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Hello! Today i went in to my FLGS to buy a single paint and somehow walked out with a Tau Battle Force. I have never played Tau but have access to the Codex.

I realise by using the Battle Suit as a Commander i can have a playable army straight away (I'm sure it won't be the BEST army, but at least i can get gaming) So with very little Tau experience i was wondering what would be a good way to arm the models in the boxt to form a playable army?

Any help would be greatly appreciated, as would any tips on what my next move should be.

Many Thanks!

PS. I currently have a space marine force too, so any tips on how to use Tau as allies would also be great!

Go with pulse rifles over carbines. When I played tau I made my leader a Shas'o gave him a sheild generator, hw drone controller with 2 sheild drones, missile launcher, burst cannon, hw multitracker and stimulent injector. Never ran kroot so cant help there, make sure you put a disruption pod on your devilfish. Thats just my recomendation though.

Sounds cool. Eventually i will start canging up from what is in the box, but i kinda like Kroot. If anything in the box is partucularly useless though i could always sell online to fund better units.

I can't stand Burst Cannons. and the HQ mentioned above is 135 points for a hard to kill model, that will only do damage with the missiles.

HQs are generally loaded out as Fireknives. PR/MP/Multi Tracker.

Sadly the Battleforce leaves a lot to be desired. Firewarriors are required and it's arguable how useful they are. Kroot are basically useless IMO since they are expensive for a unit with no armor save and suck CC, which is what they are supposed to excell at. I think they are T3, but can't remember right now.

Devilfish are giant moving targets. Hard to hit, I will agree. But they don't do much else. And now that troops need to be outside to claim an objective, it makes them even more worthless. I'd suggest getting the H.Head sprue, available on GW, and make it a Hammerhead instead.

Stealthsuits are terrible. Over priced for a T3 model with a crap weapon and limited to 1 Melta gun upgrade.

Tau right now isn't an easy army to get into, since the you'd be better off getting 2 boxes of FW, 6+ Crisis suits (Don't bother with the commander since the Special Issue weapons suck and it's easier to make a custom commander head), 6+ broadsides, and a H. Head/Skyray kit.

I also suggest getting Forgeworld Tetras. They are currently the only exceptional FA slot we have.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
So what's useful in the box?
Crisis Suit.
Firewarriors (By necessity alone)
And maybe the Devilfish if you convert it to the Hammerhead.

What's useless?
Gun drones
Kroot
Stealthsuits
Devilfish on it's own.

Would it possibly be better to buy the Hammerhead weapons to upgrade the devilfish?
EDIT: i see that was answered. Thanks!

Honestly I can't say if I suggest trading off the less useful stuff. Stealthsuits and Kroot for example are fan favorites. People want to use them and would buy them if they are useful. I'm not going to mention shakey rumors, but personally I'd hold on to them to see if they are going to be turned good. If they don't have the correct weapons or something, then I'd try to convert as many as possible.

That aside, It's definately a fun army. They don't really play like any other army. No Psykers, no CC, and very few vehicles makes them reliant on suits heavily.

I find stealth suits to be a decent choice (would have mentioned them in first post but forgot they were in the box) A bare unit of 3 can make a decent harassment unit especialy since they can easily get a 2+ cover save depending on the terain.

Yeah, i think i will get the Hammerhead weapon kit, but i do wanna keep all the models. They are well overdue for an upgrade which i reckon will come round in the next year or so. Just been given a mess of a broadside model from a friends very old collection (about a million layers of paint and glue) so that will make a good addition if i can possibly salvage it.

I bought most of the battle force in chunks myself, I made a mistake of arming my fire warriors with carbines completely limits the range and unless you use your marker lights to lower the leadership its not that great.

I used the fireknife load out and it works fairly well for me.

The stealth team Ive had mixed results with, having a markerlight was nice. They now hang out with my new pulse rifle troops as if the drone is in range to mark the fire warriors can shoot.

Then again Im still learning all the quarks with this game

Tekik wrote:
I find stealth suits to be a decent choice (would have mentioned them in first post but forgot they were in the box) A bare unit of 3 can make a decent harassment unit especialy since they can easily get a 2+ cover save depending on the terain.

They are fairly small and fast so they may be good at drawing some fire/attention. The biggest problem I had was that my opponents never bothered chasing them. Without decent weapons, costing more than a terminator with a removable 2+ save and T3, and short range on all it's weapons makes these guys hard to fit into an army list.

