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So basically i really love the crisis suits and being a huge gundam fan i love the suit look and i really want a ranged army as i have a Grey knight CC army right now. Since im a newb to tau and know basically nothing about them can anyone give me a nice competitive list for a ranged tau army that uses alot of the suits?

Lol i though you just started the grey knight army.


strong shooters in the codex are

Riptides with ion
broadsides with missile fists
crisis suits are the swiss army knife and can be kitted out to deal with whatever problems you have. (best not to take missile pods on them anymore though as broadsides do it better)
they will take care of most everything so long as they are properly supported. (marker lights or support commander)

rail hammerheads are nice to have against heavy vehicles (can be replaced with drop fusion suits or fast piranhas)

Skyrays are great against most fliers and MCs

i will however not build you a list.

i did just start it and got it to 2000 points already (i have alot of free time) and i love it but i tend to get bored with things easy and i want somting different to switch off to when i get bored with it.

I haven't seen it yet but I hear that the farsighted enclaves supplement will make battle suits troops so if you want crisis suits I think that would be worth a buy

If you like Crisis suits the farsight supplement does indeed make crisis troops and its pretty easy to take 18 to fill out the troop section and have lots of points spare.

This is the list I'm running. So far it's pretty solid. It's Farsight with Tau as allies for 2k pts.

HQ:
Farsight with O'Vesa (Riptide with 2X shield-missile drones, Ion accelerator, twin-linked fusion blaster, Early warning override, and Earth caste pilot array) as bodyguard.

Cadre Fireblade (Tau)

Troops:
12X Fire Worriers (Tau)

3X crisis suits: 2X 2 non twin-linked burst cannons with advanced targeting, 1X 2 Non twin-linked fusion blasters with target lock

3X crisis suits: 2X 2 non twin-linked burst cannons with advanced targeting, 1X 2 Non twin-linked fusion blasters with target lock

3X crisis suits: 2X 2 non twin-linked burst cannons with advanced targeting, 1X 2 Non twin-linked fusion blasters with target lock

Elites

4X riptides with heavy burst cannons, smart missiles, advance targeting system, and stimulant injectors (1X Tau)

Deleted

two things, first of all, what purpose do the tau allies serve (and i thought the farsight enclaves was a supplement for the tau codex meaning you dont have to ally with tau because you are them)

Second thing, what benefit do you get from having one of the riptides as a tau one as opposed to an enclaves one (and i assume that the farsight enclaves allows you to have three riptides in one squad otherwise you'd have four elite slots)

Otherwise it looks pretty solid

Normally you can only take three riptides, he has five in his list. One special character, three as Farsight riptides, and one as an ally.

In the farsight enclave supplement is states that you may ally with tau as battle brothers. This allows an extra elite slot to put a 5th riptide in. Many people are fussing about this but it is completely within the rules.

Personally im not a fan of the character riptide the worst thing being the farsight tax in a list with 5 riptides farsight dosent fit in, plus he has a lot of upgrades I wouldnt take and pays for them 305 points is a lot 4 imho is ok.

I would take 3 from tau with ion cannons ,ewo and whatever your pref then take 1 from farsight with birstcannons and earth caste pilot.

 DauntedFungus123 wrote:
two things, first of all, what purpose do the tau allies serve (and i thought the farsight enclaves was a supplement for the tau codex meaning you dont have to ally with tau because you are them)

Second thing, what benefit do you get from having one of the riptides as a tau one as opposed to an enclaves one (and i assume that the farsight enclaves allows you to have three riptides in one squad otherwise you'd have four elite slots)

Otherwise it looks pretty solid

Technically they aren't the same, you can't take any signature systems or certain HQ's from the regular codex, even the Riptides behave even slightly different being able to take signature systems. The Enclaves are effectively a different Army and in the supplement state you may take regular Tau as allies, yes it does sound a tad silly because this way you can take things from both lists.

I use a slimier list. The only problem I really have so far are flyers on occasion.

With the list above dropping the character suit would nearly give you enough points to buy 3 sky rays and end any anti air problems.

Or give the riptides Velocity trackers and Fusion blasters. They can take a beating and can really put the hurt on fliers.

 JJ 40K wrote:
So basically i really love the crisis suits and being a huge gundam fan i love the suit look and i really want a ranged army as i have a Grey knight CC army right now. Since im a newb to tau and know basically nothing about them can anyone give me a nice competitive list for a ranged tau army that uses alot of the suits?

