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So Im a new Tau player and so far in my army i have

12 fire warriors with pulse rifles and 2 markerlights (not sure if this is legal)
an xv8 hq with a missle pod, burst cannon, and target lock
and a hammerhead i got for 5$ (its in perfect condition) with an ion cannon and what i think is a smart missle system (the only missle upgrade the codex says the hammerhead has other than seekers, looks kinda like 2 drones with missles where the guns/shield would be) and an ion cannon.

At the moment im planning on getting an etheral, another xv8 and 12 more fire warriors.

any suggestions or mistakes I made?

just for the record i [pretty much only] play against necrons and different varients of marines.

EDIT: I know that this is off topic but im also thinking of just getting a codex to start reading about another army, which one of these would be the LEAST like tau, Orks, Chaos Daemons (most likely nurgle), or Tyranids?

Biggest mistake at this point would be buying an ethereal useless unit, your money is far better spent elsewhere.

12 Fire Warriors is a very basic start... 2 markerlights in one squad, though, would not be legal. You need to take the Shas'ui upgrade to get a markerlight, and only one is available per squad. However, if you field them as 2 squads of 6 you can have both.

Hammerhead with Ion Cannon and SMS... ick nicer to have in 4th edition, not as much application as a railgun in 5th. However, still a pretty useful thing to have IMO, especially against necrons and mass marines I suppose.

For your HQ suit you want him equipped differently in pretty much all situations XD the missile pod is fine, but you don't really want your most expensive suit at close range to the enemy... best to give him a longer range weapon like a plasma rifle instead of the burst cannon. Also, a multi-tracker instead of a target lock is far more useful this is particularly the case against MEQs.

To be honest, I only actually field 12 fire warriors in a 1500 point list... don't think you 'need' any more. What could be useful is a box of kroot, though. Good as a speedbump, and makes your army more flexible.


Edit: for tactics you can always ask around here or check out ATT (Advanced Tau Tactica), although it can be hard to find relevant stuff there

Beregond wrote:Biggest mistake at this point would be buying an ethereal useless unit, your money is far better spent elsewhere.

12 Fire Warriors is a very basic start... 2 markerlights in one squad, though, would not be legal. You need to take the Shas'ui upgrade to get a markerlight, and only one is available per squad. However, if you field them as 2 squads of 6 you can have both.

Hammerhead with Ion Cannon and SMS... ick nicer to have in 4th edition, not as much application as a railgun in 5th. However, still a pretty useful thing to have IMO, especially against necrons and mass marines I suppose.

For your HQ suit you want him equipped differently in pretty much all situations XD the missile pod is fine, but you don't really want your most expensive suit at close range to the enemy... best to give him a longer range weapon like a plasma rifle instead of the burst cannon. Also, a multi-tracker instead of a target lock is far more useful this is particularly the case against MEQs.

To be honest, I only actually field 12 fire warriors in a 1500 point list... don't think you 'need' any more. What could be useful is a box of kroot, though. Good as a speedbump, and makes your army more flexible.


Edit: for tactics you can always ask around here or check out ATT (Advanced Tau Tactica), although it can be hard to find relevant stuff there

wow thanks, but the only problem i can really see with the kroot would be losing the ability to field a Commander Farsight, which seems like the best hq option (wiht a 1.5k point army) is it worth losing him for some kroot?

also, tbh the only reason i was looking at an etheral is because i can get em for like 8$

$8 would be better spent on just about anything else, really XD imagine having a HQ that, if he dies, makes half your army run off... and not only does the ethereal do that, he has all the survivability of a wet paper bag in a blender... it'll never end well

I wouldn't know about Farsight, I've never felt the need to use special characters. For the Tau the best commander I've ever used is the cheapest a Shas'el. He hits you hard in one of the strengths of the Tau army, and I don't think he makes up for it personally. Broadsides and Crisis Suits are the bread and butter for any Tau general, and having Broadsides limited to 0-1 will be a real blow for anti-tank plus kroot really are rather useful. I think it would be best to build a decent all-comers Tau army and just picking up Farsight later on if you want him

All in all none of the Tau special characters are really worth taking although Farsight is the least pointless of them I think.