Don't get me wrong, cause I love the models, fluff, and the concept of these guys. I really do want to like them on the table top. But the best case scenario is that you can jump them to a a backfield objective and act as a sunk in denial unit. If they were a FA I'd probably take them in the hopes that they could be a scoring unit. Maybe against Nids, Guard, or Orks they'd be good. Since they can easily outrun most units, deepstrike in (re-rolling with the tetra), and have a weapon that actually does some good against them. It's just kind of limited to what it does otherwise.

Well, there arn't many weapons that ignore their 2+ cover that also ignore their 3+ armor.

And just standing in area terrain gets them that 2+, so they can be really close to the enemy. Meaning their Fusion Blaster can do something.

it's 1 melta gun at BS3. I'm not liking it's odds. I'd rather use a Broadside that has a 6 foot shot. and the Broadside is cheaper than the 90 points required for a stealth suit squad.

If your going to buy a hammerhead buy the skyray. You get the hammerhead bits for both weapons and the skyray in it. You could easily make two hammerheads out of such a kit w/ your existing devilfish. That would be my suggestion as devilfish bring nothing to the table imo. Because you're new to tau I would kit out your HQ as a fireknife. Missile Pod/Plasma Rifle, Multi tracker and keep him in the 16"- 24" area away from enemies if you can. They are easiest style of crisis suit to use and can cause a lot of damage. Plasma rifles are your friend. I would also recommend buying any future Tau now on ebay as everyone and their mother are dumping them for the upcoming release in the not so distant future. Get crisis suits, firewarriors, and a couple broadsides as your heavy supports are almost filled. Kroot can work, don't let anyone fool you. Put them in cover, preferably behind an aegis line for 4+ cover as they get no armor save. Also you can outflank w/ them so you can come on the board and blast away 24" turn 2+. Stealth teams got a major boost in the newest edition as they can get 2+ saves pretty easy or 4+ in the open. My only sticking point with them is very short range and S5 weapons which are better suited for firewarriors shooting 30" a turn while moving. Best of luck and welcome to the Greatest Good!!

Some very good advice here.

Typically I would always recommend buying a Skyray over Hammerhead or Devilfish. (So I'm seconding the previous recommendation)
Given that they are the same chassis, it is simple enough to either 1) magnetize the front burst cannon 2) simply not glue in the turrets to use swap between the 3.

The disadvantage that the Tau codex faces is that it was written for 4e. The points allocation on many units simply doesn't add up to being effective.

My suggestions for purchases is to buy anywhere between 6 & 20 Crisis suit. I realize the 20 number sounds massive, but it's simple enough to convert the model to being either a broadside or Crisis suit (HQ/Elite).
Here is a WIP of my Broadside conversion made from bits

If you would like me to provide you with some instructions I'd be happy to, but for the most part you can convert all of this up with the purchase of a couple Crisis Suits.

The Crisis Suit is going to be your most valuable unit in the army. They function from AT to AI to AA.
Deathrain (Twin Linked Missile pods0 are going to be your only codex available option at taking on both vehicles and flyers. You'll want to run at least one unit of those.

Broadsides also offer great AA and AT options. 30% to hit isn't great from a flyer standpoint, but it's the best our codex has to offer.

Stealth suits are good, but depending on where you play and what you consistently face, you might find yourself opting for more Crisis suits so that you can have better AA and AT.

Since 6e was released the Kroot vs Fire warrior discussion has leveled significantly. In 5e Kroot were the easy choice over Fire warriors. Now with Cover being worse and Rapid fire being full range, fire warriors are an excellent choice.

Lastly, the Codex mechanic is build around Markerlights. Unfortunately this unit leaves you with a big target to crippling your army. Pathfinders IMO are a must. I typically take between 12-14 Markerlights in a list either via Tetras or Pathfinder.

The codex does have a lot of fun units to play with, but unfortunately the most expensive named character in Aun'Va is one choice that you can easily pass on. He's far too cost prohibitive to take in a tournament or anything outside of a fun fluffy campaign.

To start expanding I would suggest focusing on some Crisis suits, then a Skyray so you can run hammerhead variants or a transport, then I would suggest pathfinders. After that it's really at your discretion.

 Savageconvoy wrote:
Devilfish are giant moving targets. Hard to hit, I will agree. But they don't do much else. And now that troops need to be outside to claim an objective, it makes them even more worthless.

Have you read the FAQ that fixed disruption pods? Devilfish are awesome now. Even ignoring their uses as a transport (which is still relevant even if you have to disembark on the final turn to claim objectives) they're amazingly useful as mobile cover. Park the Devilfish in front of your important shooting unit, move it away in the movement phase, shoot with your big guns, then use the Devilfish's flat out move to go right back in front of the unit. And since the Devilfish moved flat out your blocking unit now has a 4+ cover save, or 2+ save outside 12".

