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Hello all. I'm a die hard marine player as that's all I've really played since I've started. I was thinking of scooping up a Tau army for sale and was wondering if you guys thought it would be competitive at all. If it is why is it and if its not what is it lacking.

Here's the list....which is very short.

Battlesuit commander and 2 XV8 bodyguards
2 units of 12 fire warriors
3 XV104 riptide battlesuits
3 Razorshark sky fighters
3 Sky ray gunships

I was told its 2k points WYSIWYG. Not knowing a single thing about Tau I have no idea if the guy is telling the truth or not. I see that all 3 FOC slots for elites, fast attack, and heavy support are filled. It seems light on troops and needs some troop transports for sure. I was told fire warriors are very easy to kill and i'm sure 24 of em aren't that tough to wipe out. It seems like it has a decent amount of firepower as well though. I was just trying to get some thoughts on this army before I spent the money. Thanks all.

I would not get skyrays honestly. Hammerheads or broadsides are closer to what you'd want, broadsides can glance even the storm raven to death, at a cheaper cost, while longstrike in a railhead is a character and tank hunter. The rest looks like a good starting point, but how far are you going with them? competitively or not? Because if you aren't, nobody wants to play that dude in the corner with 3 riptides. Fire warriors are good enough now to justify taking more than a minimum, pulse rifles will heap murder on basically anything they shoot at. I would take another full twelve-man squad, the difference in firepower is huge.

Yea tau are pretty good I stopped playing them years ago then I opened the new one and started buying them straight away lol

A few things though DON'T TAKE 3 RIPTIDES !!! You will struggle to get a game against anybody only take 1-2 max
Drop the body guards and have a unit of crisis suits instead
Give the commander a drone controller for when he joins the battlesuits for some marker light goodness

Drop the razor sharks and replace with a railhead with long strike (always a good option) and some broadsides with stim injectors and shield drones for a big bullet magnet

Oh and more fire warriors maybe a squad of pathfinders instead
Hope this helps

If it were me is try to buy the riptides, commander and fire warriors and leave the rest out.

I kind of figured the 3 riptides would be way too much. That's all some great info guys. Thanks.

That would be decent if not for the razorsharks, they just don't have the punch to justify their cost and fragility. Three skyrays is a bit overkill, but its definitely not bad, they provide very good flyer defence and overall support, and if there are no flyers being able to delete a bike unit is always handy. Three riptides, if outfitted with a mix of burst cannons and ion accels, works wonders as well so no problems there, but needs some screening which the list given does not have.

If you can buy that bunch for the equivalent retail cost of everything except the razorsharks go for it, sell the sharks on to someone else and buy some more (kroot/fire warriors/markerlight capable units) if you don't want to ally with your marines. If your going to ally with marines bikers and thunderfire cannons are going to be what your after. You won't be able to gunline like a tau/eldar army, but you will have massive amounts of mid range firepower and decent assault potential, so can actually outplay lists rather then having to rely on weight of fire.

As for people saying you won't get games with lots of riptides, its dependent on where you play. I can use anything where I play without problems, some groups put limits on things like that due to perception that they are imbalanced. Talk to people, and make sure you call out louzy logic when you come across it. Riptides are not actually that strong in isolation, they just benefit strongly from all the force multipliers that tau can toss out which makes them look better, when its infact the force multipliers that are actually really good.

Onerios wrote:
That would be decent if not for the razorsharks, they just don't have the punch to justify their cost and fragility. Three skyrays is a bit overkill, but its definitely not bad, they provide very good flyer defence and overall support, and if there are no flyers being able to delete a bike unit is always handy. Three riptides, if outfitted with a mix of burst cannons and ion accels, works wonders as well so no problems there, but needs some screening which the list given does not have.

If you can buy that bunch for the equivalent retail cost of everything except the razorsharks go for it, sell the sharks on to someone else and buy some more (kroot/fire warriors/markerlight capable units) if you don't want to ally with your marines. If your going to ally with marines bikers and thunderfire cannons are going to be what your after. You won't be able to gunline like a tau/eldar army, but you will have massive amounts of mid range firepower and decent assault potential, so can actually outplay lists rather then having to rely on weight of fire.

