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Hi All!

I'm trying to make a competitive Taudar list with the added challenge of including as many "uncommon" choices in both dexes. I'm hoping to mix them in with some of the regulars to make a pretty good, yet unique, army.

Restrictions: My Fluff is Eldar Corsairs with a Tau Contingent, trying to get them to join the empire. Hence, no special (named) characters and Phoenix Lords.

Eldar:
HQ - All non-named choices are pretty popular, IMO
Elites - Harlequins, banshees, scorpions, Wraithblades: way too many really. Worst FOC slot in the dex, hands down.
Troops - Rangers, DA
Fast Attack - Shining Spears
Heavy Support - Vaul's Support Batteries

Tau
HQ - All are pretty popular, IMO
Elites - Stealth Suits
Troops - Kroot
Fast Attack - Vespids
Heavy Support - Skyray

Obviously I can't get ALL of them into one list. I'd like input if I missed any (or included some that may be popular in your area). I'd also love to know which ones you'd like to see on the table.

Thanks!

Skyray is pretty popular, probably the second most used unit in the HS slot besides Misslesides (and as a Daemon player, the scariest unit in the codex)

Really? I've only seen Hammerheads!

I prefer the railgun hammerhead, although in the current meta that is apparently not a thing people do that often. That said, the skyray is a very fun unit and swats fliers pretty handily.

For heavy support sniper drone teams take the cake of "least seen units".

I'd love to see a "rapid insertion force" that uses stealth suits and vespids.

Eldar:
HQ - All non-named choices are pretty popular, IMO (Try any Phoenix Lord not named Asurmen or Karandras, and Yriel)
Elites - Harlequins, banshees, scorpions, Wraithblades: way too many really. Worst FOC slot in the dex, hands down. (Scorpians are decently popular)
Troops - Rangers, DA
Fast Attack - Shining Spears (Add both flyers)
Heavy Support - Vaul's Support Batteries (Add Falcon)

Tau
HQ - All are pretty popular, IMO (Aun'shi)
Elites - Stealth Suits
Troops - Kroot
Fast Attack - Vespids (add both flyers)
Heavy Support - Skyray (Take out skyrays and add sniper teams)

Sniper drone team are pretty uncommon for Tau, not because they're terrible, but because they compete with other things.

For the HQ, I wouldn't avoid the "Mark'O" build, mostly because you don't have that many units that make use of markerlights.

Railsides, while a staple of mine, have been shunned a bit lately in favor of missilesides. This could fit into your fluff as if this is a contingent not intended for the front lines, so they have some off equipment. With the EWO railsides make a good interceptor battery with 3x twin linked S8 AP1 shots.

GUN DRONE SQUADS!

Well, for Eldar, I'd say the least used units would be Banshees, Rangers, Spears, Hemlocks and Falcons.

Aye, forgot about the aircraft. They are actually pretty good (i.e. they don't suck) but there's other fliers out there that are so much better it makes them look bad by comparison. Also the competition in the Tau fast attack slot is pretty much a thing of legend. If you don't have a marker-light you just can't hang most of the time.

No point repeating what has already been posted I guess so:
Eldar:
HQ:
I have only seen 4 HQs used in tournament sized games (ie ignoring the 3000pt games where people just throw stuff in) - Farseer (naked), Farseer on a Jetbike, Mantle Autarch on Jetbike and Spiritseer/s. There is a little bit of variation with wargear, but not much. The named characters barely show up at all, Eldrad is clearly inferior to two Farseers now and even the best beatstick Phoenix Lords (Karandras and Asurmen) don't offer anywhere near the same boost to your army as a basic 100pt Farseer

Elites:
Oddly enough in practice there are really only 3 Elite slots for Eldar (its a massive imbalance for an army of supposed specialists) - Dragons, Harlies and Scorpions. Banshees are just utter trash, and realistically Blades and Guard are Troops not Elites.

