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Alright guys I'm starting up a Tau force on the side. I want to avoid using mercenaries as best as I can, do any of you know of a list that can actually stand a chance (outside of a tourney) against current edition armies?

Kroot are one of the most point efficient options the Tau have for protecting themselves form assaults and claiming objectives, so I would recommend using them from a tactical point of view.

If you aren't going with them I suggest looking at Piranha and Gun Drone squadrons for movement blocking units that can delay those assaulters from getting to your lines 1 or 2 more turns.

You may also want to consider a Firewarrior Horde. Conventional wisdom goes against it, but in my games I am quickly finding that not much stops an assault unit better than 24 to 36 Strength 5 shots coming at it every shooting phase as soon as it breaks 30 inches. Back stop it with a few Broadsides (who can conveniently fire over the Firewarriors) to pop any incoming transport vehicles with rail guns or to add another 4 St 5 shot a piece with the SMS and you'll see very few assaulters make it to your lines.

Don't forget to hit the biggest threat with Markerlights first. Remember that each Markerlight token you use to raise the BS of your squad by 1 means an extra 2 hits from a full strength Firewarrior squad. As you'll be rolling 3+ (or better) to wound in most cases, those extra hits are key. Also remember you can reduce cover saves as well.

Something I have been toying with is two small pathfinder squads. In addition to Markerlights this gives me 2 more devilfish which I can use as movement blockers, mobile cover saves for my crisis suits or to pick up a load of firewarriors to make a run for an objective.

Just remember, if you are playing an objective game, keep your firewarriors off the table as long as possible (check out the Position Relay) as most opponents know that by wiping out the only slightly tougher than Guard Firewarriors we'll lose the ability to hold an objective. Instead focus your effort into shooting the enemy off the objective marker and bring on your firewarriors from reserve in a devilfish. Charge it forward 12 inches, have your firewarriors disembark and run them towards the objective. A bit of luck and you can reach an objective 24 inches in from the edge in 1 turn.

My Tau List that I'm building ATM is the following:



Deathrains are Battlesuits with Twin-Linked Missile pods.
Everything will be maxed out on Seeker Missiles too.

This will total 96 Fire Wariors, giving 96-192 S5 shots at 30"/12" a turn.
Then 12 Stealth Suits, 3 Devilfish, 2 Hammerheads and the Skyray with another 83 S5 shots between them, 2 S10 AP1 Railguns and 16 Str8 seeker missiles, possibly a few fusion blasters to boot.
The Battlesuits each boast a pair of S7 shots for a total of 8-12 of those.
Then a couple of dozen or so Markerlights and another possible 24 S5 shots.

I could have gone for 9 Broadsides for the 9 twinlinked railguns, but that costs more monies and I like the tanks

But that still leaves me with 179-299 S5 shots, 8-12 S7 shots, 16 S8 shots, 2 S10 shots and 10-30 Markerlights when it's done.
And it'll only be less around 50-60 S5 shots in lower end games.

I figure I'll do fine against anything up to T5-6 and armour 10 with standard shooting, the deathrains and seekers will account for anything up to AV12 without much trouble and for 12+ there's the hammerheads and fusion blasters.

But ultimately, the standard 'competitive' lists focus on crisis suits and broadsides, taking Shas'els and guards, with standard XV8s in the elites slot for 10-15 suits, minimum sized FW squads in devilfishes, pathfinders and as many broadsides as you can manage.

So far there has been some different ideas on running Tau...

Personally I dont take Pathfinders EVER. I am not wasting points on something that makes me shoot better... I would ratehr just fire more shots.

Increasing BS 3 to BS 4 isnt a game breaker. You will most likely assist 2-3 units a turn at most and I would rather field a whole extra unit of something.

Lets say you had a FW gun line of 36.

Thats 18 Shots hitting at BS3
Thats 24 Shots hitting at BS4

Now to get 3 units to fire at BS4 will take 6 PF's as they too have BS3.

Add the 6 PF cost together with the obligatory DF... and you can almost field 3 Suits with Burst Cannons and MP with HWMT...

They each pump out 5 shots per turn x 3 = 15 shots.

I would rather field 15 more shots than 6 more shots....

This is just an example but In the end it is my out look on Tau...

Also if the 3 Elites slots arent fielded then there is no reason to take Bodyguard suits as they cost an extra 10 pts each for no reason other than they have access to the armoury which is motly overcosted junk these days anyways.

If you want to win games with Tau you must focus on maxing out Broadsides and suits......1500 pts = 4 broadsides and at least 7 suits.... I would just minimize your troop choices leave them in reserve and fight using the better gear. The only other way to play is to ditch the devilfish for the Tau troops and bump your troops up to 12 man teams and just hide in the bushes.

