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Hey guys I was wondering what you guys thought about this list, and if there was anyway I could improve it.

Primary Detachment - Tau

HQ - Commander Shadowsun
HQ - Ethereal

Troops - 10x Fire Warriors
Troops - 10x Fire Warriors
Troops - 10x Fire Warriors
Troops - 10x Fire Warriors

Elites - Riptide Battlesuit with Ion Accelerator Plasma-Rifle and EWO
Elites - Riptide Battlesuit with Ion Accelerator Plasma-Rifleand EWO
Elites - 3x Crisis Team with 2x Missile Pods Each

Fast Attack - 4x Pathfinders
Fast Attack - 4x Pathfinders
Fast Attack - 4x Pathfinders

Heavy Support - Broadside with VT
Heavy Support - Broadside with VT


Secondary Detachment: Eldar

HQ - Farseer with Runes of Warding on a Jet-bike

Troops - 5x Pathfinders
Troops - 10x Wraith-guard with Spirit Seer with Conceal Psychic Power

= 1999


Tactics are that Shadowsun Goes with the Wraith-guard unit to give that lovely 2+ Re-Rollable Cover save and the Ethereal Buffs the Fire Warriors. The pathfinders hide in terrain generating another 2+ Cover save unit. The Farseer provides prescience to the Crisis Suit team whilst the Jetbike allows him to keep up with the Jet Pack Moves. The riptides are there for gigantic fire magnets and will allow me to kill TEQ\MEQ with ease. The Broadsides will sit at the back, hopefully unnoticed and take down fliers and other light vehicles. TheTau pathfinders are there to buff everyone else's shooting.

Have you bought the Farseer a psychic power? You HAVE to buy at least one to swap them out. Also Im not sure about the Pathfinders (elder, of course) because you don't NEED another unit to hide behind cover and plink of wounds. You don't NEED a unit that can take home objective neither do you NEED more AP2. I would suggest swapping them out for jetbikes because you do NEED a unit to take objectives outside the gun line, you do NEED the option of auto line-braker and all this the jetbikes would give you.

Just keep em in reserve and hide em till last turn =)

I had not bought the Farseer a Psychic Power but I will do as one of the main reasons for taking him is for that divination goodness, I can see the advantage of the Jetbikes but to me they seem very vulnerable on there own whilst most of my army is a sit back and gun like hell. I have had no experience with Eldar before and do the Jetbikes stick out and just die or are they a useful addition to this army??

Yeah, they die like 3 marines. Not great is it? But that's not the point. The point is they are FAST! with a possible 48'' move it means on the last turn, as long as you go second, you can hold or contest any objective on the bored with them because they are troops. All you have to do is keep them alive until then, and if your list works as I think it will, by throwing lots of high priority targets around, 3 hidden jetbikes could be easily kept under the radar. Put them in reserve and hope they don't come in until the latest, and if they do scoot them behind some line of sigh blocking terrain to hide until the shooting stops. Last turn turbo boast to other side of bored to take/contest objective to win game. Taking 2 units of 3 would not be a bad investment and is only 12 points more then that pathfinder unit.

Also your army doesn't sit back and gun like hell. What it does is have a block of fire warriors which do that, but your main army which packs a punch will be J-S-Jing into your enemies face, or infiltrating forward to use those awesome wraithguns.

I'd also suggest dropping a few wraithguard or a fire warrior squad. The reason of having 10 is to be troops, allies only need 1 troop choice. So dropping down to 6-7 + shadowsun and warlock is still a massive unit, everything they shoot at will still die, but you have points for something every army can use. An aegis defence line for your fragile fire warriors would be a great help and a quad gun never hurts (you...).