I feel that pain, bro. When I first started, I tried Tau, too, and got my ass kicked by some Orks. Something you should know is that, next to Necrons, Tau have the oldest codex. But Necrons are getting a revamp. So, unfortunately, Tau suffers heavily from Codex Creep. But, don't despair, because if you love it enough, you'll get better with them.

EDIT: As for wanting to change armies, I don't blame you, but as I stated above, Tau aren't bad at what they do, they're just neglected by the higher-ups. So don't hate the style they represent, hate the Codex Creep. But, if you REALLY don't want a shooty army, I'd say go Chaos Daemons. 0 guns at all.

Etherals are Ok because they get the BS4 Fire Warrior Honor guard. It's the Tau Pope special charater that sucks hard.

Hide the etheral in a group of Broadsides with shield drones and don't worry about it getting killed. Shooting is niegh impossible to get thru the 2+/4++ and if you get into Hand to Hand you were dead to begin with.

Yonush wrote:... if you get into Hand to Hand you were dead to begin with.

QFT

An ethereal can be okay, but as it stands even BS4 Fire Warriors aren't a great unit... shield drones can keep the darned things alive for a bit longer, though, that's true.

As Kilroy says, codex creep is catching up a bit. But I can say from experience it is easily possible to win with Tau, you just have to know what you're doing better than your generic Spehss Muhreen player. Personally I've had great fun recently kicking around Dark Eldar, Space Marines, Tyranids and a few other armies with my Tau... the only time they lost recently was when I switched armies with my opponent and beat them to death with DE which makes a very nice change from losing all the time (which I did until I got advice here and started playing properly ). Unfortunately there are a lot of units (Vespid, gun drone squadrons, sniper drones, ethereal...) that generally aren't even worth thinking about taking.

KilroyKiljoy wrote:I feel that pain, bro. When I first started, I tried Tau, too, and got my ass kicked by some Orks. Something you should know is that, next to Necrons, Tau have the oldest codex. But Necrons are getting a revamp. So, unfortunately, Tau suffers heavily from Codex Creep. But, don't despair, because if you love it enough, you'll get better with them.

EDIT: As for wanting to change armies, I don't blame you, but as I stated above, Tau aren't bad at what they do, they're just neglected by the higher-ups. So don't hate the style they represent, hate the Codex Creep. But, if you REALLY don't want a shooty army, I'd say go Chaos Daemons. 0 guns at all.

oh, no im not going to drop the tau i was just thinking about reading up on another army. Also, this is probably one of the dumbest questions ive asked, but does the hammerhead get multiple shots with the ion cannon (I need to get some bitz if im going to switch out for a railgun or something)

If you're a bad player, no amount of switching armies, or army lists is going to help you. You need to learn tactics if you want to do well. You have to take the time and find why your army works well and what it's strengths and weaknesses are. Also you have to learn how to change your lists, and play style from game to game, if a particular tactic didn't work for you, try something new and learn from the glaring mistakes you made. TAU are one of the more underpowered codexes in the game, however this does not mean you can't play on a competitive level with them, when there's a gap in power level in the codexes facing each other (which there almost always will be) then it comes down to the player to decide the game. You can put the best army in an unexperienced player's hands and pit them against the worst army, but with a person that knows it, you're going to see the bad armies win. Ultimately it comes down to the player.

But, if you jump from army to army, you'll never get good at the game.

Kreedos wrote:If you're a bad player, no amount of switching armies, or army lists is going to help you. You need to learn tactics if you want to do well. You have to take the time and find why your army works well and what it's strengths and weaknesses are. Also you have to learn how to change your lists, and play style from game to game, if a particular tactic didn't work for you, try something new and learn from the glaring mistakes you made. TAU are one of the more underpowered codexes in the game, however this does not mean you can't play on a competitive level with them, when there's a gap in power level in the codexes facing each other (which there almost always will be) then it comes down to the player to decide the game. You can put the best army in an unexperienced player's hands and pit them against the worst army, but with a person that knows it, you're going to see the bad armies win. Ultimately it comes down to the player.

