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Hi all.

I'm just starting to play Tau, and I'd like the advice from a few veterans to get me in the right direction.

First of all, what are some default, generic weapons that can do averagely in just about any situation? What types of weapons should Crisis teams carry, if they're not hunting anything in particular?
Furthermore, what Drones are good? Should I give any HQ's or Characters drones in the first place? Currently, I'm just taking Shield Drones, but I have a feeling that I may be missing something.
Is it smart to give Fire Warriors Shas'ui upgrades? Because that's a lot of points that may be wasted, when most often Fire Warriors are just shooting stuff, and they don't really need a character to help them.

So yeah, they're my three main questions, and if you think there's anything else that's relevant, don't hesitate to tell me. Please. I need all the help I can get.

Thanks all.

Hi,

While not a TAU player i played against them some.
I think that for Crisis you have 3 main choices :
- missile Crisis, though they are not as good as broadsides (no missile drones), they hurt a lot.
- plasma or melta crisis deep striking can be quite efficient too to get some tanks/backstage artillary/dreadknights...

For drones, missile drones are quite good if you get them twin linked through commander upgrades with broadsides, others i am not as found of.

For Shas'ui it can be usefull as you dont want your guys to fall back and run out of board. Otherwise if you have an etheral its pointless..

Shas'ui stop your guys running from casualties as much. Barely worth it in most cases, with an ethereal's help, they're worthless, but the ethereal may well die

Drones are fairly much situational, shield drones to help tank a little bit against AP weapons, gun to help pile on wounds for plasma/burst weapon users (crisis, fire warriors if you're wierd, stealth), marker for things like mark'o escorts, and missile for broadsides that didn't take shields.

Crisis weapons vary more, starter setups are two missile pods or fusion, plasma, target lock, and the ever-handy fusion +TL fusion solo suit, optionally against melee specialists, try double-fusion + flamer to deter charges/kill some incoming models.

In my experience as a Tau player:

My crisis suits typically have one of three loadouts now. Dual Fusion + Target lock is the first - it's just so good with 18" melta. Dual plasma + intercept is the second one. I hardly ever use intercept, but it's totally worth having to scare away enemies. Dual flamer is the third - the damage these suits cause compared to my investment in them, as well as the carnage they wreck on overwatch, makes them an incredibly useful unit that does a lot of good versus both static and swarmy armies.

For drones, in my opinion, you're taking gun drones all the time unless you've got a drone controller commander for the marker.drones, which I hardly ever use. Gun drones provide an ablative wound, and are pretty dang good with 2 shots now. Usually these go on my plasma suits, to help with wound count - sometimes I'll add a couple to flamer suits to up their killing range.

For leadership issues, I take 2 ethereals.The power of an ethereal is really magnified when you can make smart choices of which ability to activate at what time. Stubborn flamer suits can hold up enemies for a long time once they charge, giving you some breathing room to kill other things. 6+ FnP kroot in cover are very survivable. And of course, three-shot fire warriors/kroot are a terrifying prospect to most reasonable people.

Of course - this goes without saying that I like an agressive army. Typically I'll have dual foc with 36 fw, 2 ethereals, 30 kroot, 4/5 crisis teams, 2/3 skyrays, 20-ish pathfinders. The details vary from list to list - sometimes I take a squad of 5 piranhas, I've been experimenting with sniper drone squads, all-kroot, and even vespids, but this is what's brought me the most success (and fun) so far. YMMV

Im a big fan of either double Fusion/Target lock for dropping in and taking out multiple armored targets or Plasma/Plasma Flamer which can deal with almost any target from TEQ, MEQ, MC, rear/side armor on tanks and hordes (with the flamer) and the ability to get a decent amount of auto hits on overwatch. The only downside to this is that in many of my games i dont get the chance to use the flamer and in a 3 man squad of Crisis thats 15 wasted points but when I get charged or come across a squad of guard/cultists hiding out in some woods they can be hella helpful. I like to see it as insurance.