That is terrain and layout specific though.

Pathfinders have more uses than boosting BS. They also remove cover saves and lower LD from pinning. Though pinning is naff this edition, cover is king and the Tau are (IIRC) the only army that can adjust it's efficacy. The cost of the Fish is high, but the ability to use it for moving other units is great, meaning that if you were intending to take fishes anyway (and most do) and wanted to take PF's, well, you're all right. The only thing you miss out on is the ability to deploy FW in the PF's fish.

Ovion wrote: 1 Ethereal +12 Firewarrior Honour Guard
Elites: 2-3 Battlesuits (Deathrain)
6 Stealth Suits
6 Stealth Suits
Troops:
6x 12 Fire Warriors
Fast Attack
2x 4-8 Pathfinders + Devilfish
Heavy Support:
Hammerhead (Railgun)
Hammerhead (Railgun)
Skyray

Oh, c'mon, really? I would call this response as trolling. 72 FWs? Oh, Honor Guard, so 84? Stealths? *Two* stealth teams? An ethereal? The only way to make it worse would be to include Sniper Drones over the tanks. Sorry.

Dead meat to SRG GK, BA of any kind and SW. DE players would have to wipe drool from their chins and as they ask other players for spare Pain Tokens. And yeah, I'm talkin' trash!

Layas49 wrote:Alright guys I'm starting up a Tau force on the side. I want to avoid using mercenaries as best as I can, do any of you know of a list that can actually stand a chance (outside of a tourney) against current edition armies?

Short answer, yes. Outside of a RTT, any build that maxes Heavy Support, Railheads or combined XV88s, with 6+ Crisis Suits, a wee bit of ML support and FWs in d'fish, and you're okay for casual play.

RTT? Nope.

This is a fun list I run at 2k with no mercenaries at all.

Farsight

6xBodyguard
MP, PR, TA, HWTs on all of them
2-3 shield drones

Elites:

3xCrisis suits
TLMPs, TAs. Teamleader (shas'o or w/.e) with free bonding knife, TLMP, and special issue large blast gun

6 Stealth Suits. 2 FBs
(run with 2 target locks on the fusion and TAs on the burst)

Troops:

10 FW
Devil Fish

10 FW
Devil Fish

10 FW
(all FWs have sergeant and free bonding knife)

Fast Attack:

6x Pathfinders
Devilfish

(if you think pathfinders are a waste, they are very cheap for what you get, more priceless markerlights. Plus, the devil fish goes to the FWs which makes them useful and mobile.)

Heavy support:

3xBroadsides
ASS, shield drone

Tryna fit in a hammerhead but its pretty fun to run

Brothererekose wrote:

Ovion wrote: 1 Ethereal +12 Firewarrior Honour Guard
Elites: 2-3 Battlesuits (Deathrain)
6 Stealth Suits
6 Stealth Suits
Troops:
6x 12 Fire Warriors
Fast Attack
2x 4-8 Pathfinders + Devilfish
Heavy Support:
Hammerhead (Railgun)
Hammerhead (Railgun)
Skyray

Oh, c'mon, really? I would call this response as trolling. 72 FWs? Oh, Honor Guard, so 84? Stealths? *Two* stealth teams? An ethereal? The only way to make it worse would be to include Sniper Drones over the tanks. Sorry.

Dead meat to SRG GK, BA of any kind and SW. DE players would have to wipe drool from their chins and as they ask other players for spare Pain Tokens. And yeah, I'm talkin' trash!

Due to a lucky ebay bid, I got more suits, so I'll possibly be running 2x3 crisis elites + the commander and 6 stealth suits at this point. But yeah - 84 Fire Warriors and an ethereal.

I love the discussion happening here guys, lets keep it going!

I've discovered Stealth Suits are great for holding objectives (actually holding in Apoc, and simply denying the enemy / contesting in regular games). Pricey but good at that. 3 with 6 drones is pricey (215pts kitted out) but you can just sit them on the objective using infiltrate and leave them there. The Stealth keeps them safe from most ranged stuff, and anything closing in gets peppered with Str5 and 8 shots.

I'm going to be setting them up like this in future:
XV25 Stealth Team
3 Shas'ui
+ Fusion Blaster
+ 2 Drone Controller
+ 4 Shield Drone
+ Targeting Array
^ Team Leader
+ Hard-Wired Drone Controller
+ Hard-Wired Blacksun Filter
+ 2 Shield Drone
+ Bonding Knife
+ Markerlight
215

Give the Team Leader the Targeting Array to go with his markerlight, and one shasui the fusion blaster.
This means you've got another BS4 markerlight, and can play wound allocation shenanigans among your 3 suits and 6 drones.