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Hey Dakka. I have a tournament coming up this weekend, and I'd like some help optimizing my list. My meta tends to be pretty mixed: a couple of marine armies (foot and LR), eldar tank spam, necron flying circus, CSM and CD monster mash, and one poor ork list that always gets smashed.
I'm debating between 2 lists. The first is my typical list that I run for normal games; it's not super competitive, but it does well and actually nabbed me 2nd place out of 20+ people a couple of months ago. The second is a gunline list that I've never run before, but it's very different from my normal list and seems interesting.
(Note: I do not own any riptides or broadsides. I am working on converting some broadsides, but they will not be ready in time. So please no suggestions to add either of those units.)

List 1:
Commander
- TL Fusion, Fusion, Target Lock, Onager, and Iridium
- 2 Shield Drones
2 Body Guards
- TL Plasma and Plasma each
- 2 Shield Drones each

8 Fire Warriors (x3)
Devilfish (x2)
- TL SMS, Disruption Pod, Sensor Spines

3 Battlesuits (x3)
- Shas'vre w/ TL Fusion, Fusion, and 2 Shield Drones
- 2 Shas'ui w/ TL Plasma, Plasma, and 2 Shield Drones each

Hammerhead (x3)
- Railgun, Submunitions, TL SMS, Disruption Pod

The plan is to use the FW without the DF to hold the home objective, the other 2 FW take the middle objective(s), the HH sit back and shoot, and the suits deepstrike in to take care of w/e the biggest threats are as they jump/shoot/jump.

List 2:
Commander
- TL Fusion, Fusion, Target Lock, Onager, and Iridium
- 2 Shield Drones
2 Body Guards
- TL Plasma and Plasma each
- 2 Shield Drones each

10 Fire Warriors (x4)
- Shas'ui w/ Markerlight and Target Lock

6 Pathfinders (x2)
- Recon Drone

3 Battlesuits (x2)
- Shas'vre w/ TL Fusion, Fusion, and 2 Shield Drones
- 2 Shas'ui w/ TL Plasma, Plasma, and 2 Shield Drones each

Hammerhead (x3)
- Railgun, Submunitions, TL SMS, Disruption Pod

This list would use the FW to set up a defensive line with the HH holding behind them. The Pathfinders will be deployed at the rend of the line to give ML support. The suits will use the homing beacons on the recon drones to DS right where I need them to defend the line as the opponents advance. (I can also infiltrate the PF to allow my suits to DS into enemy territory without scatter)

With list do you think would be better? Changes you would recommend? I have 9 tanks that can be used as DF or HH, 6 full squads of FW, 2 full squads of PF, 18 battlesuits, 3 Piranahs, and uncountable amount of drones.

I like your 1st list more, the mobility of lots of suits, combined with the warfishes makes for a nasty combo.

In both lists, why have a TL fusion on the commander, instead of a 2nd fusion? Bs5 is good enough, so just take 2 fusion blasters and call it a day. Spend the points on vector retro thrusters. With the drones, you get I4 on a chance to escape combat. You may also want to consider the neurochip considering you see a lot of armor or monsterous creatures.

You have a LOT of points locked up in shield drones, which are good, but you have a LOT. 6 per crisis team is a bit excessive, slim down to 2-4.

Skyrays are a bit better than hammerheads for the cost, and based on your meta they would be a huge help. You have no markerlights in list 1, so a mobile marker platform is great. They are also amazing AA units, and quite durable. I always take longstrike in a hammerhead with a railgun, but if you want multiple hammerheads consider an ion cannon. It is better against light armor, and the large blast option comes free, but can punch marine armor. Without longstrike, you also want blacksun filters on your hammerheads to get the long range 1st turn.

I second skyrays. They will make quick work of most of your meta. Flyers, fmc, power armour etc etc, also I find I am using them over pathfinders as they are durable and mobile.

If you have 18 Crisis suits, have you considered playing Farsight Enclaves? It's tremendously fun to play; much more dynamic than gunline Tau or even Mech tau. And here's the kicker: it's pretty competitive.

If you are interested in this, here's a sample list based on your models:

Commander: x2 Missile Pods, x2 Marker Drones, Drone Controller, Target Lock- 152
Commander: x2 Missile Pods, x2 Marker Drones, Drone Controller, Target Lock- 152

Crisis x3: bonding, x6 Burst Cannons, x2 Gun Drones- 153
Crisis x3: bonding, x6 Plasma Rifles, x2 Shield Drones- 183
Crisis x3: bonding, x6 Missile Pods, x2 Shield Drones- 183
Crisis x3: bonding, x4 Flamers, x2 Fusion (Target Lock)- 124
Crisis x3: bonding, x4 Flamers, x2 Fusion (Target Lock)- 124
Crisis x1: bonding, x2 Fusion- 53

Marker Drones x5- 70
Marker Drones x5- 70
Pirhanha: Fusion- 50

Hammerhead: Longstrike, Submunition, Disruption Pods- 190

Secondary Detachment: Tau Empire

Ethereal- 50

Firewarriors x12: Devilfish with TLSMS- 198
Firewarriors x12: Devilfish with TLSMS- 198

Piranha: Fusion- 50

Total: 2000

This would be tremendously dynamic to play. You've got a TON of firepower. What's new you say? Tau always have firepower. THIS firepower is ultra mobile though. Your tactical options are almost exponentially great with an enclaves army than standard Tau.

Now, I second Skyrays if you have them but it doesn't sound like you do.

Also, a buffmander with Tau Empire signature systems is incredibly good, however, without a riptide to attach them too, you can do without him. This list is still very very cool.

Hey guys. Thanks for the advice. I wound up running a list very similar to my first list. Unfortunately, I got to the event and found out that we were playing 1850, not 2000.

I don't have the parts to run a skyray, so I just ran 2 HH to drop down to 1850. Other changes were getting rid of the the TL fusion on the commander and giving him vectored thrusters and dropping all the suit squads down to 4 shield drones to make room for more FW.

The tourney went pretty well. I won a very close game against a necron list with 4 transport fliers, lost badly to another Tau list (that included 2 riptides, a buff commander, broadsides, and the force shield battlements from the new stronghold book), and lost a game against an all bike ravenwing list because I placed my suits around an objective incorrectly... Still, I had fun, and it was a good tourney.

Thanks for the help dakka! And a special thanks to Serling for continuing to help me and so many others with their lists. You rock man!