Tau Skyfire wrote:
Troops - 10x Fire Warriors
Troops - 10x Fire Warriors
Troops - 10x Fire Warriors
Troops - 10x Fire Warriors

I'd reshuffle a bit. 4 units of 9 dudes, and if you have 'em, another few FWs for a 5th troop. 2k is a lot of enemy shooting and that 5th scorer might be needed.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
Elites - 3x Crisis Team with 2x Missile Pods Each

Dual MPs. Hmm. I am still liking the Helios or dual PRs for fun. Even though Alex says you don't need more AP2, I disagree. I'd say you can never have too much AP2. WG guns are so short ranged, that I wouldn't count 'em as a great offensive force; more like a really Tough short range unit (and tarpit) that someone is going to long range shoot anyway as T6 is brutal in h2h. Great Objective squatters.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
Heavy Support - Broadside with VT
Heavy Support - Broadside with VT

At 2k, they really need some ablatives. Add MissileDs.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
HQ - Farseer with Runes of Warding on a Jet-bike

The Fortune power is what'll make that Wraithguard truly durable, instead of Prescience for FWs. That's what the MarkerLs are for, to give FWs BS4 or 5.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
Troops - 5x Pathfinders

I'd drop 'em for the various upgrades I've mentioned.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
Troops - 10x Wraith-guard with Spirit Seer with Conceal Psychic Power

I like 'em on paper&fluff, but there's so much more dakka you could have. But if you're intent on keeping them, then Fortune is the key to making your opponent hate 'em.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
Tactics are that Shadowsun Goes with the Wraith-guard unit to give that lovely 2+ Re-Rollable Cover save

I just don't see her baby-sitting WG, when she could be JSJ with her two guns deeper in the field, when Fortune does the same job.

I cant seem to find the fortune psychic power in the eldar codex what does it do??

and I suppose I could drop the Wraith-guard unit down a little to maybe 7-8 Men

I am going to add some missile Drones to the Broadsides or would shield Drones be better?

I like the Configuration of The crisis Team as it allows me to engage Medium Infantry and Light Mech with Ease

I will see If I can round the FW units in to 5 groups of 9 but I might need the points elsewhere so I may keep with just the four units

The advantages of the Jetbikes are plain to see and I will probably end up taking a good 3 units of them and just hope they dont come in till turn 4

Thanks for all those who have made suggestions I will repost a new list once I have made these changes.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
I cant seem to find the fortune psychic power in the eldar codex what does it do??

Farseer's entry.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
and I suppose I could drop the Wraith-guard unit down a little to maybe 7-8 Men

No, no, then they won't score. ... you don't have an Eldar codex, do you?

Tau Skyfire wrote:
I am going to add some missile Drones to the Broadsides or would shield Drones be better?

I now think ShieldDs are pretty worthless since all Ds are T4 and the Invuln isn't conferred. Definitely moar guns with the MissileDs.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
I will see If I can round the FW units in to 5 groups of 9 but I might need the points elsewhere so I may keep with just the four units

4 units of 9 FWs, *and* a scoring unit of WG is enough, IMHO.

Tau Skyfire wrote:
The advantages of the Jetbikes are plain to see and I will probably end up taking a good 3 units of them and just hope they dont come in till turn 4

The thing is, they're expensive as models.

I do have eldar codex but only got it today, I should probably read it before writing lists though ( I only Skimmed through)

If you're taking a farseer, its probably best to leave him on foot unless hes joining a unit of jetbikes. This way he can join a unit and not waste his jetbikeiness.

As allies, I believe you are limited to two troop choices =( Could be wrong. Also as a tip you could probabilly buy the cheaper dark elder reaver jetbikes and do *something* to them to make them less....Dark. Alternatively they are almost definitely getting new models when they come out.

One more thing, Is there a reason you are only running for Prescience? Divination has a lot of good things for tau, Like ignoring cover without Marker lights, Like Over watch at BS, Like 4+ invuls all round or the most evil, making enemy re-roll saving throws. Those missile pods force a lot of saves, isn't making them re-roll them a good idea =)

How you do this is buy the 3 cheapest powers *guide, mindwar, eldrichstorm) then swap them out for divination powers for 3 rolls on that table. Being mastery level 2 means he can't cast all 3 but the third is to make sure you get what you want, and swapping out what you don't for prescience. Also you don't need fortune on guard, they are going around with a 2+ cover at t6 are they not? Is it worth making them MORE invincible when they will still be locked in combat by anything better then guardsmen for the rest of forever?