But, if you jump from army to army, you'll never get good at the game.

o no its not that im really bad as much as im new (played one game so far) but its really my fault for doing an awful job titling this thread

EDIT: there fixed

There we go, that makes a bit more sense.

Well, in my experience I started playing right before 5th with my Necrons, once 5th came out, I insisted they were broken and for some reason decided to collect another 3rd edition army (Witch Hunters).

But, Necrons weren't broken, I unshelved them about a year after 5th, and learned to play them. They play amazingly once I learned the in's and outs, mostly how I needed to change my play style to suit the new edition.
So, after that, I've had success with my two, 3rd edition armies, which are supposedly broken armies for 5th edition.

Point is, it's not the codex, every codex can win games so if you've already made the investment and like the army, go with it! Worst comes to worst, TAU is due for a new codex come next year.

Aye, not too long now and the Tau should get a new codex. Just have to wait for them to do the million inevitable Spehss Muhreens first, but that's normal for GW

As Kreedos says, I'd get the hang of one army first before you take up another one. In this hobby it's generally good to make long-term goals

The hammerhead does get multiple shots, yeah, as it's a heavy 3 it gets 3 shots. If you lack the bitz to use it as a railgun turret it doesn't really matter at this point. Just so long as you get one later, anyway but there are other things that should come first.

Anoi wrote:At the moment im planning on getting an etheral, another xv8 and 12 more fire warriors.

If anything, a B-Force box is a good purchase, economically and for the models you need to really begin fleshing out the army. After that, you buy up 4 to 5 XV8s, until you own 6 or 7. Then b-sides. Run your Ionhead as a Railhead, until the rules (codex) change.

Anoi wrote:EDIT: I know that this is off topic but im also thinking of just getting a codex to start reading about another army, which one of these would be the LEST like tau, Orks, Chaos Daemons (most likely nurgle), or Tyranids?

All three are pretty much not tau. CDs would be the furthest, I guess.

As Beregond has been saying, spend your $8 on something else. I *made* an ethereal out of the D'fish "spotter", the model that pokes up out of the top hatch and has some binoculars. Not gluing on the arms, I simply wrapped it in GreenStuff, like a Mexican serape/cape, and had used him a few times in 4e.

Not since.

I'll echo what was said here a few times - don't get an ethereal, unless you just want to paint it and not use it.

Tau are my first army, and I've been pretty successful with them even in 5e, though I've grown more frustrated with them as more new codexes come out.

The three things you're thinking of buying (12 fire warriors, Xv8, and an ethereal) come out to about $75 retail. I would say that with that money ($70-85), based on what you have, you'd be best off getting something like:

A Hammerhead and another Xv8 or

Two Piranhas and an Xv8 or

Two Broadside Battlesuits or

A Broadside and a Devilfish or

Two Xv8s and a Piranha

Tau's troops are a liability, and at this point you won't be playing games over say 1000 points with what you have.

In 5e, using the book missions, in a most basic sense you win by:

Getting more kill points
Controlling more objectives (multi-objective missions)
Contesting your opponents objective while controlling yours

To control objectives, you need troops. Unfortunately, Fire warriors and Kroot are kind of expensive for what they do, even more so if you buy the Fire Warriors a transport. Transports make it much more likely you'll be able to get troops onto an objective and keep them alive.

To win a kill point mission, one way to do it is to start ahead in kill points. Unfortunately Tau transports come default with Gun Drones, which end up counting as an extra kill point. Or you end up paying 120 points for a transport that shoots 4 or 7 St 5 Ap 5 shots...whoopty do.

To contest objectives, you need the ability to get close to your enemy, or the ability to swoop in at the last second. The first requires units that don't just get swept in close combat, so that just doesn't happen for Tau. The second requires fast vehicles, or a lot of planning. Unfortunately all Tau tanks are slow, so this leaves...the Piranha. Which unfortunately comes armed with Gun drones which give up an extra kill point.