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Okay, so I'm getting ready for a comp heavy tournament. The comp restrictions don't restrict you from taking a nasty list, but it will almost guarantee you don't place in the top ten (comp is figured into battle points). The restrictions are pretty harsh - for instance - taking a duplicate elite choice (or heavy support or fast attack) will pretty much drag your massacre win down to the level of a draw. I won't go into all the comp rules (there are three pages of them!) but here's the big ones

1 No duplicates outside of troops.
2 No duplicates in FA/HS/EL/HQ
3 No more than 1 flyer
4 No more than 1 squadron
5 You need to have 1 HQ, 1 EL, 3 Troops, 1 FA, 1 HS before you unlock 1 HQ, 1 EL, 1-3 Troops, 1 FA, 1 HS. You need to have that filled (so a minimum of 2 HQ, 2 EL, 4 Troops, 2 FA, 2 HS) before you move onto the remaining slots.

Due to modelling constraints, I've decided not to take allies (although I am open to farsight enclave allies), Forgeworld is also allowed so you'll see some stuff in there. This is what I've come up with so far.

1750 Tau
Commander - PEN, Iridium, CnC, MSS, onager, neuroweb, drone controller, VRT 180
Ethereal - 50

XV104 - ion accelerator, EWO, VT, twin fusion 210
2 XV8 - 2 fusion blasters each, 1 target lock, 109

10 Firewarriors 90
Devilfish - 80
10 Kroot - 1 hound 75
10 Kroot - 1 hound 75
10 Kroot - 1 hound 75

Barracuda - ion cannon, 2 burst cannons, twin-linked missile pod, decoy launcher, blacksun, disruption pod 149
6 Pathfinders 66

Sniper Team - 7 drones, 2 marksmen 131
Skyray - blacksun, sensor spines 121
3 Broadsides - HYMP, SMS, 3 target locks, 6 marker drones.

That leaves me with 104 points to play with. I could take an ADL with either quadgun or icarus. I could take XV9s (I have several). More troops.

The general gist is that the support commander and the ethereal will stick with the B-sides to hand out all their buffs. It's mostly a defensive army with the only really aggressive units being the fusion suits and the Riptide. I feel like something is missing though. I'm looking for some aggressive units to move forward to take the fight to the objectives. Any suggestions?

personally I would drop some or all kroot for fire warriors and swap the skyray for a HH, at 1750 kroot get chewed while FW are a bit more survivable and hit harder (especially with 15" SOF from the ethereal) and you need more anti armour, the barracuda should be able to handle the max 1 enemy flie, plus giving the HH submuntions gives you some nice options. then spend 100pts on an aegis with a quad gun.

Id also suggest dropping a drone and giving the HH a disruption pod

This is actually a really interesting idea for a tourny, really seems to hurt tau though as markerlights are quite difficult to access with low access to fast attack

Bobug wrote:
personally I would drop some or all kroot for fire warriors and swap the skyray for a HH, at 1750 kroot get chewed while FW are a bit more survivable and hit harder (especially with 15" SOF from the ethereal) and you need more anti armour, the barracuda should be able to handle the max 1 enemy flie, plus giving the HH submuntions gives you some nice options. then spend 100pts on an aegis with a quad gun.

Id also suggest dropping a drone and giving the HH a disruption pod

This is actually a really interesting idea for a tourny, really seems to hurt tau though as markerlights are quite difficult to access with low access to fast attack

I had a hammerhead in there in an earlier list, but felt I wanted the mass S7/8 fire.

If I dropped the Skyray for a hammerhead with submunitions, blacksun filter and disuption pod (and a drone) that doesn't leave me with enough points for the ADL -especially if I drop kroot for FCW.

Suggestions

Drop the Devilfish
Drop the Sniper Team
Drop one Kroot squad
Drop Barracuda
bulk up the kroot squads for 20 1 hound and add sniper rifles
phirana (losts of cheap dakka, detach the drones first turn so they can go after 2 targets)
if your worried about the 1 flyer (skyray should be able to shoot down) put a plasma/fusion on your commander drop drone controller and add EWO and skyfire

having 3 locks on the broasides so they can shoot something other than the markers might be overkill. if you can shift the markers onto a different unit it would be better.

If you had tetra's i would use those, but not very many people have them

Might consider a stealth suit unit with marker drones instead of the 2 XV8

What's up with the commander? The MSS and CnC only work on the unit he joins. Were you thinking of him joining the broadsides? That is a huge waste of points. The ignores cover upgrade is giving it to weapons that are AP4 and AP5. Hardly worth it. And the every broadside weapon is already twin linked. I'd personally drop the commander completely. CnC and MSS only really work well in a farsight bomb. If you want another cheap HQ try a Fireblade. He would go great with your FW in the fish cause cause he gives them an extra shot (2 at 30" and 3 at 15"). And he doesn't give up a VP when killed. Also, take SMS on the devilfish.

Well a farsight bomb would still be competative under the rules you stated.