HQ:
Farsight is good. No scatter deepstrike is fantastic, plus he can "farsight bomb." A farsight bomb list shouldn't be hard to find. His supplement is out, though I'm not a huge fan.
Shadowsun is also good. as a warlord, she has 3d6 assault move. Very good. Two BS5 fusion blasters? even better. Very good, especially with a farsight bomb, strangely enough.
A commander can be done a couple ways:
1) solo - give him fusion or plasma, stimulant injectors, shield gen, and Iridium armor. He'll last quite a while and will generally be under 200 points, which is fantastic.
2) addition to a unit. I have Tau allies and the commander is my main AA. Velocity tracker and two missile pods means four BS5 missiles a turn, flyer or not.

My friends commander has killed tanks, terminators, and a ton of marines by himself. Not in one game, of course, but the versatility of the commander is amazing.

Troops:
This is where you may want to scout out the farsight supplement. Those Crisis suits? troops. 3 crisis with twin-linked missile pods can be very dangerous and perhaps the best troops in the game, except for their small unit size (3 max).

other than that, firewarriors or kroot. Both are pretty cheap and pretty good.

Elites:
Crisis suits are versatile, like the commander. Fusion, plasma, missiles, etc. These guys make Tau, well, Tau.
Riptides are hecka fly. With the Heavy Burst Cannon and a nova-charge, they can unleash 12 rending shots. the only problem is they all get hot, so make sure you have enough markerlights to give it BS6, or give it the Earth Caste Pilot Array is you're using the supplement. I like the Ion Accelerator. The large blast is great.
Steath suits are a generaly no-go. Crisis suits do everything better except infiltrate, and that's not great. Crisis suits are more versatile and the riptide is tougher.

Fast Attack:
Pathfinders are there for Markerlights. Heavy weapons like Rail rifles make them too expensive. The only problem is that they can't move then shoot the markerlights.
Drone squadron... an interesting unit. Combine drone controller on a commander with a unit of marker drones and BAM, BS5 markerlights that can move AND shoot.
Flyers - NOPE.
Vespid - NOPE until they get a supplement. Which may be a while.
Piranhas are decent, they can get in quick to fusion something, but then they die.

Heavy Support:
Broadsides are great. Their rail weapon got a nerf to S8, but hey, they can still kill things. However, the new High-Yield Missile Pods they have make them a must-take. That and they're the only unit in the codex that can take missile drones.
Hammerheads are also great. With longstrike you can have better scatters with either submunitions or Ion Cannon blasts, or more accurate Railgun shots. Oh, and tank hunter.
Skyrays have Skyfire markerlights. 6 Seeker missiles, but they have two Skyfire Markerlights.
Sniper Drones can be another source of BS5 markerlights, as the Firesight Marksman is BS5 and has a markerlight, and you can have 3 in a unit. And 9 sniper drones. So that could be 3 BS5 markerlights (that cannot move and shoot) plus 9 BS5 Sniper shots. But wait, the snipers are rapid-fire. So that means 18 BS5 sniper shots when within 24".

Crisis suits are great but I don't depend solely on them, my fire warriors and pathfinders win games for me.

I would suggest playing the normal codex (as I haven't got my hands on the supplement ) And buy:

Codex: Tau Empire
Crisis Commander
1-2 Fire warrior boxes
Crisis Suit 3 pack
1 Box of Pathfinders

I know you want a mostly suit based army but you need cheep expendable bodies to take hits the crisis suits can't. You also need pathfinders to ensure that you hit your targets. I only used one elite choice so there is still more room for suit spam.

i find that twin link isn't worth it with tau. Use save point but you already have at 50/50 chance a hitting so you might as well spend the extra couple of point to maybe get a couple of more hits in each turn.

Start of tau army, what you think?

HQ:
Commander: 2 Plasma Rifles, Drone Controller, Pulse Accelerator ( to make gun drones 24" range), Iridium Armor
2 Gun Drones

Elites:
3 Crisis Suits 1 with Fusion Blasters with target lock 2 with Burst Cannons with advanced target system
3 Crisis Suits 1 with Fusion Blasters with target lock 2 with Burst Cannons with advanced target system
3 Crisis Suits 1 with Fusion Blasters with target lock 2 with Burst Cannons with advanced target system

Troops:
9 Fire Warriors
9 Fire Warriors

Heavy Support:
1 Hammerhead Rail Gun and twin linked burst cannons, Advanced Targeting System