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Hey fellas,

Its been a while since I played with Tau. I recently got a riptide and needed to make a list to include it. I would like to get some tips on possible improvements.

Game will be 1500 points. Enemy will likely be ether Guard or Chaos

HQ
Darkstrider
Commander 140

• Plasma Rifle
• Command and Control node
• Shield Generator

Troops
4 Fire Warrior Teams 520

• 4 Shas'ui
• Bonding Knifes

Elites
Riptide 270

• Stimulant Injector
• Ion Accelerator
• 2 Missle Sheild Drones

3 Crisis Suits 156

• 3 Plasma Rifles
• 3 Missile Pods

Fast Attack
10 Pathfinders 120

• Bonding Knifes

Heavy Support
Hammerhead Gunship 185

• Long Strike
• Disruption Pods

Any tips or suggestions?

Could give commander Purtide chip for lulz.
bonding knives and shasui upgrades are excessive, its enough to buy another crisis suit

long strike alone is pretty weak for anti tank. perhaps cut 1 fire warrior squad and get a two man group of fusion suits with target locks and stuff.

1 pathfinder squad should be good enough for the riptide but the missile drones are weak sauce and can cause moral checks that if he fails will be very VERY sad. cut for points, or if your worried about the riptide give it the stim injector.

you have nothing in the way of anti air. perhaps some missilesides or a ADL or a skyray.

Edit: Also darkstrider serves no real purpose in this list. he is just there. would do better with an ethereal honestly.

The bonding knives usually are wasted points. Fire warriors/pathfinders rarely get shot down to 1-2 guys standing. They are either completely wiped out or overrun in an assault. Drop all your bonding knives and save the 58 points.

Another change I "highly" suggest is to split the pathfinders into 2x 5 man teams. 10 markerlights at "one" target is overkill. Its better to hit 2 targets with 2-3 markerlights than 1 target with 5 markerlights.

Next your commander seems to be confused - does he shoot or make his squad's weapons twin-linked? It seems like a good idea to have both options, but it just makes him really inefficient at either role.

Decide - do you want a commander that can put out damage? Give him 2 plasma rifles. Do you want a support commander? Give him command and control & multispectrum sensor suit.

This is just my personal preference: I prefer combat commanders at their BS5 and 4 wounds makes them ideal for dishing out and receiving some punishment. It seems like a lot of points to have your commander hang back and perform a role that could easily be done by markerlights or a shas'vre with the support gear.

If you think about it, the commander's CnC is equivalent to 2 markerlights. You could just pay 44 pts and have an additional 4 man pathfinder team that on average will land 2 markerlights per turn. This frees up your commander to dish out some BS5 hurt.

Also if you find yourself short on points, don't hesitate to drop those firewarrior teams down from 12 members to 10. Going from 48 to 40 really won't make a difference and is often offset by what you end up getting for those addition 72 pts (assuming you dropped the bonding knives).

Also some how missed it.

Why you no iridium armor. it makes it harder for people to insta gib your HQ while allowing him to tank wounds.

otherwise as above is correct as well.

I go a bit overkill on my commanders , but I haven't once regretted it - the amount of tanking they can do without dying has often saved the crisis team they were attached to (and wasted 2 shooting phases worth of my opponents heavy weapons).

At 1500 pts and up this is one of my go-to loudouts:

187 pts - commander: 2x plasma rifle, shield generator, stimulant injector, iridum armour, onager gauntlet, neuroweb jammer

This gives your opponent something to worry about since it is very hard to deal with the commander and his crisis team. You have a unit loaded with plasma rifles that can also JSJ to add 6" to their range and escape with decent jetpack roles. If the squad does get caught in the open then you have a T5, W4, 2+/4++ FnP suit to absorb hits that only a few ranged weapons in the game can ID. Your opponent will also think twice about charging this unit as well. Overwatch will hurt, the suits all have 2 str 5 attacks (commander has 4), and if the commander is challenged then he has his str 10 ap1 onager gauntlet to instantly kill most generic sergeants/HQs.

My farsight enclave uses commander bravestorm - he's basically uses the same equipment, but swaps a flamer for 1 plasma rifle and you pay for 2 gun drones.

I'd drop the bonding knives and you can upgrade your commander to the one listed above.

Sorry for responding so late, Both of you have solid tips.
I like the idea of splitting the pathfinders to two teams, makes way more sense as its not like I need the extra two slots anyway.

The commander has the plasma gun as a backup if the crisis team is slain and hes all left alone. I think the armor is a good idea.

The bonding knifes are over kill and is wasted points, need to do the math to see if I can afford some more anti-tank.

Thanks to you both for helping me trim the extra fat from my list!