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I'm off to a 1500pt tourney in a few weeks and I want to take my Tau for something different. BA are boring me at the moment. So I've put this list together. Yes it plays to the best units of Tau and yes I can see I might struggle to take objectives but we'll see.

Yeah I get the lack of anti horde but in the 40 odd tourney games that I've played Ive only come up against 1 true horde. I might make a concession of turning one lot of the crisis teams from MP to flamers. As far as tanks yeah I get how good hammerheads are but I've been running my tau now for three years and have found that whilst hammerheads are truly great their foot print starts to work against them around turn 3/4 as the general Tau mid game movement ends up in one corner or the other. I want to play a very difuse game with troops coming on late and the crisis teams spreading out and only supporting each other with shooting.

As far as running the suits without shield drones, I loves my suits so hate to see them being instant killed by str8 which currently is making a come back via the missile launcher.

I'm basing this game style on my DoA BA but with less emphasis on CC and more emphasis on shooting. I want the suit teams to be outside of charge range of each other so that my opponent is force to split his army up to chance them down. This then hopefully allows my troop choices to be able to sneak on from a flank to take objectives without facing a whole army. Theory anyway.

Comments and criticism more than welcome.

HQ
1 Shase'el (the smaller commander)
Missile pod/plasma, Target array, multi tracker, knife, darksun filter


Elite
Crisis team
1 Team leader, Missile pod/plasma, Target array, multi tracker, knife, darksun filter, drone controler, 2 shield drones
2 suits, Missile pod/plasma, multi tracker

Crisis team
1 Team leader, Missile pod/plasma, Target array, multi tracker, knife, darksun filter, drone controler, 2 shield drones
2 suits, Missile pod/plasma, multi tracker

Crisis team
1 Team leader, Missile pod/plasma, Target array, multi tracker, knife, darksun filter, drone controler, 2 shield drones
2 suits, Missile pod/plasma, multi tracker

Troops
6 FW leader, knife (left in reserve and walked onto a hiding spot)
10 kroot, 10 kroot hounds (flanked)
10 kroot (flanked)

Heavy
2 broadsides, team leader, darksun filter, 2 shield drones, knife, advanced stabilisers
2 broadsides, team leader, darksun filter, 2 shield drones, knife, advanced stabilisers

I like this list, it has a LOT of firepower for 1500 pts. One thing I'd change is the kroot arrangements. I love kroot myself, but I've found the only effective formations are the basic 10-pack or the 10-3 birds-hounds arrangement. Their main strengths their scoring status and (in forests) high survival rate. In addition, a kroot unit should never be big enough for you to have to think twice about going to ground if the enemy decides they want to kill it. Honestly, ditch the filters and knives. Darksuns don't help much even in DOW deployment and bonding knives are HIGHLY situational (keep in mind that drones DO NOT COUNT towards being under half of the unit, only for morale checks). Also consider taking target locks on broadside team leaders: a good first turn of rolling can leave the whole enemy army stranded using target locks.

One squad of TL-MP/flamer suits (which are cheap as the day is long and still quite effective against transports and high toughness units while providing a nice last resort for clearing blobs of infantry) might be another idea.

Check it:

Shas'El (PR+MP+TA+HW MT)

Crisis TL (PR+MP+TA+HW MT+HW DC)
1x Shield Drone, 1x Gun Drone
Crisis (PR+MP+MT)
Crisis (PR+MP+MT)

Crisis TL (PR+MP+TA+HW MT+HW DC)
1x Shield Drone, 1x Gun Drone
Crisis (PR+MP+MT)
Crisis (PR+MP+MT)

Crisis (TL MP+Flamer)
Crisis (TL MP+Flamer)
Crisis (TL MP+Flamer)

6x FW
10x Kroot
10x Kroot
10x Kroot
10x Kroot
10x Kroot

Broadside TL (ASS+HW TL+HW DC)
2x Shield Drones
Broadside (ASS)

Broadside TL (ASS+HW TL+HW DC)
2x Shield Drones
Broadside (ASS)

Well well well, looks like you brought a horde AND the big guns. How fortunate. Oh, and that horde gives you (and only you, with JSJ) cover saves? Sweet. Go forth and wreck mech, MEQs, AND hordes all while holding all the objective you could ever want.