@Brother. He is using shadowsun to infiltrate the wraithguard forward to kill stuff, not to take objectives. Since they have to be close to shoot if they don't kill the enemy they are likely to be assaulted they will be tarpitted to much to take objectives. Also they take a troops choice away from guardian jetbikes, which in almost everyway is a far superior objective taker.

@Rhamnus Everything that is ''jetbikey'' about the farseer is emulated by the crisis suits. The only thing she cant do with them is go turbo, but they can both J-S-J. But the massive buffs she can give the crisis suits by far outshines the ability go turbo.

There is no reason I was only running for prescience, now you say it I can see the buffs that the other powers would bring. But the problem is what do I drop in order to gain those extra 3 powers??



Automatically Appended Next Post:
Anyway this is the List as it stands:

HQ - Commander Shadowsun

Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors

Elites - Riptide Battlesuit with Ion Accelerator and Plasma Rifle and EWO
Elites - Riptide Battlesuit with Ion Accelerator and Plasma Rifle and EWO
Elites - Crisis Team x3 with 2x Missile Pods Each

Fast Attack - 4x Pathfinders
Fast Attack - 4x Pathfinders

Heavy Support - Broadside with VT
Heavy Support - Broadside with VT

Secondary Detachment : Eldar

HQ - Farseer with Runes of Warding and a Jet-bike and Eldritch Storm

Troops - 10x Wraith-guard with Spirit Seer with Conceal Psychic Power
Troops - 3x Eldar Jet-bikes

Tertiary Detachment : Eldar

HQ - Farseer with Fortune Psychic Power and Runes of Warding

Troops - 3x Eldar Jet-bikes

At the moment the new list is illegal - you can't have 2 allied detachments without having 2 primary detachments; thus you need a 2nd Tau HQ; which you lack.

Right Okay so I need to drop 50 points for an ethereal?? where should I drop those points?



Automatically Appended Next Post:
So his list is legal now:


HQ - Commander Shadowsun
HQ - Ethereal

Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors

Elites - Riptide Battlesuit with Ion Accelerator and Plasma Rifle and EWO
Elites - Riptide Battlesuit with Ion Accelerator and Plasma Rifle and EWO
Elites - Crisis Team x3 with 2x Missile Pods Each

Fast Attack - 5x Pathfinders

Heavy Support - Broadside with VT
Heavy Support - Broadside with VT

Secondary Detachment : Eldar

HQ - Farseer with Runes of Warding and a Jet-bike and Eldritch Storm

Troops - 10x Wraith-guard with Spirit Seer with Conceal Psychic Power
Troops - 3x Eldar Jet-bikes

Tertiary Detachment : Eldar

HQ - Farseer with Fortune Psychic Power
Troops - 3x Eldar Jet-bikes


Does Anyone have any other suggestions? is this list better than the one I posted first?

This is a great list. Ethereal is needed to give extra shot to fire warriors (over 100 within 15''!). I take it that the farseer is to walk with the wraithguard? Will shadowsun still be going with them to give them a transportation system *infiltrate*?

If shadowsun is then im feeling you really don't need the second farseer. Neither do you need so many guard. The unit has a 2+ cover save, and your spending 90 points to re-roll ones. When your toughness 6 and have a 2+ save small arms wont even bother shooting at you and big guns will likely bounce off cover save, even a Heldrake wounds on 5's. That's why I'm suggesting dropping second farseer, placing second jetbikes into first allies, and dropping 3 wraithguard and the spiritseer upgrade (totally useless, you only have 1 wraithunit which he can't leave!)

That gives you 196 pts to play with. With this you could buy that much needed aegis defence line with quad fun *yes, yes it is * for 100pts and I believe you could get yourself a cadre fireblade with the other 90pts. He would man quad gun for BS 5 and giving 1 unit more shots.

