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I'm a staunch marine player at heart and with the advent of the new codex, everyone in my gaming community is using their marine armies at the moment. I have something like 4k of marines myself which allows me a great deal of variety and flexibility in gameplay. When i started to get back into the hobby i bought a tau battleforce and it got no further than primed before it was set aside to collect dust. I've dug it out with the hopes of making a 1850pt army with no plans to expand beyond that.

I've made up most of a list which i think will be fun to play and hopefully be able to at least stand a chance against most armies (it's not about winning everytime for me). I'm after some advice and pointers, especially when it comes to wargear choices. The only thing's i'll ask people to consider when chipping in advice is i want to use Shadowsun and stealth suits and preferably stay away from crisis suits if possible.

Here's what i've got so far.

Shadowsun
Command link drone & shield drone 175

6 stealth suits
Shas'vre w/ target lock & markerlight, 2 fusion blasters, 1 target lock, bonded 216

Riptide
Ion accelerator, fusion blasters, early warning override, velocity tracker 210

9 firewarriors
Shas'ui, target lock & markerlight, shield drone, bonded, devilfish, d-pod 214

9 firewarriors
Shas'ui, target lock & markerlight, shield drone, bonded, devilfish, d-pod 214

7 pathfinders
2 ion rifles, bonded 104

3 pirhana's
3 Fusion blasters, 3 d-pods 195

Longstrike hammerhead
Tl burst cannon, d-pod, sensor spines 190

Ionhead
Tl sms, d-pod, sensor spines 145

Skyray
Tl sms, d-pod 130


This should bring me to 1793 so a few points still to spare which i was thinking of using for an ethereal for their buffing goodness.

Thanks

Without touching to much of your army, you'll definitely be wanting a 3rd troop choice. I'd use your remaining 57 points + 20 from dropping the velocity tracker on the riptide to buy an 8 man FW team to camp an objective near your deployment.

Your piranhas are also very expensive for 3 BS3 fusion shots. I'd much rather take a crisis team:

3x shas'ui each with 2x fusion blasters, target lock and 2 shield drones - exactly 195 pts.

This crisis team will be putting out double the fusion blaster shots (split between multiple targets if you wish) and is much more survivable due to JSJ and shield drones.

Also the reason for dropping the velocity tracker on the riptide is that you'll always want to be firing the blast version of the weapon. You can't shoot blast weapons at flyers so you'll be using the heavy 3 str 7 version of the weapon.....at BS3. So you are paying 20 pts for 1.5 str 7 shots to hit a flyer AND missing out on the blast template that can deal real damage for 1 turn.

Second adding in another troop choice, and in addition to droping the V tracker as gossip said, you can shave some serious points elsewhere.

Bonding is not horrible, but it is rare that it comes into play. For bonding to work, your squad needs to be below 25% and have no 'ui or 'vre, respectively. This means saving 1-2 models, and yes that can have an impact, it is not critical. I would drop bonding unless you have points to spare or really need a unit to stay.

Since your warriors will be in their fish, they don't need a markerlight or shield drone. Both are just wasted points as their job is to drop out and dakka, or hide. Just take more warriors, and maybe give your fish smart missiles.

Piranhas can work OK in a mostly mech list like yours, but realize they are fragile and basically a suicide/distraction unit. I would drop the d-pod as the best part of the piranha is the cost. Turbo boost first turn, and pray to meltacide something. If they die, whatever. Since you have a 3rd slot open for fast attack split em up for more target saturation. They can also be used to block movement/mobile cover.

I would give longstrike's hammerhead smart missiles and submunitions to help with crowd control. Your other hammerhead and maybe skyray would do well with blacksun filters.

I don't think an ethereal will be a great choice for your list as you simply lack the warriors to boost. Adding in another warrior team or a big pack of kroot is your best bet.

Thanks for the pointers. I've stripped away a lot of unnecessary gear and saved a whole load of points.

My intent was to run shadowsun with the stealth team however, with your suggestions for crisis suits, would I be correct in thinking that a crisis bodyguard unit with her would be able to infiltrate?