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I am posting this for anyone who wants to start a Tau Army. After I bought a ton of models I noticed something that was rather amusing to me. You can buy 12 boxes of Tau units and have a decent Tau Army ready to go. With good modelling options involved as well.

Its very simple.

6 Tau Empire Battle Forces
6 Skyray Missile Gunships

I am sure many know but some probably don't but the Skyray set comes with everything you need to make all three types of large vehicles in the game. Devilfish, Hammerhead and of course Skyray.
So that means you can make 3 Hammerhead Railguns Glued on the turret so they don't droop down and look bad. 3 Hammerhead Ion Cannons glued into place on the turret. And have three of each gun as spare parts for conversions. Then you can also make 3 Skyray missile platforms and if you do not make the other three you will have 18 Seeker Missiles you can add to other vehicles if you use them. Finally you can also have the Skyray as devilfish So they give you these options If you make the Devilfish permanent and get 24 pathfinders then you can put those Devilfish as the Dedicated Transport of the Pathfinders.
3 Hammerheads with Ion Cannons
3 Hammerheads with Rail Guns
3 Skyray Missile Platform
3 Devilfish Transports

6 Tau battle forces gives you the following units.

6 full Firewarrior squads
3 full Stealth Team
2 full Crisis Suit Teams
72 Kroot Warriors (With only 8 more you get 4 full squads of Kroot)
6 Devilfish Transports (Think Dedicated Transports to each Firewarrior team)

Now all you have to think about is Finecast Units. Mainly Broadside Upgrade Kit. You could Convert Three of the Crisis Suits into Broadsides. Or buy more crisis suits and make broadsides leaving the two crisis suit teams as your HQ choices. This will give you plenty of options for any game. This idea was designed with just one Force Organization Chart in mind. So if you plan to use two Force Charts you may require more models.

Expensive? Yes. But cheaper than buying the individual boxes for each type of unit. Also it will provide some decent conversion pieces. I wish I had seen this when I started my Tau army I may have saved a few Hundred Bucks.

Are you kidding? The "good way to START a Tau army" is to spend over a thousand dollars up front? That's absolutely insane.


Edit: and you don't even get the Broadsides, Piranhas, etc that you'd want in any army that large, so add on a few hundred more. This is quite possibly the worst "how to start an army" post I've ever seen.

So saving a few HUNDRED dollars in the long run is not a good way to start an army? And who said you had to buy it all upfront. I said you need to buy 12 boxes. Not all at once but just 12 boxes. Start with one BattleForce and one Skyray.
For what you get in the Battleforce you save 41 dollars. 6 battleforces you have saved 246 dollars. The Skyray's are 49.50 a piece. But because of how they come with Hammerhead pieces it means you also get the Hammerheads needed in any Tau Army. So instead of spending 150 dollars on three hammerheads and not have the option for Skyrays (They are fun to field) You get the option to field Hammerhead whose weapons DON'T Droop downward because you can't glue them on if you want to put a different weapon system on them, 3 Ion cannon turrets and 3 Rail Gun Turrets that look good. As well as 3 Skyray Platforms and Extra pieces for conversions later. You also get three Devilfish you can use for Pathfinders if you get some later. While the Skyrays don't save money, they offer adaptability and will allow you to make a more opposing looking mechanized portion of your Army. Also with 246 dollars saved from the Battleforces I may be able to afford the Broadside Teams, Pirahnas, and other more specialized units. So for a total of $1,017 (STEEP I know but if you are REALLY serious about getting into the hobby it is wise to think LONG term). Save your money up and get it or buy one battle force and one skyray at a time for 169.50. I do not make that much money but within Six months I could have 6 Battleforces and 6 Skyrays. I would not be doing much of anything for those months as my entertainment money would be GONE. But I know I can do it. Then spend some more money to round out your force. And you will have spent LESS and gotten MORE for your buck.

Or you could buy one battleforce, try the army and see what you want, and then see if buying more battleforces is a good investment. It's only a good discount if you're going to use everything in the battleforce, if you aren't you're just throwing away money on things (like full stealth suit squads) that you're never going to use. And that's just the units you don't want at all, your plan gives you way too many troops so you're throwing away money that you could have saved if you had just figured out how many of each you wanted and bought them separately.

In short: you have no idea what you're talking about and you're telling people to waste hundreds of dollars on stuff that will just end up on ebay.

And yes, the Sky Ray box is the better deal, but everyone already knows that.

The Tau Battleforce is actually pretty good as Battleforces go given that you get an HQ model and two Troops units right off the bat, plus an Elites choice that adds a lot of firepower in small games.

The problem going for this theory is you have so many more Kroot than you'll ever use that it's not even funny. I've got a small Tau army, I don't use Kroot anymore because they all roll over and die the instant anyone thinks to pull out the cheapest, nastiest, and most underappreciated upgrade weapon available to every army (hint: it sets things on fire).

I'd recommend one Battleforce to get started, sure, but for practical purposes you're not going to be using much more than the Fire Warriors and the Crisis suit out of future Batteforces (sometimes the Devilfish), meaning buying six means you're paying for all those Stealthsuits and Kroot (and sometimes the Devilfish) that aren't going to make it onto the table in most games. Plus this assumes you're going to be making a pretty big army, for people who don't want to throw down thousands of dollars and have an Apocalypse-scale army this thread isn't all that helpful.

If you want to retitle this 'Good Way to get a Tau Army Apocalypse-Ready Quickly', though, I'm all for it. Remember to advise getting Barracudas and a Tiger Shark AX-1-0 while you're at it (ignore the regular Tiger Shark, it sucks). And don't get a Manta unless you're insane, you'll never get to field it and it'll cost more than the rest of your army combined and take months to paint.

EDIT:
I did some calculations. This is a good way to get a five thousand point Apocalypse army, though one low on really heavy weapons, Markerlights, and ways to deal with Super-Heavies, Gargantuan Creatures, and Flyers. I'd recommend adding some of the aforementioned aircraft (which brings you closer to six thousand points) and switching the Ion Cannons for Railguns on the other three Hammerheads.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
And don't get a Manta unless you're insane, you'll never get to field it and it'll cost more than the rest of your army combined and take months to paint.

Oh, Manta... *drools*

One day, if I ever win the Euro-millions... I will have my Manta dreams come true.

The best way to start a Tau army is to buy a Cadian Battalion box and begin painting your IG allies...