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Ok guys, I hate to be the guys that says I'm a total noob but..I kinda am.
I got my BA together and have them 70% or a little more completed.
I've been playing a bit but I feel like I need to move on to a new army and after some discussion I'm going all in on Tau.
So, I have NO experience building an army and I was wondering if you guys could direct me to a 2k point list or someone has one laying around that has done well =)
thank you for anything you guys have to offer in advance!

Most of the good tau lists that i've seen focus heavily on a couple of things:
Broadsides
Crisis suits (esp people seem to love the tl missile launcher ones)
Kroot to bubble wrap
minimal amounts of firewarriors

Try making a list and posting it up and people will be more able to help you with tweaking and perfecting it then.

I didn't really know where to even start tbh, I know the basic units and things but I've never even really made a list =[
totally noob at all things 40k still XD but I think I can pickup a codex soon and that should help out a TON =)

The 'standard' list seems to be 1 Shas'el, 5-9 Crisis Suits, 4-6 Broadsides and a Hammerhead or another 2-3 Broadsides.
You also have a base of 2-3 sets of 6 Fire Warriors with 6-8 Pathfinders and a Devilfish.

Optionally there's taking Kroot to bubblewrap your broadsides.

You split the crisis suits and broadsides into equal parts, you start the pathfinders in or near an oppurtune position (using their scout move to sit them in that ideal location), and either hop the Fire Warriors into the Pathfinders 'fish to float around then zoom in for lategame objectives taking, or keep them sat right at the back for withering S5 fire.

Though ultimately you can do as you like - I'm working towards a list with 3 suits, an ethereal, 84 Fire Warriors and some hammerheads/skyrays.

I'd reccomend starting with the Codex and a Tau Battleforce.
This will give you a nice base of your Commander, 12 Fire Warriors, 12 Kroot and a Devilfish (also 3 stealth suits which are nice, if a little overpointed), and will let you decide your next step.

Ovion wrote:I'd reccomend starting with the Codex and a Tau Battleforce.
This will give you a nice base of your Commander, 12 Fire Warriors, 12 Kroot and a Devilfish (also 3 stealth suits which are nice, if a little overpointed), and will let you decide your next step.

I'll second Ovion. The BF box is a good start. Further, 3 to 4 Crisis Suits and start buying broadsides before ForgeWorld ups the price. And I do mean FW, $10 more or so per suit. The metal on plastic b-sides suck. FW is resin (not the same as FineCast resin's process, as far as I know, but then again, what do *I* know?).

I found them worth the extra cost, in looks and durability.

AdvanvcedTautactica.com has a lot of great reading for the beginning tau player.

So a battleforce is a good buy? What kind of HQ is a good choice? are the stealth suits worth keeping? I'm about to try and trade my land speeder off too I dun need =D

You have 2 and a half choices for tau.

You have to have 1+ Crisis Suit commanders. A shas'el lr shas'o. You'll want to take the shas'el almost every time.

It's part of why the battleforce for tau is so good, it includes your HQ.

The other choice is an Ethereal, and outside of lists such as my 84 warrior gunline, is generally not worth it for his drawbacks.

Personally I like stealth suits, especially in larger games, but you'll have to wait for your codex and the models as to if you want to keep them.

Would 2 battleforces do more for me? Or should I separate my money? It seems like the hardest thing to get at this point is the suits and the broadsides because of sheer quantity...


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What's the difference in a commander suit and a normal suit?

Gharron wrote:Would 2 battleforces do more for me? Or should I separate my money? It seems like the hardest thing to get at this point is the suits and the broadsides because of sheer quantity...

No, actually, just one BF box for *now*. You won't need all the kroot and FWs that come with two boxes.

And yes, all those Crisis Suits and b-sides are gonna run up your price tag. 40k armies almost always run $400 + .

Gharron wrote:What's the difference in a commander suit and a normal suit?

Model wise? Just the helmet. Don't buy an HQ box for the add'l $ 5.25. Just paint him fancier.

Dont start Tau yet, there is no reason to.

Current BF offers what most Tau players as the most useless contents, boosting it to 2 boxes will make it worse.

As mentioned, the suits are the most efficient.
Though you might be like me, i hate how the suit looks so I have never started Tau.

There is rumor either 6 edition is next, or Tau, so pretty soon.... I would wait for new release.

The battleforce is a good buy. That's what i'm starting out with so i can find out how i want to run my Tau army. Instead of having everyone tell me to get batllesuits and nothing but battlesuits.

