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Hi all,

I am pretty new to 40k ( about one month ) I picked up Grey Knights as my first army mostly due to low model count so that I could get into the game quicker. Now that I have played a bit I have found that I like to stand back and shoot. For this reason I am considering starting a Tau Army in place of my Grey Knights. My question is this, to those that play Tau, I can get my hands on one of the old Battle force or the new one. Which would you prefer and why? Here is a list of what is in them:

Old Box -

1 Tau Crisis XV8 Battlesuit
1 Tau Devilfish APC
3 Tau Crisis XV25 Stealth Suits
12 Tau Fire Warriors
12 Kroot Carnivores

New Box -

12 Fire Warriors
3 Crisis Suits
3 Stealth Suits
1 Piranha


Thanks for any help you can provide

Honestly, if you have about 300-500 to drop at once, go stalk ebay. Ive seen some decent "im selling my army" deals on there about that range with riptides, lots of firewarriors, several suits, etc etc. Even after the new dex.

Dont be put off by that though, new tau are not bad at all. They do however require a fair bit of tactic. They arent the older "cheeseknights" that Greyknights used to be called, where you win because you play this race. Very balanced and virtually little to no "i win buttons" in the codex, it all needs some forethought and planning.

Battleforces are not a value. The Orks are literally the ONLY battleforce that provides a deal at all. I wouldnt buy them because of this, and personally i'd rather get the boxes for other uses (i kitbash a lot, FREE CARDBOARD! and good cardboard too). Do the math, you'll realize you arent saving anything except maybe 1-3 dollars on shipping size, if it even applies.

Thats...not quite true.
A battleforce IS worth it, if you actually want every single unit in it.


The odds of that though...are hysterically slim.


That said, ebay IS a better start in most cases, or if your shop does "bulk preorders" from time to time (like ours does), you might find yourself a sweet discount. (best I got so far was 30% off, but that was one time. usually is 15%-20% off)

But other than convenience because everything is in 1 box, whats the point? like i said ONLY the ork one has any price cut bargains.

The CSM starter box is an exception because of what it is, which isnt a battleforce anyway.

Most battle forces i've seen basically give you a unit for free with the packaged price. Maybe pricing is different in different places??

But yeah Ebay will be better if you are looking to drop MORE than like 130$

To answer your question though i'd ask you these questions,

Think you'll need a troop transport more or a shock troop more?

Think you'll need 1 HQ, 2 troops, an elite and transport more than 1 troop 2 elites and a fast?(though you could make a few combinations with those crisis suits)

Both are decent though so really it comes down to making a small point list with the contents of each box n try to decide which you like better maybe?

Back to something closer to what your actually asking:

Personally I've picked up 2 of the old battle force, mainly because I would rather have the devilfish over the piranha.

But: In the long run, You'll probably get more use out of getting 3 battlesuits then getting kroot.

Well I personally think the new battle force is a decent deal (suits $80 piranha $35 fire warriors $45 stealth suits $35 so a total of $195) compared to $130 for the battle force.

On to the main question of old or new. You mentioned you want to best deal (less money spent for a playable army right now) if that's the case I would go for the old box. This is because you get an hq, 2 troops, a transport and an elite which is basically a full army to start.

For the long run I would go with the new battle force, that's what I did. I did that because you get more suits which is really a huge chunk of the tau army, and you can use them as an hq and 2 body guards. You just have to pick up another box of firewarrior and you should be good to go. The only downside is the piranha because it doesn't get fielded a lot when you have a large army, but it can be good to have to skim around and pick off a few infantry.

I also don't like the old box because it has kroot, I'm not a big fan of them or their looks (I really need to like the look of the models I don't care if they are good or bad).

Just think about if you want a transport and more troops or less troops and no transport but more suits.

Get the old one, then pick up suits, more firewariors.

then play a lot of games, by proxying stuff, and see what you like.

There are very few (other than flyers) bad units in the codex, and only a few "meh" units (vespid and stealth - but even some players find use for stealth).

However, the suggestion of "look for a deal on ebay" is prolly the best bang for the buck.

The new tau are amazing, there are a ton of great builds in that book for many different army concepts - truly it is an astounding codex for the thinking player.