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.

Looking for some critique of a tau list I'm looking and filling out to:


Tau Empire 1849

+ HQ +

* Commander
Command and Control Node, Crisis battlesuit, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Neuroweb System Jammer, Puretide Engram Neurochip, Target lock

* Ethereal

+ Elites +

* XV104 Riptide
Early warning override, Ion accelerator, Twin-linked fusion blaster


* XV8 Crisis Team
* Crisis Shas'ui
2x Fusion blaster, Target lock
* Crisis Shas'ui
2x Fusion blaster


+ Troops +

* Fire Warrior Team
10x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Devilfish
Burst cannon, Twin-linked smart missile system


* Fire Warrior Team
8x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Devilfish
Burst cannon, Twin-linked smart missile system
* Fire Warrior Shas'ui
Pulse rifle


* Fire Warrior Team
9x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Fire Warrior Shas'ui
Pulse rifle


* Fire Warrior Team
9x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Fire Warrior Shas'ui
Pulse rifle


+ Fast Attack +

* Pathfinder Team
* 9x Pathfinder Shas'la
9x Pulse carbine with Markerlight
* Pathfinder Shas'ui
Pulse carbine with Markerlight


* Pathfinder Team
* 9x Pathfinder Shas'la
9x Pulse carbine with Markerlight
* Pathfinder Shas'ui
Pulse carbine with Markerlight


+ Heavy Support +

* Hammerhead Gunship
Disruption pod, Railgun with submunitions, Twin-linked smart missile system
* Longstrike


* XV88 Broadside Team
* Broadside Shas'ui
3x Early warning override, Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked smart missile system
* 6x Missile Drone
6x Missile pod

Aegis Defense Line
Icarus Lascannon

A few things.

1. Why does your commander have a target lock?
2. Break the pathfinders into 3 squads of 6 instead of two squads of 9. You'll increase you're target capacity and the overall efficiency of the list.
3. When posting a list it isn't necessary to post things that are normally known (for ex: missile drones having missile pods).

The list isn't bad at all though. You seem to have all your bases covered. Good Luck!

Does your commander go with the crisis team? If so why does he have the command and control node as the only shooting weapons in the unit are already twin-linked?

I don't understand why the Target Lock on the Commander, that has no weapons... and i don't see a good place to put him, honestly.

Personally, i think Taus are one of the few armies that do not need many scoring units. I will keep troops to a minimum, for sure i won't spend more than 200 points in those. And DFs are trash, simply put, just a huge waste of points. Troops are good only if you go for a gunline list, but this means a lot of FWs on foot (without the useless 'ui, the Ethereal provides the Ld), not in a fish.

You have 20 guys with MLs (let's not talk about the fact that pathfinders are way too static and fragile, and imo are just a First Blood awaiting to happen), but no many things that need them. The Riptide does, maybe the hammerhead, and that's it... since pathfinders are fragile, you are forced to be redundant to avoid losing effectiveness as soon as you lose a few MLs, i find it a waste of points, honestly. Marker drones attached to 3 Crisis with Target Locks and a Commander with Drone Controller shoot much better, are more mobile and more survivable.

The Hammerhead is another thing that is not really good. Not in general, but in a Tau army: there are other choices that do what it does, only better. Taus have such amazing units as Heavy Support, Broadsides and Skyrays, that i really don't see the point in having something else.

I don't understand why an Icarus in an army with the best AA of the game, to be honest.

All in all, this list doesn't shoot much. And Taus are pure firepower, every point that doesn't do damage is a wasted point. The amount of fire they can put on the field is their strength, you should take advantage of it.

mouser wrote:
Looking for some critique of a tau list I'm looking and filling out to:


Tau Empire 1849

+ HQ +

* Commander
Command and Control Node, Crisis battlesuit, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Neuroweb System Jammer, Puretide Engram Neurochip, Target lock

This guy's manning the ADL?