Farsight, Markerlights, and Plasma Rifles. These three things will pretty much guarantee a lower model count, but man, is it fun to play...

Well, I have 3 suits and 2 broadsides now. Need a few more and I LOVE the suits they're my favorite part BY FAR
So I'm excited to say the least =) I need about 6 suits and 4-5 broadsides because I have a hammer head I need a couple more devilfish and I have a setup I really enjoy I even have some kroot to bubble wrap =) so all in all a good start

LunaHound wrote:Dont start Tau yet, there is no reason to.

Current BF offers what most Tau players as the most useless contents, boosting it to 2 boxes will make it worse.

As mentioned, the suits are the most efficient.
Though you might be like me, i hate how the suit looks so I have never started Tau.

There is rumor either 6 edition is next, or Tau, so pretty soon.... I would wait for new release.

1+ You are a bit early. There is going to be an update soon and the current codex is horrible.

Start with 1 and the codex, then move on to whatevers next.

LunaHound wrote:Dont start Tau yet, there is no reason to.

Current BF offers what most Tau players as the most useless contents, boosting it to 2 boxes will make it worse.

As mentioned, the suits are the most efficient.
Though you might be like me, i hate how the suit looks so I have never started Tau.

There is rumor either 6 edition is next, or Tau, so pretty soon.... I would wait for new release.

Personally, I find that a good reason to start now.
Tau models are going to be re-released, and with that, while possibly nicer, WILL go up in cost.
Stealth Suits should become better next edition, as should everything in the battleforce.
So it'll be cheaper to start now, pretty much everything bought now should be usable next codex, and you can just add to your army with the release

That's kinda how I felt, I only need the battlesuits a couple broadsides and the pathfinders and I'll have 2k points now. I'm in love with the tau lore and things and it's definitely going to play ALOT different than my blood angels

To help with starting a new tau army from the battleforce

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/316806.page

Check it out, it REALLY helped me.
Kick butt for the Greater Good!

Don't start Tau now, as it has been said, start them later, soon they should get a new codex, and you can buy a nice competitive army, rather than a money sink that requires very specific builds to be good. I am a Tau player myself, but I have stopped buying and I am waiting excitedly for the day when we will have a really good army, it should come soon.

Meh, I've got a good start on them now and this is my "for fun" army and if I ever decide to play them over my blood angels then at least I have a decent foothold now. So I think it was good to buy some stuff now and at least get some games in before the new update =) and it gives me a reason to buy some books and play a few more games =)

Just a few tips for you, I was relatively new to tau and got a thread on this forum for a 1000pt army. It has been a steep learning cuve lol but got a few nice tips and tricks you might like. Firstly you may not want to start with a 2000pt list until you get to know them a bit better and at 1000pt you can still field some great models.

What everyone above said is great advice but there are a few units that always seem to be overlooked and that have always done good for me. Firstly kroot aint just for bubble wrap lol at 7 points a model they kick. Stick them in cover they get a 4 plus save and have the same and better stats than FW's plus they are better in combat that FW's. Seondly hammerheads with ion cannon's are very nice. In 1000pt i field one hammerhead with a railgun and one with an ion cannon its an awesome tank for heavier units or just to take out a few space marines.

Tactics: - Firstly losing the role to deploy is probably the best thing that can happen to you. Set up as far away from the enemy and set up a fire base maybe at 2000pt two bases. One thing that you learn quick is if you are fighting in the assault phase its game over lol unless super kroot are involved lol. Secondly crisis suits, deploy them behind cover move them 6 inches out of cover and then shoot and then bounce them back into cover. Last tactic roll all the sixes and not all the ones lol.

http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/424199.page
check this post out its a trial and error 1000pt list

Hope this helps

ATO

Click on the link in my sig. for a few variants of good Tau list, and modify them to suit your needs and preference.

And don't be misguided by those who tells you that the Tau is a poor codex. More often than not, the problem lies with themself being a poor general. The Tau is extremely competitive in the hands of a good player.

Gharron wrote:Ok guys, I hate to be the guys that says I'm a total noob but..I kinda am.
I got my BA together and have them 70% or a little more completed.
I've been playing a bit but I feel like I need to move on to a new army and after some discussion I'm going all in on Tau.
So, I have NO experience building an army and I was wondering if you guys could direct me to a 2k point list or someone has one laying around that has done well =)
thank you for anything you guys have to offer in advance!

