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Hello,


So i used to play 40k years and years ago (3rd ed... i think?) ... and i later picked up tau for a brief stint during a later edition, but that fell apart because the gaming crew took long break on 40k before i started really getting my army together.

So now with a Tau reboot, I and the group are getting back into 40k - going to start with a slow grow league, as we're all WHFB players, and picking up a whole army at one time is daunting to the budget and the paint brush.

I"m lucky though, i acquired a basically 2000 point tau army for a WHFB army i haven't used in two years. I'm waiting on my new rule books as we speak, though i have perused a friend's version of both heavily.



So here's my question... I always loved crisis suits - any pattern, really.

Are heavy crisis suit lists viable in the new rule-set ?

Back when i played devilfish were pretty much mandatory, is that the case now as well (i see fewer lists with them than back in the day).

How is the Tau flyer ?

And finally... any good advice for a new tau player ?

Here's roughly what my new army has (i'm not adverse to picking up more stuff, in fact, i'm almost certainly going to get 1-2 more broadsides, and a riptide at the least).


~ 36 Fire warriors
10 crisis suits
1 broadside
20 kroot
1 sniper with drones
1 ethereal
1 commander in crisis suit
2 hammerheads

There's a few other odds and ends too.


Open to all suggestions and advice, thanks. In my crew i'll mostly be fighting vanilla marines, deldar, and eldar.

Looks to me like you have a solid start.

One of the best ways to use crisis suits is to take Farsight as your commander, with 7 bodyguards and have them deepstrike in ((Because of farsights warlord trait they won't scatter)) but this tactic can backfire on you if they have good assault units nearby.

I'm finding its more important to take devilfish, to save your firewarriors from cover ignoring pie plates of doom

I've not used the tau flyer so can't comment on that

Ethereal are actually solid in 6th ed. If you use him, take an ADL and all 3 squads of firewarriors and bubblewrap him.

For an 1850 match, I would highly suggest you get a "Farsight Bomb" all with drones and AP2 shooter weapons- mix of shield and gun drones, a Hammerhead with 'Longstrike' upgrade, 2 broadsides w/ skyfire(velocity trackers) and early warning, a RipTide with fnp, 1 or 2 squads of pathfinders and the rest firewarriors.

You need more Pathfinders. Much more. Don't even try to stop under 14 PFs (two 7 strong teams).

Also, don't mind the flyers. They are crapstastic. The riptide is super-awesome though. And the broadsides are also cool, just don't forget to assemble the missileside from the box instead of the now subpar railside.

I actually use an all suit list as I too love crisis suits and it is extremely compact for transporting around.

- flyers are bad
- pathfinders are good but over rated.... they are not auto include if you can fit markerlights elsewhere.
- I would advise against farsight.... you basically tie up half your points in one big squad of crisis suits. The fire power you can dish out is great but they are still low initiative and WS so if you do get caught by some combat specialists or a strength 10 ap 2 large blast template will ruin your day.... there goes your squad. It is much more competitive to use several 3 man crisis teams as opposed to one big blob.

Here is my 1750 all suit list, it has been doing very well so far - just take advantage of jump-shoot-jump/LoS. Lack of vehicles throws many people off as their anti-tank weapons spend turn 1-2 eating up drones while I widdle away at their exposed units.


204 Commander + 2x shield drone: cyclic ion blaster, fusion blaster, shield generator, drone controller, iridium armour, onager gauntlet, neuroweb jammer
182 2x bodyguard + 4x ML drone: 1x shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 1x shas'vre /w 2x plasma rifle, target lock

205 3x crisis + 2x shield drone: 1x Shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x Shas'ui /w TL missile pod, missile pod
205 3x crisis + 2x shield drone: 1x Shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x Shas'ui /w TL plasma rifle, missile pod
201 3x crisis + 2x shield drone: 1x Shas'vre /w 2x fusion blaster, target lock, 2x Shas'ui /w 2x plasma rifle, advanced targeting system

100 7x firewarriors + 1x ML drone: shas'ui /w markerlight, target lock, pulse rifles
100 7x firewarriors + 1x ML drone: shas'ui /w markerlight, target lock, pulse rifles
100 7x firewarriors + 1x ML drone: shas'ui /w markerlight, target lock, pulse rifles

238 2x broadside + 2x shield drone + 2x missile drone: shas'vre, railgun, TL plasma rifle, velocity tracker
213 2x broadside + 2x shield drone + 2x missile drone: shas'vre, HYMP, TL smart missile system, 1x velocity tracker, 1x target lock

1748

Yeah, the Tau fliers are... mediocre at best, although the drones that come with the bomber are quite awesome.

You're better off going for a Barracuda if you want Tau air support, though (the forge world option).

I think the devilfish is extremely unnecessary to the point where I think it's a handicap. It's 80 points base, with expensive upgrades. It takes your FW out of the game and stops them from shooting, when their entire point is long range mobile shooting units. Honestly, I'd suggest avoiding these.

That being said, there are very few things that don't perform well in the new book. Vespid, stealth suits (Crisis are just more customizable), the devilfish, Aun'shi, and the fighter/bomber.

The new codex has a wonderful selection of AP1, 2, &3 weapons and enough support options to make effective use of it. One of my favorite configurations is a Commander with a drone controller attached to a markerdrone squad, giving me 6 markerlights at BS5 that can move, shoot, and jump back. Plenty of markerlights to boost a unit or two and give them the ability to completely decimate a squad.

The new codex has a lot of options and several viable builds. One thing that you'll enjoy is that it's a very cost effective army, like most the 6th edition armies. As you're playing low point games and ramping up to higher you can see that Tau are pretty effective at all point values while some other armies need to be above 1250 games to really shine.

Thanks to everyone for the comments!

It appears that i have some options for my playstyle, which is great. I can go suit heavy via Farsight or non-farsight (which is actually cool, i like having the option for both), and it sounds like the stuff i like the most is definitely viable.

Also glad to hear that missile-tastic broadsides are good, because i absolutely love the way that mini looks with missile pods coming out of every direction.

I'm not against pathfinders in any way at all, so i think i'll pick up some of those.


Consensus says that the tau fliers are mostly pants, which is cool - i'll put my budget towards the riptide instead.



Thanks again for all the comments, much appreciated !