As for people saying you won't get games with lots of riptides, its dependent on where you play. I can use anything where I play without problems, some groups put limits on things like that due to perception that they are imbalanced. Talk to people, and make sure you call out louzy logic when you come across it. Riptides are not actually that strong in isolation, they just benefit strongly from all the force multipliers that tau can toss out which makes them look better, when its infact the force multipliers that are actually really good.

I actually thought about getting this army and selling off the razorsharks and getting more fire warriors. The group I'm getting in to soon is very competitive while still being friendly. Thanks for the great info.

Three riptides is about average. They are a legal choice. Use them if you like them.

3 riptides is the norm. I still get games running Farsight + Tau ally with 4 riptides and a swiss army knife commander. The fifth riptide is on its way. I like to think its a gundam force trying to win a battle by themselves. Truth, it rarely does since 5 out of 6 games are objective holding, and there more LOS terrain in my games than it should be

legions_no_more wrote:
3 riptides is the norm. I still get games running Farsight + Tau ally with 4 riptides and a swiss army knife commander. The fifth riptide is on its way. I like to think its a gundam force trying to win a battle by themselves. Truth, it rarely does since 5 out of 6 games are objective holding, and there more LOS terrain in my games than it should be

3 riptides isn't so bad.

... I have 4 of them made to look like the jaegers from Pacific Rim, it just depends on the kind of games you play. Competitive group, or one that doesn't care how hard a list is as long as the game's good, go for it. If it's a real casual, friendly laid-back kind of thing people are going to have a temper tantrum.

Obviously much advice is quite subjective....

A few things -
* that does not look like 2000 points, more like 1600.
* 3 of anything is a lot, if its not a troop in 6th.
* if built correctly skyrays are also hammerheads and devilfish, see if his can be used as those.
* Razorsharks are indeed better than most players realize, but then again, most players don't realize how to play them.
* you will need more troops.
* 3 riptides could be considered excessive - some might consider it unsportsmanlike (no, I am not being critical of the other posters on this forum, so don't take it that way, I am just giving you observation).
* Skyrays are better than most people realize, but are not for everyone.

I would not pick this up unless it were dirt cheap, or you really loved the paint job.

Coming from space marines you will find some elements of tau a bit tricky to deal with - T3 and a bad save take quite a bit to get used to. Also the lack of universal BS4 and ATSKNF is also a bit challenging.

If you really want to get into tau, I would suggest proxying a few games first, to see what list suits your style....the codex is amazing in its ability to support multiple builds, regardless of what most people may be playing.

best of luck and have fun!

riptide spam usually gives you a bad vibe among the players. Theres 4 tau players besides me at my FLGS and only one fields as many riptides as he can with the points (farsight sup every time) and noone likes to play him because of it. Despite two of them being insanely good at tactics, and usually wipe the floor with everyone, they still love to face the other 3 since its a challenge. I refuse to field more than 1 riptide at 1250 or less, or more than 2 under 2500, because if my opponent isnt having fun neither am i. Why do i still run them at all then? because i love the model and unlike Stormboyz they work very reliably.

If you want to be unique, field some sniper drones. Theyre vastly underrated because it means you have 1 less skyray to get them.

I'm Tau but I am also SM. Even though I don't throw four Riptides on the table I just field two Riptides and throw in two Fire Cadre linked to two 12 Tau Firewarrior Squad. It's amusing when they see rolling 36 die's. My counter to Tau Riptides is the Cent Dev. All six Cent with Grav-cannon and grav-amp along with my Nova Cat mystic (Libby) of Tiggy and roll them in on turn three when his/her Riptides in my grill.

One thing I don't think anyone has mentioned is MARKERLIGHTS! I personally don't leave home without some form of Markerlight delivery, I prefer using marker drones with or without a Drone Controller Commander, relentless shouldn't be underestimated.

3 Riptides is overkill, XV8's are still an amazing elite choice which some people have forgotten about due to the new toy.