@ATO that's something I've been so excited about! I love that you have to COMPLETELY out think your opponent. Sad part is my lgs doesn't even carry tau...no one plays them around here -.-
So anything I do no one will have seen >< and I'm sure I'll keep posting on dakka and letting you guys know how it goes from time to time I'm sooo excited I need a few more broadsides a few more stuis and some vehicles and I'll have a decent army to swap out here and there. I watched some tau out flank a bloo angels army and totally shoot them to pieces in a pinch move. LOVED it. =)



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Have another question, can the tau actually use any of the forgeworld aircraft? like any single one of them?

@Gharron - even better news no one plays them means people dont alwys know what to expect. but you wil have to play lots of games to get your lists to work. Horde armies always choose to deploy second, a) it means you can deployin the opposit corner lol b) you might even steal intiative lol. but mate you will have games where it goes horribly wrong but some games you will table people with ease. like i said start with a smaller list before going into 1500pts most people will have a well tweaked list so best to tweak a smaller one and then add things hope this helps enjoy the shooty shooty

ATO

Okay. Let me come right out and say that posts to the tune of "Don't play Tau" are completely off topic. The OP has stated that he's "all in" for starting Tau. So that's it. He's playing Tau. Perhaps he enjoys the challenge of playing an older codex, the rarity of Tau players in general, or simply enjoys them for fluff purposes.

Gharron, if you like I spent a long time writing a guide for crisis suit loadouts, target priority and what weapons are best at killing what. It can be found here: http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/360480.page

Also, I would really recommend taking a look at the leaked 6e rules. Obviously they aren't a rock solid representation of what we're going to see from 6th Edition, but they are a glimpse of things to come. The good news is that some of most Tau players favorite choices, things like Stealth and Crisis suits, Broadsides and Kroot are going to improve significantly. Things like Rail Rifles are finally going to be useful, and Fire Warriors might not be half bad either. I would whole heartedly recommend buying no more than 11 suits. 9 elites, 2 HQ. Magnetize magnetize magnetize. MAGNETIZE! Make sure to use magnets for the weapons options to ensure you get maximum value out of your suits.

IE you may find that Fireknife's (Plasma + Missiles) Suits are very helpful to you, but if you enter into a 500p tournament, you're not going to see a lot of heavy infantry or tanks, so perhaps Burst Cannon + Flamer suits might suit you better. This will save you time and money in the long run.

Good luck, and if you have absolutely any questions about playing Tau, myself, and BrotherEkrose are very helpful.

For the greater good, Shas! Good Luck!

Thanks cotton! I'm REALLY looking forward to playing Tau now I love the suits man that's just one of the coolest things ever, bring me back to my gundam days
Anyway, I can't wait for 6th and the new update
@ATO it's gonna be great man was talking to the guy who owns our LGS yesterday and he doesn't even sell tau products except for like firewarriors. So me walking in with guns out the wazzoo and no one having played against fire of that magnitude is going to be AMAZING!
I love the fluff and I'm trying to figure out if I should buy some of their air craft =) I have blood angels but there's at least 4 players at my store so I'm kinda meh with them even though if you bring up a piece of space marine fluff I've probably read it XD
I guess overall I need to find a way to get the magnets and learn how to do it, I've never tried and I don't have ease of access to them =/ but thank you guys so much for the guides so far! this has been one of the best threads I've had on dakka =D


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I'm just wondering about the forgeworld stuff at the moment. do their suits have a place in the codex? And can I use their planes? Also, why are their devilfish cheaper than the normal one? Or maybe it was a hammerhead...either way...questions!

Had one last question, I saw on forgeworld that they make a close combat suit. Is that worth a look? I know tau are supposed to be all about the range and yada but would they help with deek strikers?

It's not a Close Combat, it's a close support - lots of short range, high powered shots.

Would that be worth the buy? or would you stick it with one of the HQ's as a body guard?

It has its own rules in one of the imperial armour books, it's a fast attack choice I believe, but you could feasibly use it as a regular battlesuit.

You asked about fliers and ultiamtely they all look great, and most of them have nice rules beside them - but you aren't likely to get to use them that often, but they'll look nice on the shelf.
Personally I really, really want to get a pair of Barracudas to flank a Tigershark AX-1-0. It's £245, but when I can afford it I feel it'll be worth it.

Ovion wrote:It's not a Close Combat, it's a close support - lots of short range, high powered shots.

No need to be a troll