As for drones, on Broadsides I always go missile to add some missiles to my missiles because I like missiles. for any other Crisis squad its shield drones all the way. Tau armies should not have a problem with S5 shooting and pinning is almost redundant in this current incarnation of the game. Shield drones protect your crisis from their worst fear, s8 weaponry which are common enough and can double out a crisis suit in 1 shot. Shield drones not only give you an ablative wound and increase the squad size for moral checks but also give a 50% chance to negate the shot totally. For me shield drones are win.

Assuming enemy has cover of 5+

3 Crisis Suits with two plasma rifles each fire 4 shots a model at 12". This means 12 Shots. BS 3 means only 6 hit, and S 6 means 5 wound. With a 5+ cover or invulnerable save 3.33 unsaved wounds get through.

3 Crisis Suits = 156 Points
156/9 = 17.33

17 Firewarriors fire 34 shots at 15". BS 3 means 17 hit, and S 5 means 11.33 wound. With a SV of 3+ 3.77 get through with a save of 2+ 1.88 get through.

Crisis Suits with Dual Plasma are worse vs. saves of 3+ and hoards then are Firewarriors and negligibly better vs. saves of 2+. They also have 11 less wounds then do Firewarriors of equivalent cost. Not to mention they take a leadership test after only 2 unsaved wounds as opposed to 9 Firewarriors which only test after 3. Crisis Suits also fail to benefit from Storm of Fire, an Ethereal Power.

For all of these reasons two plasma and twin-linked plasma crisis suits are not worth their points. Firewarriors do the same job better and have far more versatility.

My favorite crisis load outs: (Math done for single suits, multiply by 3 to get squad numbers for hits and wounds)

Burst Cannon/Missile Pod: (42 Points)
They fire 4 S 5 shots at 18" and 2 S 7 Shots at 36". Against T 4 they land 2 S 5 hits and 1 S 7 hit. This translates to 2.166 wounds at 18".
This load out is extremely effective against all types of infantry and even light vehicles. It also represents a threat to monstrous creatures, and unlike other load outs can be a huge threat at 36".

Twin-linked Missile Pod/Flamer: (47 points)
They fire 2 S 7 shots at 36" landing 1.5 hits. This translates into 1.25 wounds at 36" This model also lands .611 hits on fliers and flying monstrous creatures as well, not to mention having the ability to ignore the cover of encroaching infantry.


Two Missile Pods: (52 points)
They fire 4 S 7 shots at 36", translating into 2 hits and 1.66 wounds on T 4. These will make short work of light vehicles and infantry, and if paired with a team leader with a Command and Control Node and a Multi-spectrum Systems Suite they land 3 shots a turn and 2.5 wounds per turn on T 4, not to mention gaining ignores cover. This is deadly to skimmers and infantry, ignoring the cover saves they rely upon.

My most common load out for a squad:
2x Crisis w/ two missile pods
1X Team leader w/ C&C Node, M-SSS, and PTENC
This lands 6 hits per turn, gives me re-rolls to wound on MC and vehicles, and ignores cover.

If we're going with the silly crisis setup, two missile pods, target locks, and marker drones, in a squad of three, with sensor node, CnC node, purtide chip, drone controller commander gives you 6+ marker hits per turn, and twin linked ignores cover missile pods, for an amazing amount of damage output.

Crisis teams to me are always specialized, usually for anti armor with Malta's or anti save with plasmas. I don't ever bother with bursts on them because that's just more light shots on a pricy body that you typically already have well covered anyway.

My crisis loadout is dual plasmas and target locks on two, dual Malta's and target locks on the third, and maxed gun drones. Gun drones serve both as ablative wounds and cheap anti infantry. I've always had my suits instantly die without them since 3 t4 3+ models aren't that hard to clean out.

