Forum adverts like this one are shown to any user who is not logged in. Join us by filling out a tiny 3 field form and you will get your own, free, dakka user account which gives a good range of benefits to you: No adverts like this in the forums anymore. Times and dates in your local timezone. Full tracking of what you have read so you can skip to your first unread post, easily see what has changed since you last logged in, and easily see what is new at a glance. Email notifications for threads you want to watch closely. Being a part of the oldest wargaming community on the net. If you are already a member then feel free to login now.

I mainly play Orks, but i have a few tau (about 700-1000pts worth, not in a good comp though) that i allied in from time to time. With the new dex i wanted to get more tau but i wanted to avoid buying like i did for my orks (let me put it this way, im thinking i have too many orks waiting to be built lol. If i were to guesstimate my orks value in points, built or unbuilt, i think im around 8k+)

That being said i decided i'd build a list and just buy the models i need to do that list, maybe with a few variants. I have:



I'll admit, im following the bandwagon of the Riptide. On the flipside i am going against the bandwagon and i think the Hammerhead has value and shouldnt be ignored. While i think the main competitive tau play lies in crisis suits, they compete for Riptide slots. Also w/o deepstriking i fear they'd just mishap in all of their roles or die walking there (Zagstruk has never landed for me in many games. I ALWAYS mishap him). Riptides seem much more safe.

That being said, heres the list i threw together, shooting for 1750.



Hows this list look to you guys? Should i buy what im missing for this list or does it need work?
Also how does the Ion Cannon for the Hammerhead fair? Not sure if i should bother considering it or not, but then again i used to think Bikernobs were bad lol.

BTW, my thoughts on my crisis suit loadout. My issue with the marker drone and drone controller trick is that unit is fairly squishy and does nothing but markerlights. This on the other hand, though a bit more expensive, puts out 12 TL S7 AP4 shots that ignore cover (and doesnt have the Heavy penalty missilesides do) at one target while markerlighting the other (TL and Ignore Cover because of the buffcommander) and all of the markerlights pretty much WILL go off as they are now BS5 and twinlinked as well (as i found nothing saying they cannot benefit from the CnC node).

Well, as far as models go, you can never go wrong with Broadsides, especially since the new kits are so, so pretty.

As for the list itself, I've got several suggestions. First, 6 man Fire Warrior squads aren't going to survive. At their smallest, I'd run 8 man squads, but 10-12 should be what you aim for. Ionheads are useful, and unless you expect to deal with a lot of heavy armor, they may be a better option than Railheads. However, if you're looking at lighter armor in your meta, I really like Missilesides with 2x missile drones per suit, joined by a commander with a command and control node and a multi-spectrum sensor suite. 24 S7 AP4 missiles per turn are pretty nasty, especially if the 'sides have target lock

Whoops, forgot i have 3 broadsides...though they are the old ones. Was intending to convert them into missile sides at some point since railsides are pointless now (if they were Str9 Ap2 i would use them, not Str8 Ap1)

What I think you will need:
- At least 10 more Pathfinders
- Sky Ray turrets for the Devilfishes (it is pretty easy to kitbash)
- Another Riptide (or even two)
- A very own Aegis Defense Line

So you can have an army that would look something like this:
- Ethereal
- Riptide w/Ion Accelerator, Stim and EWO
- 3 2xFB (not twin-linked) Crisis suits /or Riptide w/Ion Accelerator, Stim and EWO
- 3 Helios Crisis suits /or Riptide w/Ion Accelerator, Stim and EWO
- 4x10 Fire Warriors
- 3x6+ Pathfinders
- 1 Railhead w/Longstrike
- 2 Sky Rays
- ADL

Alternatively, you can include a Mark'O with a Marker Drone Squad instead of one of the Pathfinders.

Stim wont be necessary on the riptides. i play with two of them and beleive me: they aren't likely enough to die from Nova reactors and Gets hot as it seems and if they do, their performacne will outweigh the loss. Save those slots for something else.