I also find Longstrike to be better in an Ionhead but we could all discuss this until the cows come home though.

Cheers
Pastel

ive thought about longstrike in an ionhead, but i threw that out because usually the Ionhead isnt shooting vehicles except the random transport too close to another target so the tankhunter is kinda wasted. Therefore hes gaining +1BS to a pi plate....meh...since he cant reroll the Gets Hot! unless its IG either :(

But yea Mark'O commanders are sweet. Bastards are hard to take out thanks to assault jump.

I run 3 riptides and the new forge world one...
With 3 riptides I get lots of bad looks...
also... you need marker lights, as said above
also... lots of people like the long strike hammerhead.. and it might just be me.. that thats the biggest waste of time model I have ever fielded it... it never does a damn thing for me... I find myself rolling 1's a lot I guess.. but it just sucks for me

as for that list.. those flyers seem lame.. you need marker lights
the skyrays are awesome.. but there are other awesome heavys too.. like broadsides for example...

but all in all.. for the right price that is a good foundation

3 riptides and the new forgeworld one.....yup youre the kind of tau player people refuse to play against lol

yeah... Me and my friends are very competitive when it comes to each other...
but as far as playing down at the store with some randoms.. I don't typically take more than 2 riptides..
and have only used the new riptide twice

I use Longstrike as a support character, gaining overwatch and supporting fire is nothing to be sniffed at. Also a Str8 Ion Cannon is good enough to deal with most of the armour out there only Landraiders will laugh at you and let's be honest they're a point sink nowadays.

 RavenGuard55 wrote:
Hello all. I'm a die hard marine player as that's all I've really played since I've started. I was thinking of scooping up a Tau army for sale and was wondering if you guys thought it would be competitive at all. If it is why is it and if its not what is it lacking.

Here's the list....which is very short.

Battlesuit commander and 2 XV8 bodyguards
2 units of 12 fire warriors
3 XV104 riptide battlesuits
3 Razorshark sky fighters
3 Sky ray gunships

I was told its 2k points WYSIWYG. Not knowing a single thing about Tau I have no idea if the guy is telling the truth or not. I see that all 3 FOC slots for elites, fast attack, and heavy support are filled. It seems light on troops and needs some troop transports for sure. I was told fire warriors are very easy to kill and i'm sure 24 of em aren't that tough to wipe out. It seems like it has a decent amount of firepower as well though. I was just trying to get some thoughts on this army before I spent the money. Thanks all.

First off, welcome to the greater good! Tau are lots of fun. Ignore people who will intone "flavor of the month" at you. Tau are good now, they won't be again some day, it's how 40k works.

The firewarriors is a good start for troops. The battlesuit with bodyguard is good too (though some people would suggest an ethereal as hq instead, particularly if you're going to go firewarrior heavy - i personally like battlesuit commanders myself).

3 Riptides - very good. Be careful though, 3 is pushing the limits of good taste, generally speaking. 1-2 is generally accepted (dependant on point level, i'm speaking of 1500 and up really). 3+ is kinda pushing it. More than 3 is often considered rude.

Razorsharks - Honestly, if you can buy the lot without these, i'd do so. The tau fliers are pretty craptacular all around.

3 Skyrays - 3 skyrays is a bit much, but if the turrets come off, a small investment on hoard o' bits, etc., and you'll have 3 tanks that can be used as skyrays / hammerheads.



If it were me, i'd see if he were willing to part the razorsharks out of the lot, and then i'd pull the trigger. Use the money you were going to use on the sharks to buy some pathfinders (recommend 2 teams of 7-8 each team), possibly some more tau firewarriors, and then go from there.

if the price is right, I'd go ahead and buy this. And I'm pretty agreeable with everyone else thats commented

I'd get a third set of firewariors and get Devilfish for all of them.

Don't run all 3 riptides, except in a competitive tournament.

Without pathfinders, or a unit of marker drones, I'd be hesitant to run 3 skyray. Even if they can fire seeker missiles like they are normal weapons.