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Taking my new Tau army to its first tournament in about a month and wanted peoples opinions and criticisms on the list. Ideally what I want is if you were to face this list with any of your armys how would you go about countering it. Ill post general strats for each unit below. What I wanted was cheap effective units for a "body heavy" army.

Please repost without breaking down points costs. Thanks ~Manchu

Broadsides pop heavy tanks with bs 4 twin linked guns. I suppose not taking sheild drones will make them more vulnerable but I really liked the idea of getting 2-3 hits with each group almost every time. Hammerhead will try to melt groups of guys after Crisis suits takes out their transports with pie plates.

I'm pretty new to this, but i would probably swap the TL missile pods for one missile pod and a plasma rifle, just because you don't have the ap to take out MEQ. Also I think the drone controller is 0pts not 30pts

dont show individual points cost or the post might get deleted.

Anyways, tthe team leaders on the Crisis units are unnecessary. Also, drop the Flamer in favor of a BlackSun Filter. You're taking the flamer to fill the slot, but a BS Filter is cheaper.

Crisis units cant have four slots. Flamer +Missile + TL Missiles is 4 slots. Also, you can't take a Missile + TL Missile, nor a Flamer+TL Flamer anyways.

Your stated objective with the Fire Warriors means you should drop them to 6 man squads.

Hammerhead instead of Broadsides is a wate of time and points. That submunition is nice, but when will you ever fire it? Your setup only lets you fire the Broadsides at two targets. You'll be using the Railgun version on it a lot. Now if you gave Target locks to the Broadsides, then the Hammerhead would make more sense.

Jancoran wrote:
Crisis units cant have four slots. Flamer +Missile + TL Missiles is 4 slots. Also, you can't take a Missile + TL Missile, nor a Flamer+TL Flamer anyways.

I think we was showing that he bought the upgrade to TL, note the point cost.

Unless I'm mistaken, the Failsafe detonator isn't hardwired so it counts to the amount of battlesuit options on your commander.

I agree with Jancoran and Daveking, some extra fire power could be quite helpful instead of just relying on Missile Pods.

Just my 2 cents on the broadsides, they're already TL so I wouldnt bother with a TA, maybe a ASS or a Multi-Tracker instead to let those SMS come into play.

Hades wrote:Airbursting Fragmentation Projector Cyclic Ion Blaster , Failsafe Detonator Fusion Blaster Hard-Wired Multi-Tracker Shas'o
2x Shield Drone (30pts)

NooB! This is terrible HQ if you have this goal in mind:

Hades wrote:What I wanted was cheap effective units for a "body heavy" army.

You selected the most expensive toys, useless bling and the priciest HQ. Try this instead:
Shas'el - Target Array, AfP, MP, hwMT

No drones. He doesn't need 'em as he can attach to other units for safety. Put those SDs on the b-sides below. Also, with the TA he retains BS5. The mix of AfP, CiB & FB is inefficient and counter productive. AfP/MP is good anti-infantry. Or CiB/PR for termie/pallie killing.

Hades wrote:XV8 'Crisis' Battlesuit Bodyguard Team (106pts)
Shas'Vre Flamer - TL, Fusion Blaster

Jar Jar Binks: "They-sa gonna die!" The FB and flamer puts 'em in h2h range and any power armored goons will p'wn them. Rethink to Fireknife, firestorm or TLMPs, "Deathrain".

Hades wrote:My thoughts: Wanted a unit that could go toe to toe with other points heavy units and still be flexible enough to accomplish other missions. Will deploy up front and ahead to try to stop whatever is the biggest threat to the main army. I know I wont be able to keep it out of assault range in every game so the failsafe detonator is pretty much mandatory.

The FailSafe is pretty much bad. No one would use it in a cut-throat environment. Crisis Suits don't go "toe to toe" with anything. Rethink to one of the above configs.

Hades wrote:XV8 'Crisis' Battlesuit Team (141pts)
Shas'ui (47pts)
Flamer , Missile Pod , Missile Pod Twin-Linked

Huh? Is this TL- MP, flamer?

Hades wrote:Cheap identical crisis teams meant to come out and pop transports then pop back behind cover or walls and buildings. Back up flamers keeps them cheap and not helpless in close range.

If they get chased down within h2h range, they're screwed and you've prolly lost.

Hades wrote:Pretty basic tau fire warrior strategy of never leaving the devilfish unless absolutely necessary. Since they're my only two troops ill try to hide them for claiming late game obj unless im sure nothing can shoot back at them.

Two troops is two too few. If you're gonna run a "Fire Warrior" vehicle upgrade of a dumbfish, then you may as well not field units of 12 FWs. Still, for 1750 points, you're gonna need 4 troop choices. Without altering the list much, you simply cut both units in two, and Reserve the foot sloggers for later game objective grabbing.

Hades wrote:Hammerhead Gunship - Disruption Pod, Railgun, Two Burst Cannons

Add the MT to Move & Shoot like a Fast Vehicle

Hades wrote:XV88 Broadside Battlesuit Team

I'd pad 'em all with Shield Drones. Then Bond. You've gained points to do so by demoting the Shas'O to 'el from the HQ.