 Grey Templar wrote:
Well, there arn't many weapons that ignore their 2+ cover that also ignore their 3+ armor.

And just standing in area terrain gets them that 2+, so they can be really close to the enemy. Meaning their Fusion Blaster can do something.

So what if they have a 2+ cover save, they have laughable firepower for their point cost. Nobody is going to shoot at them until the rest of your army is dead, and a 2+ cover save on a non-scoring unit isn't going to win the game for you at that point.

Here is my simple Battle force list:

HQ:
Shas-el w/Burst Cannon, Plasma Rifle, Target Array, hwMT, hwDC, 2 shield drone 123

Elite:
3 Stealth suits w/(TL,FB,ML,hwDC),(Target lock),(Targetlock), ML drone 147

Troops:
6 FW w/'ui, hwDC,Gun drone,BK, 85
Devil Fish w/Dpods,TA 90
6 FW w/'ui, hwDC,Gun drone,BK, 85
10 Kroot 70


Total points: 600

It use everything but 2 kroot. Quick tactica behind the list, Kroot infiltrate to mid-field to give opposing foot troops something to worry about using terrain to get what save they can or outflank for the same effect.. One FW team mounts up to start in reserve to make a fast response. The other FW team finds some nice cover near the home edge objective and lays down long range fire support.

Stealth suit starts infiltrated to make best use of the JSJ, markerlights and the two target locks. This is the only tricky squad to use. The idea behind this load out is to provide marklight support from the leader and drone to the firewarriors and HQ, while the 2 burst cannons act as harassers. while 3 shots don't do much to big blobs, this squad has the potential to wreck 3 transports in a single turn. Watch out for Charges and templates as you are relying on a cover save to keep them alive.

The HQ is your best anti MEQ/TEQ. Be sure to keep the drones between the suit and any S8+ weapons asthey will instagib your commander. Hold him in reserve to deep strike in to the back field where he can pair up with the stealth team.

If you move up to a 650 point list add the last 2 kroot, Photon Grenades on the the FW, stimulant injector for the FNP on the HQ, 1 seeker on the DF, and a BSF on the unmount FW.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Savageconvoy wrote:
Devilfish are giant moving targets. Hard to hit, I will agree. But they don't do much else. And now that troops need to be outside to claim an objective, it makes them even more worthless.

Have you read the FAQ that fixed disruption pods? Devilfish are awesome now. Even ignoring their uses as a transport (which is still relevant even if you have to disembark on the final turn to claim objectives) they're amazingly useful as mobile cover. Park the Devilfish in front of your important shooting unit, move it away in the movement phase, shoot with your big guns, then use the Devilfish's flat out move to go right back in front of the unit. And since the Devilfish moved flat out your blocking unit now has a 4+ cover save, or 2+ save outside 12".

^^
This is a really good strategy worth noting.

It's a significant change to the 6e mechanics

paidinfull wrote:

Here is a WIP of my Broadside conversion made from bits

If you would like me to provide you with some instructions I'd be happy to, but for the most part you can convert all of this up with the purchase of a couple Crisis Suits.
.

Nice conversion. Are the twin flamers supposed to be the Plasma option?

A quick summry of your battleforce loot:

Crisis suit-probably the best unit in the army, as it is super verstile elite/HQ that does pretty much anything you want from an entanglement unit to horde slayer to tank hunter, and even "jack of all trades". this thing saves the Tau codex (and broadsides, but you need a crisis to build one so that's also the crisis favor)

3 Stealth suits-a solid unit, a team of 3 members and 6 gun drones (by drone controller on each suit) gets the best results. VERY hard to remove, and VERY verstile on the field with multiple deployment options, altough packs reletivly little firepower for the cost. I love it, but not for everyone.

12 Fire warriors-the base of the army, its not marines but they get the job done when used properly. take advantage of that extra range!

12 Kroot-has thier uses as a meatshield and decent if you know you will be in a forest heavy terrain, otherwise meh.

Devilfish-one tough transport, but thats it. useful if you know to use it, and good at protecting your precious firewarriors until it's time for them to shoot something.

6 gun drones-two will likely be on the devilfish, these guys are decent if taken by drone controllers on stealth suits, and the extra ones you can get from your tanks open some neat roadblock and assualt dely options, but have little use elsewhere. (tough I did have a pair bonk a wraith to death on melee once, fun times, epic rolls.)

