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Well, won last months 2k tourney with old tau, but now that the new codex is over 30 days old, have to change to the new tau.

Please be as honest as you can guys.

Aun'va

3x Riptide - ion accellerator, early warning override, Twin Linked Fusion Blasters -- 190 = 570

5x Firewarrior x9, all with rifles -- 81 = 405

3x Pathfinders x6, all with markerlights -- 66 = 198

2x hammerhead - ion cannon, disruption pod, blacksun filter, smart missiles, sensor spines -- 146 = 292

Hammerhead - ioncannon, disruption pod, longstrike -- 185

Aegis line with quad gun -- 100

77 models, 6 strength 8 pie plates a turn.

Yay or ney?

Ok my thoughts:

Commander with DC and ML Drone Squad (BS5 ML. . . 7-10 of these? PLEASE! . . . No cover EVA!)

2 Riptides (3. . . too much. . . )
Replace 3rd Riptide with a Fusion Blaster Crisis team (I am horrid on the variant names) This is to give you more flex on threats as well as something more to soak up wounds.

2 pathfinders (replace 3rd set with ML Drone Squad)

1 Ionhead, 2 is great but not neaded when you have those El Cataclysmo's!

Full Squad of Missilesides and Missile Drones. 36 Missile shots on a charge with Skyfire. . . (Yea its needed in ths list. Honestly that is what your missing is AA. . . without that needed AA those Croissants of death will get you. . .)

Likely that this is WAY over your points but work around it if you can.

I dont think your HQ is too good, i'd rather take a plain Ethereal.

Aside from that it looks pretty good, but definitely light on troops. Good opponents will focus down your Pathfinders and FW. I'd consider 1-2 larger Kroot squads to use as bubblewrap or outflanking units.

LValx wrote:
I dont think your HQ is too good, i'd rather take a plain Ethereal.

Aside from that it looks pretty good, but definitely light on troops. Good opponents will focus down your Pathfinders and FW. I'd consider 1-2 larger Kroot squads to use as bubblewrap or outflanking units.

Taking aun'va due to ability to reroll leadership board wide (huge for tau) and to get both the extra shots and a 6+ feel no pain. Plian etherial is easier to take down and does not buff as well, but will still consider the idea.

How many troops would you suggest? I have 45 firewarriors here.

To the other guy: yes misile broadsides are nice, but limited range and only able to fire at a single target (can only have one support system) limits that team heavily.

As far as the drone squad: I would put shadowsun in with them for the extra jump, +3 to cover, and twin linking ability. Not as many hits, but a lot more suvivability.

some ideas to mull over, but to the two of you this list "as is" is crap?

It's not a crap list, it's basically sound.

MSU FW is probably better than large blobs with supporting fire in play, and stubborn from the Ethereal. You may want to bubble wrap with a large squad of Kroot.

How flyer-heavy is your meta? If it isn't, then don't bother.

I would take a Crisis suit commander with SMS and ML drones and DC; BS 5 is precious in a codex.

Consider a unit of two tetras for annoying mobile markerlights, pathfinders are a little too static.

Don't bother with Space Pope, just take a bog standard Ethereal and put him out of los somewhere.

3x riptide is better than a unit of Crisis. I'd lose a hammerhead, take longstrike and some Broadsides, they still have some utility.

Yea, that third HH is still got me too. A skyray or dual broadsides are still a very good idea for a bit more AA.

I feel bad, but I really don't want to budge on aun'va. He is hard to kill. Soaks up quite a bit of fire. And allows me to reroll all leaderships. Also his warlord trait is really handy against another shooty army for the first couple turns (usually turn two for about 75% of my games are night fight first turn). I will if I need the 50 points, but at the moment he is worth the extra 50 from a base comander.

Is 146 points of broadsides really wothwhile though? That is 2 high yields with intercepter and no drones. Maybe one with getting rid of the second SS.

I'm thinking this list is quite the killer, although I do concur with some of the previous comments: get a commander with drone controller and marker drones, twin missile pod and target lock, that will get you some mobile and sure-hitting marker lights. I'd switch one of the hammerheads for a skyray with SMS, and use some of the points saved to get velocity tracker on at least one of the riptides. Get fusion-blasters on the Riptides if you're not getting a dedicated fusion crisis team, you need something reliable for av14 (you could go for a railcannon on longstrike also).

However, I think that the Space Pope is a bargain when you are running a tight formation of firewarriors and pathfinders. You're going to want to use the extra shot power as much as you can, but with the Pope you also get to use the FNP-power. Given that your fire warriors are going to die in droves to small arms fire, even a 6+ fnp will net you the 50 points extra you pay for him . Board-wide rerolls on morale etc is also great, I had actually missed that when reading through the codex.

Brickolage wrote:
I'm thinking this list is quite the killer, although I do concur with some of the previous comments: get a commander with drone controller and marker drones, twin missile pod and target lock, that will get you some mobile and sure-hitting marker lights. I'd switch one of the hammerheads for a skyray with SMS, and use some of the points saved to get velocity tracker on at least one of the riptides. Get fusion-blasters on the Riptides if you're not getting a dedicated fusion crisis team, you need something reliable for av14 (you could go for a railcannon on longstrike also).