Honestly, I'm not crazy about the CCN+MSS commander. It's a lot of points, that while it does offer flexibility, is effectively equivalent to 4x ML tokens. Yes, you can stick him with the Riptide, but the Riptide is already pretty self sufficient with the LBT and the TL FB. Also, not sure why you need the Target Lock on him. He's got no weapons really. The ADL will be fired mostly on Interceptor I presume? In which case you definitely don't need it.

mouser wrote:

* Ethereal

Fine. Like this guy a lot.

mouser wrote:

+ Elites +

* XV104 Riptide
Early warning override, Ion accelerator, Twin-linked fusion blaster

Again, looks good. FNP(6+) from the Ethereal I presume until he disembarks?

mouser wrote:

* XV8 Crisis Team
* Crisis Shas'ui
2x Fusion blaster, Target lock
* Crisis Shas'ui
2x Fusion blaster

Looks good. If you're sticking your Commander here, I would recommend running a Shas'vre with the CCN+MSS options. This way you keep your BS5 shooting

mouser wrote:

+ Troops +

* Fire Warrior Team
10x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Devilfish
Burst cannon, Twin-linked smart missile system


* Fire Warrior Team
8x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Devilfish
Burst cannon, Twin-linked smart missile system
* Fire Warrior Shas'ui
Pulse rifle


* Fire Warrior Team
9x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Fire Warrior Shas'ui
Pulse rifle


* Fire Warrior Team
9x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Fire Warrior Shas'ui
Pulse rifle


+ Fast Attack +

* Pathfinder Team
* 9x Pathfinder Shas'la
9x Pulse carbine with Markerlight
* Pathfinder Shas'ui
Pulse carbine with Markerlight


* Pathfinder Team
* 9x Pathfinder Shas'la
9x Pulse carbine with Markerlight
* Pathfinder Shas'ui
Pulse carbine with Markerlight

All of this looks great. I presume the Ui is because they will be outside of the LD bubble?

mouser wrote:

+ Heavy Support +

* Hammerhead Gunship
Disruption pod, Railgun with submunitions, Twin-linked smart missile system
* Longstrike


* XV88 Broadside Team
* Broadside Shas'ui
3x Early warning override, Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked smart missile system
* 6x Missile Drone
6x Missile pod

Aegis Defense Line
Icarus Lascannon

Pretty standard here as well, though I might recommend going with Drones on the Hammerhead as they'll fire at BS2 rather than BS1 when you move at cruising speed. Similarly, you won't have much of a need for the SMS and the 2x models might be useful elsewhere.

The commander actually goes with the broadsides, and fires the ADL. He has target lock, because I had the points, and as the entire broadside squad has interceptor if multiple reserves come in... say two helldrakes, it would allow him to fire the gun at one, and the broadsides to lay into the other. With potentially 12 twinlinked autocannon shots with tank hunter at one target, and a twin-linked tankhunter lascannon at another al of which deny a jink... should hopefully be fairly effective.

The crisis squad is a tankhunter.. Allowing it to drop into the backfield and pop open multiple transports/tanks/fortifications.

ajsnips44
Good point on the pathfinders. I'll make that adjustment.

paidinfull
Yes, picked up the Ui for the leadership as they can likely be outside the leadership bubble.

Now I assume the FW devilfish are for objective grabbing? Thats fair enough, but have you considered dropping them and taking another submuntion+Dpod railhead? I personally find devilfish to just not perform for what you pay for, and personally I find it a better call to simply shoot people off objectives rather than rush my firewarriors in an 80pt transport towards them? Theres also the fact that railheads are pretty fantastic

The devilfish are 90 with a sms upgrade. There for mobility and expanding the ethereal bubble. Will defintely consider dropping them.

mouser wrote:
The commander actually goes with the broadsides, and fires the ADL. He has target lock, because I had the points, and as the entire broadside squad has interceptor if multiple reserves come in... say two helldrakes, it would allow him to fire the gun at one, and the broadsides to lay into the other. With potentially 12 twinlinked autocannon shots with tank hunter at one target, and a twin-linked tankhunter lascannon at another al of which deny a jink... should hopefully be fairly effective.

Unfortunately MSS only works in your turn.
Also, the Broadsides are already Twinlinked so why take the CCN?

mouser wrote:

The crisis squad is a tankhunter.. Allowing it to drop into the backfield and pop open multiple transports/tanks/fortifications.

ajsnips44
Good point on the pathfinders. I'll make that adjustment.

paidinfull
Yes, picked up the Ui for the leadership as they can likely be outside the leadership bubble.