A marker drone-would have been good on a stealth team, if it was half the price. you can even leave it unbuilt until a new codex comes, or use it for parts.

Just as a note about Crisis suits, I've found that all of the hard point wargear fits rather snugly on the model without glue, so you don't even have to glue your weapon options on, allowing you to change them to be equipped however you choose.

 Peregrine wrote:

 Savageconvoy wrote:
Devilfish are giant moving targets. Hard to hit, I will agree. But they don't do much else. And now that troops need to be outside to claim an objective, it makes them even more worthless.

Have you read the FAQ that fixed disruption pods? Devilfish are awesome now. Even ignoring their uses as a transport (which is still relevant even if you have to disembark on the final turn to claim objectives) they're amazingly useful as mobile cover. Park the Devilfish in front of your important shooting unit, move it away in the movement phase, shoot with your big guns, then use the Devilfish's flat out move to go right back in front of the unit. And since the Devilfish moved flat out your blocking unit now has a 4+ cover save, or 2+ save outside 12".

You have a very sounds strategy, but the problem is cost. In an army where the important units are somewhat overcosted already. Points are very important. We already spend points on units that fire marker lights and don't actually kill anything themselves. (I wish marker lights happened at the beginning of the turn, or beginning of the shooting phase like IG orders) We can't spare more points on "mobile cover", especially since imo, we don't really need it, we already have a highly mobile army as is. Don't move the cover, more the unit to cover, imo. The 3+/2+ cover saves are amamzing on hammerheads and tetras, also amazing on the FW varient of the piranha (since it has long range weapons) But a unit taht is mobile cover, doesn't kill anything, and gives up a early kill point to anything that gets within 12" is just not a good buy imo. Spend the points and just buy more fire warriors, that way when the ones that aren't hiding behind the mobile cover you would have bought get killed, you have another unit.

Coyote81 wrote:
We can't spare more points on "mobile cover", especially since imo, we don't really need it, we already have a highly mobile army as is. Don't move the cover, more the unit to cover, imo.

That assumes that you have cover available, and that it's in a good location that you want to be in. Considering the tables I've seen a lot of 40k games played on this is a pretty bad assumption, and it really helps to be able to put a nice big piece of terrain down wherever you need it.

And then of course there's the blocking factor, a Devilfish does a good job of keeping potential assault threats away for at least a turn, even if it eventually dies in the process.

The 3+/2+ cover saves are amamzing on hammerheads and tetras, also amazing on the FW varient of the piranha (since it has long range weapons) But a unit taht is mobile cover, doesn't kill anything, and gives up a early kill point to anything that gets within 12" is just not a good buy imo.

Don't forget that the Devilfish also does all the usual things a transport does. For example, as it's protecting the FWs embarked on the Devilfish it can be providing cover and assault protection to your Broadsides, then deliver the FWs into an ideal firing position. Or maybe you decide you don't need mobile cover this game and keep the Devilfish full of FWs in reserve for a late-turn objective grab. Either way you need the Devilfish in your list in the first place in order to do any of it, and simply including one (or more) unlocks a lot of new options.

Spend the points and just buy more fire warriors, that way when the ones that aren't hiding behind the mobile cover you would have bought get killed, you have another unit.

That assumes you're only protecting FWs with your mobile cover.

I just don't see the benefits outweighing the crazy price. I prefer to take my eldar allies and leave units that cost lots of points and don't accomplish anything at home.

Coyote81 wrote:
I just don't see the benefits outweighing the crazy price. I prefer to take my eldar allies and leave units that cost lots of points and don't accomplish anything at home.

What do Eldar have to do with how to start a Tau army from the battleforce? You realize this is a thread made by someone whose entire army consists of the battleforce box, right? And who has said nothing at all about adding Eldar allies, or even allies at all?

Having had a similar experience earlier in the year
I would say without a doubt rifles not carbines, magnetise the crisis and one stealth suit.

Tau bits bags come on ebay a lot, a couple of these and a hammerhead let me push the battleforce into a comfortable 1k points.

Dont be tempted to splash out on all the upgrades, espeically at the points the battleforce lets you play at.

 Peregrine wrote:

Coyote81 wrote:
I just don't see the benefits outweighing the crazy price. I prefer to take my eldar allies and leave units that cost lots of points and don't accomplish anything at home.

What do Eldar have to do with how to start a Tau army from the battleforce? You realize this is a thread made by someone whose entire army consists of the battleforce box, right? And who has said nothing at all about adding Eldar allies, or even allies at all?

