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Hello all.

I am thinking about getting the new Tau army.

I like the way models look. I like the shooty play style (although very new to the WH40K, very intrigued by the play style).

I have about $500 to $750 to spend.

What is a good army selection to start an army?
Is it better to get the new Shadowsun Firestrike Hunter Cadre for $712? Or build individual models or start with the Battleforce and add?

So confusing and hard...Any advice is greatly appreciated...

Thank you.

Well simple suggestions.

wait for the book but basically things you will need is 1 HQ and 2 troop choices so you can start there.

those 1 click starters don't save you any money so unless it has everything you want its better to just buy the pieces you need.

but from at least the rumors i would suggest getting the battle force box as its not bad. (free phriana)
an extra box of firewarriors to smooth out your troop choices for most games.

Generally you don't want to depend only on one of those starter sets , first step is get the new codex and then build off of that , no one knows whats in it yet rule wise so youll have to wait

I suggest picking up the new codex, and looking at how things work. Continue to browse dakka, and don't let the money burn a hole into your pocket with less than a weeks worth of waiting I think you will be ok.

If you really REALLY want to get started right away, I suggest picking up a box of Fire Warriors and getting them set. Fire Warriors don't seem to be getting a new sculpt, and they're kind of universally useful.

And you can ALWAYS use more Fire Warriors.

What else is not getting new sculpt? Is it safe to get whatever is staying same?

Which new units would you recommend?

buy the codex first. then look into what to buy

Yeah, generally its best to ask advice on a codex thats actually been released lol... But one thing I know is that you will need battlesuits and fire warriors.

I would personally get the new codex, battle force, and a second unit of fire warriors and start from there.

With that you could use the crisis suits as an hq + bodyguard, with 2 units of fire warriors as Troops, 3 stealth suits as an Elite choice and a Piranha as fast attack.

From there I would look to add more crisis suits, hammerheads or broadsides and maybe a riptide as being the new big model you know they will rock.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Plus more fire warriors as you can never have too many.

Your forgetting bout the airbased meta in most places now, he should at least get one air caste flyer (sun shark bomber built as a razorshark fighter) as tau is the "Air superiority" and all. aside from that, the new Battleforce seems like a really good deal. Just get a second unit of firewarriors to fill things out. After that id suggest at least one devilfish per two troop choices to allow maneuverability in objective gameplay.

Look at what is included in the Battleforce box. IF it all looks like stuff you will want to include buy two of them. It will save you some money. OTOH, if say you don't want any Kroot stay away from them as that will eat into all the savings. But definitely look over the codex before buying... The last thing you want is 3 or 4 units that sit on the shelf because they are worthless to play.

No list is going to be without some Fire Warriors and probably a couple of XV8 crisis suits so you could buy those at first, but we can't list build for you until we've seen the new codex.

But anyway, it's your money, buy what you like the look of and think will be fun to play with.

Listen to everyone else, pick up firewarriors, crisis suits, maybe pathfinders on the cheap via ebay. There are some real steals on there right now as everyone is unloading their old models for new ones. Firewarriors are hard to find on ebay right now however, Kroot might not be a bad idea now that their snipers at 7 pts. a piece and can formed in groups of 20. Best of luck!!

Thanks for all the responses. Will do exactly what you guys suggested. Get the Codex first with a few of the suggested units and go from there...

Hello,again everyone.

Now the codex is out, what are some thoughts? Any changes to the suggestions already made ?

Thanks

I personally still find vespid, drone squads, and sniper drone useless. They all got better and cheaper, but all take up slots that are just better suited from more superior units which have also gotten cheaper. Kroot are interesting and will have to wait and see how they pan out. I've already seen several list builds with units of 20 kroot with snipers, which was my initial thoughts as well. I still prefer firewarriors though, even-more now since they 1pt cheaper per guy. I also think our new flyers are overrated-decent, given there point values, rules, and what else is available for fast attack choices (mainly pathfinders and fw tetras for me), but then again I am a sucker for markerlights. They're invaluable to the tau style of play. The elite slots are now more crowded than ever. Who knows what to pick there. All of them in my opinion are viable competitive options. I find the same problem with our HQ options as well. They all make way for very viable army list builds. Keep in mind these are just my opinions based upon what my analysis of the codex thus far is telling, which is based upon years of competitive play and playing tau since 4th edition. Hope this helped.

Thank you. This is the kind of feedback I was looking for.

So far here is what I got on the release date (remember, total noob, painting addict, no game experience). A couple Tau players helped me choose.

What else would you add to this list? In which order and what quantities?

1 Sunshark Bomber
2 x Warhammer Gunship
1 x Battleforce (comes with 1xCrisis XV8, 1xDevilfish Tank, 3x Empire XV25 Stealth Armours, 12x Fire warriors, 12 Kroots)
1 x Pathfinder team
2 x (New) XV8 Crisis battlesuit team
1 x XV104 Riptide
1 x Commander farsight
1 x XV25 Stealth team
2 x XV88 Broadside Battlesuit
1 x Fire Warrior team (12)
1 x Pirahna
1 x XV8 Battlesuit Commander
1 x Darkstrider
1 x Cadre Fireblade
1 x Longstrike

mkilci wrote:
Thank you. This is the kind of feedback I was looking for.

So far here is what I got on the release date (remember, total noob, painting addict, no game experience). A couple Tau players helped me choose.

What else would you add to this list? In which order and what quantities?
1 x Battleforce (comes with 1xCrisis XV8, 1xDevilfish Tank, 3x Empire XV25 Stealth Armours, 12x Fire warriors, 12 Kroots)
1 x Fire Warrior team (12)
1 x Pathfinder team
2 x (New) XV8 Crisis battlesuit team
2 x XV88 Broadside Battlesuit
1 x XV104 Riptide
1 x XV8 Battlesuit Commander
1 x Darkstrider
1 x Cadre Fireblade
1 x Longstrike
1 x Pirahna
2 x Warhammer Gunship
1 Sunshark Bomber
1 x Commander farsight
1 x XV25 Stealth team

I modified the order... from first buy to last... I would be tempted to get a 2nd Battleforce. You have already listed off a 2nd firewarrior and stealth team squad, so why not 12 more kroot to max size the squad and a 2nd devil fish?
Look at Yakface battlereport to get some ideas on what you can do with Tau... It sounds like a space priest might actually be useful. I put Farsight at the bottom because I would want a lot more crisis suits before I would buy him. The Stealth Suits at the bottom because they really fight with crisis suits and I suspect you will end up with more of them. I predict a love affair with marklight drones and pathfinders so I would be tempted to buy more of them. 1 Piranha? That would be my one question... 1 is hardly worthwhile except in low point games... Finally I see no Hammerhead... I would expect at least 1 or more Broadsides. I put the flyers at the bottom because I think the ground pounders are more important and you have some great anti-flyer availability without going to flyers.