Paidinfull. Are you sure, read as written it only doesn't apply in overwatch.

mouser wrote:
Paidinfull. Are you sure, read as written it only doesn't apply in overwatch.

?
Interceptor happens at the end of the Movement Phase.
So if you're firing interceptor, you're shooting in the Movement Phase.

mouser wrote:
* Commander
Command and Control Node, Crisis battlesuit, Multi-spectrum Sensor Suite, Neuroweb System Jammer, Puretide Engram Neurochip, Target lock

As everyone has already said, C&CN is wasted on this guy, if you pair him with b-sides. *And*, C&CN and MSS do *NOT* work, if he shoots. Both toys state clearly that you if he doesn't fire, blah, blah, blah.

If it's flyers you're worried about, the HYMPs will be decent, along with anybody running an Icarus.

mouser wrote:
* XV8 Crisis Team
* Crisis Shas'ui
2x Fusion blaster, Target lock
* Crisis Shas'ui
2x Fusion blaster

You have the Elite slot open; why not just have each dude as his own unit? Single suits are easier to JSJ to hiding, harder for the enemy to catch in h2h, makes him split his fire, etc. *Always* spread XV8s around the Elite Slots you have open.**

mouser wrote:
* Fire Warrior Team
10x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Devilfish Burst cannon, Twin-linked smart missile system

No Dispods?

mouser wrote:
* Fire Warrior Team 8x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle
* Devilfish Burst cannon, Twin-linked smart missile system
* Fire Warrior Shas'ui Pulse rifle

Why an 'Ui?

mouser wrote:
* Fire Warrior Team 9x Fire Warrior Shas'la with pulse rifle * Fire Warrior Shas'ui Pulse rifle

I consider the D'fish a waste of Dakka. You could have a lot more dakka on the table for the points.

mouser wrote:
* Pathfinder Team
* 9x Pathfinder Shas'la 9x Pulse carbine with Markerlight
* Pathfinder Shas'ui Pulse carbine with Markerlight

Again, there's no need for 'Uis.

mouser wrote:
* Hammerhead Gunship Disruption pod, Railgun with submunitions, Twin-linked smart missile system
* Longstrike

A lot of your enemy armies are IG, huh?

mouser wrote:

* XV88 Broadside Team
* Broadside Shas'ui
3x Early warning override, Twin-linked high-yield missile pod, Twin-linked smart missile system
* 6x Missile Drone
6x Missile pod

Although, I love this unit, I'd suggest splitting off one suit, as 3 of them, with 6 MDs, are overkill. Seriously, wounds left over in pasting Tacticals, or far more penetrating hits on a well roasted rhino. Run a pair, and their 4 MDs, and a Single and his 2 MDs.

mouser wrote:
Aegis Defense Line Icarus Lascannon

Good.

Overall, as all the other posters said, your Shas'O' potential is wasted. Try this instead:
Shas'O gets dual FBs or dual PRs or FB/PR.
**Now, here's the exception to splitting off suits to smaller units. Have one wield the C&CN and MSS, while the other suits have the same guns as the Cmdr. Now all shoot Twin-Linked, Ignoring Cover with AP2 & AP1 guns. *This* unit can smoke flyers and pretty much anything else it targets, and for me, it has. One sgt has survived due to lotsa Look Out, Sirs!. Oh, yeah, add a 3rd suit. I put flamers on the unit in case of assault, but oddly, they haven't needed it yet.



Automatically Appended Next Post:

paidinfull wrote:

mouser wrote:
Paidinfull. Are you sure, read as written it only doesn't apply in overwatch.

?
Interceptor happens at the end of the Movement Phase.
So if you're firing interceptor, you're shooting in the Movement Phase.

Rules quibble aside, IMHO, it's still a waste to have his BS5 shooting one gun, mouser. With my set up, he's firing a FB or PR or two of them, Twin-Linked, and I've even pulled off a Marker Hit on a Flyer to increase this unit's BS from BS1 to BS 2, which still brought a Storm Talon down.

What kinda Flying Circuses are you having to deal with to warrant such strong Anti-Aircraft measures?