God I love Tau at 1500 pts.

I like your suggestions a lot. When you're running this number if kroot squads do you flank any? I've had ridiculous success doing this, Im not much of a speed hump kind if guy.

Wow, Iron-fist, that is an elegant 1500 point tau list. I'd love to see a batrep of that; in fact, I may even try it out myself the next time the dark angels stop by.

The only thing that might hurt my feelings is the lack of Fusion blasters. I try to get at least one Monat into play as a tank hunter to deal with AV 14 that manage to hide from my broadsides.

are the 6 troop squads integral to the list? If I wanted to shave points somewhere to get one more suit in there, could I kill a squad of kroot for a shas'el with a TLFB?

I'm taking Iron-fist's list against a friend this weekend for practice for my tourney. We have 3 games planned and I've asked hik to take some dirty lists, SW razor/long fang spamm, IG leaf blower and his choice of something else which knowing him will be some IG heavy tank list. I'll let you know how it turns out.

@Thornoo1
I will sometimes outflank kroot (to threaten their objectives, for instance, or to take out/tie up weak backfield elements like HW teams or long fangs), but mostly they are deployed/infiltrated into "pill box" positions. Camp them on objectives in your backfield (never put broadsides on objectives btw, they are too much of a target) or deploy them in cover towards the middle of the map. The basic idea is give the enemy two choices: spend way too many resources taking them out or keep eating kroot rifle shots all game long. The 10-3 configuration is much better for outflanking/defending assaults because you can take out the hounds as casualties after they've done their damage.

@junk
If you are worried about AV 14, unreliable suicide monats are not the way to go. Rather, if you can scrape out some points, take another broadside or two. Or switch out the ASS for targeting arrays to increase effectiveness.

So I tested this list on the weekend with 4 games, 3 v IG and 1 v SW. I won all 4 games with probably my hardest game coming from the SW. As usual the greatest weakness of the Tau was trying to move his army off objectives.

We had a major misreading of JotWW which heavily favoured the SW player (turns out it cannot target suits [Jump Infantry] and must have a LoS to be used)

Kroot were great but I think there's 1 too many units and the 70pts can be used to buy all the wargear that the suits need to remain top notch throughout the game.

Biggest horror? I lost 500pts of suits to Marbo, I totally forgot about his demo pack, but that's what practice games are for.

Also I really didnt get a lot out of the stabalisers on the broadsides and am thinking about adding Targeting Array for the extra BS, I got annoyed how many 3s I rolled on twin linked.

I was, forever, a proponent of the AdvSS, but time has taught me that 6" shuffle for the Broadsides, is not going to save them from squat, as far as dedicated assault units are concerned.

I run my broadsides in a unit of 3, Team Leader /w TA + HW Drone Controller + 2 Broadsides /w TA.

You got cheated on the JotWW.. sucks!

ASS on broadsides is mainly for dawn of war where you get those shots on turn 1 when you need them most. Btw, the BSF never does any good on standard missions without ASS, since if you're going to be nightfighting you also have to walk on and can't shoot the railguns without the ASS that turn anyway.

As far as the suit configuration goes, I think it's ok, but I think some other configs would work well also. A commander with an AFP, CIB, and MT would help this list with hordes. I second the poster that said flamers on some of the suits would be good as well, and only costs 90 pts.

As for the kroot, I like putting 5 hounds on squads designated for outflanking. They make all the difference in assault, especially against marines. Just yesterday I ran a squad of 27 boyz with a PK nob and a squad of gretchen off of an otherwise unprotected backfield objective using 2 squads of kroot (1 had 6 hounds). The hound squad went after the boyz. It changed the whole game. Also, we're one of the codexes that gets infiltrators in our troops section which is amazing in DoW scenarios. Having hounds with those infiltrating sqauds can make a huge difference in what resources the enemy has to expend in order to deal with them.

