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Hey all, I’m trying to figure out a good list for my Tau army before I spend a boatload of money on it. Here’s what I’ve come up with so far and feel free to completely rip it apart, I haven’t tried putting a list together so far, so hopefully it isn’t too bad.

HQ: 286 Points
Commander Shas’o Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Drone Controller, HW Multitracker
Bodygaurd Shas’vre (x2) Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multitracker
x2 Shield Drones

Elites: 561 Points
XV8 Shas’ui (x3) Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multitracker
XV8 Shas’ui (x3) Missile Pod, Plasma Rifle, Multitracker
XV8 Shas’ui (x3) TL Fusion Blaster, Drone Controller, x6 Shield Drones


Troops: 474 Points
Fire Warrior (x11) plus Shas’ui – Pulse Rifles
Fire Warrior (x11) plus Shas’ui – Pulse Rilfes
Fire Warrior (x11) plus Shas’ui – Pulse Rifles
Kroot Carnivore (x12)

Fast Attack: 84 Points
Gun Drone (x7)

Heavy Support: 595 Points
XV88 Broadside (x3) TL Railgun, Smart missile system
XV88 Broadside (x3) TL Railgun, Smart missile system
Hammerhead Railgun, Gun Drones, Disruption Pod, Multi Tracker

Total: 2000 Points

Like I said, it’s my first list and I’ve only played a few games, but it seems like with this I can sit back with the Troops and Heavy Support causing enough havoc for the XV8’s to jump around and do some damage. I might think about changing one of the elite XV8 squads with the missile pod and plasma rifle to another tank hunting squad, or a troop heavy squad hunter with flamers. And I'm not sure how I feel about the Kroot and Gun Drones, also maybe drop down a set of Fire Warriors along with those and add another HQ? Someone give the new guy some direction!

Any comments and criticisms are welcome, even if it is saying everything I have is wrong.

Your going in the right direction but there are a few changed I would make to it if it were my list/

I'm not huge on the TL Fusion blasters on the XV8's

Lots of people swear on the fireknife suits (plasma missile pod) but I'm a big advocate of the firestorm (burst cannon missile pod ant multi tracker) on the Elite XV8 suits but the firsknife is great for the HQ body guard as you want them to hit hard. Here's a tactical link the gives a great explanation of the firestorm: http://www.advancedtautactica.com/viewtopic.php?p=35042#p35042

A great suit load out is the deathrain (TL Missile pod with flamer) and they work well behind transports. Here a youtube video with a good way to use them: http://www.youtube.com/user/tauofwar#p/u/3/U1R9vDtE0X4
I would throw a few devilfish transports with the Firewarriors (one or two).

A Pathfinder team would greatly support the army at whole, especially the broadsides and the deathrain xv8's if you take them ass their shots need to count.

One more thing one Firewarrior squad should have pulse carbines in my opinion but this is not a biggie.

Here is what I think you are doing right:

Lots of XV8's

Lots of Broadsides

A great core of Fire Warriors.

No shield Generators on the xv8's (the only place for these are on Farsight and his body guard because of the CC action)

No Vespids (Thee guys just stink)

The list would be great for a friendly game and some tournaments.

If you haven't been here to read this go for it before you make final decisions on the army: http://advancedtautactica.com/viewforum.php?f=34 best tau tactica I've found.

I'm thinking about dropping the gun drones and maybe whittling down the kroot and fire warrior squid to grab a pathfinder with a devilfish, should I cut back to two broadsides per squad or would they fair better with two squads of three? Thanks for the tactica, I'm reading through that now.

Three Broadsides per squad is great if you give the Shas'ui team leader a target lock so he can shoot something else. But going down to two is a good number because you dont need to give them bonding knifes.

BUT if you are up against a mech heavy IG player with lots of leman russ tanks (so that they are in squadrons) then 3 xv88's are necessary.

IMO Gun drone squads don't do enough to make up the points they cost. There are only 3 uses for them (IMO)
1) Cover for squads behind them
2) A bubble for assaulting squads to get through.
3) Extra wounds on a monat xv8 commander. (and this I do not recommend because of the toughness reduction)
So changing the Gun Drones for pathfinders is a good choice especially in a 2000 point army.