Gun drones are awesome since they're so cheap. Missile drones are up for debate on broadsides, marker drones are typically taken on commanders you're attaching to a drone squadron since they're slightly cheaper. Shield drones are stupid since they only have a 4++ and no longer get the armor save of the unit they're attached to.

The shas'ui for fw is overpriced to me. I've never seen anyone get it before either. Even for crisis or broadsides I never see the character upgrade

I know they have weaned from prominence, but Fireknife suits are still impeccable.

A group of 3 suits with dual plasma will kill 5 Space Marines in the open a turn.

A group of three with one plasma rifle and one missile pod will kill 3.33 a turn and still be able to threaten vehicles at 36". They are still one of the best configurations no mater what anyone says.

As far as drones, they are rarely if ever worth taking. Yes they up the wounds in a squad, and yes they can give you a 4++ save, but they cost 12 points. That is 12 points for one S 5 AP 5 hit per turn or 12 points for a 4++ save you lose after one failure. Missile drones are great, but remember fail one save and they are gone. I have never taken drones on any units in any of my armies I have made over the past 13 years playing Tau and have been in the top three of every tournament I have been in, but one this includes 5th ed tourneys.

Tau tanks have AV 13 and crisis suits can jump shoot jump, I jump behind my tanks every assault phase. Most games my opponent fails to kill a single of my nine crisis suits until turn 3 or 4 do to the 4+ cover save given to the suits by the tank, and the fact that half the time the enemy's unit can't even draw line of sight through my tank.

Tau tactics are a little different then those for other armies, but I will be the first to say you don't need missilesides or riptides to have a competitive list. I have beat everything from venom spam dark eldar to serpent spam eldar to necron flying circus and I have never once used a broadside or riptide.

There are many ways to play the army, just make sure that how you play them and what you bring match up. I field tanks and crisis teams and that works for me, do what feels right.

Mixed weapon suits are terrible because you're throwing mixed firepower at non-optimal targets.

The easier way to run it would be two dual plasma suits with a third suit equipped with dual missiles and target lock. That way missiles always aim at what they need to hit and plasma always focuses on elite infantry. Same goes for two dual plasma and a third dual fusion with target lock. Gives you versatility in one unit while never hitting the wrong type of target.

 Savageconvoy wrote:
Mixed weapon suits are terrible because you're throwing mixed firepower at non-optimal targets.

The easier way to run it would be two dual plasma suits with a third suit equipped with dual missiles and target lock. That way missiles always aim at what they need to hit and plasma always focuses on elite infantry. Same goes for two dual plasma and a third dual fusion with target lock. Gives you versatility in one unit while never hitting the wrong type of target.

I agree entirely, though have to say I have rarely been in a situation where I was both in 18" range of a tank and 12" range of an infantry squad. This isn't to say that doesn't happen, but I tend not to put myself in those situations. But this is good advice, though you have to take into account you lose much more effectiveness after taking two wounds your way then mine.

That is true, but for me it's also allows more flexibility.
As you said, it's not often you'll be within 18" or 9" of a tank while also being 24" to 12 inches of a heavy infantry squad. But it's about the pregame for me. That one unit gives me all the anti infantry or anti-tank I need from one crisis suit squad. If I find I'm needing the unit for anti-armor then I have two plasma suits that are the expendable ones to protect the valuable fusion suit. If I need more plasma and there are no optimal tank targets, then the fusion will be the first unit that gets removed.
But I guess it's more about play and list style.

Yea, your strategy would work amazingly, but given my tank per crisis team combo I don't see that being a help to me, but I can definitely see how that would benefit a crisis team working alone.

I never give my suits any weapons systems other then Missile Pods, Burst Cannons, or Flamers. That is unless I throw in a Cyclonic Ion Blaster or and Airburst Fragmentation Projector. I use my tanks to kill tanks, and Firewarriors lead by an Ethereal and Darkstrider to deal with monstrous creatures and terminators. My crisis teams are to kill everything from Marines on up to imperial guard.

How you play is everything.