I use my riptides as Interceptor and Vector Trackers. they are an enormous threat to Deep Strikers this way. Enemies re scared, and rightly so, to deep strike against me, which takes away a lot from some lists. It's a counter that only STRAIGHT DEPLOYMENT armies are not affected by. But then, such armies are also slow to get to me and can't outshoot me. So that makes the riptide look even better. because it takes away fro mthe enemy and puts them if possible, in even a worse position than they imagined they were in to begin with.

I would personally use your orks. Tau desperately need strong midfield operational units. Firewarriors and kroot are not very good at being survivable in the midfield. If you need to take objectives midfield or god forbid in your opponent's deployment zone, Tau are horrible for it.

Having two big mobz of boyz holding the middle of the table will make your life a lot easier. They are durable, assaulty, and present your opponent a hard choice. Shoot at the massive mobs of boyz bearing down on him ready to score objectives, or shoot at all the horrendous cover ignoring firepower raining down on him.

option three is just to DS and outflank behind the orks. Midfield control isn't the Kau'Yon way, nor the Mont'ka!

Being in the open is what PREY does. Not the Hunter Cadre.

 Jancoran wrote:
Stim wont be necessary on the riptides. i play with two of them and beleive me: they aren't likely enough to die from Nova reactors and Gets hot as it seems and if they do, their performacne will outweigh the loss. Save those slots for something else.

I use my riptides as Interceptor and Vector Trackers. they are an enormous threat to Deep Strikers this way. Enemies re scared, and rightly so, to deep strike against me, which takes away a lot from some lists. It's a counter that only STRAIGHT DEPLOYMENT armies are not affected by. But then, such armies are also slow to get to me and can't outshoot me. So that makes the riptide look even better. because it takes away fro mthe enemy and puts them if possible, in even a worse position than they imagined they were in to begin with.

I see people putting the Stim Inj. on their Riptides and honestly I don't see why. It's like a terminator squad that's almost immune to small arms fire, fast enough to avoid combat, and doesn't lose any shooting until the last wound is lost. Giving them a 5+ save on top of everything else is just too much and costs more than interceptor and skyfire combined. Skyfire and Interceptor are amazing on it, since it gives the Riptide the chance to eliminate a threat that's probably going to be gunning for it, before it can even get a shot in. Interceptor alone is almost broken. I got to completely eliminate an entire suit squad that deep struck on the opposite side of the board. That's 5 points and it saved one of my units from getting killed in the process.

Tau technology is best appreciated when viewed through the lens of defense. it is expressly a defensive army. it is the Maginot line without the idiotic commanders.

The Riptide offers a huge change to the standard play style. I ran my Riptide right into my enemy's deployment and our Riptides were both alive all the way to turn 5. It was Tau & Eldar vs Tau & CSM with most of the actual damage and game revolving around two Riptides.

The way I honestly see the lists going now will be support HQs (My favorite will be the Mark'o with dual missile pods drone controller and target lock), Elites will be Riptides and various deepstrking suits for precision takedoens, outflanking Kroot are great against a huge number of threats, and Ionheads for flavor. It's a very aggressive list really.

Yup. Just do not cheat the opponent. Riptides are not fearless. Very exposed in combat to getting run down

Dem Riptrides will soak up a Ton of damage and with a stim injector should survive most of the game and after a round of taking hits, can easily erase whatever was shooting at it. so long as it has some decent marker support.

that said though, they feel like they really need that extra marker support to properly work. (6 bs 5 marker drones where enough to keep one mostly happy (though i some how managed to scatter boxcars on one overcharge with bs 9 /facepalm)

Edit: on the bright side they can go to ground if need be.

Eh looks like i'll need another riptide or two at least. Maybe one broadside, convert the 3 i got, so i can run the 2 units of 2 broadsides have been doing. And more pathfinders.

Also i only see the stim injector being needed if its a lone riptide (i.e. its allied in and kinda important) or its going to be down range and getting a lot of gak from infantry fire. It isnt immune to lasguns, you can wound 3 toughness higher than the strength of your gun. Albeit on 6s, but as we all know lasguns tend to throw a metric crapton of dice.
I put adv targeting system just because i had 12pts to throw around so i got that, gauntlet, and the jamming system on my buffcommander.