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I need some advice on how to make my list better.

Shas'el Commander
Positional relay
Plasma rifle
Airbursting frag
Stim injector
HW milti tracker

XV8 Crisis suit X3
Multi tracker X3
Burst cannon X3
Plasma rifle X3

XV8 Crisis suit X3
Multi tracker X3
HW multi tracker
Fusion blaster X3
Plasma rifle X3
Targeting array

(Two seperate Sqauds)
Broadside X2
Targeting array X2

12 Fire warriors

Hammerhead
Railgun
Burst cannon drones
Disruption pod

10 Kroot

1000 pts

Someone please comment, I need advice for this army list...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Is no-one going to comment?

I see you got no replies thus far, so I'll see what I can do ^^

For starters your Shas'el is alright... but the stimulant injector is basically unnecessary. You'd be better off just switching it for a Targetting Array and ditching the positional relay altogether...

BC/PR suits... why? What role are these going to fill? I honestly can't see them doing a great deal of good and I think you'd be better off with standard PR/MP combo there.

My advice would be to try to split them into 3 squads of 2... change the configs to suit your needs, really.

Now, the Fire Warriors... the only competitive way to use fire warriors is in squads of 6 stuffed into a devilfish with disruption pods... this way you have a scoring devilfish and your basically useless Fire Warriors are less likely to get themselves owned by whatever happens to be passing by.

Your Railhead may be unnecessary with a pair of broadsides in the list at this points level.. I'd switch him out for other stuff. Shield drones on the broadsides, possible, and points for the devilfish for the FWs.

10 kroot are good for bubblewrapping though ^^


I'll check back tomorrow in case you've got any questions.

Beregond wrote:
BC/PR suits... why? What role are these going to fill? I honestly can't see them doing a great deal of good and I think you'd be better off with standard PR/MP combo there.

Nooooooooo. BC/PR is actually a very good suit variant. They are the most efficient MEQ killer (per cost) in the Tau codex (excluding Centurion... but you can only get one of those in your army.) Also, the Plasma Rifles and BC have a similar range - making them work even better together.

Look in my sig. - there is a link to a mathhamering of crisis suit loadouts.

Beregond wrote:
My advice would be to try to split them into 3 squads of 2... change the configs to suit your needs, really.

+1

Beregond wrote:
Now, the Fire Warriors... the only competitive way to use fire warriors is in squads of 6 stuffed into a devilfish with disruption pods... this way you have a scoring devilfish and your basically useless Fire Warriors are less likely to get themselves owned by whatever happens to be passing by.

Mostly true. The devilfish are usually required to make your firewarriors worth it, but I would suggest 12 in a devilfish. I love zooming my firewarriors forward, and them shooting 31 S5 shots into my enemy.

Beregond wrote:
Your Railhead may be unnecessary with a pair of broadsides in the list at this points level.. I'd switch him out for other stuff. Shield drones on the broadsides, possible, and points for the devilfish for the FWs.

I like running 2 railheads at this points level. The broadsides can take care of armor while the railhead drops s6 ap4 templates, which is what it is mainly meant to do anyways. If it didn't have submunission, there would be no point in taking it really.

Beregond wrote:
10 kroot are good for bubblewrapping though ^^

Or just being awesome and sitting in cover XD


@ OP

I think your list is very strong in general... but I have a few minor quibbles:

Why are your broadsides team leaders? It is completely pointless in the given situation.
Helios suits (PR/FB) are good at killing heavy infantry, the best in fact, but they have hideously short range, thus making you susceptible to assault... I would suggest - unless you have trouble with severe trouble with heavy infantry - change them to a longer ranged variant.

Oww, I keep meaning to take out those team leaders, but I have the right amount of points still. I've edited it now.

Remember the Helios can do what battlesuit do best and JSJ. I normally go against a Tyranid player who plays quite heavy, so I need a lot of low ap firepower.

I will see how they work after the game.

The Bringer wrote:

Beregond wrote:
BC/PR suits... why? What role are these going to fill? I honestly can't see them doing a great deal of good and I think you'd be better off with standard PR/MP combo there.

Nooooooooo. BC/PR is actually a very good suit variant. They are the most efficient MEQ killer (per cost) in the Tau codex (excluding Centurion... but you can only get one of those in your army.) Also, the Plasma Rifles and BC have a similar range - making them work even better together.

^^ thats as may be, but getting them out of the inevitable rhinos could be a problem with this list, unless you want to fire railguns at them ^^

Beregond wrote:
Now, the Fire Warriors... the only competitive way to use fire warriors is in squads of 6 stuffed into a devilfish with disruption pods... this way you have a scoring devilfish and your basically useless Fire Warriors are less likely to get themselves owned by whatever happens to be passing by.

Mostly true. The devilfish are usually required to make your firewarriors worth it, but I would suggest 12 in a devilfish. I love zooming my firewarriors forward, and them shooting 31 S5 shots into my enemy.

After which they have a tendency to all get themselves killed and then you have nothing left to get the objectives...

Beregond wrote:
Your Railhead may be unnecessary with a pair of broadsides in the list at this points level.. I'd switch him out for other stuff. Shield drones on the broadsides, possible, and points for the devilfish for the FWs.