Troops:
Storm Guardians, Rangers and Dire Avengers en masse (i.e not just unlocking a Serpent). The new Storm Guardians would have been ok in 5th (2 BS4 Meltaguns and a great transport they could assault out of) but suffer badly from the 'everything dies' theme of 6th. Rangers suffer from the amount of ignore cover weapons around at the moment (Tau, Heldrakes)

Fast:
The Wraithfighter and Vypers are pretty terrible. Shining Spears and even Hawks are actually ok, they just suffer because they are in the same slot as Spiders, who are probably the best unit in the codex. The Wraithfighter would be usable if it could use its main ability the turn it arrives from reserves, or if its Heavy D Scythes were actually heavy (i.e they were better than a normal D Scythe, a small blast is WAY worse than a template). Vypers are just too fragile for their points. Crimson Hunters are glass cannons but can work if you build some support into the army.

Heavy:
NOT Support Batteries. At all. I any way. Seriously anyone who tell you they are bad units has no idea what they are talking about. Those things are amazing value for their points, up there with Spiders as the most points efficient unit in the book. 3 S6/7 quasi Rending Barrage small blasts for 90pts is pretty nice (its way better than a Thunderfire for 10pts less) and 2 S8 AP3 hits per turn is solid. If you Guide them (not hard for Eldar with 4 Guides per turn to throw around if they so choose) then its 3 S9 AP2 hits per turn, and nothing can ignore that kind of firepower coming at them for most of the game (because shooting down 12 T7 wounds is tough). The only reason people overlook them is because they are static (which can often not fit the style/feel of Eldar) and the Heavy slot is so crowded and stuff like the Wraithknight and War Walkers do have higher damage outputs (they are less efficient for the points, but they do do more damage). The Falcon is probably the worst of the heavies and even then its not bad by any stretch, its just inferior to the more widely available Serpent (which doesn't take up a Heavy slot).

Tau:
HQ:
Over half the named characters maybe? Both the Ethernal characters are bad, and I have no idea what Darkstrider even does (never seen any discussion around him either, so that tells you how bad he is). The Fireblade doesn't get much use either tbh, an Ethernal is always better for a Tau primary list, and when using Tau as Allies people usually run support/buff Commanders

Elites:
Definitely Stealth Suits, although it wouldn't be that hard to put Crisis Suits into the 'underused' category as well. Most lists tend to be moving towards Broadsides and Riptides for that sweet 2+ save, they give you plenty of medium/high strength torrent and anti vehicle (short of AV14) and you get way more firepower out of your troops for dealing with other stuff.

Troops:
Nothing. Both Kroot and Fire Warriors are great, most Tau lists I see have a mix of both and if anything I would say Fire Warriors are worse (cause Kroot can be built to do two different jobs vs 1 for Firewarriors).

Fast:
Anything that's not Pathfinders or Marker Drones (with Commander, essentially the same unit in terms of role). But yes Vespid are still doing their best to win the 'worst unit in 40k' award.

Heavy:
Obviously Sniper Teams are in the list, but also Broadsides with Railguns. Went from being a staple of Tau lists to a very sub par unit. The only place they are better than the HYMP is against AV14, and that is only because they can glance it.... I would definitely take a Skyray over Railgun Broadsides (its an AV13 2 shot Skyfire Markerlight, which is actually decent against good players who try and clean up the Markerlight support first).

Skyrays, Kroot, and Dire Avengers are all very popular.

 The Shadow wrote:
Well, for Eldar, I'd say the least used units would be Banshees, Rangers, Spears, Hemlocks and Falcons.

Rangers are unpopular? I play them all the time as does every Eldar player I know. Their new point cost is so cheap for what they do as backfield objective holders that GTG when shot at for a 2+ save.

Falcons... They're in such a weird spot being overshadowed by their Wave Serpent cousins. But the thing is, Falcons are actually pretty good. Pop a scatter laser on there to make the pulse laser and Shuricannon twin-linked and you have a platform that can dish out a lot of pain. Disembark a unit of Fire Dragons and you have a unit that can provide quite a lot of cover fire for them.

Banshees are sucktastic largely because they lost grenades. Little Guardian Defenders have them now but Banshees decided to leave them at home for reasons that cannot be comprehended by humans like us. Yeah, unpopular...

Harlequins are even less survivable than Banshees now. At long/medium range nobody bothers shooting them. At closer rage veil of tears doesn't work and they get horribly massacred by every unit in the game. I end up keeping them in area terrain so I have the option to GTG with them. It's also too fussy and annoying positioning them in such a way to keep the Shadowseer, Troupe Master, and Jester alive. Very unpopular... the DE version is much better.