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So to start this post off I would just like to say that last year I entered with black templars and got my ass handed to me on a silver platter. I played the store's most experienced player in the first round and never quite recovered only winning 1 of my 3 games with a minor victory and getting massacred. This year I've been extensively play-testing my tau army and hope that all the 'ard work has paid off. So without further ado here is the list I'll be using this year.

HQ Shas'el = 105
plasma/missile/MT, HW Shield drone, HW blacksun filter
Bodyguard x2 = 179
1.plasma/missile/TA, HW MT, HW Shield drone
2.plasma/missile/TA, HW MT

Troop Firewarrior x12 = 120 (x4)
Devilfish = 100
disruption pod, multi-tracker, Targeting array

Troop Kroot x10 = 70

Fast Attack Piranha x4 = 315 (x2)
Targeting array x4, fusion blaster x4, disruption pod x4, target lock x3

Fast Attack Gun Drone x8 = 96

Heavy Hammerhead = 180 (x3)
Railgun, disruption pod, gun drones, multi-tracker, blacksun filter

= 2500

It's my classical mobile tau list that has seen many a variation since its conception but I believe this list to be my best set of options for 'ard boyz and now I'll break the list down for you.

Goal of list: The goal of the list is to be as mobile as possible while still being able to strike a balance between anti-armor (hammerheads and piranhas, and HQ team), anti-meq (piranhas, hammerheads, and sheer volume of mobile firewarriors), and anti-infantry (pretty much everything).
The kroot are purely objective holders and plan to stay in woods the entire 3 games, and the drones are for late game objective contesting and for killing annoying things from the rear like vindicators and dreadnoughts.

Alright I'm gonna attempt to break it down by scenario too.



Scenario 1: Pretty much the worst mission for the standard tau player but one exception; that being that the tau have some of the most notoriously hard to kill transports and shouldn't have an incredibly hard time keeping the traitor alive, especially if I attempt to take out his heavier weapons first and the fact that I have 3 backup devilfish if one bites the dust. If I dont think I can win with overall kill points I'll attempt to go for a minor victory and more or less run and hide and snipe things with the hammerheads.

The fact that there is turn 1 night fight is good for the hammerheads with their blacksun filters, also for the commander who not only has a blacksun filter but has acute senses; it may help me gain an advantage on turn 1 depending on what my opponent has on the field, its entirely possible with the bsf hammerheads that I could kill the traitor on turn 1 though I doubt the opponent would be dumb enough to start him out on the field. I would have to be careful of my flanks and one of the things I'm dreading the most is that my opponent will have a terminator or other model that counts as 2 in transports for a troop choice in which case I would not be able to trade him a firewarrior and still keep him in my transport.

As far as bonus objectives go, I might be able to kill the traitor, keep mine alive and control more terrain, though the HQ bonus is entirely dependent on what his hq's are.


Scenario 2: So this is probably the most straightforward of the 3 scenarios. It's basically a cluster#$%& to the middle of the table, killing the enemy troops and keeping yours alive to claim what you can. The middle will definitely be key though. No infiltrate means I'll probably try to start in a corner with woods and keep my kroot there as they wont be of much use.

As far as the bonus points go... Controlling all of the objectives is possible, but hardly. If you still have 5 troop choices alive at the end of the game, congratulations your opponent sucked lol. Keeping the enemy out of my deployment could go either way, if they are a more stationary army then I doubt they could make it there; it would be easier to deny my opponent this one than to do it myself though. My HQ is more than likely going to die so there goes that point... And killing all of my hammerheads could also go either way depending on my opponents army though is generally harder during table quarters missions due to the range of railguns, though I should have no problem getting this one. Oh and the turn 6 night fight probably wont even happen and if it does its the perfect turn to go grab them objectives.


Scenario 3: So if my HQ dies it'll be an entire 284 bonus victory points for my opponent so hiding him should be a major priority. So in this case the drone squadron comes in very handy as I can deepstrike it near the HQ unit (which will be very far away from anything that can kill it I hope) and if the bodyguards happen to die I can join the commander up with them to atleast let him last a little longer while keeping his jump shoot jump moves. Dawn of war will help again with the black sun filters and the hammerheads, I will probably let my opponent go first so that the game might end on my turn and so I will have more things to shoot at. I'm just really hoping not to play against a draigo greyknight paladin spam army for this one. Not having infiltrate is good for me. This game could end up going great or poorly.

As far as the bonus points go... killing my enemies troops shouldnt be that bad unless they're terminators or plague marines (tau are terrible at killing plague marines with their crazy toughness and fnp), keeping my general alive will depend on how well I can run away, and I really doubt my enemy will kill all of my fast attack and a lot of players tend to forgo fast attack choices or only use 1-2 so that point shouldnt be terrible either.


Well that about sums it up, wish me luck guys! I'll make sure to take lots of pictures and the games should be up by monday. Good luck to all who are going; unless you're playing me! :-p

That's certainly a very unconventional Tau list. Not the usual 9-12 fireknives/6-9 broadside-build you typically see at the Ard Boyz.

To be honest with you, I don't see it doing too well. But I will root for you anyways. Goooooo underdogs! And who knows, maybe you'll surprise the doubters like me.

May I ask you, why squadrons of 4 piranhas? On any successful pens, a 3+ will wreck a piranha (open-topped and squadron rules). And they need to get within 12" to really do any damage. That means no disruption pods when they go offensive.

BTW, in the KP mission, the traitor is just a regular infantry, no matter what model your opponent gives you (they lose all of the wargear and special rules). Thus, if he gives you a terminator model, it no longer counts as a terminator model and will only take up 1 space in your transport.


Good luck!

Well it went alright for me! I'll post more details soon but to sum it up I scored minor victory's against tyranids and orks in the 1st 2 matches, then got massacred by leafblower imperial guard. I just gotta say though, whoever wrote that codex and playtested it should be shot or atleast slapped across the face. Uh 5 Valkyries, 4 medusas, 1 big artillery thing, god only knows how many chimeras and autoguns in the chimeras, 6 scoring units costing between 30-100 points a piece... yea I facepalmed the second I looked at it. I've not given hope on my list though it was fun as heck to play and did just fine (I think I ended up 6th or 7th out of 16 which isnt terrible). Oh.. lol my most lawl moment of the tourny though is when I tried to shoot his Valkyries with my hammerheads and rolled snakeeyes for my nightfight rolls on both of them. It was super sad.

oh the squadrons of 4 btw was to reduce overall killpoints, and to be able to split fire well against armies like dark eldar. But uh honestly I think I should have dropped a hammerhead and the drone squad and added back in that 2nd hq, I would have done a lot better then. also, a very fun thing to do is to move 2 pirnahas into 12" range and keep 2 outside of 12" that way if they shoot at the front 2 the majority of the squad is still outside of 12" hence you still get the cover save.