What army are you going to be fighting most? Marines and Necron MEQ armies or the other random like T3 GEQ armies?

It seems like it's going to be a pretty healthy mix of everything where I reside for the summer, once I get back down to school I have no idea where or what I'll be playing against so I need something that can go up against just about anything.

DJano wrote: XV8 Shas’ui (x3) TL Fusion Blaster, Drone Controller, x6 Shield Drones

Why all the SDs on the unit? It makes for a *huge* foot print, making close range Deep Strike even riskier than normal. You are intending to DS the TL-FB suits, yes? I'd take every SD off this unit, and place them with the B-sides, where they belong.

While a lot of Hytanthas's advice is ... confusing, but the website advancedtautactica.com is a good call.

DJano wrote: Gun Drone (x7)

Heh. GDs.

DJano wrote:Heavy Support: 595 Points
XV88 Broadside (x3) TL Railgun, Smart missile system
XV88 Broadside (x3) TL Railgun, Smart missile system

These definitely need the SDs. Crisis Suits have Jump-Shoot-Jmup to protect them, whereas XV88s need drones. Also, take A.s.s. so they can shift a bit to help deny enemy tanks Cover Saves.

DJano wrote: Hammerhead Railgun, Gun Drones, Disruption Pod, Multi Tracker

GDs onna Railhead? Take the BCs instead for half the points, 4 more shots and removing the extra KP liability (okay, the FAQ nixes that slightly) but *no one* takes GDs on their railhead. Move Combat Speed and shoot the BCs at troops and the RG at a tank, if you add a Target Lock, which you now have points for.

DJano wrote:Any comments and criticisms are welcome, even if it is saying everything I have is wrong.

I think I did just that.

GDs are the new tau player's unit. Once you load up on XV8s, XV88s and Railheads these stay in the bits box, until you make tau terrain out of them.

After reading through a bunch of stuff I've decided to drop the Shas'o down to Shas'el freeing up some points, and eliminate the gun drone squad. I also took the shield drones off of the crises suits and gave one to each broadside while adding a targeting array to the TL fusion blasters. I've also changed the one kroot squad of 12 to two squads of 10.

So it's now looking like this:

HQ
Shas'el MP, PR, drone controller (2 shield drones) and HWMT
x2 shas'vre bodyguards MP PR MT

Troop:
x3 Firewarrior (11 + shas'ui)
x2 Kroot (10)

Elite:
x2 XV8 Shas'ui (x3) MP PR MT
x1 XV8 Shas'ui (x3) TLFB TA

Heavy:
x2 XV88 Battlesuit (x3) TL Railgun SMS Shield Drone (1 shield drone for each broadside)

The only thing I would like to do to this is add a team of pathfinders, but I don't know what to take out.

Any ideas on how to further improve this, or have my changes hurt my list more than helped?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Stupid iPhone won't let me scroll down while I edit the post.

One last thing on my heavy support:
Hammerhead Railgun BC disruption pod multitracker

DJano wrote:Shas'el MP, PR, drone controller (2 shield drones) and HWMT

Add the Target Array for BS5

DJano wrote:x2 shas'vre bodyguards MP PR MT

Depending on the answer to my question below ....

DJano wrote:x2 XV8 Shas'ui (x3) MP PR MT
x1 XV8 Shas'ui (x3) TLFB TA

So, is this 6 total units?

DJano wrote:x2 XV88 Battlesuit (x3) TL Railgun SMS Shield Drone (1 shield drone for each broadside)

I'd bond each unit.

DJano wrote:The only thing I would like to do to this is add a team of pathfinders, but I don't know what to take out.

I think you might have too many suits ...

DJano wrote:Any ideas on how to further improve this, or have my changes hurt my list more than helped?

Helped.

My list as I have it now excluding the HQ and body guards would have 12 suits. Should I drop the elites down to two a piece and add in the pathfinders with those extra points?

DJano wrote:My list as I have it now excluding the HQ and body guards would have 12 suits. Should I drop the elites down to two a piece and add in the pathfinders with those extra points?

Hmm. Naw, keep all the suits.

Play it. Play it. Come back to dakka with some Batreps or some data and then tweaks can be made.