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i have played warhammer 40k for a year now, starting with tau but not getting much success and moving on to pretty much every other army apart from IG, orks and 1 or 2 space marine codex's but heres my newest attempt at a tau army list.

HQ 267

crisis commander shas'O - cyclic ion blaster, missile launcher, shield generator, HW multi lock
2 shas'Vre bodyguards - missile launchers, burst cannons, HW multi locks and targeting arrays

ELITES 175

3 shas'Ui crisis suits - burst cannons, missile launchers, targeting arrays, team leader, HW multilock

TROOPS 615

12 fire warriors
devil fish - disruption pods

12 fire warriors
devil fish - disruption pods

12 fire warriors
devil fish - disruption pods

HEAVY SUPPORT 685

3 broadsides - targeting arrays, team leader, HW target lock, TL plasma rifle

3 broadsides - targeting arrays, team leader, HW target lock, TL plasma rifle

hammerhead - railgun, burst cannons, targeting array, multi lock, disruption pod

This is pretty good.
I would ditch the burst cannons and replace with TL missile pods instead.

Apart from that this is amazing (especially with the broadsides).

chaos wulfen wrote:crisis commander shas'O - cyclic ion blaster, missile launcher, shield generator, HW multi lock

There's no "mulit-lock". Do you mean MultiTracker or Target Lock? Anyway, toss the Shield Gen for a Shield Drone, which does the same thing, but adds a wound, for less. Demote to Shas'el, and go Target Array (keeping BS5), your two guns, a hwMultiTracker.

chaos wulfen wrote:2 shas'Vre bodyguards - missile launchers, burst cannons, HW multi locks and targeting arrays
3 shas'Ui crisis suits - burst cannons, missile launchers, targeting arrays, team leader, HW multilock

It makes for more sense to have MTs on all the suits, so they can shoot both ttheir guns. Also, split 'em up. Here's a good way to increase your fire power with all 5 suits:

Pair: Team Leader, TA, 2 guns, hwMT
his buddy 2 guns, MT

Pair: Team Leader, TA, 2 guns, hwMT
his buddy 2 guns, MT

Single: Team Leader, TA, 2 guns, hwMT

Benefits:
1. Now you have split your fire, including the HQ by a factor of two; this allows to you more efficiently direct fire
2. The enemy has to split his fire to 4 different targets instead of 2. Again, good for you
3. Frees up your HQ, wheres before he's stuck with the 'Vres.
4. Your 3 Fire Storms (the previous Elite trio) can now shoot both the BCs and MPs.

Cons:
1. More KPs. Big deal.
2. Slight loss of BS on 2 suits, which is more than made up for by being able to shoot both a suit's guns.

chaos wulfen wrote:12 fire warriors
devil fish - disruption pods

I like to promote an 'Ui and Bond. Also, are you using FoF? IF not, then I suggest decreasing their numbers in favor of Shield Drones for the b-sides. Either to 9 or 6, exploiting the Morale Check mechanics.

chaos wulfen wrote:3 broadsides - targeting arrays, team leader, HW target lock, TL plasma rifle

3 broadsides - targeting arrays, team leader, HW target lock, TL plasma rifle

They need SDs to increase longevity, then Bond.

hammerhead - railgun, burst cannons, targeting array, multi lock, disruption pod

I would drop the plasma on the XV88s and put it onto one team of Crisis (making them PR/BC). Without a Multi-Tracker on the XV88s, you'll rarely use the plasma. I'd drop the FWs to 6 or 9, but I personally don't bond my FWs, I find it is not as useful. If you have them, add in pathfinders, and drop a Devilfish from the FWs for each squad of pathfinders you take. Simply run the Pathfinders to where you want with the scout move, disembark, then run back and pick up the FWs at the beginning of your turn. Adding Pathfinders also makes the suits not need/suffer from not having Targeting Arrays. And split the suits into squads of two, probably one TLMP/F, one PR/BC/MT, the commander as a CIB/PR/MT, and the solo suit potentially as a PR/FB/MT to protect the XV88s from Deep-strikers, or to Deep-strike near enemy long-range fire and roast them, as a suicide squad. If you can find the points, add Shield drones to the Broadsides and bond. (Bond them regardless, you don't want them running off the board).

i made this list after leaning that most of my opponents are ork players although generally i switch out a team of broadsides for another hammerhead so i have an extra large blast and use the air frag projector on the commander so the big meks cover save is ignored, it usually does quite well but ive still never managed to beat orks with any army i own other than space wolves absolultey owning a speed freak army

You know what Orks hate? Pulse Rifles. Lots of Pulse Rifles.