Summary:
1. The entire Crisis configuration needs alteration. FS, FK or Deathrains. I suggest you try of unit of each
2. Fat Hq needs a diet, don't give him so many toys
3. too few troops. Tau scorers are so fragile you need one per 500 points, plus another.
4. b-sides need drones and BKs

After all of that, do you actually own 12 Crisis Suits and 6 b-sides? I know I was a bit harsh, but didja lurk through any old threads?

Lastly, read Advancedtautactica.com.

Wow...way harsh. Your last paragraph was the only Paragraph I think I would read, if I were him, which wasn't bad.

Jancoran wrote:Wow...way harsh. Your last paragraph was the only Paragraph I think I would read, if I were him, which wasn't bad.

I agree, and acknowledged so. With the 'winking' emoticon.

It's just weird to see *really* bad lists, when there are so many in the archive. When I pick up a new army, I lurk about 12 or 15 threads of other guys' stuff before posting to get tweaks for mine.

With tau, I seem to be posting the same advice over and over.

And it *is* a nooB thing to put both the AfP and CiB on a Shas'O. I would say that more than half the tau thread/lists have overweight HQ suits.

I figure that if a new player did a SEARCH and read through the other threads, a lot of the advice given there would not have to be repeated. And newer *posters* would see how lists are properly posted. Like no Individual Points costs. And all that.

Perhaps, though I should bloody well should not have quoted J.J.B. That's unforgivable.

@Hades:
Of course it isn't personal. Don't know ya. Never met. Tweak the list. Read Advancedtautactica.com and respond! That's how you get a workable list. I'm happy to help with specific advice. Tau players have it hard enough.

A little thumb rule I try to go by.

Suits are either:
Plasma Rifle, Missile Pod, & Multi-tracker (+37/suit)
or
Twinlinked Missile pod & blacksun filter (+21/suit)

Troops are:
6 Firewarriors + Devilfish & d.pod (145)
or
10 Kroot (70)

Heavy:
Hammerhead, multi-track, & d.pod (165)
Broadside w/ Adv. Stabilization or TA (80/suit)

Fast attack:
6 pathfinder (72/squad with the devilfish counting into the firewarriors point cost)
Piranha w/ fusion blaster and TA (75/piranha)

copy, paste into list. Add shield drones when points are available. Makes it really simple and fast to make lists.

My list is highly atypical, so I won't get into all that here (theres two good sized threads on that in the last few days). Couple things though if you are at all still in a constructive learning stage:

Try 6 Stealthsuits, plus 12 Gun Drones and pair of Fusion Blasters (throw in a shield drone or two if points are there to do it).

This unit runs through things pretty well and Pathfinders make it devastating. 2 such units can really hammer an enemy. In the meta of combat squadding and small units, these kinds of units are really really positive additions. They require you to tailor the list to THEM. That means an entirely different list than you're used to seeing on these sorts of forums. But you can trust that no one looks forward to that kind of unit pounding on them from Deep Strike and when they whittle a unit, what's left has a decent shot at not winning combat against them.

I abandoned using Tau Elites years ago really, but Stealthsuit units are a lot of fun when I want to play just for fun. it is invariably an unwelcome surprise to my enemy, as they rarely ever see it.

Also, consider TL Plasma suits. Unfoirtunately enemies can stack wounds when you hit them with Missile+Plasma. A dedicated unit for TL plasma or for TL missiles is really advisable. Again, coupled with Markerlights, they are quite good.

For fun the Stealthsuit blob might be a decent idea, but this is for a tornament.
It's horrendously overpriced for a competitive game
Gives the squad an average of T3
Has only two weapons capable of doing any real damage
Relies on Deepstriking a HUGE unit in order to get into effective range while not being whittled down in the process.

Needless to say, I'm a bigger fan of using the Stealth Suits with marker drones and making a mobile marker unit. But I would never field that in anything short of a huge team game.

Use the Firestorm, Fireknife and Deathrain Suit Configs....

People who tell you the Firestorm is 2nd tier to the Fireknife is talking out of their arse.... 36 more points for 3 Knives adds up fast. The storm performs just as well.....

Whatever Erekose says is what you go with..... I have never seen the guy post shyte advice.

Savageconvoy, those are not correct statements at all. It costs as much as a Purifier squad. T3 matters but when no one is charging YOU most of the time, it fades in imortance. The Stealthcloud is usually the one charging and against Assault Marine types, they can drop the squad to manageable size even for the Stealth unit.

The weapons most definitely do damage. 2 Fusion guns is two fusion guns. I have a long thing about this on my blog, but do not discount this unit.

And Deep Striking isn't necessary. They can infiltrate, outflank OR deep strike depending on what is called for. Deep Striking tends to be the way to go, because of Pathfinder Devilfish's being there, but you can certainly do any of the above and be very happy with the effects.

Try it.