I like running 2 railheads at this points level. The broadsides can take care of armor while the railhead drops s6 ap4 templates, which is what it is mainly meant to do anyways. If it didn't have submunission, there would be no point in taking it really.

Point taken

Helios suits (PR/FB) are good at killing heavy infantry, the best in fact, but they have hideously short range, thus making you susceptible to assault... I would suggest - unless you have trouble with severe trouble with heavy infantry - change them to a longer ranged variant.

This was the main reasoning behind my advice to change the others to a different variant he's already got these for dealing with the heavier infantry... but in light of your comments I think I'd agree that changing these would be more fruitful ^^

Hmm, 'nids eh? What sort of stuff does he bring along?

Whatever it is, it probably justifies the use of helios. I only ever use helios against nidzilla (which is what you are having trouble with) and walks of fully upgraded nobs... so I guess the helios were a good choice in this list.

If you do it right with the firewarriors, you can usually trap an enemy unit that is away from the pack - so once you destroy it you are fairly safe. You can also use the devilfish as a wall on one side of your firewarriors to protect them.

@ OP:

A fun thing you can do is put TL plasma rifles on your broadsides, and keep them as Team leaders so you can give them a HWMT. That will give you 3 high strength low AP shots that WILL hit your enemy - useful against nidzilla.

Math-hammering it:

Broadsides
Team Leader w/ HWMT, TA, and TL Plasma Rifles
110 Points.

1.48 TEQ wounds
PPK = 74.25 (points per kill)


Crisis Suits
Plasma Rifle/Fusion Blaster/Multi-Tracker
62 Points

.83 TEQ wounds
PPK = 74.4


So you can see that broadsides are about just as good as helios again Terminator Equivalents (about the same in fact.)

Against nidzilla, they would be even better than helios against carnifexes and the like (because the railgun is higher strength than the fusion blaster, and it also has waaaay longer range).

But broadsides are more expensive, they can't jsj and they can't move very well...
Being in 12 inches of something with a Broadside is a suicide mission.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:But broadsides are more expensive

True, but I accounted for that in my results. They do more for their points than crisis suits do for theirs.

XV8-Ownage! wrote: they can't jsj and they can't move very well...

That is true, but they do have longer range.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:Being in 12 inches of something with a Broadside is a suicide mission.

Not if you can gaurantee its going to die

Never guarantee...
I tried out this list today and, I lost.
It was all going well, very well.
On the first turn I killed two tyranid warriors and a whole squad of termagaunts.
But then Doom arrived...
He killed my kroot bubble wrap, then used his wounds for a strength 10 ap 1 large blast and that was the end of the broadsides, same thing happened to the battlesuits and the genestealers had already killed the hammerhead.
And his Hive guard (the one with the gun) also Insta killed some battlesuits.
My broadsides kept shooting at doom, but he kept saving them.

In conclusion, Battlesuits are very fragile, they do most of the work because of their great firepower, but when its you opponents turn, your suits are gonna die.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:But then Doom arrived...
He killed my kroot bubble wrap, then used his wounds for a strength 10 ap 1 large blast and that was the end of the broadsides, same thing happened to the battlesuits and the

My broadsides kept shooting at doom, but he kept saving them.

In conclusion, Battlesuits are very fragile, they do most of the work because of their great firepower, but when its you opponents turn, your suits are gonna die.

XV8s yes, but the b-sides are missing something crucial from your list, which I should scold The_Bringer and Beregond for failing to mention:

Shield Drones for broadsides, ALWAYS!

The_Bringer and Beregond, you two: I'm assigning 20 hours of lurking on AdvancedTautacica.com, complete with write ups on b-side use, deployment and load-out, in addition to 5 hours of reciting, the "Space Pope is Dope!" After I've graded your reports, we'll see about reassignment to Water Caste sanitation duties.

Okay, your list, and seeing that has been edited 3 times, I know you've already some changes.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:Shas'el Commander
Positional relay
Plasma rifle
Airbursting frag
Stim injector
HW milti tracker

Positional Relay out. Ninja tau is risky even for a veteran (semi) tau player like me.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:XV8 Crisis suit X3
Multi tracker X3
HW multi tracker
Fusion blaster X3
Plasma rifle X3
Targeting array

This is illegal until . You need to up grade one guy to Team Leader if he's gonna have the Target Array and wargear access for a hwMT.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:(Two seperate Sqauds)
Broadside X2
Targeting array X2

Have each one Team Leader, and hwDrone Controler, 2 Shield Ds. And I like A.s.s. over TA.

XV8-Ownage! wrote:Hammerhead
Railgun
Burst cannon drones
Disruption pod

Burst Cannon drones? Huh? You mean, two BCs, right? Anyway, needs an MT to Move and Shoot like a Fast Vehicle.

You're going to need points for a couple of the up grades I suggested. Prolly lose one XV8.

Sorry brothererekose, I knew I was missing something XD what can I say, I haven't played my Tau in a while and it's been even longer since I posted on one of these threads

On that note I fully agree with everything he's saying particularly about the Shas'el upgrades.

A.S.S. is probably better on the broadsides because moving at least a bit can be very useful ^^ and lets face it.. a TA isn't doing a great deal for you there, what with the re-rolls anyway.

And Multi-Trackers are as essential on a Hammerhead as Disruption Pods are on every vehicle in a Tau army