I've got I've compiled this list;

ELITES

3 Man Stealth Team inc Shas'vre with 3xTargetingArray, FusionBlaster, BondingKnife, EMP Grenades, Markerlight, Marker Drone = 180

Bonding knife not really that essential as below half strength = 1 model but for 3pts might save me one day!

TROOPS

10 Man Fire Warrior Team inc Shas'ui with 4xPulseCarbine, 6xPulseRifles, BondingKnife, EMPGrenades, Markerlight, MarkerDrone, ShieldDrone = 173
10 Man Fire Warrior Team inc Shas'ui with 4xPulseCarbine, 6xPulseRifles, BondingKnife, EMPGrenades, Markerlight, MarkerDrone, ShieldDrone = 173

The reason for the mixed carbine/rifle in the FW squads is to help with wound allocation. That with the Drones I should have some survivability if I get into trouble.

How does the Drone setup sound? Should I just drop the drones in the FW squads and add 2 more men in each, then maybe bolster the Stealth team or even make a gun drone squad?