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To start off, I normally only play at 2000-2500 pts, so this low point stuff is quite different to me.

A friend of mine had this idea a couple months ago to start up a tournament series at our FLGS. The idea was to get monthly tournaments going, but have a great turnout and good prize pool. He decided to do 1000pt tournies because 1) its faster, tourney is played in just over 4 hours, 2) gets newer players involved in tournament play, and 3) it can be done on a Friday evening.

I couldn't go to the last one due to last semesters finals, but the next one is coming up this Friday.

I have the option of bringing Tau or my Sisters, but I think I've narrowed it down to Tau. The following list obviously based on triple Hammerhead, keeping the force mobile with a long range, and Railheads give a ton of flexibility at this point level. I could instead go for a suit heavy list for a larger amount of firepower, but I know of a couple players at least that are very well equipped for anti-infantry (anti-MEQ in particular) so a mobile skimmer wall may be a better bet on this one.

Known opponents so far...
2 Dark Eldar
Blood Angels
~2 Grey Knights
~2 Orks
Other marines of various colors/flavors/gender orientation...



The List:

HQ:
Shas'el- TL missile pod, Target lock, BS filter

Elite:
2 Crisis- TL missile, Target array

Troops:
6 Firewarriors
Devilfish- Disruption Pod

19 Kroot

Heavy:
Hammerhead- Rail, SMS, Target lock, Multitracker, Disruption pod

Hammerhead- Rail, SMS, Target lock, Multitracker, Disruption pod

Hammerhead- Rail, SMS, Target lock, Multitracker, Disruption pod

1000pts


The troops will likely be held in reserves to keep them safe for the first couple turns, with the kroot possibly outflanking. This will give my tanks/suits some time to work without having to worry about protecting my troops.

Let me know what you think about this list, or about a possible suit heavy list.

The the target lock and BF on your commander? Both are fairly pointless upgrades... mainly the TL.

Three hammerheads and one devilfish really hurt your army at these points... I'd suggest getting rid of the devilfish and one hammerhead.

Also, imo, Burst Cannons are way better than SMS because they have more shots and are half the cost. SMS does have longer range and a fancy rule... but ultimately its your choice there.

If you do want a suit-heavy list, make sure you don't buy that many expensive crisis suits (ie Fireknives)

Here are a few lists I like at 1000 pts.

Mech:

Shas'el
TL FB/TA

Fire Warriors (12)
Warfish
240 Pts.

Fire Warriors (12)
Warfish
240 Pts.

Pathfinders (4)
48 Pts.

Pathfinders (4)
48 Pts.

Railhead
MT/DP/TL/BCs
170 Pts.

Railhead
MT/DP/TL/BCs
170 Pts.

998 Pts.

You would zoom fire warriors up to a unit, markerlight them, and then have high BS Fire Warriors and D-fish pump plasma into whatever. Your commander will bust tanks that pose a threat, and your hammerhead template and solid-shot as needed.


Suit-Heavy:

Bladestorm 'el
83 Pts.

Bladestorms (3)
Team Leader w/ TA
189 Pts.

Bladestorms (3)
Team Leader w/ TA
189 Pts.

Deathrains (3)
All have TAs
159 Pts.

Fire Warriors (8)
80 Pts.

Kroot (20)
140 Pts.

Broadside w/ TA
80 Pts.

Broadside w/ TA
80 Pts.

1000 Pts.

I just made this list, I don't know how it would play, but it looks good. Bladestorms are my favorite crisis suit. Plasma rifle/Burst Cannon is actually better than Fireknives against MEQs and many other things

The Blacksun was just put on because I had 3 extra points, I don't actually expect it to be used much.

Up until the most recent Tau FAQ I was always running dual Bursts as well, but I've found the limited cover denial (intervening unit/terrain) to be very useful. And the SMS extra range has been helping in keeping my Hammerheads outside of Melta range.

I am considering dropping a Hammerhead for another team of suits or two, havent decided yet though.

Creeping Dementia wrote:
Up until the most recent Tau FAQ I was always running dual Bursts as well, but I've found the limited cover denial (intervening unit/terrain) to be very useful. And the SMS extra range has been helping in keeping my Hammerheads outside of Melta range.

Fair enough, perfectly understandable... in fact I may try SMS out and see how much it will make a difference.

You could try 3 hammerheads out and see what happens... but at the very least I'd suggest getting rid of the d-fish for fire warriors or more kroot.

I modified the list and tested it against a couple different players tonight.

I basically dropped a Hammerhead and some kroot and picked up an additional 4 Deathrain suits. The new setup worked pretty well in testing, but I obviously won't expect to do quite as well during the actual tournament.

First I played against Dark Eldar, but it was pretty much over when I got first turn. It was pretty silly how quick it went, and tabled my opponent in 4 turns, and I didn't lose a model. He is one of my regular opponents and a good player, but it was just one of those games.