Not trying to take the thread off topic, but eldar allies are just a sample of the units and/or option you can take to my you tau battleforce much better, then spending points on a devilfish.

I find that every unit in my army should be able to kill something if needed (I make the exception for a couple tetras due to being appropriate priced for something that can't kill anything) it provides what I feel is the most important thing to a Tau army. Flexibility. Stay mobile, and stay flexible. I find a devilfish to be ineffective to the ideology of my army. but thats my opinion and I'm just trying to help the OP.

@OP Honestly, with the battleforce box, use them as allies for your space marines. Use the fire warriors as your troop option for holing homefield objectives, don't give them any upgrades, just bring all of the models. Bring a Shas'el (if you have terminators in your army, maybe upgrade him to shas'o and give him vector thrusters so he can join your terminators, DS and give them hit and run, so they can attempt to advance up the field quickly, and he can even bring a plasma rifle and fusion gun to help open up transports so your terminators can get to the squishies inside. The commander is the most important part of the allied detachment, build 2 drones without guns to act as shield drones, give him a 2+ save and a hardwired multitracker. If your feeling froggy, give him stimulant injector too. Lastly, whatever you do don't bring the devilfish, you don't need it.

I actually built four of the Fire Warriors in the Battleforce with carbines and declared them to be a Pathfinder squad starting out, they've been helpful in the few tiny games I've played with my miniscule Tau army.

You can indeed play the Battleforce as is out of the box as it is a legal army, although not an optimal one.

For the commander, or crisis suits in general there are a few popular loadouts, the most common of which is of course fireknife and will give you the ability to tackle TEQ and ping vehicles up to AV-13, the burst cannon should be avoided imo, since the basic fire warrior has a better weapon all round in the pulse rifle.

I really like stealth suits, not as much as crisis suits but they can be a very potent harrasing unit and even have some limited AT ability with the fusion blaster, although this means they can get a little too close for comfort.

Kroot are a fairly poorly armoured unit, but they can really shine in cover, have similar shooting power to bolters, and high initiative and a ton of attacks, they will fold quickly against a dedicated assault,

If I was going to use Tau as allies to my marines, i would probably use my commander with TL fusion blasters and a flamer, and use him to deepstrike and hopefully take out an expensive vehicle, he will be more surviveable than some other marine choices but its not an optimal choice, a single crisis suit can only do so much.

As to expanding your army, as has already been said, crisis suits are your bread and butter, and you can include up to 5 squads of them in a single FOC, it is certainly recomended you get more. The devilfish is a little expensive as far as transports go, but with disruption pods can be really hard to take down. the thing to remember though with Tau is that mobility is key. Tau are a shooty army, and they are often compared to guard, but they are not a static army, you have to keep moving, a guard gunline will eradicate a tau gunline. Tau philosophy is to concentrate your firepower and annihilate a single enemy unit, or section of the enemy army per turn, and then redeploy. a few squads of fire warriors in devilfish are awesome at that.

For heavy support, broadsides are generally a cheaper option points wise for cracking high AV vehicles, but a hammerhead is more mobile, and can threatn both vehicles, and with submunitions, hordes as well, so is better all round. the skyray isn't great, but if you buy that instead of the hammerhead, you get all the parts for both so you can swap them around at your leaure, and you also get the smart missiles if you want to add them to other vehicles in your army.

Depending on how fluffy you feel, take firewarrior squads of 8, you will notice of course that tau have 8 digits on their hands (4 on each) and their mathematics is in base 8, so a squad of 8 is a full squad, while a squad of 10 is an oversized squad (drones notwithstanding)

Troops to avoid are sniper drones, although i have used them in the past as area denial units, they are quite hard to shift, gun drones since, well, they may be good at harrassment, but they are too pricey and fairly weak, and pirhanas are often regarded as being fairly weak (they are harder to kill than landspeeders though, even if they have shorter range) but they can have smart missiles, so if you take pathfinders (always a strong option imo) then you can move the pirhanas behind the enemy battleline, light up their vehicles, and hit the rear armour with what are essentially krak missiles.

Have fun

If you aren't playing with enough terrain to hide suits behind, then you are playing the wrong kind of table. Even if you really needed extra terrain, I think the fortifications offer a far superior cover to what a devilfish can offer.

 AnomanderRake wrote:
I actually built four of the Fire Warriors in the Battleforce with carbines and declared them to be a Pathfinder squad starting out, they've been helpful in the few tiny games I've played with my miniscule Tau army.

I cut the torso of some tank commanders and stuck them on spare legs with the armour trimmed off.
Looks alright for pathfinders imo.