Move your body guards into a second crisis team. Orks will tie up your hq unit in cc first or second turn. Multiple units is what you want vs. orks. Get rid of plasma on xv88s. You'll never use them. Also throw target lock on your hammerhead. That extra six shots a turn at a different target will help vs. orks. Make your fw squads four teams of nine. Use your devilish to block since you have no kroot and throw flèchettes on them,will help greatly vs orks. And with devilish overkill like that you should grab some pathfinders. Best of luck

chaos wulfen wrote:i made this list after leaning that most of my opponents are ork players although generally i switch out a team of broadsides for another hammerhead so i have an extra large blast

Yep. Good call. RG, BCs, MT, Dispod, Flechettes, Target Lock is good for anti-ork.

chaos wulfen wrote:and use the air frag projector on the commander so the big meks cover save is ignored, it usually does quite well but ive still never managed to beat orks with any army i own other than space wolves absolultey owning a speed freak army

Then go all FireStorms (BC/MP) for volume shooting. The PlasmaRifles of FKs get nerfed by Wound Alocation Shenanigans.

Are the orks BattleWagon lists? Kans?

at the moment the biggest pain is a nob squad with 5 big choppas 1 claw and a pain boy joined with a warboss or gazghul ive never managed to kill more than 2 of them in a game and that was hammering 3 units of crisis suits all with plasmas and missiles and solid shot rail guns.

but i mainly play against 3 boy mobs in truks and a burner wagon with mek having KFFG as well as 3 kans with ither storm boys, bikes or dread in there as well

im getting closer the more i chop and change my gear but it gets frustrating that i can win quite easilly against almost any other race apart from orks

Grab Stealthsuits and FWs. The S5AP5 is your best weapon against Orks, even with FNP and KFF. You want mass fire, as he will have to fail some of them. Consider what seems like the best suit against FNP, PR/FB/MT - It's 62 points, so, it compares to two XV15s or 6 FWs. Each gets 6 S5AP5 shots (or 12 at 12" for the FWs) vs. two S6AP2 and one S8AP1 shot (assuming 12"). The suit will hit with 1 PR shot and 0.5 FB shots. This will cause 1.25 wounds with no FNP/Saves. The XV15s get 3 hits, and 1 Wound after FNP. The FWs get 12 shots, which gives them 2 wounds. However, at 18", the suit gets 0.83 wounds, while the XV15s and FWs get 1. At 19"-30", the suits get none, and the FWs get 1. The greatest efficiency always is the FWs. And the XV15s effective range is 24", so you can hary the Orks and not worry as much about getting in charge range.

What you want to do is disrupt. Use your big guns to stop the Mek's transport and then hit the Kans/Deff Dread. You want the Mek foot-slogging and the boys in Trukks. He'll either slow the boys down to keep the KFF, or rush them out of its range, at which point you pop the Trukks and S5AP5 them to death. Disruption, distraction, and confusion are how the Tau win.

I really like your list but mind telling us what you are up against mainly.
Because that will influence your choices allot like against a marine player i myself wouldn't risk taking a cyclic ion blaster but against nid's it can be a very good one.

Except for that as i said i think i love your list its fire warrior heavy just like mine. Only if you have the right strategic mind you can ditch the fishes for another squad of fire warriors or 2 and even markerlights can be enabled by the freeing up.
But for that you need some plan like you need to ensured you can push back a swarm lord with 60 gaunts without a worry in the world With this points level you will need some real planning to use a fire warrior heavy list they are fun as hell but i warn you up front.
You will lose the first couple times except when you have real luck.

mostly i play against orks but i also play against necrons and the occasional space marine army and there a few guard players that spam tanks, i do have variants of the list but this is my all round list as it has a decent number of shooting per turn a strong back line with the best anti vehicle i could fit into the list while also keeping a decent amount of troops and a hq and elite choice that can have a choice of things to shoot at.

my other variants are against swarm armies such as tyranids i use 3 hammerheads rather than broadsides so i can maximise the amount of blast weapons i have and with i tend to not use transports so i can use the points on more fire warriors and switch out the crisis elites for stealth suits so i have a chance to counter a possible gene stealer brood.

against space marines i either use less troops and focus on using good strength and AP weapons on lots of crisis teams, sniper teams and railguns, or i try to maximise shots by using more fire warriors with enough power from suits and tanks to rip through transports.

my main problem i have found is my target priorities, if i see a land raider that has assault termys in i tend to see them as my biggest threat and sometimes let it go to my head that the termys must die and tend to forget about the combat squads.

against orks which is my main opponent i have played enough games to know that without transport orks are very vulnerable but i always have the same problem of there is too much to kill before they get close no matter how i choose my targets or what combination i use i cant seem to do enough damage to stop them