Second I played against a Space Wolf drop pod list. This one was a bit trickier. He got first turn, I reserved everything. Some of his pods came down, but without an army to deploy against his job was difficult. His drop was mainly concentrated on one side, with Wolf Scouts also being forced on the same side, with Long Fangs holding his deployment. I reserved in on the other side of the table, whittled down some Long Fangs, and my kroot took care of the Scouts with shooting. His now foot based Marines and Dread were unable to close the distance with my army before getting shot to bits, and he also ended up being tabled. Lost a Crisis suit and some kroot.

I am glad I am taking a Devilfish, that last game could have been a draw if I didn't have the extra layer to safeguard my scorers. His last pod came down to try contesting my objective on turn 5, and the squad melta-ed the Fish, but were unable to touch the Warriors before the Grey Hunters were blown apart.

As I said, I don't expect everything to perform 'that' well in all games, but I'm pleased with the performance so far.

For only 1k, go as suit heavy as you can. FireStorms, but I think you've probably received that advice from me (or read it) before. Plenty of MPs to hit rhinos with the BCs to do good mop up on infantry.

Regarding your games: If tau go first against DE, it's my humble opinion that the DE will get clobbered, every time.

Alright, so the tourney has come and gone, and it was a great time. I had all great opponents, with very enjoyable games, and there was a good turnout as well

16 players total showed up, the breakdown was something like:
1 Ork
2 Eldar
3 Dark Eldar
1 Dark Angel (ravenwing)
1 Blood Angel (DoA)
1 Imperial Guard
3 Space Wolf
3 Tau
1 Chaos

I think, I might have rememberd one of them wrong.

My first game was against, Orks. This one was a simple matter of him not being able to get to me in time. I was able to spend the first 4ish turns taking out main threats, then I was able to move in on objectives. I was just a bad matchup for my opponent, I won 3 objectives to 0, and didn't lose a model.

Second game was a street brawl. It was against a Space Wolf list, and my opponent was the guy that won the tourney last month (though with his Dark Eldar), so I knew it would be tough going in. 2 long fang packs, 4 grey hunter packs (small ones, mostly in razorbacks), and a Wolf Priest (lightning and hurricane). The objective was to get the most scoring units into the opponents deployment zone, not an easy mission for either of us. I got second turn again, but was then able to deploy the suits and Hammerheads out of range of one of the LF packs, with my Devilfish on the opposite side of the rest of my army, hidden behind terrain. This forced my opponent to worry about the killing power of my shooting, while having to watch out for my Devilfish making a late game dash to his board edge as well as outflanking kroot. I lost one hammerhead early, he lost half of his transports early. It really came down to a gamble on my part based on where I put my kroot (my choice). I opted to take a risk that would have yielded a major win, but it failed. I tried to have my kroot outflank right next to his unused LF squad to engage them, which would allow my Devilfish to more safely cross the field and get 2 scoring units into his backfield. Instead, I lost the LF combat by 1 with my kroot, and took off, and my Devilfish got popped . I still had all my suits and a Hammerhead left, which with the remants of my troops were able to take out his troops in scoring range, but the result was a draw. If I was more cautious and stuck my kroot in the LOS blocking terrain on the other side of the board I'd have pulled a minor victory, but I went all out instead. Oh well, it happens.

Last game was against a beautiful Ravenwing list. Nothing too notable in the actual game, he reserved/outflanked everything. The speed of it was a , but he didn't have the firepower or the model count to hold up. Ended with 2 objectives to 1, minor for me (couldn't draw LOS to the last tiny bike unit sitting behind terrain on an objective).


The Final results were:
1st place: Space Wolves (a different Long Fang/Razorback list)
2nd place: Dark Eldar (if I remember right)
3rd place: Me with my Tau

Painting prize (which is kept completely separate) was split between my Tau, and my buddies Dark Eldar (not the one that got 2nd), based on player choice tallies.

Overall everyone seemed to have a great time, no arguments or conflicts, a good chunk of really nice looking armies, it made for a great Friday evening.
I've not been a fan of smaller point games in the past, but these 1000pt tournies are great. We get a full tournament in, without blowing a whole weekend. And the other local shop still runs the high point tournies

Creeping Dementia wrote:16 players total showed up, the breakdown was something like:
1 Ork
2 Eldar
3 Dark Eldar
1 Dark Angel (ravenwing)
1 Blood Angel (DoA)
1 Imperial Guard
3 Space Wolf
3 Tau
1 Chaos

The 3 DE I'm not surprised at, but the 3 tau. No one has played tau in my scene since I did, last Nov. And oddly, no GK, either.

Ya we were all suprised by the Tau turnout, I'm usually the only player that still brings Tau. No GK was a bit weird, about 4 players there do play GK, none of them happened to bring them though. Overall there wasn't a huge marine presence.