The list is interesting and I like it. I realize that the standard mantra for suits is fireknives, I just don't personally think they're always the answer, but to each his own.

Best of luck!

rmeju wrote:
The list is interesting and I like it. I realize that the standard mantra for suits is fireknives, I just don't personally think they're always the answer, but to each his own.

Best of luck!

I can definitely agree with that.

The ASS vs. TA thing, I can't however. If the tournament is 3 rounds, and a "walk on" scenario is one of the rounds, average game legnth being 6 turns... ASS will help you 1 turn out of 18, even then, even with a BSF, you still have to roll well for nightfighting to get those shots off.

The TA is going to make your Broadsides 16.6% more accurate every shot, every time.

Cottonjaw wrote:


The TA is going to make your Broadsides 16.6% more accurate every shot, every time.

Sold to the man in the sniper hat!

Cottonjaw wrote:
The ASS vs. TA thing, I can't however. If the tournament is 3 rounds, and a "walk on" scenario is one of the rounds, average game legnth being 6 turns... ASS will help you 1 turn out of 18, even then, even with a BSF, you still have to roll well for nightfighting to get those shots off.

The TA is going to make your Broadsides 16.6% more accurate every shot, every time.

Right because the ability to move away from threats or reposition your broadsides for LoS and/or side armour shots doesn't help at all.

To the OP:

Repositioning is... ok, but not as good as TA most of the time. However...

The importance of being able to shoot the broadsides at all on the first turn cannot be overstated:

1. Not all games, especially in a tournament setting are going to last 6 turns. In my experience, few get that far, but your mileage may vary. Often slow play will make it so that your game might last as few as four turns. Either way, ASS thus makes the XV88s at least 17-25% more effective on DoW scenarios

2. First turn shots matter much, much more than shots in later turns, further improving the case for ASS. It's just sooooo important to stop the enemy advance early, since we have so little to deal with CC, and against shooting armies that don't like to advance (I'm looking at you, IG) we still need those early shots.

I should state for the record, however, that I field one maxed out pathfinder unit for each XV88 squad I field (their fish go to the firewarriors). I use the average 4 hits to give +1 BS and -3 cover to the XV88's targets, thus making TA unnecessary in my lists. Obviously in DoW scenarios I don't get that support on the first turn, but at least the suits get to shoot (and again, this is why I take the HW BSF on the team leader).

The TA vs. ASS debate has been going round and round forever. I don't detract from people who use TA, especially in lists that don't include fairly hefty pathfinder support, and the static +1 bonus to BS on broadsides is really nice.

I'm only making the case for ASS, and now that you've heard it, it's up to you to do what's best for your army.

Thornoo1 wrote:So I tested this list on the weekend with 4 games, 3 v IG and 1 v SW. I won all 4 games with probably my hardest game coming from the SW. As usual the greatest weakness of the Tau was trying to move his army off objectives.

We had a major misreading of JotWW which heavily favoured the SW player (turns out it cannot target suits [Jump Infantry] and must have a LoS to be used)

Kroot were great but I think there's 1 too many units and the 70pts can be used to buy all the wargear that the suits need to remain top notch throughout the game.

Biggest horror? I lost 500pts of suits to Marbo, I totally forgot about his demo pack, but that's what practice games are for.

Also I really didnt get a lot out of the stabalisers on the broadsides and am thinking about adding Targeting Array for the extra BS, I got annoyed how many 3s I rolled on twin linked.

I also run suit heavy lists, glad to hear it worked out for you! Terrible loss to marbo indeed, dude always gets in his lickins when you least expect it!

I assume you already know the danger of DoA/HI/VV presents to the list, I'd suggest a positional relay on the HQ to counter. Using him around a terrain heavy patch of the board for safety. Otherwise, good stuff all around!