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I am brand new to 40k, and I have an opportunity to trade an army from another game for a sizable chunk of Tau. Here is what I might get:

Tau Empire
14 Fire Warriors - 8 have pulse carbines, 4 have pulse rifles.
3 x Tau Crisis Suits
3 Stealth Suits -
17 Kroot -
2x Tau OOP Broadside

I tend to play a defensive game and I like armies that can get in, do damage and get out. I'm not sure if Tau is a good place to start, but I like the fluff and models. Any help?

My suggestion would be to get as much practice as you can. For now, here's a 500 point list that you can use with your models.

Commander with Fusion Blaster & Plasma Rifle
3 Stealth Suits
2 Broadsides with High Yield Missile Pod
12 Kroot With Sniper Rounds
9 Fire Warriors with Pulse Rifles

You should combine your Commander with the Stealth Suits and infiltrate them up. Try to take out any vehicles with your commander that your opponent may have. If you need to, you can go ahead and detach your commander from the Stealth Suits. Just remember that the main purpose of the suits is to protect your Commander.

Infiltrate the Kroot up into a forest if you can, however any cover will do. Try to put the Kroot in the way of the Broadsides so that you can use the Kroot to stop anyone going for the Broadsides. The sniper rounds are great, but should you need to move you can always shoot the pulse rounds.

The Broadsides you are going to want to deploy them where they would do the most damage. Putting them in cover would be nice as this would help against ap 2, but these are going to be your biggest source of dakka. It's imperative that your broadsides do as much damage as they can.

Finally your Fire Warriors are just going to be there to capture objectives. With their 30" range try to keep them away from trouble as much as you can. It's fine to have them take pot shots at the enemy, just don't stick your neck out.

Its a good starter but i'd recommend ditching the stealth suits. If you want to get serious with tau i'd play lots of battlesuits and a riptide or two

agent1320

The models in the collection are mostly very useful, and it looks a good start.

The Stealth Suits are nice models and you may use them later even if not in your smaller points lists.

I'd definately conver the carbines to rifles. Also, I'd pick up some High Yield Missile Pods off ebay for the broadsides. Otherwise pretty much every model is good to have. Are the crisis suits magnetized? If not I'd get that done. Also, are you getting all of the crisis suit weapons?

 Davespil wrote:
Are the crisis suits magnetized?

I have plenty of magnets ready to go. Thanks for the tips guys! I'm going to give this trade some consideration then.