I'd drop the kroot as well. Also, having the ethereal use that ability (forgot the name) where he gives an extra shot at half range to any pulse weapons makes him ideal to sit next to the snipers. That would be 3 shots at 24". I have used that to great effect.

As far as broadsides, I like to keep mine cheap and just run them with EWO. I run my riptides the same way you do.

If you have Eldar I think this is the time you use them as allies. A spiritseer with 5 wraithguard (counts as troops) in a wave serpeant with a blrightlance. A squad off windriders (3 or 4) to hide and grab an objective at the end of the game, and maybe 3 D-cannons on a support battery (HS). Allies is a great way to get around that FOC restrictions unless there are restrictions on allies.

I think that marker lights are overrated and were implemented wrong in this (and the last codex). I do perfer the Sky Ray over the HH.

Have you considered running the broadsides with missile drones and the commander with the marker drones as a squadron so they're more mobile. It might just be personal preference but I would feel worried about running the commander with the broadsides as it adds up to around 450pts for the entire unit.

In any case you can probably afford to lose the C+C node - the broadside's weapons are twin linked already and the markerlights are already BS5.

I'd also recommend you lose the devilfish as they are a bit overcosted.

3 locks on Bsides is overkill. Is also consider rethinking your source of MLs. Lose the pathfinders; they're brittle anyway. Replace them with your 1 allowable squadron: 2 fusion piranhas. That's your source of fusion; they're better at it anyway.

Now, buff the crisis to 3 with TL missile pods and add 6 ML drones. Drop your commander in here with 2 drones of his own. Now that's 8 BS5 MLs; and you'll seldom lose your warlord too. Throw those target lock points the crisis and lose all the candy in the Commander. Give him some weapons. Drone controller, TL and a couple missile pods are all he needs. The Bsides are good enough without him; and the ethereal can still help them out.

Just my .02.

 The Shrike wrote:
3 locks on Bsides is overkill. Is also consider rethinking your source of MLs. Lose the pathfinders; they're brittle anyway. Replace them with your 1 allowable squadron: 2 fusion piranhas. That's your source of fusion; they're better at it anyway.

Now, buff the crisis to 3 with TL missile pods and add 6 ML drones. Drop your commander in here with 2 drones of his own. Now that's 8 BS5 MLs; and you'll seldom lose your warlord too. Throw those target lock points the crisis and lose all the candy in the Commander. Give him some weapons. Drone controller, TL and a couple missile pods are all he needs. The Bsides are good enough without him; and the ethereal can still help them out.

Just my .02.

EWO on the B-sides?


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Okay, so I'm getting ready for a comp heavy tournament. The comp restrictions don't restrict you from taking a nasty list, but it will almost guarantee you don't place in the top ten (comp is figured into battle points). The restrictions are pretty harsh - for instance - taking a duplicate elite choice (or heavy support or fast attack) will pretty much drag your massacre win down to the level of a draw. I won't go into all the comp rules (there are three pages of them!) but here's the big ones

1 No duplicates outside of troops.
2 No duplicates in FA/HS/EL/HQ
3 No more than 1 flyer
4 No more than 1 squadron
5 You need to have 1 HQ, 1 EL, 3 Troops, 1 FA, 1 HS before you unlock 1 HQ, 1 EL, 1-3 Troops, 1 FA, 1 HS. You need to have that filled (so a minimum of 2 HQ, 2 EL, 4 Troops, 2 FA, 2 HS) before you move onto the remaining slots.


Although this does limit a Tau army, it limits every other army too. We lose our easy access to multiple riptides, multiple broadsides, and so on and so forth. However, I probably won't be facing 2-3 helldrakes, any more than 3 wave serpents (dedicated transports start getting penalized in escalating values once you go over 3) etc. Most armies really have one stand out unit when it comes to a particular role (multiple wave serpents for mid-stength shooting comes to mind, oblits for tank popping is another one). I probably won't see those types of lists. This is a 40 person event with a pretty wide selection of armies so I have to be ready for everything, although I do see a lot of horde and fast assault armies in my meta so you'll see a certain bias towards high rate of fire weapons and large blasts over a lot of plasma rifles and such. I'm also somewhat partial to the "rule of cool." I don't get to use my Forgeworld stuff too often so I'm looking forward to using that stuff as well.

Due to modelling constraints, I've decided not to take allies (although I am open to farsight enclave allies), Forgeworld is also allowed so you'll see some stuff in there. This is what I've come up with so far.

1750 Tau
Commander- 162
PEN, target lock, 2 missile pods, drone controller, 2 marker drones
Bodygaurd 136
2 Shas'vre - 1 VRT, 2x Fusion Blasters, 1 Target Lock, neuroweb
Ethereal - 50
blacksun filter

XV104 -210
ion accelerator, EWO, VT, twin fusion
XV8 Crisis Team 162
2 Shas'ui - 2 missile pods, target locks, 4 marker drones


10 Firewarriors 90
10 Kroot 65
1 hound
10 Kroot 65
1 hound
10 Kroot 65
1 hound

3 Piranhas 150
3 fusion blasters
2 Tetras 72
blacksun filters

Hammerhead 146
Disruption Pod, submunition rounds, SMS, blacksun filter
Sniper Drone Team 131
2 Firesight Marksmen, 7 drones
3 Broadsides 210
HYMP, SMS, EWO


Is this better?