However, I think that the Space Pope is a bargain when you are running a tight formation of firewarriors and pathfinders. You're going to want to use the extra shot power as much as you can, but with the Pope you also get to use the FNP-power. Given that your fire warriors are going to die in droves to small arms fire, even a 6+ fnp will net you the 50 points extra you pay for him . Board-wide rerolls on morale etc is also great, I had actually missed that when reading through the codex.

I already had the fusion blasters on the Riptides, just forgot to write it down though.

The 8-14 twin linked BS5 markerlight squadron would be very nice, but any ideas where to get the roughly 250 points from to do it?
(Command suit, drone controller, Command and control node, (possible target lock and twin linked missile pod), up to two marker drones directly his, and 6-12 markerdrone squadron)

I like it as is. Looks like a "gets the job done" list.

jazzpaintball wrote:

Brickolage wrote:
I'm thinking this list is quite the killer, although I do concur with some of the previous comments: get a commander with drone controller and marker drones, twin missile pod and target lock, that will get you some mobile and sure-hitting marker lights. I'd switch one of the hammerheads for a skyray with SMS, and use some of the points saved to get velocity tracker on at least one of the riptides. Get fusion-blasters on the Riptides if you're not getting a dedicated fusion crisis team, you need something reliable for av14 (you could go for a railcannon on longstrike also).

However, I think that the Space Pope is a bargain when you are running a tight formation of firewarriors and pathfinders. You're going to want to use the extra shot power as much as you can, but with the Pope you also get to use the FNP-power. Given that your fire warriors are going to die in droves to small arms fire, even a 6+ fnp will net you the 50 points extra you pay for him . Board-wide rerolls on morale etc is also great, I had actually missed that when reading through the codex.

I already had the fusion blasters on the Riptides, just forgot to write it down though.

The 8-14 twin linked BS5 markerlight squadron would be very nice, but any ideas where to get the roughly 250 points from to do it?
(Command suit, drone controller, Command and control node, (possible target lock and twin linked missile pod), up to two marker drones directly his, and 6-12 markerdrone squadron)

Ok, you could get rid of an ionhead and a pathfinder squad for 212 points, enough for commander, dual missile pods, drone controller, target lock and 2 + 7 marker drones. It may or may not be worth it, I'm not sure. It gets you 7.5 marker hits per round, with some reliable shooting from the commander.

Another way of getting more marker hits is to get a skyray instead of an ionhead. that's 1,5 marker hits per turn, and can net you some points as well (enough for 1-3 more pathfinders, or velocity tracker on a riptide). Speaking of riptides, when you have three I'd consider giving one the heavy burst cannon, quite versatile and better than the ion cannon vs heavy armor. I do think you're on to something with the target saturation here: 3 riptides and 3 tanks + ethereal-supported fire warriors is going to be tough. The one problem I guess is going to be getting troops on objectives.

Anu'va....would be better as anyone else

I agree, aun'va is a little underwhelming for me.

I'm currently running what I think is a amazing HQ.

Commander drone controller, 2x missilepods, targetlock, iridium armor, puretide chip, neuro chip 2x marker drones
(He can now effective kill light tanks by himself while his drones efficiently mark up targets for your riptides to kill.)

I have him added to a squad of 4x marker drones from my fast attack

And as a second set of marker lights I runa squad of 2x tetras. They are mobile and come with a d-pod, throw them into some ruins for a nice 3+ cover save. (if one gets immobilized you can just leave him behind and now you have two squads of one, which si fine with me.)

Last remark: If your brining 3x riptides with their templates, 3 x ionheads is way overkill on AP2/3 templates, just bring railheads with their Ap4 templates, it'll be effective when you need more templates (ie orks/ig) but against marines and such, it'll be an effective tankbuster.

Right now on average you have 3 ML being hit by each Pathfinder team. As stated the Commander with DC
and the 9 ML drones gives you 7.5 that will give you with 2 pathfinder teams, 13.5 ML a turn. Better overall than 9 average. Also with the decrease in some of the model count you canmore efficiently use those ML. Also the commander is jump along with the ML so they will gain SnP and be able to move and shoot those lights so you have INCREASED flexibility. (also as your Warlord he wont give up 3 points . . . )

On a side note I LOVE Space Pope so let me know how he works out for you!

Yes, the marker lights in his list are a bit "iffy" the idea was to get three squads hit by at leas two markerlights to deny cover. These six ML would be for the entreched troops while the other 1 to 3 (still tempted to drop one or two) would hit troops more out in the open. As the opponent moves forward and kils the pahfinders, more wil be in the open and less needing of markerlights.

+1 on he tetras, the only problem is that most tourneys around here do not allow Forge world.

And I have used space pope for about 20 games so far. I have found him nearly irreplaceable. He does so much for my army! And only for 100 points.

Ilike the sounds of that. If your iffy just look at the math. Hell I have seen a commander with NO weapons on him just support gear to make him one tough SOB. Keep him moving around and within 6" of your line when they will get charged and there you go BS2 ML.