Ill explain why you don't need all those wraithguard. They are already invincible towards shooting because of monstrous toughness and cover save vs. anti tank weaponry. Its simply not worth it to have so many arbitrary wounds when they are 35pts each and through out the entire match you would be unlucky to lose more then 1. It also means you can take 2 jetbike units as they would be elites then. Yes you lose scoring, but jetbikes do that much better and you can focus on there 18 inch kill zone.

Shadowsun is to go with the Wraith-guard for infiltrate yes and I suppose I could drop the wraith-guard down a bit to what kind of numbers do you suggest? I dont need the second farseer as he was just there to get me the second jet-bike squad. The Cadre Fireblade is only 60pts which allows me to purchase another power for the remaining farseer that will be going with the crisis team.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
The list would then look like this?

HQ - Commander Shadowsun
HQ - Ethereal
HQ - Cadre Fireblade
= 245

Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
Troops - 9x Fire Warriors
= 324

Elites - Riptide Battlesuit with Ion Accelerator and Plasma Rifle and EWO
Elites - Riptide Battlesuit with Ion Accelerator and Plasma Rifle and EWO
Elites - Crisis Team x3 with 2x Missile Pods Each
= 536

Fast Attack - 4x Pathfinders
= 44

Heavy Support - Broadside with VT
Heavy Support - Broadside with VT
= 235

Secondary Detachment : Eldar

HQ - Farseer with Runes of Warding and a Jet-bike and Eldritch Storm
= 120

Elites - 6x Wraith-guard with Spirit Sear with Conceal Psychic Power
= 256

Troops - 3x Eldar Jet-bikes
Troops - 3x Eldar Jet-bikes
= 132

Fortification : Aegis Defence Line with Quad Gun
= 100

= 1992

Is this better than the one above??

Perfect, really fine tuned =)

6 is a good number because since shadowsun lets you re-roll 1's it means you will hit ALOT with those super awesome ap2 guns.

Im not sure if you are just calling the wraithguard warlock a spirit seer, or really bought the upgrade for him. There is an upgrade for a warlock called spirit seer which increases wraithsight range, the thing is that you dont need this because you only have the one wraith unit and you can't leave said unit. So IF its the upgrade you bought, then drop it to get to 1986 points, then can't you buy a marker light drone or something for one of your characters?

I did buy the Upgrade as originally it was there to get the troops choice but now I dont need it and I will get a Marker Drone on the Ethereal Thanks for your Help

The only real reason to run 10WG with the spiritseer is because it is scoring. With the ability to reroll 2+ cover saves and majority T6; you have a unit that can walk across the board and forcibly take objectives off people by sheer weight of indestructibility.

WG are an odd codex unit; the work in 2 ways, a small unit (usually 5) to accompany a farseer to counteract T3 and also unlock the Wraithseer HQ. OR as a 10 strong GTFO troop unit.

At 10 strong with the buffs you were giving it; your opponent has to make a pretty big choice - kill it, wasting a lot of firepower in the process, or ignore it and then have it romp through your lines with fleshbane AP2 guns with ID on 6's.

At 6 strong its not a massive threat and isn't scoring. And the points spend on a 12" threat bubble aren't worth it. You have to think of it like this: what is the unit going to do? Is it worth *that* many points? 400 points is expensive for the 10 man unit, but it's a unit that 90% of the time won't die and even on overwatch is brutal (I have ID'd a GUO on overwatch among other things) and it can take mid/deep field OBJ's.

Yeah I thought that too but I thought that the jet-bikes countered this because they were able to claim\contest last turn objectives?

@Syranas: He wont have a choice to ignore them. Because they are infiltrating with Shadowsun they will be firing those 12 inch guns first turn + 2 fusion blaster shots, re-rolling 1's. 6 shots re-rolling 1's is 5 hits, that's 2-3 pens/glances without thinking about shadowsun. So there job is to push into the opponents home objective begging to be shot at. Anything shot at them is wasted. If they aren't shot at they will kill something important a turn. If they pop a rhino, then god help the MEQ's that fall out to the mercy of the riptides. Plus bikes make a better troop choice as tau really lack aggressive objective takers, they can get to any objective on the table in 1 turn.