I don't like taking a railhead w/out long strike but then it's too many points; I'd stick with a skyray; better against Wraithknights anyway.

Could try my Farsight Allies

Farsight
O'Vesa

Crisis Team(3Suit)
2xBurst Cannon
2xBurstCannon
2xBurstCannon

Crisis Team(1Suit)
2x Fusion Blaster or other necessety

Riptide +HBC+TLFB+VT+EWO+Talisman of Arthas Moloc

Though, that may not get you around the comp restrictions.

 The Shrike wrote:
I don't like taking a railhead w/out long strike but then it's too many points; I'd stick with a skyray; better against Wraithknights anyway.

Will the loss of of the S10 hurt against tanks though? Taking a skyray would free up a few points... hmm.

Sgt_Scruffy wrote:

 The Shrike wrote:
I don't like taking a railhead w/out long strike but then it's too many points; I'd stick with a skyray; better against Wraithknights anyway.

Will the loss of of the S10 hurt against tanks though? Taking a skyray would free up a few points... hmm.

I often face that problem myself. Landraiders, and to a lesser extent, AV 13 poses a big problem to Tau. While I like Sky Rays cause they are pretty versitile they only thing in the Tau army that can kill AV13-14 is Hammerheads or fusion. Fusion can be taken on Stealth Suits (I advise against it), crisis suits (that can deep strike to the tank but come in round 2 if your lucky), and piranhas (expensive option because you should take at least 3-4 of them and thats 150-200 points. Hammerhead in theory seems like the answer, but I've had such terrible luck with them that I never want to put them in my army again. I either miss or roll a 1-3 on armor penetration rolls. So in theory HH is the answer I just hope you have better luck than me I have never had a HH kill an AV13-14 in the 6 years I've been playing with them.

Also, I'd drop the commander. His two missile pods and marker lights aren't worth the price your paying for him.

How is 3-4 piranhas for 150-200 Points expensive? That's cheaper than a MM attack bike. Also, don't even DREAM of paying for O'vesa. 305 points for a Riptide with too many toys.

Do not drop the commander. He gives BS5 to the 8 ML drones and his MSL Pods synergize with the range of the marker lights. He is the best source of Markerlight support, bar none.

Ok I'm normally not confrontational, but I really wonder sometimes if people actually play the armies they give advice about on here.

I run marines + tau ally, and I've had good luck running longstrike in a hammerhead, although he usually gets wrecked by t3 (sometimes 2). Upgrade him with DP and sensor spines and dump him in cover t1 to get a decent save, then jump out and shoot the bs5 railgun (BS10 vs IG ). Don't forget that Longstrike has the tank hunters USR, it's very useful to make sure the shot doesn't fail.

Also, looking deeper into your list, your commander and ethereal's points values are off. Also, don't equip VRT's to I2 models, especially suicide ones. If you drop the BSF from the etheral, and the VRT from the bodyguard (and drop 1 firewarrior), you end up with enough points to put Longstrike into the hammerhead.

Alright did a little listbuilding

Commander
2x marker neuroweb iridium 1 missile pod drone TL vectored retro thrusters
Etheral


Riptide ewo, VT, ion, fusion

3x crisis 2 missile pod target lock 4x markerlight

Fire warrior 9
kroot 10x hound
kroot 10x hound
kroot 10x hound

3x phirana fusion filters

3x tetra filters

hammerhead lonkstrike pod filter submunitions SMS

sky ray filter pod

3x broadside shas'vre EWO 2x missile drones

Do you have to have the fire warriors?

 The Shrike wrote:
How is 3-4 piranhas for 150-200 Points expensive? That's cheaper than a MM attack bike. Also, don't even DREAM of paying for O'vesa. 305 points for a Riptide with too many toys.

Do not drop the commander. He gives BS5 to the 8 ML drones and his MSL Pods synergize with the range of the marker lights. He is the best source of Markerlight support, bar none.

Ok I'm normally not confrontational, but I really wonder sometimes if people actually play the armies they give advice about on here.

I do. With great success. A MM attack bike costs 50 points (55 if using DA but they must be taken with a RAS in a DA list) and they are a lot more reliable at killing their targets. Marker light support is overrated and over-costed. I'll take more fire power.

Taking all that kroot is a mistake. Drop two and take another squad of fire warriors. You have an ethereal and only one squad for him to buff. You're better off taking a fireblade with only 1 squad.

Not to be picky but filters on phiranas is a waste. SUre, its only 3 points but they won't be shooting turn 1 when you are most likely to face night fighting and you have to be within 9" to get the melta rule.

So, a friend isn't able to make it and he has Eldar... this opens up new possibilities. What say you Dakka - how should I utilize Eldar allies with the the available comp?